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At least 199 records · Page 11

Host galaxies of ultra-strong Mg ii absorbers at z ∼ 0.7

ABSTRACT We report spectroscopic identification of the host galaxies of 18 ultra-strong Mg ii systems (USMg ii) at 0.6 ≤ z ≤ 0.8. We created the largest sample by merging these with 20 host galaxies from our previous survey within 0.4 ≤ z ≤ 0.6. Using this sample, we confirm that the measured impact parameters ($\rm 6.3\leqslant D[kpc] \leqslant 120$ with a median of 19 kpc) are much larger than expected, and the USMg ii host galaxies do not follow the canonical $\rm {\it W}_{2796}-{\it D}$ anticorrelation. We show that the presence and significance of this anticorrelation may depend on the sample selection. The $\rm {\it W}_{2796}-{\it D}$ anticorrelation seen for the general Mg ii absorbers show a mild evolution at low $\rm W_{2796}$ end over the redshift range 0.4 ≤ z ≤ 1.5 with an increase of the impact parameters. Compared to the host galaxies of normal Mg ii absorbers, USMg ii host galaxies are brighter and more massive for a given impact parameter. While the USMg ii systems preferentially pick star-forming galaxies, they exhibit slightly lower ongoing star-forming rates compared to main sequence galaxies with the same stellar mass, suggesting a transition from star-forming to quiescent states. For a limiting magnitude of mr < 23.6, at least 29 per cent of the USMg ii host galaxies are isolated, and the width of the Mg ii absorption in these cases may originate from gas flows (infall/outflow) in isolated haloes of massive star forming but not starbursting galaxies. We associate more than one galaxy with the absorber in $\ge 21~{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ cases, where interactions may cause wide velocity spread.

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗

The underlying galaxies of X-ray-selected quasars

Deep red images of 24 X-ray selected quasars were obtained using the SIT Area Photometer on the Palomar 1.5 meter telescope. About half were also imaged through green and violet filters. The images of all 15 of the quasars with redshifts up to 0.4 certainly are extended and the two at z = 0.45 probably are extended. The remainder of higher redshift are unresolved, presumably because they are too distant. The resolved structures are 10-30 in. across, symmetric, and centered on the point-like quasar nuclei. For most of the quasars the nuclear light and the extended emission can be roughly separated. Evidence that the extended emission is starlight from a surrounding galaxy is presented, permitting several properties of the host galaxy to be deduced. Its colors, surface brightness, linear extent, ellipticity, and frequent association with groups of galaxies indicate that it is usually a normal spiral galaxy.

Malkan, M. A.↗

An investigation of the star-forming main sequence considering the nebular continuum emission at low- z

Galaxy evolution has been studied by interpreting the spectral energy distribution of galaxies using spectral synthesis codes. This method has been crucial in discovering different pillars of modern galaxy evolution theories. However, this analysis was mostly carried out using spectral synthesis codes that are purely stellar, that is, they assume that the nebular contribution to the total continuum is negligible. The code FADO is the first publicly available population spectral synthesis tool that treats the contribution from ionised gas to the observed emission self-consistently. This is expected to have a particularly strong effect in star-forming (SF) galaxies. We study the impact of the nebular contribution on the determination of the star formation rate (SFR), stellar mass, and consequent effect on the star-forming main sequence (SFMS) at low redshift. We applied FADO to the spectral database of the SDSS to derive the physical properties of galaxies. As a comparison, we used the data in the MPA-JHU catalogue, which contains the properties of SDSS galaxies derived without the nebular contribution. We selected a sample of SF galaxies with Hα and Hβ flux measurements, and we corrected the fluxes for the nebular extinction through the Balmer decrement. We then calculated the Hα luminosity to estimate the SFR. Then, by combining the stellar mass and SFR estimates from FADO and MPA-JHU, the SFMS was obtained. The Hα flux estimates are similar between FADO and MPA-JHU. Because the Hα flux was used as tracer of the SFR, FADO and MPA-JHU agree in their SFR. The stellar mass estimates are slightly higher for FADO than for MPA-JHU on average. However, considering the uncertainties, the differences are negligible. With similar SFR and stellar mass estimates, the derived SFMS is also similar between FADO and MPA-JHU. Our results show that for SDSS normal SF galaxies, the additional modelling of the nebular contribution does not affect the retrieved fluxes and consequentially also does not influence SFR estimators based on the extinction-corrected Hα luminosity. For the stellar masses, the results point to the same conclusion. These results are a consequence of the fact that the vast majority of normal SF galaxies in the SDSS have a low nebular contribution. However, the obtained agreement might only hold for local SF galaxies, but higher-redshift galaxies might show different physical properties when FADO is used. This would then be an effect of the expected increased nebular contribution.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Analysis of optical imagery for Seyfert's Sextet and VV 172

