English

Delayed Stellar Mass Assembly in the Low Surface Brightness Dwarf Galaxy KDG215

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2018-09-05 v1

Abstract

We present HI spectral line and optical broadband images of the nearby low surface brightness dwarf galaxy KDG215. The HI images, acquired with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), reveal a dispersion dominated ISM with only weak signatures of coherent rotation. The HI gas reaches a peak mass surface density of 6 M_{\odot} pc2^{-2} at the location of the peak surface brightness in the optical and the UV. Although KDG215 is gas-rich, the Hα\alpha non-detection implies a very low current massive star formation rate. In order to investigate the recent evolution of this system, we have derived the recent and lifetime star formation histories from archival Hubble Space Telescope images. The recent star formation history shows a peak star formation rate \sim1 Gyr ago, followed by a decreasing star formation rate to the present day quiescent state. The cumulative star formation history indicates that a significant fraction of the stellar mass assembly in KDG215 has occurred within the last 1.25 Gyr. KDG215 is one of only a few known galaxies which demonstrates such a delayed star formation history. While the ancient stellar population (predominantly red giants) is prominent, the look-back time by which 50% of the mass of all stars ever formed had been created is among the youngest of any known galaxy.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1808.07108,
  title  = {Delayed Stellar Mass Assembly in the Low Surface Brightness Dwarf Galaxy KDG215},
  author = {John M. Cannon and Zili Shen and Kristen B. W. McQuinn and Joshua Bartz and Lilly Bralts-Kelly and Alyssa M. Bulatek and Sarah Chinski and Robert N. Ford and Alex J. R. Gordon and Greta Helmel and Sam Hollenbach and Riley A. McGlasson and Andrew Mizener and Tylyn Page and William Retza and Moritz Rusch and Sarah Taft and Andrew E. Dolphin and Igor Karachentsev and John J. Salzer},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1808.07108},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters