scholarly journals Stellar Populations in the Nuclei of Spiral Galaxies

1983 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 147-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. W. O’Connell

Spiral galaxies are a composite of two dynamical population types: the spheroidal and disk populations. These can be studied in isolation in E and Irr galaxies, respectively. It is natural to expect that the combination in a spiral of a dense spheroidal population, having a deep central potential well, with a repository of interstellar gas and dust in the disk gives rise to special conditions not usually found in E or Irr galaxies. And in fact, we find spectacular concentrations of star forming regions in some spiral nuclei.In this review, I will limit most of the discussion to later spiral types which are classified as “intermediate” in the Yerkes system (Morgan and Osterbrock 1969). Types earlier than Sbc usually have “k-nuclei,” where the spheroidal population dominates; excellent reviews are available for these types (van den Bergh 1975, Faber 1977).

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (S351) ◽  
pp. 216-219
Author(s):  
Steven Rieder ◽  
Clare Dobbs ◽  
Thomas Bending

AbstractWe present a model for hydrodynamic + N-body simulations of star cluster formation and evolution using AMUSE. Our model includes gas dynamics, star formation in regions of dense gas, stellar evolution and a galactic tidal spiral potential, thus incorporating most of the processes that play a role in the evolution of star clusters.We test our model on initial conditions of two colliding molecular clouds as well as a section of a spiral arm from a previous galaxy simulation.


2004 ◽  
Vol 194 ◽  
pp. 3-6
Author(s):  
Andrea H. Prestwich

AbstractChandra and XMM-Newton are revolutionizing our understanding of compact binaries in external galaxies, allowing us to study sources in detail in Local Group Galaxies and study populations in more distant systems. In M31 the X-ray luminosity function depends on the local stellar population in the sense that areas with active star formation have more high luminosity sources, and a higher overall source density (Kong. Di Stefano. Garcia, & Greiner 2003). This result is also true in galaxies outside the Local Group; starburst galaxies have flatter X-ray luminosity functions than do spiral galaxies which are in turn flatter than elliptical galaxies. These observational results suggest that the high end of the luminosity function in star forming regions is dominated by short-lived high mass X-ray binaries.In Chandra Cycle 2 we started a Large Project to survey a sample of 11 nearby (< 10Mpc) face-on spiral galaxies. We find that sources can be approximately classified on the basis of their X-ray color into low mass X-ray binaries, high mass X-ray binaries and supersoft sources. There is an especially interesting class of source that has X-ray colors softer (“redder”) than a typical low mass X-ray binary source, but not so extreme as supersoft sources. Most of these are probably X-ray bright supernova remnants, but some may be a new type of black hole accretor. Finally, when we construct a luminosity function of sources selecting only sources with low mass X-ray binary colors (removing soft sources) we find that there is a dip or break probably associated with the Eddington luminosity for a neutron star.


Author(s):  
M. Gerin ◽  
F. Levrier ◽  
E. Falgarone ◽  
B. Godard ◽  
P. Hennebelle ◽  
...  

The Herschel-guaranteed time key programme PRobing InterStellar Molecules with Absorption line Studies (PRISMAS) 1 is providing a survey of the interstellar hydrides containing the elements C, O, N, F and Cl. As the building blocks of interstellar molecules, hydrides provide key information on their formation pathways. They can also be used as tracers of important physical and chemical properties of the interstellar gas that are difficult to measure otherwise. This paper presents an analysis of two sight-lines investigated by the PRISMAS project, towards the star-forming regions W49N and W51. By combining the information extracted from the detected spectral lines, we present an analysis of the physical properties of the diffuse interstellar gas, including the electron abundance, the fraction of gas in molecular form, and constraints on the cosmic ray ionization rate and the gas density.


