No Arabic abstract
The classification of galaxy mergers and isolated disks is key for understanding the relative importance of galaxy interactions and secular evolution during the assembly of galaxies. The kinematic properties of galaxies as traced by emission lines have been used to suggest the existence of a significant population of high-z star-forming galaxies consistent with isolated rotating disks. However, recent studies have cautioned that post-coalescence mergers may also display disk-like kinematics. To further investigate the robustness of merger/disk classifications based on kinematic properties, we carry out a systematic classification of 24 local (U)LIRGs spanning a range of galaxy morphologies: from isolated spiral galaxies, ongoing interacting systems, to fully merged remnants. We artificially redshift the WiFeS observations of these local (U)LIRGs to z=1.5 to make a realistic comparison with observations at high-z, and also to ensure that all galaxies have the same spatial sampling of ~900 pc. Using both kinemetry-based and visual classifications, we find that the reliability of kinematic classification shows a strong trend with the interaction stage of galaxies. Mergers with two nuclei and tidal tails have the most distinct kinematic properties compared to isolated disks, whereas a significant population of the interacting disks and merger remnants are indistinguishable from isolated disks. The high fraction of late-stage mergers showing disk-like kinematics reflects the complexity of the dynamics during galaxy interactions. However, the exact fractions of misidentified disks and mergers depend on the definition of kinematic asymmetries and the classification threshold when using kinemetry-based classifications. Our results suggest that additional indicators such as morphologies traced by stars or molecular gas are required to further constrain the merger/disk classifications at high-z.
Classifications on the DDO system are given for the host galaxies of 177 supernovae (SNe) that have been discovered since 1997 during the course of the Lick Observatory Supernova Search with the Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope. Whereas SNe Ia occur in all galaxy types, it is found, at a high level of statistical confidence, that SNe Ib, Ic, and II are strongly concentrated in late-type galaxies. However, attention is drawn to a possible exception provided by SN 2001I. This SN IIn occurred in the E2 galaxy UGC 2836, which was not expected to harbor a massive young supernova progenitor.
We present the data release paper for the Galaxy Zoo: Hubble (GZH) project. This is the third phase in a large effort to measure reliable, detailed morphologies of galaxies by using crowdsourced visual classifications of colour composite images. Images in GZH were selected from various publicly-released Hubble Space Telescope Legacy programs conducted with the Advanced Camera for Surveys, with filters that probe the rest-frame optical emission from galaxies out to $z sim 1$. The bulk of the sample is selected to have $m_{I814W} < 23.5$,but goes as faint as $m_{I814W} < 26.8$ for deep images combined over 5 epochs. The median redshift of the combined samples is $z = 0.9 pm 0.6$, with a tail extending out to $z sim 4$. The GZH morphological data include measurements of both bulge- and disk-dominated galaxies, details on spiral disk structure that relate to the Hubble type, bar identification, and numerous measurements of clump identification and geometry. This paper also describes a new method for calibrating morphologies for galaxies of different luminosities and at different redshifts by using artificially-redshifted galaxy images as a baseline. The GZH catalogue contains both raw and calibrated morphological vote fractions for 119,849 galaxies, providing the largest dataset to date suitable for large-scale studies of galaxy evolution out to $z sim 1$.
Important but rare and subtle processes driving galaxy morphology and star-formation may be missed by traditional spiral, elliptical, irregular or Sersic bulge/disk classifications. To overcome this limitation, we use a principal component analysis of non-parametric morphological indicators (concentration, asymmetry, Gini coefficient, $M_{20}$, multi-mode, intensity and deviation) measured at rest-frame $B$-band (corresponding to HST/WFC3 F125W at 1.4 $< z <$ 2) to trace the natural distribution of massive ($>10^{10} M_{odot}$) galaxy morphologies. Principal component analysis (PCA) quantifies the correlations between these morphological indicators and determines the relative importance of each. The first three principal components (PCs) capture $sim$75 per cent of the variance inherent to our sample. We interpret the first principal component (PC) as bulge strength, the second PC as dominated by concentration and the third PC as dominated by asymmetry. Both PC1 and PC2 correlate with the visual appearance of a central bulge and predict galaxy quiescence. PC1 is a better predictor of quenching than stellar mass, as as good as other structural indicators (Sersic-n or compactness). We divide the PCA results into groups using an agglomerative hierarchical clustering method. Unlike Sersic, this classification scheme separates compact galaxies from larger, smooth proto-elliptical systems, and star-forming disk-dominated clumpy galaxies from star-forming bulge-dominated asymmetric galaxies. Distinguishing between these galaxy structural types in a quantitative manner is an important step towards understanding the connections between morphology, galaxy assembly and star-formation.
Classifications on the DDO system are given for an additional 231 host galaxies of supernovae that have been discovered during the course of the Lick Observatory Supernova Search with the Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope (KAIT). This brings the total number of hosts of supernovae discovered (or independently rediscovered) by KAIT, which have so far been classified on a homogeneous system, to 408. The probability that SNe Ia and SNe II have a different distribution of host galaxy Hubble types is found to be 99.7%. A significant difference is also found between the distributions of the host galaxies of SNe Ia and of SNe Ibc (defined here to include SNe Ib, Ib/c, and Ic). However, no significant difference is detected between the frequency distributions of the host galaxies of SNe II and SNe IIn. This suggests that SNe IIn are generally not SNe Ia embedded in circumstellar material that are masquerading as SNe II. Furthermore, no significant difference is found between the distribution of the Hubble types of the hosts of SNe Ibc and of SNe II. Additionally, SNe II-P and SNe II-L are found to occur among similar stellar populations. The ratio of the number of SNe Ia-pec to normal SNe Ia appears to be higher in early-type galaxies than it is in galaxies of later morphological types. This suggests that the ancestors of SNe Ia-pec may differ systematically in age or composition from the progenitors of normal SNe Ia. Unexpectedly, five SNe of Types Ib/c, II, and IIn (all of which are thought to have massive progenitors) are found in host galaxies that are nominally classified as types E and S0. However, in each case the galaxy classification is uncertain, or newly inspected images show evidence suggesting a later classification (abridged) ...
A homogeneous sample comprising host galaxies of 604 recent supernovae, including 212 objects discovered primarily in 2003 and 2004, has been classified on the David Dunlap Observatory system. Most SN 1991bg-like SNe Ia occur in E and E/Sa galaxies, whereas the majority of SN 1991T-like SNe Ia occur in intermediate-type galaxies. This difference is significant at the 99.9% level. As expected, all types of SNe II are rare in early-type galaxies, whereas normal SNe Ia occur in all Hubble types. This difference is significant at the 99.99% level. A small number of SNe II in E galaxies might be due to galaxy classification errors, or to a small young-population component in these mainly old objects. No significant difference is found between the distributions over Hubble type of SNe Ibc and SNe II. This confirms that both of these types of objects have similar (massive) progenitors. The present data show that, in order to understand the dependence of supernova type on host-galaxy population, it is more important to obtain accurate morphological classifications than it is to increase the size of the data sample.