University of Pennsylvania Astronomy Seminar

The rise of large Integral-Field-Unit (IFU) galaxy surveys has greatly enhanced our ability to conduct statistical analyses on the internal motions of galaxies. I will first illustrate a new method of characterizing velocity fields using a modified version of the Radon Transform, and show how when we apply this tool to ionized gas velocity fields within the MaNGA survey, we find that a large fraction of galaxies show significant deviations from uniform, coplanar circular motion. These distortions are likely caused by gas inflows, warps, and/or large-scale asymmetries. To understand the origins of the observed kinematic distortions, I will present their relationship with host galaxy morphology and environment. I will also discuss how kinematic distortions are affecting the growth of galaxies by showing their relationship with global gas content, gas-phase metallicities, and star formation rate distributions.