2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (S277) ◽  
pp. 112-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurie Rousseau-Nepton ◽  
Carmelle Robert ◽  
Laurent Drissen

AbstractWith SpIOMM, we obtained numerous spectra in the visible range covering simultaneously several emission lines of bright Hii regions in the spiral galaxies NGC 628 and M101. We measured the size and luminosity of the Hii regions as well as the gas metallicity, temperature, and density. We estimated the age and star forming rate of the young stellar populations associated with the Hii regions. We looked for gradients along the galaxy radius and search for relations with the galactic arm positions. This is a first step in a project, based on a detailed study of stellar populations, to rebuild the history of spiral galaxies and to identify the mechanisms responsible for their evolution.


2021 ◽  
Vol 503 (4) ◽  
pp. 6112-6135
Author(s):  
Peter Senchyna ◽  
Daniel P Stark ◽  
Stéphane Charlot ◽  
Jacopo Chevallard ◽  
Gustavo Bruzual ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT As deep spectroscopic campaigns extend to higher redshifts and lower stellar masses, the interpretation of galaxy spectra depends increasingly upon models for very young stellar populations. Here we present new HST/COS ultraviolet spectroscopy of seven nearby (&lt;120 Mpc) star-forming regions hosting very young stellar populations (∼4–20 Myr) with optical Wolf–Rayet stellar wind signatures, ideal laboratories in which to benchmark these stellar models. We detect nebular C iii] in all seven, but at equivalent widths uniformly &lt;10 Å. This suggests that even for very young stellar populations, the highest equivalent width C iii] emission at ≥15 Å is reserved for inefficiently cooled gas at metallicities at or below that of the SMC. The spectra also reveal strong C iv P-Cygni profiles and broad He ii emission formed in the winds of massive stars, including some of the most prominent He ii stellar wind lines ever detected in integrated spectra. We find that the latest stellar population synthesis prescriptions with improved treatment of massive stars nearly reproduce the entire range of stellar He ii wind strengths observed here. However, we find that these models cannot simultaneously match the strongest wind features alongside the optical nebular line constraints. This discrepancy can be naturally explained by an overabundance of very massive stars produced by a high incidence of binary mass transfer and mergers occurring on short ≲10 Myr time-scales, suggesting these processes may be crucial for understanding systems dominated by young stars both nearby and in the early Universe.


2020 ◽  
Vol 495 (2) ◽  
pp. 2305-2320
Author(s):  
Michael J Greener ◽  
Alfonso Aragón-Salamanca ◽  
Michael R Merrifield ◽  
Thomas G Peterken ◽  
Amelia Fraser-McKelvie ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Dust attenuation in star-forming spiral galaxies affects stars and gas in different ways due to local variations in dust geometry. We present spatially resolved measurements of dust attenuation for a sample of 232 such star-forming spiral galaxies, derived from spectra acquired by the SDSS-IV MaNGA survey. The dust attenuation affecting the stellar populations of these galaxies (obtained using full spectrum stellar population fitting methods) is compared with the dust attenuation in the gas (derived from the Balmer decrement). Both of these attenuation measures increase for local regions of galaxies with higher star formation rates; the dust attenuation affecting the stellar populations increases more so than the dust attenuation in the gas, causing the ratio of the dust attenuation affecting the stellar populations to the dust attenuation in the gas to decrease for local regions of galaxies with higher star formation rate densities. No systematic difference is discernible in any of these dust attenuation quantities between the spiral arm and interarm regions of the galaxies. While both the dust attenuation in the gas and the dust attenuation affecting the stellar populations decrease with galactocentric radius, the ratio of the two quantities does not vary with radius. This ratio does, however, decrease systematically as the stellar mass of the galaxy increases. Analysis of the radial profiles of the two dust attenuation measures suggests that there is a disproportionately high concentration of birth clouds (incorporating gas, young stars, and clumpy dust) nearer to the centres of star-forming spiral galaxies.


