297 research outputs found
Line-of-sight velocity distribution corrections for Lick/IDS indices of early-type galaxies
We investigate line-of-sight velocity distribution (LOSVD) corrections for
absorption line-strength indices of early-type galaxies in the Lick/IDS system.
This system is often used to estimate basic stellar population parameters such
as luminosity weighted ages and metallicities. Using single stellar population
model spectral energy distributions by Vazdekis (1999) we find that the LOSVD
corrections are largely insensitive to changes in the stellar populations for
old galaxies (age >3 Gyr). Only the Lick/IDS Balmer series indices show an
appreciable effect, which is on the order of the correction itself.
Furthermore, we investigate the sensitivity of the LOSVD corrections to
non-Gaussian LOSVDs. In this case the LOSVD can be described by a Gauss-Hermite
series and it is shown that typical values of h_3 and h_4 observed in
early-type galaxies can lead to significant modifications of the LOSVD
corrections and thus to changes in the derived luminosity weighted ages and
metallicities. A new, simple parameterisation for the LOSVD corrections, taking
into account the h_3 and h_4 terms, is proposed and calibrations given for a
subset of the Lick/IDS indices and two additional indices applicable to old (>3
Gyr) stellar populations.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, accepted by A&
Spatially Resolved Spectroscopy of the E+A Galaxies in the z=0.32 Cluster AC114
We present spatially resolved intermediate resolution spectroscopy of a
sample of twelve E+A galaxies in the z=0.32 rich galaxy cluster AC 114,
obtained with the FLAMES multi-integral field unit system on the European
Southern Observatory's VLT. Previous integrated spectroscopy of all these
galaxies by Couch & Sharples (1987) had shown them to have strong Balmer line
absorption and an absence of [OII 3727] emission -- the defining
characteristics of the``E+A'' spectral signature, indicative of an abrupt halt
to a recent episode of quite vigorous star formation. We have used our spectral
data to determine the radial variation in the strength of Hdelta absorption in
these galaxies and hence map out the distribution of this recently formed
stellar population. Such information provides important clues as to what
physical event might have been responsible for this quite dramatic change in
star formation activity in these galaxies' recent past. We find a diversity of
behaviour amongst these galaxies in terms of the radial variation in Hdelta
absorption: Four galaxies show little Hdelta absorption across their entire
extent; it would appear they were misidentified as E+A galaxies in the earlier
integrated spectroscopic studies. The remainder show strong Hdelta absorption,
with a gradient that is either negative (Hdelta equivalent width decreasing
with radius), flat, or positive. By comparing with numerical simulations we
suggest that the first of these different types of radial behaviour provides
evidence for a merger/interaction origin, whereas the latter two types of
behaviour are more consistent with the truncation of star formation in normal
disk galaxies. It would seem therefore that more than one physical mechanism is
responsible for E+A formation in the same environment.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures, accepted MNRA
Central K-band kinematics and line strength maps of NGC 1399
In this paper we present for the first time high spatial resolution K-band
maps of the central kinematical and near-infrared spectral properties of the
giant cD galaxy in the Fornax cluster, NGC 1399. We confirm the presence of a
central velocity dispersion dip within radius < 0.2" seen in previous long-slit
studies. Our velocity dispersion maps give evidence for a non-symmetric
structure in this central area by showing three sigma peaks to the north-east,
south-east and west of the galaxy centre. Additionally we measure near-IR line
strength indices at unprecedented spatial resolution in NGC 1399. The most
important features we observe in our 2-dimensional line strength maps are drops
in Na I and CO(2-0) line strength in the nuclear region of the galaxy,
coinciding spatially with the drop in sigma. The observed line strength and
velocity dispersion changes suggest a scenario where the centre of NGC 1399
harbours a dynamically cold subsystem with a distinct stellar population.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in A&
KMOS view of the Galactic Centre - II. Metallicity distribution of late-type stars
Knowing the metallicity distribution of stars in the Galactic Centre has
important implications for the formation history of the Milky Way nuclear star
cluster. However, this distribution is not well known, and is currently based
on a small sample of fewer than 100 stars. We obtained near-infrared K-band
spectra of more than 700 late-type stars in the central 4 pc^2 of the Milky Way
nuclear star cluster with the integral-field spectrograph KMOS (VLT). We
analyse the medium-resolution spectra using a full-spectral fitting method
employing the G\"ottingen Spectral library of synthetic PHOENIX spectra. The
derived stellar metallicities range from metal-rich [M/H]>+0.3 dex to
metal-poor [M/H]<-1.0 dex, with a fraction of 5.2(^{+6.0}+{-3.1}) per cent
metal-poor ([M/H]<-0.5 dex) stars. The metal-poor stars are distributed over
the entire observed field. The origin of metal-poor stars remains unclear. They
could originate from infalling globular clusters. For the metal-rich stellar
population ([M/H]>0 dex) a globular cluster origin can be ruled out. As there
is only a very low fraction of metal-poor stars in the central 4 pc^2 of the
Galactic Centre, we believe that our data can discard a scenario in which the
Milky Way nuclear star cluster is purely formed from infalling globular
clusters.Comment: 18 pages, 9 Figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
The Panchromatic High-Resolution Spectroscopic Survey of Local Group Star Clusters - I. General Data Reduction Procedures for the VLT/X-shooter UVB and VIS arm
Our dataset contains spectroscopic observations of 29 globular clusters in
the Magellanic Clouds and the Milky Way performed with VLT/X-shooter. Here we
present detailed data reduction procedures for the VLT/X-shooter UVB and VIS
arm. These are not restricted to our particular dataset, but are generally
applicable to different kinds of X-shooter data without major limitation on the
astronomical object of interest. ESO's X-shooter pipeline (v1.5.0) performs
well and reliably for the wavelength calibration and the associated
rectification procedure, yet we find several weaknesses in the reduction
cascade that are addressed with additional calibration steps, such as bad pixel
interpolation, flat fielding, and slit illumination corrections. Furthermore,
the instrumental PSF is analytically modeled and used to reconstruct flux
losses at slit transit and for optimally extracting point sources. Regular
observations of spectrophotometric standard stars allow us to detect
instrumental variability, which needs to be understood if a reliable absolute
flux calibration is desired. A cascade of additional custom calibration steps
is presented that allows for an absolute flux calibration uncertainty of less
than ten percent under virtually every observational setup provided that the
signal-to-noise ratio is sufficiently high. The optimal extraction increases
the signal-to-noise ratio typically by a factor of 1.5, while simultaneously
correcting for resulting flux losses. The wavelength calibration is found to be
accurate to an uncertainty level of approximately 0.02 Angstrom. We find that
most of the X-shooter systematics can be reliably modeled and corrected for.
