Spiral structure in nearby galaxies - II. Comparative analysis and conclusions

Abstract

This paper presents a detailed analysis of two-armed spiral structure in a sample of galaxies from the Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxies Survey, with particular focus on the relationships between the properties of the spiral pattern in the stellar disc and the global structure and environment of the parent galaxies. Following Paper I, we have used a combination of Spitzer Space Telescope mid-infrared imaging and visible multicolour imaging to isolate the spiral pattern in the underlying stellar discs, and we examine the systematic behaviours of the observed amplitudes and shapes (pitch angles) of these spirals. In general, spiral morphology is found to correlate only weakly at best with morphological parameters such as stellar mass, gas fraction, disc/bulge ratio, and vflat. In contrast to weak correlations with galaxy structure, a strong link is found between the strength of the spiral arms and tidal forcing from nearby companion galaxies. This appears to support the longstanding suggestion that either a tidal interaction or strong bar is a necessary condition for driving grand-design spiral structure. The pitch angles of the stellar arms are only loosely correlated with the pitch angles of the corresponding arms traced in gas and young stars. We find that the strength of the shock in the gas and the contrast in the star formation rate are strongly correlated with the stellar spiral amplitude.