Astrophysics and Astronomy Commons^™

A Tale Of Two Narrow-Line Regions: Ionization, Kinematics, And Spectral Energy Distributions For A Local Pair Of Merging Obscured Active Galaxies, Kevin N. Hainline, Ryan C. Hickox, Chien-Ting Chen, Christopher M. Carroll, Mackenzie L. Jones, Alexandros S. Zervos, Andrew D. Goulding

Dartmouth Scholarship

We explore the gas ionization and kinematics, as well as the optical-IR spectral energy distributions for UGC 11185, a nearby pair of merging galaxies hosting obscured active galactic nuclei (AGNs), also known as SDSS J181611.72+423941.6 and J181609.37+423923.0 (J1816NE and J1816SW, z ≈ 0.04). Due to the wide separation between these interacting galaxies (~23 kpc), observations of these objects provide a rare glimpse of the concurrent growth of supermassive black holes at an early merger stage. We use BPT line diagnostics to show that the full extent of the narrow-line emission in both galaxies is photoionized by an AGN, and confirm …

Extending The Supermassive Black Hole Mass-Pitch Angle Relation To Moderate Redshifts, Logan H. Jones

Physics Undergraduate Honors Theses

I extend the empirical correlation between central supermassive black hole mass M and spiral arm pitch angle P in spiral galaxies to intermediate redshifts using a sample of 14 type 1 Seyfert galaxies. Nuclear black hole masses are measured from the widths and luminosities of the broad Hβ and MgII emission lines, and pitch angles are measured using two independent image analysis techniques. I find the best-fit relation log(M/M☉) = (8.31 ± 0.28) − (0.058 ± 0.016)P, which indicates little to no evolution compared to the published M-P relation for local spirals.

The Sluggs Survey*: Exploring The Globular Cluster Systems Of The Leo Ii Group And Their Global Relationships, Sreeja Kartha, Duncan Forbes, Adebusola Alabi, Jean Brodie, Aaron Romanowsky, Jay Strader, Lee Spitler, Zachary Jennings, Joel Roediger

Faculty Publications

We present an investigation of the globular cluster (GC) systems of NGC 3607 and NGC 3608 as part of the ongoing SLUGGS (SAGES Legacy Unifying Globulars and GalaxieS) survey. We use wide-field imaging data from the Subaru telescope in the g, r and i filters to analyse the radial density, colour and azimuthal distributions of both GC systems. With the complementary kinematic data obtained from the Keck II telescope, we measure the radial velocities of a total of 81 GCs. Our results show that the GC systems of NGC 3607 and NGC 3608 have a detectable spatial extent of ∼15 …

The Sluggs Survey: Globular Clusters And The Dark Matter Content Of Early-Type Galaxies, Duncan Forbes, Adebusola Alabi, Aaron Romanowsky, Jean Brodie, Jay Strader, Christopher Usher, Vincenzo Pota

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Tev Gamma-Ray Observations Of The Galactic Center Ridge By Veritas, P. T. Reynolds, Et Al

Physical Sciences Publications

The Galactic Center ridge has been observed extensively in the past by both GeV and TeV gamma-ray instruments revealing a wealth of structure, including a diffuse component and the point sources G0.9+0.1 (a composite supernova remnant) and Sgr A* (believed to be associated with the supermassive black hole located at the center of our Galaxy). Previous very high energy (VHE) gamma-ray observations with the H.E.S.S. experiment have also detected an extended TeV gamma-ray component along the Galactic plane in the >300 GeV gamma-ray regime. Here we report on observations of the Galactic Center ridge from 2010 to 2014 by the …

Erratum: The Sluggs Survey: The Globular Cluster Systems Of Three Early-Type Galaxies Using Wide-Field Imaging, Sreeja Kartha, Duncan Forbes, Lee Spitler, Aaron Romanowsky, Jacob Arnold, Jean Brodie

Faculty Publications

The paper ‘The SLUGGS survey: the globular cluster systems of three early-type galaxies using wide-field imaging’ was published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 437, 273 – 292 (2014).

