Abstract We describe how to estimate the velocity dispersions of ultradiffuse galaxies (UDGs) using a previously defined galaxy scaling relationship. The method is accurate for the two UDGs with ...spectroscopically measured dispersions, as well as for ultracompact galaxies, ultrafaint galaxies, and stellar systems with little or no dark matter. This universality means that the relationship can be applied without further knowledge or prejudice regarding the structure of a galaxy. We then estimate the velocity dispersions of UDGs drawn from two published samples and examine the distribution of total masses. We find, in agreement with the previous studies of two individual UDGs, that these systems are dark matter dominated systems, and that they span a range of at least 1010 < M200/M⊙ < 1012. These galaxies are not, as an entire class, either all dwarfs or all failed L* galaxies. Estimates of the velocity dispersions can also help identify interesting subsets of UDGs, such as those that are likely to have the largest mass-to-light ratios, for subsequent spectroscopic study.
We present the first ever global, spatially resolved reconstruction of the star formation history (SFH) of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), based on the application of our StarFISH analysis software ...to the multiband photometry of 20 million of its stars from the Magellanic Clouds Photometric Survey. The general outlines of our results are consistent with previously published results: following an initial burst of star formation, there was a quiescent epoch from approximately 12 to 5 Gyr ago. Star formation then resumed and has proceeded until the current time at an average rate of roughly 0.2 M yr-1, with temporal variations at the factor of 2 level. The re-ignition of star formation about 5 Gyr ago, in both the LMC and Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), is suggestive of a dramatic event at that time in the Magellanic system. Among the global variations in the recent star formation rate are peaks at roughly 2 Gyr, 500 Myr, 100 Myr, and 12 Myr. The peaks at 500 Myr and 2 Gyr are nearly coincident with similar peaks in the SFH of the SMC, suggesting a joint history for these galaxies extending back at least several Gyr. The chemical enrichment history recovered from our StarFISH analysis is in broad agreement with that inferred from the LMC's star cluster population, although our constraints on the ancient chemical enrichment history are weak. We conclude from the concordance between the star formation and chemical enrichment histories of the field and cluster populations that the field and cluster star formation modes are tightly coupled.
Gravitational interactions between the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and the stellar and dark matter halo of the Milky Way are expected to give rise to disequilibrium phenomena in the outer Milky Way
.... A local wake is predicted to trail the orbit of the LMC, and a large-scale overdensity is predicted to exist across a large area of the northern Galactic hemisphere. Here we report the detection of both the local wake and northern overdensity (hereafter the 'collective response') in a map of the Galaxy based on 1,301 stars at Galactocentric distances between 60 and 100 kiloparsecs. The location of the wake is in good agreement with an N-body simulation that includes the dynamical effect of the LMC on the Milky Way halo. The density contrast of the wake and collective response are stronger in the data than in the simulation. The detection of a strong local wake is independent evidence that the Magellanic clouds are on their first orbit around the Milky Way. The wake traces the path of the LMC, which will provide insight into the orbit of the LMC, which in turn is a sensitive probe of the mass of the LMC and the Milky Way. These data demonstrate that the outer halo is not in dynamical equilibrium, as is often assumed. The morphology and strength of the wake could be used to test the nature of dark matter and gravity.
