161 research outputs found
NGC 7331: the Galaxy with the Multicomponent Central Region
We present the results of the spectral investigation of the regular Sb galaxy
NGC 7331 with the Multi-Pupil Field Spectrograph of the 6m telescope. The
absorption-line indices H-beta, Mgb, and are mapped to analyse the
properties of the stellar populations in the circumnuclear region of the
galaxy. The central part of the disk inside ~3" (200 pc) -- or a separate
circumnuclear stellar-gaseous disk as it is distinguished by decoupled fast
rotation of the ionized gas -- is very metal-rich, rather young, ~ 2 billion
years old, and its solar magnesium-to-iron ratio evidences for a very long
duration of the last episode of star formation there. However the gas
excitation mechanism now in this disk is shock-like. The star-like nucleus had
probably experienced a secondary star formation burst too: its age is 5 billion
years, much younger than the age of the circumnuclear bulge. But [Mg/Fe]=+0.3
and only solar global metallicity imply that the nuclear star formation burst
has been much shorter than that in the circumnuclear disk. The surrounding
bulge is rather old, 9--14 billion years old, and moderately metal-poor. The
rotation of the stars and gas within the circumnuclear disk is axisymmetric
though its rotation plane may be slightly inclined to the global plane of the
galaxy. Outside the circumnuclear disk the gas may experience non-circular
motions, and we argue that the low-contrast extended bulge of NGC 7331 is
triaxial.Comment: LATEX, 27 pages, + 15 Postscript figures. Accepted to Astronomical
Journal, July issu
Scalable N-body code for the modelling of early-type galaxies
Early-type galaxies exhibit a wealth of photometric and dynamical structures.
These signatures are fossil records of their formation and evolution processes.
In order to examine these structures in detail, we build models aimed at
reproducing the observed photometry and kinematics. The developed method is a
generalization of the one introduced by Syer and Tremaine (1996), consisting in
an N-body representation, in which the weights of the particles are changing
with time. Our code is adapted for integral-field spectroscopic data, and is
able to reproduce the photometric as well as stellar kinematic data of observed
galaxies. We apply this technique on SAURON data of early-type galaxies, and
present preliminary results on NGC 3377.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures. Original version printed in the Proceedings of
"Science perspective for 3D spectroscopy", 2005, Eds Kissler-Patig, Walsh,
Roth, ES0, Springe
3D Spectroscopic Observations of Star-Forming Dwarf Galaxies
We give an introduction into the observational technique of integral field or
3D spectroscopy. We discuss advantages and drawbacks of this type of
observations and highlight a few science projects enabled by this method. In
the second part we describe our 3D spectroscopic survey of Blue Compact Dwarf
Galaxies. We show preliminary results from data taken with the VIMOS integral
field unit and give an outlook on how automated spectral analysis and
forthcoming instruments can provide a new view on star formation and associated
processes in dwarf galaxies.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of the JENAM 2010 Symposium "Dwarf
Galaxies: Keys to Galaxy Formation and Evolution" (Lisbon, 9-10 September
2010), P. Papaderos, S. Recchi, G. Hensler (eds.), Springer Verlag (2011), in
pres
Galaxy Masses
Galaxy masses play a fundamental role in our understanding of structure
formation models. This review addresses the variety and reliability of mass
estimators that pertain to stars, gas, and dark matter. The different sections
on masses from stellar populations, dynamical masses of gas-rich and gas-poor
galaxies, with some attention paid to our Milky Way, and masses from weak and
strong lensing methods, all provide review material on galaxy masses in a
self-consistent manner.Comment: 145 pages, 28 figures, to appear in Reviews of Modern Physics. Figure
22 is missing here, and Figs. 15, 26-28 are at low resolution. This version
has a slightly different title and some typos fixed in Chapter 5. For the
full review with figures, please consult:
http://www.astro.queensu.ca/~courteau/GalaxyMasses_28apr2014.pd
Transitions and Probes in Turbulent Helium
Previous analysis of a Paris turbulence experiment \cite{zoc94,tab95} shows a
transition at the Taylor Reynolds number \rel \approx 700. Here correlation
function data is analyzed which gives further evidence for this transition. It
is seen in both the power spectrum and in structure function measurements. Two
possible explanations may be offered for this observed transition: that it is
intrinsic to the turbulence flow in this closed box experiment or that it is an
effect of a change in the flow around the anemometer. We particularly examine a
pair of ``probe effects''. The first is a thermal boundary layer which does
exist about the probe and does limit the probe response, particularly at high
frequencies. Arguments based on simulations of the response and upon
observations of dissipation suggests that this effect is only crucial beyond
\rel\approx 2000. The second effect is produced by vortex shedding behind the
probe. This has been seen to produce a large modification in some of the power
spectra for large \rel. It might also complicate the interpretation of the
experimental results. However, there seems to be a remaining range of data for
\rel < 1300 uncomplicated by these effects, and which are thus suggestive of
an intrinsic transition.Comment: uuencoded .ps files. submitted to PRE. 12 figures are sent upon
request to jane wang ([email protected]
Formation of Ionization-Cone Structures in Active Galactic Nuclei: I. Stationary Model and Linear Stability Analysis
We discuss causes of the formation of the observed kinematics and morphology
of cones of ionized matter in the neighborhood of the nuclei of Seyfert
galaxies. The results of linear stability analysis of an optically thin conic
jet where radiation cooling and gravity play an important part are reported.
