We present a sample of low-resolution 5-38 km Spitzer IRS spectra of the inner few square kiloparsecs of 59 nearby galaxies spanning a large range of star formation properties. A robust method for ...decomposing mid-infrared galaxy spectra is described and used to explore the behavior of PAH emission and the prevalence of silicate dust extinction. Evidence for silicate extinction is found in6 of the sample, at strengths that indicate that most normal galaxies undergo A sub(V) 3 mag averaged over then-centers. The contribution of PAH emission to the total infrared power is found to peak near 10% and extend up to 620% and is suppressed at metallicities Z Z /4, as well as in low-luminosity AGN environments. Strong interband PAH feature strength variations (2-5 times) are observed, with the presence of a weak AGN and, to a lesser degree, increasing metallicity shifting power to the longer wavelength bands. A peculiar PAH emission spectrum with markedly diminished 5-8 km features arises among the sample solely in systems with relatively hard radiation fields harboring low-luminosity AGNs. The AGNs may modify the emitting grain distribution and provide the direct excitation source of the unusual PAH emission, which cautions against using absolute PAH strength to estimate star formation rates in systems harboring active nuclei. Alternatively, the low star formation intensity often associated with weak AGNs may affect the spectrum. The effect of variations in the mid-infrared spectrum on broadband infrared surveys is modeled and points to more than a factor of 2 uncertainty in results that assume a fixed PAH emission spectrum, for redshifts z = 0-2.5.
Physical dust models are presented for 65 galaxies in SINGS that are strongly detected in the four IRAC bands and three MIPS bands. For each galaxy we estimate (1) the total dust mass, (2) the ...fraction of the dust mass contributed by PAHs, and (3) the intensity of the starlight heating the dust grains. We find that spiral galaxies have dust properties resembling the dust in the local region of the Milky Way, with similar dust-to-gas ratio and similar PAH abundance. The observed SEDs, including galaxies with SCUBA photometry, can be reproduced by dust models that do not require "cold" (T 10 K) dust. The dust-to-gas ratio is observed to be dependent on metallicity. In the interstellar media of galaxies with Ao identical with 12 + log sub(10)(O/H) > 8.1, grains contain a substantial fraction of interstellar Mg, Si, and Fe. Galaxies with Ao < 8.1 and extended H I envelopes in some cases appear to have global dust-to-gas ratios that are low for their measured oxygen abundance, but the dust-to-gas ratio in the regions where Infrared emission is detected generally appears to be consistent with a substantial fraction of interstellar Mg, Si, and Fe being contained in dust. The PAH index q sub(PAH), the fraction of the dust mass in the form of PAHs, correlates with metallicity. The nine galaxies in our sample with Ao < 8.1 have a median q sub(PAH) = 1.0%, whereas galaxies with Ao > 8.1 have a median q sub(pah) = 3.55%. The derived dust masses favor a value X approximately 4 x 10 super(20) cm super(-2) (K km s super(-1)) super(-1) for the CO-to-H sub(2) conversion factor. Except for some starbursting systems (Mrk 33, Tol 89, NGC 3049), dust in the diffuse ISM dominates the IR power.
Recent far-UV (FUV) and near-UV (NUV) observations of the nearby galaxy NGC 4625 made by the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) show the presence of an extended UV disk reaching to 4 times the optical ...radius of the galaxy. The UV-to-optical colors suggest that the bulk of the stars in the disk of NGC 4625 are currently being formed, providing a unique opportunity to study today the physics of star formation under conditions similar to those when the normal disks of spiral galaxies like the Milky Way first formed. In the case of NGC 4625, the star formation in the extended disk is likely to be triggered by interaction with NGC 4618 and possibly also with the newly discovered galaxy NGC 4625A. The positions of the FUV complexes in the extended disk coincide with peaks in the H I distribution. The masses of these complexes are in the range 10 super(3)-10 super(4) M sub( ), with their Ha emission (when present) being dominated by ionization from single stars.
▪ Abstract The Universe is in transition. At early times, galactic evolution was dominated by hierarchical clustering and merging, processes that are violent and rapid. In the far future, evolution ...will mostly be secular—the slow rearrangement of energy and mass that results from interactions involving collective phenomena such as bars, oval disks, spiral structure, and triaxial dark halos. Both processes are important now. This review discusses internal secular evolution, concentrating on one important consequence, the buildup of dense central components in disk galaxies that look like classical, merger-built bulges but that were made slowly out of disk gas. We call these pseudobulges.
We begin with an “existence proof”—a review of how bars rearrange disk gas into outer rings, inner rings, and stuff dumped onto the center. The results of numerical simulations correspond closely to the morphology of barred galaxies. In the simulations, gas is transported to small radii, where it reaches high densities and plausibly feeds star formation. In the observations, many barred and oval galaxies have dense central concentrations of gas and star formation. Optical colors and spectra often imply young stellar populations. So the formation of pseudobulges is well supported by theory and observations. It is embedded in a broader evolution picture that accounts for much of the richness observed in galaxy structure.
