Galactic archaeology based on star counts is instrumental to reconstruct the past mass assembly of Local Group galaxies. The development of new observing techniques and data reduction, coupled with ...the use of sensitive large field of view cameras, now allows us to pursue this technique in more distant galaxies exploiting their diffuse low surface brightness (LSB) light. As part of the ATLAS3D project, we have obtained with the MegaCam camera at the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope extremely deep, multiband images of nearby early-type galaxies (ETGs). We present here a catalogue of 92 galaxies from the ATLAS3D sample, which are located in low- to medium-density environments. The observing strategy and data reduction pipeline, which achieve a gain of several magnitudes in the limiting surface brightness with respect to classical imaging surveys, are presented. The size and depth of the survey are compared to other recent deep imaging projects. The paper highlights the capability of LSB-optimized surveys at detecting new prominent structures that change the apparent morphology of galaxies. The intrinsic limitations of deep imaging observations are also discussed, among those, the contamination of the stellar haloes of galaxies by extended ghost reflections, and the cirrus emission from Galactic dust. The detection and systematic census of fine structures that trace the present and past mass assembly of ETGs are one of the prime goals of the project. We provide specific examples of each type of observed structures – tidal tails, stellar streams and shells – and explain how they were identified and classified. We give an overview of the initial results. The detailed statistical analysis will be presented in future papers.
We investigate the evolution of stellar population gradients from z = 2 to 0 in massive galaxies at large radii (r > 2R
eff) using 10 cosmological zoom simulations of haloes with 6 × 1012 M⊙ < M
...halo < 2 × 1013 M⊙. The simulations follow metal cooling and enrichment from SNII, SNIa and asymptotic giant branch winds. We explore the differential impact of an empirical model for galactic winds that reproduces the mass–metallicity relation and its evolution with redshift. At larger radii the galaxies, for both models, become more dominated by stars accreted from satellite galaxies in major and minor mergers. In the wind model, fewer stars are accreted, but they are significantly more metal-poor resulting in steep global metallicity (〈∇Z
stars〉 = −0.35 dex dex−1) and colour (e.g. 〈∇g − r〉 = −0.13 dex dex−1) gradients in agreement with observations. In contrast, colour and metallicity gradients of the models without winds are inconsistent with observations. Age gradients are in general mildly positive at z = 0 (〈∇Age
stars〉 = 0.04 dex dex−1) with significant differences between the models at higher redshift. We demonstrate that for the wind model, stellar accretion is steepening existing in situ metallicity gradients by about 0.2 dex by the present day and helps to match observed gradients of massive early-type galaxies at large radii. Colour and metallicity gradients are significantly steeper for systems which have accreted stars in minor mergers, while galaxies with major mergers have relatively flat gradients, confirming previous results. The effect of stellar migration of in situ formed stars to large radii is discussed. This study highlights the importance of stellar accretion for stellar population properties of massive galaxies at large radii, which can provide important constraints for formation models.
Revisiting Stephan's Quintet with deep optical images Duc, Pierre-Alain; Cuillandre, Jean-Charles; Renaud, Florent
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Letters,
03/2018, Letnik:
475, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Abstract
Stephan's Quintet, a compact group of galaxies, is often used as a laboratory to study a number of phenomena, including physical processes in the interstellar medium, star formation, galaxy ...evolution, and the formation of fossil groups. As such, it has been subject to intensive multiwavelength observation campaigns. Yet, models lack constrains to pin down the role of each galaxy in the assembly of the group. We revisit here this system with multiband deep optical images obtained with MegaCam on the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope (CFHT), focusing on the detection of low surface brightness (LSB) structures. They reveal a number of extended LSB features, some new, and some already visible in published images but not discussed before. An extended diffuse, reddish, lopsided, halo is detected towards the early-type galaxy NGC 7317, the role of which had so far been ignored in models. The presence of this halo made of old stars may indicate that the group formed earlier than previously thought. Finally, a number of additional diffuse filaments are visible, some close to the foreground galaxy NGC 7331 located in the same field. Their structure and association with mid-infrared emission suggest contamination by emission from Galactic cirrus.
