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Radio and Far-Infrared Emission as Tracers of Star Formation and Active Galactic Nuclei in Nearby Cluster Galaxies
We have studied the radio and far-infrared (FIR) emission from 114galaxies in the seven nearest clusters (<100 Mpc) with prominentX-ray emission to investigate the impact of the cluster environment onthe star formation and active galactic nucleus (AGN) activity in themember galaxies. The X-ray selection criterion is adopted to focus onthe most massive and dynamically relaxed clusters. A large majority ofcluster galaxies show an excess in radio emission over that predictedfrom the radio-FIR correlation, the fraction of sources with radioexcess increases toward cluster cores, and the radial gradient in theFIR/radio flux ratio is a result of radio enhancement. Of theradio-excess sources, 70% are early-type galaxies, and the same fractionhost an AGN. The galaxy density drops by a factor of 10 from thecomposite cluster center out to 1.5 Mpc, yet galaxies show no change inFIR properties over this region and show no indication of masssegregation. We have examined in detail the physical mechanisms thatmight impact the FIR and radio emission of cluster galaxies. Whilecollisional heating of dust may be important for galaxies in clustercenters, it appears to have a negligible effect on the observed FIRemission for our sample galaxies. The correlations between radio and FIRluminosity and radius could be explained by magnetic compression fromthermal intracluster medium pressure. We also find that simple delayedharassment cannot fully account for the observed radio, FIR, and mid-IRproperties of cluster galaxies.
| Classifications of the Host Galaxies of Supernovae, Set II
Classifications on the DDO system are given for an additional 231 hostgalaxies of supernovae that have been discovered during the course ofthe Lick Observatory Supernova Search with the Katzman Automatic ImagingTelescope (KAIT). This brings the total number of hosts of supernovae(SNe) discovered (or independently rediscovered) by KAIT, which have sofar been classified on a homogeneous system, to 408. The probabilitythat SNe Ia and SNe II have a different distribution of host-galaxyHubble types is found to be 99.7%. A significant difference is alsofound between the distributions of the host galaxies of SNe Ia and ofSNe Ibc (defined here to include SNe Ib, Ib/c, and Ic). However, nosignificant difference is detected between the frequency distributionsof the host galaxies of SNe II and SNe IIn. This suggests that SNe IInare generally not SNe Ia embedded in circumstellar material that aremasquerading as SNe II. Furthermore, no significant difference is foundbetween the distribution of the Hubble types of the hosts of SNe Ibc andof SNe II. Additionally, SNe II-P and SNe II-L are found to occur amongsimilar stellar populations. The ratio of the number of SNe Ia-pec tonormal SNe Ia appears to be higher in early-type galaxies than it is ingalaxies of later morphological types. This suggests that the ancestorsof SNe Ia-pec may differ systematically in age or composition from theprogenitors of normal SNe Ia. Unexpectedly, five SNe of Types Ib/c, II,and IIn (all of which are thought to have massive progenitors) are foundin host galaxies that are nominally classified as types E and S0.However, in each case the galaxy classification is uncertain, or newlyinspected images show evidence suggesting a later classification. Amongthese five objects, NGC 3720, the host galaxy of SN 2002at, wasapparently misidentified in the Carnegie Atlas of Galaxies.
| The Chemically Distinct Nucleus and Structure of the S0 Galaxy NGC 80
The giant lenticular galaxy NGC 80, which is the brightest member of arich group, possesses a central evolutionarily-distinct region: thestars in the nucleus and in a circumnuclear ring of radius 5″t7″ have a mean age of only 7 Gyr, whereas the stellar populationof the bulge is older than 10 Gyr. The nucleus of NGC 80 is alsochemically distinct: it is a factor of 2 2.5 richer in metals than itsimmediate neighborhood and is characterized by a high magnesium-to-ironabundance ratio [Mg/Fe]≈+0.3. The global stellar disk of NGC 80 has atwo-tiered structure: its outer part has an exponential scale length of11 kpc and normal surface density, while the inner disk, which is alsoexponential and axisymmetric, is more compact and brighter. Although thetwo-tiered structure and the chemically distinct nucleus obviously havea common origin and owe their existence to some catastrophicrestructuring of the protogalactic gaseous disk, the origin of thisremains unclear, since the galaxy lacks any manifestations of perturbedmorphology or triaxiality.
