No Arabic abstract
We perform near-infrared photometry of a large sample of 49 superthin edge-on galaxies. These galaxies are selected based on optical photometry because of high radial-to-vertical scale ratio in their stellar disks. The Near Infrared (NIR) H and K observations were conducted with the cryogenic-cooled camera ASTRONIRCAM on the 2.5m telescope at the Caucasus Mountain Observatory of Lomonosov Moscow State University. A majority of galaxies in our sample show comparable or better photometric depth than the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) optical images. We estimate the structural parameters of stellar disks in the galaxies and find that the NIR scale height of stellar disks is comparable to that estimated from the optical, SDSS g, r and i, whereas the H and K scale length of the stellar disks is significantly shorter than in the g, r and i. We investigate if a realistic distribution of dust alone can explain the difference in the scale length and find that in the majority of the galaxies the radial variation of the stellar population is actually responsible for the color distribution. The latter suggests a younger age of the disks periphery, and the inside out building up of stellar disks in the superthin galaxies.
We conduct spectral observations of 138 superthin galaxies (STGs) with high radial-to-vertical stellar disk scales ratio with the Dual Imaging Spectrograph (DIS) on the 3.5m telescope at the Apache Point Observatory (APO) to obtain the ionized gas rotation curves with R ~ 5000 resolution. We also performed near infrared (NIR) H and Ks photometry for 18 galaxies with the NICFPS camera on the 3.5m telescope. The spectra, the NIR photometry and published optical and NIR photometry are used for modeling that utilizes the thickness of the stellar disk and rotation curves simultaneously. The projection and dust extinction effects are taken into account. We evaluate eight models that differ by their free parameters and constraints. As a result, we estimated masses and scale lengths of the galactic dark halos. We find systematic differences between the properties of our red and blue STGs. The blue STGs have a large fraction of dynamically under-evolved galaxies whose vertical velocity dispersion is low in both gas and stellar disks. The dark halo-to-disk scale ratio is shorter in the red STGs than in the blue ones, but in a majority of all STGs this ratio is under 2. The optical color $(r-i)$ of the superthin galaxies correlates with their rotation curve maximum, vertical velocity dispersion in stellar disks, and mass of the dark halo. We conclude that there is a threshold central surface density of 50 $M_{odot}$,pc$^{-2}$ below which we do not observe very thin, rotationally supported galactic disks.
The edge-on galaxy NGC 891 was probed using near-infrared (NIR) imaging polarimetry in the H-band (1.6 um) with the Mimir instrument on the 1.8 m Perkins Telescope. Polarization was detected with signal-to-noise ratio greater than three out to a surface brightness of 18.8 mag arcsec^-2. The unweighted average and dispersion in polarization percentage (P) across the full disk were 0.7% and 0.3%, respectively, and the same quantities for polarization position angle (P.A.) were 12 deg and 19 deg, respectively. At least one polarization null point, where P falls nearly to zero, was detected in the NE disk but not the SW disk. Several other asymmetries in P between the northern and southern disk were found and may be related to spiral structure. Profiles of P and P.A. along the minor axis of NGC 891 suggest a transition from magnetic (B) field tracing dichroic polarization near the disk mid-plane to scattering dominated polarization off the disk mid-plane. A comparison between NIR P.A. and radio (3.6 cm) synchrotron polarization P.A. values revealed similar B-field orientations in the central-northeast region, which suggests that the hot plasma and cold, star-forming interstellar medium may share a common B-field. Disk-perpendicular polarizations previously seen at optical wavelengths are likely caused by scattered light from the bright galaxy center and are unlikely to be tracing poloidal B-fields in the outer disk.
