scholarly journals On the uniqueness of kinematical signatures of intermediate-mass black holes in globular clusters

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (S312) ◽  
pp. 197-200
Author(s):  
Alice Zocchi ◽  
Mark Gieles ◽  
Vincent Hénault-Brunet

AbstractFinding an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) in a globular cluster (GC), or proving its absence, is a crucial ingredient in our understanding of galaxy formation and evolution. The challenge is to identify a unique signature of an IMBH that cannot be accounted for by other processes. Observational claims of IMBH detection are often based on analyses of the kinematics of stars, such as a rise in the velocity dispersion profile towards the centre. In this contribution we discuss the degeneracy between this IMBH signal and pressure anisotropy in the GC. We show that that by considering anisotropic models it is possible to partially explain the innermost shape of the projected velocity dispersion profile, even though models that do not account for an IMBH do not exhibit a cusp in the centre.

2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (S235) ◽  
pp. 172-174
Author(s):  
Kenji Bekki

AbstractWe discuss how stellar galactic nuclei (SGN) form and evolve during galaxy formation and evolution based on chemodynamical simulations on the central regions (1-1000 pc) of galaxies. Our simulations demonstrate that dissipative formation of SGN through rapid transfer of gas into the central 10 pc of galaxies is more consistent with recent observations of SGN than dissipationless formation of SGN through merging of globular clusters (GCs). Nuclear structures in the remnants of major galaxy mergers between low-mass, nucleated spirals are found to depend strongly on the mass-ratio of massive black holes (MBHs) to SGN in spirals in the sense that the remnants have more distinct SGN in the mergers with the smaller MBH-to-SGN-mass-ratios. During the destruction of low-mass, nucleated galaxies by strong tidal fields of giant galaxies, SGN can remain intact. The stripped SGN can be observed as bright GCs around the giant galaxies. The color-magnitude relation of metal-poor GCs (referred to as “the blue tilt”) recently discovered for bright galaxies is similar to that of SGN, which suggests that the origin of the blue tilt is closely associated with the formation processes of SGN of gas-rich, low-mass dwarfs in the high redshift universe.


2002 ◽  
Vol 207 ◽  
pp. 294-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas H. Puzia ◽  
Markus Kissler-Patig ◽  
Jean Brodie ◽  
Paul Goudfrooij ◽  
Michael Hilker ◽  
...  

Extragalactic Globular Clusters are useful tracers of galaxy formation and evolution. Photometric studies of globular cluster systems beyond the Local Group are still the most popular method to investigate their physical properties, such as their ages and metallicities. However, the limitations of optical photometry are well known. The better wavelength sampling of the underlying cluster's SED using K-band photometry combined with optical passbands allows us to create colors which reduce the age-metallicity degeneracy to the largest extent. Here we report on the very first results of our near-IR photometric survey of globular cluster systems in early-type galaxies outside the Local Group.


2004 ◽  
Vol 217 ◽  
pp. 210-211
Author(s):  
Peter Anders ◽  
Uta Fritze-V. Alvensleben ◽  
Richard de Grijs

Young clusters are observed to form in a variety of interacting galaxies and violent starbursts, a substantial number resembling the progenitors of the well-studied globular clusters in mass and size. By studying young clusters in merger remnants and peculiar galaxies, we can therefore learn about the violent star formation history of these galaxies. We present a new set of evolutionary synthesis models of our GALEV code specifically developed to include the gaseous emission of presently forming star clusters, and a new tool that allows to determine individual cluster metallicities, ages, extinction values and masses from a comparison of a large grid of model Spectral Energy Distributions (SEDs) with multi-color observations. First results for the newly-born clusters in NGC 1569 are presented.


2004 ◽  
Vol 220 ◽  
pp. 317-318
Author(s):  
Pieter Buyle ◽  
Maarten Baes ◽  
Herwig Dejonghe

We present new velocity dispersion measurements for a set of 12 spiral galaxies and use them to derive a more accurate υc – σ relation which holds for a wide morphological range of galaxies. Combined with the MBH – σ relation, this relation can be used as a tool to estimate supermassive black hole (SMBH) masses by means of the asymptotic circular velocity. Together with the Tully-Fisher relation, it serves as a constraint for galaxy formation and evolution models.


2002 ◽  
Vol 207 ◽  
pp. 207-217
Author(s):  
Markus Kissler-Patig

A brief review on globular cluster sub-populations in galaxies, and their constraints on galaxy formation and evolution is given. The metal-poor and metal-rich sub-populations are put in a historical context, and their properties, as known to date, are summarized. We review why the study of these sub-populations is extremely useful for the study of galaxy formation and evolution, but highlight a few caveats with the current interpretations. We re-visit the current globular cluster system formation scenarios and show how they boil down to a single scenario for the metal-poor clusters (namely the formation in “universal”, small fragments at high z) and that a hierarchical formation seems favored for the metal-rich clusters.


