A Connection between Star Formation in Nuclear Rings and their Host Galaxies

TL;DR

This study investigates star formation in nuclear rings of galaxies, revealing relationships between ring properties, age distributions, and galactic structures, with implications for understanding star formation dynamics in barred galaxies.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive analysis linking star formation properties in nuclear rings to host galaxy features and bar dynamics, using a photometric H-alpha survey and population synthesis models.

Findings

Nuclear rings are coplanar and circular with their host disks.

Approximately 50% of rings show azimuthal age gradients.

Youngest HII regions often near bar contact points in barred galaxies.

Abstract

We present results from a photometric H-alpha survey of 22 nuclear rings, aiming to provide insight into their star formation properties, including age distribution, dynamical timescales, star formation rates, and galactic bar influence. We find a clear relationship between the position angles and ellipticities of the rings and those of their host galaxies, which indicates the rings are in the same plane as the disk and circular. We use population synthesis models to estimate ages of each H-alpha emitting HII region, which range from 1 Myr to 10 Myrs throughout the rings. We find that approximately half of the rings contain azimuthal age gradients that encompass at least 25% of the ring, although there is no apparent relationship between the presence or absence of age gradients and the morphology of the rings or their host galaxies. NGC1343, NGC1530, and NGC4321 show clear bipolar age gradients, where the youngest HII regions are located near the two contact points of the bar and ring. We speculate in these cases that the gradients are related to an increased mass inflow rate and/or an overall higher gas density in the ring, which would allow for massive star formation to occur on short timescales, after which the galactic rotation would transport the HII regions around the ring as they age. Two-thirds of the barred galaxies show correlation between the locations of the youngest HII region(s) in the ring and the location of the contact points, which is consistent with predictions from numerical modeling.