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Hexapods are very common in astronomy as a mechanism to provide a stiff mount or a precision alignment tool. Here, we present a lumped model for a general symmetric hexapod that allows us to compute the load distribution under external forces, the hexapod’s resolution, and the identification of singularity loci within the workspace. We also developed a script to analyze this parametric model, which is publicly available. We use this model to develop and design a hexapod for mid-infrared ELT imager and spectrograph, one of the extremely large telescope’s first light instruments. The designed hexapod solution can survive strict earthquake conditions that can go up to 5g, and position and align the 11 ton instrument with submillimetric and arcsecond precisions. Although the model presented is not as precise or as realistic as a finite element (FE) analysis, it provides, in a fraction of a second, a very good first approximation. Therefore, unlike FE methods, the model is able to study many geometries in a short time.

The formation and evolution of planetary systems impact the primordial accretion disk. HD141569 is the only known pre-main sequence star characterized by a hybrid disk. Observations probed the outer-disk structure showing a complex system of rings and interferometric observations attempted to characterize its inner 5 au region, but derived limited constraints. The goal of this work was to explore with new high-resolution interferometric observations the properties of the dust and gas in the internal regions of HD141569. We observed HD141569 on mas scales with GRAVITY/VLTI in the near-infrared at low and high spectral resolution. We interpreted the visibilities and spectral energy distribution with geometrical models and radiative transfer techniques to constrain the dust emission. We analyzed the high spectral resolution quantities to investigate the properties of the Br-Gamma line emitting region. Thanks to the combination of three different epochs, GRAVITY resolves the inner dusty disk in the K band. Data modeling shows that an IR excess of about 6% is spatially resolved and that the origin of this emission is confined in a ring of material located at a radius of 1 au from the star with a width smaller than 0.3 au. The MCMax modeling suggests that this emission could originate from a small amount of QHPs, while large silicate grain models cannot reproduce at the same time the observational constraints on the properties of near-IR and mid-IR fluxes. The differential phases in the Br-Gamma line clearly show an S-shape that can be best reproduced witha gas disk in Keplerian rotation, confined within 0.09 au. This is also hinted at by the double-peaked Br-Gamma emission line shape. The modeling of the continuum and gas emission shows that the inclination and position angle of these two components are consistent with a system showing relatively coplanar rings on all scales., Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A; 25 pages, 15 figures, 5 tables

We use PIONIER data from the ESO archive and GRAVITY data that were obtained in June 2017 with the four 8m telescopes. We use a parametric disk model and the 3D radiative transfer code MCFOST to reproduce the Spectral Energy Distribution and match the interferometric observations. To match the SED , our model requires a stellar luminosity of 2.5 Lsun, higher than any previously determined values. Such a high value is needed to accommodate the circumstellar extinction caused by the highly inclined disk, which has been neglected in previous studies. While using an effective temperature of 4800 K determined through high-resolution spectroscopy, we derive a stellar radius of 2.29 Rsun. These revised fundamental parameters, when combined with the mass estimates available , lead to an age of 0.5-2.0 Ma for RY Lup, in better agreement with the age of the Lupus association than previous determinations. Our disk model nicely reproduces the interferometric GRAVITY data and is in good agreement with the PIONIER ones. We derive an inner rim location at 0.12~au from the central star. This model corresponds to an inclination of the inner disk of 50deg, which is in mild tension with previous determinations of a more inclined outer disk from SPHERE (70 deg in NIR) and ALMA(67 $\pm$5 deg) images, but consistent with the inclination determination from the ALMA CO spectra (55$\pm$5deg). Increasing the inclination of the inner disk to 70 deg leads to a higher line-of-sight extinction and therefore requires a higher stellar luminosity of 4.65 Lsun to match the observed flux levels. This luminosity would translate to a stellar radius of 3.13~Rsun, leading to an age of 2-3~Ma, and a stellar mass of about 2 Msun, in disagreement with the observed dynamical mass estimate of 1.3-1.5 Msun. Critically, this high-inclination inner disk model also fails to reproduce the visibilities observed with GRAVITY., Accepted for publication in A&A; 11 pages, 5 figures, 3 tables

