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- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/832/87
- Title:
- Members of the young open cluster IC 2395
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/832/87
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present new deep UBVRI images and high-resolution multi-object optical spectroscopy of the young (~6-10Myr old), relatively nearby (800pc) open cluster IC 2395. We identify nearly 300 cluster members and use the photometry to estimate their spectral types, which extend from early B to middle M. We also present an infrared imaging survey of the central region using the IRAC and MIPS instruments on board the Spitzer Space Telescope, covering the wavelength range from 3.6 to 24{mu}m. Our infrared observations allow us to detect dust in circumstellar disks originating over a typical range of radii from ~0.1 to ~10 au from the central star. We identify 18 Class II, 8 transitional disk, and 23 debris disk candidates, respectively, 6.5%, 2.9%, and 8.3% of the cluster members with appropriate data. We apply the same criteria for transitional disk identification to 19 other stellar clusters and associations spanning ages from ~1 to ~18Myr. We find that the number of disks in the transitional phase as a fraction of the total with strong 24{mu}m excesses ([8]-[24]>=1.5) increases from (8.4+/-1.3)% at ~3Myr to (46+/-5)% at ~10Myr. Alternative definitions of transitional disks will yield different percentages but should show the same trend.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/838/11
- Title:
- Member stars in the MW satellite Tucana III
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/838/11
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present Magellan/IMACS spectroscopy of the recently discovered Milky Way satellite Tucana III (Tuc III). We identify 26 member stars in Tuc III from which we measure a mean radial velocity of v_hel_=-102.3+/-0.4(stat.)+/-2.0(sys.)km/s, a velocity dispersion of 0.1_-0.1_^+0.7^km/s, and a mean metallicity of [Fe/H]=-2.42_-0.08_^+0.07^. The upper limit on the velocity dispersion is {sigma}<1.5km/s at 95.5% confidence, and the corresponding upper limit on the mass within the half-light radius of Tuc III is 9.0x10^4^M_{sun}_. We cannot rule out mass-to-light ratios as large as 240M_{sun}_/L_{sun}_ for Tuc III, but much lower mass-to-light ratios that would leave the system baryon-dominated are also allowed. We measure an upper limit on the metallicity spread of the stars in Tuc III of 0.19dex at 95.5% confidence. Tuc III has a smaller metallicity dispersion and likely a smaller velocity dispersion than any known dwarf galaxy, but a larger size and lower surface brightness than any known globular cluster. Its metallicity is also much lower than those of the clusters with similar luminosity. We therefore tentatively suggest that Tuc III is the tidally stripped remnant of a dark matter-dominated dwarf galaxy, but additional precise velocity and metallicity measurements will be necessary for a definitive classification. If Tuc III is indeed a dwarf galaxy, it is one of the closest external galaxies to the Sun. Because of its proximity, the most luminous stars in Tuc III are quite bright, including one star at V=15.7 that is the brightest known member star of an ultra-faint satellite.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/877/13
- Title:
- Member stars of the GD-1 tidal stream
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/877/13
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- With the photometric data from the SDSS survey, the spectroscopic data from the SDSS/SEGUE and the LAMOST surveys, and the astrometric data from the Gaia DR2, we have identified 67 highly probable member stars of the GD-1 cold stellar stream spread along almost its entire length (i.e., from 126{deg} to 203{deg} in R.A.). With the accurate spectroscopic (i.e., metallicity and line-of-sight velocity) and astrometric (i.e., proper motions) information, the position-velocity diagrams, i.e., {phi}_1_-{mu}_{alpha}_, {phi}_1_-{mu}_{delta}_, and {phi}_1_-v_gsr_, of the GD-1 stream are well mapped. The stream has an average metallicity [Fe/H]=-1.96. The rich information of member stars of the stream now available allow one not only to model its origin, but also to place strong constraints on the mass distribution and the gravitational potential of the Milky Way.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/692/511
- Title:
- Mergers of luminous early-type galaxies
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/692/511
