Rich Clusters Research Articles

多数の樹枝状集塊を認めた多形腺腫の 1 例

多数の樹枝状集塊を認めた多形腺腫の 1 例

Binary Stars in Open Clusters: Connecting Observations and Simulations

Open clusters are laboratories for testing theories of binary evolution and dynamics against detailed observations. As part of the WIYN Open Cluster Study (WOCS), we are currently observing several open clusters spanning a wide range in age and metallicity, with primary goals of determining the binary frequencies and distributions of binary orbital parameters for their solar-type stars. Currently, the three WOCS clusters with the most complete data sets are M35 (0.15 Gyr), M67 (4 Gyr) and NGC 188 (7 Gyr). Despite the large differences in age, we find that all three of these rich clusters have remarkably similar solar-type binaries that are also consistent with comparable binaries in the Galactic field. These data have been critical for guiding our sophisticated open cluster N -body simulations, which enable us to investigate the dynamical evolution of rich binary populations and the production of exotic stars, like blue stragglers, within open clusters.

ACCESS – V. Dissecting ram-pressure stripping through integral-field spectroscopy and multiband imaging

We study the case of a bright (L>L*) barred spiral galaxy from the rich cluster A3558 in the Shapley supercluster core (z=0.05) undergoing ram-pressure stripping. Integral-field spectroscopy, complemented by multi-band imaging, allows us to reveal the impact of ram pressure on the interstellar medium. We study in detail the kinematics and the physical conditions of the ionized gas and the properties of the stellar populations. We observe one-sided extraplanar ionized gas along the full extent of the galaxy disc. Narrow-band Halpha imaging resolves this outflow into a complex of knots and filaments. The gas velocity field is complex with the extraplanar gas showing signature of rotation. In all parts of the galaxy, we find a significant contribution from shock excitation, as well as emission powered by star formation. Shock-ionized gas is associated with the turbulent gas outflow and highly attenuated by dust. All these findings cover the whole phenomenology of early-stage ram-pressure stripping. Intense, highly obscured star formation is taking place in the nucleus, probably related to the bar, and in a region 12 kpc South-West from the centre. In the SW region we identify a starburst characterized by a 5x increase in the star-formation rate over the last ~100 Myr, possibly related to the compression of the interstellar gas by the ram pressure. The scenario suggested by the observations is supported and refined by ad hoc N-body/hydrodynamical simulations which identify a rather narrow temporal range for the onset of ram-pressure stripping around t~60 Myr ago, and an angle between the galaxy rotation axis and the intra-cluster medium wind of ~45 deg. Taking into account that the galaxy is found ~1 Mpc from the cluster centre in a relatively low-density region, this study shows that ram-pressure stripping still acts efficiently on massive galaxies well outside the cluster cores.

Poeira mineral e impacto ambiental na região de Pirapora e Várzea da Palma, Minas Gerais: contaminação do ar, da água, do solo e das plantas

The Pirapora and Varzea da Palma steel industries (Si, Si-Fe) produce a smoke laden with mineral particles. These particles dispersed in the water, soil and plants contaminated, causing pollution and human problems. The samples were analyzed using filter XRD, ICP-OES, ICP-MS, optical microscopy, environment SEM and optical microcopy. The analysis showed that the particles are rich in Ba, Rb, As, V, Zn, Pb, Cu, Mo and Ni. The plume composition contains particles (clay, magnetite, SiO2, amorphous silicate), morphology and dimensions. The spherical particles of black smoke form a rich cluster in Fe and Si.

