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# NGC 210

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 Massive star formation in the central regions of spiral galaxiesContext: . The morphology of massive star formation in the centralregions of galaxies is an important tracer of the dynamical processesthat govern the evolution of disk, bulge, and nuclear activity. Aims. Wepresent optical imaging of the central regions of a sample of 73 spiralgalaxies in the Hα line and in optical broad bands, and deriveinformation on the morphology of massive star formation. Methods. Weobtained images with the William Herschel Telescope, mostly at a spatialresolution of below one second of arc. For most galaxies, no Hαimaging is available in the literature. We outline the observing anddata reduction procedures, list basic properties, and present the I-bandand continuum-subtracted Hα images. We classify the morphology ofthe nuclear and circumnuclear Hα emission and explore trends withhost galaxy parameters. Results. We confirm that late-type galaxies havea patchy circumnuclear appearance in Hα, and that nuclear ringsoccur primarily in spiral types Sa-Sbc. We identify a number ofpreviously unknown nuclear rings, and confirm that nuclear rings arepredominantly hosted by barred galaxies. Conclusions. Other than instimulating nuclear rings, bars do not influence the relative strengthof the nuclear Hα peak, nor the circumnuclear Hα morphology.Even considering that our selection criteria led to an over-abundance ofgalaxies with close massive companions, we do not find any significantinfluence of the presence or absence of a close companion on therelative strength of the nuclear Hα peak, nor on the Hαmorphology around the nucleus. 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. The Distribution of Bar and Spiral Arm Strengths in Disk GalaxiesThe distribution of bar strengths in disk galaxies is a fundamentalproperty of the galaxy population that has only begun to be explored. Wehave applied the bar-spiral separation method of Buta and coworkers toderive the distribution of maximum relative gravitational bar torques,Qb, for 147 spiral galaxies in the statistically well-definedOhio State University Bright Galaxy Survey (OSUBGS) sample. Our goal isto examine the properties of bars as independently as possible of theirassociated spirals. We find that the distribution of bar strengthdeclines smoothly with increasing Qb, with more than 40% ofthe sample having Qb<=0.1. In the context of recurrent barformation, this suggests that strongly barred states are relativelyshort-lived compared to weakly barred or nonbarred states. We do notfind compelling evidence for a bimodal distribution of bar strengths.Instead, the distribution is fairly smooth in the range0.0<=Qb<0.8. Our analysis also provides a first look atspiral strengths Qs in the OSUBGS sample, based on the sametorque indicator. We are able to verify a possible weak correlationbetween Qs and Qb, in the sense that galaxies withthe strongest bars tend to also have strong spirals. Structure and star formation in disk galaxies. III. Nuclear and circumnuclear Hα emissionFrom Hα images of a carefully selected sample of 57 relativelylarge, Northern spiral galaxies with low inclination, we study thedistribution of the Hα emission in the circumnuclear and nuclearregions. At a resolution of around 100 parsec, we find that the nuclearHα emission in the sample galaxies is often peaked, andsignificantly more often so among AGN host galaxies. The circumnuclearHα emission, within a radius of two kpc, is often patchy inlate-type, and absent or in the form of a nuclear ring in early-typegalaxies. There is no clear correlation of nuclear or circumnuclearHα morphology with the presence or absence of a bar in the hostgalaxy, except for the nuclear rings which occur in barred hosts. Thepresence or absence of close bright companion galaxies does not affectthe circumnuclear Hα morphology, but their presence does correlatewith a higher fraction of nuclear Hα peaks. Nuclear rings occur inat least 21% (±5%) of spiral galaxies, and occur predominantly ingalaxies also hosting an AGN. Only two of our 12 nuclear rings occur ina galaxy which is neither an AGN nor a starburst host. We confirm thatweaker bars host larger nuclear rings. The implications of these resultson our understanding of the occurrence and morphology of massive starformation, as well as non-stellar activity, in the central regions ofgalaxies are discussed. Bar-induced perturbation strengths of the galaxies in the Ohio State University Bright Galaxy Survey - IBar-induced perturbation strengths are calculated for a well-definedmagnitude-limited sample of 180 spiral galaxies, based on the Ohio StateUniversity Bright Galaxy Survey. We use a gravitational torque method,the ratio of the maximal tangential force to the mean axisymmetricradial force, as a quantitative measure of the bar strength. Thegravitational potential is inferred from an H-band light distribution byassuming that the M/L ratio is constant throughout the disc. Galaxiesare deprojected using orientation parameters based on B-band images. Inorder to eliminate artificial stretching of the bulge, two-dimensionalbar-bulge-disc decomposition has been used to derive a reliable bulgemodel. This bulge model is subtracted from an image, the disc isdeprojected assuming it is thin, and then