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Redshift-Distance Survey of Early-Type Galaxies: Spectroscopic Data
We present central velocity dispersions and Mg2 line indicesfor an all-sky sample of ~1178 elliptical and S0 galaxies, of which 984had no previous measures. This sample contains the largest set ofhomogeneous spectroscopic data for a uniform sample of ellipticalgalaxies in the nearby universe. These galaxies were observed as part ofthe ENEAR project, designed to study the peculiar motions and internalproperties of the local early-type galaxies. Using 523 repeatedobservations of 317 galaxies obtained during different runs, the dataare brought to a common zero point. These multiple observations, takenduring the many runs and different instrumental setups employed for thisproject, are used to derive statistical corrections to the data and arefound to be relatively small, typically <~5% of the velocitydispersion and 0.01 mag in the Mg2 line strength. Typicalerrors are about 8% in velocity dispersion and 0.01 mag inMg2, in good agreement with values published elsewhere.
| Redshift-Distance Survey of Early-Type Galaxies: Circular-Aperture Photometry
We present R-band CCD photometry for 1332 early-type galaxies, observedas part of the ENEAR survey of peculiar motions using early-typegalaxies in the nearby universe. Circular apertures are used to tracethe surface brightness profiles, which are then fitted by atwo-component bulge-disk model. From the fits, we obtain the structuralparameters required to estimate galaxy distances using theDn-σ and fundamental plane relations. We find thatabout 12% of the galaxies are well represented by a pure r1/4law, while 87% are best fitted by a two-component model. There are 356repeated observations of 257 galaxies obtained during different runsthat are used to derive statistical corrections and bring the data to acommon system. We also use these repeated observations to estimate ourinternal errors. The accuracy of our measurements are tested by thecomparison of 354 galaxies in common with other authors. Typical errorsin our measurements are 0.011 dex for logDn, 0.064 dex forlogre, 0.086 mag arcsec-2 for<μe>, and 0.09 for mRC,comparable to those estimated by other authors. The photometric datareported here represent one of the largest high-quality and uniformall-sky samples currently available for early-type galaxies in thenearby universe, especially suitable for peculiar motion studies.Based on observations at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO),National Optical Astronomy Observatory, which is operated by theAssociation of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., undercooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation (NSF);European Southern Observatory (ESO); Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory(FLWO); and the MDM Observatory on Kitt Peak.
| 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
| 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 Visibility of Galactic Bars and Spiral Structure at High Redshifts
We investigate the visibility of galactic bars and spiral structure inthe distant universe by artificially redshifting 101 B-band CCD imagesof local spiral galaxies from the Ohio State University Bright SpiralGalaxy Survey. These local galaxy images represent a much fairerstatistical baseline than the galaxy atlas images presented by Frei etal. in 1995, the most commonly used calibration sample for morphologicalwork at high redshifts. Our artificially redshifted images correspond toHubble Space Telescope I814-band observations of the localgalaxy sample seen at z=0.7, with integration times matching those ofboth the very deep northern Hubble Deep Field (HDF) data and the muchshallower HDF flanking field observations. The expected visibility ofgalactic bars is probed in two ways: (1) using traditional visualclassification and (2) by charting the changing shape of the galaxydistribution in ``Hubble space,'' a quantitative two-parameterdescription of galactic structure that maps closely onto Hubble'soriginal tuning fork. Both analyses suggest that over two-thirds ofstrongly barred luminous local spirals (i.e., objects classified as SBin the Third Reference Catalogue) would still be classified as stronglybarred at z=0.7 in the HDF data. Under the same conditions, most weaklybarred spirals (classified SAB in the Third Reference Catalogue) wouldbe classified as regular spirals. The corresponding visibility of spiralstructure is assessed visually, by comparing luminosity classificationsfor the artificially redshifted sample with the corresponding luminosityclassifications from the Revised Shapley-Ames Catalog. We find that forexposure times similar to that of the HDF, spiral structure should bedetectable in most luminous (MB~M*) low-inclination spiralgalaxies at z=0.7 in which it is present. However, obvious spiralstructure is only detectable in ~30% of comparable galaxies in the HDFflanking field data using the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. Our studyof artificially redshifted local galaxy images suggests that, whenviewed at similar resolution, noise level, and redshift-correctedwavelength, barred spirals are less common at z~0.7 than they are atz=0.0, although more data are needed to definitively rule out thepossibility that cosmic variance is responsible for much of this effect.
