Cosmology

Abstract:

Long-exposure Suzaku X-ray observations of the nearby active galaxy NGC 4051 from 2005 and 2008 are analysed, in an attempt to reach a self-consistent understanding of both the spectral variability on long time-scales and the broad-band variability at high time resolution. The techniques of principal components analysis and a maximum likelihood method of power spectrum analysis are used. In common with other type I active galactic nuclei (AGN), the spectral variability is dominated by a varying-normalization power-law component together with a quasi-steady, hard-spectrum offset component that contains Fe K atomic features. NGC 4051 displays a strong excess over a power law at energies of above 20 keV, some fraction of which also appears to vary with the power-law continuum. The fast time-scale power spectrum has a shape generally consistent with previous determinations, with the previously known dependence on broad-band photon energy, but in the new data significant differences are found between the low and high flux states of the source, demonstrating that the power spectrum is non-stationary. Frequency-dependent time lags between the hard and soft bands of up to 970± 225 s are measured. The existence of the observed time lags excludes the possibility that the hard spectral component originates as reflection from the inner accretion disc. We instead show that the time lags and their frequency and energy dependence may be explained simply by the effects of reverberation in the hard band, caused by reflection from a thick shell of material with maximum lags of about 10000 s. If the reflecting material surrounds the AGN, it extends to a distance of about 1.5× 1014cm, 600 gravitational radii, from the illuminating source and the global covering factor is Cg≳0.44, confirming previous suggestions that type I AGN have high covering factors of absorbing and reflecting material. Given the spectral and timing similarities with other type I AGN, we infer that this source structure is common in the type I population. © 2010 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2010 RAS.

Abstract:

In this short paper, we present a few preliminary results from the ambitious ATLAS3D project, which intends to probe the first volume-limited sample of early-type galaxies observed via multi-band photometry, integral-field spectroscopy, radio and millimeter observations, and supported by a large library of numerical simulations and models. We more specifically address the existence of two main families of early-type galaxies, the slow and fast rotators. © 2010 American Institute of Physics.

Abstract:

We combine SAURON integral field data of a representative sample of local early-type, red sequence galaxies with Spitzer/Infrared Array Camera imaging in order to investigate the presence of trace star formation in these systems. With the Spitzer data, we identify galaxies hosting low-level star formation, as traced by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon emission, with measured star formation rates that compare well to those estimated from other tracers. This star formation proceeds according to established scaling relations with molecular gas content, in surface density regimes characteristic of disc galaxies and circumnuclear starbursts. We find that star formation in early-type galaxies happens exclusively in fast-rotating systems and occurs in two distinct modes. In the first, star formation is a diffuse process, corresponding to widespread young stellar populations and high molecular gas content. The equal presence of co- and counter-rotating components in these systems strongly implies an external origin for the star-forming gas, and we argue that these star formation events may be the final stages of (mostly minor) mergers that build up the bulges of red sequence lenticulars. In the second mode of star formation, the process is concentrated into well-defined disc or ring morphologies, outside of which the host galaxies exhibit uniformly evolved stellar populations. This implies that these star formation events represent rejuvenations within previously quiescent stellar systems. Evidence for earlier star formation events similar to these in all fast-rotating early-type galaxies suggests that this mode of star formation may be common to all such galaxies, with a duty cycle of roughly 1/10, and likely contributes to the embedded, corotating inner stellar discs ubiquitous in this population. © 2010 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2010 RAS.

Abstract:

Following our study on the incidence, morphology and kinematics of the ionized gas in early-type galaxies, we now address the question of what is powering the observed nebular emission. To constrain the likely sources of gas excitation, we resort to a variety of ancillary data we draw from complementary information on the gas kinematics, stellar populations and galactic potential from the sauron data, and use the sauron-specific diagnostic diagram juxtaposing the [O iii]λ5007/Hβ and [N i]λλ5197, 5200/Hβ line ratios. We find a tight correlation between the stellar surface brightness and the flux of the Hβ recombination line across our sample, which points to a diffuse and old stellar source as the main contributor of ionizing photons in early-type galaxies, with post-asymptotic giant branch (pAGB) stars being still the best candidate based on ionizing balance arguments. The role of AGN photoionization is confined to the central 2-3 arcsec of an handful of objects with radio or X-ray cores. OB-stars are the dominant source of photoionization in 10 per cent of the sauron sample, whereas for another 10 per cent the intense and highly ionized emission is powered by the pAGB population associated to a recently formed stellar subcomponent. Fast shocks are not an important source of ionization for the diffuse nebular emission of early-type galaxies since the required shock velocities can hardly be attained in the potential of our sample galaxies. Finally, in the most massive and slowly or non-rotating galaxies in our sample, which can retain a massive X-ray halo, the finding of a spatial correlation between the hot and warm phases of the interstellar medium (ISM) suggests that the interaction with the hot ISM provides an additional source of ionization besides old ultraviolet-bright stars. This is also supported by a distinct pattern towards lower values of the [O iii]/Hβ ratio. These results lead us to investigate the relative role of stellar and AGN photoionization in explaining the ionized gas emission observed in early-type galaxies by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). By simulating how our sample galaxies would appear if placed at further distance and targeted by the SDSS, we conclude that only in very few, if any, of the SDSS galaxies which display modest values for the equivalent width of the [O iii] line (less than ∼2.4 Å) and low-ionization nuclear emission-line region like [O iii]/Hβ values the nebular emission is truly powered by an AGN. © 2010 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2010 RAS.

Abstract:

We present a stellar population analysis of the absorption line strength maps for 48 early-type galaxies from the SAURON sample. Using the line strength index maps of Hβ, Fe5015 and Mg b, measured in the Lick/IDS system and spatially binned to a constant signal-to-noise ratio, together with predictions from up-to-date stellar population models, we estimate the simple stellar population-equivalent (SSP-equivalent) age, metallicity and abundance ratio [alpha;/Fe] over a two-dimensional field extending up to approximately one effective radius. A discussion of calibrations and differences between model predictions is given. Maps of SSP-equivalent age, metallicity and abundance ratio [alpha;/Fe] are presented for each galaxy. We find a large range of SSP-equivalent ages in our sample, of which ~40 per cent of the galaxies show signs of a contribution from a young stellar population. The most extreme cases of post-starburst galaxies, with SSP-equivalent ages of ≤3 Gyr observed over the full field-of-view, and sometimes even showing signs of residual star formation, are restricted to low-mass systems (σe≤ 100 km s-1 or ~2 × 1010 M.). Spatially restricted cases of young stellar populations in circumnuclear regions can almost exclusively be linked to the presence of star formation in a thin, dusty disc/ring, also seen in the near-UV or mid-IR on top of an older underlying stellar population.The flattened components with disc-like kinematics previously identified in all fast rotators are shown to be connected to regions of distinct stellar populations. These range from the young, still star-forming circumnuclear discs and rings with increased metallicity preferentially found in intermediate-mass fast rotators, to apparently old structures with extended disc-like kinematics, which are observed to have an increased metallicity and mildly depressed [alpha;/Fe] ratio compared to the main body of the galaxy. The slow rotators, often harbouring kinematically decoupled components (KDC) in their central regions, generally show no stellar population signatures over and above the well-known metallicity gradients in early-type galaxies and are largely consistent with old (≥10 Gyr) stellar populations.Using radially averaged stellar population gradients we find in agreement with Spolaor et al. a mass-metallicity gradient relation where low-mass fast rotators form a sequence of increasing metallicity gradient with increasing mass. For more massive systems (above ~3.5 × 1010 M.) there is an overall downturn such that metallicity gradients become shallower with increased scatter at a given mass leading to the most massive systems being slow rotators with relatively shallow metallicity gradients. The observed shallower metallicity gradients and increased scatter could be a consequence of the competition between different star formation and assembly scenarios following a general trend of diminishing gas fractions and more equal-mass mergers with increasing mass, leading to the most massive systems being devoid of ordered motion and signs of recent star formation. © 2010 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2010 RAS.