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We study the properties of kinematically disturbed galaxies in the Sydney-AAO Multi-object Integral field spectrograph (SAMI) Galaxy Survey using a quantitative criterion, based on kinemetry (Krajnovic et al.). The approach, similar to the application of kinemetry by Shapiro et al., uses ionized gas kinematics, probed by H α emission. By this method, 23 ± 7 per cent of our 360-galaxy sub-sample of the SAMI Galaxy Survey are kinematically asymmetric. Visual classifications agree with our kinemetric results for 90 per cent of asymmetric and 95 per cent of normal galaxies. We find that stellar mass and kinematic asymmetry are inversely correlated and that kinematic asymmetry is both more frequent and stronger in low-mass galaxies. This builds on previous studies that found high fractions of kinematic asymmetry in low-mass galaxies using a variety of different methods. Concentration of star formation and kinematic disturbance are found to be correlated, confirming results found in previous work. This effect is stronger for high-mass galaxies (log(M*) > 10) and indicates that kinematic disturbance is linked to centrally concentrated star formation. Comparison of the inner (within 0.5Re) and outer Hα equivalent widths of asymmetric and normal galaxies shows a small but significant increase in inner equivalent width for asymmetric galaxies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Line-of-sight velocities of gas and stars can constrain dark matter (DM) within rotationally supported galaxies if they trace circular orbits extensively. Photometric asymmetries may signify non-circular motions, requiring spectra with dense spatial coverage. Our integral-field spectroscopy of 178 galaxies spanned the mass range of the Sydney-AAO Multi-object integral field spectrograph (SAMI) Galaxy Survey. We derived circular speed curves (CSCs) of gas and stars from non-parametric fits out to r ~ 2re. For 12/14 with measured HI profiles, ionized gas and HI maximum velocities agreed. We fitted mass-follows-light models to 163 galaxies by approximating the radial light profile as nested, very flattened mass homeoids viewed as a Sérsic form. Fitting broad-band spectral energy distributions to Sloan Digital Sky Survey images gave median stellar mass/light 1.7 assuming a Kroupa initial mass function (IMF) versus 2.6 dynamically. Two-thirds of the dynamical mass/light measures were consistent with star+remnant IMFs. One-fifth required upscaled starlight to fit, hence comparable mass of unobserved baryons and/or DM distributed like starlight across the SAMI aperture that came to dominate motions as the starlight CSCs declined rapidly. The rest had mass distributed differently from light. Subtracting fits of Sérsic radial profiles to 13 VIKING Z-band images revealed residual weak bars. Near the bar major axis, we assessed m = 2 streaming velocities, and found deviations usually <30 km s-1 from the CSC; three showed no deviation. Thus, asymmetries rarely influenced the CSC despite colocated shock-indicating, emission-line flux ratios in more than 2/3 of our sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the low-redshift Universe (z < 0.3), our view of galaxy evolution is primarily based on fibre optic spectroscopy surveys. Elaborate methods have been developed to address aperture effects when fixed aperture sizes only probe the inner regions for galaxies of ever decreasing redshift or increasing physical size. These aperture corrections rely on assumptions about the physical properties of galaxies. The adequacy of these aperture corrections can be tested with integralfield spectroscopic data. We use integral-field spectra drawn from 1212 galaxies observed as part of the SAMI Galaxy Survey to investigate the validity of two aperture correction methods that attempt to estimate a galaxy's total instantaneous star formation rate.We show that biases arise when assuming that instantaneous star formation is traced by broad-band imaging, and when the aperture correction is built only from spectra of the nuclear region of galaxies. These biases may be significant depending on the selection criteria of a survey sample. Understanding the sensitivities of these aperture corrections is essential for correct handling of systematic errors in galaxy evolution studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report the detection of extended warm ionized gas in two powerful high-redshift radio galaxies, NVSS J210626-314003 at z = 2.10 and TXS 2353-003 at z = 1.49, that does not appear to be associated with the radio jets. This is contrary to what would be expected from the alignment effect, a characteristic feature of distant, powerful radio galaxies at z ≥ 0.6. The gas also has smaller velocity gradients and line widths than most other high-z radio