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Massive star formation in the central regions of spiral galaxies
Context: . The morphology of massive star formation in the centralregions of galaxies is an important tracer of the dynamical processesthat govern the evolution of disk, bulge, and nuclear activity. Aims. Wepresent optical imaging of the central regions of a sample of 73 spiralgalaxies in the Hα line and in optical broad bands, and deriveinformation on the morphology of massive star formation. Methods. Weobtained images with the William Herschel Telescope, mostly at a spatialresolution of below one second of arc. For most galaxies, no Hαimaging is available in the literature. We outline the observing anddata reduction procedures, list basic properties, and present the I-bandand continuum-subtracted Hα images. We classify the morphology ofthe nuclear and circumnuclear Hα emission and explore trends withhost galaxy parameters. Results. We confirm that late-type galaxies havea patchy circumnuclear appearance in Hα, and that nuclear ringsoccur primarily in spiral types Sa-Sbc. We identify a number ofpreviously unknown nuclear rings, and confirm that nuclear rings arepredominantly hosted by barred galaxies. Conclusions. Other than instimulating nuclear rings, bars do not influence the relative strengthof the nuclear Hα peak, nor the circumnuclear Hα morphology.Even considering that our selection criteria led to an over-abundance ofgalaxies with close massive companions, we do not find any significantinfluence of the presence or absence of a close companion on therelative strength of the nuclear Hα peak, nor on the Hαmorphology around the nucleus.
| Double-barred galaxies. I. A catalog of barred galaxies with stellar secondary bars and inner disks
I present a catalog of 67 barred galaxies which contain distinct,elliptical stellar structures inside their bars. Fifty of these aredouble-barred galaxies: a small-scale, inner or secondary bar isembedded within a large-scale, outer or primary bar. I providehomogenized measurements of the sizes, ellipticities, and orientationsof both inner and outer bars, along with global parameters for thegalaxies. The other 17 are classified as inner-disk galaxies, where alarge-scale bar harbors an inner elliptical structure which is alignedwith the galaxy's outer disk. Four of the double-barred galaxies alsopossess inner disks, located in between the inner and outer bars. Whilethe inner-disk classification is ad-hoc - and undoubtedly includes someinner bars with chance alignments (five such probable cases areidentified) - there is good evidence that inner disks form astatistically distinct population, and that at least some are indeeddisks rather than bars. In addition, I list 36 galaxies which may bedouble-barred, but for which current observations are ambiguous orincomplete, and another 23 galaxies which have been previously suggestedas potentially being double-barred, but which are probably not. Falsedouble-bar identifications are usually due to features such as nuclearrings and spirals being misclassified as bars; I provide someillustrated examples of how this can happen.A detailed statistical analysis of the general population of double-barand inner-disk galaxies, as represented by this catalog, will bepresented in a companion paper.Tables \ref{tab:measured} and \ref{tab:deproj} are only available inelectronic form at http://www.edpsciences.org
| Circumnuclear Dust in Nearby Active and Inactive Galaxies. II. Bars, Nuclear Spirals, and the Fueling of Active Galactic Nuclei
We present a detailed study of the relation between circumnuclear dustmorphology, host-galaxy properties, and nuclear activity in nearbygalaxies. We use our sample of 123 nearby galaxies withvisible-near-infrared color maps from the Hubble Space Telescope tocreate well-matched, ``paired'' samples of 28 active and 28 inactivegalaxies, as well as 19 barred and 19 unbarred galaxies, that have thesame host-galaxy properties. Comparison of the barred and unbarredgalaxies shows that grand-design nuclear dust spirals are found only ingalaxies with a large-scale bar. These nuclear dust spirals, which arepresent in approximately one-third of all barred galaxies, also appearto be connected to the dust lanes along the leading edges of thelarge-scale bars. Grand-design nuclear spirals are more common thaninner rings, which are present in only a small minority of the barredgalaxies. Tightly wound nuclear dust spirals, in contrast, show a strongtendency to avoid galaxies with large-scale bars. Comparison of theactive galactic nuclei (AGNs)and inactive samples shows that nucleardust spirals, which may trace shocks and angular momentum dissipation inthe interstellar medium, occur with comparable