We measure star formation rates of ~50,000 optically-selected galaxies in the local universe (z~0.1), spanning a range from gas-rich dwarfs to massive ellipticals. We obtain dust-corrected SFRs by fitting the GALEX (UV) and SDSS (optical) photometry to a library of population synthesis models that include dust attenuation. For star-forming galaxies, our UV-based SFRs compare remarkably well with those derived from SDSS H alpha. Deviations from perfect agreement between these two methods are due to differences in the dust attenuation estimates. In contrast to H alpha, UV provides reliable SFRs for galaxies with weak or no H alpha emission, and where H alpha is contaminated with an emission from an AGN. We use full-SED SFRs to calibrate a simple prescription that uses GALEX UV magnitudes to produce good SFRs for normal star-forming galaxies. The specific SFR is considered as a function of stellar mass for (1) star-forming galaxies with no AGN, (2) those hosting an AGN, and for (3) galaxies without H alpha emission. We find that the three have distinct star formation histories, with AGN lying intermediate between the star-forming and the quiescent galaxies. Normal star forming galaxies (without an AGN) lie on a relatively narrow linear sequence. Remarkably, galaxies hosting a strong AGN appear to represent the massive continuation of this sequence. Weak AGN, while also massive, have lower SFR, sometimes extending to the realm of quiescent galaxies. We propose an evolutionary sequence for massive galaxies that smoothly connects normal star-forming galaxies to quiescent (red sequence) galaxies via strong and weak AGN. We confirm that some galaxies with no H alpha emission show signs of SF in the UV. We derive a UV-based cosmic SFR density at z=0.1 with smaller total error than previous measurements (abridged).Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ (Special GALEX Supplement issue - Dec 2007). v2: Typo in Eq. 2 correcte

We present results for 19 "Lyman Break Analogs" (LBAs) observed with Keck/OSIRIS with an AO-assisted spatial resolution of less than 200 pc. We detect satellites/companions, diffuse emission and velocity shear, all with high signal-to-noise ratios. These galaxies present remarkably high velocity dispersion along the line of sight(∼ 70 km s −1 ), much higher than standard star-forming spirals in the low-redshift universe. We artificially redshift our data to z ∼ 2.2 to allow for a direct comparison with observations of high-z LBGs and find striking similarities between both samples. This suggests that either similar physical processes are responsible for their observed properties, or, alternatively, that it is very difficult to distinguish between different mechanisms operating in the low versus high redshift starburst galaxies based on the available data. The comparison between morphologies in the UV/optical continuum and our kinemetry analysis often shows that neither is by itself sufficient to confirm or completely rule out the contribution from recent merger events. We find a correlation between the kinematic properties and stellar mass, in that more massive galaxies show stronger evidence for a disk-like structure. This suggests a co-evolutionary process between the stellar mass build-up and the formation of morphological and dynamical sub-structure within the galaxy.

We present new results from BRAVA, a large-scale radial velocity survey of the Galactic bulge, using M giant stars selected from the Two Micron All Sky Survey catalog as targets for the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory 4m Hydra multi-object spectrograph. The purpose of this survey is to construct a new generation of self-consistent bar models that conform to these observations. We report the dynamics for fields at the edge of the Galactic bulge at latitudes b = −8 • and compare to the dynamics at b = −4 • . We find that the rotation curve V(r) is the same at b = −8 • as at b = −4 • . That is, the Galactic boxy bulge rotates cylindrically, as do boxy bulges of other galaxies. The summed line of sight velocity distribution at b = −8 • is Gaussian, and the binned longitude-velocity plot shows no evidence for either a (disk) population with cold dynamics or for a (classical bulge) population with hot dynamics. The observed kinematics are well modeled by an edge-on N-body bar, in agreement with published structural evidence. Our kinematic observations indicate that the Galactic bulge is a prototypical product of secular evolution in galaxy disks, in contrast with stellar population results that are most easily understood if major mergers were the dominant formation process.

