No Arabic abstract
The halo masses $M_{halo}$ of low surface brightness (LSB) galaxies are critical measurements for understanding their formation processes. One promising method to estimate a galaxys $M_{halo}$ is to exploit the empirical scaling relation between $M_{halo}$ and the number of associated globular clusters ($N_{mathrm{GC}}$). We use a Bayesian mixture model approach to measure $N_{mathrm{GC}}$ for 175 LSB ($23leqleftlangle mu_{e,r} rightrangle [mathrm{mag arcsec}^{-2}]leq 28$) galaxies in the Fornax cluster using the Fornax Deep Survey (FDS) data; this is the largest sample of low mass galaxies so-far analysed for this kind of study. The proximity of the Fornax cluster means that we can measure galaxies with much smaller physical sizes ($0.3leq r_{e,r} [mathrm{kpc}]leq 9.5$) compared to previous studies of the GC systems of LSB galaxies, probing stellar masses down to $M_{*}sim10^{5}mathrm{M_{odot}}$. The sample also includes udg ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs), with projected $r$-band half-light radii greater than 1.5 kpc. Our results are consistent with an extrapolation of the $M_{*}-M_{halo}$ relation predicted from abundance matching. In particular, our UDG measurements are consistent with dwarf sized halos, having typical masses between $10^{10}$ and $10^{11}mathrm{M_{odot}}$. Overall, our UDG sample is statistically indistinguishable from smaller LSB galaxies in the same magnitude range. We do not find any candidates likely to be as rich as some of those found in the Coma cluster. We suggest that environment might play a role in producing GC-rich LSB galaxies.
We present the results of a study of the globular cluster systems of 6 massive spiral galaxies, originally cataloged as low surface brightness galaxies but here shown to span a wide range of central surface brightness values, including two intermediate to low surface brightness galaxies. We used the Advanced Camera for Surveys on board HST to obtain photometry in the F475W and F775W bands and select sources with photometric and morphological properties consistent with those of globular clusters. A total of 206 candidates were identified in our target galaxies. From a direct comparison with the Galactic globular cluster system we derive specific frequency values for each galaxy that are in the expected range for late-type galaxies. We show that the globular cluster candidates in all galaxies have properties consistent with globular cluster systems of previously studied galaxies in terms of luminosity, sizes and color. We establish the presence of globular clusters in the two intermediate to low surface brightness galaxies in our sample and show that their properties do not have any significant deviation from the behavior observed in the other sample galaxies. Our results are broadly consistent with a scenario in which low surface brightness galaxies follow roughly the same evolutionary history as normal (i.e. high surface) brightness galaxies except at a much lower rate, but require the presence of an initial period of star formation intense enough to allow the formation of massive star clusters.
We report the automatic detection of a new sample of very low surface brightness (LSB) galaxies, likely members of the Virgo cluster. We introduce our new software, {tt DeepScan}, that has been designed specifically to detect extended LSB features automatically using the DBSCAN algorithm. We demonstrate the technique by applying it over a 5 degree$^2$ portion of the Next-Generation Virgo Survey (NGVS) data to reveal 53 low surface brightness galaxies that are candidate cluster members based on their sizes and colours. 30 of these sources are new detections despite the region being searched specifically for LSB galaxies previously. Our final sample contains galaxies with $26.0leqlangle mu_{e}rangleleq28.5$ and $19leq m_{g}leq21$, making them some of the faintest known in Virgo. The majority of them have colours consistent with the red sequence, and have a mean stellar mass of $10^{6.3pm0.5} M_{odot}$ assuming cluster membership. After using {tt ProFit} to fit Sersic profiles to our detections, none of the new sources have effective radii larger than 1.5 Kpc and do not meet the criteria for ultra-diffuse galaxy (UDG) classification, so we classify them as ultra-faint dwarfs.