The Sluggs Survey: The Assembly Histories Of Individual Early-Type Galaxies, Duncan Forbes, Aaron Romanowsky, Nicola Pastorello, Caroline Foster, Jean Brodie, Jay Strader, Christopher Usher, Vincenzo Pota

Faculty Publications

Early-type (E and S0) galaxies may have assembled via a variety of different evolutionary pathways. Here, we investigate these pathways by comparing the stellar kinematic properties of 24 early-type galaxies from the SAGES Legacy Unifying Globulars and GalaxieS (SLUGGS) survey with the hydrodynamical simulations of Naab et al. In particular, we use the kinematics of starlight up to 4 effective radii (Re) as diagnostics of galaxy inner and outer regions, and assign each galaxy to one of six Naab et al. assembly classes. The majority of our galaxies (14/24) have kinematic characteristics that indicate an assembly history dominated by gradual …

Discovery Of An Ultra-Diffuse Galaxy In The Pisces-Perseus Supercluster, David Martínez-Delgado, Ronald Läsker, Margarita Sharina, Elisa Toloba, Jürgen Fliri, Rachael Beaton, David Valls-Gabaud, Igor Karachentsev, Taylor Chonis, Eva Grebel, Duncan Forbes, Aaron Romanowsky, J. Gallego-Laborda, Karel Teuwen, M. Gómez-Flechoso, Jie Wang, Puragra Guhathakurta, Serafim Kaisin, Nhung Ho

Faculty Publications

We report the discovery of DGSAT I, an ultra-diffuse, quenched galaxy located 10fdg4 in projection from the Andromeda galaxy (M31). This low-surface brightness galaxy (μV = 24.8 mag arcsec−2), found with a small amateur telescope, appears unresolved in sub-arcsecond archival Subaru/Suprime-Cam images, and hence has been missed by optical surveys relying on resolved star counts, in spite of its relatively large effective radius (Re(V) = 12'') and proximity (15') to the well-known dwarf spheroidal galaxy And II. Its red color (V − I = 1.0), shallow Sérsic index (nV = 0.68), and the absence of detectable Hα emission are typical …

Peering Through The Dust: Nustar Observations Of Two First-2mass Red Quasars, Stephanie M. Lamassa, Angelo Ricarte, Eilat Glikman, C. Megan Urry, Daniel Stern, Tahir Yaqoob, George B. Lansbury, Francesca Civano

Dartmouth Scholarship

Some reddened quasars appear to be transitional objects in the merger-induced black hole growth/galaxy evolution paradigm, where a heavily obscured nucleus starts to be unveiled by powerful quasar winds evacuating the surrounding cocoon of dust and gas. Hard X-ray observations are able to peer through this gas and dust, revealing the properties of circumnuclear obscuration. Here, we present NuSTAR and XMM-Newton/Chandra observations of FIRST-2MASS selected red quasars F2M 0830+3759 and F2M 1227+3214. We find that though F2M 0830+3759 is moderately obscured (N_H,Z=2.1±0.2×10²² cm⁻²) and F2M 1227+3214 is mildly absorbed (N_H,Z=3.4+0.8−0.7×10²¹ cm^{−2 …}

The Sluggs Survey: Stellar Kinematics, Kinemetry And Trends At Large Radii In 25 Early-Type Galaxies, Caroline Foster, Nicola Pastorello, Joel Roediger, Jean Brodie, Duncan Forbes, Sreeja Kartha, Vincenzo Pota, Aaron Romanowsky, Lee Spitler, Jay Strader, Christopher Usher, Jacob Arnold

Faculty Publications

Due to longer dynamical time-scales, the outskirts of early-type galaxies retain the footprint of their formation and assembly. Under the popular two-phase galaxy formation scenario, an initial in situ phase of star formation is followed by minor merging and accretion of ex situ stars leading to the expectation of observable transitions in the kinematics and stellar populations on large scales. However, observing the faint galactic outskirts is challenging, often leaving the transition unexplored. The large-scale, spatially resolved stellar kinematic data from the SAGES Legacy Unifying Galaxies and GlobularS (SLUGGS) survey are ideal for detecting kinematic transitions. We present kinematic maps …

