We have investigated the peculiar motions of clusters of galaxies in the Ursa Major (UMa) supercluster and its neighborhood. Based on SDSS (Sloan Digital Sky Survey) data, we have compiled a sample of early-type galaxies and used their fundamental plane to determine the cluster distances and peculiar velocities. The samples of early-type galaxies in the central regions (within R_200) of 12 UMa clusters of galaxies, in three main subsystems of the supercluster -- the filamentary structures connecting the clusters, and in nine clusters from the nearest UMa neighborhood have similar parameters. The fairly high overdensity (3 by the galaxy number and 15 by the cluster number) suggests that the supercluster as a whole is gravitationally bound, while no significant peculiar motions have been found: the peculiar velocities do not exceed the measurement errors by more than a factor of 1.5-2. The mean random peculiar velocities of clusters and the systematic deviations from the overall Hubble expansion in the supercluster are consistent with theoretical estimates. For the possible approach of the three UMa subsystems to be confirmed, the measurement accuracy must be increased by a factor of 2-3.
We study the infrared (K_s band) properties of clusters of galaxies in the Ursa Major supercluster using data from 2MASS (Two-Micron All-Sky Survey) and SDSS (Sloan Digital Sky Survey). We identified three large filaments with mean redshifts of z = 0.051, 0.060, and 0.071. All clusters of the supercluster are located in these filaments. We determined the total K_s-band luminosities and masses for 11 clusters of galaxies within comparable physical regions (within a radius R_200 close to the virial radius) using a homogeneous method. We constructed a combined luminosity function for the superclu…
We report the photometry of a peculiar SU UMa-type dwarf nova - ER UMa for ten nights during 1998 December and 1999 March covering a complete rise to the supermaximum and a normal outburst cycle. Superhumps have been found during the rise to the superoutburst. A negative superhump appeared in Dec.22 light curve, while the superhump on the next night became positive and had large amplitude and distinct waveform from that of the previous night. In the normal outburst we captured, superhumps with larger or smaller amplitudes seem to always exist, although it is not necessarily true for every norm…
The recent re-evaulation of the peculiar velocity field outside the Local Supercluster (Dekel et al. 1999, ApJ 522) has permitted a re-examination of the origins of the peculiar velocity field within the Local Supercluster using the Mark III Catalog of Galaxy Peculiar Velocities for spiral galaxies. It is shown that the large-scale coherent pattern of peculiar velocities within the LSC are well-fit by a combination of the Outside-Region-(generated)-Motions (O-R-M) from the Potent model with a Virgocentric infall pattern that produces 220 km/s of Virgocentric infall at the Local Group (LG) towa…
We study the gravitational influence of very large scale structures, as traced by clusters of galaxies, on the Local Group [LG] motion and the large scale flows. We derive from the distribution of Abell clusters within $300~$Mpc/h the overdensity field on a 3--D grid of spacing $5~$Mpc/h, then we solve the Poisson equation for the peculiar potential and finally obtain the peculiar velocity field. Quite interestingly, from this global solution we: i) recover within $\sim 10^o$ the direction of the LG motion in the Cosmic Microwave Background [CMB] frame, ii find that the Great Attractor itself …
We investigate a spatially-flat cold dark matter model (with the matter density parameter $Ω_m=0.3$) with a primordial feature in the initial power spectrum. We assume that there is a bump in the power spectrum of density fluctuations at wavelengths $λ\sim 30-60h^{-1}$Mpc, which correspond to the scale of superclusters of galaxies. There are indications for such a feature in the power spectra derived from redshift surveys and also in the power spectra derived from peculiar velocities of galaxies. We study the mass function of clusters of galaxies, the power spectrum of the CMB temperature fluc…
We present cosmological simulations which closely mimic the real Universe within 100Mpc of the Local Group. The simulations, called Constrained Simulations, reproduce the large-scale density field with major nearby structures, including the Local Group, the Coma and Virgo clusters, the Great Attractor, the Perseus-Pices, and the Local Supercluster, in approximately correct locations. The MARK III survey of peculiar velocities of the observed structures inside 80Mpc/h sphere is used to constrain the initial conditions. Fourier modes on scales larger then 5Mpc/h are dominated by the constraints,…
We investigate the dynamical state of superclusters in Lambda cold dark matter ($Λ$CDM) cosmological models, where the density parameter $Ω_0=0.2-0.4$ and $σ_8$ (the rms fluctuation on the $8h^{-1}$Mpc scale) is $0.7-0.9$. To study the nonlinear regime, we use N-body simulations. We define superclusters as maxima of the density field smoothed on the scale $R=10h^{-1}$Mpc. Smaller superclusters defined by the density field smoothed on the scale $R=5h^{-1}$Mpc are also investigated. We find the relations between the radially averaged peculiar velocity and the density contrast in the supercluster…
We identify high density regions of supercluster size in high resolution N-body simulations of a representative volume of three Cold Dark Matter Universes. By assuming that (1) the density and peculiar velocities of baryons trace those of the dark matter, and (2) the temperature of plasma is proportional to the velocity dispersion of the dark matter particles in regions where the crossing times is smaller than the supercluster free-fall time, we investigate how thermal motions of electrons in the intra-cluster medium and peculiar velocity of clusters can affect the secondary anisotropies in th…
Peculiar velocities thoughout the region of the local supercluster are reconstructed by two different orbit-retracing methods. The requirement of the optimal correlation between the radial components of reconstructed velocities and the observed peculiar velocities derived from our extensive new catalog of distances puts stringent constraints on the values of the cosmological parameters. Our constraints intersect those from studies of microwave background fluctuations and statistical properties of galaxy clustering: the ensemble of constraints are consistent with Omega_m=0.22\pm 0.02. While mot…
We present results of a new study of peculiar motions of 7 clusters in the Perseus-Pisces (PP) region, using the Fundamental Plane as a distance indicator. The sample is calibrated by reference to 9 additional clusters with data from the literature. Careful attention is paid to the matching of spectroscopic and photometric data from several sources. For six clusters in the PP supercluster no significant peculiar motions are detected. For these clusters we derive a bulk motion of 60 +/- 220 km/s, in the CMB frame, directed towards the Local Group. This non-detection is in marginal conflict with…
We assess the extent to which the flux-limited PSCz redshift sample is capable of accounting for the major share of mass concentrations inducing the external tidal forces affecting the peculiar velocities within the Local Supercluster (LS). The investigation is based upon a comparison of the ``true'' velocities in 2 large N-body simulations and their reconstruction from ``observation-mimicking'' mock catalogues. The mildly nonlinear ``mock'' LS and PSCz velocities are analyzed by means of the Least Action Principle technique in its highly optimized implementation of Nusser & Branchini's Fast A…
We present here high resolution echelle spectra taken during three observing runs of 14 single late-type stars identified in our previous studies (Montes et al. 2001b, hereafter Paper I) as possible members of different young stellar kinematic groups (Local Association (20 - 150 Myr), Ursa Major group (300 Myr), Hyades supercluster (600 Myr), and IC 2391 supercluster (35 Myr)). Radial velocities have been determined by cross correlation with radial velocity standard stars and used together with precise measurements of proper motions and parallaxes taken from Hipparcos and Tycho-2 Catalogues, t…
We study the mass distribution and the infall pattern of the Perseus-Pisces (PP) supercluster. First we calculate the mass of the central part of PP, a sphere with a radius of 15/h Mpc centered at (l,b)=(140.2°,-22.0°), d=50/h Mpc, using the virial and other estimators. We get M_{PP} = 4 -- 7 /h 10^{15} M_{sun}, giving mass-to-light ratio 200 -- 600 h M_{sun} / L_{sun}, and overdensity δ\approx 4. The radially averaged smoothed density distribution around the PP is inputted to the Tolman-Bondi (TB) equations, calculated for different cosmologies: Ω_0 = [0.1,1], Ω_Λ = 1-Ω_0 or 0. As a result we…
