Bililign Dullo
The stellar distributions in galaxies have played a vital role in guiding our understanding of the galaxies themselves. Following Hubble’s (1930) innovative work on elliptical galaxies brightness profiles, there have been many studies on galaxy centers using their radial surface brightness distribution. The main focus of my PhD thesis is to unveil the secrets of galaxies’ centers through an analysis of their 2-dimensional stellar distribution and 1-dimensional brightness profile. Several scientists have advanced different models as a possible avenue to reproduce the HST-observed surface brightness profiles of early-type galaxies at distance ~ 10 - 100 Mpc. I am currently using the Sersic and core-Sersic models for fitting galaxies' brightness profiles, and also conducting a close investigation on the central light deficits (fingerprints of the gravitational sling shot effect of coalescing Supermassive Black Holes) and light excesses (which signature the presence of additional nuclear light components: e.g. Nuclear star clusters, stellar disks). This work will eventually provide new insights in to the galaxy formation process.
| Phone | +61 3 9214 5622 | |
| Fax | +61 3 9214 8797 | |
| Office | AR 308f |