Using a representative sample of 14 star-forming dwarf galaxies in the local Universe, we show the existence of a spaxel-to-spaxel anticorrelation between the index N2≡log([N II]λ6583/Hα) and the Hα flux. These two quantities are commonly employed as proxies for gas-phase metallicity and star formation rate (SFR), respectively. Thus, the observed N2 to Hα relation may reflect the existence of an anticorrelation between the metallicity of the gas forming stars and the SFR it induces. Such an anticorrelation is to be expected if variable external metal-poor gas fuels the star-formation process. Alternatively, it can result from the contamination of the star-forming gas by stellar winds and SNe, provided that intense outflows drive most of the metals out of the star-forming regions. We also explore the possibility that the observed anticorrelation is due to variations in the physical conditions of the emitting gas, other than metallicity. Using alternative methods to compute metallicity, as well as previous observations of HII regions and photoionization models, we conclude that this possibility is unlikely. The radial gradient of metallicity characterizing disc galaxies does not produce the correlation either.© 2018 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society., We thank Sebastian Sanchez for providing some of the data used in Section 4.2, Enrique Perez-Montero for help with the use of HIIC, and Matteo Miluzio for discussions and support during the early stages of the analysis. We also thank an anonymous referee whose comments help us improving the reliability of our argumentation. MF gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (FCT - Portugal), through the research grant SFRH/BPD/107801/2015. This work has been partly funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, projects Estallidos AYA2013-47742-C04-02-P and AYA2016-79724-C4-2-P, as well as AYA2014-58861-C3-1-P.

Protoplanetary disks drive some of the formation process (e.g., accretion, gas dissipation, formation of structures, etc.) of stars and planets. Understanding such physical processes is one of the main astrophysical questions. HD 163296 is an interesting young stellar object for which infrared and sub-millimeter observations have shown a prominent circumstellar disk with gaps plausibly created by forming planets. This study aims at characterizing the morphology of the inner disk in HD 163296 with multi-epoch near-infrared interferometric observations performed with GRAVITY at the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI). Our goal is to depict the K-band (lambda_0 ~ 2.2 um) structure of the inner rim with milliarcsecond (sub-au) angular resolution. Our data is complemented with archival PIONIER (H-band; lambda_0 ~ 1.65 um) data of the source. We performed a Gradient Descent parametric model fitting to recover the sub-au morphology of our source. Our analysis shows the existence of an asymmetry in the disk surrounding the central star of HD 163296. We confirm variability of the disk structure in the inner ~2 mas (0.2 au). While variability of the inner disk structure in this source has been suggested by previous interferometric studies, this is the first time that it is confirmed in the H- and K-bands by using a complete analysis of the closure phases and squared visibilities over several epochs. Because of the separation from the star, position changes, and persistence of this asymmetric structure on timescales of several years, we argue that it is a dusty feature (e.g., a vortex or dust clouds), probably, made by a mixing of sillicate and carbon dust and/or refractory grains, inhomogeneously distributed above the mid-plane of the disk., Accepted to be published in Astronomy and Astrophysics; main-body: 11 pages, 3 figures and 3 tables

Correlations between the radio continuum, infrared and CO emission are known to exist for several types of galaxies and across several orders of magnitude. However, the low-mass, low-luminosity and low-metallicity regime of these correlations is not well known. A sample of metal-rich and metal-poor dwarf galaxies from the literature has been assembled to explore this extreme regime. The results demonstrate that the properties of dwarf galaxies are not simple extensions of those of more massive galaxies; the different correlations reflect different star-forming conditions and different coupling between the star formation and the various quantities. It is found that dwarfs show increasingly weaker CO and infrared emission for their luminosity, as expected for galaxies with a low dust content, slower reaction rates, and a hard ionizing radiation field. In the higher-luminosity dwarf regime (L_1.4GHz > 10^27 W, where L_1.4GHz ~ 10^29 W for a Milky Way star formation rate of ~1 M_sun yr^-1), the total and non-thermal radio continuum emission appear to adequately trace the star formation rate. A breakdown of the dependence of the (Halpha-based) thermal, non-thermal, and, hence, total radio continuum emission on star formation rate occurs below L_1.4GHz ~ 10^27 W, resulting in a steepening or downturn of the relations at extreme low luminosity. Below L_FIR ~ 10^36 W ~ 3 x 10^9 L_sun, the infrared emission ceases to adequately trace the star formation rate. A lack of a correlation between the magnetic field strength and the star formation rate in low star formation rate dwarfs suggests a breakdown of the equipartition assumption. As extremely metal-poor dwarfs mostly populate the low star formation rate and low luminosity regime, they stand out in their infrared, radio continuum and CO properties., accepted for publication in MNRAS

