arXiv subjects

A. C. Quillen

Publications and source records attributed to A. C. Quillen.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv1999

Spiral Structure Based Limits on the Disk Mass of the Low Surface Brightness Galaxies UGC 6614 and F568-6

Upper limits for the disk mass-to-light ratios for the low surface brightness galaxies UGC 6614 and F568-6 (Malin 2) are estimated by considering the minimum velocity perturbations in the HI velocity field that should result from the spiral structure observed in the R band images. The weak observed response in the $ϕ$ velocity component limits the mass-to-light ratios of the disk within a scale length to M/L <~ 3 and 6 for UGC 6614 for F568-6 respectively (in solar units) based upon azimuthal variations observed in the R band images. These limits are sufficiently strong to require a significant dark matter component even in the central regions of these galaxies. Our limits furthermore imply that this dark matter component cannot be in the form of a cold disk since a cold disk would necessarily be involved in the spiral structure. However, a more massive disk could be consistent with the observations because of a non-linear gas response or if the gas is driven by bar-like distortions instead of spiral structure. To produce the large observed arm/interarm HI density variations it is likely that the spiral arm potential perturbation is sufficiently strong to produce shocks in the gas. For a forcing that is greater than 2% of the axisymmetric force, M/L >~ 1 is required in both galaxies in the outer regions. These lower limits imply that the stellar surface density is at least of the same order as the gas surface density. This is consistent with the large scale morphology of the spiral structure, and the stability of the gas disk, both which suggest that a moderate stellar component is required to produce the observed spiral structure. (Shortened abstract)

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arXiv1999

Warps Caused by Jet-Induced Pressure Gradients in Radio Galaxies

In radio galaxies such as M84 dust features tend to be nearly perpendicular to radio jets yet are not aligned with the galaxy isophotes. The timescale for precession in the galaxy is short suggesting that an alternative mechanism causes the gas disk to be misaligned with the galaxy. In M84 we estimate the pressure on the disk required to overcome the torque from the galaxy and find that it is small compared to the thermal pressure in the hot ambient ISM estimated from the X-ray emission. We therefore propose that pressure gradients in a jet associated hot interstellar medium exert a torque on the gas disk in M84 causing it to be misaligned with the galaxy isophotal major axis. This mechanism could explain the connection between gas disk angular momentum and jet axes in nearby radio galaxies. By integrating the light of the galaxy through a warped gas and dust disk we find that the geometry of gas disk in M84 is likely to differ that predicted from a simple precession model. We find that the morphology of the gas disk in M84 is consistent with a warped geometry where precession is caused by a combination of a galactic torque and a larger torque due to pressure gradients in the ambient X-ray emitting gas. Precession occurs at an axis between the jet and galaxy major axis, but nearer to the jet axis implying that the pressure torque is 2-4 times larger than the galactic torque. A better model to the morphology of the disk is achieved when precession takes place about an elliptical rather than circular path. This suggests that the isobars in the hot medium are strongly dependent on angle from the jet axis.

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arXiv1999

Dust lanes causing structure in the extended narrow line region of early-type Seyfert galaxies

We construct near-infrared to visible broad band NICMOS/WFPC color maps for 4 early-type Seyfert galaxies with S-shaped or one-sided ionization cones. We find that dust lanes are near or connected to many of the features seen in the [OIII] and H$α$+[NII] line emission maps. This suggests that much of the structure of line emission in these ionization cones is determined by the distribution of ambient dense galactic gas. Spiral arms, dust lanes caused by bars, or gaseous warps provide dense gas which when illuminated by a conical beam of ultraviolet photons can result in the complicated line emission morphologies observed.

