arXiv subjects

Riccardo Giovanelli

Publications and source records attributed to Riccardo Giovanelli.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources

arXiv2007

Optically Unseen HI Detections towards the Virgo Cluster detected in the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA Survey

We report the discovery by the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA (ALFALFA) survey of eight HI features not coincident with stellar counterparts in the Virgo Cluster region. All of the HI clouds have cz < 3000 km/s and, if at the Virgo distance, HI masses between 1.9 x 10**7 and 1.1 x 10**9 solar masses. Four of the eight objects were reported or hinted at by previous studies and "rediscovered" by ALFALFA. While some clouds appear to be associated with optical galaxies in their vicinity, others show no clear association with a stellar counterpart. Two of them are embedded in relatively dense regions of the cluster and are associated with M49 and M86; they were previously known. The others are mostly located in peripheral regions of the cluster. Especially notable are a concentration of objects towards the so-called M cloud, 3 to 5 degrees to the NW of M87, and a complex of several clouds projected roughly halfway between M87 and M49. The object referred to as VIRGOHI21 and proposed to be a "dark galaxy" is also detected and shown to be a tidal feature associated with NGC 4254.

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arXiv2007

NGC 4254: An Act of Harassment Uncovered by the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA Survey

We present an HI map constructed from the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA (ALFALFA) survey of the surroundings of the strongly asymmetric Virgo cluster Sc galaxy NGC 4254. Noted previously for its lopsided appearance, rich interstellar medium, and extradisk HI emission, NGC 4254 is believed to be entering the Virgo environment for the first time and at high speed. The ALFALFA map clearly shows a long HI tail extending ~250 kpc northward from the galaxy. Embedded as one condensation within this HI structure is the object previously identified as a "dark galaxy": Virgo HI21 (Davies et al. 2004). A body of evidence including its location within and velocity with respect to the cluster and the appearance and kinematics of its strong spiral pattern, extra-disk HI and lengthy HI tail is consistent with a picture of "galaxy harassment" as proposed by Moore et al. (1996a,b; 1998). The smoothly varying radial velocity field along the tail as it emerges from NGC 4254 can be used as a timing tool, if interpreted as resulting from the coupling of the rotation of the disk and the collective gravitational forces associated with the harassment mechanism.

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arXiv2007

SFI++ II: A New I-band Tully-Fisher Catalog, Derivation of Peculiar Velocities and Dataset Properties

We present the SFI++ dataset, a homogeneously derived catalog of photometric and rotational properties and the Tully-Fisher distances and peculiar velocities derived from them. We make use of digital optical images, optical long-slit spectra, and global HI line profiles to extract parameters of relevance to disk scaling relations, incorporating several previously published datasets as well as a new photometric sample of some 2000 objects. According to the completeness of available redshift samples over the sky area, we exploit both a modified percolation algorithm and the Voronoi-Delaunay method to assign individual galaxies to groups as well as clusters, thereby reducing scatter introduced by local orbital motions. We also provide corrections to the peculiar velocities for both homogeneous and inhomogeneous Malmquist bias, making use of the 2MASS Redshift Survey density field to approximate large scale structure. We summarize the sample selection criteria, corrections made to raw observational parameters, the grouping techniques, and our procedure for deriving peculiar velocities. The final SFI++ peculiar velocity catalog of 4861 field and cluster galaxies is large enough to permit the study not just of the global statistics of large scale flows but also of the {\it details} of the local velocity field.

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arXiv2007

The Cornell Caltech Atacama Telescope

Cornell University, the California Institute for Technology, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory are jointly studying the construction of a 25 m diameter telescope for submillimeter astronomy on a high mountain in northern Chile. This Cornell Caltech Atacama Telescope (CCAT) will combine high sensitivity, a wide field of view, and a broad wavelength range to provide an unprecedented capability for deep, large area, multi-color submillimeter surveys to complement narrow field, high resolution studies with ALMA. CCAT observations will address fundamental themes in contemporary astronomy, notably the formation and evolution of galaxies, the nature of the dark matter and dark energy that comprise most of the content of the universe, the formation of stars and planets, the conditions in circumstellar disks, and the conditions during the early history of the Solar system. The candidate CCAT site, at 5600 m in northern Chile, enjoys superb observing conditions. To accommodate large format bolometer cameras, CCAT is designed with a 20 arcmin field of view. CCAT will incorporate closed loop active control of its segmented primary mirror to maintain a half wavefront error of 10 mum rms or less. Instrumentation under consideration includes both short (650 mum-200 mum) and long (2 mm-750 mum) wavelength bolometer cameras, direct detection spectrometers, and heterodyne receiver arrays. The University of Colorado, a Canadian university consortium, and the UK Astronomy Technology Centre on behalf of the UK community are pursuing participation in the CCAT consortium. When complete early in the next decade, CCAT will be the largest and most sensitive facility of its class as well as the highest altitude astronomical facility on Earth.

