Astrophysics and Astronomy Commons^™

On The Origin Of Lopsidedness In Galaxies As Determined From The Spitzer Survey Of Stellar Structure In Galaxies (S4g)., Dennis Zaritsky, Heikki Salo, Eija Laurikainen, Debra M. Elmegreen, E. Athanassoula, Albert Bosma, Sebastien Comeron, Santiago Erroz-Ferrer, Bruce G. Elmegreen, Dimitri A. Gadotti, Armando Gil De Paz, Joannah L. Hinz, Luis C. Ho, Benne W. Holwerda, Taehyun Kim, Johan H. Knapen, Jarkko Laine, Seppo Laine, Barry F. Madore, Sharon Meidt, Karin Menendez-Delmestre, Trisha Mizusawa, Juan Carlos Munoz-Mateos, Michael W. Regan, Mark Seibert, Kartik Sheth

Faculty Scholarship

We study the m = 1 distortions (lopsidedness) in the stellar components of 167 nearby galaxies that span a wide range of morphologies and luminosities. We confirm the previous findings of (1) a high incidence of lopsidedness in the stellar distributions, (2) increasing lopsidedness as a function of radius out to at least 3.5 exponential scale lengths, and (3) greater lopsidedness, over these radii, for galaxies of later type and lower surface brightness. Additionally, the magnitude of the lopsidedness (1) correlates with the character of the spiral arms (stronger arm patterns occur in galaxies with less lopsidedness), (2) is not …