Tidal Dwarf Galaxies

Abstract

The life and evolution of galaxies are dramatically affected by environmental effects. Interactions with the intergalactic medium and collisions with companions cause major perturbations in the morphology and contents of galaxies: in particular stars and gas clouds may be gravitationally pulled out from their parent galaxies during tidal encounters, forming rings, tails and bridges. This debris of collisions lies at the origin of a new generation of small galaxies, the so-called “tidal dwarf galaxies” (hereafter TDGs). Such an exotic way of forming galaxies was put forward by Schweizer (1978) and by Mirabel et al. (1992), who clearly observed the genesis of a star-forming object, out of material tidally expelled from the interacting system NGC 4038/39 (“The Antennae”). Recent studies, based on optical and HI observations, have shown that TDGs actually form a class of “recycled” objects with some properties similar to the more classical dwarf irregulars (dIrr) and blue compact dwarf galaxies (BCDs).