arXiv subjects

B. Milliard

Publications and source records attributed to B. Milliard.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2004

The Look-back Time Evolution of Far-UV Flux from Elliptical Galaxies: The Fornax Cluster and Abell 2670

In order to investigate the origin of the far-UV (FUV) flux from the early-type galaxies, Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) is collecting the UV data for the elliptical-rich clusters at moderate redshifts (z < 0.2) where the dominant FUV source is predicted to be hot horizontal-branch (HB) stars and their post-HB progeny. Here we present our first result for the early-type galaxies in Abell 2670 at z = 0.076. Compared to NGC 1399, a nearby giant elliptical galaxy in the Fornax cluster, it appears that the rest-frame FUV - V color of the giant ellipticals gets redder by ~ 0.7 mag at the distance of Abell 2670 (z = 0.076; look-back time ~ 1.0 Gyr). Although a detailed comparison with the models is postponed until more cluster data are accumulated, it is interesting to note that this value is consistent with the variation predicted by the population synthesis models where the mean temperature of HB stars declines rapidly with increasing look-back time.

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arXiv2004

A comparative study of the spatial distribution of ultraviolet and far-infrared fluxes from M 101

The total ultraviolet (UV) flux (from 1412 to 2718 AA) of M 101 is compared on a pixel-to-pixel basis with the total far-infrared (FIR) flux (from 60 to 170 micron), using the maps of the galaxy taken by GALEX in the near-UV and far-UV and by ISOPHOT at 60, 100 and 170 micron. The main result of this investigation is the discovery of a tight dependence of the FIR/UV ratio on radius, with values monotonically decreasing from around 4 in the nuclear region to nearly zero towards the edge of the optical disk. Although the tightness of this dependence is in part attributable to resolution effects, the result is consistent with the presence of a large-scale distribution of diffuse dust having a face-on optical depth which decreases with radius and which dominates over the more localized variations in opacity between the arm and interarm regions. We also find a trend for the FIR/UV ratio to take on higher values in the regions of diffuse interarm emission than in the spiral-arm regions, at a given radius. This is interpreted quantitatively in terms of the escape probability of UV photons from spiral arms and their subsequent scattering in the interarm regions, and in terms of the larger relative contribution of optical photons to the heating of the dust in the interarm regions.

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arXiv2004

Dust attenuation in the nearby Universe: comparison between galaxies selected in the ultraviolet or in the infrared

We compare the dust attenuation properties of two samples of galaxies purely selected in the near-ultraviolet (NUV) band (1750-2750 A, lambda_m = 2310 A) and in the far-infrared (FIR) at 60micron. These samples are built using the GALEX and IRAS sky surveys over ~600 square degrees. The NUV selected sample contains 95 galaxies detected down to NUV=16mag (AB system). 83 galaxies in this sample are spirals or irregulars and only two of them are not detected at 60micron. The FIR selected sample is built from the IRAS PSCz catalog complete down to 0.6Jy. Among the 163 sources, we select 118 star forming galaxies well measured by IRAS, all but 1 are detected in NUV and 14 galaxies are not detected in the far-ultraviolet (FUV) band (1350-1750 A, lambda_m = 1530 A). The dust to ultraviolet (NUV and FUV) flux ratio is calibrated to estimate the dust attenuation at both wavelengths. The median value of the attenuation in NUV is found to be ~1 mag for the NUV selected sample versus ~2 mag for the FIR selected one. Within both samples, the dust attenuation is found to correlate with the luminosity of the galaxies. Almost all the NUV selected galaxies and 2/3 of the FIR selected sample exhibit a lower dust attenuation than that expected from the tight relation found previously for starburst galaxies between the dust attenuation and the slope of the ultraviolet continuum. The situation is inverse for one third of the FIR selected galaxies: their extinction is higher than that deduced from their FUV-NUV color and the relation valid for starbursts.

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arXiv2004

New Constraints on the Star Formation Histories and Dust Attenuation of Galaxies in the Local Universe from GALEX

We derive a variety of physical parameters including star formation rates (SFRs), dust attenuation and burst mass fractions for 6472 galaxies observed by the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) and present in the SDSS DR1 main spectroscopic sample. Parameters are estimated in a statistical way by comparing each observed broad-band SED (two GALEX and five SDSS bands) with an extensive library of model galaxy SEDs, which cover a wide range of star formation histories and include stochastic starbursts. We compare the constraints derived using SDSS bands only with those derived using the combination of SDSS and GALEX photometry. We find that the addition of the GALEX bands leads to significant improvement in the estimation of both the dust optical depth and the star formation rate over timescales of 100 Myr to 1 Gyr in a galaxy. We are sensitive to SFRs as low as 10^{-3} M_sun/yr, and we find that low levels of star formation (SF) are mostly associated with early-type, red galaxies. The least massive galaxies have ratios of current to past-averaged SF rates (b-parameter) consistent with constant SF over a Hubble time. For late-type galaxies, this ratio on average decreases with mass. We find that b correlates tightly with NUV-r color, implying that the SF history of a galaxy can be constrained on the basis of the NUV-r color alone. The fraction of galaxies that have undergone a significant starburst episode within the last 1 Gyr steeply declines with mass-from ~20% for galaxies with ~10^8 M_sun to ~5% for ~10^11 M_sun galaxies.

