arXiv subjects

Patrick Cote

Publications and source records attributed to Patrick Cote.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2007

The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey. XIII. SBF Distance Catalog and the Three-Dimensional Structure of the Virgo Cluster

The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey consists of HST ACS imaging for 100 early-type galaxies in the Virgo Cluster, observed in the F475W and F850LP filters. We derive distances for 84 of these galaxies using the method of surface brightness fluctuations (SBFs), present the SBF distance catalog, and use this database to examine the three-dimensional distribution of early-type galaxies in the Virgo Cluster. The SBF distance moduli have a mean (random) measurement error of 0.07 mag (0.5 Mpc), or roughly 3 times better than previous SBF measurements for Virgo Cluster galaxies. Five galaxies lie at a distance of ~23 Mpc and are members of the W' cloud. The remaining 79 galaxies have a narrow distribution around our adopted mean distance of 16.5+/-0.1 (random mean error) +/-1.1 Mpc (systematic). The rms distance scatter of this sample is 0.6+/-0.1 Mpc, with little dependence on morphological type or luminosity class (i.e., 0.7+/-0.1 and 0.5+/-0.1 Mpc for the giants and dwarfs, respectively). The back-to-front depth of the cluster measured from our sample of galaxies is 2.4+/-0.4 Mpc (i.e., +/-2sigma of the intrinsic distance distribution). The M87 (cluster A) and M49 (cluster B) subclusters are found to lie at distances of 16.7+/-0.2 and 16.4+/-0.2 Mpc, respectively. There may be a third subcluster associated with M86. A weak correlation between velocity and line-of-sight distance may be a faint echo of the cluster velocity distribution not having yet completely virialized. In three dimensions, Virgo's early-type galaxies appear to define a slightly triaxial distribution, with axis ratios of (1:0.7:0.5). The principal axis of the best-fit ellipsoid is inclined ~20-40 deg. from the line of sight, while the galaxies belonging to the W' cloud lie on an axis inclined by ~10-15 deg.

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arXiv2007

The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey. XII. The Luminosity Function of Globular Clusters in Early Type Galaxies

We analyze the luminosity function of the globular clusters (GCs) belonging to the early-type galaxies observed in the ACS Virgo Cluster Survey. We have obtained estimates for a Gaussian representation of the GC luminosity function (GCLF) for 89 galaxies. We have also fit the GCLFs with an "evolved Schechter function", which is meant to reflect the preferential depletion of low-mass GCs, primarily by evaporation due to two-body relaxation, from an initial Schechter mass function similar to that of young massive clusters. We find a significant trend of the GCLF dispersion with galaxy luminosity, in the sense that smaller galaxies have narrower GCLFs. We show that this narrowing of the GCLF in a Gaussian description is driven by a steepening of the GC mass function above the turnover mass, as one moves to smaller host galaxies. We argue that this behavior at the high-mass end of the GC mass function is most likely a consequence of systematic variations of the initial cluster mass function. The GCLF turnover mass M_TO is roughly constant, at ~ 2.2 x 10^5 M_sun in bright galaxies, but it decreases slightly in dwarfs with M_B >~ -18. We show that part of the variation could arise from the shorter dynamical friction timescales in smaller galaxies. We probe the variation of the GCLF to projected galactocentric radii of 20-35 kpc in the Virgo giants M49 and M87, finding that M_TO is essentially constant over these spatial scales. Our fits of evolved Schechter functions imply average dynamical mass losses (Delta) over a Hubble time that fall in the range 2 x 10^5 <~ (Delta/M_sun) < 10^6 per GC. We agree with previous suggestions that if the full GCLF is to be understood in more detail GCLF models will have to include self-consistent treatments of dynamical evolution inside time-dependent galaxy potentials. (Abridged)

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arXiv2007

The ACS Fornax Cluster Survey. I. Introduction to the Survey and Data Reduction Procedures

The Fornax Cluster is a conspicuous cluster of galaxies in the southern hemisphere and the second largest collection of early-type galaxies within <~ 20 Mpc after the Virgo Cluster. In this paper,we present a brief introduction to the ACS Fornax Cluster Survey - a program to image, in the F475W (g_475) and F850LP (z_850) bandpasses, 43 early-type galaxies in Fornax using the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) on the Hubble Space Telescope. Combined with a companion survey of Virgo, the ACS Virgo Cluster Survey, this represents the most comprehensive imaging survey to date of early-type galaxies in cluster environments in terms of depth, spatial resolution, sample size and homogeneity. We describe the selection of the program galaxies, their basic properties, and the main science objectives of the survey which include the measurement of luminosities, colors and structural parameters for globular clusters associated with these galaxies, an analysis of their isophotal properties and surface brightness profiles, and an accurate calibration of the surface brightness fluctuation distance indicator. Finally, we discuss the data reduction procedures adopted for the survey.

