No Arabic abstract
We make use of the images from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Stripe 82 to present an analysis of r band surface brightness profiles and radial color gradients (g - r, u - r) in 111 nearby early-type galaxies (ETGs). With Stripe 82 images, we are able to pay special attentions to the low-surface-brightness areas (LSB areas) of the galaxies. The LSB areas make a difference to the Sersic fittings and concentration indices, making both the indices less than the typical values for ETGs. There are about 60% negative color gradients (red-core) within 1.5Re , much more than the approximately 10% positive ones (blue-core) within the same radius. However, taking into account of the LSB areas, we find that the color gradients are not necessarily monotonic: about one third of the red-core (or blue-core) galaxies have positive (or negative) color gradients in the outer areas. So LSB areas not only make ETGs Sersic profiles deviate from de Vaucouleur ones and shift to the disk end, but also reveal that quite a number of ETGs have opposite color gradients in inner and outer areas. These outcomes remind us the necessity of double-Sersic fitting. These LSB phenomena may be interpreted by mergers and thus different metallicity in the outer areas. Isophotal parameters are also discussed briefly in this paper: more disky nearby ETGs are spotted than boxy ones.
We have investigated the radial g-r color gradients of early-type galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) DR6 in the redshift range 0.00<z<0.06. The majority of massive early-type galaxies show a negative color gradient (red-cored) as generally expected for early-type galaxies. On the other hand, roughly 30 per cent of the galaxies in this sample show a positive color gradient (blue-cored). These blue-cored galaxies often show strong H beta absorption line strengths and/or emission line ratios that are indicative of the presence of young stellar populations. Combining the optical data with Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) UV photometry, we find that all blue-cored galaxies show UV-optical colors that can only be explained by young stellar populations. This implies that most of the residual star formation in early-type galaxies is centrally concentrated. Blue-cored galaxies are predominantly low velocity dispersion systems. A simple model shows that the observed positive color gradients (blue-cored) are visible only for a billion years after a star formation episode for the typical strength of recent star formation. The observed effective radius decreases and the mean surface brightness increases due to this centrally-concentrated star formation episode. As a result, the majority of blue-cored galaxies may lie on different regions in the Fundamental Plane from red-cored ellipticals. However, the position of the blue-cored galaxies on the Fundamental Plane cannot be solely attributed to recent star formation but require substantially lower velocity dispersion. We conclude that a low-level of residual star formation persists at the centers of most of low-mass early-type galaxies, whereas massive ones are mostly quiescent systems with metallicity-driven red cores.
We present first results from our study of the properties of ~400 low redshift (z < 0.5) quasars, based on a large homogeneous dataset derived from the Stripe 82 area of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 7 (DR7). For this sky region, deep (r~22.4) u,g,r,i,z images are available, up to ~2 mag deeper than standard SDSS images, allowing us to study both the host galaxies and the Mpc-scale environments of the quasars. This sample greatly outnumbers previous studies of low redshift quasar hosts, from the ground or from space. Here we report the preliminary results for the quasar host galaxies. We are able to resolve the host galaxy in ~80 % of the quasars. The quasar hosts are luminous and large, the majority of them in the range between M*-1 and M*-2, and with ~10 kpc galaxy scale-lengths. Almost half of the host galaxies are best fit with an exponential disk, while the rest are spheroid-dominated. There is a reasonable relation between the central black hole mass and the host galaxy luminosity.