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Supermassive black hole (SMBH) coalescence in galaxy mergers is believed to be one of the primary sources of very low frequency gravitational waves (GWs). Significant contribution of the GWs comes from mergers of massive galaxies with redshifts z<2. Very few previous studies gave the merger rate of massive galaxies. We selected a large sample (1209) of close pairs of galaxies with projected separations 7<r_p_<50kpc from 87889 luminous early-type galaxies (M_r_<-21.5) from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 6. These pairs constitute a complete volume-limited sample in the local universe (z<0.12). Using our newly developed technique, 249 mergers have been identified by searching for interaction features. From them, we found that the merger fraction of luminous early-type galaxies is 0.8%, and the merger rate in the local universe is Rg~(1.0+/-0.4)x10^-5^Mpc^-3^/Gyr with an uncertainty mainly depending on the merging timescale.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJS/237/36
- Title:
- Merging dwarf galaxies in the local universe
- Short Name:
- J/ApJS/237/36
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present the largest publicly available catalog of interacting dwarf galaxies. It includes 177 nearby merging dwarf galaxies of stellar mass M*<10^10^M_{sun}_ and redshifts z<0.02. These galaxies are selected by visual inspection of publicly available archival imaging from two wide-field optical surveys (SDSS-III and the Legacy Survey), and they possess low-surface-brightness features that are likely the result of an interaction between dwarf galaxies. We list UV and optical photometric data that we use to estimate stellar masses and star formation rates. So far, the study of interacting dwarf galaxies has largely been done on an individual basis, and lacks a sufficiently large catalog to give statistics on the properties of interacting dwarf galaxies, and their role in the evolution of low-mass galaxies. We expect that this public catalog can be used as a reference sample to investigate the effects of the tidal interaction on the evolution of star formation, and the morphology/structure of dwarf galaxies. Our sample is overwhelmingly dominated by star-forming galaxies, and they are generally found significantly below the red sequence in the color-magnitude relation. The number of early-type galaxies is only 3 out of 177. We classify them, according to observed low-surface-brightness features, into various categories including shells, stellar streams, loops, antennae, or simply interacting. We find that dwarf-dwarf interactions tend to prefer the low-density environment. Only 41 out of the 177 candidate dwarf-dwarf interaction systems have giant neighbors within a sky-projected distance of 700kpc and a line-of-sight radial velocity range +/-700km/s, and compared to the LMC-SMC, they are generally located at much larger sky-projected distances from their nearest giant neighbors.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/AJ/148/137
- Title:
- Merging galaxies in COSMOS to z~1
- Short Name:
- J/AJ/148/137
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- The role of major mergers in galaxy and black hole formation is not well-constrained. To help address this, we develop an automated method to identify late-stage galaxy mergers before coalescence of the galactic cores. The resulting sample of mergers is distinct from those obtained using pair-finding and morphological indicators. Our method relies on median-filtering of high-resolution images to distinguish two concentrated galaxy nuclei at small separations. This method does not rely on low surface brightness features to identify mergers, and is therefore reliable to high redshift. Using mock images, we derive statistical contamination and incompleteness corrections for the fraction of late-stage mergers. The mock images show that our method returns an uncontaminated (<10%) sample of mergers with projected separations between 2.2 and 8kpc out to z~1. We apply our new method to a magnitude-limited (m_FW814_<23) sample of 44164 galaxies from the COSMOS HST/ACS catalog. Using a mass-complete sample with log M_{star}_/M_{sun}_>10.6 and 0.25<z<=1.00, we find ~5% of systems are late-stage mergers. Correcting for incompleteness and contamination, the fractional merger rate increases strongly with redshift as {\bf R}_merge_\propto(1+z)^3.8+/-0.9^, in agreement both with earlier studies and with dark matter halo merger rates. Separating the sample into star-forming and quiescent galaxies shows that the merger rate for star-forming galaxies increases strongly with redshift, (1+z)^4.5+/-1.3^, while the merger rate for quiescent galaxies is consistent with no evolution, (1+z)^1.1+/-1.2^. The merger rate also becomes steeper with decreasing stellar mass. Limiting our sample to galaxies with spectroscopic redshifts from zCOSMOS, we find that the star formation rates and X-ray selected active galactic nucleus (AGN) activity in likely late-stage mergers are higher by factors of ~2 relative to those of a control sample. Combining our sample with more widely separated pairs, we find that 8+/-5% of star formation and 20+/-8% of AGN activity are triggered by close encounters (<143kpc) or mergers, providing additional evidence that major mergers are not the only channels for star formation and black hole growth.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/600/A28
