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 Lifetime of nuclear velocity dispersion drops in barred galaxiesWe have made hydro/N-body simulations with and without star formation toshed some light on the conditions under which a central kinematicallycold stellar component (characterized by a velocity dispersion drop orσ-drop) could be created in a hot medium (e.g. a bulge) andsurvive enough time to be observed. We found that the time-scale for aσ-drop formation could be short (less than 500 Myr), whereas itslifetime could be long (more than 1 Gyr) provided that the centralregion is continuously or regularly fed by fresh gas which leads to acontinuous star formation activity. Star formation in the centralregion, even at a low rate as 1Msolaryr-1, ismandatory to sustain a permanent σ-drop by replacing heatedparticles by new low-σ ones. We moreover show that as soon as starformation is switched off, the σ-drop begins to disappear. The Cool ISM in S0 Galaxies. II. A Survey of Atomic GasThe place of lenticular galaxies within the range of types of galaxiesremains unclear. We previously reported the mass of molecular hydrogenfor a volume-limited sample of lenticular galaxies, where we saw thatthe amount of gas was less than that predicted by the return of stellarmass to the interstellar medium. Here we report observations of atomichydrogen (H I) for the same sample. Detections in several galaxies makemore compelling the case presented in our earlier paper that the mass ofcool gas in S0 galaxies cuts off at ~10% of what is expected fromcurrent models of gas return from stellar evolution. The molecular andatomic phases of the gas in our sample galaxies appear to be separateand distinct, both spatially and in velocity space. We propose that themolecular gas arises mostly from the stellar mass returned to thegalaxy, while the atomic hydrogen is mainly accumulated from externalsources (infall, captured dwarfs, etc.). While this proposal fits mostof the observations, it makes the presence of the upper mass cutoff evenmore mysterious. Stellar Populations in Nearby Lenticular GalaxiesWe have obtained two-dimensional spectral data for a sample of 58 nearbyS0 galaxies with the Multi-Pupil Fiber/Field Spectrograph of the 6 mtelescope of the Special Astrophysical Observatory of the RussianAcademy of Sciences. The Lick indices Hβ, Mg b, and arecalculated separately for the nuclei and for the bulges taken as therings between R=4'' and 7", and the luminosity-weighted ages,metallicities, and Mg/Fe ratios of the stellar populations are estimatedby comparing the data to single stellar population (SSP) models. Fourtypes of galaxy environments are considered: clusters, centers ofgroups, other places in groups, and the field. The nuclei are found tobe on average slightly younger than the bulges in any type ofenvironment, and the bulges of S0 galaxies in sparse environments areyounger than those in dense environments. The effect can be partlyattributed to the well-known age correlation with the stellar velocitydispersion in early-type galaxies (in our sample the galaxies in sparseenvironments are on average less massive than those in denseenvironments), but for the most massive S0 galaxies, withσ*=170-220 km s-1, the age dependence on theenvironment is still significant at the confidence level of 1.5 σ.Based on observations collected with the 6 m telescope (BTA) at theSpecial Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) of the Russian Academy ofSciences (RAS). How large are the bars in barred galaxies?I present a study of the sizes (semimajor axes) of bars in discgalaxies, combining a detailed R-band study of 65 S0-Sb galaxies withthe B-band measurements of 70 Sb-Sd galaxies from Martin (1995). As hasbeen noted before with smaller samples, bars in early-type (S0-Sb)galaxies are clearly larger than bars in late-type (Sc-Sd) galaxies;this is true both for relative sizes (bar length as fraction ofisophotal radius R25 or exponential disc scalelength h) andabsolute sizes (kpc). S0-Sab bars extend to ~1-10 kpc (mean ~ 3.3 kpc),~0.2-0.8R25 (mean ~ 0.38R25) and ~0.5-2.5h (mean ~1.4h). Late-type bars extend to only ~0.5-3.5 kpc,~0.05-0.35R25 and 0.2-1.5h their mean sizes are ~1.5 kpc, ~0.14R25 and ~0.6h. Sb galaxies resemble earlier-type galaxiesin terms of bar size relative to h; their smallerR25-relative sizes may be a side effect of higher starformation, which increases R25 but not h. Sbc galaxies form atransition between the early- and late-type regimes. For S0-Sbcgalaxies, bar size correlates well with disc size (both R25and h); these correlations are stronger than the known correlation withMB. All correlations appear to be weaker or absent forlate-type galaxies; in particular, there seems to be no correlationbetween bar size and either h or MB for Sc-Sd galaxies.Because bar size scales with disc size and galaxy magnitude for mostHubble types, studies of bar evolution with redshift should selectsamples with similar distributions of disc size or magnitude(extrapolated to present-day values); otherwise, bar frequencies andsizes could be mis-estimated. Because early-type galaxies tend to havelarger bars, resolution-limited studies will preferentially find