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arXiv2006

The Inner Workings of Early-Type Galaxies: Cores, Nuclei and Supermassive Black Holes (Including a Critical Comparison of Nuker and core-Sersic/Sersic models)

Recent years have seen dramatic progress in the study of the core and nuclear properties of galaxies. The structure of the cores has been shown to vary methodically with global and nuclear properties, as cores respond to the mechanisms by which galaxies form/evolve. The dynamical centers of galaxies have been found capable of hosting two seemingly disparate objects: supermassive black holes (SBHs) and compact stellar nuclei. In a drastic departure from previous beliefs, it has been discovered that both structures are common: galaxies lacking SBHs and/or stellar nuclei are the exception, rather than the norm. This review explores the connection between cores, SBHs and stellar nuclei in early-type galaxies, as revealed by the ACS Virgo Cluster Survey. We find that, from parsec to kiloparsec scales, the surface brightness profiles of early-type galaxies are well described by a Sersic model -- a parametrization that is shown to be preferable to the so called `Nuker' model. Relative to the inward extrapolation of the best fitting Sersic model, the profiles within the inner few tens of parsecs transition from luminosity `deficits', in the brightest (M_B < ~-20) galaxies, to luminosity `excesses' in the faintest. The compact stellar nuclei responsible for such luminosity excesses comprise approximatively 0.2% of the total galactic mass. Remarkably, this is the same fraction believed to reside in the SBHs, which are predominantly found in the brightest galaxies showing luminosity deficits.

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arXiv2006

Trends in the Globular Cluster Luminosity Function of Early-Type Galaxies

We present results from a study of the globular cluster luminosity function (GCLF) in a sample of 89 early-type galaxies observed as part of the ACS Virgo Cluster Survey. Using a Gaussian parametrization of the GCLF, we find a highly significant correlation between the GCLF dispersion, sigma, and the galaxy luminosity, M_B, in the sense that the GC systems in fainter galaxies have narrower luminosity functions. The GCLF dispersions in the Milky Way and M31 are fully consistent with this trend, implying that the correlation between sigma and galaxy luminosity is more fundamental than older suggestions that GCLF shape is a function of galaxy Hubble type. We show that the sigma - M_B relation results from a bonafide narrowing of the distribution of (logarithmic) cluster masses in fainter galaxies. We further show that this behavior is mirrored by a steepening of the GC mass function for relatively high masses, M >~ 3 x 10^5 M_sun, a mass regime in which the shape of the GCLF is not strongly affected by dynamical evolution over a Hubble time. We argue that this trend arises from variations in initial conditions and requires explanation by theories of cluster formation. Finally, we confirm that in bright galaxies, the GCLF "turns over" at the canonical mass scale of M_TO ~ 2 x 10^5 M_sun. However, we find that M_TO scatters to lower values (~1-2 x 10^5 M_sun) in galaxies fainter than M_B >~ -18.5, an important consideration if the GCLF is to be used as a distance indicator for dwarf ellipticals.

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arXiv2006

The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey. XIV. Analysis of Color-Magnitude Relations in Globular Cluster Systems

We examine the correlation between globular cluster (GC) color and magnitude using HST/ACS imaging for a sample of 79 early-type galaxies (-21.7<M_B<-15.2 mag) with accurate SBF distances from the ACS Virgo Cluster Survey. Using the KMM mixture modeling algorithm, we find a highly significant correlation, d(g-z)/dz = -0.037 +- 0.004, between color and magnitude for the subpopulation of blue GCs in the co-added GC color-magnitude diagram of the three brightest Virgo galaxies (M49, M87 and M60): brighter GCs are redder than their fainter counterparts. For the single GC systems of M87 and M60, we find similar correlations; M49 does not appear to show a significant trend. There is no correlation between (g-z) and M_z for GCs of the red subpopulation. The correlation d(g-z)/dg for the blue subpopulation is much weaker than d(g-z)/dz. Using Monte Carlo simulations, we attribute this to the fact that the blue subpopulation in M_g extends to higher luminosities than the red subpopulation, which biases the KMM fits. The correlation between color and M_z thus is a real effect. This conclusion is supported by biweight fits to the same color distributions. We identify two environmental dependencies of the color-magnitude relation: (1) the slope decreases in significance with decreasing galaxy luminosity; and (2) the slope is stronger for GCs at smaller galactocentric distances. We examine several mechanisms that might give rise to the observed color-magnitude relation: (1) presence of contaminators; (2) accretion of GCs from low-mass galaxies; (3) stochastic effects; (4) capture of field stars by individual GCs; and (5) GC self-enrichment. We conclude that self-enrichment and field-star capture, or a combination of these processes, offer the most promising means of explaining our observations.

