We present a spectroscopic analysis of nearly 8000 late-type dwarfs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Using the H{alpha} emission line as an activity indicator, we investigate the fraction of active stars as a function of spectral type and find a peak near type M8, confirming previous results.
The Very Large Array has been used in C configuration to map an area ~=0.3deg^2^ at 1.4GHz with 5{sigma} sensitivities of 0.305, 0.325, 0.380, and 0.450mJy/beam over four equal subareas. Radio properties are presented for 62 detected sources. Deep optical imaging to Gunn r ~=25mag using the Hale 5m telescope covering ~=0.21deg^2^ is reported for a subset of 43 sources. This optical follow-up is much deeper than that of existing larger area radio surveys of similar radio sensitivity. Archival J-, H-, and K-band photometry from the Two-Micron All Sky Survey is also presented. Using a robust likelihood ratio technique, we optically identified 26 radio sources with probability >~80%, nine with uncertain/ambiguous detections, and eight with empty fields. Comparisons with a stellar synthesis model that includes radio emission and dust reddening suggest that the near-infrared-optical emission in a small, bright subsample is reddened by "optically thin" dust with absorption A_V_~=22.5mag, regardless of morphological type. This is consistent with other, more direct determinations of absorption. The radio-optical(-near-infrared) flux ratios of early-type galaxies require significant contamination in the radio by an active galactic nucleus, consistent with the current paradigm. Using our simple modeling approach, we also discuss a potential diagnostic for selecting ultraluminous infrared galaxies to z~=1.6 from microJansky radio surveys.
We present results from a large, high-spatial-resolution near-infrared imaging search for stellar and sub-stellar companions in the Taurus-Auriga star-forming region. The sample covers 64 stars with masses between those of the most massive Taurus members at ~3M_{sun}_ and low-mass stars at ~0.2M_{sun}_. We detected 74 companion candidates, 34 of these reported for the first time. Twenty-five companions are likely physically bound, partly confirmed by follow-up observations. Four candidate companions are likely unrelated field stars. Assuming physical association with their host star, estimated companion masses are as low as ~2M_Jup_. The inferred multiplicity frequency within our sensitivity limits between ~10-1500AU is 26.3_-4.9_^+6.6^%. Applying a completeness correction, 62%+/-14% of all Taurus stars between 0.7 and 1.4M_{sun}_ appear to be multiple. Higher order multiples were found in 1.8_-1.5_^+4.2^% of the cases, in agreement with previous observations of the field. We estimate a sub-stellar companion frequency of ~3.5%-8.8% within our sensitivity limits from the discovery of two likely bound and three other tentative very low-mass companions. This frequency appears to be in agreement with what is expected from the tail of the stellar companion mass ratio distribution, suggesting that stellar and brown dwarf companions share the same dominant formation mechanism. Further, we find evidence for possible evolution of binary parameters between two identified sub-populations in Taurus with ages of ~2Myr and ~20Myr, respectively.
By collecting optical and infrared photometry and low-resolution spectroscopy, we have identified a large number of low-mass stars and brown dwarf candidates belonging to the young cluster (~5Myr) associated with the binary star {lambda} Orionis. The lowest mass object found is an M8.5 with an estimated mass of 0.02M_{Sun}_ (~0.01M_{Sun}_ for objects without spectroscopic confirmation). For those objects with spectroscopy, the measured strength of the H{alpha} emission line follows a distribution similar to other clusters with the same age range, with larger equivalent widths for cooler spectral types.
4854 UBVRI photometric data on the BL Lacertae object S5 0716+71 taken from 8 Observatories in the period 1994-2001 are presented; a table for each optical band is given, containing the observation time, the source magnitude, the error on the source magnitude, and a label indicating the Observatory where the observation was done.
We present a new technique to measure multi-wavelength "super-deblended" photometry from highly confused images, which we apply to Herschel and ground-based far-infrared (FIR) and (sub-)millimeter (mm) data in the northern field of the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS-N). There are two key novelties. First, starting with a large database of deep Spitzer 24{mu}m and VLA 20cm detections that are used to define prior positions for fitting the FIR/submm data, we perform an active selection of useful priors independently at each frequency band, moving from less to more confused bands. Exploiting knowledge of redshift and all available photometry, we identify hopelessly faint priors that we remove from the fitting pool. This approach significantly reduces blending degeneracies and allows reliable photometry to be obtained for galaxies in FIR+mm bands. Second, we obtain well-behaved, nearly Gaussian flux density uncertainties, individually tailored to all fitted priors for each band. This is done by exploiting extensive simulations that allow us to calibrate the conversion of formal fitting uncertainties to realistic uncertainties, depending on directly measurable quantities. We achieve deeper detection limits with high fidelity measurements and uncertainties at FIR+mm bands. As an illustration of the utility of these measurements, we identify 70 galaxies with z>=3 and reliable FIR+mm detections. We present new constraints on the cosmic star formation rate density at 3<z<6, finding a significant contribution from z>=3 dusty galaxies that are missed by optical-to-near-infrared color selection. Photometric measurements for 3306 priors, including more than 1000 FIR+mm detections, are released publicly with our catalog.