| CO (3-2) Observations of Early-Type Galaxies with the Heinrich Hertz Telescope
We present Heinrich Hertz Telescope CO (3-2) observations of a sample of10 early-type galaxies detected both in far-infrared (IRAS) and in CO(1-0). Six of the objects (i.e., 60% of the sample) were detected in theCO (3-2) transition. Comparison of the beam-matched CO (3-2)/CO (1-0)and CO (2-1)/CO (1-0) intensity ratios with simple large velocitygradient and photodissociation region models reveals that early-typeobjects can be broadly classified into two categories. The majority ofobjects have a molecular interstellar medium of moderate density(nH2<=1000 cm-3) and temperature(T<=30 K). Two objects, NGC 3593 and NGC 4691, show indications ofquite denser and warmer environments, as well as gradients in theirphysical properties, compatible with their classification as starbursts.The heating source of the molecular gas and dust in all the objects inour sample appears to be ongoing star formation.
| A new catalogue of ISM content of normal galaxies
We have compiled a catalogue of the gas content for a sample of 1916galaxies, considered to be a fair representation of ``normality''. Thedefinition of a ``normal'' galaxy adopted in this work implies that wehave purposely excluded from the catalogue galaxies having distortedmorphology (such as interaction bridges, tails or lopsidedness) and/orany signature of peculiar kinematics (such as polar rings,counterrotating disks or other decoupled components). In contrast, wehave included systems hosting active galactic nuclei (AGN) in thecatalogue. This catalogue revises previous compendia on the ISM contentof galaxies published by \citet{bregman} and \citet{casoli}, andcompiles data available in the literature from several small samples ofgalaxies. Masses for warm dust, atomic and molecular gas, as well asX-ray luminosities have been converted to a uniform distance scale takenfrom the Catalogue of Principal Galaxies (PGC). We have used twodifferent normalization factors to explore the variation of the gascontent along the Hubble sequence: the blue luminosity (LB)and the square of linear diameter (D225). Ourcatalogue significantly improves the statistics of previous referencecatalogues and can be used in future studies to define a template ISMcontent for ``normal'' galaxies along the Hubble sequence. The cataloguecan be accessed on-line and is also available at the Centre desDonnées Stellaires (CDS).The catalogue is available in electronic form athttp://dipastro.pd.astro.it/galletta/ismcat and at the CDS via anonymousftp to\ cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or via\http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/405/5
| Supernovae 2002ez, 2002fa, and 2002fb
IAUC 7967 available at Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams.
| Evolution of Star-forming and Active Galaxies in Nearby Clusters
We have used optical spectroscopy to investigate the active galaxypopulations in a sample of 20 nearby Abell clusters. The targets wereidentified on the basis of 1.4 GHz radio emission, which identifies themas either active galactic nuclei (AGNs) or galaxies forming stars atrates comparable to or greater than that of the Milky Way. The spectrawere used to characterize the galaxies via their emission and absorptionfeatures. The spectroscopy results reveal a significant population ofstar-forming galaxies with large amounts of nuclear dust extinction.This extinction eliminates bluer emission lines such as [O II] from thespectra of these galaxies, meaning their star formation could easily beoverlooked in studies that focus on such features. Around 20% of thecluster star-forming galaxies have spectra of this type. The radialdistributions of active galaxies in clusters show a strong segregationbetween star-forming galaxies and AGNs, with star-forming galaxiesbroadly distributed and AGNs preferentially in the cluster cores. Theradial distribution of the dusty star-forming galaxies is more centrallyconcentrated than the star-forming galaxies in general, which arguesthat they are a consequence of some cluster environmental effect.Furthermore, we note that such galaxies may be identified using their4000 Å break strengths. We find that discrepancies in reportedradio luminosity functions for AGNs are likely the result ofclassification differences. There exists a large population of clustergalaxies whose radio fluxes, far-infrared fluxes, and optical magnitudessuggest their radio emission may be powered by stars yet whose spectralack emission lines. Understanding the nature of these galaxies iscritical to assessing the importance of AGNs in the radio luminosityfunction at low luminosities. We also find that regardless of thispopulation, the crossover point where the radio luminosity function iscomposed equally of star-forming galaxies and AGNs occurs at lowerluminosities in clusters than in the field. This is likely a simpleconsequence of the reduction in star formation in cluster galaxies andthe morphological mix in clusters compared with the field.Based in part on observations obtained with the Apache Point Observatory(APO) 3.5 m telescope, which is owned and operated by the AstrophysicalResearch Consortium.
