Seismic Hazard and Ground Motion Characterization at the Itoiz Dam (Northern Spain).

This paper presents a new hazard-consistent ground motion characterization of the Itoiz dam site, located in Northern Spain. Firstly, we propose a methodology with different approximation levels to the expected ground motion at the dam site. Secondly, we apply this methodology taking into account the particular characteristics of the site and of the dam. Hazard calculations were performed following the Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Assessment method using a logic tree, which accounts for different seismic source zonings and different ground-motion attenuation relationships. The study was done in terms of peak ground acceleration and several spectral accelerations of periods coinciding with the fundamental vibration periods of the dam. In order to estimate these ground motions we consider two different dam conditions: when the dam is empty (T = 0.1 s) and when it is filled with water to its maximum capacity (T = 0.22 s). Additionally, seismic hazard analysis is done for two return periods: 975 years, related to the project earthquake, and 4,975 years, identified with an extreme event. Soil conditions were also taken into account at the site of the dam. Through the proposed methodology we deal with different forms of characterizing ground motion at the study site. In a first step, we obtain the uniform hazard response spectra for the two return periods. In a second step, a disaggregation analysis is done in order to obtain the controlling earthquakes that can affect the dam. Subsequently, we characterize the ground motion at the dam site in terms of specific response spectra for target motions defined by the expected values SA (T) of T = 0.1 and 0.22 s for the return periods of 975 and 4,975 years, respectively. Finally, synthetic acceleration time histories for earthquake events matching the controlling parameters are generated using the discrete wave-number method and subsequently analyzed. Because of the short relative distances between the controlling earthquakes and the dam site we considered finite sources in these computations. We conclude that directivity effects should be taken into account as an important variable in this kind of studies for ground motion characteristics

Central star formation and metallicity in CALIFA interacting galaxies

We use optical integral-field spectroscopic (IFS) data from 103 nearby galaxies at different stages of the merging event, from close pairs to merger remnants provided by the CALIFA survey, to study the impact of the interaction in the specific star formation and oxygen abundance on different galactic scales. To disentangle the effect of the interaction and merger from internal processes, we compared our results with a control sample of 80 non-interacting galaxies. We confirm the moderate enhancement (2-3 times) of specific star formation for interacting galaxies in central regions as reported by previous studies; however, the specific star formation is comparable when observed in extended regions. We find that control and interacting star-forming galaxies have similar oxygen abundances in their central regions, when normalized to their stellar masses. Oxygen abundances of these interacting galaxies seem to decrease compared to the control objects at the large aperture sizes measured in effective radius. Although the enhancement in central star formation and lower metallicities for interacting galaxies have been attributed to tidally induced inflows, our results suggest that other processes such as stellar feedback can contribute to the metal enrichment in interacting galaxies.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic

Experience with ongrowing juvenile blackspot sea bream (Pagellus bogaraveo) born in captivity, in tanks at diferent temperatures

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The space density distribution of galaxies in the absolute magnitude - rotation velocity plane: a volume-complete Tully-Fisher relation from CALIFA stellar kinematics

The space density distribution of galaxies in the absolute magnitude - rotation velocity plane: a volume-complete Tully-Fisher relation from CALIFA stellar kinematicsComment: Accepted to A&

Bar pattern speeds in CALIFA galaxies: I. Fast bars across the Hubble sequence

The bar pattern speed ($\Omega_{\rm b}$) is defined as the rotational frequency of the bar, and it determines the bar dynamics. Several methods have been proposed for measuring $\Omega_{\rm b}$. The non-parametric method proposed by Tremaine \& Weinberg (1984; TW) and based on stellar kinematics is the most accurate. This method has been applied so far to 17 galaxies, most of them SB0 and SBa types. We have applied the TW method to a new sample of 15 strong and bright barred galaxies, spanning a wide range of morphological types from SB0 to SBbc. Combining our analysis with previous studies, we investigate 32 barred galaxies with their pattern speed measured by the TW method. The resulting total sample of barred galaxies allows us to study the dependence of $\Omega_{\rm b}$ on galaxy properties, such as the Hubble type. We measured $\Omega_{\rm b}$ using the TW method on the stellar velocity maps provided by the integral-field spectroscopy data from the CALIFA survey. Integral-field data solve the problems that long-slit data present when applying the TW method, resulting in the determination of more accurate $\Omega_{\rm b}$. In addition, we have also derived the ratio $\cal{R}$ of the corotation radius to the bar length of the galaxies. According to this parameter, bars can be classified as fast ($\cal{R}$ $1.4). For all the galaxies,$\cal{R}$is compatible within the errors with fast bars. We cannot rule out (at 95$\%$level) the fast bar solution for any galaxy. We have not observed any significant trend between$\cal{R}$ and the galaxy morphological type. Our results indicate that independent of the Hubble type, bars have been formed and then evolve as fast rotators. This observational result will constrain the scenarios of formation and evolution of bars proposed by numerical simulations.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Ionized gas kinematics of galaxies in the CALIFA survey : I. Velocity fields, kinematic parameters of the dominant component, and presence of kinematically distinct gaseous systems

