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High-Resolution Optical Velocity Fields of 11 Low Surface Brightness Galaxies
We present high-resolution two-dimensional velocity fields from integralfield spectroscopy, along with derived rotation curves for 11 lowsurface brightness galaxies. We fit NFW and pseudoisothermal halo modelsto the new data combined with previous long-slit and H I data. In mostcases, we find the pseudoisothermal halo to better represent the datathan the NFW halo, as the NFW concentrations are often lower thanexpected for a ΛCDM cosmology. We also compare our results toprevious studies and find that including the new two-dimensional opticaldata does not significantly alter the halo parameters but does decreasethe uncertainties by roughly a factor of 2.
| Associations of Dwarf Galaxies
The Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys has been used todetermine accurate distances for 20 galaxies from measurements of theluminosity of the brightest red giant branch stars. Five associations ofdwarf galaxies that had originally been identified based on strongcorrelations on the plane of the sky and in velocity are shown to beequally well correlated in distance. Two more associations with similarproperties have been discovered. Another association is identified thatis suggested to be unbound through tidal disruption. The associationshave the spatial and kinematic properties expected of bound structureswith (1-10)×1011 Msolar. However, theseentities have little light, with the consequence that the mass-to-lightratios are in the range 100-1000 MsolarL-1solar. Within a well-surveyed volume extendingto a 3 Mpc radius, all but one known galaxy lie within one of the groupsor associations that have been identified.
| The Molecular Interstellar Medium of Dwarf Galaxies on Kiloparsec Scales: A New Survey for CO in Northern, IRAS-detected Dwarf Galaxies
We present a new survey for CO in dwarf galaxies using the ARO Kitt Peak12 m telescope. This survey consists of observations of the centralregions of 121 northern dwarfs with IRAS detections and no known COemission. We detect CO in 28 of these galaxies and marginally detectanother 16, increasing by about 50% the number of such galaxies known tohave significant CO emission. The galaxies we detect are comparable instellar and dynamical mass to the Large Magellanic Cloud, althoughsomewhat brighter in CO and fainter in the far-IR. Within dwarfs, wefind that the CO luminosity LCO is most strongly correlatedwith the K-band and the far-infrared luminosities. There are also strongcorrelations with the radio continuum (RC) and B-band luminosities andlinear diameter. Conversely, we find that far-IR dust temperature is apoor predictor of CO emission within the dwarfs alone, although a goodpredictor of normalized CO content among a larger sample of galaxies. Wesuggest that LCO and LK correlate well because thestellar component of a galaxy dominates the midplane gravitational fieldand thus sets the pressure and density of the atomic gas, which controlthe formation of H2 from H I. We compare our sample with moremassive galaxies and find that dwarfs and large galaxies obey the samerelationship between CO and the 1.4 GHz RC surface brightness. Thisrelationship is well described by a Schmidt law withΣRC~Σ1.3CO. Therefore,dwarf galaxies and large spirals exhibit the same relationship betweenmolecular gas and star formation rate (SFR). We find that this result isrobust to moderate changes in the RC-to-SFR and CO-to-H2conversion factors. Our data appear to be inconsistent with large (orderof magnitude) variations in the CO-to-H2 conversion factor inthe star-forming molecular gas.
| Light-to-Mass Variations with Environment
Large and well-defined variations exist between the distribution of massand the light of stars on extragalactic scales. Mass concentrations inthe range 1012-1013 Msolar manifest themost light per unit mass. Group halos in this range are typically thehosts of spiral and irregular galaxies with ongoing star formation. Onaverage M/LB~90 Msolar/Lsolar in thesegroups . More massive halos have less light per unit mass. Within agiven mass range, halos that are dynamically old as measured by crossingtimes and galaxy morphologies have distinctly less light per unit mass.At the other end of the mass spectrum, below 1012Msolar, there is a cutoff in the manifestation of light.Group halos in the range 1011-1012Msolar can host dwarf galaxies but with such low luminositiesthat M/LB values can range from several hundred to severalthousand. It is suspected that there must be completely dark halos atlower masses. Given the form of the halo mass function, the low relativeluminosities of the high-mass halos have the greatest cosmologicalimplications. Of order half the clustered mass may reside in halos withgreater than 1014 Msolar. By contrast, only 5%-10%of clustered mass would lie in entities with less than 1012Msolar.