Satellite Accretion In Action: A Tidally Disrupting Dwarf Spheroidal Around The Nearby Spiral Galaxy Ngc 253, Aaron Romanowsky, David Martínez-Delgado, Nicolas Martin, Gustavo Morales, Zachary Jennings, R. Gabany, Jean Brodie, Eva Grebel, Johannes Schedler, Michael Sidonio

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Sluggs Survey: Chromodynamical Modelling Of The Lenticular Galaxy Ngc 1023, Arianna Cortesi, Ana Chies-Santos, Vincenzo Pota, Caroline Foster, Lodovico Coccato, Claudia Mendes De Oliveira, Duncan Forbes, Michael Merrifield, Steven Bamford, Aaron Romanowsky, Jean Brodie, Sreeja Kartha, Adebusola Alabi, Robert Proctor, Andres Almeida

Faculty Publications

Globular clusters (GCs) can be considered discrete, long-lived, dynamical tracers that retain crucial information about the assembly history of their parent galaxy. In this paper, we present a new catalogue of GC velocities and colours for the lenticular galaxy NGC 1023, we study their kinematics and spatial distribution, in comparison with the underlying stellar kinematics and surface brightness profile, and we test a new method for studying GC properties. Specifically, we decompose the galaxy light into its spheroid (assumed to represent the bulge+halo components) and disc components and use it to assign to each GC a probability of belonging to …

Probing The Fitting Accuracy Of Active Galaxy Spectra, Aaron T. Line

Physics

Prior to this study, Dr. Vardha N. Bennert and collaborators selected a sample of ~100 local active galaxies to study the relationships between black hole mass and host galaxy properties. The broad Hβ width is necessary to determine black hole mass. This value is determined using a spectral decomposition code was scripted in IDL by Dr. Daeseong Park. The script fit spectral features and collected data for properties such as width of emission lines and continuum contribution percentages. The results were logged for further analysis.

To probe the accuracy of the fitting process, artificial spectra were created and fitted to …

A Search For Brief Optical Flashes Associated With The Seti Target Kic 8462852, P. T. Reynolds, Et Al

Physical Sciences Publications

The F-type star KIC 8462852 has recently been identified as an exceptional target for search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) observations. We describe an analysis methodology for optical SETI, which we have used to analyze nine hours of serendipitous archival observations of KIC 8462852 made with the VERITAS gamma-ray observatory between 2009 and 2015. No evidence of pulsed optical beacons, above a pulse intensity at the Earth of approximately , is found. We also discuss the potential use of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescope arrays in searching for extremely short duration optical transients in general.

Erratum: Global Properties Of ‘Ordinary’ Early-Type Galaxies: Photometry And Spectroscopy Of Stars And Globular Clusters In Ngc 4494, Caroline Foster, Lee Spitler, Aaron Romanowsky, Duncan Forbes, Vincenzo Pota, Kenji Bekki, Jay Strader, Robert Proctor, Jacob Arnold, Jean Brodie

Faculty Publications

This is an erratum to the paper entitled “Global properties of ‘ordinary’ early-type galaxies: photometry and spectroscopy of stars and globular clusters in NGC 4494”, published in MNRAS, 2011, 415, 3393.

The Impact Of The Dusty Torus On Obscured Quasar Halo Mass Measurements, M. A. Dipompeo, J. C. Runnoe, R. C. Hickox, A. D. Myers, J. E. Geach

Dartmouth Scholarship

Recent studies have found that obscured quasars cluster more strongly and are thus hosted by dark matter haloes of larger mass than their unobscured counterparts. These results pose a challenge for the simplest unification models, in which obscured objects are intrinsically the same as unobscured sources but seen through a dusty line of sight. There is general consensus that a structure like a "dusty torus" exists, meaning that this intrinsic similarity is likely the case for at least some subset of obscured quasars. However, the larger host halo masses of obscured quasars implies that there is a second obscured population …

The Aimss Project – Iii. The Stellar Populations Of Compact Stellar Systems, Joachim Janz, Mark Norris, Duncan Forbes, Avon Huxor, Aaron Romanowsky, Matthias Frank, Carlos Escudero, Favio Faifer, Juan Forte, Sheila Kannappan, Claudia Maraston, Jean Brodie, Jay Strader, Bradley Thompson

