Scientific content and goals

Our research activity has developed along two main lines: the study of galaxy formation and the analysis of data from our Galaxy and external galaxies to measure kinematic properties. The two lines are interconnected because observations of galactic velocity fields are the data needed to test any dynamical model. Our goal is to develop a new model of mass distribution in galaxies based on Newtonian gravity, which requires a smaller amount of dark matter than the case of the spherical halo, as in the galactic disk. We have developed two methods to reconstruct the complete three-dimensional kinematic properties, the first for our Galaxy and the second for external galaxies. As for our Galaxy, the GAIA satellite has precisely measured the spatial position and velocity of over 30 million stars. We analyzed the Gaia-DR3 data and extended the three-dimensional kinematic maps to a distance 30% greater than the official GAIA maps, i.e. from 20 kpc to 30 kpc, using a statistical method of deconvolution of measurement errors. To characterize the kinematic properties of external galaxies, we have introduced and developed a new technique that allows measuring spatial velocity anisotropies in both components, thus reconstructing two-dimensional velocity maps. We have employed these methods to characterize the velocity fields of 25 galaxies where high-resolution velocity field measurements are available.