| Molecular Gas in Elliptical Galaxies: Distribution and Kinematics
I present interferometric images (~7" resolution) of CO emission in fiveelliptical galaxies and nondetections in two others. These data doublethe number of elliptical galaxies whose CO emission has been fullymapped. The sample galaxies have 108 to5×109 Msolar of molecular gas distributed inmostly symmetric rotating disks with diameters of 2-12 kpc. Four out ofthe five molecular disks show remarkable alignment with the opticalmajor axes of their host galaxies. The molecular masses are a fewpercent of the total dynamical masses that are implied if the gas is oncircular orbits. If the molecular gas forms stars, it will makerotationally supported stellar disks that will be very similar incharacter to the stellar disks now known to be present in manyellipticals. Comparison of stellar kinematics to gas kinematics in NGC4476 implies that the molecular gas did not come from internal stellarmass loss because the specific angular momentum of the gas is about 3times larger than that of the stars.
| Redshift-Distance Survey of Early-Type Galaxies. I. The ENEARc Cluster Sample
This paper presents data on the ENEARc subsample of the larger ENEARsurvey of nearby early-type galaxies. The ENEARc galaxies belong toclusters and were specifically chosen to be used for the construction ofa Dn-σ template. The ENEARc sample includes newmeasurements of spectroscopic and photometric parameters (redshift,velocity dispersion, line index Mg2, and the angular diameterdn), as well as data from the literature. New spectroscopicdata are given for 229 cluster early-type galaxies, and new photometryis presented for 348 objects. Repeat and overlap observations withexternal data sets are used to construct a final merged catalogconsisting of 640 early-type galaxies in 28 clusters. Objectivecriteria, based on catalogs of groups of galaxies derived from completeredshift surveys of the nearby universe, are used to assign galaxies toclusters. In a companion paper, these data are used to construct thetemplate Dn-σ distance relation for early-typegalaxies, which has been used to estimate galaxy distances and derivepeculiar velocities for the ENEAR all-sky sample. Based on observationsat Complejo Astronomico El Leoncito, operated under agreement betweenthe Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas de laRepública Argentina and the National Universities of La Plata,Córdoba, and San Juan; Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory,National Optical Astronomical Observatory, which is operated by theAssociation of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., undercooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation; the EuropeanSouthern Observatory (ESO), partially under the ESO-ON agreement; theFred Lawrence Whipple Observatory; the Observatório do Pico dosDias, operated by the Laboratório Nacional de Astrofísicaand the MDM Observatory at Kitt Peak.
| The UZC-SSRS2 Group Catalog
We apply a friends-of-friends algorithm to the combined Updated ZwickyCatalog and Southern Sky Redshift Survey to construct a catalog of 1168groups of galaxies; 411 of these groups have five or more members withinthe redshift survey. The group catalog covers 4.69 sr, and all groupsexceed the number density contrast threshold, δρ/ρ=80. Wedemonstrate that the groups catalog is homogeneous across the twounderlying redshift surveys; the catalog of groups and their membersthus provides a basis for other statistical studies of the large-scaledistribution of groups and their physical properties. The medianphysical properties of the groups are similar to those for groupsderived from independent surveys, including the ESO Key Programme andthe Las Campanas Redshift Survey. We include tables of groups and theirmembers.
