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H. -W. Rix

Publications and source records attributed to H. -W. Rix.

At least 163 records · Page 9Linked to original sources
arXiv2000

Variability in LINERs

A small number of LINERs have been seen to display variable H-alpha emission with a very broad, double-peaked profile. Recent observations with the Hubble Space Telescope indicate that such emission may be a common attribute of LINERs. The double-peaked or double-shouldered line profiles resemble those found in a subset of broad-line radio galaxies. Several lines of argument suggest that such features trace an outer thin accretion disk irradiated by an inner ion torus, in accord with advection-dominated accretion flow (ADAF) models. Variability monitoring of this broad H-alpha component thus may provide a means of testing accretion physics on small scales within these sources.

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arXiv2000

PMN J1838-3427: A new gravitationally lensed quasar

We report the discovery of a new double-image quasar that was found during a search for gravitational lenses in the southern sky. Radio source PMN J1838-3427 is composed of two flat-spectrum components with separation 1", flux density ratio 14:1 and matching spectral indices, in VLA and VLBA images. Ground-based BRI images show the optical counterpart (total I=18.6) is also double with the same separation and position angle as the radio components. An HST/WFPC2 image reveals the lens galaxy. The optical flux ratio (27:1) is higher than the radio value probably due to differential extinction of the components by the lens galaxy. An optical spectrum of the bright component contains quasar emission lines at z=2.78 and several absorption features, including prominent Ly-alpha absorption. The lens galaxy redshift could not be measured but is estimated to be z=0.36 +/- 0.08. The image configuration is consistent with the simplest plausible models for the lens potential. The flat radio spectrum and observed variability of PMN J1838-3427 suggest the time delay between flux variations of the components is measurable, and could thus provide an independent measurement of H_0.

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arXiv2000

The Broad-Line and Narrow-Line Regions of the LINER NGC 4579

We report the discovery of an extremely broad H-alpha emission line in the LINER nucleus of NGC 4579. From ground-based observations, the galaxy was previously known to contain a Type 1 nucleus with a broad H-alpha line of FWHM = 2300 km/s and FWZI ~ 5000 km/s. New spectra obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope and a 0.2 arcsec-wide slit reveal an H-alpha component with FWZI ~ 18,000 km/s. The line is not obviously double-peaked, but it does possess shoulders on the red and blue sides which resemble the H-alpha profiles of double-peaked emitters such as NGC 4203 and NGC 4450. This similarity suggests that the very broad H-alpha profile in NGC 4579 may represent emission from an accretion disk. Three such objects have been found recently in two HST programs which have targeted a total of 30 galaxies, demonstrating that double-peaked or extremely broad-line emission in LINERs must be much more common than would be inferred from ground-based surveys. The ratio of the narrow [S II] 6716, 6731 lines shows a pronounced gradient indicating a steep rise in density toward the nucleus. The direct detection of a density gradient within the inner arcsecond of the narrow-line region confirms expectations from previous observations of linewidth-critical density correlations in several LINERs.

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arXiv2000

Multi-Frequency Analysis of the New Wide-Separation Gravitational Lens Candidate RX J0921+4529

We report the discovery of a new two-image gravitational lens candidate. The system RX J0921+4529 contains two z_s=1.66 quasars separated by 6."93 with an H band magnitude difference of $Δm=1.39$. The HST NIC2 H band images reveal an H=18.2 spiral galaxy between the quasar images, which is probably a member of a z_l=0.32 X-ray cluster centered on the field. We detect an extended source near the fainter quasar image but not in the brighter image. If this extended source is the host galaxy of the fainter quasar, then the system is a binary quasar rather than a gravitational lens. VLA observations at 3.6 cm reveal emission from the lens galaxy at the flux level of 1 mJy and a marginal detection of the brighter quasar.