| The colour-magnitude relation for galaxies in the Coma cluster
We present a new photometric catalogue of the Coma galaxy cluster in theJohnson U and V bands. We cover an area of 3360arcmin2 ofsky, to a depth of \fontshape{it}{V}=20\hphantom{0} mag in a13-arcsec diameter aperture, and produce magnitudes for ~1400 extendedobjects in metric apertures from 8.8- to 26-arcsec diameters. The meaninternal rms scatter in the photometry is 0.014mag in V, and 0.026mag inU, for \fontshape{it}{V}13<17\hphantom{0}mag.We place new limits on the levels of scatter in the colour-magnituderelation (CMR) in the Coma cluster, and investigate how the slope andscatter of the CMR depend on galaxy morphology, luminosity and positionwithin the cluster. As expected, the lowest levels of scatter are foundin the elliptical galaxies, while the late-type galaxies have thehighest numbers of galaxies bluewards of the CMR. We investigate whetherthe slope of the CMR is an artefact of colour gradients within galaxies,and show that it persists when the colours are measured within adiameter that scales with galaxy size. Looking at the environmentaldependence of the CMR, we find a trend of systematically bluer galaxycolours with increasing projected radius from the centre of the cluster.Surprisingly, this is accompanied by a decreased scatter of the CMR. Weinvestigate whether this gradient could be caused by dust in the clusterpotential, however the reddening required would produce too large ascatter in the colours of the central galaxies. The gradient appears tobe better reproduced by a gradient in the mean galactic ages withprojected radius.
| 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.
| The Frequency of Barred Spiral Galaxies in the Near-Infrared
We have determined the fraction of barred galaxies in the H-band for astatistically well-defined sample of 186 spirals drawn from the OhioState University Bright Spiral Galaxy Survey. We find 56% of our sampleto be strongly barred in the H band while another 16% is weakly barred.Only 27% of our sample is unbarred in the near-infrared. The RC3 and theCarnegie Atlas of Galaxies both classify only about 30% of our sample asstrongly barred. Thus strong bars are nearly twice as prevalent in thenear-infrared as in the optical. The frequency of genuine opticallyhidden bars is significant but lower than many claims in the literature:40% of the galaxies in our sample that are classified as unbarred in theRC3 show evidence for a bar in the H band while the Carnegie Atlas liststhis fraction as 66%. Our data reveal no significant trend in barfraction as a function of morphology in either the optical or H band.Optical surveys of high-redshift galaxies may be strongly biased againstfinding bars, as bars are increasingly difficult to detect at bluer restwavelengths. Based partially on observations obtained at the CerroTololo Inter-American Observatory, operated by the Association ofUniversities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under cooperativeagreement with the National Science Foundation.
