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When disks collide: major and minor mergers in disk galaxies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 July 2014

M. Mezcua ,
A. P. Lobanov ,
E. Mediavilla  and
M. Karouzos
M. Mezcua
Affiliation:
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), E-38200 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain email: [email protected] Universidad de La Laguna, Dept. Astrofísica, E-38206 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, Auf dem Hügel 69, D-53121 Bonn, Germany
A. P. Lobanov
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, Auf dem Hügel 69, D-53121 Bonn, Germany Institut für Experimentalphysik, Universität Hamburg, Luruper Chausse 149, D-22761 Hamburg, Germany
E. Mediavilla
Affiliation:
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), E-38200 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain email: [email protected] Universidad de La Laguna, Dept. Astrofísica, E-38206 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
M. Karouzos
Affiliation:
Center for the Exploration of the Origin of the Universe, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, Korea
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Abstract

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We present the surface brightness profile fitting of a sample of double nucleus disk galaxies, minor merger candidates. We have decomposed these systems into two compact nuclear components and one or two extended galaxy disk components and estimated the luminosity of the primary and secondary nucleus and of the host galaxy and the separation between the two nuclei. Based on the ratio of nuclear luminosities we find that most of the sources qualify as major mergers despite their initial classification as minor merging systems. This is supported by the finding that 65% of the host galaxies are fitted only by one galaxy disk and that the luminosity of both the primary and the secondary nucleus decreases with decreasing nuclear separation, as expected from simulations of disk galaxy mergers. All these results indicate that these sources are most plausibly in the post-merger state of a major merger event. We also identify 19 candidates to binary active nucleus with nuclear separation ≤1 kpc.

Keywords

Galaxies: nuclei – interactions – photometry – structure
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 9 , Symposium S304: Multiwavelength AGN Surveys and Studies , October 2013 , pp. 375 - 378
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2014 

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