113 research outputs found
A Stellar Mass Threshold for Quenching of Field Galaxies
We demonstrate that dwarf galaxies (10^7 < M_stellar < 10^9 Msun) with no
active star formation are extremely rare (<0.06%) in the field. Our sample is
based on the NASA-Sloan Atlas which is a re-analysis of the Sloan Digital Sky
Survey Data Release 8. We examine the relative number of quenched versus star
forming dwarf galaxies, defining quenched galaxies as having no Halpha emission
(EW_Halpha < 2 AA) and a strong 4000AA-break. The fraction of quenched dwarf
galaxies decreases rapidly with increasing distance from a massive host,
leveling off for distances beyond 1.5 Mpc. We define galaxies beyond 1.5 Mpc of
a massive host galaxy to be in the field. We demonstrate that there is a
stellar mass threshold of M_stellar < 1.0x10^9 Msun below which quenched
galaxies do not exist in the field. Below this threshold, we find that none of
the 2951 field dwarf galaxies are quenched; all field dwarf galaxies show
evidence for recent star formation. Correcting for volume effects, this
corresponds to a 1-sigma upper limit on the quenched fraction of 0.06%. In more
dense environments, quenched galaxies account for 23% of the dwarf population
over the same stellar mass range. The majority of quenched dwarf galaxies
(often classified as dwarf elliptical galaxies) are within 2 virial radii of a
massive galaxy, and only a few percent of quenched dwarf galaxies exist beyond
4 virial radii. Thus, for galaxies with stellar mass less than 1.0x10^9 Msun,
ending star-formation requires the presence of a more massive neighbor,
providing a stringent constraint on models of star formation feedback.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, accepted to Ap
Dark satellites and the morphology of dwarf galaxies
One of the strongest predictions of the LambdaCDM cosmological model is the
presence of dark satellites orbiting all types of galaxies. We focus here on
the dynamical effects of such satellites on disky dwarf galaxies, and
demonstrate that these encounters can be dramatic. Although mergers with M_sat
> M_d are not very common, because of the lower baryonic content they occur
much more frequently on the dwarf scale than for L_*-galaxies. As an example,
we present a numerical simulation of a 20% (virial) mass ratio merger between a
dark satellite and a disky dwarf (akin to the Fornax dwarf galaxy in
luminosity) that shows that the merger remnant has a spheroidal morphology. We
conclude that perturbations by dark satellites provide a plausible path for the
formation of dSph systems and also could trigger starbursts in gas rich dwarf
galaxies. Therefore the transition from disky to the often amorphous,
irregular, or spheroidal morphologies of dwarfs could be a natural consequence
of the dynamical heating of hitherto unobservable dark satellites.Comment: Submitted to ApJ Letters. 5 pages, 4 figures. A movie showing an
encounter between a disky dwarf galaxy and a dark satellite can be found at
http://www.astro.rug.nl/~ahelmi/dwarfs-morphologies.htm
Evidence for the disky origin of luminous Virgo dwarf ellipticals from the kinematics of their globular cluster systems
We report evidence for dynamically significant rotation in the globular
cluster systems of two luminous Virgo dwarf ellipticals, VCC1261 and VCC1528.
