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arXiv 2409.13014astro-ph.GA
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孤立环境中的并合星系 II. 并合过程中恒星形成与吸积活动的演化

Merging Galaxies in Isolated Environments II. Evolution of Star Formation and Accretion Activity during the Merging Process

Paula Calderón-Castillo, Rory Smith

AI总结:

本研究基于600个近邻孤立并合星系样本,分析并合过程中恒星形成增强与AGN占比演化,发现并合可增强所有形态星系的恒星形成,且增强效应长期持续,未发现AGN占比与并合阶段的明确关联。

摘要:

目前众所周知,某些大质量星系在经历主并合时,其恒星形成率(SFR)会出现极大幅度的提升(可达100倍)。为分析并合过程中的恒星形成(SF)增强效应与活动星系核(AGN)占比的演化规律,我们采用了一种更具时间线特征的并合序列。同时,我们也旨在明确并合过程中的恒星形成增强与参与并合的星系形态之间的关联。\n利用我们此前研究中600个近邻孤立并合星系的恒星质量(Mstr)和恒星形成率(SFR)数据,我们计算了样本星系相对于恒星形成主序(SF MS)的距离,将其定义为SFmode(恒星形成模式)。我们分析了并合过程中SFmode随星系形态、恒星质量的变化规律,还基于发射线比值和WISE(广域红外巡天探测器)色指数的多种诊断方法,分析了并合星系中的AGN占比情况。\n我们观测到,总体而言,并合星系的SFmode由其形态决定:旋涡星系通常表现出较高的SFmode值,而形态高度扰动的星系的恒星形成增强程度通常更高(分别比主序高出0.8dex和1dex)。相反,正如预期,椭圆星系和透镜状星系的SFmode最低,但即便这类星系,相较于未受扰动的同类星系仍表现出恒星形成增强(其中位SFmode处于主序的1σ弥散范围内,且该增强甚至可在星系并合完成前出现)。我们还观测到SFmode随并合阶段推进逐渐升高的趋势。\n对于我们采用的大多数分类方法而言,均未发现观测到的AGN占比与并合阶段存在明确的依赖关系。我们发现,并合能够显著增强所有形态星系的恒星形成活动。对于早型星系而言,这可能表明并合发生前星系内已存在部分气体,潮汐相互作用可能触发这些气体形成恒星。由于恒星形成增强效应贯穿整个并合过程,这说明该增强可能是一个长期持续的事件,与部分模型中观测到的短时间星暴现象相悖。

英文摘要:

It is now well known that certain massive galaxies undergo enormous enhancements in their SFR when they undergo major mergers(100x). To analyse the SF enhancement and AGN fraction evolution during the merger process, we use a more timeline-like merger sequence. Also, to determine the relation between the SF enhancement in mergers and the morphology of the galaxies involved. Taking advantage of the Mstr and SFR of 600 nearby isolated mergers from our previous study, we calculate the distance of our galaxies from the SF MS, which we refer to as SFmode. We analyse how the SFmode varies during the merger process, for morphology and Mstr. We also analyse the AGN content of our mergers, using multiple diagnostics based on emission line ratios and WISE colours. We observe that, overall, merging galaxies show a SFmode that is governed by their morphology. Spirals typically show high SFmode values while highly-disturbed galaxies are generally even more enhanced (0.8dex and 1dex above the MS, resp). On the contrary, elliptical and lenticular galaxies show the lowest SF modes, as expected. However, even they show SF enhancement compared to their unperturbed counterparts (their median SFmode is within the 1-sigma scatter of the MS, and this can occur even before the galaxies have coalesced). We see a trend for SFmode to gradually increase with increasing merger stage. We do not find a clear dependency of the observed AGN fraction on merger stage for the majority of our classification methods. We find mergers can significantly enhance SF in galaxies of all morphologies. For early-type galaxies, this could suggest that some gas was present prior to the merger which may be triggered to form stars by the tidal interaction. As the SF enhancement continues throughout the merger process, this suggests that the enhancement may be a long-lived event, contrary to the short starbursts seen in some models.

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