Journal
MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
Volume 437, Issue 4, Pages 3883-3917Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stt2184
Keywords
galaxies: fundamental parameters; galaxies: photometry; galaxies: spiral; galaxies: structure
Categories
Funding
- Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
- National Science Foundation
- US Department of Energy
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Japanese Monbukagakusho
- Max Planck Society
- Higher Education Funding Council for England
- American Museum of Natural History
- Astrophysical Institute Potsdam
- University of Basel
- University of Cambridge
- Case Western Reserve University
- University of Chicago
- Drexel University
- Fermilab
- Institute for Advanced Study
- Japan Participation Group
- Johns Hopkins University
- Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics
- Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology
- Korean Scientist Group
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (LAMOST)
- Los Alamos National Laboratory
- Max-Planck-Institute for Astronomy (MPIA)
- Max-Planck-Institute for Astrophysics (MPA)
- New Mexico State University
- Ohio State University
- University of Pittsburgh
- University of Portsmouth
- Princeton University
- United States Naval Observatory
- University of Washington
- International Max-Planck Research School in Astronomy and Cosmic Physics Heidelberg (IMPRS-HD)
- Heidelberg Graduate School for Fundamental Physics (HGSFP)
Ask authors/readers for more resources
We present a non-parametric cell-based method of selecting highly pure and largely complete samples of spiral galaxies using photometric and structural parameters as provided by standard photometric pipelines and simple shape fitting algorithms. The performance of the method is quantified for different parameter combinations, using purely human-based classifications as a benchmark. The discretization of the parameter space allows a markedly superior selection than commonly used proxies relying on a fixed curve or surface of separation. Moreover, we find structural parameters derived using passbands longwards of the g band and linked to older stellar populations, especially the stellar mass surface density mu(*) and the r-band effective radius r(e), to perform at least equally well as parameters more traditionally linked to the identification of spirals by means of their young stellar populations, e.g. UV/optical colours. In particular, the distinct bimodality in the parameter mu(*), consistent with expectations of different evolutionary paths for spirals and ellipticals, represents an often overlooked yet powerful parameter in differentiating between spiral and non-spiral/elliptical galaxies. We use the cell-based method for the optical parameter set including r(e) in combination with the Sersic index n and the i-band magnitude to investigate the intrinsic specific star formation rate-stellar mass relation (epsilon(*)-M-*) for a morphologically defined volume-limited sample of local Universe spiral galaxies. The relation is found to be well described by psi, proportional to M-*(-0.5) over the range of 10(9.5) < M-* < 10(11) M-circle dot with a mean interquartile range of 0.4 dex. This is somewhat steeper than previous determinations based on colour-selected samples of star-forming galaxies, primarily due to the inclusion in the sample of red quiescent discs.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available