arXiv subjects

Serafim S. Kaisin

Publications and source records attributed to Serafim S. Kaisin.

12 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

KDG 162: A Nearby Isolated Star-forming Dwarf Galaxy

The nearby dwarf galaxy KDG 162 (also known as KK 153) has recently attracted attention as a potentially gas-rich, isolated, and low-mass dwarf galaxy. However, many of these characterizations depend on the true distance to KDG 162. Here we present new Hubble Space Telescope (HST) imaging that resolves individual stars down to 3 magnitudes below the tip of the red giant branch. Using this HST imaging, we determine a distance to KDG 162 of D = 3.48 $\pm$ 0.12 Mpc, somewhat higher than previous determinations. We find KDG 162 to be relatively isolated and lying at the edge of first infall onto the M81 group. We use its stellar content to measure its recent star formation history and find that only a modest amount of star formation can be attributed to within the last $\sim$500 Myr. The present-day stellar mass outweighs the H I mass by a factor of 2$\times$. The properties of KDG 162 add to an increasingly detailed picture of nearby and isolated low-mass galaxies. In the future, deeper observations would allow for reaching more age-sensitive populations, enabling the recovery of its star-formation history back to ancient times.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2024

New radial velocities for 40 nearby dwarf galaxies

The 6-meter BTA telescope has been used to determine radial velocities for 40 galaxies, recently identified in the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys as nearby objects. Half of them have kinematic distances within 11 Mpc being new probable companions to the bright Local Volume galaxies: NGC628, Maffei2, NGC2787, M81, NGC4605 and NGC4631. Six relatively isolated objects with heliocentric velocities in the range of $[-150, +70]$km s$^{-1}$, together with the blue compact dwarf NGC 6789, form a diffuse association of dwarf galaxies located in the near part of the Local Void.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2024

Addition of the Local Volume sample of galaxies from the FAST HI survey

{We report the discovery of 20 new dwarf galaxies in the Local Volume identified as optical counterparts to the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) All Sky HI Survey (FASHI) sources. The galaxies have a median stellar mass of $7.8\times 10^6~M_{\odot}$ and a median HI mass of $1.0\times 10^7~M_{\odot}$. Most of them are field galaxies, while three are probable members of the M 101 and M 106 groups. We also found seven FASHI radio sources to be probable dark HI clouds in nearby groups. Together with four other known HI clouds in the local groups, their mean-square radial velocity difference of 49~km~s$^{-1}$ with respect to the host galaxies yields an average total mass of ($2.7\pm1.0)\times10^{11}~M_{\odot}$ for these groups on the projected scale of 90 kpc.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2023

The M101 galaxy group as a node in the nearby cosmic filament

We performed a search for faint low surface brightness dwarf galaxies around the major spiral galaxy M\,101 and in the large rectangular area within SGL = [30 -- 80]$^{\circ}$, SGB =[10 -- 37]$^{\circ}$ spanning a chain of galaxies: M\,63, M\,51, M\,101, and NGC\,6503, based on the data from DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys. Six new supposed dwarf members of the complex were discovered. We present a list of 25 prospective members of the M\,101 group and estimate the total mass and the total-mass-to-$K$-band luminosity ratio of the group as $(1.02\pm0.42)\times10^{12}~M_{\odot}$ and $(16.0\pm6.5)~M_{\odot}/L_{\odot}$, respectively. We notice that the average dark mass-to-luminosity ratio in the groups around M\,63, M\,51, and M\,101 is $(12\pm4)M_{\odot}/L_{\odot}$ that almost an order of magnitude lower than the global cosmic ratio, $(102\pm5)M_{\odot}/L_{\odot}$.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2021

