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A Multiwavelength View of Star Formation in Interacting Galaxies In DRAFT VERSION NOVEMBER 2, 2018 Preprint typeset using LATEX style emulateapj v. 08/22/09 A MULTIWAVELENGTH VIEW OF STAR FORMATION IN INTERACTING GALAXIES IN THE PAVO GROUP M. MACHACEK, M.L.N. ASHBY,C.JONES,W.R.FORMAN Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 USA N. BASTIAN Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 0HA, UK Draft version November 2, 2018 ABSTRACT We combine Spitzer IRAC mid-infrared and Chandra X-ray observationsof the dominant galaxies NGC 6872 and NGC6876 in the Pavo group with archival optical and HI data to study interaction-induced star formation. In the spiral galaxy NGC6872, 8.0µmand5.8µm nonstellar emission having colors consistent with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons(PAHs) is concentrated primarily in clumps in three regions: in a 5kpc radius outer ring about the center of the spiral galaxy, in a bridge of emission connecting NGC6872’s northern spiral arm to IC4970, and along the full extent of both NGC6872’s tidal arms. PAH emission is correlated with young star clusters and dense HI regions. We find no strong differences in the mid-infrared colors of the star-forming regions in the spiral galaxy NGC6872 as a function of position relative to the tidally interacting companion galaxy IC4970. We find eleven very luminous X-ray sources (& (0.5 − 5) × 1039 erg s−1 ) clustered to the southwest in NGC6872, near bright star-forming regions. In NGC6872’s tidal features, young star clusters form at the boundaries of diffuse X-ray gas, suggesting that stars form as gas stripped by the interactions cools. The nucleus of NGC6872 is a weak X-ray point source with 0.5 − 8 keV luminosity of 8.5 × 1039 erg s−1 , but there is little evidence in the inner 1kpc of NGC6872 for PAH emission from recent star formation or nuclear activity. However, a 4kpc ‘stream’, leading from the outer ring of NGC6872 to the nucleus, may signal the transport of interstellar matter into NGC6872’s nuclear region. Nonstellar emission, consistent with PAH emission, is also found in the central region of elliptical galaxy NGC6877, companion to the dominant Pavo group elliptical galaxy NGC6876. However, in the central region of NGC6876, the dust emission is more likely due to silicate emission from old AGB stars. Subject headings: galaxies: clusters: general – galaxies:individual(NGC 6872,NGC6876, NGC6877)– galax- ies: interactions – infrared: galaxies – X-rays: galaxies 1. INTRODUCTION may be correlated with galaxy pair separation (e.g., Barton Galaxy collisions and mergers have long been known to et al. 2000 using the second CfA redshift survey; Lambas influence star formation in galaxies (see, e.g., the review by et al. 2003 using the 2dF survey; Nikolic, Cullen & Alexan- Struck 1999 and references therein) and likely play a funda- der 2004 using the SDSS survey). However, extinction in the mental role in the transformation of the population of gas-rich optical wavebands and dust heating by evolved AGB stars in spiral galaxies at high redshift into the spheroidal and ellipti- the far-infrared made global star formation activity in galax- cal galaxies that dominate dense galaxy groups and clusters at ies difficult to measure, and contributed to the large scatter the present epoch. Probing the details of the gravitational and in these relationships. Studies of individual star-forming re- arXiv:0810.3577v1 [astro-ph] 20 Oct 2008 hydrodynamical processes that affect star formation during gions within interacting galaxies were largely limited to opti- these collisions has only recently become possible with the cal wavebands, because of the low spatial resolution of the far- advent of high spatial resolution observations that are capable infrared data. From these optical studies, the spatial distribu- of resolving star-forming complexes within nearby galaxies tions and masses of star forming clumps were found to be di- across the full electromagnetic spectrum (radio to X-ray), and verse. While star formation was often enhanced in the nuclear that allow us to measure the thermodynamicproperties of cold region of the dominant galaxy of an interacting galaxy pair, and hot gas in and around these galaxies. star formation was also prevalent at large radii in extended tidal features. Masses of these star-forming clumps span Early studies of star formation in interacting galaxies were − based primarily on observations in the optical and far-infrared more than six orders in magnitude, from young (2 6Myr 2 − 3 wavebands. These studies focused on global star formation old) ∼ 10 10 M⊙ star associations, that may rapidly dis- 5 6 properties and correlations between observable star forma- solve (Werk et al. 2008), to bound ∼ 10 − 10 M⊙ systems, tion indicators. For example, Kennicutt et al. (1987) found with masses similar to globular clusters (Trancho et al. 2007), 7 8 that Hα emission and far-infrared to blue luminosity ratios and 