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COLA. II. Radio and Spectroscopic Diagnostics of Nuclear Activity in Galaxies
We present optical spectroscopic observations of 93 galaxies taken fromthe infrared-selected COLA (compact objects in low-power AGNs) sample.These are all galaxies for which we have previously obtainedlow-resolution radio observations and high-resolution (<0.05")Australian Long Baseline Array snapshots. The sample spans the range offar-IR luminosities from normal galaxies to luminous infrared galaxiesand contains a significant number of galaxies involved in galaxy-galaxyinteractions. Of the galaxies observed, 78 (84%) exhibit emission linesindicating that they are either AGNs or actively forming stars(starburst galaxies). Using a newly developed, theoretically based,optical emission line scheme to classify the spectra, we find that 15%of the emission-line galaxies are Seyfert galaxies, 77% are starbursts,and the rest are either borderline AGN/starburst or show ambiguouscharacteristics. We find little evidence for an increase in the fractionof AGNs in the sample as a function of far-IR (FIR) luminosity, incontrast to previous studies, but our sample covers only a small rangein infrared luminosity(1010.5Lsolar<=LFIR<=1011.7 Lsolar), and thus a weak trend may be masked. Instead,as the infrared luminosity increases, so does the fraction of metal-richstarbursts, objects that on more traditional diagnostic diagrams wouldhave been classified as weak, low-ionization, narrow emission lineregions. As a whole the Seyfert galaxies exhibit a small, butstatistically significant, radio excess on the radio-FIR correlationcompared to the galaxies classified as starbursts. Compact (<0.05")radio cores are detected in 55% of the Seyfert galaxies, and thesegalaxies exhibit a significantly larger radio excess than the Seyfertgalaxies in which compact cores were not detected. Our results indicatethat there may be two distinct populations of Seyfert galaxies,``radio-excess'' Seyfert galaxies, which exhibit extended radiostructures and compact radio cores, and ``radio-quiet'' Seyfertgalaxies, in which the majority of the radio emission can be attributedto star formation in the host galaxy. No significant difference is seenbetween the IR and optical spectroscopic properties of Seyfert galaxieswith and without radio cores.
| Redshift-Distance Survey of Early-Type Galaxies: Spectroscopic Data
We 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.
| Redshift-Distance Survey of Early-Type Galaxies: Circular-Aperture Photometry
We 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.
| Star Formation Rates in Interacting Starburst Galaxies
By narrowband imaging in Hα and in the adjacent red stellarcontinuum we have studied the rate and distribution of star formation in43 systems of luminous and ultraluminous IR galaxies currentlyundergoing interaction and merging. These galaxies are amongst the mostluminous at 60 μm and range in distance from ~50 up to 100 Mpc. Herewe present the Hα and the adjacent red-continuum narrowbandimages, and we compare the star formation rates derived from Hαwith those estimated from the IR luminosity. We find clear evidence forsubstantial extinction and obscuration of star-forming regions in theoptical. Without correction for reddening in the host galaxy orcorrection for [N II] contamination, the star formation rates derivedfor Hα are typically 0.5-1.0 dex lower than those estimated fromthe IR flux, and the scatter in the correlation is very large. However,an unexpected result is that when spectroscopic data are used toeliminate objects dominated by an active nucleus, to determine thegalaxian extinction, and to correct the Hα flux for both reddeningand for the contamination by the [N II] emission, a remarkably goodcorrelation emerges between the star formation rates estimated from theHα flux and those derived from the FIR continuum. In addition, astrong correlation is found between the extinction in the line-emittingregion, AHα, and the rate of star formation. Ourresults invalidate the use of Hα imaging as a reliable indicatorof star formation in starburst galaxies unless spectroscopic data arealso available. This has important implications for the determination ofstar formation rates in high-redshift galaxies. Finally, we find nocorrelation between the measured star formation rates, and theinteraction class, suggesting that the enhanced star formation ratestriggered by the interaction continue throughout the whole of themerging sequence.
| First Results from the COLA Project: The Radio-Far-Infrared Correlation and Compact Radio Cores in Southern COLA Galaxies
We present the first results from the COLA (compact objects in low-powerAGNs) project, which aims to determine the relationship between onefacet of AGN activity, the compact radio core, and star formation in thecircumnuclear region of the host galaxy. This will be accomplished bythe comparison of the multiwavelength properties of a sample of AGNswith compact radio cores to those of a sample of AGNs without compactcores and a matched sample of galaxies without AGNs. In this paper wediscuss the selection criteria for our galaxy samples and present theinitial radio observations of the 107 southern(δ<0deg) galaxies in our sample. Low-resolution ATCAobservations at 4.8, 2.5, and 1.4 GHz and high-resolution,single-baseline snapshots at 2.3 GHz with the Australian Long BaselineArray (LBA) are presented. We find that for the majority of the galaxiesin our sample, the radio luminosity is correlated with the far-infrared(FIR) luminosity. However, a small number of galaxies exhibit a radioexcess causing them to depart from the FIR-radio correlation. Compactradio cores are detected at fluxes greater than 1.5 mJy in nine of the105 galaxies observed with the LBA. The majority (8/9) of these galaxiesexhibit a radio excess, and 50% (7/14) of the galaxies that lie abovethe radio-FIR correlation by more than 1 σ have compact radiocores. The emission from the compact cores is too weak to account forthis radio excess, implying that there are radio structures associatedwith the compact cores that extend farther than the 0.05" resolution(corresponding to a linear scale 11-22 pc) of the LBA. There is noevidence that the radio luminosity of the compact cores is correlatedwith the FIR galaxy luminosity, indicating that the core contributeslittle to the overall FIR emission of the galaxy. The galaxies withcompact cores tend to be classified optically as AGNs, with two-thirds(6/9) exhibiting Seyfert-like optical emission line ratios, and theremaining galaxies classified either as composite objects (2/9) orstarburst (1/9). The galaxies classified optically as AGNs also exhibitthe largest radio excesses, and we therefore conclude that a large radioexcess on the radio-FIR correlation is a strong indication of an AGNwith a compact radio core.
| The Southern Sky Redshift Survey
We 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.
| An image database. II. Catalogue between δ=-30deg and δ=70deg.