We have serendipitously discovered that Leoncino Dwarf, an ultra-faint, low-metallicity record-holder dwarf galaxy, may have hosted a transient source, and possibly exhibited a change in morphology, a shift in the center of brightness, and peak variability of the main (host) source in images taken approximately 40 yr apart; it is highly likely that these phenomena are related. Scenarios involving a Solar System object, a stellar cluster, dust enshrouding, and accretion variability have been considered, and discarded, as the origin of the transient. Although a combination of time-varying strong and weak lensing effects, induced by an intermediate mass black hole (10$^4$ - 5 $\times$ 10$^{5}$ M$_{\odot}$) moving within the Milky Way halo (0.1 -- 4 kpc), can conceivably explain all of the observed variable galaxy properties, it is statistically highly unlikely according to current theoretical predictions, and, therefore, also discarded. A cataclysmic event such as a supernova/hypernova could have occurred, as long as the event was observed towards the later/late-stage descent of the light curve, but this scenario fails to explain the absence of a post-explosion source and/or host HII region in recent optical images. An episode related to the giant eruption of a luminous blue variable star, a stellar merger or a nova, observed at, or near, peak magnitude may explain the transient source and possibly the change in morphology/center of brightness, but can not justify the main source peak variability, unless stellar variability is evoked.

Dark Matter (DM) is an ingredient essential to the current cosmological concordance model. It provides the gravitational pull needed for the baryons to form galaxies. Therefore, the existence of galaxies without DM is both disquieting and extremely interesting. Guo et al. recently presented "further evidence for a population of DM-deficient dwarf galaxies", however, their analysis bypasses the triaxiality of the dwarf galaxies. We carry out a Monte Carlo simulation showing how triaxiality must be considered to measure dynamical masses from projected axial ratios, calling into question the evidence for a population of DM-deficient dwarf galaxies. Such a population may consist of normal almost face-on HI disks with their inclination overestimated.

The role of gas accretion in galaxy evolution is still a matter of debate. The presence of inflows of metal-poor gas that trigger star formation bursts of low metallicity has been proposed as an explanation for the local anti-correlation between star formation rate (SFR) and gas-phase metallicity ($\rm Z_g$) found in the literature. In the present study, we show how the anti-correlation is also present as part of a diversified range of behaviours for a sample of more than 700 nearby spiral galaxies from the SDSS IV MaNGA survey. We have characterized the local relation between SFR and $\rm Z_g$ after subtracting the azimuthally averaged radial profiles of both quantities. $60\%$ of the analyzed galaxies display a $\rm SFR-Z_g$ anti-correlation, with the remaining $40\%$ showing no correlation ($19\%$) or positive correlation ($21\%$). Applying a Random Forest machine-learning algorithm, we obtain that the slope of the correlation is mainly determined by the average gas-phase metallicity of the galaxy. Galaxy mass, $g-r$ colors, stellar age, and mass density seem to play a less significant role. This result is supported by the performed 2nd-order polynomial regression analysis. Thus, the local $\rm SFR-Z_g$ slope varies with the average metallicity, with the more metal-poor galaxies presenting the lowest slopes (i.e., the strongest $\rm SFR-Z_g$ anti-correlations), and reversing the relation for more metal-rich systems. Our results suggest that external gas accretion fuels star-formation in metal-poor galaxies, whereas in metal-rich systems the gas comes from previous star formation episodes., 22 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ

We present Hi spectral line and radio-continuum VLA data of the galaxy NGC 765, complemented by optical and Chandra X-ray maps. NGC 765 has the largest Hi-to-optical ratio known to date of any spiral galaxy and one of the largest known Hi discs in absolute size with a diameter of 240 kpc measured at a surface density of 2e19 atoms/cm^2. We derive a total Hi mass of M_HI = 4.7e10 Msun, a dynamical mass of Mdyn - 5.1e11 Msun and an Hi mass to luminosity ratio of M_HI/L_B = 1.6, making it the nearest and largest "crouching giant". Optical images reveal evidence of a central bar with tightly wound low-surface brightness spiral arms extending from it. Radio-continuum (L_1.4 GHz = 1.3e21 W/Hz) and X-ray (L_X ~ 1.7e40 erg/s) emission is found to coincide with the optical core of the galaxy, compatible with nuclear activity powered by a low-luminosity AGN. We may be dealing with a galaxy that has retained in its current morphology traces of its formation history. In fact, it may still be undergoing some accretion, as evidenced by the presence of Hi clumps the size < 10 kpc and mass (10e8-10e9 Msun) of small (dIrr) galaxies in the outskirts of its Hi disc and by the presence of two similarly sized companions.

