1,065 research outputs found
The ACS Fornax Cluster Survey. III. Globular Cluster Specific Frequencies of Early-Type Galaxies
The globular cluster (GC) specific frequency (), defined as the number
of GCs per unit galactic luminosity, represents the efficiency of GC formation
(and survival) compared to field stars. Despite the naive expectation that star
cluster formation should scale directly with star formation, this efficiency
varies widely across galaxies. To explore this variation we measure the z-band
GC specific frequency () for 43 early-type galaxies (ETGs) from the
Hubble Space Telescope (HST)/Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) Fornax Cluster
Survey. Combined with the homogenous measurements of in 100 ETGs from
the HST/ACS Virgo Cluster Survey from Peng et al. (2008), we investigate the
dependence of on mass and environment over a range of galaxy
properties. We find that behaves similarly in the two galaxy
clusters, despite the clusters' order-of-magnitude difference in mass density.
The is low in intermediate-mass ETGs (), and increases
with galaxy luminosity. It is elevated at low masses, on average, but with a
large scatter driven by galaxies in dense environments. The densest
environments with the strongest tidal forces appear to strip the GC systems of
low-mass galaxies. However, in low-mass galaxies that are not in strong tidal
fields, denser environments correlate with enhanced GC formation efficiencies.
Normalizing by inferred halo masses, the GC mass fraction,
, is constant for ETGs with stellar masses
, in agreement with previous
studies. The lack of correlation between the fraction of GCs and the nuclear
light implies only a weak link between the infall of GCs and the formation of
nuclei.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures, 6 tables; accepted by Ap
From Supermassive Black Holes to Dwarf Elliptical Nuclei: a Mass Continuum
Considerable evidence suggests that supermassive black holes reside at the
centers of massive galactic bulges. At a lower galactic mass range, many dwarf
galaxies contain extremely compact nuclei that structurally resemble massive
globular clusters. We show that both these types of central massive objects
(CMO's) define a single unbroken relation between CMO mass and the luminosity
of their host galaxy spheroid. Equivalently, M_CMO is directly proportional to
the host spheroid mass over 4 orders of magnitude. We note that this result has
been simultaneously and independently identified by Cote et al. (2006), see
also Ferrarese et al. (2006). We therefore suggest that the dE,N nuclei may be
the low-mass analogs of supermassive black holes, and that these two types of
CMO's may have both developed starting from similar initial formation
processes. The overlap mass interval between the two types of CMO's is small,
and suggests that for M_CMO > 10^7 M_sun, the formation of a black hole was
strongly favored, perhaps because the initial gas infall to the center was too
rapid and violent for star formation to occur efficiently.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, submitted to ApJ
Induced Nested Galactic Bars Inside Assembling Dark Matter Halos
We investigate the formation and evolution of nested bar systems in disk
galaxies in a cosmological setting by following the development of an isolated
dark matter (DM) and baryon density perturbation. The disks form within the
assembling triaxial DM halos and the feedback from the stellar evolution is
accounted for in terms of supernovae and OB stellar winds. Focusing on a
representative model, we show the formation of an oval disk and of a first
generation of nested bars with characteristic sub-kpc and a few kpc sizes. The
system evolves through successive dynamical couplings and decouplings, forcing
the gas inwards and settles in a state of resonant coupling. The inflow rate
can support a broad range of activity within the central kpc, from quasar- to
Seyfert-types, supplemented by a vigorous star formation as a by-product. The
initial bar formation is triggered in response to the tidal torques from the
triaxial DM halo, which acts as a finite perturbation. This first generation of
bars does not survive for more than 4--5 Gyr: by that time the secondary bar
has totally dissolved, while the primary one has very substantially weakened,
reduced to a fat oval. This evolution is largely due to chaos introduced by the
interaction of the multiple non-axisymmetric components.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, 1 mpeg animation. To be published by the
Astrophysical Journal Letters. The animation can be found at
http://www.pa.uky.edu/~shlosman/research/galdyn/movies.html Replaced with an
updated version (small text corrections
Radial stability of a family of anisotropic Hernquist models with and without a supermassive black hole
We present a method to investigate the radial stability of a spherical
anisotropic system that hosts a central supermassive black hole (SBH). Such
systems have never been tested before for stability, although high anisotropies
have been considered in the dynamical models that were used to estimate the
masses of the central putative supermassive black holes. A family of analytical
