HI 21 cm observations and dynamical models of superthin galaxies

Abstract

The primary objective of this thesis is to identify the key dynamical mechanisms responsible for the superthin stellar discs. We use HI 21cm radio-synthesis observations and stellar photometry to construct detailed dynamical models of a sample of superthin galaxies to determine the primary mechanism responsible for the existence of superthin stellar discs in these galaxies. Our study is based on a sample of superthin galaxies with $\rm 10< a/b < 16$ for which H1 21cm radio-synthesis data were already available in the literature. In addition, we had the two thinnest galaxies in our sample with $\rm a/b \sim 21$, for which we carried out Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope (GMRT) 21cm radio-synthesis observations. To identify the physical mechanism primarily responsible for the superthin vertical structure, we carry out a Principal Component Analysis of the following dynamical parameters: 1) Dark matter dominance at inner galactocentric radii given by $V_{\rm{rot}}/{(R_{c}/R_{d})}$, 2) the ratio of the vertical-to-radial stellar velocity dispersion $(\sigma_{z,s}/\sigma_{R,s})$, 3) Disc dynamical stability against local axisymmetric perturbations $Q_{RW}$, 4) Specific angular momentum of the disc $(j_{*})$, along with $a/b$ for all superthins and the extremely thin galaxies. We note that the first two principal components explain $\sim$ 80$\%$ of the variation in the data, and the major contributions are from $a/b$, $Q_{RW}$ and $V_{\rm{rot}}/{(R_{c}/R_{d})}$. This possibly indicates that high values of the disc dynamical stability and dark matter dominance at inner galactocentric radii are fundamentally responsible for the superthin stellar discs.