bars inearly-type galaxies (assuming no significant differential evolution inbar sizes). I show that the bars detected in Hubble Space Telescope(HST) near-infrared(IR) images at z~ 1 by Sheth et al. have absolutesizes consistent with those in bright, nearby S0-Sb galaxies. I alsocompare the sizes of real bars with those produced in simulations anddiscuss some possible implications for scenarios of secular evolutionalong the Hubble sequence. Simulations often produce bars as large as(or larger than) those seen in S0-Sb galaxies, but rarely any as smallas those in Sc-Sd galaxies. Group, field and isolated early-type galaxies - II. Global trends from nuclear dataWe have derived ages, metallicities and enhanced-element ratios[α/Fe] for a sample of 83 early-type galaxies essentially ingroups, the field or isolated objects. The stellar-population propertiesderived for each galaxy correspond to the nuclear re/8aperture extraction. The median age found for Es is 5.8+/-0.6 Gyr andthe average metallicity is +0.37+/-0.03 dex. For S0s, the median age is3.0+/-0.6 Gyr and [Z/H]= 0.53+/-0.04 dex. We compare the distribution ofour galaxies in the Hβ-[MgFe] diagram with Fornax galaxies. Ourelliptical galaxies are 3-4 Gyr younger than Es in the Fornax cluster.We find that the galaxies lie in a plane defined by [Z/H]= 0.99logσ0- 0.46 log(age) - 1.60, or in linear terms Z~σ0× (age) -0.5. More massive (largerσ0) and older galaxies present, on average, large[α/Fe] values, and therefore must have undergone shorterstar-formation time-scales. Comparing group against field/isolatedgalaxies, it is not clear that environment plays an important role indetermining their stellar-population history. In particular, ourisolated galaxies show ages differing by more than 8 Gyr. Finally weexplore our large spectral coverage to derive log(O/H) metallicity fromthe Hα and NIIλ6584 and compare it with model-dependent[Z/H]. We find that the O/H abundances are similar for all galaxies, andwe can interpret it as if most chemical evolution has already finishedin these galaxies. On the relation between orbital structure and observed bar morphologyWe investigate the morphological relation between the orbits of thecentral family of periodic orbits (x1 family) and the baritself using models of test particles moving in a barred potential. Weshow that different bar morphologies may have as a backbone the same setof x1 periodic orbits. We point out that by populatinginitially axisymmetric stellar discs exponentially with test particlesin circular, or almost circular motion, we may end up with a responsebar which reveals a shape different in crucial details from that of theindividual stable x1 orbits. For example, a bar model inwhich the x1 orbits are pure ellipses may have a much morecomplicated response morphology. This depends on the particularinvariant curves around x1, which are populated in eachmodel. Group, field and isolated early-type galaxies - I. Observations and nuclear dataThis is the first paper of a series on the investigation of stellarpopulation properties and galaxy evolution of an observationallyhomogeneous sample of early-type galaxies in groups, field and isolatedgalaxies.Here we present high signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) long-slit spectroscopyof 86 nearby elliptical and S0 galaxies. Eight of them are isolated,selected according to a rigorous criterion, which guarantees a genuinelow-density subsample. The present survey has the advantage of coveringa larger wavelength range than normally found in the literature, whichincludes [OIII]λ5007 and Hα, both lines important foremission correction. Among the 86 galaxies with S/N >= 15 (perresolution element, for re/8 central aperture), 57 have theirHβ-index corrected for emission (the average correction is 0.190Åin Hβ) and 42 galaxies reveal [OIII]λ5007 emission,of which 16 also show obvious Hα emission. Most of the galaxies inthe sample do not show obvious signs of disturbances nor tidal featuresin the morphologies, although 11 belong to the Arp catalogue of peculiargalaxies; only three of them (NGC 750, 751 and 3226) seem to be stronglyinteracting. We present the measurement of 25 central line-strengthindices calibrated to the Lick/IDS system. Kinematic information isobtained for the sample. We analyse the line-strength index versusvelocity dispersion relations for our sample of mainly low-densityenvironment galaxies, and compare the slope of the relations withcluster galaxies from the literature. Our main findings are that theindex-σ0 relations presented for low-density regionsare not significantly different from those of cluster E/S0s. The slopeof the index-σ0 relations does not seem to change forearly-type galaxies of different environmental densities, but thescatter of the relations seems larger for group, field and isolatedgalaxies than for cluster galaxies. The SCORPIO Universal Focal Reducer of the 6-m TelescopeWe describe the SCORPIO focal reducer that has been used since the fallof 2000 for observations on the 6-m Special Astrophysical Observatorytelescope. We give parameters of the instrument in various observingmodes (direct imaging, long-slit and multislit spectroscopy,spectropolarimetry, Fabry-Perot