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arXiv1999

Mid-Infrared Emission from E+A Galaxies in the Coma Cluster

We have used ISO to observe at 12$μ$m seven E+A galaxies plus an additional emission line galaxy, all in the Coma cluster. E+A galaxies lacking narrow emission lines have 2.2$μ$m to 12$μ$m flux density ratios or limits similar to old stellar populations (typical of early-type galaxies). Only galaxies with emission lines have enhanced 12$μ$m flux density. Excess 12$μ$m emission is therefore correlated with the presence of on-going star formation or an active galactic nucleus (AGN). By comparing the current star formation rates with previous rates estimated from the Balmer absorption features, we divide the galaxies into two groups: those for which star formation has declined significantly following a dramatic peak $\sim$ 1 Gyr ago; and those with a significant level of ongoing star formation or/and an AGN. There is no strong difference in the spatial distribution on the sky between these two groups. However, the first group has systemic velocities above the mean cluster value and the second group below that value. This suggests that the two groups differ kinematically. Based on surveys of the Coma cluster in the radio, the IRAS sources, and galaxies detected in H$α$ emission, we sum the far infrared luminosity function of galaxies in the cluster. We find that star formation in late type galaxies is probably the dominant component of the Coma cluster far infrared luminosity. The presence of significant emission from intracluster dust is not yet firmly established. The member galaxies also account for most of the far infrared output from nearby rich clusters in general.

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arXiv1998

Heavy Bars and Light Spirals -- Taking Advantage of Asymmetries in Galaxies

I summarize a series of studies where the underlying theme is to exploit non-axisymmetry disk structures such as bars and spiral arms. By measuring the strength of gravitational forces from these structures we can measure the mass in them. The advantage of this approach is that mass to light ratios can be constrained in a way independent of the dark matter profile. By examining a variety of types of galaxies it appears that a correlation between morphology and dark matter fraction emerges.

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arXiv1998

Do Proto-Jovian Planets Drive Outflows?

We discuss the possibility that gaseous giant planets drive strong outflows during early phases of their formation. We consider the range of parameters appropriate for magneto-centrifugally driven stellar and disk outflow models and find that if the proto-Jovian planet or accretion disk had a magnetic field of >~ 10 Gauss and moderate mass inflow rates through the disk of less than 10^-7 M_J/yr that it is possible to drive an outflow. Estimates based both on scaling from empirical laws observed in proto-stellar outflows and the magneto-centrigugal disk and stellar+disk wind models suggest that winds with mass outflow rates of 10^-8 M_J/yr and velocities of order ~ 20 km/s could be driven from proto-Jovian planets. Prospects for detection and some implications for the formation of the solar system are briefly discussed.

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arXiv1998

NGC 2915 -- A Galaxy with a Dark or Faded Massive Disk?

NGC 2915 is a remarkable blue compact dwarf galaxy which contains an inner HI bar and strong spiral structure in its HI disk extending well beyond its optical disk. We propose here that NGC 2915 has a dark or faint (not yet observed) massive disk component. By massive we mean of the same order as the HI gas mass which ranges from 0.5 -- 10 Msol/pc^2. We present three different dynamical arguments based on bar and spiral structure that an additional disk mass component is required. The additional mass requirements from these three dynamical arguments depend upon the distance of the galaxy in the same way. If the galaxy were at a distance twice that estimated then the additional mass required would be negligible. Virgocentric models show that then its radial velocity would be 250-500 km/s below its local bulk flow value. Local flow models suggest that this is unlikely, however they also do not exclude it at high confidence levels. Detection of a quiescent or faint stellar disk population would be an exciting prospect since it would be strong evidence for a previous epoch of star formation in a previously low surface brightness galaxy. Then NGC 2915 would be an example of a galaxy which has faded and so could have been one of the faint blue galaxy population observed at moderate redshift.

