E0 Galaxy Research Articles

The physical properties and evolution of the interacting system AM 1204−292

ABSTRACT We investigate interaction effects in the stellar and gas kinematics, stellar population, and ionized gas properties of the interacting galaxy pair AM 1204−292,composed of NGC 4105 and NGC 4106. The data consist of long-slit spectra in the range 3000–7050 Å. The massive E3 galaxy NGC 4105 presents a flat stellar velocity profile, while the ionized gas is in strong rotation, suggesting an external origin. Its companion, NGC 4106, shows asymmetries in the radial velocity field, likely due to the interaction. The dynamics of the interacting pair were modelled using the P-Gadget3 treepm/sph code, from which we show that the system has just passed the first perigalacticum, which triggered an outbreak of star formation, currently at full maximum. We characterized the stellar population properties using the stellar population synthesis code starlight and, on average, both galaxies are predominantly composed of old stellar populations. NGC 4105 has a slightly negative age gradient, comparable with that of the most massive elliptical galaxies, but a steeper metallicity gradient. The SB0 galaxy NGC 4106 presents smaller radial variations in both age and metallicity in comparison with intermediate-mass early-type galaxies. These gradients have not been disturbed by interaction, since the star formation happened very recently and was not extensive in mass. Electron density estimates for the pair are systematically higher than those obtained in isolated galaxies. The central O/H abundances were obtained from photoionization models in combination with emission-line ratios, which resulted in 12 + log(O/H) = 9.03 ± 0.02 and 12 + log(O/H) = 8.69 ± 0.05 for NGC 4105 and NGC 4106, respectively.

Nuclear discs as clocks for the assembly history of early-type galaxies: the case of NGC 4458

Approximately 20% of early-type galaxies host small nuclear stellar discs that are tens to a few hundred parsecs in size. Such discs are expected to be easily disrupted during major galactic encounters, hence their age serve to constrain their assembly history. We use VIMOS integral-field spectroscopic observations for the intermediate-mass E0 galaxy NGC4458 and age-date its nuclear disc via high-resolution fitting of various model spectra. We find that the nuclear disc is at least 6 Gyr old. A clue to gain narrow limits to the stellar age is our knowledge of the nuclear disc contribution to the central surface brightness. The presence of an old nuclear disk, or the absence of disruptive encounters since z~0.6, for a small galaxy such as NGC4458 which belongs to the Virgo cluster, may be consistent with a hierarchical picture for galaxy formation where the smallest galaxies assembles earlier and the crowded galactic environments reduce the incidence of galaxy mergers. On the other hand, NGC4458 displays little or no bulk rotation except for a central kpc-scale kinematically-decoupled core. Slow rotation and decoupled core are usually explained in terms of mergers. The presence and age of the nuclear disc constraint these mergers to have happened at high redshift.

GMOS IFU Observations of the Gas Kinematics in the Radio Galaxy Arp 102B

The goal of this work is to map the gas excitation and kinematics in the inner ~ 2 kiloparsecs of the radio-galaxy Arp 102B. Though being classified as an E0 galaxy, Arp 102B shows a nuclear gas spiral (Fathi et al., in preparation). Previous studies of the gas kinematics in nuclear spirals have led to the conclusion that these structures usually trace gas inflows (Fathi et al. 2006; [Storchi-Bergmann et al. 2007; [Riffel et al. 2008). We have used integral field spectroscopy obtained with GMOS instrument of the Gemini North telescope to investigate the nature of the nuclear spiral arms. The spectra cover the wavelength range 4400–7300 Å over a field of view of 5.″5 × 3.″9 (2.7 kpc × 1.9 kpc).

The stellar population and evolution of galaxies of the NGC 80 group

Seven early-type galaxies that are members of the massive X-ray group containing NGC 80 have been studied using two-dimensional spectroscopy with the 6-m telescope of the Special Astrophysical Observatory. We searched for evidence for the synchronous secular evolution of the galaxies in the group. The bulges of five of the seven galaxies appear to be old, with the average age of the bulge stars being 10–15 billion years. Signs of a relatively recent star-formation burst are observed in the small S0 galaxy IC 1548, whose average bulge age is 3 billion years and average core age is 1.5 billion years. A circumnuclear polar gas ring was also detected in this galaxy; in its outer regions, it makes a smooth transition to a gas disk that counter-rotates relative to the stars. IC 1548 probably underwent a close interaction, which resulted in its transformation from a spiral to a lenticular galaxy; the same interaction may also have induced the central burst of star formation. In the giant E0 galaxy NGC 83, a compact massive stellar-gas disk with a radius of about 2 kpc and very rapid rotation is observed, with ongoing star formation; the so-called “minor merger” is likely to have occurred there. We conclude that the NGC 80 group is in a state of formation, with the small NGC 83 subgroup “falling into” the large, old NGC 80 subgroup.

