Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2005-08-23
Astrophys.J.634:1043-1055,2005
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
29 pages, 19 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ
Scientific paper
10.1086/497116
We present here a study of the Halpha equivalent widths of the flocculent galaxy NGC 4395 and the grand design galaxy NGC 5457. A difference between the mean values of the Halpha equivalent widths for the two galaxies has been found. Several hypotheses are presented in order to explain this difference: differences in age, metallicity, star formation rate, photon leakage and initial mass function. Various tests and Monte Carlo models are used to find out the most probable cause of this difference. The resultsshow that the possible cause for the difference could be a variation in the initial mass function. This difference is such that it seems to favor a fraction of more massive stars in the grand design galaxy when compared with the flocculent galaxy. This could be due to a change of the environmental conditions due to a density wave.
Cedres Bernabe
Cepa Jordi
Tomita Akihiko
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