the bulge is added back byassuming that its mass distribution is spherically symmetric. We findthat removing the artificial bulge stretch is important especially forgalaxies having bars inside large bulges. We also find that the massesof the bulges can be significantly overestimated if bars are not takeninto account in the decomposition.Bars are identified using Fourier methods by requiring that the phasesof the main modes (m= 2, m= 4) are maintained nearly constant in the barregion. With such methods, bars are found in 65 per cent of the galaxiesin our sample, most of them being classified as SB-type systems in thenear-infrared by Eskridge and co-workers. We also suggest that as muchas ~70 per cent of the galaxies classified as SAB-types in thenear-infrared might actually be non-barred systems, many of them havingcentral ovals. It is also possible that a small fraction of the SAB-typegalaxies have weak non-classical bars with spiral-like morphologies. Secular Evolution and the Formation of Pseudobulges in Disk GalaxiesThe Universe is in transition. At early times, galactic evolution wasdominated by hierarchical clustering and merging, processes that areviolent and rapid. In the far future, evolution will mostly be secularthe slow rearrangement of energy and mass that results from interactionsinvolving collective phenomena such as bars, oval disks, spiralstructure, and triaxial dark halos. Both processes are important now.This review discusses internal secular evolution, concentrating on oneimportant consequence, the buildup of dense central components in diskgalaxies that look like classical, merger-built bulges but that weremade slowly out of disk gas. We call these pseudobulges. Ionized gas and stellar kinematics of seventeen nearby spiral galaxiesIonized gas and stellar kinematics have been measured along the majoraxes of seventeen nearby spiral galaxies of intermediate to latemorphological type. We discuss the properties of each sample galaxy,distinguishing between those characterized by regular or peculiarkinematics. In most of the observed galaxies, ionized gas rotates morerapidly than stars and has a lower velocity dispersion, as is to beexpected if the gas is confined in the disc and supported by rotationwhile the stars are mostly supported by dynamical pressure. In a fewobjects, gas and stars show almost the same rotational velocity and lowvelocity dispersion, suggesting that their motion is dominated byrotation. Incorporating the spiral galaxies studied by Bertola et al.(\cite{Bertola1996}), Corsini et al. (\cite{Corsini1999},\cite{Corsini2003}) and Vega Beltrán et al. (\cite{Vega2001}) wehave compiled a sample of 50 S0/a-Scd galaxies, for which the major-axiskinematics of the ionized gas and stars have been obtained with the samespatial (≈1'') and spectral (≈50 km;s-1) resolution,and measured with the same analysis techniques. This allowed us toaddress the frequency of counter-rotation in spiral galaxies. It turnsout that less than 12% and less than 8% (at the 95% confidence level) ofthe sample galaxies host a counter-rotating gaseous and stellar disc,respectively. The comparison with S0 galaxies suggests that theretrograde acquisition of small amounts of external gas gives rise tocounter-rotating gaseous discs only in gas-poor S0s, while in gas-richspirals the newly acquired gas is swept away by the pre-existing gas.Counter-rotating gaseous and stellar discs in spirals are formed onlyfrom the retrograde acquisition of large amounts of gas exceeding thatof pre-existing gas, and subsequent star formation, respectively.Based on observations carried out at the European Southern Observatory,La Silla (Chile) (ESO 56.A-0684 and 57.A-0569).Tables 3 and 4 are only available in electronic form at the CDS viaanonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or viahttp://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/424/447Full Fig. \ref{fig:kinematics} and Figs. \ref{fig:gascomparison} and\ref{fig:starcomparison} are only available in electronic form athttp://www.edpsciences.org Spiral galaxies observed in the near-infrared K band. I. Data analysis and structural parametersDeep surface photometry in the K band was obtained for 54 normal spiralgalaxies, with the aim of quantifying the percentage of faint bars andstudying the morphology of spiral arms. The sample was chosen to cover awider range of morphological types while inclination angles anddistances were limited to allow a detailed investigation of the internalstructure of their disks and future observations and studies of the diskkinematics. An additional constraint for a well defined subsample wasthat no bar structure was seen on images in the visual bands. Accuratesky projection parameters were determined from the K maps comparingseveral different methods. The surface brightness distribution wasdecomposed into axisymmetric components while bars and spiral structureswere analyzed using Fourier techniques.Bulges were best represented by a Sérsic r1/n law withan index in the typical range of 1-2. The central surface brightness ofthe exponential disk and bulge-to-disk ratio only showed weakcorrelation with Hubble type. Indications of a central point source werefound in many of the galaxies. An additional central, steep, exponentialdisk improved the fit for more than 80% of the galaxies suggesting thatmany of the bulges are oblate.Bars down to the detection