| Box- and peanut-shaped bulges. I. Statistics
We present a classification for bulges of a complete sample of ~ 1350edge-on disk galaxies derived from the RC3 (Third Reference Catalogue ofBright Galaxies, de Vaucouleurs et al. \cite{rc3}). A visualclassification of the bulges using the Digitized Sky Survey (DSS) inthree types of b/p bulges or as an elliptical type is presented andsupported by CCD images. NIR observations reveal that dust extinctiondoes almost not influence the shape of bulges. There is no substantialdifference between the shape of bulges in the optical and in the NIR.Our analysis reveals that 45% of all bulges are box- and peanut-shaped(b/p). The frequency of b/p bulges for all morphological types from S0to Sd is > 40%. In particular, this is for the first time that such alarge frequency of b/p bulges is reported for galaxies as late as Sd.The fraction of the observed b/p bulges is large enough to explain theb/p bulges by bars. Partly based on observations collected at ESO/LaSilla (Chile), DSAZ/Calar Alto (Spain), and Lowell Observatory/Flagstaff(AZ/U.S.A.). Tables 6 and 7 are only available in electronic form at CDSvia anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or viahttp://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/Abstract.html
| The Southern Sky Redshift Survey
We report redshifts, magnitudes, and morphological classifications for5369 galaxies with m_B <= 15.5 and for 57 galaxies fainter than thislimit, in two regions covering a total of 1.70 sr in the southerncelestial hemisphere. The galaxy catalog is drawn primarily from thelist of nonstellar objects identified in the Hubble Space TelescopeGuide Star Catalog (GSC). The galaxies have positions accurate to ~1"and magnitudes with an rms scatter of ~0.3 mag. We compute magnitudes(m_SSRS2) from the relation between instrumental GSC magnitudes and thephotometry by Lauberts & Valentijn. From a comparison with CCDphotometry, we find that our system is homogeneous across the sky andcorresponds to magnitudes measured at the isophotal level ~26 magarcsec^-2. The precision of the radial velocities is ~40 km s^-1, andthe redshift survey is more than 99% complete to the m_SSRS2 = 15.5 maglimit. This sample is in the direction opposite that of the CfA2; incombination the two surveys provide an important database for studies ofthe properties of galaxies and their large-scale distribution in thenearby universe. Based on observations obtained at Cerro TololoInter-American Observatory, National Optical Astronomy Observatories,operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy,Inc., under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation;Complejo Astronomico El Leoncito, operated under agreement between theConsejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas de laRepública Argentina and the National Universities of La Plata,Córdoba, and San Juan; the European Southern Observatory, LaSilla, Chile, partially under the bilateral ESO-ObservatórioNacional agreement; Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory;Laboratório Nacional de Astrofísica, Brazil; and the SouthAfrican Astronomical Observatory.
| 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.
| Near-IR photometry of disk galaxies: Search for nuclear isophotal twist and double bars
We present a near-IR, mainly $H$ band, photometry of 72 nearby (d <40 Mpc) disk galaxies. The main goal of the survey was to search forisophotal twist inside their nuclear regions. As the twist can be due insome cases to projection effects, rather than resulting from a dynamicalphenomenon, we deproject -- under the simplifying assumption of a 2Dgeometry -- all galaxies whose disk position angle and inclination areknown, the latter not exceeding 75 degrees. We show the ellipticity,position angle and surface brightness radial profiles, and discuss how aprojection of 2D and 3D bars can distort the isophotes, give an illusionof a non-existing double bar or mask a real one. We report 15 newdouble-barred galaxies and confirm 2 detected previously. We identify 14additional twists not known before and we also find nuclear triaxialstructures in three SA galaxies. The frequency of Seyferts amonggalaxies with nuclear bars or twists is high. Since these observationsare part of a larger survey, the interpretation of the results will begiven in a future paper, as soon as the number of objects grows enoughto permit meaningful statistics. As a secondary product, we publishstructural parameters (length and axis ratio) of large-scale bars inorder to extend still scarce data on bars in the near-IR.
| The fundamental plane of early-type galaxies: stellar populations and mass-to-light ratio.
We analyse the residuals to the fundamental plane (FP) of ellipticalgalaxies as a function of stellar-population indicators; these are basedon the line-strength parameter Mg_2_ and on UBVRI broad-band colors, andare partly derived from new observations. The effect of the stellarpopulations accounts for approximately half the observed variation ofthe mass-to-light ratio responsible for the FP tilt. The residual tiltcan be explained by the contribution of two additional effects: thedependence of the rotational support, and possibly that of the spatialstructure, on the luminosity. We conclude to a constancy of thedynamical-to-stellar mass ratio. This probably extends to globularclusters as well, but the dominant factor would be here the luminositydependence of the structure rather than that of the stellar population.This result also implies a constancy of the fraction of dark matter overall the scalelength covered by stellar systems. Our compilation ofinternal stellar kinematics of galaxies is appended.
| A comparative study of morphological classifications of APM galaxies
We investigate the consistency of visual morphological classificationsof galaxies by comparing classifications for 831 galaxies from sixindependent observers. The galaxies were classified on laser print copyimages or on computer screen using scans made with the Automated PlateMeasuring (APM) machine. Classifications are compared using the RevisedHubble numerical type index T. We find that individual observers agreewith one another with rms combined dispersions of between 1.3 and 2.3type units, typically about 1.8 units. The dispersions tend to decreaseslightly with increasing angular diameter and, in some cases, withincreasing axial ratio (b/a). The agreement between independentobservers is reasonably good but the scatter is non-negligible. In spiteof the scatter, the Revised Hubble T system can be used to train anautomated galaxy classifier, e.g. an artificial neural network, tohandle the large number of galaxy images that are being compiled in theAPM and other surveys.
