The global structure of galactic discs

By R. Institute, U. Groningen, The Netherlands Astronomy Department, U. Virginia, Charlottesville, Usa. 1998

A statistical study of global galaxy parameters can help to improve our understanding of galaxy formation processes. In this paper we present the analysis of global galaxy parameters based on optical and near-infrared observations of a large sample of edge-on disc galaxies. We found a correlation between the ratio of the radial to vertical scale parameter and galaxy type: galaxies become systematically thinner when going from type SO to type Sc, whereas the distribution seems to level off for later types. The observed scalelength ratios (and thus the radial colour gradients) largely represent the dust content of the galaxies. On average, the colour gradients indicated by the scalelength ratios increase from type Sa to at least type Sc. For galaxy types later than Sc, the average colour gradient seems to decrease again. The distribution of K-band (edge-on) disc central surface brightnesses is rather flat, although with a large scatter. However, the latest-type sample galaxies (T > 6) show an indication that their average disc central surface brightnesses may be fainter than those of the earlier types. This effect is probably not the result of dust extinction.

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Citations in the corpus

Yule-Simpson’s paradox in Galactic Archaeology (2019, background): “These ”nested flares” constitute a geometric thick disk which does not flare, or in which the flaring is strongly reduced, consistent with the lack of disk flaring found in the observations of external galaxies (van der Kruit & Searle 1982; de Grijs 1998; Comerón et al. 2011).”
Flattening and truncation of stellar discs in edge-on spiral galaxies (2002, methodology): “While our J and K′-band data more closely resemble the underlying disc mass distribution than the optical BVI data (Rix & Rieke 1993), the quality of the former is poorer (de Grijs 1998) and will not be used.”
Estimating stellar birth radii and the time evolution of Milky Way’s ISM metallicity gradient (2018, background): “These ”nested flares” constitute a geometric thick disk, which does not flare, or in which the flaring is strongly reduced, consistent with the lack of disk flaring found in the observations of external galaxies (van der Kruit & Searle 1982; de Grijs 1998; Comerón et al. 2011).”
AINUR: Atlas of Images of NUclear Rings (2009, background): “De Grijs (1998) showed thate scaleheight of the disc is proportional to the scalelength and that the proportionality factor varies with morphological type.”
Star Counts Redivivus. IV. Density Laws through Photometric Parallaxes (2002, background): “The equivalent sech2 scale height places the Galaxy at the somewhat thin end of the spectrum of spatial parameters of edge-on galaxies (de Grijs 1998).”
Comparison of Bar Strengths and Fractions of Bars in Active and Nonactive Galaxies (2001, methodology): “Following de Grijs (1998) we used h/hz=2.5 for the early-type galaxies and h/hz=4.5 for the late type systems.”
Properties of Bars and Bulges in the Hubble Sequence (2007, methodology): “We used a vertical thickness based on the empirical relation between the morphological type and the vertical thickness of the disk, as estimated by de Grijs (1998).”
Constraining the Milky Way assembly history with Galactic Archaeology (2016, background): “Additionally, while no flaring is observed in external edge-on discs (Comerón et al., 2011; de Grijs, 1998; van der Kruit & Searle, 1982), numerical simulations suggest that flaring cannot be avoided due to a range of different dynamical effects.”