Giant Low Surface Brightness Galaxies : Evolution in Isolation
  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.
