A Closer Look at the Extended Edge-on Low-surface Brightness Galaxies

Abstract

To understand the origin of extended disks of low-surface brightness (LSB) galaxies, we studied in detail four such systems with large disks seen edge on. Two of them are edge-on giant LSB galaxies (gLSBGs) recently identified by our team. The edge-on orientation of these systems boosts their surface brightnesses that provided an opportunity to characterize stellar populations spectroscopically and yielded the first such measurements for edge-on gLSBGs. We collected deep images of one galaxy using the 1.4 m Milanković Telescope, which we combined with the archival Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam and DESI Legacy Surveys data available for the three other systems, and measured the structural parameters of the disks. We acquired deep long-slit spectra with the Russian 6 m telescope and the 10 m Keck II telescope and estimated stellar population properties in the high-surface brightness and LSB regions as well as the gas-phase metallicity distribution. The gas metallicity gradients are shallow to flat in the range between 0 and −0.03 dex per exponential disk scale length, which is consistent with the extrapolation of the gradient–scale length relation for smaller disk galaxies. Our estimates of stellar velocity dispersion in the LSB disks as well as the relative thickness of the disks indicate the dynamical overheating. Our observations favor mergers as the essential stage in the formation scenario for massive LSB galaxies.