In this letter we present a morphological comparison between giant radio halos and radio mini-halos in galaxy clusters based on radio--X-ray luminosity, P_{1.4}-L_X, and radio luminosity-size, P_{1.4}-R_H, correlations. We report evidence that P_{1.4}-L_X and P_{1.4}-R_H trends may also exist for mini--halos: mini--halo clusters share the same region of giant halo clusters in the (P_{1.4},L_X) plane, whereas they are clearly separated in the (P_{1.4},R_H) plane. The synchrotron emissivity of mini-halos is found to be more than 50 times larger than that of giant halos, implying a very efficient process for their origins. By assuming a scenario of sporadical turbulent particle re-acceleration for both giant and mini halos, we discuss basic physical differences between these sources. Regardless of the origin of the turbulence, a more efficient source of injection of particles, which eventually takes part in the re-acceleration process, is required in mini-halos, and this may result from the central radio galaxy or from proton-proton collisions in the dense cool core regions.
We present deep near-IR images of high redshift radio galaxies obtained with NIRC on the Keck I telescope. In most cases, the near-IR data sample rest wavelengths at ~4000 Angstroms, free of strong emission lines. At z > 3, the rest frame optical morphologies generally have faint, large-scale emission surrounding multiple components of ~10 kpc size. The brightest of the small knots are often aligned with the radio structures. At z < 3, the morphologies change dramatically, showing single, compact structures without radio-aligned features. The sizes and luminosities of the individual components…
The huge star formation events that occur at some galactic centers do not provide enough clues as to their origin, since the morphological signatures of the triggering mechanism are smeared out in the timescale of a few orbital revolutions of the galaxy core. Our high spatial resolution three-dimensional near-infrared spectroscopy for the first time reveals that a previously known hidden mass concentration is located exactly at the youngest end of a giant star-forming arc. This location, the inferred average cluster ages, and the dynamical times clearly indicate that the interloper has left be…
The morphological and spectroscopic properties of the giant (>60 kpc) Ly-alpha nebulae associated with three radio galaxies at z~2.5 (MRC 1558-003, MRC 2025-218 and MRC 0140-257) have been investigated using integral field spectroscopic data obtained with VIMOS on VLT. The morphologies are varied. The nebula of one source has a centrally peaked, rounded appearance. In the other two objects, it consists of two spatial components. The three nebulae are aligned with the radio axis within <30 deg. The total Ly-alpha luminosities are in the range (0.3-3.4) x 1e44 erg s-1. The Ly-alpha spectral prof…
Data are presently available on the luminosities and half-light radii of 101 globular clusters associated with low-luminosity parent galaxies. The luminosity distribution of globulars embedded in dwarf galaxies having $M_{v} > -16$ is found to differ dramatically from that for globular clusters surrounding giant host galaxies with $M_{v} < -16$. The luminosity distribution of globular clusters in giant galaxies peaks at $M_{v} \sim -7.5$, whereas that for dwarfs is found to increases monotonically down to the completeness limit of the cluster data at $M_{v} \sim -5.0$. Unexpectedly, the power …
The luminosity distribution of globular clusters shows a dramatic dependence on parent galaxy luminosity. Dwarf galaxies contain far more faint globulars than do luminous galaxies. This difference is significant at the 99.7% level. On the other hand the luminosity distribution of globular clusters in dwarf galaxies does not appear to depend strongly on their host's morphological type. The dichotomy of globular cluster masses occurs at a host galaxy mass of ~ 4 x 10^8 solar masses, which is almost two orders of magnitude lower than the onset of the dichotomy in globular color characteristics at…
Galaxy morphologies in clusters have undergone a remarkable transition over the past several billion years. Distant clusters at $z \sim 0.4$ are filled with small spiral galaxies, many of which are disturbed and show evidence of multiple bursts of star-formation. This population is absent from nearby clusters where spheroidals comprise the faint end of the luminosity function. Our numerical simulations follow the evolution of disk galaxies in a rich cluster owing to encounters with brighter galaxies and the cluster's tidal field---galaxy harassment. After a bursting transient phase, they under…
We present a near-infrared J and K photometric catalog containing more than 73,000 stars in the central region of the giant Globular Cluster omega Centauri. This is the largest IR data-set ever published for this cluster and has been used to completely characterize the morphology and the properties of the Red Giant Branch (RGB). In particular, we concentrated our attention on (i) the anomalous RGB (RGB-a), recently discovered in this cluster and (ii) the RGB of the dominant metal poor population (RGB-MP) in both the infrared (K,J-K) and optical-infrared (K,V-K) color magnitude diagrams. The fu…
We report the discovery of a giant (~160 kpc) knotty extended emission line nebula associated with the radio galaxy PKS1932-46 at z=0.23. The 2-d long slit spectra, obtained with VLT-FORS2 at a large angle (~63 degr) to the radio source axis, shows that the nebula extends well beyond the radio structure and the ionization cones of the active nucleus. This is one of the largest ionized nebulae yet detected around a radio galaxy at any redshift. The analysis of the ionization, morphological and kinematic properties of the knots suggests that these are star forming objects, probably compact HII g…
Highly magnified lensed galaxies allow us to probe the morphological and spectroscopic properties of high-redshift stellar systems in great detail. However, such objects are rare, and there are only a handful of lensed galaxies which are bright enough for a high-resolution spectroscopic study with current instrumentation. We report the discovery of a new massive lensing cluster, SDSS J120923.7+264047, at z=0.558. Present around the cluster core, at angular distances of up to ~40'', are many arcs and arc candidates, presumably due to lensing of background galaxies by the cluster gravitational p…