| Extended H I Disks in Dust Lane Elliptical Galaxies
We present the results of H I observations of five dust lane ellipticalgalaxies with the Australia Telescope Compact Array. Two galaxies (NGC3108 and NGC 1947) are detected, and sensitive upper limits are obtainedfor the other three. In the two detected galaxies, the H I isdistributed in a regular, extended, and warped disklike structure of lowsurface brightness. Adding data from the literature, we find thatseveral more dust lane elliptical galaxies have regular H I structures.This H I is likely to be a remnant of accretions and/or mergers thattook place a considerable time ago and in which a significant fractionof the gas survived to form a disk. The presence of regular H Istructures suggests that some mergers lead to galaxies with extended lowsurface brightness density gas disks. These gas disks will evolve veryslowly, and these elliptical galaxies will remain gas-rich for a longperiod of time. One of the galaxies we observed (NGC 3108) has a verylarge amount of neutral hydrogen(MHI=4.5×109 MsolarMHI/LB~0.09), which is very regularly distributedin an annulus extending to a radius of ~6 Reff. Thekinematics of the H I distribution suggest that the rotation curve ofNGC 3108 is flat out to at least the last observed point. We estimate amass-to-light ratio of M/LB~18Msolar/LB,solar at a radius of ~6Refffrom the center. Several of the galaxies we observed have an unusuallylow gas-to-dust ratio MHI/Mdust, suggesting thattheir cold interstellar medium, if present as expected from the presenceof dust, may be mainly in molecular rather than atomic form. Based onobservations with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA), which isfunded by the Commonwealth of Australia for operation as a NationalFacility managed by CSIRO.
| The Radio Galaxy Populations of Nearby Northern Abell Clusters
We report on the use of the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS) to identify radiogalaxies in 18 nearby Abell clusters. The listings extend from the coresof the clusters out to radii of 3 h-175 Mpc, whichcorresponds to 1.5 Abell radii and approximately 4 orders of magnitudein galaxy density. To create a truly useful catalog, we have collectedoptical spectra for nearly all of the galaxies lacking public velocitymeasurements. Consequently, we are able to discriminate between thoseradio galaxies seen in projection on the cluster and those that are inactuality cluster members. The resulting catalog consists of 329 clusterradio galaxies plus 138 galaxies deemed foreground or backgroundobjects, and new velocity measurements are reported for 273 of theseradio galaxies. The motivation for the catalog is the study of galaxyevolution in the cluster environment. The radio luminosity function is apowerful tool in the identification of active galaxies, as it isdominated by star-forming galaxies at intermediate luminosities andactive galactic nuclei (AGNs) at higher luminosities. The flux limit ofthe NVSS allows us to identify AGNs and star-forming galaxies down tostar formation rates less than 1 Msolar yr-1. Thissensitivity, coupled with the all-sky nature of the NVSS, allows us toproduce a catalog of considerable depth and breadth. In addition tothese data, we report detected infrared fluxes and upper limits obtainedfrom IRAS data. It is hoped that this database will prove useful in anumber of potential studies of the effect of environment on galaxyevolution. Based in part on observations obtained with the Apache PointObservatory 3.5 m telescope, which is owned and operated by theAstrophysical Research Consortium (ARC).
| 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.
| Changing molecular gas properties in the bar and center of NGC 7479
We present sensitive interferometric 12CO, 13COand HCN observations of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 7479, one of thefew barred galaxies known to have a continuous gas-filled bar. We focuson the investigation and interpretation of12CO/13CO line intensity ratios R12/13,which is facilitated by having more than 90% of the flux in ourinterferometer maps. The global (9 kpc by 2.5 kpc) value ofR12/13 is high at 20-40. On smaller scales ( ~ 750 pc),R12/13 is found to vary dramatically, reaching values > 30in large parts of the bar, but dropping to values ~ 5, typical forgalactic disks, at a 13CO condensation in the southern partof the bar. We interpret these changes in terms of the relativeimportance of the contribution of a diffuse molecular component,characterized by unbound gas that has a moderate optical depth in the12CO(1->0) transition. This component dominates the12CO along the bar and is also likely to play an importantrole in the center of NGC 7479. In the center, the 12CO andthe HCN intensity peaks coincide, while the 13CO peak isslightly offset. This can be explained in terms of high gas temperatureat the 12CO peak position. Along the bar, the relationbetween the distribution of 12CO, 13CO, dust lanesand velocity gradient is complex. A southern 13COcondensation is found offset from the 12CO ridge thatgenerally coincides with the most prominent dust lanes. It is possiblethat strong 13CO detections along the bar indicate quiescentconditions, downstream from the major bar shock. Still, thesecondensations are found close to high velocity gradients. In the centralregion, the velocity gradient is traced much more closely by13CO than by 12CO.