panoramic spectroscopy). Observations ofvarious astronomical objects are used as examples to demonstrate theSCORPIO capabilities. On the Relevance of the Tremaine-Weinberg Method Applied to an Hα Velocity Field: Pattern Speed Determination in M100 (NGC 4321)The relevance of the Tremaine-Weinberg (TW) method is tested formeasuring bar, spiral, and inner structure pattern speeds using agaseous velocity field. The TW method is applied to various simulatedbarred galaxies in order to demonstrate its validity in seven differentconfigurations, including star formation and/or dark matter halo. Thereliability of the different physical processes involved and of thevarious observational parameters is also tested. The simulations showthat the TW method could be applied to gaseous velocity fields to get agood estimate of the bar pattern speed, under the condition that regionsof shocks are avoided and measurements are confined to regions where thegaseous bar is well formed. We successfully apply the TW method to theHα velocity field of the Virgo Cluster galaxy M100 (NGC 4321) andderive pattern speeds of 55+/-5 km s-1 kpc-1 forthe nuclear structure, 30+/-2 km s-1 kpc-1 for thebar, and 20+/-1 km s-1 kpc-1 for the spiralpattern, in full agreement with published determinations using the samemethod or alternative ones. The Vertical Stellar Kinematics in Face-On Barred Galaxies: Estimating the Ages of BarsIn order to perform a detailed study of the stellar kinematics in thevertical axis of bars, we obtained high signal-to-noise spectra alongthe major and minor axes of the bars in a sample of 14 face-on galaxiesand used them to determine the line-of-sight stellar velocitydistribution, parameterized as a Gauss-Hermite series. With these data,we developed a diagnostic tool that allows one to distinguish betweenrecently formed and evolved bars, as well as to estimate their ages,assuming that bars form in vertically thin disks that are recognizableby low values for the vertical velocity dispersion σz.Through N-body realizations of bar unstable disk galaxies we were alsoable to check the timescales involved in the processes that give bars animportant vertical structure. We show that σz inevolved bars is roughly 100 km s-1, which translates to aheight scale of about 1.4 kpc, giving support to scenarios in whichbulges form through disk material. Furthermore, the bars in ournumerical simulations have values for σz generallysmaller than 50 km s-1, even after evolving for 2 Gyr,suggesting that a slow process is responsible for making bars asvertically thick as we observe. We verify theoretically that theSpitzer-Schwarzschild mechanism is quantitatively able to explain theseobservations if we assume that giant molecular clouds are twice asconcentrated along the bar as in the rest of the disk. Antitruncation of Disks in Early-Type Barred GalaxiesThe disks of spiral galaxies are commonly thought to be truncated: theradial surface brightness profile steepens sharply beyond a certainradius (3-5 inner disk scale lengths). Here we present the radialbrightness profiles of a number of barred S0-Sb galaxies with theopposite behavior: their outer profiles are distinctly shallower inslope than the main disk profile. We term these antitruncations'' theyare found in at least 25% of a larger sample of barred S0-Sb galaxies.There are two distinct types of antitruncations. About one-third show afairly gradual transition and outer isophotes that are progressivelyrounder than the main disk isophotes, suggestive of a disk embeddedwithin a more spheroidal outer zone-either the outer extent of the bulgeor a separate stellar halo. But the majority of the profiles have rathersharp surface brightness transitions to the shallower, outer exponentialprofile and, crucially, outer isophotes that are not significantlyrounder than the main disk; in the Sab-Sb galaxies, the outer isophotesinclude visible spiral arms. This suggests that the outer light is stillpart of the disk. A subset of these profiles are in galaxies withasymmetric outer isophotes (lopsided or one-armed spirals), suggestingthat interactions may be responsible for at least some of the disklikeantitruncations. The Local Group and Other Neighboring Galaxy GroupsOver the last few years, rapid progress has been made in distancemeasurements for nearby galaxies based on the magnitude of stars on thetip of the red giant branch. Current CCD surveys with the Hubble SpaceTelescope (HST) and large ground-based telescopes bring ~10% accuratedistances for roughly a hundred galaxies within 5 Mpc. The new data ondistances to galaxies situated in (and around) the nearest groups-theLocal Group, M81 Group, Cen A/M83 Group, IC 342/Maffei Group, Sculptorfilament, and Canes Venatici cloud-allowed us to determine their totalmass from the radius of the zero-velocity surface, R0, whichseparates a group as bound against the homogeneous cosmic expansion. Thevalues of R0 for the virialized groups turn out to be closeeach other, in the range of 0.9-1.3 Mpc. As a result, the total massesof the groups are close to each other, as well, yielding total mass toblue luminosity ratios of 10-40 MsolarL-1solar. The new total mass estimates are 3-5times