Seyfert's Sextet and VV 172, 5-m photographs have been subjected to image processing to yield field-galaxy density analysis, redshift-scaled imagery, interaction morphology display and enhancement, color difference imagery,modeling of the VV 172 halo, and image texture analysis of the spiral galaxy components of Seyfert's Sextet. An effort is made to evaluate the evidence for physical association of the discordant redshift components of these groups. An especially noteworthy characteristic of the groups is their extended luminous halos. The halo of VV 172 cannot be explained by the overlapping envelopes of galaxies with normal luminosity profiles, and the high redshift spiral galaxy in the Sextet is found to have an asymmetric internal structure and associated filament which suggest gravitational perturbation by the other members of the group.

Sulentic, J. W.↗

Stellar dynamics of powerful radio galaxies

New data on the stellar dynamics of 20 powerful radio galaxies (PRGs) were collected with the KPNO 4 m using the RC spectrograph and a TI CCD and were combined with similar data in the literature to generate a total sample of 47 PRGs. A detailed investigation of the various PRG subgroups (normal/peculiar optical morphology, and presence/absence of optical emission lines) revealed important distinctions among these groups as well as distinctions between some PRGs and normal elliptical galaxies. It is found that PRGs with peculiar optical morphologies are dynamically peculiar as well: their stellar velocity dispersions are lower than those of both elliptical galaxies and PRGs with normal optical morphologies, and they show evidence for more rotational support. Results suggest that some of the PRGs are the product of a merger of two galaxies, at least one of which was a disk system.

Smith, Eric P.↗

An atlas of ultraviolet spectra of star-forming galaxies

A systematic study is presented of the UV spectra of star-forming galaxies of different morphological type and activity class using a sample drawn from a uniformly reduced IUE data set. The spectra for a wide variety of galaxies, including normal spiral, LINER, starburst, blue compact, blue compact dwarf, and Seyfert 2 galaxies, are presented in the form of spectral energy distributions to demonstrate the overall characteristics according to morphology and activity class and in the form of absolute flux distributions to better show the absorption and emission features of individual objects. The data support the picture based on UV spectra of the Orbiting Astronomical Observatory and of the Astronautical Netherlands Satellite that spiral galaxies of later Hubble class have more flux at the shortest UV wavelengths than do spiral galaxies of earlier Hubble class.

Kinney, A. L.↗

Black Holes in Bulgeless Galaxies: An XMM-Newton Investigation of NGC 3367 AND NGC 4536

