Structural parameters of starburst and postburst galaxies

We present two samples of 1173 starbursts and 145 postburst in the redshift range0.01 < z < 0.083, selected from Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7. We charac-terize both samples using 2D Sersic profiles and measure their asymmetry. The Sersicindex, n, and the effective radii show that starburst galaxies are more concentratedthan the postburst sample, with median n 1.85 for starbursts and 2.85 for post-bursts. There is a large fraction of disky (n < 2) postbursts, a fraction larger thanreported by previous studies. Part of the excess comes from low luminosity (Mr > −19)objects, vastly dominated by discs. We estimate the mass from the velocity dispersionof the H emission line, both for the starbursts and those postbursts with residualemission, finding that Lr / Mb, with b = 1.35 for starbursts and b = 1.5 for post-bursts. The typical values of the mass-to-light ratio range between 0 and 10. This,now, is surprising for starburst galaxies, for which mass-to-light ratios 1 have beenpreviously found.