Summary: BUDDA: A NEW TWO�DIMENSIONAL BULGE/DISK DECOMPOSITION CODE
FOR DETAILED STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF GALAXIES 1
R. E. de Souza, D. A. Gadotti, and S. dos Anjos
Departamento de Astronomia, Instituto de Astronomia, Geof��sica e Cie �ncias Atmosfe �ricas,
Universidade de Sa�o Paulo, Rua do Mata�o 1226, Cidde Universita �r� �a, Sa�o Paulo, SP 05508�900,
Brazil; ronaldo@astro.iag.usp.br, dimitri@astro.iag.usp.br, sandra@astro.iag.usp.br
Received 2003 December 19; accepted 2004 April 2
ABSTRACT
We present BUDDA (Bulge/Disk Decomposition Analysis), a new code devoted to perform a two�dimensional
bulge/disk decomposition directly from the images of galaxies. The bulge component is fitted with a generalized
Se �rsic profile, whereas disks have an exponential profile. No other components are included. Bars and other
substructures, like lenses, rings, inner bars, and inner disks, are studied with the residual images obtained through
the subtraction of bulges and disks from the original images. This means that a detailed structural analysis of
galaxies may be performed with a small number of parameters, and substructures may be directly studied with no
a priori assumptions. As has been already shown by several studies, two�dimensional fitting is much more
reliable than one�dimensional profile fitting. Moreover, our code has been thoroughly tested with artificial data,
and we demonstrate it to be an accurate tool for determining structural parameters of galaxies. We also show that
our code is useful in various kinds of studies, including galaxies of, e.g., different morphological types, and
inclinations, which also may be observed at different spatial resolutions. Thus, the code has a broader range of
potential applications than most of the previous codes, which are developed to tackle specific problems. To

Source: Alexei, Dimitri - European Southern Observatory

Collections: Physics