Interaction effects on galaxy pairs with Gemini/GMOS- III : stellar population synthesis

We present an observational study of the impacts of interactions on the stellar population in a sample of galaxy pairs. Long-slit spectra in the wavelength range 3440–7300 Å obtained with the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) at Gemini South for 15 galaxies in nine close pairs were used. The s...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Krabbe, Angela Cristina, Rosa, Deise Aparecida, Pastoriza, Miriani Griselda, Hägelle, Guillermo Federico, Cardaci, Mónica V., Dors Júnior, Oli Luiz, Winge, Claudia
Formato: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2017
País:Brasil
Recursos:Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS)
Repositorio:Repositório Institucional da UFRGS
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:www.lume.ufrgs.br:10183/159703
Acesso em linha:http://hdl.handle.net/10183/159703
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:Populacoes estelares
Metalicidade
Galáxias
Galaxies evolution
Galaxies interactions
Galaxies stellar content
Descrição
Resumo:We present an observational study of the impacts of interactions on the stellar population in a sample of galaxy pairs. Long-slit spectra in the wavelength range 3440–7300 Å obtained with the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) at Gemini South for 15 galaxies in nine close pairs were used. The spatial distributions of the stellar population contributions were obtained using the stellar population synthesis code STARLIGHT. Taking into account the different contributions to the emitted light, we found that most of the galaxies in our sample are dominated by young/intermediate stellar populations. This result differs from the one derived for isolated galaxies, where the old stellar population dominates the disc surface brightness. We interpreted such different behaviour as being due to the effect of gas inflows along the discs of interacting galaxies on the star formation over a time-scale of the order of about 2 Gyr. We also found that, in general, the secondary galaxy of a pair has a higher contribution from the young stellar population than the primary one. We compared the estimated values of stellar and nebular extinction derived from the synthesis method and the Hα/Hβ emission-line ratio, finding that nebular extinctions are systematically higher than stellar ones by about a factor of 2. We did not find any correlation between nebular and stellar metallicities. Neither did we find a correlation between stellar metallicities and ages, while a positive correlation between nebular metallicities and stellar ages was obtained, with older regions being the most metal-rich.