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S. J. Kannappan, D. G. Fabricant (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA)
We survey the gas and stellar kinematics of ~200 nearby galaxies, representing all morphological types and spanning luminosities from MB=-23 to -15. This kinematic extension of the Nearby Field Galaxy Survey (NFGS) provides a comprehensive view of the kinematic properties of low-redshift galaxies, and also serves as a benchmark for interpreting high-redshift studies of the Tully-Fisher relation and the Fundamental Plane. We use the data to investigate questions of galaxy formation and evolution from a broad demographic perspective. The statistical frequency of counterrotating gas and stellar components in the NFGS provides fossil evidence for interactions and mergers in the elliptical and S0 population, and the frequency of faint counterrotators suggests the importance of dwarf-dwarf mergers. Kinematic asymmetries demonstrate active evolution in a large percentage of the sample, including both faint dwarfs and bright interacting galaxies. Departures from the standard Tully-Fisher relation correlate with kinematic asymmetries, emission line strength, and other properties indicative of evolution, complicating the simple picture of luminosity evolution in the high-z Tully-Fisher relation. The combination of gas and stellar kinematic data allows us to investigate the continuity between the Tully-Fisher relation and the Fundamental Plane in the transition from disk-dominated to bulge-dominated galaxies. S. J. K. received support from a NASA GSRP fellowship.