The allowance for radiation cooling is shown to result in strong damping of all
acoustic modes and to have insignificant effect on unstable surface
Kelvin--Helmholtz modes. In the case of waveguide--resonance internal gravity
modes radiative cooling suppresses completely the instability of waves
propagating away from the ejection source and, vice versa, reduces
substantially the growth time scale of unstable sourceward propagating modes.
The results obtained can be used to study ionization cones in Seyfert galaxies
with radio jets. In particular, our analysis shows that surface
Kelvin--Helmholtz modes and volume harmonics are capable of producing regular
features observed in optical emission-line images of such galaxies.Comment: 13 pages, published in Astrophysical Bulleti
A Superluminous Supernova in High Surface Density Molecular Gas within the Bar of a Metal-rich Galaxy
We report the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array observations of the metal-rich host galaxy of superluminous supernova (SLSN) PTF10tpz, a barred spiral galaxy at z = 0.03994. We find the CO(1–0) emission to be confined within the bar of the galaxy. The distribution and kinematics of molecular gas in the host galaxy resemble gas flows along two lanes running from the tips of the bar toward the galaxy center. These gas lanes end in a gaseous structure in the inner region of the galaxy, likely associated with an inner Lindblad resonance. The interaction between the large-scale gas flows in the bar and the gas in the inner region plausibly leads to the formation of massive molecular clouds and consequently massive clusters. This in turn can result in formation of massive stars, and thus the likely progenitor of the SLSN in a young, massive cluster. This picture is consistent with SLSN PTF10tpz being located near the intersection regions of the gas lanes and the inner structure. It is also supported by the high molecular gas surface densities that we find in the vicinity of the SLSN, surface densities that are comparable with those in interacting galaxies or starburst regions in nearby galaxies. Our findings therefore suggest in situ formation of massive stars due to the internal dynamics of the host galaxy and also lend support to high densities being favorable conditions for formation of SLSN progenitors
SDSSJ150634.27+013331.6: the second compact elliptical galaxy in the NGC5846 group
We report the discovery of the second compact elliptical (cE) galaxy
SDSSJ150634.27+013331.6 in the nearby NGC5846 group by the Virtual Observatory
(VO) workflow . This object (M_B = -15.98 mag, R_e = 0.24 kpc) becomes the
fifth cE where the spatially-resolved kinematics and stellar populations can be
obtained. We used archival HST WFPC2 images to demonstrate that its light
profile has a two-component structure, and integrated photometry from GALEX,
SDSS, UKIDSS, and Spitzer to build the multi-wavelength SED to constraint the
star formation history (SFH). We observed this galaxy with the PMAS IFU
spectrograph at the Calar-Alto 3.5m telescope and obtained two-dimensional maps
of its kinematics and stellar population properties using the full-spectral
fitting technique. Its structural, dynamical and stellar population properties
suggest that it had a massive progenitor heavily tidally stripped by NGC5846.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure, 1 table. Accepted to MNRAS Letter
Spatial kinematics of Brightest Cluster Galaxies and their close companions from Integral Field Unit spectroscopy
We present Integral Field Unit (IFU) spectroscopy of four brightest cluster
galaxies (BCGs) at z~0.1. Three of the BCGs have close companions within a
projected radius of 20 kpc and one has no companion within that radius. We
calculate the dynamical masses of the BCGs and their companions to be
1.4x10^11<M_dyn (M_solar)<1.5x10^12. We estimate the probability that the
companions of the BCGs are bound using the observed masses and velocity
offsets. We show that the lowest mass companion (1:4) is not bound while the
two nearly equal mass (1:1.45 and 1:1.25) companions are likely to merge with
their host BCGs in 0.35 Gyr in major, dry mergers. We conclude that some BCGs
continue to grow from major merging even at z~0. We analyse the stellar
kinematics of these systems using the \lambda_R parameter developed by the
SAURON team. This offers a new and unique means to measure the stellar angular
momentum of BCGs and make a direct comparison to other early-type galaxies. The
BCGs and their companions have similar ellipticities to those of other
early-type galaxies but are more massive. We find that not all these massive
galaxies have low \lambda_R_e as one might expect. One of the four BCGs and the
two massive companions are found to be fast-rotating galaxies with high angular
momentum, thereby providing a new test for models of galaxy evolution and the
formation of Intra-Cluster Light.Comment: 5 pages. Accepted for publication in MNRAS Letter
Eccentric-disk models for the nucleus of M31
We construct dynamical models of the ``double'' nucleus of M31 in which the
nucleus consists of an eccentric disk of stars orbiting a central black hole.
The principal approximation in these models is that the disk stars travel in a
Kepler potential, i.e., we neglect the mass of the disk relative to the black
hole. We consider both ``aligned'' models, in which the eccentric disk lies in
the plane of the large-scale M31 disk, and ``non-aligned'' models, in which the
orientation of the eccentric disk is fitted to the data. Both types of model
can reproduce the double structure and overall morphology seen in Hubble Space
Telescope photometry. In comparison with the best available ground-based
spectroscopy, the models reproduce the asymmetric rotation curve, the peak
height of the dispersion profile, and the qualitative behavior of the
Gauss-Hermite coefficients h_3 and h_4. Aligned models fail to reproduce the
observation that the surface brightness at P1 is higher than at P2 and yield
significantly poorer fits to the kinematics; thus we favor non-aligned models.
Eccentric-disk models fitted to ground-based spectroscopy are used to predict
the kinematics observed at much higher resolution by the STIS instrument on the
Hubble Space Telescope (Bender et al. 2003), and we find generally satisfactory
agreement.Comment: 45 pages, 18 figures, accepted by Ap
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