No Arabic abstract
Using the method of integral-field (3D) spectroscopy, we have investigated the kinematics and distribution of the gas and stars at the center of the early-type spiral galaxy with a medium scale bar NGC 7177 as well as the change in the mean age of the stellar population along the radius. A classical picture of radial gas inflow to the galactic center along the shock fronts delineated by dust concentration at the leading edges of the bar has been revealed. The gas inflow is observed down to a radius R = 1.5 -- 2, where the gas flows at the inner Lindblad resonance concentrate in an azimuthally highly inhomogeneous nuclear star formation ring. The bar in NGC 7177 is shown to be thick in z coordinate; basically, it has already turned into a pseudo-bulge as a result of secular dynamical evolution. The mean stellar age inside the star formation ring, in the galactic nucleus, is old, ~10 Gyr. Outside, at a distance R = 6 - 8 from the nucleus, the mean age of the stellar population is ~2 Gyr. If we agree that the bar in NGC 7177 is old, then, obviously, the star formation ring has migrated radially inward in the last 1-2 Gyr, in accordance with the predictions of some dynamical models.
We present new $^{12}$CO(J=1-0) observations of the barred galaxy NGC 4303 using the Nobeyama 45m telescope (NRO45) and the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy (CARMA). The H$alpha$ images of barred spiral galaxies often show active star formation in spiral arms, but less so in bars. We quantify the difference by measuring star formation rate and efficiency at a scale where local star formation is spatially resolved. Our CO map covers the central 2$farcm$3 region of the galaxy; the combination of NRO45 and CARMA provides a high fidelity image, enabling accurate measurements of molecular gas surface density. We find that star formation rate and efficiency are twice as high in the spiral arms as in the bar. We discuss this difference in the context of the Kennicutt-Schimidt (KS) law, which indicates a constant star formation rate at a given gas surface density. The KS law breaks down at our native resolution ($sim$ 250 pc), and substantial smoothing (to 500 pc) is necessary to reproduce the KS law, although with greater scatter.
We present the first results of a pilot study aimed at understanding the influence of bars on the evolution of galaxy discs through the study of their stellar content. We examine here the kinematics, star formation history, mass-weighted, luminosity-weighted, and single stellar population (SSP) equivalent ages and metallicities for four galaxies ranging from lenticulars to late-type spirals. The data employed extends to 2-3 disc scalelengths, with S/N(A)>50. Several techniques are explored to derive star formation histories and SSP-equivalent parameters, each of which are shown to be compatible. We demostrate that the age-metallicity degeneracy is highly reduced by using spectral fitting techniques --instead of indices-- to derive these parameters. We found that the majority of the stellar mass in our sample is composed of old (~10 Gyr) stars. This is true in the bulge and the disc region, even beyond two disc scalelengths. In the bulge region, we find that the young, dynamically cold, structures produced by the presence of the bar (e.g., nuclear discs or rings) are responsible for shaping the bulges age and metallicity gradients. In the disc region, a larger fraction of young stars is present in the external parts of the disc compared with the inner disc. The disc growth is, therefore, compatible with a moderate inside-out formation scenario, where the luminosity weighted age changes from ~10 Gyrs in the centre, to ~4 Gyrs at two disc scalelengths, depending upon the galaxy. For two galaxies, we compare the metallicity and age gradients of the disc major axis with that of the bar, finding very important differences. In particular, the stellar population of the bar is more similar to the bulge than to the disc, indicating that, at least in those two galaxies, bars formed long ago and have survived to the present day. (abridged)
We present the Star Formation History (SFH) and the age-metallicity relation (AMR) in three fields of the Fornax dwarf spheroidal galaxy. They sample a region spanning from the centre of the galaxy to beyond one core radius, which allows studying galactocentric gradients. In all the cases, we found stars as old as 12 Gyr, together with intermediate-age and young stellar populations. The last star formation events, as young as 1 Gyr old, are mainly located in the central region, which may indicate that the gas reservoir in the outer parts of the galaxy would have been exhausted earlier than in the centre or removed by tidal interactions. The AMR is smoothly increasing in the three analyzed regions and similar to each other, indicating that no significant metallicity gradient is apparent within and around the core radius of Fornax. No significant traces of global UV-reionization or local SNe feedback are appreciated in the early SFH of Fornax. Our study is based on FORS1@VLT photometry as deep as I~24.5 and the IAC-star/IAC-pop/MinnIAC suite of codes for the determination of the SFH in resolved stellar populations.
We report the radio continuum structure of the barred galaxy NGC 3367 with an angular resolution of 4.5. The radio structure indicates emission from the disk and from a triple source consisting of the nucleus straddled by extended sources (the lobes). The triple source shows an excess of radio continuum emission compared to the emission expected from the total radio - Halpha correlation, suggesting a non-thermal origin probably related to AGN activity and no to star formation processes. The triple source is about 12 kpc in diameter at a P.A. 40, close (but not aligned) to that of the stellar bar P.A. 65. Only the southwest lobe is polarized. The polarizatrion asymmetry between the two lobes suggests that the triple source axis is slightly out of the plane.
[abridged] We study the resolved stellar populations and derive the SFH of the SDIG, a gas-rich dwarf galaxy member of the NGC7793 subgroup in the Sculptor group. We construct a CMD using archival HST observations and examine its stellar content. We derive its SFH using a maximum-likelihood fit to the CMD. The CMD shows that SDIG contains stars from 10Myr to several Gyr old, as revealed from the MS, BL, luminous AGB, and RGB stars. The young stars with ages less than ~250Myr show a spatial distribution confined to its central regions, and additionally the young MS stars exhibit an off-center density peak. The intermediate-age and older stars are more spatially extended. SDIG is dominated by intermediate-age stars with an average age of 6.4Gyr. The average metallicity inferred is [M/H]approx -1.5dex. Its SFH is consistent with a constant SFR, except for ages younger than ~200Myr. The lifetime average SFR is 1.3x10^{-3} Mo/yr. More recently than 100Myr, there has been a burst of SF at a rate ~2-3 times higher than the average SFR. The inferred recent SFR from CMD modelling is higher than inferred from the Ha flux of the galaxy; we interpret this to mean that the upper end of the IMF is not being fully sampled due to the low SFR. Additionally, an observed lack of bright blue stars in the CMD could indicate a downturn in SFR on 10^7-yr timescales. A previous SF enhancement appears to have occurred between 600-1100Myr ago, with amplitude similar to the most recent 100Myr. Older bursts of similar peak SFR and duration would not be resolvable with these data. The observed enhancements in SF suggest that SDIG is able to sustain a complex SFH without the effect of interactions with its nearest massive galaxy. Integrating the SFR over the entire history of SDIG yields a total stellar mass 1.77x10^{7}Mo, and a current V-band stellar mass-to-light ratio 3.2Mo/Lo.