Heavy Bars and Light Spirals -- Taking Advantage of Asymmetries in Galaxies

Abstract

I summarize a series of studies where the underlying theme is to exploit non-axisymmetry disk structures such as bars and spiral arms. By measuring the strength of gravitational forces from these structures we can measure the mass in them. The advantage of this approach is that mass to light ratios can be constrained in a way independent of the dark matter profile. By examining a variety of types of galaxies it appears that a correlation between morphology and dark matter fraction emerges.

Proceedings of the Conference on Galaxy Dynamics at Rutgers, Aug 1998