Analytical properties of the R^(1/m) luminosity law

1999/11/05 by Luca Ciotti, L. Ciotti, G. Bertin +2 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #astro-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/9911078

9 pages, 1 figure, to be published in A&A (main journal)

arxiv created 1999/11/05 · openalex publication_date 1999/11/05 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

In this paper we describe some analytical properties of the R^1/m law proposed by Sersic (1968) to categorize the photometric profiles of elliptical galaxies. In particular, we present the full asymptotic expansion for the dimensionless scale factor b(m) that is introduced when referring the profile to the standard effective radius. Surprisingly, our asymptotic analysis turns out to be useful even for values of m as low as unity, thus providing a unified analytical tool for observational and theoretical investigations based on the R^1/m law for the entire range of interesting photometric profiles, from spiral to elliptical galaxies.

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