Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-ph5wq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-18T16:54:10.028Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Booms and Busts: the Burstiness of Star Formation in Nearby Dwarf Galaxies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2013

A. A. Cole
Affiliation:
University of Tasmania, School of Mathematics & Physics, Private Bag 37, Hobart, Tas 7001. Email: andrew.cole@utas.edu.au
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

In this review I summarise recent advances in our understanding of the importance of starburst events to the evolutionary histories of nearby galaxies. Ongoing bursts are easily diagnosed in emission-line surveys, but assessing the timing and intensity of fossil bursts requires more effort, usually demanding color–magnitude diagrams or spectroscopy of individual stars. For ages older than ∼1 Gyr, this type of observation is currently limited to the Local Group and its immediate surroundings. However, if the Local Volume is representative of the Universe as a whole, then studies of the age and metallicity distributions of star clusters and resolved stellar populations should give statistical clues as to the frequency and importance of bursts to the histories of galaxies in general. Based on starburst statistics in the literature and synthetic colour-magnitude diagram studies of Local Group galaxies, I attempt to distinguish between systemic starbursts that strongly impact galaxy evolution and stochastic bursts that can appear impressive but are ultimately of little significance on gigayear timescales. As a specific case, it appears as though IC 10, the only starburst galaxy in the Local Group, falls into the latter category and is not fundamentally different from other nearby dwarf irregular galaxies.

Type
Galaxy Metabolism
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of Australia 2010

