arXiv subjects

J. J. Bryant

Publications and source records attributed to J. J. Bryant.

45 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2014

The SAMI Galaxy Survey: Early Data Release

We present the Early Data Release of the Sydney-AAO Multi-object Integral field spectrograph (SAMI) Galaxy Survey. The SAMI Galaxy Survey is an ongoing integral field spectroscopic survey of ~3400 low-redshift (z<0.12) galaxies, covering galaxies in the field and in groups within the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey regions, and a sample of galaxies in clusters. In the Early Data Release, we publicly release the fully calibrated datacubes for a representative selection of 107 galaxies drawn from the GAMA regions, along with information about these galaxies from the GAMA catalogues. All datacubes for the Early Data Release galaxies can be downloaded individually or as a set from the SAMI Galaxy Survey website. In this paper we also assess the quality of the pipeline used to reduce the SAMI data, giving metrics that quantify its performance at all stages in processing the raw data into calibrated datacubes. The pipeline gives excellent results throughout, with typical sky subtraction residuals in the continuum of 0.9-1.2 per cent, a relative flux calibration uncertainty of 4.1 per cent (systematic) plus 4.3 per cent (statistical), and atmospheric dispersion removed with an accuracy of 0."09, less than a fifth of a spaxel.

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arXiv2014

The SAMI Galaxy Survey: The discovery of a luminous, low-metallicity H II complex in the dwarf galaxy GAMA J141103.98-003242.3

We present the discovery of a luminous unresolved H II complex on the edge of dwarf galaxy GAMA J141103.98-003242.3 using data from the Sydney-AAO Multi-object Integral field spectrograph (SAMI) Galaxy Survey. This dwarf galaxy is situated at a distance of ~100 Mpc and contains an unresolved region of H II emission that contributes ~70 per cent of the galaxy's H_alpha luminosity, located at the top end of established H II region luminosity functions. For the H II complex, we measure a star-formation rate of 0.147\pm0.041 M_solar yr^-1 and a metallicity of 12+log(O/H) = 8.01\pm0.05 that is lower than the rest of the galaxy by ~0.2 dex. Data from the H I Parkes All-Sky Survey (HIPASS) indicate the likely presence of neutral hydrogen in the galaxy to potentially fuel ongoing and future star-forming events. We discuss various triggering mechanisms for the intense star-formation activity of this H II complex, where the kinematics of the ionised gas are well described by a rotating disc and do not show any features indicative of interactions. We show that SAMI is an ideal instrument to identify similar systems to GAMA J141103.98-003242.3, and the SAMI Galaxy Survey is likely to find many more of these systems to aid in the understanding of their formation and evolution.

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arXiv2011

Characterization of hexabundles: Initial results

New multi-core imaging fibre bundles -- hexabundles -- being developed at the University of Sydney will provide simultaneous integral field spectroscopy for hundreds of celestial sources across a wide angular field. These are a natural progression from the use of single fibres in existing galaxy surveys. Hexabundles will allow us to address fundamental questions in astronomy without the biases introduced by a fixed entrance aperture. We have begun to consider instrument concepts that exploit hundreds of hexabundles over the widest possible field of view. To this end, we have compared the performance of a 61-core fully-fused hexabundle and 5 lightly-fused bundles with 7 cores each. All fibres in the bundles have 100 micron cores. In the fully-fused bundle, the cores are distorted from a circular shape in order to achieve a higher fill fraction. The lightly-fused bundles have circular cores and five different cladding thicknesses which affect the fill fraction. We compare the optical performance of all 6 bundles and find that the advantage of smaller interstitial holes (higher fill fraction) is outweighed by the increase in modal coupling, cross-talk and the poor optical performance caused by the deformation of the fibre cores. Uniformly high throughput and low cross-talk are essential for imaging faint astronomical targets with sufficient resolution to disentangle the dynamical structure. Devices already under development will have between 100 and 200 lightly-fused cores, although larger formats are feasible. The light-weight packaging of hexabundles is sufficiently flexible to allow existing robotic positioners to make use of them.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2009

