arXiv subjects

Ralf Bender

Publications and source records attributed to Ralf Bender.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources

arXiv2007

Tracing the Mass-Assembly History of Galaxies with Deep Surveys

We use the optical and near-infrared galaxy samples from the Munich Near-Infrared Cluster Survey (MUNICS), the FORS Deep Field (FDF) and GOODS-S to probe the stellar mass assembly history of field galaxies out to z ~ 5. Combining information on the galaxies' stellar mass with their star-formation rate and the age of the stellar population, we can draw important conclusions on the assembly of the most massive galaxies in the universe: These objects contain the oldest stellar populations at all redshifts probed. Furthermore, we show that with increasing redshift the contribution of star-formation to the mass assembly for massive galaxies increases dramatically, reaching the era of their formation at z ~ 2 and beyond. These findings can be interpreted as evidence for an early epoch of star formation in the most massive galaxies in the universe.

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arXiv2007

The Black Hole Mass and Extreme Orbital Structure in NGC1399

The largest galaxies, and in particular central galaxies in clusters, offer unique insight into understanding the mechanism for the growth of nuclear black holes. We present Hubble Space Telescope kinematics for NGC1399, the central galaxy in Fornax. We find the best-fit model contains a black hole of 5.1 +-0.7 x 10^8 Msun (at a distance of 21.1 Mpc), a factor of over 2 below the correlation of black hole mass and velocity dispersion. We also find a dramatic signature for central tangential anisotropy. The velocity profiles on adjacent sides 0.5" away from the nucleus show strong bimodality, and the central spectrum shows a large drop in the dispersion. Both of these observations point to an orbital distribution that is tangentially biased. The best-fit orbital model suggests a ratio of the tangential to radial internal velocity dispersions of three. This ratio is the largest seen in any galaxy to date and will provide an important measure for the mode by which the central black hole has grown.

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arXiv2007

The Munich Near-Infrared Cluster Survey (MUNICS) - IX. Galaxy Evolution to z ~ 2 From Optically Selected Catalogues

(Abridged) We present B, R, and I-band selected galaxy catalogues based on the Munich Near-Infrared Cluster Survey (MUNICS) which, together with the K-selected sample, serve as an important probe of galaxy evolution in the redshift range 0 < z < 2. Furthermore, used in comparison they are ideally suited to study selection effects. The construction of the B, R, and I-selected photometric catalogues, containing ~9000, ~9000, and ~6000 galaxies, respectively, is described in detail. The catalogues reach 50% completeness limits for point sources of B ~ 24.5mag, R ~ 23.5mag, and I ~ 22.5mag and cover an area of about 0.3 square degrees. Photometric redshifts are derived for all galaxies with an accuracy of dz/(1+z) ~ 0.057. We investigate the influence of selection band and environment on the specific star formation rate (SSFR). We find that K-band selection indeed comes close to selection in stellar mass, while B-band selection purely selects galaxies in star formation rate. We use a galaxy group catalogue constructed on the K-band selected MUNICS sample to study possible differences of the SSFR between the field and the group environment, finding a marginally lower average SSFR in groups as compared to the field, especially at lower redshifts. The field-galaxy luminosity function in the B and R band as derived from the R-selected sample evolves out to z ~ 2 in the sense that the characteristic luminosity increases but the number density decreases. This effect is smaller at longer rest-frame wavelengths and gets more pronounced at shorter wavelengths. Parametrising the redshift evolution of the Schechter parameters as M*(z) = M*(0) + a ln(1+z) and Phi*(z) = Phi*(0) (1+z)^b we find evolutionary parameters a ~ -2.1 and b ~ -2.5 for the B band, and a ~ -1.4 and b ~ -1.8 for the R band.

