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M. Das, G. Petitpas, P.J. Teuben, S.N. Vogel (University of Maryland)
We use observations of the gas kinematics in barred galaxies to determine the relative masses of the stellar disk and the dark matter halo in these galaxies. The gas flow in bars depends on the non-axisymmetry in the stellar mass distribution; so a comparison of the simulated and observed velocity field in a bar can be used to determine the contribution of the stellar mass to the total dynamical mass. This reveals to what extent the "Maximum Disk" is achieved in barred spiral galaxies. We have applied this technique to a sample of nearby barred galaxies. The stellar potential was derived from the K band images and the halo potential was determined from the large scale HI distribution. The observed velocity fields were derived from 6" resolution BIMA SONG CO observations complemented with BIMA 2" high resolution data. Hydrodynamical simulations of gas flow in these potentials were used to generate velocity fields that were compared with observed CO gas kinematics in the bar. These simulations enable us to derive the mass to luminosity ratio (M/L) and thus constrain the relative stellar and dark matter masses in these galaxies. We present the techniques used in our study and some early results of our investigation. This research was supported by the NSF grant AST-9981289 to the University of Maryland.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: mousumi@astro.umd.edu
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 35 #3
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.