# GalRotpy: an educational tool to understand and parametrize the rotation curve and gravitational potential of disk-like galaxies

## TL;DR

GalRotpy is an educational Python tool that helps users understand galaxy rotation curves by visualizing mass components and fitting parameters using MCMC, demonstrated on real galaxy data.

## Contribution

It introduces a new Python-based visual and fitting tool for galaxy rotation curves, integrating multiple mass models and MCMC fitting in an educational context.

## Key findings

- Successfully characterized two galaxies, NGC6361 and M33.
- Results for M33 align with existing literature.
- Provides an interactive way to learn galaxy dynamics.

## Abstract

\textbf{GalRotpy} is an educational \verb+Python3+-based visual tool, which is useful to undestand how is the contribution of each mass component to the gravitational potential of disc-like galaxies by means of their rotation curve. Besides, \textbf{GalRotpy} allows the user to perform a parametric fit of a given rotation curve, which relies on a MCMC procedure implemented by using \verb+emcee+ package. Here the gravitational potential of disc-like galaxies is built from the contribution of a Miyamoto-Nagai potential model for the bulge/core and the thin/thick disc, an exponential disc, together with the NFW (Navarro-Frenk- White) potential or the Burkert (cored density profile) potential for the Dark Matter halo, where each contribution is implemented by using \verb+galpy+ package. We summarize the properties of each contribution to the rotation curve involved, and then describe how \textbf{GalRotpy} is implemented along with its capabilities. Finally we present the characterization of two galaxies, NGC6361 and M33, and show that the results for M33 provided by \textbf{GalRotpy} are consistent with those found in the literature.