No Arabic abstract
We study nine S0-Sb galaxies with (photometric) bulges consisting of two distinct components. The outer component is a flattened, kinematically cool, disklike structure: a disky pseudobulge. Embedded inside is a rounder, kinematically hot spheroid: a classical bulge. This indicates that pseudobulges and classical bulges are not mutually exclusive: some galaxies have both. The disky pseudobulges almost always have an exponential disk (scale lengths = 125-870 pc, mean $sim 440$ pc) with disk-related subcomponents: nuclear rings, bars, and/or spiral arms. They constitute 11-59% of the galaxy stellar mass (mean PB/T = 0.33), with stellar masses $sim 7 times 10^{9}$-$9 times 10^{10} M_{odot}$. Classical-bulge components have Sersic indices of 0.9-2.2, effective radii of 25-430 pc and stellar masses of $5 times 10^{8}$-$3 times 10^{10} M_{odot}$ (usually < 10% of the galaxys stellar mass; mean B/T = 0.06). The classical bulges show rotation, but are kinematically hotter than the disky pseudobulges. Dynamical modeling of three systems indicates that velocity dispersions are isotropic in the classical bulges and equatorially biased in the disky pseudobulges. In the mass--radius and mass--stellar mass density planes, classical-bulge components follow sequences defined by ellipticals and (larger) classical bulges. Disky pseudobulges also fall on this sequence; they are more compact than similar-mass large-scale disks. Although some classical bulges are quite compact, they are distinct from nuclear star clusters in both size and mass, and coexist with nuclear clusters in at least two galaxies. Since almost all the galaxies in this study are barred, they probably also host boxy/peanut-shaped bulges (vertically thickened inner parts of bars). NGC 3368 shows evidence for such a zone outside its disky pseudobulge, making it a galaxy with all three types of bulge.
We present detailed morphological, photometric, and stellar-kinematic analyses of the central regions of two massive, early-type barred galaxies with nearly identical large-scale morphologies. Both have large, strong bars with prominent inner photome
S0 galaxies are known to host classical bulges with a broad range of size and mass, while some such S0s are barred and some not. The origin of the bars has remained as a long-standing problem -- what made bar formation possible in certain S0s? By analysing a large sample of S0s with classical bulges observed by the Spitzer space telescope, we find that most of our barred S0s host comparatively low-mass classical bulges, typically with bulge-to-total ratio ($B/T$) less than $0.5$; whereas S0s with more massive classical bulges than these do not host any bar. Furthermore, we find that amongst the barred S0s, there is a trend for the longer and massive bars to be associated with comparatively bigger and massive classical bulges -- possibly suggesting bar growth being facilitated by these classical bulges. In addition, we find that the bulge effective radius is always less than the bar effective radius --indicating an interesting synergy between the host classical bulge and bars being maintained while bar growth occurred in these S0s.
The mass estimator used to calculate black hole (BH) masses in broad-line active galactic nuclei (AGNs) relies on a virial coefficient (the $f$ factor) that is determined by comparing reverberation-mapped (RM) AGNs with measured bulge stellar velocity dispersions against the $M_{rm BH}-sigma_*$ relation of inactive galaxies. It has recently been recognized that only classical bulges and ellipticals obey a tight $M_{rm BH}-sigma_*$ relation; pseudobulges have a different zero point and much larger scatter. Motivated by these developments, we reevaluate the $f$ factor for RM AGNs with available $sigma_*$ measurements, updated H$beta$ RM lags, and new bulge classifications based on detailed decomposition of high-resolution ground-based and space-based images. Separate calibrations are provided for the two bulge types, whose virial coefficients differ by a factor of $sim 2$: $f=6.3pm1.5$ for classical bulges and ellipticals and $f = 3.2pm0.7$ for pseudobulges. The structure and kinematics of the broad-line region, at least as crudely encoded in the $f$ factor, seems to related to the large-scale properties or formation history of the bulge. Lastly, we investigate the bulge stellar masses of the RM AGNs, show evidence for recent star formation in the AGN hosts that correlates with Eddington ratio, and discuss the potential utility of the $M_{rm BH}-M_{rm bulge}$ relation as a more promising alternative to the conventionally used $M_{rm BH}-sigma_*$ relation for future refinement of the virial mass estimator for AGNs.
We study the effects of bulge elongation on the star formation activity in the centers of spiral galaxies using the data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7. We construct a volume-limited sample of face-on spiral galaxies with $M_r < -$19.5 mag at 0.02 $leq z <$ 0.055 by excluding barred galaxies, where the aperture of the SDSS spectroscopic fibre covers the bulges of the galaxies. We adopt the ellipticity of bulges measured by Simard et al. (2011) who performed two-dimensional bulge+disc decompositions using the SDSS images of galaxies, and identify nuclear starbursts using the fibre specific star formation rates derived from the SDSS spectra. We find a statistically significant correlation between bulge elongation and nuclear starbursts in the sense that the fraction of nuclear starbursts increases with bulge elongation. This correlation is more prominent for fainter and redder galaxies, which exhibit higher ratios of elongated bulges. We find no significant environmental dependence of the correlation between bulge elongation and nuclear starbursts. These results suggest that non-axisymmetric bulges can efficiently feed the gas into the centre of galaxies to trigger nuclear starburst activity.
The stellar populations in the bulges of S0s, together with the galaxies dynamics, masses and globular clusters, contain very interesting clues about their formation. I present here recent evidence suggesting that S0s are the descendants of fading spirals whose star formation ceased.