2,402 research outputs found
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
The discovery of two extremely low luminosity Milky Way globular clusters
We report the discovery of two extremely low luminosity globular clusters in
the Milky Way Halo. These objects were detected in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
Data Release 5 and confirmed with deeper imaging at the Calar Alto Observatory.
The clusters, Koposov 1 and Koposov 2, are located at kpc and
appear to have old stellar populations and luminosities of only
mag. Their observed sizes of pc are well within the expected tidal
limit of 10 pc at that distance. Together with Palomar 1, AM 4 and
Whiting 1, these new clusters are the lowest luminosity globulars orbiting the
Milky Way, with Koposov 2 the most extreme. Koposov 1 appears to lie close to
distant branch of the Sagittarius stream. The half-mass relaxation times of
Koposov 1 and 2 are only and Myr respectively (2 orders of
magnitude shorter than the age of the stellar populations), so it would seem
that they have undergone drastic mass segregation. Since they do not appear to
be very concentrated, their evaporation timescales may be as low as . These discoveries show that the structural parameter space of
globular clusters in the Milky Way halo is not yet fully explored. They also
add, through their short remaining survival times, significant direct evidence
for a once much larger population of globular clusters.Comment: accepted for publication in ApJ, minor revision
Improved photometry of SDSS crowded field images: Structure and dark matter content in the dwarf spheroidal galaxy Leo I
We explore how well crowded field point-source photometry can be accomplished
with SDSS data: We present a photometric pipeline based on DoPhot, and tuned
for analyzing crowded-field images from the SDSS. Using Monte Carlo simulations
we show that the completeness of source extraction is above 80% to i < 21 (AB)
and a stellar surface density of about 200 sq.amin. Hence, a specialized data
pipeline can efficiently be used for e.g. nearby resolved galaxies in SDSS
images, where the standard SDSS photometric package Photo, when applied in
normal survey mode, gives poor results. We apply our pipeline to an area of
about 3.55sq.deg. around the dwarf spheroidal galaxy (dSph) Leo I, and
construct a high S/N star-count map of Leo I via an optimized filter in
color-magnitude space (g,r,i). Although the radial surface-density profile of
the dwarf deviates from the best fit empirical King model towards outer radii,
we find no evidence for tidal debris out to a stellar surface-density of
4*10^(-3) of the central value. We determine the total luminosity of Leo I, and
model its mass using the spherical and isotropic Jeans equation. Assuming that
'mass follows light' we constrain a lower limit of the total mass of the dSph
to be (1.7+/-0.2)*10^7 Msol. Contrary, if the mass in Leo I is dominated by a
constant density dark-matter (DM) halo, then the mass within the central 12' is
(2+/-0.6)*10^8 Msol. This leads to a mass-to-light ratio of >>6 (Ic_sol), and
possibly >75 if the DM halo dominates the mass and extends further out than
12'. In summary, our results show that Leo I is a symmetric, relaxed and bound
system; this supports the idea that Leo I is a dark-matter dominated system.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures; accepted for publication in A
Possibility of the new type phase transition
The scalar field theory and the scalar electrodynamics quantized in the flat
gap are considered. The dynamical effects arising due to the boundary presence
with two types of boundary conditions (BC) satisfied by scalar fields are
studied. It is shown that while the Neumann BC lead to the usual scalar field
mass generation, the Dirichlet BC give rise to the dynamical mechanism of
spontaneous symmetry breaking. Due to the later, there arises the possibility
of the new type phase transition from the normal to spontaneously broken phase.
The decreasing in the characteristic size of the quantization region (the gap
size here) and increasing in the temperature compete with each other, tending
to transport the system in the spontaneously broken and in the normal phase,
respectively. The system evolves with a combined parameter, simultaneously
reflecting the change in temperature and in the size. As a result, at the
critical value of this parameter there occurs the phase transition from the
normal phase to the spontaneously broken one. In particular, the usual massless
scalar electrodynamics transforms to the Higgs model
Modelling the dynamical evolution of the Bootes dwarf spheroidal galaxy
We investigate a wide range of possible evolutionary histories for the
recently discovered Bootes dwarf spheroidal galaxy, a Milky Way satellite. By
means of N-body simulations we follow the evolution of possible progenitor
galaxies of Bootes for a variety of orbits in the gravitational potential of
the Milky Way. The progenitors considered cover the range from dark-matter-free
star clusters to massive, dark-matter dominated outcomes of cosmological
simulations. For each type of progenitor and orbit we compare the observable
properties of the remnant after 10 Gyr with those of Bootes observed today. Our
study suggests that the progenitor of Bootes must have been, and remains now,
dark matter dominated. In general our models are unable to reproduce the
observed high velocity dispersion in Bootes without dark matter. Our models do
not support time-dependent tidal effects as a mechanism able to inflate
significantly the internal velocity dispersion. As none of our initially
spherical models is able to reproduce the elongation of Bootes, our results
suggest that the progenitor of Bootes may have had some intrinsic flattening.