Triaxial orbit based galaxy models with an application to the (apparent) decoupled core galaxy NGC 4365

We present a flexible and efficient method to construct triaxial dynamical models of galaxies with a central black hole, using Schwarzschild's orbital superposition approach. Our method is general and can deal with realistic luminosity distributions, which project to surface brightness distributions that may show position angle twists and ellipticity variations. The models are fit to measurements of the full line-of-sight velocity distribution (wherever available). We verify that our method is able to reproduce theoretical predictions of a three-integral triaxial Abel model. In a companion paper by Ven, de Zeeuw & van den Bosch, we demonstrate that the method recovers the phase-space distribution function. We apply our method to two-dimensional observations of the E3 galaxy NGC 4365, obtained with the integral-field spectrograph SAURON, and study its internal structure, showing that the observed kinematically decoupled core is not physically distinct from the main body and the inner region is close to oblate axisymmetric.

Active galactic nuclei-induced cavities in NGC 1399 and NGC 4649

We present an analysis of archival Chandra and VLA observations of the E0 galaxy NGC 1399 and the E2 galaxy NGC 4649 in which we investigate cavities in the surrounding X-ray emitting medium caused by the central AGN. We calculate the jet power required for the AGN to evacuate these cavities and find values of ~8x10^{41} erg/s and ~14x10^{41} erg/s for the lobes of NGC 1399 and ~7x10^{41} erg/s and ~6x10^{41} erg/s for those of NGC 4649. We also calculate the k/f values for each cavity, where k is the ratio of the total particle energy to that of electrons radiating in the range of 10 MHz to 10 GHz, and f is the volume filling factor of the plasma in the cavity. We find that the values of k/f for the lobes of NGC 1399 are ~93 and ~190, and those of the lobes of NGC 4649 are ~15000 and ~12000. We conclude that the assumed spectrum describes the electron distribution in the lobes of NGC 1399 reasonably well, and that there are few entrained particles. For NGC 4649, either there are many entrained particles or the model spectrum does not accurately describe the population of electrons.

Stellar Populations of Globular Clusters in the Elliptical Galaxy NGC 1407

We present high-quality Keck spectroscopic data for a sample of 20 globular clusters (GCs) in the massive E0 galaxy NGC 1407. A subset of 20 line-strength indices of the Lick/IDS system has been measured for both the GC system and the central integrated starlight of the galaxy. Ages, metallicities, and [α/Fe] ratios have been derived using several different approaches. The majority of GCs in NGC 1407 studied are old, follow a tight metallicity sequence reaching values slightly above solar, and exhibit mean [α/Fe] ratios of ~0.3 dex. In addition, three GCs are formally derived to be young (~4 Gyr), but we argue that they are actually old GCs hosting blue horizontal branches. We report, for the first time, evidence for the existence of two chemically distinct subpopulations of metal-rich (MR) GCs. We find that some MR GCs exhibit significantly larger [Mg/Fe] and [C/Fe] ratios. Different star formation timescales are proposed to explain the correlation between Mg and C abundances. We also find striking CN overabundances over the entire GC metallicity range. It is interesting to note that the behavior of C and N in metal-poor GCs clearly deviates from that in MR GCs. In particular, for MR GCs, N increases dramatically while C essentially saturates. This may be interpreted as a consequence of the increasing importance of the CNO cycle with increasing metallicity.

