Infrared signature of active massive black holes in nearby dwarf galaxies

We investigate the possible presence of active galactic nuclei (AGN) in dwarf galaxies and other nearby galaxies to identify candidates for follow-up confirmation and dynamical mass measurements. We use the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) All-Sky Release Source Catalog and examine the infrared colours of a sample of dwarf galaxies and other nearby galaxies in order to identify both unobscured and obscured candidate AGN by applying the infrared colour diagnostic. Stellar masses of galaxies are obtained using a combination of three independent methods. Black hole masses are estimated using the bolometric luminosity of the AGN candidates and computed for three cases of the bolometric-to-Eddington luminosity ratio. We identify 303 candidate AGN, of which 276 were subsequently found to have been independently identified as AGN via other methods. The remaining 9% require follow-up observations for confirmation. The activity is detected in galaxies with stellar masses from ~ 10^6 to 10^9 solar masses; assuming the candidates are AGN, the black hole masses are estimated to be ~ 10^3 - 10^6 solar masses, adopting L_bol = 0.1 L_Edd. The black hole masses probed are several orders of magnitude smaller than previously reported for centrally located massive black holes. We examine the stellar mass versus black hole mass relationship in this low galaxy mass regime. We find that it is consistent with the existing relation extending linearly (in log-log space) into the lower mass regime. These findings suggest that CMBH are present in low-mass galaxies and in the Local Universe, and provide new impetus for follow-up dynamical studies of quiescent black holes in local dwarf galaxies.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures, 4 tables, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics. The first version of this paper appeared on astro-ph in 2014 (arXiv:1411.3844). The new version includes 3 new tables, 1 new figure and updated discussio

Galaxy Evolution in the Cluster Abell 85: New Insights from the Dwarf Population

We present the first results of a new spectroscopic survey of the cluster Abell 85 targeting 1466 candidate cluster members within the central $\sim$1 deg$^2$ of the cluster and having magnitudes $m_r < 20.5$ using VIMOS/VLT and HYDRA/WIYN. A total of 520 galaxies are confirmed as either relaxed cluster members or part of an infalling population. A significant fraction are low mass; the median stellar mass of the sample is $10^{9.6} M_{\odot}$, and 25% have stellar masses below $10^9 M_{\odot}$ (i.e. 133 dwarf galaxies). We also identify seven active galactic nuclei (AGN), four of which reside in dwarf host galaxies. We probe the evolution of star formation rates, based on H$\alpha$ emission and continuum modeling, as a function of both mass and environment. We find that more star forming galaxies are observed at larger clustercentric distances, while infalling galaxies show evidence for recently enhanced star forming activity. Main sequence galaxies, defined by their continuum star formation rates, show different evolutionary behavior based on their mass. At the low mass end, the galaxies have had their star formation recently quenched, while more massive galaxies show no significant change. The timescales probed here favor fast quenching mechanisms, such as ram-pressure stripping. Galaxies within the green valley, defined similarly, do not show evidence of quenching. Instead, the low mass galaxies maintain their levels of star forming activity, while the more massive galaxies have experienced a recent burst.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Spectroscopic study of MATLAS-2019 with MUSE:An ultra-diffuse galaxy with an excess of old globular clusters

