Structural Parameters of Thin and Thick Disks in Edge-On Disk Galaxies

Abstract

We analyze the global structure of 34 late-type, edge-on, undisturbed, disk galaxies spanning a wide range of mass. We measure structural parameters for the galaxies using two-dimensional least-squares fitting to our $R$-band photometry. The fits require both a thick and a thin disk to adequately fit the data. The thick disks have larger scale heights and longer scale lengths than the embedded thin disks, by factors of ~2 and ~1.25, respectively. The observed structural parameters agree well with the properties of thick and thin disks derived from star counts in the Milky Way and from resolved stellar populations in nearby galaxies. We find that massive galaxies' luminosities are dominated by the thin disk. However, in low mass galaxies (Vc < 120 km/s), thick disk stars contribute nearly half of the luminosity and dominate the stellar mass. Thus, although low mass dwarf galaxies appear blue, the majority of their stars are probably quite old. Our data are most easily explained by a formation scenario where the thick disk is assembled through direct accretion of stellar material from merging satellites while the thin disk is formed from accreted gas. The baryonic fraction in the thin disk therefore constrains the gas-richness of the merging pre-galactic fragments. If we include the mass in HI as part of the thin disk, the thick disk contains <10% of the baryons in high mass galaxies, and ~25-30% of the baryons in low-mass galaxies. We discuss how our trends can be explained by supernova-driven outflow at early times as well as the possibilities for predicting abundance trends in thick disks, and for removing discrepancies between semi-analytic galaxy formation models and the observed colors of low mass galaxies. (abstract abridged)

25 pages, 24 figures, accepted for publication in AJ

References in corpus (13)

• The Origin of the Mass--Metallicity Relation: Insights from 53,000 Star-Forming Galaxies in the SDSS
• How Do Galaxies Get Their Gas?
• alpha-, r-, and s-process element trends in the Galactic thin and thick disks
• Star Formation Properties of a Large Sample of Irregular Galaxies
• Stellar Populations in Ten Clump-Cluster Galaxies of the Ultra Deep Field
• The Emergence of the Thick Disk in a CDM Universe II: Colors and Abundance Patterns
• A Study of Edge-On Galaxies with the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys. II. Vertical distribution of the resolved stellar population
• A Study of Edge-On Galaxies with the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys. I. Initial Results
• A dwarf galaxy with a giant HI disk
• The Kinematics of Thick Disks in External Galaxies
• Thick disks and halos of spiral galaxies M 81, NGC 55 and NGC 300
• Red thick disks of nearby galaxies
• Radial truncations in stellar discs in galaxies

Cited by in corpus (248)

• The Galaxy in Context: Structural, Kinematic and Integrated Properties
• The Milky Way Tomography with SDSS: I. Stellar Number Density Distribution
• Exploring the Milky Way stellar disk. A detailed elemental abundance study of 714 F and G dwarf stars in the Solar neighbourhood
• The mass distribution and gravitational potential of the Milky Way
• Formation of Massive Galaxies at High Redshift: Cold Streams, Clumpy Disks and Compact Spheroids
• New constraints on the chemical evolution of the solar neighbourhood and Galactic disc(s). Improved astrophysical parameters for the Geneva-Copenhagen Survey
• The GALAH Survey: Scientific Motivation
• From rings to bulges: evidence for rapid secular galaxy evolution at z~2 from integral field spectroscopy in the SINS survey
• Forming Disk Galaxies in Lambda CDM Simulations
• A Merger-Driven Scenario for Cosmological Disk Galaxy Formation
• Forming Realistic Late-Type Spirals in a LCDM Universe: The Eris Simulation
• The rapid formation a large rotating disk galaxy three billion years after the Big Bang
• Rapid formation of exponential disks and bulges at high redshift from the dynamical evolution of clump cluster and chain galaxies
