The growth of the central region by acquisition of counterrotating gas in star-forming galaxies

Yan Mei Chen; Yong Shi; Christy A. Tremonti; Matt Bershady; Michael Merrifield; Eric Emsellem; Yi Fei Jin; Song Huang; Hai Fu; David A. Wake; Kevin Bundy; David Stark; Lihwai Lin; Maria Argudo-Fernandez; Thaisa Storchi Bergmann; Dmitry Bizyaev; Joel Brownstein; Martin Bureau; John Chisholm; Niv Drory; Qi Guo; Lei Hao; Jian Hu; Cheng Li; Ran Li; Alexandre Roman Lopes; Kai Ke Pan; Rogemar A. Riffel; Daniel Thomas; Lan Wang; Kyle Westfall; Ren Bin Yan

doi:10.1038/ncomms13269

The growth of the central region by acquisition of counterrotating gas in star-forming galaxies

Yan Mei Chen
, Yong Shi
, Christy A. Tremonti
, Matt Bershady
, Michael Merrifield
, Eric Emsellem
, Yi Fei Jin
, Song Huang
, Hai Fu
, David A. Wake
, Kevin Bundy
, David Stark
, Lihwai Lin
, Maria Argudo-Fernandez
, Thaisa Storchi Bergmann
, Dmitry Bizyaev
, Joel Brownstein
, Martin Bureau
, John Chisholm
, Niv Drory

Qi Guo, Lei Hao, Jian Hu, Cheng Li, Ran Li, Alexandre Roman Lopes, Kai Ke Pan, Rogemar A. Riffel, Daniel Thomas, Lan Wang, Kyle Westfall, Ren Bin Yan

Physics And Astronomy

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

49 Scopus citations

Abstract

Galaxies grow through both internal and external processes. In about 10% of nearby red galaxies with little star formation, gas and stars are counter-rotating, demonstrating the importance of external gas acquisition in these galaxies. However, systematic studies of such phenomena in blue, star-forming galaxies are rare, leaving uncertain the role of external gas acquisition in driving evolution of blue galaxies. Here, based on new measurements with integral field spectroscopy of a large representative galaxy sample, we find an appreciable fraction of counter-rotators among blue galaxies (9 out of 489 galaxies). The central regions of blue counter-rotators show younger stellar populations and more intense, ongoing star formation than their outer parts, indicating ongoing growth of the central regions. The result offers observational evidence that the acquisition of external gas in blue galaxies is possible; the interaction with pre-existing gas funnels the gas into nuclear regions (<1 kpc) to form new stars.

Original language	English
Article number	13269
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	7
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13269
State	Published - Oct 19 2016

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2016.

Funding

Y.M.C. acknowledges support from NSFC grant 11573013, 11133001, the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province grant BK20131263, the Opening Project of Key Laboratory of Computational Astrophysics, National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Y.S. acknowledges support from NSFC grant 11373021, the CAS Pilot-b grant no. XDB09000000 and Jiangsu Scientific Committee grant BK20150014. C.A.T. acknowledges support from National Science Foundation of the United States grant no. 1412287. Funding for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science and the Participating Institutions. SDSS-IV acknowledges support and resources from the Center for High-Performance Computing at the University of Utah.

Funders	Funder number
University of Utah Health
U.S. Department of Energy Oak Ridge National Laboratory U.S. Department of Energy National Science Foundation National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center
Opening Project of Key Laboratory of Computational Astrophysics
Alfred P Sloan Foundation
Science and Technology Facilities Council	ST/K00090X/1, ST/N000668/1
Chinese Academy of Sciences	11373021, XDB09000000
Jiangsu Scientific Committee	BK20150014
Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province	BK20131263
National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)	11133001
UK Industrial Decarbonization Research and Innovation Centre	53706
U.S. Department of Energy Chinese Academy of Sciences Guangzhou Municipal Science and Technology Project Oak Ridge National Laboratory Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment National Science Foundation National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center National Natural Science Foundation of China	1412287

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Chemistry
General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
General Physics and Astronomy

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10.1038/ncomms13269

Cite this

Chen, Y. M., Shi, Y., Tremonti, C. A., Bershady, M., Merrifield, M., Emsellem, E., Jin, Y. F., Huang, S., Fu, H., Wake, D. A., Bundy, K., Stark, D., Lin, L., Argudo-Fernandez, M., Bergmann, T. S., Bizyaev, D., Brownstein, J., Bureau, M., Chisholm, J., ... Yan, R. B. (2016). The growth of the central region by acquisition of counterrotating gas in star-forming galaxies. Nature Communications, 7, Article 13269. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13269

