3,512 research outputs found
The dependence of HII region properties on global and local surface brightness within galaxy discs
Using B, R, and H-alpha images of roughly equal-sized samples of low surface
brightness (LSB) and high surface brightness (HSB) galaxies (~40 galaxies
apiece), we have explored the dependence of HII region properties on local and
global disc surface brightness. We have done this by constructing co-added HII
region luminosity functions (LFs) according to local and central disc surface
brightness and fitting Schechter functions to these LFs. The results show that
the shape of the HII region LF within LSB galaxies does not change noticeably
as different limiting (i.e., mu>mu_lim) local surface brightness values are
used. However, the LFs for HSB galaxies have larger values of L_* and are less
steep at the faint-end than those of LSB galaxies for limiting B-band local
surface brightness values as faint as mu_B,lim~23-24. Both the LFs and the data
for individual HII regions show that luminous (log L>39 ergs/s) HII regions are
much more common within HSB discs than within LSB discs, implying that the
newly formed star clusters are also larger. Taking this into account along with
the results of Monte Carlo simulations, the shapes of the LFs imply that the
regions within LSB discs and those within the LSB areas of HSB discs are
relatively old (~5 Myr) while the regions within HSB discs for mu_B<24 are
significantly younger (<1 Myr). Since the majority of the LSB galaxies do not
have noticeable spiral arms and the majority of the HSB galaxies do, this may
indicate a transition within HSB discs from spiral arm-driven star formation to
a more locally driven, possibly sporadic form of star formation at mu_B~24, a
transition that does not appear to occur within LSB discs.Comment: Accepted to MNRA
The Arecibo Galaxy Environment Survey: II. A HI view of the Abell cluster 1367 and its outskirts
We present 21 cm HI line observations of 5x1 square degrees centered on the
local Abell cluster 1367 obtained as part of the Arecibo Galaxy Environment
Survey. One hundred sources are detected (79 new HI measurements and 50 new
redshifts), more than half belonging to the cluster core and its infalling
region. Combining the HI data with SDSS optical imaging we show that our HI
selected sample follows scaling relations similar to the ones usually observed
in optically selected samples. Interestingly all galaxies in our sample appear
to have nearly the same baryon fraction independently of their size, surface
brightness and luminosity. The most striking difference between HI and
optically selected samples resides in their large scale distribution: whereas
optical and X-ray observations trace the cluster core very well, in HI there is
almost no evidence of the presence of the cluster. Some implications on the
determination of the cluster luminosity function and HI distribution for
samples selected at different wavelength are also discussed.Comment: 22 pages, 15 figures, 4 tables. Accepted for publication on MNRAS
Main Journal. High resolution version of this paper can be downloaded at
http://www.astro.cf.ac.uk/pub/Luca.Cortese/papers/ages_a1367.pdf . Datacubes
and catalogs can be downloaded at http://www.naic.edu/~ages/public_data.htm
The Effects of Starburst Activity on Low Surface Brightness Disk Galaxies
Although numerous simulations have been done to understand the effects of
intense bursts of star formation on high surface brightness galaxies, few
attempts have been made to understand how localized starbursts would affect
both the color and surface brightness of low surface brightness (LSB) galaxies.
