Distributed readout detectors using superconducting tunnel junctions

Superconducting tunnel junctions (STJs) are able to measure the energy of single photons in the range from near infrared to X-rays. They provide simultaneous information of the impact time and wavelength of an absorbed photon. The main difficulty of these detectors compared with conventional imaging detectors lies in their limited pixel number. Each STJ has to be connected independently and therefore the wiring becomes technologically more demanding as the number of STJs increases. One approach to solving this problem is to use a single large absorber and to distribute STJs for position sensitive signal readout. This configuration is able to detect single optical photons with an energy resolution close to that of a single STJ pixel. We have produced a Ta absorber strip with Ta/Al/AlOx/Al/Nb/Ta junctions at either end. The energy and position of single photons were measured simultaneously. The energy resolving power approaches the theoretical limit. We will present a simple Monte Carlo simulation which reproduces the measurement exactly.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figure

New distances of unresolved dwarf elliptical galaxies in the vicinity of the Local Group

We present Surface Brightness Fluctuation distances of nine early-type dwarf galaxies and the S0 galaxy NGC 4150 in the Local Volume based on deep B- and R-band CCD images obtained with the 2.56 metre Nordic Optical Telescope. Typically, six stellar fields at various galactocentric distances have been chosen for each galaxy as appropriately free of foreground stars and other contaminants, and Fourier analysed to determine the distances, which are found to lie in the range of 3 to 16 Mpc. The SBF method is thus demonstrated to efficiently measure distances from the ground with mid-aperture telescopes for galaxies for which only the tip of the red giant branch method in combination with the Hubble Space Telescope has been available until now. We obtained the following distance moduli: 28.11 +/- 0.15 mag (or 4.2 +/- 0.3 Mpc) for UGC 1703, 27.61 +/- 0.17 mag (or 3.3 +/- 0.3 Mpc) for KDG 61, 29.00 +/- 0.27 mag (or 6.3 +/- 0.8 Mpc) for UGCA 200, 27.74 +/- 0.18 mag (or 3.5 +/- 0.3 Mpc) for UGC 5442, 30.22 +/- 0.17 mag (or 11.1 +/- 0.9 Mpc) for UGC 5944, 30.79 +/- 0.11 mag (or 14.4 +/- 0.7 Mpc) for NGC 4150, 31.02 +/- 0.25 mag (or 16.0 +/- 1.9 Mpc) for BTS 128, 29.27 +/- 0.16 mag (or 7.1 +/- 0.6 Mpc) for UGC 7639, 30.19 +/- 0.23 mag (or 10.9 +/- 1.2 Mpc) for UGC 8799 with an alternative distance of 30.61 +/- 0.26 mag (or 13.2 +/- 1.7 Mpc), and 29.60 +/- 0.20 mag (or 8.3 +/- 0.8 Mpc) for UGC 8882.Comment: 14 pages, 13 figures (figures 1, 2 and 10 are of reduced quality), accepted for publication in A&

NGC 5011C: an overlooked dwarf galaxy in the Centaurus A group

(abridged) We report the discovery of a previously unnoticed member of the Centaurus A Group, NGC 5011C. While the galaxy is a well known stellar system listed with a NGC number its true identity remained hidden because of coordinate confusion and wrong redshifts in the literature. NGC 5011C attracted our attention since, at a putative distance of 45.3 Mpc, it would be a peculiar object having a very low surface brightness typical of a dwarf galaxy, and at the same time having the size of an early-type spiral or S0 galaxy. To confirm or reject this peculiarity, our immediate objective was to have the first reliable measurement of its recession velocity. The observations were carried out with EFOSC2 at the 3.6m ESO telescope. We found that NGC 5011C has indeed a low redshift of v_sun=647+/-96 km/sec and thus is a nearby dwarf galaxy rather than a member of the distant Centaurus cluster as believed for the past 23 years. Rough distance estimates based on photometric parameters also favor this scenario. As a byproduct of our study we update the redshift for NGC 5011B at v_sun=3227+/-50 km/sec. Applying population synthesis techniques, we find that NGC 5011B has a luminosity-weighted age of 4+/-1 Gyr and a solar metallicity, and that the luminosity-weighted age and metallicity of NGC 5011C are 0.9+/-0.1 Gyr and 1/5 solar. Finally we estimate a stellar mass of NGC 5011C comparable to that of dwarf spheroidal galaxies in the Local Group.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures, accepted by the Astronomical Journa

Horologium II: a Second Ultra-faint Milky Way Satellite in the Horologium Constellation