Including previous results for VCC1087, the globular cluster systems of all
three Virgo dwarf ellipticals studied in detail to date exhibit v_rot/sigma >
1. Taking the rotation seen in the globular clusters as maximal disk rotation,
we find all three dEs lie on the r-band Tully-Fisher relation. We argue that
these data support the hypothesis that luminous dEs are the remnants of
transformed disk galaxies. We also obtained deep, longslit data for the stars
in VCC1261 and VCC1528. Both these galaxies show rapid rotation in their inner
regions, with spatial scales of ~0.5 kpc. These rotation velocities are similar
to those seen in the GC systems. Since our longslit data for Virgo dEs extend
out to 1-2 effective radii (typical of deep observations), whereas the globular
clusters extend out to 4--7 effective radii, we conclude that non-detections of
rotation in many luminous dEs may simply be due to a lack of radial coverage in
the stellar data, and that globular clusters represent singularly sensitive
probes of the dynamics of dEs. Based on these data, we suggest that gas disks
are significant sites of globular cluster formation in the early universe.Comment: To appear in the AJ, corrected typographical errors in Table 1, added
a referenc
The Baryon Content of Extremely Low Mass Dwarf Galaxies
We investigate the gas content and baryonic Tully-Fisher relationship for
extremely low luminosity dwarf galaxies in the absolute magnitude range -13.5 >
Mr > -16. The sample is selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and consists
of 101 galaxies for which we have obtained follow-up HI observations using the
Arecibo Observatory and Green Bank Telescope. This represents the largest
homogeneous sample of dwarfs at low luminosities with well-measured HI and
optical properties. The sample spans a range of environments, from dense groups
to truly isolated galaxies. The average neutral gas fraction is f_gas=0.6,
significantly exceeding that of typical gas-rich galaxies at higher
luminosities. Dwarf galaxies are therefore less efficient at turning gas into
stars over their lifetimes. The strong environmental dependence of the gas
fraction distribution demonstrates that while internal processes can reduce the
gas fractions to roughly f_gas=0.4, external processes are required to fully
remove gas from a dwarf galaxy. The average rotational velocity of our sample
is vrot=50 km/s. Including more massive galaxies from the literature, we fit a
baryonic Tully-Fisher slope of M_baryon \propto vrot^(3.70+/- 0.15). This slope
compares well with CDM models that assume an equal baryon to dark matter ratio
at all masses. While gas stripping or other processes may modify the baryon to
dark matter ratio for dwarfs in the densest environments, the majority of dwarf
galaxies in our sample have not preferentially lost significant baryonic mass
relative to more massive galaxies.Comment: 33 pages, 8 figures. Accepted to ApJ. Data available at
http://www.ociw.edu/~mgeha/researc
Formation and evolution of dwarf galaxies in the CDM Universe
We first review the results of the tidal stirring model for the
transformation of gas-rich dwarf irregulars into dwarf spheroidals, which turns
rotationally supported stellar systems into pressure supported ones. We
emphasize the importance of the combined effect of ram pressure stripping and
heating from the cosmic ultraviolet background in removing the gas and
converting the object into a gas poor system as dSphs. We discuss how the
timing of infall of dwarfs into the primary halo determines the final
mass-to-light ratio and star formation history. Secondly we review the results
of recent cosmological simulations of the formation of gas-rich dwarfs. These
simulations are finally capable to produce a realistic object with no bulge, an
exponential profile and a slowly rising rotation curve. The result owes to the
inclusion of an inhomogeneous ISM and a star formation scheme based on regions
having the typical density of molecular cloud complexes. Supernovae-driven
winds become more effective in such mode, driving low angular momentum baryons
outside the virial radius at high redshift and turning the dark matter cusp
into a core. Finally we show the first tidal stirring experiments adopting
dwarfs formed in cosmological simulations as initial conditions. The latter are
gas dominated and have have turbulent thick gaseous and stellar disks disks
that cannot develop strong bars, yet they are efficiently heated into spheroids
by tidal shocks.Comment: 14 pages, 4 Figures, o appear in the proceedings of the CRAL
conference, Lyon, June 2010, "A Universe of Dwarf Galaxies", eds. Philippe
Prugniel & Mina Koleva; EDP Sciences in the European Astronomical Society
Publications Series. (invited talk
HI Selected Galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey I: Optical Data
We present the optical data for 195 HI-selected galaxies that fall within
both the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and the Parkes Equatorial Survey (ES).
The photometric quantities have been independently recomputed for our sample
using a new photometric pipeline optimized for large galaxies, thus correcting
for SDSS's limited reliability for automatic photometry of angularly large or
low surface brightness (LSB) galaxies. We outline the magnitude of the
uncertainty in the SDSS catalog-level photometry and derive a quantitative
method for correcting the over-sky subtraction in the SDSS photometric
pipeline. The main thrust of this paper is to present the ES/SDSS sample and
discuss the methods behind the improved photometry, which will be used in
future scientific analysis. We present the overall optical properties of the
sample and briefly compare to a volume-limited, optically-selected sample.
