A Statistical Study of Circumnuclear Morphology of Sigma-Drop Galaxies

Comerón, S.; Knapen, J. H.; Beckman, J. E.
Bibliographical reference

Pathways Through an Eclectic Universe ASP Conference Series, Vol. 390, proceedings of the conference held 23-27 April, 2007 at Santiago del Teide, Tenerife, Spain. Edited by J. H. Knapen, T. J. Mahoney, and A. Vazdekis San Francisco: Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 2008., p.174

Advertised on:
6
2008
Number of authors
3
IAC number of authors
0
Citations
0
Refereed citations
0
Description
Sigma-drop galaxies are characterized by a drop in the stellar velocity dispersion in their centers. One of the most likely theories to explain this phenomenon is that there is a young stellar population that has recently formed, and that has inherited the kinematics of the gas. We compare the morphology of the dust and the Hα emission in 20 σ-drop galaxies and in a matched control sample. We also study the total emission in CO and in HI in order to investigate any correlation between the occurrence of σ-drops and the amount of gas. We have found more circumnuclear spiral arms as outlined in dust, and more star formation in nuclear rings in the sigma-drop galaxies. That indicates that sigma-drops are probably related to starbursts, driven by gas inflows.