Open AccessVariation in the intrinsic shapes of elliptical galaxies
Author(s) -
Chakraborty D. K.,
Singh Arun Kumar,
Gaffar Firdous
Publication year - 2008
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 - 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2007.12646.x
Subject(s) - physics , astrophysics , galaxy , variation (astronomy) , elliptical galaxy , position (finance) , finance , economics
We present a method to determine the variation in the intrinsic shapes of the light distribution of elliptical galaxies by combining the profiles of photometric data from the literature with triaxial models. The inferred shape variation is given by a Bayesian probability distribution, assuming a uniform prior. The likelihood of obtaining the data is calculated by using ensembles of triaxial models. We apply the method to infer the shape variation of a galaxy, using the ellipticities and the difference in the position angles at two suitably chosen points from the profiles of the photometric data. We find that the parameters that are best constrained are the short to long axial ratios at small and at large radii, and the absolute value of the triaxiality difference between these radii. We compare our results with the available previous results. We apply the methodology to a sample of 10 galaxies.