lower than old virial mass estimates of these groups. Becauseabout half of galaxies in the Local volume belong to such loose groups,the revision of the amount of dark matter (DM) leads to a low localdensity of matter, Ωm~=0.04, which is comparable withthe global baryonic fraction Ωb but much lower than theglobal density of matter, Ωm=0.27. To remove thediscrepancy between the global and local quantities ofΩm, we assume the existence of two different DMcomponents: (1) compact dark halos around individual galaxies and (2) anonbaryonic dark matter ocean'' with ΩDM1~=0.07 andΩDM2~=0.20, respectively.Based in part on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble SpaceTelescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which isoperated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy,Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. Photometric properties and origin of bulges in SB0 galaxiesWe have derived the photometric parameters for the structural componentsof a sample of fourteen SB0 galaxies by applying a parametricphotometric decomposition to their observed I-band surface brightnessdistribution. We find that SB0 bulges are similar to bulges of theearly-type unbarred spirals, i.e. they have nearly exponential surfacebrightness profiles (< n>=1.48±0.16) and their effectiveradii are strongly coupled to the scale lengths of their surroundingdiscs (< r_e/h>=0.20±0.01). The photometric analysis alonedoes not allow us to differentiate SB0 bulges from unbarred S0 ones.However, three sample bulges have disc properties typical ofpseudobulges. The bulges of NGC 1308 and NGC 4340 rotate faster thanbulges of unbarred galaxies and models of isotropic oblate spheroidswith equal ellipticity. The bulge of IC 874 has a velocity dispersionlower than expected from the Faber-Jackson correlation and thefundamental plane of the elliptical galaxies and S0 bulges. Theremaining sample bulges are classical bulges, and are kinematicallysimilar to lower-luminosity ellipticals. In particular, they follow theFaber-Jackson correlation, lie on the fundamental plane and those forwhich stellar kinematics are available rotate as fast as the bulges ofunbarred galaxies. Dynamical modelling of the remarkable four-armed barred spiral galaxy ESO 566-24 ESO 566-24 is an extraordinary barred galaxy that has four regularlyspaced spiral arms in blue light images. This type of spiral structure,which is rare among the spiral population, is also clearly seen innear-infrared (NIR) images, and thus is present in the old stellarpopulation. We have constructed dynamical models of ESO 566-24. Thegravitational potential is determined using NIR photometry, and the gasdynamics is modelled as inelastically colliding particles. The resultingmorphology and kinematics with different assumed pattern speeds, discvertical thicknesses and dark halo contributions are compared withobservations. Our models reproduce the main morphological features ofthis galaxy: the four-armed spiral, and the inner and nuclear rings. Thepattern speed of the bar is such that the corotation resonance is welloutside the bar radius, rCR/rb= 1.6 +/- 0.3. Thefour-armed spiral resides in the region between inner and outer 4/1resonances. In addition, the main kinematical features, includingbar-induced deviations from circular rotation, are explained by ourmodels. The best fit is obtained when the dark halo contribution is justenough to make the modelled rotation curve match the observed one. Thus,luminous matter dominates the rotation curve within the disc region. Fast bars in SB0 galaxiesWe measured the bar pattern speed in a sample of 7 SB0 galaxies usingthe Tremaine-Weinberg method. This represents the largest sample ofgalaxies for which the bar pattern speed has been measured this way. Allthe observed bars are as rapidly rotating as they can be. We comparedthis result with recent high-resolution N-body simulations of bars incosmologically-motivated dark matter halos, and conclude that these barsare not located inside centrally concentrated halos. New Dwarf Galaxy Candidates in the Leo-I GroupWe have carried out a search for low-surface-brightness dwarf galaxiesin the region of the Leo-I Group (M96) in images of the second PalomarSky Survey. We found a total of 36 likely dwarf members of the groupwith typical magnitudes B t 18m 19m in an area of sky covering 120square degrees. Half of these galaxies are absent from known catalogsand lists of galaxies. The radial-velocity dispersion calculated for 19galaxies is 130 km/s. The Leo-I Group has a mean distance from the Sunof 10.4 Mpc, a mean projected radius of 352 kpc, an integratedluminosity of 6.7 × 1010 L ȯ, a virial mass-to-luminosityratio of 107 M ȯ/L ȯ, and a mean crossing time of 2.7 Gyr. Thegroup shows evidence for a radial segregation of the galaxies accordingto morphological type and luminosity, suggesting that the group is in astate of dynamical relaxation. The subsystem of bright galaxies in theLeo-I Group is smaller in size (250 kpc) and has a lower velocitydispersion (92 km/s), resulting in a lower virial mass-to-luminosityratio (34 M ȯ/L ȯ), as is typical of the Local Group and othernearby groups of galaxies. Inner-truncated Disks in GalaxiesWe