Subscribe to the gold package and get unlimited access to Shamra Academy
Register a new userHow nucleation and luminosity shape faint dwarf galaxies
63
0
0.0
(
0
)
Added by
Ruben Sanchez-Janssen
Publication date
2019
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
Ask ChatGPT about the research
No Arabic abstract
We study the intrinsic shapes of a sample of over 400 quiescent galaxies in the cores of the Virgo and Fornax clusters with luminosities $10^{6} leq L_{g}/L_{odot} leq 10^{8}$. Similar to satellites of the Local Group and Centaurus A, these faint, low surface brightness cluster galaxies are best described as a family of thick ($C/A > 0.5$), oblate-triaxial spheroids. However, the large sample size allows us to show that the flattening of their stellar distributions depends both on luminosity and on the presence of a nuclear star cluster. Nucleated satellites are thicker at all luminosities compared to their non-nucleated counterparts, and fainter galaxies are systematically thicker as well, regardless of nucleation. Once nucleation is accounted for, we find no evidence that the environment the satellites live in plays a relevant role in setting their three-dimensional structure. We interpret both the presence of stellar nuclei and the associated thicker shapes as the result of preferential early and rapid formation, effectively making these faint nucleated galaxies the first generation of cluster satellites.
rate research
Read More
The discovery of Ultra-Faint Dwarf (UFD) galaxies in the halo of the Milky Way extends the faint end of the galaxy luminosity function to a few hundred solar luminosities. This extremely low luminosity regime poses a significant challenge for the photometric characterization of these systems. We present a suite of simulations aimed at understanding how different observational choices related to the properties of a low luminosity system impact our ability to determine its true structural parameters such as half-light radius and central surface brightness. We focus on estimating half-light radii (on which mass estimates depend linearly) and find that these numbers can have up to 100% uncertainties when relatively shallow photometric surveys, such as SDSS, are used. Our simulations suggest that to recover structural parameters within 10% or better of their true values: (a) the ratio of the field-of-view to the half-light radius of the satellite must be greater than three, (b) the total number of stars, including background objects should be larger than 1000, and (c) the central to background stellar density ratio must be higher than 20. If one or more of these criteria are not met, the accuracy of the resulting structural parameters can be significantly compromised. In the context of future surveys such as LSST, the latter condition will be closely tied to our ability to remove unresolved background galaxies. Assessing the reliability of measured structural parameters will become increasingly critical as the next generation of deep wide-field surveys detects UFDs beyond the reach of current spectroscopic limits.
We present FIRE/Gizmo hydrodynamic zoom-in simulations of isolated dark matter halos, two each at the mass of classical dwarf galaxies ($M_{rm vir} simeq 10^{10} M_{odot}$) and ultra-faint galaxies ($M_{rm vir} simeq 10^9 M_{odot}$), and with two feedback implementations. The resultant central galaxies lie on an extrapolated abundance matching relation from $M_{star} simeq 10^6$ to $10^4 M_{odot}$ without a break. Every host is filled with subhalos, many of which form stars. Our dwarfs with $M_{star} simeq 10^6 M_{odot}$ each have 1-2 well-resolved satellites with $M_{star} = 3-200 times 10^3 M_{odot}$. Even our isolated ultra-faint galaxies have star-forming subhalos. If this is representative, dwarf galaxies throughout the universe should commonly host tiny satellite galaxies of their own. We combine our results with the ELVIS simulations to show that targeting $sim 50~ rm kpc$ regions around nearby isolated dwarfs could increase the chances of discovering ultra-faint galaxies by $sim 35%$ compared to random halo pointings, and specifically identify the region around the Phoenix dwarf galaxy as a good potential target. The well-resolved ultra-faint galaxies in our simulations ($M_{star} simeq 3 - 30 times 10^3 M_{odot}$) form within $M_{rm peak} simeq 0.5 - 3 times 10^9 M_{odot}$ halos. Each has a uniformly ancient stellar population ($ > 10~ rm Gyr$) owing to reionization-related quenching. More massive systems, in contrast, all have late-time star formation. Our results suggest that $M_{rm halo} simeq 5 times 10^9 M_{odot}$ is a probable dividing line between halos hosting reionization fossils and those hosting dwarfs that can continue to form stars in isolation after reionization.