level at a relative amplitude of 3% weredetected in 26 of 30 galaxies in a subsample classified as ordinary SAspirals. This would correspond to only 5% of all spiral galaxies beingnon-barred at this level. In several cases, bars are significantlyoffset compared to the starting points of the main spiral pattern whichindicates that bar and spiral have different pattern speeds. A smallfraction (10%) of the sample has complex central structuresconsisting of several sets of bars, arcs or spirals.A majority of the galaxies (60%) displays a two-armed, grand-designspiral pattern in their inner parts which often breaks up into multiplearms in their outer regions. Phase shifts between the inner and outerpatterns suggest in some cases that they belong to different spiralmodes. The pitch angles of the main two-armed symmetric spiral patternin the galaxies have a typical range of 5-30 °. The sample shows alack of strong, tight spirals which could indicate that such patternsare damped by non-linear, dynamical effects due to their high radialforce perturbations.Based on observations collected at the European Southern Observatory, LaSilla, Chile; programs: ESO 63.N-0343, 65.N-0287, 66.N-0257.Table 2 is only available in electronic form at the CDS via anonymousftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or viahttp://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/423/849Appendix A is only available in electronic form athttp://www.edpsciences.org Deprojecting spiral galaxies using Fourier analysis. Application to the Ohio sampleWe use two new methods developed recently (Barberàet al.\cite{bar03}, A&A, 415, 849), as well as information obtained fromthe literature, to calculate the orientation parameters of the spiralgalaxies in the Ohio State University Bright Galaxy Survey. We comparethe results of these methods with data from the literature, and find ingeneral good agreement. We provide a homogeneous set of mean orientationparameters which can be used to approximately deproject the disks of thegalaxies and facilitate a number of statistical studies of galaxyproperties.Table 1 is only available in electronic form at the CDS via anonymousftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or viahttp://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/421/595 Structure and star formation in disc galaxies - I. Sample selection and near-infrared imagingWe present near-infrared imaging of a sample of 57 relatively large,northern spiral galaxies with low inclination. After describing theselection criteria and some of the basic properties of the sample, wegive a detailed description of the data collection and reductionprocedures. The Ksλ= 2.2-μm images cover most ofthe disc for all galaxies, with a field of view of at least 4.2 arcmin.The spatial resolution is better than 1 arcsec for most images. We fitbulge and exponential disc components to radial profiles of the lightdistribution. We then derive the basic parameters of these components,and the bulge/disc ratio, and explore correlations of these parameterswith several galaxy parameters. Bar strengths in spiral galaxies estimated from 2MASS imagesNon-axisymmetric forces are presented for a sample of 107 spiralgalaxies, of which 31 are barred (SB) and 53 show nuclear activity. As adata base we use JHK images from the 2 Micron All-sky Survey, and thenon-axisymmetries are characterized by the ratio of the tangential forceto the mean axisymmetric radial force field, following Buta & Block.Bar strengths have an important role in many extragalactic problems andtherefore it is important to verify that the different numerical methodsapplied for calculating the forces give mutually consistent results. Weapply both direct Cartesian integration and a polar grid integrationutilizing a limited number of azimuthal Fourier components of density.We find that the bar strength is independent of the method used toevaluate the gravitational potential. However, because of thedistance-dependent smoothing by Fourier decomposition, the polar methodis more suitable for weak and noisy images. The largest source ofuncertainty in the derived bar strength appears to be the uncertainty inthe vertical scaleheight, which is difficult to measure directly formost galaxies. On the other hand, the derived bar strength is ratherinsensitive to the possible gradient in the vertical scaleheight of thedisc or to the exact model of the vertical density distribution,provided that the same effective vertical dispersion is assumed in allmodels. In comparison with the pioneering study by Buta & Block, thebar strength estimate is improved here by taking into account thedependence of the vertical scaleheight on the Hubble type: we find thatfor thin discs bar strengths are stronger than for thick discs by anamount that may correspond to as much as one bar strength class. Weconfirm the previous result by Buta and co-workers showing that thedispersion in bar strength is large among all the de Vaucouleurs opticalbar classes. In the near-infrared 40 per cent of the galaxies in oursample have bars (showing constant phases in the m= 2 Fourier amplitudesin the bar region), while in the optical band one-third of these barsare obscured by dust. Significant non-axisymmetric forces can also beinduced by the spiral arms, generally in the outer parts of the galacticdiscs, which may have important implications on galaxy