Bibcode
Balcells, M.
Bibliographical reference
EAS Publications Series, Volume 10, 2003, Galactic and Stellar Dynamics, Proceedings of JENAM 2002, held in Porto, Portugal, 3-6 September, 2002. Edited by C. M. Boily, P. Patsis, S. Portegies Zwart, R. Spurzem and C. Theis, pp.23.
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0
2003
Citations
2
Refereed citations
2
Description
Recent progress on the structure and dynamics of bulges is reviewed.
Those aspects that link galaxy bulges either to oblate spheroids akin to
elliptical galaxies or to rapidly-rotating, flattened systems more
nearly resembling the products of disk internal transformations, are
highlighted. The analysis of surface brightness profiles derived from
HST data is reviewed to show that unresolved nuclear components detected
by HST have biased the determination of surface brightness profiles
obtained from the ground; r^{1/4} profiles are virtually nonexistent in
galaxy bulges. Predictions from accretion N-body models on the shape of
surface brightness profiles are discussed. The position of bulges on the
Fundamental Plane (FP) of elliptical galaxies is examined to infer clues
on bulge population ages and bulge dynamical structure. Kinematic
diagnostics on the internal dynamics of bulges are examined. Finally, a
new approach to the kinematic analysis of galaxies, based on the use of
synthetic spectra of single stellar population models instead of the
standard stellar templates, is presented.