Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: We present Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) spectroscopic observations of 95 galaxies from the Arp & Madore (1987) catalog of peculiar galaxies. These galaxies have been selected because they appear to be in pairs and small groups. These observations have enabled us to confirm that 60 galaxies are indeed interacting systems. For the confirmed interacting sample, we have built a matched control sample of isolated galaxies. We present an analysis of the stellar populations and nuclear activity in the interacting galaxies and compare them with the isolated galaxies. We find a median light (mass) fraction of 55% (10%) in the interacting galaxies coming from stellar populations younger than 2 Gyr and 28% (3%) in the case of the isolated galaxies. More than half of the interacting galaxies are dominated by this young stellar population, while in the isolated ones most of the light comes from older stellar populations. We used a combination of diagnostic diagrams (BPTs and WHAN) to classify the main ionization mechanisms of the gas. The interacting galaxies in our sample consistently show a higher fraction of active galactic nuclei (AGN) relative to the control sample, which ranges between 1.6 and 4 depending on the combination of diagnostic diagrams employed to classify the galaxies and the number of galaxies considered. Our study provides further observational evidence that interactions drive star formation and nuclear activity in galaxies and can have a significant impact on galaxy evolution.
Authors: Pedro H. Cezar, Miriani G. Pastoriza, Rogério Riffel, Cristina Ramos Almeida, Angela C. Krabbe, Sandro B. Rembold
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funders: Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo, Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul, Agencia Canaria de Investigación, Innovación y Sociedad de la Información, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, European Regional Development Fund
Awards: G1849278502, G1864433595, G284932921, G3102226075, G321761023, Interacting galaxies: new catalog with data from the S-Plus survey and characterization of physical properties with data from the Survey MaNGA, G4436499426, G4858927992, G4963351038, G5555131222, G5627696697, G586324143, G611330818, G6231955566, G6360782017, G6610068917, G6614004076, G6825622554, G7300083417, G7353325580
OpenAlex ID: W6921889511
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