6,147 research outputs found
Reconstructing the History of Star Formation in Rich Cluster Cores
We address the current crucial issues on the formation and evolution of
cluster galaxies: ie., connection between the Butcher-Oemler effect, assembly
of cluster galaxies, truncation of star formation, and the origin of S0
galaxies.
We construct the field corrected colour-magnitude (CM) diagrams for 7 CNOC
clusters (0.23<z<0.43) and Coma, and illustrate the evolution of the complete
cluster population down to the present-day based on the model in which star
formation is truncated when the galaxies infall from the surrounding field.
We show that the blue galaxies are incorporated into the present-day tight CM
relation as they fade and become redder after the truncation, which is possibly
responsible for producing faint S0's (>M*+1). Truncation of star formation is,
however, found to be relatively milder (with a time scale of 1 Gyr) than
suggested by the viorent processes such as ram-pressure stripping and/or
mergers/harassment.
The BO effect is after all found to be a combination of three effects,
namely, increasing field star formation activity, increasing galaxy infall
rate, and the truncatin of star formation after the accretion. Our approach
naturally leads to the history of galaxy assembly and `global' star foramtion
for `cluster' galaxies.Comment: 20 pages, 12 figures, Accepted for Publication in MNRAS (first
submitted on 9th Feb 2000
Photometric Properties of 47 Clusters of Galaxies: I. The Butcher-Oemler Effect
We present gri CCD photometry of 44 Abell clusters and 4 cluster candidates.
Twenty one clusters in our sample have spectroscopic redshifts. Fitting a
relation between mean g, r and i magnitudes, and redshift for this subsample,
we have calculated photometric redshifts for the remainder with an estimated
accuracy of 0.03. The resulting redshift range for the sample is 0.03<z<0.38.
Color-magnitude diagrams are presented for the complete sample and used to
study evolution of the galaxy population in the cluster environment. Our
observations show a strong Butcher-Oemler effect (Butcher & Oemler 1978, 1984),
with an increase in the fraction of blue galaxies (f_B) with redshift that
seems more consistent with the steeper relation estimated by Rakos and
Schombert (1995) than with the original one by Butcher & Oemler (1984).
However, in the redshift range between ~ 0.08 and 0.2, where most of our
clusters lie, there is a wide range of f_B values, consistent with no redshift
evolution of the cluster galaxy population. A large range of f_B values is also
seen between ~ 0.2 and 0.3, when Smail at al. (1998) x-ray clusters are added
to our sample. The discrepancies between samples underscore the need for an
unbiased sample to understand how much of the Butcher-Oemler effect is due to
evolution, and how much to selection effects. We also tested the idea proposed
by Garilli et al. (1996) that there is a population of unusually red galaxies
which could be associated either with the field or clusters, but we find that
these objects are all near the limiting magnitude of the images (20.5<r<22) and
have colors that are consistent with those expected for stars or field galaxies
at z ~ 0.7.Comment: 35 pages including 8 figures, submitted to A
Colors, magnitudes and velocity dispersions in early-type galaxies: Implications for galaxy ages and metallicities
We present an analysis of the color-magnitude-velocity dispersion relation
for a sample of 39320 early-type galaxies within the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.
We demonstrate that the color-magnitude relation is entirely a consequence of
the fact that both the luminosities and colors of these galaxies are correlated
with stellar velocity dispersions. Previous studies of the color-magnitude
relation over a range of redshifts suggest that the luminosity of an early-type
galaxy is an indicator of its metallicity, whereas residuals in color from the
relation are indicators of the luminosity-weighted age of its stars. We show
that this, when combined with our finding that velocity dispersion plays a
crucial role, has a number of interesting implications. First, galaxies with
large velocity dispersions tend to be older (i.e., they scatter redward of the
color-magnitude relation). Similarly, galaxies with large dynamical mass
estimates also tend to be older. In addition, at fixed luminosity, galaxies
which are smaller, or have larger velocity dispersions, or are more massive,
tend to be older. Second, models in which galaxies with the largest velocity
dispersions are also the most metal poor are difficult to reconcile with our
data. However, at fixed velocity dispersion, galaxies have a range of ages and
metallicities: the older galaxies have smaller metallicities, and vice-versa.
Finally, a plot of velocity dispersion versus luminosity can be used as an age
indicator: lines of constant age run parallel to the correlation between
velocity dispersion and luminosity.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures. Accepted by A
B3 0003+387: AGN Marked Large-Scale Structure at z=1.47?
We present evidence for a significant overdensity of red galaxies, as much as
a factor of 14 over comparable field samples, in the field of the z=1.47 radio
galaxy B3 0003+387. The colors and luminosities of the brightest red galaxies
are consistent with their being at z>0.8. The radio galaxy and one of the red
galaxies are separated by 5" and show some evidence of a possible interaction.