Probing the Mass Distributions in NGC 1407 and Its Associated Group with the X‐Ray Imaging Spectroscopic and Optical Photometric and Line‐Strength Indices Data

We present a study of the mass distributions in the bright E0 galaxy NGC 1407 and its associated group by analyzing the high quality Chandra and ROSAT X-ray spectroscopic data. In order to probe the stellar mass distribution we calculated the B-band mass-to-light ratio profile by comparing the observed line-strength indices and multi-color photometric data with different stellar synthesis model predictions. We find that the gas is single-phase with a temperature of ~0.7 keV within 1Re. Outside 1Re the gas temperature increases quickly outwards to >1 keV, indicating its group origin. We reveal that the X-ray surface brightness profile shows a central excess in the innermost region, and on both the total mass and dark matter profiles there is a flattened feature at about 1Re is dominated by dark matter. At the virial radius r200=572\pm118 kpc, the inferred mass and mass-to-light ratio are M200=2.20\pm0.42E13 solarM and Mvir/LB=311\pm60 solarM/solarL,respectively, showing that the NGC 1407 group is an extremely dark system even comparable to many clusters of galaxies. Since the obtained total mass is lower than those given in the earlier galaxy kinematic works, we speculate that NGC 1400 is not a virialized member in the group's gravitational potential well.

The Nuclear Disk in the Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy NGC 4486A

Many ellipticals contain nuclear disks of dust and gas. Some ellipticals contain nuclear disks of stars that are distinct from the rest of the galaxy. We show that the dwarf E2 galaxy NGC 4486A contains both ‐ it is a “Rosetta stone object that tells us how nuclear disks evolve. Its pro perties suggest that, as accreted gas dissipates and settles toward the center, it forms stars and builds a stella r disk. Secular growth may explain not only the most distinct nuclear disks such as those in NGC 4486A but also some of the disky distortions that are commonly seen in elliptical galaxies. That is, density distribution s may grow secularly cuspier. This would result in chaotic mixing of stellar orbits in phase space and would tend to make an elliptical galaxy evolve toward a more nearly axisymmetric shape. Subject headings: galaxies: nuclei — galaxies: general

ChandraObservations of Diffuse Gas and Luminous X‐Ray Sources around the X‐Ray–bright Elliptical Galaxy NGC 1600

We observed the X-ray-bright E3 galaxy NGC 1600 and nearby members of the NGC 1600 group with the Chandra X-Ray Observatory ACIS-S3 to study their X-ray properties. Unresolved emission dominates the observation; however, we resolved some of the emission into 71 sources, most of which are low-mass X-ray binaries associated with NGC 1600. Twenty-one of the sources have LX > 2 ? 1039 ergs s-1 (0.3-10.0 keV; assuming they are at the distance of NGC 1600), marking them as ultraluminous X-ray point source (ULX) candidates; we expect that only 11 ? 2 are unrelated foreground/background sources. NGC 1600 may have the largest number of ULX candidates in an early-type galaxy to date; however, cosmic variance in the number of background active galactic nuclei cannot be ruled out. The spectrum and luminosity function (LF) of the resolved sources are more consistent with sources found in other early-type galaxies than with sources found in star-forming regions of galaxies. The source LF and the spectrum of the unresolved emission both indicate that there are a large number of unresolved point sources. We propose that these sources are associated with globular clusters (GCs) and that NGC 1600 has a large GC specific frequency. Observations of the GC population in NGC 1600 would be very useful for testing this prediction. Approximately 50%-75% of the unresolved flux comes from diffuse gaseous emission. The spectral fits, hardness ratios, and X-ray surface brightness profile all point to two gas components. We interpret the soft inner component (a 25'', kT ~ 0.85 keV) as the interstellar medium of NGC 1600 and the hotter outer component (a 25'', kT ~ 1.5 keV) as the intragroup medium of the NGC 1600 group. The X-ray image shows several interesting structures. First, there is a central region of excess emission that is roughly cospatial with H? and dust filaments immediately west of the center of NGC 1600. There appear to be holes in the X-ray emission to the north and south of the galaxy center that are roughly coincident with the lobes of the NGC 1600 radio source. On larger scales, there is excess emission to the northeast, which we suggest may indicate the center of the group potential. The group galaxy NGC 1603 shows a tail of X-ray emission to its west that is probably due to ram pressure stripping.

A two-arm gaseous spiral in the inner 200 pc of the early-type galaxy NGC 2974: signature of an inner bar

