Quantified HI Morphology VII: star-formation and tidal influence on local dwarf HI morphology

Scale-invariant morphology parameters applied to atomic hydrogen maps (HI) of galaxies can be used to quantify the effects of tidal interaction or star-formation on the ISM. Here we apply these parameters, Concentration, Asymmetry, Smoothness, Gini, M20, and the GM parameter, to two public surveys of nearby dwarf galaxies, the VLA-ANGST and LITTLE-THINGS survey, to explore whether tidal interaction or the ongoing or past star-formation is a dominant force shaping the HI disk of these dwarfs. Previously, HI morphological criteria were identified for ongoing spiral-spiral interactions. When we apply these to the Irregular dwarf population, they either select almost all or none of the population. We find that only the Asymmetry-based criteria can be used to identify very isolated dwarfs (i.e., these have a low tidal indication). Otherwise, there is little or no relation between the level of tidal interaction and the HI morphology. We compare the HI morphology to three star-formation rates based on either Halpha, FUV or the resolved stellar population, probing different star-formation time-scales. The HI morphology parameters that trace the inequality of the distribution, the Gini, GM, and M20 parameters, correlate weakly with all these star-formation rates. This is in line with the picture that local physics dominates the ISM appearance and not tidal effects. Finally, we compare the SDSS measures of star-formation and stellar mass to the HI morphological parameters for all four HI surveys. In the two lower-resolution HI surveys (12"), there is no relation between star-formation measures and HI morphology. The morphology of the two high-resolution HI surveys (6"), the Asymmetry, Smoothness, Gini, M20, and GM, do show a link to the total star-formation, but a weak one.Comment: 26 figures, 4 tables, two appendices. Third appendix (HI maps of all galaxies) omitted. Accepted by MNRA

A Cone Jet-Finding Algorithm for Heavy-Ion Collisions at LHC Energies

Standard jet finding techniques used in elementary particle collisions have not been successful in the high track density of heavy-ion collisions. This paper describes a modified cone-type jet finding algorithm developed for the complex environment of heavy-ion collisions. The primary modification to the algorithm is the evaluation and subtraction of the large background energy, arising from uncorrelated soft hadrons, in each collision. A detailed analysis of the background energy and its event-by-event fluctuations has been performed on simulated data, and a method developed to estimate the background energy inside the jet cone from the measured energy outside the cone on an event-by-event basis. The algorithm has been tested using Monte-Carlo simulations of Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s}=5.5$ TeV for the ALICE detector at the LHC. The algorithm can reconstruct jets with a transverse energy of 50 GeV and above with an energy resolution of $\sim30$.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figure

A2626 and Friends:Large- And Small-scale Structure

New MMT/Hectospec spectroscopy centered on the galaxy cluster A2626 and covering a ${\sim} 1.8\,\text{deg}^2$ area out to $z \sim 0.46$ more than doubles the number of galaxy redshifts in this region. The spectra confirm four clusters previously identified photometrically. A2625, which was previously thought to be a close neighbor of A2626, is in fact much more distant. The new data show six substructures associated with A2626 and five more associated with A2637. There is also a highly collimated collection of galaxies and galaxy groups between A2626 and A2637 having at least three and probably four substructures. At larger scales, the A2626--A2637 complex is not connected to the Pegasus--Perseus filament.Comment: 18 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journa

Comparison of Hi and optical redshifts of galaxies - The impact of redshift uncertainties on spectral line stacking

Accurate optical redshifts will be critical for spectral co-adding techniques used to extract detections from below the noise level in ongoing and upcoming surveys for Hi, which will extend our current understanding of gas reservoirs in galaxies to lower column densities and higher redshifts. We have used existing, high quality optical and radio data from the SDSS and ALFALFA surveys to investigate the relationship be- tween redshifts derived from optical spectroscopy and neutral hydrogen (Hi) spectral line observations.We find that the two redshift measurements agree well, with a negli- gible systematic offset and a small distribution width. Employing simple simulations, we determine how the width of an ideal stacked Hi profile depends on these redshift offsets, as well as larger redshift errors more appropriate for high redshift galaxy sur- veys. The width of the stacked profile is dominated by the width distribution of the input individual profiles when the redshift errors are less than the median width of the input profiles, and only when the redshift errors become large, 150 kms−1, do they significantly affect the width of the stacked profile. This redshift accuracy can be achieved with moderate resolution optical spectra. We provide guidelines for the number of spectra required for stacking to reach a specified mass sensitivity, given tele- scope and survey parameters, which will be useful for planning optical spectroscopy observing campaigns to supplement the radio data.Web of Scienc

Quantified Morphology of HI Disks in the Universe

he upcoming new perspective of the high redshift Universe in the 21 cm line of atomic hydrogen opens possibilities to explore topics of spiral disk evolution, hitherto reserved for the optical regime. The growth of spiral gas disks over Cosmic time can be explored with the new generation of radio telescopes, notably the SKA, and its precursors, as accurately as with the Hubble Space Telescope for stellar disks. Since the atomic hydrogen gas is the building block of these disks, it should trace their formation accurately. Morphology of HI disks can now equally be quantified over Cosmic time. In studies of HST deep fields, the optical or UV morphology of high-redshift galaxy disks have been characterized using a few quantities: concentration (C), asymmetry (A), smoothness (S), second-order-moment (M20), the GINI coefficient (G), and Ellipticity (E). We have applied these parameters across wavelengths and compared them to the HI morphology over the THINGS sample. NGC 3184, an unperturbed disk, and NGC 5194, the canonical 3:1 interaction, serve as examples for quantified morphology. We find that morphology parameters determined in HI are as good or better a tracer of interaction compared to those in any other wavelength, notably in Asymmetry, Gini and M20. This opens the possibility of using them in the parameterization pipeline for SKA precursor catalogues to select interacting or harassed galaxies from their HI morphology. Asymmetry, Gini and M20 may be redefined for use on data-cubes rather than HI column density image.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, proceeding of the conference "Panoramic Radio Astronomy: Wide-field 1-2 GHz research on galaxy evolution", June 02 - 05 2009, Groningen, update after small edit

A simple model for global H i profiles of galaxies

Context. Current and future blind surveys for H i generate large catalogs of spectral lines for which automated characterisation would be convenient