anisotropic spherical Hernquist models with and without a black hole were
investigated by means of N-body simulations. A clear trend emerges that the
supermassive black hole has a significant effect on the overall stability of
the system, i.e. an SBH with a mass of a few percent of the total mass of the
galaxy can prevent or reduce the bar instabilities in anisotropic systems. Its
mass not only determines the strength of the instability reduction, but also
the time in which this occurs. These effects are most significant for models
with strong radial anisotropies. Furthermore, our analysis shows that unstable
systems with similar SBH but with different anisotropy radii evolve
differently: highly radial systems become oblate, while more isotropic models
tend to form into prolate structures. In addition to this study, we also
present a Monte-Carlo algorithm to generate particles in spherical anisotropic
systems.Comment: 16 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS (some figures
have a lowered resolution
The Existence of Sterile Neutrino Halos in Galactic Centers as an Explanation of the Black Hole mass - Velocity Dispersion Relation
If sterile neutrinos exist and form halos in galactic centers, they can give
rise to observational consequences. In particular, the sterile neutrinos decay
radiatively and heat up the gas in the protogalaxy to achieve hydrostatic
equilibrium, and they provide the mass to form supermassive blackholes. A
natural correlation between the blackhole mass and velocity dispersion thus
arises with and .Comment: Accepted in Ap
AGN heating, thermal conduction and Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect in galaxy groups and clusters
(abridged) We investigate in detail the role of active galactic nuclei on the
physical state of the gas in galaxy groups and clusters, and the implications
for anisotropy in the CMB from Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect. We include the effect
of thermal conduction, and find that the resulting profiles of temperature and
entropy are consistent with observations. Unlike previously proposed models,
our model predicts that isentropic cores are not an inevitable consequence of
preheating. The model also reproduces the observational trend for the density
profiles to flatten in lower mass systems. We deduce the energy E_agn required
to explain the entropy observations as a function of mass of groups and
clusters M_cl and show that E_agn is proportional to M_cl^alpha with alpha~1.5.
We demonstrate that the entropy measurements, in conjunction with our model,
can be translated into constraints on the cluster--black hole mass relation.
The inferred relation is nonlinear and has the form M_bh\propto M_cl^alpha.
This scaling is an analog and extension of a similar relation between the black
hole mass and the galactic halo mass that holds on smaller scales. We show that
the central decrement of the CMB temperature is reduced due to the enhanced
entropy of the ICM, and that the decrement predicted from the plausible range
of energy input from the AGN is consistent with available data of SZ decrement.
We show that AGN heating, combined with the observational constraints on
entropy, leads to suppression of higher multipole moments in the angular power
spectrum and we find that this effect is stronger than previously thought.Comment: accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa
Discovery of an active supermassive black hole in the bulge-less galaxy NGC 4561
We present XMM-Newton observations of the Chandra-detected nuclear X-ray
source in NGC 4561. The hard X-ray spectrum can be described by a model
composed of an absorbed power-law with Gamma= 2.5^{+0.4}_{-0.3}, and column
density N_H=1.9^{+0.1}_{-0.2} times 10^{22} atoms cm^{-2}. The absorption
corrected luminosity of the source is L(0.2 - 10.0 keV) = 2.5 times 10^{41}
ergs s^{-1}, with bolometric luminosity over 3 \times 10^{42} ergs s^{-1}.
Based on the spectrum and the luminosity, we identify the nuclear X-ray source
in NGC 4561 to be an AGN, with a black hole of mass M_BH > 20,000 solar masses.
The presence of a supermassive black hole at the center of this bulge-less
galaxy shows that black hole masses are not necessarily related to bulge
properties, contrary to the general belief. Observations such as these call
into question several theoretical models of BH--galaxy co-evolution that are
based on merger-driven BH growth; secular processes clearly play an important
role. Several emission lines are detected in the soft X-ray spectrum of the
source which can be well parametrized by an absorbed diffuse thermal plasma
with non-solar abundances of some heavy elements. Similar soft X-ray emission
is observed in spectra of Seyfert 2 galaxies and low luminosity AGNs,
suggesting an origin in the circumnuclear plasma.Comment: To appear in Ap
Supermassive Black Holes and Galaxy Formation
The formation of supermassive black holes (SMBH) is intimately related to
galaxy formation, although precisely how remains a mystery. I speculate that
formation of, and feedback from, SMBH may alleviate problems that have arisen
in our understanding of the cores of dark halos of galaxies.Comment: Talk at conference on Matter in the Universe, March 2001, ISSI Ber
- âŠ