Stellar ages and metallicities of nearby elliptical galaxies

Stellar ages and metallicities are crucial for understanding the formation and evolution of elliptical galaxies. However, due to the age-metallicity degeneracy, it is hard to measure these two parameters accurately with broad-band photometry. In this paper, we observed high-resolution spectra for a sample of 20 nearby elliptical galaxies （EGs） with the NAOC 2.16 m telescope, and determined stellar ages and metallicities by using the empirical population synthesis and Lick/IDS index system methods. We found that stellar ages from these two methods are consistent with each other for purely old EGs; however, stellar metallicities show a zeropoint offset of 0.5 Z⊙. Our results confirm that stellar populations in low-density environment galaxies are more diverse compared to their high-density counterparts. We also investigated the element abundance-galaxy mass relation for nearby elliptical galaxies.

Clumpy metal concentrations in elliptical galaxies NGC 4374 and NGC 4636

We present a high spatial resolution study of metal distributions in the nearby, gas-rich elliptical galaxies NGC 4374 and NGC 4636 with the Chandra ACIS archive data. We define the hardness ratio HRFeL as the ratio of the emission in 0.65- 1.4 keV to that in 0.3-0.6 keV and 1.4-3.5 keV （after the magnesium and silicon lines are excluded）, and HRcont as the ratio of the emission in 1.4-3.5keV to that in 0.3- 0.6 keV, so that the HRFeL and HRcont maps can be used to trace the iron abundance and gas temperature distributions, respectively. By applying the a Trous wavelet algorithm to the obtained emission hardness ratio maps, we reveal that the HRFeL distributions are highly irregular, exhibiting strong spatial variations on 0.1-1 Re scales, which do not follow the HRcont distributions. Since the effect of temperature variation is small, we conclude that most of the high-HRFeL regions are very likely to possess higher abundances than the ambient gas. We also find that these high-HRFeL substructures are not associated with either the LMXB or globular cluster populations, thus their origins should be related to AGN activity or mergers.

A Study of Binary Stellar Population Synthesis of Elliptical Galaxies

We determined the relative stellar ages and metallicities of about 80 elliptical galaxies in both low and high density environments using the latest binary stellar population （BSP） synthesis model and tested the predictions of a recent hierarchical formation model that adopted the new ACDM cosmology. The stellar ages and metallicities were estimated from two high-quality published spectra line indices, the Hβ and [MgFe] indices. The results show that the stellar populations of elliptical galaxies are older than 3.9 Gyr and more metal rich than 0.02. Most of our results are in agreement with the model predictions; （1） elliptical galaxies in denser environment are redder and have older populations than field galaxies; （2） elliptical galaxies with more massive stellar components are redder and have older and more metal rich populations than less massive ones; （3） the most massive galaxies have the oldest and most metal rich stars. However, some of our results differ from the model predictions on the metallicity distributions of low- and high-density elliptical galaxies and the dependence on the distance to the cluster center.

Comparing the behavior of orbits in different 3D dynamical models for elliptical galaxies

We study the behavior of orbits in two different galactic dynamical models, describing the motion in the central parts of a triaxial elliptical galaxy with a dense nucleus. Numerical experiments show that both models display regular motion together with extended chaotic regions. A detailed investigation of the properties of motion is made for the 2D and 3D Hamiltonian systems, using a number of different dynamical parameters, such as the Poincare′ surface of a section, the maximal Lyapunov Characteristic Exponent, the S（c） spectrum, the S（w） spectrum and the P （f ） indicator. The numerical calculations suggest that the properties of motion in both potentials are very similar. Our results show that one may use different kinds of gravitational potentials in order to describe the motion in triaxial galaxies while obtaining quantitatively similar results.

Chandra Observation of Point Sources in the X-Ray Elliptical Galaxy NGC 1407

With the Chandra pointing observation of about 50 ks, we have detected 41 point sources in the X-ray relatively faint elliptical galaxy NGC 1407, most of which appear to be low mass X-ray binaries. In luminosity flux units, these resolved point sources contribute about 17.8 % of the total emission of the galaxy in 0.3–10 keV. Of the remaining diffuse emission, about 53.4 % (or 43.9 % of total) may arise from unresolved point sources. We find six ultraluminous X-ray sources with luminosities above 1039 erg s?1. This number is less than has been found in NGC 720, but more than in NGC 4697 and NGC 1553, so suggesting a possible correlation between the number of ULXs and the total X-ray luminosity of early-type galaxies. A central point-like source is detected whose luminosity (2.36 ± 0.14×1039 erg s?1) is the highest among all resolved sources. However, because of its relatively low hardness ratio, we speculate that it is not likely to be a low luminosity AGN.