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arXiv2000

The Fundamental Plane of Gravitational Lens Galaxies and The Evolution of Early-Type Galaxies in Low Density Environments

Most gravitational lenses are early-type galaxies in relatively low density environments -- a ``field'' rather than a ``cluster'' population. We show that field early-type galaxies with 0 < z < 1, as represented by the lens galaxies, lie on the same fundamental plane as those in rich clusters at similar redshifts. We then use the fundamental plane to measure the combined evolutionary and K-corrections for early-type galaxies in the V, I and H bands. Only for passively evolving stellar populations formed at z > 2 (H_0=65 km/s Mpc, Omega_0=0.3, Lambda_0=0.7) can the lens galaxies be matched to the local fundamental plane. The high formation epoch and the lack of significant differences between the field and cluster populations contradict many current models of the formation history of early-type galaxies. Lens galaxy colors and the fundamental plane provide good photometric redshift estimates with an empirical accuracy of -0.03 +/- 0.11 for the 17 lenses with known redshifts. A mass model dominated by dark matter is more consistent with the data than either an isotropic or radially anisotropic constant M/L mass model, and a radially anisotropic model is better than an isotropic model.

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arXiv2000

The Host Galaxy of the Lensed Quasar Q 0957+561

Infrared images of the Q 0957+561 gravitational lens obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope show two large (\sim 5 arcsec) lensed images of the z_s=1.41 quasar host galaxy. Parts of the host galaxy are doubly-imaged like the quasar, while other parts are quadruply-imaged. The distortions of the host galaxy offer the best probe yet of the global structure of the lensing potential, which is essential for determining the Hubble constant from the measured time delay. The distortions are inconsistent with the predictions of previously published lens models, which invalidates those models and their implications for H_0. New models show that the distortions finally break the long-standing degeneracy between the shape of the lens galaxy and the tidal shear contributed by the cluster containing the lens galaxy. The shape of the lens galaxy's mass distribution must be remarkably similar to the shape of its luminosity distribution, and most models that produce reasonable values for the Hubble constant roughly match the observed ellipticity gradient and isophote twist of the lens galaxy. Also, the cluster must be non-spherical and produce a relatively small tidal shear. Although there are still degeneracies in the lens models that lead to a 25% uncertainty in the derived value of the Hubble constant, there are also strong prospects for new observations to further improve the constraints and reduce the uncertainties.

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arXiv1999

Constraints on the Space Density of Methane Dwarfs and the Substellar Mass Function from a Deep Near-Infrared Survey

We report preliminary results of a deep near-infrared search for methane-absorbing brown dwarfs; almost five years after the discovery of Gl 229b, there are only a few confirmed examples of this type of object. New J band, wide-field images, combined with pre-existing R band observations, allow efficient identification of candidates by their extreme (R-J) colours. Follow-up measurements with custom filters can then confirm objects with methane absorption. To date, we have surveyed a total of 11.4 square degrees to J~20.5 and R~25. Follow-up CH_4 filter observations of promising candidates in 1/4 of these fields have turned up no methane absorbing brown dwarfs. With 90% confidence, this implies that the space density of objects similar to Gl 229b is less than 0.012 per cubic parsec. These calculations account for the vertical structure of the Galaxy, which can be important for sensitive measurements. Combining published theoretical atmospheric models with our observations sets an upper limit of alpha <= 0.8 for the exponent of the initial mass function power law in this domain.

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arXiv1999

Host Galaxies of Lensed Luminous Quasars at z~2

We present H-band observations of gravitationally lensed QSO host galaxies obtained with NICMOS on HST as part of the CfA-Arizona-Gravitational-Lens-Survey (CASTLES). The detections are greatly facilitated by the lensing magnification in these systems; we find that most hosts of radio-quiet QSOs (RQQ) at z~2 are of modest luminosity (L<L_*). They are 2-5 times fainter than the hosts of radio-loud QSOs at the same epoch. Compared to low redshifts, RQQ hosts at z~2 also support higher nuclear luminosities at given stellar host mass. This suggests that the supermassive black holes at their centers grew faster at early epochs than the stellar body of their surrounding host galaxies.