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arXiv2004

Systematics of the Ultraviolet Rising flux in a GALEX/SDSS sample of Early-type Galaxies

We present ultraviolet photometry for a sample of morphologically early-type galaxies selected by matching the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 1 with the GALEX Medium and All-sky Imaging Surveys. We obtain a working sample of 1032 early-type galaxies with GALEX FUV detections, SDSS spectroscopy, and $z<0.2$. Using the SDSS spectra to identify galaxies with even weak star formation or evidence of AGN, and further removing galaxies with any evidence of non early-type morphology, we derive a final sample of 172 red quiescent early-type galaxies. We find that the $FUV-r$ color has a full range of 5 mag. Plotting against the $FUV-r$ color the metallicity sensitive Lick $\rm Mg_2$ and D4000 indices, and the stellar velocity dispersion, we find no correlation between our measurement of UV rising flux, and any parameter sensitive to metallicity.

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arXiv2004

GALEX observations of the UV surface brightness and color profiles of the Local Group elliptical galaxy M32 (NGC221)

M32, the compact elliptical-galaxy companion to the Andromeda spiral galaxy has been imaged by the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) in two ultraviolet bands, centered at ~1500 (FUV) and 2300 Angstroms (NUV). The imaging data have been carefully decomposed so as to properly account for the complicated background contamination from the disk of M31. We have derived the surface brightness and color profiles finding a slightly positive color gradient of Delta(FUV-B)/Delta log(r)=+0.15+/-0.03 within one effective radius. Earlier data from the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope suggested that M32 had an extremely large (negative) FUV-optical color gradient (Delta(FUV-B)/Delta log(r)<-2), inverted with respect to the majority of gradients seen in giant elliptical galaxies. Our new results show that, despite of its very low UV-upturn, M32 has similar UV properties to those observed in luminous elliptical galaxies.

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arXiv2004

GALEX Observations of the Ultraviolet Halos of NGC 253 and M82

We present Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) images of the prototypical edge-on starburst galaxies M82 and NGC253. Our initial analysis is restricted to the complex of ultraviolet (UV) filaments in the starburst-driven outflows in the galaxy halos. The UV luminosities in the halo are too high to be provided by shock-heated or photoionized gas except perhaps in the brightest filaments in M82, suggesting that most of the UV light is the stellar continuum of the starburst scattered into our line of sight by dust in the outflow. This interpretation agrees with previous results from optical imaging polarimetry in M82. The morphology of the UV filaments in both galaxies shows a high degree of spatial correlation with H-alpha and X-ray emission. This indicates that these outflows contain cold gas and dust, some of which may be vented into the intergalactic medium (IGM). UV light is seen in the ``H-alpha cap'' 11 kpc North of M82. If this cap is a result of the wind fluid running into a pre-existing gas cloud, the gas cloud contains dust and is not primordial in nature but was probably stripped from M82 or M81. If starburst winds efficiently expel dust into the IGM, this could have significant consequences for the observation of cosmologically distant objects.

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arXiv2004

The Ultraviolet Luminosity Function of GALEX Galaxies at Photometric Redshifts Between 0.07 and 0.25

We present measurements of the UV galaxy luminosity function and the evolution of luminosity density from GALEX observations matched to the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). We analyze galaxies in the Medium Imaging Survey overlapping the SDSS DR1 with a total coverage of 44 deg^2. Using the combined GALEX+SDSS photometry, we compute photometric redshifts and study the LF in three redshift shells between z=0.07 and 0.25. The Schechter function fits indicate that the faint-end slope alpha is consistent with -1.1 at all redshifts but the characteristic UV luminosity M* brightens by 0.2 mag from z=0.07 to 0.25. In the lowest redshift bin, early and late type galaxies are studied separately and we confirm that red galaxies tend to be brighter and have a shallower slope alpha than blue ones. The derived luminosity densities are consistent with other GALEX results based on a local spectroscopic sample from 2dF and the evolution follows the trend reported by deeper studies.

