Galaxies at the Extremes: Ultra-Diffuse Galaxies in the Virgo Cluster

Mihos, J. Christopher; Durrell, Patrick R.; Ferrarese, Laura; Feldmeier, John J.; Côté, Patrick; Peng, Eric W.; Harding, Paul; Liu, Chengze; Gwyn, Stephen; Cuillandre, Jean-Charles

doi:10.1088/2041-8205/809/2/l21

Cited by 235 publications

(308 citation statements)

References 37 publications

(32 reference statements)

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“…None of the three extremely low surface brightness extended galaxies (Σ(g) ∼ 28 mag arcsec −2 ) recently discovered by Mihos et al (2015) in the core of the Virgo cluster has been detected by GALEX. Given their total magnitude (g > ∼ 17 mag), and the typical colour of quiescent dwarf ellipticals (NUV − g > ∼ 3 mag), we would expect that their total NUV magnitude is > ∼ 20 mag, thus below the limiting magnitude adopted for the determination of the UV luminosity function.…”

Section: Possible Biasesmentioning

confidence: 93%

The GALEX Ultraviolet Virgo Cluster Survey (GUViCS)

Boselli

Boissier

Voyer

et al. 2015

A&A

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We use the GALEX data of the GUViCS survey to construct the near-ultraviolet (NUV) luminosity function of the Virgo cluster over ∼300 deg 2 , an area covering the cluster and its surrounding regions up to ∼1.8 virial radii. The NUV luminosity function is also determined for galaxies of different morphological types and NUV − i colours, and for the different substructures within the cluster. These luminosity functions are robust vs. statistical corrections since based on a sample of 833 galaxies mainly identified as cluster members with spectroscopic redshift (808) or high-quality optical scaling relations (10). We fit these luminosity functions with a Schechter function, and compare the fitted parameters with those determined for other nearby clusters and for the field. The faint end slope of the Virgo NUV luminosity function (α = −1.19), here sampled down to ∼NUV = −11.5 mag, is significantly flatter than the value measured in other nearby clusters and similar to the field value. Similarly, M * = −17.56 is one to two magnitudes fainter than measured in Coma, A1367, the Shapley supercluster, and the field. These differences seem to be due to the quite uncertain statistical corrections and the small range in absolute magnitude sampled in these clusters. We do not observe strong systematic differences in the overall NUV luminosity function of the core of the cluster with respect to that of its periphery. We note, however, that the relative contribution of red and blue galaxies at the faint end is inverted, with red quiescent objects dominating the core of the cluster and star forming galaxies dominating beyond one virial radius. This observational evidence is discussed in the framework of galaxy evolution in dense environments.

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Section: Possible Biasesmentioning

confidence: 93%

The GALEX Ultraviolet Virgo Cluster Survey (GUViCS)

Boselli

Boissier

Voyer

et al. 2015

A&A

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“…), a pipeline expressly developed to minimise the contribution of the scattered light component in MegaCam images. The efficiency of this observing strategy and data reduction procedures have been proven by the detection of very low surface-brightness features in the tidal tails associated with early-type galaxies in the MATLAS (Duc et al 2011(Duc et al , 2015 and in the NGVS surveys (Ferrarese et al 2012;Mihos et al 2015).…”

Section: Narrow-band Imagingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spectacular tails of ionized gas in the Virgo cluster galaxy NGC 4569

