Star Clusters in the Tidal Tails of Interacting Galaxies: Cluster Populations Across a Variety of Tail Environments

Mullan, B.; Konstantopoulos, I. S.; Kepley, Amanda A.; Lee, K. H.; Charlton, Jane C.; Knierman, Karen; Bastian, N.; Chandar, Rupali; Durrell, Patrick R.; Elmegreen, D. M.; English, Jayanne; Gallagher, S. C.; Grönwall, C.; Hibbard, J. E.; Hunsberger, S.; Johnson, K. E.; Maybhate, A.; Palma, Christopher; Trancho, Gelys; Vacca, William D.

doi:10.1088/0004-637x/731/2/93

Cited by 54 publications

(65 citation statements)

References 99 publications

(153 reference statements)

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“…However, there could be a competition with the effects of azimuthal pileup, though this is likely to occur at an earlier time than the radial pileup. These considerations could explain the observed tendency for tails with relatively large dwarfs at their ends to have few clusters along their length, and vice versa (Knierman et al 2003;Maybhate et al 2007;Mullan et al 2011;Kaviraj et al 2012).…”

Section: Conjectures On Mechanisms Of Tidal Dwarf Formationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The symmetries and scaling of tidal tails in galaxies

Struck¹,

Smith²

2012

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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(Abriged) We present analytic models for the formation and evolution of tidal tails and related structures following impulsive disturbances in galaxy collisions. Since the epicyclic approximation is not valid for large radial excursions, we use orbital equations of the form we call p-ellipses. These have been shown to provide accurate representations of orbits in power-law halo potentials. In the case of a purely tidal disturbance the resulting tidal tails have simple structure. Scalings for their maximum lengths and other characteristics as functions of the tidal amplitude and the exponent of the power-law potentials are described. The analytic model shows that azimuthal caustics (orbit crossing zones) are produced generically in these tails at a fixed azimuth relative to the point of closest approach. Long tails, with high order caustics at their base are also produced at larger amplitudes. The analysis is extended to nonlinear disturbances and multiple encounters, which break the symmetries of tidal perturbations. As the strength of the nonlinear terms is varied the structure of the resulting forms varies from symmetric tails to one-armed plumes. Cases with two or more impulse disturbances are also considered as the simplest analytic models distinguishing between prograde and retrograde encounters. A specific mechanism for the formation of tidal dwarf galaxies at the end of tails is suggested as a consequence of resonance effects in prolonged encounters. Qualitative comparisons to Arp Atlas systems suggest that the limiting analytic cases are realized in real systems. We identify a few Arp systems which may have swallowtail caustics, where dissipative gas streams converge and trigger star formation. UV and optical images reveal luminous knots of young stars at these 'hinge clump' locations.Comment: MNRAS accepted, 24 pages, 21 figure

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Section: Conjectures On Mechanisms Of Tidal Dwarf Formationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The symmetries and scaling of tidal tails in galaxies

Struck¹,

Smith²

2012

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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“…Is is sometimes observed that star-forming-regions in tidal tails are distributed in a beads-on-a-string morphology (Mullan et al 2011), that is, star formation takes place at spots about equidistantly distributed along the tidal tails. This supports an approximately homogeneous distribution of the formation sites of TDGs along the tails.…”

Section: The Mw Satellites As Tdgsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Making counter-orbiting tidal debris

Pawlowski

Kroupa

Boer

2011

A&A

107

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Using stellar-dynamical calculations it is shown for the first time that counter-orbiting material emerges naturally in tidal interactions of disc galaxies. Model particles on both pro-and retrograde orbits can be formed as tidal debris in single encounters with disc galaxies of 1-to-1 and 4-to-1 mass ratios. A total of 74 model calculations are performed for a range of different initial parameters. Interactions include fly-by and merger cases. The fraction of counter-orbiting material produced varies over a wide range (from a few up to 50 percent). All fly-by models show a similar two-phase behaviour, with retrograde material forming first. Properties of the prograde and retrograde populations are extracted to make an observational discrimination possible. During such encounters the tidal debris occupies a certain region in phase space. In this material, tidal-dwarf galaxies may form. The modelling therefore can explain why galaxies may have dwarf galaxies orbiting counter to the bulk of their dwarf galaxies. An example is the Sculptor dwarf of the Milky Way, which orbits counter to the bulk of the disc of satellites. The modelling thus supports the scenario of the MW satellites being ancient tidal-dwarf galaxies formed from gaseous material stripped from another galaxy during an encounter with the young MW. A possible candidate for this galaxy is identified as the Magellanic Cloud progenitor galaxy. Its angular motion fits the angular motion of the MW disc of satellites objects. This scenario is in agreement with Lynden-Bell's original suggestion for the origin of the dSph satellites and the near-unbound orbit of the LMC.

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“…Hibbard et al 2001). Recently, Mullan et al (2011) used the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 on the Hubble Space Telescope to search for compact stellar structures in the tidal tails of a sample of 13 interacting galaxies, where NGC 2782 was included. These authors found an absence of cluster candidates in the western tidal tail of NGC 2782; however, by using GALEX and Gemini data we have catalogued several star-forming region candidates, with ages <11 Myr, in the gaseous western tidal tail of this system.…”

Section: Tidal Tails: the Birthplace Of New Stellar Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

NGC 2782: a merger remnant with young stars in its gaseous tidal tail★

Torres-Flores

Oliveira

Mello

et al. 2012

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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We have searched for young star‐forming regions around the merger remnant NGC 2782. By using Galaxy Evolution Explorer far‐ultraviolet and near‐ultraviolet imaging and H i data we found seven ultraviolet sources, located at distances greater than 26 kpc from the centre of NGC 2782, and coinciding with its western H i tidal tail. These regions were resolved in several smaller systems when Gemini/Gemini multi‐object spectrograph (GMOS) r‐band images were used. We compared the observed colours to stellar population synthesis models and found that these objects have ages of ∼1 to 11 Myr and masses ranging from 103.9 to 104.6 M⊙. By using Gemini/GMOS spectroscopic data we confirm memberships and derive high metallicities for three of the young regions in the tail (12+log(O/H) = 8.74 ± 0.20, 8.81 ± 0.20 and 8.78 ± 0.20). These metallicities are similar to the value presented by the nuclear region of NGC 2782 and also similar to the value presented for an object located close to the main body of NGC 2782. The high metallicities measured for the star‐forming regions in the gaseous tidal tail of NGC 2782 could be explained if they were formed out of highly enriched gas which was once expelled from the centre of the merging galaxies when the system collided. An additional possibility is that the tail has been a nursery of a few generations of young stellar systems which ultimately polluted this medium with metals, further enriching the already pre‐enriched gas ejected to the tail when the galaxies collided.

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Star Clusters in the Tidal Tails of Interacting Galaxies: Cluster Populations Across a Variety of Tail Environments

Cited by 54 publications

References 99 publications

The symmetries and scaling of tidal tails in galaxies

The symmetries and scaling of tidal tails in galaxies

Making counter-orbiting tidal debris

NGC 2782: a merger remnant with young stars in its gaseous tidal tail★

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