5,518 research outputs found
A Comprehensive Archival Search for Counterparts to Ultra-Compact High Velocity Clouds: Five Local Volume Dwarf Galaxies
We report five Local Volume dwarf galaxies (two of which are presented here
for the first time) uncovered during a comprehensive archival search for
optical counterparts to ultra-compact high velocity clouds (UCHVCs). The UCHVC
population of HI clouds are thought to be candidate gas-rich, low mass halos at
the edge of the Local Group and beyond, but no comprehensive search for stellar
counterparts to these systems has been presented. Careful visual inspection of
all publicly available optical and ultraviolet imaging at the position of the
UCHVCs revealed six blue, diffuse counterparts with a morphology consistent
with a faint dwarf galaxy beyond the Local Group. Optical spectroscopy of all
six candidate dwarf counterparts show that five have an H-derived
velocity consistent with the coincident HI cloud, confirming their association,
the sixth diffuse counterpart is likely a background object. The size and
luminosity of the UCHVC dwarfs is consistent with other known Local Volume
dwarf irregular galaxies. The gas fraction () of the five
dwarfs are generally consistent with that of dwarf irregular galaxies in the
Local Volume, although ALFALFA-Dw1 (associated with ALFALFA UCHVC
HVC274.68+74.70123) has a very high 40. Despite the
heterogenous nature of our search, we demonstrate that the current dwarf
companions to UCHVCs are at the edge of detectability due to their low surface
brightness, and that deeper searches are likely to find more stellar systems.
If more sensitive searches do not reveal further stellar counterparts to
UCHVCs, then the dearth of such systems around the Local Group may be in
conflict with CDM simulations.Comment: 18 pages, 4 tables, 4 figures, ApJ Accepte
Unitarity cutting rules for the nucleus excitation and topological cross sections in hard production off nuclei from nonlinear k_t-factorization
At the partonic level, a typical final state in small-x deep inelastic
scattering off nuclei and hard proton-nucleus collisions can be characterized
by the multiplicity of color-excited nucleons. Within reggeon field theory,
each color-excited nucleon is associated with the unitarity cut of the pomeron
exchanged between the projectile and nucleus. In this communication we derive
the unitarity rules for the multiplicity of excited nucleons, alias cut
pomerons, alias topological cross sections, for typical hard dijet production
processes. We demonstrate how the coupled-channel non-Abelian intranuclear
evolution of color dipoles, inherent to pQCD, gives rise to the reggeon field
theory diagrams for final states in terms of the uncut, and two kinds of cut,
pomerons. Upon the proper identification of the uncut and cut pomeron
exchanges, the topological cross sections for dijet production follow in a
straightforward way from the earlier derived nonlinear k_t - factorization
quadratures for the inclusive dijet cross sections. The concept of a coherent
(collective) nuclear glue proves extremely useful for the formulation of
reggeon field theory vertices of multipomeron - cut and uncut - couplings to
particles and between themselves. A departure of our unitarity cutting rules
from the ones suggested by the pre-QCD Abramovsky-Kancheli-Gribov rules, stems
from the coupled-channel features of intranuclear pQCD. We propose a
multiplicity re-summation as a tool for the isolation of topological cross
sections for single-jet production.Comment: 53 pages, 16 eps-figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.
The structural properties and star formation history of Leo T from deep LBT photometry
We present deep, wide-field g and r photometry of the transition type dwarf
galaxy Leo T, obtained with the blue arm of the Large Binocular Telescope. The
data confirm the presence of both very young (5
Gyr) stars. We study the structural properties of the old and young stellar
populations by preferentially selecting either population based on their color
and magnitude. The young population is significantly more concentrated than the
old population, with half-light radii of 104+-8 and 148+-16 pc respectively,
and their centers are slightly offset. Approximately 10% of the total stellar
mass is estimated to be represented by the young stellar population. Comparison
of the color-magnitude diagram (CMD) with theoretical isochrones as well as
numerical CMD-fitting suggest that star formation began over 10 Gyr ago and
continued in recent times until at least a few hundred Myr ago. The CMD-fitting
results are indicative of two distinct star formation bursts, with a quiescent
period around 3 Gyr ago, albeit at low significance. The results are consistent
with no metallicity evolution and [Fe/H] ~ -1.5 over the entire age of the
system. Finally, the data show little if any sign of tidal distortion of Leo T.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures, some small textual changes, accepted for
publication in the Astrophysical Journa
HST Colour-Magnitude Diagrams of Six Old Globular Clusters in the LMC
We report on HST observations of six candidate old globular clusters in the
Large Magellanic Cloud: NGC 1754, NGC 1835, NGC 1898, NGC 1916, NGC 2005 and
NGC 2019. Deep exposures with the F555W and F814W filters provide us with
colour-magnitude diagrams that reach to an apparent magnitude in V of ~25, well
below the main sequence turnoff. These particular clusters are involved with
significantly high LMC field star densities and care was taken to subtract the
field stars from the cluster colour-magnitude diagrams accurately. In two cases
there is significant variable reddening across at least part of the image, but
only for NGC 1916 does the differential reddening preclude accurate
measurements of the CMD characteristics. The morphologies of the colour-
magnitude diagrams match well those of Galactic globular clusters of similar
metallicity. All six have well-developed horizontal branches, while four
clearly have stars on both sides of the RR Lyrae gap. The abundances obtained
from measurements of the height of the red giant branch above the level of the
horizontal branch are 0.3 dex higher, on average, than previously measured
spectroscopic abundances. Detailed comparisons with Galactic globular cluster
fiducials show that all six clusters are old objects, very similar in age to
classical Galactic globulars such as M5, with little age spread among the
clusters. This result is consistent with ages derived by measuring the
magnitude difference between the horizontal branch and main sequence turnoff.