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arXiv2007

Rotational Widths for Use in the Tully-Fisher Relation. II. The Impact of Surface Brightness

Using a large sample of spiral galaxies for which 21 cm single-dish and/or long-slit optical spectra are available, we make a detailed comparison between various estimates of rotational widths. Different optical width estimators are considered and their limitations discussed, with emphasis on biases associated with rotation curve properties (shape and extent) and disk central surface brightness. The best match with HI rotational velocities is obtained with Polyex widths, which are measured at the optical radius (encompassing a fixed fraction of the total light of the galaxy) from a model fit to the rotation curve. In contrast with Polyex widths, optical rotational velocities measured at 2.15 disk scale lengths r_d deviate from HI widths by an amount that correlates with the central surface brightness of the disk. This bias occurs because the rotation curves of galaxies are in general still rising at 2.15 r_d, and the fraction of total mass contained within this radius decreases with increasing disk surface brightness. Statistical corrections, parameterized by the radial extent of the observed rotation curve, are provided to reduce Polyex and HI width measurements into a homogeneous system. This yields a single robust estimate of rotational velocity to be used for applications of disk scaling relations.

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arXiv2006

SFI++ I: A New I-band Tully-Fisher Template, the Cluster Peculiar Velocity Dispersion and H0

The SFI++ consists of ~5000 spiral galaxies which have measurements suitable for the application of the I-band Tully-Fisher (TF) relation. This sample builds on the SCI and SFI samples published in the 1990s but includes significant amounts of new data as well as improved methods for parameter determination. We derive a new I-band TF relation from a subset of this sample which consists of 807 galaxies in the fields of 31 nearby clusters and groups. This sample constitutes the largest ever available for the calibration of the TF template and extends the range of line-widths over which the template is reliably measured. Careful accounting is made of observational and sample biases such as incompleteness, finite cluster size, galaxy morphology and environment. We find evidence for a type-dependent TF slope which is shallower for early type than for late type spirals. The line-of-sight cluster peculiar velocity dispersion is measured for the sample of 31 clusters. This value is directly related to the spectrum of initial density fluctuations and thus provides an independent verification of the best fit WMAP cosmology and an estimate of Omega^0.6 sigma_8 = 0.52+/-0.06. We also provide an independent measure of the TF zeropoint using 17 galaxies in the SFI++ sample for which Cepheid distances are available. In combination with the ``basket of clusters'' template relation these calibrator galaxies provide a measure of H0 = 74+/-2 (random) +/-6 (systematic) km/s/Mpc.

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arXiv2006

Cornell Caltech Atacama Telescope (CCAT): a 25 m aperture telescope above 5000 m altitude

Cornell, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), and Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) have joined together to study development of a 25 meter sub-millimeter telescope (CCAT) on a high peak in the Atacama region of northern Chile, where the atmosphere is so dry as to permit observation at wavelengths as short as 200 micron. The telescope is designed to deliver high efficiency images at that wavelength with a total 1/2 wavefront error of about 10 microns. With a 20 arc min field of view, CCAT will be able to accommodate large format bolometer arrays and will excel at carrying out surveys as well as resolving structures to the 2 arc sec. resolution level. The telescope will be an ideal complement to ALMA. Initial instrumentation will include both a wide field bolometer camera and a medium resolution spectrograph. Studies of the major telescope subsystems have been performed as part of an initial Feasibility Concept Study. Novel aspects of the telescope design include kinematic mounting and active positioning of primary mirror segments, high bandwidth secondary mirror segment motion control for chopping, a Calotte style dome of 50 meter diameter, a mount capable of efficient scanning modes of operation, and some new approaches to panel manufacture. Analysis of telescope performance and of key subsystems will be presented to illustrate the technical feasibility and pragmatic cost of CCAT. Project plans include an Engineering Concept Design phase followed by detailed design and development. First Light is planned for early 2012.

