Environment, morphology, and stellar populations of bulgeless low surface-brightness galaxies

Abstract

Based on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR 7, we investigate the environment, morphology, and stellar population of bulgeless low surface-brightness (LSB) galaxies in a volume-limited sample with redshift ranging from 0.024 to 0.04 and M r ≤ -18.8. The local density parameter Σ 5 is used to trace their environments. We find that, for bulgeless galaxies, the surface brightness does not depend on the environment. The stellar populations are compared for bulgeless LSB galaxies in different environments and for bulgeless LSB galaxies with different morphologies. The stellar populations of LSB galaxies in low-density regions are similar to those of LSB galaxies in high-density regions. Irregular LSB galaxies have more young stars and are more metal-poor than regular LSB galaxies. These results suggest that the evolution of LSB galaxies may be driven by their dynamics, including mergers rather than by their large-scale environment.