This offers the possibility of comparing observations on different nights and
with different telescope pointings and instrumental setups, thereby
facilitating a robust statistical analysis of large datasets.Comment: 22 pages, 18 figures, Accepted for publication in Astronomy &
Astrophysics; V2 contains a minor change in the abstract. We note that we did
not test X-shooter pipeline versions 2.0 or later. V3 contains an updated
referenc
Mapping the inner regions of the polar disk galaxy NGC4650A with MUSE
[abridged] The polar disk galaxy NGC4650A was observed during the
commissioning of the MUSE at the ESO VLT to obtain the first 2D map of the
velocity and velocity dispersion for both stars and gas. The new MUSE data
allow the analysis of the structure and kinematics towards the central regions
of NGC4650A, where the two components co-exist. These regions were unexplored
by the previous long-slit literature data available for this galaxy. The
extended view of NGC~4650A given by the MUSE data is a galaxy made of two
perpendicular disks that remain distinct and drive the kinematics right into
the very centre of this object. In order to match this observed structure for
NGC4650A, we constructed a multicomponent mass model made by the combined
projection of two disks. By comparing the observations with the 2D kinematics
derived from the model, we found that the modelled mass distribution in these
two disks can, on average, account for the complex kinematics revealed by the
MUSE data, also in the central regions of the galaxy where the two components
coexist. This result is a strong constraint on the dynamics and formation
history of this galaxy; it further supports the idea that polar disk galaxies
like NGC~4650A were formed through the accretion of material that has different
angular momentum.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures; accepted for publication in Astronomy &
Astrophysic
A New Approach to the Study of Stellar Populations in Early-Type Galaxies: K-band Spectral Indices and an Application to the Fornax Cluster
New measurements of K-band spectral features are presented for eleven
early-type galaxies in the nearby Fornax galaxy cluster. Based on these
measurements, the following conclusions have been reached: (1) in galaxies with
no signatures of a young stellar component, the K-band Na I index is highly
correlated with both the optical metallicity indicator [MgFe]' and central
velocity dispersion; (2) in the same galaxies, the K-band Fe features saturate
in galaxies with sigma > 150 km/s while Na I (and [MgFe]') continues to
increase; (3) [Si/Fe] (and possibly [Na/Fe]) is larger in all observed Fornax
galaxies than in Galactic open clusters with near-solar metallicity; (4) in
various near-IR diagnostic diagrams, galaxies with signatures of a young
stellar component (strong Hbeta, weak [MgFe]') are clearly separated from
galaxies with purely old stellar populations; furthermore, this separation is
consistent with the presence of an increased number of M-giant stars (most
likely to be thermally pulsating AGB stars); (5) the near-IR diagrams discussed
here seem as efficient for detecting putatively young stellar components in
early-type galaxies as the more commonly used age/metallicity diagnostic plots
using optical indices (e.g Hbeta vs. [MgFe]').Comment: 47 pages, 16 figures, ApJ accepte
VLT spectroscopy of NGC 3115 globular clusters
We present results derived from VLT-FORS2 spectra of 24 different globular clusters associated with the lenticular galaxy NGC 3115. A subsample of 17 globular clusters have sufficiently high signal-to-noise to allow precision measurements of absorption line-strengths. Comparing these indices to new stellar population models by Thomas et al. we determine ages, metallicities and element abundance ratios. For the first time these stellar population models explicitly take abundance ratio biases in the Lick/IDS stellar library into account. Our data are also compared with the Lick/IDS observations of Milky Way and M 31 globular clusters. Unpublished higher order Balmer lines (HgammaA ,F and HdeltaA ,F) from the Lick/IDS observations are given in the Appendix. Our best age estimates show that the observed clusters which sample the bimodal colour distribution of NGC 3115 are coeval within our observational errors (2-3 Gyr). Our best calibrated age/metallicity diagnostic diagram (Hbeta / vs. [MgFe]) indicates an absolute age of 11-12 Gyr consistent with the luminosity weighted age for the central part of NGC 3115. We confirm with our accurate line-strength measurements that the (V-I) colour is a good metallicity indicator within the probed metallicity range (-1.5 < [Fe/H] < 0.0). The abundance ratios for globular clusters in NGC 3115 give an inhomogeneous picture. We find a range from solar to super-solar ratios for both blue and red clusters. This is similar to the data for M 31 while the Milky Way seems to harbour clusters which are mainly consistent with [alpha / Fe] =~ 0.3. From our accurate recession velocities we detect, independent of metallicity, clear rotation in the sample of globular clusters. In order to explain the metallicity and abundance ratio pattern, particularly the range in abundance ratios for the metal rich globular clusters in NGC 3115, we favour a formation picture with more than two distinct formation episodes. Based on observations collected at the European Southern Observatory, Cerro Paranal, Chile (ESO No. 66.B-0131)
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