Invited review at "Galaxies and their Masks" for Ken
Freeman's 70-th birthday, Sossusvlei, Namibia, April 2010.
For a PDF version of the article, click here.
astro-ph/1007.4747
Abstract: In this review I concentrate on three areas related to structure of disks in spiral galaxies. First I will review the work on structure, kinematics and dynamics of stellar disks. Next I will review the progress in the area of flaring of HI layers. These subjects are relevant for the presence of dark matter and lead to the conclusion that disk are in general not `maximal', have lower M / L ratios than previously suspected and are locally stable w.r.t. Toomre's Q criterion for local stability. I will end with a few words on `truncations' in stellar disks.
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