Computer Science
Scientific paper
Oct 2002
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002phdt.........3w&link_type=abstract
Dissertation, Universität Göttingen, 2002
Computer Science
3
Galaxies, Interacting Galaxies, Tidal Tails, Tidal Dwarfs, Tdgs
Scientific paper
Tidal Dwarf Galaxies (TDGs) are a class of dwarf galaxies that form in tidal tails of interacting giant galaxies during close encounters or merging. As such they offer the possibility of observing galaxy formation in the local universe. Previously, only a few objects of this kind were known observationally.
The objective of this thesis is to combine, for the first time, photometric and spectroscopic observations with evolutionary synthesis models in the wavelength range from the optical to the near-infrared to analyze the stellar populations seen in the first reasonably large sample of Tidal Dwarfs compiled in the course of this work.
For this purpose, we selected 14 interacting and merging galaxies. From optical imaging and comparison with models specifically adapted to the star formation history of TDGs, a total of 44 knots in the tidal features were selected as good candidates for TDGs. Subsequently, we employed optical spectroscopy to confirm the association of the knots with the main galaxies and to derive important properties of the objects, like oxygen abundance, Balmer line luminosity and equivalent width, needed as input for further modeling. Additionally, we could show with the spectroscopic data that 13 TDG candidates have velocity fields which suggest that they are dynamically decoupled from their surrounding tidal tail and therefore true Tidal Dwarf Galaxies. Finally, we combined new near-infrared imaging with the optical data for the comparison with new, refined evolutionary synthesis models and showed that the TDG candidates have stellar masses of dwarf galaxies and star formation rates showing them to be experiencing considerable starbursts. While they have strong contributions of young stars to their stellar mass we conclude that most of them have been formed as stellar clumps rather than by the collapse of giant gas clouds.
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