arXiv subjects

A. Zurita

Publications and source records attributed to A. Zurita.

29 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2010

Deriving the pattern speed using dynamical modelling of gas flows in barred galaxies

In this paper we analyse the methodology to derive the bar pattern speed from dynamical simulations. The results are robust to the changes in the vertical-scale height and in the mass-to-light (M/L) ratios. There is a small range of parameters for which the kinematics can be fitted. We have also taken into account the use of different type of dynamical modelling and the effect of using 2-D vs 1-D models in deriving the pattern speeds. We conclude that the derivation of the bar streaming motions and strength and position of shocks is not greatly affected by the fluid dynamical model used. We show new results on the derivation of the pattern speed for NGC 1530. The best fit pattern speed is around 10 km/s/kpc, which corresponds to a R_cor/R_bar = 1.4, implying a slower bar than previously derived from more indirect assumptions. With this pattern speed, the global and most local kinematic features are beautifully reproduced. However, the simulations fail to reproduce the velocity gradients close to some bright HII regions in the bar. We have shown from the study of the Halpha equivalent widths that the HII regions that are located further away from the bar dust-lane in its leading side, downstream from the main bar dust-lane, are older than the rest by 1.5-2.5 Myr. In addition, a clear spatial correlation was found between the location of HII regions, dust spurs on the trailing side of the bar dust-lane, and the loci of maximum velocity gradients parallel to the bar major axis.

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arXiv2009

The warm ionized medium in spiral galaxies

This article reviews observations and models of the diffuse ionized gas that permeates the disk and halo of our Galaxy and others. It was inspired by a series of invited talks presented during an afternoon scientific session of the 65th birthday celebration for Professor Carl Heiles held at Arecibo Observatory in August 2004. This review is in recognition of Carl's long standing interest in and advocacy for studies of the ionized as well as the neutral components of the interstellar medium.

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arXiv2008

Study of the stellar line-strength indices and kinematics along bars

This is the first paper of a series aimed to understand the formation and evolution of bars in early-type spirals and their influence in the evolution of the galaxy. Optical long-slit spectra along the major axis of the bar of a sample of 20 galaxies are analyzed. Line-strength indices in the bar region are measured to derive stellar mean-age and metallicity distributions along the bars using stellar population models. We find three different types of bars according to their metallicity and age distribution along the radius: 1) Bars with negative metallicity gradients. They show mean young/intermediate population (< 2 Gyr), and have amongst the lowest stellar maximum central velocity dispersion of the sample. 2) Bars with null metallicity gradients. These galaxies tend to have negative age gradients. 3) Bars with positive metallicity gradients. These galaxies are predominantly those with higher velocity dispersion and older mean population. We found no significant correlation between the age and metallicity distribution, and bar/galaxy parameters such as the AGN presence, size or the bar strength. From the kinematics, we find that all the galaxies show a disk-like central component. The results from the metallicity and age gradients indicate that most galaxies with high central stellar velocity dispersion host bars that could have been formed more than 3 Gyrs ago, while galaxies with lower central velocity dispersions show a wider distribution in their population and age gradients. A few bars show characteristics compatible with having been formed less than <2 Gy ago. These results place strong constrains to models of bar formation and evolution. The disk-like central components also show the important role played by bars in the secular evolution of the central structure.

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arXiv2008

Initial Data Release from the INT Photometric H-alpha Survey of the Northern Galactic Plane (IPHAS)

The INT/WFC Photometric H-alpha Survey of the Northern Galactic Plane (IPHAS) is an imaging survey being carried out in H-alpha, r' and i' filters, with the Wide Field Camera (WFC) on the 2.5-metre Isaac Newton Telescope (INT) to a depth of r'=20 (10 sigma). The survey is aimed at revealing large scale structure in our local galaxy, and also the properties of key early and late populations making up the Milky Way. Mapping emission line objects enables a particular focus on objects in the young and old stages of stellar evolution ranging from early T-Tauri stars to late planetary nebulae. In this paper we present the IPHAS Initial Data Release, primarily a photometric catalogue of about 200 million unique objects, coupled with associated image data covering about 1600 square degrees in three passbands. We note how access to the primary data products has been implemented through use of standard virtual observatory publishing interfaces. Simple traditional web access is provided to the main IPHAS photometric catalogue, in addition to a number of common catalogues (such as 2MASS) which are of immediate relevance. Access through the AstroGrid VO Desktop opens up the full range of analysis options, and allows full integration with the wider range of data and services available through the Virtual Observatory. The IDR represents the largest dataset published primarily through VO interfaces to date, and so stands as an examplar of the future of survey data mining. Examples of data access are given, including a cross-matching of IPHAS photometry with sources in the UKIDSS Galactic Plane Survey that validates the existing calibration of the best data.