We investigate spectroscopically measured Lyα equivalent widths (EWs) and escape fractions of 244 sources of which 95 are Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) and 106 Lyman alpha emitters (LAEs) at z ∼ 4.2, z ∼ 4.8, and z ∼ 5.6 selected from intermediate and narrowband observations. The sources were selected from the Cosmic Evolution Survey and observed with the DEIMOS spectrograph. We find that the distribution of EWs shows no evolution with redshift for both the LBG selected sources and the intermediate/narrowband LAEs. We also find that the Lyα escape fraction of intermediate/narrowband LAEs is on average higher and has a larger variation than the escape fraction of LBG selected sources. The escape fraction does not show a dependence with redshift. Similar to what has been found for LAEs at low redshifts, the sources with the highest extinctions show the lowest escape fractions. The range of escape fractions increases with decreasing extinction. This is evidence that the dust extinction is the most important factor affecting the escape of Lyα photons, but at low extinctions other factors, such as the H i covering fraction and gas kinematics, can be just as effective at inhibiting the escape of Lyα photons.

We present the results of a pilot wide-field radial velocity and metal abundance survey of red giants in ten fields in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). The targets lie at projected distances of 0.9 and 1.9 kpc from the SMC centre (m − M = 18.79) to the North, East, South and West. Two more fields are to the East at distances of 3.9 and 5.1 kpc. In this last field we find only a few to no SMC giants, suggesting that the edge of the SMC in this direction lies approximately at 6 kpc from its centre. In all eastern fields we observe a double peak in the radial velocities of stars, with a component at the classical SMC recession velocity of ∼ 160 km s −1 and a high velocity component at about 200 km s −1 , similar to observations in HI. In the most distant field (3.9 kpc) the low velocity component is at 106 km s −1 . The metal abundance distribution in all fields is broad and centred at about [Fe/H] ∼ −1.25, reaching to solar and possibly slightly supersolar values and down to [Fe/H] of about −2.5. In the two innermost (0.9 kpc) Northern and Southern fields we observe a secondary peak at metallicities of about ∼ −0.6. This may be evidence of a second episode of star formation in the centre, possibly triggered by the interactions that created the Stream and Bridge.

International audienceWe measure the UV-optical colour dependence of galaxy clustering in the local Universe. Using the clean separation of the red and blue sequences made possible by the NUV - r colour-magnitude diagram, we segregate the galaxies into red, blue and intermediate `green' classes. We explore the clustering as a function of this segregation by removing the dependence on luminosity and by excluding edge-on galaxies as a means of a non-model dependent veto of highly extincted galaxies. We find that xi(r(p), pi) for both red and green galaxies shows strong redshift-space distortion on small scales - the `finger-of-God' effect, with green galaxies having a lower amplitude than is seen for the red sequence, and the blue sequence showing almost no distortion. On large scales, xi(r(p), pi) for all three samples show the effect of large-scale streaming from coherent infall. On scales of 1 h-1 Mpc \textless r(p) \textless 10 h-1 Mpc, the projected auto-correlation function w(p)(r(p)) for red and green galaxies fits a power law with slope gamma similar to 1.93 and amplitude r(0) similar to 7.5 and 5.3, compared with gamma similar to 1.75 and r(0) similar to 3.9 h-1 Mpc for blue sequence galaxies. Compared to the clustering of a fiducial L* galaxy, the red, green and blue have a relative bias of 1.5, 1.1 and 0.9, respectively. The w(p)(r(p)) for blue galaxies display an increase in convexity at similar to 1 h-1 Mpc, with an excess of large-scale clustering. Our results suggest that the majority of blue galaxies are likely central galaxies in less massive haloes, while red and green galaxies have larger satellite fractions, and preferentially reside in virialized structures. If blue sequence galaxies migrate to the red sequence via processes like mergers or quenching that take them through the green valley, such a transformation may be accompanied by a change in environment in addition to any change in luminosity and colour

We investigate the production of nitrogen in star-forming galaxies with ultraviolet (UV ) radiation detected by the Galaxy Evolution Explorer Satellite (GALEX ). We use a sample of 8745 GALEX emission-line galaxies matched to the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) spectroscopic sample. We derive both gas-phase oxygen and nitrogen abundances for the sample and apply stellar population synthesis models to derive stellar masses and star formation histories of the galaxies. We compare oxygen abundances derived using three different diagnostics. We derive the specific star formation rates of the galaxies by modeling the seven-band GALEX+SDSS photometry. We find that galaxies that have log (SFR/M Ã ) k À10:0 typically have values of log (N/O) $ 0:05 dex less than galaxies with log (SFR/M Ã ) P À10:0 and similar oxygen abundances.

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