The MATLAS deep imaging survey has uncovered a plethora of dwarf galaxies in the low density environment it has mapped. A fraction of them are unusually extended and have a low-surface brightness. Among these so-called ultra-diffuse galaxies, a few seem to host an excess of globular clusters. With the integral-field unit spectrograph MUSE we have observed one of these galaxies - MATLAS J15052031+0148447 (MATLAS-2019) - located towards the nearby group NGC 5846 and measured its systemic velocity,age, and metallicity, and that of its globular clusters candidates. For the stellar body of MATLAS-2019 we derive a metallicity of -1.33+0.19-0.01 dex and an age of 11.2+1.8-0.8 Gyr. For some of the individual GCs and the stacked GC population, we derive consistent ages and metallicities. From the 11 confirmed globular clusters and using a Markov Chain Monte Carlo approach we derived a dynamical mass-to-light ratio of 4.2+8.6-3.4M/L. This is at the lower end of the luminosity-mass scaling relation defined by the Local Group dwarf galaxies. Furthermore, we couldn't confirm nor reject the possibility of a rotational component of the GC system. If present, this would further modify the inferred mass. Follow-up observations of the globular cluster population and of the stellar body of the galaxy are needed to assess whether this galaxy is lacking dark matter like it was suggested for the pair of dwarf galaxies in the field of NGC 1052, or if this is a miss-interpretation arising from systematic uncertainties of the method commonly used for these systems and the large uncertainties of the individual globular cluster velocities.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in A&

Flattened structures of dwarf satellites around massive host galaxies in the MATLAS low-to-moderate density fields

It was first observed in the 1970s that the dwarf galaxies surrounding our Milky Way, so-called satellites, appear to be arranged in a thin, vast plane. Similar discoveries have been made around additional galaxies in the local Universe such as Andromeda, Centaurus A, and potentially M83. In the specific cases with available kinematic data, the dwarf satellites also appear to preferentially co-orbit their massive host galaxy. Planes of satellites are rare in the lambda cold dark matter paradigm, although they may be a natural consequence of projection effects. Such a phase-space correlation, however, remains difficult to explain. In this work we analyzed the 2D spatial distribution of 2210 dwarf galaxies around early-type galaxies (ETGs) in the low-to-medium density fields of the “Mass Assembly of early-Type GaLAxies with their fine Structures” (MATLAS) survey. Under the assumption that the dwarfs are satellite members of the central massive ETG, we identified flattened structures using both a variation in the Hough transform and total least square fitting. In 119 satellite systems, we find 31 statistically significant flattened dwarf structures using a combination of both methods with subsequent Monte Carlo simulations with random data. The vast majority of these dwarf structures lie within the estimated virial radii of the massive host. The major axes of these systems are aligned better than 30° with the estimated orientation of the large-scale structure in nine (50%) cases. Additional distance measurements and future kinematic studies will be required to confirm the planar nature of these structures and to determine if they are corotating systems

Radial velocities and stellar population properties of 56 MATLAS dwarf galaxies observed with MUSE

Dwarf galaxies have been extensively studied in the Local Group, in nearby groups, and selected clusters, giving us a robust picture of their global stellar and dynamical properties, such as their circular velocity, stellar mass, surface brightness, age, and metallicity in particular locations in the Universe. Intense study of these properties has revealed correlations between them, called the scaling relations, including the well-known universal stellar mass-metallicity relation. However, since dwarfs play a role in a vast range of different environments, much can be learned about galaxy formation and evolution through extending the study of these objects to various locations. We present MUSE spectroscopy of a sample of 56 dwarf galaxies as a follow-up to the MATLAS survey in low- to moderate-density environments beyond the Local Volume. The dwarfs have stellar masses in the range of M*/M⊙ = 106.1–109.4 and show a distance range of D = 14–148 Mpc, the majority of which (75%) are located in the range targeted by the MATLAS survey (10–45 Mpc). We thus report a 75% success rate for the semi-automatic identification of dwarf galaxies (79% for dwarf ellipticals) in the MATLAS survey on the subsample presented here. Using pPXF full spectrum fitting, we determine their line-of-sight velocity and can match the majority of them with their massive host galaxy. Due to the observational setup of the MATLAS survey, the dwarfs are located in the vicinity of massive galaxies. Therefore, we are able to confirm their association through recessional velocity measurements. Close inspection of their spectra reveals that ∼30% show clear emission lines, and thus star formation activity. We estimate their stellar population properties (age and metallicity) and compare our results with other works investigating Local Volume and cluster dwarf galaxies. We find that the dwarf galaxies presented in this work show a systematic offset from the universal stellar mass-metallicity relation toward lower metallicities at the same stellar mass. A similar deviation is present in other works in the stellar mass range probed in this work and might be attributed to the use of different methodologies for deriving the metallicity