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arXiv2005

Template Rotation Curves for Disk Galaxies

A homogeneous sample of ~2200 low redshift disk galaxies with both high sensitivity long-slit optical spectroscopy and detailed I-band photometry is used to construct average, or template, rotation curves in separate luminosity classes, spanning 6 magnitudes in I-band luminosity. The template rotation curves are expressed as functions both of exponential disk scale lengths r_d and of optical radii Ropt, and extend out to 4.5-6.5 r_d, depending on the luminosity bin. The two parameterizations yield slightly different results beyond Ropt because galaxies whose Halpha emission can be traced to larger extents in the disks are typically of higher optical surface brightness and are characterized by larger values of Ropt/r_d. By either parameterization, these template rotation curves show no convincing evidence of velocity decline within the spatial scales over which they are sampled, even in the case of the most luminous systems. In contrast to some previous expectations, the fastest rotators (most luminous galaxies) have, on average, rotation curves that are flat or mildly rising beyond the optical radius, implying that the dark matter halo makes an important contribution to the kinematics also in these systems. The template rotation curves and the derived functional fits provide quantitative constraints for studies of the structure and evolution of disk galaxies, which aim at reproducing the internal kinematics properties of disks at the present cosmological epoch.

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arXiv2005

Multi-wavelength Study of Galaxy Rotation Curves and its Application to Cosmology

Rotation information for spiral galaxies can be obtained through the observation of different spectral lines. While the Halpha(6563 A) line is often used for galaxies with low to moderate redshifts, it is redshifted into the near-infrared at z>0.4. This is why most high redshift surveys rely on the [OII](3727 A) line. Using a sample of 32 spiral galaxies at 0.155 < z < 0.25 observed simultaneously in both Halpha and [OII] with the Hale 200 inch telescope, the relation between velocity widths extracted from these two spectral lines is investigated, and we conclude that Halpha derived velocities can be reliably compared to high z [OII] measurements. The sample of galaxies is then used along with VIMOS-VLT Deep Survey observations to perform the angular diameter - redshift test to find constraints on cosmological parameters. The test makes it possible to discriminate between various cosmological models, given the upper limit of disc size evolution at the maximum redshift of the data set, no matter what the evolutionary scenario is.

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arXiv2005

The Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA Survey: I. Science Goals, Survey Design and Strategy

The recently initiated Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA (ALFALFA) survey aims to map 7000 square degrees of the high galactic latitude sky visible from Arecibo, providing a HI line spectral database covering the redshift range between -1600 km/s and 18,000 km/s with 5 km/s resolution. Exploiting Arecibo's large collecting area and small beam size, ALFALFA is specifically designed to probe the faint end of the HI mass function in the local universe and will provide a census of HI in the surveyed sky area to faint flux limits, making it especially useful in synergy with wide area surveys conducted at other wavelengths. ALFALFA will also provide the basis for studies of the dynamics of galaxies within the Local and nearby superclusters, will allow measurement of the HI diameter function, and enable a first wide-area blind search for local HI tidal features, HI absorbers at z < 0.06 and OH megamasers in the redshift range 0.16 < z < 0.25. Although completion of the survey will require some five years, public access to the ALFALFA data and data products will be provided in a timely manner, thus allowing its application for studies beyond those targeted by the ALFALFA collaboration. ALFALFA adopts a two-pass, minimum intrusion, drift scan observing technique which samples the same region of sky at two separate epochs to aid in the discrimination of cosmic signals from noise and terrestrial interference. Survey simulations, which take into account large scale structure in the mass distribution and incorporate experience with the ALFA system gained from tests conducted during its commissioning phase, suggest that ALFALFA will detect on the order of 20,000 extragalactic HI line sources out to z=0.06, including several hundred with HI masses of less than 10^{7.5} msun.

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arXiv2005

The Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA Survey: II. Results of Precursor Observations

In preparation for the full Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA extragalactic HI survey, precursor observations were carried out in Aug--Sep 2004 with the 7-beam Arecibo L-band feed array (ALFA) receiver system and the WAPP spectral processors. While these observations were geared mainly at testing and debugging survey strategy, hardware and software, approximately 36 hours of telescope time yielded science--quality data. From those observations, an initial list of 730 tentative detections of varying degree of reliability was extracted. Ninety--eight high signal-to-noise candidates were deemed to be bona fide HI line detections. To test our ability to discriminate cosmic signals from RFI and noise, 165 candidates ranging in reliability likelihood were re--observed with the single beam L--band wide system at Arecibo in Jan--Feb 2005. Of those, 41% were confirmed as real. We present the results of both the ALFA and single beam observations for the sample of 166 confirmed HI sources, as well as our assessment of their optical counterparts. Of the 166 sources, 62 coincide with previously known HI sources, while optical redshifts were available for an additional 18 galaxies; thus, 52% of the redshifts reported here were previously unknown. Of the 166 HI detections, 115 are identified with previously cataloged galaxies, of either known or unknown redshift, leaving 51 objects identified for the first time. Because of the higher sensitivity of the Arecibo system, fewer than 10% of the 166 HI sources would have been detected by a HIPASS--like survey of the same region. Three of the objects have HI masses less than 10^7 solar masses. The full ALFALFA survey which commenced in February 2005 should detect more than 100 times as many objects of similarly low HI mass over the next 5 years.