2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (S309) ◽  
pp. 247-250
Author(s):  
Tucker Jones

AbstractSpatially resolved spectroscopy is even more powerful when combined with magnification by gravitational lensing. I discuss observations of lensed galaxies at z≃2 with spatial resolution reaching 100 parsecs. Near-IR integral field spectroscopy reveals the kinematics, distribution and physical properties of star forming regions, and gas-phase metallicity gradients. Roughly two thirds of observed galaxies are isolated systems with coherent velocity fields, large velocity dispersion, multiple giant star-forming regions, and negative gas-phase metallicity gradients, suggestive of inside-out growth in gravitationally unstable disks. The remainder are undergoing mergers and have shallower metallicity gradients, indicating mixing of the interstellar gas via gravitational interaction. The metallicity gradients in isolated galaxies are consistent with simulations using standard feedback prescriptions, whereas simulations with enhanced feedback predict shallower gradients. These measurements therefore constrain the growth of galaxies from mergers and star formation as well as the regulatory feedback.


2019 ◽  
Vol 491 (4) ◽  
pp. 4894-4901
Author(s):  
Martín Solar ◽  
Patricia B Tissera ◽  
Jose A Hernandez-Jimenez

ABSTRACT The exploration of the spatial distribution of chemical abundances in star-forming regions of galactic discs can help us to understand the complex interplay of physical processes that regulate the star formation activity and the chemical enrichment across a galaxy. We study the azimuthal variations of the normalized oxygen abundance profiles in the highest numerical resolution run of the Evolution and Assembly of GaLaxies and their Environments (EAGLE) Project at $z$ = 0. We use young stellar populations to trace the abundances of star-forming regions. Oxygen profiles are estimated along different line of sights from a centrally located observer. The mean azimuthal variation in the EAGLE discs are ∼0.12 ± 0.03 dex $R_{\rm eff}^{-1}$ for slopes and ∼0.12 ± 0.03 dex for the zero-points, in agreement with previous works. Metallicity gradients measured along random directions correlate with those determined by averaging over the whole discs, although with a large dispersion. We find a slight trend for higher azimuthal variations in the disc components of low star-forming and bulge-dominated galaxies. We also investigate the metallicity profiles of stellar populations with higher and lower levels of enrichment than the average metallicity profiles, and we find that high star-forming regions with high metallicity tend to have slightly shallower metallicity slopes compared with the overall metallicity gradient. The simulated azimuthal variations in the EAGLE discs are in agreement with observations, although the large variety of metallicity gradients would encourage further exploration of the metal mixing in numerical simulations.


2019 ◽  
Vol 490 (1) ◽  
pp. 1076-1093 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dalal El Youssoufi ◽  
Maria-Rosa L Cioni ◽  
Cameron P M Bell ◽  
Stefano Rubele ◽  
Kenji Bekki ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The Magellanic Clouds are nearby dwarf irregular galaxies whose morphologies show different properties when traced by different stellar populations, making them an important laboratory for studying galaxy morphologies. We study the morphology of the Magellanic Clouds using data from the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy survey of the Magellanic Clouds system. We used about 10 and 2.5 million sources across an area of ∼105 and ∼42 deg2 towards the Large and Small Magellanic Cloud (LMC and SMC), respectively. We estimated median ages of stellar populations occupying different regions of the near-infrared (J − Ks, Ks) colour–magnitude diagram. Morphological maps were produced and detailed features in the central regions were characterized for the first time with bins corresponding to a spatial resolution of 0.13 kpc (LMC) and 0.16 kpc (SMC). In the LMC, we find that main-sequence stars show coherent structures that grow with age and trace the multiple spiral arms of the galaxy, star-forming regions become dimmer as we progress in age, while supergiant stars are centrally concentrated. Intermediate-age stars, despite tracing a regular and symmetrical morphology, show central clumps and hints of spiral arms. In the SMC, young main-sequence stars depict a broken bar. Intermediate-age populations show signatures of elongation towards the Magellanic Bridge that can be attributed to the LMC–SMC interaction ∼200 Myr ago. They also show irregular central features suggesting that the inner SMC has also been influenced by tidal interactions.


2012 ◽  
Vol 144 (5) ◽  
pp. 142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luciana Bianchi ◽  
Boryana Efremova ◽  
Paul Hodge ◽  
Yongbeom Kang

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