EVIDENCE FOR TWO DISTINCT STELLAR INITIAL MASS FUNCTIONS

We present velocity dispersion measurements of 20 Local Group stellar clusters (7 < log(age [yrs]) < 10.2) from integrated light spectra and examine the evolution of the stellar mass-to-light ratio, Upsilon_*. We find that the clusters deviate from the evolutionary tracks corresponding to simple stellar populations drawn from standard stellar initial mass functions (IMFs). The nature of this failure, in which Upsilon_* is at first underestimated and then overestimated with age, invalidates potential simple solutions involving a rescaling of either the measured masses or modeled luminosities. A range of possible shortcomings in the straightforward interpretation of the data, including subtleties arising from cluster dynamical evolution on the present day stellar mass functions and from stellar binarity on the measured velocity dispersions, do not materially affect this conclusion given the current understanding of those effects. Independent of further conjectures regarding the origin of this problem, this result highlights a basic failing of our understanding of the integrated stellar populations of these systems. We propose the existence of two distinct initial mass functions, one primarily, but not exclusively, valid for older, metal poor clusters and the other for primarily, but not exclusively, younger, metal rich clusters. The young (log(age [yrs])< 9.5) clusters are well-described by a bottom-heavy IMF, such as a Salpeter IMF, while the older clusters are better described by a top-heavy IMF, such as a light-weighted Kroupa IMF, although neither of these specific forms is a unique solution. The sample is small, with the findings currently depending on the results for four key clusters, but doubling the sample is within reach.

A low-scatter survey-based mass proxy for clusters of galaxies

Estimates of cosmological parameters using galaxy clusters have the scatter in the observable at a given mass as a fundamental parameter. This work computes the amplitude of the scatter for a newly introduced mass proxy, the product of the cluster total luminosity times the mass-to-light ratio, usually referred as stellar mass. The analysis of 12 galaxy clusters with excellent total masses shows a tight correlation between the stellar mass, or stellar fraction, and total mass within r500 with negligible intrinsic scatter: the 90% upper limit is 0.06 dex, the posterior mean is 0.027 dex. This scatter is similar to the one of best-determined mass proxies, such as Yx, i.e. the product of X-ray temperature and gas mass. The size of the cluster sample used to determine the intrinsic scatter is small, as in previous works proposing low-scatter proxies because very accurate masses are needed to infer very small values of intrinsic scatter. Three-quarters of the studied clusters have lgM <~14 Msol, which is advantageous from a cosmological perspective because these clusters are far more abundant than more massive clusters. At the difference of other mass proxies such as Yx, stellar mass can be determined with survey data up to at least z=0.9 using upcoming optical near-infrared surveys, such as DES and Euclid, or even with currently available surveys, covering however smaller solid angles. On the other end, the uncertainty about the predicted mass of a single cluster is large, 0.21 to 0.32 dex, depending on cluster richness. This is largely because the proxy itself has ~0.10 dex errors for clusters of lgM<~ 14 Msol mass.

Spectral properties of XRBs in dusty early-type galaxies

We present spectral properties of a total of 996 discrete X-ray sources resolved in a sample of 23 dusty early-type galaxies selected from different environments. The combined X-ray luminosity function of all the 996 sources within the optical D25 of the sample galaxies is well described by a broken power law with a break at 2.71×1038ergs−1 and is close to the Eddington limit for a 1.4M⊙ neutron star. Out of the 996, about 63% of the sources have their X-ray luminosities in the range between few ×1037 to 2.0×1039ergs−1 and are like normal LMXBs; about 15–20% with luminosities <few×1037ergs−1 are either super-soft or very-soft sources; while the remainder represents ULXs, HMXBs or unrelated heavily absorbed harder sources. More XRBs have been detected in the galaxies from isolated regions while those from rich groups and clusters host very few sources. The X-ray color-color plot for these sources has enabled us to classify them as SNRs, LMXBs, HMXBs and heavily absorbed AGNs. The composite X-ray spectra of the resolved sources within D25 region of each of the galaxies are best represented by a power law with the average photon spectral index close to 1.65. The contribution of the resolved sources to the total X-ray luminosity of their host is found to vary greatly, in the sense that, in galaxies like NGC 3379 the XRB contribution is about 81% while for NGC 5846 it is only 2%. A correlation has been evidenced between the cumulative X-ray luminosity of the resolved sources against the star formation rate and the Ks band luminosity of the target galaxies indicating their primordial origin.

