THE STABILITY OF LOW SURFACE BRIGHTNESS DISKS BASED ON MULTI-WAVELENGTH MODELING

Journal Article · Tue Nov 01 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/741/1/6; COUNTRY OF INPUT: INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY (IAEA)· OSTI ID:21587326

MacLachlan, J M; Wood, K ^[1]; Matthews, L D ^[2]

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1. School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, North Haugh, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9SS (United Kingdom)
2. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, MS-42, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)

To investigate the structure and composition of the dusty interstellar medium (ISM) of low surface brightness (LSB) disk galaxies, we have used multi-wavelength photometry to construct spectral energy distributions for three low-mass, edge-on LSB galaxies (V{sub rot} = 88-105 km s{sup -1}). We use Monte Carlo radiation transfer codes that include the effects of transiently heated small grains and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon molecules to model and interpret the data. We find that, unlike the high surface brightness galaxies previously modeled, the dust disks appear to have scale heights equal to or exceeding their stellar scale heights. This result supports the findings of previous studies that low-mass disk galaxies have dust scale heights comparable to their stellar scale heights and suggests that the cold ISM of low-mass, LSB disk galaxies may be stable against fragmentation and gravitational collapse. This may help to explain the lack of observed dust lanes in edge-on LSB galaxies and their low current star formation rates. Dust masses are found in the range (1.16-2.38) x 10{sup 6} M{sub sun}, corresponding to face-on (edge-on), V-band, optical depths 0.034 {approx}< {tau}{sub face} {approx}< 0.106 (0.69 {approx}< {tau}{sub eq} {approx}< 1.99).

• OSTI ID: 21587326
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 741, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/741/1/6; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
BRIGHTNESS
DUSTS
ENERGY SPECTRA
GALAXIES
INTERSTELLAR SPACE
MASS
MONTE CARLO METHOD
PHOTOMETRY
POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS
RADIANT HEAT TRANSFER
SIMULATION
STABILITY
AROMATICS
CALCULATION METHODS
ENERGY TRANSFER
HEAT TRANSFER
HYDROCARBONS
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
SPACE
SPECTRA