Using 3D Spectroscopy to Probe the Orbital Structure of Composite Bulges

Abstract

Detailed imaging and spectroscopic analysis of the centers of nearby S0 and spiral galaxies shows the existence of "composite bulges", where both classical bulges and disky pseudobulges coexist in the same galaxy. As part of a search for supermassive black holes in nearby galaxy nuclei, we obtained VLT-SINFONI observations in adaptive-optics mode of several of these galaxies. Schwarzschild dynamical modeling enables us to disentangle the stellar orbital structure of the different central components, and to distinguish the differing contributions of kinematically hot (classical bulge) and kinematically cool (pseudobulge) components in the same galaxy.

arXiv commentLaTeX, 2 pages, 1 PDF figure. To appear in "Proceedings of IAU Symposium 309: Galaxies in 3D across the Universe", eds. B. L. Ziegler, F. Combes, H. Dannerbauer, and M. Verdugo

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