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K.S.J. Anderson (New Mexico State University), S.M. Baggett (Space Telescope Science Institute), W.E. Baggett (Computer Sciences Corporation)
About 49% of barred galaxies and 11% of unbarred systems show inner truncations in their disk surface brightness profiles. These result from a dearth of inner disk stars rather than obscuration by dust. Disks of galaxies with inner truncations have shorter scale lengths and higher surface brightness parameters. Truncated profiles could result from a radial redistribution of an inner disk stellar population, but purely azimuthal or vertical redistributions cannot give the observed light distributions. Alternatively, star formation might have been inhibited through tidal disruption of prestellar clouds. Neither process explains the systematically different outer disk parameters found for truncated systems. Resonances associated with disk kinematics might inhibit gas inflow, thus preventing the formation of stars in the inner disk.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 34
© 2002. The American Astronomical Soceity.