The Central Mass Distribution in Dwarf and LSB Galaxies

Abstract.

It has proved remarkably hard to establish the inner slope of the dark matter distribution observationally. It is usually constrained by fitting the observed rotation curves with mass models that include the dark and luminous components. However, because the mass-to-light ratio (M/L) of the stellar disk is unknown, the observed rotation curves can be explained by a range in mass models, often including ones in which the stellar disk dominates in the inner parts and with a core dominated halo, and by ones in which the stellar disk is less important and the mass distribution is dominated by a centrally concentrated halo.