KK 242, a faint companion to the isolated Scd galaxy NGC 6503

Using Hubble Space Telescope imaging of the resolved stellar population of KK~242 = NGC6503-d1 = PGC~4689184, we measure the distance to the galaxy to be $6.46\pm0.32$ Mpc and find that KK~242 is a satellite of the low-mass spiral galaxy NGC~6503 located on the edge of the Local Void. Observations with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array show signs of a very faint HI-signal at the position of KK~242 within a velocity range of $V_{hel} = -80\pm10$ km\,s$^{-1}$. This velocity range is severely contaminated by HI emission from the Milky Way and from NGC6503. The dwarf galaxy is classified as the transition type, dIrr/dSph, with a total HI-mass of $< 10^6 M_{\odot}$ and a star formation rate SFR(H$α$) = --4.82 dex ($M{\odot}$/yr). Being at a projected separation of 31 kpc with a radial velocity difference of -- 105 km\,s$^{-1}$ relative to NGC~6503, KK~242 gives an estimate of the halo mass of the spiral galaxy to be $\log(M/M_{\odot}$) = 11.6. Besides NGC~6503, there are 8 more detached low-luminosity spiral galaxies in the Local Volume: M~33, NGC~2403, NGC~7793, NGC~1313, NGC~4236, NGC~5068, NGC~4656 and NGC~7640, from whose small satellites we have estimated the average total mass of the host galaxies and their average total mass-to-K-band-luminosity $\langle M_T/M_{\odot}\rangle = (3.46\pm0.84)\times 10^{11}$ and $(58\pm19) M_{\odot}/L_{\odot}$, respectively.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2015

Cold HI in faint dwarf galaxies

We present the results of a study of the amount and distribution of cold atomic gas, as well its correlation with recent star formation in a sample of extremely faint dwarf irregular galaxies. Our sample is drawn from the Faint Irregular Galaxy GMRT Survey (FIGGS) and its extension, FIGGS2. We use two different methods to identify cold atomic gas. In the first method, line-of-sight HI spectra were decomposed into multiple Gaussian components and narrow Gaussian components were identified as cold HI. In the second method, the brightness temperature (T_B) is used as a tracer of cold HI. We find that the amount of cold gas identified using the T_B method is significantly larger than the amount of gas identified using Gaussian decomposition. We also find that a large fraction of the cold gas identified using the T_B method is spatially coincident with regions of recent star formation, although the converse is not true. That is only a small fraction of the regions with recent star formation are also covered by cold gas. For regions where the star formation and the cold gas overlap, we study the relationship between the star formation rate density and the cold \HI column density. We find that the star formation rate density has a power law dependence on the HI column density, but that the slope of this power law is significantly flatter than that of the canonical Kennicutt-Schmidt relation.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2014

The relation between atomic gas and star formation rate densities in faint irregular galaxies

We use data for faint (M_B > -14.5) dwarf irregular galaxies drawn from the FIGGS survey to study the correlation between the atomic gas density (Sigma_gas,atomic) and star formation rate (Sigma_SFR) in the galaxies. The estimated gas phase metallicity of our sample galaxies is Z ~ 0.1 Z_sun. Understanding star formation in such molecule poor gas is of particular importance since it is likely to be of direct relevance to simulations of early galaxy formation. For about 20% (9/43) of our sample galaxies, we find that the HI distribution is significantly disturbed, with little correspondence between the optical and HI distributions. We exclude these galaxies from the comparison. We also exclude galaxies with very low star formation rates, for which stochastic effects make it difficult to estimate the true star formation rates. For the remaining galaxies we compute the Sigma_gas,atomic and Sigma_SFR averaged over the entire star forming disk of the galaxy. For these galaxies we find a nearly linear relation between the star formation rate and the atomic gas surface densities. The corresponding gas consumption timescale is ~ 10 Gyr, i.e. significantly smaller than the ~ 100 Gyr estimated for the outer regions of spiral galaxies. We also estimate the gas consumption timescale computed using the global gas content and the global star formation rate for all galaxies with a reliable measurement of the star formation rate, regardless of whether the HI distribution is disturbed or not. The mean gas consumption timescale computed using this entire gas reservoir is ~ 18 Gyr, i.e. still significantly smaller than that estimated for the outer parts of spirals. The gas consumption timescale for dwarfs is intermediate between the values of ~ 100 Gyr and ~ 2 Gyr estimated for the outer molecule poor and inner molecule rich regions of spiral disks.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2012

Atomic hydrogen, star formation and feedback in the lowest mass Blue Compact Dwarf galaxies

