The Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) detected ultraviolet emission in about 50% of multi-spin early-type galaxies (ETGs), suggesting the occurrence of a recent rejuvenation episode connected to the formation of these kinematical features. With the a
im at investigating the complex evolutionary scenario leading to the formation of counter rotating ETGs (CR-ETGs) we use our Smooth Particle Hydrodynamic (SPH) code with chemo-photometric implementation. We discuss here the UV evolutionary path of two CR-ETGs, NGC 3593 and NGC 5173, concurrently best fitting their global observed properties, i.e., morphology, dynamics, as well as their total B-band absolute magnitude and spectral energy distribution (SED) extended over three orders of magnitude in wavelength. These simulations correspond to our predictions about the target evolution which we follow in the color-magnitude diagram (CMD), near-UV (NUV) versus r-band absolute magnitude, as a powerful diagnostic tool to emphasize rejuvenation episodes.
We present first results from our study of the properties of ~400 low redshift (z < 0.5) quasars, based on a large homogeneous dataset derived from the Stripe 82 area of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 7 (DR7). For this sky region, d
eep (r~22.4) u,g,r,i,z images are available, up to ~2 mag deeper than standard SDSS images, allowing us to study both the host galaxies and the Mpc-scale environments of the quasars. This sample greatly outnumbers previous studies of low redshift quasar hosts, from the ground or from space. Here we report the preliminary results for the quasar host galaxies. We are able to resolve the host galaxy in ~80 % of the quasars. The quasar hosts are luminous and large, the majority of them in the range between M*-1 and M*-2, and with ~10 kpc galaxy scale-lengths. Almost half of the host galaxies are best fit with an exponential disk, while the rest are spheroid-dominated. There is a reasonable relation between the central black hole mass and the host galaxy luminosity.
We quantify the evolution of the spiral, S0 and elliptical fractions in galaxy clusters as a function of cluster velocity dispersion ($sigma$) and X-ray luminosity ($L_X$) using a new database of 72 nearby clusters from the WIde-Field Nearby Galaxy-c
luster Survey (WINGS) combined with literature data at $z=0.5-1.2$. Most WINGS clusters have $sigma$ between 500 and 1100 $rm km s^{-1}$, and $L_X$ between 0.2 and $5 times 10^{44} rm erg/s$. The S0 fraction in clusters is known to increase with time at the expense of the spiral population. We find that the spiral and S0 fractions have evolved more strongly in lower $sigma$, less massive clusters, while we confirm that the proportion of ellipticals has remained unchanged. Our results demonstrate that morphological evolution since $z=1$ is not confined to massive clusters, but is actually more pronounced in low mass clusters, and therefore must originate either from secular (intrinsic) evolution and/or from environmental mechanisms that act preferentially in low-mass environments, or both in low- and high-mass systems. We also find that the evolution of the spiral fraction perfectly mirrors the evolution of the fraction of star-forming galaxies. Interestingly, at low-z the spiral fraction anticorrelates with $L_X$. Conversely, no correlation is observed with $sigma$. Given that both $sigma$ and $L_X$ are tracers of the cluster mass, these results pose a challenge for current scenarios of morphological evolution in clusters.