On the formation of cD galaxies and their parent clusters

In order to study the mechanism of the formation of cD galaxies, we search for possible dependencies between the K-band luminosity of cD galaxies and the parameters of their host clusters which we select to have a dominant cD galaxy, corresponding to a cluster morphology of Bautz–Morgan type I (BM I). As a comparison sample we use cD galaxies in clusters where they are not dominant, which we define here as non-BM I (NBMI) type clusters. We find that for 71 BM I clusters the absolute K-band luminosity of cD galaxies depends on the cluster richness, but less strongly on the cluster velocity dispersion. Meanwhile, for 35 NBMI clusters the correlation between cD luminosity and cluster richness is weaker, and is absent between cD luminosity and velocity dispersion. In addition, we find that the luminosity of the cD galaxy hosted in BM I clusters tends to increase with the cD's peculiar velocity with respect to the cluster mean velocity. In contrast, for NBMI clusters the cD luminosity decreases with increasing peculiar velocity. Also, the X-ray luminosity of BM I clusters depends on the cluster velocity dispersion, while in NBMI clusters such a correlation is absent. These findings favour the cannibalism scenario for the formation of cD galaxies. We suggest that cD galaxies in clusters of BM I type were formed and evolved preferentially in one and the same cluster. In contrast, cD galaxies in NBMI-type clusters were either originally formed in clusters that later merged with groups or clusters to form the current cluster, or are now in the process of merging.

Intergalactic stellar populations in intermediate redshift clusters

A substantial fraction of the total stellar mass in rich clusters of galaxies resides in a diffuse intergalactic component usually referred to as the Intra-Cluster Light (ICL). Theoretical models indicate that these intergalactic stars originate mostly from the tidal interaction of the cluster galaxies during the assembly history of the cluster, and that a significant fraction of these stars could have formed in-situ from the late infall of cold metal-poor gas clouds onto the cluster. The models make predictions about the age distribution of the ICL stars, which may provide additional observational constraints. However, these models also over-predict the fraction of stellar mass in the ICL by a substantial margin. Here we present population synthesis models for the ICL of a dumb-bell dominated intermediate redshift (z=0.29) X-ray cluster for which we have deep MOS data obtained with the FORS2 instrument. In a previous paper we have proposed that the dumbell galaxy act as a grinding machine tearing to pieces the galaxies that pass nearby thus enriching the intergalactic medium. In this paper we analyze the spectra at different locations within the ICL and find that it is dominated by old metal rich stars, at odds with what has been found in nearby clusters where the stars that dominate the ICL are old and metal poor. While we see a weak evidence of a young, metal poor, component, if real, these young stars would amount to less than 1% of the total ICL mass, much less than the up to 30% predicted by the models. We propose that the very metal rich (i.e. 2.5 times solar) stars in the ICL of our cluster, which comprise approximately 40% of the total mass, originate mostly from the central dumb-bell galaxy, while the remaining solar and metal poor stars come from spiral, post-starburst (E+A), and metal poor dwarf galaxies. About 16% of the ICL stars are old and metal poor.

The Elephant Trunk Nebula and the Trumpler 37 cluster: contribution of triggered star formation to the total population of an H iiregion

Rich young stellar clusters produce HII regions whose expansion into the nearby molecular cloud is thought to trigger the formation of new stars. However, the importance of this mode of star formation is uncertain. This investigation seeks to quantify triggered star formation (TSF) in IC 1396A (a.k.a., the Elephant Trunk Nebula), a bright rimmed cloud (BRC) on the periphery of the nearby giant HII region IC 1396 produced by the Trumpler 37 cluster. X-ray selection of young stars from Chandra X-ray Observatory data is combined with existing optical and infrared surveys to give a more complete census of the TSF population. Over 250 young stars in and around IC 1396A are identified; this doubles the previously known population. A spatio-temporal gradient of stars from the IC 1396A cloud toward the primary ionizing star HD 206267 is found. We argue that the TSF mechanism in IC 1396A is the radiation-driven implosion process persisting over several million years. Analysis of the X-ray luminosity and initial mass functions indicates that >140 stars down to 0.1 Msun were formed by TSF. Considering other BRCs in the IC 1396 HII region, we estimate the TSF contribution for the entire HII region exceeds 14-25% today, and may be higher over the lifetime of the HII region. Such triggering on the periphery of HII regions may be a significant mode of star formation in the Galaxy.