| NGC 759: A giant elliptical with a just-forming decoupled nucleus
By undertaking a spectral and photometric investigation of the centralpart of the bright elliptical galaxy NGC 759, we havefound an optical counterpart for the circumnuclear molecular gas ringwith the radius of ~ 3arcsec ( ~ 1 kpc) which was earlier reported byWiklind et al. (\cite{wchw}). This counterpart consists of the ionizedgas excited by young massive stars and of the dust. The gaseous ringexhibits fast rotation: its projected rotation velocity at R~ 3arcsec is~ 220 km/s. The large projected rotation velocity value together withthe asymmetric appearance of the dust ring on the (V-I) colour mapconfirm the hypothesis of Wiklind et al. (\cite{wchw}) about a ratherhigh inclination of the gas rotation plane: our data favours i~ 40degrproposed by them for the molecular gas ring. Meantime the 2Ddecomposition of the galaxy images both in the V and I bands hasrevealed an existence of the brightness excess with respect to the deVaucouleurs' spheroid: this extracomponent is seen in the radius rangeof 3\arcsec-16\arcsec, its boundaries looking nearly round, and has aradial brightness distribution well-fitted by two exponential laws withdifferent characteristic scales. We argue that two stellar disks areembedded into the bright elliptical galaxy: the outer one is seen nearlyface-on and so its origin is probably related to that of the maingalactic body, the inner one is inclined by i~ 40degr and so its originis probably related to the circumnuclear gaseous ring. Within the radiusrange of their appearance the disks contributes about 10%\ into theintegrated surface brightness. Based on observations collected with the6m telescope of the Special Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) of theRussian Academy of Sciences (RAS) which is operated under the financialsupport of Science Ministry of Russia (registration number 01-43) and onobservations collected with the 1m and 0.6m telescopes of the SpecialAstrophysical Observatory (SAO) of the Russian Academy of Sciences(RAS).
| The peculiar motions of early-type galaxies in two distant regions - II. The spectroscopic data
We present the spectroscopic data for the galaxies studied in the EFARproject, which is designed to measure the properties and peculiarmotions of early-type galaxies in two distant regions. We have obtained1319 spectra of 714 early-type galaxies over 33 observing runs on 10different telescopes. We describe the observations and data reductionsused to measure redshifts, velocity dispersions and the Mgb and Mg_2Lick linestrength indices. Detailed simulations and intercomparison ofthe large number of repeat observations lead to reliable error estimatesfor all quantities. The measurements from different observing runs arecalibrated to a common zero-point or scale before being combined,yielding a total of 706 redshifts, 676 velocity dispersions, 676 Mgblinestrengths and 582 Mg_2 linestrengths. The median estimated errors inthe combined measurements are Delta cz=20 km s^-1, Delta sigma sigma=9.1 per cent, Delta Mgb Mgb=7.2 per cent and Delta Mg_2=0.015 mag.Comparison of our measurements with published data sets shows nosystematic errors in the redshifts or velocity dispersions, and onlysmall zero-point corrections to bring our linestrengths on to thestandard Lick system. We have assigned galaxies to physical clusters byexamining the line-of-sight velocity distributions based on EFAR andZCAT redshifts, together with the projected distributions on the sky. Wederive mean redshifts and velocity dispersions for these clusters, whichwill be used in estimating distances and peculiar velocities and to testfor trends in the galaxy population with cluster mass. The spectroscopicparameters presented here for 706 galaxies combine high-quality data,uniform reduction and measurement procedures, and detailed erroranalysis. They form the largest single set of velocity dispersions andlinestrengths for early-type galaxies published to date.
| 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.
