368 research outputs found
Two tails in NGC 3656, and the major merger origin of shell and minor axis dust lane ellipticals
I report on the discovery of two faint (~ 26.8 Rmag/arcsec^2) tidal tails
around the shell elliptical NGC 3656 (Arp 155). This galaxy had previously been
interpreted as a case of accretion, or minor merger. The two tidal tails are
inconsistent with a minor merger, and point instead to a disk-disk major merger
origin. NGC 3656 extends Toomre's merger sequence toward normal elliptical
galaxies, and hints at a major merger origin for shells and minor-axis dust
lanes. A dwarf galaxy lies at the tip of one of the tidal tails. A prominent
shell, which shows sharp azymuthal color discontinuities, belongs to a rotating
dynamical component of young stars which includes the inner dust lane.Comment: 9 pages, 2 plates, 1 figure, uses aaspp.sty, accepted for publication
in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Files also available by anonymous ftp
at ftp.iac.es, directory ./pub/balcell
Barred Galaxies in the Coma Cluster
We use ACS data from the HST Treasury survey of the Coma cluster (z~0.02) to
study the properties of barred galaxies in the Coma core, the densest
environment in the nearby Universe. This study provides a complementary data
point for studies of barred galaxies as a function of redshift and environment.
From ~470 cluster members brighter than M_I = -11 mag, we select a sample of
46 disk galaxies (S0--Im) based on visual classification. The sample is
dominated by S0s for which we find an optical bar fraction of 47+/-11% through
ellipse fitting and visual inspection. Among the bars in the core of the Coma
cluster, we do not find any very large (a_bar > 2 kpc) bars. Comparison to
other studies reveals that while the optical bar fraction for S0s shows only a
modest variation across low-to-intermediate density environments (field to
intermediate-density clusters), it can be higher by up to a factor of ~2 in the
very high-density environment of the rich Coma cluster core.Comment: Proceedings of the Bash symposium, to appear in the Astronomical
Society of the Pacific Conference Series, eds. L. Stanford, L. Hao, Y. Mao,
J. Gree
Effect of band-filling and structural distortions on the Curie temperature of Fe-Mo double perovkites
By means of high resolution neutron powder diffraction at low temperature we
have characterized the structural details of
() and () series of compounds. This study reveals a similar variation of the mean
bond-angle \FeOMo in both series. In contrast, the mean bond-distance \FeMoO\
increases with La but not with Ca substitution. Both series also present a
different evolution of the Curie temperature (), which raises in the La
series and slightly decreases in the Ca one. We thus conclude that the
enhancement of in the La series is due to the electron filling of the
conduction band and a concomitant rising of the density of states at the Fermi
level.Comment: Revtex, 4 Journal pages, 2 figures, 1 tabl
Spin flip scattering in magnetic junctions
Processes which flip the spin of an electron tunneling in a junction made up
of magnetic electrodes are studied. It is found that: i) Magnetic impurities
give a contribution which increases the resistance and lowers the
magnetoresistance, which saturates at low temperatures. The conductance
increases at high fields. ii) Magnon assisted tunneling reduces the
magnetoresistance as , and leads to a non ohmic contribution to the
resistance which goes as , iii) Surface antiferromagnetic magnons,
which may appear if the interface has different magnetic properties from the
bulk, gives rise to and contributions to the magnetoresistance and
resistance, respectively, and, iv) Coulomb blockade effects may enhance the
magnetoresistance, when transport is dominated by cotunneling processes.Comment: 5 page
The morphologies and masses of extremely red galaxies in the Groth Strip survey
We present a new cataloge of EROs from the Groth strip and study the relation
between their morphology and mass. We find 102 EROs (F814W-K=>4, K<=21.0), over
a survey area of 155 arcmin^2. The photometric data include U,B,F606W,F814W,J,K
bands. Morphologies are based on a by eye classification and we distinguish
between 3 basic classes: compact objects, targets with a disc and/or a bulge
component and irregular or merger candidates. The majority of our targets has
either a very compact morphology (33+-6%), or show more or less distinct disc
components (41+-6%). 14+-4% are merger or irregulars and 7 objects could not be
classified. We also study the dependence of structural parameters on
morphological appearance. EROs that are either compact or show a distinct bulge
component have smaller median effective radii (1.22+-0.14 kpc and 3.31+-0.53
kpc) than disc dominated (5.50+-0.51 kpc) or possible irregular galaxies or
merger candidates (4.92+-0.14 kpc). The Sersic index changes from 2.30+-0.34
and 3.24+-0.55, to 1.03+-0.24 and 1.54+-0.40 respectively.
Most the EROs in our sample have redshifts between z=1 and z=2; however,
compact EROs in our sample are found at redshifts as low as z=0.4 and as high
as z=2.8; the latter qualify as well as DRGs. Disc-like EROs are also found up
to z=2.8; however those with a bulge-disc structure are only seen at z<1.5. For
each of these EROs we determined the stellar mass and mean population age by
fitting synthetic Bruzual (2007) spectra to the SED. Mass estimates were
obtained by assuming an exponentially declining star formation rate. Total
stellar masses are in the range 9.1<log(M/M_sun)<11.6. We cannot detect
significant differences between the stellar mass distribution of the
morphological classes. EROs with masses of log(M/M_sun)>11.0 dominantly show
compact morphologies, but also include a significant number of sources with a
disc morphology.Comment: 21 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Quadruple-peaked spectral line profiles as a tool to constrain gravitational potential of shell galaxies
Stellar shells observed in many giant elliptical and lenticular as well as a
few spiral and dwarf galaxies, presumably result from galaxy mergers.