References

Aloisi, A., Tosi, M. & Greggio, L., 1999, AJ, 118, 302CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brinchmann, J. et al. , 2004, MNRAS, 351, 1151CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bullock, J.S., Kravtsov, A.V. & Weinberg, D.H., 2000, ApJ, 539, 517CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cannon, J. M., Dohm-Palmer, R. C., Skillman, E. D., Bomans, D. J., Côté, S. & Miller, B. W., 2003, AJ, 126, 2806CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chu, Y.-H., Suntzeff, N., Hesser, J. & Bohlender, D., 1999, New Views of the Magellanic Clouds, IAUS 190 (San Francisco: ASP)Google Scholar
Cole, A. A. et al. , 2007, ApJ, 659, L17CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dalcanton, J. J. et al. , 2009, ApJS, 183, 67CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Blok, W. J. G. & Walter, F., 2006, AJ, 131, 343CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Grijs, R., O'Connell, R. W. & Gallagher, J. S. III, 2001, AJ, 121, 768CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Demers, S., Battinelli, P. & Letarte, B., 2004, A&A, 424, 125Google Scholar
Dolphin, A. E., 2002, MNRAS, 332, 91CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dolphin, A. E. et al. , 2002, AJ, 123, 3154CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dohm-Palmer, R. C. et al. , 1998, AJ, 116, 1227CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dressler, A., Oemler, A., Gladders, M. G., Bai, L., Rigby, J. R. & Poggianti, B. M., 2009, ApJ, 699, L130CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freeman, K. C. & Bland-Hawthorn, J., 2002, ARA&A, 40, 487Google Scholar
Gallagher, J. S. III, 2005, Ap&SSL, 329, 11Google Scholar
Gallagher, J. S. III, & Smith, L. J., 1999, MNRAS, 304, 540CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, J. & Zaritsky, D., 2004, AJ, 127, 1531CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, J. & Zaritsky, D., 2009, AJ, 138, 1243CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunter, D. A., 1997, PASP, 109, 937CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunter, D. A., 2001, ApJ, 559, 225CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunter, D. A. & Gallagher, J. S., III, 1985, ApJS, 58, 533CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunter, D. A. & Gallagher, J. S., III, 1986, PASP, 98, 5CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hurley-Keller, D., Mateo, M. & Nemec, J., 1998, AJ, 115, 1840CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Irwin, M. J., 2007, ApJ, 656, L13CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennicutt, R. C., 1998a, ApJ, 498, 541CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennicutt, R. C., 1998b, ARA&A, 36, 189Google Scholar
Kennicutt, R. C., Lee, J. C., Funes, J. G., Sakai, S. & Akiyama, S., 2008, ApJS, 178, 247CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kobulnicky, H. A. & Skillman, E. D., 1996, ApJ, 471, 211CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koch, A., Grebel, E. K., Wyse, R. F. G., Kleyna, J. T., Wilkinson, M. I., Harbeck, D. R., Gilmore, G. F. & Evans, N. W., 2006, AJ, 131, 895CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kravtsov, A. V., Gnedin, O. Y. & Klypin, A. V., 2004, ApJ, 609, 482CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larson, R. B. & Tinsley, B. M., 1978, ApJ, 219, 46CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, H., McCall, M. L., Kingsburgh, R. L., Rossi, R. & Stevenson, C. C., 2003, AJ, 125, 146CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, H., Skillman, E. D., Cannon, J. M., Jackson, D. C., Gehrz, R. D., Polomski, E. F. & Woodward, C. E., 2006, ApJ, 647, 970CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, J. C., Kennicutt, R. C. Jr, Funes, J. G., Sakai, S. & Akiyama, S., 2009, ApJ, 692, 1305CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mac Low, M.-M. & Ferrara, A., 1999, ApJ, 513, 142CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marigo, P., Girardi, L., Bressan, A., Groenewegen, M. A. T., Silva, L. & Granato, G. L., 2008, A&A, 482, 883Google Scholar
Massey, P. & Johnson, O., 1998, ApJ, 505, 793CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mateo, M., 1998, ARA&A, 46, 435Google Scholar
Mateo, M., Nemec, J., Irwin, M. & McMahon, R., 1991, AJ, 101, 892CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayer, L., Kazantzidis, S., Mastropietro, C. & Wadsley, J., 2007, Natur, 445, 738CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McConnachie, A. W., Arimoto, N., Irwin, M. & Tolstoy, E., 2006, MNRAS, 373, 715CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McConnachie, A. W., Venn, K. A., Irwin, M. J., Young, L. M. & Geehan, J. J., 2007, ApJ, 671, L33CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McQuinn, K. B., Skillman, E. D., Cannon, J. M., Dalcanton, J., Dolphin, A., Stark, D. & Weisz, D., 2009, ApJ, 695, 561CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meurer, G. et al. , 2006, ApJS, 165, 307CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mihos, J. C. & Hernquist, L., 1996, ApJ, 464, 641CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mould, J. & Aaronson, M., 1983, ApJ, 273, 530CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olszewski, E. W., Suntzeff, N. B. & Mateo, M., 1996, ARA&A, 34, 511Google Scholar
Orban, C., Gnedin, O. Y., Weisz, D. R., Skillman, E. D., Dolphin, A. E. & Holtzman, J. A., 2008, ApJ, 686, 1030CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Renzini, A., 2006, ARA&A, 44, 141Google Scholar
Rich, R. M., Shara, M., Fall, S. M. & Zurek, D., 2000, AJ, 119, 197CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richer, M. G. et al. , 2001, A&A, 370, 34Google Scholar
Rieke, G. H. & Low, F. J., 1975, ApJ, 197, 17CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salzer, J. J. et al. , 2001, AJ, 121, 66CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Samland, M. & Gerhard, O. E., 2003, A&A, 399, 961Google Scholar
Sandage, A., 1963, ApJ, 138, 863CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sanna, N. et al. , 2009, ApJ, 699, L84CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sargent, W. L. W. & Searle, L., 1970, ApJL, 162, L155CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sillman, E. D., Tolstoy, E., Cole, A. A., Dolphin, A. E., Saha, A., Gallagher, J. S., Dohm-Palmer, R. C. & Mateo, M., 2003, ApJ, 596, 253CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smecker-Hane, T. A., Stetson, P. B., Hesser, J. E. & Lehnert, M. D., 1994, AJ, 108, 507CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stinson, G. S., Dalcanton, J. J., Quinn, T., Kaufmann, T. & Wadsley, J., 2007, ApJ, 667, 170CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tolstoy, E. & Saha, A., 1996, ApJ, 462, 672CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tolstoy, E., Hill, V. & Tosi, M., 2009, ARA&A, 47, 371Google Scholar
Tolstoy, E. et al. , 1998, AJ, 116, 1244CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tolstoy, E. et al. , 2004, ApJ, 617, L119CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tosi, M., Greggio, L., Marconi, G. & Focardi, P., 1991, AJ, 102, 951CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Loon, J. Th. & Oliveira, J. M., 2009, The Magellanic System: Stars, Gas and Galaxies, IAUS 256 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)Google Scholar
Weisz, D. R., Skillman, E. D., Cannon, J. M., Dolphin, A. E., Kennicutt, R. C. Jr, Lee, J. C. & Walter, F., 2008, ApJ, 689, 160CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Westerlund, B. E., 1997, The Magellanic Clouds (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilcots, E. M. & Miller, B. W., 1998, AJ, 116, 2363CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wyder, T. K., 2001, AJ, 122, 2490CrossRefGoogle Scholar