A preliminary list of 68.040 galaxies was built from extraction of35.841 digitized images of the Palomar Sky Survey (Paper I). For eachgalaxy, the basic parameters are obtained: coordinates, diameter, axisratio, total magnitude, position angle. On this preliminary list, weapply severe selection rules to get a catalog of 28.000 galaxies, wellidentified and well documented. For each parameter, a comparison is madewith standard measurements. The accuracy of the raw photometricparameters is quite good despite of the simplicity of the method.Without any local correction, the standard error on the total magnitudeis about 0.5 magnitude up to a total magnitude of B_T_=17. Significantsecondary effects are detected concerning the magnitudes: distance toplate center effect and air-mass effect.
| A comparative study of morphological classifications of APM galaxies
We investigate the consistency of visual morphological classificationsof galaxies by comparing classifications for 831 galaxies from sixindependent observers. The galaxies were classified on laser print copyimages or on computer screen using scans made with the Automated PlateMeasuring (APM) machine. Classifications are compared using the RevisedHubble numerical type index T. We find that individual observers agreewith one another with rms combined dispersions of between 1.3 and 2.3type units, typically about 1.8 units. The dispersions tend to decreaseslightly with increasing angular diameter and, in some cases, withincreasing axial ratio (b/a). The agreement between independentobservers is reasonably good but the scatter is non-negligible. In spiteof the scatter, the Revised Hubble T system can be used to train anautomated galaxy classifier, e.g. an artificial neural network, tohandle the large number of galaxy images that are being compiled in theAPM and other surveys.
| CCD calibration of the magnitude scale for the SSRS2 sample: The equatorial region
In this paper we continue our investigation on the isophotal nature,accuracy, and uniformity of the magnitude system adopted in the SouthernSky Redshift Survey extension (SSRS2). Extending our earlier work, weexamine galaxies in the equatorial region, primarily in the declinationrange delta greater than or equal to -17.5 deg and less than or equal to0 deg, over a large range of right ascension, covering the southern andnorthern Galactic caps. For this purpose, we have obtained CCD isophotalmagnitudes in the B and R bands for 265 galaxies of differentmorphological types. Using the larger sample we confirm our earlierclaim that the mSSRS2 magnitudes are very nearly themagnitude measured within the isophote muB = 26 mag/sqarcsec, with a dispersion of about 0.30 mag. The relative zero-pointoffset between our mSSRS2 magnitudes and the CCD photometryis -0.02 mag from all data we have obtained. However, we detect avariation of the zero-point across different regions of the sky of +/-0.10 mag for regions at large angular separations. We also estimate thatthe zero-point offset between the mSSRS2 and Zwicky systemsis relatively small (approximately 0.10 mag), which should allow us tocombine the data from the SSRS2 and the CfA2 Redshift Survey.
| The extended 12 micron galaxy sample
We have selected an all-sky (absolute value of b greater than or equalto 25 deg) 12 micron flux-limited sample of 893 galaxies from the IRASFaint Source Catalog, Version 2 (FSC-2). We have obtained accurate totalfluxes in the IRAS wavebands by using the ADDSCAN procedure for allobjects with FSC-2 12 micron fluxes greater than 0.15 Jy and increasingflux densities from 12 to 60 microns, and defined the sample by imposinga survey limit of 0.22 Jy on the total 12 micron flux. Its completenessis verified, by means of the classical log N - log S andV/Vmax tests, down to 0.30 Jy, below which we have measuredthe incompleteness down to the survey limit, using the log N - log Splot, for our statistical analysis. We have obtained redshifts (mostlyfrom catalogs) for virtually all (98.4%) the galaxies in the sample.Using existing catalogs of active galaxies, we defined a subsample of118 objects consisting of 53 Seyfert 1s and quasars, 63 Seyfert 2s, andtwo blazars (approximately 13% of the full sample), which is the largestunbiased sample of Seyfert galaxies ever assembled. Since the 12 micronflux has been shown to be about one-fifth of the bolometric flux forSeyfert galaxies and quasars, the subsample of Seyferts (includingquasars and blazars) is complete not only to 0.30 Jy at 12 microns butalso with respect to a bolometric flux limit of approximately 2.0 x10-10 ergs/s/sq cm. The average value of V/Vmaxfor the full sample, corrected for incompleteness at low fluxes, is 0.51+/- 0.04, expected for a complete sample of uniformly distributedgalaxies, while the value for the Seyfert galaxy subsample is 0.46 +/-0.10. We have derived 12 microns and far-infrared luminosity functionsfor the AGNs, as well as for the entire sample. We extracted from oursample a complete subsample of 235 galaxies flux-limited (8.3 Jy) at 60microns. The 60 micron luminosity function computed for this subsampleis in satisfactory agreement with the ones derived from the brightgalaxy sample (BGS) and the deep high-galactic latitude sample, bothselected at 60 microns.
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