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Main Authors: Kolhe, Neel, Hammer, Francois, Yang, Yanbin, Namumba, Brenda, Chemin, Laurent, Amram, Philippe, Ianjamasimanana, Roger, Carignan, Claude
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.02652
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author Kolhe, Neel
Hammer, Francois
Yang, Yanbin
Namumba, Brenda
Chemin, Laurent
Amram, Philippe
Ianjamasimanana, Roger
Carignan, Claude
author_facet Kolhe, Neel
Hammer, Francois
Yang, Yanbin
Namumba, Brenda
Chemin, Laurent
Amram, Philippe
Ianjamasimanana, Roger
Carignan, Claude
contents WLM is an archetypal dwarf irregular galaxy that has not experienced interactions with major Local Group galaxies within the past 8 Gyr. It has recently been shown that WLM is losing its gas due to ram pressure forces exerted by the surrounding intergalactic medium (IGM). In this work, we explore how ram pressure may also affect the WLM gas kinematics, and we show that its dynamics is especially perturbed at its outskirts, explaining the asymmetric rotation between the approaching and receding sides. Moreover, we have been able to decompose WLM in two main components, a compact one with a solid-body rotation that resembles a bar-like structure, and a more extended one with a characteristic double-horn profile suggesting an edge-on disk. The former is relatively unaffected by ram pressure while the latter has its dynamics considerably affected by ram pressure. This study shows that mass estimates of a dwarf galaxy like WLM should account for a full modeling of its dynamical components, especially accounting for its asymmetric rotation curve.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_02652
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle WLM: Dynamics of an isolated Dwarf Irregular Galaxy Under Ram Pressure in the Local Group
Kolhe, Neel
Hammer, Francois
Yang, Yanbin
Namumba, Brenda
Chemin, Laurent
Amram, Philippe
Ianjamasimanana, Roger
Carignan, Claude
Astrophysics of Galaxies
WLM is an archetypal dwarf irregular galaxy that has not experienced interactions with major Local Group galaxies within the past 8 Gyr. It has recently been shown that WLM is losing its gas due to ram pressure forces exerted by the surrounding intergalactic medium (IGM). In this work, we explore how ram pressure may also affect the WLM gas kinematics, and we show that its dynamics is especially perturbed at its outskirts, explaining the asymmetric rotation between the approaching and receding sides. Moreover, we have been able to decompose WLM in two main components, a compact one with a solid-body rotation that resembles a bar-like structure, and a more extended one with a characteristic double-horn profile suggesting an edge-on disk. The former is relatively unaffected by ram pressure while the latter has its dynamics considerably affected by ram pressure. This study shows that mass estimates of a dwarf galaxy like WLM should account for a full modeling of its dynamical components, especially accounting for its asymmetric rotation curve.
title WLM: Dynamics of an isolated Dwarf Irregular Galaxy Under Ram Pressure in the Local Group
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.02652