Radial Variation in Vertical Structure of Edge-On Galaxies

Details Radial Variation in Vertical Structure of Edge-On Galaxies Radial Variation in Vertical Structure of Edge-On Galaxies

Jan 2012

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2012aas...21931105y&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #219, #311.05

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

We study vertical structure of a sample of edge-on galaxies (NGC 891, 4013, 4157, 4565, and 5907) using BIMA/CARMA 12CO (J=1->0), VLA/EVLA HI, and Spitzer 3.6 um data. First, we obtain inclinations for less edge-on galaxies (NGC 4157, 4565, 5907) to enable determination of the CO and HI disk thickness as a function of radius. We derive the thicknesses of CO and HI disks, taking into account projection effects for galaxies that deviate significantly from being edge-on. We use a sech2 function to obtain the stellar scale height with radius for all galaxies. Using our measurements of the disk thickness and the radial distribution, we estimate volume densities and pressures as a function of radius and height in order to test the importance of pressure in controlling the molecular-to-atomic gas ratio. In addition, the gas volume density provides a new approach to probing the star formation law, one that is more physically relevant to the star formation rate. We measure the vertical velocity dispersion as a function of radius for both gas and stars by solving the Poisson equation. We show that the disk thicknesses increase with radius and the velocity dispersions decrease with radius, which are contrary to the assumed constant values used in many studies. We investigate how the interstellar pressure and the gravitational instability parameter differ from values derived assuming constant velocity dispersions and scale heights.

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