A new search for distant radio galaxies in the Southern hemisphere -- III. Optical spectroscopy and analysis of the MRCR--SUMSS sample

We have compiled a sample of 234 ultra-steep-spectrum(USS)-selected radio sources in order to find high-redshift radio galaxies (HzRGs). The sample is in the southern sky at -40 deg < DEC < -30 deg which is the overlap region of the 408-MHz Revised Molonglo Reference Catalogue, 843-MHz Sydney University Molonglo Sky Survey (the MRCR--SUMSS sample) and the 1400-MHz NRAO VLA Sky Survey. This is the third in a series of papers on the MRCR--SUMSS sample. Here we present optical spectra from the ANU 2.3-m telescope, ESO New Technology Telescope and ESO Very Large Telescope for 52 of the identifications from Bryant et al. (2009, Paper II), yielding redshifts for 36 galaxies, 13 of which have z>2. We analyse the K-z distribution and compare 4-arcsec-aperture magnitudes with 64-kpc aperture magnitudes in several surveys from the literature; the MRCR--SUMSS sample is found to be consistent with models for 10^{11}-10^{12} solar mass galaxies. Dispersions about the fits in the K-z plot support passive evolution of radio galaxy hosts since z>3. By comparing USS-selected samples in the literature, we find that the resultant median redshift of the samples shown is not dependent on the flux density distribution or selection frequency of each sample. In addition, our finding that the majority of the radio spectral energy distributions remain straight over a wide frequency range suggests that a k-correction is not responsible for the success of USS-selection in identifying high redshift radio galaxies and therefore the steep radio spectra may be intrinsic to the source or a product of the environment. Two galaxies have been found to have both compact radio structures and strong self-absorption in the Ly-alpha line, suggesting they are surrounded by a dense medium...abridged.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2009

A new search for distant radio galaxies in the Southern hemisphere -- II. 2.2 micron imaging

We have compiled a sample of 234 ultra-steep-spectrum (USS) selected radio sources in order to find high-redshift radio galaxies. The sample covers the declination range -40deg < DEC < -30deg in the overlap region between the 1400-MHz NRAO VLA Sky Survey, 408-MHz Revised Molonglo Reference Catalogue and the 843-MHz Sydney University Molonglo Sky Survey (the MRCR-SUMSS sample). This is the second in a series of papers on the MRCR-SUMSS sample, and here we present the K-band (2.2 micron) imaging of 173 of the sources primarily from the Magellan and the Anglo-Australian Telescopes. We detect a counterpart to the radio source in 93% of the new K-band images which, along with previously published data, makes this the largest published sample of K-band counterparts to USS-selected radio galaxies. The location of the K-band identification has been compared to the features of the radio emission for the double sources. We find that the identification is most likely to lie near the midpoint of the radio lobes rather than closer to the brighter lobe, making the centroid a less likely place to find the optical counterpart. 79% of the identifications are less than 1 arcsec from the radio lobe axis. These results differ from studies of low-redshift radio samples where the environments are typically not nearly so dense and disturbed as those at high redshift. In contrast to some literature samples, we find that the majority of our sample shows no alignment between the near-infrared and radio axes. Several different morphologies of aligned structures are found and those that are aligned within 10 degrees are consistent with jet-induced star formation. ...abridged...

