No Arabic abstract
The formation scenario of extended counter-rotating stellar disks in galaxies is still debated. In this paper, we study the S0 galaxy IC 719 known to host two large-scale counter-rotating stellar disks in order to investigate their formation mechanism. We exploit the large field of view and wavelength coverage of the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) spectrograph to derive two-dimensional (2D) maps of the various properties of the counter-rotating stellar disks, such as age, metallicity, kinematics, spatial distribution, the kinematical and chemical properties of the ionized gas, and the dust map. Due to the large wavelength range, and in particular to the presence of the Calcium Triplet 8498, 8542, 8662AA (CaT hereafter), the spectroscopic analysis allows us to separate the two stellar components in great detail. This permits precise measurement of both the velocity and velocity dispersion of the two components as well as their spatial distribution. We derived a 2D map of the age and metallicity of the two stellar components as well as the star formation rate and gas-phase metallicity from the ionized gas emission maps. The main stellar disk of the galaxy is kinematically hotter, older, thicker and with larger scale-length than the secondary disk. There is no doubt that the latter is strongly linked to the ionized gas component: they have the same kinematics and similar vertical and radial spatial distribution. This result is in favor of a gas accretion scenario over a binary merger scenario to explain the origin of counter-rotation in IC 719. One source of gas that may have contributed to the accretion process is the cloud that surrounds IC 719.
We present the results of the VLT/VIMOS integral-field spectroscopic observations of the inner 28x28 (3.1 kpc x 3.1 kpc) of the interacting spiral NGC 5719, which is known to host two co-spatial counter-rotating stellar discs. At each position in the field of view, the observed galaxy spectrum is decomposed into the contributions of the spectra of two stellar and one ionised-gas components. We measure the kinematics and the line strengths of the Lick indices of the two stellar counter-rotating components. We model the data of each stellar component with single stellar population models that account for the alpha/Fe overabundance. We also derive the distribution and kinematics of the ionised-gas disc, that is associated with the younger, less rich in metals, more alpha-enhanced, and less luminous stellar component. They are both counter-rotating with respect the main stellar body of the galaxy. These findings prove the scenario where gas was accreted first by NGC 5719 onto a retrograde orbit from the large reservoir available in its neighbourhoods as the result of the interaction with its companion NGC 5713, and subsequently fuelled the in situ formation of the counter-rotating stellar disc.
We disentangle two counter-rotating stellar components in NGC 4191 and characterize their physical properties (kinematics, morphology, age, metallicity, and abundance ratio). We performed a spectroscopic decomposition on integral field data to separate the contribution of two stellar components to the observed galaxy spectrum across the field of view. We also performed a photometric decomposition, modelling the galaxy with a Sersic bulge and two exponential disks of different scale length, with the aim of associating these structural components with the kinematic components. We measured the equivalent width of the absorption line indices on the best fit that represent the kinematic components and compared our measurements to the predictions of stellar population models. We have evidence that the line-of-sight velocity distributions (LOSVDs) are consistent with the presence of two distinct kinematic components. The combined information of the intensity of the LOSVDs and photometry allows us to associate the Sersic bulge and the outer disk with the main kinematic component, and the inner disk with the secondary kinematic component. The two kinematic stellar components counter-rotate with respect to each other. The main component is the most luminous and massive, and it rotates slower than the secondary component, which rotates along the same direction as the ionized gas. We also found that the two kinematic components have the same solar metallicity and sub-solar abundance ratio, without the presence of significant radial gradients. On the other hand, their ages show strong negative gradients and the possible indication that the secondary component is the youngest. We interpret our results in light of recent cosmological simulations and suggest gas accretion along two filaments as the formation mechanism of the stellar counter-rotating components in NGC 4191 (Abridged).