| Star formation in the disks of H I-rich S0 galaxies
We present the results of a H-alpha emission-line imaging survey of asample of neutral-gas-rich S galaxies. We find evidence of disk H IIregions in 14 of our sample of 32 galaxies, detect nuclear or faintdiffuse circumnuclear H-alpha + forbidden N II emission in another 11galaxies without disk H II regions, and obtain upper limits for 8galaxies. We find a striking dichotomy between Ss with and without H IIregions; either a galaxy has a number of H II regions, most oftendistributed into distinct rings or ringlike structures, or there arenone down to detection limits equivalent to a single unreddened H IIregion ionized by single O stars. We find that the S0s without disk H IIregions have a lower median MH I/L(B) than those with disk HII regions, but the distributions have a large range of dispersion. Ourdata suggest that S0s may lie in a regime where local threshold effects,perhaps primarily kinematic in origin, are more important in determiningthe star formation in these galaxies than the global stabilitymechanisms that recent empirical models for large-scale star formationhave suggested prevail in later-type spirals.
| The dependence of the cool matter content on galaxy morphology in galaxies of types E/S0, S0, and SA
Using the material assembled in earlier papers, we examine the manner inwhich the interstellar matter content varies along the Hubble sequencefrom S0 galaxies to Sa galaxies selected from the RSA2 compilation. Forthis we make use of a new and more detailed classification which isdescribed here as applied to these early disk/spiral galaxies. Theprominence of the disk in S0's and the visibility of features (H IIregions) in the Sa's serve as the basis for the subtypes. Three S0categories: subtle, intermediate, and pronounced, and four Sadescriptors: very early, early, intermediate, and late are assigned tothe galaxies. It is found that the total amount of hydrogen (H I + H2)is a function of subtype, being low in the S0's and rising smoothly fromthe early Sa's to the later Sa's. The average surface density ofhydrogen exceeds 3 solar masses/pc-squared only in the latest subtypesof the Sa's. We conclude that the prominence of the disk of a galaxyclosely follows the amount of cool gas which the disk contains.
| 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.
| Groups of galaxies within 80 Mpc. I - Grouping hierarchical method and statistical properties
An all-sky sample of 4143 galaxies comprising all the objects with anapparent diameter D(25) larger than 100 arcsec and with recessionvelocities smaller than 6000 km/s (i.e., closer than 80 Mpc) wasanalyzed using a hierarchical algorithm similar to Tully's (1987)algorithm, in order to classify the galaxies into groups defined asentities having an average luminosity density higher than 8 x 10 exp 9solar luminosity in the B band/Mpc cubed. The hierarchy is built on themass density of the aggregates progressively formed by the method,corrected for the loss of faint galaxies with the distance. In this way,264 groups of at least three members were identified, among which 82have more than five members and are located at distances lower than 40Mpc. It was found that (1) almost all the crossing times are lower thanH0 exp -1, confirming the bound nature of the groups; (2) themedian virial mass to blue luminosity ratio of the groups is 74 solarmass per solar luminosity in the B band; and (3) the M/L ratio increaseswith the group size, indicating the presence of dark matter aroundgalaxies to a distance of 500 kpc.
| Interstellar matter in early-type galaxies. I - The catalog
A catalog is given of the currently available measurements ofinterstellar matter in the 467 early-type galaxies listed in the secondedition of the Revised Shapley-Ames Catalog of Bright Galaxies. Themorphological type range is E, SO, and Sa. The ISM tracers are emissionin the following bands: IRAS 100 micron, X-ray, radio, neutral hydrogen,and carbon monoxide. Nearly two-thirds of the Es and SOs have beendetected in one or more of these tracers. Additional observed quantitiesthat are tabulated include: magnitude, colors, radial velocity, centralvelocity dispersion, maximum of the rotation curve, angular size, 60micron flux, and supernovae. Qualitative statements as to the presenceof dust or emission lines, when available in the literature, are given.Quantities derivative from the observed values are also listed andinclude masses of H I, CO, X-ray gas, and dust as well as an estimate ofthe total mass and mass-to-luminosity ratio of the individual galaxies.
