We present a catalogue and images of visually detected features, such as asymmetries, extensions, warps, shells, tidal tails, polar rings, and obvious signs of mergers or interactions, in the faint outer regions (at and outside of R_25) of nearby gal
axies. This catalogue can be used in future quantitative studies that examine galaxy evolution due to internal and external factors. We are able to reliably detect outer region features down to a brightness level of 0.03 MJy/sr per pixel at 3.6 microns in the Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in Galaxies (S4G). We also tabulate companion galaxies. We find asymmetries in the outer isophotes in 22+/-1 per cent of the sample. The asymmetry fraction does not correlate with galaxy classification as an interacting galaxy or merger remnant, or with the presence of companions. We also compare the detected features to similar features in galaxies taken from cosmological zoom re-simulations. The simulated images have a higher fraction (33 per cent) of outer disc asymmetries, which may be due to selection effects and an uncertain star formation threshold in the models. The asymmetries may have either an internal (e.g., lopsidedness due to dark halo asymmetry) or external origin.
We obtained Spitzer/IRAC 3.6-8 micron images of the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 4258 to study possible interactions between dust and the radio jet. In our analysis we also included high-resolution radio continuum, H-alpha, CO, and X-ray data. Our data r
eveal that the 8 micron emission, believed to originate largely from PAH molecules and hot dust, is an excellent tracer of the normal spiral structure in NGC 4258, and hence it originates from the galactic plane. We investigated the possibility of dust destruction by the radio jet by calculating correlation coefficients between the 8 micron and radio continuum emissions along the jet in two independent ways, namely (i) from wavelet-transformed maps of the original images at different spatial scales, and (ii) from one-dimensional intensity cuts perpendicular to the projected path of the radio jet on the sky. No definitive sign of a correlation (or anticorrelation) was detected on relevant spatial scales with either approach, implying that any dust destruction must take place at spatial scales that are not resolved by our observations.
We have observed warm molecular hydrogen in two nearby edge-on disk galaxies, NGC 4565 and NGC 5907, using the Spitzer high-resolution infrared spectrograph. The 0-0 S(0) 28.2 micron and 0-0 S(1) 17.0 micron pure rotational lines were detected out to
10 kpc from the center of each galaxy on both sides of the major axis, and in NGC 4565 the S(0) line was detected at r = 15 kpc on one side. This location lies beyond a steep drop in the radio continuum emission from cosmic rays in the disk. Despite indications that star formation activity decreases with radius, the H2 excitation temperature and the ratio of the H2 line and the far-IR luminosity surface densities, Sigma_L(H2}/Sigma_L(TIR}, change very little as a function of radius, even into the diffuse outer region of the disk of NGC 4565. This suggests that the source of excitation of the H2 operates over a large range of radii, and is broadly independent of the strength and relative location of UV emission from young stars. Although excitation in photodissociation regions is the most common explanation for the widespread H2 emission, cosmic ray heating or shocks cannot be ruled out. The inferred mass surface densities of warm molecular hydrogen in both edge-on galaxies differ substantially, being 4(-60) M_solar/pc^2 and 3(-50) M_solar/pc^2 at r = 10 kpc for NGC 4565 and NGC 5907, respectively. The higher values represent very unlikely point-source upper limits. The point source case is not supported by the observed emission distribution in the spectral slits. These mass surface densities cannot support the observed rotation velocities in excess of 200 km/s. Therefore, warm molecular hydrogen cannot account for dark matter in these disk galaxies, contrary to what was implied by a previous ISO study of the nearby edge-on galaxy NGC 891.
