arXivDaily arXiv每日学术速递 周一至周五更新
arXiv 1202.4328astro-ph.CO
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附近大质量致密星系的超深亚kpc视图

Ultra deep sub-kpc view of nearby massive compact galaxies

Ignacio Trujillo, Eleazar R. Carrasco, Anna Ferre-Mateu

摘要:

利用Gemini North望远镜对4个邻近(z~0.15)大质量(~10^{11}M_sun)致密(R<1.5 kpc)星系的超深高分辨(sub-kpc)K波段自适应光学成像,对这些稀有天体的结构性质进行了前所未有的详细研究。我们的表面亮度剖面在范围内扩展了12个星等,使我们能够探索这些天体上任何微弱的扩展包络的存在,这些天体的质量密度低至~10^{6} M_sun/kpc^{2},径向距离为~15 kpc。我们没有发现任何证据表明有任何延伸的暗尾改变了这些星系的紧凑性。我们的天体是细长的,在视觉上类似于S 0星系,其中心恒星质量密度远高于目前宇宙中具有类似恒星质量但正常大小的天体的恒星质量密度。如果这些大质量致密天体最终转变为正常大小的星系,那么驱动这种大小增长的过程将不得不从它们的内部(R<1.7 kpc)区域向它们的外围迁移大约2- 3 × 10 ^{10}M太阳的恒星质量。附近的致密大质量星系不仅与高z致密大质量星系具有相同的恒星质量、大小和速度色散,而且具有相同的轮廓形状和恒星星族的平均年龄。这使得这些奇异星系成为探索大质量星系形成早期阶段的独特实验室。

英文摘要:

Using Gemini North telescope ultra deep and high resolution (sub-kpc) K-band adaptive optics imaging of a sample of 4 nearby (z~0.15) massive (~10^{11}M_sun) compact (R<1.5 kpc) galaxies, we have explored the structural properties of these rare objects with an unprecedented detail. Our surface brightness profiles expand over 12 magnitudes in range allowing us to explore the presence of any faint extended envelope on these objects down to stellar mass densities ~10^{6} M_sun/kpc^{2} at radial distances of ~15 kpc. We find no evidence for any extended faint tail altering the compactness of these galaxies. Our objects are elongated, resembling visually S0 galaxies, and have a central stellar mass density well above the stellar mass densities of objects with similar stellar mass but normal size in the present universe. If these massive compact objects will eventually transform into normal size galaxies, the processes driving this size growth will have to migrate around 2-3x10^{10}M_sun stellar mass from their inner (R<1.7 kpc) region towards their outskirts. Nearby massive compact galaxies share with high-z compact massive galaxies not only their stellar mass, size and velocity dispersion but also the shape of their profiles and the mean age of their stellar populations. This makes these singular galaxies unique laboratories to explore the early stages of the formation of massive galaxies.

机构、总结、中文摘要均由AI分析而来,可能存在错误,请以论文正文为准。

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