| Red Thick Disks of Nearby Galaxies
Edge-on systems reveal the properties of disk galaxies as a function ofheight, z, above the plane. Four local edge-on galaxies that are closeenough to have been resolved into stars by the Hubble Space Telescopeshow thick disks composed of a red stellar population that is old andrelatively metal rich. Color gradients, Δ(V-I)/Δz, are zeroor slightly positive. Favored models may have an explicit thick diskformation phase.
| The Local Group and Other Neighboring Galaxy Groups
Over the last few years, rapid progress has been made in distancemeasurements for nearby galaxies based on the magnitude of stars on thetip of the red giant branch. Current CCD surveys with the Hubble SpaceTelescope (HST) and large ground-based telescopes bring ~10% accuratedistances for roughly a hundred galaxies within 5 Mpc. The new data ondistances to galaxies situated in (and around) the nearest groups-theLocal Group, M81 Group, Cen A/M83 Group, IC 342/Maffei Group, Sculptorfilament, and Canes Venatici cloud-allowed us to determine their totalmass from the radius of the zero-velocity surface, R0, whichseparates a group as bound against the homogeneous cosmic expansion. Thevalues of R0 for the virialized groups turn out to be closeeach other, in the range of 0.9-1.3 Mpc. As a result, the total massesof the groups are close to each other, as well, yielding total mass toblue luminosity ratios of 10-40 MsolarL-1solar. The new total mass estimates are 3-5times lower than old virial mass estimates of these groups. Becauseabout half of galaxies in the Local volume belong to such loose groups,the revision of the amount of dark matter (DM) leads to a low localdensity of matter, Ωm~=0.04, which is comparable withthe global baryonic fraction Ωb but much lower than theglobal density of matter, Ωm=0.27. To remove thediscrepancy between the global and local quantities ofΩm, we assume the existence of two different DMcomponents: (1) compact dark halos around individual galaxies and (2) anonbaryonic dark matter ``ocean'' with ΩDM1~=0.07 andΩDM2~=0.20, respectively.Based in part on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble SpaceTelescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which isoperated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy,Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555.
| New distances of unresolved dwarf elliptical galaxies in the vicinity of the Local Group
We present Surface Brightness Fluctuation distances of nine early-typedwarf galaxies and the S0 galaxy NGC 4150 in the Local Volume based ondeep B- and R-band CCD images obtained with the 2.56 m Nordic OpticalTelescope. Typically, six stellar fields at various galactocentricdistances have been chosen for each galaxy as appropriately free offoreground stars and other contaminants, and Fourier analysed todetermine the distances, which are found to lie in the range of 3 to 16Mpc. The SBF method is thus demonstrated to efficiently measuredistances from the ground with mid-aperture telescopes for galaxies forwhich only the tip of the red giant branch method in combination withthe Hubble Space Telescope has been available until now. We obtained thefollowing distance moduli: 28.11 ± 0.15 mag (or 4.2 ± 0.3Mpc) for UGC 1703, 27.61 ± 0.17 mag (or 3.3 ± 0.3 Mpc) forKDG 61, 29.00 ± 0.27 mag (or 6.3 ± 0.8 Mpc) for UGCA 200,27.74 ± 0.18 mag (or 3.5 ± 0.3 Mpc) for UGC 5442, 30.22± 0.17 mag (or 11.1 ± 0.9 Mpc) for UGC 5944, 30.79± 0.11 mag (or 14.4 ± 0.7 Mpc) for NGC 4150, 31.02± 0.25 mag (or 16.0 ± 1.9 Mpc) for BTS 128, 29.27 ±0.16 mag (or 7.1 ± 0.6 Mpc) for UGC 7639, 30.19 ± 0.23 mag(or 10.9 ± 1.2 Mpc) for UGC 8799 with an alternative distance of30.61 ± 0.26 mag (or 13.2 ± 1.7 Mpc), and 29.60 ±0.20 mag (or 8.3 ± 0.8 Mpc) for UGC 8882.
