In this paper, we investigate the correlation between the radial ultraviolet color distribution and the shapes of the ultraviolet isophote for elliptical galaxies (M32, NGC 1399) and spiral bulges (of M31, M81) by using their archival UIT images. For M31, M81, and NGC 1399, the radial ultraviolet color distributions show a two-component trend; as the distance from the galactic center increase the color becomes redder in the inner region while it becomes bluer in the outer region. On the other hand, the color of M32 continues to become bluer with the increasing galactocentric distance. We also find, unlike the optical/IR images, significant variations of the position angle and the ellipticity in the ultraviolet isophotes of M31, M81, and NGC 1399 through the inner regions. For M32, the variation is significant in the outer region. Since these variation implies the triaxiality of their intrinsic shapes, we suggest that the early-type galaxies and spiral bulges with a radial color gradient in ultraviolet tend to have a triaxiality. On the other hand, the shape parameter characterized by the fourth order cosine Fourier coefficient of the isophote, a(4)/a, indicates that the systematic deviations of the ultraviolet isophotes of the four galaxies are smaller than ~0.2% in units of the semi-major axis. The latter result implies that the ultraviolet isophotes of the galaxies have a pure elliptical shape rather than the boxy or disky shapes. Therefore, there is no clear evidence of correlation between the radial ultra-violet color gradient and the boxy/disky shapes of isophotes.
We have conducted near-infrared (J- and H-band) surface photometry for two early type barred galaxies, NGC 3412 and NGC 3941. The bulges of NGC 3412 and NGC 3941 show isophotal twists which indicate that they are triaxial. NGC 3412 has a very short bar and its bulge is more centrally concentrated than that of NGC 3941. The unusually short bar and the centrally concentrated triaxial bulge of NGC 3412 might be the result of bar dissolution. The colors of the nuclear region of NGC 3941 resemble those of the blue nuclei, implying the presence of young stellar populations.
We have examined bulge morphology of 104 bright barred galaxies, using V-band surface photometry based on the Kiso Schmidt plates. By measuring the bulge ellipticity and bulge-disk misalignment, we have classified bulges into four morphological types: sphere, oblate spheroid, triaxial ellipsoid, and pseudo triaxial ellipsoid. About half of the observed galaxies are found to have triaxial bulges with mean ellipticity of 0.24. They are distributed uniformly along the Hubble sequence.