We develop a technique to investigate the possibility that some of the recently discovered ultra-faint dwarf satellites of the Milky Way might be cusp caustics rather than gravitationally self-bound systems. Such cusps can form when a stream of stars folds, creating a region where the projected 2-D surface density is enhanced. In this work, we construct a Poisson maximum likelihood test to compare the cusp and exponential models of any substructure on an equal footing. We apply the test to the Hercules dwarf (d ~ 113 kpc, M_V ~ -6.2, e ~ 0.67). The flattened exponential model is strongly favored over the cusp model in the case of Hercules, ruling out at high confidence that Hercules is a cusp catastrophe. This test can be applied to any of the Milky Way dwarfs, and more generally to the entire stellar halo population, to search for the cusp catastrophes that might be expected in an accreted stellar halo.
We report the discovery of a very diverse set of five low-surface brightness (LSB) dwarf galaxy candidates in Hickson Compact Group 90 (HCG 90) detected in deep U- and I-band images obtained with VLT/VIMOS. These are the first LSB dwarf galaxy candidates found in a compact group of galaxies. We measure spheroid half-light radii in the range $0.7!lesssim! r_{rm eff}/{rm kpc}! lesssim! 1.5$ with luminosities of $-11.65!lesssim! M_U! lesssim! -9.42$ and $-12.79!lesssim! M_I! lesssim! -10.58$ mag, corresponding to a color range of $(U!-!I)_0!simeq!1.1!-!2.2$ mag and surface brightness levels of $mu_U!simeq!28.1,{rm mag/arcsec^2}$ and $mu_I!simeq!27.4,{rm mag/arcsec^2}$. Their colours and luminosities are consistent with a diverse set of stellar population properties. Assuming solar and 0.02 Z$_odot$ metallicities we obtain stellar masses in the range $M_*|_{Z_odot} simeq 10^{5.7-6.3} M_{odot}$ and $M_*|_{0.02,Z_odot}!simeq!10^{6.3-8},M_{odot}$. Three dwarfs are older than 1 Gyr, while the other two significantly bluer dwarfs are younger than $sim 2$ Gyr at any mass/metallicity combination. Altogether, the new LSB dwarf galaxy candidates share properties with dwarf galaxies found throughout the Local Volume and in nearby galaxy clusters such as Fornax. We find a pair of candidates with $sim!2$ kpc projected separation, which may represent one of the closest dwarf galaxy pairs found. We also find a nucleated dwarf candidate, with a nucleus size of $r_{rm eff}!simeq!46!-!63$ pc and magnitude M$_{U,0}=-7.42$ mag and $(U!-!I)_0!=!1.51$ mag, which is consistent with a nuclear stellar disc with a stellar mass in the range $10^{4.9-6.5},M_odot$.
We present a large homogeneous set of stellar parameters and abundances across a broad range of metallicities, involving $13$ classical dwarf spheroidal (dSph) and ultra-faint dSph (UFD) galaxies. In total this study includes $380$ stars in Fornax, Sagittarius, Sculptor, Sextans, Carina, Ursa Minor, Draco, Reticulum II, Bootes I, Ursa Major II, Leo I, Segue I, and Triangulum II. This sample represents the largest, homogeneous, high-resolution study of dSph galaxies to date. With our homogeneously derived catalog, we are able to search for similar and deviating trends across different galaxies. We investigate the mass dependence of the individual systems on the production of $alpha$-elements, but also try to shed light on the long-standing puzzle of the dominant production site of r-process elements. We use data from the Keck observatory archive and the ESO reduced archive to reanalyze stars from these $13$ dSph galaxies. We automatize the step of obtaining stellar parameters, but run a full spectrum synthesis to derive all abundances except for iron. The homogenized set of abundances yielded the unique possibility to derive a relation between the onset of type Ia supernovae and the stellar mass of the galaxy. Furthermore, we derived a formula to estimate the evolution of $alpha$-elements. Placing all abundances consistently on the same scale is crucial to answer questions about the chemical history of galaxies. By homogeneously analysing Ba and Eu in the 13 systems, we have traced the onset of the s-process and found it to increase with metallicity as a function of the galaxys stellar mass. Moreover, the r-process material correlates with the $alpha$-elements indicating some co-production of these, which in turn would point towards rare core-collapse supernovae rather than binary neutron star mergers as host for the r-process at low [Fe/H] in the investigated dSph systems.
Log in to be able to interact and post comments
comments
Fetching comments
Sign in to be able to follow your search criteria
