PI: Sheila Kannappan, University of Texas at Austin, email@example.com
Address: 2511 Speedway, RLM 15.308 C1400, Austin, TX 78712, USA
CoI: Chris Impey, University of Arizona
Title: Faint Companions and LSB Extensions of S0 Galaxies: Clues to HSB Disk Formation
Abstract: We propose to use the 4-meter at KPNO to acquire deep ((mu)_\rm V=27) MOSAIC images of 26 S0 galaxies to study their extended structure and environments. As a heterogeneous population shaped simultaneously by interactions and mergers and secular evolutionary processes, S0's are ideal for studying the interplay of these processes in forming HSB disks. Our sample is statistically representative of this population and benefits from a broad array of supporting data from the Nearby Field Galaxy Survey. Comparably sensitive data has not been available for such a sample: our data will allow us to detect companions as faint as the Local Group dwarf spheroidals as well as extended LSB structures as faint as that of Malin 1. We will correlate both the occurrence of these phenomena and their specific characteristics (disk scale lengths, companion distances, etc.) against diagnostics of disk formation such as v/\sigma ratios and star formation rates, in order to assess the respective roles of secular and hierarchical processes in HSB disk formation.
National Optical Astronomy Observatory, 950 North Cherry Avenue, P.O. Box 26732, Tucson, Arizona 85726, Phone: (520) 318-8000, Fax: (520) 318-8360