Action-based dynamical models of dwarf spheroidal galaxies: application to Fornax

Understand

We present new dynamical models of dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSphs) in which both the stellar component and the dark halo are described by analytic distribution functions that depend on the action integrals.

• In their most general form these distribution functions can represent axisymmetric and possibly rotating stellar systems.
• Here, as a first application, we model the Fornax dSph, limiting ourselves, for simplicity, to the non rotating, spherical case.
• The models are compared with state-of-the-art spectroscopic and photometric observations of Fornax, exploiting the knowledge of the line-of-sight velocity distribution of the models and accounting for the foreground contamination from the Milky Way.