A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal

The Impact of Bars on Disk Breaks as Probed by S(4)g Imaging




AuthorsJuan Carlos Muñoz-Mateos, Kartik Sheth, Armando Gil de Paz, Sharon Meidt, E Athanassoula, Albert Bosma, Sébastien Comerón, Debra M Elmegreen, Bruce G Elmegreen, Santiago Erroz-Ferrer, Dimitri A Gadotti, Joannah L Hinz, Luis C Ho, Benne Holwerda, Thomas H Jarrett, Taehyun Kim, Johan H Knapen, Jarkko Laine, Eija Laurikainen, Barry F Madore, Karin Menendez-Delmestre, Trisha Mizusawa, Michael Regan, Heikki Salo, Eva Schinnerer, Mark Seibert, Ramin Skibba, Dennis Zaritsky

PublisherIOP PUBLISHING LTD

Publishing placeBRISTOL; TEMPLE CIRCUS, TEMPLE WAY, BRISTOL BS1 6BE, ENGLAND

Publication year2013

JournalAstrophysical Journal

Journal name in sourceAstrophysical Journal

Journal acronymAstrophys.J.

Number in series1

Volume771

Issue1

First page 59

Last page59

Number of pages30

ISSN0004-637X

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/771/1/59


Abstract

We have analyzed the radial distribution of old stars in a sample of 218 nearby face-on disks, using deep 3.6 mu m images from the Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in Galaxies. In particular, we have studied the structural properties of those disks with a broken or down-bending profile. We find that, on average, disks with a genuine single-exponential profile have a scale length and a central surface brightness which are intermediate to those of the inner and outer components of a down-bending disk with the same total stellar mass. In the particular case of barred galaxies, the ratio between the break and the bar radii (R-br/R-bar) depends strongly on the total stellar mass of the galaxy. For galaxies more massive than 10(10) M-circle dot, the distribution is bimodal, peaking at R-br/R-bar similar to 2 and similar to 3.5. The first peak, which is the most populated one, is linked to the outer Lindblad resonance of the bar, whereas the second one is consistent with a dynamical coupling between the bar and the spiral pattern. For galaxies below 10(10) M-circle dot, breaks are found up to similar to 10 R-bar, but we show that they could still be caused by resonances given the rising nature of rotation curves in these low-mass disks. While not ruling out star formation thresholds, our results imply that radial stellar migration induced by non-axisymmetric features can be responsible not only for those breaks at similar to 2 R-bar, but also for many of those found at larger radii.




Last updated on 2024-26-11 at 22:04