| On the local radio luminosity function of galaxies. II. Environmental dependences among late-type galaxies
Using new extensive radio continuum surveys at 1.4 GHz (FIRST and NVSS),we derive the distribution of the radio/optical and radio/NIR luminosity(RLF) of late-type (Sa-Irr) galaxies (m_p<15.7) in 5 nearby clustersof galaxies: A262, Cancer, A1367, Coma and Virgo. With the aim ofdiscussing possible environmental dependences of the radio properties,we compare these results with those obtained for relatively isolatedobjects in the Coma supercluster. We find that the RLF of Cancer, A262and Virgo are consistent with that of isolated galaxies. Conversely weconfirm earlier claims that galaxies in A1367 and Coma have their radioemissivity enhanced by a factor ~ 5 with respect to isolated objects. Wediscuss this result in the framework of the dynamical pressure sufferedby galaxies in motion through the intra-cluster gas (ram-pressure). Wefind that the radio excess is statistically larger for galaxies in fasttransit motion. This is coherent with the idea that enhanced radiocontinuum activity is associated with magnetic field compression. TheX-ray luminosities and temperatures of Coma and A1367 imply that thesetwo clusters have significantly larger intracluster gas density than theremaining three studied ones, providing a clue for explaining the higherradio continuum luminosities of their galaxies. Multiple systems in theComa supercluster bridge (with projected separations smaller than 300kpc) have radio luminosities significantly larger than isolatedgalaxies. Table~1 is only available in electronic form at the CDS viaanonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or viahttp://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/Abstract.html}
| The Universality of the Fundamental Plane of E and S0 Galaxies: Spectroscopic Data
We present central velocity dispersion measurements for 325 early-typegalaxies in eight clusters and groups of galaxies, including newobservations for 212 galaxies. The clusters and groups are the A262,A1367, Coma (A1656), A2634, Cancer, and Pegasus Clusters and the NGC 383and NGC 507 Groups. The new measurements were derived frommedium-dispersion spectra that cover 600 Å centered on the Mg I btriplet at lambda ~ 5175 Å. Velocity dispersions were measuredusing the Tonry & Davis cross-correlation method, with a typicalaccuracy of 6%. A detailed comparison with other data sources is made.
| The Universality of the Fundamental Plane of E and S0 Galaxies: Sample Definition and I-Band Photometric Data
As part of a project to compare the fundamental plane and Tully-Fisherdistance scales, we present here I-band CCD photometry for 636early-type galaxies in eight clusters and groups of galaxies. These arethe A262, A1367, Coma (A1656), A2634, Cancer and Pegasus Clusters, andthe NGC 383 and NGC 507 Groups. Sample selection, cluster properties,and cluster membership assignment criteria are discussed. We presentphotometric parameters that are used in the fundamental plane relation,the effective radius r_e, and the effective surface brightness mu_e, asderived from a r^1/4 fit to the observed radial photometric profile ofeach galaxy. A comparison with similar data found in the literature forthe Coma Cluster shows that large systematic uncertainties can beintroduced in the measurement of r_e and mu_e by the particular methodused to derive those parameters. However, the particular combination ofthese two parameters that enters in the fundamental plane relation is aquantity that can be measured with high accuracy.
| Galaxy Alignments in the Pisces-Perseus Supercluster Revisited
A search for preferential galaxy alignments in the Pisces-PerseusSupercluster (PPS) is made using the Minnesota Automated Plate ScannerPisces-Perseus Survey (MAPS-PP). The MAPS-PP is a catalog of ~1400galaxies with a (roughly) isophotal diameter greater than 30"constructed from digitized scans of the blue and red plates of thePalomar Observatory Sky Survey covering the PPS. This is the largestsample of galaxies applied to a search of galaxy alignments in thissupercluster, and it has been used in combination with previouslypublished redshifts to construct the deepest PPS galaxy luminosityfunction to date. While previous studies have relied extensively oncatalogs with visually estimated parameters for both sample selectionand determination of galaxy orientation, the MAPS-PP uses selectioncriteria and measurements that are entirely machine and computer based.Therefore, it is not susceptible to some of the biases, such as thediameter inclination effect, known to exist in some other galaxycatalogs. The presence of anisotropic galaxy distributions is determinedby use of the Kuiper statistic, a robust alternative to the chi^2statistic more traditionally used in these studies. Three statisticallysignificant anisotropic distributions are observed. The reddest galaxiesare observed to be oriented preferentially perpendicular to the locallarge-scale structure. The bluest galaxies near the supercluster planeare observed to have an anisotropic position angle distribution.Finally, a weak trend for the median position angle of color-selectedgalaxy subsamples to ``twist'' with increasing distance from the PPSplane is observed. These position angle distribution anisotropies areweak and are not consistent with any single primordial or modern-eragalaxy alignment mechanism, although a mixture of such mechanisms is notruled out.