V, R, and I CCD images are used to investigate the photometric properties and spatial distribution of supergiants in the nearby interacting galaxy NGC 672. Not counting stars imbedded in H II regions, our sample consists of 237 objects. The (V-R,V-I) two-color diagram indicates that the majority of these stars have spectral types between A-K. Statistical tests show that the outer region of NGC 672 contains a redder population of supergiants than the inner region. Comparisons with theoretical evolutionary tracks indicate that the majority of the supergiants in NGC 672 have progenitor masses between 15M_{sun}_ and 25M_{sun}_, and that the inner regions contain stars that are more massive than in the outer disk, indicating that an age gradient is present. The luminosity functions in all three bandpasses follow power laws, and the exponent in V=0.79+/-0.06, in good agreement with other galaxies. The brightest red supergiants occur at V~22.0, from which we derive a distance modulus of 29.5, corresponding to 7.9(+1.0)(-0.9)Mpc.
We analyze the >4{sigma} sources in the most sensitive 100arcmin^2^ area (rms<0.56mJy) of a SCUBA-2 850{mu}m survey of the GOODS-S and present the 75 band-7 ALMA sources (>4.5{sigma}) obtained from high-resolution interferometric follow-up observations. The raw SCUBA-2 >4{sigma} limit is fainter than 2.25mJy throughout this region, and deboosting corrections would lower this further. Of the 53 SCUBA-2 sources in this sample, only five have no ALMA detections, while 13% (68% confidence range 7%-19%) have multiple ALMA counterparts. Color-based high-redshift dusty galaxy selection techniques find at most 55% of the total ALMA sample. In addition to using literature spectroscopic and optical/near-infrared photometric redshifts, we estimate far infrared photometric redshifts based on an Arp 220 template. We identify seven z>~4 candidates. We see the expected decline with redshift of the 4.5 and 24{mu}m to 850{mu}m flux ratios, confirming these as good diagnostics of z>~4 candidates. We visually classify 52 ALMA sources, finding 44% (68% confidence range 35%-53%) to be apparent mergers. We calculate rest-frame 2-8keV and 8-28keV luminosities using the 7Ms Chandra X-ray image. Nearly all of the ALMA sources detected at 0.5-2keV are consistent with a known X-ray luminosity to 850{mu}m flux relation for star-forming galaxies, while most of those detected at 2-7keV are moderate-luminosity AGNs that lie just above the 2-7keV detection threshold. The latter largely have substantial obscurations of logN_H_=23-24cm^-2^, but two of the high-redshift candidates may even be Compton thick.
In this first paper in the SUPER GOODS series on powerfully star-forming galaxies in the two GOODS fields, we present a deep SCUBA-2 survey of the GOODS-N at both 850 and 450{mu}m (central rms noise of 0.28mJy and 2.6mJy, respectively). In the central region, the 850{mu}m observations cover the GOODS-N to near the confusion limit of ~1.65mJy, while over a wider 450arcmin^2^ region-well complemented by Herschel far-infrared imaging-they have a median 4{sigma} limit of 3.5mJy. We present >=4{sigma} catalogs of 186 850{mu}m and 31 450{mu}m selected sources. We use interferometric observations from the Submillimeter Array (SMA) and the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) to obtain precise positions for 114 SCUBA-2 sources (28 from the SMA, all of which are also VLA sources). We present new spectroscopic redshifts and include all existing spectroscopic or photometric redshifts. We also compare redshifts estimated using the 20cm/850{mu}m and the 250cm/850{mu}m flux ratios. We show that the redshift distribution increases with increasing flux, and we parameterize the dependence. We compute the star formation history and the star formation rate (SFR) density distribution functions in various redshift intervals, finding that they reach a peak at z=2-3 before dropping to higher redshifts. We show that the number density per unit volume of SFR>~500M_{sun}_/yr galaxies measured from the SCUBA-2 sample does not change much relative to that of lower SFR galaxies from UV selected samples over z=2-5, suggesting that, apart from changes in the normalization, the shape in the number density as a function of SFR is invariant over this redshift interval.
Supernova (SN) light echoes could be a powerful tool for determining distances to galaxies geometrically, Sparks (1994ApJ...433...19S). In this paper we present CCD photometry of the environments of 64 historical supernovae, the first results of a program designed to search for light echoes from these SNe. We commonly find patches of optical emission at, or close to, the sites of the supernovae. The color distribution of these patches is broad, and generally consistent with stellar population colors, possibly with some reddening. However there are in addition patches with both unusually red and unusually blue colors. We expect light echoes to be blue, and while none of the objects are quite as blue in V-R as the known light echo of SN 1991T, there are features that are unusually blue and we identify these as candidate light echoes for follow-on observations.
