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Dynamically regulated star formation in the strongly interacting Taffy galaxies

Authors :
García-Rodríguez Axel
Usero Antonio
García-Burillo Santiago
Bigiel Frank
Brinks Elias
Fuente Asunción
Leroy Adam K.
Querejeta Miguel
Source :
EPJ Web of Conferences, Vol 265, p 00018 (2022)
Publication Year :
2022
Publisher :
EDP Sciences, 2022.

Abstract

The Taffy system stands out as one of the strongest gas-rich galaxy mergers with little star formation (SF) activity. We study the causes of this SF inefficiency by observing with the IRAM 30m telescope the line emission of several species in 6 positions. We report clear detections of tracers of bulk (12CO and 13CO) and dense (HCN and HCO+) molecular gas in all regions, as well as evidence for shocks (SiO J=2–1) over the intergalactic bridge. Our observations not only confirm the SF inefficiency of the bulk gas, but they also show that the SF efficiency of the dense gas phase is abnormally low too (∼1 dex below ULIRGs). The dense gas fraction (∝ HCN/CO) only shows small variations across the entire system, with a typical value of 4%. Although this fraction is somewhat low compared to other interacting/merging systems, it is similar to the values measured in the disk of nearby, normal star-forming galaxies. Finally, we use the outstanding properties of the Taffy system to place constraints on some of the turbulence-regulated SF models from the literature.

Subjects

Subjects :
Physics
QC1-999

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
2100014X
Volume :
265
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
EPJ Web of Conferences
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.5de063355e2d4c0abdaebf0edc343ee8
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/202226500018