We investigate the properties of a clump-cluster galaxy at redshift 1.57. In optical observations, the morphology of this galaxy is dominated by eight star-forming clumps, and its photometric ...properties are typical of most clump-cluster and chain galaxies. Its complex asymmetrical morphology has led to the suggestion that this system is a group merger of several initially separate proto-galaxies. We performed H\alpha integral field spectroscopy of this system using SINFONI on VLT UT4. These observations reveal a large-scale velocity gradient throughout the system, but with large local kinematic disturbances. Using a numerical model of gas-rich disk fragmentation, we find that clump interactions and migration can explain the observed disturbed rotation. On the other hand, the global rotation would not be expected for a multiply merging system. We also find that this system follows the relations of stellar mass versus metallicity, star formation rate, and size that are expected for a disk at this redshift. Furthermore, the galaxy exhibits a disk-like radial metallicity gradient. A formation scenario of internal disk fragmentation is therefore the most likely one. A red and metallic central concentration appears to be a bulge in this proto-spiral clumpy galaxy. A chain galaxy at redshift 2.07 in the same field also shows disk-like rotation. Such systems are likely progenitors of present-day bright spiral galaxies, which shape their exponential disks through clump migration and disruption, a process that in turn fuels their bulges. Our results show that disturbed morphologies and kinematics are not necessarily signs of galaxy mergers and interactions, but may instead be produced by the internal evolution of primordial disks.
Tadpole galaxies, with a bright peripheral clump on a faint tail, are morphological types unusual in the nearby universe but very common early on. Low mass local tadpoles were identified and studied ...photometrically in a previous work, which we complete here analyzing their chemical and dynamical properties. We measure Halpha velocity curves of seven local tadpoles, representing 50% of the initial sample. Five of them show evidence for rotation (~70%), and a sixth target hints at it. We interpret the metallicity variation as a sign of external gas accretion (cold-flows) onto the head of the tadpole. The galaxies are low-metallicity outliers of the mass-metallicity relationship. In particular, two of the tadpole heads are extremely metal poor, with a metallicity smaller than a tenth of the solar value. The two targets are also very young. All the results combined are consistent with the local tadpole galaxies being disks in early stages of assembling, with their star formation sustained by accretion of external metal-poor gas.
ABSTRACT
The morphology of H ii regions around young star clusters provides insight into the time-scales and physical processes that clear a cluster’s natal gas. We study ∼700 young clusters (≤10 ...Myr) in three nearby spiral galaxies (NGC 7793, NGC 4395, and NGC 1313) using Hubble Space Telescope (HST) imaging from LEGUS (Legacy ExtraGalactic Ultraviolet Survey). Clusters are classified by their H α morphology (concentrated, partially exposed, no-emission) and whether they have neighbouring clusters (which could affect the clearing time-scales). Through visual inspection of the HST images, and analysis of ages, reddenings, and stellar masses from spectral energy distributions fitting, together with the (U− B), (V − I) colours, we find (1) the median ages indicate a progression from concentrated (∼3 Myr), to partially exposed (∼4 Myr), to no H α emission (>5 Myr), consistent with the expected temporal evolution of H ii regions and previous results. However, (2) similarities in the age distributions for clusters with concentrated and partially exposed H α morphologies imply a short time-scale for gas clearing (≲1 Myr). Also, (3) our cluster sample’s median mass is ∼1000 M⊙, and a significant fraction ($\sim 20{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$) contain one or more bright red sources (presumably supergiants), which can mimic reddening effects. Finally, (4) the median E(B − V) values for clusters with concentrated H α and those without H α emission appear to be more similar than expected (∼0.18 versus ∼0.14, respectively), but when accounting for stochastic effects, clusters without H α emission are less reddened. To mitigate stochastic effects, we experiment with synthesizing more massive clusters by stacking fluxes of clusters within each H α morphological class. Composite isolated clusters also reveal a colour and age progression for H α morphological classes, consistent with analysis of the individual clusters.
ABSTRACT Models of galaxy formation predict that gas accretion from the cosmic web is a primary driver of star formation over cosmic history. Except in very dense environments where galaxy mergers ...are also important, model galaxies feed from cold streams of gas from the web that penetrate their dark matter halos. Although these predictions are unambiguous, the observational support has been indirect so far. Here, we report spectroscopic evidence for this process in extremely metal-poor galaxies (XMPs) of the local universe, taking the form of localized starbursts associated with gas having low metallicity. Detailed abundance analyses based on Gran Telescopio Canarias optical spectra of 10 XMPs show that the galaxy hosts have metallicities around 60% solar, on average, while the large star-forming regions that dominate their integrated light have low metallicities of some 6% solar. Because gas mixes azimuthally in a rotation timescale (a few hundred Myr), the observed metallicity inhomogeneities are only possible if the metal-poor gas fell onto the disk recently. We analyze several possibilities for the origin of the metal-poor gas, favoring the metal-poor gas infall predicted by numerical models. If this interpretation is correct, XMPs trace the cosmic web gas in their surroundings, making them probes to examine its properties.
Color-color diagrams for the clump and interclump emission in 10 clump-cluster galaxies of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (UDF) are made from B,V, i, and z images and compared with models to determine ...redshifts, star formation histories, and galaxy masses. These galaxies are members of a class dominated by 5 10 giant clumps, with no exponential disk or bulge. The redshifts are found to be in the range from 1.6 to 3. The clump emission is typically 40% of the total galaxy emission, and the luminous clump mass is 19% of the total galaxy mass. The clump colors suggest declining star formation over the last 0.3 Gyr, while the interclump emission is redder than the clumps, corresponding to a greater age. The clump luminous masses are typically 6 x 10 super(8) M, and their diameters average 1.8 kpc, making their average density 0.2 M pc super(-3).