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arXiv2006

High-Resolution Spectroscopy of GRB030226: Features of a Massive Star Progenitor or Intervening Absorption Systems?

We present a high-resolution Keck/ESI spectrum of GRB, which exhibits four absorption systems at z=1.04329, 1.95260, 1.96337, and 1.98691. The two highest redshift systems, separated by about 2400 km/s, have been previously suspected as kinematic features arising in the circumstellar wind around the progenitor star. However, the high column densities of low-ionization species (including possibly neutral hydrogen) in the blue-shifted system, are inconsistent with the expected highly ionized state of the circumstellar wind from the massive progenitor star, even prior to the GRB explosion. This conclusion is also supported by the lack of detectable absorption from fine-structure transitions of SiII and FeII. Instead we conclude that the two redshift systems are similar to multiple DLAs found in QSO sight lines with a similar velocity separation and chemical abundance of [Cr/Fe] and [Zn/Fe]. The absorption system at z=1.96337 is likely an intervening low-mass galaxy, possibly related to the GRB host as part of a forming large-scale structure.

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arXiv2006

A Fundamental Relation Between Compact Stellar Nuclei, Supermassive Black Holes, and Their Host Galaxies

Imaging surveys with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) have shown that roughly 50-80% of low- and intermediate-luminosity galaxies contain a compact stellar nucleus at their center, regardless of host galaxy morphological type. We combine HST imaging for early-type galaxies from the ACS Virgo Cluster Survey with ground-based long-slit spectra from KPNO to show that the masses of compact stellar nuclei in Virgo Cluster galaxies obey a tight correlation with the masses of the host galaxies. The same correlation is obeyed by the supermassive black holes (SBHs) found in predominantly massive galaxies. The compact stellar nuclei in the Local Group galaxies M33 and NGC205 are also found to fall along this same scaling relation. These results indicate that a generic by-product of galaxy formation is the creation of a Central Massive Object (CMO) -- either a SBH or a compact stellar nucleus -- that contains a mean fraction, ~ 0.2%, of the total galactic mass. In galaxies with masses greater than a few times 10^10 solar masses, SBHs appear to be the dominant mode of CMO formation.

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arXiv2006

The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey. VIII. The Nuclei of Early-Type Galaxies

(Abridged) The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey is an HST program to obtain high-resolution, g and z-band images for 100 early-type members of the Virgo Cluster, spanning a range of ~460 in blue luminosity. Based on this large, homogeneous dataset, we present a sharp upward revision in the frequency of nucleation in early-type galaxies brighter than M_B ~ -15 (66 < f_n < 82%), and find no evidence for nucleated dwarfs to be more concentrated to the center of Virgo than their non-nucleated counterparts. Resolved stellar nuclei are not present in galaxies brighter than M_B ~ -20.5, however, there is no clear evidence from the properties of the nuclei, or from the overall incidence of nucleation, for a change at M_B ~ -17.6, the traditional dividing point between dwarf and giant galaxies. On average, nuclei are ~3.5 mag brighter than a typical globular cluster and have a median half-light radius ~4.2 pc. Nuclear luminosities correlate with nuclear sizes and, in galaxies fainter than M_B ~ -17.6, nuclear colors. Comparing the nuclei to the "nuclear clusters" found in late-type spiral galaxies reveals a close match in terms of size, luminosity and overall frequency, pointing to a formation mechanism that is rather insensitive to the detailed properties of the host galaxy. The mean nuclear-to-galaxy luminosity ratio is indistinguishable from the mean SBH-to-bulge mass ratio, calculated in early-type galaxies with detected supermassive black holes (SBHs). We argue that compact stellar nuclei might be the low-mass counterparts of the SBHs detected in the bright galaxies, and that one should think in terms of "Central Massive Objects" -- either SBHs or compact stellar nuclei -- that accompany the formation of almost all early-type galaxies and contain a mean fraction ~0.3% of the total bulge mass.