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arXiv2005

Rotational Widths for Use in the Tully-Fisher Relation. I. Long-slit Spectroscopic Data

We present new long-slit Halpha spectroscopy for 403 non-interacting spiral galaxies, obtained at the Palomar Observatory 5 m Hale telescope, which is used to derive well-sampled optical rotation curves. Because many of the galaxies show optical emission features which are significantly extended along the spectrograph slit, a technique was devised to separate and subtract the night sky lines from the galaxy emission. We exploit a functional fit to the rotation curve to identify its center of symmetry; this method minimizes the asymmetry in the final, folded rotation curve. We derive rotational widths using both velocity histograms and the Polyex model fit. The final rotational width is measured at a radius containing 83% of the total light as derived from I-band images. In addition to presenting the new data, we use a large sample of 742 galaxies for which both optical long-slit and radio HI line spectroscopy are available to investigate the relation between the HI content of the disks and the extent of their rotation curves. Our results show that the correlation between those quantities, which is well-established in the case of HI-poor galaxies in clusters, is present also in HI-normal objects: for a given optical size, star formation can be traced further out in the disks of galaxies with larger HI mass.

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arXiv2005

A Digital Archive of HI 21 cm Line Spectra of Optically-targeted Galaxies

We present a homogeneous compilation of HI spectral parameters extracted from global 21 cm line spectra for some 9000 galaxies in the local universe (heliocentric velocity -200 < V_Sun < 28,000 km/s) obtained with a variety of large single dish radio telescopes but reanalyzed using a single set of parameter extraction algorithms. Corrections to the observed HI line flux for source extent and pointing offsets and to the HI line widths for instrumental broadening and smoothing are applied according to model estimates to produce a homogenous catalog of derived properties with quantitative error estimates. Where the redshift is available from optical studies, we also provide flux measurements for an additional 156 galaxies classified as marginal HI detections and rms noise limits for 494 galaxies classified as nondetections. Given the diverse nature of the observing programs contributing to it, the characteristics of the combined dataset are heterogeneous, and as such, the compilation is neither integrated HI line flux nor peak flux limited. However, because of the large statistical base and homogenous reprocessing, the spectra and spectral parameters of galaxies in this optically targeted sample can be used to complement data obtained at other wavelengths to characterize the properties of galaxies in the local universe and to explore the large scale structures in which they reside.

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arXiv2005

The Cusp/Core Problem in Galactic Halos: Long-Slit Spectra for a Large Dwarf Galaxy Sample

We derive inner dark matter halo density profiles for a sample of 165 low-mass galaxies using rotation curves obtained from high-quality, long-slit optical spectra assuming minimal disks and spherical symmetry. For $ρ(r) \sim r^{-α}$ near the galaxy center we measure median inner slopes ranging from $α_m = 0.22 \pm 0.08$ to $0.28 \pm 0.06$ for various subsamples of the data. This is similar to values found by other authors, and in stark contrast to the intrinsic cusps ($α_{int}\sim1$) predicted by simulations of halo assembly in cold dark matter (CDM) cosmologies. To elucidate the relationship between $α_m$ and $α_{int}$ in our data, we simulate long-slit observations of model galaxies with halo shapes broadly consistent with the CDM paradigm. Simulations with $α_{int}=1/2$ and 1 recover both the observed distribution of $α_m$ and correlations between $α_m$ and primary observational parameters such as distance and disk inclination, whereas those with $α_{int}=5/4$ are marginally consistent with the data. Conversely, the hypothesis that low-mass galaxies have $α_{int}=3/2$ is rejected. While the simulations do not imply that the data favor intrinsic cusps over cores, they demonstrate that the discrepancy between $α_m$ and $α_{int}\sim1$ for our sample does not necessarily imply a genuine conflict between our results and CDM predictions: rather, the apparent cusp/core problem may be reconciled by considering the impact of observing and data processing techniques on rotation curves derived from long-slit spectra.