Faculty Publications

In recent years, a growing zoo of compact stellar systems (CSSs) have been found whose physical properties (mass, size, velocity dispersion) place them between classical globular clusters (GCs) and true galaxies, leading to debates about their nature. Here we present results using a so far underutilized discriminant, their stellar population properties. Based on new spectroscopy from 8–10m telescopes, we derive ages, metallicities, and [α/Fe] of 29 CSSs. These range from GCs with sizes of merely a few parsec to compact ellipticals (cEs) larger than M32. Together with a literature compilation, this provides a panoramic view of the stellar population characteristics …

Exceptionally Bright Tev Flares From The Binary Ls I+61 Degrees 303, P. T. Reynolds, Et Al

Physical Sciences Publications

The TeV binary system LS I +61° 303 is known for its regular, non-thermal emission pattern that traces the orbital period of the compact object in its 26.5 day orbit around its B0 Ve star companion. The system typically presents elevated TeV emission around apastron passage with flux levels between 5% and 15% of the steady flux from the Crab Nebula (>300 GeV). In this article, VERITAS observations of LS I +61° 303 taken in late 2014 are presented, during which bright TeV flares around apastron at flux levels peaking above 30% of the Crab Nebula flux were detected. …

Discovery Of The Candidate Off-Nuclear Ultrasoft Hyper-Luminous X-Ray Source 3xmm J141711.1+522541, Dacheng Lin, Eleazar Carrasco, Natalie Webb, Jimmy Irwin, Renato Dupke, Aaron Romanowsky, Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz, Jay Strader, Jeroen Homan, Didier Barret, Olivier Godet

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

An Overmassive Dark Halo Around An Ultra-Diffuse Galaxy In The Virgo Cluster, Michael Beasley, Aaron Romanowsky, Vincenzo Pota, Ignacio Navarro, David Martinez-Delgado, Fabian Neyer, Aaron Deich

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

New Spectroscopic Technique Based On Coaddition Of Surface Brightness Fluctuations: Ngc 4449 And Its Stellar Tidal Stream, Elisa Toloba, Puragra Guhathakurta, Aaron Romanowsky, Jean Brodie, David Martínez-Delgado, Jacob Arnold, Neel Ramachandran, Kuriakose Theakanath

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Stellar Populations Across The Black Hole Mass–Velocity Dispersion Relation, Ignacio Martín-Navarro, Jean Brodie, Remco Van Den Bosch, Aaron Romanowsky, Duncan Forbes

Faculty Publications

Coevolution between supermassive black holes (BH) and their host galaxies is universally adopted in models for galaxy formation. In the absence of feedback from active galactic nuclei (AGNs), simulated massive galaxies keep forming stars in the local universe. From an observational point of view, however, such coevolution remains unclear. We present a stellar population analysis of galaxies with direct BH mass measurements and the BH mass–σ relation as a working framework. We find that over-massive BH galaxies, i.e., galaxies lying above the best-fitting BH mass–σ line, tend to be older and more α-element-enhanced than under-massive BH galaxies. The scatter in …

Star Clusters In M31. Vii. Global Kinematics And Metallicity Subpopulations Of The Globular Clusters, Nelson Caldwell, Aaron Romanowsky

Faculty Publications

We carry out a joint spatial–kinematical–metallicity analysis of globular clusters (GCs) around the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), using a homogeneous, high-quality spectroscopic data set. In particular, we remove the contaminating young clusters that have plagued many previous analyses. We find that the clusters can be divided into three major metallicity groups based on their radial distributions: (1) an inner metal-rich group ([Fe/H] > -0.4); (2) a group with intermediate metallicity (with median [Fe/H] = −1); and (3) a metal-poor group, with [Fe/H] < -1.5. The metal-rich group has kinematics and spatial properties like those of the disk of M31, while the two more metal-poor groups show mild prograde rotation overall, with larger dispersions—in contrast to previous claims of stronger rotation. The metal-poor GCs are the least concentrated group; such clusters occur five times less frequently in the central bulge than do clusters of higher metallicity. Despite some well-known differences between the M31 and Milky Way GC systems, our revised analysis points to remarkable similarities in their chemodynamical properties, which could help elucidate the different formation stages of galaxies and their GCs. In particular, the M31 results motivate further exploration of a metal-rich GC formation mode in situ, within high-redshift, clumpy galactic disks.

