1,552 research outputs found
The structure of dark matter halos in hierarchical clustering theories
During hierarchical clustering, smaller masses generally collapse earlier
than larger masses and so are denser on the average. The core of a small mass
halo could be dense enough to resist disruption and survive undigested, when it
is incorporated into a bigger object. We explore the possibility that a nested
sequence of undigested cores in the center of the halo, which have survived the
hierarchical, inhomogeneous collapse to form larger and larger objects,
determines the halo structure in the inner regions. For a flat universe with
, scaling arguments then suggest that the core density
profile is, with . But
whether such behaviour obtains depends on detailed dynamics. We first examine
the dynamics using a fluid approach to the self-similar collapse solutions for
the dark matter phase space density, including the effect of velocity
dispersions. We highlight the importance of tangential velocity dispersions to
obtain density profiles shallower than in the core regions. If
tangential velocity dispersions in the core are constrained to be less than the
radial dispersion, a cuspy core density profile shallower than 1/r cannot
obtain, in self-similar collapse. We then briefly look at the profiles of the
outer halos in low density cosmological models where the total halo mass is
convergent. Finally, we analyze a suite of dark halo density and velocity
dispersion profiles obtained in cosmological N-body simulations of models with
n= 0, -1 and -2. We find that the core-density profiles of dark halos, show
considerable scatter in their properties, but nevertheless do appear to reflect
a memory of the initial power spectrum, with steeper initial spectra producing
flatter core profiles. (Abridged)Comment: 31 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Ap
GIRAFFE multiple integral field units at VLT: a unique tool to recover velocity fields of distant galaxies
The GIRAFFE spectrograph is unique in providing the integral field
spectroscopy of fifteen distant galaxies at the same time. It has been
successfully implemented at the second VLT unit within the FLAMES facility. We
present GIRAFFE observations acquired during the Guaranteed Time Observation of
the Paris Observatory, using total exposure times ranging from 6 to 12 hours.
The reduced 3D cube of each galaxy has been deconvolved using our new package
DisGal3D. This software has been written using the only assumption that UV
light traces the emission line regions. The comparison between GIRAFFE spectra
and HST imagery allows us to recover details on velocity fields as small as
0.3-0.4 arcsec. It has been successfully tested using Fabry Perot observations
of nearby galaxies purposely redshifted to large distances. We present here
preliminary results for three distant galaxies at 0.45< z < 0.65, whose
velocity fields have been derived with exquisite spectral (R=10000) and spatial
resolutions. Observed velocity fields range from disturbed fields expected in
major merger events to those of regular spiral with minor perturbations. For
the latter, one could accurately derive the dynamical major axis and the
maximal rotational velocity. We conclude that dynamical properties of a large
number of distant galaxies can be routinely derived at VLT. This opens a new
avenue towards the understanding of the galaxy formation and evolution during
the last 8 Gyr.Comment: 4 pages, 3 jpeg figures. to appear in A&
M/L, H-alpha Rotation Curves, and HI Measurements for 329 Nearby Cluster and Field Spirals: II. Evidence for Galaxy Infall
We have conducted a study of optical and HI properties of spiral galaxies
(size, luminosity, H-alpha flux distribution, circular velocity, HI gas mass)
to explore the role of gas stripping as a driver of morphological evolution in
clusters. We find a strong correlation between the spiral and S0 fractions
within clusters, and the spiral fraction scales tightly with cluster X-ray gas
luminosity. We explore young star formation and identify spirals that are (1)
asymmetric, with truncated H-alpha emission and HI gas reservoirs on the
leading edge of the disk, on a first pass through the dense intracluster medium
in the cores of rich clusters; (2) strongly HI deficient and stripped, with
