We demonstrate the feasibility and potential of using large integral field spectroscopic surveys to investigate the prevalence of galactic-scale outflows in the local Universe. Using integral field ...data from the Sydney-AAO Multi-object Integral field spectrograph (SAMI) and the Wide Field Spectrograph, we study the nature of an isolated disc galaxy, SDSS J090005.05+000446.7 (z = 0.053 86). In the integral field data sets, the galaxy presents skewed line profiles changing with position in the galaxy. The skewed line profiles are caused by different kinematic components overlapping in the line-of-sight direction. We perform spectral decomposition to separate the line profiles in each spatial pixel as combinations of (1) a narrow kinematic component consistent with H ii regions, (2) a broad kinematic component consistent with shock excitation, and (3) an intermediate component consistent with shock excitation and photoionization mixing. The three kinematic components have distinctly different velocity fields, velocity dispersions, line ratios, and electron densities. We model the line ratios, velocity dispersions, and electron densities with our mappings iv shock and photoionization models, and we reach remarkable agreement between the data and the models. The models demonstrate that the different emission line properties are caused by major galactic outflows that introduce shock excitation in addition to photoionization by star-forming activities. Interstellar shocks embedded in the outflows shock-excite and compress the gas, causing the elevated line ratios, velocity dispersions, and electron densities observed in the broad kinematic component. We argue from energy considerations that, with the lack of a powerful active galactic nucleus, the outflows are likely to be driven by starburst activities. Our results set a benchmark of the type of analysis that can be achieved by the SAMI Galaxy Survey on large numbers of galaxies.
We investigate the relationship between stellar and gas specific angular momentum j, stellar mass M
* and optical morphology for a sample of 488 galaxies extracted from the Sydney-AAO Multi-object ...Integral field Galaxy Survey. We find that j, measured within one effective radius, monotonically increases with M
* and that, for M
* > 109.5 M⊙, the scatter in this relation strongly correlates with optical morphology (i.e. visual classification and Sérsic index). These findings confirm that massive galaxies of all types lie on a plane relating mass, angular momentum and stellar-light distribution, and suggest that the large-scale morphology of a galaxy is regulated by its mass and dynamical state. We show that the significant scatter in the M
*-j relation is accounted for by the fact that, at fixed stellar mass, the contribution of ordered motions to the dynamical support of galaxies varies by at least a factor of 3. Indeed, the stellar spin parameter (quantified via λ
R
) correlates strongly with Sérsic and concentration indices. This correlation is particularly strong once slow rotators are removed from the sample, showing that late-type galaxies and early-type fast rotators form a continuous class of objects in terms of their kinematic properties.
We are now moving into an era where multi-object wide-field surveys, which traditionally use single fibres to observe many targets simultaneously, can exploit compact integral field units (IFUs) in ...place of single fibres. Current multi-object integral field instruments such as Sydney-AAO Multi-object Integral field spectrograph have driven the development of new imaging fibre bundles (hexabundles) for multi-object spectrographs. We have characterized the performance of hexabundles with different cladding thicknesses and compared them to that of the same type of bare fibre, across the range of fill fractions and input f-ratios likely in an IFU instrument. Hexabundles with 7-cores and 61-cores were tested for focal ratio degradation (FRD), throughput and cross-talk when fed with inputs from F/3.4 to >F/8. The five 7-core bundles have cladding thickness ranging from 1 to 8 μm, and the 61-core bundles have 5 μm cladding. As expected, the FRD improves as the input focal ratio decreases. We find that the FRD and throughput of the cores in the hexabundles match the performance of single fibres of the same material at low input f-ratios. The performance results presented can be used to set a limit on the f-ratio of a system based on the maximum loss allowable for a planned instrument. Our results confirm that hexabundles are a successful alternative for fibre imaging devices for multi-object spectroscopy on wide-field telescopes and have prompted further development of hexabundle designs with hexagonal packing and square cores.