Catching-up and Club Convergence From Cross-National Perspective a Statistical Study for the Period 1980–201

The paper presents the analysis outcomes on the catching-up process. Additionally, it seeks to identify the “convergence clubs” in cross-national section. It implements a traditional analysis of convergence, tracking the catching-up process as well as the per capita income dynamics across time. The author finds no statistically significant relationship between an average annual GDP PPP per capita growth rates (as exponential growth rate) and initial GDP PPP per capita (as natural logarithm) in a selected group of countries. The author also identifies the existence of “rich country cluster” and “poor country cluster” in the analyzed sample. For the statistical analysis the author applies the country sample composed of 101 economies. All data concerning GDP PPP per capita are drawn from the IMF World Economic Outlook Database 2011. The time coverage is 1980-2010.

Spatial Fluctuations in Zooplankton Biotypes of the Imo River in a Niger Delta Area of Nigeria

<b> </b><b> </b>The study identified zooplankton biotypes of the increasingly in-stream sand-mined Imo River in Etche, a Delta area of Nigeria, as indicators of the health of the aquatic ecosystem. Plankton samples were collected with a 55μm mesh size plankton net that was hauled horizontally along the river course for 5 minutes at 7 sampling locations once monthly for 24 months (March 2007-February 2009). Samples were fixed/preserved in 4% formalin solution in labelled plastic containers. In the laboratory, a wide-mouthed pipette was used to withdraw 1ml of the plankton subsample and to place it on a Sedge-wick rafter-counting chamber. Standard keys were used for species identifications and counts made through direct microscopy. The ANOVA, post-hoc plots of group means, hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), and the Margalef’s species diversity index were used to analyze data. Zooplankton had low diversity index (0.926 ± 0.100) and was made up of 7 taxa and a mean density of 433 organisms/ml; with order of dominance as Cladocera (25.87%)> Copepoda (20.55%)> Protozoans (19.17%)> Rotifera (18.71%)> fish eggs and larvae (9.24%)> Crab larvae (4.62%)> Beetle larvae (0.69%). Plankton abundance peaked in sampling location 1 (140 organisms/ml; 32.41%) and was least in location 3 (21 organisms/ml; 4.86%), even as there was marked spatial heterogeneity in the taxa composition[F<SUB>(11.94)</SUB>>F<SUB>crit(3.94)</SUB>] at P<0.05. The HCA revealed that crab larvae, fish eggs and larvae, beetle larvae, and copepods formed the first and richest cluster, while the rotifers, cladocerans and protozoans formed the sparse 2<SUP>nd</SUP>, 3<SUP>rd</SUP> and 4<SUP>th</SUP> clusters, respectively. The low biotic diversity recorded could be attributed to growth-limiting perturbations created by ongoing in-stream sand mining in water columns.

POST-MERGER SIGNATURES OF RED-SEQUENCE GALAXIES IN RICH ABELL CLUSTERS AT z ≲ 0.1

We have investigated the post-merger signatures of red-sequence galaxies in rich Abell clusters at $z \lesssim$ 0.1: A119, A2670, A3330 and A389. Deep images in u', g', r' and medium-resolution galaxy spectra were taken using MOSAIC 2 CCD and Hydra MOS mounted on a Blanco 4-m telescope at CTIO. Post-merger features are identified by visual inspection based on asymmetric disturbed features, faint structures, discontinuous halo structures, rings and dust lanes. We found that ~ 25% of bright (M_r < -20) cluster red-sequence galaxies show post-merger signatures in four clusters consistently. Most (~ 71%) of the featured galaxies were found to be bulge-dominated, and for the subsample of bulge-dominated red-sequence galaxies, the post-merger fraction rises to ~ 38%. We also found that roughly 4% of bulge-dominated red-sequence galaxies interact (on-going merger). A total of 42% (38% post-merger, 4% on-going merger) of galaxies show merger-related features. Compared to a field galaxy study with a similar limiting magnitude (van Dokkum 2005), our cluster study presents a similar post-merger fraction but a markedly lower on-going merger fraction. The merger fraction derived is surprisingly high for the high density of our clusters, where the fast internal motions of galaxies are thought to play a negative role in galaxy mergers. The fraction of post-merger and on-going merger galaxies can be explained as follows. Most of the post-merger galaxies may have carried over their merger features from their previous halo environment, whereas interacting galaxies interact in the current cluster in situ. According to our semi-analytic calculation, massive cluster haloes may very well have experienced tens of halo mergers over the last 4-5 Gyr; post-merger features last that long, allowing these features to be detected in our clusters today. (Abridged)