We report the results of applying the 2MASS Tully-Fisher (TF) relations to study the galaxy bulk flows. For 1141 all-sky distributed flat RFGC galaxies we construct J, H, K_s TF relations and find that Kron $J_{fe}$ magnitudes show the smallest dispersion on the TF diagram. For the sample of 971 RFGC galaxies with V_{3K} < 18000 km/s we find a dispersion $σ_{TF}=0.42^m$ and an amplitude of bulk flow V= 199 +/-61 km/s, directed towards l=301 degr +/-18 degr, b=-2 degr +/-15 degr. Our determination of low-amplitude coherent flow is in good agreement with a set of recent data derived from EFAR, P…
The characteristics of ionized and HI gas in the peculiar star/cluster complex in NGC 6946, obtained with the 6-m telescope (BTA) SAO RAS, the Gemini North telescope, and the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT), are presented. The complex is unusual as hosting a super star cluster, the most massive known in an apparently non-interacting giant galaxy. It contains a number of smaller clusters and is bordered by a sharp C-shaped rim. We found that the complex is additionally unusual in having peculiar gas kinematics. The velocity field of the ionized gas reveals a deep oval minimum, ~300 …
Using the initial peculiar velocity field, we analytically study the hierarchical formation of gravitationally bound objects. The field is smoothed over a scale that corresponds to the mass of a given class of objects. Through the Zel'dovich approximation, the smoothed field determines how the objects cluster together to form a new class of more massive objects. The standard cosmological parameters lead to the evolution of primordial clouds with 10^6 M(sun) -> galaxies with 10^12 M(sun) -> clusters of galaxies with 10^15 M(sun) -> superclusters of galaxies with 10^16 M(sun). The epochs obtaine…
We present the first application of a spherical collapse model to a supercluster of galaxies. Positions and redshifts of $\sim 3000$ galaxies in the Shapley Supercluster (SSC) are used to define velocity caustics that limit the gravitationally collapsing structure in its central part. This is found to extend at least to $8 h^{-1}$ Mpc of the central cluster, A 3558, enclosing 11 ACO clusters. Infall velocities reach $\sim 2000$ km s$^{-1}$. Dynamical models of the collapsing region are used to estimate its mass profile. An upper bound on the mass, based on a pure spherical infall model, gives …
We present results of gasdynamics+N-body constrained cosmological simulations of the Local Supercluster region (LSC; about 30/h Mpc around the Virgo cluster), which closely mimic the real Universe within 100 Mpc by imposing constraints from Mark III catalog of galaxy peculiar velocities. The simulations are used to study the properties and possible observational signatures of intergalactic medium in the LSC region. We find that, in agreement with previous unconstrained simulations, about 30% of the gas in this region is in the warm/hot phase at T~10^5-10^7 K, and about 40% in the diffuse phase…
We investigate the peculiar velocities predicted for galaxy clusters by theories in the cold dark matter family. A widely used hypothesis identifies rich clusters with high peaks of a suitably smoothed version of the linear density fluctuation field. Their peculiar velocities are then obtained by extrapolating the similarly smoothed linear peculiar velocities at the positions of these peaks. We test these ideas using large high resolution N-body simulations carried out within the Virgo supercomputing consortium. We find that at early times the barycentre of the material which ends up in a rich…
Stellar kinematic groups (SKG) are kinematically coherent groups of stars that share a common origin. We have compiled (Montes et al. 1999; 2000) a sample of late-type stars of previously established members and possible new candidates to different young SKG (Local Association (20 - 150 Myr), Ursa Mayor group (300 Myr), Hyades supercluster (600 Myr), IC 2391 supercluster (35 Myr) and Castor Moving Group (200 Myr)). In order to better understand the origin of these young SKG, and to be able to identify late-type stars members of the classical and the recently identified SKG, we also need to stu…