We present a pilot study on the origin and assembly history of the intracluster starlight (ICL) for four galaxy clusters at 0.44 ≤ z ≤ 0.57 observed with the Hubble Space Telescope from the Cluster ...Lensing and Supernova Survey with Hubble (CLASH) sample. Using this sample of CLASH clusters we set an empirical limit on the amount of scatter in ICL surface brightness profiles of such clusters at z = 0.5, a mean of 0.24 mag arcsec−2 for 10 < r < 110 kpc, and constrain the progenitor population and formation mechanism of the ICL by measuring the ICL surface brightness profile, the ICL colour and colour gradient, and the total ICL luminosity within the same radial range. This scatter is physical – it exceeds the observational errors, straightforward expectations from the range of cluster masses in our sample, and predictions based on published evolutionary models for the variance attributable to the redshift span of our sample. We associate the additional scatter with differences in ICL assembly process, formation epoch, and/or ICL content. Using stellar population synthesis models we transform the observed colours to metallicity. For three of the four clusters we find clear negative gradients that, on average, decrease from supersolar in the central regions of the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) to subsolar in the ICL, under the assumption that the age of the intracluster stars is >11 Gyr. Such negative colour (and equivalently, metallicity) gradients can arise from tidal stripping of L* galaxies and/or the disruption of dwarf galaxies, but not major mergers with the BCG. We also find that the ICL at 110 kpc has a colour comparable to m* + 2 red sequence galaxies, suggesting that out to this radius the ICL is dominated by stars liberated from galaxies with L > 0.2 L*. Finally, we find ICL luminosities of 4–8 L* in the range 10 < r < 110 kpc for these clusters. Neither dwarf disruption nor major mergers with the BCG alone can explain this level of luminosity and remain consistent with either the observed evolution in the faint-end slope of the luminosity function or predictions for the number of BCG major mergers since z = 1. Taken together, the results of this pilot study are suggestive of a formation history for these clusters in which the ICL is built-up by the stripping of >0.2L* galaxies, and disfavour significant contribution to the ICL by dwarf disruption or major mergers with the BCG.
Abstract
We present deep
Magellan
/Megacam stellar photometry of four recently discovered faint Milky Way satellites: Sagittarius II (Sgr II), Reticulum II (Ret II), Phoenix II (Phe II), and ...Tucana III (Tuc III). Our photometry reaches ∼2–3 magnitudes deeper than the discovery data, allowing us to revisit the properties of these new objects (e.g., distance, structural properties, luminosity measurements, and signs of tidal disturbance). The satellite color-magnitude diagrams show that they are all old (∼13.5 Gyr) and metal poor (Fe/H ≲ −2.2). Sgr II is particularly interesting, as it sits in an intermediate position between the loci of dwarf galaxies and globular clusters in the size–luminosity plane. The ensemble of its structural parameters is more consistent with a globular cluster classification, indicating that Sgr II is the most extended globular cluster in its luminosity range. The other three satellites land directly on the locus defined by Milky Way ultra-faint dwarf galaxies of similar luminosity. Ret II is the most elongated nearby dwarf galaxy currently known for its luminosity range. Our structural parameters for Phe II and Tuc III suggest that they are both dwarf galaxies. Tuc III is known to be associated with a stellar stream, which is clearly visible in our matched-filter stellar density map. The other satellites do not show any clear evidence of tidal stripping in the form of extensions or distortions. Finally, we also use archival H
i
data to place limits on the gas content of each object.
Abstract
We present 226 large ultra-diffuse galaxy (UDG) candidates (
r
e
> 5.″3,
μ
0,
g
> 24 mag arcsec
−2
) in the SDSS Stripe 82 region recovered using our improved procedure developed in ...anticipation of processing the entire Legacy Surveys footprint. The advancements include less constrained structural parameter fitting, expanded wavelet filtering criteria, consideration of Galactic dust, estimates of parameter uncertainties and completeness based on simulated sources, and refinements of our automated candidate classification. We have a sensitivity ∼1 mag fainter in
μ
0,
g
than the largest published catalog of this region. Using our completeness-corrected sample, we find that (1) there is no significant decline in the number of UDG candidates as a function of
μ
0,
g
to the limit of our survey (∼26.5 mag arcsec
−2
); (2) bluer candidates have smaller Sérsic
n
; (3) most blue (
g
–
r
< 0.45 mag) candidates have
μ
0,
g
≲ 25 mag arcsec
−2
and will fade to populate the UDG red sequence we observe to ∼26.5 mag arcsec
−2
; (4) any red UDGs that exist significantly below our
μ
0,
g
sensitivity limit are not descendent from blue UDGs in our sample; and (5) candidates with lower
μ
0,
g
tend to smaller
n
. We anticipate that the final SMUDGes sample will contain ∼30 × as many candidates.
