S. S. Kaisin

MORE GALAXIES IN THE LOCAL VOLUME IMAGED IN Hα

We have carried out an H-alpha flux measurement for 52 nearby galaxies as part of a general H-alpha imaging survey for the Local Volume sample of galaxies within 10 Mpc. Most of the objects are probable members of the groups around Maffei 2/IC 342, NGC 672/IC 1727, NGC 784, and the Orion galaxy. The measured H-alpha fluxes corrected for extinction are used to derive the galaxy star formation rate (SFR). We briefly discuss some basic scaling relations between SFR, hydrogen mass and absolute magnitude of the Local Volume galaxies. The total SFR density in the local (z = 0) universe is estimated to be (0.019+/-0.003) M_sun yr/Mpc^3.

The relation between atomic gas and star formation rate densities in faint dwarf irregular galaxies

We use data for faint (M_B > -14.5) dwarf irregular galaxies drawn from the FIGGS survey to study the correlation between the atomic gas density (Sigma_gas,atomic) and star formation rate (Sigma_SFR) in the galaxies. The estimated gas phase metallicity of our sample galaxies is Z ~ 0.1 Z_sun. Understanding star formation in such molecule poor gas is of particular importance since it is likely to be of direct relevance to simulations of early galaxy formation. For about 20% (9/43) of our sample galaxies, we find that the HI distribution is significantly disturbed, with little correspondence between the optical and HI distributions. We exclude these galaxies from the comparison. We also exclude galaxies with very low star formation rates, for which stochastic effects make it difficult to estimate the true star formation rates. For the remaining galaxies we compute the Sigma_gas,atomic and Sigma_SFR averaged over the entire star forming disk of the galaxy. For these galaxies we find a nearly linear relation between the star formation rate and the atomic gas surface densities. The corresponding gas consumption timescale is ~ 10 Gyr, i.e. significantly smaller than the ~ 100 Gyr estimated for the outer regions of spiral galaxies. We also estimate the gas consumption timescale computed using the global gas content and the global star formation rate for all galaxies with a reliable measurement of the star formation rate, regardless of whether the HI distribution is disturbed or not. The mean gas consumption timescale computed using this entire gas reservoir is ~ 18 Gyr, i.e. still significantly smaller than that estimated for the outer parts of spirals. The gas consumption timescale for dwarfs is intermediate between the values of ~ 100 Gyr and ~ 2 Gyr estimated for the outer molecule poor and inner molecule rich regions of spiral disks.

Observational database for studies of nearby universe

We present the description of a database of galaxies of the Local Volume (LVG), located within 10 Mpc around the Milky Way. It contains more than 800 objects. Based on an analysis of functional capabilities, we used the PostgreSQL DBMS as a management system for our LVG database. Applying semantic modelling methods, we developed a physical ER-model of the database. We describe the developed architecture of the database table structure, and the implemented web-access, available at http://www.sao.ru/lv/lvgdb.

Small bites: star formation recipes in extreme dwarfs

We study the relationship between the gas column density (∑ HI ) and the star formation rate surface density (∑ SSFR ) for a sample of extremely small (M B ~−13, ΔV 50 ~ 30 km s −1 ) dwarf irregular galaxies. We find a clear stochasticity in the relation between the gas column density and star formation. All gas with ∑ HI ≳ 10 M ⊙ pc −2 has some ongoing star formation, but the fraction of the gas with ongoing star formation decreases as the gas column density decreases and falls to about 50 per cent at ∑ HI ~ 3 M ⊙ pc −2 . Further, even for the most dense gas, the star formation efficiency is at least a factor of ~ 2 smaller than typical of star-forming regions in spirals. We also find that the ratio of H emission to far-ultraviolet emission increases with the increasing gas column density. This is unlikely to be due to increasing dust extinction because the required dust-to-gas ratios are too high. We suggest instead that this correlation arises because massive (i.e. Hα-producing) stars are formed preferentially in regions with high gas density.

Ionized gas outflow in the isolated S0 galaxy NGC 4460

We used integral-field and long-slit spectroscopy to study a bright extended nebulosity recently discovered in the isolated lenticular galaxy NGC 4460 during an Hα survey of nearby galaxies. An analysis of archival Sloan Digital Sky Survey, GALEX and Hubble Space Telescope images indicates that current star formation is entirely concentrated in the central kiloparsec of the galaxy disc. The observed ionized gas parameters (morphology, kinematics and ionization state) can be explained by a gas outflow above the plane of the galaxy, caused by star formation in the circumnuclear region. Galactic wind parameters in NGC 4460 (outflow velocity, total kinetic energy) are several times smaller, compared with the known galactic wind in NGC 253, which is explained by the substantially lower total star formation rate. We discuss the cause of the star formation processes in NGC 4460 and in two other known isolated lenticular (S0) and elliptical (E) galaxies of the Local Volume: NGC 404 and 855. We provide evidence suggesting that the feeding of isolated galaxies by intergalactic gas on a cosmological time-scale is a steady process without significant variations.

