arXiv subjects

J. H. Knapen

Publications and source records attributed to J. H. Knapen.

149 records · Page 9Linked to original sources

arXiv1995

Molecular gas observations and enhanced massive star formation efficiencies in M100

We present new J=1-0 12-CO observations along the northern spiral arm of the grand-design spiral galaxy M100 (NGC 4321), and study the distribution of molecular hydrogen as derived from these observations, comparing the new data with a set of data points on the southern arm published previously. We compare these measurements on both spiral arms and on the interarm regions with observations of the atomic and ionized hydrogen components. We determine massive star formation efficiency parameters, defined as the ratio of H alpha luminosity to total gas mass, along the arms and compare the values to those in the interarm regions adjacent to the arms. We find that these parameters in the spiral arms are on average a factor of 3 higher than outside the arms, a clear indication of triggering of the star formation in the spiral arms. We discuss possible mechanisms for this triggering, and conclude that a density wave system is probably responsible for it. We discuss several possible systematical effects in some detail, and infer that the conclusions on triggering are sound. We specifically discuss the possible effects of extinction in H alpha, or a non-standard CO to H_2 conversion factor (X), and find that our conclusions on the enhancement of the efficiencies in the arms are reinforced rather than weakened by these considerations. A simple star forming scheme involving threshold densities for gravitational collapse is discussed for NGC 4321, and comparison is made with M51. We find that the gas between the arms is generally stable against gravitational collapse whereas the gas in the arms is not, possibly leading to the observed arm-interarm differences in efficiency, but also note that these results, unlike the others obtained in this paper, do depend critically on the assumed value for the conversion factor.

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arXiv1995

Statistics and properties of HII regions in a sample of grand design galaxies I. Luminosity functions

We present new high quality continuum-subtracted H alpha images of the grand-design galaxies NGC 157, NGC 3631, NGC 6764 and NGC 6951. We have determined the positions, angular sizes, and fluxes of their individual HII regions, and describe statistical properties of the HII region samples. We construct luminosity functions for all the HII regions in the disc and separately for arm and interarm zones for each galaxy. The slopes of the luminosity functions for the complete sample agree well with values published for other spiral galaxies of comparable morphological type. For three galaxies we determined the slopes of the luminosity functions for the spiral arm and interarm zones separately. We find that for NGC 157, NGC 3631, and NGC 6951 these slopes are equal within the errors of determination. We compare our results to those found from earlier work, specifically for M51 and NGC 6814, and discuss implications for massive star forming processes.

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arXiv1995

The extinction by dust in the outer parts of spiral galaxies

To investigate the distribution of dust in Sb and Sc galaxies we have analyzed near-infrared and optical surface photometry for an unbiased sample of 37 galaxies. Since light in the $K$-band is very little affected by extinction by dust, the $B-K$ colour is a good indicator of the amount of extinction, and using the colour-inclination relation we can statistically determine the extinction for an average Sb/Sc galaxy. We find in general a considerable amount of extinction in spiral galaxies in the central regions, all the way out to their effective radii. In the outer parts, at D$_{K,21}$, or at 3 times the typical exponential scale lengths of the stellar distribution , we find a maximum optical depth of 0.5 in $B$ for a face-on galaxy. If we impose the condition that the dust is distributed in the same way as the stars, this upper limit would go down to 0.1.

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arXiv1995

The Central Region in M100: Observations and Modeling

We present new high-resolution observations of the center of the late-type spiral M100 (NGC 4321) supplemented by 3D numerical modeling of stellar and gas dynamics, including star formation (SF). NIR imaging has revealed a stellar bar, previously inferred from optical and 21 cm observations, and an ovally-shaped ring-like structure in the plane of the disk. The K isophotes become progressively elongated and skewed to the position angle of the bar (outside and inside the `ring') forming an inner bar-like region. The galaxy exhibits a circumnuclear starburst in the inner part of the K `ring'. Two maxima of the K emission have been observed to lie symmetrically with respect to the nucleus and equidistant from it slightly leading the stellar bar. We interpret the twists in the K isophotes as being indicative of the presence of a double inner Lindblad resonance (ILR) and test this hypothesis by modeling the gas flow in a self-consistent gas + stars disk embedded in a halo, with an overall NGC4321-like mass distribution. We have reproduced the basic morphology of the region (the bar, the large scale trailing shocks, two symmetric K peaks corresponding to gas compression maxima which lie at the caustic formed by the interaction of a pair of trailing and leading shocks in the vicinity of the inner ILR, both peaks being sites of SF, and two additional zones of SF corresponding to the gas compression maxima, referred usually as `twin peaks').

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arXiv1995

THE STRIKING NEAR-INFRARED MORPHOLOGY OF THE INNER REGION IN M100

New optical and NIR K-band images of the inner 3 kpc region of the nearby Virgo spiral M100 (NGC 4321) display remarkable morphological changes with wavelength. While in the optical the light is dominated by a circumnuclear zone of enhanced star formation, the features in the 2.2\mum image correspond to a newly discovered kpc-size stellar bar, and a pair of leading arms situated inside an ovally-shaped region. Only 5% of the K flux is emitted in antisymmetric structures. This indicates that the morphology seen in the NIR is dominated by a global density wave. Making a first-order correction for the presence of localized dust extinction in K using the I-K image, we find that the observed leading arm morphology is slightly hidden by dust. Possible mechanisms responsible for the optical and NIR morphology are discussed, and tests are proposed to discriminate between them. Conclusions are supported with an evolutionary stellar population model reproducing the optical and NIR colors in a number of star forming zones. We argue that this morphology is compatible with the presence of a pair of inner Lindblad resonances in the region, and show this explicitly in an accompanying paper by detailed numerical modeling. The observed phenomena may provide insight into physical processes leading to central activity in galaxies.

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