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arXiv2008

Where are the massive stars of the bar of NGC 1530 forming?

Aims: NGC 1530 has one of the strongest bars ever observed and recent star formation sites are distributed across its bar. Our aim is to study the photometric properties of the bar and its HII regions, to elucidate the conditions under which HII regions form and their spatial relation to the principal dynamical features of the bar. Methods: We obtained BVRKs and Halpha photometry of the HII regions of the bar in NGC 1530. Broad-band integrated colours and Halpha equivalent widths were carefully measured and analysed as a function of position with respect to the main dust-lanes of the bar. Results: We measured differences in the Halpha equivalent widths of the HII regions that are located in the trailing and leading sides of the bar dust-lane. The possible factors that could produce this difference, such as [NII] contamination, Lyman-continuum-photon dust-extinction, escape of ionizing radiation, metallicity, IMF and age, were carefully analysed. Age differences were confirmed to be the most plausible explanation. This implies that HII regions that are located further away from the bar dust-lane in its leading side, downstream from the main bar dust-lane, are older than the rest by ~1.5-2.5 Myr. In addition, a clear spatial correlation has been found between: location of HII regions, dust spurs on the trailing side of the bar dust-lane, and the loci of maximum velocity gradients parallel to the bar major axis (possibly tracing gas flow towards the main bar dust-lane). These results support the hypothesis that massive stars are forming on the trailing side of the bar dust-lane, and age as they cross the bar, on a timescale that is compatible with the bar dynamics timescale.

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arXiv2007

New light on the formation and evolution of bars: Trends in the stellar line-strength indices distribution inside the bar region

Aim: The aim is to study the stellar content of the bar region to constrain its formation and evolution. Methods: Line-strength indices in the bar region of a sample of 6 barred galaxies were employed to derive age and metallicity gradients along the bars using stellar population models. Results: We find clear radial gradients in the line-strength indices for all the galaxies. We find positive gradients within the bar region in the metal indices in four of the six galaxies, and opposite trends in the other two. These latter two galaxies are classified as SAB and they present exponential bar light profiles. For all the galaxies we find a positive gradient in the Balmer indices. There is a clear correlation between the position of morphological features inside the bar region with changes in the slope and value of the indices, which indicate, using stellar population analysis, changes in the stellar populations. Therefore, it seems that the bar regions show a gradient in both age and metallicity, changing radially to younger and more metal rich populations for all the galaxies except for those two with exponential profiles.

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arXiv2004

The internal dynamical equilibrium of HII regions: a statistical study

We present an analysis of the integrated Halpha emission line profiles for the HII region population of the spiral galaxies NGC 1530, NGC 6951 and NGC 3359. We show that 70% of the line profiles show two or three Gaussian components. The relations between the Halpha luminosity and non-thermal line width for the HII regions of the three galaxies are studied and compared with the relation found taken all the HII regions of the three galaxies as a single distribution. A clearer envelope in non-thermal line width is found when only those HII regions with non-thermal line width bigger than 13kms are considered. The linear fit for the envelope is logL=36.8+2.0*log(sigma). The masses of the HII regions on the envelope using the virial theorem and the mass estimates from the Halpha luminosity are comparable, which offers evidence that the HII regions on the envelope are virialized systems, while the remaining regions, the majority, are not in virial equilibrium.

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arXiv2004

Propagation of ionizing radiation in HII regions: the effects of optically thick density fluctuations

The accepted explanation of the observed dichotomy of two orders of magnitude between in situ measurements of electron density in HII regions, derived from emission line ratios, and average measurements based on integrated emission measure, is the inhomogeneity of the ionized medium. This is expressed as a "filling factor", the volume ratio of dense to tenuous gas, measured with values of order 10^-3. Implicit in the filling factor model as normally used, is the assumption that the clumps of dense gas are optically thin to ionizing radiation. Here we explore implications of assuming the contrary: that the clumps are optically thick. A first consequence is the presence within HII regions of a major fraction of neutral hydrogen. We estimate the mean H^o/H^+ ratio for a population of HII regions in the spiral galaxy NGC 1530 to be the order of 10, and support this inference using dynamical arguments. The optically thick clumpy models allow a significant fraction of the photons generated by the ionizing stars to escape from their HII region. We show, by comparing model predictions with observations, that these models give an account at least as good as, and probably better than that of conventional models, of the radial surface brightness distribution and of selected spectral line diagnostics for physical conditions within HII regions. These models explain how an HII region can appear, from its line ratios, to be ionization bounded, yet permit a major fraction of its ionizing photons to escape.