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arXiv2004

The On-Orbit Performance of the Galaxy Evolution Explorer

We report the first year on-orbit performance results for the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), a NASA Small Explorer that is performing a survey of the sky in two ultraviolet bands. The instrument comprises a 50 cm diameter modified Ritchey-Chretien telescope with a 1.25 degree field of view, selectable imaging and objective grism spectroscopic modes, and an innovative optical system with a thin-film multilayer dichroic beam splitter that enables simultaneous imaging by a pair of photon counting, microchannel plate, delay line readout detectors. Initial measurements demonstrate that GALEX is performing well, meeting its requirements for resolution, efficiency, astrometry, bandpass definition and survey sensitivity.

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arXiv2004

Panoramic GALEX FUV and NUV imaging of M31 and M33

We present Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) far-UV and near-UV mosaic observations covering the entirety of M31 and M33. For both targets, we measure the decline of surface brightness (in FUV and NUV) and changes in FUV--NUV color as a function of galactocentric radius. These UV radial profiles are compared to the distribution of ionized gas traced by H-alpha emission. We find that the extent of the UV emission, in both targets, is greater than the extent of the observed HII regions and diffuse ionized gas. We determine the ultraviolet diffuse fraction in M33 using our FUV observations and compare it to the H-alpha diffuse fraction obtained from wide-field narrow-band imaging. The FUV diffuse fraction appears to be remarkably constant near 0.65 over a large range in galactocentric radius, with departures to higher values in circumnuclear regions and, most notably, at the limit of the H-alpha disk. We suggest that the increase in FUV diffuse fraction at large galactocentric radii could indicate that a substantial portion of the diffuse emission beyond this point is not generated in situ but rather scattered from dust, after originating in the vicinity of the disk's outermost HII regions. Radial variation of the H-alpha diffuse fraction was also measured. We found the H-alpha diffuse fraction generally near 0.4 but rising toward the galaxy center, up to 0.6. We made no attempt to correct our diffuse fraction measurements for position-dependent extinction, so the quoted values are best interpreted as upper limits given the plausibly higher extinction for stellar clusters relative to their surroundings.

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arXiv2004

Recent Star Formation in the Extreme Outer Disk of M83

Ultraviolet imaging with the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) has revealed an extensive sample of UV-bright stellar complexes in the extreme outer disk of M83, extending to about four times the radius where the majority of HII regions are detected (R_HII = 5.1' or 6.6 kpc). These sources are typically associated with large-scale filamentary HI structures in the warped outer disk of M83, and are distributed beyond the galactocentric radii at which molecular ISM has yet been detected. We present measured properties of these stellar complexes, including FUV and NUV magnitudes and local gas surface density. Only a subset of the outer disk UV sources have corresponding HII regions detected in H-alpha imaging, consistent with a sample of mixed age in which some sources are a few Myr old and others are much more evolved (~ 10^8 yr).

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arXiv2004

The Ultraviolet Galaxy Luminosity Function from GALEX data: Color Dependent Evolution at Low Redshift

We present measurements of the FUV (1530A) and NUV (2310A) galaxy luminosity functions (LF) at low redshift (z<0.2) from GALEX observations matched to the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey. We split our FUV and NUV samples into two UV-bj color bins and two redshift bins. As observed at optical wavelengths, the local LF of the bluest galaxies tend to have steeper faint end slopes and fainter characteristic magnitudes M* than the reddest subsamples. We find evidence for color dependent evolution at very low redshift in both bands, with bright blue galaxies becoming dominant in the highest redshift bin. The evolution of the total LF is consistent with an 0.3 magnitude brightening between z=0 and 0.13, in agreement with the first analysis of deeper GALEX fields probing adjacent and higher redshifts.

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arXiv2004

Large-Amplitude Ultraviolet Variations in the RR Lyrae Star ROTSE-I J143753.84+345924.8

The NASA Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) satellite has obtained simultaneous near and far ultraviolet light curves of the ROTSE-I Catalog RR Lyrae ab-type variable star J143753.84+345924.8. A series of 38 GALEX Deep Imaging Survey observations well distributed in phase within the star's 0.56432d period shows an AB=4.9mag variation in the far UV (1350-1750A) band and an AB=1.8mag variation in the near UV (1750-2750A) band, compared with only a 0.8mag variation in the broad, unfiltered ROTSE-I (4500-10000A) band. These GALEX UV observations are the first to reveal a large RR Lyrae amplitude variation at wavelengths below 1800A. We compare the GALEX and ROTSE-I observations to predictions made by recent Kurucz stellar atmosphere models. We use published physical parameters for the comparable period (0.57433d), well-observed RR Lyrae star WY Antliae to compute predicted FUV, NUV, and ROTSE-I light curves for J143753.84+345924.8. The observed light curves agree with the Kurucz predictions for [Fe/H]=-1.25 to within AB=0.2mag in the GALEX NUV and ROTSE-I bands, and within 0.5mag in the FUV. At all metallicities between solar and one hundredth solar, the Kurucz models predict 6-8mag of variation at wavelengths between 1000-1700A. Other variable stars with similar temperature variations, such as Cepheids, should also have large-amplitude FUV light curves, observable during the ongoing GALEX imaging surveys.