TIGER integral-field spectrography and HST/WFPC2 imaging of the E3 galaxy NGC 2974 are used to derive the kinematics of the stellar and ionized gas components in its central 500 pc. We derive a numerical two-integral distribution function from a MGE mass model using the HQ formalism. The TIGER as well as published long-slit stellar kinematics are well fitted with this self-consistent model, requiring neither the addition of a significant mass contribution from a hidden disc structure, nor the presence of a central dark mass. The data reveal the presence of a striking, highly contrasted, two-arm gaseous spiral structure within a radius of ~200 pc, corresponding to a total mass of 6.8x10^4 Msun of ionized gas. We use a deconvolved TIGER datacube to probe its kinematics at a resolution of about 0.35 arcsec. Strong departures from circular motions are observed, as well as high velocity dispersion values on the inner side of the arms. We interpret the observed gas morphology and kinematics as the signature of streaming gas flows driven by a ~540 pc diameter bar with Ome=700+/-100 km/s/kpc. This hypothesis is strongly supported by the predictions of a density wave model. This model predicts that the bar should lie at about 35 degree from the line of nodes, and implies gas inflow towards the central ~50 pc. The quadrupole pertubation due to this bar is estimated to represent less than 2% of the underlying gravitational potential. Despite its weakness, the inner bar of NGC 2974 may be able to drive some gas within a 10 pc radius. We suggest that the presence of such inner bars might be more common among early-type disk galaxies than is generally thought, and that deep high-resolution emission-line imagery may be the best way to detect such structures.

Classifications of the Host Galaxies of Supernovae

ABSTRACTClassifications on the DDO system are given for the host galaxies of 177 supernovae (SNe) that have been discovered since 1997 during the course of the Lick Observatory Supernova Search with the Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope. Whereas SNe Ia occur in all galaxy types, it is found, at a high level of statistical confidence, that SNe Ib, Ic, and II are strongly concentrated in late‐type galaxies. However, attention is drawn to a possible exception provided by SN 2001I. This SN IIn occurred in the E2 galaxy UGC 2836, which was not expected to harbor a massive young supernova progenitor.

Evidence for initial jet formation by an accretion disk in the radio galaxy M87

The nearby E0 galaxy M87 in the Virgo Cluster contains one of the nearest examples of a powerful non-thermal jet source. In addition, HST spectroscopy of its nucleus give strong evidence for the presence of a ≈3×10 9 M ⊙ central black hole (corresponding to Schwarzschild radius R s ∼0.0004 pc). These two facts together make M87 the best possible target for studying the initial jet formation and collimation process. Herein we report new 43 GHz VLBI observations of the nucleus of this galaxy, which clearly show the jet opening angle expanding rapidly as one approaches the core on scales ∼0.01 pc. We believe we have, for the first time, imaged the initial collimation region of a powerful extragalactic jet. We find significant collimation occurring on scales of 30–100 R s , and argue this is consistent with expectations for poloidal collimation by a rotating accretion disk.

Galaxy Mapping with the SAURON Integral-Field Spectrograph: The Star Formation History of NGC 4365

We report the first wide-field mapping of the kinematics and stellar populations in the E3 galaxy NGC 4365. The velocity maps extend previous long-slit work. They show two independent kinematic subsystems: the central 300 x 700 pc rotates about the projected minor axis, and the main body of the galaxy, 3 x 4 kpc, rotates almost at right angles to this. The line-strength maps show that the metallicity of the stellar population decreases from a central value greater than solar, to one-half solar at a radius of 2 kpc. The decoupled core and main body of the galaxy have the same luminosity-weighted age, of ~14 Gyr, and the same elevated magnesium-to-iron ratio. The two kinematically distinct components have thus shared a common star formation history. We infer that the galaxy underwent a sequence of mergers associated with dissipative star formation that ended >12 Gyr ago. The misalignment between the photometric and kinematic axes of the main body is unambiguous evidence of triaxiality. The similarity of the stellar populations in the two components suggests that the observed kinematic structure has not changed substantially in 12 Gyr.

Nuclear Disks of Gas and Dust in Early‐Type Galaxies and the Hunt for Massive Black Holes:Hubble Space TelescopeObservations of NGC 6251

We discuss Hubble Space Telescope (HST) optical images and spectra of NGC 6251, a giant E2 galaxy and powerful radio source at a distance of 106 Mpc (for H0=70 km s-1 Mpc-1). The galaxy is known to host a very well-defined dust disk; the exceptional resolution of our V and I images allows a detailed study of the disk structure. Furthermore, narrowband images centered on the Hα + [N II] emission lines reveal the presence of ionized gas in the inner 03 of the disk. We used the HST Faint Object Spectrograph with the 009 aperture to study the velocity structure of the disk. Dynamical models were constructed for two extreme (in terms of central concentration) analytical representations of the stellar surface brightness profile, from which the mass density and corresponding rotational velocity are derived assuming a constant mass-to-light ratio (M/L)V~8.5 M☉/L☉. For both representations of the stellar component, the models show that the gas is in Keplerian motion around a central mass ~4-8×108 M☉ and that the contribution of radial flows to the velocity field is negligible.

