A Study of Two Diffuse Dwarf Galaxies in the Field
Abstract
We present optical long-slit spectroscopy and far-ultraviolet to mid-infrared spectral energy distribution fitting of two diffuse dwarf galaxies, LSBG-285 and LSBG-750, which were recently discovered by the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program (HSC-SSP). We measure redshifts using Hα line emission and find that these galaxies are at comoving distances of ≈25 and ≈41 Mpc, respectively, after correcting for the local velocity field. They have effective radii of r eff = 1.2 and 1.8 kpc and stellar masses of M ⋆ ≈ (2-3) × 107 M ⊙. There are no massive galaxies ({M}\star > {10}10 {M}⊙ ) within a comoving separation of at least 1.5 Mpc from LSBG-285 and 2 Mpc from LSBG-750. These sources are similar in size and surface brightness to ultradiffuse galaxies, except they are isolated, star-forming objects that were optically selected in an environmentally blind survey. Both galaxies likely have low stellar metallicities [Z ⋆/Z ⊙] < -1.0 and are consistent with the stellar mass-metallicity relation for dwarf galaxies. We set an upper limit on LSBG-750's rotational velocity of ∼50 km s-1, which is comparable to dwarf galaxies of similar stellar mass with estimated halo masses <1011 M ⊙. We find tentative evidence that the gas-phase metallicities in both of these diffuse systems are high for their stellar mass, though a statistically complete, optically selected galaxy sample at very low surface brightness will be necessary to place these results into context with the higher surface brightness galaxy population.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- October 2018
- DOI:
- 10.3847/1538-4357/aae0f4
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1805.04118
- Bibcode:
- 2018ApJ...866..112G
- Keywords:
-
- galaxies: dwarf;
- galaxies: general;
- Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies
- E-Print:
- 16 pages, 6 figures