Determination of resonance locations in NGC 613 from morphological arguments

In this paper, we present BVRI imaging data of NGC 613. We use these data to determine the corotation radius of the bar, using the photometric phase crossing method. This method uses the phase angle of the spiral structure in several wavebands, and looks for a crossing between the blue (B) light and the redder wavebands (e.g., R or I). For NGC 613, we find two phase crossings, an outer phase crossing at 136 +/- 8 arcsec and an inner phase crossing at 16 +/- 8 arcsec. We argue that the outer phase crossing is due to the bar corotation radius, and from the bar length of $R_{\rm bar}=90.0\pm4.0$ arcsec we go on to calculate a relative bar pattern speed of R = 1.5 +/- 0.1, which is consistent with the results of previous methods described in the literature. For a better understanding of the inner phase crossing, we have created structure maps in all four wavebands and a B-R color map. All of our structure maps and our color map highlight a nuclear ring of star formation at a radius of ~4 arcsec, which had also been observed recently using ALMA. Furthermore, the radius of our inner phase crossing appears to be consistent with the size of a nuclear disk of star formation that has been recently detected and described in the literature. We therefore suggest that the phase crossing method can be used to detect the size of nuclear star formation regions as well as the location of corotation resonances in spiral galaxies.Comment: 8 pages accepted for publication in MNRA

Far-Ultraviolet Spectroscopy of Star-Forming Regions in Nearby Galaxies: Stellar Populations and Abundance Indicators

We present FUSE spectroscopy and supporting data for star-forming regions in nearby galaxies, to examine their massive-star content and explore the use of abundance and population indicators in this spectral range for high-redshift galaxies. New far-ultraviolet spectra are shown for four bright H II regions in M33 (NGC 588, 592, 595, and 604), the H II region NGC 5461 in M101, and the starburst nucleus of NGC 7714, supplemented by the very-low-metallicity galaxy I Zw 18. In each case, we see strong Milky Way absorption systems from H2, but intrinsic absorption within each galaxy is weak or undetectable, perhaps because of the "UV bias" in which reddened stars which lie behind molecular-rich areas are also heavily reddened. We see striking changes in the stellar-wind lines from these populations with metallicity, suggesting that C II, C III, C IV, N II, N III, and P V lines are potential tracers of stellar metallicity in star-forming galaxies. Three of these relations - involving N IV, C III, and P V - are nearly linear over the range from O/H=0.05--0.8 solar. The major difference in continuum shapes among these systems is that the giant H II complex NGC 604 has a stronger continuum shortward of 950 A than any other object in this sample. Small-number statistics would likely go in the other direction; we favor this as the result of a discrete star-forming event ~3 Myr ago, as suggested by previous studies of its stellar population. (Supported by NASA grant NAG5-8959)Comment: Astronomical Journal, in press (July 2004). 8 figures; before publication, full-resolution figures are available as a single PDF file from http://www.astr.ua.edu/keel/fusefigs.pd

On the Link Between Central Black Holes, Bar Dynamics, and Dark Matter Halos in Spiral Galaxies

The discovery of a relationship between supermassive black hole (SMBH) mass and spiral arm pitch angle (P) is evidence that SMBHs are tied to the overall secular evolution of a galaxy. The discovery of SMBHs in late-type galaxies with little or no bulge suggests that an underlying correlation between the dark matter halo concentration and SMBH mass (MBH) exists, rather than between the bulge mass and MBH. In this paper we measure P using a two-dimensional fast fourier transform and estimate the bar pattern speeds of 40 barred spiral galaxies from the Carnegie-Irvine Galaxy Survey. The pattern speeds were derived by estimating the gravitational potentials of our galaxies from Ks-band images and using them to produce dynamical simulation models. The pattern speeds allow us to identify those galaxies with low central dark halo densities, or fast rotating bars, while P provides an estimate of MBH. We find that a wide range of MBH exists in galaxies with low central dark matter halo densities, which appears to support other theoretical results. We also find that galaxies with low central dark halo densities appear to follow more predictable trends in P versus de Vaucouleurs morphological type (T) and bar strength versus T than barred galaxies in general. The empirical relationship between MBH and total gravitational mass of a galaxy (Mtot) allows us to predict the minimum Mtot that will be observationally measured of our fast bar galaxies. These predictions will be investigated in a subsequent paper.Comment: 17 pages, 1 table, 11 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Determination of Resonance Locations in NGC 613 From Morphological Arguments

In this paper, we present BVRI imaging data of NGC 613. We use these data to determine the corotation radius of the bar, using the photometric phase crossing method. This method uses the phase angle of the spiral structure in several wavebands, and looks for a crossing between the blue (B) light and the redder wavebands (e.g. R or I). For NGC 613, we find two phase crossings, an outer phase crossing at 136 ± 8 arcsec and an inner phase crossing at 16 ± 8 arcsec. We argue that the outer phase crossing is due to the bar corotation radius, and from the bar length of Rbar = 90.0 ± 4.0 arcsec we go on to calculate a relative bar pattern speed of R = 1.5 ± 0.1, which is consistent with the results of previous methods described in the literature. For a better understanding of the inner phase crossing, we have created structure maps in all four wavebands and a B - R colour map. All of our structure maps and our colour map highlight a nuclear ring of star formation at a radius of ~4 arcsec, which had also been observed recently using Atacama Large Millimeter Array. Furthermore, the radius of our inner phase crossing appears to be consistent with the size of a nuclear disc of star formation that has been recently detected and described in the literature. We therefore suggest that the phase crossing method can be used to detect the size of nuclear star formation regions as well as the location of corotation resonances in spiral galaxies

treuthardt/P2DFFT: P2DFFT Version 5.2

This is the Version 5.2 version of P2DFFT. It includes major update and bug fixes over version 4.x. It adds new features like support for a new Zooniverse project and a different technique for interpreting the pitch angle results