Bibcode
Simonneau, E.; Varela, A. M.; Muñoz-Tuñon, C.
Bibliographical reference
Nuovo Cimento B, Vol. 113B, No. 7, p. 927 - 944
Advertised on:
7
1998
Citations
17
Refereed citations
14
Description
Isophotal analyses developed in recent years (CCD images and numerical
mapping techniques) have revealed that triaxial structures are
frequently present in bulges of spirals and in elliptical galaxies. In
the first case, these non-axisymmetric oval structures have been
proposed as the corresponding sources of the energy necessary to
maintain the existence of spiral waves and as a mechanism for
re-supplying gas in the inner zones of the galaxy to produce regions of
star formation. The photometric diagnostic of these triaxial
distributions either from a misalignment between the axes of the ellipse
projected by the disc and that of the bulge or from the differential
twisting of the elliptical bulge isophotes, required different
astronomical techniques. The authors present a complete geometric
analysis of both, the direct problem: synthesis of these isophotal
contours from a bulge ellipsoidal structure, and the inverse one: the
diagnostic of the bulge structure from the measured isophotal
parameters.