A kinematic study of the neutral and ionised gas in the irregular dwarf galaxies IC 4662 and NGC 5408

TL;DR

This study investigates the neutral and ionised gas kinematics in two irregular dwarf galaxies, revealing outflows and superbubbles, and assesses their potential to escape the galaxies' gravitational pull, contributing to understanding dwarf galaxy evolution.

Contribution

It provides new HI and optical kinematic data for IC 4662 and NGC 5408, highlighting gas outflows, superbubbles, and the impact of recent merger events on gas dynamics.

Findings

HI envelopes extend beyond optical discs

Detection of outflows with velocities 20-60 km/s

Gas velocities too low to escape galaxy gravitational potential

Abstract

Abridged. The feedback between massive stars and the interstellar medium is one of the most important processes in the evolution of dwarf galaxies. This interaction results in numerous neutral and ionised gas structures that have been found both in the disc and in the halo of these galaxies. However, their origin and fate are still poorly understood. We here present new HI and optical data of two nearby irregular dwarf galaxies: IC 4662 and NGC 5408. The HI line data were obtained with the ATCA and are part of the Local Volume HI Survey. They are complemented by optical images and spectroscopic data obtained with the ESO NTT and the ESO 3.6m telescope. Our main aim is to study the kinematics of the neutral and ionised gas components in order to search for outflowing gas structures and to make predictions about their fate. We find the HI gas envelopes of both galaxies to extend well beyond the optical discs. The optical disc is embedded into the central HI maximum in both galaxies. However, higher resolution HI maps show that the HI intensity peaks are typically offset from the prominent HII regions. While NGC 5408 shows a fairly regular HI velocity field, which allows us to derive a rotation curve, IC 4662 reveals a rather twisted HI velocity field, possibly caused by a recent merger event. We detect outflows with velocities between 20 and 60 km/s in our Halpha spectra of both galaxies, sometimes with HI counterparts of similar velocity. We suggest the existence of expanding superbubbles, especially in NGC 5408. This is also supported by the detection of FWHMs as high as 70 km/s in Halpha. In case of NGC 5408, we compare our results with the escape velocity of the galaxy, which shows that the measured expansion velocities are in all cases too low to allow the gas to escape from the gravitational potential of NGC 5408. This result is consistent with studies of other dwarf galaxies.