190 research outputs found
A Catalogue of Morphologically Classified Galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: North Equatorial Region
We present a catalogue of morphologically classified bright galaxies in the
north equatorial stripe (230 deg) derived from the Third Data Release of
the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Morphological classification is performed
by visual inspection of images in the band. The catalogue contains 2253
galaxies complete to a magnitude limit of after Galactic extinction
correction, selected from 2658 objects that are judged as extended in the
photometric catalogue in the same magnitude limit. 1866 galaxies in our
catalogue have spectroscopic information. A brief statistical analysis is
presented for the frequency of morphological types and mean colours in the
catalogue. A visual inspection of the images reveals that the rate of
interacting galaxies in the local Universe is approximately 1.5% in the
sample. A verification is made for the photometric catalogue generated
by the SDSS, especially as to its bright end completeness.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomical Journal. Table 2 available
at http://www.icrr.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~fukugita/MCGpaper/table2.tx
The venous contribution to sodium MRI in the human brain
Purpose:
Sodium MRI shows great promise as a marker for cerebral metabolic dysfunction in stroke, brain tumor, and neurodegenerative pathologies. However, cerebral blood vessels, whose volume and function are perturbed in these pathologies, have elevated sodium concentrations relative to surrounding tissue. This study aims to assess whether this fluid compartment could bias measurements of tissue sodium using MRI.
Methods:
Density‐weighted and B1 corrected sodium MRI of the brain was acquired in 9 healthy participants at 4.7T. Veins were identified using co‐registered 1H T*2‐weighted images and venous partial volume estimates were calculated by down‐sampling the finer spatial resolution venous maps from the T*2‐weighted images to the coarser spatial resolution of the sodium data. Linear regressions of venous partial volume estimates and sodium signal were performed for regions of interest including just gray matter, just white matter, and all brain tissue.
Results:
Linear regression demonstrated a significant venous sodium contribution above the underlying tissue signal. The apparent venous sodium concentrations derived from regression were 65.8 ± 4.5 mM (all brain tissue), 71.0 ± 7.4 mM (gray matter), and 55.0 ± 4.7 mM (white matter).
Conclusion:
Although the partial vein linear regression did not yield the expected sodium concentration in blood (~87 mM), likely the result of point spread function smearing, this regression highlights that blood compartments may bias brain tissue sodium signals across neurological conditions where blood volumes may differ
Galaxy and mass assembly (GAMA): The connection between metals, specific SFR and Hi gas in galaxies: The Z-SSFR relation
We study the interplay between gas phase metallicity (Z), specific star formation rate (SSFR) and neutral hydrogen gas (HI) for galaxies of different stellar masses. Our study uses spectroscopic data from Galaxy and Mass Assembly and Sloan Digital Sky Su
The Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3 Early Release Science data: Panchromatic Faint Object Counts for 0.2-2 microns wavelength
We describe the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) Early
Release Science (ERS) observations in the Great Observatories Origins Deep
Survey (GOODS) South field. The new WFC3 ERS data provide calibrated, drizzled
mosaics in the UV filters F225W, F275W, and F336W, as well as in the near-IR
filters F098M (Ys), F125W (J), and F160W (H) with 1-2 HST orbits per filter.
Together with the existing HST Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) GOODS-South
mosaics in the BViz filters, these panchromatic 10-band ERS data cover 40-50
square arcmin at 0.2-1.7 {\mu}m in wavelength at 0.07-0.15" FWHM resolution and
0.090" Multidrizzled pixels to depths of AB\simeq 26.0-27.0 mag (5-{\sigma})
for point sources, and AB\simeq 25.5-26.5 mag for compact galaxies.
