Triaxiality in elliptical galaxies

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Abstract
The existence of a triaxial shape for elliptical galaxies has been considered in recent years to explain the new kinematical and geometrical findings, i.e. (a) the low rotation/velocity dispersion ratio found also in some flat systems, (b) the presence of twisting in the isophotes, (c) the recently found correlation between maximum twisting and maximum flattening, (d) the presence of rotation along the minor axis. A simple geometrical model of elliptical galaxies having shells with different axial ratios c/a, b/a has been produced to interpret three fundamental key-features of elliptical galaxies: (i) the distribution of the maximum flattening observed; (ii) the percentage of ellipticals showing twisting; and (iii) the correlation between maximum twisting and maximum flattening. The model has been compared with observational data for 348 elliptical systems as given by Strom & Strom. We find that a triaxial ellipsoid with coaxial shells having axial ratios c/a and b/a mutually dependent in a linear way can satisfy the observations.

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