Local Benchmarks for the Evolution of Interacting Galaxies

Details Local Benchmarks for the Evolution of Interacting Galaxies Local Benchmarks for the Evolution of Interacting Galaxies

Jun 2005

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2005sptz.prop20187x&link_type=abstract

Spitzer Proposal ID #20187

Statistics

Scientific paper

We propose to obtain IRAC and MIPS maps for a sample of close major-merger pairs of galaxies selected from the joint 2MASS/SDSS-DR3 database. This is to provide a highly accurate and unbiased local benchmark for studies on evolution of interacting galaxies. The parent sample (46 pairs) is complete, consisting of all physical pairs (in 3000 deg^2) with the primary brighter than K=12.5, projected separations of 5 ≤ r ≤ 20 h^{-1}} kpc and stellar mass ratios ≤ 2.5 (`major-mergers'). Other samples of local interacting galaxies selected from photographic plates are severely biased. The existing Spitzer programs on local IR selected galaxies and on Arp peculiar galaxies won't be able to constrain the average SFR of interacting galaxies as a population. Similarly, the low density of local interacting galaxies means that existing Spitzer areal surveys such as SWIRE won't be able to provide such a local sample. The K-band luminosity function and the differential pair fraction for these pairs provide the local benchmark for the density evolution of interacting galaxies. With the proposed Spitzer observations, we aim to obtain in the first time the unbiased statistics on the SFR and SF strength (SFR per unit stellar mass) of local binary galaxies. This will provide the local benchmark for the luminosity evolution of interacting galaxies. The proposed sample (26 pairs, 52 galaxies) includes all S+S and E+S pairs in the parent sample which have measured redshifts for both components (i.e. spectroscopically confirmed pairs). Multiband (ugrizJHK) images and optical spectrographs available in the SDSS-DR3 and 2MASS database, and the UV images taken from the GALEX All-Sky survey will provide additional information for the star formation activities in these sources.

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