frequency in both activeand inactive galaxies. The only difference between the active andinactive galaxies is that several inactive galaxies appear to completelylack dust structure in their circumnuclear region, while none of theAGNs lack this structure. The comparable frequency of nuclear spirals inactive and inactive galaxies, combined with previous work that finds nosignificant difference in the frequency of bars or interactions betweenwell-matched active and inactive galaxies, suggests that no universalfueling mechanism for low-luminosity AGNs operates at spatial scalesgreater than a ~100 pc radius from the galactic nuclei. The similaritiesof the circumnuclear environments of active and inactive galaxiessuggest that the lifetime of nuclear activity is less than thecharacteristic inflow time from these spatial scales. Anorder-of-magnitude estimate of this inflow time is the dynamicaltimescale. This sets an upper limit of several million years to thelifetime of an individual episode of nuclear activity.Based on observations with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope obtainedat the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by theAssociation of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASAcontract NAS5-26555.
| Do bulges of early- and late-type spirals have different morphology?
We study HST/NICMOS H-band images of bulges of two equal-sized samplesof early- (TRC3 <= 3) and late-type spiral (mainly Sbc-Sc)galaxies matched in outer disk axis ratio. We find that bulges oflate-type spirals are more elongated than their counterparts inearly-type spirals. Using a KS-test we find that the two distributionsare different at the 98.4% confidence level. We conclude that the twodata sets are different, i.e. late-type galaxies have a broaderellipticity distribution and contain more elongated features in theinner regions. We discuss the possibility that these would correspond tobars at a later evolutionary stage, i.e. secularly evolved bars.Consequent implications are raised, and we discuss relevant questionsregarding the formation and structure of bulges. Are bulges ofearly-type and late-type spirals different? Are their formationscenarios different? Can we talk about bulges in the same way fordifferent types of galaxies?
| Nested and Single Bars in Seyfert and Non-Seyfert Galaxies
We analyze the observed properties of nested and single stellar barsystems in disk galaxies. The 112 galaxies in our sample comprise thelargest matched Seyfert versus non-Seyfert galaxy sample of nearbygalaxies with complete near-infrared or optical imaging sensitive tolength scales ranging from tens of parsecs to tens of kiloparsecs. Thepresence of bars is deduced by fitting ellipses to isophotes in HubbleSpace Telescope (HST) H-band images up to 10" radius and in ground-basednear-infrared and optical images outside the H-band images. This is aconservative approach that is likely to result in an underestimate ofthe true bar fraction. We find that a significant fraction of the samplegalaxies, 17%+/-4%, have more than one bar, and that 28%+/-5% of barredgalaxies have nested bars. The bar fractions appear to be stableaccording to reasonable changes in our adopted bar criteria. For thenested bars, we detect a clear division in length between thelarge-scale (primary) bars and small-scale (secondary) bars, in bothabsolute and normalized (to the size of the galaxy) length. We arguethat this bimodal distribution can be understood within the framework ofdisk resonances, specifically the inner Lindblad resonances (ILRs),which are located where the gravitational potential of the innermostgalaxy switches effectively from three-dimensional to two-dimensional.This conclusion is further strengthened by the observed distribution ofthe sizes of nuclear rings which are dynamically associated with theILRs. While primary bar sizes are found to correlate with the hostgalaxy sizes, no such correlation is observed for the secondary bars.Moreover, we find that secondary bars differ morphologically from singlebars. Our matched Seyfert and non-Seyfert samples show a statisticallysignificant excess of bars among the Seyfert galaxies at practically alllength scales. We confirm our previous results that bars are moreabundant in Seyfert hosts than in non-Seyfert galaxies and that Seyfertgalaxies always show a preponderance of ``thick'' bars compared to thebars in non-Seyfert galaxies. Finally, no correlation is observedbetween the presence of a bar and that of companion galaxies, evenrelatively bright ones. Overall, since star formation and dustextinction can be significant even in the H band, the stellar dynamicsof the central kiloparsec cannot always be revealed reliably by the useof near-infrared surface photometry alone.