present an analysis of the disk brightness profiles of 218 spiral andlenticular galaxies. At least 28% of disk galaxies exhibit innertruncations in these profiles. There are no significant trends oftruncation incidence with Hubble type, but the incidence among barredsystems is 49%, more than 4 times that for nonbarred galaxies. However,not all barred systems have inner truncations, and not allinner-truncated systems are currently barred. Truncations represent areal dearth of disk stars in the inner regions and are not an artifactof our selection or fitting procedures nor the result of obscuration bydust. Disk surface brightness profiles in the outer regions are wellrepresented by simple exponentials for both truncated and nontruncateddisks. However, truncated and nontruncated systems have systematicallydifferent slopes and central surface brightness parameters for theirdisk brightness distributions. Truncation radii do not appear tocorrelate well with the sizes or brightnesses of the bulges. Thissuggests that the low angular momentum material apparently missing fromthe inner disk was not simply consumed in forming the bulge population.Disk parameters and the statistics of bar orientations in our sampleindicate that the missing stars of the inner disk have not simply beenredistributed azimuthally into bar structures. The sharpness of thebrightness truncations and their locations with respect to othergalactic structures suggest that resonances associated with diskkinematics, or tidal interactions with the mass of bulge stars, might beresponsible for this phenomenon. A Catalog of Neighboring GalaxiesWe present an all-sky catalog of 451 nearby galaxies, each having anindividual distance estimate D<~10 Mpc or a radial velocityVLG<550 km s-1. The catalog contains data onbasic optical and H I properties of the galaxies, in particular, theirdiameters, absolute magnitudes, morphological types, circumnuclearregion types, optical and H I surface brightnesses, rotationalvelocities, and indicative mass-to-luminosity and H I mass-to-luminosityratios, as well as a so-called tidal index, which quantifies the galaxyenvironment. We expect the catalog completeness to be roughly 70%-80%within 8 Mpc. About 85% of the Local Volume population are dwarf (dIr,dIm, and dSph) galaxies with MB>-17.0, which contributeabout 4% to the local luminosity density, and roughly 10%-15% to thelocal H I mass density. The H I mass-to-luminosity and the H Imass-to-total (indicative) mass ratios increase systematically fromgiant galaxies toward dwarfs, reaching maximum values about 5 in solarunits for the most tiny objects. For the Local Volume disklike galaxies,their H I masses and angular momentum follow Zasov's linear relation,expected for rotating gaseous disks being near the threshold ofgravitational instability, favorable for active star formation. We foundthat the mean local luminosity density exceeds 1.7-2.0 times the globaldensity, in spite of the presence of the Tully void and the absence ofrich clusters in the Local Volume. The mean local H I density is 1.4times its global'' value derived from the H I Parkes Sky Survey.However, the mean local baryon densityΩb(<8Mpc)=2.3% consists of only a half of the globalbaryon density, Ωb=(4.7+/-0.6)% (Spergel et al.,published in 2003). The mean-square pairwise difference of radialvelocities is about 100 km s-1 for spatial separations within1 Mpc, increasing to ~300 km s-1 on a scale of ~3 Mpc. alsoWe calculated the integral area of the sky occupied by the neighboringgalaxies. Assuming the H I size of spiral and irregular galaxies to be2.5 times their standard optical diameter and ignoring any evolutioneffect, we obtain the expected number of the line-of-sight intersectionswith the H I galaxy images to be dn/dz~0.4, which does not contradictthe observed number of absorptions in QSO spectra. Double-barred galaxies. I. A catalog of barred galaxies with stellar secondary bars and inner disksI present a catalog of 67 barred galaxies which contain distinct,elliptical stellar structures inside their bars. Fifty of these aredouble-barred galaxies: a small-scale, inner or secondary bar isembedded within a large-scale, outer or primary bar. I providehomogenized measurements of the sizes, ellipticities, and orientationsof both inner and outer bars, along with global parameters for thegalaxies. The other 17 are classified as inner-disk galaxies, where alarge-scale bar harbors an inner elliptical structure which is alignedwith the galaxy's outer disk. Four of the double-barred galaxies alsopossess inner disks, located in between the inner and outer bars. Whilethe inner-disk classification is ad-hoc - and undoubtedly includes someinner bars with chance alignments (five such probable cases areidentified) - there is good evidence that inner disks form astatistically distinct population, and that at least some are indeeddisks rather than bars. In addition, I list 36 galaxies which may bedouble-barred, but for which current observations are ambiguous orincomplete, and another 23 galaxies which have been previously suggestedas potentially being double-barred, but which are probably not. Falsedouble-bar identifications are usually due to features