Gas Mass Fractions and the Evolution of Spiral Galaxies | Zendy

Stacy McGaugh | Zendy; W. J. G. de Blok | Zendy

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Gas Mass Fractions and the Evolution of Spiral Galaxies

Author(s) -

Stacy McGaugh,

W. J. G. de Blok

Publication year - 1997

Publication title -

the astrophysical journal

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

SCImago Journal Rank - 2.376

H-Index - 489

eISSN - 1538-4357

pISSN - 0004-637X

DOI - 10.1086/304100

Subject(s) - surface brightness , astrophysics , luminosity , spiral galaxy , physics , brightness , galaxy , spiral (railway) , mass fraction , surface brightness fluctuation , elliptical galaxy , astronomy , lenticular galaxy , mathematics , thermodynamics , mathematical analysis

We show that the gas mass fraction of spiral galaxies is strongly correlatedwith luminosity and surface brightness. It is not correlated with linear size.Gas fraction varies with luminosity and surface brightness at the same rate,indicating evolution at fixed size. Dim galaxies are clearly less evolved than bright ones, having consumed only$\sim 1/2$ of their gas. This resolves the gas consumption paradox, since thereexist many galaxies with large gas reservoirs. These gas rich galaxies musthave formed the bulk of their stellar populations in the last half of a Hubbletime. The existence of such immature galaxies at $z = 0$ indicates that eithergalaxy formation is a lengthy or even ongoing process, or the onset ofsignificant star formation can be delayed for arbitrary periods in tenuous gasdisks.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. 18 pages AASLaTeX + 9 figure

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