Galaxy pairs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey – X. Does gas content alter star formation rate enhancement in galaxy interactions?
Abstract
New spectral line observations, obtained with the Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), of a sample of 34 galaxies in 17 close pairs are presented in this paper. The sample of galaxy pairs is selected to contain galaxies in close, major interactions (i.e. projected separations <30 h^(−1)_(70) kpc, and mass ratios less extreme than 4:1), while still having a sufficiently large angular separation that the VLA can spatially resolve both galaxies in the pair. Of the 34 galaxies, 17 are detected at >3σ. We compare the H i gas fraction of the galaxies with the triggered star formation present in that galaxy. When compared to the star formation rates (SFRs) of non-pair galaxies matched in mass, redshift, and local environment, we find that the star formation enhancement is weakly positively correlated (∼2.5σ) with H i gas fraction. In order to help understand the physical mechanisms driving this weak correlation, we also present results from a small suite of binary galaxy merger simulations with varying gas fractions. The simulated galaxies indicate that larger initial gas fractions are associated with lower levels of interaction-triggered star formation (relative to an identical galaxy in isolation), but also show that high gas fraction galaxies have higher absolute SFRs prior to an interaction. We show that when interaction-driven SFR enhancements are calculated relative to a galaxy with an average gas fraction for its stellar mass, the relationship between SFR and initial gas fraction dominates over the SFR enhancements driven by the interaction. Simulated galaxy interactions that are matched in stellar mass but not in gas fraction, like our VLA sample, yield the same general positive correlation between SFR enhancement and gas fraction that we observe.
Additional Information
© 2015 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. Accepted 2015 March 13. Received 2015 March 13. In original form 2014 November 19. First published online April 10, 2015. We thank the anonymous referee for constructive comments which improved the clarity of this paper. JMS wishes to extend particular thanks to Miriam Krauss at the NRAO Helpdesk for her assistance with the early stages of the data reduction process, and to the NRAO Domenici Science Operations Center in Socorro for their hospitality while the majority of this data reduction was completed. We also thank Paola Di Matteo, Chris Pritchet, and Ruben Sanchez-Janssen for helpful comments on an early version of this work. SLE and DRP acknowledge the receipt of an NSERC Discovery grant which funded this research. DF and JLR acknowledge NSF grant AST-000167932 and George Mason University Presidential Fellowship for support of this work. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. We are grateful to the MPA/JHU group for access to their data products and catalogues (maintained by Jarle Brinchmann at http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/SDSS/). Funding for the SDSS and SDSS-II has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Participating Institutions, the National Science Foundation, the US Department of Energy, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Japanese Monbukagakusho, the Max Planck Society, and the Higher Education Funding Council for England. The SDSS Web Site is http://www.sdss.org/. The SDSS is managed by the Astrophysical Research Consortium for the Participating Institutions. The Participating Institutions are the American Museum of Natural History, Astrophysical Institute Potsdam, University of Basel, University of Cambridge, Case Western Reserve University, University of Chicago, Drexel University, Fermilab, the Institute for Advanced Study, the Japan Participation Group, Johns Hopkins University, the Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics, the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, the Korean Scientist Group, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (LAMOST), Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Max-Planck-Institute for Astronomy (MPIA), the Max-Planck-Institute for Astrophysics (MPA), New Mexico State University, Ohio State University, University of Pittsburgh, University of Portsmouth, Princeton University, the United States Naval Observatory, and the University of Washington.Attached Files
Published - MNRAS-2015-Scudder-3719-40.pdf
Submitted - 1503.05194v1.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 58644
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20150626-140024007
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)
- AST-000167932
- NSF
- George Mason University
- Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
- Participating Institutions
- NSF
- Department of Energy (DOE)
- NASA
- Japanese Monbukagakusho
- Max Planck Society
- Higher Education Funding Council for England
- Created
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2015-06-27Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-10Created from EPrint's last_modified field