If secular processes built dense central components that masquerade as bulges, how can we distinguish them from merger-built bulges? Observations show that pseudobulges retain a memory of their disky origin. That is, they have one or more characteristics of disks: (a) flatter shapes than those of classical bulges, (b) correspondingly large ratios of ordered to random velocities, (c) small velocity dispersions σ with respect to the Faber-Jackson correlation between σ and bulge lumi nosity, (d) spiral structure or nuclear bars in the “bulge” part of the light profile, (e) nearly exponential brightness profiles, and ( f ) starbursts. All these structures occur preferentially in barred and oval galaxies, where secular evolution should be most rapid. So the cleanest examples of pseudobulges are recognizable.
Are their formation timescales plausible? We use measurements of central gas densities and star-formation rates to show that pseudobulges of the observed densities form on timescales of a few billion years.
Thus a large variety of observational and theoretical results lead to a new picture of galaxy evolution that complements hierarchical clustering and merging. Secular evolution consists of more than the aging of stellar populations. Every galaxy is dynamically evolving.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
CMK, DOBA, FMFMET, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
We acquired spectra of 141 H ii regions in 10 late-type low surface brightness galaxies (LSBGs). The analysis of the chemical abundances obtained from the nebular emission lines shows that ...metallicity gradients are a common feature of LSBGs, contrary to previous claims concerning the absence of such gradients in this class of galaxies. The average slope, when expressed in units of the isophotal radius, is found to be significantly shallower in comparison to galaxies of high surface brightness. This result can be attributed to the reduced surface brightness range measured across their discs, when combined with a universal surface mass density–metallicity relation. With a similar argument we explain the common abundance gradient observed in high surface brightness galaxy (HSBG) discs and its approximate dispersion. This conclusion is reinforced by our result that LSBGs share the same common abundance gradient with HSBGs, when the slope is expressed in terms of the exponential disc scalelength.
This paper, the first of two, introduces an observational study of spiral structure in galaxies chosen from the Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxies Survey (SINGS). Near-infrared (NIR) and optical data ...are used to produce mass surface density maps, and from these the morphology of the disc is examined. The aim of this work is to characterize the prevalence of spiral structure in this sample and, in the cases where a clear spiral pattern is found, include the findings in a comparative study (reported in Paper II). A two-armed ('grand design') spiral pattern is found in approximately half of the galaxies studied, including all those that are designated as grand design in the optical, but also including some, but not all, optically flocculent galaxies. It is found that the level of non-axisymmetric structure in the galaxies' mass distributions is only modestly higher in those galaxies that are classified as 'grand design' compared with those that are not, implying that non-grand design galaxies possess significant power in higher order modes. There is no evidence that bars preferentially trigger the spirals, but they do appear to stir up non-axisymmetric structure in the disc. In contrast, there is evidence that strong/close tidal interactions with companion galaxies are associated with strong two-armed spiral structure in the IR, though there are a number of galaxies with relatively weak IR spiral structure that do not possess such companions.
Far-ultraviolet to far-infrared images of the nearby galaxy NGC 5194 (M51a), from a combination of space-based (Spitzer, GALEX, and Hubble Space Telescope) and ground-based data, are used to ...investigate local and global star formation and the impact of dust extinction. The Spitzer data provide unprecedented spatial detail in the infrared, down to sizes 6500 pc at the distance of NGC 5194. The multiwavelength set is used to trace the relatively young stellar populations, the ionized gas, and the dust absorption and emission in H II-emitting knots, over 3 orders of magnitude in wavelength range. As is common in spiral galaxies, dust extinction is high in the center of the galaxy (A sub(V) 6 3.5 mag), but its mean value decreases steadily as a function of galactocentric distance, as derived from both gas emission and stellar continuum properties. In the IR/UV-UV color plane, the NGC 5194 H II knots show the same trend observed for normal star-forming galaxies, having a much larger dispersion (61 dex peak to peak) than starburst galaxies. We identify the dispersion as due to the UV emission predominantly tracing the evolved, nonionizing stellar population, up to ages 650-100 Myr. While in starbursts the UV light traces the current star formation rate (SFR), in NGC 5194 it traces a combination of current and recent past SFRs. Possibly, mechanical feedback from supernovae is less effective at removing dust and gas from the star formation volume in normal star-forming galaxies than in starbursts because of the typically lower SFR densities in the former. The application of the starburst opacity curve for recovering the intrinsic UV emission (and deriving SFRs) in local and distant galaxies appears therefore appropriate only for SFR densities 1 M sub( )yr super(-1) kpc super(-2). Unlike the UV emission, the monochromatic 24 km luminosity is an accurate local SFR tracer for the H II knots in NGC 5194, with a peak-to-peak dispersion of less than a factor of 3 relative to hydrogen emission line tracers; this suggests that the 24 km emission carriers are mainly heated by the young, ionizing stars. However, preliminary results show that the ratio of the 24 km emission to the SFR varies by a factor of a few from galaxy to galaxy; this variation needs to be understood and carefully quantified before the 24 km luminosity can be used as an SFR tracer for galaxy populations. While also correlated with star formation, the 8 km emission is not directly proportional to the number of ionizing photons; it is overluminous, by up to a factor of 62, relative to the galaxy's average in weakly ionized regions and is underluminous, by up to a factor of 63, in strongly ionized regions. This confirms earlier suggestions that the carriers of the 8 km emission are heated by more than one mechanism.
