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O. K. Sil'chenko

Publications and source records attributed to O. K. Sil'chenko.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Stellar Population and Dynamical Modeling of Galaxies with Kinematically Misaligned Components: Age and Metallicity of Structural Components

We present stellar population and orbit modeling of two galaxies with kinematically misaligned components, PGC 35706 and LEDA 2220522, extending previous Schwarzschild dynamical models. Using spatially resolved age and metallicity maps from NBursts full spectral fitting of MaNGA data with the E-MILES grid, we solve a regularized bounded linear inverse problem that assigns light-weighted SSP-equivalent age, metallicity, and mass-to-light ratio to orbital cells in the $(R,λ_z)$ plane. Component means and radial profiles use projected mass within the actual MaNGA field of view; profile segments with local component fractions below $1\%$ are treated as weakly constrained. In LEDA 2220522, the counter-rotating disk is younger than the co-rotating disk, $1.32\pm0.04$ versus $1.61\pm0.06$ Gyr, and more metal-rich, $[\mathrm{M/H}]=-0.450\pm0.043$ versus $-0.613\pm0.024$. Its rotation agrees with that of the H$α$ ionized gas, supporting late supply of chemically enriched retrograde gas without requiring multiple accretion episodes with alternating angular momentum. In PGC 35706, the counter-rotating disk contains $8.8\%$ of the mass in the observed field and is formally older than the co-rotating disk by $1.36\pm0.51$ Gyr and more metal-poor by $0.130\pm0.046$ dex. These differences are preliminary because the projected data provide limited support. Fifty Monte Carlo realizations confirm stability of the projected maps against statistical noise, but not uniqueness in individual phase-space cells. The stellar population and orbit approach is therefore applicable to MaNGA data when local projected component fractions and systematics from regularization and the dynamical model are explicitly considered.

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Dynamical Modeling of Kinematically Decoupled Galaxies: Structural Components

We present the results of dynamical modeling of two galaxies with inconsistent kinematics -- PGC 35706 and LEDA 2220522 -- using data from the MaNGA integral-field spectroscopic survey and deep photometry from the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys. The Schwarzschild orbit-superposition method in the axisymmetric approximation was employed to identify structural components based on the orbital circularity parameter $λ_z$. Three components have been identified in the galaxies: a spheroidal (bulge/halo) component and co-rotating and counter-rotating stellar disks. The spheroidal component dominates by mass in both galaxies: about 60\% in PGC 35706 and 51\% in LEDA 2220522; the contributions of the co-rotating and counter-rotating disks are 29\% and 9\% in PGC 35706 and 30\% and 18\% in LEDA 2220522, respectively. The kinematics of the ionized gas in both galaxies is consistent with the rotation of the counter-rotating disk, indicating that it formed from externally accreted gas with opposite angular momentum. The results support a scenario in which counter-rotating disks form through gas accretion from the intergalactic medium or through minor mergers with gas-rich satellites. This work demonstrates the effectiveness of the Schwarzschild method for studying the complex kinematic structure of galaxies and their formation history.

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Young Star-Forming Complexes in the Ring of the S0 galaxy NGC 4324

We present the results of our study of starforming regions in the lenticular galaxy NGC 4324. During a complex analysis of multiwavelength observational data -- the narrow-band emission-line images obtained with the 2.5-m telescope at the Caucasus Mountain Observatory of the Sternberg Astronomical Institute of the Moscow State University and the archival images in the broad bands of the SDSS, GALEX and WISE surveys -- we have detected young starforming complexes (clumps) located in the inner ring of the lenticular galaxy NGC 4324, and we have established a regular pattern of their distribution along the ring, which, nevertheless, changes with time (with age of starforming regions). We suggest several possible evolutionary paths of the lenticular galaxy NGC 4324, of which the accretion of gas-rich satellites or giant clouds (the so-called minor merging) is the most probable one.