star formation confined to the inner 5 kpc/h and 3 disk scale lengths; (3)
reddened, extremely HI deficient and quenched, where star formation has been
halted across the entire disk. We propose that these spirals are in successive
stages of morphological transformation, between infalling field spirals and
cluster S0s, and that the process which acts to remove the HI gas reservoir
suppresses new star formation on a similarly fast timescale. These data suggest
that gas stripping plays a significant role in morphological transformation and
rapid truncation of star formation across the disk.Comment: 24 pages, 12 figures; accepted for publication in AJ;
higher-resolution figures available at http://astronomy.nmsu.edu/nicol
Near-Infrared Adaptive Optics Imaging of the Central Regions of Nearby Sc Galaxies. II. NGC 247 and NGC 2403
J, H, and K' images obtained with the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope adaptive
optics system are used to investigate the star-forming histories of the central
regions of the Sc galaxies NGC 247 and NGC 2403. The brightest resolved red
stars within 15 arcsec of the nucleus of each galaxy are red supergiants,
indicating that the central few hundred parsecs of these galaxies experienced
star formation within the last ~ 0.1 Gyr. However, when averaged over Gyr time
scales, the star-forming histories of the inner disks of these galaxies have
been remarkably similar, as expected if the long-term evolution of disks is
defined by local characteristics such as mass density. It is demonstrated that
NGC 247 and NGC 2403, like M33, harbour nuclear star clusters with stellar
contents that differ from the surrounding central light concentrations. The
nucleus of NGC 2403 is significantly bluer than that of the other two galaxies
and the K-band surface brightnesses near the centers of NGC 247 and NGC 2403
are 1 -- 2 mag per square arcsec lower than in M33. Finally, it is noted that
young or intermediate-age nuclear star clusters are a common occurence in
nearby spirals, indicating that nuclear star formation in these objects is
either continuous or episodic on time scales of 0.1 - 1 Gyr.Comment: 27 pages of text and 14 figures; to appear in the Astronomical
Journa
The asymmetric drift, the local standard of rest, and implications from RAVE data
Context. The determination of the local standard of rest (LSR), which corresponds to the measurement of the peculiar motion of the Sun based on the derivation of the asymmetric drift of stellar populations, is still a matter of debate. The classical value of the tangential peculiar motion of the Sun with respect to the LSR was challenged in recent years, claiming a significantly larger value.
Aims. We present an improved Jeans analysis, which allows a better interpretation of the measured kinematics of stellar populations in the Milky Way disc. We show that the Radial Velocity Experiment (RAVE) sample of dwarf stars is an excellent data set to derive tighter boundary conditions to chemodynamical evolution models of the extended solar neighbourhood.
Methods. We propose an improved version of the Stromberg relation with the radial scalelengths as the only unknown. We redetermine the asymmetric drift and the LSR for dwarf stars based on RAVE data. Additionally, we discuss the impact of adopting a different LSR value on the individual scalelengths of the subpopulations.
Results. Binning RAVE stars in metallicity reveals a bigger asymmetric drift (corresponding to a smaller radial scalelength) for more metal-rich populations. With the standard assumption of velocity-dispersion independent radial scalelengths in each metallicity bin, we redetermine the LSR. The new Stromberg equation yields a joint LSR value of V-circle dot = 3.06 +/- 0.68 km s(-1), which is even smaller than the classical value based on Hipparcos data. The corresponding radial scalelength increases from 1.6 kpc for the metal-rich bin to 2.9 kpc for the metal-poor bin, with a trend of an even larger scalelength for young metal-poor stars. When adopting the recent Schonrich value of V-circle dot = 12.24 km s(-1) for the LSR, the new Stromberg equation yields much larger individual radial scalelengths of the RAVE subpopulations, which seem unphysical in part.
