ABSTRACT Using a new color-color diagnostic diagram in the mid-infrared (MIR) built from WISE data, the MIRDD, we compare narrow-emission-line galaxies (NELGs) that exhibit different activity types ...(star-forming galaxies (SFGs) and active galactic nuclei (AGNs), i.e., LINERs, Seyfert 2 galaxies (Sy2s), and Transition-type Objects (TOs)), as determined using one standard diagnostic diagram in the optical (BPT-VO), with broad-line AGNs (QSOs and Sy1s) and BL Lac objects at low redshift ( ). We show that the BL Lac objects occupy the same region as the LINERs in the MIRDD, whereas the QSOs and Sy1s occupy an intermediate region between the LINERs and the Sy2s. In the MIRDD these galaxies trace a sequence that can be reproduced by a power law, , where the spectral index, , varies from 0 to −2, which is similar to what is observed in the optical/ultraviolet part of the spectra of AGNs with different luminosities. For the NELGs with different activity types, we perform a stellar-population synthesis analysis, confirming that their specific positions in the MIRD depend on their star formation histories (SFH) and demonstrating that the color is tightly correlated with the level of star formation in their host galaxies. In good agreement with the SFH analysis, a comparison of their MIR colors with the colors yielded by spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of galaxies with different activity types shows that the SED of the LINERs is similar to the SEDs of the QSOs and Sy1s, consistent with AGN galaxies with mild star formation, whereas the SEDs of the Sy2s and TOs are consistent with AGN galaxies with strong star formation components. For the BL Lac objects, we show that their blue MIR colors can only be fitted with an SED that has no star formation component, consistent with AGNs in elliptical-type galaxies. From their similarities in MIR colors and SEDs, we infer that, in the nearby universe, the level of star formation activity most probably increases in the host galaxies of emission-line galaxies with different activity types along the sequence BL Lac LINER QSO/Sy1 Sy2 TO SFG.
A large sample of Abell clusters of galaxies, selected for the likely presence of a dominant galaxy, is used to study the dynamical properties of the brightest cluster members (BCMs). From visual ...inspection of Digitized Sky Survey images combined with redshift information we identify 1426 candidate BCMs located in 1221 different redshift components associated with 1169 different Abell clusters. This is the largest sample published so far of such galaxies. From our own morphological classification we find that ~92% of the BCMs in our sample are early-type galaxies and 48% are of cD type. We confirm what was previously observed based on much smaller samples, namely, that a large fraction of BCMs have significant peculiar velocities. From a subsample of 452 clusters having at least 10 measured radial velocities, we estimate a median BCM peculiar velocity of 32% of their host clusters' radial velocity dispersion. This suggests that most BCMs are not at rest in the potential well of their clusters. This phenomenon is common to galaxy clusters in our sample, and not a special trait of clusters hosting cD galaxies. We show that the peculiar velocity of the BCM is independent of cluster richness and only slightly dependent on the Bautz-Morgan type. We also find a weak trend for the peculiar velocity to rise with the cluster velocity dispersion. The strongest dependence is with the morphological type of the BCM: cD galaxies tend to have lower relative peculiar velocities than elliptical galaxies. This result points to a connection between the formation of the BCMs and that of their clusters. Our data are qualitatively consistent with the merging-groups scenario, where BCMs in clusters formed first in smaller subsystems comparable to compact groups of galaxies. In this scenario, clusters would have formed recently from the mergers of many such groups and would still be in a dynamically unrelaxed state.
We have determined the metallicity (O/H) and nitrogen abundance (N/O) of a sample of 122,751 star-forming galaxies (SFGs) from the Data Release 7 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The comparison of ...the chemical abundance with the SFH allows us to describe the chemical evolution of the SFGs in the nearby universe (z < or =, slant 0.25) in a manner consistent with the formation of their stellar populations and morphologies. A high fraction (45%) of the SFGs in our sample show an excess abundance of nitrogen relative to their metallicity. Our analysis suggests that they all form their stars through a succession of bursts of star formation extended over a period of few Gyr. We also find evidence relating the chemical evolution process to the formation of the galaxies: the galaxies with an excess of nitrogen are more massive, and have more massive bulges and earlier morphologies than those showing no excess.
