Search Publications
The SAURON project - I. The panoramic integral-field spectrograph
Emsellem, Eric; Miller, Bryan W.; Carollo, C. M. +10 more
A new integral-field spectrograph, SAURON, is described. It is based on the TIGER principle, and uses a lenslet array. SAURON has a large field of view and high throughput, and allows simultaneous sky subtraction. Its design is optimized for studies of the stellar kinematics, gas kinematics, and line-strength distributions of nearby early-type gal…
Late-type members of young stellar kinematic groups - I. Single stars
Montes, D.; López-Santiago, J.; Cornide, M. +3 more
This is the first paper of a series aimed at studying the properties of late-type members of young stellar kinematic groups. We concentrate our study on classical young moving groups such as the Local Association (Pleiades moving group, 20-150Myr), IC 2391 supercluster (35Myr), Ursa Major group (Sirius supercluster, 300Myr), and Hyades supercluste…
XMM-EPIC observation of MCG-6-30-15: direct evidence for the extraction of energy from a spinning black hole?
Staubert, Rüdiger; Wilms, Jörn; Reynolds, Christopher S. +4 more
We present XMM-Newton European Photon Imaging Camera (EPIC) observations of the bright Seyfert 1 galaxy MCG-6-30-15, focusing on the broad Fe Kα line at ~6keV and the associated reflection continuum, which is believed to originate from the inner accretion disc. We find these reflection features to be extremely broad and redshifted, indicating an o…
The black hole masses of Seyfert galaxies and quasars
McLure, R. J.; Dunlop, J. S.
The central black hole masses of a sample of 30 luminous quasars are estimated using Hβ full width half-maximum (FWHM) measurements from a combination of new and previously published nuclear spectra. The quasar black hole mass estimates are combined with reverberation-mapping measurements for a sample of Seyfert galaxies in order to study active g…
Population effects on the red giant clump absolute magnitude, and distance determinations to nearby galaxies
Salaris, Maurizio; Girardi, Léo
The red giant clump has been recently argued to be a reliable distance indicator for the galaxies in the Local Group. The accuracy of distance determinations based on this method, however, depends on the possible presence of systematic magnitude differences (ΔMIRC) between the local clump revealed by the Hipparcos colour-magnitude diagram (CMD), a…
M82-F: a doomed super star cluster?
Smith, Linda J.; Gallagher, John S.
We present high-dispersion echelle spectroscopy of the very luminous, young super star cluster (SSC) `F' in M82, obtained with the 4.2-m William Herschel Telescope, for the purpose of deriving its dynamical mass and assessing whether it will survive to become an old globular cluster. In addition to the stellar lines, the spectrum contains complex …
The local axisymmetric instability criterion in a thin, rotating, multicomponent disc
Rafikov, R. R.
Purely gravitational perturbations are considered in a thin rotating disc composed of gas and several stellar components. The dispersion relation for the axisymmetric density waves propagating through the disc is found and the criterion for the local axisymmetric stability of the whole system is formulated. In the appropriate limit of two-componen…
The SuperCOSMOS Sky Survey - III. Astrometry
Hambly, N. C.; Irwin, M. J.; MacGillivray, H. T. +1 more
In this, the third in a series of three papers concerning the SuperCOSMOS Sky Survey, we describe the astrometric properties of the data base. We describe the algorithms employed in the derivation of the astrometric parameters of the data, and demonstrate their accuracies by comparison with external data sets using the first release of data, the S…
Galaxy number counts - V. Ultradeep counts: the Herschel and Hubble Deep Fields
McCracken, H. J.; Campos, A.; Metcalfe, N. +2 more
We present u,b,r and i galaxy number counts and colours from both the North and South Hubble Space Telescope Deep Fields and the William Herschel Deep Field. The latter comprises a 7×7arcmin2 area of sky, reaching b~28.5 at its deepest. Following Metcalfe et al., we show that simple Bruzual & Charlot evolutionary models which assume…
Chemical abundances of planetary nebulae from optical recombination lines - III. The Galactic bulge PN M 1-42 and M 2-36
Barlow, M. J.; Liu, X. -W.; Storey, P. J. +2 more
We present deep, high-resolution optical spectra of two Galactic bulge planetary nebulae (PN), M 1-42 and M 2-36. The spectra show very prominent and rich optical recombination lines (ORLs) from C, N, O and Ne ions. Infrared spectra from [formmu10]2.4-197µm were also obtained using the Short and Long Wavelength Spectrometer (SWS and LWS) on …