Rich superclusters are the ideal environment for the detection of cluster mergings, because the high peculiar velocities induced by the enhanced local density of the large-scale structure favour the cluster-cluster collisions, in the same way as seen in the simulations. The Shapley Concentration supercluster represents a unique laboratory where it is possible to follow cluster mergings and to test related astrophysical consequences, as the formation of shocks, radio halos, relics and wide angle tail radiosources, and the presence of galaxies with enhanced star formation. We present the results…
By correcting the redshift--dependent distances for peculiar motions through a number of peculiar velocity field models, we recover the true distances of a wide, all-sky sample of nearby galaxies (~ 6400 galaxies with velocities cz<5500 km/s), which is complete up to the blue magnitude B=14 mag. Relying on catalogs of galaxy groups, we treat ~2700 objects as members of galaxy groups and the remaining objects as field galaxies. We model the peculiar velocity field using: i) a cluster dipole reconstruction scheme; ii) a multi--attractor model fitted to the Mark II and Mark III catalogs of galaxy…
We investigate the properties of clusters of galaxies in two cosmological models using N-body simulations and the Press-Schecter (PS) theory. In the first model, the initial power spectrum of density fluctuations is in the form P(k) \propto k^{-2} at wavelengths λ<120h^{-1} Mpc. In the second model, the initial linear power spectrum of density fluctuations contains a feature (bump) at wavelengths λ\sim 30-60h^{-1} Mpc which correspond to the scale of superclusters of galaxies. We examine the mass function, peculiar velocities, the power spectrum and the correlation function of clusters in both…
We investigate the feasibility of carrying out likelihood analysis on the velocities of galaxy clusters to determine power spectrum parameters. Using N-body simulations of cosmological density fields we show that the velocity field traced by clusters is highly non-linear on small scales (r < 10 h^-1 Mpc), mostly due to strong infall into superclusters. The transverse and line of sight velocity correlation functions relevant to likelihood analysis deviate significantly from the linear theory values. Unfortunately, the sparseness of cluster samples means that they are not amenable to any rigorou…
We present HST/ACS images and color-magnitude diagrams for 25 nearby galaxies with radial velocities V_LG < 500 km/s. Distances are determined based on the luminosities of stars at the tip of the red giant branch that range from 2 Mpc to 12 Mpc. Two of the galaxies, NGC 4163 and IC 4662, are found to be the nearest known representatives of blue compact dwarf (BCD) objects. Using high-quality data on distances and radial velocities of 110 nearby field galaxies, we derive their mean Hubble ratio to be 68 km/(s Mpc) with standard deviation of 15 km/(s Mpc). Peculiar velocities of most of the gala…
We have measured the mean peculiar motions of 103 early-type galaxies in 7 clusters in the Perseus-Pisces (PP) ridge or PP background, and a further 249 such galaxies in 9 calibrating clusters from the literature, using the inverse Fundamental Plane relation. This relation is found to have a distance error of 20% per galaxy. None of the 6 clusters in the PP ridge has a significant motion with respect to the CMB frame, but the PP background cluster J8 shows marginal evidence of `backside infall' into the PP supercluster. The full 16 cluster sample has a mean CMB-frame bulk motion of 420 +/- 280…
We analyze in detail the peculiar velocity field traced by 56 clusters within 120 h^-1 Mpc in the Streaming Motions of Abell Clusters (SMAC) sample. The bulk flow of the SMAC sample is 687 +- 203 km/s, toward l = 260 +- 13, b = 0 +- 11. We discuss possible systematic errors and show that no systematic effect is larger than half of the random error. The flow does not drop off significantly with depth, which suggests that it is generated by structures on large scales. In particular, a Great Attractor as originally proposed by Lynden-Bell et al. cannot be responsible for the SMAC bulk flow. The S…
We aim to settle the debate regarding the fraction of the Local Group's peculiar velocity that is induced by structures beyond the Great Attractor by calculating the dipole anisotropy of the largest, all-sky, truly X-ray selected cluster sample compiled to date. The sample is the combination of the REFLEX catalog in the southern hemisphere, the eBCS sample in the north, and the CIZA survey in the Galactic plane. The composite REFLEX+eBCS+CIZA sample overcomes many of the problems inherent to previous galaxy and cluster catalogs which limited their effectiveness in determining the origin of the…