Recent advancements in the imaging of low-surface-brightness objects revealed numerous ultra-diffuse galaxies in the local Universe. These peculiar objects are unusually extended and faint: their effective radii are comparable to the Milky Way, but their surface brightnesses are lower than that of dwarf galaxies. Their ambiguous properties motivate two potential formation scenarios: the failed Milky Way and the dwarf galaxy scenario. In this paper, for the first time, we employ X-ray observations to test these formation scenarios on a sample of isolated, low-surface-brightness galaxies. Since hot gas X-ray luminosities correlate with the dark matter halo mass, failed Milky Way-type galaxies, which reside in massive dark matter halos, are expected to have significantly higher X-ray luminosities than dwarf galaxies, which reside in low-mass dark matter halos. We perform X-ray photometry on a subset of low-surface-brightness galaxies identified in the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru survey, utilizing the XMM-Newton XXL North survey. We find that none of the individual galaxies show significant X-ray emission. By co-adding the signal of individual galaxies, the stacked galaxies remain undetected and we set an X-ray luminosity upper limit of ${L_{rm{0.3-1.2keV}}leq6.2 times 10^{37} (d/65 rm{Mpc})^2 rm{erg s^{-1}}}$ for an average isolated low-surface-brightness galaxy. This upper limit is about 40 times lower than that expected in a galaxy with a massive dark matter halo, implying that the majority of isolated low-surface-brightness galaxies reside in dwarf-size dark matter halos.
We present Keck/DEIMOS spectroscopy of globular clusters (GCs) around the ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs) VLSB-B, VLSB-D, and VCC615 located in the central regions of the Virgo cluster. We spectroscopically identify 4, 12, and 7 GC satellites of these UDGs, respectively. We find that the three UDGs have systemic velocities ($V_{sys}$) consistent with being in the Virgo cluster, and that they span a wide range of velocity dispersions, from $sim 16$ to $sim 47$ km/s, and high dynamical mass-to-light ratios within the radius that contains half the number of GCs ($ 407^{+916}_{-407}$, $21^{+15}_{-11}$, $60^{+65}_{-38}$, respectively). VLSB-D shows possible evidence for rotation along the stellar major axis and its $V_{sys}$ is consistent with that of the massive galaxy M84 and the center of the Virgo cluster itself. These findings, in addition to having a dynamically and spatially ($sim 1$ kpc) off-centered nucleus and being extremely elongated, suggest that VLSB-D could be tidally perturbed. On the contrary, VLSB-B and VCC615 show no signals of tidal deformation. Whereas the dynamics of VLSB-D suggest that it has a less massive dark matter halo than expected for its stellar mass, VLSB-B and VCC615 are consistent with a $sim 10^{12}$ M$_{odot}$ dark matter halo. Although our samples of galaxies and GCs are small, these results suggest that UDGs may be a diverse population, with their low surface brightnesses being the result of very early formation, tidal disruption, or a combination of the two.
Studies of low surface brightness (LSB) galaxies in nearby clusters have revealed a sub-population of extremely diffuse galaxies with central surface brightness $mu_{0,g}$ > 24 mag arcsec$^{-2}$ and effective radius between 1.5 kpc < R$_{e}$ < 10 kpc. The origin of these Ultra Diffuse Galaxies (UDGs) is still unclear, although several theories have been suggested. We exploit the deep g, r and i-band images of the Fornax Deep Survey (FDS), in order to identify LSB galaxies in the center of the Fornax cluster. We identified visually all extended structures having r-band central surface brightness of $mu_{0,r}$ > 23 mag arcsec$^{-2}$. We classified the objects based on their appearance and performed 2D Sersic model fitting with GALFIT. We analyzed their distribution and orientations in the cluster, and studied their colors and compared the LSB galaxies in Fornax with those in other environments. Our sample consists of 205 galaxies of which 196 are LSB dwarfs (with R$_e$ < 1.5kpc) and nine are UDGs (R$_e$ > 1.5 kpc). We show that the UDGs have g-r colors similar to those of LSB dwarfs. The largest UDGs in our sample appear different from the other LSB galaxies, in that they are significantly more elongated and extended, whereas the smaller UDGs differ from the LSB dwarfs only by their effective radii. We do not find clear differences between the structural parameters of the UDGs in our sample and those of UDGs in other galaxy environments. We find that the dwarf LSB galaxies in our sample are less concentrated in the cluster center than the galaxies with higher surface brightness, and that their number density drops in the core of the cluster. Our findings are consistent with the small UDGs forming the tail of a continuous distribution of less extended LSB galaxies. However, the elongated and distorted shapes of the large UDGs could imply that they are tidally disturbed galaxies.