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I. D. Karachentsev

Publications and source records attributed to I. D. Karachentsev.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources

H-alpha Survey of the Local Volume: Isolated Southern Galaxies

We present our H-alpha observations of 11 isolated southern galaxies: SDIG, PGC 51659, E 222-010, E 272-025, E 137-018, IC 4662, Sag DIG, IC 5052, IC 5152, UGCA 438, and E149-003, with distances from 1 to 7 Mpc. We have determined the total H-alpha fluxes from these galaxies. The star formation rates in these galaxies range from 10^{-1} (IC 4662) to 10^{-4}_{\odot}/yr (SDIG) and the gas depletion time at the observed star formation rates lies within the range from 1/6 to 24 Hubble times H_0^{-1} .

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Local dark energy: HST evidence from the vicinity of the M 81/M 82 galaxy group

The Hubble Space Telescope observations of the nearby galaxy group M 81/M 82 and its vicinity indicate that the expansion outflow around the group is dominated by the antigravity of the dark energy background. The local density of dark energy in the area is estimated to be near the global dark energy density or perhaps exactly equal to it. This conclusion agrees with our previous results for the Local group vicinity and the vicinity of the Cen A/M 83 group.

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Detection of dark energy near the Local Group with the Hubble Space Telescope

We report the detection of dark energy near the Milky Way made with precision observations of the local Hubble flow of expansion. We estimate the local density of dark energy and find that it is near, if not exactly equal to, the global dark energy density. The result is independent of, compatible with, and complementary to the horizon-scale observations in which dark energy was first discovered. Together with the cosmological concordance data, our result forms direct observational evidence for the Einstein antigravity as a universal phenomenon -- in the same sense as the Newtonian universal gravity.

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Local dark energy: HST evidence from the expansion flow around Cen A/M83 galaxy group

A structure with a massive group in its center and a cool expansion outflow outside is studied around the Cen A galaxy with the use of the Hubble Space Telescope observations. It is demonstrated that the dynamics of the flow is dominated by the antigravity of the dark energy background. The density of dark energy in the cell is estimated to be near the global cosmological density. This agrees with our previous result from the neighborhood of the Local group. A notion of the ``Hubble cell'' is introduced as a building block of the local structure of the universe.

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Peculiar Velocities of 3000 Spiral Galaxies from the 2MFGC Catalog

The 2MFGC catalog we have used contains 18020 galaxies selected from the extended objects in the 2MASS infrared sky survey as having apparent ratios of the axes b/a<0.3. Most of them are spiral galaxies of later morphological types whose disks are seen almost edge-on. The individual distances to the 2724 2MFGC galaxies with known rotation velocities and radial velocities are determined using a multiparameter infrared Tully-Fisher relation. A list of the distances and peculiar velocities of these galaxies is presented. The collective motion of the 2MFGC galaxies relative to the cosmic microwave background is characterized by a velocity V = 199 +- 37 km/s in the direction l = 304o +- 11o, b = -8o +- 8o. Our list is currently the most representative and uniform sample for analyzing non-Hubble motions of galaxies on a scale of ~100 Mpc.

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Minivoids in the Local Volume

We consider a sphere of 7.5 Mpc radius, which contains 355 galaxies with accurately measured distances, to detect the nearest empty volumes. Using a simple void detection algorithm, we found six large (mini)voids in Aquila, Eridanus, Leo, Vela, Cepheus and Octans, each of more than 30 Mpc^3. Besides them, 24 middle-size "bubbles" of more than 5 Mpc^3 volume are detected, as well as 52 small "pores". The six largest minivoids occupy 58% of the considered volume. Addition of the bubbles and pores to them increases the total empty volume up to 75% and 81%, respectively. The detected local voids look like oblong potatoes with typical axial ratios b/a = 0.75 and c/a = 0.62 (in the triaxial ellipsoide approximation). Being arranged by the size of their volume, local voids follow power law of volumes-rankes dependence. A correlation Gamma-function of the Local Volume galaxies follows a power low with a formally calculated fractal dimension D = 1.5. We found that galaxies surrounding the local minivoids do not differ significantly from other nearby galaxies on their luminosity, but have appreciably higher hydrogen mass-to-luminosity ratio and also higher star formation rate. We recognize an effect of local expansion of typical minivoid to be ΔH/H_0~(25+-15)%.

