Star formation and morphology of galaxies in local compact groups

Authors

  • Jessica Speedie McMaster University

Keywords:

compact groups - galaxies, star formation - galaxies, morphology

Abstract

We present a study on the observed properties of galaxies in a large sample of compact groups identified in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Compact groups are extremely dense collections of galaxies, with 3-8 member galaxies within a very small volume. These systems are known to have frequent galaxy-galaxy interactions. In this work, we propose a new definition for the radius of a compact group and match our member galaxies to previous catalogues containing information about the masses, star formation rates and morphologies of these galaxies. We find that that both star formation and morphology depend strongly on galaxy stellar mass but more weakly on their host environment: the member galaxy properties show very little radial dependence within their group, but they do depend on their group mass, as traced by the velocity dispersion. Galaxies in compact groups show similar properties to those in non-compact groups, despite being in fundamentally different environments.

Author Biography

Jessica Speedie, McMaster University

Undergraduate, Level II

Honours Integrated Science, Physics Concentration

School of Interdisciplinary Sciences

References

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Published

2018-10-05