Elliptical Galaxies with Emission Lines from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

As part of a study of star formation history along the Hubble sequence, we present here the results for 11 elliptical galaxies with strong nebular emission lines. After removing the dilution from the underlying old stellar populations by use of stellar population synthesis model, we derive the accurate fluxes of all the emission lines in these objects, which are then classified, using emission line ratios, into one Seyfert 2, six LINERs and four HII galaxies. We also identify one HII galaxy （A1216＋04） as a hitherto unknown Wolf-Rayet galaxy from the presence of the WolfRayet broad bump at 4650A. We propose that the star-forming activities in elliptical galaxies are triggered by either galaxy-galaxy interaction or the merging of a small satellite/a massive star cluster, as has been suggested by recent numerical simulations.

Stellar kinematics and populations out to 1.5 effective radii in the elliptical galaxy NGC 4636

We present high quality long slit spectra along the major and minor axes out to 1.5 effective radii of the massive galaxy NGC 4636 taken by the Hobby-Eberly Telescope. Using the Fourier Correlation Quotient method, we measured the stellar line-of-sight velocity distribution along the axes. Furthermore, six Lick/IDS indices （Hβ, Mgb, Fe5015, Fe5270, Fe5335, Fe5406） are derived from the clean spectrum. By comparing the measured absorption line strengths with the predictions of Simple Stellar Population （SSP） models, we derived ages, total metallicity and a abundance profiles of the galaxy. This galaxy presents old and [α/Fe] overabundant stellar populations. Indeed, using the SSP model, we obtained the broadband color profiles. The theoretical colors match well with the measured colors and present red sharp peaks at the galaxy center. The sharp peaks of the colors are mainly shaped by the high metallicity in the galaxy＇s center. Interestingly, the galaxy has steep negative metaUicity gradients, but the trend flattens outwards. This result likely suggests that the center and outer regions of the galaxy formed through different formation processes.

Morphological Classification of Infrared Galaxies Based on WISE

This study introduces a novel convolutional neural network,the WISE Galaxy Classification Network(WGC),for classifying spiral and elliptical galaxies using Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer(WISE)images.WGC attains an accuracy of 89.03%,surpassing the combined use of K-means or SVM with the Color-Color method in more accurately identifying galaxy morphologies.The enhanced variant,WGC_mag,integrates magnitude parameters with image features,further boosting the accuracy to 89.89%.The research also delves into the criteria for galaxy classification,discovering that WGC primarily categorizes dust-rich images as elliptical galaxies,corresponding to their lower star formation rates,and classifies less dusty images as spiral galaxies.The paper explores the consistency and complementarity of WISE infrared images with SDSS optical images in galaxy morphology classification.The SDSS Galaxy Classification Network(SGC),trained on SDSS images,achieved an accuracy of 94.64%.The accuracy reached 99.30% when predictions from SGC and WGC were consistent.Leveraging the complementarity of features in WISE and SDSS images,a novel variant of a classifier,namely the Multi-band Galaxy Morphology Integrated Classifier,has been developed.This classifier elevates the overall prediction accuracy to 95.39%.Lastly,the versatility of WGC was validated in other data sets.On the HyperLEDA data set,the distinction between elliptical galaxies and Sc,Scd and Sd spiral galaxies was most pronounced,achieving an accuracy of 90%,surpassing the classification results of the Galaxy Zoo 2 labeled WISE data set.This research not only demonstrates the effectiveness of WISE images in galaxy morphology classification but also represents an attempt to integrate multi-band astronomical data to enhance understanding of galaxy structures and evolution.

Measurements of the Dark Matter Mass, Temperature and Spin

We summarize several measurements of the dark matter temperature-to-mass ratio, or equivalently, of the comoving root-mean-square thermal velocity of warm dark matter particles vhrms(1). The most reliable determination of this parameter comes from well measured rotation curves of dwarf galaxies by the LITTLE THINGS collaboration: vhrms(1)=406±69 m/s. Complementary and consistent measurements are obtained from rotation curves of spiral galaxies measured by the SPARC collaboration, density runs of giant elliptical galaxies, galaxy ultra-violet luminosity distributions, galaxy stellar mass distributions, first galaxies, and reionization. Having measured vhrms(1), we then embark on a journey to the past that leads to a consistent set of measured dark matter properties, including mass, temperature and spin.

