Title: 1.10. The effects of the disk field on the bulge surface brightness
Abstract:After the classical description of bulges by a de Vaucouleurs profile was found to be inadequate, a generalized profile, Sersic's law, was used successfully to describe the surface brightness: (Andred...After the classical description of bulges by a de Vaucouleurs profile was found to be inadequate, a generalized profile, Sersic's law, was used successfully to describe the surface brightness: (Andredakis et al. 1994 (APB95)). The exponent n was found to vary systematically with the morphological type of the galaxy, from n = 4 for the bulges of S0s to n = 2 for intermediate type spirals and n = 1 (pure exponential) for the late types. (APB95, de Jong 1996). This has been confirmed also by the kinematics (Heraudeau et al 1996). This variation of n has been interpreted in two ways: ( i ) As the effect of the disk forming around an already developed bulge (APB95) and ( ii ) as evidence that the bulge originated from secular processes in the galaxy, after the disk was formed (Courteau et al. 1996). This needs to be resolved.Read More