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Extended Gaseous Disk in the S0 galaxy NGC 4143

We present our results of the spectroscopic study of the lenticular galaxy NGC 4143 - an outskirt member of the Ursa Major cluster. Using the observations at the 6-m SAO RAS telescope with the SCORPIO-2 spectrograph and also the archive data of panoramic spectroscopy with the SAURON IFU at the WHT, we have detected an extended inclined gaseous disk which is traced up to a distance of about 3.5 kpc from the center, with a spin approximately opposite to the spin of the stellar disk. The galaxy images in the H-alpha and [NII]6583 emission lines obtained at the 2.5-m CMO SAI MSU telescope with the MaNGaL instrument have shown that the emission lines are excited by a shock wave. A spiral structure that is absent in the stellar disk of the galaxy is clearly seen in the brightness distribution of ionized-gas lines (H-alpha and [NII] from the MaNGaL data and [OIII] from the SAURON data). A complex analysis of both the Lick index distribution along the radius and of the integrated colors, including the ultraviolet measurements with the GALEX space telescope and the near-infrared measurements with the WISE space telescope, has shown that there has been no star formation in the galaxy, perhaps, for the last 10 Gyr. Thus, the recent external-gas accretion detected in NGC 4143 from its kinematics, was not accompanied by star formation, probably, due to an inclined direction of the gas inflow onto the disk.

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Current Star Formation in the Outer Rings among Early-Type Disk Galaxies

By using the ARRAKIS, the atlas of stellar rings in galaxies (Comeron et al. 2014) based on data of the S4G survey, we have compiled a list of early-type, S0-Sb, disk galaxies with outer stellar ring-like features (`pure' rings, R, or pseudorings, R'). Current star formation signatures within these features were searched for through the NUV-maps of the galaxies provided by the ultraviolet space telescope GALEX. We have found that current star formation, with the mean age of the young stellar population less than 200 Myr, is present in about a half of all `pure' rings; and within the pseudorings it is observed almost always.

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Ages and abundances in large-scale stellar disks of nearby S0 galaxies

By undertaking deep long-slit spectroscopy with the focal reducer SCORPIO of the Russian 6m telescope, we studied stellar population properties and their variation with radius in 15 nearby S0 galaxies sampling a wide range of luminosities and environments. For the large-scale stellar disks of S0s, we have measured SSP-equivalent metallicities ranging from the solar one down to [Z/H]=-0.4 - -0.7, rather high magnesium-to-iron ratios, [Mg/Fe] > +0.2, and mostly old SSP-equivalent ages. Nine of 15 (60%) galaxies have large-scale stellar disks older than 10 Gyr, and among those we find all the galaxies which reside in denser environments. The isolated galaxies may have intermediate-age stellar disks which are 7-9 Gyr old. Only two galaxies of our sample, NGC 4111 and NGC 7332, reveal SSP-equivalent ages of their disks of 2-3 Gyrs. Just these two young disks appear to be thin, while the other, older disks have scale heights typical for thick stellar disks. The stellar populations in the bulges at radii of 0.5r_eff are on the contrary more metal-rich than the solar metallicity, with the ages homogeneously distributed between 2 and 15 Gyr, being almost always younger than the disks. We conclude that S0 galaxies could not form in groups at z=0.4 as is thought now; a new scenario of the general evolution of disk galaxies is proposed instead.

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Structure Decomposition for the Luminous Disk Galaxies in the NGC 524 Group

Members of the NGC 524 group of galaxies are studied using data obtained on the 6m telescope of the Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences, with the SCORPIO reducer in an imaging mode. Surface photometry has been carried out and parameters of the large-scale galactic components - disks and bulges - have been determined for the six largest galaxies of the group. A lower than expected percentage of bars and high percentage of ring structures were found. Integrated B-V colours for a hundred of dwarf galaxies in the vicinity (within 30 kpc) of the six largest galaxies of the group have been measured. A considerable number of blue irregular galaxies with ongoing star formation is found among dwarf satellites of the lenticular galaxies of the group. The luminosity function for the dwarf galaxies of the group suggests that the total mass of the group is not very high, and that the X-ray emitting gas observed around NGC 524 relates to the central galaxy and not to the group as a whole.

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Lenticular galaxies at the outskirts of the Leo II group: NGC 3599 and NGC 3626

We have studied unbarred S0 galaxies, NGC 3599 and NGC 3626, the members of the X-ray bright group Leo II, by means of 3D spectroscopy, long-slit spectroscopy, and imaging, with the aim to identify epoch and mechanismsof their transformation from spirals. Both galaxies have appeared to bear a complex of features resulting obviously from minor merging: decoupled gas kinematics, nuclear starforming rings, and multi-tiered oval large-scale stellar disks. The weak-emission line nucleus of NGC 3599 bears all signs of the Seyfert activity, according to the line-ratio diagnostics of the gas excitation mechanism. After all, we conclude that the transformation of these lenticular galaxies has had place about 1-2 Gyr ago, through the gravitational mechanisms not related to hot intragroup medium of Leo II.

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Galactic disks and their evolution

We consider the key problems related to measuring the mass of stellar disks and dark halos in galaxies and to explaining the observed properties of disks formed in massive dark halos.

