Optical Imaging and Spectroscopy of the Edge-on Sbc Galaxy UGC 10043: Evidence for a Galactic Wind and a Peculiar Triaxial Bulge

We present new optical imaging and spectroscopy of the peculiar, edge-on Sbcgalaxy UGC10043. B & R imaging reveals that the inner bulge of UGC10043 iselongated perpendicular to the major axis. At larger r, the bulge isophotestwist to become oblate and nearly circular, suggesting the bulge is triaxial.Based on stellar and ionized gas kinematics, the bulge shows no clear evidencefor rotation about either its major or minor axis. The southwestern quadrant ofthe bulge is girdled by a narrow dust lane parallel to the minor axis that maybe part of an inner polar ring. The stellar disk of UGC10043 has a low opticalsurface brightness, a small scale height, a mild integral sign warp, and adusty, inner region that appears tilted relative to the outlying disk. The HAand [NII] emission lines in UGC10043 resolve into multiple velocity components,indicating the presence of a large-scale galactic wind with an outflow velocityof ~104 km/s. HA+[NII] imaging reaffirms this picture by revealing ionized gasextended to |z|~3.5kpc in a biconical structure. The [NII]/HA line intensityratio increases with increasing distance from the plane, reaching values ashigh as 1.7. Unlike most galaxies with large-scale winds, UGC10043 has only amodest global star formation rate (~1M_sun/yr), implying the wind is powered bya rather feeble central starburst. We discuss evolutionary scenarios that couldaccount for both the structural complexities of UGC10043 and its large-scalewind. [Abridged]