Prof Chris Lintott

Abstract:

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Abstract:

Abstract Recent observations and simulations have revealed the dominance of secular processes over mergers in driving the growth of both supermassive black holes (SMBH) and galaxy evolution. Here we obtain narrowband imaging of AGN powered outflows in a sample of 12 galaxies with disk-dominated morphologies, whose history is assumed to be merger-free. We detect outflows in 10/12 sources in narrow band imaging of the $\mathrm{\left[ O \small {III}\right] }$ $5007~\mathring{\rm A}$ emission using filters on the Shane-3m telescope. We calculate a mean outflow rate for these AGN of $0.95\pm 0.14~\rm {M}_{\odot }~\rm {yr}^{-1}$. This exceeds the mean accretion rate of their SMBHs ($0.054\pm 0.039~\rm {M}_{\odot }~\rm {yr}^{-1}$) by a factor of ∼18. Assuming that the galaxy must provide at least enough material to power both the AGN and the outflow, this gives a lower limit on the average inflow rate of $\sim 1.01\pm 0.14~\rm {M}_{\odot }~\rm {yr}^{-1}$, a rate which simulations show can be achieved by bars, spiral arms and cold accretion. We compare our disk dominated sample to a sample of nearby AGN with merger dominated histories and show that the black hole accretion rates in our sample are 5 times higher (4.2σ) and the outflow rates are 5 times lower ( 2.6σ). We suggest that this could be a result of the geometry of the smooth, planar inflow in a secular dominated system, which is both spinning up the black hole to increase accretion efficiency and less affected by feedback from the outflow, than in a merger-driven system with chaotic quasi-spherical inflows. This work provides further evidence that secular processes are sufficient to fuel SMBH growth.

Abstract:

© 2019. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.. Dust lanes bisect the plane of a typical edge-on spiral galaxy as a dark optical absorption feature. Their appearance is linked to the gravitational stability of spiral disks; the fraction of edge-on galaxies that displays a dust lane is a direct indicator of the typical vertical balance between gravity and turbulence: a balance struck between the energy input from star formation and the gravitational pull into the plane of the disk. Based on morphological classifications by the Galaxy Zoo project on the Kilo Degree Survey (KiDS) imaging data in the Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA) fields, we explore the relation of dust lanes to the galaxy characteristics, most of which were determined using the Magphys spectral energy distribution fitting tool: stellar mass, total and specific star formation rates, and several parameters describing the cold dust component. We find that the fraction of dust lanes does depend on the stellar mass of the galaxy; they start to appear at M∗ ∼109 M o. A dust lane also strongly implies a dust mass of at least 105 M o, but otherwise does not correlate with cold dust mass parameters of the Magphys spectral energy distribution analysis, nor is there a link with the star formation rate, specific or total. Dust lane identification does not depend on disk ellipticity (disk thickness) or Sérsic profile but correlates with bulge morphology; a round bulge favors dust lane votes. The central component along the line of sight that produces the dust lane is not associated with either one of the components fit by Magphys, the cold diffuse component or the localized, heated component in H ii regions, but a mix of these two.

Abstract:

We use deep, μ r ≲ 28 mag arcsec−2, r-band imaging from the Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey to search for past, or ongoing, merger activity in a sample of 282 low-excitation radio galaxies (LERGs) at z < 0.07. Our principal aim is to assess the the role of mergers in the evolution of LERGs. Exploiting the imaging depth, we classify tidal remnants around galaxies as both minor and major morphological disturbances for our LERG sample and 1622 control galaxies matched in redshift, stellar mass, and environment. In groups and in the field, the LERG minor merger fraction is consistent with the control population. In galaxy clusters, 8.8 ± 2.9% of LERGs show evidence of recent minor mergers in contrast to 23.0 ± 2.0% of controls. This ~4σ deficit of minor mergers in cluster LERGs suggests these events may inhibit this type of nuclear activity for galaxies within the cluster environment. We observe a >4σ excess of major mergers in the LERGs with M * ≲ 1011 M⊙, with 10 ± 1.5% of these active galactic nuclei involved in such large-scale interactions compared to 3.2 ± 0.4% of control galaxies. This excess of major mergers in LERGs decreases with increasing stellar mass, vanishing by M * > 1011.3 M⊙. These observations show that minor mergers do not fuel LERGs, and are consistent with typical LERGs being powered by accretion of matter from their halo. Where LERGs are associated with major mergers, these objects may evolve into more efficiently accreting active galactic nuclei as the merger progresses and more gas falls on to the central engine.

Abstract:

We use classifications provided by citizen scientists though Galaxy Zoo to investigate the correlation between bulge size and arm winding in spiral galaxies. Whilst the traditional spiral sequence is based on a combination of both measures, and is supposed to favour arm winding where disagreement exists, we demonstrate that, in modern usage, the spiral classifications Sa–Sd are predominantly based on bulge size, with no reference to spiral arms. Furthermore, in a volume limited sample of galaxies with both automated and visual measures of bulge prominence and spiral arm tightness, there is at best a weak correlation between the two. Galaxies with small bulges have a wide range of arm winding, while those with larger bulges favour tighter arms. This observation, interpreted as revealing a variable winding speed as a function of bulge size, may be providing evidence that the majority of spiral arms are not static density waves, but rather wind-up over time. This suggests the ‘winding problem’ could be solved by the constant reforming of spiral arms, rather than needing a static density wave. We further observe that galaxies exhibiting strong bars tend to have more loosely wound arms at a given bulge size than unbarred spirals. This observations suggests that the presence of a bar may slow the winding speed of spirals, and may also drive other processes (such as density waves) that generate spiral arms. It is remarkable that after over 170 years of observations of spiral arms in galaxies our understanding of them remains incomplete.