| A Catalog of Neighboring Galaxies
We present an all-sky catalog of 451 nearby galaxies, each having anindividual distance estimate D<~10 Mpc or a radial velocityVLG<550 km s-1. The catalog contains data onbasic optical and H I properties of the galaxies, in particular, theirdiameters, absolute magnitudes, morphological types, circumnuclearregion types, optical and H I surface brightnesses, rotationalvelocities, and indicative mass-to-luminosity and H I mass-to-luminosityratios, as well as a so-called tidal index, which quantifies the galaxyenvironment. We expect the catalog completeness to be roughly 70%-80%within 8 Mpc. About 85% of the Local Volume population are dwarf (dIr,dIm, and dSph) galaxies with MB>-17.0, which contributeabout 4% to the local luminosity density, and roughly 10%-15% to thelocal H I mass density. The H I mass-to-luminosity and the H Imass-to-total (indicative) mass ratios increase systematically fromgiant galaxies toward dwarfs, reaching maximum values about 5 in solarunits for the most tiny objects. For the Local Volume disklike galaxies,their H I masses and angular momentum follow Zasov's linear relation,expected for rotating gaseous disks being near the threshold ofgravitational instability, favorable for active star formation. We foundthat the mean local luminosity density exceeds 1.7-2.0 times the globaldensity, in spite of the presence of the Tully void and the absence ofrich clusters in the Local Volume. The mean local H I density is 1.4times its ``global'' value derived from the H I Parkes Sky Survey.However, the mean local baryon densityΩb(<8Mpc)=2.3% consists of only a half of the globalbaryon density, Ωb=(4.7+/-0.6)% (Spergel et al.,published in 2003). The mean-square pairwise difference of radialvelocities is about 100 km s-1 for spatial separations within1 Mpc, increasing to ~300 km s-1 on a scale of ~3 Mpc. alsoWe calculated the integral area of the sky occupied by the neighboringgalaxies. Assuming the H I size of spiral and irregular galaxies to be2.5 times their standard optical diameter and ignoring any evolutioneffect, we obtain the expected number of the line-of-sight intersectionswith the H I galaxy images to be dn/dz~0.4, which does not contradictthe observed number of absorptions in QSO spectra.
| The ISOPHOT 170 μm Serendipity Survey II. The catalog of optically identified galaxies%
The ISOPHOT Serendipity Sky Survey strip-scanning measurements covering≈15% of the far-infrared (FIR) sky at 170 μm were searched forcompact sources associated with optically identified galaxies. CompactSerendipity Survey sources with a high signal-to-noise ratio in at leasttwo ISOPHOT C200 detector pixels were selected that have a positionalassociation with a galaxy identification in the NED and/or Simbaddatabases and a galaxy counterpart visible on the Digitized Sky Surveyplates. A catalog with 170 μm fluxes for more than 1900 galaxies hasbeen established, 200 of which were measured several times. The faintest170 μm fluxes reach values just below 0.5 Jy, while the brightest,already somewhat extended galaxies have fluxes up to ≈600 Jy. For thevast majority of listed galaxies, the 170 μm fluxes were measured forthe first time. While most of the galaxies are spirals, about 70 of thesources are classified as ellipticals or lenticulars. This is the onlycurrently available large-scale galaxy catalog containing a sufficientnumber of sources with 170 μm fluxes to allow further statisticalstudies of various FIR properties.Based on observations with ISO, an ESA project with instruments fundedby ESA Member States (especially the PI countries: France, Germany, TheNetherlands and the UK) and with the participation of ISAS and NASA.Members of the Consortium on the ISOPHOT Serendipity Survey (CISS) areMPIA Heidelberg, ESA ISO SOC Villafranca, AIP Potsdam, IPAC Pasadena,Imperial College London.Full Table 4 and Table 6 are only available in electronic form at theCDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or viahttp://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/422/39
| The Relationship between Stellar Light Distributions of Galaxies and Their Formation Histories
A major problem in extragalactic astronomy is the inability todistinguish in a robust, physical, and model-independent way how galaxypopulations are physically related to each other and to their formationhistories. A similar, but distinct, and also long-standing question iswhether the structural appearances of galaxies, as seen through theirstellar light distributions, contain enough physical information tooffer this classification. We argue through the use of 240 images ofnearby galaxies that three model-independent parameters measured on asingle galaxy image reveal its major ongoing and past formation modesand can be used as a robust classification system. These parametersquantitatively measure: the concentration (C), asymmetry (A), andclumpiness (S) of a galaxy's stellar light distribution. When combinedinto a three-dimensional ``CAS'' volume all major classes of galaxies invarious phases of evolution are cleanly distinguished. We argue thatthese three parameters correlate with important modes of galaxyevolution: star formation and major merging activity. This is arguedthrough the strong correlation of Hα equivalent width andbroadband colors with the clumpiness parameter S, the uniquely largeasymmetries of 66 galaxies undergoing mergers, and the correlation ofbulge to total light ratios, and stellar masses, with the concentrationindex. As an obvious goal is to use this system at high redshifts totrace evolution, we demonstrate that these parameters can be measured,within a reasonable and quantifiable uncertainty with available data outto z~3 using the Hubble Space Telescope GOODS ACS and Hubble Deep Fieldimages.
