Kinematical evidence for secular evolution in Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in Galaxies (S4G) spirals

Abstract

AbstractWe present a study of the kinematics of a sample of isolated spiral galaxies in the Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in Galaxies (S4G). We use Hα Fabry-Perot data from the GHαFaS instrument at the William Herschel Telescope (WHT) in La Palma, complemented with images at 3.6 microns, in the R band and in the Hα filter. The resulting data cubes and velocity field maps allow a complete study of the kinematics of a galaxy, including in-depth investigations of the rotation curve, velocity moment maps, velocity residual maps, gradient maps and position-velocity (PV) diagrams. We find clear evidence of the secular evolution processes going on in these galaxies, such as asymmetries in the velocity field in the bar zone, and non-circular motions, probably in response to the potential of the structural components of the galaxies, or to past or present interactions.