1,851 research outputs found
The Visibility of Galactic Bars and Spiral Structure At High Redshifts
We investigate the visibility of galactic bars and spiral structure in the
distant Universe by artificially redshifting 101 B-band CCD images of local
spiral galaxies from the Ohio State University Bright Spiral Galaxy Survey. Our
artificially redshifted images correspond to Hubble Space Telescope I-band
observations of the local galaxy sample seen at z=0.7, with integration times
matching those of both the very deep Northern Hubble Deep Field data, and the
much shallower Flanking Field observations. The expected visibility of galactic
bars is probed in two ways: (1) using traditional visual classification, and
(2) by charting the changing shape of the galaxy distribution in "Hubble
space", a quantitative two-parameter description of galactic structure that
maps closely on to Hubble's original tuning fork. Both analyses suggest that
over 2/3 of strongly barred luminous local spirals i.e. objects classified as
SB in the Third Reference Catalog) would still be classified as strongly barred
at z=0.7 in the Hubble Deep Field data. Under the same conditions, most weakly
barred spirals (classified SAB in the Third Reference Catalog) would be
classified as regular spirals. The corresponding visibility of spiral structure
is assessed visually, by comparing luminosity classifications for the
artificially redshifted sample with the corresponding luminosity
classifications from the Revised Shapley Ames Catalog. We find that for
exposures times similar to that of the Hubble Deep Field spiral structure
should be detectable in most luminous low-inclination spiral galaxies at z=0.7
in which it is present. [ABRIDGED]Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journa
Explorations in Hubble Space: A Quantitative Tuning Fork
In order to establish an objective framework for studying galaxy morphology,
we have developed a quantitative two-parameter description of galactic
structure that maps closely on to Hubble's original tuning fork. Any galaxy can
be placed in this "Hubble space", where the x-coordinate measures position
along the early-to-late sequence, while the y-coordinate measures in a
quantitative way the degree to which the galaxy is barred. The parameters
defining Hubble space are sufficiently robust to allow the formation of
Hubble's tuning fork to be mapped out to high redshifts. In the present paper,
we describe a preliminary investigation of the distribution of local galaxies
in Hubble space, based on the CCD imaging atlas of Frei et al. (1996). We find
that barred, weakly-barred, and unbarred galaxies are remarkably well-separated
on this diagnostic diagram. The spiral sequence is clearly bimodal and indeed
approximates a tuning fork: strongly-barred and unbarred spirals do not simply
constitute the extrema of a smooth unimodal distribution of bar strength, but
rather populate two parallel sequences. Strongly barred galaxies lie on a
remarkably tight sequence, strongly suggesting the presence of an underlying
unifying physical process. Rather surprisingly, weakly barred systems do not
seem to correspond to objects bridging the parameter space between unbarred and
strongly barred galaxies, but instead form an extension of the regular spiral
sequence. This relation lends support to models in which the bulges of
late-type spirals originate from secular processes driven by bars.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal. Figure 2 is too
large to be embedded in the paper, and has been included as a JPEG imag
Size-scaling of clump instabilities in turbulent, feedback regulated disks
We explore the scaling between the size of star-forming clumps and rotational
support in massively star-forming galactic disks. The analysis relies on
simulations of a clumpy galaxy at and the observed DYNAMO sample of rare
clumpy analogs at to test a predictive clump size scaling
proposed by \citet{Fisher2017ApJ...839L...5F} in the context of the Violent
Disk Instability (VDI) theory. We here determine the clump sizes using a
recently presented 2-point estimator, which is robust against resolution/noise
effects, hierarchical clump substructure, clump-clump overlap and other
galactic substructure. After verifying Fisher's clump scaling relation for the
DYNAMO observations, we explore whether this relation remains characteristic of
the VDI theory, even if realistic physical processes, such as local asymetries
and stellar feedback, are included in the model. To this end, we rely on
hydrodynamic zoom-simulations of a Milky Way-mass galaxy with four different
feedback prescriptions. We find that, during its marginally stable epoch at
, this mock galaxy falls on the clump scaling relation, although its
position on this relation depends on the feedback model. This finding implies
that Toomre-like stability considerations approximately apply to large
() instabilities in marginally stable turbulent disks,
irrespective of the feedback model, but also emphasizes that the global clump
distribution of a turbulent disk depends strongly on feedback.Comment: Accepted by ApJ, no changes made. 11 pages, 4 figure
Evidence for (and Against) Progenitor Bias in the Size Growth of Compact Red Galaxies
Most massive passive galaxies are compact at high redshifts, but similarly
compact massive galaxies are rare in the local universe. The most common
interpretation of this phenomenon is that massive galaxies have grown in size
by a factor of about five since redshift z=2. An alternative explanation is
that recently quenched massive galaxies are larger (a "progenitor bias"). In
this paper we explore the importance of progenitor bias by looking for
systematic differences in the stellar populations of compact early-type
galaxies in the DEEP2 survey as a function of size. Our analysis is based on
applying the statistical technique of bootstrap resampling to constrain
differences in the median ages of our samples and to begin to characterize the
distribution of stellar populations in our co-added spectra. The light-weighted
ages of compact early-type galaxies at redshifts 0.5 < z < 1.4 are compared to
those of a control sample of larger galaxies at similar redshifts. We find that
massive compact early-type galaxies selected on the basis of red color and high
bulge-to-total ratio are younger than similarly selected larger galaxies,
suggesting that size growth in these objects is not driven mainly by progenitor
bias, and that individual galaxies grow as their stellar populations age.
However, compact early-type galaxies selected on the basis of image smoothness
and high bulge-to-total ratio are older than a control sample of larger
galaxies. Progenitor bias will play a significant role in defining the apparent
size changes of early-type galaxies if they are selected on the basis of the
smoothness of their light distributions.Comment: 39 pages, 10 figures. Astrophysical Journal (in press
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