However, the red galaxies do not show any strong clustering around the radio
galaxy nor around any of the brighter red galaxies. The data suggest that we
are looking at a wall or sheet of galaxies, possibly associated with the radio
galaxy at z=1.47. Spectroscopic redshifts of these red galaxies will be
necessary to confirm this large-scale structure.Comment: 19 pages, 7 figures, LaTeX2e/AASTeX v5.0.2. The full photometric
catalog is included as a separate deluxetable file. To appear in the
Astronomical Journal (~Nov 00
A Robust Age Indicator for Old Stellar Populations
We derive new spectral H_gamma index definitions which are robust age
indicators for old and relatively old stellar populations and thus have great
potential for solving the age-metallicity degeneracy of galaxy spectra. To
study H_gamma as a function of age, metallicity and resolution, we used a new
spectral synthesis model which predicts SEDs of single-age, single-metallicity
stellar populations at resolution FWHM=1.8A (which can be smoothed to different
resolutions), allowing direct measurements of the equivalent widths of
particular absorption features. We find that the H_gamma strong age
disentangling power strongly depends strongly on the adopted resolution and
galaxy velocity dispersion. We propose a system of indices which are completely
insensitive to metallicity and stable against resolution, allowing the study of
galaxies up to ~300 km/s. Observational spectra of very high S/N and relatively
high dispersion, are required to gain this unprecedented age discriminating
power. Once such spectra are obtained, accurate and reliable estimates for the
luminosity-weighted average stellar ages of these galaxies will become possible
for the first time, without assessing their metallicities. We measured this
index for two globular clusters, a number of low-luminosity elliptical galaxies
and a standard S0 galaxy. We find a large spread in the average stellar ages of
a sample of low-luminosity ellipticals. In particular these indices yield 4 Gyr
for M32, in agreement with the age provided by an extraordinary fit to the full
spectrum of this galaxy that we achieve here.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figures. ApJ, in press. Models and details can be found
at http://www.ioa.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~vazdekis
Detection of Circular Polarization in the Galactic Center Black Hole Candidate Sagittarius A*
We report here the detection of circular polarization in the Galactic Center
black hole candidate, Sagittarius A*. The detection was made at 4.8 GHz and 8.4
GHz with the Very Large Array. We find that the fractional circular
polarization at 4.8 GHz is and that the spectral index of
the circular polarization is (). The systematic error in is less than 0.04% at both
frequencies. In light of our recent lower limits on the linear polarization in
Sgr A*, this detection is difficult to interpret with standard models. We
consider briefly whether scattering mechanisms could produce the observed
polarization. Detailed modeling of the source and the scattering medium is
necessary. We propose a simple model in which low energy electrons reduce
linear polarization through Faraday depolarization and convert linear
polarization into circular polarization. Circular polarization may represent a
significant new parameter for studying the obscured centimeter wavelength radio
source in Sgr A*.Comment: ApJL accepted, 11 pages including 1 figur
Galaxy bimodality versus stellar mass and environment
We analyse a z<0.1 galaxy sample from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey focusing
on the variation of the galaxy colour bimodality with stellar mass and
projected neighbour density Sigma, and on measurements of the galaxy stellar
mass functions. The characteristic mass increases with environmental density
from about 10^10.6 Msun to 10^10.9 Msun (Kroupa IMF, H_0=70) for Sigma in the
range 0.1--10 per Mpc^2. The galaxy population naturally divides into a red and
blue sequence with the locus of the sequences in colour-mass and
colour-concentration index not varying strongly with environment. The fraction
of galaxies on the red sequence is determined in bins of 0.2 in log Sigma and
log mass (12 x 13 bins). The red fraction f_r generally increases continuously
in both Sigma and mass such that there is a unified relation: f_r =
F(Sigma,mass). Two simple functions are proposed which provide good fits to the
data. These data are compared with analogous quantities in semi-analytical
models based on the Millennium N-body simulation: the Bower et al. (2006) and
Croton et al. (2006) models that incorporate AGN feedback. Both models predict
a strong dependence of the red fraction on stellar mass and environment that is
qualitatively similar to the observations. However, a quantitative comparison
shows that the Bower et al. model is a significantly better match; this appears
to be due to the different treatment of feedback in central galaxies.Comment: 19 pages, 17 figures; accepted by MNRAS, minor change
Merging history as a function of halo environment
According to the hierarchical scenario, galaxies form via merging and
accretion of small objects. Using N-body simulations, we study the frequency of
merging events in the history of the halos. We find that at z<~2 the merging
rate of the overall halo population can be described by a simple power law
(1+z)^3. The main emphasis of the paper is on the effects of environment of
halos at the present epoch (z=0). We find that the halos located inside
clusters have formed earlier (dz \approx 1) than isolated halos of the same
mass. At low redshifts (z<1), the merger rate of cluster halos is 3 times lower
than that of isolated halos and 2 times lower than merger rate of halos that
end up in groups by z=0. At higher redshifts (z~1-4), progenitors of cluster
and group halos have 3--5 times higher merger rates than isolated halos. We
briefly discuss implications of our results for galaxy evolution in different
environments.Comment: submitted to the Astrophys. Journal; 11 pages, 9 figs., LaTeX (uses
emulateapj.sty
- …