We study the evidence for a diversity of formation processes in early-type galaxies by presenting the first complete volume-limited sample of slow rotators with both integral-field kinematics from ...the ATLAS
3D
Project and high spatial resolution photometry from the
Hubble
Space Telescope. Analysing the nuclear surface brightness profiles of 12 newly imaged slow rotators, we classify their light profiles as core-less, and place an upper limit to the core size of about 10 pc. Considering the full magnitude and volume-limited ATLAS
3D
sample, we correlate the presence or lack of cores with stellar kinematics, including the proxy for the stellar angular momentum (
λ
Re
) and the velocity dispersion within one half-light radius (
σ
e
), stellar mass, stellar age,
α
-element abundance, and age and metallicity gradients. More than half of the slow rotators have core-less light profiles, and they are all less massive than 10
11
M
⊙
. Core-less slow rotators show evidence for counter-rotating flattened structures, have steeper metallicity gradients, and a larger dispersion of gradient values (ΔZ/H¯ = −0.42 ± 0.18) than core slow rotators (ΔZ/H¯ = −0.23 ± 0.07). Our results suggest that core and core-less slow rotators have different assembly processes, where the former, as previously discussed, are the relics of massive dissipation-less merging in the presence of central supermassive black holes. Formation processes of core-less slow rotators are consistent with accretion of counter-rotating gas or gas-rich mergers of special orbital configurations, which lower the final net angular momentum of stars, but support star formation. We also highlight core fast rotators as galaxies that share properties of core slow rotators (i.e. cores, ages,
σ
e
, and population gradients) and core-less slow rotators (i.e. kinematics,
λ
Re
, mass, and larger spread in population gradients). Formation processes similar to those for core-less slow rotators can be invoked to explain the assembly of core fast rotators, with the distinction that these processes form or preserve cores.
We present 3.5-7 pc resolution adaptive mesh refinement simulations of high-redshift disks including photoionization, radiation pressure, and supernovae feedback. Our modeling of radiation pressure ...determines the mass loading and initial velocity of winds from basic physical principles. We find that the giant clumps produce steady outflow rates comparable to and sometimes somewhat larger than their star formation rate, with velocities largely sufficient to escape the galaxy. The clumps also lose mass, especially old stars, by tidal stripping, and the stellar populations contained in the clumps hence remain relatively young (< or =200 Myr), as observed. The outflow and accretion rates have specific timescales of a few 10 sub(8) yr, as opposed to rapid and repeated dispersion and reformation of clumps. Our simulations produce gaseous outflows with velocities, densities, and mass loading consistent with observations, and at the same time suggest that the giant clumps survive for hundreds of Myr and complete their migration to the center of high-redshift galaxies.
We use interferometric 12CO(1-0) observations to compare and contrast the extent, surface brightness profiles and kinematics of the molecular gas in CO-rich ATLAS3D early-type galaxies (ETGs) and ...spiral galaxies. We find that the molecular gas extent is smaller in absolute terms in ETGs than in late-type galaxies, but that the size distributions are similar once scaled by the galaxies optical/stellar characteristic scalelengths. Amongst ETGs, we find that the extent of the gas is independent of its kinematic misalignment (with respect to the stars), but does depend on the environment, with Virgo cluster ETGs having less extended molecular gas reservoirs, further emphasizing that cluster ETGs follow different evolutionary pathways from those in the field. Approximately half of ETGs have molecular gas surface brightness profiles that follow the stellar light profile. These systems often have relaxed gas out to large radii, suggesting they are unlikely to have had recent merger/accretion events. A third of the sample galaxies show molecular gas surface brightness profiles that fall off slower than the light, and sometimes show a truncation. These galaxies often have a low mass, and either have disturbed molecular gas or are in the Virgo cluster, suggesting that recent mergers, ram pressure stripping and/or the presence of hot gas can compress/truncate the gas. The remaining galaxies have rings, or composite profiles, that we argue can be caused by the effects of bars. We investigated the kinematics of the molecular gas using position-velocity diagrams, and compared the observed kinematics with dynamical model predictions, and the observed stellar and ionized gas velocities. We confirm that the molecular gas reaches beyond the turnover of the circular velocity curve in 70 per cent of our CO-rich ATLAS3D ETGs, validating previous work on the CO Tully-Fisher relation. In general we find that in most galaxies the molecular gas is dynamically cold, and the observed CO rotation matches well model predictions of the circular velocity. In the galaxies with the largest molecular masses, dust obscuration and/or population gradients can cause model predictions of the circular velocity to disagree with observations of the molecular gas rotation; however, these effects are confined to the most star forming systems. Bars and non-equilibrium conditions can also make the gas deviate from circular orbits. In both these cases, one expects the model circular velocity to be higher than the observed CO velocity, in agreement with our observations. Molecular gas is a better direct tracer of the circular velocity than the ionized gas, justifying its use as a kinematic tracer for Tully-Fisher and similar analyses.
Tidal dwarf galaxies (TDGs) are recycled objects that form within the collisional debris of interacting and merging galaxies. They are expected to be devoid of non-baryonic dark matter, since they ...can only form from dissipative material ejected from the discs of the progenitor galaxies. We investigate the gas dynamics in a sample of six bona fide TDGs around three interacting and post-interacting systems: NGC 4694, NGC 5291, and NGC 7252 (“Atoms for Peace”). For NGC 4694 and NGC 5291, we analyse existing H I data from the Very Large Array (VLA), while for NGC 7252 we present new H I observations from the Jansky VLA, together with long-slit and integral-field optical spectroscopy. For all six TDGs, the H I emission can be described by rotating disc models. These H I discs, however, have undergone less than a full rotation since the time of the interaction/merger event, raising the question of whether they are in dynamical equilibrium. Assuming that these discs are in equilibrium, the inferred dynamical masses are consistent with the observed baryonic masses, implying that TDGs are devoid of dark matter. This puts constraints on putative “dark discs” (either baryonic or non-baryonic) in the progenitor galaxies. Moreover, TDGs seem to systematically deviate from the baryonic Tully-Fisher relation. These results provide a challenging test for alternative theories like MOND.
