100 research outputs found
Stellar Populations, Bars and Secular Evolution in Late-Type Galaxies
We have done a robust statistical analysis of UBV color profiles of 257 Sbc
barred and unbarred galaxies. We found that there is an excess of barred
galaxies among the objects with null or positive (bluish inward) color
gradients, which seems to indicate that bars act as a mechanism of
homogenization of the stellar population along galaxies. Moreover, the
relationship found between total and bulge colors shows that, in the process of
homogenization, the stellar population of bulges are getting bluer, whereas the
total color of galaxies remains the same. These characteristics are expected in
a secular evolutionary scenario, and seem incompatible with both the monolithic
and the hierarchical scenarios for spiral galaxy formation.Comment: 2 pages, 1 table, no figures. To appear in ASP Conference Series,
"Galaxy Disks and Disk Galaxies", J. G. Funes S. J. and E. M. Corsini, ed
Using Virtual Observatory techniques to search for Adaptive Optics suitable AGN
Until recently, it has been possible only for nearby galaxies to study the
scaling relations between central black hole and host galaxy in detail. Because
of the small number densities at low redshift, (luminous) AGN are
underrepresented in such detailed studies. The advent of adaptive optics (AO)
at large telescopes helps overcoming this hurdle, allowing to reach small
linear scales over a wide range in redshift. Finding AO-suitable targets, i.e.,
AGN having a nearby reference star, and carrying out an initial multiwavelength
classification is an excellent use case for the Virtual Observatory. We present
our Virtual-Observatory approach to select an AO-suitable catalog of
X-ray-emitting AGN at redshifts 0.1<z<1.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, submitted to "EURO-VO AIDA workshop:
Multiwavelength astronomy and Virtual Observatory", ESAC, Spain, 1-3 Dec.
200
Stellar populations of classical and pseudo-bulges for a sample of isolated spiral galaxies
In this paper we present the stellar population synthesis results for a
sample of 75 bulges in isolated spiral Sb-Sc galaxies, using the spectroscopic
data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the STARLIGHT code. We find that
both pseudo-bulges and classical bulges in our sample are predominantly
composed of old stellar populations, with mean mass-weighted stellar age around
10 Gyr. While the stellar population of pseudo-bulges is, in general, younger
than that of classical bulges, the difference is not significant, which
indicates that it is hard to distinguish pseudo-bulges from classical bulges,
at least for these isolated galaxies, only based on their stellar populations.
Pseudo-bulges have star formation activities with relatively longer timescale
than classical bulges, indicating that secular evolution is more important in
this kind of systems. Our results also show that pseudo-bulges have a lower
stellar velocity dispersion than their classical counterparts, which suggests
that classical bulges are more dispersion-supported than pseudo-bulges.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space
Scienc
The Milky Way Bulge: Observed properties and a comparison to external galaxies
The Milky Way bulge offers a unique opportunity to investigate in detail the
role that different processes such as dynamical instabilities, hierarchical
merging, and dissipational collapse may have played in the history of the
Galaxy formation and evolution based on its resolved stellar population
properties. Large observation programmes and surveys of the bulge are providing
for the first time a look into the global view of the Milky Way bulge that can
be compared with the bulges of other galaxies, and be used as a template for
detailed comparison with models. The Milky Way has been shown to have a
box/peanut (B/P) bulge and recent evidence seems to suggest the presence of an
additional spheroidal component. In this review we summarise the global
chemical abundances, kinematics and structural properties that allow us to
disentangle these multiple components and provide constraints to understand
their origin. The investigation of both detailed and global properties of the
bulge now provide us with the opportunity to characterise the bulge as observed
in models, and to place the mixed component bulge scenario in the general
context of external galaxies. When writing this review, we considered the
perspectives of researchers working with the Milky Way and researchers working
with external galaxies. It is an attempt to approach both communities for a
fruitful exchange of ideas.Comment: Review article to appear in "Galactic Bulges", Editors: Laurikainen
E., Peletier R., Gadotti D., Springer Publishing. 36 pages, 10 figure
Color Gradients and the Secular Evolutionary Scenario in Late-Type Spiral Galaxies
