Galaxy formation and evolution

Abstract:

We present detailed simulations of integral field spectroscopic observations of a supernova in a host galaxy at z ∼ 3, as observed by the HARMONI spectrograph on the Extremely Large Telescope, asssisted by laser tomographic adaptive optics. The goal of the simulations, using the HSIM simulation tool, is to determine whether HARMONI can discern the supernova Type from spectral features in the supernova spectrum. We find that in a 3 hour observation, covering the near-infrared H and K bands, at a spectral resolving power of ∼3000, and using the 20×20 mas spaxel scale, we can classify supernova Type Ia and their redshift robustly up to 80 days past maximum light (20 days in the supernova rest frame). We show that HARMONI will provide spectra at z ∼ 3 that are of comparable (or better) quality to the best spectra we can currently obtain at z ∼ 1, thus allowing studies of cosmic expansion rates to be pushed to substantially higher redshifts.

Abstract:

The shape of LOSVDs (line-of-sight velocity distributions) carries important information about the internal dynamics of galaxies. The skewness of LOSVDs represents their asymmetric deviation from a Gaussian profile. Correlations between the skewness parameter ($h_3$) and the mean velocity ($\vm$) of a Gauss-Hermite series reflect the underlying stellar orbital configurations of different morphological components. Using two self-consistent $N$-body simulations of disk galaxies with different bar strengths, we investigate $h_3-\vm$ correlations at different inclination angles. Similar to previous studies, we find anticorrelations in the disk area, and positive correlations in the bar area when viewed edge-on. However, at intermediate inclinations, the outer parts of bars exhibit anticorrelations, while the core areas dominated by the boxy/peanut-shaped (B/PS) bulges still maintain weak positive correlations. When viewed edge-on, particles in the foreground/background disk (the wing region) in the bar area constitute the main velocity peak, whereas the particles in the bar contribute to the high-velocity tail, generating the $h_3-\vm$ correlation. If we remove the wing particles, the LOSVDs of the particles in the outer part of the bar only exhibit a low-velocity tail, resulting in a negative $h_3-\vm$ correlation, whereas the core areas in the central region still show weakly positive correlations. We discuss implications for IFU observations on bars, and show that the variation of the $h_3-\vm$ correlation in the disk galaxy may be used as a kinematic indicator of the bar and the B/PS bulge.