The Lopsidedness of Present-Day Galaxies: Similarities with Simulated Minor Merger Galaxies

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Scientific paper

We use a set of g-band images of simulated minor galaxy mergers (Lotz et al. 2008) to compare their structural and star formation properties to those of a sample of z < 0.06 galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. In particular, we quantify the mass distribution distortions with a measure of lopsidedness, the m = 1 azimuthal Fourier mode. The merging primary galaxies exhibit a pronounced lopsidedness after close passages with the secondary galaxies, and this lopsidedness diminishes after the final coalescence. The duration and amplitude of the lopsidedness is greater for higher mass secondary galaxies but also notable for mass ratios more extreme than 10:1. In general, we find similar trends between lopsidedness and other structural parameters in the various merger phases of the simulations as we have found in SDSS galaxies. For example, the most lopsided merger phases are the less concentrated and yield faster specific star formation than pre- and post-merger phases. These similarities suggest that minor mergers are a likely mechanism for the enhanced mass distortions and rapid star formation observed in nearby galaxies.

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