On the gravitational stability and mass estimation of stellar disks
  We estimate the masses of disks of galaxies using the marginal gravitational
stability criterion and compare them with the photometrical disk mass
evaluations. The comparison reveals that the stellar disks of most of spiral
galaxies we considered cannot be substantially overheated (at least within
several radial scalelengths) and are therefore unlikely to have experienced a
significant merging event in their history. However, for substantial part of
S0- type galaxies a stellar velocity dispersion is well in excess of the
gravitational stability threshold suggesting a major merger event in the past.
For four low surface brightness galaxies we found that the disk masses
corresponding to the marginal stability condition are significantly higher than
it may be expected from their brightness. Either their disks are dynamically
overheated, or they contain a large amount of non-luminous matter.