| H I content and FIR emission of S0 galaxies
A sample of 252 S0 galaxies is used to study the relationship between HI content and far-IR emission. Logarithms of the H I content versus thefar-IR emission are employed statistically to develop a best-fit linearregression line which is compared to a slope of approximately unity. Theslopes are different for S0 and SB0 galaxies versus S0/a and SB0/agalaxies. The distribution of the 60-100 micron flux ratio is notsignificantly affected by the presence or absence of bars nor by thedifferences between the S0 and S0/a systems. The flux ratio is higherthan the critical value of Helou in 34 percent of the cases, and thevalue holds when nuclear emission is taken into account. In cases wherethe critical value is exceeded, most far-IR emissions are expected to bedue to star formation. S0 galaxies are generally found to have a normalISM, except where the systems have accreted their H I gas. Systems withdisproportionate FIR emission can be considered galaxies that areexperiencing enhanced star formation or that have had their H I gasswept away.
| Effects of Interactions on the Radio Properties of Non-Seyfert Galaxies
On the basis of radio surveys published in the literature we havecompared the radio properties of samples of relatively isolated spiralgalaxies with LINER- and H II- region-like nuclei (hereafter called Land H galaxies) with corresponding samples of non-Seyfert interactinggalaxies, in order to explore the effects of interactions on their radioproperties. Basically, we have found enhanced total and central radioemission (per light unit) in interacting H galaxies (compared with theirrelatively isolated counterparts) and enhanced central radio emission(per light unit) in interacting L galaxies. Analogous enhancements inthe strength of the total and nuclear Hα emission lines areobserved in interacting galaxies. Furthermore, within a sample ofinteracting galaxies, there appears to be evidence of enhanced total andcentral radio emission (per light unit) in strongly interacting galaxieswhich are likely to have H II-region-like nuclei, compared withmoderately interacting objects of the same nuclear type. Interacting Hgalaxies contain more extended central radio sources than isolatedgalaxies, whereas no difference in this sense is observed in the case ofL galaxies. L galaxies which contain, on average, weaker total andcentral radio sources than the H galaxies have, on average, smallercentral radio sources (of greater radio surface brightness) than the Hgalaxies and follow a less-steep logarithmic radio power-radio sizerelation. As regards the Seyfert galaxies, which are known to becharacterized by powerful central radio emission, we have found thatthey contain, on average, central radio sources of intermediate size,which obey a power-size relation of intermediate steepness (with respectto the L and H galaxies). Thus our statistical study reveals basicstructural differences between the radio properties of the L, H andSeyfert galaxies, and between the effects of interactions on the radioproperties of the three classes of galaxies.
| Ionized gas in the nuclear regions of nearby non-Seyfert spiral galaxies
A study of the distribution of ionized gas in the nuclear regions of astatistically significant sample of 91 non-Seyfert spirals is reported.CCD interference band images isolating the bright emission-lines ofH-alpha + forbidden N II (6548, 6583 A) have been used to map thedistribution of ionized gas in the inner 1-2 kpc of these galaxies. Thegalaxies exhibit a rich variety of nuclear and circumnuclearemission-line structures ranging from no-detectable emission to brightstellar nuclei with complicated circumnuclear emission regions extendingfor many kiloparsecs. Trends with Hubble-type and low-ionization nuclearemission-line spectral type (LINER or H II region) have been discerned.In galaxies with nuclear H II regions, those regions are on average thebrightest H II regions in their host galaxies. It appears thatnonthermal nuclear activity and nuclear star formation prefer differentnuclear environments, with active nuclei tending to be found inintermediate-type galaxies, and nuclear H II regions preferringlate-type spirals. It is speculated that this preference may be relatedto the dynamical properties of the host galaxies.