The SAMI Galaxy Survey will observe 3400 galaxies with the Sydney-AAO Multi-object Integral-field spectrograph (SAMI) on the Anglo-Australian Telescope in a 3-yr survey which began in 2013. We ...present the throughput of the SAMI system, the science basis and specifications for the target selection, the survey observation plan and the combined properties of the selected galaxies. The survey includes four volume-limited galaxy samples based on cuts in a proxy for stellar mass, along with low-stellar-mass dwarf galaxies all selected from the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey. The GAMA regions were selected because of the vast array of ancillary data available, including ultraviolet through to radio bands. These fields are on the celestial equator at 9, 12 and 14.5 h, and cover a total of 144 deg2 (in GAMA-I). Higher density environments are also included with the addition of eight clusters. The clusters have spectroscopy from 2-degree Field Galaxy Redshift Survey (2dFGRS) and Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and photometry in regions covered by the SDSS and/or VLT Survey Telescope/ATLAS. The aim is to cover a broad range in stellar mass and environment, and therefore the primary survey targets cover redshifts 0.004 ... 0.095, magnitudes ... 19.4, stellar masses ..., and environments from isolated field galaxies through groups to clusters of ... (ProQuest: ... denotes formulae/symbols omitted.)
We present the SAMI Pilot Survey, consisting of integral field spectroscopy of 106 galaxies across three galaxy clusters, Abell 85, Abell 168 and Abell 2399. The galaxies were selected by absolute ...magnitude to have M
r
< −20.25 mag. The survey, using the Sydney-AAO Multi-object Integral field spectrograph (SAMI), comprises observations of galaxies of all morphological types with 75 per cent of the sample being early-type galaxies (ETGs) and 25 per cent being late-type galaxies (LTGs). Stellar velocity and velocity dispersion maps are derived for all 106 galaxies in the sample. The λ
R
parameter, a proxy for the specific stellar angular momentum, is calculated for each galaxy in the sample. We find a trend between λ
R
and galaxy concentration such that LTGs are less concentrated higher angular momentum systems, with the fast-rotating ETGs (FRs) more concentrated and lower in angular momentum. This suggests that some dynamical processes are involved in transforming LTGs to FRs, though a significant overlap between the λ
R
distributions of these classes of galaxies implies that this is just one piece of a more complicated picture. We measure the kinematic misalignment angle, Ψ, for the ETGs in the sample, to probe the intrinsic shapes of the galaxies. We find the majority of FRs (83 per cent) to be aligned, consistent with them being oblate spheroids (i.e. discs). The slow rotating ETGs (SRs), on the other hand, are significantly more likely to show kinematic misalignment (only 38 per cent are aligned). This confirms previous results that SRs are likely to be mildly triaxial systems.
We present integral field spectroscopy of 27 galaxies in the Coma cluster observed with the Oxford Short Wavelength Integral Field specTrograph (SWIFT), exploring the kinematic morphology-density ...relationship in a cluster environment richer and denser than any in the ATLAS3D survey. Our new data enables comparison of the kinematic morphology relation in three very different clusters (Virgo, Coma and Abell 1689) as well as to the field/group environment. The Coma sample was selected to match the parent luminosity and ellipticity distributions of the early-type population within a radius 15 arcmin (0.43 Mpc) of the cluster centre, and is limited to r
′ = 16 mag (equivalent to M
K
= −21.5 mag), sampling one third of that population. From analysis of the λ- diagram, we find 15 ± 6 per cent of early-type galaxies are slow rotators; this is identical to the fraction found in the field and the average fraction in the Virgo cluster, based on the ATLAS3D data. It is also identical to the average fraction found recently in Abell 1689 by D'Eugenio et al. Thus, it appears that the average slow rotator fraction of early-type galaxies remains remarkably constant across many different environments, spanning five orders of magnitude in galaxy number density. However, within each cluster the slow rotators are generally found in regions of higher projected density, possibly as a result of mass segregation by dynamical friction. These results provide firm constraints on the mechanisms that produce early-type galaxies: they must maintain a fixed ratio between the number of fast rotators and slow rotators while also allowing the total early-type fraction to increase in clusters relative to the field. A complete survey of Coma, sampling hundreds rather than tens of galaxies, could probe a more representative volume and provide significantly stronger constraints, particularly on how the slow rotator fraction varies at larger radii.
