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2. VARIETIES OF THE COUNTER-ROTATING COMPONENTS

The phenomenon of counter-rotation is:

Observationally, the intrinsic or apparent nature of counter-rotation may be addressed in not edge-on galaxies by analyzing their full velocity field as mapped with multi-slit or integral-field spectroscopy.

As far as the counter-rotating components are concerned, counter-rotation occurs in a variety of forms:

Finally, counter-rotation in disk galaxies is detected in:

Figure 1

Figure 1. The inner stellar counter-rotation and overall gaseous counter-rotation of the Sa NGC 3593. Left panels: Velocity (top panel) and velocity dispersion (bottom panel) radial profiles measured along the major axis of NGC 3593 for the stellar (open circles) and ionized-gas component (filled circles). Right panels: Photometric decomposition of NGC 3593 (top panel). The surface-brightness radial profile measured along the major axis (crosses) is decomposed into the contribution of a bulge (dot-dashed line), a smaller-scale disk (short-dashed line), and a larger-scale disk (long-dashed line). The sum of the three component is given by the continuous line. Mass model of NGC 3593 (bottom panel). The contribution of the smaller-scale disk (short-dashed line) and larger-scale disk (long-dashed line) to the total circular velocity (continuous line) is shown with the observed ionized-gas velocity curve (filled circles). The contribution of the bulge is neglected. From Bertola et al. (1996).

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