1,295 research outputs found
Ages and metallicities of faint red galaxies in the Shapley Supercluster
We present results on the stellar populations of 232 quiescent galaxies in
the Shapley Supercluster, based on spectroscopy from the AAOmega spectrograph
at the AAT. The key characteristic of this survey is its coverage of many
low-luminosity objects (sigma ~ 50 km/s), with high signal-to-noise (~45 per
Angstrom). Balmer-line age estimates are recovered with ~25% precision even for
the faintest sample members. We summarize the observations and absorption line
data, and present correlations of derived ages and metallicities with mass and
luminosity. We highlight the strong correlation between age and alpha-element
abundance ratio, and the anti-correlation of age and metallicity at fixed mass,
which is shown to extend into the low-luminosity regime.Comment: Four pages, three figures; To appear in Proceedings of IAU Symp. 245
"Formation and Evolution of Galaxy Bulges", (Oxford, July 16-20 2007), Eds.
Martin Bureau, Lia Athanassoula, and Beatriz Barbu
The Universality of the Fundamental Plane of E and S0 Galaxies. Spectroscopic data
We present here central velocity dispersion measurements for 325 early-type
galaxies in eight clusters and groups of galaxies, including new observations
for 212 galaxies. The clusters and groups are the A262, A1367, Coma (A1656),
A2634, Cancer and Pegasus clusters, and the NGC 383 and NGC 507 groups. The new
measurements were derived from medium dispersion spectra, that cover 600 A
centered on the Mg Ib triplet at lambda ~ 5175. Velocity dispersions were
measured using the Tonry & Davis cross-correlation method, with a typical
accuracy of 6%. A detailed comparison with other data sources is made.Comment: 12 pages, 5 tables, 3 figures, to appear in AJ. Note that tables 2
and 3 are in separate files, as they should be printed in landscape forma
Near-Infrared Imaging of Early-Type Galaxies IV. The Physical Origins of the Fundamental Plane Scaling Relations
The physical origins of the Fundamental Plane (FP) scaling relations are
investigated for early-type galaxies observed at optical and near-infrared
wavelengths. The slope for the FP is shown to increase systematically with
wavelength from the U-band through the K-band. A distance-independent
construction of the observables is described which provides an accurate
measurement of the change in the FP slope between any pair of bandpasses. The
variation of the FP slope with wavelength is strong evidence of systematic
variations in stellar content along the elliptical galaxy sequence. The
intercept of the diagnostic relationship between log(D_K/D_V) and log(sigma_0)
shows no significant dependence on environment within the uncertainties of the
Galactic extinction corrections, demonstrating the universality of the stellar
populations contributions at the level of Delta(V-K)=0.03 mag to the zero-point
of the global scaling relations.
Several other constraints on the properties of early-type galaxies --- the
slope of the Mg_2-sigma_0 relation, the effects of stellar populations
gradients, and deviations of early-type galaxies from a dynamically homologous
family --- are included to construct an empirical, self-consistent model which
provides a complete picture of the underlying physical properties which are
varying along the early-type galaxy sequence. This empirical approach
demonstrates that there are significant systematic variations in both age and
metallicity along the elliptical galaxy sequence, and that a small, but
systematic, breaking of dynamical homology (or a similar, wavelength
independent effect) is required. Predictions for the evolution of the slope of
the FP with redshift are described. [abriged]Comment: to appear in The Astronomical Journal; 40 pages, including 10
Postscript figures and 3 tables; uses AAS LaTeX style file
A Cepheid Distance to NGC 4603 in Centaurus
In an attempt to use Cepheid variables to determine the distance to the
Centaurus cluster, we have obtained images of NGC 4603 with the Hubble Space
Telescope on 9 epochs using WFPC2 and the F555W and F814W filters. This galaxy
has been suggested to lie within the ``Cen30'' portion of the cluster and is
the most distant object for which this method has been attempted. Previous
distance estimates for Cen30 have varied significantly and some have presented
disagreements with the peculiar velocity predicted from redshift surveys,
motivating this investigation. Using our observations, we have found 61
candidate Cepheid variable stars; however, a significant fraction of these
candidates are likely to be nonvariable stars whose magnitude measurement
errors happen to fit a Cepheid light curve of significant amplitude for some
choice of period and phase. Through a maximum likelihood technique, we
determine that we have observed 43 +/- 7 real Cepheids and that NGC 4603 has a
distance modulus of 32.61 +0.11/-0.10 (random, 1 sigma) +0.24/-0.25
(systematic, adding in quadrature), corresponding to a distance of 33.3 Mpc.
This is consistent with a number of recent estimates of the distance to NGC
4603 or Cen30 and implies a small peculiar velocity consistent with predictions
from the IRAS 1.2 Jy redshift survey if the galaxy lies in the foreground of
the cluster.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. 17 pages with
17 embedded figures and 3 tables using emulateapj.sty. Additional figures and
images may be obtained from http://astro.berkeley.edu/~marc/n4603
Are Recent Peculiar Velocity Surveys Consistent?
We compare the bulk flow of the SMAC sample to the predictions of popular
cosmological models and to other recent large-scale peculiar velocity surveys.