evolution.Possible biases of the selected sample are also studied: we find thatthe number of bars identified drops rapidly when the inclination of thegalactic disc is larger than 50°. A similar bias is found in theThird Reference Catalogue of Bright Galaxies, which might be of interestwhen comparing bar frequencies at high and low redshifts. Bar Galaxies and Their EnvironmentsThe prints of the Palomar Sky Survey, luminosity classifications, andradial velocities were used to assign all northern Shapley-Ames galaxiesto either (1) field, (2) group, or (3) cluster environments. Thisinformation for 930 galaxies shows no evidence for a dependence of barfrequency on galaxy environment. This suggests that the formation of abar in a disk galaxy is mainly determined by the properties of theparent galaxy, rather than by the characteristics of its environment. The Visibility of Galactic Bars and Spiral Structure at High RedshiftsWe investigate the visibility of galactic bars and spiral structure inthe distant universe by artificially redshifting 101 B-band CCD imagesof local spiral galaxies from the Ohio State University Bright SpiralGalaxy Survey. These local galaxy images represent a much fairerstatistical baseline than the galaxy atlas images presented by Frei etal. in 1995, the most commonly used calibration sample for morphologicalwork at high redshifts. Our artificially redshifted images correspond toHubble Space Telescope I814-band observations of the localgalaxy sample seen at z=0.7, with integration times matching those ofboth the very deep northern Hubble Deep Field (HDF) data and the muchshallower HDF flanking field observations. The expected visibility ofgalactic bars is probed in two ways: (1) using traditional visualclassification and (2) by charting the changing shape of the galaxydistribution in Hubble space,'' a quantitative two-parameterdescription of galactic structure that maps closely onto Hubble'soriginal tuning fork. Both analyses suggest that over two-thirds ofstrongly barred luminous local spirals (i.e., objects classified as SBin the Third Reference Catalogue) would still be classified as stronglybarred at z=0.7 in the HDF data. Under the same conditions, most weaklybarred spirals (classified SAB in the Third Reference Catalogue) wouldbe classified as regular spirals. The corresponding visibility of spiralstructure is assessed visually, by comparing luminosity classificationsfor the artificially redshifted sample with the corresponding luminosityclassifications from the Revised Shapley-Ames Catalog. We find that forexposure times similar to that of the HDF, spiral structure should bedetectable in most luminous (MB~M*) low-inclination spiralgalaxies at z=0.7 in which it is present. However, obvious spiralstructure is only detectable in ~30% of comparable galaxies in the HDFflanking field data using the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. Our studyof artificially redshifted local galaxy images suggests that, whenviewed at similar resolution, noise level, and redshift-correctedwavelength, barred spirals are less common at z~0.7 than they are atz=0.0, although more data are needed to definitively rule out thepossibility that cosmic variance is responsible for much of this effect. Analysis of the distribution of HII regions in external galaxies. IV. The new galaxy sample. Position and inclination anglesWe have compiled a new sample of galaxies with published catalogs of HIIregion coordinates. This sample, together with the former catalog ofGarcía-Gómez & Athanassoula (\cite{gga1}), will formthe basis for subsequent studies of the spiral structure in discgalaxies. In this paper we address the problem of the deprojection ofthe galaxy images. For this purpose we use two deprojection methodsbased on the HII region distribution and compare the results with thevalues found in the literature using other deprojection methods. Takinginto account the results of all the methods, we propose optimum valuesfor the position and inclination angles of all the galaxies in oursample. Tables 2 and 3 are only available in electronic form athttp://www.edpsciences.org Galaxies with RowsThe results of a search for galaxies with straight structural elements,usually spiral-arm rows (“rows” in the terminology ofVorontsov-Vel'yaminov), are reported. The list of galaxies that possess(or probably possess) such rows includes about 200 objects, of whichabout 70% are brighter than 14m. On the whole, galaxies with rows makeup 6 8% of all spiral galaxies with well-developed spiral patterns. Mostgalaxies with rows are gas-rich Sbc-Scd spirals. The fraction ofinteracting galaxies among them is appreciably higher than amonggalaxies without rows. Earlier conclusions that, as a rule, the lengthsof rows are similar to their galactocentric distances and that theangles between adjacent rows are concentrated near 120° areconfirmed. It is concluded that the rows must be transient hydrodynamicstructures that develop in normal galaxies. Strömgren Photometry from z=0 to z~1. I. The MethodWe use rest-frame Strömgren photometry to observe clusters ofgalaxies in a self-consistent manner from z=0 to z=0.8. Strömgrenphotometry of galaxies is intended as a compromise between standardbroadband photometry and spectroscopy, in the sense that it is moresensitive to subtle variations in spectral energy distributions than theformer, yet much less time-consuming