Compared to the optically-selected SDSS sample (in the similar volume),
HI-selected galaxies are bluer and more luminous (fewer dwarf ellipticals and
more star formation). However, compared to typical SDSS galaxy studies, which
have their own selection effects, our sample is bluer, fainter and less
massive.Comment: 14 pages, 8 Figures, accepted for publication in AJ. Complete tables
will be available in the AJ electronic version and on the Vizier sit
HI Selected Galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey II: The Colors of Gas-Rich Galaxies
We utilize color information for an HI-selected sample of 195 galaxies to
explore the star formation histories and physical conditions that produce the
observed colors. We show that the HI selection creates a significant offset
towards bluer colors that can be explained by enhanced recent bursts of star
formation. There is also no obvious color bimodality, because the HI selection
restricts the sample to bluer, actively star forming systems, diminishing the
importance of the red sequence. Rising star formation rates are still required
to explain the colors of galaxies bluer than g-r < 0.3. We also demonstrate
that the colors of the bluest galaxies in our sample are dominated by emission
lines and that stellar population synthesis models alone (without emission
lines) are not adequate for reproducing many of the galaxy colors. These
emission lines produce large changes in the r-i colors but leave the g-r color
largely unchanged. In addition, we find an increase in the dispersion of galaxy
colors at low masses that may be the result of a change in the star formation
process in low-mass galaxies.Comment: 12 pages, 16 figures, published in AJ (138, 796); replaced Figure 16
with higher resolution versio
Thin discs, thick dwarfs and the effects of stellar feedback
We investigate the role of stellar mass in shaping the intrinsic thickness of
galaxy discs by determining the probability distribution of apparent axis
ratios (b/a) for two different samples that probe the faint end of the galaxy
luminosity function. We find that the b/a distribution has a characteristic
'U-shape' and identify a limiting mass M_* ~ 2x10^9 M_sun below which low-mass
galaxies start to be systematically thicker. This tendency holds for very faint
(M_B ~ -8) dwarfs in the Local Volume, which are essentially spheroidal
systems. We argue that galaxy shape is the result of the complex interplay
between mass, specific angular momentum and stellar feedback effects. Thus, the
increasing importance of turbulent motions in lower mass galaxies leads to the
formation of thicker systems, a result supported by the latest hydrodynamical
simulations of dwarf galaxy formation and other theoretical expectations. We
discuss several implications of this finding, including the formation of bars
in faint galaxies, the deprojection of HI line profiles and simulations of
environmental effects on the dwarf galaxy population.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS Letter
From Galaxy Clusters to Ultra-Faint Dwarf Spheroidals: A Fundamental Curve Connecting Dispersion-supported Galaxies to Their Dark Matter Halos
We examine scaling relations of dispersion-supported galaxies over more than
eight orders of magnitude in luminosity by transforming standard fundamental
plane parameters into a space of mass (M1/2), radius (r1/2), and luminosity
(L1/2). We find that from ultra-faint dwarf spheroidals to giant cluster
spheroids, dispersion-supported galaxies scatter about a one-dimensional
"fundamental curve" through this MRL space. The weakness of the M1/2-L1/2 slope
on the faint end may imply that potential well depth limits galaxy formation in
small galaxies, while the stronger dependence on L1/2 on the bright end
suggests that baryonic physics limits galaxy formation in massive galaxies. The
mass-radius projection of this curve can be compared to median dark matter halo
mass profiles of LCDM halos in order to construct a virial mass-luminosity
relationship (Mvir-L) for galaxies that spans seven orders of magnitude in
Mvir. Independent of any global abundance or clustering information, we find
that (spheroidal) galaxy formation needs to be most efficient in halos of Mvir
~ 10^12 Msun and to become inefficient above and below this scale. Moreover,
this profile matching technique is most accurate at the high and low luminosity
extremes (where dark matter fractions are highest) and is therefore quite
complementary to statistical approaches that rely on having a well-sampled
luminosity function. We also consider the significance and utility of the
scatter about this relation, and find that in the dSph regime observational
errors are almost at the point where we can explore the intrinsic scatter in
the luminosity-virial mass relation. Finally, we note that purely stellar
systems like Globular Clusters and Ultra Compact Dwarfs do not follow the
fundamental curve relation. This allows them to be easily distinguished from
dark-matter dominated dSph galaxies in MRL space. (abridged)Comment: 27 pages, 18 figures, ApJ accepted. High-res movies of 3D figures are
available at http://www.physics.uci.edu/~bullock/fcurve/movies.htm
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