10 −10 M⊙ systems, sometimes called tidal dwarf galax- were enhanced in interacting galaxies compared to galaxies ies. With the launch of the Spitzer Space Telescope (Werner in non-interacting samples. More recent optical studies us- et al. 2004), high spatial resolution mid-infrared imaging and ing large area redshift surveys suggest Hα equivalent widths spectroscopy of star-forming regions within nearby galaxies became possible. Using mid-infrared luminosities and col- Electronic address: [email protected] ors, nonstellar emission from polycyclic aromatic hydrocar- 2 bon (PAH) molecules, excited by newly formed stars in dusty regions, could be separated from the diffuse starlight and the silicate emission expected from evolved stars, thus complet- ing the census of global star formation in the galaxy. With the high angular resolution of the Spitzer Infra-Red Array Cam- era (IRAC; Fazio et al. 2004), subtle differences in the star- forming clumps could be probed as a function of their spatial distribution within the interacting system. Most recent mid-infrared studies of interaction-induced star formation have focused on interacting galaxy pairs in isolation from their environment. Galaxies in the largest such study, the Spitzer Spirals, Bridges and Tails Interact- ing Galaxy Survey (SSB&T; Smith et al. 2007), were op- tically selected from the Arp catalog of interacting galaxies (Arp 1966) to include only nearby, isolated galaxy pairs that exhibited tidal features, and specifically excluded triple and higher multiple galaxy systems and merger remnants. Smith FIG. 1.— DSS Bj-band image, taken with the UK 48 inch Schmidt et al. (2007) compared the mid-infrared properties of interact- Telescope, of galaxies near the core of the Pavo group. ing galaxiesin the SSB&T sample, as a whole, to those of nor- mal, noninteracting spiral galaxies drawn from the Spitzer In- frared Nearby Galaxy Survey (SINGS; Kennicutt et al. 2003). The Pavo galaxy group is an important nearby laboratory On average, they found that interacting galaxy pairs have red- to study the evolution of galaxies within their group envi- der mid-infrared colors, and that star formation is enhanced ronment, because it shares many properties with the high and more centrally concentrated in the dominant spiral galaxy redshift galaxy groups found in the DEEP2 galaxy survey. of the interacting pair than in normal spiral galaxies. No evi- Like those galaxy groups, the Pavo group is moderately mas- dence was foundfor a correlation between mid-infraredcolors sive with a velocity dispersion, derived from its 13 mem- and galaxy pair separation in the interacting galaxies, as might ∼ −1 have been expected from the optical data. Also, no strong dif- ber galaxies, of 425kms , and contains a gas-rich spiral ferences were found between the mid-infrared colors in the galaxy (NGC6872) interacting with its environment. Yet, at interacting galaxies’ stellar disks and those measured in their 55.5Mpc, the Pavo group is close enough for star-forming ∼ tidal bridges and tails. However, since the study averaged over clumps with typical separations of 1kpc (Elmegreen & interactions with different orbital characteristics and galaxy Efremov 1996) to be resolved in Chandra X-ray and Spitzer masses, subtle differences related to the details of the interac- mid-infrared images, as well as in the optical bands. tion could be washed out. Individual case studies of a handful The Pavo group is dynamically young. It hosts a variety of isolated, interacting galaxy pairs, using ultraviolet, optical of galaxy and group interactions expected to be important and mid-infrared data, suggested that interaction-induced star at high redshift. In Figure 1 we show a Bj band image of formation occurs in clumpy bursts. The ages and spatial dis- the two brightest galaxies in the Pavo group: the elliptical tribution of the star-forming clumps may reflect the stage and galaxy NGC6876 at the center of the group and the large, orbital parameters of the collision, as inferred from numeri- tidally distorted SAB(rs)c spiral galaxy NGC6872 located 8.′7 to the northwest. The large spiral galaxy, NGC6872, cal simulations of the collision (e.g. Wang et al. 2004 for ′ NGC4038/4039; Smith et al. 2005a for Arp 107; Elmegreen and its spheroidal companion galaxy, IC4970, located 1.12 et al. 2006 for NGC2207; Hancock et al. 2007 for Arp 82). to the north near a break in NGC6872’s northern tidal arm, Results from the DEEP2 galaxy survey show that the frac- have long been known to be a tidally interacting galaxy pair tion of blue, star-forming galaxies is rapidly changing be- (Vorontsov-Velyaminov1959), and are well-studied in the op- tween redshifts 1.3 & z & 1, and that galaxy evolution at tical (Mihos et al. 1993; Bastian et al. 2005) and radio these redshifts occurs not in isolated galaxy pairs, but pre- (Horellou & Booth 1997; Horellou & Koribalski 2003; 2007) dominantly in moderately massive galaxy groups with .
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