Made available in DSpace on 2018-11-26T16:34:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2016-07-01 Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) European Regional Development Funds (ERDF) through the Operational Programme Thematic Factors of Competitiveness (COMPETE) Portuguese Funds through the Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (FCT) Background and objectives: Because skin cancer affects millions of people worldwide, computational methods for the segmentation of pigmented skin lesions in images have been developed in order to assist dermatologists in their diagnosis. This paper aims to present a review of the current methods, and outline a comparative analysis with regards to several of the fundamental steps of image processing, such as image acquisition, pre-processing and segmentation. Methods: Techniques that have been proposed to achieve these tasks were identified and reviewed. As to the image segmentation task, the techniques were classified according to their principle. Results: The techniques employed in each step are explained, and their strengths and weaknesses are identified. In addition, several of the reviewed techniques are applied to macroscopic and dermoscopy images in order to exemplify their results. Conclusions: The image segmentation of skin lesions has been addressed successfully in many studies; however, there is a demand for new methodologies in order to improve the efficiency. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. Univ Porto, Inst Ciencia & Inovacao Engn Mecan & Engn Ind, Dept Engn Mecan, Fac Engn, Rua Dr Roberto Frias, P-4200465 Oporto, Portugal Univ Estadual Paulista, Dept Comp, Fac Ciencias, Av Eng Luiz Edmundo Carrijo Coube 14-01, BR-17033360 Bauru, SP, Brazil Univ Estadual Paulista, Inst Biociencias Letras & Ciencias Exatas, Dept Ciencias Comp & Estat, Rua Cristovao Colombo 2265, BR-15054000 Sao Jose Do Rio Preto, SP, Brazil Univ Estadual Paulista, Dept Comp, Fac Ciencias, Av Eng Luiz Edmundo Carrijo Coube 14-01, BR-17033360 Bauru, SP, Brazil Univ Estadual Paulista, Inst Biociencias Letras & Ciencias Exatas, Dept Ciencias Comp & Estat, Rua Cristovao Colombo 2265, BR-15054000 Sao Jose Do Rio Preto, SP, Brazil Portuguese Funds through the Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (FCT): FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER 028160/PTDC/BBB- BMD/3088/2012

A significant minority of high redshift radio galaxy (HzRG) candidates show extremely red broad band colours and remain undetected in emission lines after optical `discovery' spectroscopy. In this paper we present deep GTC optical imaging and spectroscopy of one such radio galaxy, 5C 7.245, with the aim of better understanding the nature of these enigmatic objects. Our g-band image shows no significant emission coincident with the stellar emission of the host galaxy, but does reveal faint emission offset by ~3" (26 kpc) therefrom along a similar position angle to that of the radio jets, reminiscent of the `alignment effect' often seen in the optically luminous HzRGs. This offset g-band source is also detected in several UV emission lines, giving it a redshift of 1.609, with emission line flux ratios inconsistent with photoionization by young stars or an AGN, but consistent with ionization by fast shocks. Based on its unusual gas geometry, we argue that in 5C 7.245 we are witnessing a rare (or rarely observed) phase in the evolution of quasar hosts when stellar mass assembly, accretion onto the back hole, and powerful feedback activity has eradicated its cold gas from the central ~20 kpc, but is still in the process of cleansing cold gas from its extended halo., Accepted for publication in MNRAS

In order to determine the incidence of black hole accretion-driven nuclear activity in nearby galaxies, we have compiled radio data for the LINERs, composite LINER,/Hn and Seyfert galaxies from a complete magnitude-limited sample of bright nearby galaxies (Palomar sample). Our results show an overall radio detection rate of 54% (22% of all bright nearby galaxies) and we estimate that at least ~50% (~20% of all bright nearby galaxies) are true AGN. By comparing the radio luminosity function of the LINERs, composite LINER/Hll and Seyferts galaxies in the Palomar sample with those of selected moderate-redshift AGN, we fhd that our sources naturally extend the radio luminosity function of powerful AGN down to powers of about 10 times that of Sgr A*.

The great amount of data observed in recent years coupled with modelling using evolutionary synthesis codes (BPASS, COELHO, GALAXEV, GALEV, MILES, PÉGASE, etc. . .) to compute Single Stellar Populations (SSPs) and the availability of fast and ingenious spectral synthesis codes such as starlight, ULySS and VESPA, have significantly shed light on our knowledge about the formation and evolution of galaxies. However, there are still open issues concerning the stellar populations in nearby galaxies, particularly those harbouring Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN): can stellar populations mimic nuclear activity, leading to a misclassification based on optical emission line ratios (Stasińska et al. 2008)? We have applied the starlight code (Cid Fernandes et al. 2005) to a well studied sample of nearby galaxies' nuclear spectra (r < ~ 200 pc), observed with the Hale 5 m telescope at Palomar Observatory in two different regions: ~ 4230-5110 Å and ~ 6210-6860 Å (Ho et al. 1995), with spectral resolutions of approximately 4 Å, and 2.5 Å. The aim is to properly derive the star-formation history (SFH), mean stellar age and metallicity and total stellar mass. Our results show that the star-formation history of Seyfert galaxies are very heterogeneous, i.e. these are composed of young, intermediate and old stellar populations, while the SFH of Low-Ionization Nuclear Emission-Line Regions (LINERs) are basically composed of old stellar populations. The absence of young stars in LINERs indicates that these are not responsible for the observed low-ionization emission lines. Furthermore, although a significant fraction of AGN spectra require a featureless continuum in their Spectral Energy Distribution (SED) modelling, this is not an indicative of the presence of an AGN, instead the continuum may simulate the presence of young stellar populations. The main objective of this research is to complement the study of spectroscopic parameters from 486 galaxies analyzed by Ho et al. (1995) that are public available in the VizieR catalog (Ho et al. 1997, 2009) and provide information about their stellar population content by means of the starlight. The base of Simple Stellar Populations used here was taken from Bruzual & Charlot (2003) and spans 25 ages (from 1 Myr to 18 Gyr) and 6 metallicities (Z = 0.005, 0.02, 0.2, 0.4, 1 & 2.5 Z⊙).