Boselli

Cuillandre

Fossati

et al. 2016

A&A

125

169

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Using MegaCam at the CFHT, we obtained a deep narrow band Hα+ [NII] wide-field image of NGC 4569 (M90), the brightest late-type galaxy in the Virgo cluster. The image reveals the presence of long tails of diffuse ionized gas, without any associated stellar component extending from the disc of the galaxy up to 80 kpc (projected distance) and with a typical surface brightness of a few 10 −18 erg s −1 cm −2 arcsec −2 . These features provide direct evidence that NGC 4569 is undergoing a ram-presure stripping event. The image also shows a prominent 8 kpc spur of ionized gas that is associated with the nucleus that spectroscopic data identify as an outflow. With some assumptions on the 3D distribution of the gas, we use the Hα surface brightness of these extended low-surface brightness features to derive the density and the mass of the gas that has been stripped during the interaction of the galaxy with the intracluster medium. The comparison with ad hoc chemo-spectrophotometric models of galaxy evolution indicates that the mass of the Hα emitting gas in the tail is a large fraction of that of the cold phase that has been stripped from the disc, suggesting that the gas is ionized within the tail during the stripping process. The lack of star-forming regions suggests that mechanisms other than photoionization are responsible for the excitation of the gas (shocks, heat conduction, magneto hydrodynamic waves). This analysis indicates that ram pressure stripping is efficient in massive (M star 10 10.5 M ) galaxies located in intermediate-mass ( 10 14 M ) clusters under formation. It also shows that the mass of gas expelled by the nuclear outflow is only ∼1% than that removed during the ram pressure stripping event. Together these results indicate that ram pressure stripping, rather than starvation through nuclear feedback, can be the dominant mechanism that is responsible for the quenching of the star formation activity of galaxies in high density environments.Key words. galaxies: individual: NGC 4569 -galaxies: clusters: general -galaxies: clusters: individual: Virgo -galaxies: evolutiongalaxies: interactions -galaxies: ISM Based on observations obtained with MegaPrime/MegaCam, a joint project of CFHT and CEA/DAPNIA, at the Canadian-French-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) which is operated by the

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“…These galaxies do not appear to be present in existing catalogs from GAMA or CANDELS, but an interesting question is whether these objects could be missed due to their very low surface brightness. The recent discovery of "ultra diffuse galaxies" in the Coma and Virgo cluster (van Dokkum et al 2015a,b;Koda et al 2015;Mihos et al 2015), as well as extremely large disk galaxies (Ogle et al 2015), have called into question whether there might be more large, diffuse galaxies out there than previously thought. Using the effective soft surface brightness limit of GAMA (23.5 mag/arcsec 2 in the r-band (Baldry et al 2012)), we estimate that over 17% of model galaxies in our lowest redshift bin with effective radii >10 kpc at least 1.5 dex below the main sequence would be undetected.…”

Section: What Our Model Tells Us About the Universementioning

confidence: 99%

The relationship between star formation activity and galaxy structural properties in CANDELS and a semi-analytic model

Brennan

Pandya

Somerville

et al. 2016

Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc.

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We study the correlation of galaxy structural properties with their location relative to the SFR-M * correlation, also known as the star formation "main sequence" (SFMS), in the CANDELS and GAMA surveys and in a semi-analytic model (SAM) of galaxy formation. We first study the distribution of median Sérsic index, effective radius, star formation rate (SFR) density and stellar mass density in the SFR-M * plane. We then define a redshift dependent main sequence and examine the medians of these quantities as a function of distance from this main sequence, both above (higher SFRs) and below (lower SFRs). Finally, we examine the distributions of distance from the main sequence in bins of these quantities. We find strong correlations between all of these galaxy structural properties and the distance from the SFMS, such that as we move from galaxies above the SFMS to those below it, we see a nearly monotonic trend towards higher median Sérsic index, smaller radius, lower SFR density, and higher stellar density. In the semi-analytic model, bulge growth is driven by mergers and disk instabilities, and is accompanied by the growth of a supermassive black hole which can regulate or quench star formation via Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) feedback. We find that our model qualitatively reproduces the trends described above, supporting a picture in which black holes and bulges co-evolve, and AGN feedback plays a critical role in moving galaxies off of the SFMS.

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Galaxies at the Extremes: Ultra-Diffuse Galaxies in the Virgo Cluster

Cited by 235 publications

References 37 publications

The GALEX Ultraviolet Virgo Cluster Survey (GUViCS)

The GALEX Ultraviolet Virgo Cluster Survey (GUViCS)

Spectacular tails of ionized gas in the Virgo cluster galaxy NGC 4569

The relationship between star formation activity and galaxy structural properties in CANDELS and a semi-analytic model

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