| The Kinematic State of the Local Volume
The kinematics of galaxies within 10 Mpc of the Milky Way isinvestigated using published distances and radial velocities. Withrespect to the average Hubble flow (isotropic or simple anisotropic),there is no systematic relation between peculiar velocity dispersion andabsolute magnitude over a range of 10 mag; neither is there any apparentvariation with galaxy type or between field and cluster members. Thereare several possible explanations for the lack of variation, though allhave difficulties: either there is no relationship between light andmass on these scales, the peculiar velocities are not produced bygravitational interaction, or the background dynamical picture is wrongin some systematic way. The extremely cold local flow of 40-60 kms-1 dispersion reported by some authors is shown to be anartifact of sparse data, a velocity dispersion of over 100 kms-1 being closer to the actual value. Galaxies with a high(positive) radial velocity have been selected against in studies of thisvolume, biasing numerical results.
| The Velocity Field and Kinematics of the Galaxy NGC 784 in the Hα Line
In this paper we present the H map, the 2D velocity field and therotation curve of the galaxy NGC 784 obtained with the ByuFOSC2 scanningFabry-Perot interferometer, attached at the prime focus of the 2.6-mtelescope of Byurakan Observatory. The H image shows several HIIcondensations along the major axis of the galaxy. The galaxy has anasymmetric distribution of the H emission. The rotation curve is quitesymmetric with a low gradient in the central part of the galaxy.
| The WSRT wide-field H I survey. I. The background galaxy sample
We have used the Westerbork array to carry out an unbiased wide-fieldsurvey for H I emission features, achieving an RMS sensitivity of about18 mJy/Beam at a velocity resolution of 17 km s-1 over 1800deg2 and between -1000 < VHel <+6500 kms-1. The primary data consists of auto-correlation spectrawith an effective angular resolution of 49' FWHM, althoughcross-correlation data were also acquired. The survey region is centeredapproximately on the position of Messier 31 and is Nyquist-sampled over60x 30o in RA x Dec. More than 100 distinct features aredetected at high significance in each of the two velocity regimes(negative and positive LGSR velocities). In this paper we present theresults for our H I detections of external galaxies at positive LGSRvelocity. We detect 155 external galaxies in excess of 8sigma inintegrated H I flux density. Plausible optical associations are foundwithin a 30' search radius for all but one of our H I detections in DSSimages, although several are not previously cataloged or do not havepublished red-shift determinations. Our detection without a DSSassociation is at low galactic latitude. Twenty-three of our objects aredetected in H I for the first time. We classify almost half of ourdetections as ``confused'', since one or more companions is catalogedwithin a radius of 30' and a velocity interval of 400 km s-1.We identify a handful of instances of significant positional offsetsexceeding 10 kpc of unconfused optical galaxies with the associated H Icentroid, possibly indicative of severe tidal distortions or uncatalogedgas-rich companions. A possible trend is found for an excess of detectedH I flux in unconfused galaxies within our large survey beam relative tothat detected previously in smaller telescope beams, both as function ofincreasing distance and increasing gas mass. This may be an indicationfor a diffuse gaseous component on 100 kpc scales in the environment ofmassive galaxies or a population of uncataloged low mass companions. Weuse our galaxy sample to estimate the H I mass function from our surveyvolume. Good agreement is found with the HIPASS BGC results, but onlyafter explicit correction for galaxy density variations with distance.Table 1 is only available in electronic form at the CDS via anonymousftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or viahttp://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/406/829 and Fig. 3 is onlyavailable in electronic form at http://www.edpsciences.org
| A search for Low Surface Brightness galaxies in the near-infrared. I. Selection of the sample