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arXiv2007

Astro-WISE: Chaining to the Universe

The recent explosion of recorded digital data and its processed derivatives threatens to overwhelm researchers when analysing their experimental data or when looking up data items in archives and file systems. While current hardware developments allow to acquire, process and store 100s of terabytes of data at the cost of a modern sports car, the software systems to handle these data are lagging behind. This general problem is recognized and addressed by various scientific communities, e.g., DATAGRID/EGEE federates compute and storage power over the high-energy physical community, while the astronomical community is building an Internet geared Virtual Observatory, connecting archival data. These large projects either focus on a specific distribution aspect or aim to connect many sub-communities and have a relatively long trajectory for setting standards and a common layer. Here, we report "first light" of a very different solution to the problem initiated by a smaller astronomical IT community. It provides the abstract "scientific information layer" which integrates distributed scientific analysis with distributed processing and federated archiving and publishing. By designing new abstractions and mixing in old ones, a Science Information System with fully scalable cornerstones has been achieved, transforming data systems into knowledge systems. This break-through is facilitated by the full end-to-end linking of all dependent data items, which allows full backward chaining from the observer/researcher to the experiment. Key is the notion that information is intrinsic in nature and thus is the data acquired by a scientific experiment. The new abstraction is that software systems guide the user to that intrinsic information by forcing full backward and forward chaining in the data modelling.

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arXiv2006

The Centers of Early-Type Galaxies with HST. VI. Bimodal Central Surface Brightness Profiles

We combine the results from several HST investigations of the central structure of early-type galaxies to generate a large sample of parameterized surface photometry. The studies included were those that used the "Nuker law" to characterize the inner light distributions of the galaxies. The sample comprises WFPC1 and WFPC2 V band observations published earlier by our group, R band WFPC2 photometry of Rest et al., NICMOS H band photometry by Ravindranath et al. and Quillen et al., and the BCG WFPC2 I band photometry of Laine et al. The distribution of the logarithmic slopes of the central profiles strongly affirms that the central structure of elliptical galaxies with Mv < -19 is bimodal, based on both parametric and non-parametric analysis. At the HST resolution limit, most galaxies are either power-law systems, which have steep cusps in surface brightness, or core systems, which have shallow cusps interior to a steeper envelope brightness distribution. A rapid transition between the two forms occurs over the luminosity range -22 < Mv < -20, with cores dominating at the highest luminosities, and power-laws at the lowest. There are a few "intermediate" systems that have both cusp slopes and total luminosities that fall within the core/power-law transition, but they are rare and do not fill in the overall bimodal distribution of cusp slopes. These results are inconsistent with the Ferrarese et al. Virgo Cluster Survey (VCS) analysis. However, using galaxies common to the VCS samples, we demonstrate that the VCS models of the cusps are either a poor match to the observations or consist of forms fitted to the galaxy envelopes and extrapolated inward to the HST resolution limit.

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arXiv2005

HST STIS spectroscopy of the triple nucleus of M31: two nested disks in Keplerian rotation around a Supermassive Black Hole

We present HST spectroscopy of the nucleus of M31 obtained with STIS. Spectra taken around the CaT lines at 8500 see only the red giants in the double bright- ness peaks P1 and P2. In contrast, spectra taken at 3600-5100 A are sensitive to the tiny blue nucleus embedded in P2, the lower surface brightness red nucleus. P2 has a K-type spectrum, but the embedded blue nucleus has an A-type spectrum with strong Balmer absorption lines. Given the small likelihood for stellar collisions, a 200 Myr old starburst appears to be the most plausible origin of the blue nucleus. In stellar population, size, and velocity dispersion, the blue nucleus is so different from P1 and P2 that we call it P3. The line-of-sight velocity distributions of the red stars in P1+P2 strengthen the support for Tremaine s eccentric disk model. The kinematics of P3 is consistent with a circular stellar disk in Keplerian rotation around a super-massive black hole with M_bh = 1.4 x 10^8 M_sun. The P3 and the P1+P2 disks rotate in the same sense and are almost coplanar. The observed velocity dispersion of P3 is due to blurred rotation and has a maximum value of sigma = 1183+-201 km/s. The observed peak rotation velocity of P3 is V = 618+-81 km/s at radius 0.05" = 0.19 pc corresponding to a circular rotation velocity at this radius of ~1700 km/s. Any dark star cluster alternative to a black hole must have a half-mass radius <= 0.03" = 0.11 pc. We show that this excludes clusters of brown dwarfs or dead stars on astrophysical grounds.

