observations of nearby galaxies

A postulate of locality permeates through the special and general theories of relativity. First, Lorentz invariance is extended in a pointwise manner to actual, namely, accelerated observers in Minkowski spacetime. This hypothesis of locality is then employed crucially in Einstein’s local principle of equivalence to render observers pointwise inertial in a gravitational field. Field measurements are intrinsically nonlocal, however. To go beyond the locality postulate in Minkowski spacetime, the past history of the accelerated observer must be taken into account in accordance with the Bohr-Rosenfeld principle. The observer in general carries the memory of its past acceleration. The deep connection between inertia and gravitation suggests that gravity could be nonlocal as well and in nonlocal gravity the fading gravitational memory of past events must then be taken into account. Along this line of thought, a classical nonlocal generalization of Einstein’s theory of gravitation has recently been developed. In this nonlocal gravity (NLG) theory, the gravitational field is local, but satisfies a partial integro-differential field equation. A significant observational consequence of this theory is that the nonlocal aspect of gravity appears to simulate dark matter. The implications of NLG are explored in this book for gravitational lensing, gravitational radiation, the gravitational physics of the Solar System and the internal dynamics of nearby galaxies as well as clusters of galaxies. This approach is extended to nonlocal Newtonian cosmology, where the attraction of gravity fades with the expansion of the universe. Thus far only some of the consequences of NLG have been compared with observation.

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Recovering the star formation history of galaxies through spectral fitting: Current challenges

Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union ◽

10.1017/s1743921320001647 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 15 (S359) ◽

pp. 386-390

Author(s):

Lucimara P. Martins

Keyword(s):

Star Formation ◽

Mass Function ◽

Initial Mass Function ◽

Star Formation History ◽

Stellar Spectra ◽

Spectral Fitting ◽

Formation History ◽

History Of ◽

Nearby Galaxies ◽

Extract Information

AbstractWith the exception of some nearby galaxies, we cannot resolve stars individually. To recover the galaxies star formation history (SFH), the challenge is to extract information from their integrated spectrum. A widely used tool is the full spectral fitting technique. This consists of combining simple stellar populations (SSPs) of different ages and metallicities to match the integrated spectrum. This technique works well for optical spectra, for metallicities near solar and chemical histories not much different from our Galaxy. For everything else there is room for improvement. With telescopes being able to explore further and further away, and beyond the optical, the improvement of this type of tool is crucial. SSPs use as ingredients isochrones, an initial mass function, and a library of stellar spectra. My focus are the stellar libraries, key ingredient for SSPs. Here I talk about the latest developments of stellar libraries, how they influence the SSPs and how to improve them.

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A new catalogue of multiple galaxies in the Local Supercluster

International Astronomical Union Colloquium ◽

10.1017/s0252921100054725 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 174 ◽

pp. 40-45

Author(s):

D. I. Makarov ◽

I. D. Karachentsev

Keyword(s):

New Approach ◽

Galaxy Groups ◽

Closed Orbits ◽

Crossing Time ◽

Local Supercluster ◽

Virial Mass ◽

Nearby Galaxies ◽

The Individual ◽

Group Member ◽

Harmonic Radius

AbstractA new approach is suggested which makes use of the individual properties of galaxies, for the identification of small galaxy groups in the Local Supercluster. The criterion is based on the assumption of closed orbits of the companions around the dominating group member within a zero velocity sphere.The criterion is applied to a sample of 6321 nearby galaxies with radial velocities V0 ≤ 3000 km s−1. These 3472 galaxies have been assigned to 839 groups that include 55% of the sample considered. For the groups identified by the new algorithm (with k ≥ 5 members) the median velocity dispersion is 86 km s−1, the median harmonic radius is 247 kpc, the median crossing time is 0.08(1/H), and the median virial-mass-to-light ratio is 56 M⊙/L⊙.

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The Environment of OJ 287: Nearby Galaxies and a Long Optical Jet?

Symposium - International Astronomical Union ◽

10.1017/s0074180900079961 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 175 ◽

pp. 47-48

Author(s):

A. Sillanpää ◽

L. Takalo ◽

K. Nilsson ◽

T. Pursimo ◽

P. Teerikorpi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Radio Galaxies ◽

Trigger Mechanism ◽

Galaxy Clustering ◽

Bl Lac Objects ◽

Close Interaction ◽

Relativistic Jet ◽

Bl Lac ◽

Nearby Galaxies ◽

Bl Lacs

A widely accepted model for BL Lac objects is that they are radio galaxies with a relativistic jet pointing almost directly towards us. But we need a clear trigger mechanism for these jets. One possibility is the close interaction between the BL Lac host and the closeby galaxies (e.g. Heckman et al. 1986). This interaction has been seen many times in the case of quasars (Hutchings et al. 1989) but not so much is known about the close surroundings of the BL Lac objects although there has been some pioneer work like Stickel et al. (1993). The problem has usually been that the images are not deep enough and that the seeing has not been so good. To clarify the situation we have started an observing program to get very deep images in the sub-arcsecond seeing conditions from the whole 1 Jy sample (Stickel et al. 1991) of BL Lac objects. The aims of this study are: 1. to search for very close companions to the BL Lacs, 2. to study the large scale galaxy clustering around the BL Lacs and 3. to study the BL Lac hosts themselves.

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Galaxy properties as revealed by MaNGA – III. Kinematic profiles and stellar population gradients in S0s

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ◽

10.1093/mnras/staa1364 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 495 (3) ◽

pp. 2894-2908 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

H Domínguez Sánchez ◽

M Bernardi ◽

F Nikakhtar ◽

B Margalef-Bentabol ◽

R K Sheth

Keyword(s):

Stellar Population ◽

Velocity Dispersion ◽

Signal To Noise Ratio ◽

Elliptical Galaxies ◽

Element Abundance ◽

High Signal ◽

Galactocentric Distance ◽

Massive Galaxies ◽

Nearby Galaxies ◽

Mass Functions

ABSTRACT This is the third paper of a series where we study the stellar population gradients (SP; ages, metallicities, α-element abundance ratios, and stellar initial mass functions) of early-type galaxies (ETGs) at $z$ ≤ 0.08 from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at APO Data Release 15 (MaNGA-DR15) survey. In this work, we focus on the S0 population and quantify how the SP varies across the population as well as with galactocentric distance. We do this by measuring Lick indices and comparing them to SP synthesis models. This requires spectra with high signal-to-noise ratio which we achieve by stacking in bins of luminosity (Lr) and central velocity dispersion (σ0). We find that: (1) there is a bimodality in the S0 population: S0s more massive than $3\times 10^{10}\, \mathrm{M}_\odot$ show stronger velocity dispersion and age gradients (age and σr decrease outwards) but little or no metallicity gradient, while the less massive ones present relatively flat age and velocity dispersion profiles, but a significant metallicity gradient (i.e. [M/H] decreases outwards). Above $2\times 10^{11}\, \mathrm{M}_\odot$, the number of S0s drops sharply. These two mass scales are also where global scaling relations of ETGs change slope. (2) S0s have steeper velocity dispersion profiles than fast-rotating elliptical galaxies (E-FRs) of the same luminosity and velocity dispersion. The kinematic profiles and SP gradients of E-FRs are both more similar to those of slow-rotating ellipticals (E-SRs) than to S0s, suggesting that E-FRs are not simply S0s viewed face-on. (3) At fixed σ0, more luminous S0s and E-FRs are younger, more metal rich and less α-enhanced. Evidently for these galaxies, the usual statement that ‘massive galaxies are older’ is not true if σ0 is held fixed.

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