| A catalogue of Mg_2 indices of galaxies and globular clusters
We present a catalogue of published absorption-line Mg_2 indices ofgalaxies and globular clusters. The catalogue is maintained up-to-datein the HYPERCAT database. The measurements are listed together with thereferences to the articles where the data were published. A codeddescription of the observations is provided. The catalogue gathers 3541measurements for 1491 objects (galaxies or globular clusters) from 55datasets. Compiled raw data for 1060 galaxies are zero-point correctedand transformed to a homogeneous system. Tables 1, 3, and 4 areavailable in electronic form only at the CDS, Strasbourg, via anonymousftp 130.79.128.5. Table 2 is available both in text and electronic form.
| A catalogue of spatially resolved kinematics of galaxies: Bibliography
We present a catalogue of galaxies for which spatially resolved data ontheir internal kinematics have been published; there is no a priorirestriction regarding their morphological type. The catalogue lists thereferences to the articles where the data are published, as well as acoded description of these data: observed emission or absorption lines,velocity or velocity dispersion, radial profile or 2D field, positionangle. Tables 1, 2, and 3 are proposed in electronic form only, and areavailable from the CDS, via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (to130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/Abstract.html
| The nature of arms in spiral galaxies. III. Azimuthal profiles
In this paper we analyse the structure of a small sample of galaxiesusing a set of CCD images in standard photometric bands presented in aprevious paper (del Rio & Cepa 1998a, hereafter \cite{p2}). Thegalaxies are NGC 157, 753, 895, 4321, 6764, 6814, 6951, 7479 and 7723,and the selected bands were B and I. Seven galaxies are grand design,i.e. they have two long and symmetric arms, second in the classificationof \cite{ee87} (1987), and are the best laboratories for testing thepredictions of the spiral density wave (SDW) theory. Two of the galaxieshave intermediate arms, i.e., they are not so well defined. They areselected to compare the results with those found in the grand designspirals. Using the method of analyse the azimuthal flux profilespresented by \cite{c88} (1988) and Beckman & Cepa (1990) (hereafter\cite{bc90}) and assuming that star formation is triggered by a spiraldensity wave, we look for evidence of the existence of a corotationradius, as predicted by the SDW theory. We have determined thecorotation radius in all but two grand design galaxies, and,tentatively, in the other four. Galaxies with very weak arms (such asNGC 753 and NGC 6951) or arms which are not well defined (such as NGC6764 and NGC 7723) present difficulties when employing the azimuthalprofile method, but even in these cases, the method is powerful enoughto give a good estimate of the value of corotation, which must then beconfirmed (or discarded) by other independent methods (del Rio &Cepa 1998b, hereafter \cite{p4}).
| Cool dense gas in early-type galaxies
CO observations have shown that many lenticular and elliptical galaxiescontain significant amounts of cool dense gas. This review summarizesthe observational results related to the neutral gas phase and presentsa systematic comparison with other interstellar and stellar data. Thediscovery of very dense molecular gas in the nuclear regions ofearly-type galaxies, the possible existence of a dust component neitherseen optically nor in CO, internal inconsistencies of cooling flowscenarios, the origin of the cool gas, the presence of massive stars,aspects of galaxy evolution, and possibilities for future research arediscussed in the light of the new data.
| The peculiar motions of early-type galaxies in two distant regions. III - The photometric data
We present R-band CCD photometry for 776 galaxies observed in the EFARproject. The photometry is compared with photoelectric data, showingthat a common zero-point good to better than 1 per cent and a precisionof 0.03 mag per zero-point have been achieved. We give the circularlyaveraged surface brightness profiles and the photometric parameters ofthe 762 program galaxies, D(n) diameters, half-luminosity radii, totalmagnitudes, and average effective surface brightnesses. More than 80percent of the profiles have a global S/N ratio larger than 300. Theextrapolation needed to derive total magnitudes is less than 10 percentfor 80 percent of the fits. More than 80 percent of the galaxies havemean effective surface brightness larger than the observed skybrightness. In 90 percent of the profiles the estimate of thecontamination of the sky by the galaxy light is less than 1 percent. Wederive total magnitudes and half-luminosity radii to better than 0.15mag and 25 percent, respectively, for 90 percent of our sample. Incontrast, external comparisons show that data in the literature can bestrongly affected by systematic errors due to large extrapolations,small radial range, sky subtraction errors, seeing effects, and the useof a simple R exp 1/4 fit. The resulting errors can easily amount tomore than 0.5 mag in the total magnitudes and 50 percent in thehalf-luminosity radii.