| Bar Galaxies and Their Environments
The prints of the Palomar Sky Survey, luminosity classifications, andradial velocities were used to assign all northern Shapley-Ames galaxiesto either (1) field, (2) group, or (3) cluster environments. Thisinformation for 930 galaxies shows no evidence for a dependence of barfrequency on galaxy environment. This suggests that the formation of abar in a disk galaxy is mainly determined by the properties of theparent galaxy, rather than by the characteristics of its environment.
| The Multitude of Unresolved Continuum Sources at 1.6 Microns in Hubble Space Telescope Images of Seyfert Galaxies
We examine 112 Seyfert galaxies observed by the Hubble Space Telescopeat 1.6 μm. We find that ~50% of the Seyfert 2.0 galaxies which arepart of the Revised Shapely-Ames (RSA) Catalog or the CfA redshiftsample contain unresolved continuum sources at 1.6 μm. All but acouple of the Seyfert 1.0-1.9 galaxies display unresolved continuumsources. The unresolved sources have fluxes of order 1 mJy,near-infrared luminosities of order 1041 ergs s-1,and absolute magnitudes MH~-16. Comparison non-Seyfertgalaxies from the RSA Catalog display significantly fewer (~20%),somewhat lower luminosity nuclear sources, which could be due to compactstar clusters. We find that the luminosities of the unresolved Seyfert1.0-1.9 sources at 1.6 μm are correlated with [O III] λ5007and hard X-ray luminosities, implying that these sources are nonstellar.Assuming a spectral energy distribution similar to that of a Seyfert 2galaxy, we estimate that a few percent of local spiral galaxies containblack holes emitting as Seyferts at a moderate fraction,~10-1-10-4, of their Eddington luminosities. Wefind no strong correlation between 1.6 μm fluxes and hard X-ray or [OIII] λ5007 fluxes for the pure Seyfert 2.0 galaxies. Thesegalaxies also tend to have lower 1.6 μm luminosities compared to theSeyfert 1.0-1.9 galaxies of similar [O III] luminosity. Either largeextinctions (AV~20-40) are present toward theircontinuum-emitting regions or some fraction of the unresolved sources at1.6 μm are compact star clusters. With increasing Seyfert type thefraction of unresolved sources detected at 1.6 μm and the ratio of1.6 μm to [O III] fluxes tend to decrease. These trends areconsistent with the unification model for Seyfert 1 and 2 galaxies.
| Homogenization of the Stellar Population along Late-Type Spiral Galaxies
We present a study of the broadband UBV color profiles for 257 Sbcbarred and nonbarred galaxies, using photoelectric aperture photometrydata from the literature. Using robust statistical methods, we haveestimated the color gradients of the galaxies, as well as the total andbulge mean colors. A comparative photometric study using CCD images wasdone. In our sample, the color gradients are negative (reddish inward)in approximately 59% of the objects, are almost null in 27%, and arepositive in 14%, considering only the face-on galaxies, which representapproximately 51% of the sample. The results do not change, essentially,when we include the edge-on galaxies. As a consequence of this study wehave also found that barred galaxies are overrepresented among theobjects having null or positive gradients, indicating that bars act as amechanism of homogenization of the stellar population. This effect ismore evident in the U-B color index, although it can also be detected inthe B-V color. A correlation between the total and bulge colors wasfound that is a consequence of an underlying correlation between thecolors of bulges and disks found by other authors. Moreover, the meantotal color is the same irrespective of the gradient regime, whilebulges are bluer in galaxies with null or positive gradients, whichindicates an increase of the star formation rate in the central regionsof these objects. We have also made a quantitative evaluation of theamount of extinction in the center of these galaxies. This was doneusing the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) and the Near InfraredCamera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) Hubble Space Telescope(HST) archival data, as well as CCD B, V, and I images. We show thatalthough the extinction in the V-band can reach values up to 2 mag inthe central region, it is unlikely that dust plays a fundamental role inglobal color gradients. We found no correlation between color and O/Habundance gradients. This result could suggest that the color gradientsare more sensitive to the age rather than to the metallicity of thestellar population. However, the absence of this correlation may becaused by dust extinction. We discuss this result by considering apicture in which bars are a relatively fast, recurrent phenomenon. Theseresults are not compatible with a pure classical monolithic scenario forbulge and disk formation. On the contrary, they favor a scenario inwhich both these components are evolving in a correlated process inwhich stellar bars play a crucial role. Based partly on observationsmade at the Pico dos Dias Observatory (PDO/LNA-CNPq), Brazil.