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arXiv1997

Galaxies with Spiral Structure up to z = 0.87 --Limits on M/L and the Stellar Velocity Dispersion

We consider seven distant galaxies with clearly evident spiral structure from HST images. Three of these were chosen from Vogt et al. (1996) (VFP) and have measured rotational velocities. Five were chosen from the Medium Deep Survey and are studied in Sarajedini et al. 1996 (SGGR), and one galaxy is found in both papers. We place upper limits on their mass-to-light ratios (M/L) by computing M/L_B for a maximal disk. We find that these galaxies have maximal disk mass-to-light ratios M/L_B = 1.5 - 3.5 M_sol/L_Bsol at the low end, but within the range seen in nearby galaxies. The mass-to-light ratios are low enough to suggest that the galaxies contain a young, rapidly formed stellar population. By using a Toomre stability criterion for formation of spiral structure, we place constraints on the ratio of M/L to the stellar velocity dispersion. If these galaxies have maximal disks they would have to be nearly unstable so as to have small enough velocity dispersions that their disks are not unrealistically thick. This suggests that there is a substantial amount of dark matter present in the luminous regions of the galaxy.

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arXiv1997

M84 - Can the AGN Affect The Orientation of The Disk?

In M84 dust features are not aligned with the galaxy isophotes but are perpendicular to the radio jets. We estimate the timescale that the gas disk should precess in the galaxy. Since this timescale is short ($\sim 2\times 10^7$ years at 100 pc) we consider mechanisms that could cause the gas disk to be misaligned with the galaxy. One possibility is that a cooling flow replenishes the disk on this timescale and at angles that vary with radius. Another possibility is that there is a pressure on the disk that is large enough to overcome the torque from the galaxy. We estimate this pressure and find that it can be provided by ram pressure from an energetic interstellar medium that is consistent with velocity dispersions observed in ionized gas and densities estimated from the X-ray emission. We therefore propose that an AGN associated energetic interstellar medium is responsible for causing the gas disk in M84 to be misaligned with the galaxy isophotal major axis for $r \lta 600$ pc. We propose that AGN associated outflows or kinetic motion in low density media could be responsible for jet/disk alignments observed on 100 pc scales in nearby radio galaxies.

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arXiv1997

Galaxies or Asteroids? -- 12 micron Sources in 9 QSO Fields Near the Ecliptic

We consider 9 fields of low ecliptic latitude observed at 12 microns centered on QSOs. In these fields we detect 7 additional background sources at the level of 0.4-4mJy in 70 square arcminutes. 4 of these sources correspond to galaxies seen in the Digitized Sky Survey. 3 of these sources are not observed in this survey. The 4 sources with optical counterparts are low redshift objects with low infrared to optical flux ratios and so low inferred infrared luminosities L_FIR <~ 10^9 L_solar. Statistical arguments suggest that the unidentified sources are more likely to be distant L_FIR > 10^10 L_solar starbursting galaxies, rather than asteroids or late-type stars. 2 of our QSO fields are likely to have starbursting galaxies at moderately high redshift near the QSO (in angular scale). Since the lensing optical depth towards these QSOs is expected to peak at moderate redshift there is some possibility that these galaxies are in clusters that lense the QSOs. If none of our sources are asteroids then the number of small (km) sized main belt asteroids cannot be larger than 500,000 per absolute magnitude bin.

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arXiv1997

Evidence for Old Stars in the Red Low Surface Brightness Galaxies UGC 6614 and F568-6

We present near-Infrared images of low surface brightness galaxies: H band images of UGC 6614 and F568-6 (Malin 2). The H band images show spiral structure so we are confident that we are seeing the galaxy disks as well as the central bulges. The optical-IR colors of these galaxies, $R-H = 2.2\pm 0.2$, $B-H = 3.5-4.2$, are extremely red and are similar to those of many S0 and elliptical galaxies. This represents strong evidence for a component of old stars. Recent studies find that low surface brightness galaxies span a wide range of morphologies and colors. In this context UGC 6614 and F568-6 could be examples of low surface brightness galaxies which have undergone a past epoch of more vigorous star formation.