- Title:
- Merging galaxies in Pan-STARR
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/600/A28
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We studied the r'-, z'-, and y'-band images of merging galaxies from the observations of the Panoramic Survey Telescope & Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS). The merging galaxies were selected from our merging catalog that was created by checking the images of the Red-Sequence Cluster Survey 2 from the observations of the Canada France Hawaii Telescope By using the homomorphic-aperture, we determined the photometric results of these merging systems. To obtain accurate photometry, we calibrated the Pan-STARRS r'-, z'-, and y'-band data to match the results of Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 9. We also investigated the stellar masses of the merging galaxies by comparing the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer 3.4um emission with the calibrated y'-band data. We present a catalog of the r'-, z'-, and y'-band photometric results for 4698 merging galaxies. For extended sources, our results suggest that the homomorphic-aperture method can obtain more reasonable results than the Desktop Virtual Observatory photometry. We derived new relations between the Pan-STARRS y'-band luminosities and the stellar masses of the merging galaxies. Our results show that the stellar masses of the merging galaxies range from 10^8^ to 10^13^M_{sun}_; some of the dry mergers could be as massive as 10^13^M_{sun}_.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/AJ/127/1883
- Title:
- Merging galaxies in SDSS EDR
- Short Name:
- J/AJ/127/1883
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present a new catalog of merging galaxies obtained through an automated systematic search routine. The 1479 new pairs of merging galaxies were found in ~462 square degrees of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Early Data Release (SDSS EDR, Cat. <J/AJ/123/567>) photometric data, and the pair catalog is complete for galaxies in the magnitude range 16.0<=g*<=20. The selection algorithm, implementing a variation on the original Karachentsev criteria, proved to be very efficient and fast. Merging galaxies were selected such that the intergalaxy separations were less than the sum of the component galaxies' radii. We discuss the characteristics of the sample in terms of completeness, pair separation, and the Holmberg effect. We also present an on-line atlas of images for the SDSS EDR pairs obtained using the corrected frames from the SDSS EDR database. The atlas images also include the relevant data for each pair member. This catalog will be useful for conducting studies of the general characteristics of merging galaxies, their environments, and their component galaxies. The redshifts for a subset of the interacting and merging galaxies and the distribution of angular sizes for these systems indicate the SDSS provides a much deeper sample than almost any other wide-area catalog to date.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/832/90
- Title:
- Merging galaxies with tidal tails in COSMOS to z=1
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/832/90
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Tidal tails are created in major mergers involving disk galaxies. It remains to be explored how the tidal tails trace the assembly history of massive galaxies. We identify a sample of 461 merging galaxies with long tidal tails, from 35076 galaxies mass-complete at M*>=10^9.5^M_{sun}_ and 0.2<=z<=1, based on Hubble Space Telescope/ACS F814W imaging data and public catalogs of the COSMOS field. The long tails refer to those with length equal to or greater than the diameter of their host galaxies. The mergers with tidal tails are selected using our novel A_O_-D_O_ technique for strong asymmetric features, along with visual examination. Our results show that the fraction of tidal-tailed mergers evolves mildly with redshift, as ~(1+z)^2.0+/-0.4^, and becomes relatively higher in less-massive galaxies, out to z=1. With a timescale of 0.5Gyr for the tidal-tailed mergers, we obtain that the occurrence rate of such mergers follows 0.01+/-0.007(1+z)^2.3+/-1.4^Gyr^-1^, and corresponds to ~0.3 events since z=1, as well as roughly one-third of the total budget of major mergers from the literature. For disk-involved major mergers, nearly half of them have undergone a phase with long tidal tails.
