The Lopsidedness of Present-Day Galaxies: Connections to the Formation of Stars, the Chemical Evolution of Galaxies, and the Growth of Black Holes

TL;DR

This study analyzes how lopsidedness in galaxies relates to star formation, chemical evolution, and black hole growth, revealing that interactions and gas inflows influence galaxy evolution and active galactic nuclei activity.

Contribution

It provides a statistical link between galaxy lopsidedness, central star formation, metallicity, and black hole activity using SDSS data, highlighting the role of gas inflows.

Findings

Lopsidedness correlates with younger central stellar populations.

More lopsided galaxies tend to have lower metallicity at fixed mass.

Active galactic nuclei are more common in lopsided galaxies, but this is linked to structural properties.

Abstract

We have used the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) to undertake an investigation of lopsidedness in a sample of ~25,000 nearby galaxies (z < 0.06). We use the m=1 azimuthal Fourier mode between the 50% and 90% light radii as our measure of lopsidedness. The SDSS spectra are used to measure the properties of the stars, gas, and black hole in the central-most few-kpc-scale region. We show that there is a strong link between lopsidedness in the outer parts of the galactic disk and the youth of the stellar population in the central region. This link is independent of the other structural properties of the galaxy. These results provide a robust statistical characterization of the connections between accretion/interactions/mergers and the resulting star formation. We also show that residuals in the galaxy mass-metallicity relation correlate with lopsidedness (at fixed mass, the more metal-poor galaxies are more lopsided). This suggests that the events causing lopsidedness and enhanced star formation deliver lower metallicity gas into the galaxy's central region. Finally, we find that there is a trend for the more powerful active galactic nuclei to be hosted by more lopsided galaxies (at fixed galaxy mass, density, or concentration). However if we compare samples matched to have both the same structures and central stellar populations, we then find no difference in lopsidedness between active and non-active galaxies. This leads to the following picture. The presence of cold gas in the central region of a galaxy (irrespective of its origin) is essential for both star-formation and black hole growth. The delivery of cold gas is aided by the processes that produce lopsidedness. Other processes on scales smaller than we can probe with our data are required to transport the gas to the black hole.