such as nuclearrings and spirals being misclassified as bars; I provide someillustrated examples of how this can happen.A detailed statistical analysis of the general population of double-barand inner-disk galaxies, as represented by this catalog, will bepresented in a companion paper.Tables \ref{tab:measured} and \ref{tab:deproj} are only available inelectronic form at http://www.edpsciences.org Detailed comparison of the structures and kinematics of simulated and observed barred galaxiesWe examine the observable properties of simulated barred galaxies,including radial mass profiles, edge-on structure and kinematics, barlengths and pattern speed evolution for detailed comparison to realsystems. We have run several simulations in which bars are createdthrough inherent instabilities in self-consistent simulations of arealistic disc+halo galaxy model with a disc-dominated, flat rotationcurve. These simulations were run at high (N= 20 million particles) andlow (N= 500000 particles) resolution to test numerical convergence. Wedetermine the pattern speeds in simulations directly from the phaseangle of the bar versus time and the Tremaine-Weinberg method.Fundamental dynamics do not change between the high and low resolution,suggesting that convergence has been reached in this case. We find thatthe higher resolution is needed to simulate structural and kinematicproperties accurately. The edge-on view of the higher-resolution systemshows the bending instability and formation of a peanut-shaped bulgeclearly. We determined bar lengths by different means to determine thatthe simulated bar is fast, with a corotation to bar length ratio ofunder 1.5. Simulated bars in these models form with pattern speedsslower than those observed and slow-down during their evolution.Dynamical friction between the bar and dark halo is responsible for thisdeceleration, as revealed by the transfer of angular momentum betweenthe disc and the halo. However, even though the pattern speed is reducedat later times, the instantaneous scalelength of the disc has grownsufficiently for the bar motion to agree with many observations. Byusing a different model and simulation technique than other authors, weare able to compare the robustness of these methods. An animation of theface-on and edge-on views of the 20-million-particle simulation isavailable at http://www.astro.utoronto.ca/~oneill. Secular bar formation in galaxies with a significant amount of dark matterUsing high-resolution N-body simulations of stellar discs embedded incosmologically motivated dark matter haloes, we study the evolution ofbars and the transfer of angular momentum between haloes and bars. Wefind that dynamical friction results in some transfer of angularmomentum to the halo, but the effect is much smaller than previouslyfound in low-resolution simulations and is incompatible with earlyanalytical estimates. After 5 Gyr of evolution the stellar componentloses only 5-7 per cent of its initial angular momentum.Mass and force resolutions are crucial for the modelling of bardynamics. In low-resolution (300-500 pc) simulations we find that thebar slows down and angular momentum is lost relatively fast. Insimulations with millions of particles reaching a resolution of 20-40pc, the pattern speed may not change over billions of years. Ourhigh-resolution models produce bars that are fast rotators, where theratio of the corotation radius to the bar semi-major axis lies in therange , marginally compatible with observational results. In contrast tomany previous simulations, we find that bars are relatively short. As inmany observed cases, the bar semi-major axis is close to the exponentiallength of the disc.The transfer of angular momentum between inner and outer parts of thedisc plays a very important role in the secular evolution of the discand the bar. The bar formation increases the exponential length of thedisc by a factor of 1.2-1.5. The transfer substantially increases thestellar mass in the centre of the galaxy and decreases the dark matterto baryon ratio. As the result, the central 2-kpc region is alwaysstrongly dominated by the baryonic component. At intermediate (3-10 kpc)scales the disc is sub-dominant. These models demonstrate that theefficiency of angular momentum transfer to the dark matter has beengreatly overestimated. More realistic models produce bar structure instriking agreement with observational results. On position angle errors in the Tremaine-Weinberg methodI show that Tremaine-Weinberg (TW) measurements of bar pattern speedsare sensitive to errors in the position angle of the disc,PAdisc. I use an N-body experiment to measure these errors;for typical random PAdisc errors, the resulting scatter inthe measured values of the dimensionless bar speed parameter (defined asthe ratio of the corotation radius to the bar semi-major axis) is of theorder of the scatter in the observed values.I also consider how the systematic PAdisc errors produced bydisc ellipticities affect TW measurements. The scatter produced by theseerrors may be significant, depending on the ellipticity distribution.Conversely, by using the sample of TW observations, I find that an upperlimit of the typical disc (density) ellipticity