Enhanced H I profile asymmetries in close galaxy pairs
Abstract
Analysing the quantified H I profile asymmetries of galaxies in different environments, we
explore not only the prevalence of asymmetry in H I profiles, but also the possibility of using
H I profile asymmetries to trace merger activity. We construct close pair and isolated galaxy
catalogues of H I profiles from the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA (ALFALFA) survey, and using a
simple H I flux ratio, quantify and compare the profile asymmetries between the two catalogues.
In this way, we investigate the popular proposition that merger activity causes H I profiles to
become asymmetric, and thereby probe the role of mergers in galaxy evolution. We find small
but significant differences between the asymmetry distributions of the two samples, indicating
that merger activity does indeed enhance asymmetry in the global H I profile
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10394/32959https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/484/1/582/5253617
https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/sty3448