Erratum: “Ngc 3628-Ucd1: A Possible Ω Cen Analog Embedded In A Stellar Stream” (2015, Apjl, 812, L10), Zachary Jennings, Aaron Romanowsky, Jean Brodie, Joachim Janz, Mark Norris, Duncan Forbes, David Martinez-Delgado, Martina Fagioli, Samantha Penny

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Modeling Extrasolar Trojan Asteroids In Gravitational Potentials Of Migrating Jovian-Like Planets To Inform Future Observations, Austin Hinkel

Lewis Honors College Capstone Collection

In this paper, I construct a program to map the evolution of the potential in a planet-star system where a planet with a few Jupiter masses migrates inward. Given a trojan asteroid librating around the fourth or fifth Lagrange point, the asteroid follows the evolving equipotential lines of the slowly changing potential map. As the planet and its trojan asteroids migrate inward towards the host star, the trojan asteroid librations become tighter, providing a denser “cloud” of trojan asteroids. Such a change in the density of trojan asteroids is examined with the intent to deduce the likelihood of detection via …

The Sluggs Survey: A New Mask Design To Reconstruct The Stellar Populations And Kinematics Of Both Inner And Outer Galaxy Regions, Nicola Pastorello, Duncan Forbes, Adriano Poci, Aaron Romanowsky, Richard Mcdermid, Adebusola Alabi, Jean Brodie, Michele Cappellari, Vincenzo Pota, Caroline Foster

Faculty Publications

Integral field unit spectrographs allow the 2D exploration of the kinematics and stellar populations of galaxies, although they are generally restricted to small fields-of-view. Using the large field-of-view of the DEIMOS multislit spectrograph on Keck and our Stellar Kinematics using Multiple Slits technique, we are able to extract sky-subtracted stellar light spectra to large galactocentric radii. Here, we present a new DEIMOS mask design named SuperSKiMS that explores large spatial scales without sacrificing high spatial sampling. We simulate a set of observations with such a mask design on the nearby galaxy NGC 1023, measuring stellar kinematics and metallicities out to …

Robert Gowdy On Ripples In Space-Time, Dan Gaitanis

AUCTUS: The Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Scholarship

In February, a team of scientists announced that they had detected the sound of two black holes, some billion light years away, and that it confirmed the last part of Albert Einstein’s “Theory of Relativity.” It was a very faint sound, picked up by two detectors in the United States.

The Encyclopedia Of Neutrosophic Researchers - Vol. 1, Florentin Smarandache

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

This is the first volume of the Encyclopedia of Neutrosophic Researchers, edited from materials offered by the authors who responded to the editor’s invitation. The authors are listed alphabetically. The introduction contains a short history of neutrosophics, together with links to the main papers and books. Neutrosophic set, neutrosophic logic, neutrosophic probability, neutrosophic statistics, neutrosophic measure, neutrosophic precalculus, neutrosophic calculus and so on are gaining significant attention in solving many real life problems that involve uncertainty, impreciseness, vagueness, incompleteness, inconsistent, and indeterminacy. In the past years the fields of neutrosophics have been extended and applied in various fields, such as: …

First Results From The Madcash Survey: A Faint Dwarf Galaxy Companion To The Low-Mass Spiral Galaxy Ngc 2403 At 3.2 Mpc*, Jeffrey Carlin, David Sand, Paul Price, Beth Willman, Ananthan Karunakaran, Kristine Spekkens, Eric Bell, Jean Brodie, Denija Crnojević, Duncan Forbes, Jonathan Hargis, Evan Kirby, Robert Lupton, Annika Peter, Aaron Romanowsky, Jay Strader

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A High Stellar Velocity Dispersion And ~100 Globular Clusters For The Ultra-Diffuse Galaxy Dragonfly 44, Pieter Van Dokkum, Roberto Abraham, Jean Brodie, Charlie Conroy, Shany Danieli, Allison Merritt, Lamiya Mowla, Aaron Romanowsky, Jielai Zhang

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.