We examine the kinematic morphology of early-type galaxies (ETGs) in three galaxy clusters Abell 85, 168 and 2399. Using data from the Sydney-AAO Multi-object Integral field spectrograph we measure ...spatially resolved kinematics for 79 ETGs in these clusters. We calculate λ
R
, a proxy for the projected specific stellar angular momentum, for each galaxy and classify the 79 ETGs in our samples as fast or slow rotators. We calculate the fraction of slow rotators in the ETG populations (f
SR) of the clusters to be 0.21 ± 0.08, 0.08 ± 0.08 and 0.12 ± 0.06 for Abell 85, 168 and 2399, respectively, with an overall fraction of 0.15 ± 0.04. These numbers are broadly consistent with the values found in the literature, confirming recent work asserting that the fraction of slow rotators in the ETG population is constant across many orders of magnitude in global environment. We examine the distribution of kinematic classes in each cluster as a function of environment using the projected density of galaxies: the kinematic morphology–density relation. We find that in Abell 85 f
SR increases in higher density regions but in Abell 168 and 2399 this trend is not seen. We examine the differences between the individual clusters to explain this. In addition, we find slow rotators on the outskirts of two of the clusters studied, Abell 85 and 2399. These galaxies reside in intermediate to low density regions and have clearly not formed at the centre of a cluster environment. We hypothesize that they formed at the centres of groups and are falling into the clusters for the first time.
We take advantage of the first data from the Sydney-AAO Multi-object Integral field Galaxy Survey to investigate the relation between the kinematics of gas and stars, and stellar mass in a ...comprehensive sample of nearby galaxies. We find that all 235 objects in our sample, regardless of their morphology, lie on a tight relation linking stellar mass (Mlow *) to internal velocity quantified by the S sub(0.5) parameter, which combines the contribution of both dispersion (sigma) and rotational velocity (V sub(rot)) to the dynamical support of a galaxy (S sub(0.5) = (ProQuest: Formulae and/or non-USASCII text omitted). Our results are independent of the baryonic component from which sigma and V sub(rot) are estimated, as the S sub(0.5) of stars and gas agree remarkably well. This represents a significant improvement compared to the canonical Mlow * versus V sub(rot) and Mlow * versus sigma relations. Not only is no sample pruning necessary, but also stellar and gas kinematics can be used simultaneously, as the effect of asymmetric drift is taken into account once V sub(rot) and sigma are combined. Our findings illustrate how the combination of dispersion and rotational velocities for both gas and stars can provide us with a single dynamical scaling relation valid for galaxies of all morphologies across at least the stellar mass range 8.5 < log (Mlow */M sub(middot in circle)) <11. Such relation appears to be more general and at least as tight as any other dynamical scaling relation, representing a unique tool for investigating the link between galaxy kinematics and baryonic content, and a less biased comparison with theoretical models.
We use data from the Sydney-AAO Multi-Object Integral Field Spectrograph Galaxy Survey and the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey to investigate the spatially resolved signatures of the ...environmental quenching of star formation in galaxies. Using dust-corrected measurements of the distribution of H... emission, we measure the radial profiles of star formation in a sample of 201 star-forming galaxies covering three orders of magnitude in stellar mass (M*; 10 super( 8.1)-10 super( 10.95) M...) and in fifth nearest neighbour local environment density (...; 10 super( -1.3)-10 super( 2.1) Mpc super( -2)). We show that star formation rate gradients in galaxies are steeper in dense (log sub( 10)(.../Mpc super( 2)) > 0.5) environments by 0.58 plus or minus 0.29dexr sub( e) super( -1) in galaxies with stellar masses in the range 10 super( 10)<M*/M...<10 super( 11) and that this steepening is accompanied by a reduction in the integrated star formation rate. However, for any given stellar mass or environment density, the star formation morphology of galaxies shows large scatter. We also measure the degree to which the star formation is centrally concentrated using the unitless scale-radius ratio (r sub( 50,H...)/r sub( 50,cont)), which compares the extent of ongoing star formation to previous star formation. With this metric, we find that the fraction of galaxies with centrally concentrated star formation increases with environment density, from ~5 plus or minus 4 per cent in low-density environments (log sub( 10)(.../Mpc super( 2)) < 0.0) to 30 plus or minus 15 per cent in the highest density environments (log sub( 10)(.../Mpc super( 2)) > 1.0). These lines of evidence strongly suggest that with increasing local environment density, the star formation in galaxies is suppressed, and that this starts in their outskirts such that quenching occurs in an outside-in fashion in dense environments and is not instantaneous. (ProQuest: ... denotes formulae/symbols omitted.)
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