A Multi-Wavelength Study of Spiral Arm Substructure

Spiral arms are the hallmark of spiral galaxies. Spiral density waves gather gas, dust, and stars in the disks of spiral galaxies, forming the arms. Observations show that these large-scale features are often composed of smaller scale substruc-tures, commonly referred to as feathers and spurs, which give the arm a patchy and segmented appearance. Within these select galaxies, the substructure appears associated with much of the star formation in the arm. In this thesis, we study the frequency and characteristics of spiral arm substructure in a sample of 233 spiral galaxies; using newly acquired high-resolution (∼4′′) CARMA CO(1-0) velocity-integrated intensity maps of five target spiral galaxies, we compare the distribution of star formation tracers along spiral arms and test formation theories for spiral arm substructure. We use a multi-wavelength data set to study the frequency and characteristics of spiral arm feathers and test the predictions for their formation. Using broad-band HST images, we study how common feathers are in our sample of 233 spiral galaxies. With high-resolution CARMA CO(1-0) observations of five target galax