4,104 research outputs found
The identification of physical close galaxy pairs
A classification scheme for close pairs of galaxies is proposed. The scheme
is motivated by the fact that the majority of apparent close pairs are in fact
wide pairs in three-dimensional space. This is demonstrated by means of
numerical simulations of random samples of binary galaxies and the scrutiny of
the resulting projected and spatial separation distributions.
Observational strategies for classifying close pairs according to the scheme
are suggested. As a result, physical (i.e., bound and spatially) close pairs
are identified.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in The Astronomical
Journal, added text corrections on proof
Body weight and colorectal cancer risk in a cohort of Swedish women: relation varies by age and cancer site
The relation between relative body weight and colorectal cancer among women is unclear. In a large prospective cohort study, we found a positive association only for distal cancers among younger women that became attenuated at older ages. These results support previous reports in which results were stratified by age or colorectal cancer site. © 2001 Cancer Research Campaign http://www.bjcancer.co
The Relationship Between Baryons and Dark Matter in Extended Galaxy Halos
The relationship between gas-rich galaxies and Ly-alpha absorbers is
addressed in this paper in the context of the baryonic content of galaxy halos.
Deep Arecibo HI observations are presented of two gas-rich spiral galaxies
within 125 kpc projected distance of a Ly-alpha absorber at a similar velocity.
The galaxies investigated are close to edge-on and the absorbers lie almost
along their major axes, allowing for a comparison of the Ly-alpha absorber
velocities with galactic rotation. This comparison is used to examine whether
the absorbers are diffuse gas rotating with the galaxies' halos, outflow
material from the galaxies, or intergalactic gas in the low redshift cosmic
web. The results indicate that if the gas resides in the galaxies' halos it is
not rotating with the system and possibly counter-rotating. In addition, simple
geometry indicates the gas was not ejected from the galaxies and there are no
gas-rich satellites detected down to 3.6 - 7.5 x 10^6 Msun, or remnants of
satellites to 5-6 x 10^{18} cm^{-2}. The gas could potentially be infalling
from large radii, but the velocities and distances are rather high compared to
the high velocity clouds around the Milky Way. The most likely explanation is
the galaxies and absorbers are not directly associated, despite the vicinity of
the spiral galaxies to the absorbers (58-77 kpc from the HI edge). The spiral
galaxies reside in a filament of intergalactic gas, and the gas detected by the
absorber has not yet come into equilibrium with the galaxy. These results also
indicate that the massive, extended dark matter halos of spiral galaxies do not
commonly have an associated diffuse baryonic component at large radii.Comment: Accepted by AJ, 33 pages preprint format, see
http://www.astro.lsa.umich.edu/~mputman/putman1.pdf for a higher resolution
versio
A Hubble Space Telescope Snapshot Survey of Dynamically Close Galaxy Pairs in the CNOC2 Redshift Survey
We compare the structural properties of two classes of galaxies at
intermediate redshift: those in dynamically close galaxy pairs, and those which
are isolated. Both samples are selected from the CNOC2 Redshift Survey, and
have redshifts in the range 0.1 < z <0.6. Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 images
were acquired as part of a snapshot survey, and were used to measure bulge
fraction and asymmetry for these galaxies. We find that paired and isolated
galaxies have identical distributions of bulge fractions. Conversely, we find
that paired galaxies are much more likely to be asymmetric (R_T+R_A >= 0.13)
than isolated galaxies. Assuming that half of these pairs are unlikely to be
close enough to merge, we estimate that 40% +/- 11% of merging galaxies are
asymmetric, compared with 9% +/- 3% of isolated galaxies. The difference is
even more striking for strongly asymmetric (R_T+R_A >= 0.16) galaxies: 25% +/-
8% for merging galaxies versus 1% +/- 1% for isolated galaxies. We find that
strongly asymmetric paired galaxies are very blue, with rest-frame B-R colors
close to 0.80, compared with a mean (B-R)_0 of 1.24 for all paired galaxies. In
addition, asymmetric galaxies in pairs have strong [OII]3727 emission lines. We
conclude that close to half of the galaxy pairs in our sample are in the
process of merging, and that most of these mergers are accompanied by triggered
star formation.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal. 40 pages,
including 15 figures. For full resolution version, please see
http://www.trentu.ca/physics/dpatton/hstpairs
Transformation of Morphology and Luminosity Classes of the SDSS Galaxies
We present a unified picture on the evolution of galaxy luminosity and
morphology. Galaxy morphology is found to depend critically on the local
environment set up by the nearest neighbor galaxy in addition to luminosity and
the large scale density. When a galaxy is located farther than the virial
radius from its closest neighbor, the probability for the galaxy to have an
early morphological type is an increasing function only of luminosity and the
local density due to the nearest neighbor (). The tide produced by the
nearest neighbor is thought to be responsible for the morphology transformation