Mergers of gas-poor galaxies, so-called dry mergers, may play a fundamental role in the assembly of the most massive galaxies, and therefore, in galaxy formation theories. Using the SDSS, we have serendipitously discovered a rare system in the observational and theoretical context, possibly a quintuple dry merger at low redshift. As a follow-up, we have obtained NOT long-slit spectra of the group, in order to measure the individual redshifts and gain insight into its merger fate. Our results show an isolated, low-redshift galaxy group consisting of massive, quiescent, early-type galaxies, composed of two clumps (possibly themselves in the process of merging), which we estimate will hypothetically merge in roughly less than a Gyr. With the possible exception of the high line-of-sight velocity dispersion, the overall properties of the system may be comparable to a compact Shakhbazyan group. However, when the small projected separations and relative mass ratios of the galaxies are taken into account in cosmological simulations, we find that this system is rather unique. We hypothesize that this group is a dry merger, whose fate will result in the assembly of an isolated, massive elliptical galaxy at low redshift., 12 pages

We present a catalogue of bulgeless galaxies, which includes 19225 objects selected in four of the deepest, largest multi-wavelength datasets available -- COSMOS, AEGIS, GEMS and GOODS -- at intermediate redshift ($0.4 \leq z \leq 1.0$). The morphological classification was provided by the Advanced Camera for Surveys General Catalogue (ACS-GC), which used publicly available data obtained with the ACS instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope. Rest-frame photometric quantities were derived using kcorrect. We analyse the properties of the sample and the evolution of pure-disc systems with redshift. Very massive [$\log (M_\star/M_{\odot}) > 10.5$] bulgeless galaxies contribute to ~30% of the total galaxy population number density at $z \geq 0.7$, but their number density drops substantially with decreasing redshift. We show that only a negligible fraction of pure discs appear to be quiescent systems, and red sequence bulgeless galaxies show indications of dust-obscured star formation. X-ray catalogues were used to search for X-ray emission within our sample. After visual inspection and detailed parametric morphological fitting we identify 30 AGN that reside in galaxies without a classical bulge. The finding of such peculiar objects at intermediate redshift shows that while AGN growth in merger-free systems is a rare event (0.2% AGN hosts in this sample of bulgeless galaxies), it can indeed happen relatively early in the Universe history.

A sample of 37 nearby galaxies displaying composite LINER/HII and pure HII spectra was observed with the VLA in an investigation of the nature of their weak radio emission. The resulting radio contour maps overlaid on optical galaxy images are presented here, together with an extensive literature list and discussion of the individual galaxies. Radio morphological data permit assessment of the ``classical AGN'' contribution to the global activity observed in these ``transition'' LINER galaxies. One in five of the latter objects display clear AGN characteristics: these occur exclusively in bulge-dominated hosts., 31 pages, 27 figures, accepted by ApJS

The tadpole galaxy Kiso 5639 has a slowly rotating disk with a drop in metallicity at its star-forming head, suggesting that star formation was triggered by the accretion of metal-poor gas. We present multi-wavelength HST WFC3 images of UV through I band plus Halpha to search for peripheral emission and determine the properties of various regions. The head has a mass in young stars of ~10^6 Mo and an ionization rate of 6.4x10^51 s^{-1}, equivalent to ~2100 O9-type stars. There are four older star-forming regions in the tail, and an underlying disk with a photometric age of ~1 Gyr. The mass distribution function of 61 star clusters is a power law with a slope of -1.73+-0.51. Fourteen young clusters in the head are more massive than 10^4 Mo, suggesting a clustering fraction of 30%-45%. Wispy filaments of Halpha emission and young stars extend away from the galaxy. Shells and holes in the head HII region could be from winds and supernovae. Gravity from the disk should limit the expansion of the HII region, although hot gas might escape through the holes. The star formation surface density determined from Halpha in the head is compared to that expected from likely pre-existing and accreted gas. Unless the surface density of the accreted gas is a factor of ~3 or more larger than what was in the galaxy before, the star formation rate has to exceed the usual Kennicutt-Schmidt rate by a factor of >5., 13 pages, 14 figures, 3 tables, accepted by ApJ

