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Luminous Blue Compact Galaxies: Probes of Galaxy Assembly

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Luminous Blue Compact Galaxies: Probes of Galaxy Assembly LUMINOUS BLUE COMPACT GALAXIES: PROBES OF GALAXY ASSEMBLY by Cassidy Louann Newton Bachelor of Science, 2007 Angelo State University San Angelo, Texas Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the College of Science and Engineering Texas Christian University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2012 c 2012 Cassidy Louann Newton All Rights Reserved Acknowledgments I foremost want to thank my advisors, Dr. Pamela Marcum and Dr. Michael Fanelli. They have really stuck behind me and supported me. If I had to start over, I would pick them as advisors again. I would also like to thank Dr. Peter Frinchaboy for being there when I needed someone to help with an immediate question, and always being willing to help. Even though he will not see this I would like to thank Dr. Zerda for letting me "live" in his lab the past year, he was fun to pick on (someone should tell him I said that). The entire TCU Physics faculty and staff have been great in seeing me through not only the Physics PhD, but also the partial MBA. This department has been a wonderful home for a very long time. I have appreciated the help and support from my fellow grad students, many of whom have moved on to wonderful things. I am especially indebted to Dr. Christopher Fuse, who did not stop being a mentor and friend even all the way from Florida. I want to thank the support of the NASA ADP Grant NNX11AF75G, the Texas Space Grant Consortium, the Texas Christian University Fellowship, and McDonald Observatory. Finally, I would like to thank my parents, my sister and her husband, and my amazing husband JD. One could never have asked for a better support group. IV Table of Contents Page Acknowledgments . III List of Figures . VII List of Tables . .IX 1 Introduction . .1 1.1 Luminous Blue Compact Galaxies . .1 1.2 LBCGs as the Missing Puzzle Piece in Galaxy Evolution . .4 1.3 A Multiwavelength Diagnostic Approach . 12 2 Optical Structure and Environment . 16 2.1 Optical Sample Selection . 16 2.2 McDonald Observatory . 22 2.2.1 Observations . 22 2.2.2 Data Reduction . 26 2.2.3 Calibration . 29 2.3 Morphology . 32 2.4 Light and Color Distributions . 65 2.4.1 Derivation of the Brightness Profiles . 65 2.4.2 Functional Form of the Surface Brightness Profiles . 111 2.5 Discussion . 123 2.5.1 Surface Brightness Profiles . 123 2.5.2 Color Profiles . 129 2.6 Integrated Magnitudes and Colors . 130 2.7 Hα Imaging . 142 2.8 Galaxy Descriptions . 148 2.8.1 Mrk 342 . 148 2.8.2 Haro 15 . 148 2.8.3 Mrk 360 . 149 2.8.4 Mrk 364 . 149 2.8.5 Mrk 366 . 150 2.8.6 Mrk 367 . 151 2.8.7 Mrk 589 . 151 2.8.8 Mrk 1184 . 152 2.8.9 Mrk 1404 . 152 2.8.10 Mrk 1079 . 152 2.8.11 Mrk 1094 . 153 V 2.8.12 Mrk 8 . 153 2.8.13 Haro 1 . 154 2.8.14 Mrk 385 . 154 2.8.15 Mrk 1211 . 155 2.8.16 Mrk 390 . 155 2.8.17 Mrk 18 . 156 2.8.18 Mrk 402 . 156 2.8.19 IIZw 44 . 156 2.8.20 Mrk 139 . 157 2.8.21 Mrk 144 . 157 2.8.22 Mrk 33 . 158 2.8.23 Mrk 148 . 158 2.8.24 Haro 25 . 159 2.8.25 Mrk 154 . 159 2.8.26 Mrk 171 . 160 2.8.27 Mrk 181 . 160 2.8.28 Haro 34 . 161 2.8.29 Mrk 54 . 161 2.8.30 Mrk 238 . 162 2.8.31 Mrk 248 . 162 2.8.32 Mrk 255 . 163 2.8.33 Mrk 271 . 163 2.8.34 Haro 42 . 163 2.8.35 I Zw 101 . 164 2.8.36 Mrk 492 . 164 2.8.37 Mrk 297 . 165 2.8.38 Mrk 300 . 165 2.8.39 Mrk 697 . 166 2.8.40 Mrk 499 . 166 2.8.41 I Zw 191 . 167 2.8.42 II Zw 82 . 167 2.8.43 Mrk 512 . 167 2.8.44 Mrk 518 . 168 2.8.45 Mrk 303 . 168 2.8.46 Mrk 306 . 169 2.8.47 II Zw 185 . 169 2.8.48 Mrk 531 . 170 2.8.49 Mrk 325 . 170 3 Star Formation and Supernovae in LBCGs . 171 3.1 Motivation and Background . 171 3.2 Data Sample . 173 VI 3.2.1 High Star Formation Sample Selection . 173 3.2.2 Ultraviolet Data and GALEX .................. 183 3.2.3 Thermal Infrared Data and IRAS ................ 198 3.3 Star Formation Rates . 210 3.4 Discussion . 213 3.4.1 Comparison of UV to FIR Star Formation Rates . 213 3.4.2 Star Formation Rates as a Function of Environment . 220 3.4.3 Star Formation Rates as a Function of Surface Brightness Dis- tribution . 224 3.4.4 Star Formation as a Function of K-band Luminosity . 227 3.5 Supernovae . 240 3.5.1 Supernovae Locations Within Galaxies . 241 3.5.2 Supernovae Rates . 242 4 Evolutionary State of Luminous Blue Compact Galaxies . 244 4.1 Ultraviolet Morphology . 244 4.2 UV-Optical Photometry Compared to Models . 257 4.2.1 Synthesis Models . 257 4.2.2 Sloan Survey Photometry . 266 4.2.3 Internal Extinction . 283 4.2.4 Star Formation History . 284 5 Summary and Conclusions . 286 6 Glossary . 292 7 Appendix . 295 Bibliography . 305 Abstract . Vita ........................................ VII List of Figures 1.1 Distribution of absolute magnitudes of the LBCG optical sample . .3 1.2 Hubble's Tuning Fork . .5 1.3 Madau Plot . .8 2.1 Optical-band (UBVRI) images for the McDonald sample . 64 2.2 Surface Brightness Profiles, Growth Curves, and Color Profiles . 69 2.3 Surface Brightness Profile Fit Examples . 113 2.4 Distributions of derived bulge effective radius, re ............ 126 2.5 Distributions of derived disk scale length, rd .............. 127 2.6 Modeled bulge central surface brightness plotted against the integrated B−V color. 128 2.7 Distribution of color profile shapes as a function of integrated source (B−V) color . ..
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