1,208 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
Stellar population synthesis models between 2.5 and 5 {\mu}m based on the empirical IRTF stellar library
We present the first single-burst stellar population models in the infrared
wavelength range between 2.5 and 5 {\mu}m which are exclusively based on
empirical stellar spectra. Our models take as input 180 spectra from the
stellar IRTF (Infrared Telescope Facility) library. Our final single-burst
stellar population models are calculated based on two different sets of
isochrones and various types of initial mass functions of different slopes,
ages larger than 1 Gyr and metallicities between [Fe/H] = -0.70 and 0.26. They
are made available online to the scientific community on the MILES web page. We
analyse the behaviour of the Spitzer [3.6]-[4.5] colour calculated from our
single stellar population models and find only slight dependences on both
metallicity and age. When comparing to the colours of observed early-type
galaxies, we find a good agreement for older, more massive galaxies that
resemble a single-burst population. Younger, less massive and more metal-poor
galaxies show redder colours with respect to our models. This mismatch can be
explained by a more extended star formation history of these galaxies which
includes a metal-poor or/and young population. Moreover, the colours derived
from our models agree very well with most other models available in this
wavelength range. We confirm that the mass-to-light ratio determined in the
Spitzer [3.6] {\mu}m band changes much less as a function of both age and
metallicity than in the optical bands.Comment: 25 pages, 19 figures, published in MNRAS, models can be downloaded
from http://miles.iac.e
A SAURON study of dwarf elliptical galaxies in the Virgo Cluster
Dwarf elliptical galaxies are the most common galaxy type in nearby galaxy
clusters, yet they remain relatively poorly studied objects and many of their
basic properties have yet to be quantified. In this contribution we present the
preliminary results of a study of 4 Virgo and 1 field galaxy obtained with the
SAURON integral field unit on the William Herschel Telescope (La Palma). While
traditional long-slit observations are likely to miss more complicated
kinematic features, with SAURON we are able to study both kinematics and
stellar populations in two dimensions, obtaining a much more detailed view of
the mass distribution and star formation histories.Comment: 2 pages, 1 figure; to appear in the proceedings of the conference "A
Universe of dwarf galaxies" (Lyon, June 14-18, 2010
Gröbner bases and the number of Latin squares related to autotopisms of order ≤7
AbstractLatin squares can be seen as multiplication tables of quasigroups, which are, in general, non-commutative and non-associative algebraic structures. The number of Latin squares having a fixed isotopism in their autotopism group is at the moment an open problem. In this paper, we use Gröbner bases to describe an algorithm that allows one to obtain the previous number. Specifically, this algorithm is implemented in Singular to obtain the number of Latin squares related to any autotopism of Latin squares of order up to 7
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