100 research outputs found
Integral Field spectroscopy of two HI rich E+A galaxies
Approximately half of the nearby E+A galaxies followed up with 21-cm
observations have detectable HI emission. The optical spectra of these galaxies
show strong post-starburst stellar populations but no optical emission lines
implying star-formation is not ongoing despite the presence of significant gas
reservoirs. We have obtained integral field spectroscopic follow up
observations of the two brightest, and nearest, of the six E+A galaxies with HI
21-cm emission in the recent sample of Zwaan et al. (2013). In the central
regions of both galaxies the observations are consistent with a post-starburst
population with little emission. However, outside the central regions both
galaxies have strong optical emission lines, with a clumpy or knot-like
distribution, indicating ongoing star-formation. We conclude that in these two
cases the presence of optical spectra lacking evidence for star-formation while
a large gas mass is present can be explained by an aperture effect in selecting
the nearby E+A galaxies using single-fibre spectroscopy that probes only the
galaxy core.Comment: Accepted to MNRAS, 7 pages, 2 figure
Abell 1201: a Minor merger at second core passage
We present an analysis of the structures and dynamics of the merging cluster
Abell~1201, which has two sloshing cold fronts around a cooling core, and an
offset gas core approximately 500kpc northwest of the center. New Chandra and
XMM-Newton data reveal a region of enhanced brightness east of the offset core,
with breaks in surface brightness along its boundary to the north and east.
This is interpreted as a tail of gas stripped from the offset core. Gas in the
offset core and the tail is distinguished from other gas at the same distance
from the cluster center chiefly by having higher density, hence lower entropy.
In addition, the offset core shows marginally lower temperature and metallicity
than the surrounding area. The metallicity in the cool core is high and there
is an abrupt drop in metallicity across the southern cold front. We interpret
the observed properties of the system, including the placement of the cold
fronts, the offset core and its tail in terms of a simple merger scenario. The
offset core is the remnant of a merging subcluster, which first passed
pericenter southeast of the center of the primary cluster and is now close to
its second pericenter passage, moving at ~1000 km/s. Sloshing excited by the
merger gave rise to the two cold fronts and the disposition of the cold fronts
reveals that we view the merger from close to the plane of the orbit of the
offset core.Comment: accepted by Ap
Deep Chandra observations of the stripped galaxy group falling into Abell 2142
In the local Universe, the growth of massive galaxy clusters mainly operates through the continuous accretion of group-scale systems. The infalling group in Abell 2142 is the poster child of such an accreting group, and as such, it is an ideal target to study the astrophysical processes induced by structure formation. We present the results of a deep (200 ks) observation of this structure with Chandra that highlights the complexity of this system in exquisite detail. In the core of the group, the spatial resolution of Chandra reveals a leading edge and complex AGN-induced activity. The morphology of the stripped gas tail appears straight in the innermost 250 kpc, suggesting that magnetic draping efficiently shields the gas from its surroundings. However, beyond ~ 300 kpc from the core, the tail flares and the morphology becomes strongly irregular, which could be explained by a breaking of the drape, for example, caused by turbulent motions. The power spectrum of surface-brightness fluctuations is relatively flat (P2D ∝ k⁻²∙³ which indicates that thermal conduction is strongly inhibited even beyond the region where magnetic draping is effective. The amplitude of density fluctuations in the tail is consistent with a mild level of turbulence with a Mach number M3D ~ 0:1 -0:25. Overall, our results show that the processes leading to the thermalization and mixing of the infalling gas are slow and relatively inefficient
Triggering Active Galactic Nuclei in galaxy clusters
This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. © 2017 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.We model the triggering of active galactic nuclei (AGN) in galaxy clusters using the semianalytic galaxy formation model SAGE. We prescribe triggering methods based on the ram pressure galaxies experience as they move throughout the intracluster medium, which is hypothesized to trigger star formation and AGN activity. The clustercentric radius and velocity distribution of the simulated active galaxies produced by thesemodels are compared with those of AGN and galaxies with intense star formation from a sample of low-redshift relaxed clusters from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The ram pressure triggering model that best explains the clustercentric radius and velocity distribution of these observed galaxies has AGN and star formation triggered if 2.5 × 10 -14 Pa 2P internal; this is consistent with expectations from hydrodynamical simulations of ram-pressure-induced star formation. Our results show that ram pressure is likely to be an important mechanism for triggering star formation and AGN activity in clusters.Peer reviewe
Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) : The mechanisms for quiescent galaxy formation at z<1
© 2016 The Authors. One key problem in astrophysics is understanding how and why galaxies switch off their star formation, building the quiescent population that we observe in the local Universe. From the Galaxy And Mass Assembly and VIsible MultiObject Spectrograph Public Extragalactic Redshift surveys, we use spectroscopic indices to select quiescent and candidate transition galaxies.We identify potentially rapidly transitioning post-starburst (PSB) galaxies and slower transitioning green-valley galaxies. Over the last 8Gyr, the quiescent population has grown more slowly in number density at high masses (M * > 10 11 M ⊙ ) than at intermediate masses (M * > 10 10.6 M ⊙ ). There is evolution in both the PSB and green-valley stellar mass functions, consistent with higher mass galaxies quenching at earlier cosmic times.At intermediatemasses (M * > 10 10.6 M ⊙ ), we find a green-valley transition time-scale of 2.6 Gyr. Alternatively, at z ~ 0.7, the entire growth rate could be explained by fast-quenching PSB galaxies, with a visibility time-scale of 0.5 Gyr. At lower redshift, the number density of PSBs is so low that an unphysically short visibility window would be required for them to contribute significantly to the quiescent population growth. The importance of the fast-quenching route may rapidly diminish at z 10 11 M ⊙ ), there is tension between the large number of candidate transition galaxies compared to the slow growth of the quiescent population. This could be resolved if not all high-mass PSB and green-valley galaxies are transitioning from star forming to quiescent, for example if they rejuvenate out of the quiescent population following the accretion of gas and triggering of star formation, or if they fail to completely quench their star formation
The SAMI Galaxy Survey: Revising the Fraction of Slow Rotators in IFS Galaxy Surveys
The fraction of galaxies supported by internal rotation compared to galaxies
stabilized by internal pressure provides a strong constraint on galaxy
formation models. In integral field spectroscopy surveys, this fraction is
biased because survey instruments typically only trace the inner parts of the
most massive galaxies. We present aperture corrections for the two most widely
used stellar kinematic quantities and . Our
demonstration involves integral field data from the SAMI Galaxy Survey and the
ATLAS Survey. We find a tight relation for both and
when measured in different apertures that can be used as a linear
transformation as a function of radius, i.e., a first-order aperture
correction. We find that and radial growth curves are
well approximated by second order polynomials. By only fitting the inner
profile (0.5), we successfully recover the profile out to one
if a constraint between the linear and quadratic parameter in the
fit is applied. However, the aperture corrections for and
derived by extrapolating the profiles perform as well as applying
a first-order correction. With our aperture-corrected
measurements, we find that the fraction of slow rotating galaxies increases
with stellar mass. For galaxies with 11, the fraction
of slow rotators is percent, but is underestimated if galaxies
without coverage beyond one are not included in the sample
( percent). With measurements out to the largest aperture radius
the slow rotator fraction is similar as compared to using aperture corrected
values ( percent). Thus, aperture effects can significantly bias
stellar kinematic IFS studies, but this bias can now be removed with the method
outlined here.Comment: Accepted for Publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal
Astronomical Society. 16 pages and 11 figures. The key figures of the paper
are: 1, 4, 9, and 1
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