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The sequence of spiral arm classes: Observational signatures of persistent spiral density waves in grand-design galaxies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 May 2020

A. Bittner
Affiliation:
European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2, D-85748 Garching, Germany email: adrian.bittner@eso.org Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Professor-Huber-Platz 2, 80539 Munich, Germany
D. A. Gadotti
Affiliation:
European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2, D-85748 Garching, Germany email: adrian.bittner@eso.org
B. G. Elmegreen
Affiliation:
IBM Research Division, T.J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY10598, USA
E. Athanassoula
Affiliation:
Aix Marseille Université, CNRS, LAM, Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille, France
D. M. Elmegreen
Affiliation:
Vassar College, Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, Poughkeepsie, NY12604, USA
A. Bosma
Affiliation:
Aix Marseille Université, CNRS, LAM, Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille, France
J. Muñoz-Mateos
Affiliation:
European Southern Observatory, Casilla 19001, Santiago 19, Chile
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Abstract

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We investigate how the properties of spiral arms relate to other fundamental galaxy properties. To this end, we use previously published measurements of those properties, and our own measurements of arm-interarm luminosity contrasts for a large sample of galaxies, using 3.6μm images from the Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in Galaxies. Flocculent galaxies are clearly distinguished from other spiral arm classes, especially by their lower stellar mass and surface density. Multi-armed and grand-design galaxies are similar in most of their fundamental parameters, excluding some bar properties and the bulge-to-total luminosity ratio. Based on these results, we discuss dense, classical bulges as a necessary condition for standing spiral wave modes in grand-design galaxies. We further find a strong correlation between bulge-to-total ratio and bar contrast, and a weaker correlation between arm and bar contrasts.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
© International Astronomical Union 2020

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