Galaxy formation and evolution

Abstract:

We present sequential optical spectra of the afterglow of GRB 010222 obtained 1 day apart using the Low-Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (LRIS) and the Echellette Spectrograph and Imager (ESI) on the Keck Telescopes. Three low-ionization absorption systems are spectroscopically identified at z 1 = 1.47688, z2 = 1.15628, and z3 = 0.92747. The higher resolution ESI spectrum reveals two distinct components in the highest redshift system at z1a = 1.47590 and z1b = 1.47688. We interpret the z1b = 1.47688 system as an absorption feature of the disk of the host galaxy of GRB 010222. The best-fitted power-law optical continuum and [Zn/Cr] ratio imply low dust content or a local gray dust component near the burst site. In addition, we do not detect strong signatures of vibrationally excited states of H2. If the gamma-ray burst took place in a superbubble or young stellar cluster, there are no outstanding signatures of an ionized absorber either. Analysis of the spectral time dependence at low resolution shows no significant evidence for absorption-line variability. This lack of variability is confronted with time-dependent photoionization simulations designed to apply the observed flux from GRB 010222 to a variety of assumed atomic gas densities and cloud radii. The absence of time dependence in the absorption lines implies that high-density environments are disfavored. In particular, if the GRB environment was dust free, its density was unlikely to exceed nH I = 102 cm -3. If depletion of metals onto dust is similar to Galactic values or less than solar abundances are present, then nH I ≥ 2 × 104 cm-3 is probably ruled out in the immediate vicinity of the burst.

Abstract:

We used Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 images to identify six early-type galaxies with surface brightness profiles that decrease inward over a limited range of radii near their centers. The inferred luminosity density profiles of these galaxies have local minima interior to their core break radii. NGC 3706 harbors a high surface brightness ring of starlight with radius ≈20 pc. Its central structure may be related to that in the double-nucleus galaxies M31 and NGC 4486B. NGC 4406 and NGC 6876 have nearly flat cores that, on close inspection, are centrally depressed. Colors for both galaxies imply that this is not due to dust absorption. The surface brightness distributions of both galaxies are consistent with stellar tori that are more diffuse than the sharply defined system in NGC 3706. The remaining three galaxies are the brightest cluster galaxies in A260, A347, and A3574. Color information is not available for these objects, but they strongly resemble NGC 4406 and NGC 6876 in their cores. The thin ring in NGC 3706 may have formed dissipatively. The five other galaxies resemble the endpoints of some simulations of the merging of two gas-free stellar systems, each harboring a massive nuclear black hole. In one version of this scenario, diffuse stellar tori are produced when stars initially bound to one black hole are tidally stripped away by the second black hole. Alternatively, some inward-decreasing surface brightness profiles may reflect the ejection of stars from a core during the hardening of the binary black hole created during the merger.