Although N-body studies of dark matter halos show that the density profiles, ρ(r), are not simple power-laws, the quantity ρ/σ 3 , where σ(r) is the velocity dispersion, is in fact a featureless power-law over ∼ 3 decades in radius. In the first part of the paper we demonstrate, using the semi-analytic Extended Secondary Infall Model (ESIM), that the nearly scale-free nature of ρ/σ 3 is a robust feature of virialized halos in equilibrium. By examining the processes in common between numerical N-body and semi-analytic approaches, we argue that the scale-free nature of ρ/σ 3 cannot be the result of hierarchical merging, rather it must be an outcome of violent relaxation. The empirical results of the first part of the paper motivate the analytical work of the second part of the paper, where we use ρ/σ 3 ∝ r −α as an additional constraint in the isotropic Jeans equation of hydrostatic equilibrium. Our analysis shows that the constrained Jeans equation has different types of solutions, and in particular, it admits a unique "periodic" solution with α = 1.9444. We derive the analytic expression for this density profile, which asymptotes to inner and outer profiles of ρ ∼ r −0.78 , and ρ ∼ r −3.44 , respectively.

We present a non-parametric method for decomposition of the light of disk galaxies into disk, bulge and bar components. We have developed and tested the method on a sample of 68 disk galaxies for which we have acquired I-band photometry. The separation of disk and bar light relies on the single assumption that the bar is a straight feature with a different ellipticity and position angle from that of the projected disk. We here present the basic method, but recognise that it can be significantly refined. We identify bars in only 47% of the more nearly face-on galaxies in our sample. The fraction of light in the bar has a broad range from 1.3% to 40% of the total galaxy light. If low-luminosity galaxies have more dominant halos, and if halos contribute to bar stability, the luminosity functions of barred and unbarred galaxies should differ markedly; while our sample is small, we find only a slight difference of low significance.Comment: Accepted to appear in AJ, 36 pages, 9 figures, full on-line figures available at http://www.physics.rutgers.edu/~sellwood/Reese.htm

We investigate the impact of nonaxisymmetric structure on estimates of galaxy inclinations and position angles. A new minimization technique is used to obtain estimates of inclination and position angle from a global fit to either photometric or kinematic data. We discuss possible systematic uncertainties which are much larger than statistical uncertainties. Our investigation reveals that systematic uncertainties associated with fitting photometric data dominate the formal statistical uncertainties. For our sample of inclined galaxies, we estimate that nonaxisymmetric features introduce inclination and position angle uncertainties of approximately 5 degrees, on average. The magnitudes of these uncertainties weaken the arguments for intrinsically elliptical galaxy disks.Comment: submitted to AJ, Rutgers Preprint #365; V. frames of figs 5a-5e correcte

For a decade, N-body simulations have revealed a nearly universal dark matter density profile, which appears to be robust to changes in the overall density of the universe and the underlying power spectrum. Despite its universality, the physical origin of this profile has not yet been well understood. Semi-analytic models by Barnes et al. (2005) have suggested that the density structure of dark matter halos is determined by the onset of the radial orbit instability (ROI). We have tested this hypothesis using N-body simulations of collapsing dark matter halos with a variety of initial conditions. For dynamically cold initial conditions, the resulting halo structures are triaxial in shape, due to the mild aspect of the instability. We examine how variations in initial velocity dispersion affect the onset of the instability, and find that an isotropic velocity dispersion can suppress the ROI entirely, while a purely radial dispersion does not. The quantity σ 2 /v 2 c is a criterion for instability, where regions with σ 2 /v 2 c 1 become triaxial due to the ROI or other perturbations. We also find that the radial orbit instability sets a scale length at which the velocity dispersion changes rapidly from isotropic to radially anisotropic. This scale length is proportional to the radius at which the density profile changes shape, as is the case in the semi-analytic models; however, the coefficient of proportionality is different by a factor of ∼2.5. We conclude that the radial orbit instability is likely to be a key physical mechanism responsible for the nearly universal profiles of simulated dark matter halos.

We investigate a hypothesis regarding the origin of the scalelength in halos formed in cosmological N-body simulations. This hypothesis can be viewed as an extension of an earlier idea put forth by Merritt and Aguilar. Our findings suggest that a phenomenon related to the radial orbit instability is present in such halos and is responsible for density profile shapes. This instability sets a scalelength at which the velocity dispersion distribution changes rapidly from isotropic to radially anisotropic. This scalelength is reflected in the density distribution as the radius at which the density profile changes slope. We have tested the idea that radially dependent velocity dispersion anisotropy leads to a break in density profile shape by manipulating the input of a semi-analytic model to imitate the velocity structure imposed by the radial orbit instability. Without such manipulation, halos formed are approximated by single power-law density profiles and isotropic velocity distributions. Halos formed with altered inputs display density distributions featuring scalelengths and anisotropy profiles similar to those seen in cosmological N-body simulations.