To remedy this, we have run 53 simulations involving bursts of star formation
activity on LSB galaxies, varying both the underlying galaxy properties and the
parameters describing the starbursts. We discovered that although changing the
total color of a galaxy was fairly straightforward, it was virtually impossible
to alter a galaxy's central surface brightness and thereby remove it from the
LSB galaxy classification without placing a high (and fairly artificial)
threshold for the underlying gas density. The primary effect of large amounts
of induced star formation was to produce a centralized core (bulge) component
which is generally not observed in LSB galaxies. The noisy morphological
appearance of LSB galaxies as well as their noisy surface brightness profiles
can be reproduced by considering small bursts of star formation that are
localized within the disk. The trigger mechanism for such bursts is likely
distant/weak tidal encounters. The stability of disk central surface brightness
to these periods of star formation argues that the large space density of LSB
galaxies at z = 0 should hold to substantially higher redshifts.Comment: 38 pages, 5 figures, 4 tables, tarred and compressed Also available
on http://guernsey.uoregon.edu/~kare
Strangers in the night: Discovery of a dwarf spheroidal galaxy on its first Local Group infall
We present spectroscopic observations of the AndXII dwarf spheroidal galaxy
using DEIMOS/Keck-II, showing it to be moving rapidly through the Local Group
(-556 km/s heliocentric velocity, -281 km/s relative to Andromeda from the MW),
falling into the Local Group from ~115 kpc beyond Andromeda's nucleus. AndXII
therefore represents a dwarf galaxy plausibly falling into the Local Group for
the first time, and never having experienced a dense galactic environment. From
Green Bank Telescope observations, a limit on the H{I} gas mass of <3000 Msun
suggests that AndXII's gas could have been removed prior to experiencing the
tides of the Local Group galaxies. Orbit models suggest the dwarf is close to
the escape velocity of M31 for published mass models. AndXII is our best direct
evidence for the late infall of satellite galaxies, a prediction of
cosmological simulations.Comment: 4 pages 5 figures 1 table, accepted in ApJ, july issu
Hubble Space Telescope Planetary Camera Images of NGC 1316
We present HST Planetary Camera V and I~band images of the central region of
the peculiar giant elliptical galaxy NGC 1316. The inner profile is well fit by
a nonisothermal core model with a core radius of 0.41" +/- 0.02" (34 pc). At an
assumed distance of 16.9 Mpc, the deprojected luminosity density reaches \sim
2.0 \times 10^3 L_{\sun} pc.
Outside the inner two or three arcseconds, a constant mass-to-light ratio of
is found to fit the observed line width measurements. The
line width measurements of the center indicate the existence of either a
central dark object of mass 2 \times 10^9 M_{\sun}, an increase in the
stellar mass-to-light ratio by at least a factor of two for the inner few
arcseconds, or perhaps increasing radial orbit anisotropy towards the center.
The mass-to-light ratio run in the center of NGC 1316 resembles that of many
other giant ellipticals, some of which are known from other evidence to harbor
central massive dark objects (MDO's).
We also examine twenty globular clusters associated with NGC 1316 and report
their brightnesses, colors, and limits on tidal radii. The brightest cluster
has a luminosity of 9.9 \times 10^6 L_{\sun} (), and the
faintest detectable cluster has a luminosity of 2.4 \times 10^5 L_{\sun}
(). The globular clusters are just barely resolved, but their core
radii are too small to be measured. The tidal radii in this region appear to be
35 pc. Although this galaxy seems to have undergone a substantial merger
in the recent past, young globular clusters are not detected.Comment: 21 pages, latex, postscript figures available at
ftp://delphi.umd.edu/pub/outgoing/eshaya/fornax
Witnessing galaxy preprocessing in the local Universe: the case of a star-bursting group falling into Abell 1367
We present a multiwavelength analysis of a compact group of galaxies
infalling at high speed into the dynamically young cluster Abell 1367. Peculiar
morphologies and unusually high Halpha emission are associated with two giant
galaxies and at least ten dwarfs/extragalactic HII regions, making this group
the region with the highest density of star formation activity ever observed in
the local clusters. Moreover Halpha imaging observations reveal extraordinary
complex trails of ionized gas behind the galaxies, with projected lengths
exceeding 150 kpc. These unique cometary trails mark the gaseous trajectory of
galaxies, witnessing their dive into the hot cluster intergalactic medium.