Although the focus of the present paper is the Bootes dwarf spheroidal, these
models may be of general relevance to understanding the structure, stability
and dark matter content of all dwarf spheroidal galaxies.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, accepted by MNRA
The Origin of the Bifurcation in the Sagittarius Stream
The latest Sloan Digital Sky Survey data reveal a prominent bifurcation in
the distribution of debris of the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal (Sgr) beginning
at a right ascension of roughly 190 degrees. Two branches of the stream (A and
B) persist at roughly the same heliocentric distance over at least 50 degrees
of arc. There is also evidence for a more distant structure (C) well behind the
A branch. This paper provides the first explanation for the bifurcation. It is
caused by the projection of the young leading (A) and old trailing (B) tidal
arms of the Sgr, whilst the old leading arm (C) lies well behind A. This
explanation is only possible if the halo is close to spherical, as the angular
difference between the branches is a measure of the precession of the orbital
plane.Comment: ApJ, in pres
Investigation of the New Local Group Galaxy VV 124
We present the results of our stellar photometry and spectroscopy for the new
Local Group galaxy VV 124 (UGC 4879) obtained with the 6-m BTA telescope. The
presence of a few bright supergiants in the galaxy indicates that the current
star formation process is weak. The apparent distribution of stars with
different ages in VV 124 does not differ from the analogous distributions of
stars in irregular galaxies, but the ratio of the numbers of young and old
stars indicates that VV 124 belongs to the rare Irr/Sph type of galaxies. The
old stars (red giants) form the most extended structure, a thick disk with an
exponential decrease in the star number density to the edge. Definitely, the
young population unresolvable in images makes a great contribution to the
background emission from the central galactic regions. The presence of young
stars is also confirmed by the [O III] emission line visible in the spectra
that belongs to extensive diffuse galactic regions. The mean radial velocity of
several components (two bright supergiants, the unresolvable stellar
population, and the diffuse gas) is v_h = -70+/-15 km/s and the velocity with
which VV 124 falls into the Local Group is v_LG = -12+/-15 km/s. We confirm the
distance to the galaxy D = 1.1+/-0.1 Mpc and the metallicity of red giants
([Fe/H] = -1.37) found by Kopylov et al. (2008).VV 124 is located on the
periphery of the Local Group approximately at the same distance from M 31 and
our Galaxy and is isolated from other galaxies. The galaxy LeoA nearest to it
is 0.5 Mpc away.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy Letters
(2010, Vol. 36, No. 5, pp. 309-318
Light and Motion in SDSS Stripe 82: The Catalogues
We present a new public archive of light-motion curves in Sloan Digital Sky
Survey (SDSS) Stripe 82, covering 99 deg in right ascension from RA = 20.7 h to
3.3 h and spanning 2.52 deg in declination from Dec = -1.26 to 1.26 deg, for a
total sky area of ~249 sq deg. Stripe 82 has been repeatedly monitored in the
u, g, r, i and z bands over a seven-year baseline. Objects are cross-matched
between runs, taking into account the effects of any proper motion. The
resulting catalogue contains almost 4 million light-motion curves of stellar
objects and galaxies. The photometry are recalibrated to correct for varying
photometric zeropoints, achieving ~20 mmag and ~30 mmag root-mean-square (RMS)
accuracy down to 18 mag in the g, r, i and z bands for point sources and
extended sources, respectively. The astrometry are recalibrated to correct for
inherent systematic errors in the SDSS astrometric solutions, achieving ~32 mas
and ~35 mas RMS accuracy down to 18 mag for point sources and extended sources,
respectively.
For each light-motion curve, 229 photometric and astrometric quantities are
derived and stored in a higher-level catalogue. On the photometric side, these
include mean exponential and PSF magnitudes along with uncertainties, RMS
scatter, chi^2 per degree of freedom, various magnitude distribution
percentiles, object type (stellar or galaxy), and eclipse, Stetson and Vidrih
variability indices. On the astrometric side, these quantities include mean
positions, proper motions as well as their uncertainties and chi^2 per degree
of freedom. The here presented light-motion curve catalogue is complete down to
r~21.5 and is at present the deepest large-area photometric and astrometric
variability catalogue available.Comment: MNRAS accepte
The Cosmic Horseshoe: Discovery of an Einstein Ring around a Giant Luminous Red Galaxy
We report the discovery of an almost complete Einstein ring of diameter 10"
in Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 5 (DR5). Spectroscopic data
from the 6m telescope of the Special Astrophysical Observatory reveals that the
deflecting galaxy has a line-of-sight velocity dispersion in excess of 400 km/s
and a redshift of 0.444, whilst the source is a star-forming galaxy with a
redshift of 2.379. From its color and luminosity, we conclude that the lens is
an exceptionally massive Luminous Red Galaxy (LRG) with a mass within the
Einstein radius of 5 x 10^12 solar masses. This remarkable system provides a
laboratory for probing the dark matter distribution in LRGs at distances out to
3 effective radii, and studying the properties of high redshift star-forming
galaxies.Comment: ApJ (Letters), in pres
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