Nós realizamos um estudo estatístico do comportamento de perfis de cor em bandas largas (UBV) para 257 galáxias espirais do tipo Sbc, ordinárias e barradas, utilizando dados obtidos através de fotometria fotoelétrica de abertura, disponíveis na literatura (Longo & de Vaucouleurs 1983,1985). Nós determinamos os gradientes de cor (B-V) e (U-B) para as galáxias da amostra total, bem como os índices de cor (B-V) e (U-B) de bojos e discos separadamente, utilizando métodos estatísticos robustos. Utilizamos uma técnica de decomposição bi-dimensional para modelar os perfis de brilho de bojos e discos em imagens dos arquivos do ``Digitised Sky Survey' (DSS), obtendo parâmetros estruturais característicos para 39 galáxias. A aquisição de imagens de 14 galáxias no Laboratório Nacional de Astrofísica permitiu-nos realizar um estudo fotométrico comparativo, e atestar a validade dos resultados obtidos neste estudo. Entre os principais resultados obtidos, destacam-se: (i) - 65% das galáxias possuem gradientes de cor negativos (mais vermelhos no centro), 25% possuem gradientes nulos, e 10% apresentam gradientes positivos; (ii) - galáxias que apresentam gradientes de cor nulos tendem a ser barradas; (iii) - os índices de cor ao longo das galáxias com gradientes nulos são similares aos índices de cor dos discos das galáxias com gradientes negativos; (iv) - confirmamos a correlação entre os índices de cor de bojos e discos, já obtida por outros autores; (v) - a ausência de correlação entre os gradientes de cor e de metalicidade sugere que o excesso de galáxias barradas com gradientes de cor nulos ou positivos reflete uma diferença no comportamento da idade média da população estelar ao longo de galáxias barradas e ordinárias; (vi) - galáxias com gradientes de cor nulos ou positivos têm uma leve tendência a apresentar bojos maiores e com maior concentração central de luz; e (vii) - confirmamos a correlação entre as escalas de comprimento de bojos e discos, já obtida por outros autores. Estes resultados são compatíveis e favoráveis ao cenário de evolução secular, no qual barras produzem fluxos radiais de massa para as regiões centrais de galáxias, não somente homogeneizando as populações estelares ao longo de galáxias, produzindo discos e bojos com índices de cor semelhantes, mas também contribuindo para a formação e/ou construção de bojos.We have done a statistical study of the behaviour of the broadband color profiles (UBV) for 257 Sbc galaxies, barred and unbarred, collecting data obtained through photoeletric aperture photometry, available in the literature (Longo & de Vaucouleurs 1983,1985). We have determined (B-V) and (U-B) color gradients for the total sample of galaxies, as well as (B-V) and (U-B) color indices of bulges and disks separately, using robust statistical methods. Applying a bi-dimensional decomposition technique to model the brightness profiles of bulges and disks in images from the Digitised Sky Survey (DSS), we obtained characteristic structural parameters for 39 galaxies. The acquisition of images for 14 galaxies in the Laboratório Nacional de Astrofísica (Astrophysics National Laboratory) allowed us to do a comparative photometric study, and verify the validity of the results obtained in this work. Among the main results obtained, we point out: (i) - 65% of the galaxies have negative color gradients (reddish inward), 25% have zero gradients, and 10% show positive gradients; (ii) - galaxies that show zero color gradients tend to be barred; (iii) - the color indices along the galaxies with zero color gradients are similar to the color indices of the disks of the galaxies with negative color gradients; (iv) - we confirm the correlation between the color indices of bulges and disks, already found by other authors; (v) - the absence of correlation between color and metallicity gradients suggests that the excess of barred galaxies with zero or positive color gradients reflects a difference in the behaviour of the mean age of the stellar population along barred and unbarred galaxies; (vi) - galaxies with zero or positive color gradients show a slight tendency of having larger bulges, with a greater central concentration of light; and (vii) - we confirm the correlation between the scale lenghts of bulges and disks, already found by other authors. These results are compatible and favourable to the secular evolutionary scenario, in which stellar bars induce radial mass fluxes to the central regions of galaxies, not only turning homogeneous the stellar populations along the galaxies, producing disks and bulges with similar color indices, but also contributing to the formation and/or building of galactic bulges
Bars Rejuvenating Bulges? Evidence from Stellar Population Analysis
We obtained stellar ages and metallicities via spectrum fitting for a sample
of 575 bulges with spectra available from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The
structural properties of the galaxies have been studied in detail in Gadotti
(2009b) and the sample contains 251 bulges in galaxies with bars. Using the
whole sample, where galaxy stellar mass distributions for barred and unbarred
galaxies are similar, we find that bulges in barred and unbarred galaxies
occupy similar loci in the age vs. metallicity plane. However, the distribution
of bulge ages in barred galaxies shows an excess of populations younger than ~
4 Gyr, when compared to bulges in unbarred galaxies. Kolmogorov-Smirnov
statistics confirm that the age distributions are different with a significance
of 99.94%. If we select sub-samples for which the bulge stellar mass
distributions are similar for barred and unbarred galaxies, this excess
vanishes for galaxies with bulge mass log M < 10.1 M_Sun while for more massive
galaxies we find a bimodal bulge age distribution for barred galaxies only,
corresponding to two normal distributions with mean ages of 10.4 and 4.7 Gyr.
We also find twice as much AGN among barred galaxies, as compared to unbarred
galaxies, for low-mass bulges. By combining a large sample of high quality data
with sophisticated image and spectral analysis, we are able to find evidence
that the presence of bars affect the mean stellar ages of bulges. This lends
strong support to models in which bars trigger star formation activity in the
centers of galaxies.Comment: To appear in ApJ Letters; animation for Fig. 5 can be found at
http://www.sc.eso.org/~dgadotti/dichotomy.gif; 5 pages, 5 figures (4 use
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