In this thesis I investigate the dynamics and stellar populations of a sample of 28 edge-on early-type (S0--Sb) disk galaxies, 22 of which host a boxy or peanut-shaped bulge. I begin by constructing mass models of the galaxies based on their observed photometry and stellar kinematics. Subject to cosmologically motivated assumptions about the shape of dark haloes, I measure in a purely dynamical way their stellar and dark masses. I make a preliminary comparison between the dynamically determined stellar masses and those predicted by stellar population models. I then compare the Tully-Fisher (luminosity--velocity) relations of the spirals and S0s in the sample. I show that S0s are systematically fainter at a given rotational velocity, but the amount by which they are fainter is less than expected by models in which they are the products of truncation of star formation in spirals. This raises the possibility that S0s are smaller or more concentrated than spirals of the same mass. I then study the vertical structure of the boxy and peanut-shaped bulges of a subset of the sample. Among this sample of five galaxies, I find one example in which the stellar populations show no evidence that the bulge and the disk formed in different processes, and in which the bulge is in perfectly cylindrical rotation, i.e. its line-of-sight velocity does not change with height above the disk. This galaxy is probably a pure disk galaxy. However, even with this small sample, I also show that cylindrical rotation and homogeneous stellar populations are not ubiquitous properties of boxy and peanut-shaped bulges. Finally I analyse central and radial trends in the stellar populations of the bulges of full sample of 28 galaxies. I find that, at a given velocity dispersion, the central stellar populations of these barred early-type disk galaxies are identical to those of elliptical galaxies, which suggests that secular evolution does not dominate the centre of these galaxies. However, the radial metallicity gradients are shallower than those of ellipticals. This is qualitatively consistent with chemodynamical models of bar formation, in which radial inflow and outflow smears out pre-existing gradients.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:540277 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Williams, Michael J. |
| Contributors | Bureau, Martin |
| Publisher | University of Oxford |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:936168ab-f49a-410a-9e1b-80c7ad7cf556 |
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