Response of the integrals in the Tremaine-Weinberg method to multiple pattern speeds: a counter-rotating inner bar in NGC 2950?
Abstract
When integrals in the standard Tremaine-Weinberg method are evaluated for the case of a realistic model of a doubly barred galaxy, their modifications introduced by the second rotating pattern are in accord with what can be derived from a simple extension of that method, based on separation of tracer's density. This extension yields a qualitative argument that discriminates between prograde and retrograde inner bars. However, the estimate of the value of inner bar's pattern speed requires further assumptions. When this extension of the Tremaine-Weinberg method is applied to the recent observation of the doubly barred galaxy NGC 2950, it indicates that the inner bar there is counter-rotating, possibly with the pattern speed of -140 +/- 50 km s-1 arcsec-1. The occurrence of counter-rotating inner bars can constrain theories of galaxy formation.
- Publication:
-
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Pub Date:
- September 2006
- DOI:
- 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.10679.x
- arXiv:
- arXiv:astro-ph/0602520
- Bibcode:
- 2006MNRAS.371..451M
- Keywords:
-
- galaxies: individual: NGC 2950;
- galaxies: kinematics and dynamics;
- galaxies: structure;
- Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- accepted by MNRAS