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Register a new userThe Galaxy in Context: Structural, Kinematic and Integrated Properties
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Added by
Joss Bland-Hawthorn
Publication date
2016
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
Authors
Joss Bland-Hawthorn
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Our Galaxy, the Milky Way, is a benchmark for understanding disk galaxies. It is the only galaxy whose formation history can be studied using the full distribution of stars from white dwarfs to supergiants. The oldest components provide us with unique insight into how galaxies form and evolve over billions of years. The Galaxy is a luminous (L-star) barred spiral with a central box/peanut bulge, a dominant disk, and a diffuse stellar halo. Based on global properties, it falls in the sparsely populated green valley region of the galaxy colour-magnitude diagram. Here we review the key integrated, structural and kinematic parameters of the Galaxy, and point to uncertainties as well as directions for future progress. Galactic studies will continue to play a fundamental role far into the future because there are measurements that can only be made in the near field and much of contemporary astrophysics depends on such observations.
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We present the first set of cosmological baryonic zoom-in simulations of galaxies including dissipative self-interacting dark matter (dSIDM). These simulations utilize the Feedback In Realistic Environments (FIRE-2) galaxy formation physics, but allow the dark matter to have dissipative self-interactions analogous to Standard Model forces, parameterized by the self-interaction cross-section per unit mass, $(sigma/m)$, and the dimensionless degree of dissipation, $0<f_{rm diss}<1$. We survey this parameter space, including constant and velocity-dependent cross-sections, and focus on structural and kinematic properties of dwarf galaxies with $M_{rm halo} simeq 10^{10-11} {rm M}_{odot}$. Central density profiles of simulated dwarfs become cuspy when $(sigma/m)_{rm eff} gtrsim 0.1,{rm cm^{2},g^{-1}}$ (and $f_{rm diss}=0.5$ as fiducial). The power-law slopes asymptote to $alpha approx -1.5$ in low-mass dwarfs independent of cross-section, which arises from a dark matter cooling flow. Through comparisons with dark matter only simulations, we find the profile in this regime is insensitive to the inclusion of baryons. However, when $(sigma/m)_{rm eff} ll 0.1,{rm cm^{2},g^{-1}}$, baryonic effects can produce cored density profiles comparable to non-dissipative cold dark matter (CDM) runs but at smaller radii. Simulated galaxies with $(sigma/m) gtrsim 10,{rm cm^{2},g^{-1}}$ develop significant coherent rotation of dark matter, accompanied by halo deformation, but this is unlike the well-defined thin dark disks often attributed to baryon-like dSIDM. The density profiles in this high cross-section model exhibit lower normalizations given the onset of halo deformation. For our surveyed dSIDM parameters, halo masses and galaxy stellar masses do not show appreciable difference from CDM, but dark matter kinematics and halo concentrations/shapes can differ.
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We present an Integral Field Unit survey of 73 galaxy clusters and groups with the VIsible Multi Object Spectrograph (VIMOS) on VLT. We exploit the data to determine the H$alpha$ gas dynamics on kpc-scales to study the feedback processes occurring within the dense cluster cores. We determine the kinematic state of the ionised gas and show that the majority of systems ($sim$ 2/3) have relatively ordered velocity fields on kpc scales that are similar to the kinematics of rotating discs and are decoupled from the stellar kinematics of the Brightest Cluster Galaxy. The majority of the H$alpha$ flux ($>$ 50%) is typically associated with these ordered kinematics and most systems show relatively simple morphologies suggesting they have not been disturbed by a recent merger or interaction. Approximately 20% of the sample (13/73) have disturbed morphologies which can typically be attributed to AGN activity disrupting the gas. Only one system shows any evidence of an interaction with another cluster member. A spectral analysis of the gas suggests that the ionisation of the gas within cluster cores is dominated by non stellar processes, possibly originating from the intracluster medium itself.
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