We have discovered a number of relatively strong radio sources in the field-of-view of SDSS galaxy clusters which present no optical counterparts down to the magnitude limits of the SDSS. The optically faint radio sources appear as double-lobed or core-jet objects on the FIRST radio images and have projected angular sizes ranging from 0.5 to 1.0 arcmin. We have followed-up these sources with near-infrared imaging using the wide-field imager HAWK-I on the VLT. K_s-band emitting regions, about 1.5 arcsec in size and coincident with the centers of the radio structures, were detected in all the sources, with magnitudes in the range 17-20 mag. We have used spectral modelling to characterize the sample sources. In general, the radio properties are similar to those observed in 3CRR sources but the optical-radio slopes are consistent with moderate to high redshift (z, Accepted for publication in A&A

We compare the quality of interferometric image reconstructions for two different sets of data: square of the visibility plus closure phase (e.g. AMBER like case) and square of the visibility plus visibility phase (e.g. PRIMA+AMBER or GRAVITY like cases). We used the Multi-aperture image Reconstruction Algorithm for reconstructions of test cases under different signal-to-noise ratios and noisy data (squared visibilities and phases). Our study takes into account noise models based on the statistics of visibility, phase and closure phase. We incorporate the works developed by Tatulli and Chelly (2005) on the noise of the power-spectrum and closure phase in the read-out and photon noise regimes,1 and by Colavita (1999) on the signal-to-noise ratio of the visibility phase.2 The final images were then compared to the original one by means of positions and fluxes, computing the astrometry and the photometry. For the astrometry, the precision was typically of tens of microarcseconds, while for the photometry, it was typically of a few percent. Although both cases are suitable for image restorations of real interferometric observations, the results indicate a better performance of phase referencing (V 2 + visibility phase) in a low signal-to-noise ratio scenario.

Classically, optical and near-infrared interferometry have relied on closure phase techniques to produce images. Such techniques allow us to achieve modest dynamic ranges. In order to test the feasibility of next generation optical interferometers in the context of the VLTI-spectro-imager (VSI), we have embarked on a study of image reconstruction and analysis. Our main aim was to test the influence of the number of telescopes, observing nights and distribution of the visibility points on the quality of the reconstructed images. Our results show that observations using six Auxiliary Telescopes (ATs) during one complete night yield the best results in general and is critical in most science cases; the number of telescopes is the determining factor in the image reconstruction outcome. In terms of imaging capabilities, an optical, six telescope VLTI-type configuration and ~200 meter baseline will achieve 4 mas spatial resolution, which is comparable to ALMA and almost 50 times better than JWST will achieve at 2.2 microns. Our results show that such an instrument will be capable of imaging, with unprecedented detail, a plethora of sources, ranging from complex stellar surfaces to microlensing events., 11 pages, 26 figures

We present the work developed within the science team of the Very Large Telescope Interferometer Spectro-Imager (VSI) during the Phase A studies. VSI aims at delivering ~ 1 milliarcsecond resolution data cubes in the near-infrared, with several spectral resolutions up to 12 000, by combining up to 8 VLTI telescopes. In the design of an instrument, the science case plays a central role by supporting the instrument construction decision, defining the top-level requirements and balancing design options. The overall science philosophy of VSI was that of a general user instrument serving a broad community. The science team addressed themes which included several areas of astrophysics and illustrated specific modes of operation of the instrument: a) YSO disks and winds; b) Multiplicity of young stars; c) Exoplanets; d) Debris disks; e) Stellar surface imaging; f) The environments of evolved stars; g) AGN tori; h) AGN's Broad Line Region; i) Supermassive black-holes; and j) Microlensing. The main conclusions can be summarized as follows: a) The accessible targets and related science are extremely sensitive to the instrument limiting magnitude; the instrument should be optimized for sensitivity and have its own fringe tracker. b) Most of the science cases are readily achievable with on-axis fringe tracking, off-axis fringe tracking enabling extra science. c) In most targets (YSOs, evolved stars and AGNs), the interpretation and analysis of circumstellar/nuclear dust morphology requires direct access to the gas via spectral resolved studies of emission lines, requiring at least a spectral resolution of 2 500. d) To routinely deliver images at the required sensitivity, the number of telescopes in determinant, with 6 telescopes being favored. e) The factorial increase in the number of closure phases and visibilities, gained in a single observation, makes massive surveys of parameters and related science for the first time possible. f) High dynamic range imaging and very high dynamic range differential closure phase are possible allowing the study of debris disks and characterization of pegasides. g) Spectro-imaging in the near-infrared is highly complementary to ALMA, adaptive optics and interferometric imaging in the thermal infrared.

