Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2011-07-29
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics
14 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ
Scientific paper
To investigate the structure and composition of the dusty interstellar medium (ISM) of low surface brightness (LSB) disk galaxies, we have used multiwavelength photometry to construct spectral energy distributions for three low-mass, edge-on LSB galaxies. We use Monte Carlo radiation transfer codes that include the effects of transiently heated small grains and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon molecules to model and interpret the data. We find that unlike the high surface brightness galaxies previously modeled, the dust disks appear to have scale heights equal to or exceeding their stellar scale heights. This result supports the findings of previous studies that low mass disk galaxies have dust scale heights comparable to their stellar scale heights and suggests that the cold ISM of low mass, LSB disk galaxies may be stable against fragmentation and gravitational collapse. This may help to explain the lack of observed dust lanes in edge-on LSB galaxies and their low current star formation rates.
Gallagher III S. . J.
MacLachlan John M.
Matthews Lynn Diane
Wood Kenneth
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