• The spatial structure of mono-abundance sub-populations of the Milky Way disk
• The thick disks of spiral galaxies as relics from gas-rich, turbulent, clumpy disks at high redshift
• Secular Evolution in Disk Galaxies
• Origin and structure of the Galactic disc(s)
• Cold Dark Matter Substructure and Galactic Disks I: Morphological Signatures of Hierarchical Satellite Accretion
• Thin, thick and dark discs in LCDM
• Galaxy Disks
• The Milky Way has no thick disk
• Imfit: A Fast, Flexible New Program for Astronomical Image Fitting
• The Genesis of the Milky Way's Thick Disk via Stellar Migration
• Forming a Large Disc Galaxy from a z<1 Major Merger
• Dynamical heating across the Milky Way disc using APOGEE and $Gaia$
• Thin disc, Thick Disc and Halo in a Simulated Galaxy
• Oxygen Abundances in Nearby Stars. Clues to the formation and evolution of the Galactic disk
• Clumpy Galaxies in GOODS and GEMS: Massive Analogs of Local Dwarf Irregulars
• Gas kinematics, morphology, and angular momentum in the FIRE simulations
• On the Formation of Galactic Thick Disks
• Evolution of the Milky Way with radial motions of stars and gas I. The solar neighborhood and the thin and thick disk
• On the origin of the chemical bimodality of disk stars: A tale of merger and migration
• Vertical disc heating in Milky Way-sized galaxies in a cosmological context
• Observations of Thick Disks in the Hubble Space Telescope Ultra Deep Field
• The Evolution and Origin of Ionized Gas Velocity Dispersion from $z\sim 2.6$ to $z\sim 0.6$ with KMOS${}^{3D}$
• The two-phase formation history of spiral galaxies traced by the cosmic evolution of the bar fraction
• Constraining the thick disc formation scenario of the Milky Way
• The Structure and Dynamical Evolution of the Stellar Disk of a Simulated Milky Way-Mass Galaxy
• PHANGS CO kinematics: disk orientations and rotation curves at 150 pc resolution
• Measuring the vertical age structure of the Galactic disc using asteroseismology and SAGA
• Insights into the content and spatial distribution of dust from the integrated spectral properties of galaxies
• Cold Dark Matter Substructure and Galactic Disks II: Dynamical Effects of Hierarchical Satellite Accretion
• Dynamical Equilibrium in the Molecular ISM in 28 Nearby Star-Forming Galaxies
• Thick disks of edge-on galaxies seen through the Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in Galaxies (S4G): Lair of missing baryons?
• Galactic Stellar Populations in the Era of SDSS and Other Large Surveys
• The Dragonfly Nearby Galaxies Survey. I. Substantial variation in the diffuse stellar halos around spiral galaxies
• Virialization of the inner CGM in the FIRE simulations and implications for galaxy discs, star formation and feedback
• Kinematic modelling of the Milky Way using the RAVE and GCS stellar surveys
• The Gaia-ESO Survey: the chemical structure of the Galactic discs from the first internal data release
• MaGICC Thick Disk I: Comparing a Simulated Disk Formed with Stellar Feedback to the Milky Way
• Observations and modelling of a clumpy galaxy at z=1.6: Spectroscopic clues to the origin and evolution of chain galaxies
• Thin discs, thick dwarfs and the effects of stellar feedback
• Forming disk galaxies in wet major mergers. I. Three fiducial examples
• MegaMorph -- multi-wavelength measurement of galaxy structure: Sérsic profile fits to galaxies near and far
• Can Gas prevent the Destruction of Thin Stellar Discs by Minor Mergers?
• Radial Migration in Galactic Thick Discs
• The Resolved Structure and Dynamics of an Isolated Dwarf Galaxy: A VLT and Keck Spectroscopic Survey of WLM
• The Radical Consequences of Realistic Satellite Orbits for the Heating and Implied Merger Histories of Galactic Disks
• The origin of diverse $\alpha$-element abundances in galaxy discs
• Breaks in thin and thick discs of edge-on galaxies imaged in the Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in Galaxies (S4G)
• The no-spin zone: rotation vs dispersion support in observed and simulated dwarf galaxies
• The Fornax 3D project: unveiling the thick disk origin in FCC 170: signs of accretion?
