Tidal dwarfs in the M81 group: the second generation?
Sarajedini, A.; Geisler, D.; Guhathakurta, P.; Seitzer, P.; Dolphin, A.; Makarova, L.; Grebel, E.; Karachentsev, I.; Karachentseva, V.; Sharina, M.; Hodge, P.
Russia, Germany, United States, Ukraine, Chile
Abstract
We present a quantitative star formation history derivation of the four suspected tidal dwarf galaxies in the M 81 group: Holmberg IX, BK3N,Arp-loop (A0952+69) and Garland using HST/WFPC2 images of these galaxies. We construct a library of synthetic Colour-Magnitude Diagrams(CMDs) based on theoretical isochrones and data-derived determinations of photometric errors. These synthetic CMDs were combined linearly andχ2-compared to observed photometry. All the galaxies show continuous star formation between about 20 and 200 Myr ago with star formation rates between 7.5ṡ10-3 M⊙/yr and 7.67ṡ10-4 M⊙/yr. The metallicity of the detected stars is spanning rather a wide range, being lower than solar abundance. We suppose, that all the galaxies were formed out of material from metal-poor outer part of the giant spiral galaxy M81after tidal interaction about 200 Myr ago. However, this suggestion requires significantly more deep color-magnitude diagrams to be sure with the scenario of the galaxy evolution.