The VLTI Spectro Imager (VSI) was proposed as a second-generation instrument of the Very Large Telescope Interferometer providing the ESO community with spectrally-resolved, near-infrared images at angular resolutions down to 1.1 milliarcsecond and spectral resolutions up to R=12000. Targets as faint as K=13 will be imaged without requiring a brighter nearby reference object. The unique combination of high-dynamic-range imaging at high angular resolution and high spectral resolution enables a scientific program which serves a broad user community and at the same time provides the opportunity for breakthroughs in many areas of astrophysic including: probing the initial conditions for planet formation in the AU-scale environments of young stars; imaging convective cells and other phenomena on the surfaces of stars; mapping the chemical and physical environments of evolved stars, stellar remnants, and stellar winds; and disentangling the central regions of active galactic nuclei and supermassive black holes. VSI will provide these new capabilities using technologies which have been extensively tested in the past and VSI requires little in terms of new infrastructure on the VLTI. At the same time, VSI will be able to make maximum use of new infrastructure as it becomes available; for example, by combining 4, 6 and eventually 8 telescopes, enabling rapid imaging through the measurement of up to 28 visibilities in every wavelength channel within a few minutes. The current studies are focused on a 4-telescope version with an upgrade to a 6-telescope one. The instrument contains its own fringe tracker and tip-tilt control in order to reduce the constraints on the VLTI infrastructure and maximize the scientific return., 12 pages, to be published in Proc. SPIE conference 7013 "Optical and Infrared Interferometry", Schoeller, Danchi, and Delplancke, F. (eds.). See also http://vsi.obs.ujf-grenoble.fr

One of the aims of next generation optical interferometric instrumentation is to be able to make use of information contained in the visibility phase to construct high dynamic range images. Radio and optical interferometry are at the two extremes of phase corruption by the atmosphere. While in radio it is possible to obtain calibrated phases for the science objects, in the optical this is currently not possible. Instead, optical interferometry has relied on closure phase techniques to produce images. Such techniques allow only to achieve modest dynamic ranges. However, with high contrast objects, for faint targets or when structure detail is needed, phase referencing techniques as used in radio interferometry, should theoretically achieve higher dynamic ranges for the same number of telescopes. Our approach is not to provide evidence either for or against the hypothesis that phase referenced imaging gives better dynamic range than closure phase imaging. Instead we wish to explore the potential of this technique for future optical interferometry and also because image reconstruction in the optical using phase referencing techniques has only been performed with limited success. We have generated simulated, noisy, complex visibility data, analogous to the signal produced in radio interferometers, using the VLTI as a template. We proceeded with image reconstruction using the radio image reconstruction algorithms contained in AIPS IMAGR (CLEAN algorithm). Our results show that image reconstruction is successful in most of our science cases, yielding images with a 4 milliarcsecond resolution in K band. (abridged), Comment: 11 pages, 36 figures

In order to determine the incidence of black hole accretion-driven nuclear activity in nearby galaxies, as manifested by their radio emission, we have carried out a high-resolution Multi-Element Radio-Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN) survey of LINERs and composite LINER/H{\sc ii} galaxies from a complete magnitude-limited sample of bright nearby galaxies (Palomar sample) with unknown arcsecond-scale radio properties. There are fifteen radio detections, of which three are new subarcsecond-scale radio core detections, all being candidate AGN. The detected galaxies supplement the already known low-luminosity AGN -- low-luminosity Seyferts, LINERs and composite LINER/H{\sc ii} galaxies -- in the Palomar sample. Combining all radio-detected Seyferts, LINERs and composite LINER/H{\sc ii} galaxies (LTS sources), we obtain an overall radio detection rate of 54% (22% of all bright nearby galaxies) and we estimate that at least $\sim$50% ($\sim$20% of all bright nearby galaxies) are true AGN. The radio powers of the LTS galaxies allow the construction of a local radio luminosity function. By comparing the luminosity function with those of selected moderate-redshift AGN, selected from the 2dF/NVSS survey, we find that LTS sources naturally extend the RLF of powerful AGN down to powers of about 10 times that of Sgr A*., accpeted for publication in A&A