than the latter. principalcomponent analysis is used to facilitate extraction of information fromthe Strömgren data. By calibrating the principal components usingwell-studied galaxies, as well as models of stellar populations, wedevelop a purely empirical method to detect, and subsequently classify,cluster galaxies at all redshifts smaller than 0.8. Interlopers arediscarded with unprecedented efficiency (up to 100%). The firstprincipal component essentially reproduces the Hubble sequence and canthus be used to determine the global star formation history of clustermembers. The (PC2, PC3) plane allows us to identify Seyfert galaxies(and distinguish them from starbursts) based on photometric colorsalone. In the case of E/S0 galaxies with known redshift, we are able toresolve the age-dust-metallicity degeneracy, albeit at the accuracylimit of our present observations. We use this technique in later papersto probe galaxy clusters well beyond their cores and to faintermagnitudes than spectroscopy can achieve, because the faint end of theluminosity function as well as the outer cluster regions seem to exhibitthe strongest evolutionary trends. We are able to directly compare thesedata over the entire redshift range without a priori assumptions becauseour observations do not require first-order k-corrections. Thecompilation of such data for different cluster types over a wideredshift range is likely to set important constraints on the evolutionof galaxies and on the clustering process. Chemically Consistent Evolutionary Models With DustAs a tool for interpreting nearby and high-redshift galaxy data from theoptical to K-band we present our chemically consistentspectrophotometric evolutionary synthesis models. These models take intoaccount the increasing initial metallicity of successive stellargenerations using recently published metallicity-dependent stellarevolutionary tracks, stellar yields and model atmosphere spectra. Theinfluence of the metallicity is analysed. Dust absorption is included onthe basis of gas content and abundance as it varies with time and galaxytype. We compare our models with IUE template spectra and are able topredict UV fluxes for different spectral types. Combining our modelswith a cosmological model we obtain evolutionary and k corrections forvarious galaxy types and show the differences from models using onlysolar metallicity input physics as a function of redshift, wavelengthband and galaxy type. Arm and Interarm Star Formation in Spiral GalaxiesWe present an outline of our study of the effects of star formation onthe different components of the interstellar medium in the discs ofspiral galaxies, both globally and as a function of arm and interarmenvironment. We are in the process of obtaining images of 57 spiralgalaxies at low inclinations, and analysing them to study thedistribution of recent massive star formation, old stars, young stars,gas and dust. We will dissect the images into arm and interarm regionsand compare and contrast the morphology and scale lengths within theseregions in H_α, HI, the near infrared, optical and (whereavailable) CO. Modelling will show how the scale lengths are affected bystar formation, how this differs between arms and interarms, and whetherthe Schmidt Law varies from the global values in the arm and interarmregions. Homogenization of the Stellar Population along Late-Type Spiral GalaxiesWe present a study of the broadband UBV color profiles for 257 Sbcbarred and nonbarred galaxies, using photoelectric aperture photometrydata from the literature. Using robust statistical methods, we haveestimated the color gradients of the galaxies, as well as the total andbulge mean colors. A comparative photometric study using CCD images wasdone. In our sample, the color gradients are negative (reddish inward)in approximately 59% of the objects, are almost null in 27%, and arepositive in 14%, considering only the face-on galaxies, which representapproximately 51% of the sample. The results do not change, essentially,when we include the edge-on galaxies. As a consequence of this study wehave also found that barred galaxies are overrepresented among theobjects having null or positive gradients, indicating that bars act as amechanism of homogenization of the stellar population. This effect ismore evident in the U-B color index, although it can also be detected inthe B-V color. A correlation between the total and bulge colors wasfound that is a consequence of an underlying correlation between thecolors of bulges and disks found by other authors. Moreover, the meantotal color is the same irrespective of the gradient regime, whilebulges are bluer in galaxies with null or positive gradients, whichindicates an increase of the star formation rate in the central regionsof these objects. We have also made a quantitative evaluation of theamount of extinction in the center of these galaxies. This was doneusing the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) and the Near InfraredCamera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) Hubble Space Telescope(HST) archival data, as well as CCD B, V, and I images. We show thatalthough the extinction in the V-band can reach values up to 2 mag inthe central region, it is unlikely that dust plays a fundamental role inglobal color gradients. We found no correlation between color and O/Habundance gradients. This result could suggest that the