The distributions of peculiar velocities of rich clusters and of groups of galaxies are investigated for different cosmological models and are compared with observations. Four cosmological models are studied: standard ($Ω=1$) CDM, low-density ($Ω=0.3$) CDM, HDM ($Ω=1$), and PBI ($Ω=0.3$), all COBE normalized. We find that rich clusters of galaxies exhibit a Maxwellian distribution of peculiar velocities in all models,as expected from a Gaussian initial density field. The cluster 3-D velocity distribution typically peaks at $v \sim 600$ km s$^{-1}$, and extends to high cluster velocities of $v …
The distributions of peculiar velocities of rich clusters and of groups of galaxies are investigated for different cosmological models and are compared with observations. Four cosmological models are studied: standard ($Ω=1$) CDM, low-density CDM, HDM ($Ω=1$), and PBI. We find that rich clusters of galaxies exhibit a Maxwellian distribution of peculiar velocities in all models, as expected from a Gaussian initial density fluctuation field. The cluster 3-D velocity distribution is generally similar in the models: it peaks at $v \sim 500$ km s$^{-1}$, and extends to high cluster velocities of $v…
Using radio data at 1.4 GHz from the ATCA we identify five head-tail (HT) galaxies in the central region of the Horologium-Reticulum Supercluster (HRS). Physical parameters of the HT galaxies were determined along with substructure in the HRS to probe the relationship between environment and radio properties. Using a density enhancement technique applied to 582 spectroscopic measurements in the 2 degree x 2 degree region about A3125/A3128, we find all five HT galaxies reside in regions of extremely high density (>100 galaxies/Mpc^3). In fact, the environments surrounding HT galaxies are statis…
We analyse intermediate-resolution VLT FLAMES/Giraffe spectra of six ultra-compact dwarf (UCD) galaxies in the Fornax cluster. We obtained velocity dispersions and stellar population properties by full spectral fitting against PEGASE.HR models. Objects span a large range of metallicities (-0.95 to -0.23 dex), 4 of them are older than 8 Gyr. Comparison of the stellar and dynamical masses suggests that UCDs have little dark matter at best. For one object, UCD3, the Salpeter initial mass function (IMF) results in the stellar mass significantly exceeding the dynamical one, whereas for the Kroupa I…
Combining XMM-Newton and Chandra data, we have performed a detailed study of Abell 3558. Our analysis shows that its dynamical history is more complicated than previously thought. We have found some traits typical of cool core clusters (surface brightness peaked at the center, peaked metal abundance profile) and others that are more common in merging clusters, like deviations from spherical symmetry in the thermodynamic quantities of the ICM. This last result has been achieved with a new technique for deriving temperature maps from images. We have also detected a cold front and, with the combi…
In this paper we study A3560, a rich cluster at the southern periphery of the A3558 complex, a chain of interacting clusters in the central part of the Shapley Concentration supercluster. From a ROSAT-PSPC map we find that the X-ray surface brightness distribution of A3560 is well described by two components, an elliptical King law and a more peaked and fainter structure, which has been modeled with a Gaussian. The main component, corresponding to the cluster, is elongated with the major axis pointing toward the A3558 complex. The second component, centered on the Dumb-bell galaxy which domina…
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) will provide a complete imaging and spectroscopic survey of the high-latitude northern sky. The 2D survey will image the sky in five colors and will contain nearly 5 x 107 galaxies to g ~ 23m. The spectroscopic survey will obtain spectra of the brightest 106 galaxies, 105 quasars, and 103.5 rich clusters of galaxies (to g~18.3-19.3m, respectively). I summarize some of the science opportunities that will be made possible by this survey for studying the clustering and large-scale structure of the universe. The survey will identify a complete sample of several …
