No Arabic abstract
We present a systematic investigation of the star formation rate (hereafter SFR) in interacting disk galaxies. We determine the dependence of the overall SFR on different spatial alignments and impact parameters of more than 50 different configurations in combined N-body/hydrodynamic simulations. We also show mass profiles of the baryonic components. We find that galaxy-galaxy interactions can enrich the surrounding intergalatic medium with metals very efficiently up to distances of several 100 kpc. This enrichment can be explained in terms of indirect processes like thermal driven galactic winds or direct processes like kinetic spreading of baryonic matter. In the case of equal mass mergers the direct -kinetic- redistribution of gaseous matter (after 5 Gyr) is less efficient than the environmental enrichment of the same isolated galaxies by a galactic wind. In the case of non-equal mass mergers however, the direct -kinetic- process dominates the redistribution of gaseous matter. Compared to the isolated systems, the integrated star formation rates (ISFRs) ($int_{t = 0 Gyr}^{t = 5 Gyr}textnormal{SFR(t)}dt$) in the modelled interacting galaxies are in extreme cases a factor of 5 higher and on average a factor of 2 higher in interacting galaxies. Co-rotating and counter-rotating interactions do not show a common trend for the enhancement of the ISFRs depending on the interaction being edge-on or face-on. The latter case shows an increase of the ISFRs for the counter-rotating system of about 100%, whereas the edge-on counter-rotating case results in a lower increase ($sim$ 10%).
We present evolutionary synthesis models of starbursts on top of old stellar populations to investigate in detailed time evolution the relation between Ha luminosity and star formation rate (SFR). The models show that several effects have an impact on the ratio between L(Ha) and SFR. Metallicity different from solar abundance, a time delay between star formation and maximum Ha-luminosity, and a varying stellar initial mass function give rise to strong variations in the ratio of Ha luminosity to SFR and can cause large errors in the determination of the SFR when employing well-known calibrations. When studying star-bursting dwarf galaxies, and sub-galactic fragments at high redshift, which show SFR fluctuating on short timescales, these effects can add up to errors of two orders of magnitude compared with the calibrations. To accurately determine the true current SFR additional data in combination with models for the spectral energy distribution are needed.
Nonbarred ringed galaxies are relatively normal galaxies showing bright rings of star formation in spite of lacking a strong bar. This morphology is interesting because it is generally accepted that a typical ring forms when material collects near a resonance, set up by the pattern speed of a bar or bar-like perturbation. Our goal in this paper is to examine whether the ring star formation properties are related to the non-axisymmetric gravity potential in general. For this purpose, we obtained H{alpha} emission line images and calculated the line fluxes and star formation rates (SFRs) for 16 nonbarred SA galaxies and four weakly barred SAB galaxies with rings. For comparison, we combine our observations with a re-analysis of previously published data on five SA, seven SAB, and 15 SB galaxies with rings, three of which are duplicates from our sample. With these data, we examine what role a bar may play in the star formation process in rings. Compared to barred ringed galaxies, we find that the inner ring SFRs and H{alpha}+[N ii] equivalent widths in nonbarred ringed galaxies show a similar range and trend with absolute blue magnitude, revised Hubble type, and other parameters. On the whole, the star formation properties of inner rings, excluding the distribution of H ii regions, are independent of the ring shapes and the bar strength in our small samples. We confirm that the deprojected axis ratios of inner rings correlate with maximum relative gravitational force Q_g; however, if we consider all rings, a better correlation is found when local bar forcing at the radius of the ring, Q_r, is used. Individual cases are described and other correlations are discussed. By studying the physical properties of these galaxies, we hope to gain a better understanding of their placement in the scheme of the Hubble sequence and how they formed rings without the driving force of a bar.
Aims. We investigate the effects of ionising photons on accretion and stellar mass growth in a young star forming region, using a Monte Carlo radiation transfer code coupled to a smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulation. Methods. We introduce the framework with which we correct stellar cluster masses for the effects of photoionising (PI) feedback and compare to the results of a full ionisation hydrodynamics code. Results. We present results of our simulations of star formation in the spiral arm of a disk galaxy, including the effects of photoionising radiation from high mass stars. We find that PI feedback reduces the total mass accreted onto stellar clusters by approximately 23 per cent over the course of the simulation and reduces the number of high mass clusters, as well as the maximum mass attained by a stellar cluster. Mean star formation rates (SFRs) drop from 0.042 solar masses per year in our control run to 0.032 solar masses per year after the inclusion of PI feedback with a final instantaneous SFR reduction of 62 per cent. The overall cluster mass distribution appears to be affected little by PI feedback. Conclusions. We compare our results to the observed extra-galactic Schmidt-Kennicutt relation and the observed properties of local star forming regions in the Milky Way and find that internal photoionising (PI) feedback is unlikely to reduce star formation rates by more than a factor of approximately 2 and thus may play only a minor role in regulating star formation.
We have used the Spitzer Space Telescope to study the dust properties of a sample of star-forming dwarf galaxies. The differences in the mid-infrared spectral energy distributions for these galaxies which, in general, are low metallicity systems, indicate differences in the physical properties, heating, and/or distribution of the dust. Specifically, these galaxies have more hot dust and/or very small grains and less PAH emission than either spiral or higher luminosity starburst galaxies. As has been shown in previous studies, there is a gradual decrease in PAH emission as a function of metallicity. Because much of the energy from star formation in galaxies is re-radiated in the mid-infrared, star-formation rate indicators based on both line and continuum measurements in this wavelength range are coming into more common usage. We show that the variations in the interstellar medium properties of galaxies in our sample, as measured in the mid-infrared, result in over an order of magnitude spread in the computed star-formation rates.
We use optical integral-field spectroscopic (IFS) data from 103 nearby galaxies at different stages of the merging event, from close pairs to merger remnants provided by the CALIFA survey, to study the impact of the interaction in the specific star formation and oxygen abundance on different galactic scales. To disentangle the effect of the interaction and merger from internal processes, we compared our results with a control sample of 80 non-interacting galaxies. We confirm the moderate enhancement (2-3 times) of specific star formation for interacting galaxies in central regions as reported by previous studies; however, the specific star formation is comparable when observed in extended regions. We find that control and interacting star-forming galaxies have similar oxygen abundances in their central regions, when normalized to their stellar masses. Oxygen abundances of these interacting galaxies seem to decrease compared to the control objects at the large aperture sizes measured in effective radius. Although the enhancement in central star formation and lower metallicities for interacting galaxies have been attributed to tidally induced inflows, our results suggest that other processes such as stellar feedback can contribute to the metal enrichment in interacting galaxies.