Kinematics of galaxies in Compact Groups. Studying the B-band Tully-Fisher relation

TL;DR

This study analyzes the kinematics of galaxies in compact groups, revealing interaction signatures and comparing their Tully-Fisher relation to field galaxies, highlighting effects of environment and interactions on galaxy properties.

Contribution

It provides new velocity field data for 28 galaxies in compact groups and compares their Tully-Fisher relation with field galaxies, confirming environmental effects on galaxy kinematics.

Findings

One third of non-barred galaxies show kinematic misalignments.

Compact group galaxies generally follow the Tully-Fisher relation of field galaxies, despite perturbations.

Low-mass compact group galaxies often deviate from the Tully-Fisher relation, indicating interaction effects.

Abstract

We obtained new Fabry-Perot data cubes and derived velocity fields, monochromatic and velocity dispersion maps for 28 galaxies in the Hickson compact groups 37, 40, 47, 49, 54, 56, 68, 79 and 93. We find that one third of the non-barred compact group galaxies have position angle misalignments between the stellar and gaseous components. This and the asymmetric rotation curves are clear signatures of kinematic perturbations, probably due to interactions among compact group galaxies. A comparison between the B-band Tully-Fisher relation for compact group galaxies and that for the GHASP field-galaxy sample shows that, despite the high fraction of compact group galaxies with asymmetric rotation curves, these lie on the Tully-Fisher relation defined by galaxies in less dense environments, although with more scatter. This is in agreement with previous results, but now confirmed for a larger sample of 41 galaxies. We confirm the tendency for compact group galaxies at the low-mass end of the Tully-Fisher relation (HCG 49b, 89d, 96c, 96d and 100c) to have either a magnitude that is too bright for its mass (suggesting brightening by star formation) and/or a low maximum rotational velocity for its luminosity (suggesting tidal stripping). These galaxies are outside the Tully Fisher relation, at the 1 sigma level, even when the minimum acceptable values of inclinations are used to compute their maximum velocities. The inclusion of such galaxies with v<100 km/s in the determination of the zero point and slope of the compact group B-band Tully-Fisher relation would strongly change the fit, making it different from the relation for field galaxies, a fact that has to be kept in mind when studying scaling relations of interacting galaxies, specially at high redshifts.