galaxies with similar data. Both galaxies are part of a systematic study of 50 high-redshift radio galaxies with SINFONI, and are the only two that are characterized by the presence of high surface-brightness gas not associated with the jet axis and by the absence of such gas aligned with the jet. Both galaxies are spatially resolved with ISAAC broadband imaging covering the rest-frame R band, and have extended wings that cannot be attributed to line contamination. We argue that the gas and stellar properties of these galaxies are more akin to gas-rich brightest cluster galaxies in cool-core clusters than the general population of high-redshift radio galaxies at z >≳ 2. In support of this interpretation, one of our sources, TXS 2353- 003, for which we have Hα narrowband imaging, is associated with an overdensity of candidate Hα emitters by a factor of ≳8 relative to the field at z = 1.5. We discuss possible scenarios of the evolutionary state of these galaxies and the nature of their emission line gas within the context of cyclical AGN feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the Early Data Release of the Sydney-AAO Multi-object Integral field spectrograph (SAMI) Galaxy Survey. The SAMI Galaxy Survey is an ongoing integral field spectroscopic survey of 3400 low-redshift (z < 0.12) galaxies, covering galaxies in the field and in groups within the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey regions, and a sample of galaxies in clusters. In the Early Data Release, we publicly release the fully calibrated data cubes for a representative selection of 107 galaxies drawn from the GAMA regions, along with information about these galaxies from the GAMA catalogues. All data cubes for the Early Data Release galaxies can be downloaded individually or as a set from the SAMI Galaxy Survey website. In this paper we also assess the quality of the pipeline used to reduce the SAMI data, giving metrics that quantify its performance at all stages in processing the raw data into calibrated data cubes. The pipeline gives excellent results throughout, with typical sky subtraction residuals in the continuum of 0.9-1.2 per cent, a relative flux calibration uncertainty of 4.1 per cent (systematic) plus 4.3 per cent (statistical), and atmospheric dispersion removed with an accuracy of 0.09 arcsec, less than a fifth of a spaxel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a methodology for the regularization and combination of sparse sampled and irregularly gridded observations from fibre-optic multiobject integral field spectroscopy. The approach minimizes interpolation and retains image resolution on combining subpixel dithered data. We discuss the methodology in the context of the Sydney-AAO multiobject integral field spectrograph (SAMI) Galaxy Survey underway at the Anglo-Australian Telescope. The SAMI instrument uses 13 fibre bundles to perform high-multiplex integral field spectroscopy across a 1엯 diameter field of view. The SAMI Galaxy Survey is targeting 3000 galaxies drawn from the full range of galaxy environments. We demonstrate the subcritical sampling of the seeing and incomplete fill factor for the integral field bundles results in only a 10 per cent degradation in the final image resolution recovered. We also implement a new methodology for tracking covariance between elements of the resulting data cubes which retains 90 per cent of the covariance information while incurring only a modest increase in the survey data volume. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the discovery of a luminous unresolved H II complex on the edge of dwarf galaxy GAMA J141103.98-003242.3 using data from the Sydney-AAO Multi-object Integral field spectrograph (SAMI) Galaxy Survey. This dwarf galaxy is situated at a distance of ∼100 Mpc and contains an unresolved region of H II emission that contributes ∼70 per cent of the galaxy's Hα luminosity, located at the top end of established H II region luminosity functions. For the H II complex, we measure a star formation rate of 0.147 ± 0.041 M⊙ yr-1 and a metal licity of 12+log(O/H) = 8.01 ± 0.05 that is lower than the rest of the galaxy by ∼0.2 dex. Data from the H I Parkes All-Sky Survey (HIPASS) indicate the likely presence of neutral hydrogen in the galaxy to potentially fuel ongoing and future star-forming events. We discuss various triggering mechanisms for the intense star formation activity of this H II complex, where the kinematics of the ionized gas are well described by a rotating disc and do not show any features indicative of interactions. We show that SAMI is an ideal instrument to identify similar systems to GAMA J141103.98-003242.3, and the SAMI Galaxy Survey is likely to find many more of these systems to aid in the understanding of their formation and evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]