To shed light on the time evolution of local star formation episodes in M33, we study the association between 566 Giant Molecular Clouds (GMCs), identified through the CO (J=2-1) IRAM-all-disk survey, and 630 Young Stellar Cluster Candidates (YSCCs), selected via Spitzer-24~$mu$m emission. The spatial correlation between YSCCs and GMCs is extremely strong, with a typical separation of 17~pc, less than half the CO(2--1) beamsize, illustrating the remarkable physical link between the two populations. GMCs and YSCCs follow the HI filaments, except in the outermost regions where the survey finds fewer GMCs than YSCCs, likely due to undetected, low CO-luminosity clouds. The GMCs have masses between 2$times 10^4$ and 2$times 10^6$ M$_odot$ and are classified according to different cloud evolutionary stages: inactive clouds are 32$%$ of the total, classified clouds with embedded and exposed star formation are 16$%$ and 52$%$ of the total respectively. Across the regular southern spiral arm, inactive clouds are preferentially located in the inner part of the arm, possibly suggesting a triggering of star formation as the cloud crosses the arm. Some YSCCs are embedded star-forming sites while the majority have GALEX-UV and H$alpha$ counterparts with estimated cluster masses and ages. The distribution of the non-embedded YSCC ages peaks around 5~Myrs with only a few being as old as 8--10~Myrs. These age estimates together with the number of GMCs in the various evolutionary stages lead us to conclude that 14~Myrs is a typical lifetime of a GMC in M33, prior to cloud dispersal. The inactive and embedded phases are short, lasting about 4 and 2~Myrs respectively. This underlines that embedded YSCCs rapidly break out from the clouds and become partially visible in H$alpha$ or UV long before cloud dispersal.
The massive early-type galaxy (ETG) IC 1459 is a slowly rotating galaxy that exhibits a rapidly counter-rotating kinematically decoupled core (KDC, $R_{rm KDC}approx 5^{primeprime}approx 0.1 R_{rm e}$). To investigate the origin of its KDC, we coupled large data mosaics from the near-infrared (NIR)/optical integral field unit (IFU) instruments K-band Multi-Object Spectrograph (KMOS) and Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE). We studied IC 1459s stellar populations and, for the first time for a KDC, the spatially resolved initial mass function (IMF). We used full-spectral-fitting to fit the stellar populations and IMF simultaneously, and an alternative spectral-fitting method that does not assume a star-formation history (SFH; although does not constrain the IMF) for comparison. When no SFH is assumed, we derived a negative metallicity gradient for IC 1459 that could be driven by a distinct metal-poor population in the outer regions of the galaxy, and a radially constant old stellar age. We found a radially constant bottom-heavy IMF out to $sim frac{1}{3} R_{rm e}$. The radially flat IMF and age extend beyond the counter-rotating core. We detected high velocity dispersion along the galaxys major axis. Our results potentially add weight to findings from orbital modelling of other KDCs that the core is not a distinct population of stars but in fact two smooth co-spatial counter-rotating populations. No clear picture of formation explains the observational results of IC 1459, but we propose it could have included a gas-rich intense period of star formation at early times, perhaps with counter-rotating accreting cold streams, followed by dry and gas-rich mergers through to the present day.
Disk winds have been postulated as a mechanism for angular momentum release in protostellar systems for decades. HD 163296 is a Herbig Ae star surrounded by a disk and has been shown to host a series of HH knots (HH 409) with bow shocks associated with the farthest knots. Here we present ALMA Science Verification data of CO J=2-1 and J=3-2 emission which are spatially coincident with the blue shifted jet of HH knots, and offset from the disk by -18.6 km/s. The emission has a double corkscrew morphology and extends more than 10 from the disk with embedded emission clumps coincident with jet knots. We interpret this double corkscrew as emission from material in a molecular disk wind, and that the compact emission near the jet knots is being heated by the jet which is moving at much higher velocities. We show that the J=3-2 emission is likely heavily filtered by the interferometer, but the J=2-1 emission suffers less due to the larger beam and measurable angular scales. Excitation analysis suggests temperatures exceeding 900 K in these compact features, with the wind mass, momentum and energy being of order 10^{-5} M_sun, 10^{-4} M_sun km/s and 10^{40} erg respectively. The high mass loss rate suggests that this star is dispersing the disk faster than it is funneling mass onto the star.