Tidal Dwarf Galaxies: Disc Formation at z=0

TL;DR

This study investigates the formation and dynamics of Tidal Dwarf Galaxies (TDGs) around interacting galaxies, finding they are likely baryonic matter dominated and can be modeled as rotating discs, challenging assumptions about their equilibrium state.

Contribution

The paper provides high-resolution HI observations of six TDGs, demonstrating their disc-like rotation and lack of dark matter, supporting simulation predictions about their formation.

Findings

TDGs can be modeled as rotating discs.

TDGs are likely devoid of dark matter.

Discs have undergone less than one orbit since formation.

Abstract

Collisional debris around interacting and post-interacting galaxies often display condensations of gas and young stars that can potentially form gravitationally bound objects: Tidal Dwarf Galaxies (TDGs). We summarise recent results on TDGs, which are originally published in Lelli et al. (2015, A&A). We study a sample of six TDGs around three different interacting systems, using high-resolution HI observations from the Very Large Array. We find that the HI emission associated to TDGs can be described by rotating disc models. These discs, however, would have undergone less than one orbit since the time of the TDG formation, raising the question of whether they are in dynamical equilibrium. Assuming that TDGs are in dynamical equilibrium, we find that the ratio of dynamical mass to baryonic mass is consistent with one, implying that TDGs are devoid of dark matter. This is in line with the results of numerical simulations where tidal forces effectively segregate dark matter in the halo from baryonic matter in the disc, which ends up forming tidal tails and TDGs.