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arXiv1997

The Distribution of Dark Matter in a Ringed Galaxy

Outer rings are located at the greatest distance from the galaxy center of any feature resonant with a bar. Because of their large scale, their morphology is sensitive to the distribution of the dark matter in the galaxy. We introduce here how study of these rings can constrain the mass-to-light ratio of the bar, and so the percentage of dark matter in the center of these galaxies. We compare periodic orbits integrated in the ringed galaxy NGC 6782 near the outer Lindblad resonance to the shape of the outer ring. The non-axisymmetric component of the potential resulting from the bar is derived from a near-infrared image of the galaxy. The axisymmetric component is derived assuming a flat rotation curve. We find that the pinched non-self-intersecting periodic orbits are more elongated for higher bar mass-to-light ratios and faster bars. The inferred mass-to-light ratio of the bar depends on the assumed inclination of the galaxy. With an assumed galaxy inclination of i=41 degrees, for the orbits to be consistent with the observed ring morphology the mass-to-light ratio of the bar must be high, greater than 70% of a maximal disk value. For i=45 degrees, the mass-to-light ratio of the bar is $75\pm 15%$ of the maximal disk value. Since the velocity field of these rings can be used to constrain the galaxy inclination as well as which periodic orbit is represented in the ring, further study will yield tighter constraints on the mass-to-light ratio of the bar. If a near maximal disk value for the bar is required, then either there would be little dark matter within the bar, or the dark matter contained in the disk of the galaxy would be non-axisymmetric and would rotate with the bar.

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arXiv1997

The Extinction Law in an Occulting Galaxy

We measure the extinction law in a galaxy's spiral arm and interarm regions using a visual and infrared (BVRJHK) imaging study of the interacting galaxies NGC 2207 and IC 2163. This is an overlapping spiral galaxy pair in which NGC 2207 partially occults IC 2163. This geometry enables us to directly measure the extinction of light from the background galaxy as it passes through the disk of the foreground galaxy. We measure the extinction as a function of wavelength, and find that there is less extinction in the optical bands than expected from a normal Galactic extinction law. This deviation is significantly larger in the interarm region than in the spiral arm. The extinction curve in the spiral arm resembles a Milky Way $R_V=5.0$ dust model and the interarm extinction curve is flatter (``greyer'') still. We examine the effect of scattering of background galaxy light into the line of sight and find that it is negligible. We also examine the effect of an unresolved patchy dust distribution using a simple two-component dust model as well as the clumpy dust model of Witt & Gordon (1996). Both models clearly demonstrate that an unresolved patchy dust distribution can flatten the extinction curve significantly. When fit to the data, both models suggest that the observed difference between the arm and interarm extinction curves is caused by the interarm region of NGC 2207 having a higher degree of dust patchiness (density ratio between high-density and low-density phases) than the spiral arm region. We note that an unresolved patchy dust distribution will cause us to underestimate the average column depth of gas in a galaxy if based solely on the visual extinction. It is much better to use the infrared extinction for this purpose.

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arXiv1997

Discovery of a Boxy Peanut Shaped Bulge in the Near Infrared

We report on the discovery of a boxy/peanut shaped bulge in the highly inclined barred Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC~7582. The peanut shape is clearly evident in near infrared $JHK$ images but obscured by extinction from dust in visible $BVR$ images. This suggests that near infrared imaging surveys will discover a larger number of boxy/peanut morphologies than visible surveys, particularly in galaxies with heavy extinction such as NGC~7582. The bulge in NGC~7582 exhibits strong boxiness compared to other boxy/peanut shaped bulges. If the starburst was mediated by the bar, then it is likely that the bar formed in less than a few bar rotation periods or a few $\times 10^8$ years ago. If the bar also caused the peanut, then the peanut would have formed quickly; on a timescale of a few bar rotation periods.

