Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2002-05-10
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
To be published in the proceedings 'Galaxy evolution: theory and observations', Eds. V. Avila-Reese, C. Firmani, C. Frenk, & C
Scientific paper
Over the last decade it has become clear that there is a decoupling between the old stellar disk and young stellar disk in spiral galaxies. This has led to a scheme for classifying galaxies on the basis of their near-infrared morphology. The near-infrared provides a more physical framework for classifying galaxies as it is both relatively free from extinction and it traces the old stellar population, i.e. the dominant stellar mass distribution. The `dust penetrated class' is dependent upon the spiral pitch angle of arms. We have observed 8 galaxies with UFTI on UKIRT in the K-band in order to investigate the theoretical link between disk dynamics and arm morphology, which is suggested both from numerical models and the dust penetrated class. We find that the pitch angle of spiral arms, i, correlates well with the shear rate of rotation curves, $A/\omega$ (where A is the first Oort constant and $\omega$ is the rotational velocity), over the same radial range.
Block David L.
James Phil A.
Puerari Ivanio
Seigar Marc S.
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