A sample of about 3800 Low Surface Brightness (LSB) galaxies wasselected using the all-sky near-infrared (J, H and Ks-band)2MASS survey. The selected objects have a mean central surfacebrightness within a 5'' radius around their centre fainter than 18 magarcsec-2 in the Ks band, making them the lowestsurface brightness galaxies detected by 2MASS. A description is given ofthe relevant properties of the 2MASS survey and the LSB galaxy selectionprocedure, as well as of basic photometric properties of the selectedobjects. The latter properties are compared to those of other samples ofgalaxies, of both LSBs and ``classical'' high surface brightness (HSB)objects, which were selected in the optical. The 2MASS LSBs have aBT_c-KT colour which is on average 0.9 mag bluerthan that of HSBs from the NGC. The 2MASS sample does not appear tocontain a significant population of red objects.All tables and Figs. 2a-c are only available in electronic form athttp://www.edpsciences.org
| Local galaxy flows within 5 Mpc
We present Hubble Space Telescope/WFPC2 images of sixteen dwarf galaxiesas part of our snapshot survey of nearby galaxy candidates. We derivetheir distances from the luminosity of the tip of the red giant branchstars with a typical accuracy of ~ 12%. The resulting distances are4.26 Mpc (KKH 5), 4.74 Mpc (KK 16), 4.72 Mpc (KK 17), 4.66 Mpc (ESO115-021), 4.43 Mpc (KKH 18), 3.98 Mpc (KK 27), 4.61 Mpc (KKH 34), 4.99Mpc (KK 54), 4.23 Mpc (ESO 490-017), 4.90 Mpc (FG 202), 5.22 Mpc (UGC3755), 5.18 Mpc (UGC 3974), 4.51 Mpc (KK 65), 5.49 Mpc (UGC 4115), 3.78Mpc (NGC 2915), and 5.27 Mpc (NGC 6503). Based on distances and radialvelocities of 156 nearby galaxies, we plot the local velocity-distancerelation, which has a slope of H0 = 73 km s-1Mpc-1 and a radial velocity dispersion of 85 kms-1. When members of the M81 and Cen A groups are removed,and distance errors are taken into account, the radial velocitydispersion drops to sigmav = 41 km s-1. The localHubble flow within 5 Mpc exhibits a significant anisotropy, with twoinfall peculiar velocity regions directed towards the Supergalacticpoles. However, two observed regions of outflow peculiar velocity,situated on the Supergalactic equator, are far away ( ~ 50degr ) fromthe Virgo/anti-Virgo direction, which disagrees with a sphericallysymmetric Virgo-centric flow. About 63% of galaxies within 5 Mpc belongto known compact and loose groups. Apart from them, we found six newprobable groups, consisting entirely of dwarf galaxies.Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. TheSpace Telescope Science Institute is operated by the Association ofUniversities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS5-26555.}\fnmsep\thanks{Table 2, and Figs. 1 and 2, are only availablein electronic form at http://www.edpsciences.org
| Squelched Galaxies and Dark Halos
There is accumulating evidence that the faint end of the galaxyluminosity function might be very different in different locations. Theluminosity function might be rising in rich clusters and flat in regionsof low density. If galaxies form according to the model of hierarchicalclustering, then there should be many small halos compared to the numberof big halos. If this theory is valid, then there must be a mechanismthat eliminates at least the visible component of galaxies inlow-density regions. A plausible mechanism is photoionization of theintergalactic medium at a time before the epoch that most dwarf galaxiesform in low-density regions but after the epoch of formation for similarsystems that ultimately end up in rich clusters. The dynamicaltimescales are found to accommodate this hypothesis in a flat universewith Ωm<~0.4. If small halos exist but simply cannotbe located because they have never become the sites of significant starformation, they still might have dynamical manifestations. Thesemanifestations are hard to identify in normal groups of galaxies becausesmall halos do not make a significant contribution to the global massbudget. It could be entertained, however, that there are clusters ofhalos where there are only small systems, clusters that are at thelow-mass end of the hierarchical tree. There may be places where only afew small galaxies managed to form, enough for us to identify and use astest probes of the potential. It turns out that such environments mightbe common. Four probable groups of dwarfs are identified within 5 Mpc,and the assumption that they are gravitationally bound suggestsM/LB~300-1200Msolar/Lsolar, a factor of6+/-2 times higher than typical values for groups with luminousgalaxies.
