Gas flows in S-E binary systems of galaxies

Tidal interaction between the galaxies in binary systems leads to important consequences. Some peculiarities in galactic morphology as well as the transfer of matter from one galaxy to another may be due to this factor. In particular, gas flows in intergalactic space may be formed. Such flows enriching one component with gas from the other may play a substantial role in the evolution of mixed (S-E) pairs. One can mention several facts corroborating the possibility of the gas transfer from the spiral to the elliptical galaxy. High HI content (10(exp 7) to 10(exp 9) solar mass) is detected in nearly 40 E galaxies (Bottinelli and Gougenheim, 1979; Knapp et al., 1985). Such galaxies are often members of pairs or of multiple systems including an S galaxy, which may be the source of gas (Smirnov and Komberg, 1980). Moreover, the gas kinematics and its distribution also indicate an external origin for this gas (Knapp et al., 1985). In many cases there is an outer gaseous disk. The directions of the disk and of stellar rotation don't always coincide (van Gorkom et al., 1985; Varnas et al., 1987). The galaxy colors in S-E pairs are correlated (the Holmberg effect): bluer ellipticals have spiral components that are usually bluer (Demin et al., 1984). The fraction of E galaxies with emission lines (N sub em) in S-E pairs showing traces of tidal interaction is twice as large (N sub em approx. equals 0.24) as in pairs without interaction (N sub em approx. equals 0.12) (Sotnikova, 1988b). Since the presence of emission lines in a galaxy spectrum strongly depends on gas content, this fact also leads to the conclusion that ellipticals in interacting S-E pairs are enriched with gas. These facts may be considered as a serious indication of the existence of gas transfer. Hence, investigation of this process is of interest.