Studies of the stellar and the HI gas kinematics in dwarf and Low Surface Brightness (LSB) galaxies are essential for deriving constraints on their dark matter distribution. Moreover, a key component to unveil in the evolution of LSBs is why some of them can be classified as superthin. We aim to investigate the nature of the proto-typical superthin galaxy Fourcade-Figueroa (FF), to understand the role played by the dark matter halo in forming its superthin shape and to investigate the mechanism that explains the observed disruption in the approaching side of the galaxy. Combining new HI 21-cm observations obtained with the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope with archival data from the Australia Telescope Compact Array we were able to obtain sensitive HI observations of the FF galaxy. These data were modeled with a 3D tilted ring model in order to derive the rotation curve and surface brightness density of the neutral hydrogen. We subsequently used this model, combined with a stellar profile from the literature, to derive the radial distribution of the dark matter in the FF galaxy. For the FF galaxy the Navarro-Frenk-White dark matter distribution provides the best fit to the observed rotation curve. However, the differences with a pseudo-isothermal halo are small. Both models indicate that the core of the dark matter halo is compact. Even though the FF galaxy classifies as superthin, the gas thickness about the galactic centre exhibits a steep flaring of the gas which is in agreement with the edge of the stellar disk. As suggested previously in the literature, the compact dark matter halo might be the main responsible for the superthin structure of the stellar disk in FF. This idea is strengthened through the detection of the mentioned disruption; the fact that the galaxy is disturbed also seems to support the idea that it is not isolation that cause its superthin structure.
We present observational constraints on the stellar populations of two ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs) using optical through near-infrared (NIR) spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting. Our analysis is enabled by new $Spitzer$-IRAC 3.6 $mu$m and 4.5 $mu$m imaging, archival optical imaging, and the prospector fully Bayesian SED fitting framework. Our sample contains one field UDG (DGSAT I), one Virgo cluster UDG (VCC 1287), and one Virgo cluster dwarf elliptical for comparison (VCC 1122). We find that the optical--NIR colors of the three galaxies are significantly different from each other. We infer that VCC 1287 has an old ($gtrsim7.7$ Gyr) and surprisingly metal-poor ($[Z/Z_{odot}]lesssim-1.0$) stellar population, even after marginalizing over uncertainties on diffuse interstellar dust. In contrast, the field UDG DGSAT I shows evidence of being younger than the Virgo UDG, with an extended star formation history and an age posterior extending down to $sim3$ Gyr. The stellar metallicity of DGSAT I is sub-solar but higher than that of the Virgo UDG, with $[Z/Z_{odot}]=-0.63^{+0.35}_{-0.62}$; in the case of exactly zero diffuse interstellar dust, DGSAT I may even have solar metallicity. With VCC 1287 and several Coma UDGs, a general picture is emerging where cluster UDGs may be failed galaxies, but the field UDG DGSAT I seems more consistent with a stellar feedback-induced expansion scenario. In the future, our approach can be applied to a large and diverse sample of UDGs down to faint surface brightness limits, with the goal of constraining their stellar ages, stellar metallicities, and circumstellar and diffuse interstellar dust content.
The formation and evolution of disk-dominated galaxies is difficult to explain, yet these objects exist. We therefore embarked on a study aimed at a better understanding of these enigmatic objects. We used data from the SDSS DR1 in order to identify edge-on galaxies with disks in a uniform, reproducible, automated fashion. We identified 3169 edge-on disk galaxies, which we subdivided into disk galaxies with bulge, intermediate types, and simple disk galaxies without any obvious bulge component. We subdivided these types further into subclasses: Sa(f), Sb(f), Sc(f), Scd(f), Sd(f), Irr(f), where the (f) indicates that these galaxies are seen edge-on. A number of incompleteness effects affect our catalog, but it contains almost a factor of four more bulgeless galaxies with prominent simple disks (flat galaxies) within the area covered here than previous optical catalogs, which were based on the visual selection from photographic plates. We find that approximately 15% of the edge-on disk galaxies in our catalog are flat galaxies, demonstrating that these galaxies are fairly common, especially among intermediate-mass star-forming galaxies. Bulgeless disks account for roughly one third of our galaxies when also puffy disks and edge-on irregulars are included.(Abridged)