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arXiv2005

Specific star formation rates to redshift 5 from the FORS Deep Field and the GOODS-S Field

We explore the build-up of stellar mass in galaxies over a wide redshift range 0.4 < z < 5.0 by studying the evolution of the specific star formation rate (SSFR), defined as the star formation rate per unit stellar mass, as a function of stellar mass and age. Our work is based on a combined sample of ~ 9000 galaxies from the FORS Deep Field and the GOODS-S field, providing high statistical accuracy and relative insensitivity against cosmic variance. As at lower redshifts, we find that lower-mass galaxies show higher SSFRs than higher mass galaxies, although highly obscured galaxies remain undetected in our sample. Furthermore, the highest mass galaxies contain the oldest stellar populations at all redshifts, in principle agreement with the existence of evolved, massive galaxies at 1 < z < 3. It is remarkable, however, that this trend continues to very high redshifts of z ~ 4. We also show that with increasing redshift the SSFR for massive galaxies increases by a factor of ~ 10, reaching the era of their formation at z ~ 2 and beyond. These findings can be interpreted as evidence for an early epoch of star formation in the most massive galaxies, and ongoing star-formation activity in lower mass galaxies.

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arXiv2005

The Wendelstein Calar Alto Pixellensing Project (WeCAPP): The M31 Variable Star Catalogue

In this paper we present the WeCAPP variable star catalogue towards the bulge of M31. The observations of the WeCAPP microlensing survey (optical R and I bands) during three years (2000-2003) result in a database with unprecedented time coverage for an extragalactic variable star study. We detect 23781 variable sources in a 16.1' x 16.6' field centered on the nucleus of M31. The catalogue of variable stars contains the positions, the periods and the variations in the R and I bands. We classify the variables according to their position in the R-band period-amplitude plane. Three groups can be distinguished; while the first two groups can be mainly associated with Cepheid-like variables (population I Cepheids in group I, type II Cepheids and RV Tauri stars in group II), the third one consists of Long Period Variables (LPVs). We detect 37 RV Tauri stars and 11 RV Tauri candidates which is one of the largest collections of this class of stars to date. The classification scheme is supported by Fourier decomposition of the light curves. Our data shows a correlation of the low-order Fourier coefficients Phi_21 with Phi_31 for classical Cepheids, as well for type II Cepheids and RV Tauri stars. Correlating our sample of variable stars with the X-ray based catalogues of Kaaret (2002) and Kong et al. (2002) results in 23 and 31 coincidences, 8 of which are M31 globular clusters. The number density of detected variables is clearly not symmetric, which has to be included in the calculations of the expected microlensing event rate towards M31. This asymmetry is due to the enhanced extinction in the spiral arms superimposed on the bulge of M31 which reduces the number of sources to about 60%, if compared to areas of equivalent bulge brightness (without enhanced extinction being present).

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arXiv2005

VLT Spectroscopy of Globular Cluster Systems, I. The Photometric and Spectroscopic Dataset

We present Lick line-index measurements of extragalactic globular clusters in seven early-type galaxies (NGC 1380, 2434, 3115, 3379, 3585, 5846, and 7192) with different morphological types (E-S0) located in field and group/cluster environments. High-quality spectra were taken with the FORS2 instrument at ESO's Very Large Telescope. About 50% of our data allow an age resolution dt/t ~ 0.3 and a metallicity resolution ~0.25-0.4 dex, depending on the absolute metallicity. Globular cluster candidates are selected from deep B, V, R, I, K FORS2/ISAAC photometry with 80-100% success rate inside one effective radius. Using combined optical/near-infrared colour-colour diagrams we present a method to efficiently reduce fore-/background contamination down to <10%. We find clear signs for bi-modality in the globular cluster colour distributions of NGC 1380, 3115, and 3585. The colour distributions of globular clusters in NGC 2434, 3379, 5846, and 7192 are consistent with a broad single-peak distribution. For the analysed globular cluster systems the slopes of projected radial surface density profiles, of the form Sigma(R) ~ R^-Gamma, vary between ~0.8 and 2.6. Using globular clusters as a tracer population we determine total dynamical masses of host galaxies out to large radii (~1.6 - 4.8 Reff). For the sample we find masses in the range ~8.8*10^10 Msolar up to ~1.2*10^12 Msolar. The line index data presented here will be used in accompanying papers of this series to derive ages, metallicities and abundance ratios. A compilation of currently available high-quality Lick index measurements for globular clusters in elliptical, lenticular, and late-type galaxies is provided and will serve to augment the current data set. [abridged]