Stellar shells around galaxies could provide precious insights into their assembly history. However, their formation mechanism remains poorly empirically constrained, regarding in particular the type ...of galaxy collisions at their origin. We present MUSE at VLT data of the most prominent outer shell of NGC 474, to constrain its formation history. The stellar shell spectrum is clearly detected, with a signal-to-noise ratio of ∼65 pix
−1
. We used a full spectral fitting method to determine the line-of-sight velocity and the age and metallicity of the shell and associated point-like sources within the MUSE field of view. We detect six globular cluster (GC) candidates and eight planetary nebula (PN) candidates that are all kinematically associated with the stellar shell. We show that the shell has an intermediate metallicity, M/H = −0.83
−0.12
+0.12
, and a possible
α
-enrichment,
α
/Fe ∼ 0.3. Assuming the material of the shell comes from a lower mass companion, and that the latter had no initial metallicity gradient, such a stellar metallicity would constrain the mass of the progenitor at around 7.4 × 10
8
M
⊙
, implying a merger mass ratio of about 1:100. However, our census of PNe and earlier photometry of the shell would suggest a much higher ratio, around 1:20. Given the uncertainties, this difference is only significant at the ≃1
σ
level. We discuss the characteristics of the progenitor, and in particular whether the progenitor could also be composed of stars from the low-metallicity outskirts of a more massive galaxy. Ultimately, the presented data do not allow us to put a firm constraint on the progenitor mass. We show that at least two GC candidates possibly associated with the shell are quite young, with ages below 1.5 Gyr. We also note the presence of a young (∼1 Gyr) stellar population in the center of NGC 474. The two may have resulted from the same event.
ABSTRACT
Shell galaxies make a class of tidally distorted galaxies, characterized by wide concentric arc(s), extending out to large galactocentric distances with sharp outer edges. Recent ...observations of young massive star clusters in the prominent outer shell of NGC 474 suggest that such systems host extreme conditions of star formation. In this paper, we present a hydrodynamic simulation of a galaxy merger and its transformation into a shell galaxy. We analyse how the star formation activity evolves with time, location-wise within the system, and what are the physical conditions for star formation. During the interaction, an excess of dense gas appears, triggering a starburst, i.e. an enhanced star formation rate and a reduced depletion time. Star formation coincides with regions of high-molecular gas fraction, such as the galactic nucleus, spiral arms, and occasionally the tidal debris during the early stages of the merger. Tidal interactions scatter stars into a stellar spheroid, while the gas cools down and reforms a disc. The morphological transformation after coalescence stabilizes the gas and thus quenches star formation, without the need for feedback from an active galactic nucleus. This evolution shows similarities with a compaction scenario for compact quenched spheroids at high-redshift, yet without a long red nugget phase. Shells appear after coalescence, during the quenched phase, implying that they do not host the conditions necessary for in situ star formation. The results suggest that shell-forming mergers might be part of the process of turning blue late-type galaxies into red and dead early-types.
Abstract
The Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey (NGVS) was designed to provide a deep census of baryonic structures in the Virgo cluster. The survey covers the 104 deg
2
area from the core of Virgo ...out to one virial radius, in the
u
*
griz
bandpasses, to a point-source depth of
g
∼ 25.9 mag (10
σ
) and a single pixel surface brightness limit of
μ
g
∼ 29 mag arcsec
−2
(2
σ
above the sky). Here we present the final catalog of 404 Virgo galaxies located within a 3.71 deg
2
(0.3 Mpc
2
) region centered on M87, Virgo’s dominant galaxy. Of these, 154 were previously uncataloged and span the range 17.8 mag <
g
< 23.7 mag (−13.4 mag <
M
g
< −7.4 mag at the 16.5 Mpc distance of Virgo). Extensive simulations show that the NGVS catalog is complete down to
g
= 18.6 mag (
M
g
= −12.5 mag, corresponding to a stellar mass
for an old stellar population), and 50% complete at
g
= 22.0 mag (
M
g
= −9.1 mag,
). The NGVS 50% completeness limit is 3 mag deeper than that of the Virgo Cluster Catalog (VCC), which has served as Virgo’s reference standard for over a quarter century, and 2 mag deeper than the VCC detection limit. We discuss the procedure adopted for the identification of objects and the criteria used to assess cluster membership. For each of the 404 galaxies in the NGVS Virgo Cluster core catalog, we present photometric and structural parameters based on a nonparametric curve-of-growth and isophotal analysis, as well as parametric (Sérsic, double-Sérsic, and/or core-Sérsic) fits to the one-dimensional surface brightness profiles and two-dimensional light distributions.
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