| Nearby Optical Galaxies: Selection of the Sample and Identification of Groups
In this paper we describe the Nearby Optical Galaxy (NOG) sample, whichis a complete, distance-limited (cz<=6000 km s-1) andmagnitude-limited (B<=14) sample of ~7000 optical galaxies. Thesample covers 2/3 (8.27 sr) of the sky (|b|>20deg) andappears to have a good completeness in redshift (97%). We select thesample on the basis of homogenized corrected total blue magnitudes inorder to minimize systematic effects in galaxy sampling. We identify thegroups in this sample by means of both the hierarchical and thepercolation ``friends-of-friends'' methods. The resulting catalogs ofloose groups appear to be similar and are among the largest catalogs ofgroups currently available. Most of the NOG galaxies (~60%) are found tobe members of galaxy pairs (~580 pairs for a total of ~15% of objects)or groups with at least three members (~500 groups for a total of ~45%of objects). About 40% of galaxies are left ungrouped (field galaxies).We illustrate the main features of the NOG galaxy distribution. Comparedto previous optical and IRAS galaxy samples, the NOG provides a densersampling of the galaxy distribution in the nearby universe. Given itslarge sky coverage, the identification of groups, and its high-densitysampling, the NOG is suited to the analysis of the galaxy density fieldof the nearby universe, especially on small scales.
| Arcsecond Positions of UGC Galaxies
We present accurate B1950 and J2000 positions for all confirmed galaxiesin the Uppsala General Catalog (UGC). The positions were measuredvisually from Digitized Sky Survey images with rms uncertaintiesσ<=[(1.2")2+(θ/100)2]1/2,where θ is the major-axis diameter. We compared each galaxymeasured with the original UGC description to ensure high reliability.The full position list is available in the electronic version only.
| Disk Galaxies in the Outer Local Supercluster: Optical CCD Surface Photometry and Distribution of Galaxy Disk Parameters
We report new B-band CCD surface photometry on a sample of 76 diskgalaxies brighter than B_T = 14.5 mag in the Uppsala General Catalogueof Galaxies that are confined within a volume located in the outer partof the Local Supercluster. With our earlier published I-band CCD andhigh signal-to-noise ratio 21 cm H I data, this paper completes ouroptical surface photometry campaign on this galaxy sample. As anapplication of this data set, the B-band photometry is used here toillustrate two selection effects that have been somewhat overlooked inthe literature but that may be important in deriving the distributionfunction of disk central surface brightness (CSB) of disk galaxies froma diameter- and/or flux-limited sample: a Malmquist-type bias againstdisk galaxies with small disk scale lengths (DSLs) at a given CSB and adisk inclination-dependent selection effect that may, for example, biastoward inclined disks near the threshold of a diameter-limited selectionif disks are not completely opaque in the optical. Taking intoconsideration these selection effects, we present a method ofconstructing a volume-sampling function and a way to interpret thederived distribution function of CSB and DSL. Application of this methodto our galaxy sample implies that if galaxy disks are optically thin,CSB and DSL may well be correlated in the sense that, up to aninclination-corrected limiting CSB of about 24.5 mag arcsec^-2 that isadequately probed by our galaxy sample, the DSL distribution of galaxieswith a lower CSB may have a longer tail toward large values unless thedistribution of disk galaxies as a function of CSB rises rapidly towardfaint values.
