THE FREQUENCY FUNCTION OF ELLIPTIC GALAXY INTRINSIC SHAPES

We present fully nonparametric estimates of the frequency function of elliptical galaxy intrinsic shapes under the axisymmetric and triaxial hypotheses. If elliptical galaxies are assumed to be oblate or prolat e, the frequency function of intrinsic shapes is negative for axis rat ios near unity due to the lack of apparently round galaxies. Both axis ymmetric hypotheses are found to be inconsistent at the 99% level with the data. Triaxial intrinsic shapes are fully consistent with the dat a; a number of possible triaxial frequency functions are presented, so me of which exhibit strong bimodality. We also compute the ''maximum e ntropy'' distribution of intrinsic shapes under the triaxial hypothesi s. (C) 1995 American Astronomical Society.