Bibcode
Muñoz-Mateos, Juan Carlos; Sheth, Kartik; Gil de Paz, Armando; Meidt, Sharon; Athanassoula, E.; Bosma, Albert; Comerón, Sébastien; Elmegreen, Debra M.; Elmegreen, Bruce G.; Erroz-Ferrer, S.; Gadotti, Dimitri A.; Hinz, Joannah L.; Ho, Luis C.; Holwerda, Benne; Jarrett, Thomas H.; Kim, Taehyun; Knapen, J. H.; Laine, Jarkko; Laurikainen, Eija; Madore, Barry F.; Menendez-Delmestre, Karin; Mizusawa, Trisha; Regan, Michael; Salo, Heikki; Schinnerer, Eva; Seibert, Mark; Skibba, Ramin; Zaritsky, Dennis
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 771, Issue 1, article id. 59, 30 pp. (2013).
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7
2013
Journal
Citations
109
Refereed citations
103
Description
We have analyzed the radial distribution of old stars in a sample of 218
nearby face-on disks, using deep 3.6 μm 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
1010 M ☉, the distribution is bimodal,
peaking at R br/R bar ~ 2 and ~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 1010 M ☉, breaks are found up 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 ~2 R bar, but
also for many of those found at larger radii.
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Our small group is well known and respected internationally for our innovative and important work on various aspects of the structure and evolution of nearby spiral galaxies. We primarily use observations at various wavelengths, exploiting synergies that allow us to answer the most pertinent questions relating to what the main properties of
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