2021 ◽  
Vol 503 (1) ◽  
pp. 1490-1506
Author(s):  
Maximilian Häberle ◽  
Mattia Libralato ◽  
Andrea Bellini ◽  
Laura L Watkins ◽  
Jörg-Uwe Pott ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT We present an astrometric study of the proper motions (PMs) in the core of the globular cluster NGC 6441. The core of this cluster has a high density and observations with current instrumentation are very challenging. We combine ground-based, high-angular-resolution NACO@VLT images with Hubble Space Telescope ACS/HRC data and measure PMs with a temporal baseline of 15 yr for about 1400 stars in the centremost 15 arcsec of the cluster. We reach a PM precision of ∼30 µas yr−1 for bright, well-measured stars. Our results for the velocity dispersion are in good agreement with other studies and extend already existing analyses of the stellar kinematics of NGC 6441 to its centremost region never probed before. In the innermost arcsecond of the cluster, we measure a velocity dispersion of (19.1 ± 2.0) km s−1 for evolved stars. Because of its high mass, NGC 6441 is a promising candidate for harbouring an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH). We combine our measurements with additional data from the literature and compute dynamical models of the cluster. We find an upper limit of $M_{\rm IMBH} \lt 1.32 \times 10^4\, \textrm{M}_\odot$ but we can neither confirm nor rule out its presence. We also refine the dynamical distance of the cluster to $12.74^{+0.16}_{-0.15}$ kpc. Although the hunt for an IMBH in NGC 6441 is not yet concluded, our results show how future observations with extremely large telescopes will benefit from the long temporal baseline offered by existing high-angular-resolution data.


2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (S267) ◽  
pp. 464-464
Author(s):  
J. A. Vázquez-Mata ◽  
H. M. Hernández-Toledo ◽  
Changbom Park ◽  
Yun-Young Choi

We present a new catalog of isolated galaxies (coined as UNAM–KIAS) obtained through an automated systematic search. The 1520 isolated galaxies were found in ~ 1.4 steradians of the sky in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 5 (SDSS DR5) photometry. The selection algorithm was implemented from a variation of the criteria developed by Karachentseva (1973), with full redshift information. This new catalog is aimed to carry out comparative studies of environmental effects and constraining the currently competing scenarios of galaxy formation and evolution.


2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (S304) ◽  
pp. 419-420
Author(s):  
Gabriel A. Ohanian

AbstractKey questions, which arise when one tries to clear up a problem of formation and evolution of galaxies, is the question of energy: what is the energetic budget of AGN owing to form galaxies and provide its subsequent development? Hence, for understanding the formation and evolution of galaxies, it is important to estimate the energetic budget of AGN which we try to do involving radio loud phase of nuclear activity.


2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (S235) ◽  
pp. 300-300
Author(s):  
R.O. Amorín ◽  
J.A.L. Aguerri ◽  
L.M. Cairós ◽  
N. Caon ◽  
C. Muñoz-Tuñón

AbstractBlue compact dwarf (BCD) galaxies are gas-rich, low-luminosity (Mb≳-18 mag) and compact systems, currently undergoing violent star-formation burst (Sargent & Searle 1970). While it was initially hypothesized that they were very young galaxies (e.g. Sargent & Searle 1970, et al. 1988), the subsecuent detection of an extended, redder stellar host galaxy showed that the vast majority of them are old systems (e.g. Gil de Paz et al. 2003,2005). BCDs play an important role for understanding the process of galaxy formation and evolution.The structural properties of the low surface brightness stellar host in BCDs are often studied by fitting r1/n models to the outer regions of their radial profiles. The limitations imposed by the presence of a large starburst emission overlapping the underlying component makes this kind of analysis a difficult task.We propose a two-dimensional fitting methodology in order to improve the extraction of the structural parameters of the LSB host Amorín et al. 2006, submitted). A set of ideal simulations are presented in order to test the reliability of the method and to determine its robustness and flexibility. We present the different steps of the method discussing its advantages and weaknesses. We compare the results for a sample of eight objects with those already obtained using a one-dimensional technique (Caon et al. 2005).We fit a PSF convolved Sérsic model to the BVR images with the GALFIT publicly software (Peng et al. 2002). We restrict the fit to the stellar host by masking out the starburst region and take special care to minimize the sky-subtraction uncertainties. Consistency checks are performed to assess the reliability and accuracy of the derived structural parameters.We obtain robust fits for all the sample galaxies, all of which, except one, show low Sérsic indices n—very close to 1—with good agreement in the three bands. These findings suggest that the stellar hosts in BCDs have near-exponential profiles. Since the Sérsic index n of host galaxies is important in the context of the possible structural and evolutionary connections among the different types of dwarf galaxies, we are currently extending the study to a larger sample of objects. This kind of studies will help us to understand the mechanisms that form and shape BCD galaxies, and how they relate to the other dwarf galaxy classes.


2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (S321) ◽  
pp. 290-290
Author(s):  
A. Cortesi ◽  
C. Mendes de Oliveira

AbstractThe stellar kinematics of the discs of S0 galaxies (as obtained using planetary nebulae, PNe, and integrated stellar light data) is comparable to that of spiral galaxies, with similar flat rotation curves and falling velocity dispersion profiles, but they present a larger amount of random motions. The only other tracer available to probe the kinematics of individual early-type galaxies are globular clusters (GCs). GCs’ formation is intimately connected to a galaxy major star forming event(s) and GCs are, therefore, good proofs of galaxy formation histories. We directly compare a sample of PNe, GCs, and stellar velocities out to 4 effective radii, in the S0 galaxies NGC 2768 and NGC 1023. In particular, we test a new method for studying GC properties and we find that these two lenticular galaxies are consistent with being formed through different formation mechanisms.


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