| Bulge-Disk Decomposition of 659 Spiral and Lenticular Galaxy Brightness Profiles
We present one of the largest homogeneous sets of spiral and lenticulargalaxy brightness profile decompositions completed to date. The 659galaxies in our sample have been fitted with a de Vaucouleurs law forthe bulge component and an inner-truncated exponential for the diskcomponent. Of the 659 galaxies in the sample, 620 were successfullyfitted with the chosen fitting functions. The fits are generally welldefined, with more than 90% having rms deviations from the observedprofile of less than 0.35 mag. We find no correlations of fittingquality, as measured by these rms residuals, with either morphologicaltype or inclination. Similarly, the estimated errors of the fittedcoefficients show no significant trends with type or inclination. Thesedecompositions form a useful basis for the study of the lightdistributions of spiral and lenticular galaxies. The object base issufficiently large that well-defined samples of galaxies can be selectedfrom it.
| Total magnitude, radius, colour indices, colour gradients and photometric type of galaxies
We present a catalogue of aperture photometry of galaxies, in UBVRI,assembled from three different origins: (i) an update of the catalogueof Buta et al. (1995) (ii) published photometric profiles and (iii)aperture photometry performed on CCD images. We explored different setsof growth curves to fit these data: (i) The Sersic law, (ii) The net ofgrowth curves used for the preparation of the RC3 and (iii) A linearinterpolation between the de Vaucouleurs (r(1/4) ) and exponential laws.Finally we adopted the latter solution. Fitting these growth curves, wederive (1) the total magnitude, (2) the effective radius, (3) the colourindices and (4) gradients and (5) the photometric type of 5169 galaxies.The photometric type is defined to statistically match the revisedmorphologic type and parametrizes the shape of the growth curve. It iscoded from -9, for very concentrated galaxies, to +10, for diffusegalaxies. Based in part on observations collected at the Haute-ProvenceObservatory.
| The Fueling of Nuclear Activity. I. A Near-Infrared Imaging Survey of Seyfert and Normal Galaxies
We present near-infrared, modified K-band images of a sample of Seyfertand control galaxies. Our sample includes all known Seyfert galaxies inthe Revised Shapely-Ames Catalog and Sandage & Tammann's 1987extension to the RSA with recessional velocities less than 5000 km s-1and logarithmic axial ratios less than 0.2 (excluding the two early-typeSeyfert galaxies Centaurus A and Perseus A). A control sample of normalgalaxies, matched to the Seyfert sample in Hubble type, redshift,inclination, and blue luminosity, has also been observed. To quantifythe incidence of bars in both samples, elliptical fits to the isophotesof each galaxy have been performed. In agreement with earlier studies,we find that many galaxies classified as unbarred in the optical,display evidence for bars in the near-infrared.
| Bias Properties of Extragalactic Distance Indicators. VI. Luminosity Functions of M31 and M101 Look-alikes Listed in the RSA2: H0 Therefrom
Galaxies whose morphologies are similar to M 101 (Sc I) and M3 1 (Sb I-II) are listed in two tables. The selection is made by inspecting directimages of Shapley-Ames galaxies in the recent Carnegie Atlas ofGalaxies. Absolute magnitudes, calculated from redshifts, give meanvalues of
| Integrated photoelectric magnitudes and color indices of bright galaxies in the Johnson UBV system
The photoelectric total magnitudes and color indices published in theThird Reference Catalogue of Bright Galaxies (RC3) are based on ananalysis of approximately equals 26,000 B, 25,000 B-V, and 17,000 U-Bmultiaperture measurements available up to mid 1987 from nearly 350sources. This paper provides the full details of the analysis andestimates of internal and external errors in the parameters. Thederivation of the parameters is based on techniques described by theVaucouleurs & Corwin (1977) whereby photoelectric multiaperture dataare fitted by mean Hubble-type-dependent curves which describe theintegral of the B-band flux and the typical B-V and U-B integrated colorgradients. A sophisticated analysis of the residuals of thesemeasurements from the curves was made to allow for the random andsystematic errors that effect such data. The result is a homogeneous setof total magnitudes BTA total colors(B-V)T and (U-B)T, and effective colors(B-V)e and (U-B)e for more than 3000 brightgalaxies in RC3.