We have analyzed new, archival and published high resolution radio and X-ray observations of a sample of composite LINER/HII galaxies known to exhibit AGN-like properties. Five of the 16 AGN candidates have milliarcsecond-scale detections and are found to display a compact, flat spectrum, high brightness temperature radio core, four of which also exhibit extended radio emission. Five of the eight AGN candidates with available high resolution X-ray observations were found to possess a hard X-ray nuclear source, two of which have no milliarcsecond radio detection. The combined high resolution radio and X-ray data yield a 50% detection rate of low luminosity AGN among the AGN candidates, which translates into a 12% detection rate for the entire composite LINER/HII sample. In the sources where the AGN has been unambiguously detected, the ionizing power of the AGN is not sufficient to generate the observed emission lines, unless the hard X-rays are heavily obscured. We attempt to apply a canonical advection-dominated accretion flow (ADAF) and jet model to the sample sources in order to explain the observed radio and X-ray emission. While ADAFs may be responsible for the observed emission in submillijansky radio cores like NGC 7331, they do not appear consistent with the radio emission observed in the milliarcsecond-scale radio detected cores; the latter sources are more likely to have an energetically important contribution from a radio-emitting jet., Comment: 16 pages, accepted for publication in A&A

Arcsec-resolution VLA observations -- newly obtained as well as published -- of 40 nearby galaxies are discussed, completing a study of the radio properties of a magnitude-limited sample of nearby galaxies of the composite LINER/HII type. Our results reveal an overall detection rate of at least 25% AGN candidates among these composite sources. The general properties of these AGN candidates, as compared to non-AGN composite sources and HII galaxies, are discussed., Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJS

The LINER galaxies NGC 2911, NGC 3079, NGC 3998, and NGC 6500 were observed at 5 GHz with the European VLBI Network at a resolution of 5 milliarcsecond and found to possess flat-spectrum, variable, high-brightness temperature ($T_{\rm B} > 10^8$ K) radio cores. These radio characteristics reinforce the view that these LINERs host central engines associated with active galactic nuclei., 6 pages

Extremely metal-poor (XMP) galaxies are chemically, and possibly dynamically, primordial objects in the local Universe. Our objective is to characterize the HI content of the XMP galaxies as a class, using as a reference the list of 140 known local XMPs compiled by Morales-Luis et al. (2011). We have observed 29 XMPs, which had not been observed before at 21 cm, using the Effelsberg radio telescope. This information was complemented with HI data published in literature for a further 53 XMPs. In addition, optical data from the literature provided morphologies, stellar masses, star-formation rates and metallicities. Effelsberg HI integrated flux densities are between 1 and 15 Jy km/s, while line widths are between 20 and 120 km/s. HI integrated flux densities and line widths from literature are in the range 0.1 - 200 Jy km/s and 15 - 150 km/s, respectively. Of the 10 new Effelsberg detections, two sources show an asymmetric double-horn profile, while the remaining sources show either asymmetric (7 sources) or symmetric (1 source) single-peak 21 cm line profiles. An asymmetry in the HI line profile is systematically accompanied by an asymmetry in the optical morphology. Typically, the g-band stellar mass-to-light ratios are ~0.1, whereas the HI gas mass-to-light ratios may be up to 2 orders of magnitude larger. Moreover, HI gas-to-stellar mass ratios fall typically between 10 and 20, denoting that XMPs are extremely gas-rich. We find an anti-correlation between the HI gas mass-to-light ratio and the luminosity, whereby fainter XMPs are more gas-rich than brighter XMPs, suggesting that brighter sources have converted a larger fraction of their HI gas into stars. The dynamical masses inferred from the HI line widths imply that the stellar mass does not exceed 5% of the dynamical mass, while the \ion{H}{i} mass constitutes between 20 and 60% of the dynamical mass. (abridged), Comment: 30 pages, accepted for A&A

The claimed detection of a diffuse galaxy lacking dark matter represents a possible challenge to our understanding of the properties of these galaxies and galaxy formation in general. The galaxy, already identified in photographic plates taken in the summer of 1976 at the UK 48-in Schmidt telescope, presents normal distance-independent properties (e.g. colour, velocity dispersion of its globular clusters). However, distance-dependent quantities are at odds with those of other similar galaxies, namely the luminosity function and sizes of its globular clusters, mass-to-light ratio and dark matter content. Here we carry out a careful analysis of all extant data and show that they consistently indicate a much shorter distance (13 Mpc) than previously indicated (20 Mpc). With this revised distance, the galaxy appears to be a rather ordinary low surface brightness galaxy (R_e=1.4+-0.1 kpc; M*=6.0+-3.6x10^7 Msun) with plenty of room for dark matter (the fraction of dark matter inside the half mass radius is >75% and M_halo/M*>20) corresponding to a minimum halo mass >10^9 Msun. At 13 Mpc, the luminosity and structural properties of the globular clusters around the object are the same as those found in other galaxies., MNRAS, in press. This version includes an extra new independent distance indicator confirming the 13 Mpc distance. New tests also reject the possibility that blends are causing a misidentification of the location of the TRGB