Modes of Elliptical Galaxies

Abstract

Long lived modes of elliptical galaxies can exist {\it à la} van Kampen. Specific systems may possess long lived oscillations which Landau damp on time scales longer than a Hubble time. Some physical processes such as a close encounter, tidal forces from a cluster or an orbiting satellite could preferentially excite a coherent mode. These may relate to the observed faint structure in elliptical galaxies such as shells and ripples. Their detection in projected phase space would ultimately provide a detailed probe of the underlying potential. I give an overview of linear perturbations to stationary solutions of the Vlasov equation, including a discretized Hermite polynomial expansion which explicitly demonstrates completeness and orthogonality of solutions. Some exact solutions are shown, which implies the feasibility of such a procedure and suggest future fully numerical studies.