The orientations of the rotation axes of radio galaxies. II - Stellar rotation curves and velocity dispersion profiles

We have mapped the stellar velocity field of 13 nearby, bright, elliptical galaxies that have extended radio structure in order to determine their rotation axes, and we have used the results of R. L. Davies and G. Illingworth for an additional galaxy, NGC 1052. These galaxies differ from each other by a factor of about 10 in optical luminosity and a factor of about 10^3^ in radio power. A model of the structure and velocity field of elliptical galaxies has been developed in order to deduce the position angle of the rotation axes from the velocity maps. In addition, the projected scale and amplitude of the rotation law are derived. A range of possible rotation laws and figure types are explored, and we find that the derived projected rotation is independent of these details. For the seven galaxies with stellar rotation velocities v_rot_ greater than 30 km s^-1^, we report accurate estimates of the position angles of their projected rotation axes. Poorer estimates of position angles of the projected rotation axes can be obtained for the four galaxies in which rotation is marginally detected. In the three remaining cases, upper limits to the rotation velocities are found. The projected rotation and minor axes of the galaxies are aligned to within the errors of seven of the 11 galaxies with detected rotation. In an earlier paper we described the kinematics of NGC 4261, which has its rotation and minor axes perpendicular to each other. The kinematics of two other galaxies (NGC 4486 and NGC 7626) are consistent with such an orientation, but both cases are uncertain and require confirmation. R. L. Davies and G. Illingworth showed that NGC 1052 exhibits a small minor-axis rotation, and we find a similar behavior in NGC 4472, which is the only galaxy where the rotation axis shows a significant misalignment with both symmetry axes of the projected figure. The radio axes of the galaxies are generally misaligned with the rotation axes and show only a weak statistical alignment with the minor axes.