Line-of-sight velocity distributions of the shells could, in principle, if
measured with a sufficiently high S/N, constitute one of methods to constrain
the gravitational potential of the host galaxy. Merrifield & Kuijken (1998)
predicted a double-peaked line profile for stationary shells resulting from a
nearly radial minor merger. In this paper, we aim at extending their analysis
to a more realistic case of expanding shells, inherent to the merging process,
whereas we assume the same type of merger and the same orbital geometry. We use
analytical approach as well as test particle simulations to predict the
line-of-sight velocity profile across the shell structure. Simulated line
profiles are convolved with spectral PSFs to estimate the peak detectability.
The resulting line-of-sight velocity distributions are more complex than
previously predicted due to non-zero phase velocity of the shells. In
principle, each of the Merrifield & Kuijken (1998) peaks splits into two,
giving a quadruple-peaked line profile, which allows more precise determination
of the potential of the host galaxy and, moreover, contains additional
information. We find simple analytical expressions that connect the positions
of the four peaks of the line profile and the mass distribution of the galaxy,
namely the circular velocity at the given shell radius and the propagation
velocity of the shell. The analytical expressions were applied to a
test-particle simulation of a radial minor merger and the potential of the
simulated host galaxy was successfully recovered. The shell kinematics can thus
become an independent tool to determine the content and distribution of the
dark matter in shell galaxies, up to ~100 kpc from the center of the host
galaxy.Comment: 15 pages, 16 figures | v2: accepted for publication in A&A, minor
language correction
The nuclear star cluster of the Milky Way
The nuclear star cluster of the Milky Way is a unique target in the Universe.
Contrary to extragalactic nuclear star clusters, using current technology it
can be resolved into tens of thousands of individual stars. This allows us to
study in detail its spatial and velocity structure as well as the different
stellar populations that make up the cluster. Moreover, the Milky Way is one of
the very few cases where we have firm evidence for the co-existence of a
nuclear star cluster with a central supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A*.
The number density of stars in the Galactic center nuclear star cluster can be
well described, at distances pc from Sagittarius A*, by a power-law
of the form with an index of .
In the central parsec the index of the power-law becomes much flatter and
decreases to . We present proper motions for more than 6000
stars within 1 pc in projection from the central black hole. The cluster
appears isotropic at projected distances pc from Sagittarius A*.
Outside of 0.5 pc and out to 1.0 pc the velocity dispersion appears to stay
constant. A robust result of our Jeans modeling of the data is the required
presence of of extended (stellar) mass in the
central parsec of the Galaxy.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of "The Universe under the Microscope -
Astrophysics at High Angular Resolution", Journal of Physics:Conference
Series (IOP; http://www.iop.org/EJ/conf) This version has been slightly
modified (e.g. double-log plot in right hand panel of Figure 5
Macroscopic Quantum Tunneling and Dissipation of Domain Wall in Ferromagnetic Metals
The depinning of a domain wall in ferromagentic metal via macroscopic quantum
tunneling is studied based on the Hubbard model. The dynamics of the
magnetization verctor is shown to be governed by an effective action of
Heisenberg model with a term non-local in time that describes the dissipation
due to the conduction electron. Due to the existence of the Fermi surface there
exists Ohmic dissipation even at zero temperature, which is crucially different
from the case of the insulator. Taking into account the effect of pinning and
the external magnetic field the action is rewritten in terms of a collective
coordinate, the position of the wall, . The tunneling rate for is
calculated by use of the instanton method. It is found that the reduction of
the tunneling rate due to the dissipation is very large for a thin domain wall
with thickness of a few times the lattice spacing, but is negligible for a
thick domain wall. Dissipation due to eddy current is shown to be negligible
for a wall of mesoscopic size.Comment: of pages 26, to appear in "Quantum Tunneling of Magnetization, ed. B.
Barbara and L. Gunther (Kluwer Academic Pub.), Figures available by FAX
(81-48-462-4649
Low temperature synthesis, magnetic and magnetotransport properties of (La1-xLux)0.67Ca0.33MnO3 (0 < x < 0.12) system
We have been able to synthesize Lu+3 substituted La0.67Ca0.33MnO3 (LCMO) by
an auto-combustion method. Synthesis of this compound is not successful by
conventional ceramic or other chemical methods. Magnetic and electrical
transport properties of the Lu substituted LCMO [(La1-xLux)0.67Ca0.33MnO3 (0 <
x < 0.12)] system have been investigated and compared with those of the Y+3,
Pr+3, Dy+3 and Tb+3 substituted LCMO systems. All the compounds show a
ferromagnetic metal to paramagnetic insulator transition at TC. The tolerance
factor reduces from 0.917 for x = 0 to 0.909 for x = 0.12 and for this range
all are ferromagnetic metals indicating the dominance of the coupling between
spins due to double exchange over the antiferromagnetic superexchange
interaction. The transition temperatures and magnetization decrease as the Lu
concentration increases. This is satisfactorily accounted for on the basis of
transition from ferromagnetic at x = 0 to canted spin order for x > 0. All the
samples show higher magnitude of MR compared to that in pure LCMO at 80 kOe
field in the temperature range of 5 to 320K. A fairly high value of low field
magnetoresistance (LFMR) of about 30% is obtained in all the samples at a field
less than 5 kOe.Comment: Total 35 pages of text and figure
- …