| H I 21 centimeter observations and I-band CCD surface photometry of spiral galaxies behind the Virgo Cluster and toward its antipode
Sample selection, radio and optical data acquisition and reduction, andobservation results are presented for spiral galaxies behind the VirgoCluster and toward its antipode. I-band CCD photometry was obtained forall the bright galaxies and part of the sample of faint galaxies in thetwo local volumes was studied. The statistical properties of the galaxysamples are discussed.
| Satellites of spiral galaxies
We present a survey of satellites around a homogeneous set of late-typespirals with luminosity similar to that of the Milky Way. On average, wefind fewer than 1.5 satellites per primary, but we argue that we cantreat the survey as an ensemble and so derive the properties of the haloof a 'typical' isolated spiral. The projected density profile of theensemble falls off approximately as 1/r. Within 50 kpc the azimuthaldistribution of satellites shows some evidence for the 'Holmbergeffect', an excess near the minor axis of the primary; however, atlarger projected distances, the distribution appears isotropic. There isa weak but significant correlation between the size of a satellite andits distance from its primary, as expected if satellites are tidallytruncated. Neither Hubble type nor spectral characteristics correlatewith apparent separation. The ensemble of satellites appears to berotating at about 30 km/s in the same direction as the galactic disk.Satellites on prograde orbits tend to be brighter than those onretrograde orbits. The typical velocity difference between a satelliteand its primary shows no clear dependence either on apparent separation,or on the rotation speed of the primary. Thus our survey demonstratesthat isolated spiral galaxies have massive halos that extend to manyoptical radii.
| H0 found by comparing linear diameters of M31 with similar field galaxies
The method of finding a stringent upper limit to H by comparing theknown linear size of M101 with similar field galaxies and requiring thatM101 not be the largest in a distance-limited sample is extended here toSab and Sb galaxies using M31 as the calibrator. In agreement with theearlier result using M101, the upper limit using M31 is H less than 85km/s/Mpc. Because M31 is the nearest Sb spiral, the most probable actualvalue of H is found by equating the known linear diameter of M31 withthe mean of a distance-limited sample of similar galaxies. Data on 60RSA galaxies that are similar to M31 give the most probable value as H =45 +/- 12 km/s/Mpc by this method.
| Effect of Malmquist bias on correlation studies with IRAS data base
The relationships between galaxy properties in the sample of Trinchieriet al. (1989) are reexamined with corrections for Malmquist bias. Thelinear correlations are tested and linear regressions are fit forlog-log plots of L(FIR), L(H-alpha), and L(B) as well as ratios of thesequantities. The linear correlations for Malmquist bias are correctedusing the method of Verter (1988), in which each galaxy observation isweighted by the inverse of its sampling volume. The linear regressionsare corrected for Malmquist bias by a new method invented here in whicheach galaxy observation is weighted by its sampling volume. The resultsof correlation and regressions among the sample are significantlychanged in the anticipated sense that the corrected correlationconfidences are lower and the corrected slopes of the linear regressionsare lower. The elimination of Malmquist bias eliminates the nonlinearrise in luminosity that has caused some authors to hypothesizeadditional components of FIR emission.