Conclusions. The new Stromberg equation allows a cleaner interpretation of the kinematic data of disc stars in terms of radial scalelengths. Lifting the LSR value by a few km s(-1) compared to the classical value results in strongly increased radial scalelengths with a trend of smaller values for larger velocity dispersions
Single-lined Spectroscopic Binary Star Candidates in the RAVE Survey
Repeated spectroscopic observations of stars in the Radial Velocity
Experiment (RAVE) database are used to identify and examine single-lined binary
(SB1) candidates. The RAVE latest internal database (VDR3) includes radial
velocities, atmospheric and other parameters for approximately quarter million
of different stars with little less than 300,000 observations. In the sample of
~20,000 stars observed more than once, 1333 stars with variable radial
velocities were identified. Most of them are believed to be SB1 candidates. The
fraction of SB1 candidates among stars with several observations is between 10%
and 15% which is the lower limit for binarity among RAVE stars. Due to the
distribution of time spans between the re-observation that is biased towards
relatively short timescales (days to weeks), the periods of the identified SB1
candidates are most likely in the same range. Because of the RAVE's narrow
magnitude range most of the dwarf candidates belong to the thin Galactic disk
while the giants are part of the thick disk with distances extending to up to a
few kpc. The comparison of the list of SB1 candidates to the VSX catalog of
variable stars yielded several pulsating variables among the giant population
with the radial velocity variations of up to few tens of km/s. There are 26
matches between the catalog of spectroscopic binary orbits (SB9) and the whole
RAVE sample for which the given periastron time and the time of RAVE
observation were close enough to yield a reliable comparison. RAVE measurements
of radial velocities of known spectroscopic binaries are consistent with their
published radial velocity curves.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in A
Chromospherically Active Stars in the RAVE Survey. I. The Catalogue
RAVE, the unbiased magnitude limited survey of the southern sky stars,
contained 456,676 medium-resolution spectra at the time of our analysis.
Spectra cover the CaII IRT range which is a known indicator of chromospheric
activity. Our previous work (Matijevi\v{c} et al. 2012) classified all spectra
using locally linear embedding. It identified 53,347 cases with a suggested
emission component in calcium lines. Here we use a spectral subtraction
technique to measure the properties of this emission. Synthetic templates are
replaced by the observed spectra of non-active stars to bypass the difficult
computations of non-LTE profiles of the line cores and stellar parameter
dependence. We derive both the equivalent width of the excess emission for each
calcium line on a 5\AA\ wide interval and their sum EW_IRT for ~44,000
candidate active dwarf stars with S/N>20 and with no respect to the source of
their emission flux. From these ~14,000 show a detectable chromospheric flux
with at least 2\sigma\ confidence level. Our set of active stars vastly
enlarges previously known samples. Atmospheric parameters and in some cases
radial velocities of active stars derived from automatic pipeline suffer from
systematic shifts due to their shallower calcium lines. We re-estimate the
effective temperature, metallicity and radial velocities for candidate active
stars. The overall distribution of activity levels shows a bimodal shape, with
the first peak coinciding with non-active stars and the second with the pre
main-sequence cases. The catalogue will be publicly available with the next
RAVE public data releases.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figure
Thin disk kinematics from RAVE and the solar motion
Aims. We study the Milky Way thin disk with the Radial Velocity Experiment
(RAVE) survey. We consider the thin and thick disks as different Galactic
components and present a technique to statistically disentangle the two
populations. Then we focus our attention on the thin disk component. Methods.
We disentangle the thin disk component from amixture of the thin and thick
disks using a data set providing radial velocities, proper motions, and
photometrically determined distances. Results. We present the trend of the
velocity dispersions in the thin disk component of the Milky Way (MW) in the
radial direction above and below the Galactic plane using data from the RAdial
Velocity Experiment (RAVE). The selected sample is a limited subsample from the
entire RAVE catalogue, roughly mapping up to 500 pc above and below the
Galactic plane, a few degrees in azimuthal direction and covering a radial
extension of 2.0 kpc around the solar position. The solar motion relative to
the local standard of rest is also re-determined with the isolated thin disk
component. Major results are the trend of the velocity mean and dispersion in
the radial and vertical direction. In addition the azimuthal components of the
solar motion relative to the local standard of rest and the velocity dispersion
are discussed.Comment: accepted on A&A, please see companion paper "THICK disk kinem...
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