Statistical correlations between near-infrared luminosities and ring sizes in field ringed galaxies

摘要

Statistically complete samples of inner-pseudo-, inner-, and outer-ringed galaxies can be extracted from the Catalog of Southern Ringed Galaxies. Redshifts and near-infrared (NIR) photometric data are available for the samples, allowing the derivation of the statistical correlations between the total NIR. luminosities (L-NIR) and the projected ring major axes in the physical scale (D) for these galaxies. For any of the three types of rings, the correlations are approximately LNIR proportional to D-1.2 among the early-type ringed galaxies (the most: commonly observed ringed galaxies). The correlations among late-type ringed galaxies appear significantly different. The results contradict the previous suggestion by Kormendy (1979, ApJ, 227, 714), who gave L-B proportional to D-2 (L-B: B-band galaxy luminosity). The relations can be used in future to test theoretical simulations of dynamical structures of ringed galaxies as well as those of ring formation under the framework of cosmological models. Currently the results indicate at most small differences in the relative contributions of disk components to total galaxy masses and in the initial disk velocity dispersions between commonly observed ringed galaxies of similar type. The correlations also suggest a new approach to effectively use ring sizes as tertiary cosmological distance indicators, to help enhance the reliability of the measurement of the Hubble Constant.