Hα Survey of low-mass satellites of the neighboring galaxies M31 and M81

Images have been obtained at the 6-m telescope at the Special Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the Hα line and in the continuum for 20 dwarf spheroidal satellites of M31: And XI-And XXX, plus the distant Globular cluster Bol 520. Their star formation rates (SFR) are estimated using the Hα flux and the ultraviolet FUV flux measured with the GALEX space telescope. Most of the dSph satellites of M31 have extremely low star formation rates with a characteristic upper limit of SFR ~ 5 × 10-7. We have made similar estimates of SFR from the Hα and FUV fluxes for 13 galaxies with low surface brightness recently discovered in the neighborhood of M81. Eleven of them are physical satellites of M81 with typical SFR < 1 × 10-5. The median stellar masses of these satellites of M31 and M81 are 0.9 and 1.9 million solar masses, respectively. Our Hα observations place a 2-3 times stricter limit on the value of SFR than the data from the GALEX satellite, with a substantially higher (3-5 times) angular resolution.

Atomic hydrogen, star formation and feedback in the lowest mass blue compact dwarf galaxies

We present the results from a search for HI emission from a sample of newly discovered dwarf galaxies in the M81 group. HI is detected in three galaxies, all of which are classified as BCDs. The HI masses of these galaxies are ~ 10^6 M_sun, making these some of the lowest mass BCDs known. For these three galaxies FUV images (from GALEX) and H-alpha images (from the Russian 6m BTA telescope) are available.The H-alpha emission is very faint, and, in principle could be produced by a single O star. Further, in all cases we find offsets between the peak of the FUV emission and that of the H-alpha emission. Offsets between the most recent sites of star formation (i.e. those traced by H-alpha) and the older sites (i.e. those traced by FUV) would be natural if the star formation is stochastic. In spite of the expectation that the effects of mechanical feedback from star formation would be most directly seen in the smallest galaxies with low gravitational potentials, we only see tentative evidence of outflowing HI gas associated with the star forming region in one of the galaxies.

Mining the Local Volume

After recent systematic optical, IR, and HI surveys, the total number of known galaxies within 10 Mpc has increased from 179 to 550. About half this Local Volume (LV) sample is now been imaged with HST, yielding the galaxy distances with an accuracy of about 8%. For the majority of the LV galaxies we currently have H-alpha fluxes that allow us to reconstruct the star formation history of our neighbourhood. For the late-type LV galaxies their HI masses and angular momentum follow the linear relation in the range of 4 orders, which is expected for rotating gaseous disks being near the gravitational instability threshold. The data obtained on the LV galaxies imply important cosmological parameters, in particular, the mean local matter density and HI mass density, as well as SFR density. Surprisingly, the local Hubble flow around the LV groups is very quiet, with 1D rms deviations of 25 km/s,which is a signature of the Universe vacuum-dominated on small scales. The cold infall pattern around nearby groups provides us with a new method to determine the total mass of the groups independent from virial mass estimates.

Hα survey of the local volume: Isolated southern galaxies

We present our Hα observations of 11 isolated southern galaxies: SDIG, PGC 51659, E 222-010, E 272-025, E 137-018, IC 4662, Sag DIG, IC 5052, IC 5152, UGCA 438, and E 149-003, with distances from 1 to 7 Mpc. We have determined the total Hα fluxes from these galaxies. The star formation rates in these galaxies range from 10−1 (IC 4662) to 10−4M⊙ yr−1 (SDIG) and the gas depletion time at the observed star formation rates lies within the range from 1/6 to 24 Hubble times H0−1.

Star-forming regions in dwarf galaxies of the local volume

We present the Hα flux measurements for 44 nearby dwarf galaxies, derived from the observations at the 6-m BTA telescope. Hα fluxes were used to determine the rate of integral star formation of galaxies, SFR. For the observed galaxies the value of log SFR lies in the range from 0 to −8 [M⊙/yr]. The specific star formation rate for all the sample galaxies does not exceed the limit of log SSFR = −9.2 [yr−1]. A burst of star formation was detected in the center of a nearby dwarf galaxy UGC2172.