We report the discovery of a new ultra-faint Milky Way satellite candidate, Horologium II, detected in the Dark Energy Survey Y1A1 public data. Horologium II features a half light radius of $r_{h}=47\pm10$ pc and a total luminosity of $M_{V}=-2.6^{+0.2}_{-0.3}$ that place it in the realm of ultra-faint dwarf galaxies on the size-luminosity plane. The stellar population of the new satellite is consistent with an old ($\sim13.5$ Gyr) and metal-poor ([Fe/H]$\sim-2.1$) isochrone at a distance modulus of $(m-M)=19.46\pm0.20$, or a heliocentric distance of $78\pm8$ kpc, in the color-magnitude diagram. Horologium II has a distance similar to the Sculptor dwarf spheroidal galaxy ($\sim82$ kpc) and the recently reported ultra-faint satellites Eridanus III ($87\pm8$ kpc) and Horologium I ($79\pm8$ kpc). All four satellites are well aligned on the sky, which suggests a possible common origin. As Sculptor is moving on a retrograde orbit within the Vast Polar Structure when compared to the other classical MW satellite galaxies including the Magellanic Clouds, this hypothesis can be tested once proper motion measurements become available.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication in ApJL. (w.r.t. v1: figures updated; minor changes throughout the text

New dwarf galaxy candidates in the Centaurus group

Recent studies of the distribution and kinematics of the Milky Way and Andromeda satellite galaxy systems have confirmed the existence of coplanar, corotating structures of galaxies. In addition to the 'missing satellite problem', these structures pose a major challenge to the standard $\Lambda$CDM scenario of structure formation. We complement the efforts made by the dwarf galaxy community to extend these studies to other nearby galaxy groups by systematically searching for faint, unresolved dwarf members with a low surface brightness in the Southern Centaurus group of galaxies. The aim is to determine whether these coplanar, corotating structures are a universal phenomenon. We imaged an area of 60 square degrees (0.3 Mpc$^2$) around the M83 subgroup with the wide-field Dark Energy Camera (DECam) at the CTIO 4 m Blanco telescope in $g$ and $r$ down to a limiting surface brightness of $\mu_r\approx 30$ mag arcsec$^{-2}$. Various image-filtering techniques were applied to the DECam data to enhance the visibility of extremely low-surface brightness objects. We report the discovery of 16 new dwarf galaxy candidates in the direction of the M83 subgroup, roughly doubling the number of known dwarfs in that region. The photometric properties of the candidates, when compared to those of the Local Group, suggest membership in the M83 subgroup. The faintest objects have a central star density of $\approx1.3 L_\odot$ pc$^{-2}$ and a total magnitude of $g = 20.25$, corresponding to $M_g = -9.55$ at the nominal distance of 4.9 Mpc. The sky distribution of the new objects is significantly prolonged toward Cen A, suggesting that many of them belong to the Cen A subgroup or a common halo. We also provide updated surface photometry for the brighter, known dwarf members in the surveyed area

The Environmental Influence on the Evolution of Local Galaxies

The results of an Halpha photometric survey of 30 dwarf galaxies of various morphologies in the Centaurus A and Sculptor groups are presented. Of these 30, emission was detected in 13: eight are of late-type, two are early-type and three are of mixed-morphology. The typical flux detection limit of 2e-16 erg s-1 cm-2, translates into a Star Formation Rate (SFR) detection limit of 4e-6 M_sol yr-1 . In the light of these results, the morphology-density relation is reexamined: It is shown that, despite a number of unaccounted parameters, there are significant correlations between the factors determining the morphological type of a galaxy and its environment. Dwarf galaxies in high density regions have lower current SFR and lower neutral gas content than their low density counterparts, confirming earlier results from the Local Group and other denser environments. The effect of environment is also seen in the timescale formed from the ratio of blue luminosity to current SFR - dwarfs in higher density environments have larger values, indicating relatively higher past average SFR. The influence of environment extends very far and no dwarfs from our sample can be identified as 'field' objects.Comment: 23 pages, 9 figures, accepted in A

Discs of Satellites: the new dwarf spheroidals

The spatial distributions of the most recently discovered ultra faint dwarf satellites around the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy are compared to the previously reported discs-of-satellites (DoS) of their host galaxies. In our investigation we pay special attention to the selection bias introduced due to the limited sky coverage of SDSS. We find that the new Milky Way satellite galaxies follow closely the DoS defined by the more luminous dwarfs, thereby further emphasizing the statistical significance of this feature in the Galactic halo. We also notice a deficit of satellite galaxies with Galactocentric distances larger than 100 kpc that are away from the disc-of-satellites of the Milky Way. In the case of Andromeda, we obtain similar results, naturally complementing our previous finding and strengthening the notion that the discs-of-satellites are optical manifestations of a phase-space correlation of satellite galaxies.Comment: acc. for pub. in MNRA