A dichotomy between HSB and LSB galaxies

Abstract

A complete sample of spiral galaxies in the Ursa Major cluster is imaged at various optical wavelengths and in the Near-Infrared K'-band. HI rotation curves were obtained for all gas rich systems. The Near-Infrared surface brightness distribution of disk galaxies turns out to be bimodal; galaxies avoid a domain around a face-on disk central surface brightness of 18.5 mag/arcsec^2. This bimodality is particularly striking when only the more isolated, non-interacting systems are considered. The Luminosity Function of the HSB family of galaxies is truncated well above the completion limit while the Luminosity Function of the LSB family is still sharply rising at our limiting magnitude. Near-Infrared mass-to-light ratios suggest that HSB galaxies are close to a kinematic maximum-disk situation while LSB galaxies are dark matter dominated at all radii. Assuming equal Near-Infrared mass-to-light ratios for both HSB and LSB systems, we find that the gap in the surface brightness distribution corresponds to a situation in which the baryonic mass is marginally self-gravitating. We finally conclude that the luminosity-line width relation is a fundamental correlation between the amount and distribution of dark matter mass and the total luminosity, regardless of how the luminous mass is distributed within the dark mater halo.