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arXiv2006

The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey. VI. Isophotal Analysis and the Structure of Early-Type Galaxies

(Abridged) We present a detailed analysis of the morphology, isophotal parameters and surface brightness profiles for 100 early-type members of the Virgo Cluster, from dwarfs (M_B = -15.1 mag) to giants (M_B = -21.8 mag). Each galaxy has been imaged in two filters, closely resembling the Sloan g and z passbands, using the Advanced Camera for Surveys on board the Hubble Space Telescope. Dust and complex morphological structures are common, with kiloparsec-scale stellar disks, bars, and nuclear stellar disks seen in 60% of galaxies with intermediate luminosity (-20 < M_B < -17), and dust seen in 42% of galaxies brighter than M_B = -18.9 mag. Dust morphologies range from faint wisps and patches on tens of parsec scales, to regular, highly organized kpc-scale dust disks, often showing evidence of recent star formation. Surface brightness profiles and isophotal parameters are derived typically within 8 kpc from the center for the brightest galaxies, and 1.5 kpc for the faintest systems, with a resolution (FWHM) of 7 pc. Based on a parametrization of the surface brightness profiles in terms of a Sersic or core-Sersic model, we find that 1) there is no evidence of a bimodal behavior of the slope, gamma, of the profile in the innermost regions; 2) although the brightest galaxies have shallow inner profiles, the shallowest profiles (lowest gamma values) are found in faint dwarf systems; 3) the widely adopted separation of early-type galaxies between "core" and "power-law" types, which had originally been prompted by the claim of a clear bimodal distribution of gamma values, is untenable; and 4) there is no evidence of a structural dichothomy between dwarf and regular ellipticals.

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arXiv2005

The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey XI. The Nature of Diffuse Star Clusters in Early-Type Galaxies

We use HST/ACS imaging of 100 early-type galaxies in the ACS Virgo Cluster Survey to investigate the nature of diffuse star clusters (DSCs). Compared to globular clusters (GCs), these star clusters have moderately low luminosities (M_V > -8) and a broad distribution of sizes (3 < r_h < 30 pc), but they are principally characterized by their low mean surface brightnesses which can be more than three magnitudes fainter than a typical GC (mu_g > 20 mag arcsec^-2). The median colors of diffuse star cluster systems are red, 1.1 < g-z < 1.6, which is redder than metal-rich GCs and often as red as the galaxy itself. Most DSC systems thus have mean ages older than 5 Gyr or else have super-solar metallicities. We find that 12 galaxies in our sample contain a significant excess of diffuse star cluster candidates -- nine are lenticulars (S0s), and five visibly contain dust. We also find a substantial population of DSCs in the halo of the giant elliptical M49, associated with the companion galaxy VCC 1199. Most DSC systems appear to be both aligned with the galaxy light and associated with galactic disks, but at the same time many lenticulars do not host substantial DSC populations. Diffuse star clusters in our sample share similar characteristics to those identified in other nearby lenticular, spiral, and dwarf galaxies, and we suggest that DSCs preferentially form, survive, and coevolve with galactic disks. Their properties are broadly consistent with those of merged star cluster complexes, and we note that despite being 3 - 5 magnitudes brighter than DSCs, ultra-compact dwarfs have similar surface brightnesses. The closest Galactic analogs to the DSCs are the old open clusters. We suggest that if a diffuse star cluster population did exist in the disk of the Milky Way, it would be very difficult to find. (Abridged)

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arXiv2005

The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey IX: The Color Distributions of Globular Cluster Systems in Early-Type Galaxies

We present the color distributions of globular cluster (GC) systems for 100 Virgo cluster early-type galaxies observed in the ACS Virgo Cluster Survey. The color distributions of individual GC systems are consistent with continuous trends across galaxy luminosity, color, and stellar mass. On average, almost all galaxies possess a component of metal-poor GCs, with the average fraction of metal-rich GCs ranging from 15 to 60%. The colors of both subpopulations correlate with host galaxy luminosity and color, with the red GCs having a steeper slope. To convert color to metallicity, we also introduce a preliminary (g-z)-[Fe/H] relation calibrated to Galactic, M49 and M87 GCs. This relation is nonlinear with a steeper slope for [Fe/H] < -0.8. As a result, the metallicities of the metal-poor and metal-rich GCs vary similarly with respect to galaxy luminosity and stellar mass, with relations of [Fe/H]_MP ~ L^0.16 ~ M_star^0.17 and [Fe/H]_MR ~ L^0.26 ~ M_star^0.22, respectively. Although these relations are shallower than the mass-metallicity relation predicted by wind models and observed for dwarf galaxies, they are very similar to the mass-metallicity relation for star forming galaxies in the same mass range. The offset between the two GC populations varies slowly (~ M_star^0.05) and is approximately 1 dex across three orders of magnitude in mass, suggesting a nearly universal amount of enrichment between the formation of the two populations of GCs. We also find that although the metal-rich GCs show a larger dispersion in color, it is the *metal-poor GCs* that have an equal or larger dispersion in metallicity. Like the color-magnitude relation, these relations derived from globular clusters present stringent constraints on the formation and evolution of early-type galaxies. (Abridged)

