Uncovering the intrinsic shapes of elliptical galaxies. 3: Practical modeling

Details Uncovering the intrinsic shapes of elliptical galaxies. 3: Practical modeling Uncovering the intrinsic shapes of elliptical galaxies. 3: Practical modeling

Apr 1994

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1994apj...425..500s&link_type=abstract

Astrophysical Journal, Part 1 (ISSN 0004-637X), vol. 425, no. 2, p. 500-529

Mathematics

Probability

40

Elliptical Galaxies, Galactic Structure, Kinematics, Three Dimensional Flow, Three Dimensional Models, Galactic Halos, Light Curve, Many Body Problem, Probability Density Functions, Velocity Measurement

Scientific paper

This is the third of a set of three papers that presents a new method for constraining the intrinsic shapes of elliptical galaxies through their apparent shapes and kinematics. Paper 1 developed a set of dynamical models; Paper 2 defined observable kinematic parameters that can be used for rough estimates of the axis ratios of real galaxies. This third paper presents a method of model fitting that compares models and data in a statistically rigorous way. The output is a distribution in the axis ratio plane giving the probability that a given intrinsic shape, projected at random, will match the observations. Three applications are presented: first, to an 'observed' model, illustrating the sources of internal error; second, to a dark halo created in an N-body simulation, illustrating systematic difficulties; and third, to the E2 galaxy NGC 4589. The most probable values and approximate 1 sigma errors in the dynamical triaxiality T and the flattening of the light distribution CL are found to be T = 0.65+0.32-0.45, CL = 0.8+0.05-0.12, implying that NGC 4589 is probably prolate-triaxial. If mean velocities were measured with 10 km/s accuracy outside the rotation curve's turnover radius, the uncertainty could be reduced by a factor of approximately 2.

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