Browsing by Author "West, Michael J."

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    THE ACS FORNAX CLUSTER SURVEY. IV. DEPROJECTION OF THE SURFACE BRIGHTNESS PROFILES OF EARLY-TYPE GALAXIES IN THE VIRGO AND FORNAX CLUSTERS: INVESTIGATING THE "CORE/POWER-LAW DICHOTOMY"
    (2011) Glass, Lisa; Ferrarese, Laura; Cote, Patrick; Jordan, Andres; Peng, Eric; Blakeslee, John P.; Chen, Chin-Wei; Infante, Leopoldo; Mei, Simona; Tonry, John L.; West, Michael J.
    Although early observations with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) pointed to a sharp dichotomy among early-type galaxies in terms of the logarithmic slope gamma' of their central surface brightness profiles, several studies in the past few years have called this finding into question. In particular, recent imaging surveys of 143 early-type galaxies belonging to the Virgo and Fornax Clusters using the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) on board HST have not found a dichotomy in gamma', but instead a systematic progression from central luminosity deficit to excess relative to the inward extrapolation of the best-fitting global Sersic model. Given that earlier studies also found that the dichotomy persisted when analyzing the deprojected density profile slopes, we investigate the distribution of the three-dimensional luminosity density profiles of the ACS Virgo and Fornax Cluster Survey galaxies. Having fitted the surface brightness profiles with modified Sersic models, we then deproject the galaxies using an Abel integral and measure the inner slopes gamma(3D) of the resulting luminosity density profiles at various fractions of the effective radius R-e. We find no evidence of a dichotomy, but rather, a continuous variation in the central luminosity profiles as a function of galaxy magnitude. We introduce a parameter, Delta(3D), that measures the central deviation of the deprojected luminosity profiles from the global Sersic fit, showing that this parameter varies smoothly and systematically along the luminosity function.
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    The ACS Fornax Cluster survey.: I.: Introduction to the survey and data reduction procedures
    (2007) Jordan, Andres; Blakeslee, John P.; Cote, Patrick; Ferrarese, Laura; Infante, Leopoldo; Mei, Simona; Merritt, David; Peng, Eric W.; Tonry, John L.; West, Michael J.
    The Fornax Cluster is a conspicuous cluster of galaxies in the southern hemisphere and the second largest collection of early-type galaxies within less than or similar to 20 Mpc after the Virgo Cluster. In this paper, we present a brief introduction to the ACS Fornax Cluster Survey - a program to image, in the F475W (g(475)) and F850LP (z(850)) bandpasses, 43 early-type galaxies in Fornax using the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) on the Hubble Space Telescope. Combined with a companion survey of Virgo, the ACS Virgo Cluster Survey, this represents the most comprehensive imaging survey to date of early-type galaxies in cluster environments in terms of depth, spatial resolution, sample size, and homogeneity. We describe the selection of the program galaxies, their basic properties, and the main science objectives of the survey, which include the measurement of luminosities, colors, and structural parameters for globular clusters associated with these galaxies, an analysis of their isophotal properties and surface brightness profiles, and an accurate calibration of the surface brightness fluctuation distance indicator. Finally, we discuss the data reduction procedures adopted for the survey.
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    THE FAINT END OF THE GALAXY LUMINOSITY FUNCTION IN A1689: A STEEP RED FAINT END UPTURN AT z=0.18
    (2010) Banados, Eduardo; Hung, Li-Wei; De Propris, Roberto; West, Michael J.
    We present a deep and wide I luminosity function (LF) for galaxies in A1689 (z = 0.183) from a mosaic of Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 images covering 10' on the side. The main result of this work is the detection of a steep upturn in the dwarf galaxy LF, with alpha similar to-2. The dwarf-to-giant ratio appears to increase outward, but this is because giant galaxies are missing in the cluster outskirts, indicating luminosity segregation. The red sequence LF has the same parameters, within errors, as the total LF, showing that the faint end upturn consists of red quiescent galaxies. We speculate that the upturn is connected to the "filling-in" of the red sequence at z < 0.4 and may represent the latest installment of "downsizing" as the least massive galaxies are being quenched at the present epoch.
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    THE GALAXY ALIGNMENT EFFECT IN ABELL 1689: EVOLUTION, RADIAL, AND LUMINOSITY DEPENDENCE
    (2010) Hung, Li-Wei; Banados, Eduardo; De Propris, Roberto; West, Michael J.
    We measure alignments on scales of 1 Mpc h(71)(-1) for galaxies in Abell 1689 (z = 0.18) from an existing Hubble Space Telescope mosaic. We find evidence of galaxy alignment in the inner 500 h(71)(-1) kpc. The alignment appears to be stronger toward the center and is mostly present among the fainter galaxies, while bright galaxies are unaligned. This is consistent with a model where alignments originate from tidal locking.
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    Trends in the globular cluster luminosity function of early-type galaxies
    (2006) Jordan, Andres; McLaughlin, Dean E.; Cote, Patrick; Ferrarese, Laura; Peng, Eric W.; Blakeslee, John P.; Mei, Simona; Villegas, Daniela; Merritt, David; Tonry, John L.; West, Michael J.
    We present results from a study of the globular cluster luminosity function (GCLF) in a sample of 89 early-type galaxies observed as part of the ACS Virgo Cluster Survey. Using a Gaussian parameterization of the GCLF, we find a highly significant correlation between the GCLF dispersion, sigma, and the galaxy luminosity, M-B,M- gal, the sense that the GC systems in fainter galaxies have narrower luminosity functions. The GCLF dispersions in the Milky Way and M31 are fully consistent with this trend, implying that the correlation between sigma and galaxy luminosity is more fundamental than older suggestions that GCLF shape is a function of galaxy Hubble type. We show that the sigma-M-B,M- gal relation results from a bona fide narrowing of the distribution of (logarithmic) cluster j- M B, gal masses in fainter galaxies. We further show that this behavior is mirrored by a steepening of the GC mass function for relatively high masses, M >= 3 x 10(5) M-circle dot, a mass regime in which the shape of the GCLF is not strongly affected by dynamical evolution over a Hubble time. We argue that this trend arises from variations in initial conditions and requires explanation by theories of cluster formation. Finally, we confirm that in bright galaxies the GCLF "turns over" at the canonical mass scale of M-TO similar or equal to 2 x 10(5) M-circle dot. However, we find that M-TO scatters to lower values [approximate to(1-2) x 10(5) M-circle dot] in galaxies fainter than M-B,M- gal greater than or similar to -18.5, an important consideration if the GCLF is to be used as a distance indicator for dwarf ellipticals.