We present the results from a search for HI emission from a sample of newly discovered dwarf galaxies in the M81 group. HI is detected in three galaxies, all of which are classified as BCDs. The HI masses of these galaxies are ~ 10^6 M_sun, making these some of the lowest mass BCDs known. For these three galaxies FUV images (from GALEX) and H-alpha images (from the Russian 6m BTA telescope) are available.The H-alpha emission is very faint, and, in principle could be produced by a single O star. Further, in all cases we find offsets between the peak of the FUV emission and that of the H-alpha emission. Offsets between the most recent sites of star formation (i.e. those traced by H-alpha) and the older sites (i.e. those traced by FUV) would be natural if the star formation is stochastic. In spite of the expectation that the effects of mechanical feedback from star formation would be most directly seen in the smallest galaxies with low gravitational potentials, we only see tentative evidence of outflowing HI gas associated with the star forming region in one of the galaxies.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2011

Small Bites: Star formation recipes in extreme dwarfs

We study the relationship between the gas column density (Sigma_HI) and the star formation rate surface density (Sigma_SFR) for a sample of extremely small (M_B ~ -13, Delta V_50 ~ 30 km/s) dwarf irregular galaxies. We find a clear stochasticity in the relation between the gas column density and star formation. All gas with Sigma_HI >~ 10 M_sun/pc^2 has some ongoing star formation, but the fraction of gas with ongoing star formation decreases as the gas column density decreases, and falls to about 50% at Sigma_HI ~ 3 M_sun/pc^2. Further, even for the most dense gas, the star formation efficiency is at least a factor of ~ 2 smaller than typical of star forming regions in spirals. We also find that the ratio of H-alpha emission to FUV emission increases with increasing gas column density. This is unlikely to be due to increasing dust extinction because the required dust to gas ratios are too high. We suggest instead that this correlation arises because massive (i.e. H-alpha producing) stars are formed preferentially in regions with high gas density.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2010

More galaxies in the Local Volume imaged in H-alpha

We have carried out an H-alpha flux measurement for 52 nearby galaxies as part of a general H-alpha imaging survey for the Local Volume sample of galaxies within 10 Mpc. Most of the objects are probable members of the groups around Maffei 2/IC 342, NGC 672/IC 1727, NGC 784, and the Orion galaxy. The measured H-alpha fluxes corrected for extinction are used to derive the galaxy star formation rate (SFR). We briefly discuss some basic scaling relations between SFR, hydrogen mass and absolute magnitude of the Local Volume galaxies. The total SFR density in the local (z = 0) universe is estimated to be (0.019+/-0.003) M_sun yr/Mpc^3.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2007

Probe of dark galaxies via disturbed/ lopsided isolated galaxies

Searching for lopsided/interacting objects among ~1500 isolated galaxies yields only eight strongly disturbed galaxies which may be explained as a result of their interaction with massive dark objects. We present results of spectral and photometric observations of these galaxies performed with the 6-m telescope that lead to significant restriction on cosmic abundance of dark galaxies.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2007

A view of the M81 galaxy group via the H-alpha window

We present images for 36 galaxies of the M81 group obtained in the H-alpha line. Estimates of the H-alpha flux and star formation rate, SFR, are avialable now for all the known members of the group with absolute magnitudes down to M_B = -10^m. The character of distribution of the galaxies over three paremeters: M_B, SFR, and total hydrogen mass permits us to draw the following conclusions as to evolution status of the group population. a) Spiral and irregular type galaxies would have time to generate their luminosity (baryon mass) during the cosmological time T_0=13.7 Gyr, but dwarf spheroidal objects are capable of reproducing only ~5% of their observed luminosity. b) S and Im, BCD galaxies possess the supply of gas sufficient to maintain their observed SFRs during only next (1/4 -1/3)T_0 years, while dIr and dSph populations have the mean gas depletion time about 3 T_0. c) There is indirect evidence that the star formation in Im, BCD and dIr galaxies proceeds in a mode of vigorous burst activity rather than in the form of a sluggish process. We note the dwarf tidal system near NGC 3077, the Garland, to have the highest SFR per unit luminosity among 150 galaxies of the Local volume with known SFRs. Being averaged over the local "cell of homogeneity" of 4 Mpc in diameter around M 81, the rate of star formation of the group, rho(SFR)= 0.165 M_sun/year*Mpc^3, proves to be 5-8 times higher than, that of the average global rate at Z =0.

astro-ph↗