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Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): the signatures of galaxy interactions as viewed from small scale galaxy clustering
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 13:54 authored by M L P Gunawardhana, P Norberg, I Zehavi, D J Farrow, Jonathan LovedayJonathan Loveday, A M Hopkins, L J M Davies, L Wang, M Alpaslan, J Bland-Hawthorn, S Brough, B W Holwerda, M S Owers, A H WrightStatistical studies of galaxy-galaxy interactions often utilise net change in physical properties of progenitors as a function of the separation between their nuclei to trace both the strength and the observable timescale of their interaction. In this study, we use two-point auto, cross and mark correlation functions to investigate the extent to which small-scale clustering properties of star forming galaxies can be used to gain physical insight into galaxy-galaxy interactions between galaxies of similar optical brightness and stellar mass. The Halpha star formers, drawn from the highly spatially complete Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey, show an increase in clustering on small separations. Moreover, the clustering strength shows a strong dependence on optical brightness and stellar mass, where (1) the clustering amplitude of optically brighter galaxies at a given separation is larger than that of optically fainter systems, (2) the small scale clustering properties (e.g. the strength, the scale at which the signal relative to the fiducial power law plateaus) of star forming galaxies appear to differ as a function of increasing optical brightness of galaxies. According to cross and mark correlation analyses, the former result is largely driven by the increased dust content in optically bright star forming galaxies. The latter could be interpreted as evidence of a correlation between interaction-scale and optical brightness of galaxies, where physical evidence of interactions between optically bright star formers, likely hosted within relatively massive halos, persist over larger separations than those between optically faint star formers.
Funding
University of Sussex Astronomy Consolidated Grant 2017-2020; G2050; STFC-SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FACILITIES COUNCIL; ST/P000525/1
History
Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Published version
Journal
Monthly Notices Of The Royal Astronomical SocietyISSN
0035-8711Publisher
Oxford University PressExternal DOI
Issue
sty163Department affiliated with
- Physics and Astronomy Publications
Research groups affiliated with
- Astronomy Centre Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2018-06-25First Open Access (FOA) Date
2018-06-25First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2018-06-22Usage metrics
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