Jie-Hao Huang

New Wolf-Rayet Galaxies with Detection of WC Stars

We report the discovery of two new Wolf-Rayet (W-R) galaxies: Mrk 1039 and F08208+2816. Two broad W-R bumps at 5808 and 4650 A indicate the presence of early-type WC (WCE) and late-type WN (WNL) star populations in both sources. We also confirm the presence of W-R features in Mrk 35, previously detected in a different position. The observed equivalent width of the W-R bump at 4650 A and the derived number ratios of W-R/(W-R+O) imply that star formation in these sources takes place in short burst durations. Comparisons with the recent models of W-R populations in young starbursts with the observed EW(He II λ4686), EW(C IV λ5808), and EW(W-R bump) and their relative intensities provide an indication that the stellar initial mass function in some W-R galaxies might not be Salpeter-like. It is interesting to find that the luminous IRAS source F08208+2816 has little dust reddening, probably because of the existence of a powerful superwind. By comparisons with other starbursts observed with the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope, F08208+2816 as a merging system renders a chance to study the contribution from young starbursts to the UV background radiation in the universe.

Formation of bulges in very late-type galaxies from super star clusters

The dynamical evolution of super star clusters (SSCs) moving in the background of a dark matter halo has been investigated as a possible event responsible for the formation of bulges in late-type spirals. The underlying physical processes include sinking of SSCs due to the dynamical friction and stripping of SSCs on their way to the centre. Our model calculations show that only sinking of circumnuclear SSCs contributes to the formation of galactic bulges at the early stage. Based on the assumption of a universal density profile for the dark matter halo, and an isothermal model for the SSCs, our simulations have yielded bulges that are similar in many aspects to the observational ones. In particular, the derived surface density profiles can be well fitted by an exponential structure with nuclear cusps, which is consistent with Hubble Space Telescope observations.

The Conelike Hα Nebula in NGC 4945: A Galactic Superwind Bow Shock?

We find that a nonaxisymmetric bow shock model, with an appropriate choice of parameters, could fit the line-splitting velocity field of the conelike Hα nebula in NGC 4945 better than a canonical cone model. Meanwhile, the bow shock model could also reproduce the morphology of the Hα nebula. The bow shock results from the interaction of the galactic superwinds with a giant H II region. It is implied that the starburst ring or disk around the galactic nucleus should be generating strong winds, and the bright Hα knot northwest of the nucleus should be suffering an anisotropic mass-loss process.

Nuclear Starburst Activity in the Seyfert 2 Galaxy NGC 2273

We present spectrophotometric results of the Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 2273. The presence of high-order Balmer absorption lines (H8, H9, H10) and weak equivalent widths of CaII K λ3933, CN λ4200, G-band λ4300 and MgIb λ5173 clearly indicate recent star-forming activity in the nuclear region. Using a simple stellar population synthesis model, we find that for the best fit, the contributions of a power-law featureless continuum, an intermediate-age (~ 108 yr) and an old (> 109 yr) stellar population to the total light at the reference normalization wavelength are 10.0%, 33.4% and 56.6%, respectively. The existence of recent starburst activity is also consistent with its high far-infrared luminosity (log LFIR/L☉ = 9.9), its infrared color indexes [α(25, 60) = −1.81 and α(60, 100)= −0.79, typical values for Seyfert galaxies with circumnuclear starburst], and its q-value (2.23, ratio of infrared to radio flux, very similar to that of normal spirals and starburst galaxies). Byrd et al. have suggested that NGC 2273 might have interacted with NGC 2273B in less than 109 yr ago, so the starburst activity in this galaxy could have been triggered by tidal interaction, as indicated in recent numerical simulations.

An Equilibrium Dark Matter Halo with the Burkert Profile

In this paper a prescription for generating an equilibrium spherical system depicted with cuspy density profiles is extended to a core density profile, the Burkert profile, which is observationally more suitable to dwarfs. By using a time-saving Monte Carlo method instead of N-body simulations, we show that the Burkert halo, which is initialized with a distribution function that depends only on energy, is in a practically stable equilibrium. The one generated with the local Maxwellian approximation is unstable, where the flat core density structure tends to steepen. This is fundamentally different from a previous study on a halo with a cuspy density profile. The deviation of the unstable “Burkert” from the initial Burkert profile is found to be closely related to taking a Gaussian as the velocity distribution at any given point. The significance of not using the local Maxwellian approximation is further demonstrated by exploring the dynamical evolution of compact super star clusters (SSCs) in the Burkert halo. In particular, the local Maxwellian approximation results in underestimating the dynamical friction and overestimating sinking time scale. Accordingly, this leads to a lower probability of forming massive bulges and young nuclear star clusters in bulgeless galaxies.