NGC 4672: a new case of an early-type disk galaxy with an orthogonally decoupled core ⋆,⋆⋆

We report the case of the early-type disk galaxy NGC 4672 as a new example of a galaxy characterized by the orthog- onal geometrical decoupling between bulge and disk. The mor- phological features of this galaxy are discussed as well as the velocity curves and velocity dispersion profiles of stars and ion- ized gas along both its major and minor axis. We conclude that NGC 4672 has structural (i.e. a bulge elongated perpendicularly to the disk) and kinematical (i.e. a stellar core rotating perpen- dicularly to the disk) properties similar to those of the Sa NGC 4698. The presence of the isolated core suggests that the disk component is the end result of the acquisition of external ma- terial in polar orbits around a pre-existing oblate spheroid as in the case of the ring component of AM 2020-504, the prototype of polar ring ellipticals.