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arXiv2005

The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey X. Half-light Radii of Globular Clusters in Early-Type Galaxies: Environmental Dependencies and a Standard Ruler for Distance Estimation

We have measured half-light radii, r_h, for globular clusters (GCs) belonging to the 100 early-type galaxies observed in the ACS Virgo Cluster Survey and the elliptical galaxy NGC 4697. An analysis of the dependencies of the measured r_h on both the properties of the GCs themselves and their host galaxies reveals that the average r_h increases with increasing galactocentric distance or, alternatively, with decreasing galaxy surface brightness. For the first time, we find that the average r_h decreases with the host galaxy color. We also show that there is no evidence for a variation of r_h with the luminosity of the GCs. Finally, we find in agreement with previous observations that the average r_h depends on the color of GCs, with red GCs being ~17% smaller than their blue counterparts. We show that this difference is probably a consequence of an intrinsic mechanism, rather than projection effects, and that it is in good agreement with the mechanism proposed in Jordan (2004). We discuss these findings in light of two simple pictures for the origin of the r_h of GCs and show that both lead to a behavior in rough agreement with the observations. After accounting for the dependencies found we show that the average GC half-light radii can be successfully used as a standard ruler for distance estimation. We outline the methodology, and provide a calibration for its use. We find = 2.7 +- 0.35 pc for GCs with (g-z)=1.2 mag in a galaxy with color (g-z)_{gal}=1.5 mag and at an underlying surface z-band brightness of mu_z = 21 mag arcsec^{-2}. Using this technique, we place an upper limit of 3.4 Mpc on the 1-sigma line-of-sight depth of the Virgo Cluster. Finally, we examine the form of the r_h distribution for our sample galaxies and provide an analytic expression which successfully describes this distribution. (Abridged)

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arXiv2005

The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey V: SBF Calibration for Giant and Dwarf Early-type Galaxies

As part of the Advanced Camera for Survey (ACS) Virgo Cluster Survey, we have measured Surface Brightness Fluctuations (SBF) in a sample of 100 early-type Virgo galaxies. Distances derived from these measurements are needed to explore the three-dimensional structure of the Virgo Cluster, study the intrinsic parameters of globular clusters associated with the program galaxies, and compare with the galaxy distances derived from globular cluster luminosity functions. Our SBF measurements have been performed in the F850LP bandpass of the Wide Field Channel of the ACS on the Hubble Space Telescope. These are the first measurements of this kind, and we present the first SBF calibration for this bandpass. The measured fluctuations depend on galaxy stellar population variations, which we quantify by galaxy color (g_475-z_850)_0, where g_475 and z_850 are the galaxy magnitudes, respectively, in the F475W and F850LP ACS filters. We derive the following calibration for the absolute SBF magnitude M_850: M_850 = -2.06 +/- 0.04 + (2.0 +/ 0.2) [ (g_475-z_850)_0-1.3 ] in the range 1.3 <(g_475-z_850)_0 <= 1.6, and M_850 = -2.06 +/- 0.04 + (0.9 +/- 0.2) [ (g_475-z_850)_0-1.3 ] in the range 1.0 <=(g_475-z_850)_0 <= 1.3. Physically, the two different color regimes correspond to different galaxy types: giant ellipticals and S0s at the red end, and early-type dwarfs at the blue end. For the first time in SBF studies, we are able to provide a firm empirical calibration of SBF in early-type dwarf galaxies. Our results agree with stellar population model predictions from Bruzual & Charlot (2003).