In this paper, we describe: a) the scientific rationale, and the data taking
plus reduction procedures of the panchromatic 10-band ERS mosaics; b) the
procedure of generating object catalogs across the 10 different ERS filters,
and the specific star-galaxy separation techniques used; and c) the reliability
and completeness of the object catalogs from the WFC3 ERS mosaics. The
excellent 0.07-0.15" FWHM resolution of HST/WFC3 and ACS makes star- galaxy
separation straightforward over a factor of 10 in wavelength to AB\simeq 25-26
mag from the UV to the near-IR, respectively.Comment: 51 pages, 71 figures Accepted to ApJS 2011.01.2
MUSE spectroscopy and deep observations of a unique compact JWST target, lensing cluster CLIO
We present the results of a VLT MUSE/FORS2 and Spitzer survey of a unique compact lensing cluster CLIO at z = 0.42, discovered through the GAMA survey using spectroscopic redshifts. Compact and massive clusters such as this are understudied, but provide a unique prospective on dark matter distributions and for finding background lensed high-z galaxies. The CLIO cluster was identified for follow-up observations due to its almost unique combination of high-mass and dark matter halo concentration, as well as having observed lensing arcs from ground-based images. Using dual band optical and infra-red imaging from FORS2 and Spitzer, in combination with MUSE optical spectroscopy we identify 89 cluster members and find background sources out to z = 6.49. We describe the physical state of this cluster, finding a strong correlation between environment and galaxy spectral type. Under the assumption of an NFW profile, we measure the total mass of CLIO to be M200 = (4.49 ± 0.25) × 1014 M⊙. We build and present an initial strong-lensing model for this cluster, and measure a relatively low intracluster light (ICL) fraction of 7.21 ± 1.53 per cent through galaxy profile fitting. Due to its strong potential for lensing background galaxies and its low ICL, the CLIO cluster will be a target for our 110 h James Webb Space Telescope ‘Webb Medium-Deep Field’ (WMDF) GTO program.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe
Evolution in the Disks and Bulges of Group Galaxies since z=0.4
We present quantitative morphology measurements of a sample of optically
selected group galaxies at 0.3 < z < 0.55 using the Hubble Space Telescope
(HST) Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and the GIM2D surface
brightness--fitting software package. The group sample is derived from the
Canadian Network for Observational Cosmology Field Redshift survey (CNOC2) and
follow-up Magellan spectroscopy. We compare these measurements to a similarly
selected group sample from the Millennium Galaxy Catalogue (MGC) at 0.05 < z <
0.12. We find that, at both epochs, the group and field fractional bulge
luminosity (B/T) distributions differ significantly, with the dominant
difference being a deficit of disk--dominated (B/T < 0.2) galaxies in the group
samples. At fixed luminosity, z=0.4 groups have ~ 5.5 +/- 2 % fewer
disk--dominated galaxies than the field, while by z=0.1 this difference has
increased to ~ 19 +/- 6 %. Despite the morphological evolution we see no
evidence that the group environment is actively perturbing or otherwise
affecting the entire existing disk population. At both redshifts, the disks of
group galaxies have similar scaling relations and show similar median
asymmetries as the disks of field galaxies. We do find evidence that the
fraction of highly asymmetric, bulge--dominated galaxies is 6 +/- 3 % higher in
groups than in the field, suggesting there may be enhanced merging in group
environments. We replicate our group samples at z=0.4 and z=0 using the
semi-analytic galaxy catalogues of Bower et al (2006). This model accurately
reproduces the B/T distributions of the group and field at z=0.1. However, the
model does not reproduce our finding that the deficit of disks in groups has
increased significantly since z=0.4.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 20 pages, 17 figure
The 2dF-SDSS LRG and QSO Survey: The Star Formation Histories of Luminous Red Galaxies
We present a detailed investigation into the recent star formation histories
of 5,697 Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs) based on the Hdelta (4101A) and [OII]
(3727A) lines. LRGs are luminous (L>3L*), galaxies which have been selected to
have photometric properties consistent with an old, passively evolving stellar
population. For this study we utilise LRGs from the recently completed 2dF-SDSS
LRG and QSO survey (2SLAQ). Equivalent widths of the Hdelta and [OII] lines are
measured and used to define three spectral types, those with only strong Hdelta
absorption (k+a), those with strong [OII] in emission (em) and those with both
(em+a). All other LRGs are considered to have passive star formation histories.
The vast majority of LRGs are found to be passive (~80 per cent), however
significant numbers of k+a (2.7 per cent), em+a (1.2 per cent) and em LRGs (8.6
per cent) are identified. An investigation into the redshift dependence of the
fractions is also performed. A sample of SDSS MAIN galaxies with colours and
luminosities consistent with the 2SLAQ LRGs is selected to provide a low
redshift comparison. While the em and em+a fractions are consistent with the
low redshift SDSS sample, the fraction of k+a LRGs is found to increase
significantly with redshift. This result is interpreted as an indication of an
increasing amount of recent star formation activity in LRGs with redshift. By
considering the expected life time of the k+a phase, the number of LRGs which
will undergo a k+a phase can be estimated. A crude comparison of this estimate
with the predictions from semi-analytic models of galaxy formation shows that
the predicted level of k+a and em+a activity is not sufficient to reconcile the
predicted mass growth for massive early-types in a hierarchical merging
scenario.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 13 pages, 10 figure
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