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The Arecibo Galaxy Environment Survey: Precursor Observations of the NGC 628 group

The Arecibo Galaxy Environment Survey (AGES) is one of several HI surveys utilising the new Arecibo L-band Feed Array (ALFA) fitted to the 305m radio telescope at Arecibo. The survey is specifically designed to investigate various galactic environments to higher sensitivity, higher velocity resolution and higher spatial resolution than previous fully sampled, 21 cm multibeam surveys. The emphasis is on making detailed observations of nearby objects although the large system bandwidth (100 MHz) will allow us to quantify the HI properties over a large instantaneous velocity range. In this paper we describe the survey and its goals and present the results from the precursor observations of a 5 degree x 1 degree region containing the nearby (~10 Mpc) NGC 628 group. We have detected all the group galaxies in the region including the low mass (M{HI}~10^7Mo) dwarf, dw0137+1541 (Briggs, 1986). The fluxes and velocities for these galaxies compare well with previously published data. There is no intra-group neutral gas detected down to a limiting column density of 2x10^{18}cm^{-2}. In addition to the group galaxies we have detected 22 galaxies beyond the NGC 628 group, 9 of which are previously uncatalogued.(Abridged)

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Disturbed isolated galaxies: indicators of a dark galaxy population?

We report the results of our search for disturbed (interacting) objects among very isolated galaxies. The inspections of 1050 northern isolated galaxies from KIG and 500 nearby, very isolated galaxies situated in the Local Supercluster yielded five and four strongly disturbed galaxies, respectively. We suggest that the existence of "dark" galaxies explains the observed signs of interaction. This assumption leads to a cosmic abundance of dark galaxies (with the typical masses for luminous galaxies) that is less than ~1/20 the population of visible galaxies.

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Bulk Motions of Spiral Galaxies in the z = 0.03 Volume

We analyze the peculiar velocity field for 2400 flat spiral galaxies selected from an infrared sky survey (2MFGC). The distances to the galaxies have been determined from the Tully-Fisher relation in the photometric J band with a dispersion of 0.45 mag. The bulk motion of this sample relative to the cosmic microwave background (3K) frame has an amplitude of 199+/-37 km/s in the direction l = 290 +/- 11, b = +1 +/- 9 degree. The amplitude of the dipole motion tends to decrease with distance in accordance with the expected convergence of bulk flows in the 3K frame. We believe that external massive attractors similar to the Shapley cluster concentration are responsible for \~60% of the local flow velocity in the z = 0.03 volume.

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ACS imaging of 25 galaxies in nearby groups and in the field

We present HST/ACS images and color-magnitude diagrams for 25 nearby galaxies with radial velocities V_LG < 500 km/s. Distances are determined based on the luminosities of stars at the tip of the red giant branch that range from 2 Mpc to 12 Mpc. Two of the galaxies, NGC 4163 and IC 4662, are found to be the nearest known representatives of blue compact dwarf (BCD) objects. Using high-quality data on distances and radial velocities of 110 nearby field galaxies, we derive their mean Hubble ratio to be 68 km/(s Mpc) with standard deviation of 15 km/(s Mpc). Peculiar velocities of most of the galaxies, V_pec = V_LG - 68 D, follow a Gaussian distribution with sigma_v = 63 km/s, but with a tail towards high negative values. Our data displays the known correlation between peculiar velocity and galaxy elevation above the Local Supercluster plane. The small observed fraction of galaxies with high peculiar velocities, V_pec < -500 km/s, may be understood as objects associated with nearby groups (Coma I, Eridanus) outside the Local volume.