Abstract
We present a detailed study of the flocculent spiral galaxy NGC 7793, part of the Sculptor group. By analyzing the resolved stellar populations of the galaxy, located at a distance of ...∼3.7 Mpc, we infer for the first time its radial star formation history (SFH) from
Hubble Space Telescope
photometry, thanks to both archival and new data from the Legacy ExtraGalactic UV Survey. We determine an average star formation rate (SFR) for the galaxy portion covered by our F555W and F814W data of 0.23 ± 0.02
M
⊙
yr
−1
over the whole Hubble time, corresponding to a total stellar mass of (3.09 ± 0.33) × 10
9
M
⊙
, in agreement with previous determinations. Thanks to the new data extending to the F336W band, we are able to analyze the youngest stellar populations with a higher time resolution. Most importantly, we recover the resolved SFH in different radial regions of the galaxy; this shows an indication of a growing trend of the present-to-past SFR ratio, increasing from internal to more external regions, supporting previous findings of the inside-out growth of the galaxy.
The relative average minimum projected separations of star clusters in the Legacy ExtraGalactic UV Survey (LEGUS) and in tidal dwarfs around the interacting galaxy NGC 5291 are determined as a ...function of cluster mass to look for cluster-cluster mass segregation. Class 2 and 3 LEGUS clusters, which have a more irregular internal structure than the compact and symmetric class 1 clusters, are found to be mass-segregated in low-mass galaxies, which means that the more massive clusters are systematically bunched together compared to the lower-mass clusters. This mass segregation is not present in high-mass galaxies or class 1 clusters. We consider possible causes for this segregation, including differences in cluster formation and scattering in the shallow gravitational potentials of low-mass galaxies.
We measure the oxygen metallicity of the ionized gas along the major axis of seven dwarf star-forming galaxies. Two of them, SDSSJ1647+21 and SDSSJ2238+14, show Asymptotically = to0.5 dex metallicity ...decrements in inner regions with enhanced star formation activity. This behavior is similar to the metallicity drop observed in a number of local tadpole galaxies by Sanchez Almeida et al., and was interpreted as showing early stages of assembling in disk galaxies, with the star formation sustained by external metal-poor gas accretion. The agreement with tadpoles has several implications. (1) It proves that galaxies other than the local tadpoles present the same unusual metallicity pattern. (2) Our metallicity inhomogeneities were inferred using the direct method, thus discarding systematic errors usually attributed to other methods. (3) Taken together with the tadpole data, our findings suggest a threshold around one-tenth the solar value for the metallicity drops to show up. Although galaxies with clear metallicity drops are rare, the physical mechanism responsible for them may sustain a significant part of the star formation activity in the local universe. We argue that the star formation dependence of the mass-metallicity relationship, as well as other general properties followed by most local disk galaxies, is naturally interpreted as side effects of pristine gas infall. Alternatives to the metal-poor gas accretion are examined as well.
ABSTRACT The extremely metal-poor (XMP) galaxies analyzed in a previous paper have large star-forming regions with a metallicity lower than the rest of the galaxy. Such a chemical inhomogeneity ...reveals the external origin of the metal-poor gas fueling star formation, possibly indicating accretion from the cosmic web. This paper studies the kinematic properties of the ionized gas in these galaxies. Most XMPs have a rotation velocity around a few tens of km s−1. The star-forming regions appear to move coherently. The velocity is constant within each region, and the velocity dispersion sometimes increases within the star-forming clump toward the galaxy midpoint, suggesting inspiral motion toward the galaxy center. Other regions present a local maximum in velocity dispersion at their center, suggesting a moderate global expansion. The H line wings show a number of faint emission features with amplitudes around a few per cent of the main H component, and wavelength shifts between 100 and 400 km s−1. The components are often paired, so that red and blue emission features with similar amplitudes and shifts appear simultaneously. Assuming the faint emission to be produced by expanding shell-like structures, the inferred mass loading factor (mass loss rate divided by star formation rate) exceeds 10. Since the expansion velocity far exceeds the rotational and turbulent velocities, the gas may eventually escape from the galaxy disk. The observed motions involve energies consistent with the kinetic energy released by individual core-collapse supernovae. Alternative explanations for the faint emission have been considered and discarded.
The three-dimensional (3D) shape of a galaxy inevitably is tied to how it has formed and evolved and to its dark matter halo. Local extremely metal-poor galaxies (XMPs; defined as having an average ...gas-phase metallicity <0.1 solar) are important objects for understanding galaxy evolution largely because they appear to be caught in the act of accreting gas from the cosmic web, and their 3D shape may reflect this. Here, we report on the 3D shape of XMPs as inferred from their observed projected minor-to-major axial ratios using a hierarchical Bayesian inference model, which determines the likely shape and orientation of each galaxy, while simultaneously inferring the average shape and dispersion. We selected a sample of 149 XMPs and divided it into three subsamples according to physical size and found that (1) the stellar component of XMPs of all sizes tends to be triaxial, with an intermediate axis 0.7 times the longest axis and that (2) smaller XMPs tend to be relatively thicker, with the shortest axis going from 0.15 times the longest axis for the large galaxies to 0.4 for the small galaxies. We provide the inferred 3D shape and inclination of the individual XMPs in electronic format. We show that our results for the intermediate axis are not clouded by a selection effect against face-on XMPs. We discuss how an intermediate axis significantly smaller than the longest axis may be produced by several mechanisms, including lopsided gas accretion, non-axisymmetric star formation, or coupling with an elongated dark matter halo. Large relative thickness may reflect slow rotation, stellar feedback, or recent gas accretion.
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