Bibcode
Marinova, Irina; Jogee, Shardha; Weinzirl, Tim; Erwin, Peter; Trentham, Neil; Ferguson, Henry C.; Hammer, Derek; den Brok, Mark; Graham, Alister W.; Carter, David; Balcells, M.; Goudfrooij, Paul; Guzmán, Rafael; Hoyos, Carlos; Mobasher, Bahram; Mouhcine, Mustapha; Peletier, Reynier F.; Peng, Eric W.; Verdoes Kleijn, Gijs
Referencia bibliográfica
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 746, Issue 2, article id. 136 (2012).
Fecha de publicación:
2
2012
Revista
Número de citas
29
Número de citas referidas
28
Descripción
We use high-resolution (~0farcs1) F814W Advanced Camera for Surveys
(ACS) images from the Hubble Space Telescope ACS Treasury survey of the
Coma cluster at z ~ 0.02 to study bars in massive disk galaxies (S0s),
as well as low-mass dwarf galaxies in the core of the Coma cluster, the
densest environment in the nearby universe. Our study helps to constrain
the evolution of bars and disks in dense environments and provides a
comparison point for studies in lower density environments and at higher
redshifts. Our results are: (1) we characterize the fraction and
properties of bars in a sample of 32 bright (M V <~
-18, M * > 109.5 M &sun;) S0
galaxies, which dominate the population of massive disk galaxies in the
Coma core. We find that the measurement of a bar fraction among S0
galaxies must be handled with special care due to the difficulty in
separating unbarred S0s from ellipticals, and the potential dilution of
the bar signature by light from a relatively large, bright bulge. The
results depend sensitively on the method used: the bar fraction for
bright S0s in the Coma core is 50% ± 11%, 65% ± 11%, and
60% ± 11% based on three methods of bar detection, namely, strict
ellipse fit criteria, relaxed ellipse fit criteria, and visual
classification. (2) We compare the S0 bar fraction across different
environments (the Coma core, A901/902, and Virgo) adopting the critical
step of using matched samples and matched methods in order to ensure
robust comparisons. We find that the bar fraction among bright S0
galaxies does not show a statistically significant variation (within the
error bars of ±11%) across environments which span two orders of
magnitude in galaxy number density (n ~ 300-10,000 galaxies
Mpc-3) and include rich and poor clusters, such as the
core of Coma, the A901/902 cluster, and Virgo. We speculate that the bar
fraction among S0s is not significantly enhanced in rich clusters
compared to low-density environments for two reasons. First, S0s in rich
clusters are less prone to bar instabilities as they are dynamically
heated by harassment and are gas poor as a result of ram pressure
stripping and accelerated star formation. Second, high-speed encounters
in rich clusters may be less effective than slow, strong encounters in
inducing bars. (3) We also take advantage of the high resolution of the
ACS (~50 pc) to analyze a sample of 333 faint (M V >
-18) dwarf galaxies in the Coma core. Using visual inspection of
unsharp-masked images, we find only 13 galaxies with bar and/or spiral
structure. An additional eight galaxies show evidence for an inclined
disk. The paucity of disk structures in Coma dwarfs suggests that either
disks are not common in these galaxies or that any disks present are too
hot to develop instabilities.
Based on observations with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope obtained
at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the
Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA
contract NAS 5-26555. These observations are associated with program
GO10861.
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