540 research outputs found
A SINFONI view of Galaxy Centers: Morphology and Kinematics of five Nuclear Star Formation Rings
We present near-infrared (H- and K-band) integral-field observations of the
circumnuclear star formation rings in five nearby spiral galaxies. The data,
obtained at the Very Large Telescope with the SINFONI spectrograph, are used to
construct maps of various emission lines that reveal the individual star
forming regions ("hot spots") delineating the rings. We derive the
morphological parameters of the rings, and construct velocity fields of the
stars and the emission line gas. We propose a qualitative, but robust,
diagnostic for relative hot spot ages based on the intensity ratios of the
emission lines Brackett gamma, HeI, and [FeII]. Application of this diagnostic
to the data presented here provides tentative support for a scenario in which
star formation in the rings is triggered predominantly at two well-defined
regions close to, and downstream from, the intersection of dust lanes along the
bar with the inner Lindblad resonance.Comment: 45 pages incl. 4 tables and 12 (mostly color) figures. Accepted for
publication in AJ. A version with full resolution figures can be obtained at
ftp://ftp.rssd.esa.int/pub/tboeker/SINFONI/ms.pd
Evolution in the Dust Lane Fraction of Edge-on L* Spiral Galaxies since z=0.8
The presence of a well-defined and narrow dust lane in an edge-on spiral
galaxy is the observational signature of a thin and dense molecular disk, in
which gravitational collapse has overcome turbulence. Using a sample of
galaxies out to z~1 extracted from the COSMOS survey, we identify the fraction
of massive disks that display a dust lane. Our goal is to explore the evolution
in the stability of the molecular ISM disks in spiral galaxies over a cosmic
timescale. We check the reliability of our morphological classifications
against changes in restframe wavelength, resolution, and cosmic dimming with
(artificially redshifted) images of local galaxies from SDSS. We find that the
fraction of L* disks with dust lanes in COSMOS is consistent with the local
fraction (~80%) out to z~0.7. At z=0.8, the dust lane fraction is only slightly
lower. A somewhat lower dust lane fraction in starbursting galaxies tentatively
supports the notion that a high specific star formation rate can efficiently
destroy or inhibit a dense molecular disk. A small subsample of higher redshift
COSMOS galaxies display low internal reddening (E[B-V]), as well as a low
incidence of dust lanes. These may be disks in which the growth of the dusty
ISM disk lags behind that of the stellar disk. We note that at z=0.8, the most
massive galaxies display a lower dust lane fraction than lower mass galaxies. A
small contribution of recent mergers or starbursts to this most massive
population may be responsible. The fact that the fraction of galaxies with dust
lanes in COSMOS is consistent with little or no evolution implies that models
to explain the Spectral Energy Distribution or the host galaxy dust extinction
of supernovae based on local galaxies are still applicable to higher redshift
spirals. It also suggests that dust lanes are long lived phenomena or can be
reformed over very short time-scales.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication by Ap
2335 Evaluation of anterior chamber angle: Gonioscopy, ultrasound biomicroscopy and scheimpflug photography
Aprovat per la Comissió de Govern de 10-09-2014El termini de la suspensió serà, com a màxim, d'un any, a comptar des de l'endemà de la publicació al BO
Nuclear Star Clusters across the Hubble Sequence
Over the last decade, HST imaging studies have revealed that the centers of
most galaxies are occupied by compact, barely resolved sources. Based on their
structural properties, position in the fundamental plane, and spectra, these
sources clearly have a stellar origin. They are therefore called ``nuclear star
clusters'' (NCs) or ``stellar nuclei''. NCs are found in galaxies of all Hubble
types, suggesting that their formation is intricately linked to galaxy
evolution. In this contribution, I briefly review the results from recent
studies of NCs, touch on some ideas for their formation, and mention some open
issues related to the possible connection between NCs and supermassive black
holes.Comment: 6 page conference proceedings, to appear in "The impact of HST on
European Astronomy" (41st ESLAB Symposium), pdflatex file, uses svmult.cls
(included
Supermassive black holes do not correlate with dark matter halos of galaxies
Supermassive black holes have been detected in all galaxies that contain
bulge components when the galaxies observed were close enough so that the
searches were feasible. Together with the observation that bigger black holes
live in bigger bulges, this has led to the belief that black hole growth and
bulge formation regulate each other. That is, black holes and bulges
"coevolve". Therefore, reports of a similar correlation between black holes and
the dark matter halos in which visible galaxies are embedded have profound
implications. Dark matter is likely to be nonbaryonic, so these reports suggest
that unknown, exotic physics controls black hole growth. Here we show - based
in part on recent measurements of bulgeless galaxies - that there is almost no
correlation between dark matter and parameters that measure black holes unless
the galaxy also contains a bulge. We conclude that black holes do not correlate
directly with dark matter. They do not correlate with galaxy disks, either.
