THE DYNAMICAL INVERSE PROBLEM FOR AXISYMMETRICAL STELLAR-SYSTEMS

The standard method of modeling axisymmetric stellar systems begins fr om the assumption that mass follows light. The gravitational potential is then derived from the luminosity distribution, and the unique two- integral distribution function f(E,L(z)(2)) that generates the stellar density in this potential is found. It is shown that the gravitationa l potential can instead be generated directly from the velocity data i n a two-integral galaxy, thus allowing one to drop the assumption that mass follows light. The two-dimensional rotational velocity field can also be recovered in a model-independent way. Regularized algorithms for carrying out the inversions are presented and tested by applicatio n to pseudo-data from a family of oblate models. (C) 1996 American Ast ronomical Society.