Ground-based follow up of IRAS galaxies

Optical, near infrared, radio continuum and HI observations were undertaken of the galaxies identified with IRAS sources in a few fields roughly of the size of a sky survey plate. Results are presented from two fields at galactic latitude +27 and +43 deg over a total area of 100 sq. deg. These regions contained 115 IRAS point sources, out of which 26 were identified with stars and 81 with faint galaxies, 10 of which were difficult to recognize on the Schmidt plates. Spectroscopy was obtained with the ESO telescopes at a resolution of about 10 A. The vast majority of galaxies have low excitation spectra dominated by low ionization lines. The spectra are typical of HII region type galaxies, however of much lower excitation that other starbursts galaxies. The importance of the reddening as determined from the H alpha/H beta ratio is stressed: the visual absorption A sub v ranges from 2 to 6 magnitudes and as a consequence the corrected L sub IR/L sub B ratios are considerably reduced if those reddenings apply to the whole galaxy

Extragalactic OH megamasers in strong IRAS sources

From the OH and HI survey of the strongest far infrared IRAS sources, 3 new powerful OH megamasers were discovered in Arp 143, IRAS 1510+0724 and in the uncatalogued IRAS source, IRAS 17208-0014. The HI line, the OH 1667 and 1665 MHz main lines and the 21 cm continuum observations were made with Nancy radio telescope. The optical spectra and images were obtained at the European Southern Observatory. The spectra are displayed in figures together with the main IR and OH properties of the 8 megamasers detected up to now, including IC 4553, NGC 3690 and Mrk 231, Mrk 273 and III ZW35

Extragalactic database. VII Reduction of astrophysical parameters

The Lyon-Meudon Extragalactic database (LEDA) gives a free access to the main astrophysical parameters for more than 100,000 galaxies. The most common names are compiled allowing users to recover quickly any galaxy. All these measured astrophysical parameters are first reduced to a common system according to well defined reduction formulae leading to mean homogeneized parameters. Further, these parameters are also transformed into corrected parameters from widely accepted models. For instance, raw 21-cm line widths are transformed into mean standard widths after correction for instrumental effect and then into maximum velocity rotation properly corrected for inclination and non-circular velocity. This paper presents the reduction formulae for each parameter: coordinates, morphological type and luminosity class, diameter and axis ratio, apparent magnitude (UBV, IR, HI) and colors, maximum velocity rotation and central velocity dispersion, radial velocity, mean surface brightness, distance modulus and absolute magnitude, and group membership. For each of these parameters intermediate quantities are given: galactic extinction, inclination, K-correction etc.. All these parameters are available from direct connexion to LEDA (telnet lmc.univ-lyon1.fr, login: leda, no passwd OR http://www-obs.univ-lyon1.fr/leda ) and distributed on a standard CD-ROM (PGC-ROM 1996) by the Observatoire de Lyon via the CNRS (mail to [email protected]).Comment: 13 pages, 12 figures. The CDROM of the extragalactic database LEDA is available by mailing to: [email protected]

Dynamic Evolution Model of Isothermal Voids and Shocks

We explore self-similar hydrodynamic evolution of central voids embedded in an isothermal gas of spherical symmetry under the self-gravity. More specifically, we study voids expanding at constant radial speeds in an isothermal gas and construct all types of possible void solutions without or with shocks in surrounding envelopes. We examine properties of void boundaries and outer envelopes. Voids without shocks are all bounded by overdense shells and either inflows or outflows in the outer envelope may occur. These solutions, referred to as type $\mathcal{X}$ void solutions, are further divided into subtypes $\mathcal{X}_{\rm I}$ and $\mathcal{X}_{\rm II}$ according to their characteristic behaviours across the sonic critical line (SCL). Void solutions with shocks in envelopes are referred to as type $\mathcal{Z}$ voids and can have both dense and quasi-smooth edges. Asymptotically, outflows, breezes, inflows, accretions and static outer envelopes may all surround such type $\mathcal{Z}$ voids. Both cases of constant and varying temperatures across isothermal shock fronts are analyzed; they are referred to as types $\mathcal{Z}_{\rm I}$ and $\mathcal{Z}_{\rm II}$ void shock solutions. We apply the `phase net matching procedure' to construct various self-similar void solutions. We also present analysis on void generation mechanisms and describe several astrophysical applications. By including self-gravity, gas pressure and shocks, our isothermal self-similar void (ISSV) model is adaptable to various astrophysical systems such as planetary nebulae, hot bubbles and superbubbles in the interstellar medium as well as supernova remnants.Comment: 24 pages, 13 figuers, accepted by ApS

