Instruct: Identify the main and secondary category of Arxiv papers based on the titles and abstracts
Query: Distance indicators based on the luminosity-profile shapes of early-type
  galaxies--a reply   In a recent paper, Binggeli & Jerjen (1998) question the value of the extra-
galactic distance indicators presented by Young & Currie (1994 & 1995) and
state that they have refuted `the claim that the Virgo dEs [dwarf-elliptical
galaxies]...are distributed in a prolate structure stretching from 8 to 20 Mpc
distance (Young & Currie 1995).' even though no such claim was ever made.
  In this paper, we examine Binggeli & Jerjen's claims that intrinsic scatter
rather than spatial depth must be the main cause of the large scatters observed
in the relevant scaling relationships for Virgo galaxies. We investigate the
accuracy of Binggeli & Jerjen's photometric parameters and find that while
their profile curvature and scalelength measurements are probably useful, their
total magnitude and central surface-brightness measurements are not useful for
the purpose of investigating scaling laws because they suffer from serious
systematic and random errors. We also investigate Binggeli & Jerjen's criti-
cisms of our (1995) analysis. We demonstrate that their test for strong mutual
dependence between distance estimates based on the two different scaling laws
is invalid because of its prior assumption of negligible cluster depth. We
further demonstrate that the [relative] distance estimates on which their
kinematical arguments are based cannot be meaningful, not only because of the
seriousness of the photometric errors, but also because they are undermined by
the prior assumption that depth effects can again be neglected.

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The categories of this paper are: mtrl-th
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The categories of this paper are: cmp-lg
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The categories of this paper are: plasm-ph
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The categories of this paper are: hep-th
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The categories of this paper are: math
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The categories of this paper are: atom-ph
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The categories of this paper are: hep-lat
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The categories of this paper are: alg-geom
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The categories of this paper are: eess
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The categories of this paper are: q-alg
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The categories of this paper are: chem-ph
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The categories of this paper are: cond-mat
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The categories of this paper are: dg-ga
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The categories of this paper are: q-fin
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The categories of this paper are: physics
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The categories of this paper are: supr-con