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arXiv2003

Ionized gas kinematics and massive star formation in NGC 1530

We present emission line mapping of the strongly barred galaxy NGC 1530 obtained from Fabry-Perot interferometry in Halpha, at significantly enhanced angular resolution compared with published studies. The main point of the work is to examine in detail the non-circular components of the velocity field of the gas, presumably induced by the strongly non-axisymmetric gravitational potential of the bar. These reveal quasi-elliptical motions with speeds of order 100 km/s aligned with the bar. It also shows how these flows swing in towards and around the nucleus as they cross a circumnuclear resonance, from the dominant "x1 orbits" outside the resonance to "x2 orbits" within it. Comparing cross-sections of the residual velocity map along and across the bar with the Halpha intensity map indicates a systematic offset between regions of high non-circular velocity and massive star formation. To investigate further we produce velocity gradient maps along and across the bar. These illustrate very nicely the shear compression of the gas, revealed by the location of the dust lanes along loci of maximum velocity gradient perpendicular to the bar. They also show clearly how shear acts to inhibit massive star formation, whereas shocks act to enhance it. Although the inhibiting effect of gas shear flow on star formation has long been predicted, this is the clearest observational illustration so far of the effect. It is also the clearest evidence that dust picks out shock-induced inflow along bars. These observations should be of considerable interest to those modelling massive star formation in general.

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arXiv2002

The origin of the ionization of the diffuse interstellar medium in spiral galaxies. II. Modelling the distribution of ionizing radiation in NGC 157

In this paper we make a quantitative study of the hypothesis that the diffuse H-alpha emitted from the discs of spiral galaxies owes its origin to the ionizing photons escaping from HII regions. We use the H-alpha measurements of the complete set of HII regions in the spiral NGC 157, for which an HI density map was available, to derive a family of models which predict the ionizing photon distribution in the disc of this galaxy. The predicted diffuse H-alpha surface brightness distributions from our models were compared with the observed distributions showing that, in general terms, the hypothesis of density bounding for the HII regions allows us to predict well the spatial distribution of the diffuse ionized gas. In the model yielding the best fit to the data, the regions of lower luminosity lose a constant fraction of their ionizing flux to their surroundings, while for HII region luminosities above a specific transition value the ionizing escape fraction is a rising function of the Ha luminosity.

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arXiv2000

Populations of high-luminosity density-bounded H II regions in spiral galaxies? Evidence and implications

(Abridged) We present evidence that the HII regions of high luminosity in disk galaxies may be density bounded, so that a significant fraction of the ionizing photons emitted by their exciting OB stars escape from the regions. The key piece of evidence is the presence, in the Hαluminosity functions (LFs) of the populations of HII regions, of glitches, local sharp peaks at an apparently invariant luminosity, defined as the Stromgren luminosity (L_ Str), L_Hα= L_Str = 10^38.6 (\pm 10^0.1) erg/s (no other peaks are found in any of the LFs) accompanying a steepening of slope for L_Hα> L_Str. This behavior is readily explicable via a physical model whose basic premises are: (a) the transition at L_Hα= L_Str marks a change from essentially ionization bounding at low luminosities to density bounding at higher values, (b) for this to occur the law relating stellar mass in massive star-forming clouds to the mass of the placental cloud must be such that the ionizing photon flux produced within the cloud is a function which rises more steeply than the mass of the cloud. Supporting evidence for the hypothesis of this transition is presented. If confirmed, the density-bounding hypothesis would imply that the density-bounded regions were the main sources of the photons which ionize the diffuse gas in disk galaxies. We estimate that these regions emit sufficient Lyman continuum not only to ionize the diffuse medium, but to cause a typical spiral to emit significant ionizing flux into the intergalactic medium. The low scatter observed in L_Str, less than 0.1 mag rms in the still quite small sample measured to date, is an invitation to widen the data base, and to calibrate against primary standards, with the aim of obtaining a precise standard candle.

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