235 research outputs found
Nuclear Black Hole Formation in Clumpy Galaxies at High Redshift
Massive stellar clumps in high redshift galaxies interact and migrate to the
center to form a bulge and exponential disk in <1 Gyr. Here we consider the
fate of intermediate mass black holes (BHs) that might form by massive-star
coalescence in the dense young clusters of these disk clumps. We find that the
BHs move inward with the clumps and reach the inner few hundred parsecs in only
a few orbit times. There they could merge into a supermassive BH by dynamical
friction. The ratio of BH mass to stellar mass in the disk clumps is
approximately preserved in the final ratio of BH to bulge mass. Because this
ratio for individual clusters has been estimated to be ~10^{-3}, the observed
BH-to-bulge mass ratio results. We also obtain a relation between BH mass and
bulge velocity dispersion that is compatible with observations of present-day
galaxies.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, accepted by Ap
A Constant Bar Fraction out to Redshift z~1 in the Advanced Camera for Surveys Field of the Tadpole Galaxy
Bar-like structures were investigated in a sample of 186 disk galaxies larger
than 0.5 arcsec that are in the I-band image of the Tadpole galaxy taken with
the HST ACS. We found 22 clear cases of barred galaxies, 21 galaxies with small
bars that appear primarily as isophotal twists in a contour plot, and 11 cases
of peculiar bars in clump-cluster galaxies, which are face-on versions of chain
galaxies. The latter bars are probably young, as the galaxies contain only weak
interclump emission. Four of the clearly barred galaxies at z~0.8-1.2 have
grand design spirals. The bar fraction was determined as a function of galaxy
inclination and compared with the analogous distribution in the local Universe.
The bar fraction was also determined as a function of galaxy angular size.
These distributions suggest that inclination and resolution effects obscure
nearly half of the bars in our sample. The bar fraction was also determined as
a function of redshift. We found a nearly constant bar fraction of 0.23+-0.03
from z~0 to z=1.1. When corrected for inclination and size effects, this
fraction is comparable to the bar fraction in the local Universe, ~0.4, as
tabulated for all bar and Hubble types in the Third Reference Catalogue of
Galaxies. The average major axis of a barred galaxy in our sample is ~10 kpc
after correcting for redshift with a LambdaCDM cosmology. Galaxy bars were
present in normal abundance at least ~8 Gy ago (z~1); bar dissolution cannot be
common during a Hubble time unless the bar formation rate is comparable to the
dissolution rate.Comment: to appear in ApJ, Sept 1, 2004, Vol 612, 18 pg, 12 figure
Rapid formation of exponential disks and bulges at high redshift from the dynamical evolution of clump cluster and chain galaxies
Many galaxies at high redshift have peculiar morphologies dominated by
10^8-10^9 Mo kpc-sized clumps. Using numerical simulations, we show that these
"clump clusters" can result from fragmentation in gravitationally unstable
primordial disks. They appear as "chain galaxies" when observed edge-on. In
less than 1 Gyr, clump formation, migration, disruption, and interaction with
the disk cause these systems to evolve from initially uniform disks into
regular spiral galaxies with an exponential or double-exponential disk profile
and a central bulge. The inner exponential is the initial disk size and the
outer exponential is from material flung out by spiral arms and clump torques.
