Giant Low Surface Brightness Galaxies: Evolution in Isolation

Abstract

Giant Low Surface Brightness (GLSB) galaxies are amongst the most massive spiral galaxies that we know of in our Universe. Although they fall in the class of late type spiral galaxies, their properties are far more extreme. They have very faint stellar disks that are extremely rich in neutral hydrogen gas but low in star formation and hence low in surface brightness. They often have bright bulges that are similar to those found in early type galaxies. The bulges can host low luminosity Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) that have relatively low mass black holes. GLSB galaxies are usually isolated systems and are rarely found to be interacting with other galaxies. In fact many GLSB galaxies are found under dense regions close to the edges of voids. These galaxies have very massive dark matter halos that also contribute to their stability and lack of evolution. In this paper we briefly review the properties of this unique class of galaxies and conclude that both their isolation and their massive dark matter halos have led to the low star formation rates and the slower rate of evolution in these galaxies.