Download presentation
Presentation is loading. Please wait.
Published byRalf Newman Modified over 9 years ago
1
Bulges of Spiral Galaxies: Stellar Populations, Structure, and Kinematics Bhasker Moorthy Jon Holtzman Anatoly Klypin New Mexico State University
2
Motivation – Why Bulges? Key to understanding origin of Hubble sequence Bridge together properties of disks and ellipticals Provide insight into a wide range of mechanisms involved in the formation and evolution of galaxies Merging and accretion Star formation Feedback from SN II and SN 1a Galactic winds Secular processes - bar formation, vertical and radial transport, disk heating, new star formation, bar destruction?
3
Early-typed bulges: Similar to ellipticals Same or similar fundamental plane relation (Falcón-Barroso et al. 2002) Similar light profiles (eg: Baggett et al. 1998; Carollo et al. 1997) Similar luminosity-weighted (SSP) ages and Mg- relations (eg: Idiart et al. 1996) Color and line strength gradients (Balcells & Peletier 1994; Fisher et al. 1996) Milky Way bulge stars are predominantly old with larger Mg/Fe ratios than disk stars (eg: Feltzing & Gilmore 2000; Fulbright et al. 2004) Correlation in scale lengths (eg: MacArthur et al. 2003) Small Sersic indices (eg: Balcells et al. 2003) Smaller SSP ages than ellipticals (Proctor & Sansom 2002) Similar colors (eg: MacArthur et al. 2004) Emission lines Prugniel et al. 2001 B/P bulges bars (eg: Chung & Bureau 2004; Athanassoula 2005) Rotational support (eg: Kormendy & Illingworth 1982) Late-types: Similar to disks
4
Stellar Populations and Formation Mechanisms Luminosity-weighted ages and abundance ratios (eg. Mg/Fe) constrain epochs and duration of star formation Similarities between bulge and disk populations suggestive of secular evolution Dissipationless Secular Evolution: Decrease in scale length might amplify metallicity gradients while increase in velocity dispersion might wash them out Disk-driven evolution with gas funneling: Could trigger new star formation, producing a negative metallicity gradient (Friedli et al. 1994) Not necessarily secular
5
Our Project Study stellar populations, structure, and kinematics of bulges as a means of constraining their formation mechanisms Particularly interested in seeing whether or not stellar populations show evidence for secular evolution Long-slit spectroscopy with ARC 3.5m/DIS at APO Wavelength coverage: 4000-8000 Å at 6-8 Å resolution Absorption (Lick indices) and emission lines Rotation curves and velocity dispersion profiles Imaging with ARC 3.5m/SPIcam Bulge-to-disk decomposition to determine disk contamination and obtain structural properties
6
The Galaxy Sample 38 nearby (v res <7000 km/s) mostly isolated galaxies spanning a wide range in Hubble type (S0-Sc) Selected galaxies whose bulges are very similar in color to their disks and a control sample with redder bulges (Balcells & Peletier 1994; de Jong & van der Kruit 1994) Included 3 other galaxies previously identified as having disk-like bulges based on their structure and kinematics (Erwin et al. 2003; de Zeeuw et al. 2002; Sil’chenko et al. 2003; Pinkney et al. 2003; Kormendy & Kennicutt 2004 )
7
Rotational Vs. Pressure Support Bulge Ellipticity (V max / bulge Bulge Ellipticity Based on Binney (1978) and Kormendy & Kennicutt (2004)
8
Central Line Strengths SSP Models from Thomas, Maraston, & Bender (2003); Crosses from Trager et al. (1998) [MgFe]’ HH HH
9
Central Line Strengths Vs. Kinematics and Dynamics [MgFe]’ Mgb/ V max
10
Metallicity Gradients Radius (kpc) [MgFe]’ Radius (kpc) [MgFe]’ Sa S0 Sb Sa S0 Sb Sc
11
Gradients in /Fe Radius (kpc) Mgb Radius (kpc) Mgb/ Sa S0 SbS0 Sb Sc
12
Main Results Red bulges are similar to luminous ellipticals in their central stellar populations Hubble types S0-Sb Intermediate-large SSP age Super-solar Z/H Super-solar /Fe Blue bulges exhibit larger scatter and appear similar to low- luminosity ellipticals in their central stellar populations Uniformly solar /Fe Metal-poor class: Sb-Sc, emission lines Young metal-rich class: all Hubble types Central metallicity and /Fe are sensitive to and V max Barred galaxies add scatter to Metallicity-V max relation but not /Fe–V max relation Gradients support disk-driven evolution picture for many galaxies Bulges of barred galaxies, boxy/peanut bulges, and bulges with disk-like kinematics are more often similar to their disks in their stellar populations
13
Additional Hints Galaxies with largest central metallicities are barred or have b/p bulges Extra enrichment from bar-driven gas inflow? NGC 2599 and late-typed blue bulges – Unbarred but bulge stellar populations nearly identical to those of disk Secular evolution with bar destruction?
Similar presentations
© 2024 SlidePlayer.com Inc.
All rights reserved.