Dim Matter in the Disks of Low Surface Brightness Galaxies

Abstract

An attempt is made to set constraints on the otherwise ambiguous decomposition of the rotation curves of low surface brightness galaxies into contributions due to the various components of the galaxies. For this purpose galaxies are selected which show clear spiral structure. Arguments of density wave theory of galactic spiral arms are then used to estimate the masses of the galactic disks. These estimates seem to indicate that the disks of low surface brightness galaxies might be much more massive than currently thought. This unexpected result contradicts stellar population synthesis models. This would also mean that low surface brightness galaxies are not dominated by dark matter in their inner parts.