Dense Environments (dense + environment)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Morphological properties of isolated galaxies vs. isolation criteria

ASTRONOMISCHE NACHRICHTEN, Issue 9-10 2009
I.B. Vavilova
Abstract We studied the morphological properties of isolated galaxies samples in dependence on the isolation parameter and properties of primary catalogs. With this aim we identified the samples of single and isolated galaxies from SDSS DR5 (Single and QIsol) with the 3D Voronoi tessellation method (Elyiv et al. 2009). We found that in comparison with other samples of isolated galaxies, the QIsol sample contains an excess of late-type galaxies, especially with a low luminosity and BCG/Im/Irr morphology. We also showed that the fractions of early type galaxies in QIsol SDSS DR5 sample and samples 2MIG (Karachentseva et al. 2010) and CIG (Karachentseva et al. 1973; Hernandez-Toledo et al. 2008) are in a good agreement (16,19 %), but Allam's (Allam et al. 2005) and Prada's (Prada et al. 2003) SDSS DR1 samples show a higher excess of the early type galaxies that can be explained by the selection criteria and morphology definition method. We found a weak relation between isolation parameter and color index for the Single sample that may indicate that even in the low dense environment the morphology density relation is observed. We conclude that morphological properties of the resulting sample of isolated galaxies are highly dependent on the primary catalogue from which the galaxies were selected. Moreover, the selection criterion is also important but plays a secondary role in the resulting morphological content, color indices distribution and other parameters of the isolated galaxy samples. Only four galaxies are common in the 2MIG, QIsol, and CIG samples, namely UGC5184, UGC6121, UGC8495, and UGC9598, that allows to consider them as really most isolated galaxies (© 2009 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [source]


Are galaxies with active galactic nuclei a transition population?

MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 4 2007
P. B. Westoby
ABSTRACT We present the results of an analysis of a well-selected sample of galaxies with active and inactive galactic nuclei from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, in the range 0.01 < z < 0.16. The SDSS galaxy catalogue was split into two classes of active galaxies, Type 2 active galactic nuclei (AGN) and composites, and one set of inactive, star-forming/passive galaxies. For each active galaxy, two inactive control galaxies were selected by matching redshift, absolute magnitude, inclination, and radius. The sample of inactive galaxies naturally divides into a red and a blue sequence, while the vast majority of AGN hosts occur along the red sequence. In terms of H, equivalent width (EW), the population of composite galaxies peaks in the valley between the two modes, suggesting a transition population. However, this effect is not observed in other properties such as the colour,magnitude space or colour,concentration plane. Active galaxies are seen to be generally bulge-dominated systems, but with enhanced H, emission compared to inactive red-sequence galaxies. AGN and composites also occur in less dense environments than inactive red-sequence galaxies, implying that the fuelling of AGN is more restricted in high-density environments. These results are therefore inconsistent with theories in which AGN host galaxies are a ,transition' population. We also introduce a systematic 3D spectroscopic imaging survey, to quantify and compare the gaseous and stellar kinematics of a well-selected, distance-limited sample of up to 20 nearby Seyfert galaxies, and 20 inactive control galaxies with well-matched optical properties. The survey aims to search for dynamical triggers of nuclear activity and address outstanding controversies in optical/infrared imaging surveys. [source]


Probing galactic dark matter in dense environments: on the strong lensing efficiency of galaxies in rich clusters

MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 1 2007
Lindsay J. King
ABSTRACT The recent detection by Limousin et al. of five new strong lensing events dominated by galaxy cluster members in Abell 1689, and outside the critical regime of the cluster itself, offers a way to obtain constraints on the cluster mass distribution in a region inaccessible to standard lensing analysis. In addition, modelling such systems will provide another window on the dark matter haloes of galaxies in very dense environments. Here, it is shown that the boost in image separation due to the external shear and convergence from a smooth cluster component means that more numerous, less massive galaxies have the potential to create multiple images with detectable separations, relative to isolated field galaxies. This comes in addition to a potential increase in their lensing (source plane) cross-section. To gain insight into the factors involved and as a precursor to a numerical study using N -body simulations, a simple analytic model of a cluster at z= 0.3 lensing background galaxies at z= 2 is considered here. The fiducial model has cluster members with isothermal density profiles and luminosities L, distributed in a Schechter function (faint-end slope ,=,1.25), related to their velocity dispersions , via the Faber,Jackson scaling L,,4. Just outside the critical regime of the cluster, the scale of galaxy-dominated image separations is significantly increased. Folding in the fact that less massive galaxies present a lower lensing cross-section, and that the cross-section can itself be enhanced in an external field leads to a factor of a few times more detected events relative to field galaxies. These values will be higher closer to the critical curve. Given that the events in Abell 1689 were detected over a very small region of the cluster where ACS data were available, this motivates the search for such events in other clusters. [source]


Radial variation of optical and near-infrared colours in luminous early-type galaxies in A2199

MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 2 2004
Naoyuki Tamura
ABSTRACT We performed K -band surface photometry for luminous early-type galaxies in a nearby rich cluster A2199. Combining it with B - and R -band surface photometry, radial variations of B,R and R,K colours in the galaxies were investigated. It is found that the inner regions of the galaxies are redder in both B,R and R,K colours. Comparing the radial variations of both colours with predictions of simple stellar population models for a range of ages and metallicities, it is suggested that the cluster ellipticals have negative metallicity gradients, but their age gradients are consistent with zero, although our sample is small; the typical metallicity gradient is estimated to be ,0.16 ± 0.09 in d log Z/d log r, while the age gradient is estimated to be ,0.10 ± 0.14 in d log (age)/d log r. Considering that similar results have also been derived in the other recent studies using samples of ellipticals in the Coma cluster and less dense environments, it seems that there is no strong dependence on galaxy environment in the radial gradient of stellar population in an elliptical galaxy. [source]


The environmental dependence of radio-loud AGN activity and star formation in the 2dFGRS

MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 1 2004
P. N. Best
ABSTRACT By combining the 2-degree Field Galaxy Redshift Survey with the NRAO VLA Sky Survey at 1.4 GHz, the environments of radio-loud active galactic nuclei (AGN) in the nearby Universe are investigated using both local projected galaxy densities and a friends-of-friends group-finding algorithm. Radio-loud AGN are preferentially located in galaxy groups and poor-to-moderate richness galaxy clusters. The AGN fraction appears to depend more strongly on the large-scale environment (group, cluster, etc.) in which a galaxy is located than on its more local environment, except at the lowest galaxy surface densities where practically no radio-loud AGN are found. The ratio of absorption-line to emission-line AGN changes dramatically with environment, with essentially all radio-loud AGN in rich environments showing no emission lines. This result could be connected with the lack of cool gas in cluster galaxies, and may have important consequences for analyses of optically selected AGN, which are invariably selected on emission-line properties. The local galaxy surface density of the absorption-line AGN is strongly correlated with radio luminosity, implying that the radio luminosities may be significantly boosted in dense environments due to confinement by the hot intracluster gas. The environments of a radio-selected sample of star-forming galaxies are also investigated to provide an independent test of optical studies. In line with those studies, the fraction of star-forming galaxies is found to decrease strongly with increasing local galaxy surface density; this correlation extends across the whole range of galaxy surface densities, with no evidence for the density threshold found in some optical studies. [source]