No Arabic abstract
Observational parameters which can be used for redshift-independent distance determination using the Tully-Fisher (TF) technique are given for 782 spiral galaxies in the fields of 24 clusters or groups. I band photometry for the full sample was either obtained by us or compiled from published literature. Rotational velocities are derived either from 21 cm spectra or optical emission line long--slit spectra, and converted to a homogeneous scale. In addition to presenting the data, a discussion of the various sources of error on TF parameters is introduced, and the criteria for the assignment of membership to each cluster are given. The construction of a TF template, bias corrections and cluster motions are discussed in an accompanying paper.
Infrared I band photometry and velocity widths for galaxies in 24 clusters, with radial velocities between 1,000 and 10,000 kms, are used to construct a template Tully--Fisher (TF) relation. The sources of scatter in the TF diagram are analyzed in detail; it is shown that the common practice of referring to a single figure of TF scatter is incorrect and can lead to erroneous bias corrections. Biases resulting from sample incompleteness, catalog inaccuracies, cluster size and other sources, as well as dependences of TF parameters on morphological type and local environment, are discussed and appropriate corrections are obtained. A template TF relation is constructed by combining the data from the 24 clusters, and kinematic cluster offsets from a putative reference frame which well approximates null velocity with respect to the cosmic microwave background, are obtained.
We have measured maximum rotation velocities (Vrot) for a sample of 111 emission-line galaxies with 0.1 < z < 1, observed in the fields of 6 clusters. From these data we construct matched samples of 58 field and 22 cluster galaxies, covering similar ranges in redshift (0.25 < z < 1.0) and luminosity (M_B < -19.5 mag), and selected in a homogeneous manner. We find the distributions of M_B, Vrot, and scalelength, to be very similar for the two samples. However, using the Tully-Fisher relation (TFR) we find that cluster galaxies are systematically offset with respect to the field sample by -0.7+-0.2 mag. This offset is significant at 3 sigma and persists when we account for an evolution of the field TFR with redshift. Extensive tests are performed to investigate potential differences between the measured emission lines and derived rotation curves of the cluster and field samples. However, no such differences which could affect the derived Vrot values and account for the offset are found. The most likely explanation for the TFR offset is that giant spiral galaxies in distant clusters are on average brighter, for a given rotation velocity, than those in the field. We discuss the potential mechanisms responsible for this, and consider alternative explanations.
We present a study of the local B and K-band Tully-Fisher Relation (TFR) between absolute magnitude and maximum circular speed in S0 galaxies. To make this study, we have combined kinematic data, including a new high-quality spectral data set from the Fornax Cluster, with homogeneous photometry from the RC3 and 2MASS catalogues, to construct the largest sample of S0 galaxies ever used in a study of the TFR. Independent of environment, S0 galaxies are found to lie systematically below the TFR for nearby spirals in both optical and infrared bands. This offset can be crudely interpreted as arising from the luminosity evolution of spiral galaxies that have faded since ceasing star formation. However, we also find a large scatter in the TFR. We show that most of this scatter is intrinsic, not due to the observational uncertainties. The presence of such a large scatter means that the population of S0 galaxies cannot have formed exclusively by the above simple fading mechanism after all transforming at a single epoch. To better understand the complexity of the transformation mechanism, we have searched for correlations between the offset from the TFR and other properties of the galaxies such as their structural properties, central velocity dispersions and ages (as estimated from line indices). For the Fornax Cluster data, the offset from the TFR relates with the estimated age of the stars in the individual galaxies, in the sense and of the magnitude expected if S0 galaxies had passively faded since being converted from spirals. This correlation implies that a significant part of the scatter in the TFR arises from the different times at which galaxies began their transformation.
We examine the evolution of the Tully-Fisher relation (TFR) using a sample of 89 field spirals, with 0.1 < z < 1, for which we have measured confident rotation velocities (Vrot). By plotting the residuals from the local TFR versus redshift, or alternatively fitting the TFR to our data in several redshift bins, we find evidence that luminous spiral galaxies are increasingly offset from the local TFR with redshift, reaching a brightening of -1.0+-0.5 mag, for a given Vrot, by approximately z = 1. Since selection effects would generally increase the fraction of intrinsically-bright galaxies at higher redshifts, we argue that the observed evolution is probably an upper limit. Previous studies have used an observed correlation between the TFR residuals and Vrot to argue that low mass galaxies have evolved significantly more than those with higher mass. However, we demonstrate that such a correlation may exist purely due to an intrinsic coupling between the Vrot scatter and TFR residuals, acting in combination with the TFR scatter and restrictions on the magnitude range of the data, and therefore it does not necessarily indicate a physical difference in the evolution of galaxies with different Vrot. Finally, if we interpret the luminosity evolution derived from the TFR as due to the evolution of the star formation rate (SFR) in these luminous spiral galaxies, we find that SFR(z) is proportional to (1+z)^(1.7+-1.1), slower than commonly derived for the overall field galaxy population. This suggests that the rapid evolution in the SFR density of the universe observed since approximately z = 1 is not driven by the evolution of the SFR in individual bright spiral galaxies. (Abridged.)
We present new long-slit Halpha spectroscopy for 403 non-interacting spiral galaxies, obtained at the Palomar Observatory 5 m Hale telescope, which is used to derive well-sampled optical rotation curves. Because many of the galaxies show optical emission features which are significantly extended along the spectrograph slit, a technique was devised to separate and subtract the night sky lines from the galaxy emission. We exploit a functional fit to the rotation curve to identify its center of symmetry; this method minimizes the asymmetry in the final, folded rotation curve. We derive rotational widths using both velocity histograms and the Polyex model fit. The final rotational width is measured at a radius containing 83% of the total light as derived from I-band images. In addition to presenting the new data, we use a large sample of 742 galaxies for which both optical long-slit and radio HI line spectroscopy are available to investigate the relation between the HI content of the disks and the extent of their rotation curves. Our results show that the correlation between those quantities, which is well-established in the case of HI-poor galaxies in clusters, is present also in HI-normal objects: for a given optical size, star formation can be traced further out in the disks of galaxies with larger HI mass.