Boxy/peanut “bulges”: comparing the structure of galaxies with the underlying families of periodic orbits

The vertical profiles of disc galaxies are built by the material trapped around stable periodic orbits, which form their “skeletons”. According to this, the knowledge of the stability of the main families of periodic orbits in appropriate 3D models, can predict possible morphologies for edge-on disc galaxies. In a pilot survey we compare the orbital structures which lead to the appearance of “peanuts” and “X”-like features with the edge-on profiles of three disc galaxies (IC 2531, NGC 4013 and UGC 2048). The subtraction from the images of a model representing the axisymmetric component of the galaxies reveals the contribution of the non-axisymmetric terms. We find a direct correspondence between the orbital profiles of 3D bars in models and the observed main morphological features of the residuals. We also apply a simple unsharp masking technique in order to study the sharpest features of the images. Our basic conclusion is that the morphology of the boxy “bulges” of these galaxies can be explained by considering disc material trapped around stable 3D periodic orbits. In most models these building-blocks periodic orbits are bifurcated from the planar central family of a non-axisymmetric component, usually a bar, at low order vertical resonances. In such a case the boxy “bulges” are parts of bars seen edge-on. For the three galaxies we study the families associated with the “peanut” or “X”-shape morphology are most probably bifurcations at the vertical 2/1 or 4/1 resonance.