HI observations of the MATLAS dwarf and ultra-diffuse galaxies

International audienceThe presence of HI gas in galaxies is inextricably linked to their morphology and evolution. This paper aims to understand the HI content of the already identified 2210 dwarfs located in the low-to-moderate density environments of the Mass Assembly of early-Type GaLAxies with their fine Structures (MATLAS) deep imaging survey. We combined the HI observations from the ATLAS3D survey, with the extragalactic HI sources from the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA survey, to extract the HI line width, velocity, and mass of the MATLAS dwarfs. From the 1773 dwarfs in our sample with available HI observations, 8% (145) have an HI line detection. The majority of the dwarfs show an irregular morphology, while 29% (42) are ellipticals, which is the largest sample of HI-bearing dwarf ellipticals (dEs) to date. Of the HI dwarf sample, 2% (three) are ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs), 12% have a transition-type morphology, 5% are tidal dwarf candidates, and 10% appear to be disrupted objects. In our optically selected sample, 9.5% of the dEs, 7% of the UDGs, and 10% of the classical dwarfs are HI-bearing. The HI-bearing dwarfs have, on average, bluer colors than the dwarfs without detected HI. We find relations between the stellar and HI masses, gas fraction, color, and absolute magnitude to be consistent with previous studies of dwarfs probing similar masses and environments. For 79% of the dwarfs identified as satellites of massive early-type galaxies, we find that the HI mass increases with the projected distance to the host. Using the HI line width, we estimate dynamical masses and find that 5% (seven) of the dwarfs are dark matter deficient. Full Table 1 is only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (ftp://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/A+A/659/A14</A

Structure and morphology of the MATLAS dwarf galaxies and their central nuclei

International audienceABSTRACT We present a photometric study of the dwarf galaxy population in the low to moderate density environments of the MATLAS (Mass Assembly of early-Type gaLAxies with their fine Structures) deep imaging survey. The sample consists of 2210 dwarfs, including 508 nucleated. We define a nucleus as a compact source that is close to the galaxy photocentre (within 0.5 $R_\mathrm{ e}$) which is also the brightest such source within the galaxy’s effective radius. The morphological analysis is performed using a 2D surface brightness profile modelling on the g-band images of both the galaxies and nuclei. Our study reveals that, for similar luminosities, the MATLAS dwarfs show ranges in the distribution of structural properties comparable to cluster (Virgo and Fornax) dwarfs and a range of sizes comparable to the Local Group and Local Volume dwarfs. Colour measurements using the r- and i-band images indicate that the dwarfs in low and moderate density environments are as red as cluster dwarfs on average. The observed similarities between dwarf ellipticals in vastly different environments imply that dEs are not uniquely the product of morphological transformation due to ram-pressure stripping and galaxy harassment in high density environments. We measure that the dwarf nuclei are located predominantly in massive, bright and round dwarfs and observe fewer nuclei in dwarfs with a faint centre and a small size. The colour of the galaxy nucleus shows no clear relation to the colour of the dwarf, in agreement with the migration and wet migration nucleus formation scenarios. The catalogues of the MATLAS dwarfs photometric and structural properties are provided

