Search

Planetary nebulae are now well established as probes of galaxy dynamics and as standard candles in distance determinations. Motivated by the need to improve the efficiency of planetary nebulae searches and the speed with which their radial velocities are determined, a dedicated instrument - the Planetary Nebulae Spectrograph or PN.S - has been designed and commissioned at the 4.2m William Herschel Telescope. The high optical efficiency of the spectrograph results in the detection of typically ~ 150 PN in galaxies at the distance of the Virgo cluster in one night of observations. In the same observation the radial velocities are obtained with an accuracy of ~ 20 km/s, Comment: Accepted by PASP, to appear November 2002; the figures have been degraded for archival purposes

We report here the successful commissioning of the PN.Spectrograph, the first special-purpose instrument for the measurement of galaxy kinematics through the PN population, Comment: Proceedings of IAU Symposium 209

We discuss the properties of the host galaxy and ring light distributions in the optical and near infrared bands for a sample of Polar Ring Galaxies (PRGs), presented in Paper I (Iodice et al. 2002, Paper I). The goal of this work is to test different formation scenarios for PRGs, proposed by different authors in the last decades, by comparing their predictions with these new data. The strategy is twofold: i) the integrated colors of the main components in these systems are compared with those of standard morphological galaxy types, to investigate whether differences in colors are caused by dust absorption or difference in stellar populations. We then derived an estimate of the stellar population ages in PRGs, which can be used to set constrains on the dynamical modeling and the time evolution of these systems; ii) we analyse the structural parameters of the host galaxy in order to understand whether this component is a standard early-type system as its morphology suggests, and the light distribution in the polar ring to measure its radial extension. These observational results indicate that the global properties of PRGs are better explained by dissipative merging of disks with un-equal masses as proposed by Bekki (1998), rather than the accretion-or stripping-of gas by a pre-existing early-type galaxy., Comment: 11 pages, 7 postscript figures, accepted for publication in A&A

We present new Near-Infrared (NIR) observations, in the J, H and Kn bands, for a sample of Polar Ring Galaxies (PRGs), selected from the Polar Ring Catalogue (Whitmore et al. 1990). Data were acquired with the CASPIR near-IR camera at the 2.3 m telescope of Mount Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatory. We report here on the detail morphological study for the central host galaxy and the polar structure in all PRGs of our sample. Total magnitudes, bulge-to-disk decomposition and structural parameters are computed for all objects. These data are crucial for an accurate modeling of the stellar population and the estimate of the star formation rates in the two components., Comment: 14 pages, 8 postscript figures, accepted for publication in A&A. For high resolution Figure 1 and Figure 4, see http://www.na.astro.it/~enrica

A total of 33 polar ring galaxies and polar ring galaxy candidates were observed in the 21-cm HI line with the 64-m Parkes radio telescope. The objects, selected by their optical morphology, are all south of declination -39 degrees and in only 5 of them HI had been reported previously. HI line emission was detected towards 18 objects, though in 3 cases the detection may be confused by another galaxy in the telescope beam, and one is a marginal detection. Eight objects were detected for the first time in HI, of which 5 did not have previously known redshifts., Comment: Accepted by Astronomy and Astrophysics, 12/2/2002; new references added on 20/2/2002

Evidence for a disturbed velocity structure in the outer regions of the galaxy NGC1399 comes from a re-analysis of the planetary nebulae data from Arnaboldi et al. (1994). We find a strong rotation along a P.A.=140 degrees for R<=140'' which is followed by a rapid drop off at larger radii, where the velocity dispersion starts to increase. This kinematical behavior can be interpreted as an indication for an interaction scenario. Interaction is advocated in previous analysis of the halo regions of this system, based on different dynamical tracers such as globular clusters and X-rays, but in all these studies the mass distribution is derived under the equilibrium hypothesis, which is not appropriate when an interaction takes place. Here we attempt a non-equilibrium dynamical analysis of NGC1399: with a simple model and under the impulse approximation, we show that the observed kinematics is consistent with an energy injection caused by a flyby encounter of NGC 1399 with the nearby system NGC 1404. In this approach, we find a mass-to-light ratio, M/L_B=26 within R=400'', which is about half of that requested when equilibrium is assumed, i.e. M/L_B=56., Comment: 10 pages, 15 figures, accepted for pubblication in A&A