The Phoenix Project: the dark side of rich Galaxy clusters

[abridged] We introduce the Phoenix Project, a set of $\Lambda$CDM simulations of the dark matter component of nine rich galaxy clusters. Each cluster is simulated at least at two different numerical resolutions. For eight of them, the highest resolution corresponds to $\sim 130$ million particles within the virial radius, while for one this number is over one billion. We study the structure and substructure of these systems and contrast them with six galaxy-sized dark matter haloes from the Aquarius Project, simulated at comparable resolution. This comparison highlights the approximate mass invariance of CDM halo structure and substructure. We find little difference in the spherically-averaged mass, pseudo-phase-space density, and velocity anisotropy profiles of Aquarius and Phoenix haloes. When scaled to the virial properties of the host halo, the abundance and radial distribution of subhaloes are also very similar, despite the fact that Aquarius and Phoenix haloes differ by roughly three decades in virial mass. The most notable difference is that cluster haloes have been assembled more recently and are thus significantly less relaxed than galaxy haloes, which leads to decreased regularity, increased halo-to-halo scatter and sizable deviations from the mean trends. This accentuates the effects of the strong asphericity of individual clusters on surface density profiles, which may vary by up to a factor of three at a given radius, depending on projection. The high apparent concentration reported for some strong-lensing clusters might very well reflect these effects. A more recent assembly also explains why substructure in some Phoenix haloes is slightly more abundant than in Aquarius, especially in the inner regions. Resolved subhaloes nevertheless contribute only $11 \pm 3%$ of the virial mass in Phoenix clusters. .

THE LIFETIME AND POWERS OF FR IIs IN GALAXY CLUSTERS

We have identified and studied a sample of 151 FR IIs found in brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) in the MaxBCG cluster catalog with data from FIRST and NVSS. We have compared the radio luminosities and projected lengths of these FR IIs to the projected length distribution of a range of mock catalogs generated by an FR II model and estimate the FR II lifetime to be 1.9 x 10^8 yr. The uncertainty in the lifetime calculation is a factor of two, due primarily to uncertainties in the ICM density and the FR II axial ratio. We furthermore measure the jet power distribution of FR IIs in BCGs and find that it is well described by a log-normal distribution with a median power of 1.1 x 10^37 W and a coefficient of variation of 2.2. These jet powers are nearly linearly related to the observed luminosities, and this relation is steeper than many other estimates, although it is dependent on the jet model. We investigate correlations between FR II and cluster properties and find that galaxy luminosity is correlated with jet power. This implies that jet power is also correlated with black hole mass, as the stellar luminosity of a BCG should be a good proxy for its spheroid mass and therefore the black hole mass. Jet power, however, is not correlated with cluster richness, nor is FR II lifetime strongly correlated with any cluster properties. We calculate the enthalpy of the lobes to examine the impact of the FR IIs on the ICM and find that heating due to adiabatic expansion is too small to offset radiative cooling by a factor of at least six. In contrast, the jet power is approximately an order of magnitude larger than required to counteract cooling. We conclude that if feedback from FR IIs offsets cooling of the ICM, then heating must be primarily due to another mechanism associated with FR II expansion.

Multi-wavelength Studies of Cluster Star Forming Galaxies at z∼0.54

AbstractWe carry out a multi-wavelength analysis of star forming galaxies in the massive cluster MS0451.6-0305 at z∼0.54 to shed light on the evolution of the far-infrared-radio relationship in rich clusters. We have performed Spectral Energy Distribution (SED) fitting of IRAC 3.6μ, IRAC 4.5μ and MIPS 24μ photometry from Spitzer to derive the total infrared bolometric luminosity of spectroscopically confirmed cluster members with radio counterparts. The radio flux densities were measured from deep Very Large Array (VLA) radio continuum observations. The relationship between the infrared and radio luminosities for our sources show the strong correlation found between these two parameters for star forming galaxies. The far-infrared to radio luminosity ratio (qIR) values measured for these sources are comparable to those measured in low redshift clusters and indicative of an excess of radio emission.