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NGC 4245: one or two bars, and where does the gas inflow stop?

We have studied stellar and gaseous kinematics as well as stellar population properties in the center of the early-type barred galaxy NGC 4245 by means of integral-field spectroscopy. We have found a chemically distinct compact core, more metal-rich by a factor of 2.5 than the bulge, and a ring of young stars with the radius of 300 pc. Current star formation proceeds in this ring; its location corresponds to the inner Lindblad resonance of the large-scale bar. The mean age of stars in the chemically distinct core is significantly younger than the estimate by Sarzi et al. (2005) for the very center, within R=0.25", made with the HST spectroscopy data. We conclude that the `chemically distinct core' is in fact an ancient ultra-compact star forming ring with radius less than 100 pc which marks perhaps the past position of the inner Lindblad resonance. In general, the pattern of star formation history in the center of this early-type gas-poor galaxy confirms the predictions of dynamical models for the secular evolution of a stellar-gaseous disk under the influence of a bar.

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Two more disk galaxies with global gas counterrotation

We report a discovery of extended counterrotating gaseous disks in early-type disk galaxies NGC 2551 and NGC 5631. To find them, we have undertaken complex spectral observations including integral-field spectroscopy for the central parts of the galaxies and long-slit deep spectroscopy to probe the external parts. The line-of-sight velocity fields have been constructed and compared to the photometric structure of the galaxies. As a result, we have revealed full-size counterrotating gaseous disks, the one coplanar to the stellar disk in NGC 2551 and the other inclined to the main stellar disk in NGC 5631. We suggest that we observe the early stages of minor-merger events which may be two different stages of the process of lenticular galaxy formation in rather sparse environments.

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Metallicity and age gradients in round elliptical galaxies

We probe the stellar population age and metallicity distributions in nearby elliptical galaxies over the largest extension to date. Long-slit spectroscopy is made by using the spectrograph SCORPIO of the 6-m telescope of the Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciencies. The Lick indices H-beta, Mg b, Fe5270, and Fe5335 are calculated along the slit up to radii of 1.3 to 3r_e in 4 galaxies and up to 0.5r_e in the fifth one. The comparison with evolutionary synthesis models of simple stellar populations allows us to disentangle age and metallicity and to measure both. We have found that the mean stellar age is constant along the radius only in one galaxy out of 5. The other 4 galaxies demonstrate quite different behaviour of the mean stellar age: the outer parts are older than the centres in 3 cases and younger - in one case. The metallicity gradients cannot be approximated by a single power law over the full radial extension in 4 galaxies of 5. The inner metallicity gradients within 0.5r_e are all rather steep, steeper than -0.4 metallicity dex per radius dex, and are inconsistent with the origin of the elliptical galaxies by a major merger.

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Nature of nuclear rings in unbarred galaxies: NGC 7742 and NGC 7217

We have studied the unbarred Sb galaxy with a nuclear star-forming ring, NGC 7742, by means of 2D spectroscopy, long-slit spectroscopy, and imaging, and have compared the results with the properties of another galaxy of this type, NGC 7217, which is studied by us earlier. Both galaxies have many peculiar features in common: each has two global exponential stellar disks with different scalelengths, each possesses a circumnuclear inclined gaseous disk with a radius of 300 pc, and each has a global counterrotating subsystem, gaseous one in NGC 7742 and stellar one in NGC 7217. We suggest that past minor merger is the probable cause of all these peculiarities, including appearance of the nuclear star-forming rings without global bars; the rings might be produced as resonance features by tidally induced oval distortions of the global stellar disks.

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The orientation parameters and rotation curves of 15 spiral galaxies

We analyzed ionized gas motion and disk orientation parameters for 15 spiral galaxies. Their velocity fields were measured with the H-alpha emission line by using the Fabry-Perot interferometer at the 6m telescope of SAO RAS. Special attention is paid to the problem of estimating the position angle of the major axis (PA_0) and the inclination (i) of a disk, which strongly affect the derived circular rotation velocity. We discuss and compare different methods of obtaining these parameters from kinematic and photometric observations, taking into account the presence of regular velocity (brightness) perturbations caused by spiral density waves. It is shown that the commonly used method of tilted rings may lead to systematic errors in the estimation of orientation parameters (and hence of circular velocity) being applied to galaxies with an ordered spiral structure. Instead we recommend using an assumption of constancy of i and PA_0 along a radius, to estimate these parameters. For each galaxy of our sample we present monochromatic H-alpha- and continuum maps, velocity fields of ionized gas, and the mean rotation curves in the frame of a model of pure circular gas motion. Significant deviations from circular motion with amplitudes of several tens of km/s (or higher) are found in almost all galaxies. The character and possible nature of the non-circular motion are briefly discussed.

