Dark matter is now accepted as an integral part of our universe, and galaxy dynamics have long provided the most convincing observational evidence for dark matter. Spiral galaxies have traditionally been used for these studies because of their more simple kinematics, however elliptical galaxies need to be understood as well. In this dissertation I present deep long-slit spectroscopy from the University of Texas’ Hobby-Eberly Telescope for a sample of elliptical galaxies. For a subsample of galaxies I fit axisymmetric orbit-superposition models with a range of dark halo density profiles. I find that all three galaxies modeled require a significant dark halo to explain their motions. However, the shape of the dark halo is not the expected NFW profile, but rather a profile with a flat central slope. I also discuss the galaxy masses, anisotropies, and stellar mass-to-light ratios. / text
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UTEXAS/oai:repositories.lib.utexas.edu:2152/6641 |
| Date | 23 October 2009 |
| Creators | Forestell, Amy Dove |
| Source Sets | University of Texas |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | electronic |
| Rights | Copyright is held by the author. Presentation of this material on the Libraries' web site by University Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin was made possible under a limited license grant from the author who has retained all copyrights in the works. |
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