(Aims) We present a physical model of the formation of J033239.72-275154.7, a galaxy observed at z=0.41 and characterized by a big young bar of size 6 kpc. The study of this system is particularly interesting for understanding the connection between mergers and bars as well as the properties and fate of this system as it relates to disk galaxy formation. (Methods) We compare the morphological and kinematic properties of J033239.72-275154.7, the latter obtained by the GIRAFFE spectrograph, to those derived from the merger of two spiral galaxies described by idealized N-body simulations includin…
We report deep Keck narrow-band Lya images of the luminous z > 3 radio galaxies 4C 41.17, 4C 60.07, and B2 0902+34. The images show giant, 100-200 kpc scale emission line nebulae, centered on these galaxies, which exhibit a wealth of morphological structure, including extended low surface brightness emission in the outer regions, radially directed filaments, cone-shaped structures and (indirect) evidence for extended Lya absorption. We discuss these features within a general scenario where the nebular gas cools gravitationally in large Cold Dark Matter (CDM) halos, forming stars and multiple s…
This paper presents morphological type, membership, and U-V color for a sample of galaxies in the Coma cluster direction, complete down to M_B=-15.00 mag and extending down to M_B=-14.25 mag. We have examined 1155 objects from the GMP 1983 catalog on B and V images of the CFH12K camera, and obtained the Hubble type in most cases. Coma cluster membership for 473 galaxies was derived using morphology, apparent size, and surface brightness, and, afterward, redshift. The comparison among morphology- and redshift- memberships and among luminosity functions derived from this morphologically-selected…
We examine relationships between the morphology in double radio sources and the radio-optical position angle offset--the relative orientation of the radio axis with respect to the major axis of the host galaxy. The study was done for a representative sample of radio sources: the nearby (redshift z < 0.5) 3CRR sources, and separately for samples of giant radio sources and X-shaped radio sources. We find that radio morphological features have a dependence on the radio-optical position angle offset and on whether the source is a major- or minor-axis source. The evidence indicates an anisotropic g…
We present a method for generating virtual observations from smoothed-particle-hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations. This method includes stellar population synthesis models and the reprocessing of starlight by dust to produce realistic galaxy images. We apply this method and simulate the merging of two identical giant Sa galaxies. The merger remnant is an elliptical galaxy. The merger concentrates the gas content of the two galaxies into the nuclear region. The gas that flows into the nuclear region refuels the central black holes of the merging galaxies. We follow the refuelling of the black hole…
We have carried out a submillimeter continuum and spectroscopic study of the W43 main complex, a massive star-forming region, which harbors a giant HII region. The maps reveal a filamentary structure containing ~50 fragments with masses of 40-4000 Msun and typical diameters of 0.25 pc. Their large sizes, large non-thermal velocities (Dv ~ 5 km/s), and high densities (n_H2 ~ 10^6 cm^-3) suggest that they are protoclusters and excellent sites to form massive stars. Follow-up observations are necessary, but we have already identified three protoclusters to be very good candidates for containing v…
We present Keck 10-meter/LRIS spectra of candidate red giants in the halo of M31, located at a projected radius of R=19kpc on the minor axis. These spectroscopic targets have been selected using a combination of UBRI-based and morphological screening to eliminate background galaxies. Radial velocity measurements are used to separate M31 halo giants from foreground Milky Way dwarf stars, M31 disk stars, and residual background galaxies. The metallicity of each M31 halo giant is measured using standard photometric and spectroscopic techniques, the latter based on the strength of the CaII triplet…
[ABRIDGED] I perform a detailed comparison of the shape of the optical luminosity functions as a function of galaxy class and filter, which have been obtained from redshift surveys with an effective depth ranging from z~0.01 to z~0.6. This analysis is based on the M* and alpha Schechter parameters. I provide complete tables of all the existing measurements, converted into the UBVRcIc Johnson-Cousins system wherever necessary. By using as reference the intrinsic luminosity functions per morphological type measured from local galaxy concentrations (Jerjen et al 1997), I establish that the variat…
We present a large area photometric survey of the Ursa Minor dSph. We identify UMi giant star candidates extending to ~3 deg from the center of the dSph. Comparison to previous catalogues of stars within the tidal radius of UMi suggests that our photometric luminosity classification is 100% accurate. Over a large fraction of the survey area, blue horizontal branch stars associated with UMi can also be identified. The spatial distribution of both the UMi giant stars and the BHB stars are remarkably similar, and a large fraction of both samples of stars are found outside the tidal radius of UMi.…
[ABRIDGED] We present the first statistical analysis of the complete ESO-Sculptor redshift survey (ESS). The flux-calibrated sample of 617 galaxy spectra with R_c<20.5 is separated into 3 spectral classes (early, intermediate, and late). We report in detail on the spectral classification, the polynomial K-corrections, and all sources of corresponding random and systematic errors. The derived luminosity functions (LF) in the Johnson-Cousins B and Rc bands are in agreement with the results from the comparable CNOC2 survey (Lin et al. 1999), whereas the ESS provides the first estimates of LFs per…
