Beecroft Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology

Abstract:

We examine the highest S/N spectra from the 2QZ 10k release and identify over 100 new low-ionisation heavy element absorbers; DLA candidates suitable for higher resolution follow-up observations. These absorption systems map the spatial distribution of high-z metals in exactly the same volumes that the foreground 2QZ QSOs themselves sample and hence the 2QZ gives us the unique opportunity to directly compare the two tracers of large scale structure. We examine the cross-correlation of the two populations to see how they are relatively clustered, and, by considering the colour of the QSOs, detect a small amount of dust in these metal systems.

Abstract:

We explore the relative importance of the stellar mass density as compared to the inner dark halo, using the observed gas kinematics throughout the disk of the spiral galaxy NGC 4254 (Messier 99). We perform hydrodynamical simulations of the gas flow for a sequence of gravitational potentials in which we vary the stellar disk contribution to the total potential. This stellar portion of the potential was derived empirically from color corrected K-band photometry reflecting the spiral arms in the stellar mass, while the halo was modelled as an isothermal sphere. The simulated gas density and the gas velocity field are then compared to the observed stellar spiral arm morphology and to the H-alpha gas kinematics. We find that this method is a powerful tool to determine the corotation radius of the spiral pattern and that it can be used to place an upper limit on the mass of the stellar disk. For the case of the galaxy NGC 4254 we find R_cr = 7.5 +/- 1.1 kpc, or R_cr = 2.1 R_exp(K'). We also demonstrate that for a maximal disk the prominent spiral arms of the stellar component over-predict the non-circular gas motions unless an axisymmetric dark halo component contributes significantly (>~ 1/3) to the total potential inside 2.2 K-band exponential disk scale lengths.