Aims. We study the star formation fistory (SFH) of 210 galaxy members of 55 Hickson compact groups (HCG) and 309 galaxies from the Catalog of Isolated Galaxies (CIG). The SFH traces the variation of ...star formation over the lifetime of a galaxy, and consequently yields a snapshot picture of its formation. Comparing the SFHs in these extremes in galaxy density allows us to determine the main effects of compact groups (CG) on the formation of galaxies. Methods. We fit our spectra using the spectral synthesis code STARLIGHT and obtained the stellar population contents and mean stellar ages of HCG and CIG galaxies in three different morphological classes: early-type galaxies (EtG), early-type spirals (EtS), and late-type spirals (LtS). Results. We find that EtG and EtS galaxies in HCG show higher contents of old and intermediate stellar populations as well as an important deficit of the young stellar population, which clearly implies an older average stellar age in early galaxies in HCG. For LtS galaxies we find similar mean values for the stellar content and age in the two samples. However, we note that LtS can be split into two subclasses, namely old and young LtS. In HCG we find a higher fraction of young LtS than in the CIG sample, in addition, most of these galaxies belong to groups in which most of the galaxies are also young and actively forming stars. The specific star formation rate (SSFR) of spiral galaxies in the two samples differ. The EtS in HCG show lower SSFR values, while LtS peak at higher values compared with their counterparts in isolation. We also measured the shorter star formation time scale (SFTS) in HCG galaxies, which indicates that they have a shorter star formation activity than CIG galaxies. We take these observations as evidence that galaxies in CG have evolved more rapidly than galaxies in isolation, regardless of their morphology. Our observations are consistent with the hierarchical galaxy formation model, which states that CGs are structures that formed recently from primordial small-mass density fluctuations. From the systematic difference in SFTS we deduce that the HCG have most probably formed ~ 3 Gyr in the past. The galaxies in the HCG are not in equilibrium state, but merging without gas (i.e., under dissipationless conditions), which may explain their relatively long lifetime.
We present the results of a morphological study based on NIR images of 25 galaxies, with different levels of nuclear activity (star formation or AGN), in eight compact groups (CGs) of galaxies. We ...independently perform two different analyses: a study of the deviations of the isophotal levels from pure ellipses and a study of morphological asymmetries. The results yielded by the two analyses are highly consistent. For the first time, it is possible to show that deviations from pure ellipses are produced by inhomogeneous stellar mass distributions related to galaxy interactions and mergers. We find evidence of mass asymmetries in 74% of the galaxies in our sample. In 59% of these cases, the asymmetries come in pairs and are consistent with tidal effects produced by the proximity of companion galaxies. The symmetric galaxies are generally small in size or mass and inactive, and have an early-type morphology. They may have already lost their gas and least-attached envelope of stars to their more massive companions. In 20% of the galaxies we find evidence for cannibalism: a big galaxy swallowing a smaller companion. In 36% of the early-type galaxies the color gradient is positive (blue nucleus) or flat. Summing up these results, as much as 52% of the galaxies in our sample could show evidence of an ongoing or past merger. Our observations also suggest that galaxies in CGs merge more frequently under 'dry' conditions (that is, once they have lost most of their gas). The high frequency of interacting and merging galaxies observed in our study is consistent with the bias of our sample toward CGs of type B, which represent the most active phase in the evolution of the groups. In these groups we also find a strong correlation between asymmetries and nuclear activity in early-type galaxies. This correlation allows us to identify tidal interactions and mergers as the cause of galaxy morphology transformation in CGs.
We have conducted a new spectroscopic survey to characterize the nature of nuclear activity in Hickson compact group (HCG) galaxies and establish its frequency. We have obtained new ...intermediate-resolution optical spectroscopy for 200 member galaxies and corrected for underlying stellar population contamination using galaxy templates. Spectra for 11 additional galaxies have been acquired from the ESO and 6dF public archives, and emission-line ratios have been taken from the literature for 59 more galaxies. Here we present the results of our classification of the nuclear activity for 270 member galaxies, which belong to a well-defined sample of 64 HCGs. We found a large fraction of galaxies, 63%, with emission lines. Using standard diagnostic diagrams, 45% of the emission-line galaxies were classified as pure active galactic nuclei (AGNs), 23% as Transition Objects (TOs), and 32% as star-forming nuclei (SFNs). In the HCGs, the AGN activity appears as the most frequent activity type. Adopting the interpretation that in TOs a low-luminosity AGN coexists with circumnuclear star formation, the fraction of galaxies with an AGN could rise to 42% of the whole sample. The low frequency (20%) of SFNs confirms that there is no star formation enhancement in HCGs. After extinction correction, we found a median AGN H Delta *a luminosity of 7.1 X 1039 erg s--1, which implies that AGNs in HCG have a characteristically low luminosity. This result added to the fact that there is an almost complete absence of broad-line AGNs in compact groups (CGs) as found by Martinez et al. and corroborated in this study for HCGs, is consistent with very few gas left in these galaxies. In general, therefore, what may characterize the level of activity in CGs is a severe deficiency of gas.