Both analyses account for aliasing of small-scale power due to the sparse and
non-uniform sampling of the surveys. We conclude that the SMAC bulk flow is in
marginal conflict with flat COBE-normalized Lambda-CDM models which fit the
cluster abundance constraint. However, power spectra which are steeper
shortward of the peak are consistent with all of the above constraints. When
recent large-scale peculiar velocity surveys are compared, we conclude that all
measured bulk flows (with the possible exception of that of Lauer & Postman)
are consistent with each other given the errors, provided the latter allow for
`cosmic covariance'. A rough estimate of the mean bulk flow of all surveys
(except Lauer & Postman) is ~400 km/s towards l=270, b=0.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures. To appear in Proceedings of the Cosmic Flows
Workshop, Victoria, B. C., Canada, July 1999, eds. S. Courteau, M. Strauss,
and J. Willic
Multicolor photometry of the galaxies in the central region of Abell 2634
An optical photometric observation with the BATC multicolor system is carried
out for the central 56' x 56' region of the nearby cluster of galaxies, Abell
2634. We achieved the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of 5572 sources
detected down to mag, including 178 previously known galaxies, with
fourteen filters covering a wavelength range from 3600 \AA\ to 10000 \AA. After
excluding the foreground and background galaxies, a sample of 124 known members
is formed for an investigation of the SED properties. Based on the knowledge of
SED properties of member galaxies, we performed the selection of faint galaxies
belonging to Abell 2634. The color-color diagrams are powerful in the
star/galaxy separation, and 359 faint galaxies are selected by their color
features. The technique of photometric redshift and color-magnitude correlation
for the early-type galaxies are applied for these faint galaxies, and a list of
74 faint member galaxies is achieved. Basis on the enlarged sample of member
galaxies, the spatial distribution and color-magnitude relation of the galaxies
in core region of Abell 2634 are discussed. We find a tendency that the color
index dispersion of the early-type members is larger for the outer region,
which might reflect some clues about the environmental effect on the evolution
of galaxies in a cluster.Comment: 35 pages, 21 Postscript figures and tables, LaTeX, using aasms4.st
Redshift-distance Survey of Early-type Galaxies: The D_n-sigma Relation
In this paper R-band photometric and velocity dispersion measurements for a
sample of 452 elliptical and S0 galaxies in 28 clusters are used to construct a
template D_n-sigma relation. This template relation is constructed by combining
the data from the 28 clusters, under the assumption that galaxies in different
clusters have similar properties. The photometric and spectroscopic data used
consist of new as well as published measurements, converted to a common system,
as presented in a accompanying paper. The resulting direct relation, corrected
for incompleteness bias, is log{D_n} =1.203 log{sigma} + 1.406; the zero-point
has been defined by requiring distant clusters to be at rest relative to the
CMB. This zero-point is consistent with the value obtained by using the
distance to Virgo as determined by the Cepheid period-luminosity relation. This
new D_n-sigma relation leads to a peculiar velocity of -72 (\pm 189) km/s for
the Coma cluster. The scatter in the distance relation corresponds to a
distance error of about 20%, comparable to the values obtained for the
Fundamental Plane relation. Correlations between the scatter and residuals of
the D_n-sigma relation with other parameters that characterize the cluster
and/or the galaxy stellar population are also analyzed. The direct and inverse
relations presented here have been used in recent studies of the peculiar
velocity field mapped by the ENEAR all-sky sample.Comment: 46 pages, 20 figures, and 7 tables. To appear in AJ, vol. 123, no. 5,
May 200
The Near-Infrared Fundamental Plane of Elliptical Galaxies
We present results from a near-infrared -band imaging survey of 59
elliptical galaxies in five nearby clusters. We measure photometric parameters
for each galaxy using surface photometry and draw velocity dispersions from the
literature. Three observables define a near-infrared Fundamental Plane (FP) of
elliptical galaxies with . The scatter in the near-infrared relation is small at
\% in distance, which is equivalent to, or less than, the scatter of the
optical FP. We suggest that the small deviation of the near-infrared FP
relation from the optical FP is due to the reduction of metallicity effects in
the near-infrared bandpass. While the small scatter of the optical FP could be
consistent with compensating effects of age and metallicity, the similarly
small scatter of the near-infrared FP is nearly independent of metallicity and
hence places a strong constraint on possible age spreads among elliptical
galaxies at every point along the FP. We suggest that the departure of the
near-infrared FP from the pure virial form , and the corresponding observed relation , may be explained by slight systematic departures of
the structure and dynamics of elliptical galaxies from a homology.Comment: to appear in The Astrophysical Journal (Letters); 12 pages, including
2 Postscript figures and 1 table; uuencoded, compressed format; the paper is
also available in various formats from
http://astro.caltech.edu/~map/map.bibliography.refereed.htm
Flows on scales of 150 Mpc?
We investigate the reality of large-scale streaming on scales of up to 150
Mpc using the peculiar motions of galaxies in three directions. New R-band CCD
photometry and spectroscopy for elliptical galaxies is used. The Fundamental
Plane distance indicator is calibrated using the Coma cluster and an
inhomogeneous Malmquist bias correction is applied. A linear bulk-flow model is
fitted to the peculiar velocities in the sample regions and the results do not
reflect the bulk flow observed by Lauer and Postman (LP). Accounting for the
difference in geometry between the galaxy distribution in the three regions and
the LP clustersconfirms the disagreement; assuming a low-density CDM power
spectrum, we find that the observed bulk flow of the galaxies in our sample
excludes the LP bulk flow at the 99.8% confidence level.Comment: 16 pages, 1 figur
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