• A radial age gradient in the geometrically thick disk of the Milky Way
• Two Disk Components from a Gas Rich Disk-Disk Merger
• The DiskMass Survey. II. Error Budget
• Formation history, structure and dynamics of discs and spheroids in simulated Milky Way mass galaxies
• Exploring the Local Milky Way: M Dwarfs as Tracers of Galactic Populations
• The Destruction of Thin Stellar Disks Via Cosmologically Common Satellite Accretion Events
• The effects of a hot gaseous halo in galaxy major mergers
• The vertical motion history of disk stars throughout the Galaxy
• UV to IR SEDs of UV selected galaxies in the ELAIS fields: evolution of dust attenuation and star formation activity from z=0.7 to z=0.2
• Outer-Disk Populations in NGC 7793: Evidence for Stellar Radial Migration
• The Kinematics of Thick Disks in Nine External Galaxies
• A clear age-velocity dispersion correlation in Andromeda's stellar disk
• Characteristics of thick disks formed through minor mergers: stellar excesses and scale lengths
• The Catalog of Edge-on Disk Galaxies from SDSS. Part I: the catalog and the Structural Parameters of Stellar Disks
• The Kinematics of Thick Disks in External Galaxies
• Mapping the Milky Way with LAMOST III: Complicated spatial structure in the outer disc
• Lick Indices in the Thin and Thick Disks of Edge-On Disk Galaxies
• Detecting the Milky Way's Dark Disk
• Bulge growth through disk instabilities in high-redshift galaxies
• On the morphologies, gas fractions, and star formation rates of small galaxies
• Dissecting simulated disc galaxies I: the structure of mono-age populations
• MOND simulation suggests the origin of some peculiarities in the Local Group
• The relationship between mono-abundance and mono-age stellar populations in the Milky Way disk
• Low-mass galaxy assembly in simulations: regulation of early star formation by radiation from massive stars
• NIHAO VI. The hidden discs of simulated galaxies
• Heated Disc Stars in the Stellar Halo
• Bimodality of [α/Fe]-[Fe/H] distributions is a natural outcome of dissipative collapse and disc growth in Milky Way-type galaxies
• The influence of diffuse scattered light II. Observations of galaxy haloes and thick discs and hosts of BCGs
• The reports of thick discs' deaths are greatly exaggerated: thick discs are NOT artefacts caused by diffuse scattered light
• Planetary Nebulae in Face-On Spiral Galaxies. III. Planetary Nebula Kinematics and Disk Mass
• The age-chemical abundance structure of the Galactic disc II: $\alpha$-dichotomy and thick disc formation
• Supernova Remnants in the Local Group I: A model for the radio luminosity function and visibility times of supernova remnants
• The quiescent phase of galactic disc growth
• Velocity Shear of the Thick Disk from SPM3 Proper Motions at the South Galactic Pole
• A resolved analysis of cold dust and gas in the nearby edge-on spiral NGC 891
• An HST/ACS investigation of the spatial and chemical structure and sub-structure of NGC 891, a Milky Way analogue
• 3D Spectroscopy with VLT/GIRAFFE - IV: Angular Momentum and Dynamical Support of Intermediate Redshift Galaxies
• Quantifying the Faint Structure of Galaxies: The Late-type Spiral NGC 2403
• Empirical distributions of galactic $\lambda$ spin parameters from the SDSS
• The CALIFA view on stellar angular momentum across the Hubble sequence
• The merger and assembly histories of Milky Way- and M31-like galaxies with TNG50: disk survival through mergers
• Simulations of minor mergers. II. The phase-space structure of thick discs
• Quantifying the (X/Peanut)-Shaped Structure in Edge-on Disc Galaxies: Length, Strength, and Nested Peanuts
• Testing formation mechanisms of the Milky Way's thick disc with RAVE
• Evidence of a thick disk rotation-metallicity correlation
• Born this way: thin disc, thick disc, and isotropic spheroid formation in FIRE-2 Milky-Way-mass galaxy simulations
