J/A+A/696/A206 Isolated galaxy merger (Vasquez-Bustos+, 2025)
A MaNGA view of isolated galaxy mergers in the star-forming main sequence.
Vasquez-Bustos P., Argudo-Fernandez M., Boquien M., Castillo-Baeza N.,
Castillo-Rencoret A., Ariza-Quintana D.
<Astron. Astrophys. 696, A206 (2025)>
=2025A&A...696A.206V 2025A&A...696A.206V (SIMBAD/NED BibCode)
ADC_Keywords: Galaxy catalogs ; Morphology
Keywords: galaxies: evolution - galaxies: formation - galaxies: general -
galaxies: interactions - galaxies: star formation
Abstract:
There are still many open questions in the complex process of galaxy
evolution during interactions, as each stage is characterized by
different periods of star formation.
We aim to better understand the processes triggered in galaxies by
interactions. We consider low-density environments in which in-situ
interaction between the members is the main process that drives
evolution.
In this work we carry out an analysis of star-formation and
nuclear activity in the different stages during a galaxy merger
identified in isolated systems (isolated galaxies, isolated pairs, and
isolated triplets) using integral field spectroscopy from the
SDSS-IV/MaNGA project. We classify galaxies into close pairs,
pre-mergers, mergers, and post-mergers (including galaxies with
post-starburst spectroscopic features), for a total sample of 137
galaxies. We constrained their star formation history from
spectro-photometric SED fitting with CIGALE, and used spatially
resolved WHAN diagrams, with other MaNGA data products to explore if
there is any connection of their physical with their merging stage.
In general, galaxies show characteristic properties intrinsically
related to each stage of the merger process. Galaxies in the merger
and post-merger stages present higher star formation activity
(measured by their integrated sSFR). In the merger stage, the fraction
of strong AGN spaxels is comparable to the fraction of spaxels with
pure star- formation emission, with no difference between AGN activity
in close pairs and strongly interacting galaxies with the same stellar
mass.
Our results support the scenario where galaxy interactions triggers
star-formation and nuclear activity on galaxies. Nonetheless, AGN has
a minor role in quenching galaxies following a merger, as AGN feedback
might not have had sufficient time to inhibit star formation. In
addition, we found that the quenching process in post-mergers galaxies
with post-starburst emission is happening outside-in, being an
observational proof of the effect of interactions on the quenching
process. The transforming processes after a recent major galaxy
interaction may happen slowly on isolated environments, where the
system evolves in a common dark matter halo without any perturbation
of external galaxies.
Description:
We present a catalogue of 137 galaxies in different stages of
interaction in isolated environment using MaNGA data, with their
physical properties (star-formation rate, and stellar masses) and
local characterization.
File Summary:
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FileName Lrecl Records Explanations
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ReadMe 80 . This file
tabled1.dat 59 137 Physical properties, and morphology of
galaxy mergers
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See also:
J/A+A/578/A110 : Isolated galaxies, pairs and triplets
(Argudo-Fernandez+, 2015)
J/MNRAS/476/3661 : Morphology of SDSS galaxies (Dominguez-Sanchez+, 2018)
Byte-by-byte Description of file: tabled1.dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
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1- 11 A11 --- Plate-IFU Plate-IFU of MaNGA galaxies
13- 15 A3 --- catalogue Catalogues from Argudo-Fernandez et al.,
2015A&A...578A.110A 2015A&A...578A.110A,
Cat. J/A+A/578/A110 (1)
17 A1 --- Member [cs-] Type of member in the system (2)
19- 21 A3 --- MType [ETG LTG] Morphologycal T-type (3)
23- 25 A3 --- MergeStage Merger stage (4)
27- 34 F8.5 [Msun/yr] SFR Star-formation rate
36- 42 F7.5 [Msun/yr] e_SFR Star-formation rate error
44- 51 F8.5 [Msun] M Stellar Mass
53- 59 F7.5 [Msun] e_M Stellar Mass error
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Note (1): Catalogues from Argudo-Fernandez et al., 2015A&A...578A.110A 2015A&A...578A.110A,
Cat. J/A+A/578/A110, as follows:
SIG = Catalogue of isolated galaxies (table 1)
SIP = Catalogue of isolated pairs (table 2)
SIT = Catalogue of isolated triplets (table 3)
SIM = Catalogue of isolated mergers
Note (2): Type of member in the system as follows:
c = central
s = satellite
Note (3): Morphologycal T-type as follows:
ETG = Early type galaxy
LTG = Late type galaxy
Note (4): Merger stage as follows:
CP = Close Pair
PrM = Pre-Merger
M = Merger
PsM = Post-Merger
PSB = Post-Starburst
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Acknowledgements:
Paulo Vasquez Bustos, paulovb(at)ugr.es
(End) Paulo Vasquez [UGR, Spain], Patricia Vannier [CDS] 24-Feb-2025