We present a homogeneous catalog of 275 large (effective radius 5 3) ultra-diffuse galaxy (UDG) candidates lying within an 290 square degree region surrounding the Coma Cluster. The catalog results ...from our automated postprocessing of data from the Legacy Surveys, a three-band imaging survey covering 14,000 square degrees of the extragalactic sky. We describe a pipeline that identifies UDGs and provides their basic parameters. The survey is as complete in these large UDGs as previously published UDG surveys of the central region of the Coma Cluster. We conclude that the majority of our detections are at roughly the distance of the Coma Cluster, implying effective radii ≥2.5 kpc, and that our sample contains a significant number of analogs of DF44, where the effective radius exceeds 4 kpc, both within the cluster and in the surrounding field. The g − z color of our UDGs spans a large range, suggesting that even large UDGs may reflect a range of formation histories. A majority of the UDGs are consistent with being lower stellar mass analogs of red sequence galaxies, but we find both red and blue UDG candidates in the vicinity of the Coma Cluster and a relative overabundance of blue UDG candidates in the lower-density environments and the field. Our eventual processing of the full Legacy Surveys data will produce the largest, most homogeneous sample of large UDGs.
Abstract
We present neutral hydrogen (H
i
) observations using the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) of 70 optically detected UDG candidates in the Coma region from the Systematically ...Measuring Ultra-Diffuse Galaxies survey (SMUDGes). We detect H
i
in 18 targets, confirming nine to be gas-rich UDGs and the remainder to be foreground dwarfs. None of our H
i
-detected UDGs are Coma Cluster members and all but one are in low-density environments. The H
i
-detected UDGs are bluer and have more irregular morphologies than the redder, smoother candidates not detected in H
i
, with the combination of optical color and morphology being a better predictor of gas richness than either parameter alone. There is little visual difference between the gas-rich UDGs and the foreground dwarfs in the SMUDGes imaging, and distances are needed to distinguish between them. We find that the gas richnesses of our H
i
-confirmed UDGs and those from other samples scale with their effective radii in two stellar mass bins, possibly providing clues to their formation. We attempt to place our UDGs on the baryonic Tully–Fisher relation (BTFR) using optical ellipticities and turbulence-corrected H
i
line widths to estimate rotation velocities, but the potential systematics associated with fitting smooth Sérsic profiles to clumpy, low-inclination disks of low surface brightness precludes a meaningful analysis of potential BTFR offsets. These observations are a pilot for a large campaign now under way at the GBT to use the H
i
properties of gas-rich UDGs to quantitatively constrain how these galaxies form and evolve.
ABSTRACT
Using a new method to estimate total galaxy mass (MT) and two samples of low-luminosity galaxies containing measurements of the number of globular clusters (GCs) per galaxy (NGC), we revisit ...the NGC–MT relation using a total of 203 galaxies, 157 of which have MT ≤ 1010 M⊙. We find that the relation is nearly linear, NGC ∝ MT0.92 ± 0.08 down to at least MT ∼ 108.75 M⊙. Because the relationship extends to galaxies that average less than one GC per galaxy and to a mass range in which mergers are relatively rare, the relationship cannot be solely an emergent property of hierarchical galaxy formation. The character of the radial GC distribution in low-mass galaxies, and the lack of mergers at these galaxy masses, also appears to challenge models in which the GCs form in central, dissipatively concentrated high-density, high-pressure regions and are then scattered to large radius. The slight difference between the fitted power-law exponent and a value of one leaves room for a shallow MT-dependent variation in the mean mass per GC that would allow the relation between total mass in GCs and MT to be linear.
Abstract
We present our photometric search for potential nuclear star clusters (NSCs) in ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs) as an extension of the SMUDGes catalog. We identify 325 SMUDGes galaxies with ...NSCs and, from the 144 with existing distance estimates, identify 33 NSC hosts as UDGs (
μ
0,
g
≥ 24 mag arcsec
−2
,
r
e
≥ 1.5 kpc). The SMUDGes with NSCs lie on the galaxy red sequence, satisfy the relationship between NSC and host galaxy stellar masses, have a mean NSC stellar mass fraction of 0.02 but reach as high as 0.1, have NSCs that are displaced from the host center with a standard deviation of 0.10
r
e
, and weakly favor higher-density environments. All of these properties are consistent with previous results from higher surface brightness galaxy samples, allowing for at most a relatively weak dependence of NSC behavior on host galaxy surface brightness.
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