THE STABILITY OF LOW SURFACE BRIGHTNESS DISKS BASED ON MULTI-WAVELENGTH MODELING
Author(s)
MacLachlan, J. M.; Wood, K.; Gallagher, J. S.; Matthews, Lynn D.
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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 [subscript rot] = 88-105 km s[superscript –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) × 10[superscript 6] M [subscript ☉], corresponding to face-on (edge-on), V-band, optical depths 0.034 [< over ~] τ[subscript face] [< over ~] 0.106 (0.69 [< over ~] τ[subscript eq] [< over ~] 1.99).
Date issued
2011-10Department
Haystack ObservatoryJournal
Astrophysical Journal
Publisher
IOP Publishing
Citation
MacLachlan, J. M., L. D. Matthews, K. Wood, and J. S. Gallagher. “THE STABILITY OF LOW SURFACE BRIGHTNESS DISKS BASED ON MULTI-WAVELENGTH MODELING.” The Astrophysical Journal 741, no. 1 (October 7, 2011): 6. © 2011 The American Astronomical Society
Version: Final published version
ISSN
0004-637X
1538-4357