Quadruple-peaked spectral line profiles as a tool to constrain gravitational potential of shell galaxies

Stellar shells observed in many giant elliptical and lenticular as well as a few spiral and dwarf galaxies, presumably result from galaxy mergers. Line-of-sight velocity distributions of the shells could, in principle, if measured with a sufficiently high S/N, constitute one of methods to constrain the gravitational potential of the host galaxy. Merrifield & Kuijken (1998) predicted a double-peaked line profile for stationary shells resulting from a nearly radial minor merger. In this paper, we aim at extending their analysis to a more realistic case of expanding shells, inherent to the merging process, whereas we assume the same type of merger and the same orbital geometry. We use analytical approach as well as test particle simulations to predict the line-of-sight velocity profile across the shell structure. Simulated line profiles are convolved with spectral PSFs to estimate the peak detectability. The resulting line-of-sight velocity distributions are more complex than previously predicted due to non-zero phase velocity of the shells. In principle, each of the Merrifield & Kuijken (1998) peaks splits into two, giving a quadruple-peaked line profile, which allows more precise determination of the potential of the host galaxy and, moreover, contains additional information. We find simple analytical expressions that connect the positions of the four peaks of the line profile and the mass distribution of the galaxy, namely the circular velocity at the given shell radius and the propagation velocity of the shell. The analytical expressions were applied to a test-particle simulation of a radial minor merger and the potential of the simulated host galaxy was successfully recovered. The shell kinematics can thus become an independent tool to determine the content and distribution of the dark matter in shell galaxies, up to ~100 kpc from the center of the host galaxy.Comment: 15 pages, 16 figures | v2: accepted for publication in A&A, minor language correction

SMA/PdBI multiple line observations of the nearby Seyfert2 galaxy NGC 1068: Shock related gas kinematics and heating in the central 100pc?

We present high angular resolution (0.5-2.0") observations of the mm continuum and the 12CO(J=3-2), 13CO(J=3-2), 13CO(J=2-1), C18O(J=2-1), HCN(J=3-2), HCO+(J=4-3) and HCO+(J=3-2) line emission in the circumnuclear disk (r=100pc) of the proto-typical Seyfert type-2 galaxy NGC1068, carried out with the Submillimeter Array. We further include in our analysis new 13CO(J=1-0) and improved 12CO(J=2-1) observations of NGC1068 at high angular resolution (1.0-2.0") and sensitivity, conducted with the IRAM Plateau de Bure Interferometer. Based on the complex dynamics of the molecular gas emission indicating non-circular motions in the central ~100pc, we propose a scenario in which part of the molecular gas in the circumnuclear disk of NGC1068 is radially blown outwards as a result of shocks. This shock scenario is further supported by quite warm (Tkin>=200K) and dense (nH2=10^4cm^-3) gas constrained from the observed molecular line ratios. The HCN abundance in the circumnuclear disk is found to be [HCN]/[12CO]=10^-3.5. This is slightly higher than the abundances derived for galactic and extragalactic starforming/starbursting regions. This results lends further support to X-ray enhanced HCN formation in the circumnuclear disk of NGC1068, as suggested by earlier studies. The HCO+ abundance ([HCO+]/[12CO]=10^-5) appears to be somewhat lower than that of galactic and extragalactic starforming/starbursting regions. When trying to fit the cm to mm continuum emission by different thermal and non-thermal processes, it appears that electron-scattered synchrotron emission yields the best results while thermal free-free emission seems to over-predict the mm continuum emission.Comment: accepted for publication by ApJ; 35pages, 22 figures and 6 tables (at the end of the file); 3 figures have been decreased in quality to match size limi

Contributors

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the National Library of Estonia organized a Conference on Union Catalogs which took place in Tallinn, in the National Library of Estonia on October 17–19, 2002. The Conference presented and discussed analytical papers dealing with various aspects of designing and implementing union catalogs and shared cataloging systems as revealed through the experiences of Eastern European, Baltic and South African research libraries. Here you can find the texts of the conference papers and the list of contributors and participants.The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the National Library of Estonia organized a Conference on Union Catalogs which took place in Tallinn, in the National Library of Estonia on October 17–19, 2002. The Conference presented and discussed analytical papers dealing with various aspects of designing and implementing union catalogs and shared cataloging systems as revealed through the experiences of Eastern European, Baltic and South African research libraries. Here you can find the texts of the conference papers and the list of contributors and participants

OASIS integral-field spectroscopy of the central kpc in 11 Seyfert 2 galaxies

We map narrow-line regions (NLRs) of 11 nearby Seyfert 2 galaxies with the optical integral-field spectrograph OASIS mounted at CFHT. We model emission-line profiles of 5 forbidden-line doublets and 2 Balmer lines, correcting for the underlying stellar absorption by reconstructing stellar spectra with synthetic evolutionary stellar population models. For each of the 11 targets, we present 2D maps of surface brightness in the observed emission lines, diagnostic line intensity ratios, gas kinematics (mean line-of-sight velocity and velocity dispersion), electron density, and interstellar reddening, and we plot spatially resolved spectral-diagnostic diagrams. The stellar data are represented by maps of mean line-of-sight (LOS) velocities and of the relative mass fractions of the young stellar populations. The gas velocity fields in 80% of the sample exhibit twisted S-shaped isovelocity contours, which are signatures of non-circular orbits and indicate non-axisymmetric gravitational potentials, gas motions out of the galactic plane, or possible outflows and inflows. Based on the kinematic measurements, we identified a possible nuclear ring or radial gas flow in NGC 262 (Mrk 348), not reported before. Eight of the eleven observed objects exhibit strongly asymmetric or multi-component emission-line profiles, in most cases confined to an elongated region passing through the galactic centre, perpendicular to the major axis of emission.Comment: 40 pages, 25 figure