When combined with infrared observations with the Spitzer telescope (3 to 160 μm), the Herschel
Space Observatory now fully samples the thermal dust emission up to 500 μm and enables us to better ...estimate the total infrared-submm energy budget (L
TIR) of nearby galaxies. We present new empirical calibrations to estimate resolved and integrated total infrared luminosities from Spitzer and Herschel bands used as monochromatic or combined tracers. We base our calibrations on resolved elements of nearby galaxies (3 to 30 Mpc) observed with Herschel. We perform a resolved spectral energy distribution (SED) modelling of these objects using the Draine & Li dust models and investigate the influence of the addition of Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE) measurements in the estimation of L
TIR. We find that using data up to 250 μm leads to local L
TIR values consistent with those obtained with a complete coverage (up to 500 μm) within ±10 per cent for most of our resolved elements. We then study the distribution of energy in the resolved SEDs of our galaxies. The bulk of energy (30-50 per cent) is contained in the 70-160 μm band. The 24-70 μm fraction decreases with increasing metallicity. The 160-1100 μmsubmillimetre band can account for up to 25 per cent of the L
TIR in metal-rich galaxies. We investigate the correlation between the total infrared (TIR) surface brightnesses/luminosities and monochromatic Spitzer and Herschel surface brightnesses/luminosities. The three Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS) bands can be used as reliable monochromatic estimators of the L
TIR, the 100 μm band being the most reliable monochromatic tracer. There is also a strong correlation between the SPIRE 250 μm and L
TIR, although with more scatter than for the PACS relations. We also study the ability of our monochromatic relations to reproduce integrated L
TIR of nearby galaxies as well as L
TIR of z ∼ 1-3 sources. Finally, we provide calibration coefficients that can be used to derive TIR surface brightnesses/luminosities from a combination of Spitzer and Herschel surface brightnesses/fluxes and analyse the associated uncertainties.
With the goal of investigating the degree to which the MIR emission traces the SFR, we analyze Spitzer 8 and 24 mu m data of star-forming regions in a sample of 33 nearby galaxies with available HST ...NICMOS images in the Pa alpha (1.8756 mu m) emission line. The galaxies are drawn from the SINGS sample and cover a range of morphologies and a factor similar to 10 in oxygen abundance. Published data on local low-metallicity starburst galaxies and LIRGs are also included in the analysis. Both the stellar continuum-subtracted 8 mu m emission and the 24 mu m emission correlate with the extinction-corrected Pa alpha line emission, although neither relationship is linear. Simple models of stellar populations and dust extinction and emission are able to reproduce the observed nonlinear trend of the 24 mu m emission versus number of ionizing photons, including the modest deficiency of 24 mu m emission in the low-metallicity regions, which results from a combination of decreasing dust opacity and dust temperature at low luminosities. Conversely, the trend of the 8 mu m emission as a function of the number of ionizing photons is not well reproduced by the same models. The 8 mu m emission is contributed, in larger measure than the 24 mu m emission, by dust heated by nonionizing stellar populations, in addition to the ionizing ones, in agreement with previous findings. Two SFR calibrations, one using the 24 mu m emission and the other using a combination of the 24 mu m and H alpha luminosities (Kennicutt and coworkers), are presented. No calibration is presented for the 8 mu m emission because of its significant dependence on both metallicity and environment. The calibrations presented here should be directly applicable to systems dominated by ongoing star formation.
We study the spectral energy distribution (SED) of the radio continuum (RC) emission from the Key Insight in Nearby Galaxies Emitting in Radio (KINGFISHER) sample of nearby galaxies to understand the ...energetics and origin of this emission. Effelsberg multi-wavelength observations at 1.4, 4.8, 8.4, and 10.5 GHz combined with archive data allow us, for the first time, to determine the mid-RC (1-10 GHz, MRC) bolometric luminosities and further present calibration relations versus the monochromatic radio luminosities. The 1-10 GHz radio SED is fitted using a Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo technique leading to measurements for the nonthermal spectral index ( ) and the thermal fraction ( ) with mean values of for the total spectral index) and = (10 9)% at 1.4 GHz. The MRC luminosity changes over ∼3 orders of magnitude in the sample, MRC . The thermal emission is responsible for ∼23% of the MRC on average. We also compare the extinction-corrected diagnostics of the star-formation rate (SFR) with the thermal and nonthermal radio tracers and derive the first star-formation calibration relations using the MRC radio luminosity. The nonthermal spectral index flattens with increasing SFR surface density, indicating the effect of the star-formation feedback on the cosmic-ray electron population in galaxies. Comparing the radio and IR SEDs, we find that the FIR-to-MRC ratio could decrease with SFR, due to the amplification of the magnetic fields in star-forming regions. This particularly implies a decrease in the ratio at high redshifts, where mostly luminous/star-forming galaxies are detected.
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