The vast majority of optically identified active galactic nuclei (AGNs) in the local Universe reside in host galaxies with prominent bulges, supporting the hypothesis that black hole formation and growth is fundamentally connected to the build-up of galaxy bulges. However, recent mid-infrared spectroscopic studies with Spitzer of a sample of optically "normal" late-type galaxies reveal remarkably the presence of high-ionization [NeV] lines in several sources, providing strong evidence for AGNs in these galaxies. We present follow-up X-ray observations recently obtained with XMM-Newton of two such sources, the late-type optically normal galaxies NGC 3367 and NGC 4536. Both sources are detected in our observations. Detailed spectral analysis reveals that for both galaxies, the 2-10 keV emission is dominated by a power law with an X-ray luminosity in the L(sub 2- 10 keV) approximates 10(exp 39) - 10(exp 40) ergs/s range, consistent with low luminosity AGNs. While there is a possibility that X-ray binaries account for some fraction of the observed X-ray luminosity, we argue that this fraction is negligible. These observations therefore add to the growing evidence that the fraction of late-type galaxies hosting AGNs is significantly underestimated using optical observations alone. A comparison of the midinfrared [NeV] luminosity and the X-ray luminosities suggests the presence of an additional highly absorbed X-ray source in both galaxies, and that the black hole masses are in the range of 10(exp 5) - 10(exp 7) solar M for NGC 3367 and 10(exp 4) - (exp 10) solar M for NGC 4536

McAlpine, W.↗

The origin of dwarf galaxies, cold dark matter, and biased galaxy formation

A reexamination is conducted of the formation of dwarf, diffuse, metal-poor galaxies due to supernova-driven winds, in view of data on the systematic properties of dwarfs in the Local Group and Virgo Cluster. The critical condition for global gas loss as a result of the first burst of star formation is that the virial velocity lie below an approximately 100 km/sec critical value. This leads, as observed, to two distinct classes of galaxies, encompassing the diffuse dwarfs, which primarily originate from typical density perturbations, and the normal, brighter galaxies, including compact dwarfs, which can originate only from the highest density peaks. This furnishes a statistical biasing mechanism for the preferential formation of bright galaxies in denser regions, enhancing high surface brightness galaxies' clustering relative to the diffusive dwarfs.

Dekel, A.↗

Far-infrared emission and star formation in spiral galaxies

The correlations between the emission in the far-IR, H-alpha, and blue in a sample of normal spiral galaxies are investigated. It is found that the luminosities in these three bands are all tightly correlated, although both the strength of the correlations and their functional dependencies are a function of the galaxies' morphological types. The best-fit power laws to these correlations are different for the comparison of different quantities and deviate significantly from linearity in some cases, implying the presence of additional emission mechanisms not related to the general increase of luminosity with galactic mass. Clear evidence is found of two independent effects in the incidence of warm far-IR emission in late-type spirals. One is a luminosity effect shown by the presence of excess far-IR relative to H-alpha or optical emission in the more luminous galaxies. The other is a dependence on widespread star-formation activity.

Trinchieri, G.↗

The relationship between the carbon monoxide intensity and the radio continuum emission in spiral galaxies

The relationship between the velocity-integrated CO emission and the nonthermal radio continuum brightness in the disks of normal spiral galaxies is examined on a variety of length scales. On a global scale, the total CO intensity correlates strongly with the total radio continuum flux density for a sample of 31 galaxies. On scales of about 2 kpc or more in the disk of individual galaxies, it is found that the ratio I(CO)/T(20) remains fairly constant over the entire disk as well as from galaxy to galaxy. For the eight spirals in the sample, the disk-averaged values of I(CO)/T(20) range from 0.6-2.4, with the average over all eight galaxies being 1.3 +/- 0.6. It is concluded that what these various length scales actually trace are differences in the primary heating mechanism of the gas in the beam. The observed relationship between CO and nonthermal radio continuum emission can be explained by assuming that molecular gas in galactic disks is heated primarily by cosmic rays. The observed relationship is used to show that the brightness of synchrotron emission is proportional to n(cr) exp 0.4 - 0.9 in galactic disks.

Adler, David S.↗

Isophotal diameters of galaxies at high redshifts

New ultraviolet observations and archival spectra are presented for the bright disk of the galaxy NGC 4736 to derive the ultraviolet surface brightness profile. This is used to predict the appearance of such a galaxy at high redshift. The profiles in red light of 100 galaxies determined by S. Kent (1984) are used with assumed ultraviolet spectra to predict the isophotal diameters of these galaxies as a function of redshift. The results show that, for ground-based imagery, normal spiral galaxies should be resolvable to the largest redshifts (z roughly 1). For space-based imagery, much smaller but brighter galactic disks characterized by extensive star formation will be those resolved at the highest redshifts (z roughly 2.5).