• The Impact of Star Formation Histories on Stellar Mass Estimation: Implications from the Local Group Dwarf Galaxies
• The Resolved Stellar Halo of NGC 253
• Age Demographics of the Milky Way Disk and Bulge
• The kinematic identification of a thick stellar disc in M31
• Resolving the Stellar Outskirts of M81: Evidence for a Faint, Extended Structural Component
• The thick disk in the galaxy NGC 4244 from S4G imaging
• Formation of galaxies in ΛCDM cosmologies. I. The fine structure of disc galaxies
• The Fornax 3D project: Thick disks in a cluster environment
• Detection of Ultraviolet Halos around Highly Inclined Galaxies
• Evidence for the concurrent growth of thick discs and central mass concentrations from S${}^4$G imaging
• Thick disk kinematics from RAVE and the solar motion
• Kinematic decomposition of IllustrisTNG disk galaxies: morphology and relation with morphological structures
• Resolving the Disc-Halo Degeneracy I: A Look at NGC 628
• Thick Disks in the Hubble Space Telescope Frontier Fields
• Herschel/SPIRE Observations of the Dusty Disk of NGC 4244
• Structure, Kinematics, and Chemical Enrichment Patterns after Major Gas-Rich Disc-Disc Mergers
• Dynamical Effects of CDM Subhalos on a Galactic Disk
• The Milky Way tomography with APOGEE: intrinsic density distribution and structure of mono-abundance populations
• Observational Evidence from SDSS for a Merger Origin of the Milky Way's Thick Disk
• The DiskMass Survey. IV. The Dark-Matter-Dominated Galaxy UGC 463
• Dynamics of Disks and Warps
• A Dimensional study of Disk Galaxies
• DYNAMO II: Coupled Stellar and Ionized Gas Kinematics in Two Low Redshift Clumpy Disks
• The GALAH survey: properties of the Galactic disk(s) in the solar neighbourhood
• On the 3 dimensional structure of edge-on disk galaxies
• Identifying kinematic structures in simulated galaxies using unsupervised machine learning
• Exploring the origin of thick disks using the NewHorizon and Galactica simulations
• Dynamics of barred galaxies: effects of disk height
• The Mass Profile and Shape of Bars in the Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in Galaxies (S4G): Search for an Age Indicator for Bars
• Introducing galactic structure finder: the multiple stellar kinematic structures of a simulated Milky Way mass galaxy
• The Interstellar Medium and Star Formation in Edge-On Galaxies. I. NGC 891
• Geometric properties of galactic discs with clumpy episodes
• Thin disk kinematics from RAVE and the solar motion
• NIHAO XVI: The properties and evolution of kinematically selected discs, bulges and stellar haloes
• The QUEST RR Lyrae Survey: III. The Low Galactic Latitude Catalogue
• The Influence of a Kinematically Cold Young Component on Disc-Halo Decompositions in Spiral Galaxies: Insights from Solar Neighbourhood K-giants
• MAGI: many-component galaxy initialiser
• SDSS IV MaNGA - Rotation Velocity Lags in the Extraplanar Ionized Gas from MaNGA Observations of Edge-on Galaxies
• A unified model for age-velocity dispersion relations in Local Group galaxies: Disentangling ISM turbulence and latent dynamical heating
• Origin of the Metallicity Distribution in the Thick Disc
• Thick-disk evolution induced by the growth of an embedded thin disk
• The effects of a hot gaseous halo on disc thickening in galaxy minor mergers
• Structure and Population of the NGC55 Stellar Halo from a Subaru/Suprime-Cam Survey
• Dark satellites and the morphology of dwarf galaxies
• CHANG-ES XII: A LOFAR and VLA view of the edge-on star-forming galaxy NGC 3556
• Deciphering the evolution of the Milky Way discs: Gaia APOGEE Kepler giant stars and the Besançon Galaxy Model
• Cosmic Supernova Rates and the Hubble Sequence
• NGC 5746: formation history of a massive disc-dominated galaxy
• Bars and boxy/peanut bulges in thin and thick discs. II. Can bars form in hot thick discs?
