The kinematics, structure, and stellar population properties in the centres of two brightest early-type galaxies of the Leo II group, NGC 3607 and NGC 3608, are studied by means of integral-field spectroscopy. The kinematically distinct areas in the centres of these galaxies, with radii of 6′′ and 5′′, respectively, are found also to be chemically distinct: they are characterized by enhanced magnesium-line strength. However, no stellar age differences have been found between the decoupled cores and their outskirts. An analysis of two-dimensional line-of-sight velocity fields reveals systematic turns of kinematical major axes near the nuclei of both galaxies; in NGC 3608 the ionized gas rotates perpendicular to the stellar component rotation. When taking into account some morphological features, it is concluded that both NGC 3607 and NGC 3608 have large triaxial stellar spheroids. it is argued that the magnesium-enhanced cores are not circumnuclear disks; instead they resemble rather compact triaxial structures that force the formation of polar disks around them – a gaseous one in NGC 3608 and a stellar-gaseous one in NGC 3607; in the latter, star formation is perhaps still proceeding.
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Afanasiev et al. (2007) studied this question.
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