English

How "cold" are the stellar discs of superthin galaxies?

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2021-01-29 v4

Abstract

Superthin galaxies are a class of bulgeless, low surface brightness galaxies with strikingly high values of planar-to-vertical axes ratio (b/a>1020)\rm(b/a> 10 - 20), possibly indicating the presence of an ultra-cold stellar disc. Using the multi-component galactic disc model of gravitationally-coupled stars and gas in the force field of the dark matter halo as well as the stellar dynamical code AGAMA (Action-based Galaxy Modelling Architecture), we determine the vertical velocity dispersion of stars and gas as a function of galacto-centric radius for five superthin galaxies (UGC 7321, IC 5249, FGC 1540, IC2233 and UGC00711) using observed stellar and atomic hydrogen (HI) scale heights as constraints, using a Markov Chain Monte Carlo Method. We find that the central vertical velocity dispersion for the stellar disc in the optical band varies between σ0s\sigma_{0s} \sim 10.218.410.2 - 18.4 kms1\rm{kms}^{-1} and falls off with an exponential scale length of 2.62.6 to 3.23.2 RdR_{d} where RdR_{d} is the exponential stellar disc scale length. Interestingly, in the 3.6 μ\mum, the same, averaged over the two components of the stellar disc, varies between 5.95.9 to 11.811.8 kms1\rm{kms}^{-1}, both of which confirm the presence of "ultra-cold" stellar discs in superthin galaxies. Interestingly, the global median of the multi-component disc dynamical stability parameter QNQ_N of our sample superthins is found to be 5 ±\pm 1.5, which higher than the global median value of 2.2 ±\pm 0.6 for a sample of spiral galaxies.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2002.09198,
  title  = {How "cold" are the stellar discs of superthin galaxies?},
  author = {K. Aditya and Arunima Banerjee},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2002.09198},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

18 pages, 10 figures (Published on MNRAS)

R2 v1 2026-06-23T13:49:11.045Z