English

Sumo Puff: Tidal Debris or Disturbed Ultra-Diffuse Galaxy?

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2018-05-10 v1 Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics

Abstract

We report the discovery of a diffuse stellar cloud with an angular extent 30\gtrsim30^{\prime\prime}, which we term "Sumo Puff", in data from the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program (HSC-SSP). While we do not have a redshift for this object, it is in close angular proximity to a post-merger galaxy at redshift z=0.0431z=0.0431 and is projected within a few virial radii (assuming similar redshifts) of two other L{\sim}L_\star galaxies, which we use to bracket a potential redshift range of 0.0055<z<0.04310.0055 < z < 0.0431. The object's light distribution is flat, as characterized by a low Sersic index (n0.3n\sim0.3). It has a low central gg-band surface brightness of 26.4{\sim}26.4 mag arcsec2^{-2}, large effective radius of 13{\sim}13^{\prime\prime} (11{\sim}11 kpc at z=0.0431z=0.0431 and 1.5{\sim}1.5 kpc at z=0.0055z=0.0055), and an elongated morphology (b/a0.4b/a\sim0.4). Its red color (gi1g-i\sim1) is consistent with a passively evolving stellar population and similar to the nearby post-merger galaxy, and we may see tidal material connecting Sumo Puff with this galaxy. We offer two possible interpretations for the nature of this object: (1) it is an extreme, galaxy-size tidal feature associated with a recent merger event, or (2) it is a foreground dwarf galaxy with properties consistent with a quenched, disturbed ultra-diffuse galaxy. We present a qualitative comparison with simulations that demonstrates the feasibility of forming a structure similar to this object in a merger event. Follow-up spectroscopy and/or deeper imaging to confirm the presence of the bridge of tidal material will be necessary to reveal the true nature of this object.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1704.06681,
  title  = {Sumo Puff: Tidal Debris or Disturbed Ultra-Diffuse Galaxy?},
  author = {Johnny P. Greco and Jenny E. Greene and Adrian M. Price-Whelan and Alexie Leauthaud and Song Huang and Andy D. Goulding and Michael A. Strauss and Yutaka Komiyama and Robert H. Lupton and Satoshi Miyazaki and Masahiro Takada and Masayuki Tanaka and Tomonori Usuda},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1704.06681},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

10 pages, 5 figures, submitted to PASJ for the HSC-SSP special issue

R2 v1 2026-06-22T19:24:13.101Z