Award Date

1-1-1999

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Physics

First Committee Member

George Rhee

Number of Pages

43

Abstract

The classification of galaxies is morphological. Shapes of the galaxies range from the very simple (e.g. elliptical galaxies) to the highly complex (e.g. irregular galaxies). Analyzing a measure of complexity for such shapes could lead to automatic classification. Fractal dimension, a quantity related to the complexity of a given shape, could be such a measure. Capacity dimension and correlation dimension are two of the several types of fractal dimensions. In this project, correlation dimensions and the capacity dimensions of the contours generated around different intensity levels of the galaxy images, versus the intensity levels were computed. It was found that elliptical galaxies tend to have a lower value of the average correlation dimension (computed for a selected range of intensity levels) than spirals.

Keywords

Classification; Dimensions; Fractal; Galaxies

Controlled Subject

Astronomy; Mathematics

File Format

pdf

File Size

1218.56 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

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