| General study of group membership. II - Determination of nearby groups
We present a whole sky catalog of nearby groups of galaxies taken fromthe Lyon-Meudon Extragalactic Database. From the 78,000 objects in thedatabase, we extracted a sample of 6392 galaxies, complete up to thelimiting apparent magnitude B0 = 14.0. Moreover, in order to considersolely the galaxies of the local universe, all the selected galaxieshave a known recession velocity smaller than 5500 km/s. Two methods wereused in group construction: a Huchra-Geller (1982) derived percolationmethod and a Tully (1980) derived hierarchical method. Each method gaveus one catalog. These were then compared and synthesized to obtain asingle catalog containing the most reliable groups. There are 485 groupsof a least three members in the final catalog.
| Groups of galaxies within 80 Mpc. II - The catalogue of groups and group members
This paper gives a catalog of the groups and associations obtained bymeans of a revised hierarchical algorithm applied to a sample of 4143galaxies with diameters larger than 100 arcsec and redshifts smallerthan 6000 km/s. The 264 groups of galaxies obtained in this way (andwhich contain at least three sample galaxies) are listed, with the looseassociations surrounding them and the individual members of eachaggregate as well; moreover, the location of every entity among 13regions corresponding roughly to superclusters is specified. Finally,1729 galaxies belong to the groups, and 466 to the associations, i.e.,the total fraction of galaxies within the various aggregates amounts to53 percent.
| The far-infrared properties of the CfA galaxy sample. I - The catalog
IRAS flux densities are presented for all galaxies in the Center forAstrophysics magnitude-limited sample (mB not greater than 14.5)detected in the IRAS Faint Source Survey (FSS), a total of 1544galaxies. The detection rate in the FSS is slightly larger than in thePSC for the long-wavelength 60- and 100-micron bands, but improves by afactor of about 3 or more for the short wavelength 12- and 25-micronbands. This optically selected sample consists of galaxies which are, onaverage, much less IR-active than galaxies in IR-selected samples. Itpossesses accurate and complete redshift, morphological, and magnitudeinformation, along with observations at other wavelengths.
| Far-infrared emission and star formation in spiral galaxies
The correlations between the emission in the far-IR, H-alpha, and bluein a sample of normal spiral galaxies are investigated. It is found thatthe luminosities in these three bands are all tightly correlated,although both the strength of the correlations and their functionaldependencies are a function of the galaxies' morphological types. Thebest-fit power laws to these correlations are different for thecomparison of different quantities and deviate significantly fromlinearity in some cases, implying the presence of additional emissionmechanisms not related to the general increase of luminosity withgalactic mass. Clear evidence is found of two independent effects in theincidence of warm far-IR emission in late-type spirals. One is aluminosity effect shown by the presence of excess far-IR relative toH-alpha or optical emission in the more luminous galaxies. The other isa dependence on widespread star-formation activity.
| A millimeter-wave survey of CO emission in Seyfert galaxies
Emission in the 115 GHz 1-0 line of CO has been detected in 18 Seyfertgalaxies in a sample of 43. The CO properties of 29 Seyferts in theRevised Shapley Ames Catalog (RSA) are compared with the CO propertiesof normal galaxies of the same Hubble type. These RSA type 2 Seyfertshave an average ratio of CO-to-blue luminosity that is about twice aslarge as that of the normal galaxies, but the RSA type 1 Seyferts havenormal CO luminosities. The RSA type 2 Seyfert galaxies have anunusually large average ratio of CO luminosity-to-H I mass compared tonormal disk galaxies. The RSA type 2 Seyferts have an average far-IRluminosity that is about four times larger than a non-Seyfert comparisonsample, while the RSA type 1 Seyferts are not significantly moreluminous than the non-Seyferts. The result imply that the two classes ofSeyferts are intrinsically different from one another and that one classcannot evolve into another in less than a few million years.