is 0.07 at the 90 percent confidence level, which is in good agreement with previousmeasurements.Taken together, the random and systematic scatter suggest that theintrinsic distribution of of gas-poor early-type barred galaxies may beas narrow as that of the gas-rich later types. Measurement of fast bars in a sample of early-type barred galaxiesWe present surface photometry and stellar kinematics of a sample of fiveSB0 galaxies: ESO 139-G009, IC 874, NGC 1308, NGC 1440 and NGC 3412. Wemeasured their bar pattern speed using the Tremaine-Weinberg method, andderived the ratio, , of the corotation radius to the length of the barsemimajor axis. For all the galaxies, is consistent with being in therange from 1.0 to 1.4, i.e. that they host fast bars. This representsthe largest sample of galaxies for which has been measured in this way.Taking into account the measured distribution of and our measurementuncertainties, we argue that this is probably the true distribution of .If this is the case, then the Tremaine-Weinberg method finds adistribution of which is in agreement with that obtained byhydrodynamical simulations. We compare this result with recenthigh-resolution N-body simulations of bars in cosmologically motivateddark matter haloes, and we conclude that these bars are not locatedinside centrally concentrated dark matter haloes. Fast bars in early-type barred galaxiesWe measured the bar pattern speed of a sample of 6 SB0 galaxies usingthe Tremaine-Weinberg method. We derived the ratio, {cal R}, of thecorotation radius to the length of the bar semi-major axis. For all thegalaxies, {cal R} is consistent with being in the range from 1.0 and1.4, i.e. that they host fast bars. This represents the largest sampleof galaxies for which {cal R} has been measured this way. We comparedthis result with recent high-resolution N-body simulations of bars incosmologically-motivated dark matter halos, and conclude that these barsare not located inside centrally concentrated dark matter halos. An Imaging Survey of Early-Type Barred GalaxiesThis paper presents the results of a high-resolution imaging survey,using both ground-based and Hubble Space Telescope images, of a completesample of nearby barred S0-Sa galaxies in the field, with a particularemphasis on identifying and measuring central structures within thebars: secondary bars, inner disks, nuclear rings and spirals, andoff-plane dust. A discussion of the frequency and statistical propertiesof the various types of inner structures has already been published.Here we present the data for the individual galaxies and measurements oftheir bars and inner structures. We set out the methods we use to findand measure these structures, and how we discriminate between them. Inparticular, we discuss some of the deficiencies of ellipse fitting ofthe isophotes, which by itself cannot always distinguish between bars,rings, spirals, and dust, and which can produce erroneous measurementsof bar sizes and orientations. The Cool Interstellar Medium in S0 Galaxies. I. A Survey of Molecular GasLenticular galaxies remain remarkably mysterious as a class.Observations to date have not led to any broad consensus about theirorigins, properties, and evolution, although they are often thought tohave formed in one big burst of star formation early in the history ofthe universe and to have evolved relatively passively since then. Inthat picture, current theory predicts that stellar evolution returnssubstantial quantities of gas to the interstellar medium; most isejected from the galaxy, but significant amounts of cool gas might beretained. Past searches for that material, though, have provided unclearresults. We present results from a survey of molecular gas in avolume-limited sample of field S0 galaxies selected from the NearbyGalaxies Catalog. CO emission is detected from 78% of the samplegalaxies. We find that the molecular gas is almost always located insidethe central few kiloparsecs of a lenticular galaxy, meaning that ingeneral it is more centrally concentrated than in spirals. We combineour data with H I observations from the literature to determine thetotal masses of cool and cold gas. Curiously, we find that, across awide range of luminosity, the most gas-rich galaxies have ~10% of thetotal amount of gas ever returned by their stars. That result isdifficult to understand within the context of either monolithic orhierarchical models of evolution of the interstellar medium. Redshift-Distance Survey of Early-Type Galaxies: Spectroscopic DataWe present central velocity dispersions and Mg2 line indicesfor an all-sky sample of ~1178 elliptical and S0 galaxies, of which 984had no previous measures. This sample contains the largest set ofhomogeneous spectroscopic data for a uniform sample of ellipticalgalaxies in the nearby universe. These galaxies were observed as part ofthe ENEAR project, designed to study the peculiar motions and internalproperties of the local early-type galaxies. Using 523 repeatedobservations of 317 galaxies obtained during different runs, the dataare brought to a common zero point. These multiple observations, takenduring the many runs and different instrumental setups employed for thisproject, are used