• The structural evolution of galaxies with both thin and thick discs
• Bars & boxy/peanut bulges in thin & thick discs: I. Morphology and line-of-sight velocities of a fiducial model
• The kinematics of local thick discs do not support an accretion origin
• The survey of planetary nebulae in Andromeda (M 31) V. Chemical enrichment of the thin and thicker discs of Andromeda. Oxygen to argon abundance ratios for planetary nebulae and H II regions
• The Disk and Extraplanar Regions of NGC 2403
• A monolithic collapse origin for the thin/thick disc structure of ESO 243-49
• An [$\alpha$/Fe]-enhanced thick disk in a Milky Way Analogue
• The Galactic Stellar Disc
• GARROTXA Cosmological Simulations of Milky Way-sized Galaxies: General Properties, Hot Gas Distribution, and Missing Baryons
• Properties of thick discs formed in clumpy galaxies
• The survey of planetary nebulae in Andromeda (M31). IV. Radial oxygen and argon abundance gradients of the thin and thicker disc
• The unusual vertical mass distribution of NGC 4013 seen through the Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in Galaxies (S4G)
• Stellar Population Trends in S0 Galaxies
• Asymmetric mass models of disk galaxies - I. Messier 99
• Resonant thickening of self-gravitating discs: imposed or self-induced orbital diffusion in the tightly wound limit
• Intrinsic Shape of Star-Forming BzK Galaxies II: Rest-Frame UV and Optical Structures in GOODS-South and SXDS
• Near-Infrared Detection of a Super-Thin Disk in NGC 891
• The Halos and Environments of Nearby Galaxies (HERON) II: The outer structure of edge-on galaxies
• Revisiting the Stellar Velocity Ellipsoid - Hubble type relation: observations versus simulations
• Supernovae and their host galaxies - V. The vertical distribution of supernovae in disc galaxies
• Extragalactic archeology with the GHOSTS Survey I. - Age-resolved disk structure of nearby low-mass galaxies
• An excessively massive thick disc of the enormous edge-on lenticular galaxy NGC7572
• How similar is the stellar structure of low-mass late-type galaxies to that of early-type dwarfs?
• Constraining the Milky Way assembly history with Galactic Archaeology. Ludwig Biermann Award Lecture 2015
• Numerical hydrodynamic simulations based on semi-analytic galaxy merger trees: method and Milky-Way like galaxies
• The Contribution of Spiral Arms to the Thick Disk along the Hubble Sequence
• The Disk and Extraplanar Regions of NGC 55
• The In-situ Origins of Dwarf Stellar Outskirts in FIRE-2
• Dark influences II: gas and star formation in minor mergers of dwarf galaxies with dark satellites
• The structure of the Milky Way based on unWISE 3.4$\mu$m integrated photometry
• On the Flaring of Thick Disc of Galaxies: Insights from Simulations
• The inner mass distribution of late-type spiral galaxies from SAURON stellar kinematic maps
• Properties of extragalactic thick discs recovered from ultra-deep Stripe82 imaging
• Numerical Simulation of a possible origin of the positive radial metallicity gradient of the thick disk
• The diversity of assembly histories leading to disc galaxy formation in a LambdaCDM model
• Dark influences: imprints of dark satellites on dwarf galaxies
• Mass modelling of superthin galaxies: IC5249, UGC7321 and IC2233
• Near-Infrared Structure of Fast and Slow Rotating Disk Galaxies
• The distribution of dust in edge-on galaxies: I. The global structure
• Ultra-deep Imaging: Structure of Disks and Haloes
• Bulge formation through disc instability -- I
• The red halos of SDSS low surface brightness disk galaxies
• Brought to Light II: Revealing the Origins of Cloaked Spiral Features in Cluster Passive Dwarf Galaxies
• The Shape of LITTLE THINGS Dwarf Galaxies DDO 46 and DDO 168: Understanding the stellar and gas kinematics
• First detection of a minor merger a z~0.6
• Disk flaring with TNG50: diversity across Milky Way and M31 analogs