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arXiv1999

The Evolution of Gravitational Lens Galaxies

Most gravitational lens galaxies are early-type galaxies in relatively low density environments. We show that they lie on the same fundamental plane as early-type galaxies in both local and distant rich clusters. Their surface brightness evolution requires a typical star formation epoch of z=2-3, almost indistinguishable from that of rich cluster galaxies at comparable redshifts. The restricted galaxy type range of the lenses means that photometric redshifts work well even with only 1-3 filter photometry. We make preliminary measurements of the mass and luminosity functions of the lens galaxies, and find they are consistent with the standard model used for deriving cosmological limits using lens statistics. As expected for a mass-weighted sample, they are more massive and more luminous than the overall early-type galaxy population.

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arXiv1999

The Interstellar Medium of Lens Galaxies

We use observations from the CASTLES survey of gravitational lenses to study extinction in 23 lens galaxies with $0 < z_l < 1$. The median differential extinction between lensed images is $ΔE(\bv) = 0.05$ mag, and the directly measured extinctions agree with the amount needed to explain the differences between the statistics of radio and (optical) quasar lens surveys. We also measure the first extinction laws outside the local universe, including an $R_V=7.2$ curve for a molecular cloud at $z_l=0.68$ and an $R_V=1.5$ curve for the dust in a redshift $z_l=0.96$ elliptical galaxy.

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arXiv1999

The CASTLES gravitational lensing tool

We describe a series of new applications of gravitational lenses as astrophysical and cosmological tools. Such applications are becoming possible thanks to advances in the quality and quantity of observations. CASTLES (CfA-Arizona-Space-Telescope-LEns-Survey) {cfa-www.harvard.edu/castles} is an ongoing project that exploits the sensitivity and resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) at optical and infrared wavelengths to study the sample of over 50 known gravitational lenses. The observational goal of CASTLES is a uniform sample of multi-band images of all known galaxy-mass lens systems, to derive precise photometry and astrometry for the lens galaxies, all the known images, and any source or lens components that might have escaped detection. With these measurements we are investigating: (1) the properties of dust and of dark matter in lens galaxies out to z\sim1; (2) the dark matter in lens galaxies and in their environments; (3) the evolution of lens galaxies; and (4) the cosmological model, for instance by refining constraints on the Hubble constant H_0.

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arXiv1999

A New Wide-Separation Gravitational Lens Candidate: RXJ 0921+4529

The lens candidate RXJ 0921+4529 consists of two z_s=1.66 quasar separated by 6."93 with an H band magnitude difference of Δm=1.39. The lens appears to be a z_l=0.31 X-ray cluster, including a m_H=18.5 late-type galaxy lying between the quasar images. We detect an extended source overlapping the faint quasar but not the bright quasar. If this extended source is the host galaxy of the fainter quasar, then the system is a quasar binary rather than a gravitational lens.

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arXiv1999

The Quasar Pair Q 1634+267 A, B and the Binary QSO vs. Dark Lens Hypotheses

Deep HST/NICMOS H (F160W) band observations of the z=1.96 quasar pair Q 1634+267A,B reveal no signs of a lens galaxy to a 1 sigma threshold of approximately 22.5 mag. The minimum luminosity for a normal lens galaxy would be a 6L_* galaxy at z > 0.5, which is 650 times greater than our detection threshold. Our observation constrains the infrared mass-to-light ratio of any putative, early-type, lens galaxy to (M/L)_H > 690h_65 (1200h_65) for Omega_0=0.1 (1.0) and H_0=65h_65 km/s/Mpc. We would expect to detect a galaxy somewhere in the field because of the very strong Mg II absorption lines at z=1.1262 in the Q 1634+267 A spectrum, but the HST H-band, I-band (F785LP) and V-band (F555W) images require that any associated galaxy be very under-luminous less than 0.1 L^*_H (1.0 L^*_I) if it lies within less than 40 h^{-1} (100 h^{-1}) kpc from Q 1634+267 A,B. While the large image separation (3.86 arcsec) and the lack of a lens galaxy strongly favor interpreting Q 1634+267A,B as a binary quasar system, the spectral similarity remains a puzzle. We estimate that at most 0.06% of randomly selected quasar pairs would have spectra as similar to each other as the spectra of Q 1634+267 A and B. Moreover, spectral similarities observed for the 14 quasar pairs are significantly greater than would be expected for an equivalent sample of randomly selected field quasars. Depending on how strictly we define similarity, we estimate that only 0.01--3% of randomly drawn samples of 14 quasar pairs would have as many similar pairs as the observational sample.

