A Comparison of Star-Forming Clumps and Tidal Tails in Local Mergers and High Redshift Galaxies

TL;DR

This study compares star-forming clumps and tidal features in local merging galaxies with high-redshift galaxies, revealing similarities in clump properties and suggesting some high-z clumpy galaxies may result from mergers.

Contribution

It provides a detailed comparison of local and high-redshift galaxy substructures, highlighting the potential merger origins of some distant clumpy galaxies.

Findings

High-z galaxy clumps resemble local ones in size, mass, and color.

Many tidal features are visible at z=0.5 and 1 but not at z=2 due to dimming.

Star cluster distributions follow a power-law, consistent across different environments.

Abstract

The Clusters, Clumps, Dust, and Gas in Extreme Star-Forming Galaxies (CCDG) survey with the Hubble Space Telescope includes multi-wavelength imaging of 13 galaxies less than 100 Mpc away spanning a range of morphologies and sizes, from Blue Compact Dwarfs (BCDs) to luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs), all with star formation rates in excess of hundreds of solar masses per year. Images of 7 merging galaxies in the CCDG survey were artificially redshifted to compare with galaxies at z=0.5, 1, and 2. Most redshifted tails have surface brightnesses that would be visible at z=0.5 or 1 but not at z=2 due to cosmological dimming. Giant star clumps are apparent in these galaxies; the 51 measured have similar sizes, masses and colors as clumps in observed high-z systems in UDF, GEMS, GOODS, and CANDELS surveys. These results suggest that some clumpy high-z galaxies without observable tidal features could be the result of mergers. The local clumps also have the same star formation rate per unit area and stellar surface density as clumps observed at intermediate and high redshift, so they provide insight into the substructure of distant clumps. A total of 1596 star clusters brighter than MV = -9 were identified within the boundaries of the local clumps. The cluster magnitude distribution function is a power law with approximately the same slope (approximately -1 for a number-log luminosity plot) for all the galaxies both inside and outside the clumps and independent of clump surface brightness.