Pitch angle variations in spiral galaxies

Abstract

We present a detailed photometric study and measurements of spiral arm pitch angles for a sample of 50 non-barred or weakly barred grand-design spiral galaxies selected from Sloan Digital Sky Survey. In order to find pitch angles, we used a new method based on the window Fourier analysis of their images. This method allows us not only to infer the average pitch angle, but to obtain its value as a function of galactocentric radius as well. Our main results are as follows: (1) Spiral arms of most galaxies cannot be described by a single value of the pitch angle. About 2/3 of galaxies demonstrate pitch angle variations exceeding 20%. In most galaxies in the sample their pitch angle decreases by increasing the distance from the centre. (2) Pitch angle variations correlate with the properties of galaxies - with the shape of the surface brightness distribution (envelope-type or truncated disc), and with the sign of stellar disc colour gradient. (3) More luminous and bright bulges produce more tightly wound spiral arms, that is in agreement with current models for spiral arms formation.

11 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

References in corpus (4)

• The structure of galactic disks: Studying late-type spiral galaxies using SDSS
• Discovery of a relationship between spiral arm morphology and supermassive black hole mass in disk galaxies
• Constraining dark matter halo profiles and galaxy formation models using spiral arm morphology. I. Method outline
• Using an Assumption about the Monotony of Spiral Arms to Determine the Orientation Angles of Galaxies

Cited by in corpus (30)

• Trigonometric Parallaxes of High Mass Star Forming Regions: the Structure and Kinematics of the Milky Way
• The observed spiral structure of the Milky Way
• A Model for the Onset of Self-gravitation and Star Formation in Molecular Gas Governed by Galactic Forces: I. Cloud-scale Gas Motions
• Updating the (Supermassive Black Hole Mass) - (Spiral Arm Pitch Angle) Relation: A Strong Correlation for Galaxies with Pseudobulges
• Short-term dynamical evolution of grand-design spirals in barred galaxies
• The shapes of spiral arms in the S${}^4$G survey and their connection with stellar bars
• The host-galaxy of the gamma-ray Narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy 1H~0323+342
• Scalable Automated Detection of Spiral Galaxy Arm Segments
• Galaxy Zoo and SpArcFiRe: Constraints on spiral arm formation mechanisms from spiral arm number and pitch angles
• Dependence of Spiral Arms Pitch Angle on Wavelength as a Test of Density Wave Theory
• Characteristics of Spiral Arms in Late-type Galaxies
• The Carnegie-Irvine Galaxy Survey. VI. Quantifying Spiral Structure
• Tracing the Spiral Structure of the Outer Milky Way with Dense Atomic Hydrogen Gas
• A multi-wavelength study of spiral structure in galaxies. I. General characteristics in the optical
• Spiral arm formation mechanisms: Spiral Structure in Barred galaxies. Observational constraints to spiral arm formation mechanisms
• The evolution of pitch angles of spiral arms
• Galaxy Zoo Builder: Morphological Dependence of Spiral Galaxy Pitch Angle
• Spiral arms in CALIFA galaxies traced by non-circular velocities, abundances, and extinctions
• The behavior of the pitch angle of spiral arms depending on optical wavelength
• The Effect of Environment on Galaxy Spiral Arms, Bars, Concentration, and Quenching
• A Tight Relation between Spiral Arm Pitch Angle and Protoplanetary Disk Mass
• Galaxies decomposition with spiral arms -- II: A multiwavelength case study of M 51
• Segments of spiral arms of the Galaxy traced by classical Cepheids: Effects of age heterogeneity
• Geometric Aspects and Testing of the Galactic Center Distance Determination from Spiral Arm Segments
• Resolving the distance controversy for Sharpless 269: A possible kink in the outer arm
• The Physical Origin and the Properties of Arm Spurs/Feathers in Local Simulations of the Wiggle Instability
• Evolution of the spiral structure of galaxies from the HST COSMOS field
• Less Wound and More Asymmetric: JWST Confirms the Evolution of Spiral Structure in Galaxies at $z\lesssim 3$
• The Spiral Pattern Speed in the Milky Way Galaxy
• Can the dynamo of spiral-arm galaxies be explained by anisotropic conductivity ?