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arXiv2004

The radial extinction profiles of late-type galaxies

We have used UV (FOCA) and FIR (IRAS) images of six nearby late type galaxies to study the radial variation of the UV extinction (deduced from the FIR/UV ratio). We compare the UV extinction gradient with other extinction indicators (Balmer decrement) and search for a relation between the extinction, the metallicity and the gas surface density among our galaxies. We detect in our small sample a clear relation between extinction and metallicity. These observed relations are used to calibrate an empirical recipe useful for extinction correction in the UV, visible and near-infrared images of late type galaxies.

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arXiv2004

UV and FIR selected samples of galaxies in the local Universe. Dust extinction and star formation rates

We have built two samples of galaxies selected at 0.2micron (hereafter UV) and 60micron (hereafter FIR) covering a sky area of 35.36 deg^2. The UV selected sample contains 25 galaxies brighter than AB_0.2=17mag. All of them, but one elliptical, are detected at 60micron with a flux density larger or equal to 0.2Jy. The UV counts are significantly lower than the euclidean extrapolation towards brighter fluxes of previous determinations. The FIR selected sample contains 42 galaxies brighter than f_60=0.6Jy. Excepting four galaxies, all of them have a UV counterpart at the limiting magnitude AB_0.2=20.3mag. The mean extinction derived from the analysis of the FIR to UV flux ratio is ~1mag for the UV selected sample and ~2mag for the FIR selected one. For each sample we compare several indicators of the recent star formation rate (SFR) based on the FIR and/or the UV emissions and we find linear relationships with slopes close to unity, meaning that no trend with the SFR exists when converting between each other. Various absolute calibrations for both samples are discussed in this paper. A positive correlation between extinction and SFR is found when both samples are considered together although with a considerable scatter. A similar result is obtained when using the SFR normalized to the optical surface of the galaxies.

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arXiv2003

The UV luminosity function of nearby clusters of galaxies

We present the UV composite luminosity function for galaxies in the Virgo, Coma and Abell 1367 clusters. The luminosity function (LF) is well fitted by a Schechter function with M*(UV} - 5*log h(75) = -20.75 +/- 0.40 and alpha = -1.50 +/- 0.10 and does not differ significantly from the local UV luminosity function of the field. This result is in agreement with recent studies carried out in the Halpha and B-bands which find no difference between the LFs of star forming galaxies in clusters and in the field. This indicates that, whatever mechanisms are responsible for quenching the star formation in clusters, they influence similarly the giant and the dwarf populations, leaving the shape of the LF unchanged and only modifying its normalization.

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arXiv2003

The ultraviolet extragalactic background light: dust extinction and the evolution of the cosmic star formation rate from z=0 to 0.6

We show that the accumulated light of galaxies in the ultraviolet can be evaluated from their luminosity density as a function of the evolution of the cosmic star formation rate and dust extinction properties. Constraints on the evolution rate are expected in future. Data available at the moment are consistent with an evolution rate at low z steeper than (1+z)^(3.5). A shallower rate remains possible if the luminosity-weighted dust extinction at 2000 A, as suggested by some data, is lower than about 1.2.

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arXiv2002

The UV (GALEX) and FIR (ASTRO-F) All Sky Surveys: the measure of the dust extinction in the local universe

Before the end of 2002 will be launched the GALEX satellite (a NASA/SMEX project) which will observe all the sky in Ultraviolet (UV) through filters at 1500 and 2300 A down to m(AB) 21. In 2004 will be launched the ASTRO-F satellite which will perform an all sky survey at Far-Infrared (FIR) wavelengths. The cross-correlation of both surveys will lead to very large samples of galaxies for which FIR and UV fluxes will be available. Using the FIR to UV flux ratio as a quantitative tracer of the dust extinction we will be able to measure the extinction in the nearby universe (z<0.2) and to perform a statistically significant analysis of the extinction as a function of galactic properties. Of particular interest is the construction of pure FIR and UV selected samples for which the extinction will be measured as templates for the observation of high redshift galaxies.

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