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arXiv2004

Morphology, Environment, and the HI Mass Function

We exploit a large, complete optical diameter and HI flux limited sample of spiral galaxies with types later than S0a to derive a robust measurement of the HI mass function (HIMF) for masses log(M_HI/M_Sun) > 7.4 which takes into account the effects of local large scale structure. The global HIMF derived for this optically-selected sample is well fit by a Schechter function with alpha = -1.24, log(M* / M_Sun)=9.99, phi* = 3.2 (10^{-3}) Mpc^{-3}. These values match those derived from blind HI surveys to within the estimated uncertainties, yet our estimated HIMF is clearly lower than most other estimates at the lowest masses. We also investigate the variation in the derived HIMF among spiral subclasses, finding a clear distinction between the Schechter parameters found for types Sa-Sc and those Scd and later, in the sense that the HIMF of the latest types is rising at the low mass end, whereas that of the main spiral classes is flat or even declining. We also explore the possible environmental dependence of the HIMF by computing it separately in regimes of differing cosmic density. The HIMFs of higher density regions are found to have flatter low-mass ends and lower values of M* than those of lower density regions, although the statistical significance of the difference is low. We find that the environmental dependence cannot be accounted for by morphological segregation, and must be a consequence of differences among galaxies of the same morphological type but found in different environments. If this dependence is caused by the well known deficiency of galaxies in clusters, then it would suggest that galaxies of small linear optical diameter are characterized by higher HI deficiency, an expectation consistent with gas removal mechanisms such as ram pressure stripping.

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arXiv2004

Detection of 21 Centimeter HI Absorption at z = 0.78 in a Survey of Radio Continuum Sources

We report the detection of a deep broad HI 21 cm absorption system at z = 0.78 toward the radio source [HB89] 2351+456 (4C+45.51) at z = 1.992. The HI absorption was identified in a blind spectral line survey conducted at the Green Bank Telescope spanning 0.63 < z < 1.10 toward a large sample of radio continuum sources. The HI column density is N(HI) = 2.35 x 10^19 (T_s/f) cm^-2, where T_s is the spin temperature and f is the continuum covering factor of the absorbing gas. For T_s/f > 8.5 K, this system is by definition a damped Ly alpha absorption system (N(HI) >= 2 x 10^20 cm^-2). The line is unusually broad, with a FWHM of 53 km/s and a full span of 163 km/s, suggesting a physically extended HI gas structure. Radio surveys identify damped Ly alpha systems in a manner that bypasses many of the selection effects present in optical/UV surveys, including dust extinction and the atmospheric cutoff for z < 1.65. The smooth broad profile of this HI 21 cm absorption system is similar to the z = 0.89 HI absorption toward PKS 1830-211, which suggests that the absorber toward [HB89] 2351+456 is also a gravitational lens and a molecular absorption system. However, very long baseline interferometry and Hubble Space Telescope observations show little evidence for gravitational lensing, and BIMA millimeter observations show no HCO+ (1-2) or HCN (1-2) absorption down to tau = 0.15 (3 sigma) in 5 km/s channels. Although this radio damped Ly alpha selection technique would include dusty, molecule-rich systems, [HB89] 2351+456 appears to be a ``vanilla'' HI 21 cm absorber.

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arXiv2004

The Impact of Distance Uncertainties on Local Luminosity and Mass Functions

In order to investigate discrepancies between recent published estimates of the the HI mass function (HIMF), we explore the impact of distance uncertainties on the derivation of the faint end slope of mass and luminosity functions of galaxies in the local volume by deriving HIMFs from mock HI surveys. We consider various survey geometries and depths and compare the HIMFs measured when using ``real'' distances, distances derived by assuming pure Hubble flow and distances assigned from parametric models of the local velocity field. The effect is variable and dependent on the exact survey geometry, but can easily lead to incorrect estimates of the HIMF, particularly at the low mass end. We show that at least part of the discrepancies among recent derivations of the HIMF can be accounted for by the use of different methods to assign distances. We conclude that a better understanding of the local velocity field will be necessary for accurate determinations of the local galaxy luminosity and mass functions.

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arXiv2004

Extinction Effects in Spiral Galaxy Rotation Curves

Observations show that the slope of the inner part of the H$α$/[NII] rotation curves of disk galaxies is depressed by extinction: at fixed luminosity, the observed slope is in fact seen to depend on the disk inclination to the line of sight. Using a simple extinction model, we are able to reproduce well the observed trends. The model assumes an exponential distribution, both in the radial and $z$ directions, identical for star--forming regions and dust. Fits to the data are optimized by varying the scale height and scale length of absorbers, as well as the disk's central optical depth $τ_\circ$, as seen face--on. The observations indicate that disk central opacity increases with total luminosity. Model fits for the most luminous galaxies (brighter than $M-5\log h=-21.4$ in the I band) yield $τ_\circ \simeq 3.5^{+4.0}_{-2.0}$, near $λ=0.66$ $μ$m. The large uncertainty on the inferred value of $τ_\circ$ is due to the poorly known characteristics of the distribution of absorbers in the disk, as well as to the likelihood of strong departures from an exponential radial distribution near the galaxy centers.

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