Under the combined action of tidal forces among group members and the
ram-pressure by the cluster ambient medium, the group galaxies were fragmented
and the ionized gas was blown out. The properties of this group suggest that
environmental effects within infalling groups may have represented a
preprocessing step of the galaxy evolution during the high redshift cluster
assembly phase.Comment: 23 pages, 13 figures, 5 table. Accepted for publication in Astronomy
& Astrophysics main journal. Version with high-resolution images available at
http://goldmine.mib.infn.it/papers/preprocessing.htm
Phase transition in the collisionless regime for wave-particle interaction
Gibbs statistical mechanics is derived for the Hamiltonian system coupling
self-consistently a wave to N particles. This identifies Landau damping with a
regime where a second order phase transition occurs. For nonequilibrium initial
data with warm particles, a critical initial wave intensity is found: above it,
thermodynamics predicts a finite wave amplitude in the limit of infinite N;
below it, the equilibrium amplitude vanishes. Simulations support these
predictions providing new insight on the long-time nonlinear fate of the wave
due to Landau damping in plasmas.Comment: 12 pages (RevTeX), 2 figures (PostScript
LCM2021 – the UK Land Cover Map 2021
Land cover is a key environmental variable, underpinning widespread environmental research and decision making. The UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (UKCEH) has provided reliable land cover information since the early 1990s; this supports multiple scientific, government and commercial objectives. Recent advances in computation and satellite data availability have enabled annual UKCEH land cover maps since 2017. Here, we introduce the latest, annual UK Land Cover Map representing 2021 (LCM2021), and we describe its production and validation. LCM2021 methods replicate those of LCM2017 to LCM2020 with minor deviations in cloud-masking processes and training data sourcing to enhance accuracy. LCM2021 is based on the classification of satellite and spatial context data into 21 land cover or habitat classes, from which a product suite is derived. The production of LCM2021 involved three highly automated key stages: pre-processing of input data, image classification and production of the final data products. Google Earth Engine scripts were used to create an input data stack of satellite and context data. A set of training areas was created based on data harvested from historic UKCEH land cover maps. The training data were used to construct a random forest classifier, which yielded classified images. Compiled results were validated against 35 182 reference samples, with correspondence tables indicating variable class accuracy and an overall accuracy of 82.6 % for the 21-class data and 86.5 % at a 10-aggregated-classes level. The UK Land Cover Map product suite includes a set of raster products in various projections, thematic and spatial resolutions (10 m, 25 m and 1 km), and land–parcel or vector products. The data are provided in 21-class (all configurations) and aggregated 10-class (1 km raster products only) versions. All raster products are freely available for academic and non-commercial research. The data for Great Britain (GB) are provided in the British National Grid projection (EPSG: 27700) and the Northern Ireland (NI) data are in the TM75 Irish Grid (EPSG: 29903). Information on how to access the data is given in the “Data availability” section of the paper.</p
Star Cluster Formation and Evolution in Nearby Starburst Galaxies: II. Initial Conditions
We use the ages, masses and metallicities of the rich young star cluster
systems in the nearby starburst galaxies NGC 3310 and NGC 6745 to derive their
cluster formation histories and subsequent evolution. We further expand our
analysis of the systematic uncertainties involved in the use of broad-band
observations to derive these parameters by examining the effects of a priori
assumptions on the individual cluster metallicities. The age (and metallicity)
distributions of both the clusters in the circumnuclear ring in NGC 3310 and of
those outside the ring are statistically indistinguishable, but there is a
clear and significant excess of higher-mass clusters IN the ring compared to
the non-ring cluster sample; it is likely that the physical conditions in the
starburst ring may be conducive for the formation of higher-mass star clusters,
on average, than in the relatively more quiescent environment of the main
galactic disc. For the NGC 6745 cluster system we derive a median age of ~10
Myr. NGC 6745 contains a significant population of high-mass "super star
clusters", with masses in the range 6.5 <= log(M_cl/M_sun) <= 8.0. This
detection supports the scenario that such objects form preferentially in the
extreme environments of interacting galaxies. The age of the cluster
populations in both NGC 3310 and NGC 6745 is significantly lower than their
respective characteristic cluster disruption time-scales. This allows us to
obtain an independent estimate of the INITIAL cluster mass function slope,
alpha = 2.04(+- 0.23)(+0.13)(-0.43) for NGC 3310, and 1.96(+- 0.15)(+- 0.19)
for NGC 6745, respectively, for masses M_cl >= 10^5 M_sun and M_cl >= 4 x 10^5
M_sun. These mass function slopes are consistent with those of other young star
cluster systems in interacting and starburst galaxies.Comment: 17 pages LaTeX, incl. 11 postscript figures, accepted for publication
in MNRA
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