Therefore black holes coevolve only with bulges. This simplifies the puzzle of
their coevolution by focusing attention on purely baryonic processes in the
galaxy mergers that make bulges.Comment: 12 pages, 9 Postscript figures, 1 table; published in Nature (20
January 2011
Dynamical Constraints on The Masses of the Nuclear Star Cluster and Black Hole in the Late-Type Spiral Galaxy NGC 3621
NGC 3621 is a late-type (Sd) spiral galaxy with an active nucleus, previously
detected through mid-infrared [Ne V] line emission. Archival Hubble Space
Telescope (HST) images reveal that the galaxy contains a bright and compact
nuclear star cluster. We present a new high-resolution optical spectrum of this
nuclear cluster, obtained with the ESI Spectrograph at the Keck Observatory.
The nucleus has a Seyfert 2 emission-line spectrum at optical wavelengths,
supporting the hypothesis that a black hole is present. The line-of-sight
stellar velocity dispersion of the cluster is sigma=43+/-3 km/s, one of the
largest dispersions measured for any nuclear cluster in a late-type spiral
galaxy. Combining this measurement with structural parameters measured from
archival HST images, we carry out dynamical modeling based on the Jeans
equation for a spherical star cluster containing a central point mass. The
maximum black hole mass consistent with the measured stellar velocity
dispersion is 3*10^6 solar masses. If the black hole mass is small compared
with the cluster's stellar mass, then the dynamical models imply a total
stellar mass of ~1*10^7 solar masses, which is consistent with rough estimates
of the stellar mass based on photometric measurements from HST images. From
structural decomposition of 2MASS images, we find no clear evidence for a bulge
in NGC 3621; the galaxy contains at most a very faint and inconspicuous
pseudobulge component (M_K>-17.6 mag). NGC 3621 provides one of the best
demonstrations that very late-type spirals can host both active nuclei and
nuclear star clusters, and that low-mass black holes can occur in disk galaxies
even in the absence of a substantial bulge.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap
Polarized Proton Beams from Laser-induced Plasmas
We report on the concept of an innovative source to produce polarized
proton/deuteron beams of a kinetic energy up to several GeV from a laser-driven
plasma accelerator. Spin effects have been implemented into the PIC simulation
code VLPL to make theoretical predictions about the behavior of proton spins in
laser-induced plasmas. Simulations of spin-polarized targets show that the
polarization is conserved during the acceleration process. For the experimental
realization, a polarized HCl gas-jet target is under construction using the
fundamental wavelength of a Nd:YAG laser system to align the HCl bonds and
simultaneously circular polarized light of the fifth harmonic to
photo-dissociate, yielding nuclear polarized H atoms. Subsequently, their
degree of polarization is measured with a Lamb-shift polarimeter. The final
experiments, aiming at the first observation of a polarized particle beam from
laser-generated plasmas, will be carried out at the 10 PW laser system SULF at
SIOM/Shanghai.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figure
UBVI Surface Photometry of the Spiral Galaxy NGC 300 in the Sculptor Group
We present UBVI surface photometry for 20.'5 X 20.'5 area of a late-type
spiral galaxy NGC 300. In order to understand the morphological properties and
luminosity distribution characteristics of NGC 300, we have derived isophotal
maps, surface brightness profiles, ellipticity profiles, position angle
profiles, and color profiles. By merging the I-band data of our surface
brightness measurements with those of Boeker et al. (2002) based on Hubble
Space Telescope observations, we have made combined I-band surface brightness
profiles for the region of 0."02 < r < 500" and decomposed the profiles into
three components: a nucleus, a bulge, and an exponential disk.Comment: 16 pages(cjaa209.sty), Accepted by the Chinese J. Astron. Astrophys.,
Fig 2 and 8 are degraded to reduce spac
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