The Demographics of galactic bulges in the SDSS database

  • Kim, Keunho (Department of Astronomy, Yonsei University) ;
  • Oh, Sree (Department of Astronomy, Yonsei University) ;
  • Jeong, Hyunjin (Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute) ;
  • Aragon-Salamanca, Alfonso (School of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Nottingham) ;
  • Smith, Rory (Department of Astronomy, Yonsei University) ;
  • Yi, Sukyoung K. (Department of Astronomy, Yonsei University)
  • Published : 2016.04.12

Abstract

We present a new database of our two-dimensional bulge-disk decompositions for 14,482 galaxies drawn from SDSS DR12 in order to examine the properties of bulges residing in the local universe (0.005 < z < 0.05). We performed decompositions in g and r bands by utilizing the GALFIT software. The bulge colors and bulge-to-total ratios are found to be sensitive to the details in the decomposition technique. The g-r colors of bulges derived are almost constantly red regardless of bulge size except for the bulges in the low bulge-to-total ratio galaxies (approximately $B/T_r{\leq}0.3$). Bulges exhibit similar scaling relations to those followed by elliptical galaxies, but the bulges in galaxies with lower bulge-to-total ratios clearly show a gradually larger departure in slope from the elliptical galaxy sequence. The scatters around the scaling relations are also larger for the bulges in galaxies with lower bulge-to-total ratios. Both the departure in slopes and larger scatters are likely originated from the presence of young stars. While bulges seem largely similar in optical properties to elliptical galaxies, they do show clear and systematic departures as a function of bulge-to-total ratio. The stellar properties and perhaps associated formation processes of bulges seem much more diverse than those of elliptical galaxies.

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