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arXiv2005

VLT Spectroscopy of Globular Cluster Systems, II. Spectroscopic Ages, Metallicities, and [alpha/Fe] Ratios of Globular Clusters in Early-Type Galaxies

An analysis of ages, metallicities, and [alpha/Fe] ratios of globular cluster systems in early-type galaxies is presented, based on Lick index measurements summarized in Puzia et al. (2004, Paper I of this series). In the light of calibration and measurement uncertainties, age-metallicity degeneracy, and the relative dynamic range of Lick indices, as well as systematics introduced by abundance ratio variations (in particular variations of [alpha/Fe] ratios), we find that the most reliable age indicator for our dataset is a combination of the Lick Balmer-line indices HgammaA, Hbeta, and HdeltaA. [MgFe]' is used as a spectroscopic metallicity indicator which is least affected by [alpha/Fe] variations. We introduce an interpolation routine to simultaneously derive ages, metallicities, and [alpha/Fe] ratios from diagnostic grids constructed from Lick indices. From a comparison of high-quality data with SSP model predictions, we find that ~2/3 of the globular clusters in early-type galaxies are older than 10 Gyr, up to 1/3 have ages in the range ~5-10 Gyr, and only a few cluster are younger than ~5 Gyr. Our sample of globular clusters covers metallicities from [Z/H] = -1.3 up to ~0.5 dex. We find that metal-rich globular clusters show on average a smaller mean age and a larger age scatter than their metal-poor counterparts. [alpha/Fe] diagnostic plots show that globular cluster systems in early-type galaxies have super-solar alpha/Fe abundance ratios with a mean [alpha/Fe] = 0.47+/-0.06 dex and a dispersion of about 0.3 dex. We find evidence for a correlation between [alpha/Fe] and metallicity, in the sense that more metal-rich clusters exhibit lower alpha-element enhancements. [abridged]

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arXiv2004

The Centers of Early-Type Galaxies with HST. V. New WFPC2 Photometry

We analyze HST+WFPC2 images of 77 early-type galaxies. Brightness profiles are classed into "core" or "power-law" forms. Cores are typically rounder than power-law galaxies. Nearly all power-laws with central ellipticity >=0.3 have stellar disks, implying that disks are present in power-laws with epsilon <0.3, but are not visible due to unfavorable geometry. A few low-luminosity core galaxies also have disks; these may be transition forms from power-laws. Cores and power-laws both have twisting isophotes at small radii. Core galaxies have somewhat weaker color gradients than power-laws. Nuclei are found in 29% of the cores and 60% of the power-laws. Nuclei are typically bluer than the surrounding galaxy. NGC 4073 and 4382 have central minima in their intrinsic starlight distributions; NGC 4382 resembles the double nucleus of M31. In general, the peak brightness location is coincident with the photocenter of the core to <1 pc. Five galaxies, however, have centers significantly displaced from their cores; these may be unresolved asymmetric double nuclei. Central dust is visible in half of the galaxies. The presence and strength of dust correlates with nuclear emission. The prevalence of dust and its morphology suggests that dust clouds form, settle to the center, and disappear repeatedly on ~10^8 yr timescales. We discuss the hypothesis that cores are created by the decay of a massive black hole binary. Apart from their brightness profiles, there are no strong differences between cores and power-laws that demand this scenario; however, the rounder shapes of cores, their lack of disks, and their reduced color gradients may be consistent with it.

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arXiv2004

The connection between star formation and stellar mass: Specific star formation rates to redshift one

We investigate the contribution of star formation to the growth of stellar mass in galaxies over the redshift range 0.5 < z < 1.1 by studying the redshift evolution of the specific star formation rate (SSFR), defined as the star formation rate per unit stellar mass. We use an I-band selected sample of 6180 field galaxies from the Munich Near-Infrared Cluster Survey (MUNICS) with spectroscopically calibrated photometric redshifts. The SSFR decreases with stellar mass at all redshifts. The low SSFRs of massive galaxies indicates that star formation does not significantly change their stellar mass over this redshift range: The majority of massive galaxies have assembled the bulk of their mass before redshift unity. Furthermore, these highest mass galaxies contain the oldest stellar populations at all redshifts. The line of maximum SSFR runs parallel to lines of constant star formation rate. With increasing redshift, the maximum SFR is generally increasing for all stellar masses, from SFR ~ 5 M_sun/yr at z = 0.5 to SFR ~ 10 M_sun/yr at z = 1.1. We also show that the large SSFRs of low-mass galaxies cannot be sustained over extended periods of time. Finally, our results do not require a substantial contribution of merging to the growth of stellar mass in massive galaxies over the redshift range probed. We note that highly obscured galaxies which remain undetected in our sample do not affect these findings for the bulk of the field galaxy population.