In this second paper of two analyses, we present near-infrared (NIR) morphological and asymmetry studies performed in a sample of 92 galaxies found in different density environments: galaxies in ...compact groups (CGs; HCGs in the Hickson Catalog of Compact Groups of Galaxies), isolated pairs of galaxies (KPGs in Karachentsev's list of isolated pairs of galaxies), and isolated galaxies (KIGs in Karachentseva's Catalog of Isolated Galaxies). Both studies have proved useful for identifying the effect of interactions on galaxies. In the NIR, the properties of the galaxies in HCGs, KPGs, and KIGs are more similar than they are in the optical. This is because the NIR band traces the older stellar populations, which formed earlier and are more relaxed than the younger populations. However, we found asymmetries related to interactions in both KPG and HCG samples. In HCGs, the fraction of asymmetric galaxies is even higher than what we found in the optical. In the KPGs the interactions look like very recent events, while in the HCGs galaxies are more morphologically evolved and show properties suggesting they suffered more frequent interactions. The key difference seems to be the absence of star formation in the HCGs; while interactions produce intense star formation in the KPGs, we do not see this effect in the HCGs. This is consistent with the dry merger hypothesis; the interaction between galaxies in CGs is happening without the presence of gas. If the gas was spent in stellar formation (to build the bulge of the numerous early-type galaxies), then the HCGs possibly started interacting sometime before the KPGs. On the other hand, the dry interaction condition in CGs suggests that the galaxies are on merging orbits, and consequently such system cannot be that much older either. Cosmologically speaking, the difference in formation time between pairs of galaxies and CGs may be relatively small. The two phenomena are typical of the formation of structures in low-density environments. Their formation represents relatively recent events.
This paper presents the first of two analyses about the influence of environment on the formation and evolution of galaxies observed in the nearby universe. For our study, we used three different ...samples representing different density environments: galaxies in Compact Groups (HCGs), Isolated Pairs of Galaxies (KPGs), and Isolated Galaxies (KIGs), which were taken as references. Usingboth characteristic isophotal parameters and evidence of asymmetries in the optical and the near-infrared, we are able to establish differences in the characteristics of galaxies with different morphologies in different environments, allowing us to better understand their different formation histories. In this first paper, we present the isophotal and asymmetry analyses of a sample of 214 galaxies in different environments observed in the optical (V and I images). For each galaxy, we have determined different characteristic isophotal parameters and V -- I color profiles, as a function of semi-major axis, and performed a full asymmetry analysis in residual images using the V filter. Evidence of asymmetry in the optical is almost missing in the KIG sample and significantly more common in the KPG than in the HCG samples. Our isophotal analysis suggests that the stellar populations in the HCG galaxies are older and more dynamically relaxed than in the KPG. The HCG galaxies seem to be at a more advanced stage of interaction than the KPGs. One possible explanation is that these structures formed at different epochs: compact groups of galaxies would have formed before close pairs of galaxies, which only began interacting recently. However, similarities in the formation process of galaxies with same morphology suggest CGs and close pairs of galaxies share similar conditions; they are new structures forming relatively late in low-density environments.
Using the Multi-Element Radio-Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN), we have acquired a high spatial resolution spectral image of the OH megamaser (OHMM) in the nearby starburst 'galaxy' known as ...IIZw 096. We have also acquired optical B, V, R, I and Hα images with the 1.5-m telescope in San Pedro Mártir. By comparing the MERLIN observations with Hubble archive images, we are able to pinpoint the location of the OH maser emission in this object; the OHMM emission seems to be associated with a faint and reddish, compact-round structure (a few hundred parsecs) off-centre of a merging system of galaxies. From the colour and strong Hα emission, this object is consistent with the remains of the nucleus of a very perturbed galaxy in interaction. Assuming a Keplerian bounded system the mass necessary to produce a velocity range of ≈200 km s−1 for the OHMM is of the order of 109 M⊙, which is consistent with a massive black hole. Consequently, although the OHMM was previously suspected to be of starburst origin, our analysis suggests that an active galactic nucleus (AGN) could also be present in this merging system making it a composite source. IIZw 096 is a nearby example which shows how high spatial resolution data of the OHMM emission region, and supporting optical data, can be extremely helpful in determining the nature (starburst, AGN or composite) of such phenomenon.
We report Hubble Space Telescope (HST) imaging, obtained 155 and 449 days after the 2006 outburst of the recurrent nova RS Ophiuchi, together with ground-based spectroscopic observations, obtained ...from the Observatorio Astronomico Nacional en San Pedro Martir, Baja California, Mexico and at the Observatorio Astrofisico Guillermo Haro, at Cananea, Sonora, Mexico. The observations at the first epoch were used as inputs to model the geometry and kinematic structure of the evolving RS Oph nebular remnant. We find that the modeled remnant comprises two distinct co-aligned bipolar components; a low-velocity, high-density innermost (hour glass) region and a more extended, high-velocity (dumbbell) structure. This overall structure is in agreement with that deduced from radio observations and optical interferometry at earlier epochs. We find that the asymmetry observed in the west lobe is an instrumental effect caused by the profile of the HST filter and hence demonstrate that this lobe is approaching the observer. We then conclude that the system has an inclination to the line of sight of 39+1 deg -10. This is in agreement with the inclination of the binary orbit and lends support to the proposal that this morphology is due to the interaction of the outburst ejecta with either an accretion disk around the central white dwarf and/or a pre-existing red giant wind that is significantly denser in the equatorial regions of the binary than at the poles. The second epoch HST observation was also modeled. However, as no spectra were taken at this epoch, it is more difficult to constrain any model. Nevertheless, we demonstrate that between the two HST epochs the outer dumbbell structure seems to have expanded linearly. For the central (hour glass) region, there may be evidence of deceleration, but it is harder to draw firm conclusions in this case.
PDF