We have imaged an empty area of 34'x34' one and a half degree north of the Virgo cluster core to survey for intracluster planetary nebula candidates. We have implemented and tested a fully automatic procedure for the selection of emission line objects in wide-field images, based on the on-off technique from Ciardullo and Jacoby. Freeman et al. have spectroscopically confirmed a sample of intracluster planetary nebulae in one Virgo field. We use the photometric and morphological properties of this sample to test our selection procedure. In our newly surveyed Virgo field, 75 objects were identified as best candidates for intracluster PNe. The luminosity function of the spectroscopically confirmed PNe shows a brighter cut-off than the planetary nebula luminosity function for the inner regions of M87. Such a brighter cut-off is also observed in the newly surveyed field and indicates a smaller distance modulus, implying that the front end of the Virgo cluster is closer to us by a significant amount: 14% closer (2.1 Mpc) than M87 for the spectroscopic field, using the PN luminosity function distance of 14.9 Mpc to M87, and 19% closer (2.8 Mpc) than M87 for the newly surveyed field. Independent distance indicators (Tully-Fisher relation for Virgo spirals and surface brightness fluctuations for Virgo ellipticals) agree with these findings. From these two Virgo cluster fields there is no evidence that the surface luminosity density for the diffuse stellar component in the cluster decreases with radius. The luminosity surface density of the diffuse stellar population is comparable to that of the galaxies., Comment: 30 pages, 8 figures, accepted for pubblication in AJ

This work presents new surface photometry and two-dimensional modeling of the light distribution of the Polar Ring Galaxy NGC 4650A, based on near-infrared (NIR) observations and high resolution optical imaging acquired during the Hubble Heritage program. The NIR and optical integrated colors of the S0 and the polar ring, and their scale parameters, are compared with those for standard galaxy morphological types. The polar structure appears to be a disk of a very young age, while the colors and light distribution of the host galaxy do not resemble that of a typical early-type system. We compare these observational results with the predictions from different formation scenarios for polar ring galaxies. The peculiarities of the central S0 galaxy, the polar disk structure and stellar population ages suggest that the polar ring galaxy NGC 4650A may be the result of a dissipative merger event, rather than of an accretion process., Comment: 26 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication to the Astronomical Journal

We have detected 535 planetary nebulae (PNs) in NGC 4697, using the classic on-band, off-band filter technique with the Focal Reducer and Spectrograph (FORS) at the Cassegrain focus of the first 8-meter telescope unit of the ESO Very Large Telescope. From our photometry we have built the [O III] 5007 planetary nebula luminosity function (PNLF) of NGC 4697. It indicates a distance of 10.5 Mpc, substantially smaller than a previous estimate of 24 Mpc used in earlier dynamical studies. The PNLF also provides an estimate of the specific PN formation rate. Combining the information from on-band images with PN positions on dispersed, slitless grism images, we have obtained radial velocities for 531 of the 535 PNs. They provide kinematic information up to a distance of almost three effective radii from the nucleus. Some rotation is detected in the outer regions, but the rotation curve of this galaxy appears to drop beyond one effective radius. Assuming an isotropic velocity distribution, the velocity dispersion profile is consistent with no dark matter within three effective radii of the nucleus (however, some dark matter can be present if the velocity distribution is anisotropic). We obtain a blue mass-to-light ratio of 11. Earlier M/L ratios for NGC 4697 were too small, because of the too large distance used for their derivation., Comment: 52 pages, 24 Postscript figures, ApJ 2001, in press

The aim of the VIRMOS VLT Deep Survey (VVDS) is to study of the evolution of galaxies, large scale structures and AGNs from a sample of more than 150,000 galaxies with measured redshifts in the range 0

