The Underlying Stellar Populations of Dwarf ``Transition'' Galaxies

Details The Underlying Stellar Populations of Dwarf ``Transition'' Galaxies The Underlying Stellar Populations of Dwarf ``Transition'' Galaxies

Feb 1999

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1999noao.prop..134k&link_type=abstract

NOAO Proposal ID #1999A-0134

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Scientific paper

Dwarf galaxies sharply divide between two structural categories that are distinct at all but the lowest luminosities: The dwarf elliptical (dE) and dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxies have little cool gas or young stars, and are dynamically ``hot'' with little rotation. Gas-rich dwarf irregulars (dI) are the smallest star-forming galaxies, have substantial young stellar populations, and are rotating disks. This division is strongly dependent on environment; dIs inhabit regions of low galaxy density while the dEs claim dense regions near giants and in galaxy clusters. The relationships between these two types of dwarfs remain unclear. An intriguing possibility is that all dwarfs form as disks but some are transformed by interactions or other processes into dEs or dSphs. Alternatively, the separation occurs at or near the time of galaxy formation. In this proposal we seek to further explore the characteristics of a key set of dwarf galaxies, transition dwarfs, with properties intermediate between those of the dE/dSphs and dIs. As emphasized by Sandage and collaborators in their pioneering studies, an understanding of transition dwarfs is potentially a key to the puzzle of dwarf structures. We propose to obtain J K' images of 15 dwarf galaxies with the 2.1-m telescope, and will combine these data with our B R H(alpha) images and HI fluxes to map the stellar population backbones of these galaxies and refine our understanding of their evolutionary histories and futures.

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