Dynamical modeling of elliptical galaxy NGC 2513

Abstract

We have analysed the photometric and kinematical data of the elliptical galaxy NGC 2513 to determine its intrinsic structure. For the photometric data we have used our own observations and for the kinematical data we have referred to the literature. The galaxy shows isophote twist and further, the line of sight velocity along the apparent minor axis is comparable to that along the major axis. These indicate that the galaxy is triaxial. We have used a model which is a triaxial generalisation of the γ model of Jaffe and Hernquist. The projected surface density has central cusp (for γ > 1), ellipticity variations and isophote twists. We compare the projected surface density by taking a suitable line of sight and choosing the parameters in the model, so as to obtain a best fit with the photometric data. The results of our analysis show that models with cusp fits the data better.