Abstract
We have identified a population of passive spiral galaxies from photometry and integral field spectroscopy.We selectedz<0.035 spiral galaxies that have WISE colours consistent with little mid-infrared emission from warm dust. Matched aperture photometry of 51 spiral galaxies in ultraviolet, optical and mid-infrared show these galaxies have colours consistent with passive galaxies. Six galaxies form a spectroscopic pilot study and were observed using theWide-Field Spectrograph to check for signs of nebular emission from star formation.We see no evidence of substantial nebular emission found in previous red spiral samples. These six galaxies possess absorption-line spectra with 4000Å breaks consistent with an average luminosity-weighted age of 2.3 Gyr. Our photometric and integral field spectroscopic observations confirm the existence of a population of local passive spiral galaxies, implying that transformation into early-type morphologies is not required for the quenching of star formation.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | L11-L15 |
| Journal | Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters |
| Volume | 462 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Early online date | 15 Jun 2016 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 11 Oct 2016 |
Keywords
- evolution - galaxies
- galaxies
- general - galaxies
- spiral - galaxies
- stellar content