color gradientsare more sensitive to the age rather than to the metallicity of thestellar population. However, the absence of this correlation may becaused by dust extinction. We discuss this result by considering apicture in which bars are a relatively fast, recurrent phenomenon. Theseresults are not compatible with a pure classical monolithic scenario forbulge and disk formation. On the contrary, they favor a scenario inwhich both these components are evolving in a correlated process inwhich stellar bars play a crucial role. Based partly on observationsmade at the Pico dos Dias Observatory (PDO/LNA-CNPq), Brazil. The gravitational torque of bars in optically unbarred and barred galaxiesThe relative bar torques for 45 galaxies observed at K-band with the 4.2m William Herschel Telescope are determined by transforming the lightdistributions into potentials and deriving the maximum ratios of thetangential forces relative to the radial forces. The results arecombined with the bar torques for 30 other galaxies determined from ourprevious K-band survey (Buta & Block \cite{buta01}). Relative bartorques determine the degree of spiral arm forcing, gas accretion, andbar evolution. They differ from other measures of bar strength, such asthe relative amplitude of the bar determined photometrically, becausethey include the bulge and other disk light that contributes to theradial component of the total force. If the bulge is strong and theradial forcing large, then even a prominent bar can have a relativelyweak influence on the azimuthal motions in the disk. Here we find thatthe relative bar torque correlates only weakly with the optical bar typelisted in the Revised Shapley-Ames and de Vaucouleurs systems. In fact,some classically barred galaxies have weaker relative bar torques thanclassically unbarred galaxies. The optical class is a poor measure ofazimuthal disk forcing for two reasons: some infrared bars are not seenoptically, and some bars with strong bulges have their azimuthal forcesso strongly diluted by the average radial force that they exert onlysmall torques on their disks. The Hubble classification scheme poorlyrecognizes the gravitational influence of bars. Applications of our bartorque method to the high-redshift universe are briefly discussed. Basedon observations made with the William Herschel Telescope, operated onthe island of La Palma by the Isaac Newton Group in the SpanishObservatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto deAstrofísica de Canarias. Nearby Optical Galaxies: Selection of the Sample and Identification of GroupsIn this paper we describe the Nearby Optical Galaxy (NOG) sample, whichis a complete, distance-limited (cz<=6000 km s-1) andmagnitude-limited (B<=14) sample of ~7000 optical galaxies. Thesample covers 2/3 (8.27 sr) of the sky (|b|>20deg) andappears to have a good completeness in redshift (97%). We select thesample on the basis of homogenized corrected total blue magnitudes inorder to minimize systematic effects in galaxy sampling. We identify thegroups in this sample by means of both the hierarchical and thepercolation friends-of-friends'' methods. The resulting catalogs ofloose groups appear to be similar and are among the largest catalogs ofgroups currently available. Most of the NOG galaxies (~60%) are found tobe members of galaxy pairs (~580 pairs for a total of ~15% of objects)or groups with at least three members (~500 groups for a total of ~45%of objects). About 40% of galaxies are left ungrouped (field galaxies).We illustrate the main features of the NOG galaxy distribution. Comparedto previous optical and IRAS galaxy samples, the NOG provides a densersampling of the galaxy distribution in the nearby universe. Given itslarge sky coverage, the identification of groups, and its high-densitysampling, the NOG is suited to the analysis of the galaxy density fieldof the nearby universe, especially on small scales. Resonance Rings and Galaxy MorphologyRings of star formation are a common phenomenon of early to intermediateHubble type disk galaxies. Most rings form by gas accumulation atresonances, usually under the continuous action of gravity torques froma bar pattern, but sometimes in response to a mild tidal interactionwith a nearby companion. In either case, a resonance is a very specialplace in any galaxy where star formation can be enhanced and may proceedeither as a starburst or continuously over a long time period. Thisarticle describes the characteristic morphologies of bar-driven andtidally-driven resonance rings. A search for candidate light echoes: Photometry of supernova environmentsSupernova (SN) light echoes could be a powerful tool for determiningdistances to galaxies geometrically, \cite[Sparks (1994)]{S94}. In thispaper we present CCD photometry of the environments of 64 historicalsupernovae, the first results of a program designed to search for lightechoes from these SNe. We commonly find patches of optical emission at,or close to, the sites of the supernovae. The color distribution ofthese patches is broad, and generally consistent with stellar populationcolors, possibly with some reddening. However there are in additionpatches with both unusually red and unusually blue colors. We expectlight echoes to be blue, and while none of the objects are quite as bluein V-R as the known light echo of SN 1991T, there are features that areunusually blue and we identify