| The Westerbork HI survey of spiral and irregular galaxies. II. R-band surface photometry of late-type dwarf galaxies
R-band surface photometry is presented for 171 late-type dwarf andirregular galaxies. For a subsample of 46 galaxies B-band photometry ispresented as well. We present surface brightness profiles as well asisophotal and photometric parameters including magnitudes, diameters andcentral surface brightnesses. Absolute photometry is accurate to 0.1 magor better for 77% of the sample. For over 85% of the galaxies the radialsurface brightness profiles are consistent with published data withinthe measured photometric uncertainty. For most of the galaxies in thesample H I data have been obtained with the Westerbork Synthesis RadioTelescope. The galaxies in our sample are part of the WHISP project(Westerbork H I Survey of Spiral and Irregular Galaxies), which aims atmapping about 500 nearby spiral and irregular galaxies in H I. Theavailability of H I data makes this data set useful for a wide range ofstudies of the structure, dark matter content and kinematics oflate-type dwarf galaxies. Based on observations made with INT operatedon the island of La Palma by the Isaac Newton Group in the SpanishObservatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofisicade Canarias. The tables in Appendix A are only available in electronicform at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5)or via http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/390/863. Thefigures in Appendix B are only available in electronic formhttp://www.edpsciences.org
| Local Field of Galaxy Velocities
A sample of 145 galaxies having radial velocities relative to thecentroid of the Local Group V LG D H ij , with principal values of81:62:48 in km/sec·Mpc, which have a standard error of 4km/sec·Mpc. The minor axis of the Hubble ellipsoid is orientedalmost along the polar axis of the Local Supercluster, while the majoraxis forms an angle = (29 ± 5)° with the direction toward thecenter of the Virgo Cluster. Such a configuration of thepeculiar-velocity field shows unsatisfactory agreement with the model ofa spherically symmetric flow of galaxies toward the Virgo Cluster.Rotation of the Local Supercluster may be one reason for thisdifference. The peculiar velocities of galaxies within a volume with D V= 74 km/sec, a considerable part of which is due to the virial motionsof galaxies in groups and to distance errors. For field galaxies,located in a layer of 1 < D < 3 Mpc around the Local Group, theradial-velocity dispersion does not exceed 25 km/sec. Thevelocitydistance relation, constructed from the 20 closestgalaxies around the Local Group with D < 3 Mpc and with errorsσ(D) < 0.2 Mpc, exhibits the expected effect of gravitationaldeceleration. Using the estimate of R 0 = (0.96 ± 0.05) Mpc forthe observed radius of the zero-velocity sphere, we determined the totalmass of the Local Group to be (1.2 ± 0.2)·1012 M ȯ,which agrees well with the sum of the virial masses of the subgroups ofgalaxies around the Local Group and M31. The ratio of the Local Group'stotal mass (within R 0) to its luminosity is M/L = (23 ± 4) Mȯ/L ȯ, which does not require the existence of supermassivedark halos around our Galaxy and M31.
| The Evolutionary Status of Isolated Dwarf Irregular Galaxies. II. Star Formation Histories and Gas Depletion
The results of UBV and Hα imaging of a large sample of isolateddwarf irregular galaxies are interpreted in the context of compositestellar population models. The observed optical colors are best fittedby composite stellar populations that have had approximately constantstar formation rates for at least 10 Gyr. The galaxies span a range ofcentral surface brightness, from 20.5 to 25.0 mag arcsec-2there is no correlation between surface brightness and star formationhistory. Although the current star formation rates are low, it ispossible to reproduce the observed luminosities without a majorstarburst episode. The derived gas depletion timescales are long,typically ~20 Gyr. These results indicate that dwarf irregular galaxies(dI's) will be able to continue with their slow, but constant, starformation activity for at least another Hubble time. The sample ofisolated dI's is compared with a sample of starbursting dwarf galaxiestaken from the literature. The starbursting dwarf galaxies have manysimilar properties; the main difference between these two types ofgas-rich dwarf galaxies is that the current star formation isconcentrated in the center of the starbursting systems, while it is muchmore distributed in the quiescent dI's. This results in pronounced colorgradients for the starbursting dwarf galaxies, while the majority of thequiescent dwarf irregular galaxies have minor or nonexistent colorgradients. Thus, the combination of low current star formation rates,blue colors, and the lack of significant color gradients indicates thatstar formation percolates slowly across the disks of normal dwarfgalaxies in a quasi-continuous manner.
