Abstract Details

Name: Robin Thomas
Affiliation: CHRIST (Deemed to be University)
Conference ID: ASI2025_392
Title : Investigating the role of interaction events in galaxy evolution
Authors and Co-Authors : Robin Thomas 1, Sreeja S Kartha 1, Akhil Krishna 1, Ujjwal Krishnan 1, Blesson Mathew 1, Cysil Tom Baby 1, Shridharan B 1,2
Abstract Type : Poster
Abstract Category : Galaxies and Cosmology
Abstract : Interaction between galaxies significantly influence their evolution, particularly affecting ongoing star formation in spiral galaxies. Interacting galaxy pairs are ideal for exploring these impacts. We study a sample of interacting galaxies in field environments at various interaction stages and are nearly face-on: NGC 1512/1510, NGC 2207/IC 2163, NGC 4017/4016 and NGC 7753/7752. Using the UltraViolet Imaging Telescope (UVIT), we identified and analyzed star-forming regions in these galaxies, correlating these areas with neutral hydrogen (HI) distribution. Our analysis reveals localized enhancements in star formation surface density, aligned with HI distortions, likely indicating the influence of past and ongoing interactions on the star formation characteristics in these galaxies. We found convincing proof of the combined secular and environmental actions that contributed to the evolution of NGC 1512. We also found that galaxies in our sample exhibit an SFR enhancement on the global scale. We expanded our study to a broader sample of interacting galaxies to understand if such enhancements hold true for a wider sample of interacting galaxies. We observed a moderate increase in star formation rate (SFR) with interaction class, reaching a peak enhancement factor of 1.8 in galaxies classified as mergers. We examined how SFR enhancement varies with pair mass ratio and pair separation. We observe a strong anti-correlation between the SFR enhancement and pair mass ratio and no linear correlation between the enhancement and pair separation, implying that while pair separation may limit SFR enhancement, mass ratio plays a more influential role. With this study, we present a comprehensive framework to understand the role of interaction in galaxy evolution. References: Robin et al. (2024a, b)