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arXiv2005

The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey. VII. Resolving the Connection Between Globular Clusters and Ultra-Compact Dwarf Galaxies

We investigate the connection between globular clusters and ultra-compact dwarf galaxies (UCDs) by examining the properties of several compact objects associated with M87, all of which were previously classified as globular clusters. Combining imaging from the Hubble Space Telescope with ground-based Keck spectroscopy, we find two objects to have half-light radii, velocity dispersions and mass-to-light ratios that are consistent with the predictions of population synthesis models for old, metal-rich, luminous globular clusters. Three other objects are much larger, with half-light radii of approximately 20pc, and have V-band mass-to-light ratios in the range 6-9. These objects, which we consider to be UCDs, resemble the nuclei of nucleated dwarf elliptical galaxies in Virgo, having similar mass-to-light ratios, luminosities and colors. These UCDs are found to obey the extrapolated scaling relations of galaxies more closely than those of Galactic globular clusters. There appears to be a transition between the two types of stellar systems at a mass of about two million solar masses. If the UCDs are gravitationally bound, then we suggest that the presence of dark matter is the fundamental property distinguishing globular clusters from UCDs. More than half of the UCD candidates uncovered in the ACS Virgo Cluster Survey are associated with a single galaxy -- M87 -- which suggests that proximity to the Virgo center may be of critical importance for the formation of these objects. These results show that distinguishing bonafide UCDs from bright globular clusters requires a careful analysis of their detailed structural and dynamical properties, particularly their mass-to-light ratios. (ABRIDGED)

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arXiv2005

The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey IV: Data Reduction Procedures for Surface Brightness Fluctuation Measurements with the Advanced Camera for Surveys

The Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) Virgo Cluster Survey is a large program to image 100 early-type Virgo galaxies using the F475W and F850LP bandpasses of the Wide Field Channel of the ACS instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The scientific goals of this survey include an exploration of the three-dimensional structure of the Virgo Cluster and a critical examination of the usefulness of the globular cluster luminosity function as a distance indicator. Both of these issues require accurate distances for the full sample of 100 program galaxies. In this paper, we describe our data reduction procedures and examine the feasibility of accurate distance measurements using the method of surface brightness fluctuations (SBF) applied to the ACS Virgo Cluster Survey F850LP imaging. The ACS exhibits significant geometrical distortions due to its off-axis location in the HST focal plane; correcting for these distortions by resampling the pixel values onto an undistorted frame results in pixel correlations that depend on the nature of the interpolation kernel used for the resampling. This poses a major challenge for the SBF technique, which normally assumes a flat power spectrum for the noise. We investigate a number of different interpolation kernels and show through an analysis of simulated galaxy images having realistic noise properties that it is possible, depending on the kernel, to measure SBF distances using distortion-corrected ACS images without introducing significant additional error from the resampling. We conclude by showing examples of real image power spectra from our survey.

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arXiv2004

Mapping Tidal Streams around Galactic Globular Clusters

The surroundings of globular clusters in the outer halo are one of the best places to look for the remnants of ancient dwarf satellites. The classical Searle & Zinn (1978) scenario of the formation of the Milky Way, in which the halo globular clusters formed in larger dwarf galaxies, can nowadays be considered the local manifestation of the hierarchical galaxy formation. It is now well known that some Galactic globular clusters are actually associated with the tidal stellar stream resulting from the accretion of dwarf satellites, thereby confirming that this process plays an important role in the building of the Milky Way globular cluster system. Furthermore, several recent studies have suggested that the two most luminous Galactic globular clusters (M54, associated with Sagittarius and Omega Centauri) might be the nuclei of dwarf galaxies. Extending previous suggestions, van den Bergh (2000) has argued that the ``young'' globulars located in the outer halo might be the nuclei of extinct dwarf galaxies and suggests that a search for evidence of this may prove worthwhile. If these clusters formed within larger stellar systems, we would expect to find them surrounded by a stellar population that should be revealed by deep photometry over a wide field. In this paper, we present the first (most interesting) preliminary results from a long term project designed to search for tidal debris around remote halo globular clusters, debris that may be the vestiges of the larger systems in which these clusters formed.

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arXiv2004

The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey II. Data Reduction Procedures

The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey is a large program to carry out multi-color imaging of 100 early-type members of the Virgo Cluster using the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) on the Hubble Space Telescope. Deep F475W and F850LP images (~ SDSS g and z) are being used to study the central regions of the program galaxies, their globular cluster systems, and the three-dimensional structure of Virgo itself. In this paper, we describe in detail the data reduction procedures used for the survey, including image registration, drizzling strategies, the computation of weight images, object detection, the identification of globular cluster candidates, and the measurement of their photometric and structural parameters.

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