Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-short-options-paper-shared-by-prelims-and-parts-a-and-b-of-the-physics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2018/s26/3/c/solution

The integrated spectrum combines stars moving toward and away from us within the galaxy, broadening their absorption by Doppler shifts. Assuming instrumental and individual-stellar widths have been removed or are negligible, the line-of-sight velocity dispersion is
The angular half-light radius at the low-redshift distance is kpc. For a pressure-supported, approximately isotropic equilibrium spheroid with a standard structural virial coefficient of order five, use
The coefficient represents assumed density profile, aperture and orbital structure; a different reasonable mass estimator changes the result by an order-unity factor. Treating as a luminosity distance and using would reduce the radius and mass by about four percent here.
The distance modulus is about . The magnitude within therefore corresponds to and
Doubling the half-light luminosity gives
This ratio is compatible with an old stellar population plus possible dark matter. It is larger than a solar-like mass-to-light ratio, but does not by itself isolate a unique dark-matter fraction: stellar age, initial mass function, anisotropy and the virial coefficient are not specified. Counting the quoted half-light magnitude as the total would incorrectly double the inferred ratio.

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