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arXiv1996

Morphology of Cold Bars in Early and Late Type Galaxies

We compare stellar orbits in an early (NGC 4314) and a late-type barred galaxy (NGC 1073). We find that these bars are cold in the sense that the majority of stars can be described as being nearby to periodic orbits. We place limits of (65km/s)^2 and (50km/s)^2 on the components of the diagonalized velocity dispersion ellipsoid matrix for stars in the bars of NGC 4314 and NGC 1073 respectively. Both bars end near the inner 4:1 Lindblad (ultraharmonic) resonance. We conjecture that a large class of bars end near this resonance. The morphology of the bars depends on the strength of the 4:1 resonance, which is strong in the early-type barred galaxy and weak in the other. This results in a flat bar major axis surface brightness profile for the early-type bar and an exponential profile for the late-type bar.

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arXiv1996

Detection of Dynamical Structures Using Color Gradients in Galaxies

We describe a technique that uses radial color gradients in disk galaxies to detect the presence of bulk non-circular motion or elliptical orbits. In a disk galaxy with both a radial color gradient and non-circular motion, isochromes or iso-color contours should follow the shape of closed stellar orbits, and the ellipticity of the isophotes should vary as a function of wavelength. A difference in the ellipticity of isochromes and the isophotes can be used to detect the presence of non-circular motion. A model galaxy is constructed which demonstrates this phenomenon. The difference between isochrome and isophote ellipticity is directly related to the ellipticity of the potential. This provides a new way to measure the ellipticity of the dark matter in the outer parts of galaxies. As an example, we apply this technique to two dwarf galaxies NGC 1800 and NGC 7764. We detect a bar in NGC 1800 which has only previously been suggested from the HI velocity field. In NGC 7764 there is no color gradient along its bar so we cannot detect non-circular motion in this region; however ellipticities observed in a star forming ring at the end of the bar are consistent with this ring being located near the corotation resonance.

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arXiv1995

Multi-Band Images of the Barred Galaxy NGC 1097

We present $B,V,R,J,H,K$ broad--band images of the barred galaxy NGC 1097. The optical and infrared colors maps trace the location of the major dust features. The dust lanes are relatively free of star formation and have low opacity. The depth of the dust lanes decreases as a function of wavelength so that they are deepest at $B$ and shallower at $H$ and $K$ where they are difficult to detect. We find that the dust lane on the north-west side of the galaxy has colors consistent with those of a dust screen with opacity derived from the galactic extinction law. Thus, it must be located on the near side of the galaxy. The colors in the dust lane on the south-east side of the galaxy, on the other hand, suggest that there are stars both in front of and behind the dust, consistent with this dust lane being located on the far side of the galaxy. Near the inner spiral ring (at $\sim 17'' = 1.4$kpc from the nucleus), the dust lane becomes double peaked with peak to valley extinction ratio similar to that observed in radio continuum by Ondrechen and van der Hulst (1983). This suggests that if the cold diffuse component of the interstellar medium (traced by the dust) moves with the cosmic ray electron component then the magnetic field pressure is not a significant force in the shocks. Alternatively if the two phases do not move together a more detailed comparison may show differences in the shock shapes. From the $K$ images, we estimate that the total stellar mass of the star forming spiral ring at a radius of $\sim$ 1kpc from the nucleus is of the same order as the molecular gas mass in the ring. The infrared images show a short bar inside the inner spiral ring. In the principal plane of the galaxy, the short bar is not perpendicular to the prominent outer bar. This suggests that there are torques between the inner bar and the spiral

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arXiv1995

The Dwarf Galaxy NGC 1705 -- A Highly Composite Stellar Population

We present visible and near-infrared images of the amorphous dwarf galaxy NGC 1705 in the $B$, $V$, $R$, $J$, $H$, and $K$ bands. Optical and near infrared colors in the galaxy are consistent with a composite population with colors similar to those of the bluest Sc nuclei. The contribution of young stars to the disk population of the galaxy decreases outwards from the center. In the near infrared images we detect three unresolved point sources, two of which have colors and luminosities comparable to intermediate age LMC clusters.

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