Fitting formulae for the effects of binary interactions on lick indices and colors of stellar populations

More than about 50% of stars are in binaries, but most stellar population studies take single star stellar population （ssSSP） models, which do not take binary interactions into account. In fact, the integrated peculiarities of ssSSPs are different from those of stellar populations with binary interactions （bsSSPs）. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the effects of binary interactions on the Lick indices and colors of populations in detail. We show some formulae for calculating the difference between the Lick indices and colors of bsSSPs, and those of ssSSPs. Twenty-five Lick indices and 12 colors are studied in this work. The results can be conveniently used for calculating the effects of binary interactions on stellar population studies and for adding the effects of binary interactions into present ssSSP models. The electronic data and fortran procedures in the paper can be obtained on request from the authors.

The Bar-Bulge Relation in Non-dwarf SB0 Galaxies in the Central Region of Coma Cluster

In this paper we explore the formation of bars and present the bulge and bar properties and their correlations for a sample of lenticular barred(SB0)and lenticular unbarred(S0)galaxies in the central region of the Coma Cluster using HST/ACS data.In our sample,we identified bar features using the luminosity profile decomposition software GALFIT.We classified the bulges based on Sérsic index and Kormendy relation.We found that the average mass of the bulge in SB0 galaxies is 1.48×10^(10)M☉whereas the average mass of the bulge in S0 galaxies is 4.3×10^(10)M☉.We observe that SB0 galaxies show lower bulge concentration,low mass and also smaller B/T values compared to S0 galaxies.Using the Kormendy relation,we found that among the lenticular barred galaxies,82%have classical bulges and 18%have pseudo bulges.These classical bulges have low masses compared to the classical bulges of unbarred galaxies.S0,galaxies with massive classical bulges do not host bars.We also found that for all SB0s the bulge effective radius is less than the bar effective radius.SB0 galaxies with classical bulges suggest that the bar may have formed by mergers.

The fundamental plane relation of early-type galaxies:environmental dependence

Using a sample of 70 793 early-type galaxies from SDSS DR7, we study the environmental dependence of the fundamental plane relation. With the help of the galaxy group catalog based on SDSS DR7, we calculate the fundamental planes in different dark matter halo mass bins for both central and satellite galaxies. We find the environmental dependence of the fundamental plane coefficients is similar in the g, r, i and z bands. The environmental dependence for central and satellite galaxies is significantly different. Although the fundamental plane coefficients for centrals vary systematically with the halo mass, those of satellites are similar in different halo mass bins. The discrepancy between centrals and satellites is significant in small halos, but negligible in the largest halo mass bins. These results remain the same when we only keep red galaxies, or galaxies with b/a 〉 0.6, or galaxies in a specific radius range in the sample. After the correction for the sky background, the results are still similar. We suggest that the different environmental effects of the halo mass on centrals and satellites may arise from their different quenching processes.

Structural Properties of Early-Type Galaxies from the SDSS DR2

Two-dimensional bulge/disk light decomposition with GIM2D in both the r- and g-bands has been applied to a sample of 129 early-type galaxies brighter than 13.5 magnitude in the r-band, selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 2. Intensity-weighted Fourier coefficient （α4/α） was also derived for each sample galaxy. Our analysis shows that there are correlations between bulge-to-total light ratio （B/T） with bulge Sersic index nB and between bulge and disk scale sizes. Isophotal shape parameter （α4/α） is not correlated with BIT and riB. Both bulge and disk components satisfy a color-magnitude relation. The space Fundamental Plane analysis shows that galaxies with larger B/T tend to lie tighter and closer to the line of k1 ＋ k2 = 8 （the so-called ＂zone of avoidance＂） than the galaxies with smaller B/T. It indicates that existence of the disk component may lead to scatter of the distribution on the Fundamental Plane. Our analysis also shows that k1 ＋ k2 correlates with （g-r） color and B/T, but does not correlate with （α4/α） for early-type galaxies. The fitted parameters and other retrieved parameters used in this paper for all sample galaxies are available online.

Peculiar early-type galaxies with central star formation

Early-type galaxies （ETGs） are very important for understanding the formation and evolution of galaxies. Recent observations suggest that ETGs are not simply old stellar spheroids as we previously thought. Widespread recent star formation, cool gas and dust have been detected in a substantial fraction of ETGs. We make use of the radial profiles of 9 - r color and the concentration index from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey database to pick out 31 peculiar ETGs with central blue cores. By analyzing the photometric and spectroscopic data, we suggest that the blue cores are caused by star formation activities rather than the central weak active galactic nucleus. From the results of stellar population synthesis, we find that the stellar population of the blue cores is relatively young, spreading from several Myr to less than one Gyr. In 14 galaxies with H I observations, we find that the average gas fraction of these galaxies is about 0.55. The bluer galaxies show a higher gas fraction, and the total star forma- tion rate （SFR） correlates very well with the H I gas mass. The star formation history of these ETGs is affected by the environment, e.g. in the denser environment the H I gas is less and the total SFR is lower. We also discuss the origin of the central star formation of these early-type galaxies.