Narrow-band imaging surveys aimed at detecting the faint emission from the 5007 [O III] line of intracluster planetary nebulae in Virgo also probe high redshift z=3.1 Ly alpha emitters. Here we report on the spectroscopic identification of 9 Ly alpha emitters at z=3.13, obtained with the FORS spectrograph at Unit 1 of the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT UT1). The spectra of these high redshift objects show a narrow, isolated Ly alpha emission with very faint (frequently undetected) continuum, indicating a large equivalent width. No other features are visible in our spectra. Our Ly alpha emitters are quite similar to those found by Hu (1998), Cowie & Hu (1998) and Hu et al. (1998). Using simple population synthesis models, on the assumption that these sources are regions of star formation, we conclude that the nebulae are nearly optically thick and must have a very low dust content, in order to explain the high observed Ly alpha equivalent widths. For the cosmological and star formation parameters we adopted, the total stellar mass produced would seem to correspond to the formation of rather small galaxies, some of which are perhaps destined to merge. The implied star formation density in our sampled comoving volume is probably somewhat smaller than, but of the same order of magnitude as the star formation density at z=3 derived by other authors from Lyman-break galaxy surveys. This result agrees with the expectation that the Ly alpha emitters are a low-metallicity (or low-dust) tail in a distribution of star forming regions at high redshifts. Finally, the Ly alpha emitters may contribute as many H-ionizing photons as QSOs at z=3., Comment: 26 pages, 17 Postscript figures, ApJ in press

Planetary Nebulae (PNe) are very important kinematical tracers of the outer regions of early-type galaxies, where the integrated light techniques fail. Under ad hoc assumptions, they allow measurements of rotation velocity and velocity dispersion profile from descrete radial velocity fields. We present the results on the precision allowed by different set of radial velocity samples, discuss the hypotheses in the analysis of descrete velocity fields and their impact on the inferred kinematics of the stellar population., Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. To appear on ``Galaxy Dynamics: from Early Universe to the Present'', ASP Conf. Ser., F. Combes, G.A. Mamon and V. Charmandaris (eds.)

We briefly describe the properties of the confirmed spectroscopic sample of intracluster planetary nebulae recently discovered in the Virgo cluster. We find 23 bonafide intracluster planetary nebulae and 8 high redshift (z ~ 3.1) Lyalpha emitters identified by their broad asymmetric emission line., Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, conference paper. To appear on ``Galaxy Dynamics: from the Early Universe to the Present'', ASP Conference Series, F. Combes, G.A. Mamon and V. Charmandaris (eds.)

We present a study of the kinematics of the outer regions of the early-type galaxy NGC 1316, based on radial velocity measurements of 43 planetary nebulae as well as deep integrated-light absorption line spectra. The smoothed velocity field of NGC 1316 indicates fast rotation at a distance of 16 kpc, possibly associated with an elongated feature orthogonal to the inner dust lanes. The mean square stellar velocity is approximately independent of radius, and the estimated total mass of the system is 2.6 x 10^11 M_sun within a radius of 16 kpc, implying an integrated mass-to-light ratio of M/L_B = 8., Comment: 39 pages, 14 figures, in press on The Astrophysical Journal n. 507

We surveyed a 50 sq arcmin region in the Virgo cluster core to search for intergalactic planetary nebulae, and found 11 candidates in the surveyed area. The measured fluxes of these unresolved sources are consistent with these objects being planetary nebulae from an intracluster population of stars. We compute the cumulative luminosity function of these 11 planetary nebula candidates. If we assume that they belong to the Virgo cluster, their cumulative luminosity function is in good agreement with planetary nebula luminosity function simulations. This comparison allows us to estimate the surface mass density of the intracluster stellar population at the surveyed field in the cluster core., Comment: ApJ Letters, in press. A .ps file is also available at: http://www.usm.uni-muenchen.de:8001/people/mendez/preprints/preprints.html