The Virgo cluster distance from 21 cm-line widths

The distance of the Virgo cluster is derived in the B band from the 21 cm-line width-absolute magnitude relation. The latter is calibrated using 18 spirals with Cepheid distances mainly from HST. The calibration is applied to a complete sample of non-peculiar spirals with i>45 deg and lying within the optical (n=49) or X-ray (n=35) contour of the cluster, resulting in a mean cluster distance of (m-M)_0=31.58+/-0.24 mag (external error) or 20.7+/-2.4 Mpc. The mean distance of subcluster A is 0.46+/-0.18 mag smaller than that of subcluster B, but the individual distances of the members of the two substructures show considerable overlap. The distance modulus is corrected by -0.07 mag for the fact that cluster members have lower H I-surface fluxes and are redder in (B-I) at a given line width than the (field) calibrators. Different sources of the B magnitudes and line widths have little effect on the resulting distance. Different precepts for the internal-absorption correction change the result by no more than +/-0.17 mag. The individual distances of the cluster members do not show any dependence on recession velocity, inclination, Hubble type or line width. The dependence on apparent magnitude reflects the considerable depth effect of the cluster. The adopted distance is in good agreement with independent distance determinations of the cluster. Combining the cluster distance with the corrected cluster velocity of 1142+/-61 km/s gives H_0=55+/-7 km/s/Mpc (external error). If the Virgo cluster distance is inserted into the tight Hubble diagram of clusters out to 11000 km/s using relative distances to the Virgo cluster one obtains a global value of H_0=57+/-7 km/s/Mpc.Comment: 37 pages, LaTeX using AAS aaspp4 style, 14 eps figures, 7 Tables; to be published in the Astrophysical Journal (Main Journal

The Atlas3D project -- XIII. Mass and morphology of HI in early-type galaxies as a function of environment

We present the Atlas3D HI survey of 166 nearby early-type galaxies (ETGs) down to M(HI)~10^7 M_sun. We detect HI in ~40% of all ETGs outside the Virgo cluster and in ~10% of all ETGs inside it. This demonstrates that it is common for non-cluster ETGs to host HI. The HI morphology varies from regular discs/rings (the majority of the detections) to unsettled gas distributions. The former are either small discs (M(HI)<10^8 M_sun) confined within the stellar body and sharing the same kinematics of the stars, or large discs/rings (M(HI) up to 5x10^9 M_sun) extending to tens of kpc from the host galaxy and frequently kinematically decoupled from the stars. Neutral hydrogen provides material for star formation in ETGs. Galaxies with central HI exhibit signatures of star formation in ~70% of the cases, ~5 times more frequently than galaxies without central HI. The central ISM is dominated by molecular gas. In ETGs with a small gas disc the conversion of HI into H_2 is as efficient as in spirals. The ETG HI mass function has M*~2x10^9 M_sun and slope=-0.7. ETGs host much less HI than spirals as a family. However, a significant fraction of them is as HI-rich as spirals. The main difference between ETGs and spirals is that the former lack the high-column-density HI typical of the bright stellar disc of the latter. We find an envelope of decreasing M(HI) with increasing environment density. The gas-richest ETGs live in the poorest environments (where star-formation is more common), galaxies in the centre of Virgo have the lowest HI content, and the cluster outskirts are a transition region. We find an HI morphology-density relation. At low environment density HI is mostly distributed on large discs/rings. More disturbed HI morphologies dominate environment densities typical of rich groups, confirming the importance of processes occurring on a galaxy-group scale for the evolution of ETGs.Comment: Accepted for publication on MNRA