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Hong-xin Zhang

Publications and source records attributed to Hong-xin Zhang.

2 recordsLinked to original sources

The Dawn Light of Blueberry Galaxies: Spectroscopic and Photometric Studies of two Starburst Dwarf Galaxies

A population of so-called "blueberry" starbursting dwarf galaxies with extremely blue colors, low-metallicities, and enormous ionization ratios, has recently been found by Yang et al. (2017). Yet we still do not know their detailed properties, such as morphologies, AGN occupations, massive star contents, infrared emission, dust properties, etc. As a pilot study of the blueberries, we investigate the spectroscopic and photometric properties of two blueberry candidates, RGG B and RGG 5, for which Hubble Space Telescope high-resolution images are available. We find that RGG B and RGG 5 perhaps are likely to be two merging dwarf galaxy systems. RGG B may have a close merging companion; yet the current evidence still cannot exclude the possibility that RGG B is just disturbed by in-situ star formation through, e.g., outflows, rather than undergoing a merger. RGG 5 presents stellar shells in the outskirt which can be the powerful evidence of galaxy merging. We also find that, all of the blueberries, including RGG B and RGG 5, are located close to the theoretical maximum-starburst-line in the BPT diagram, have very high ionization parameters, and relatively low hardness ionizing radiation fields, exhibit nitrogen overabundances, and show extremely red mid-IR colors, and reside in the so-called "ULIRGs/LINERs/Obscured AGN" region. The blueberry galaxies may not harbor AGN.

astro-ph.GA

A Gemini/GMOS Study of Intermediate Luminosity Early-Type Virgo Cluster Galaxies. I. Globular Cluster and Stellar Kinematics

We present a kinematic analysis of the globular cluster systems and diffuse stellar light of four intermediate luminosity (sub-$L^{\ast}$) early-type galaxies in the Virgo cluster based on Gemini/GMOS data. Our galaxy sample is fainter ($-23.8<M_K<-22.7$) than most previous studies, nearly doubling the number of galaxies in this magnitude range that now have GC kinematics. The data for the diffuse light extends to $4R_e$, and the data for the globular clusters reaches 8--$12R_e$. We find that the kinematics in these outer regions are all different despite the fact that these four galaxies have similar photometric properties, and are uniformly classified as "fast rotators" from their stellar kinematics within $1R_e$. The globular cluster systems exhibit a wide range of kinematic morphology. The rotation axis and amplitude can change between the inner and outer regions, including a case of counter-rotation. This difference shows the importance of wide-field kinematic studies, and shows that stellar and GC kinematics can change significantly as one moves beyond the inner regions of galaxies. Moreover, the kinematics of the globular cluster systems can differ from that of the stars, suggesting that the formation of the two populations are also distinct.

astro-ph.GA