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Register a new userThe Local Group dwarf Leo T: HI on the brink of star formation
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We present Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope (GMRT) and Westerbork ynthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT) observations of the recently discovered Local Group dwarf galaxy, Leo T. The peak HI column density is measured to be 7x10^20 cm^-2, and the total HI mass is 2.8Xx10^5 Msun, based on a distance of 420 kpc. Leo T has both cold (~ 500 K) and warm (~ 6000 K) HI at its core, with a global velocity dispersion of 6.9 km/s, from which we derive a dynamical mass within the HI radius of 3.3x10^6 Msun, and a mass-to-light ratio of greater than 50. We calculate the Jeans mass from the radial profiles of the HI column density and velocity dispersion, and predict that the gas should be globally stable against star formation. This finding is inconsistent with the half light radius of Leo T, which extends to 170 pc, and indicates that local conditions must determine where star formation takes place. Leo T is not only the lowest luminosity galaxy with on-going star formation discovered to date, it is also the most dark matter dominated, gas-rich dwarf in the Local Group.
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We present first results of a survey of the Leo I group at 10 Mpc for M_R < -10 dwarf galaxies. This is part of a larger program to measure the faint end of the galaxy luminosity function in nearby poor groups. Our method is optimized to find Local-Group-like dwarfs down to dwarf spheroidal surface brightnesses, but we also find very large LSB dwarfs in Leo I with no Local Group counterpart. A preliminary measurement of the luminosity function yields a slope consistent with that measured in the Local Group.
Scale-invariant morphology parameters applied to atomic hydrogen maps (HI) of galaxies can be used to quantify the effects of tidal interaction or star-formation on the ISM. Here we apply these parameters, Concentration, Asymmetry, Smoothness, Gini, M20, and the GM parameter, to two public surveys of nearby dwarf galaxies, the VLA-ANGST and LITTLE-THINGS survey, to explore whether tidal interaction or the ongoing or past star-formation is a dominant force shaping the HI disk of these dwarfs. Previously, HI morphological criteria were identified for ongoing spiral-spiral interactions. When we apply these to the Irregular dwarf population, they either select almost all or none of the population. We find that only the Asymmetry-based criteria can be used to identify very isolated dwarfs (i.e., these have a low tidal indication). Otherwise, there is little or no relation between the level of tidal interaction and the HI morphology. We compare the HI morphology to three star-formation rates based on either Halpha, FUV or the resolved stellar population, probing different star-formation time-scales. The HI morphology parameters that trace the inequality of the distribution, the Gini, GM, and M20 parameters, correlate weakly with all these star-formation rates. This is in line with the picture that local physics dominates the ISM appearance and not tidal effects. Finally, we compare the SDSS measures of star-formation and stellar mass to the HI morphological parameters for all four HI surveys. In the two lower-resolution HI surveys (12), there is no relation between star-formation measures and HI morphology. The morphology of the two high-resolution HI surveys (6), the Asymmetry, Smoothness, Gini, M20, and GM, do show a link to the total star-formation, but a weak one.
We use the APOSTLE and Auriga cosmological simulations to study the star formation histories (SFHs) of field and satellite dwarf galaxies. Despite sizeable galaxy-to-galaxy scatter, the SFHs of APOSTLE and Auriga dwarfs exhibit robust average trends with galaxy stellar mass: faint field dwarfs ($10^5<M_{rm star}/M_odot<10^{6.5}$) have, on average, steadily declining SFHs, whereas brighter dwarfs ($10^{7.5}<M_{rm star}/M_odot<10^{9}$) show the opposite trend. Intermediate-mass dwarfs have roughly constant SFHs. Satellites exhibit similar average trends, but with substantially suppressed star formation in the most recent $sim 5$ Gyr, likely as a result of gas loss due to tidal and ram-pressure stripping after entering the haloes of their primaries. These simple mass and environmental trends are in good agreement with the derived SFHs of Local Group (LG) dwarfs whose photometry reaches the oldest main sequence turnoff. SFHs of galaxies with less deep data show deviations from these trends, but this may be explained, at least in part, by the large galaxy-to-galaxy scatter, the limited sample size, and the large uncertainties of the inferred SFHs. Confirming the predicted mass and environmental trends will require deeper photometric data than currently available, especially for isolated dwarfs.
According to star formation histories (SFHs), Local Group dwarf galaxies can be broadly classified in two types: those forming most of their stars before $z=2$ (${it fast}$) and those with more extended SFHs (${it slow}$). The most precise SFHs are usually derived from deep but not very spatially extended photometric data; this might alter the ratio of old to young stars when age gradients are present. Here we correct for this effect and derive the mass formed in stars by $z=2$ for a sample of 16 Local Group dwarf galaxies. We explore early differences between ${it fast}$ and ${it slow}$ dwarfs, and evaluate the impact of internal feedback by supernovae (SN) on the baryonic and dark matter (DM) component of the dwarfs. ${it Fast}$ dwarfs assembled more stellar mass at early times and have larger amounts of DM within the half-light radius than ${it slow}$ dwarfs. By imposing that ${it slow}$ dwarfs cannot have lost their gas by $z=2$, we constrain the maximum coupling efficiency of SN feedback to the gas and to the DM to be $sim$10%. We find that internal feedback alone appears insufficient to quench the SFH of ${it fast}$ dwarfs by gas deprivation, in particular for the fainter systems. Nonetheless, SN feedback can core the DM halo density profiles relatively easily, producing cores of the sizes of the half-light radius in ${it fast}$ dwarfs by $z=2$ with very low efficiencies. Amongst the classical Milky Way satellites, we predict that the smallest cores should be found in Draco and Ursa Minor, while Sculptor and Fornax should host the largest ones.
Local Group (LG) galaxies have relatively accurate SFHs and metallicity evolution derived from resolved CMD modeling, and thus offer a unique opportunity to explore the efficacy of estimating stellar mass M$_{star}$ of real galaxies based on integrated stellar luminosities. Building on the SFHs and metallicity evolution of 40 LG dwarf galaxies, we carried out a comprehensive study of the influence of SFHs, metallicity evolution, and dust extinction on the UV-to-NIR color-$M/L$ (color-log$Upsilon_{star}$($lambda$)) relations and M$_{star}$ estimation of local universe galaxies. We find that: The LG galaxies follow color-log$Upsilon_{star}$($lambda$) relations that fall in between the ones calibrated by previous studies; Optical color-log$Upsilon_{star}$($lambda$) relations at higher metallicities ([M/H]) are generally broader and steeper; The SFH concentration does not significantly affect the color-log$Upsilon_{star}$($lambda$) relations; Light-weighted ages and [M/H] together constrain log$Upsilon_{star}$($lambda$) with uncertainties ranging from $lesssim$ 0.1 dex for the NIR up to 0.2 dex for the optical passbands; Metallicity evolution induces significant uncertainties to the optical but not NIR $Upsilon_{star}$($lambda$) at given light-weighted ages and [M/H]; The $V$ band is the ideal luminance passband for estimating $Upsilon_{star}$($lambda$) from single colors, because the combinations of $Upsilon_{star}$($V$) and optical colors such as $B-V$ and $g-r$ exhibit the weakest systematic dependence on SFHs, [M/H] and dust extinction; Without any prior assumption on SFHs, M$_{star}$ is constrained with biases $lesssim$ 0.3 dex by the optical-to-NIR SED fitting. Optical passbands alone constrain M$_{star}$ with biases $lesssim$ 0.4 dex (or $lesssim$ 0.6 dex) when dust extinction is fixed (or variable) in SED fitting. [abridged]
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