these as candidate light echoes forfollow-on observations. Tables 2a and 2b are also available at the CDSvia anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or viahttp://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/Abstract.html and Figs. 1 through 36 are onlyavailable in the online version of the journal athttp://www.edpsciences.com The Southern Sky Redshift SurveyWe report redshifts, magnitudes, and morphological classifications for5369 galaxies with m_B <= 15.5 and for 57 galaxies fainter than thislimit, in two regions covering a total of 1.70 sr in the southerncelestial hemisphere. The galaxy catalog is drawn primarily from thelist of nonstellar objects identified in the Hubble Space TelescopeGuide Star Catalog (GSC). The galaxies have positions accurate to ~1"and magnitudes with an rms scatter of ~0.3 mag. We compute magnitudes(m_SSRS2) from the relation between instrumental GSC magnitudes and thephotometry by Lauberts & Valentijn. From a comparison with CCDphotometry, we find that our system is homogeneous across the sky andcorresponds to magnitudes measured at the isophotal level ~26 magarcsec^-2. The precision of the radial velocities is ~40 km s^-1, andthe redshift survey is more than 99% complete to the m_SSRS2 = 15.5 maglimit. This sample is in the direction opposite that of the CfA2; incombination the two surveys provide an important database for studies ofthe properties of galaxies and their large-scale distribution in thenearby universe. Based on observations obtained at Cerro TololoInter-American Observatory, National Optical Astronomy Observatories,operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy,Inc., under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation;Complejo Astronomico El Leoncito, operated under agreement between theConsejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas de laRepública Argentina and the National Universities of La Plata,Córdoba, and San Juan; the European Southern Observatory, LaSilla, Chile, partially under the bilateral ESO-ObservatórioNacional agreement; Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory;Laboratório Nacional de Astrofísica, Brazil; and the SouthAfrican Astronomical Observatory. Catalogue of HI maps of galaxies. I.A catalogue is presented of galaxies having large-scale observations inthe HI line. This catalogue collects from the literature the informationthat characterizes the observations in the 21-cm line and the way thatthese data were presented by means of maps, graphics and tables, forshowing the distribution and kinematics of the gas. It containsfurthermore a measure of the HI extension that is detected at the levelof the maximum sensitivity reached in the observations. This catalogueis intended as a guide for references on the HI maps published in theliterature from 1953 to 1995 and is the basis for the analysis of thedata presented in Paper II. The catalogue is only available inelectronic form at the CDS via anonymous ftp 130.79.128.5 orhttp://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/Abstract.html Total magnitude, radius, colour indices, colour gradients and photometric type of galaxiesWe present a catalogue of aperture photometry of galaxies, in UBVRI,assembled from three different origins: (i) an update of the catalogueof Buta et al. (1995) (ii) published photometric profiles and (iii)aperture photometry performed on CCD images. We explored different setsof growth curves to fit these data: (i) The Sersic law, (ii) The net ofgrowth curves used for the preparation of the RC3 and (iii) A linearinterpolation between the de Vaucouleurs (r(1/4) ) and exponential laws.Finally we adopted the latter solution. Fitting these growth curves, wederive (1) the total magnitude, (2) the effective radius, (3) the colourindices and (4) gradients and (5) the photometric type of 5169 galaxies.The photometric type is defined to statistically match the revisedmorphologic type and parametrizes the shape of the growth curve. It iscoded from -9, for very concentrated galaxies, to +10, for diffusegalaxies. Based in part on observations collected at the Haute-ProvenceObservatory. Molecular Gas, Morphology, and Seyfert Galaxy ActivityWe probe the cause of the elevated star formation in host galaxies ofSeyfert 2 nuclei compared with Seyfert 1 hosts and with field galaxies.12CO (1--0) observations of a large sample of Seyfert galaxies indicateno significant difference in the total amount of molecular gas as afunction of the Seyfert nuclear type, nor are Seyfert galaxiessignificantly different in this regard from a sample of field galaxiesonce selection effects are accounted for. Therefore, the total amount ofmolecular gas is not responsible for the enhanced star-forming activityin Seyfert 2 hosts. To probe how this gas is being converted moreefficiently into stars in Seyfert 2 hosts than in the other galaxies, weinvestigate the occurrence of bars, interactions, and distortedmorphologies among Seyfert galaxies. We find a significantly higher rateof asymmetric morphologies for Seyfert 2 galaxies with respect toSeyfert 1 galaxies and field galaxies. Relative to field galaxies, theeffect is at a greater than 99.9% confidence level. The presence ofasymmetric morphologies in individual Seyfert galaxies is correlatedwith their tendency to exhibit enhanced star-forming activity. Theseresults suggest that asymmetric morphologies are an