Astrophysics and Astronomy Commons^™

The Double Galaxy Cluster Abell 2465 – Ii. Star Formation In The Cluster, Gary A. Wegner, Devin S. Chu, Ho Seong Hwang

Dartmouth Scholarship

We investigate the star formation rate and its location in the major merger cluster Abell 2465 at z = 0.245. Optical properties of the cluster are described in Paper I. Measurements of the Hα and infrared dust emission of galaxies in the cluster were made with an interference filter centred on the redshifted line at a wavelength of 817 nm and utilized data from the WISE satellite 12 μm band. Imaging in the Johnson U and B bands was obtained, and along with SDSS u and r was used to study the blue fraction, which appears enhanced, as a further …

The Double Galaxy Cluster Abell 2465 - I. Basic Properties: Optical Imaging And Spectroscopy, Gary A. Wegner

Dartmouth Scholarship

Optical imaging and spectroscopic observations of the z= 0.245 double galaxy cluster Abell 2465 are described. This object appears to be undergoing a major merger. It is a double X-ray source and is detected in the radio at 1.4 GHz. The purpose of this paper is to investigate signatures of the interaction of the two components. Redshifts were measured to determine velocity dispersions and virial radii of each component. The technique of fuzzy clustering was used to assign membership weights to the galaxies in each clump. Using redshifts of 93 cluster members within 1.4 Mpc of the subcluster centres, …

Colours Of Bulges And Discs Within Galaxy Clusters And The Signature Of Disc Fading On Infall, Michael J. Hudson, Jeffrey B. Stevenson, Russell J. Smith, Gary A. Wegner

Dartmouth Scholarship

The origins of the bulge and disc components of galaxies are of primary importance to understanding galaxy formation. Here bulge–disc decomposition is performed simultaneously in B and R bands for 922 bright galaxies in eight nearby (z < 0.06) clusters with deep redshift coverage using photometry from the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) Fundamental Plane Survey. The total galaxy colours follow a universal colour–magnitude relation (CMR). The discs of L_* galaxies are 0.24 mag bluer in B−R than bulges. Bulges have a significant CMR slope while the CMR slope of discs is flat. Thus the slope of the CMR of the total light is driven primarily (60 per cent) by the bulge CMR, and to a lesser extent (40 per cent) by the change in the bulge‐to‐total ratio …

The Acs Survey Of Galactic Globular Clusters. I. Overview And Clusters Without Previoushubble Space Telescope Photometry, Ata Sarajedini, Luigi R. Bedin, Brian Chaboyer, Aaron Dotter, Michael H. Siegel, Jay Anderson, Antonio Aparicio, Ivan King, Steven R. Majewski, A. Marin-Franch, Giampolo Piotto, I. Neill Reid, Alfred Rosenberg

Dartmouth Scholarship

We present the first results of a large Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) survey of Galactic globular clusters. This Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Treasury project is designed to obtain photometry with S/N (signal-to-noise ratio) 10 for main-sequence stars with masses 0.2 M_⊙ in a sample of globulars using the ACS Wide Field Channel. Here we focus on clusters without previous HST imaging data. These include NGC 5466, NGC 6779, NGC 5053, NGC 6144, Palomar 2, E3, Lyngå 7, Palomar 1, and NGC 6366. Our color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) extend reliably from the horizontal branch to as much as …

The Noao Fundamental Plane Survey - Iii. Variations In The Stellar Populations Of Red-Sequence Galaxies From The Cluster Core To The Virial Radius, Russell J. S. Smith, Michael J. Hudson, John R. Lucey, Jenica E. Nelan, Gary A. Wegner

Dartmouth Scholarship

We analyse absorption line-strength indices for ~3000 red-sequence galaxies in 94 nearby clusters, to investigate systematic variations of their stellar content with location in the host cluster. The data are drawn from the NOAO Fundamental Plane Survey. Our adopted method is a generalization of that introduced by Nelan et al. to determine the global age-mass and metallicity-mass relations from the same survey. We find strong evidence for a change in galaxy properties, at fixed mass, over a range from the cluster centre to the virial radius, R_200. For example, red-sequence galaxies further out in the clusters have weaker Mgb5177 (at …

Spatially Resolved Spectroscopy Of Coma Cluster Early-Type Galaxies - Iii. The Stellar Population Gradients, D. Mehlert, D. Thomas, R. P. Saglia, R. Bender, G Wegner

Dartmouth Scholarship

Based on Paper I of this series (Mehlert et al. 2000), we derive central values and logarithmic gradients for the Hβ, Mg and Fe indices of 35 early-type galaxies in the Coma cluster. We find that pure elliptical galaxies have on average slightly higher velocity dispersions, lower Hβ, and higher metallic line-strengths than galaxies with disks (S0). The latter form two families, one comparable to the ellipticals and a second one with significantly higher Hβ, and weaker metallic lines. Our measured logarithmic gradients within the effective radius are ⟨△Mg b⟩ ≈ −0.037, ⟨△⟨Fe⟩⟩ ≈ −0.029, ⟨△Hβ⟩ ≈ +0.017 and ⟨△σ⟩ …

Redshift-Distance Survey Of Early-Type Galaxies: Circular-Aperture Photometry, M. V. Alonso, M. Bernardi, L. N. Da Costa, G. Wegner