| Galaxy clusters in the Perseus-Pisces region. I - Spectroscopic and photometric data for early-type galaxies
We present new spectroscopic and photometric data for 137 early-typegalaxies in nine clusters and for a set of nearby standard galaxies. Ourspectroscopic data comprise radial velocities, central velocitydispersions, and magnesium line strength indices. We demonstrate thatour new velocity dispersion data can be brought into consistency withthe standard system, to an uncertainty of percent 0.01 dex. From R-bandCCD photometry, we derive the effective diameter, the mean surfacebrightness within the effective diameter, and an R-band diameterequivalent to the Dn parameter of Dressler et al. Internal comparisonsindicate an average error of 0.005 in each measurement of log Dn. Thephotometric data can be brought on to a system consistent with externaldata at the level of 0.5 per cent in distance.
| Molecular gas in the elliptical galaxy NGC 759. Interferometric CO observations.
We present interferometric observations of CO(1-0) emission in theelliptical galaxy NGC 759 with an angular resolution of 3.1x2.3"(990x735pc at a distance of 66Mpc). NGC 759 contains2.4x10^9^Msun_ of molecular gas. Most of the gas is confinedto a small circumnuclear ring with a radius of 650pc and with aninclination of 40°. The maximum gas surface density in the ring is750Msun_.pc^-2^. Although this value is very high, it isalways less than or comparable to the critical gas surface density forlarge scale gravitational instabilities. The CO J=2-1/J=1-0 line ratiois low (0.4), implying sub-thermal excitation. This low ratio isconsistent with a two-component molecular gas, consisting of a cold anddense phase, containing most of the mass, and a warm and diffuse gascomponent, dominating the CO emission. Compared to galaxies of similargas surface densities, NGC 759 is underluminous in L_FIR_ with respectto its molecular gas mass, suggesting that the star forming efficiencyin NGC 759 is low. We discuss the possibility that the molecular gas andcurrent star formation activity in NGC 759 could be signatures of a latestage of a merging between two gas-rich disk galaxies. We use a massmodel of the underlying galaxy which is applicable to spherical galaxieswith an r^1/4^-luminosity profile when interpreting our CO data. Thisleads to more modest estimates of the molecular gas mass fraction andthe surface gas density than would have been derived using simplermodels, suggesting that many of the spectacular molecular gas propertiesof ultraluminous FIR galaxies, which could be described by similar massdistributions, may have to be revised.
| The Peculiar Motions of Early-Type Galaxies in Two Distant Regions. I. Cluster and Galaxy Selection
The EFAR project is a study of 736 candidate elliptical galaxies in 84clusters lying in two regions, toward Hercules-Corona Borealis andPerseus-Pisces-Cetus, at distances cz ~ 6000-15,000 km s^-1^. In thispaper (the first of a series), we present an introduction to the EFARproject and describe in detail the selection of the clusters andgalaxies in our sample. Fundamental data for the galaxies and clustersare given, including accurate new positions for each galaxy andredshifts for each cluster. The galaxy selection functions aredetermined by using diameters measured from Schmidt sky survey imagesfor 2185 galaxies in the cluster fields. Future papers in this serieswill present the spectroscopic and photometric observations of thissample, investigate the properties of the fundamental plane forelliptical galaxies, and determine the large- scale peculiar velocityfields in these two regions of the universe.
| Photoelectric UBV Photometry of Galaxies in the Clusters Pegasus I, Pegasus II, Abell 262, Abell 1367, and Abell 2197-9
This paper presents photoelectric UBV multiaperture photometry of 144galaxies, 139 of which are associated with six nearby bright clusters.The observations were made at the McDonald Observatory from 1986September to 1987 November and were part of the production of the ThirdReference Catalogue of Bright Galaxies (RC3). The observations were usedto compute total magnitudes and color indices published in RC3. Theobservations can also be used to calibrate CCD images.
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