A nuclear black hole may form at the same time as the bulge from smaller black
holes that grow inside the dense cores of each clump. The properties and
lifetimes of the clumps in our models are consistent with observations of the
clumps in high redshift galaxies, and the stellar motions in our models are
consistent with the observed velocity dispersions and lack of organized
rotation in chain galaxies. We suggest that violently unstable disks are the
first step in spiral galaxy formation. The associated starburst activity gives
a short timescale for the initial stellar disk to form.Comment: ApJ Accepted, 13 pages, 9 figure
Chain Galaxies in the Tadpole ACS Field
Colors and magnitudes were determined for 69 chain galaxies, 58 other linear
structures, 32 normal edge-on galaxies, and all of their large star formation
clumps in the HST ACS field of the Tadpole galaxy. Redshifts of 0.5 to 2 are
inferred from comparisons with published color-evolution models. The linear
galaxies have no red nuclear bulges like the normal disk galaxies in our field,
but the star formation clumps in each have about the same colors and
magnitudes. Light profiles along the linear galaxies tend to be flat, unlike
the exponential profiles of normal galaxies. Although the most extreme of the
linear objects look like beaded filaments, they are all probably edge-on disks
that will evolve to late Hubble type galaxies. The lack of an exponential
profile is either the result of a dust scale height that is comparable to the
stellar scale height, or an intrinsically irregular structure. Examples of
galaxies that could be face-on versions of linear galaxies are shown. They have
an irregular clumpy structure with no central bulge and with clump colors and
magnitudes that are comparable to those in the linears. Radiative transfer
solutions to the magnitudes and surface brightnesses of inclined dusty galaxies
suggest that edge-on disks should become more prominent near the detection
limit for surface brightness. The surface brightness distribution of the
edge-on galaxies in this field confirm this selection effect. The star
formation regions are much more massive than in modern galaxies, averaging up
to 10^9 Msun for kpc scales.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures, accepted for ApJ, 603, March 1, 200
Bulge Formation by the Coalescence of Giant Clumps in Primordial Disk Galaxies
Gas-rich disks in the early universe are highly turbulent and have giant
star-forming clumps. Models suggest the clumps form by gravitational
instabilities, and if they resist disruption by star formation, then they
interact, lose angular momentum, and migrate to the center to form a bulge.
Here we study the properties of the bulges formed by this mechanism. They are
all thick, slowly rotating, and have a high Sersic index, like classical
bulges. Their rapid formation should also give them relatively high
alpha-element abundances. We consider fourteen low-resolution models and four
high-resolution models, three of which have supernova feedback. All models have
an active halo, stellar disk, and gaseous disk, three of the models have a
pre-existing bulge and three others have a cuspy dark matter halo. All show the
same basic result except the one with the highest feedback, in which the clumps
are quickly destroyed and the disk thickens too much. The coalescence of
massive disk clumps in the center of a galaxy is like a major merger in terms
of orbital mixing. It differs by leaving a bulge with no specific dark matter
component, unlike the merger of individual galaxies. Normal supernova feedback
has little effect because the high turbulent speed in the gas produces tightly
bound clumps. A variety of indirect observations support the model, including
clumpy disks with young bulges at high redshift and bulges with relatively
little dark matter.Comment: 21 pages, 9 figures, ApJ 688, November 20 2008, in pres
A Turbulent Origin for Flocculent Spiral Structure in Galaxies
The flocculent structure of star formation in 7 galaxies has a Fourier
transform power spectrum for azimuthal intensity scans with a power law slope
that increases systematically from -1 at large scales to -1.7 at small scales.
This is the same pattern as in the power spectra for azimuthal scans of HI
emission in the Large Magellanic Clouds and for flocculent dust clouds in
galactic nuclei. The steep part also corresponds to the slope of -3 for
two-dimensional power spectra that have been observed in atomic and molecular
gas surveys of the Milky Way and the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. The
same power law structure for star formation arises in both flocculent and grand
design galaxies, which implies that the star formation process is the same in
each. Fractal Brownian motion models that include discrete stars and an
underlying continuum of starlight match the observations if all of the emission
is organized into a global fractal pattern with an intrinsic 1D power spectrum
having a slope between 1.3 and 1.8. We suggest that the power spectrum of
optical light in galaxies is the result of turbulence, and that large-scale
turbulent motions are generated by sheared gravitational instabilities which
make flocculent spiral arms first and then cascade to form clouds and clusters
on smaller scales.Comment: accepted for ApJ, 31 pg, 9 figure
Fractal Structure in Galactic Star Fields
The fractal structure of star formation on large scales in disk galaxies is
studied using the size distribution function of stellar aggregates in kpc-scale
star fields. Achival HST images of 10 galaxies are Gaussian smoothed to define
the aggregates, and a count of these aggregates versus smoothing scale gives
the fractal dimension. Fractal and Poisson models confirm the procedure. The
fractal dimension of star formation in all of the galaxies is ~2.3. This is the
same as the fractal dimension of interstellar gas in the Milky Way and nearby
galaxies, suggesting that star formation is a passive tracer of gas structure
