Abstract
We present dynamical models of NGC 4494, which we built using our iterative method presented in a previous paper. These models are live N-body models consisting of equal mass particles, and they are steady state as confirmed by a fully self-consistent evolution. Our goals were twofold. The first one -- namely to test whether our iterative method could indeed be used to construct galactic models following given observational constraints, both photometric and kinematic -- was fully achieved. Our method allowed us to go beyond a simple spherical model and to make full sets of rotating, axisymmetric models without any limitations to the velocity distribution. Our second goal was to understand better the structure of NGC 4494, and more specifically to set constraints on its halo mass. For this we tried three families of models: without halo, with a light halo and with a heavy halo, respectively. Our models reproduce well the photometry and the kinematics, the latter except specific regions where some non-equilibrium or non-axisymmetric structure could be present in the galaxy (e.g. the kinematically decoupled core). However, the lower order moments of the velocity distribution (up to and including the second order) do not allow us to discriminate between the three halos. On the other hand, when we extend the comparison to the higher order moments of the velocity distribution obtained from the long-slit data, we find that our light halo model fits the data better than the no halo, or the heavy halo models. They also reproduce the shape of the angular dependence of the PNe velocity dispersion in the outermost parts of the galaxy, but not the amplitude of its azimuthal variation. This may imply that a yet more general class of models, such as triaxial, may be necessary for a yet better fit.
Highlights
Dark matter around ordinary elliptical galaxies is one of the hottest topics in dark matter studies today
It is usually assumed that planetary nebulae (PNe) trace the kinematics of the underlying field stars
In Rodionov, Athanassoula & Sotnikova (2009, hereafter RAS09) we presented an iterative method for constructing equilibrium Nbody models with given properties
Summary
Dark matter around ordinary elliptical galaxies is one of the hottest topics in dark matter studies today. Traditional long-slit absorption line spectroscopy can only very rarely give kinematics outside 2Re, where Re is the effective radius encompassing half the total light of the galaxy (see e.g. Coccato et al 2009). It is, possible to obtain line-of-sight velocities at larger radii using planetary nebulae (PNe) because their strong emission line at 5007 Å [O III] stands out against the faint galaxy background. It is possible to obtain from the PNe the stellar kinematic parameters at the periphery of the galaxy, out to 5–7 Re (Goudfrooij et al 1994; Romanowsky et al 2003; Douglas et al 2007; de Lorenzi et al 2008, 2009; Coccato et al 2009; Napolitano et al 2009, hereafter N09) It is usually assumed that PNe trace the kinematics of the underlying field stars. It is possible to obtain from the PNe the stellar kinematic parameters at the periphery of the galaxy, out to 5–7 Re (Goudfrooij et al 1994; Romanowsky et al 2003; Douglas et al 2007; de Lorenzi et al 2008, 2009; Coccato et al 2009; Napolitano et al 2009, hereafter N09)
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