The creation of a massive UCD by tidal threshing from NGC 936

International audienceWe study a compact nucleus embedded in an early-type dwarf galaxy, MATLAS-167, which is in the process of disruption by the tidal force of the neighboring giant S0 galaxy, NGC 936, in a group environment. Using the imaging data of the MATLAS survey, we analyze the stellar tidal tail of MATLAS-167 and its central compact nucleus, designated as NGC 936_UCD. We find that NGC 936_UCD has a luminosity of Mg = -11.43 ±0.01 mag and a size of 66.5±17 pc, sharing the global properties of Ultra Compact Dwarf galaxies (UCDs) but significantly larger and brighter compared to the typical UCD populations observed in the Virgo cluster. By integrating the total luminosity of both the tidal stream and MATLAS-167, we estimate that the disrupted dwarf progenitor possesses a luminosity of Mg = -15.92 ±0.06 mag, a typical bright dE luminosity. With the help of the optical spectrum observed by the SDSS survey, we derive the simple stellar population properties of NGC 936_UCD: a light-weighted age of 5.6±0.7 Gyr and metallicity of [Z/H] = -0.83 ±0.3 dex. Our findings suggest that tidal threshing is a possible formation mechanism of bright UCD populations in close proximity to giant galaxies

Ultra diffuse galaxies in the MATLAS low-to-moderate density fields

Recent advances in deep dedicated imaging surveys over the past decade have uncovered a surprisingly large number of extremely faint low surface brightness galaxies with large physical sizes called ultra diffuse galaxies (UDGs) in clusters and, more recently, in lower density environments. As part of the Mass Assembly of early-Type GaLAxies with their fine Structures (MATLAS) survey, a deep imaging large program at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT), our team has identified 2210 dwarf galaxies, 59 (∼3%) of which qualify as UDGs. Averaging over the survey area, we find ∼0.4 UDG per square degree. They are found in a range of low to moderate density environments, although 61% of the sample fall within the virial radii of groups. Based on a detailed analysis of their photometric and structural properties, we find that the MATLAS UDGs do not show significant differences from the traditional dwarfs, except from the predefined size and surface brightness cut. Their median color is as red as the one measured in galaxy clusters, albeit with a narrower color range. The majority of the UDGs are visually classified as dwarf ellipticals with log stellar masses of ∼6.5 − 8.7. The fraction of nucleated UDGs (∼34%) is roughly the same as the nucleated fraction of the traditional dwarfs. Only five (∼8%) UDGs show signs of tidal disruption and only two are tidal dwarf galaxy candidates. A study of globular cluster (GC) candidates selected in the CFHT images finds no evidence of a higher GC specific frequency SN for UDGs than for classical dwarfs, contrary to what is found in most clusters. The UDG halo-to-stellar mass ratio distribution, as estimated from the GC counts, peaks at roughly the same value as for the traditional dwarfs, but spans the smaller range of ∼10 − 2000. We interpret these results to mean that the large majority of the field-to-group UDGs do not have a different formation scenario than traditional dwarfs

Dwarf Galaxies in the MATLAS Survey: Hubble Space Telescope Observations of the Globular Cluster System in the Ultra-diffuse Galaxy MATLAS-2019

International audienceAbstract Ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs) are very-low-surface-brightness galaxies with large effective radii. Spectroscopic measurements of a few UDGs have revealed a low dark-matter content based on the internal motion of stars or globular clusters (GCs). This is in contrast to the large number of GCs found for these systems, from which it would be expected to correspond to a large dark-matter halo mass. Here we present HST+ACS observations for the UDG MATLAS-2019 in the NGC 5846 group. Using the F 606 W and F 814 W filters, we trace the GC population two magnitudes below the peak of the GC luminosity function (GCLF). Employing Bayesian considerations, we identify 26 ± 6 GCs associated with the dwarf, yielding a large specific frequency of S N = 58 ± 14. We use the turnover of the GCLF to derive a distance of 21 ± 2 Mpc, which is consistent with the NGC 5846 group of galaxies. Due to the superior image quality of the HST, we are able to resolve the GCs and measure their sizes, which are consistent with the sizes of GCs around Local Group galaxies. Using the linear relation between the total mass of galaxies and of GCs, we derive a halo mass of 0.9 ± 0.2 × 10 11 M ⊙ ( M ⊙ / L ⊙ > 1000). The high abundance of GCs, together with the small uncertainties, make MATLAS-2019 one of the most extreme UDGs, which likely sets an upper limit of the number of GCs for UDGs