| Spectrophotometry of Nearby Field Galaxies: The Data
We have obtained integrated and nuclear spectra as well as U, B, Rsurface photometry for a representative sample of 196 nearby galaxies.These galaxies span the entire Hubble sequence in morphological type, aswell as a wide range of luminosities (MB=-14 to -22). Here wepresent the spectrophotometry for these galaxies. The selection of thesample and the U, B, R surface photometry is described in a companionpaper. Our goals for the project include measuring the current starformation rates and metallicities of these galaxies, and elucidatingtheir star formation histories, as a function of luminosity andmorphology. We thereby extend the work of Kennicutt to lower luminositysystems. We anticipate that our study will be useful as a benchmark forstudies of galaxies at high redshift. We describe the observing, datareduction, and calibration techniques and demonstrate that ourspectrophotometry agrees well with that of Kennicutt. The spectra spanthe range 3550-7250 Å at a resolution (FWHM) of ~6 Å andhave an overall relative spectrophotometric accuracy of ~+/-6%. Wepresent a spectrophotometric atlas of integrated and nuclear rest-framespectra as well as tables of equivalent widths and synthetic colors. Theatlas and tables of measurements will be made available electronically.We study the correlations of galaxy properties determined from thespectra and images. Our findings include: (1) galaxies of a givenmorphological class display a wide range of continuum shapes andemission-line strengths if a broad range of luminosities are considered,(2) emission-line strengths tend to increase and continua tend to getbluer as the luminosity decreases, and (3) the scatter on the generalcorrelation between nuclear and integrated Hα emission-linestrengths is large.
| Surface Photometry of Nearby Field Galaxies: The Data
We have obtained integrated spectra and multifilter photometry for arepresentative sample of ~200 nearby galaxies. These galaxies span theentire Hubble sequence in morphological type, as well as a wide range ofluminosities (MB=-14 to -22) and colors (B-R=0.4-1.8). Herewe describe the sample selection criteria and the U, B, R surfacephotometry for these galaxies. The spectrophotometric results will bepresented in a companion paper. Our goals for the project includemeasuring the current star formation rates and metallicity of thesegalaxies, and elucidating their star formation histories, as a functionof luminosity and morphology. We thereby extend the work of Kennicutt tolower luminosity systems. We anticipate that our study will be useful asa benchmark for studies of galaxies at high redshift. We discuss theobserving, data reduction, and calibration techniques and show that ourphotometry agrees well with previous work in those cases in whichearlier data are available. We present an atlas of images, radialsurface brightness profiles, and color profiles as well as tables ofderived parameters. The atlas and tables of measurements will be madeavailable electronically. We study the correlations of galaxy propertiesdetermined from the galaxy images. Our findings include the following:(1) colors determined within the effective radius correlate better withmorphological type than with MB and (2) 50% of thelow-luminosity galaxies are bluest in their centers.
| On the Nature of Andromeda IV
Lying at a projected distance of 40' or 9 kpc from the center of M31,Andromeda IV is an enigmatic object first discovered during van denBergh's search for dwarf spheroidal companions to M31. Since it isbluer, more compact, and has a higher surface brightness than otherknown dwarf spheroidals, it has been suggested that And IV is either arelatively old ``star cloud'' in the outer disk of M31 or a backgrounddwarf galaxy. We present deep Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 observationsof And IV and the surrounding field, which, along with ground-basedlong-slit spectroscopy and Hα imagery, are used to decipher thetrue nature of this puzzling object. We find compelling evidence thatAnd IV is a background galaxy seen through the disk of M31. The moderatesurface brightness (μV~24), very bluecolor (V-I<~0.6), low current star formation rate (~0.001Msolar yr-1), and low metallicity (~10%Zsolar) reported here are consistent with And IV being asmall dwarf irregular galaxy, perhaps similar to Local Group dwarfs suchas IC 1613 and Sextans A. Although the distance to And IV is not tightlyconstrained with the current data set, various arguments suggest it liesin the range 5<~D<~8 Mpc, placing it well outside the confines ofthe Local Group. It may be associated with a loose group of galaxies,containing major members UGC 64, IC 1727, and NGC 784. We report anupdated position and radial velocity for And IV. Based on observationswith the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the SpaceTelescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association ofUniversities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contractNAS5-26555.
| The Evolutionary Status of Isolated Dwarf Irregular Galaxies. I. UBV and Hα Imaging Observations
The results of UBV and Hα imaging of a large sample of gas-rich,isolated, dwarf irregular galaxies are presented. The majority of thelow-luminosity systems in this sample have no known neighbors within200-400 kpc and thus are unlikely to have had significant interactionswithin the last several gigayears. The new observations confirm thatdwarf irregular galaxies are blue systems, with median values for thesample of 0.42+/-0.040.05 in B-V and-0.22+/-0.040.07 in U-B. Analysis of the derivedsurface photometry indicates that most of these systems can be wellfitted by single exponential disks and have only minor color gradients.Furthermore, the observed H II regions are distributed sparsely acrossthe optical disk. H II region luminosity functions were constructed forthose systems with a sufficient number of H II regions; the derivedpower-law indices are generally shallow, with a median value of-1.61+/-0.310.24.