Triaxial dynamical models of elliptical galaxies using Stackel potentials

A new development for components of collisionless stellar systems in a triaxial Stackel potential is presented. The non-rotating Abel components introduced by Dejonghe & Laurent are generalized. Two families of components with internal net rotation about the long or short axis of the ellipsoidal figure are described. The simple Abel character of the non-rotating components is no longer conserved when rotation is included. The rotating components can be used to build realistic three-integral dynamical models of elliptical galaxies with rotation. A triaxial dynamical model is proposed for the E2 galaxy Centaurus A. A good fit to the photometry and to planetary nebulae kinematical data (rotation and velocity dispersion on the photometric major and minor axes) is obtained. The total mass for our model of Cen A amounts to ∼ 41 × 1010 M⊙, half of which is dark mass.

Mass Distribution of the E0 Galaxy NGC 6703 from Absorption Line Profile Kinematics

Absorption line velocity profiles (vps) contain important information on the anisotropy and mass distribution of elliptical galaxies (e.g., Gerhard 1993, Merritt 1993). Here we briefly present results of an extensive analysis of the E0 galaxy NGC 6703 (Gerhard et al. 1997). This work is part of an observational and theoretical program aimed at understanding the orbit structure and dark matter content of ellipticals at intermediate radii (a preliminary account is given in Saglia et al. 1997).

Galaxy aggregates in the Coma cluster

We present evidence for a new morphologically defined form of small-scale substructure in the Coma cluster, which we call galaxy aggregates. Aggregates are dominated by a central galaxy, which is on average 5 mag brighter than the smaller aggregate members, nearly all of which lie to one side of the central galaxy. We have found three such galaxy aggregates: two dominated by the S0 galaxies RB 55 and RB 60, and one by the starbursting SBb NGC 4858. RB 55 and 60 are both equidistant between the two dominant D galaxies NGC 4874 and 4889, while NGC 4858 is located near the large E0 galaxy NGC 4860. All three central galaxies have redshifts consistent with Coma cluster membership. We describe the spatial structures of these unique objects, and suggest several possible mechanisms to explain their origin. These include: chance superpositions from background galaxies, interactions between other galaxies and with the cluster gravitational potential, and ram pressure. We conclude that the most probable scenario of creation is an interaction with the cluster through its gravitational potential.

HSTimaging of the globular clusters in the Fornax cluster: NGC 1379

We present B and I photometry for ∼300 globular cluster candidates in NGC 1379, an E0 galaxy in the Fornax cluster. Our data are from both Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and ground-based observations. The HST photometry (B only) is essentially complete and free of foreground/background contamination to ∼2 mag fainter than the peak of the globular cluster luminosity function. Fitting a Gaussian to the luminosity function, we find 〈B〉=24.95±0.30 and σB=1.55??0.21. We estimate the total number of globular clusters to be 436±30. To a radius of 70 arcsec we derive a moderate specific frequency, SN=3.5±0.4. At radii r∼3–6 kpc the surface density profile of the globular cluster system is indistinguishable from that of the underlying galaxy light. At r≲2.5 kpc the profile of the globular cluster system flattens, and at r≲1 kpc, the number density appears to decrease. The (B−I) colour distribution of the globular clusters (from ground-based data) is similar to that for Milky Way globulars, once corrected for background contamination. It shows no evidence for bimodality or for the presence of a population with [Fe/H]≳−0.5. Unlike in the case of larger, centrally located cluster ellipticals, neither mergers nor a multiphase collapse are required to explain the formation of the NGC 1379 globular cluster system. We stress the importance of corrections for background contamination in ground-based samples of this kind: the area covered by a globular cluster system (with radius ∼30 kpc) at the distance of the Virgo or Fornax cluster contains ≳200 background galaxies unresolved from the ground, with magnitudes comparable to brighter globular clusters at that distance. The colour distribution of these galaxies is strongly peaked slightly bluer than the peak of a typical globular cluster distribution. Such contamination can thus create the impression of skewed colour distributions, or even of bimodality, where none exists.

Breaking the degeneracy between anisotropy and mass: the dark halo of the E0 galaxy NGC 6703

Breaking the degeneracy between anisotropy and mass: the dark halo of the E0 galaxy NGC 6703