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title = "The growth of the central region by acquisition of counterrotating gas in star-forming galaxies",

abstract = "Galaxies grow through both internal and external processes. In about 10\% of nearby red galaxies with little star formation, gas and stars are counter-rotating, demonstrating the importance of external gas acquisition in these galaxies. However, systematic studies of such phenomena in blue, star-forming galaxies are rare, leaving uncertain the role of external gas acquisition in driving evolution of blue galaxies. Here, based on new measurements with integral field spectroscopy of a large representative galaxy sample, we find an appreciable fraction of counter-rotators among blue galaxies (9 out of 489 galaxies). The central regions of blue counter-rotators show younger stellar populations and more intense, ongoing star formation than their outer parts, indicating ongoing growth of the central regions. The result offers observational evidence that the acquisition of external gas in blue galaxies is possible; the interaction with pre-existing gas funnels the gas into nuclear regions (<1 kpc) to form new stars.",

author = "Chen, \{Yan Mei\} and Yong Shi and Tremonti, \{Christy A.\} and Matt Bershady and Michael Merrifield and Eric Emsellem and Jin, \{Yi Fei\} and Song Huang and Hai Fu and Wake, \{David A.\} and Kevin Bundy and David Stark and Lihwai Lin and Maria Argudo-Fernandez and Bergmann, \{Thaisa Storchi\} and Dmitry Bizyaev and Joel Brownstein and Martin Bureau and John Chisholm and Niv Drory and Qi Guo and Lei Hao and Jian Hu and Cheng Li and Ran Li and Lopes, \{Alexandre Roman\} and Pan, \{Kai Ke\} and Riffel, \{Rogemar A.\} and Daniel Thomas and Lan Wang and Kyle Westfall and Yan, \{Ren Bin\}",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} The Author(s) 2016.",

year = "2016",

month = oct,

day = "19",

doi = "10.1038/ncomms13269",

language = "English",

volume = "7",

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Chen, YM, Shi, Y, Tremonti, CA, Bershady, M, Merrifield, M, Emsellem, E, Jin, YF, Huang, S, Fu, H, Wake, DA, Bundy, K, Stark, D, Lin, L, Argudo-Fernandez, M, Bergmann, TS, Bizyaev, D, Brownstein, J, Bureau, M, Chisholm, J, Drory, N, Guo, Q, Hao, L, Hu, J, Li, C, Li, R, Lopes, AR, Pan, KK, Riffel, RA, Thomas, D, Wang, L, Westfall, K & Yan, RB 2016, 'The growth of the central region by acquisition of counterrotating gas in star-forming galaxies', Nature Communications, vol. 7, 13269. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13269

TY - JOUR

T1 - The growth of the central region by acquisition of counterrotating gas in star-forming galaxies

AU - Chen, Yan Mei

AU - Shi, Yong

AU - Tremonti, Christy A.

AU - Bershady, Matt

AU - Merrifield, Michael

AU - Emsellem, Eric

AU - Jin, Yi Fei

AU - Huang, Song

AU - Fu, Hai

AU - Wake, David A.

AU - Bundy, Kevin

AU - Stark, David

AU - Lin, Lihwai

AU - Argudo-Fernandez, Maria

AU - Bergmann, Thaisa Storchi

AU - Bizyaev, Dmitry

AU - Brownstein, Joel

AU - Bureau, Martin

AU - Chisholm, John

AU - Drory, Niv

AU - Guo, Qi

AU - Hao, Lei

AU - Hu, Jian

AU - Li, Cheng

AU - Li, Ran

AU - Lopes, Alexandre Roman

AU - Pan, Kai Ke

AU - Riffel, Rogemar A.

AU - Thomas, Daniel

AU - Wang, Lan

AU - Westfall, Kyle

AU - Yan, Ren Bin

PY - 2016/10/19

Y1 - 2016/10/19

N2 - Galaxies grow through both internal and external processes. In about 10% of nearby red galaxies with little star formation, gas and stars are counter-rotating, demonstrating the importance of external gas acquisition in these galaxies. However, systematic studies of such phenomena in blue, star-forming galaxies are rare, leaving uncertain the role of external gas acquisition in driving evolution of blue galaxies. Here, based on new measurements with integral field spectroscopy of a large representative galaxy sample, we find an appreciable fraction of counter-rotators among blue galaxies (9 out of 489 galaxies). The central regions of blue counter-rotators show younger stellar populations and more intense, ongoing star formation than their outer parts, indicating ongoing growth of the central regions. The result offers observational evidence that the acquisition of external gas in blue galaxies is possible; the interaction with pre-existing gas funnels the gas into nuclear regions (<1 kpc) to form new stars.

AB - Galaxies grow through both internal and external processes. In about 10% of nearby red galaxies with little star formation, gas and stars are counter-rotating, demonstrating the importance of external gas acquisition in these galaxies. However, systematic studies of such phenomena in blue, star-forming galaxies are rare, leaving uncertain the role of external gas acquisition in driving evolution of blue galaxies. Here, based on new measurements with integral field spectroscopy of a large representative galaxy sample, we find an appreciable fraction of counter-rotators among blue galaxies (9 out of 489 galaxies). The central regions of blue counter-rotators show younger stellar populations and more intense, ongoing star formation than their outer parts, indicating ongoing growth of the central regions. The result offers observational evidence that the acquisition of external gas in blue galaxies is possible; the interaction with pre-existing gas funnels the gas into nuclear regions (<1 kpc) to form new stars.

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/84992151635

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/84992151635#tab=citedBy

U2 - 10.1038/ncomms13269

DO - 10.1038/ncomms13269

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:84992151635

SN - 2041-1723

VL - 7

JO - Nature Communications

JF - Nature Communications

M1 - 13269

ER -

The growth of the central region by acquisition of counterrotating gas in star-forming galaxies

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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