Updated catalog of 132,684 galaxy clusters and evolution of brightest cluster galaxies

AbstractWe identified 132,684 clusters in the redshift range of 0.05 &lt; z &lt; 0.8 from SDSS DR8. The spectroscopic redshifts of 52,683 clusters have been included in the catalog using SDSS DR9 data. We found that BCGs are more luminous in richer clusters and at higher redshifts.

The intriguing life of cD galaxies

cD galaxies are supergiant elliptical galaxies found generally in the central parts of rich clusters, which have an extended halo-like component (envelope) in addition to the underlying de Vaucouleurs-Sérsic elliptical galaxy-like component. This envelope can extend to radial distances of &gt; 500 kpc (Oemler 1976, Schombert 1988). There have been many theories to explain the formation of these envelopes. These include tidal stripping, where material is stripped from neighbouring galaxies; mergers and fusions, where the envelope is built up hierarchically by successive mergers with large and small galaxies; primordial origin, where the envelope is formed at the same time as the rest of the elliptical galaxy (which appears to be related to theories of early formation of the largest galaxies); and cooling flows: in clusters with X-ray emission there is often a minimum temperature in the centre interpreted as a flow of cooling gas towards the centre of the cluster, where the gas can cool sufficiently, forming stars. The colours of the stars in the envelopes will be affected by their process of formation and subsequent evolution.

Multimodality of rich clusters from the SDSS DR8 within the supercluster-void network

We study the relations between the multimodality of galaxy clusters drawn from the SDSS DR8 and the environment where they reside. As cluster environment we consider the global luminosity density field, supercluster membership, and supercluster morphology. We use 3D normal mixture modelling, the Dressler-Shectman test, and the peculiar velocity of cluster main galaxies as signatures of multimodality of clusters. We calculate the luminosity density field to study the environmental densities around clusters, and to find superclusters where clusters reside. We determine the morphology of superclusters with the Minkowski functionals and compare the properties of clusters in superclusters of different morphology. We apply principal component analysis to study the relations between the multimodality parametres of clusters and their environment simultaneously. We find that multimodal clusters reside in higher density environment than unimodal clusters. Clusters in superclusters have higher probability to have substructure than isolated clusters. The superclusters can be divided into two main morphological types, spiders and filaments. Clusters in superclusters of spider morphology have higher probabilities to have substructure and larger peculiar velocities of their main galaxies than clusters in superclusters of filament morphology. The most luminous clusters are located in the high-density cores of rich superclusters. Five of seven most luminous clusters, and five of seven most multimodal clusters reside in spider-type superclusters; four of seven most unimodal clusters reside in filament-type superclusters. Our study shows the importance of the role of superclusters as high density environment which affects the properties of galaxy systems in them.

High CO depletion in southern infrared dark clouds

Infrared-dark high-mass clumps are among the most promising objects to study the initial conditions of the formation process of high-mass stars and rich stellar clusters. In this work, we have observed the (3-2) rotational transition of C18O with the APEX telescope, and the (1,1) and (2,2) inversion transitions of NH3 with the Australia Telescope Compact Array in 21 infrared-dark clouds already mapped in the 1.2 mm continuum, with the aim of measuring basic chemical and physical parameters such as the CO depletion factor (fD), the gas kinetic temperature and the gas mass. In particular, the C18O (3-2) line allows us to derive fD in gas at densities higher than that traced by the (1-0) and (2-1) lines, typically used in previous works. We have detected NH3 and C18O in all targets. The clumps possess mass, H2 column and surface densities consistent with being potentially the birthplace of high-mass stars. We have measured fD in between 5 and 78, with a mean value of 32 and a median of 29. These values are, to our knowledge, larger than the typical CO depletion factors measured towards infrared-dark clouds and high-mass dense cores, and are comparable to or larger than the values measured in low-mass pre-stellar cores close to the onset of the gravitational collapse. This result suggests that the earliest phases of the high-mass star and stellar cluster formation process are characterised by fD larger than in low-mass pre-stellar cores. Thirteen out of 21 clumps are undetected in the 24 {\mu}m Spitzer images, and have slightly lower kinetic temperatures, masses and H2 column densities with respect to the eight Spitzer-bright sources. This could indicate that the Spitzer-dark clumps are either less evolved or are going to form less massive objects.