• Linking star formation thresholds and truncations in the thin and thick disks of the low-mass galaxy UGC 7321
• The Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury XX: The Disk of M31 is Thick
• The imprint of the thick stellar disc in the mid-plane of three early-type edge-on galaxies in the Fornax cluster
• CLUES about M33: the reversed radial stellar age gradient in the outskirts of Triangulum galaxy
• Bars and boxy/peanut bulges in thin and thick discs III. Boxy/peanut bulge formation and evolution in presence of thick discs
• Exploring the Evolution of Massive Clumps in Simulations that Reproduce the Observed Milky Way α-element Abundance Bimodality
• Disentangling the Galaxy at low Galactic latitudes
• Astrophysics in 2006
• Virial Sequences for Thick Discs and Haloes: Flattening and Global Anisotropy
• Mirages in galaxy scaling relations
• Chronology of our Galaxy from Gaia colour-magnitude diagram fitting (ChronoGal) II. Unveiling the formation and evolution of the kinematically selected Thick and Thin Discs
• Extremely Flat Haloes and the Shape of the Galaxy
• The vertical structure of the spiral galaxy NGC 3501: first stages of the formation of a thin metal-rich disc
• Galactic disc heating by density granulation in fuzzy dark matter simulations
• Effect of finite disk-thickness on swing amplification of non-axisymmetric perturbations in a sheared galactic disk
• Vertical stellar density distribution in a non-isothermal galactic disc
• Rediscovering the Milky Way with orbit superposition approach and APOGEE data II. Chrono-chemo-kinematics of the disc
• A 500 pc volume-limited sample of hot subluminous stars II. Atmospheric parameters, mass distribution, and kinematics
• The Radial Distribution of Mono-Metallicity Populations in the Galactic Disk as Evidence for Two-Phase Disk Formation
• Resolved SPLASH Chemodynamics in Andromeda's PHAT Stellar Halo and Disk: On the Nature of the Inner Halo Along the Major Axis
• Star Formation during Galaxy Formation
• Hydrodynamical Adaptive Mesh Refinement Simulations of Disk Galaxies
• Turbulent gas-rich discs at high redshift: origin of thick stellar discs through 3D 'baryon sloshing'
• Constraining Type Ia supernovae through their heights in edge-on galaxies
• Through Thick and Thin: The Cosmic Evolution of Disk Scale Height
• Orbits and action changes during star-clump encounters responsible for the origin of exponential discs in dwarf galaxies
• Relatively young thick disks in star-forming late-type galaxies
• A prediction on the age of thick discs as a function of the stellar mass of the host galaxy
• The Gaia-ESO Survey astrophysical calibration
• Testing the Momentum-driven Supernova Feedback Paradigm in M31
• The Milky Way in context: The formation of galactic discs and chemical sequences from a cosmological perspective
• The star-formation history of the Milky Way Galaxy
• Constraints on Galaxy Structure and Evolution from the Light of Nearby Systems
• The Intrinsic Flattening of Galaxy Disks
• Formation of galactic bulges from the cold gas filaments in high-redshift dark matter halos
• Disc instability and bar formation: view from the IllustrisTNG simulations
• The $\kappa$-model under test of the SPARC database
• The survey of Planetary Nebulae in Andromeda (M31): I. Imaging the disk and halo with MegaCam@CFHT
• Characterisation of the Galactic thick disk
• Spectral Observations of Superthin Galaxies
• Dynamical interplay of disc thickness and the interstellar gas: implication for the longevity of spiral density waves
• The vertical structure of the stellar disk in NGC 551
• Galaxy simulations in the Gaia era
• The impact of radial migration on disk galaxy star formation histories: II. Role of bar strength, disk thickness, and merger history
• Signatures of Galactic Expansion in Gaia DR3: Implications for the JWST Early-Galaxy Puzzle