We use spatially resolved two-dimensional stellar velocity maps over a 107 ^ { \prime \prime } \times 107 ^ { \prime \prime } field of view to investigate the kinematic features of 90 early-type galaxies above stellar mass 10 ^ { 11.5 } M _ { \odot } in the MASSIVE survey .
We measure the misalignment angle \Psi between the kinematic and photometric axes and identify local features such as velocity twists and kinematically distinct components .
We find 46 % of the sample to be well aligned ( \Psi < 15 \degr ) , 33 % misaligned , and 21 % without detectable rotation ( non-rotators ) .
Only 24 % of the sample are fast rotators , the majority of which ( 91 % ) are aligned , whereas 57 % of the slow rotators are misaligned with a nearly flat distribution of \Psi from 15 \degr to 90 \degr .
11 galaxies have \Psi \gtrsim 60 \degr and thus exhibit minor-axis ( ‘ ‘ prolate ’ ’ ) rotation in which the rotation is preferentially around the photometric major axis .
Kinematic misalignments occur more frequently for lower galaxy spin or denser galaxy environments .
Using the observed misalignment and ellipticity distributions , we infer the intrinsic shape distribution of our sample and find that MASSIVE slow rotators are consistent with being mildly triaxial , with mean axis ratios of b / a = 0.88 and c / a = 0.65 .
In terms of local kinematic features , 51 % of the sample exhibit kinematic twists of larger than 20 \degr , and 2 galaxies have kinematically distinct components .
The frequency of misalignment and the broad distribution of \Psi reported here suggest that the most massive early-type galaxies are mildly triaxial , and that formation processes resulting in kinematically misaligned slow rotators such as gas-poor mergers occur frequently in this mass range .