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The Leo I Cloud: Secular nuclear evolution of NGC 3379, NGC 3384, and NGC 3368?

The central regions of the three brightest members of the Leo I galaxy group -- NGC 3368, NGC 3379, and NGC 3384 -- are investigated by means of 2D spectroscopy. In all three galaxies we have found separate circumnuclear stellar and gaseous subsystems -- more probably, disks -- whose spatial orientations and spins are connected to the spatial orientation of the supergiant intergalactic HI ring reported previously by Schneider et al. (1983) and Schneider (1985, 1989). In NGC 3368 the global gaseous disk seems also to be inclined to the symmetry plane of the stellar body, being probably of external origin. Although the rather young mean stellar age and spatial orientations of the circumnuclear disks in NGC 3379, NGC 3384, and NGC 3368 could imply their recent formation from material of the intergalactic HI cloud, the time scale of these secondary formation events, of order 3 Gyr, does not support the collision scenario of Rood & Williams (1985), but is rather in line with the ideas of Schneider (1985, 1989) regarding tidal interactions of the galaxies with the HI cloud on timescales of the intergroup orbital motions.

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Age and metallicity of a globular cluster in the dwarf spheroidal galaxy DDO78

We present the results of moderate resolution spectroscopy for a globular cluster in the M81 group dwarf spheroidal galaxy DDO~78. The DDO78 globular cluster, 4 Milky Way globular clusters, spectroscopic and radial velocity standards were observed with the Long-slit spectrograph of the 6-m telescope (SAO RAS, Russia). Lick spectrophotometric indices were determined in the bandpasses adopted by Burstein et al. (1984). We have derived the mean metallicity of the globular cluster in DDO78 to be [Fe/H] = -1.6 +- 0.1 dex by taking the weighted mean of metallicities obtained from the strength of several absorption features. We have estimated an age for the globular cluster of 9-12 Gyr similar to that found for the Galactic globular cluster NGC362, which resembles our cluster by chemical abundance and integrated spectrophotometric properties.

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Restoring the full velocity field in the gaseous disk ofthe spiral galaxy NGC 157

We analyse the line-of-sight velocity field of ionized gas in the spiral galaxy NGC 157 which has been obtained in the Hαemission at the 6m telescope of SAO RAS. The existence of systematic deviations of the observed gas velocities from pure circular motion is shown. A detailed investigation of these deviations is undertaken by applying a Fourier analysis of the azimuthal distributions of the line-of-sight velocities at different distances from the galactic center. As a result of the analysis, all the main parameters of the wave spiral pattern are determined: the corotation radius, the amplitudes and phases of the gas velocity perturbations at different radii, and the velocity of circular rotation of the disk corrected for the velocity perturbations due to spiral arms. At a high confidence level, the presence of the two giant anticyclones in the reference frame rotating with the spiral pattern is shown; their sizes and the localization of their centers are consistent with the results of the analytic theory and of numerical simulations. Besides the anticyclones, the existence of cyclones in residual velocity fields of spiral galaxies is predicted. In the reference frame rotating with the spiral pattern these cyclones have to reveal themselves in galaxies where a radial gradient of azimuthal residual velocity is steeper than that of the rotation velocity (abridged).

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Gas motions in the plane of the spiral galaxy NGC 3631

The velocity field of the nearly face-on galaxy NGC 3631, derived from observations in the H alpha line and the HI radio line, is analysed to study perturbations related to the spiral structure of the galaxy. We confirm our previous conclusion that the line-of-sight velocity field gives evidence of the wave nature of the observed two-armed spiral structure. Fourier analysis of the observed velocity field is used to determine the location of corotation of the spiral structure of this galaxy, and the radius of corotation R_c is found to be about 42 arcsec, or 3.2 kpc. The vector velocity field of the gas in the plane of the disc is restored, and taking into account that we previously investigated vertical motions, we now have a full 3D gaseous velocity field of the galaxy. We show clear evidence of the existence of two anticyclonic and four cyclonic vortices near corotation in a frame of reference rotating with the spiral pattern. The centres of the anticyclones lie between the observed spiral arms. The cyclones lie close to the observed spirals, but their centres are shifted from the maxima in brightness.

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