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arXiv2004

Black Hole Mass Determinations From Orbit Superposition Models are Reliable

We show that orbit-superposition dynamical models (Schwarzschild's method) provide reliable estimates of nuclear black hole masses and errors when constructed from adequate orbit libraries and kinematic data. We thus rebut two recent papers that argue that BH masses obtained from this method are unreliable. These papers claim to demonstrate that the range of allowable BH masses derived from a given dataset is artificially too narrow as a result of an inadequate number of orbits in the library used to construct dynamical models. This is an elementary error that is easily avoided. We describe a method to estimate the number and nature of orbits needed for the library. We provide an example that shows that this prescription is adequate, in the sense that the range of allowable BH masses is not artificially narrowed by use of too few orbits. A second point raised by critics is that kinematic data are generally obtained with insufficient spatial resolution to obtain a reliable mass. We make the distinction between unreliable determinations and imprecise ones. We show that there are several different properties of a kinematic dataset that can lead to imprecise BH determinations, but none of the attributes we have investigated leads to an unreliable determination. In short, the degree to which the BH radius of influence is resolved by spectroscopic observations is already reflected in the BH-mass error envelope, and is not a hidden source of error. The BH masses published by our group and the Leiden group are reliable.

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arXiv2003

WeCAPP - The Wendelstein Calar Alto Pixellensing Project I Tracing Dark and Bright Matter in M31

We present WeCAPP, a long term monitoring project searching for microlensing events towards M 31. Since 1997 the bulge of M 31 was monitored in two different wavebands with the Wendelstein 0.8 m telescope. In 1999 we extended our observations to the Calar Alto 1.23 m telescope. Observing simultaneously at these two sites we obtained a time coverage of 53 % during the observability of M 31. To check thousands of frames for variability of unresolved sources, we used the optimal image subtraction method (OIS) by Alard & Lupton (1998) This enabled us to minimize the residuals in the difference image analysis (DIA) and to detect variable sources with amplitudes at the photon noise level. Thus we can detect microlensing events with corresponding amplifications A > 10 of red clump giants with M_I = 0.

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arXiv2003

The Wendelstein Calar Alto Pixellensing Project(WeCAPP): First MACHO Candidates

We report the detection of the first 2 microlensing candidates from the Wendelstein Calar Alto Pixellensing Project (WeCAPP). Both are detected with a high signal-to-noise-ratio and were filtered out from 4.5 mill. pixel light curves using a variety of selection criteria. Here we only consider well-sampled events with timescales of 1 d < t_fwhm < 20 d, high amplitude, and low chi^2 of the microlensing fit. The two-color photometry (R,I) shows that the events are achromatic and that giant stars with colors of (R-I) ~ 1.1 mag in the bulge of M31 have been lensed. The magnification factors are 64 and 10 which are obtained for typical giant luminosities of M_I = -2.5 mag. Both lensing events lasted for only a few days (t_fwhm^GL1 = 1.7 d and t_fwhm^GL2 = 5.4 d). The event GL1 is likely identical with PA-00-S3 reported by the POINT-AGAPE project. Our calculations favor in both cases the possibility that MACHOs in the halo of M31 caused the lensing events. The most probable masses, 0.08 M_sun for GL1 and 0.02 M_sun for GL2, are in the range of the brown dwarf limit of hydrogen burning. Solar mass objects are a factor of two less likely.