toward the early type at these separations. When the separation is less than
the virial radius, i.e. when , its morphology
depends also on the neighbor's morphology and the large-scale background
density over a few Mpc scales () in addition to luminosity and
. The early type probability keeps increasing as increases if
its neighbor is an early type. But the probability decreases as
increases when the neighbor is a late type. The cold gas streaming from the
late type neighbor can be the reason for the morphology transformation toward
late type. The overall early-type fraction increases as increases
when . This can be attributed to the hot halo gas
of the neighbor which is confined by the pressure of the ambient medium held by
the background mass. We have also found that galaxy luminosity depends on
, and that the isolated bright galaxies are more likely to be recent
merger products. We propose a scenario that a series of morphology and
luminosity transformation occur through distant interactions and mergers, which
results in the morphology--luminosity--local density relation.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, for higher resolution figures download PDF file
at http://astro.kias.re.kr/docs/trans.pdf ; references added and typos in
section 3.2 corrected; Final version accepted for publication in Ap
Excess breast cancer risk and the role of parity, age at first childbirth and exposure to radiation in infancy
Exposure to ionizing radiation is a known risk factor for breast cancer and the fertility pattern is a recognized modifier of breast cancer risk. The aim of this study was to elucidate the interaction between these 2 factors. This study is based on a Swedish cohort of 17â202 women who had been irradiated for skin haemangiomas in infancy between 1920 and 1965. The mean age at treatment was 6 months and the median breast dose was 0.05 Gy (range 0â35.8 Gy). Follow-up information on vital status, parity, age at first childbirth and breast cancer incidence was retrieved through record linkage with national population registers for the period 1958â1995. Analyses of excess relative risk (ERR) models were performed using Poisson regression methods. In this cohort, the fertility pattern differed from that in the Swedish population, with significantly fewer childbirths overall and before 25 years of age but more childbirth after that age. There were 307 breast cancers in the cohort and the standardized incidence ratio (SIR) was 1.22 (95% CI 1.09â1.36). A linear doseâresponse model with stratification for fertility pattern and menopausal status resulted in the best fit of the data. ERR/Gy was 0.33 (95% CI 0.17â0.53). In absolute terms this means an excess of 2.1 and 5.4 cases per Gy per 104breast-years in the age groups 40â49 and 50â59 years respectively. The fertility pattern influenced the breast cancer risk in this irradiated population in a similar way to that observed in other studies. SIR at dose = 0 was highest, 2.31, among postmenopausal nulliparous women (95% CI 1.48â3.40, n = 62). SIR at dose = 0 was lowest in pre- or postmenopausal women with a first childbirth before 25 years of age; 0.89 (0.71â1.09) and 0.88 (0.58â1.25) respectively. Thus, in addition to the doseâeffect response in the cohort, part of the breast cancer excess could be explained by a different fertility pattern. The estimates of ERR/Gy for the various categories of age at first childbirth, number of children, menopausal status and ovarian dose were very similar, contradicting any interaction effects on the scale of relative risk. © 2001 Cancer Research Campaign http://www.bjcancer.co
Fabry Perot Halpha Observations of the Barred Spiral NGC 3367
We report the gross properties of the velocity field of the barred spiral
galaxy NGC 3367. The following values were found: inclination with respect to
the plane of the sky, i=30 deg; position angle (PA) of receding semi major axis
PA=51 and systemic velocity V(sys)=3032 km/s. Large velocity dispersion are
observed of upt o 120 km/s in the nuclear region, of up to 70 km/s near the
eastern bright sources just beyond the edge of the stellar bar where three
spiral arms seem to start and in the western bright sources at about 10 kpc.
Deviations from normal circular velocities are observed from all the disk but
mainly from the semi circle formed by the string of south western Halpha
sources. An estimate of the dynamical mass is M(dyn)=2x10^11 Msolar.Comment: Accepted to be published in May 2001 issue in the A.J. 19 pages, 7
figure
The Discovery of Spiral Arms in the Starburst Galaxy M82
We report the discovery of two symmetric spiral arms in the near-infrared
(NIR) images of the starburst galaxy M82. The spiral arms are recovered when an
axi-symmetric exponential disk is subtracted from the NIR images. The arms
emerge from the ends of the NIR bar and can be traced up to three disk
scalelengths. The winding of the arms is consistent with an m=2 logarithmic
spiral mode of pitch angle 14 degrees. The arms are bluer than the disk in
spite of their detection on the NIR images. If the northern side of the galaxy
is nearer to us, as is normally assumed, the observed sense of rotation implies
trailing arms. The nearly edge-on orientation, high disk surface brightness,
and the presence of a complex network of dusty filaments in the optical images,
are responsible for the lack of detection of the arms in previous studies.Comment: 4 pages, uses emulateapj.cls. To appear in ApJ Letters. Links to high
resolution color figures are available at: http://www.inaoep.mx/~ydm
- âŠ