Analysis tools for studying disk galaxies

I will present some recent results from two Integral Field Spectrographs (SAURON and GMOS-IFU) together with high resolution images from the Hubble Space Telescope, providing a unique data set for studying dynamics of galaxies. The main scientific focus will be on spiral galaxies, and the connection between their large-scale dynamics and nuclear activity. In particular, I will elaborate on the role of streaming along bars and spiral arms in this context. Quantfying these effects will provide constrains on our formation and evolution theories.

This new and ground-breaking data set has demonstrated the necessity to develop new analysis methods and tools to handle the data, and to extract the desirable information from these observations. This work has lead to the development of state-of-art data handeling, reduction, and analysis methods, which prove to be useful for future observations and analysis of this type (e.g., Emsellem et al. 2004; Fathi et al. 2005; Fathi et al. 2006; Falcon-Barroso et al. 2006).