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arXiv2003

Kinematics of Ten Early-Type Galaxies from HST and Ground-Based Spectroscopy

We present stellar kinematics for a sample of 10 early-type galaxies observed using the STIS aboard the Hubble Space Telescope, and the Modular Spectrograph on the MDM Observatory 2.4-m telescope. The spectra are used to derive line-of-sight velocity distributions (LOSVDs) of the stars using a Maximum Penalized Likelihood method. We use Gauss-Hermite polynomials to parameterize the LOSVDs and find predominantly negative h4 values (boxy distributions) in the central regions of our galaxies. One galaxy, NGC 4697, has significantly positive central h4 (high tail weight). The majority of galaxies have a central velocity dispersion excess in the STIS kinematics over ground-based velocity dispersions. The galaxies with the strongest rotational support, as quantified with v_MAX/sigma_STIS, have the smallest dispersion excess at STIS resolution. The best-fitting, general, axisymmetric dynamical models (described in a companion paper) require black holes in all cases, with masses ranging from 10^6.5 to 10^9.3 Msun. We replot these updated masses on the BH/sigma relation, and show that the fit to only these 10 galaxies has a slope consistent with the fits to larger samples. The greatest outlier is NGC 2778, a dwarf elliptical with relatively poorly constrained black hole mass. The two best candidates for pseudobulges, NGC 3384 and 7457, do not deviate significantly from the established relation between black hole and sigma. Neither do the three galaxies which show the most evidence of a recent merger, NGC 3608, 4473, and 4697.

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arXiv2003

New Clues on the Calcium Underabundance in Early-Type Galaxies

We use our new stellar population models, which include effects from variable element abundance ratios, to model the Ca4227 absorption line indices of early-type galaxies (Trager et al.), and to derive calcium element abundances. We find that calcium, although being an alpha-element, is depressed with respect to the other alpha-elements by up to a factor 2. This confirms quantitatively earlier speculations that early-type galaxies are calcium underabundant. We find a clear correlation between alpha/Ca ratio and central velocity dispersion, which implies that more massive galaxies are more calcium underabundant. Interestingly this correlation extends down to the dwarf spheroidal galaxies of the Local Group for which alpha/Ca ratios have been measured from high-resolution spectroscopy of individual stars (Shetrone et al.). The increase of the calcium underabundance with galaxy mass balances the higher total metallicities of more massive galaxies, so that calcium abundance in early-type galaxies is fairly constant and in particular does not increase with increasing galaxy mass. This result may be the key to understand why the CaII triplet absorption of early-type galaxies at 8600 A is constant to within 5 per cent over a large range of velocity dispersions (Saglia et al.; Cenarro et al.). The origin of the calcium underabundance in early-type galaxies remains yet to be understood. We argue that formation timescales are disfavoured to produce calcium underabundance, and that the option of metallicity dependent supernova yields may be the most promising track to follow.

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arXiv2002

Stellar population models of Lick indices with variable element abundance ratios

We provide the whole set of Lick indices from CN1 to TiO2 of Simple Stellar Population models with, for the first time, variable element abundance ratios, [alpha/Fe]=0.0, 0.3, 0.5, [alpha/Ca]=-0.1, 0.0, 0.2, 0.5, and [alpha/N]=-0.5, 0.0. The models cover ages between 1 and 15 Gyr, metallicities between 1/200 and 3.5 solar. Our models are free from the intrinsic alpha/Fe bias that was imposed by the Milky Way template stars up to now, hence they reflect well-defined alpha/Fe ratios at all metallicities. The models are calibrated with Milky Way globular clusters for which metallicities and alpha/Fe ratios are known from independent spectroscopy of individual stars. The metallicities that we derive from the Lick indices Mgb and Fe5270 are in excellent agreement with the metallicity scale by Zinn & West (1984), and we show that the latter provides total metallicity rather than iron abundance. We can reproduce the relatively strong CN-absorption features CN1 and CN2 of galactic globular clusters with models in which nitrogen is enhanced by a factor three. An enhancement of carbon, instead, would lead to serious inconsistencies with the indices Mg1 and C24668. The calcium sensitive index Ca4227 of globular clusters is well matched by our models with [Ca/Fe]= 0.3, including the metal-rich Bulge clusters NGC 6528 and NGC 6553. From our alpha/Fe enhanced models we infer that the index [MgFe] defined by Gonzalez (1993) is quite independent of alpha/Fe, but still slightly decreases with increasing alpha/Fe. We define a slight modification of this index that is completely independent of alpha/Fe and serves best as a tracer of total metallicity. Searching for blue indices that give similar information as Mgb and Fe, we find that CN1 and Fe4383 may be best suited to estimate alpha/Fe ratios of objects at redshifts z~1. (Abridged)

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