RT Journal Article
T1 Morphological parameters of a Spitzer survey of stellar structure in galaxies
A1 Holwerda, Benne W.
A1 Muñoz Mateos, Juan Carlos
A1 Comerón, Sébastien
A1 Meidt, Sharon E.
A1 Sheth, Kartik
A1 Laine, S.
A1 Hinz, Joannah L.
A1 Regan, Michael W.
A1 Gil De Paz, Armando
A1 Menéndez-Delmestre, Karín
A1 Seibert, Mark
A1 Kim, Taehyun
A1 Mizusawa, Trisha
A1 Laurikainen, Eija
A1 Salo, Heikki
A1 Laine, Jarkko
A1 Gadotti, Dimitri A.
A1 Zaritsky, Dennis
A1 Erroz Ferrer, Santiago
A1 Ho, Luis C.
A1 Knapen, Johan H.
A1 Athanassoula, E.
A1 Bosma, Albert
A1 Pirzkal, N.
AB The morphology of galaxies can be quantified to some degree using a set of scale-invariant parameters. Concentration (C), asymmetry (A), smoothness (S), the Gini index (G), the relative contribution of the brightest pixels to the second-order moment of the flux (M_20), ellipticity (E), and the Gini index of the second-order moment (G_M ) have all been applied to morphologically classify galaxies at various wavelengths. Here, we present a catalog of these parameters for the Spitzer Survey of stellar structure in Galaxies, a volume-limited, near-infrared (NIR) imaging survey of nearby galaxies using the 3.6 and 4.5 μm channels of the Infrared Array Camera on board the Spitzer Space Telescope. Our goal is to provide a reference catalog of NIR quantified morphology for high-redshift studies and galaxy evolution models with enough detail to resolve stellar mass morphology. We explore where normal, non-interacting galaxies—those typically found on the Hubble tuning fork—lie in this parameter space and show that there is a tight relation between concentration (C_82) and M_20 for normal galaxies. M_20 can be used to classify galaxies into earlier and later types (i.e., to separate spirals from irregulars). Several criteria using these parameters exist to select systems with a disturbed morphology, i.e., those that appear to be undergoing a tidal interaction. We examine the applicability of these criteria to Spitzer NIR imaging. We find that four relations, based on the parameters A and S, G and M_20, G_M,  C, and M_20, respectively, select outliers in morphological parameter space, but each selects different subsets of galaxies. Two criteria (G_M > 0.6, G > –0.115 × M_20 + 0.384) seem most appropriate to identify possible mergers and the merger fraction in NIR surveys. We find no strong relation between lopsidedness and most of these morphological parameters, except for a weak dependence of lopsidedness on concentration and M_20.
PB American Astronomical Society
SN 0004-637X
YR 2014
FD 2014-01-20
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/35011
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/35011
LA eng
NO Unión Europea. FP7
NO Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES, France)
NO Initial Training Network DAGAL - REA (UE)
NO National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
DS Docta Complutense
RD 7 abr 2025