| The preponderance of bar and ring features in starburst galaxies and active galactic nuclei
A detailed study of the spiral galaxy NGC 4321 showed that the nuclearstar formation mechanism in this galaxy is very likely related to theorbits perturbation at the Inner Linblad Resonances. In order to testthe hypothesis that the same physical mechanism accounts generally forsuch activity in spiral galaxies, a morphological analysis of a sampleof starburst nuclei and active galactic nuclei (STB, AGN) as well as acontrol sample of normal galaxies has been carried out. It is found thatthe morphological type expected for starbursters like NGC 4321 (SAB(rs)or stronger), occurs at a much higher frequency in the sample of STBsand AGNs than in the control sample. The effect is stronger for STBsthan for AGNs. This provides strong evidences that active formation ofstars in the nuclei of spiral galaxies is linked to the perturbation oforbits at the Inner Linblad Resonances. This interpretation leads to thesuggestion that an effective nuclear starburst phase is an inhibitionmechanism to a more powerful type of nuclear activity like in AGNs.
| IRAS observations of an optically selected sample of interacting galaxies
IRAS observations of a large, morphologically selected sample ofstrongly interacting disk-type galaxies have demonstrated thatgalaxy-galaxy collisions can lead to enhanced infrared emission, but notin all cases. Infrared luminosities of the interacting galaxies span alarge range, but are about a factor of 2 higher, on average, than thoseof isolated disk galaxies. The data suggest the existence of a cutoff inblue luminosity, below which no galaxies show markedly enhanced infraredemission. Only the most strongly interacting systems in the sample showextreme values of infrared excess, suggesting that deep,interpenetrating collisions are necessary to drive infrared emission toextreme levels. Comparisons with optical indicators of star formationshow that infrared excess and color temperatures correlate with thelevel of star-formation activity in the interacting galaxies. Allinteracting galaxies in our sample that exhibit an infrared excess andhave higher than normal color temperatures also have optical indicatorsof high levels of star formation. It is not necessary to invokeprocesses other than star formation to account for the enhanced infraredluminosity in this sample of interacting galaxies.
| A model of spiral-galaxy evolution. I - Galaxy morphology and star formation rate
The suggestion by Sandage (1986), that the change of star-formation ratewith time is a signature of each Hubble type, is discussed and verifiedon a large set of data. The nonlinear phase-coupling model of Shore etal. (1986), proposed for the evolution of galaxies with disk and halocomponents, is here adopted to follow the star-formation history inspiral galaxies. The effects of both stimulated and spontaneous starformation are included. A simple hypothesis on the connection betweenthe spiral wave amplitude and the cloud phase is sufficient to generatea continuous series of star-formation histories, which may correspond tothe sequence of Hubble types.
| Arm classifications for spiral galaxies
The spiral arm classes of 762 galaxies are tabulated; 636 galaxies withlow inclinations and radii larger than 1 arcmin were classified on thebasis of their blue images on the Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS),76 SA galaxies in the group catalog of Geller and Huchra were alsoclassified from the POSS, and 253 galaxies in high-resolution atlaseswere classified from their atlas photographs. This spiral armclassification system was previously shown to correlate with thepresence of density waves, and galaxies with such waves were shown tooccur primarily in the densest galactic groups. The present sampleindicates, in addition, that grand design galaxies (i.e., those whichtend to contain prominent density wave modes) are physically larger thanflocculent galaxies (which do not contain such prominent modes) by afactor of about 1.5. A larger group sample confirms the previous resultthat grand design galaxies are preferentially in dense groups.
| Empirical properties of nearby groups of galaxies
A new list of nearby groups was composed by Vennik (1984) on the basisof radial velocity data of galaxies using the hierarchical clusteringtechnique described by Materne (1978) and Tully (1980). This paperpresents a detailed analysis of empirical properties of groups on thebasis of that list. Various group selection criteria are compared, andthe main parameters of individual groups, possible selection effects,and relationships between various properties of the groups arediscussed. Synthesized groups are composed based on the luminosities ofthe groups and the dominating morphology.
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