The recent discovery of extended ultraviolet (XUV) disks around a large fraction of late-type galaxies provides evidence for unexpectedly large-scale disk building at recent epochs. Combining GALEX UV observations with deep optical and Spitzer IR ima
ging, we search for XUV disks in a sample of nearby low-to-intermediate mass E/S0 galaxies to explore evidence for disk rebuilding after mergers. Preliminary visual classification yields ten XUV-disk candidates from the full sample of 30, intriguingly similar to the ~30% frequency for late-type galaxies. These XUV candidates occur at a wide range of masses and on both the red and blue sequences in color vs. stellar mass, indicating a possible association with processes like gas accretion and/or galaxy interactions that would affect the galaxy population broadly. We go on to apply the quantitative Type 1 and Type 2 XUV-disk definitions to a nine-galaxy subsample analyzed in detail. For this subsample, six of the nine are Type 1 XUVs, i.e., galaxies with UV structure beyond the expected star formation threshold. The other three come close to satisfying the Type 2 definition, but that definition proves problematic to apply to this sample: the NUV-derived star formation threshold radii for our E/S0s often lie inside the 80% Ks-band light (K80) radii, violating an implicit assumption of the Type 2 definition, or lie outside but not as far as the definition requires. Nonetheless, the three otherwise Type 2-like galaxies (modified Type 2 XUVs) have higher star formation rates and bluer FUV - NUV colors than the Type 1 XUVs in the sample. We propose that Type 1 XUVs may reflect early or inefficient stages of star formation, while modified Type 2 XUVs perhaps reflect inside-out disk regrowth.
The barred galaxy NGC 7479 hosts a remarkable jet-like radio continuum feature: bright, 12-kpc long in projection, and hosting an aligned magnetic field. The degree of polarization is 6%-8% along the jet, and remarkably constant, which is consistent
with helical field models. The radio brightness of the jet suggests strong interaction with the ISM and hence a location near the disk plane. We observed NGC 7479 at four wavelengths with the VLA and Effelsberg radio telescopes. The equipartition strength is 35-40 micro-G for the total and >10 micro-G for the ordered magnetic field in the jet. The jet acts as a bright, polarized background. Faraday rotation between 3.5 and 6 cm and depolarization between 6 and 22 cm can be explained by magneto-ionic gas in front of the jet, with thermal electron densities of ~0.06 cm**(-3) in the bar and ~0.03 cm**(-3) outside the bar. The regular magnetic field along the bar points toward the nucleus on both sides. The regular field in the disk reveals multiple reversals, probably consisting of field loops stretched by a shearing gas flow in the bar. The projection of the jet bending in the sky plane is in the sense opposite to that of the underlying stellar and gaseous spiral structure. The bending in 3-D is most easily explained as a precessing jet, with an age less than 10**6 years. Our observations are consistent with very recent triggering, possibly by a minor merger. NGC 7479 provides a unique opportunity to study interaction-triggered 15-kpc scale radio jets within a spiral galaxy.
We discuss the near-infrared properties of the nuclei in the 11 merging galaxies of the Toomre sequence, based on high spatial resolution J, H, and K imaging data using NICMOS onboard the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The observations are less affect
ed by dust extinction than our previous HST/WFPC2 observations and offer higher spatial resolution than existing ground-based near-IR data. We see a marginal trend for the nuclei to become bluer with advancing merger stage, which we attribute to a dispersal of dust at late times in the merging process. Our data also indicate a statistically significant trend for the nuclei in the sequence to become more luminous, within an aperture of fixed physical size and after correcting for dust extinction, with advancing merger stage. We derive K-band surface brightness profiles for those nuclei for which the morphology allows a meaningful isophotal analysis, and fit the profiles with a ``Nuker law for comparison with other samples of galaxies observed with HST. The majority of the nuclei have steep profiles that can be characterized as power-law type. In general, the Toomre sequence galaxies tend to have steeper profiles and higher central luminosity surface densities than E/S0s. We derive V-K color profiles for the nuclei to further address this possibility, but find that the large amounts of dust extinction complicate their interpretation. Overall, our results are consistent with the generic predictions of N-body simulations of spiral galaxy mergers. If left to evolve and fade for several Gyrs, it is possible that the properties of the Toomre sequence nuclei would resemble theproperties of the nuclei of normal E/S0 galaxies. Our results therefore support the view that mergers of spiral galaxies can lead to the formation of early-type galaxies (Abridged).