Revisiting the dichotomy of early-type galaxies

We study the relationship between isophotal shapes, central light profiles and kinematic properties of early-type galaxies （ETGs） based on a compiled sample of 184 ETGs. These sample galaxies are included in Data Release 8 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and have central light profiles and kinematic properties available from the literature, which were compiled from observations by the Hubble Space Telescope and the ATLAS3D integral-field spectrograph, respectively. We find that there is only a weak correlation between the isophotal shape （a4/a） and the central light profile （within 1 kpc） of ETGs. About two-fifths of ＂core＂ galaxies have disky isophotes, and one-third of ＂power-law＂ galaxies are boxy. Our statistical results also show that there are weak correlations between galaxy luminosity and dynamical mass with a4/a, but such correlations are tighter with a central light profile. Moreover, no clear link has been found between the isophotal shape and the Sersic index. Comparisons show that there are similar correlations between a4/a and ellipticity, and between a4/a and specific angular momentum ARo/2 for ＂power-law＂ ETGs, but there are no such correlations for ＂core＂ ETGs. Therefore, we speculate that the bimodal classifications of ETGs are not as simple as previously thought, though we also find that the disky ETGs with highest a4/a are more elongated and fast rotators.

星系NGC5018的星族合成研究

利用星团谱样本的星族合成方法,研究了邻近巨椭圆星系NGC5018中的星族成分和其内部的恒星形成历史,给出了星系中不同年龄和金属丰度星族的成分占有比.星族合成结果表明,NGC5018中不仅存在大量金属丰度低的年老恒星成分,而且较年轻的星族成分(T=5×108yr)对星系光度贡献也很重要.星系吞并和相互作用过程可能是触发这些较年轻星族形成的物理原因,椭圆星系内部的恒星形成历史可能是2次爆发或者多次爆发过程.这些结果可以很好地解释NGC5018颜色偏蓝、Mg2谱指数强度偏弱等观测特征.

三轴椭圆星系形态与初始弥散速度分布

本文对具有初始几何形状及维里系数相同,但初始速度弥散度分布不同的三轴椭球进行了数值模拟。四个模型的最后质点分布及等密度轮廓的图象表明,三轴椭球的塌缩是与初始弥散速度的分布密切相关的。而不同的初始弥散速度分布可能与原星系在薄饼中不同的碎裂时刻有关。

动力分析与椭圆星系研究

对椭圆星系观测事实的解释经历了麦克劳林体、三轴椭球体及潮汐力作用下的旋转椭球体等不同模型的过程.这些模型的建立都是以力学分析为基础的.

早型星系的恒星形成活动演化研究

从观测上测定早型星系中恒星形成活动随红移的演化有助于理解这类星系的形成演化.结合GEMS(Galaxy Evolution from Morphology and SEDs)巡天的HST/ACS(Hubble Space Telescope/Advanced Camera for Surveys)高分辨图像和CDFS(ChandraDeep Field South)天区Spitzer、GALEX(Galaxy Evolution Explorer)等多波段数据,基于形态、颜色和恒星质量选出一个0.2≤z≤1.0红移范围的包含456个早型星系的完备样本.利用stacking技术测量了样本星系紫外与红外平均光度,估计早型星系的恒星形成率.结果显示,早型星系中的恒星形成率较低(<3 M_⊙·yr^(-1)),随红移递减而降低.在红移z=1以来的恒星形成贡献的质量小于15%.星族分析亦肯定大质量早型星系的主体星族形成于宇宙早期(z>2).

球状动力学系统的基本面--从椭圆星系到球状星团

基本面是球状动力学系统的有效半径、中心速度弥散度和平均面亮度三者之间的相关关系。椭圆星系和球状星团的基本面都与位力面发生偏离。评述了两者基本面的研究进展,并对基本面偏离位力面的原因进行探讨。球状系统偏离位力面的原因,通常可以归结为系统结构的非均一性和非常数的质光比。对于这两个不同尺度的动力学系统,其非常数的质光比的起因是不同的:对于椭圆星系,质光比的变化主要是由暗物质含量或是初始质量函数的变化导致的;对于球状星团,二体弛豫时标短,动力学演化是导致其质光比改变的主要原因。