Dartmouth Scholarship

We present R -band CCD photometry for 1332 early-type galaxies, observed as part of the ENEAR survey of peculiar motions using early-type galaxies in the nearby universe. Circular apertures are used to trace the surface brightness profiles, which are then fitted by a two-component bulge-disk model. From the fits, we obtain the structural parameters required to estimate galaxy distances using the Dn - and fundamental plane relations. We find that about 12% of the galaxies are well represented by a pure r1/4 law, while 87% are best fitted by a two-component model. There are 356 repeated observations of 257 galaxies …

Observational Constraints On General Relativistic Energy Conditions, Cosmic Matter Density And Dark Energy From X-Ray Clusters Of Galaxies And Type-La Supernovae, P. Schuecker, R. R. Caldwell, H. Böhringer, C. A. Collins

Dartmouth Scholarship

New observational constraints on the cosmic matter density Ωm and an effectively redshift-independent equation

of state parameter wx of the dark energy are obtained while simultaneously testing the strong and null energy conditions of

general relativity on macroscopic scales. The combination of REFLEX X-ray cluster and type-Ia supernova data shows that

for a flat Universe the strong energy condition might presently be violated whereas the null energy condition seems to be

fulfilled. This provides another observational argument for the present accelerated cosmic expansion and the absence of exotic

physical phenomena related to a broken null energy condition. The marginalization of …

Comparing The Sfi Peculiar Velocities With The Pscz Gravity Field: A Velmod Analysis, E. Branchini, W. Freudling, L. N. Da Costa, C. S. Frenk, R. Giovanelli, M. P. Haynes, J. J. Salzer, G. Wegner, I. Zehavi

Dartmouth Scholarship

We compare the peculiar velocities derived from the I-band Tully–Fisher (TF) relation for 989 field spiral galaxies in the SFI catalogue with the predicted velocity field derived from the IRAS PSCz galaxy redshift survey. We assume linear gravitational instability theory and apply the maximum likelihood technique, VELMOD to SFI galaxies within a redshift cz LG =6000 km s⁻¹. The resulting calibration of the TF relation is consistent with a previous, independent calibration for a similar sample of spirals residing in clusters. Our analysis provides an accurate estimate of the quantity β_I ≡ Ω_m^{0.6 …}

The Peculiar Motions Of Early-Type Galaxies In Two Distant Regions - Vi. The Maximum-Likelihood Gaussian Algorithm, M. Colless, R. P. Saglia, D. Burstein, R. L. Davies, R. K. Mcmahan, G. Wegner

Dartmouth Scholarship

The EFAR project is designed to measure the properties and peculiar motions of early-type galaxies in two distant regions. Here we describe the maximum-likelihood algorithm we developed to investigate the correlations between the parameters of the EFAR data base. One-, two- and three-dimensional Gaussian models are constructed to determine the mean value and intrinsic spread of the parameters, and the slopes and intrinsic parallel and orthogonal spread of the Mg₂–Mgb′,Mg₂–σ,Mgb′–σ relations, and the Fundamental Plane. In the latter case, the cluster peculiar velocities are also determined. We show that this method is superior to …

The Peculiar Motions Of Early-Type Galaxies In Two Distant Regions -- Vii. Peculiar Velocities And Bulk Motions, Matthew Colless, R. P. Saglia, David Burstein, Roger L. Davies, Robert K. Mcmahan Jr, Gary Wegner

Dartmouth Scholarship

We present peculiar velocities for 85 clusters of galaxies in two large volumes at distances between 6000 and 15 000 km s⁻¹ in the directions of Hercules-Corona Borealis and Perseus-Pisces-Cetus (the EFAR sample). These velocities are based on Fundamental Plane (FP) distance estimates for early-type galaxies in each cluster. We fit the FP using a maximum likelihood algorithm which accounts for both selection effects and measurement errors, and yields FP parameters with smaller bias and variance than other fitting procedures. We obtain a best-fitting FP with coefficients consistent with the best existing determinations. We measure the bulk motions of …

Starbursts Versus Truncated Star Formation In Nearby Clusters Of Galaxies, James A. Rose, Alejandro E. E. Gaba, Nelson Caldwell, Brian Chaboyer

Dartmouth Scholarship

We present long-slit spectroscopy, B - and R -bandpass imaging, and 21 cm observations of a sample of early-type galaxies in nearby clusters, which are known to be either in a star-forming phase or to have had star formation that recently terminated. From the long-slit spectra, obtained with the Blanco 4 m telescope, we ‹nd that emission lines in the star-forming cluster galaxies are signi‹cantly more centrally concentrated than in a sample of ‹eld galaxies. The broadband imaging reveals that two currently starforming early-type galaxies in the Pegasus I cluster have blue nuclei, again indicating that recent star formation has …

The Warps Survey - Iv. The X-Ray Luminosity-Temperature Relation Of High-Redshift Galaxy Clusters, B. W. Fairley, L. R. Jones, C. Scharf, H. Ebeling, E. Perlman, D. Horner, G. Wegner, M. Malkan

Dartmouth Scholarship

We present a measurement of the cluster X-ray luminosity-temperature (L-T) relation out to high redshift (z∼0.8). Combined ROSAT PSPC spectra of 91 galaxy clusters detected in the Wide Angle ROSAT Pointed Survey (WARPS) are simultaneously fitted in redshift and luminosity bins. The resulting temperature and luminosity measurements of these bins, which occupy a region of the high-redshift L-T relation not previously sampled, are compared with existing measurements at low redshift in order to constrain the evolution of the L-T relation. We find the best fit to low-redshift (z<0.2) cluster data, at T …