| Revised supernova rates in Shapley-Ames galaxies
Observations of 855 Shapley Ames galaxies made from November 1, 1980 toOctober 31, 1988, together with improved supernova luminosities, havebeen used to derive the frequency of supernovae of different types, andthe results are presented in tables. From a uniform database of 24supernovae discovered, the following SN rates are found, expressed in SNper century per 10 to the 10th L(B)(solar): SN Ia, 0.3; SN Ib, 0.3; andSN II, 1.0. The present data confirm the relatively high frequency of SNII in late-type galaxies that has been found by many previousinvestigators.
| The stellar-free emission component in galactic nuclei - At low-levels, evidence for shock ionization
The emission-line component in a sample of 92 galaxies was isolatedusing stellar absorption templates built from emission-free star clusterspectra and taking into account all sources of reddening extrinsic tothe line emitting regions, and the emission line properties werestatistically analyzed. Three characteristic average spectra were built,including those corresponding to nuclear H II regions, objectsidentified as LINERs, and extreme low-level emission galaxies with W(em)of not greater than 2 A. For the latter, line measurements were pusheddown to very low level. The measurements of the ratio between forbiddenS II line and forbidden S III line indicate that, in the extremelow-level emission galaxies, the shock ionization is the mechanism atwork.
| 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.
| Population synthesis in galactic nuclei using a library of star clusters
A novel galactic-nucleus population-synthesis technique is described anddemonstrated. The procedure is applicable to normal nuclei of E/S0 andspiral galaxies and employs a data base of integrated star-clusterspectra, thus reducing the number of parameters in the analysis to two(age and metallicity), as proposed by Bica and Alloin (1986). Resultsare presented in extensive tables and spectra and discussed in detail.The populations in the E/S0s with normal metallicity/luminosityrelations are found to comprise mainly stars older than 10 Gyr, withsome as young as about 5 Gyr; younger groups are superimposed on older,solar-metallicity populations in the bluer spirals. In NGC 5236, forexample, 87 and 57 percent of the flux at 400 and 900 nm, respectively,is attributed to stars younger than about 300 Myr.
| The supernova rate in Shapley-Ames galaxies
A visual search for SNs in 748 Shapley-Ames galaxies during the 5-yearperiod from November 1, 1980 to October 31, 1985 has yielded SN rates of0.3h-squared, 0.4h-squared, and 1.1h-squared for objects of types Ia,Ib, and II, respectively. These data are judged to imply that Tammann's(1974, 1982) SN rates are probably too high by a factor of about 3. Fora Galactic luminosity of 2 x 10 to the 10th solar L(B), the predicted SNrates in the Milky Way system are 0.6h-squared, 0.8h-squared, and2.2h-squared/century, respectively, for the three aforementioned types.
| Star formation in Seyfert galaxies
The far-IR properties of a sample of Seyfert galaxies are studied usingpreviously obtained UV-optical and mid-IR data. The results show thatactive nuclei do not seem to be responsible for the bulk of the far-IRemission form Seyfert galaxies at wavelengths longer than 30 microns.Seyfert galaxies have, on average, far-IR luminosities that are oneorder of magnitude greater than normal spiral galaxies. The far-IRluminosities of both Seyfert and starburst galaxies are of the sameorder of magnitude, and the far-IR spectral indices of Seyfert and ofstarburst galaxies are indistinguishable from each other. From theseresults, it is concluded that most of the far-IR emission from Seyfertgalaxies is due to starburst episodes occurring in the galacticenvelopes surrounding the active nuclei.
| Analysis of absorption-line spectra in a sample of 164 galactic nuclei
Spectral observations in the 3700-8000 A range of 154 normal galacticnuclei, two amorphous galaxies, and eight intrinsically faint activenuclei whose visible spectrum is dominated by the stellar component arediscussed. A typical red, strong-lined spectrum is found for each groupfrom E to Sb in the -23.2 to -19.0 luminosity range, as well as for thevery luminous Sbc and Sc galaxies, although a few atypical nucleiexhibit variable contents of bluer stellar components. No prototype canbe assigned to the Sbc and Sc galaxies in the -21.9 to -19.0 luminosityrange. Analysis of the equivalent widths shows that the CN 4216-4250 Afeature has the largest dynamical range as a function of metallicity. Itis suggested that young stars are responsible for the blue colors inNGC2865, 4382, and 5102, and that metal-poor stars do not contributesignificantly.
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