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arXiv1999

The kinematics and the origin of ionized gas in NGC 4036

We present the kinematics and photometry of the stars and of the ionized gas near the centre of the S0 galaxy NGC4036. Dynamical models based on the Jeans Equation have been constructed from the stellar data to determine the gravitational potential in which the ionized gas is expected to orbit. Inside 10'', the observed gas rotation curve falls well short of the predicted circular velocity. Over a comparable radial region the observed gas velocity dispersion is far higher than the one expected from thermal motions or small scale turbulence, corroborating that the gas cannot be following the streamlines of nearly closed orbits. We explore several avenues to understand the dynamical state of the gas: (1) We treat the gas as a collisionless ensemble of cloudlets and apply the Jeans Equation to it; this modeling shows that inside 4'' the gas velocity dispersion is just high enough to explain quantitatively the absence of rotation. (2) Alternatively, we explore whether the gas may arise from the `just shed' mass-loss envelopes of the bulge stars, in which case their kinematics should simply mimic that of the stars. he latter approach matches the data better than (1), but still fails to explain the low velocity dispersion and slow rotation velocity of the gas for 5''<r<10''. (3) Finally, we explore, whether drag forces on the ionized gas may aid in explaining its peculiar kinematics. While all these approaches provide a much better description of the data than cold gas on closed orbits, we do not yet have a definitive model to describe the observed gas kinematics at all radii.

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arXiv1999

The kinematics and the origin of the ionized gas in NGC 4036

The kinematics of stars and ionized gas has been studied near the center of the S0 galaxy NGC 4036. Dynamical models based both on stellar photometry and kinematics have been built in order to derive the gravitational potential in which the gas is expected to orbit. The observed gas rotation curve falls short of the circular velocity curve inferred from these models. Inside 10'' the observed gas velocity dispersion is found to be comparable to the predicted circular velocity, showing that the gas cannot be considered on circular orbits. The understanding of the observed gas kinematics is improved by models based on the Jeans Equations, which assume the ionized gas as an ensemble of collisionless cloudlets distributed in a spheroidal and in a disk component.

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arXiv1999

The CASTLES project

We describe the goals of the CASTLES (CfA-Arizona-Space-Telescope-LEns-Survey) project including a sample of NICMOS images of gravitational lenses and a brief list of the preliminary findings.

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arXiv1998

Results from the CASTLES Survey of Gravitational Lenses

We show that most gravitational lenses lie on the passively evolving fundamental plane for early-type galaxies. For burst star formation models (1 Gyr of star formation, then quiescence) in low Omega_0 cosmologies, the stellar populations of the lens galaxies must have formed at z_f > 2. Typical lens galaxies contain modest amounts of patchy extinction, with a median differential extinction for the optical (radio) selected lenses of E(B-V) = 0.04 (0.07) mag. The dust can be used to determine both extinction laws and lens redshifts. For example, the z_l=0.96 elliptical lens in MG0414+0534 has an R_V=1.7 +/- 0.1 mean extinction law. Arc and ring images of the quasar and AGN source host galaxies are commonly seen in NICMOS H band observations. The hosts are typically blue, L < L_* galaxies.

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