to derive statistical corrections to the data and arefound to be relatively small, typically <~5% of the velocitydispersion and 0.01 mag in the Mg2 line strength. Typicalerrors are about 8% in velocity dispersion and 0.01 mag inMg2, in good agreement with values published elsewhere. Companions of Bright Barred Shapley-Ames GalaxiesCompanion galaxy environment for a subset of 78 bright and nearby barredgalaxies from the Shapley-Ames Catalog is presented. Among the spiralbarred galaxies, there are Seyfert galaxies, galaxies with circumnuclearstructures, galaxies not associated with any large-scale galaxy cloudstructure, galaxies with peculiar disk morphology (crooked arms), andgalaxies with normal disk morphology; the list includes all Hubbletypes. The companion galaxy list includes the number of companiongalaxies within 20 diameters, their Hubble type, and projectedseparation distance. In addition, the companion environment was searchedfor four known active spiral galaxies, three of them are Seyfertgalaxies, namely, NGC 1068, NGC 1097, and NGC 5548, and one is astarburst galaxy, M82. Among the results obtained, it is noted that theonly spiral barred galaxy classified as Seyfert 1 in our list has nocompanions within a projected distance of 20 diameters; six out of 10Seyfert 2 bar galaxies have no companions within 10 diameters, six outof 10 Seyfert 2 galaxies have one or more companions at projectedseparation distances between 10 and 20 diameters; six out of 12 galaxieswith circumnuclear structures have two or more companions within 20diameters. Redshift-Distance Survey of Early-Type Galaxies: Circular-Aperture PhotometryWe present R-band CCD photometry for 1332 early-type galaxies, observedas part of the ENEAR survey of peculiar motions using early-typegalaxies in the nearby universe. Circular apertures are used to tracethe surface brightness profiles, which are then fitted by atwo-component bulge-disk model. From the fits, we obtain the structuralparameters required to estimate galaxy distances using theDn-σ and fundamental plane relations. We find thatabout 12% of the galaxies are well represented by a pure r1/4law, while 87% are best fitted by a two-component model. There are 356repeated observations of 257 galaxies obtained during different runsthat are used to derive statistical corrections and bring the data to acommon system. We also use these repeated observations to estimate ourinternal errors. The accuracy of our measurements are tested by thecomparison of 354 galaxies in common with other authors. Typical errorsin our measurements are 0.011 dex for logDn, 0.064 dex forlogre, 0.086 mag arcsec-2 for<μe>, and 0.09 for mRC,comparable to those estimated by other authors. The photometric datareported here represent one of the largest high-quality and uniformall-sky samples currently available for early-type galaxies in thenearby universe, especially suitable for peculiar motion studies.Based on observations at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO),National Optical Astronomy Observatory, which is operated by theAssociation of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., undercooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation (NSF);European Southern Observatory (ESO); Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory(FLWO); and the MDM Observatory on Kitt Peak. The detection of stellar velocity dispersion drops in the central regions of five isolated Seyfert spiralsWe analyze the kinematics of the central regions of five isolatedSeyfert spiral galaxies from the DEGAS sample (four with new datapresented in this paper, IC 184, UGC 3223, NGC 2639, NGC 6814, and NGC6951 from our previous data), by using long slit spectroscopy in theCaII triplet range (at ~8600 Å) obtained with a 4 m-classtelescope. A drop of the velocity dispersions in the innermost +/-(1-3)arcsec is observed in four of them, and hinted at in the remaininggalaxy (NGC 6814). The available HST images for our sample together withanother nine galaxies with reported velocity dispersion drops are alsoused to investigate the presence of morphological inner structures atthe scales of the kinematical drops. Evidence for disk-like shapes isfound in 12 out of the 14 cases. The only exceptions are NGC 6814 andNGC 6951. Existing N-body simulations including stars, gas and starformation predict that such a drop is most probably due to a youngstellar population born from dynamically cold gas accreted in acircumnuclear disk formed during an episode of central gas accretiondriven by a bar. The equivalent widths of the calcium triplet lines forour 5 galaxies have been measured. Even if the profiles could beformally consistent with constant EW(CaT) values, they seem to indicatethe presence of a local maximum in the regions corresponding spatiallyto the drops; if confirmed, this would imply the presence of a differentstellar population, whose properties could help constrain the models.Based on observations made with the WHT operated on the island of LaPalma by ING in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de Los Muchachos ofthe Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias.
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