important cause forthe link between Seyfert type and star-forming activity: bars anddistortions in Seyfert 2 hosts are likely both to enhance star-formingactivity and to funnel gas into the nuclear region, thus obscuring andpossibly contributing to the feeding of the active nucleus. The Spectral Energy Distribution of Normal, Starburst, and Active Galaxies.We present the results of an extensive literature search ofmultiwavelength data for a sample of 59 galaxies, consisting of 26Starbursts, 15 Seyfert 2's, 5 LINER's, 6 normal spirals and 7 normalelliptical galaxies. The data include soft X-ray fluxes, ultraviolet andoptical spectra, near, mid/far infrared photometry and radiomeasurements, selected to match as closely as possible the IUE aperture(10\arcsecx20\arcsec). The galaxies are separated into 6 groups withsimilar characteristics, namely, Ellipticals, Spirals, LINER's, Seyfert2's, Starbursts of Low and High reddening, for which we create averagespectral energy distributions (SED). The individual groups SED's arenormalized to the lambda 7000 Angstroms flux and compared, looking forsimilarities and differences among them. We find that the SED's ofNormal Spirals and Ellipticals are very similar over the entire energyrange, and fainter than those of all other groups. LINER's SED's aresimilar to those of Seyfert 2's and Starbursts only in the visual tonear-IR waveband, being fainter in the remaining wavebands. Seyfert 2'sare similar to Starbursts in the radio to near-IR waveband, fainter inthe visual to ultraviolet, but stronger in the X-rays. Low and Highreddening Starbursts are similar along the entire SED, differing in theultraviolet, where Low reddening Starbursts are stronger, and in themid/far IR where they are fainter. We have also collectedmultiwavelength data for 4 HII regions, a thermal supernova remnant, anda non-thermal supernova remnant (SNR), which are compared with theStarburst SED's. The HII regions and thermal SNR's have similar SED's,differing only in the X-ray and far infrared. The non-thermal SNR SED isa flat continuum, different from all the other SED's. Comparing theSED's of Starbursts and HII regions we find that they are similar in themid/far IR parts of the spectrum, but HII regions are fainter in theradio and X-rays. Starbursts are also stronger than HII regions in thevisual and near-IR parts of the spectrum, due to the contribution fromold stars to Starbursts. The bolometric fluxes of the different types ofgalaxies are calculated integrating their SED's. These values arecompared with individual waveband flux densities, in order to determinethe wavebands which contribute most to the bolometric flux. In Seyfert2's, LINER's and Starbursts, the mid/far IR emission are the mostimportant contributers to the bolometric flux, while in normal Spiralsand Ellipticals this flux is dominated by the near-IR and visualwavebands. Linear regressions were performed between the bolometric andindividual band fluxes for each kind of galaxy. These fits can be usedine the calculation of the bolometric flux for other objects of similaractivity type, but with reduced waveband information. Scaleheights of 486 southern spiral galaxies and some statistical correlationBased on Peng's method (1988), we obtain scaleheights of 486 southernspiral galaxies, the images of which are taken from the Digitized SkySurvey at Xinglong Station of Beijing Astronomical Observatory. Thefitted spiral arms of 70 galaxies are compared with their images to gettheir optimum inclinations. The scaleheights of other 416 ones arelisted in Table A1 in Appendix. After compiling and analyzing the data,we find some statistical correlations. The most interesting results arethat a flatter galaxy is bluer and looks brighter, and galaxies becomeflatter along the Hubble sequence Sab -- Scd. Based on photographic dataof the National Geographic Society -- Palomar Observatory Sky Survey(NGS-POSS) obtained using the Oschin Telescope Palomar Mountain. TheNGS-POSS was funded by a grant from the National Geographic Society tothe California Institute of Technology. The plates were processed intothe present compressed digital form with their permission. The DigitizedSky Survey was produced at the Space Telescope Science Institute underUS Government grant NAG W-2166. Table A1 is available in electronic fromonly, via anonymous ftp 130.79.128.5 orhttp://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/Abstract.html Parameters of 2447 Southern Spiral Galaxies for Use in the Tully-Fisher RelationI-band luminosities, rotational velocities, and redshifts of 1092 spiralgalaxies have been measured by CCD photometry and Hα spectroscopyusing the 1 m and 2.3 m telescopes at Siding Spring Observatory,respectively. The results are tabulated. Luminosity profiles andHα rotation curves are given for the galaxies. When these resultsare combined with similar data for 1355 spiral galaxies publishedpreviously (Mathewson, Ford, & Buchhorn, hereafter Paper I), itprovides a large, uniform, and unique data set with which to measure,via the Tully-Fisher relation, the peculiar velocities of galaxies inthe local universe to a distance of 11,000 km s^-1^ (Mathewson &Ford). Taking advantage of the opportunity for publishing this data inmachine-readable form, in the CD-ROM, we have also included similar datafor the 1355 galaxies in Paper I.
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