Open AccessDetermination of the dynamical structure of galaxies using optical spectra
Author(s) -
De Rijcke S.,
Dejonghe H.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
monthly notices of the royal astronomical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.058
H-Index - 383
eISSN - 1365-2966
pISSN - 0035-8711
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-8711.1998.01579.x
Subject(s) - physics , galaxy , spectral line , astrophysics , interacting galaxy , galaxy merger , line (geometry) , galaxy formation and evolution , astronomy , geometry , mathematics
Galaxy spectra are a rich source of kinematical information since the shapes of the absorption lines reflect the movement of stars along the line‐of‐sight. We present a technique with which to build directly a dynamical model for a galaxy by fitting model spectra, calculated from a dynamical model, to the observed galaxy spectra. Using synthetic spectra from a known galaxy model we demonstrate that this technique indeed recovers the essential dynamical characteristics of the galaxy model. Moreover, the method allows a statistically meaningful error analysis on the resulting dynamical quantities.