We present galactic spectroscopic data from a pencil beam of 10.75×7.5 centered on the X-ray cluster RXJ0054.0-2823 at z=0.29.We study the spectral evolution of galaxies from z=1 down to the cluster redshift in a magnitude-limited sample at R≤23,for which the statistical properties of the sample are well understood.We divide emission-line galaxies into star-forming galaxies,Low Ionization Nuclear Emission line Regions(LINERs) ,and Seyferts by using emission-line ratios of[OII],Hβ,and[OIII],and derive stellar fractions from population synthesis models. We focus our analysis on absorption and low-ionization galaxies.For absorption-line galaxies,we recover the well-known result that these galaxies have had no detectable evolution since z~0.6-0.7,but we also find that in the range z=0.65-1,at least 50% of the stars in bright absorption systems are younger than 2.5 Gyr.Faint absorption-line galaxies in the cluster at z=0.29 also had significant star formation during the previous 2-3 Gyr,but their brighter counterparts seem to be only composed of old stars.At z~0.8,our dynamically young cluster had a truncated red-sequence.This result seems to be consistent with a scenario where the final assembly of E/S0 took place at z<1.In the volume-limited range 0.35≤z≤0.65,we find that 23% of the early-type galaxies have LINER-like spectra with Hβin absorption and have a significant component of A stars.The vast majority of LINERs in our sample have significant populations of young and intermediate-aged stars and are thus not related to AGNs,but to the population of'retired galaxies'recently identified by Cid Fernandes et al.in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey(SDSS) .Early-type LINERs with various fractions of A stars and E+A galaxies appear to play an important role in the formation of the red sequence.
Warm absorption is a common phenomenon in Seyfert 1s and quasars, but is rare in Seyfert 2s. We report the detection of warm absorbers with high energy resolution in the Seyfert 2 galaxy IRAS 18325-5926 for the first time with Chandra HETGS spectra. An intrinsic absorbing line system with an outflow velocity ~ 400 km s-1 was found, which is contributed by two warm absorbers with FWHM of 570 km s-1 and 1360 km s-1, respectively. The two absorbers were adjacent, and moving transversely across our line of sight. We constrained the distance between the center and the absorbers to be a small value, suggesting that the absorbers may originate from the highly ionized accretion disk wind ejected five years ago. The perspective of this type 2 Seyfert provides the best situation in which to investigate the vertical part of the funnel-like outflows. Another weak absorbing line system with zero redshift was also detected, which could be due to Galactic absorption with very high temperature or an intrinsic outflow with a very high velocity ~ 6000 km s-1.
GRB 080913,with a spectroscopically determined redshift of z=6.7,was the record holder for being the most remote stellar object before the discovery of the recent gamma-ray burst GRB 090423,whose redshift is about 8.2.The gradually accumulated high redshift GRB sample has shed light on the origin and physical properties of GRBs during the cosmic re-ionization epoch.Here,we present a detailed numerical fit to the multi-wavelength data of the optical afterglow of GRB 080913 and then constrain its circumburst environment and the other model parameters.We conclude that the late optical/X-ray plateau at about one day since the burst is due to the Poynting-flux dominated injection from the central engine which is very likely a massive spinning black hole with super strong magnetic fields.
LIU XueWen,WU XueFeng & LU Tan Purple Mountain Observatory,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Nanjing 210008,China
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 2.16m 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 0.5Z . 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.
In the fireball model, it is more physically realistic that gamma-rayburst (GRB) ejecta have a range of bulk Lorentz factors (assuming M ∝Γ-s). The low Lorentz factor part of the ejecta will catch up with the high Lorentz factor part when the latter is decelerated by the surrounding medium to a comparable Lorentz factor. Such a process will develop a long-lasting weak reverse shock until the whole ejecta are shocked. Meanwhile, the forward shocked materials are gradually supplied with energy from the ejecta that are catching-up, and thus the temporal decay of the forward shock emission will be slower than that without an energy supply. However, the reverse shock may be strong. Here, we extend the standard reverse-forward shock model to the case of radially nonuniform ejecta. We show that this process can be classified into two cases: the thick shell case and the thin shell case. In the thin shell case, the reverse shock is weak and the temporal scaling law of the afterglow is the same as that in Sari & Me′sza′ros (2000). However, in the thick shell case, the reverse shock is strong and thus its emission dominates the afterglow in the high energy band. Our results also show slower decaying behavior of the afterglow due to the energy supply by low Lorentz factor materials, which may help the understanding of the plateau observed in the early optical and X-ray afterglows.
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 g-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 formation 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.
从COMBO-17数字巡天数据里,选择了CDFS(Chandra Deep Field South)天区中1231个测光红移在0.1~0.3之间的暗蓝星系作为样本,研究了这些星系分别在只有光学波段和光学加近红外波段数据情况下做测光红移得到的红移分布,以及这些星系在静止参考系下的能谱分布(Spectral Energy Distributions,SEDs)特征.结果表明有183个星系在利用光学加近红外波段数据做测光红移时得到的红移大于1.2,它们的误差为0.046,提高测光的信噪比也有利于区分这类被光学波段误认为低红移的星系.这些暗蓝星系中高红移星系的观测近红外流量相对于光学流量有上升的趋势,而低红移星系的观测近红外流量相对于光学流量有下降的趋势.
星系中心黑洞质量和核球恒星速度弥散度的紧密关系揭示出准确测量恒星速度弥散度对测定星系中心黑洞质量尤为重要.文中提供了一种利用SDSS(Sloan Digital SkySurvey)光谱测定速度弥散度及其不确定性的方法.通过对像素空间包含显著特征吸收线的4个不同谱区的拟合,得到准确测量恒星速度弥散度σ的光谱区域.文中4个拟合波段主要包含的吸收线为CaⅡK,MgⅠb三重线(波长5167.5,5172.7,5183.6(?))和CaT(CaⅡ三重线,波长8498.0,8542.1,8662.1(?)).不同区域结果表明,MgⅠb区由于受到铁族发射线影响,拟合的σ值偏低;CaⅡK线区谱线强度很弱,易受限于最小二乘法搜索算法;CaT+CaⅡK联合区得出的速度弥散度和只计算CaT区域的结果相当.利用该方法,测试了一个红移小于0.05的赛弗特星系样本,发现CaT区是测速度弥散度的最佳谱区.