The COLA North Galaxy Project: Searching for Correlations between Degree of Galaxy Interaction
Abstract
We have defined a large all-sky IRAS-selected sample of galaxies spanning a wide range of FIR luminosity in order to study the possible relationship between galaxy environment and nuclear activity. For the northern sample, we have divided our galaxies into 5 classes which range from isolated non-interacting galaxies, to ongoing mergers and merger remnants--based on extensive CCD V-band imaging. CO observations of all the galaxies also provides information about the molecular gas reservoir in these galaxies. Preliminary results suggest that nuclear (200pc-scale) radio morphologies, optically-classified spectral types and CO line profiles of the galaxies are NOT influenced by the degree and strength of the interactions, but seem quite independent of the large-scale forces taking place in the galaxies. On the other hand, we do find evidence for the an increase in average FIR luminosity along the merging sequence, and some evidence that the hottest starburst stage occurs when galaxies are strongly interacting, but that this stage may be followed by a cooler stage. The optically-defined LINERS seem to be associated with IRAS colors consistent with the cool end of the starburst sequence. CO and radio continuum masses and fluxes will also be correlated with the degree of interaction of the galaxies.
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2000
- Bibcode:
- 2000AAS...19713406A