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Gas distribution, kinematics and star formation in faint dwarf galaxies

We compare the gas distribution, kinematics and the current star formation in a sample of 10 very faint (-13.37 < M_B < -9.55) dwarf galaxies. For 5 of these galaxies we present fresh, high sensitivity, GMRT HI 21cm observations. For all our galaxies we construct maps of the HI column density at a constant linear resolution of ~300 pc; this forms an excellent data set to check for the presence of a threshold column density for star formation. We find that while current star formation (as traced by Halpha emission) is confined to regions with relatively large (N_HI > (0.4 -1.7) X 10^{21} atoms cm^{-2}) HI column density, the morphology of the Halpha emission is in general not correlated with that of the high HI column density gas. Thus, while high column density gas may be necessary for star formation, in this sample at least, it is not sufficient to ensure that star formation does in fact occur. We examine the line profiles of the HI emission, but do not find a simple relation between regions with complex line profiles and those with on-going star formation. Finally, we examine the very fine scale (~20-100 pc) distribution of the HI gas, and find that at these scales the emission exhibits a variety of shell like, clumpy and filamentary features. The Halpha emission is sometimes associated with high density HI clumps, sometimes the Halpha emission lies inside a high density shell, and sometimes there is no correspondence between the Halpha emission and the HI clumps. In summary, the interplay between star formation and gas density in these galaxy does not seem to show the simple large scale patterns observed in brighter galaxies (abridged).

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HI Observations of Flat Galaxies

We present the HI observations of 94 flat spiral galaxies from RFGC (the Revised Flat Galaxy Catalog) and 14 galaxies from 2MFGC (the 2MASS selected Flat Galaxy Catalog) performed with the 100-m radio telescope in Effelsberg (Germany). HI fluxes, heliocentric radial velocities, and HI line widths are given for 65 detected galaxies. We present a mosaic of HI profiles. We calculated some of the global parameters of the galaxies and analyzed the linear correlations between them. The ratios of the total (indicative) masses of the galaxies to their luminosities lie within the range 0.4 with a mean of 3.8 ($M_{\sun}/L_{\sun}$), and the mean mass fraction of neutral hydrogen is 13%. Upper limits are given for the radio fluxes from 43 undetected galaxies.

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Total masses of the Local Group and M 81 group derived from the local Hubble flow

Based on accurate measurements of distances to nearby galaxies made with Hubble Space Telescope, we determined the radii of the zero-velocity surface: R_0 = 0.96+-0.03 Mpc for the Local Group and R_0 = 0.89+-0.05 Mpc for the group of galaxies around M81/M82. This yields the total masses of the groups to be M_T = (1.29+-0.14) 10^{12} M_sun and M_T = (1.03+-0.17) 10^{12} M_sun, respectively. The R_0-method allowed us to determine the mass ratio of the brightest two members in the considered groups. Based on the minimum scatter of galaxies with respect to the Hubble regression, we derived a mass ratio of 0.8 : 1.0 for the Milky Way and Andromeda, and 0.54 : 1.00 for M82 and M81, which is quite close to the ratio of luminosities of these galaxies.

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The very local Hubble flow: Simulating transition from chaos to order

The physical nature of the very local (<3 Mpc) Hubble flow is studied on the basis of the recent high precision observations in the Local Volume. A model including both analytical treatment and computer simulations describes the flow dynamical evolution from a chaotic Little Bang initial state to the present-day state of a quasi-regular expansion. The two major observational parameters of the flow, which are the rate of expansion and the velocity dispersion, find a clear qualitative and quantitative explanation in the model.