We also find a similar chronology by comparing the horizontal branch
morphologies and abundances with the horizontal branch evolutionary tracks of
Lee, Demarque, & Zinn (1994). Our results imply that the LMC formed at the same
time as the Milky Way Galaxy.Comment: 23 pages, 18 PostScript figures, LaTeX, accepted by MNRAS. Uses
mn.sty and epsf.sty. Requires ols.sty (included
Spectroscopic Discovery of the Supernova 2003dh Associated with GRB 030329
We present early observations of the afterglow of the Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB)
030329 and the spectroscopic discovery of its associated supernova SN 2003dh.
We obtained spectra of the afterglow of GRB 030329 each night from March 30.12
(0.6 days after the burst) to April 8.13 (UT) (9.6 days after the burst). The
spectra cover a wavelength range of 350 nm to 850 nm. The early spectra consist
of a power-law continuum (F_nu ~ nu^{-0.9}) with narrow emission lines
originating from HII regions in the host galaxy, indicating a low redshift of
z=0.1687. However, our spectra taken after 2003 Apr. 5 show broad peaks in flux
characteristic of a supernova. Correcting for the afterglow emission, we find
the spectrum of the supernova is remarkably similar to the type Ic `hypernova'
SN 1998bw. While the presence of supernovae have been inferred from the light
curves and colors of GRB afterglows in the past, this is the first direct,
spectroscopic confirmation that a subset of classical gamma-ray bursts
originate from supernovae.Comment: published by ApJ Letters; additional material avilable at
http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/cfa/oir/Research/GRB
The discovery of Segue 2: a prototype of the population of satellites of satellites
We announce the discovery of a new Milky Way satellite Segue 2 found in the data of the Sloan Extension for Galactic Understanding and Exploration (SEGUE). We followed this up with deeper imaging and spectroscopy on the Multiple Mirror Telescope (MMT). From this, we derive a luminosity of Mv=−2.5, a half-light radius of 34 pc and a systemic velocity of ∼−40 km s−1. Our data also provide evidence for a stream around Segue 2 at a similar heliocentric velocity, and the SEGUE data show that it is also present in neighbouring fields. We resolve the velocity dispersion of Segue 2 as 3.4 km s−1 and the possible stream as ∼7 km s−1. This object shows points of comparison with other recent discoveries, Segue 1, Boo II and Coma. We speculate that all four objects may be representatives of a population of satellites of satellites - survivors of accretion events that destroyed their larger but less dense parents. They are likely to have formed at redshifts z > 10 and are good candidates for fossils of the reionization epoc
Leo V: A Companion of a Companion of the Milky Way Galaxy
We report the discovery of a new Milky Way dwarf spheroidal galaxy in the
constellation of Leo identified in data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Leo
V lies at a distance of about 180 kpc, and is separated by about 3 degrees from
another recent discovery, Leo IV. We present follow-up imaging from the Isaac
Newton Telescope and spectroscopy from the Hectochelle fiber spectrograph at
the Multiple Mirror Telescope. Leo V's heliocentric velocity is 173.4 km/s,
which is offset by about 40 km/s from that of Leo IV. A simple interpretation
of the kinematic data is that both objects may lie on the same stream, though
the implied orbit is only modestly eccentric (e = 0.2)Comment: Submitted to ApJ (Letters
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