Iteration Method to Derive Exact Rotation Curves from Position-Velocity Diagrams of Spiral Galaxies

We present an iteration method to derive exact rotation curves (RC) of spiral galaxies from observed position-velocity diagrams (PVD), which comprises the following procedure. An initial rotation curve, RC0, is adopted from an observed PV diagram (PV0), obtained by any simple method such as the peak-intensity method. Using this rotation curve and an observed radial distribution of intensity (emissivity), we construct a simulated PV diagram (PV1). The difference between a rotation curve obtained from this PV1 and the original RC (e.g., difference between peak-intensity velocities) is used to correct the initial RC to obtain a corrected rotation curve, RC1. This RC1 is used to calculated another PVD (PV2) using the observed intensity distribution, and to obtain the second iterated RC (RC2). This iteration is repeated until PVi converges to PV0, so that the differences between PVi and PV0 becomes minimum. Finally RCi is adopted as the most reliable rotation curve. We apply this method to some observed PVDs of nearby galaxies, and show that the iteration successfully converges to give reliable rotation curves. We show that the method is powerful to detect central massive objects. Subject headings: methods: data analysis — ISM: kinematics and dynamics — galaxies: ISM — galaxies: kinematics and dynamics — galaxies: nuclei — galaxies: structure —