J.M.A. acknowledges support from the European Research Council Starting Grant (SEDmorph; P.I. V. Wild). Date of Acceptance: 01/08/2014Context. Ionized gas kinematics provide important clues to the dynamical structure of galaxies and hold constraints to the processes driving their evolution. Aims. The motivation of this work is to provide an overall characterization of the kinematic behavior of the ionized gas of the galaxies included in the Calar Alto Legacy Integral field Area (CALIFA), offering kinematic clues to potential users of the CALIFA survey for including kinematical criteria in their selection of targets for specific studies. From the first 200 galaxies observed by CALIFA survey in its two configurations, we present the two-dimensional kinematic view of the 177 galaxies satisfaying a gas content/detection threshold. Methods. After removing the stellar contribution, we used the cross-correlation technique to obtain the radial velocity of the dominant gaseous component for each spectrum in the CALIFA data cubes for different emission lines (namely, [O ii] λλ3726,3729, [O iii] λλ4959,5007, Hα+[N ii] λλ6548,6584, and [SII]λλ6716,6730). The main kinematic parameters measured on the plane of the sky were directly derived from the radial velocities with no assumptions on the internal prevailing motions. Evidence of the presence of several gaseous components with different kinematics were detected by using [O iii] λλ4959,5007 emission line profiles. Results. At the velocity resolution of CALIFA, most objects in the sample show regular velocity fields, although the ionized-gas kinematics are rarely consistent with simple coplanar circular motions. Thirty-five percent of the objects present evidence of a displacement between the photometric and kinematic centers larger than the original spaxel radii. Only 17% of the objects in the sample exhibit kinematic lopsidedness when comparing receding and approaching sides of the velocity fields, but most of them are interacting galaxies exhibiting nuclear activity (AGN or LINER). Early-type (E+S0) galaxies in the sample present clear photometric-kinematic misaligments. There is evidence of asymmetries in the emission line profiles in 117 out of the 177 analyzed galaxies, suggesting the presence of kinematically distinct gaseous components located at different distances from the optical nucleus. The kinematic decoupling between the dominant and secondary component/s suggested by the observed asymmetries in the profiles can be characterized by a limited set of parameters. Conclusions. This work constitutes the first determination of the ionized gas kinematics of the galaxies observed in the CALIFA survey. The derived velocity fields, the reported kinematic distortions/peculiarities and the identification of the presence of several gaseous components in different regions of the objects might be used as additional criteria for selecting galaxies for specific studies.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

The nature of LINER galaxies: Ubiquitous hot old stars and rare accreting black holes

Galaxies, which often contain ionised gas, sometimes also exhibit a so-called low-ionisation nuclear emission line region (LINER). For 30 years this was attributed to a central mass-accreting supermassive black hole (AGN) of low luminosity, making LINER galaxies the largest AGN-sub-population, dominating in numbers over higher luminosity Seyfert galaxies and quasars. This, however, poses a serious problem. While the inferred energy balance is plausible, many LINERs clearly do not contain any other independent signatures of an AGN. Using integral field spectroscopic data from the CALIFA survey, we aim at comparing the observed radial surface brightness profiles with what is expected from illumination by an AGN. Essential for this analysis is a proper extraction of emission-lines, especially weak lines such as the Balmer Hb line which is superposed on an absorption trough. To accomplish this, we use the GANDALF code which simultaneously fits the underlying stellar continuum and emission lines. We show for 48 galaxies with LINER-like emission, that the radial emission-line surface brightness profiles are inconsistent with ionisation by a central point-source and hence cannot be due to an AGN alone. The most probable explanation for the excess LINER-like emission is ionisation by evolved stars during the short but very hot and energetic phase known as post-AGB. This leads us to an entirely new interpretation. Post-AGB stars are ubiquitous and their ionising effect should be potentially observable in every galaxy with gas present and stars older than ~1 Gyr, unless a stronger radiation field from young hot stars or an AGN outshines them. This means that galaxies with LINER-like emission are in fact not a class defined by a property, but rather by the absence of a property. It also explains why LINER emission is observed mostly in massive galaxies with old stars and little star formation.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure

The O3N2 and N2 abundance indicators revisited: improved calibrations based on CALIFA and Te-based literature data

The use of IFS is since recently allowing to measure the emission line fluxes of an increasingly large number of star-forming galaxies both locally and at high redshift. The main goal of this study is to review the most widely used empirical oxygen calibrations, O3N2 and N2, by using new direct abundance measurements. We pay special attention to the expected uncertainty of these calibrations as a function of the index value or abundance derived and the presence of possible systematic offsets. This is possible thanks to the analysis of the most ambitious compilation of Te-based HII regions to date. This new dataset compiles the Te-based abundances of 603 HII regions extracted from the literature but also includes new measurements from the CALIFA survey. Besides providing new and improved empirical calibrations for the gas abundance, we also present here a comparison between our revisited calibrations with a total of 3423 additional CALIFA HII complexes with abundances derived using the ONS calibration by Pilyugin et al. (2010). The combined analysis of Te-based and ONS abundances allows us to derive their most accurate calibration to date for both the O3N2 and N2 single-ratio indicators, in terms of all statistical significance, quality and coverage of the space of parameters. In particular, we infer that these indicators show shallower abundance dependencies and statistically-significant offsets compared to those of Pettini and Pagel (2004), Nagao et al. (2006) and P\'erez-Montero and Contini (2009). The O3N2 and N2 indicators can be empirically applied to derive oxygen abundances calibrations from either direct abundance determinations with random errors of 0.18 and 0.16, respectively, or from indirect ones (but based on a large amount of data) reaching an average precision of 0.08 and 0.09 dex (random) and 0.02 and 0.08 dex (systematic; compared to the direct estimations),respectively.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Tracing kinematic (mis)alignments in CALIFA merging galaxies: Stellar and ionized gas kinematic orientations at every merger stage

We present spatially resolved stellar and/or ionized gas kinematic properties for a sample of 103 interacting galaxies, tracing all merger stages: close companions, pairs with morphological signatures of interaction, and coalesced merger remnants. We compare our sample with 80 non-interacting galaxies. We measure for the stellar and the ionized gas components the major (projected) kinematic position angles (PA$_{\mathrm{kin}}$, approaching and receding) directly from the velocity fields with no assumptions on the internal motions. This method allow us to derive the deviations of the kinematic PAs from a straight line ($\delta$PA$_{\mathrm{kin}}$). Around half of the interacting objects show morpho-kinematic PA misalignments that cannot be found in the control sample. Those misalignments are present mostly in galaxies with morphological signatures of interaction. Alignment between the kinematic sides for both samples is similar, with most of the galaxies displaying small misalignments. Radial deviations of the kinematic PA from a straight line in the stellar component measured by $\delta$PA$_{\mathrm{kin}}$ are large for both samples. However, for a large fraction of interacting galaxies the ionized gas $\delta$PA$_{\mathrm{kin}}$ is larger than typical values derived from isolated galaxies (48%), making this parameter a good indicator to trace the impact of interaction and mergers in the internal motions of galaxies. By comparing the stellar and ionized gas kinematic PA, we find that 42% (28/66) of the interacting galaxies have misalignments larger than 16 degrees, compared to 10% from the control sample. Our results show the impact of interactions in the internal structure of galaxies as well as the wide variety of their velocity distributions. This study also provides a local Universe benchmark for kinematic studies in merging galaxies at high redshift.Comment: 24 pages,11 Figures, Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics. The entire set of stellar and ionized gas velocity fields of the interacting/merging sample will be available in the electronic version of the journa