Dark matter in elliptical galaxies

We present measurements of the shape of the stellar line-of-sight velocity distribution out to two effective radii along the major axes of the four elliptical galaxies NGC 2434, 2663, 3706, and 5018. The velocity dispersion profiles are flat or decline gently with radius. We compare the data to the predictions of f=f(E,L_z) axisymmetric models with and without dark matter. Strong tangential anisotropy is ruled out at large radii. We conclude from our measurements that massive dark halos must be present in three of the four galaxies, while for the fourth galaxy (NGC 2663) the case is inconclusive.Comment: 15 pages, uuencoded compressed PostScript, includes 3 figure

The ESO Spectroscopic facility

We present the concept of a novel facility dedicated to massively-multiplexed spectroscopy. The telescope has a very wide field Cassegrain focus optimised for fibre feeding. With a Field of View (FoV) of 2.5 degrees diameter and a 11.4m pupil, it will be the largest etendue telescope. The large focal plane can easily host up to 16.000 fibres. In addition, a gravity invariant focus for the central 10 arc-minutes is available to host a giant integral field unit (IFU). The 3 lenses corrector includes an ADC, and has good performance in the 360-1300 nm wavelength range. The top level science requirements were developed by a dedicated ESO working group, and one of the primary cases is high resolution spectroscopy of GAIA stars and, in general, how our Galaxy formed and evolves. The facility will therefore be equipped with both, high and low resolution spectrographs. We stress the importance of developing the telescope and instrument designs simultaneously. The most relevant R\&D aspect is also briefly discussed.Comment: 6 pages 4 figures , presented at IAU Symposium 334 "rediscovering our galaxy

A Hipparcos census of the nearby OB associations

A comprehensive census of the stellar content of the nearby OB associations is presented, based on Hipparcos positions, proper motions, and parallaxes. Moving groups are identified by combining de Bruijne's refurbished convergent point method with the `Spaghetti method' of Hoogerwerf & Aguilar. Monte Carlo simulations are used to estimate the expected number of interloper field stars. Astrometric members are listed for 12 young stellar groups, out to a distance of ~650 pc. These are the 3 subgroups Upper Scorpius, Upper Centaurus Lupus and Lower Centaurus Crux of Sco OB2, as well as Vel OB2, Tr 10, Col 121, Per OB2, alpha Persei (Per OB3), Cas-Tau, Lac OB1, Cep OB2, and a new group designated as Cep OB6. The selection procedure corrects the list of previously known astrometric and photometric B- and A-type members, and identifies many new members, including a significant number of F stars, as well as evolved stars, e.g., the Wolf-Rayet stars gamma^2 Vel (Vel OB2) and EZ CMa (Col 121), and the classical Cepheid delta Cep in Cep OB6. In the nearest associations the later-type members include T Tauri objects and other pre-main sequence stars. Astrometric evidence for moving groups in the fields of R CrA, CMa OB1, Mon OB1, Ori OB1, Cam OB1, Cep OB3, Cep OB4, Cyg OB4, Cyg OB7, and Sct OB2, is inconclusive, due to their large distance or unfavorable kinematics. The mean distances of the well-established groups are systematically smaller than previous estimates. The mean motions display a systematic pattern, which is discussed in relation to the Gould Belt. Six of the 12 detected moving groups do not appear in the classical list of nearby OB associations. The number of unbound young stellar groups in the Solar neighbourhood may be significantly larger than thought previously.Comment: 51 pages, 30 PostScript figures, 6 tables in PostScript format, default LaTeX using psfig.sty; accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal, scheduled for January 1999 issue. Abbreviated abstrac

OB Associations

Since the previous (1990) edition of this meeting enormous progress in the field of OB associations has been made. Data from X-ray satellites have greatly advanced the study of the low-mass stellar content of associations, while astrometric data from the Hipparcos satellite allow for a characterization of the higher-mass content of associations with unprecedented accuracy. We review recent work on the OB associations located within 1.5 kpc from the Sun, discuss the Hipparcos results at length, and point out directions for future research.Comment: To appear in The Physics of Star Formation and Early Stellar Evolution II, eds C.J. Lada & N. Kylafis (Kluwer Academic), 30 pages, 9 EPS-figures, LaTeX using crckapb.sty, epsfig.sty, amssymb.st

Resonant Orbits in Triaxial Galaxies

Box orbits in triaxial potentials are generically thin, that is, they lie close in phase space to a resonant orbit satisfying a relation of the form l\omega_1 +m\omega_2+n\omega_3=0 between the three fundamental frequencies. Resonant orbits are confined to a membrane; they play roughly the same role, in three dimensions, that closed orbits play in two. Stable resonant orbits avoid the center of the potential; orbits that are thick enough to pass near the center are typically stochastic. Very near the center, where the gravitational potential is dominated by the black hole, resonant orbits continue to exist, including at least one family whose elongation is parallel to the long axes of the triaxial figure.Comment: 20 Latex pages, 11 Postscript figures. Submitted to The Astronomical Journa

Kinematics of Metal-Poor Stars in the Galaxy. III. Formation of the Stellar Halo and Thick Disk as Revealed from a Large Sample of Non-Kinematically Selected Stars

(Abbreviated) We present a detailed analysis of the space motions of 1203 solar-neighborhood stars with metal abundances [Fe/H] <= -0.6, on the basis of a recently revised and supplemented catalog of metal-poor stars selected without kinematic bias (Beers et al. 2000). This sample, having available proper motions, radial velocities, and distance estimates for stars with a wide range of metal abundances, is by far the largest such catalog to be assembled to date. Unlike essentially all previous kinematically selected catalogs, the metal-poor stars in our sample exhibit a diverse distribution of orbital eccentricities, e, with no apparent correlation between [Fe/H] and e. This demonstrates, clearly and convincingly, that the evidence offered by Eggen, Lynden-Bell, and Sandage (1962) for a rapid collapse of the Galaxy, an apparent correlation between the orbital eccentricity of halo stars with metallicity, is basically the result of their proper-motion selection bias. However, even in our non-kinematically selected sample, we have identified a small concentration of high-e stars at [Fe/H] = -1.7, which may originate, in part, from infalling gas during the early formation of the Galaxy. The implications of our results for the formation of the Galaxy are also discussed, in particular in the context of the currently favored CDM theory of hierarchical galaxy formation.Comment: 51 pages, including 17 figures, to appear in AJ (June 2000), full paper with all figures embedded available at http://pluto.mtk.nao.ac.jp/people/chiba/preprint/halo5