We derive ages, metallicities, and individual element abundances of early- and late-type galaxies (ETGs and LTGs) out to 1.5 R$_e$. We study a large sample of 1900 galaxies spanning $8.6 - 11.3 log M/M_{odot}$ in stellar mass, through key absorption features in stacked spectra from the SDSS-IV/MaNGA survey. We use mock galaxy spectra with extended star formation histories to validate our method for LTGs and use corrections to convert the derived ages into luminosity- and mass-weighted quantities. We find flat age and negative metallicity gradients for ETGs and negative age and negative metallicity gradients for LTGs. Age gradients in LTGs steepen with increasing galaxy mass, from $-0.05pm0.11~log$ Gyr/R$_e$ for the lowest mass galaxies to $-0.82pm0.08~log$ Gyr/R$_e$ for the highest mass ones. This strong gradient-mass relation has a slope of $-0.70pm0.18$. Comparing local age and metallicity gradients with the velocity dispersion $sigma$ within galaxies against the global relation with $sigma$ shows that internal processes regulate metallicity in ETGs but not age, and vice versa for LTGs. We further find that metallicity gradients with respect to local $sigma$ show a much stronger dependence on galaxy mass than radial metallicity gradients. Both galaxy types display flat [C/Fe] and [Mg/Fe], and negative [Na/Fe] gradients, whereas only LTGs display gradients in [Ca/Fe] and [Ti/Fe]. ETGs have increasingly steep [Na/Fe] gradients with local $sigma$ reaching $6.50pm0.78$ dex/$log$ km/s for the highest masses. [Na/Fe] ratios are correlated with metallicity for both galaxy types across the entire mass range in our sample, providing support for metallicity dependent supernova yields.
We present a clustering analysis of Luminous Red Galaxies in SDSS Stripe 82. We study the angular 2-point correlation function, of 130,000 LRG candidates via colour-cut selections in izK with the K band coverage coming from UKIDSS LAS. We have used the cross-correlation technique of Newman (2008) to establish the LRG redshift distribution. Cross-correlating with SDSS QSOs, MegaZ-LRGs and DEEP2 galaxies implies an average LRG redshift of z~1 with space density, n_g~3.2 +/-0.16 x10^-4 h^3 Mpc^-3. For theta<10, w(theta) significantly deviates from a single power-law. A double power-law with a break at r_b~2.4 h^-1 Mpc fits the data better, with best-fit scale length, r_0,1=7.63+/-0.27 h^-1Mpc and slope gamma_1=2.01 +/-0.02 at small scales and r_0,2=9.92 +/-0.40 h^-1 Mpc and gamma_2=1.64 +/-0.04 at large scales. Due to the flat slope at large scales, we find that a standard LambdaCDM linear model is accepted only at 2-3sigma, with the best-fit bias factor, b=2.74+/-0.07. We also fitted HOD models and estimate an effective halo mass of M_eff=3.3 +/-0.6x10^13 h^-1 M_sun. But at large scales, the current HOD models did not help explain the power excess in the clustering signal. We then compare the w(theta) results to those of Sawangwit et al. (2011) from 3 samples of LRGs at lower redshifts to measure clustering evolution. We find that a long-lived model may be a poorer fit than at lower redshifts, although this assumes that the Stripe 82 LRGs are luminosity-matched to the AAOmega LRGs. We find stronger evidence for evolution in the form of the z~1 LRG correlation function, with the above flat 2-halo slope maintaining to r>50 h^-1 Mpc. Applying the cross-correlation test of Ross et al. (2011), we find little evidence that the result is due to systematics. Otherwise it may provide evidence for primordial non-Gaussianity in the matter distribution, with f^local_NL=90+/-30.[Abridged]
Using new long-slit spectroscopy obtained with X-Shooter at ESO-VLT, we study, for the first time, radial gradients of optical and Near-Infrared IMF-sensitive features in a representative sample of galaxies at the very high-mass end of the galaxy population. The sample consists of seven early-type galaxies (ETGs) at $zsim0.05$, with central velocity dispersion in the range $300<sigma<350$km/s. Using state-of-art stellar population synthesis models, we fit a number of spectral indices, from different chemical species (including TiOs and Na indices), to constrain the IMF slope (i.e. the fraction of low-mass stars), as a function of galactocentric distance, over a radial range out to $sim4$kpc. ETGs in our sample show a significant correlation of IMF slope and surface mass density. The bottom-heavy population (i.e. an excess of low-mass stars in the IMF) is confined to central galaxy regions with surface mass density above $sim 10^{10} M_odot kpc^{-2}$, or, alternatively, within a characteristic radius of $sim2$~kpc. Radial distance, in physical units, and surface mass density, are the best correlators to IMF variations, with respect to other dynamical (e.g. velocity dispersion) and stellar population (e.g. metallicity) properties. Our results for the most massive galaxies suggest that there is no single parameter} that fully explains variations in the stellar IMF, but IMF radial profiles at z$sim$0 rather result from the complex formation and mass accretion history of galaxy inner and outer regions.