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arXiv2007

A new search for distant radio galaxies in the southern hemisphere - I. Sample definition and radio properties

This paper introduces a new program to find high-redshift radio galaxies in the southern hemisphere through ultra-steep spectrum (USS) selection. We define a sample of 234 USS radio sources with spectral indices alpha_408^843 < -1.0 and flux densities S_408 > 200 mJy in a region of 0.35 sr, chosen by cross-correlating the revised 408 MHz Molonglo Reference Catalogue, the 843 MHz Sydney University Molonglo Sky Survey and the 1400 MHz NRAO VLA Sky Survey in the overlap region -40 deg < delta < -30 deg. We present Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) high-resolution 1384 and 2368 MHz radio data for each source, which we use to analyse the morphological, spectral index and polarization properties of our sample. We find that 85 per cent of the sources have observed-frame spectral energy distributions that are straight over the frequency range 408-2368 MHz, and that, on average, sources with smaller angular sizes have slightly steeper spectral indices and lower fractional linear polarization. Fractional polarization is anti-correlated with flux density at both 1400 and 2368 MHz. We also use the ATCA data to determine observed-frame Faraday rotation measures for half of the sample.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2006

A search for distant radio galaxies from SUMSS and NVSS: III. radio spectral energy distributions and the z-alpha correlation

This is the third in a series of papers that present observations and results for a sample of 76 ultra-steep-spectrum radio sources designed to find galaxies at high redshift. Here we present multi-frequency radio observations, from the Australia Telescope Compact Array, for a subset of 37 galaxies from the sample. Matched resolution observations at 2.3, 4.8 and 6.2GHz are presented for all galaxies, with the z<2 galaxies additionally observed at 8.6 and 18GHz. New angular size constraints are reported for 19 sources based on high resolution 4.8 and 6.2GHz observations. Functional forms for the rest-frame spectral energy distributions are derived: 89% of the sample is well characterised by a single power law, whilst the remaining 11% show some flattening toward higher frequencies: not one source shows any evidence for high frequency steepening. We discuss the implications of this result in light of the empirical correlation between redshift and spectral index seen in flux limited samples of radio galaxies. Finally, a new physical mechanism to explain the redshift -- spectral index correlation is posited: extremely steep spectrum radio galaxies in the local universe usually reside at the centres of rich galaxy clusters. We argue that if a higher fraction of radio galaxies, as a function of redshift, are located in environments with densities similar to nearby rich clusters, then this could be a natural interpretation for the correlation. We briefly outline our plans to pursue this line of investigation.

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arXiv2000

The Giant Radio Galaxy MRC B0319-454: Circumnuclear Structure of the Host Galaxy ESO248-G10

We present optical and near-infrared images and spectra of ESO248-G10, the host of giant radio galaxy MRC B0319-454. From near-infrared colours, the active nucleus is shown to be reddened by hot dust emission or dust extinction. Star forming regions are identified beyond a radius of 5" (8.1 kpc) where hot gas is prevalent. The optical spectrum shows gas rotation at speeds of up to 350km/s out to >=32kpc along the radio axis. A model is proposed in which the giant elliptical is triaxial with the radio axis along the short axis, and the figure rotation is around the long axis. From the model, the angles of the principal axes are psi=34 degrees, theta=65 degrees, and phi=19 degrees with axis ratios of B/A=0.75 and C/A=0.69. A second velocity feature from 5" to 15" to the north-east of the nucleus is proposed to be a merging gas-rich galaxy inducing star formation while settling into an orbit about the figure rotation axis.

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arXiv1998

An Infrared Study of Centaurus A

We present J, H and K-band images and 0.9-2.5 micron spectra of the nuclear regions of Centaurus A obtained with IRIS on the AAT. While K band has a point source coincident with the nucleus, at H and J we identify diffuse structure extending to the NE as a possible ionisation cone. By considering the NIR colours we show that the point-like K-band emission originates not from the nucleus itself, but from dust which has been shock heated by nuclear outflows. A J-K image reveals a band of high extinction across the nucleus lying perpendicular to the radio jet axis, as suggested by previous authors (Israel et al. 1990, Turner et al. 1992). We model the detailed structure of this extinction image with a circumnuclear torus of diameter 240+/-20 pc, thickness 75+/-4 pc, tilt 80+/-2 degrees to the line of sight and with the torus and radio jet axes aligned.

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