| Photometric distances to six bright resolved galaxies
We present photometry of the brightest stars in six nearby spiral andirregular galaxies with corrected radial velocities from 340 to 460 kms-1. Three of them are resolved into stars for the firsttime. Based on luminosity of the brightest blue stars we estimate thefollowing distances to the galaxies: 5.0 Mpc for NGC 784, 9.2 Mpc forNGC 2683, 8.9 Mpc for NGC 2903, 4.1 Mpc for NGC 5204, 6.8 Mpc for NGC5474, and 8.7 Mpc for NGC 5585. Data available in electronic form at theCDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or viahttp://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/Abstract.html
| 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.
| HI properties of nearby galaxies from a volume-limited sample
We consider global HI and optical properties of about three hundrednearby galaxies with V_0 < 500 km s(-1) . The majority of them haveindividual photometric distance estimates. The galaxy sample parametersshow some known and some new correlations implying a meaningful dynamicexplanation: 1) In the whole range of diameters, 1 - 40 Kpc, the galaxystandard diameter and rotational velocity follows a nearly linearTully-Fisher relation, lg A25~(0.99+/-0.06)lg V_m. 2) The HImass-to-luminosity ratio and the HI mass-to-``total" mass (inside thestandard optical diameter) ratio increase systematically from giantgalaxies towards dwarfs, reaching maximum values 5 ;M_ȯ/L_ȯand 3, respectively. 3) For all the Local Volume galaxies their totalmass-to-luminosity ratio lies within a range of [0.2-16]M_ȯ/L_ȯ with a median of 3.0 ;M_ȯ/L_ȯ. TheM25/L ratio decreases slightly from giant towards dwarfgalaxies. 4) The M_HI/L and M25/L ratios for the samplegalaxies correlate with their mean optical surface brightness, which maybe caused by star formation activity in the galaxies. 5) The M_HI/L andM25/L ratios are practically independent of the local massdensity of surrounding galaxies within the range of densities of aboutsix orders of magnitude. 6) For the LV galaxies their HI mass andangular momentum follow a nearly linear relation: lgM_HI~(0.99+/-0.04)lg (V_m* A25), expected for rotatinggaseous disks being near the threshold of gravitational instability,favourable for active star formation. Table in the Appendix is availableonly in electronic form at the CDS via anonymous ftp 130.79.128.5 orhttp//cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/Abstract.html
| Groups of galaxies. III. Some empirical characteristics.
Not Available
| Catalogue of HI maps of galaxies. II. Analysis of the data
We use some of the maps of the catalogue presented in Paper I to providesome evidence for global conditions that must be fulfilled by thegalaxies to have extended hydrogen. For this purpose, we tried to findpossible connections between the HI gas extension and other propertiesof the galaxies (morphological type, surface brightness, gas density,etc.). With isophotal hydrogen diameters of a large sample, we couldobserve that optically smaller galaxies seem to have greater relative HIextensions. By means of the relation with the apparent HI surfacedensity, we found an expression that should provide a rough estimate ofthe gas extension. With respect to the dependence on morphological type,we could not find any significant correlation either for the real HIsurface density or the relative gas extension. Nevertheless, whereas forspiral and irregular galaxies the real HI surface density exhibits abroad range of values, the values are rather lower for elliptical and S0galaxies. Table 1 is also available in electronic form at the CDS viaanonymous ftp 130.79.128.5 or viahttp://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/Abstract.html
| Catalogue of HI maps of galaxies. I.
A catalogue is presented of galaxies having large-scale observations inthe HI line. This catalogue collects from the literature the informationthat characterizes the observations in the 21-cm line and the way thatthese data were presented by means of maps, graphics and tables, forshowing the distribution and kinematics of the gas. It containsfurthermore a measure of the HI extension that is detected at the levelof the maximum sensitivity reached in the observations. This catalogueis intended as a guide for references on the HI maps published in theliterature from 1953 to 1995 and is the basis for the analysis of thedata presented in Paper II. The catalogue is only available inelectronic form at the CDS via anonymous ftp 130.79.128.5 orhttp://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/Abstract.html
| 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.
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