Weedman, Daniel W.↗

Strong lensing of high-energy neutrinos

Here, we consider the effects of strong gravitational lensing by galaxy-scale deflectors on the observations of high-energy ( E $\gg$ GeV ) neutrinos (HENs). For HENs at cosmological distances, the optical depth for multiple imaging is ~10 –3 , implying that while we do not expect any multiply imaged HENs with present samples, next-generation experiments should be able to detect the first such event. We then present the distribution of expected time delays to aid in the identification of such events, in combination with directional and energy information. In order to assist in the evaluation of HEN production mechanisms, we illustrate how lensing affects the observed number counts for a variety of intrinsic luminosity functions of the source population. Finally, we see that the lensing effects on the cosmic neutrino background flux calculation would be negligible by taking kiloparsec-scale jets as an example.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Globular cluster systems as clues to galaxy evolution

We investigate the properties of systems of globular clusters in light of the hypothesis that galaxy mergers play a major role in galaxy evolution. In a previous paper, we presented a model in which the formation of globular clusters occurs during galaxy interactions and mergers. We discussed several predictions of the model, including the existence of young globular clusters in currently merging galaxies and the presence of two or more metallicity peaks in the globular clusters systems of normal elliptical galaxies. Here, we present recent observational evidence which supports both of these predictions and suggests that mergers may have a significant influence on the formation and evolution of galaxies and their globular clusters.

Zepf, Stephen E.↗

Evidence for star formation in cooling flows

There is good evidence that star formation occurs in cluster cooling flows. In no case, however, are the observed effects large enough to be consistent with the inflow rates predicted by X-ray data if the initial mass function resembles that in the Galaxy. It seems most likely that the bulk of the inflow in the clusters as well as in normal gE galaxies is deposited in the form of very low mass stars with m much less than 0.7 solar masses. This efficient, low mass mode of star formation is a plausible candidate for the dark matter.

O'Connell, Robert W.↗

The morphology of multiple-nucleus brightest cluster galaxies

The morphology of high SNR CCD images of 16 multiple-nucleus brightest cluster galaxies is studied using an algorithm that models images of the systems as the line-of-sight superposition of normal elliptical galaxies. The algorithm is applied initially to the classic multiple-nucleus cD galaxy in A2199. Evidence is found suggestive of deep interpenetrating high-speed encounters by its secondaries. The interactions effects studied include noncentric isophotes, brightness profile effects, excess light around primary galaxies, and dynamical friction wakes. The results show that in many cases multiple systems are interacting systems.

Lauer, Tod R.↗

Near-infrared photometry and stellar populations of first-ranked galaxies in a complete sample of nearby Abell clusters

Eighty-four brightest cluster members (BCMs) in the complete sample of high Galactic latitude nearby Abell clusters of Hoessel, Gunn, and Thuan (HGT) are investigated. The stellar populations in BCMs using near-infrared and optical-near-infrared colors are studied. Brighter BCMs have redder (J-K) and (V-K) colors, suggesting a metallicity increase in brighter galaxies. The larger dispersion of their colors implies that BCMs possess more heterogeneous stellar populations than their lower luminosity counterparts, the normal elliptical galaxies. Special attention is paid to BCMs associated with cooling flows. BCMs with larger accretion rates have bluer (V-K) colors due to ultraviolet excesses and are brighter in the visual wavelength region, but not in the infrared. It is suggested that part of the X-ray emitting cooling gas is converted into high- and intermediate-mass stars emitting in the blue and visible, but not in the infrared. The properties of BCMs as standard candles in the near-infrared are examined and compared with those in the optical.

Thuan, Trinx X.↗