Prolate Jaffe models for galaxies

Abstract

We introduce a class of prolate Jaffe models for elliptical galaxies, which are a further extension of Jaffe's spherical models of axisymmetric elliptical systems, and study the properties of their densities, circular velocities, velocity dispersions and two-integral even distribution functions. The form of the potential allows the density to be expressed simply as a function of the potential and radial coordinate R. The models have finite total mass and their densities at large distances decay radially as r - 4 , except on the major axis, where the densities decay as r - 3 . It is known from Hunter's formulae that the velocity dispersions for prolate models can be expressed in terms of elementary functions of R and z, unlike those for the oblate Jaffe models recently given by Jiang, and that the prolate models have anisotropic velocity distributions. Thus the prolate models are easier to study than the oblate models. It is also found that the two-integral even distribution functions on the physical boundary of the galaxies increase monotonically with the relative energy, for the prolate models. Furthermore, numerical calculation shows that the two-integral even distribution functions generated from their densities are non-negative, even for very 'squeezed' prolate Jaffe models. However, the edge-on projected surface densities for these prolate models cannot be expressed as simply as for the oblate models.