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Dwarf spheroidal galaxies in nearby groups imaged with HST

An all-sky list of 88 nearby dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxies with distances D < 10 Mpc is considered. Most of the objects have recently been found by Karachentseva & Karachentsev based on POSSII/ESO-SERC survey. A hundred more dSph galaxies are expected in this volume, being missed so far because of their low luminosity and low surface brightness. Apart from 22 dSph members of the Local Group, there are 33 dSphs in other nearby groups that have been resolved recently into stars with HST. Only 5% of the local dSphs are situated outside the known groups. We discuss observational correlation between basic parameters of the dwarf spheroidal galaxies, in particular, absolute magnitude, surface brightness, metallicity, and so-called "tidal index". The observed number of dSphs in group increases with luminosity of its brightest galaxy. In a "synthetic" nearby group, dwarf spheroidal galaxies are distributed in depth quite symmetrically about the principal galaxy, having an rms distance scatter of 200 kpc. Projected radial distribution of dSphs in the synthetic group follows the profile N(R) ~ exp(-R/200 kpc).

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Resolving the mystery of the dwarf galaxy HIZSS003

The nearby galaxy HIZSS003 was recently discovered during a blind HI survey of the zone of avoidance (Henning et al. 2000). Follow up VLA as well as optical and near-IR imaging and spectroscopy (Massey et al. 2003; Silva et al. 2005) confirm that it is a low metallicity dwarf irregular galaxy. However there were two puzzling aspects of the observations, (i) current star formation, as traced by H$α$ emission, is confined to a small region at the edge of the VLA HI image and (ii) the metallicity of the older RGB stars is higher than that of the gas in HII region. We present high spatial and velocity resolution Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope (GMRT) observations that resolve these puzzles by showing that HIZSS003 is actually a galaxy pair and that the HII region lies at the center of a much smaller companion galaxy (HIZSS003B) to the main galaxy (HIZSS003A). The HI emission from these two galaxies overlaps in projection, but can be separated in velocity space. HIZSS003B has an HI mass of 2.6 X 10^6 M$_\odot$, and a highly disturbed velocity field. Since the velocity field is disturbed, an accurate rotation curve cannot be derived, however, the indicative dynamical mass is ~5 X 10^7 M$_\odot$. For the bigger galaxy HIZSS003A we derive an HI mass of 1.4 X 10^7 M$_\odot$. The velocity field of this galaxy is quite regular and from its rotation curve we derive a total dynamical mass of ~6.5 X 10^8 M$_\odot$.

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H-alpha imaging of the Local Volume galaxies I. The NGC 6946 galaxy group

We present new H-alpha imaging of all known dwarf irregular companions to NGC 6946: UGC 11583, KK 251, KK 252, KKR 55, KKR 56, Cepheus 1, KKR 59, and KKR 60. The galaxies span a range of blue absolute magnitudes of [-13.6, -17.6], relative gas content of [0.1, 2.5] M_sun/L_sun, current star formation activity of [0.2, 5.2]10^-2 M_sun yr^-1, and timescale to exhaust the current gas supply of [6, 86] Gyr.

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A dwarf galaxy with a giant HI disk

We present Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope (GMRT) HI 21cm images of a nearby dwarf irregular galaxy NGC 3741 (M_B ~ -13.13 mag) which show it to have a gas disk that extends to ~ 8.3 times its Holmberg radius. This makes it probably the most extended gas disk known. Our observations allow us to derive the rotation curve (which is flat in the outer regions) out to ~ 38 optical scale lengths. NGC 3741 has a dynamical mass to light ratio of ~ 107 and is one of the ``darkest'' irregular galaxies known. However, the bulk of the baryonic mass in NGC 3741 is in the form of gas and the ratio of the dynamic mass to the baryonic mass (~ 8), falls within the range that is typical for galaxies. Thus the dark matter halo of NGC 3741 has acquired its fair share of baryons, but for some reason, these baryons have been unable to collapse to form stars. A comparison of NGC 3741's dark halo properties with those of a sample of galaxies with well measured rotation curves suggests that if one has to reconcile the observations with the expectation that low mass galaxies suffer fractionally greater baryon loss then baryon loss from halos occurs in such a way that, in the net, the remaining baryons occupy a fractionally smaller volume of the total halo.

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