defined by self-gravity and turbulence. Dense clusters like the Pleiades form
at the bottom of the hierarchy of structures, where the protostellar gas is
densest. If most stars form in such clusters, then the fractal arises from the
spatial distribution of their positions, giving dispersed star fields from
continuous cluster disruption. Dense clusters should have an upper mass limit
that increases with pressure, from ~1000 Msun in regions like the Solar
neighborhood to one million Msun in starbursts.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, to be published in Astronomical Journal, Vol 121,
March 200
Ocular Shock Front in the Colliding Galaxy IC 2163
The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in The Astrophysical Journal, 831:161 (13pp), 2016 November 4, doi:10.3847/0004-637X/831/2/161 © 2016. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.ALMA observations in the CO 1 - 0 line of the interacting galaxies IC 2163 and NGC 2207 at 2" x 1.5" resolution reveal how the encounter drives gas to pile up in narrow, ~ 1 kpc wide, "eyelids" in IC 2163. IC 2163 and NGC 2207 are involved in a grazing encounter, which has led to development in IC 2163 of an eye-shaped (ocular) structure at mid-radius and two tidal arms. The CO data show that there are large velocity gradients across the width of each eyelid, with a mixture of radial and azimuthal streaming of gas at the outer edge of the eyelid relative to its inner edge. The sense of the radial streaming in the eyelids is consistent with the idea that gas from the outer part of IC 2163 flows inward until its radial streaming slows down abruptly and the gas piles up in the eyelids. The radial compression at the eyelids causes an increase in the gas column density by direct radial impact and also leads to a high rate of shear. We find a strong correlation between the molecular column densities and the magnitude of dv/dR across the width of the eyelid at fixed values of azimuth. Substantial portions of the eyelids have high velocity dispersion in CO, indicative of elevated turbulence there.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio
Martial arts as a mental health intervention for children? Evidence from the ECLS-K
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Martial arts studios for children market their services as providing mental health outcomes such as self-esteem, self-confidence, concentration, and self-discipline. It appears that many parents enroll their children in martial arts in hopes of obtaining such outcomes. The current study used the data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten class of 1998-1999, to assess the effects of martial arts upon such outcomes as rated by classroom teachers.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study used a multistage probability sampling design to gather a sample representative of U.S. children attending kindergarten beginning 1998. We made use of data collected in the kindergarten, 3<sup>rd </sup>grade, and 5<sup>th </sup>grade years. Classroom behavior was measured by a rating scale completed by teachers; participation in martial arts was assessed as part of a parent interview. The four possible combinations of participation and nonparticipation in martial arts at time 1 and time 2 for each analysis were coded into three dichotomous variables; the set of three variables constituted the measure of participation studied through regression. Multiple regression was used to estimate the association between martial arts participation and change in classroom behavior from one measurement occasion to the next. The change from kindergarten to third grade was studied as a function of martial arts participation, and the analysis was replicated studying behavior change from third grade to fifth grade. Cohen's f<sup>2 </sup>effect sizes were derived from these regressions.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The martial arts variable failed to show a statistically significant effect on behavior, in either of the regression analyses; in fact, the f<sup>2 </sup>effect size for martial arts was 0.000 for both analyses. The 95% confidence intervals for regression coefficients for martial arts variables have upper and lower bounds that are all close to zero. The analyses not only fail to reject the null hypothesis, but also render unlikely a population effect size that differs greatly from zero.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The data from the ECLS-K fail to support enrolling children in martial arts to improve mental health outcomes as measured by classroom teachers.</p
Arm Structure in Anemic Spiral Galaxies
Anemic galaxies have less prominent star formation than normal galaxies of
the same Hubble type. Previous studies showed they are deficient in total
atomic hydrogen but not in molecular hydrogen. Here we compare the combined
surface densities of HI and H2 at mid-disk radii with the Kennicutt threshold
for star formation. The anemic galaxies are below threshold, which explains
their lack of prominent star formation, but they are not much different than
other early type galaxies, which also tend to be below threshold. The spiral
wave amplitudes of anemic and normal galaxies were also compared, using images
in B and J passbands from the OSU Bright Spiral Galaxy Survey. Anemic galaxies
have normal spiral wave properties too, with the same amplitudes and radial
dependencies as other galaxies of the same arm class. Because of the lack of
gas, spiral waves in early type galaxies and anemics do not have a continuous
supply of stars with low velocity dispersions to maintain a marginally stable
disk. As a result, they are either short-lived, evolving toward lenticulars and
S0 types in only a few rotations at mid-disk, or they are driven by the
asymmetries associated with gas removal in the cluster environment.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures, accepted by A
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