Astronomy and Astrophysics Seminars

Vertical Structure of Disk Galaxies & their Dark Matter Halos

by Arunima Banerjee (Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore)

Tuesday, October 18, 2011 from to (Asia/Kolkata)
at Colaba Campus ( Lecture Theatre AG 66 )
TIFR
Description
The vertical structure of disk galaxies can be looked upon both as a treasure trove of rich physics as well as a tracer of the galactic dark matter halos. In the inner region of an ordinary spiral galaxy, the disk dynamics is regulated by the self-gravity of the stars and the gas, while in the outer galaxy the dark matter halo dominates. In the first part of the talk, I will elucidate the crucial but hitherto ignored effect of the gas gravity on the stellar vertical structure. In the second part, I will discuss how in the outer galaxy, the gas vertical structure acts  as a sensitive probe of the galactic dark matter density profile including its shape, and present the results from our work.