Major Merger Galaxy Pairs at z = 0: Dust Properties and Companion Morphology
Abstract
We present an analysis of dust properties of a sample of close major-merger galaxy pairs selected by K_s magnitude and redshift. The pairs represent the two populations of spiral–spiral (S+S) and mixed morphology spiral–elliptical (S+E). The Code Investigating GALaxy Emission software is used to fit dust models to the Two Micron All Sky Survey, Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, and Herschel flux density measurements, and to derive the parameters describing the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons contribution, interstellar radiation field, and photodissociation regions. Model fits verify our previous Spitzer Space Telescope analysis that S+S and S+E pairs do not have the same level of enhancement of star formation and differ in dust composition. The spirals of mixed-morphology galaxy pairs do not exhibit the enhancements in interstellar radiation field and therefore dust temperature for spirals in S+S pairs in contrast to what would be expected according to standard models of gas redistribution due to encounter torques. This suggests the importance of the companion environment/morphology in determining the dust properties of a spiral galaxy in a close major-merger pair.
Additional Information
© 2016. The American Astronomical Society. Received 2016 March 22; revised 2016 July 11; accepted 2016 July 15; published 2016 September 23. This publication makes use of data products from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, which is a joint project of the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Herschel spacecraft was designed, built, tested, and launched under a contract to ESA managed by the Herschel/Planck Project team by an industrial consortium under the overall responsibility of the prime contractor Thales Alenia Space (Cannes), and including Astrium (Friedrichshafen), responsible for the payload module and for system testing at spacecraft level, Thales Alenia Space (Turin), responsible for the service module, and Astrium (Toulouse), responsible for the telescope, with an excess of a hundred subcontractors. C.C. is supported by NSFC-11503013, NSFC-11420101002, and NSFC-10978014. We would also like to thank the anonymous reviewer for improvements to this manuscript.Attached Files
Published - apj_829_2_78.pdf
Submitted - 1608.03242v1.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 70648
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20160928-154239637
- NASA/JPL/Caltech
- European Space Agency (ESA)
- NSFC-11503013
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- NSFC-11420101002
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- NSFC-10978014
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Created
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2016-09-29Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-11Created from EPrint's last_modified field