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  1. Abstract

    Theory of the physics of the early hot universe leads to a prediction of baryon acoustic oscillations (BAOs) that has received confirmation from the pairwise separations of galaxies in samples of hundreds of thousands of objects. Evidence is presented here for the discovery of a remarkably strongindividualcontribution to the BAO signal atz= 0.068, an entity that is given the name Ho’oleilana. The radius of the 3D structure is155h751Mpc. At its core is the Boötes supercluster. The Sloan Great Wall, Center for Astrophysics Great Wall, and Hercules complex all lie within the BAO shell. The interpretation of Ho’oleilana as a BAO structure with our preferred analysis implies a value of the Hubble constant of76.94.8+8.2kms1Mpc1.

     
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  2. ABSTRACT

    We present an estimate of the bulk flow in a volume of radii 150−200 h−1 Mpc using the minimum variance method with data from the CosmicFlows-4 (CF4) catalogue. The addition of new data in the CF4 has resulted in an increase in the estimate of the bulk flow in a sphere of radius 150 h−1 Mpc relative to the CosmicFlows-3 (CF3). This bulk flow has an $\sim 0.015~{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ chance of occurring in the standard cosmological model with cosmic microwave background derived parameters. Given that the CF4 is deeper than the CF3, we were able to use the CF4 to accurately estimate the bulk flow on scales of 200 h−1 Mpc (equivalent to 266 Mpc for Hubble constant H0 = 75 km s−1 Mpc−1) for the first time. This bulk flow is in even greater tension with the standard model, having $\sim 1.5\times 10^{-4}\ \%$ probability of occurring. To estimate the bulk flow accurately, we introduce a novel method to calculate distances and velocities from distance moduli that is unbiased and accurate at all distances. Our results are completely independent of the value of H0.

     
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  3. Abstract Using Hubble Space Telescope imaging of the resolved stellar population of KK 242 = NGC 6503-d1 =PGC 4689184, we measure the distance to the galaxy to be 6.46 ± 0.32 Mpc and find that KK 242 is a satellite of the low-mass spiral galaxy NGC 6503 located on the edge of the Local Void. Observations with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array show signs of a very faint H i signal at the position of KK 242 within a velocity range of V hel = −80 ± 10 km s −1 . This velocity range is severely contaminated by H i emission from the Milky Way and from NGC 6503. The dwarf galaxy is classified as the transition type, dIrr/dSph, with a total H i mass of < 10 6 M ⊙ and a star formation rate SFR(H α ) = −4.82 dex ( M ⊙ yr −1 ). Being at a projected separation of 31 kpc with a radial velocity difference of—105 km s −1 relative to NGC 6503, KK 242 gives an estimate of the halo mass of the spiral galaxy to be log ( M / M ⊙ ) = 11.6. Besides NGC 6503, there are eight more detached low-luminosity spiral galaxies in the Local Volume: M33, NGC 2403, NGC 7793, NGC 1313, NGC 4236, NGC 5068, NGC 4656, and NGC 7640, from whose small satellites we have estimated the average total mass of the host galaxies and their average total mass-to- K -band-luminosity 〈 M T / M ⊙ 〉 = (3.46 ± 0.84) × 10 11 and (58 ± 19) M ⊙ / L ⊙ , respectively. 
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  4. ABSTRACT

    The ‘Spectroscopy and H-band Imaging of Virgo cluster galaxies’ (SHIVir) survey is an optical and near-infrared survey which combines SDSS photometry, deep H-band photometry, and long-slit optical spectroscopy for 190 Virgo cluster galaxies covering all morphological types over the stellar mass range log (M*/M⊙) = 7.8–11.5. We present the spectroscopic sample selection, data reduction, and analysis for this SHIVir sample. We have used and optimized the pPXF routine to extract stellar kinematics from our data. Ultimately, resolved kinematic profiles (rotation curves and velocity dispersion profiles) are available for 133 SHIVir galaxies. A comprehensive data base of photometric and kinematic parameters for the SHIVir sample is presented with grizH magnitudes, effective surface brightnesses, effective and isophotal radii, rotational velocities, velocity dispersions, and stellar and dynamical masses. Parameter distributions highlight some bimodal distributions and possible sample biases. A qualitative study of resolved extended velocity dispersion profiles suggests a link between the so-called ‘sigma-drop’ kinematic profile and the presence of rings in lenticular S0 galaxies. Rising dispersion profiles are linked to early-type spirals or dwarf ellipticals for which a rotational component is significant, whereas peaked profiles are tied to featureless giant ellipticals.

     
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  5. Abstract

    We measured high-quality surface brightness fluctuation (SBF) distances for a sample of 63 massive early-type galaxies using the WFC3/IR camera on the Hubble Space Telescope. The median uncertainty on the SBF distance measurements is 0.085 mag, or 3.9% in distance. Achieving this precision at distances of 50–100 Mpc required significant improvements to the SBF calibration and data analysis procedures for WFC3/IR data. Forty-two of the galaxies are from the MASSIVE Galaxy Survey, a complete sample of massive galaxies within ∼100 Mpc; the SBF distances for these will be used to improve the estimates of the stellar and central supermassive black hole masses in these galaxies. Twenty-four of the galaxies are Type Ia supernova hosts, useful for calibrating SN Ia distances for early-type galaxies and exploring possible systematic trends in the peak luminosities. Our results demonstrate that the SBF method is a powerful and versatile technique for measuring distances to galaxies with evolved stellar populations out to 100 Mpc and constraining the local value of the Hubble constant.

     
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  6. null (Ed.)
    ABSTRACT We present the hestia simulation suite: High-resolutions Environmental Simulations of The Immediate Area, a set of cosmological simulations of the Local Group. Initial conditions constrained by the observed peculiar velocity of nearby galaxies are employed to accurately simulate the local cosmography. Halo pairs that resemble the Local Group are found in low resolutions constrained, dark matter only simulations, and selected for higher resolution magneto hydrodynamic simulation using the arepo code. Baryonic physics follows the auriga model of galaxy formation. The simulations contain a high-resolution region of 3–5 Mpc in radius from the Local Group mid-point embedded in the correct cosmographic landscape. Within this region, a simulated Local Group consisting of a Milky Way and Andromeda like galaxy forms, whose description is in excellent agreement with observations. The simulated Local Group galaxies resemble the Milky Way and Andromeda in terms of their halo mass, mass ratio, stellar disc mass, morphology separation, relative velocity, rotation curves, bulge-disc morphology, satellite galaxy stellar mass function, satellite radial distribution, and in some cases, the presence of a Magellanic cloud like object. Because these simulations properly model the Local Group in their cosmographic context, they provide a testing ground for questions where environment is thought to play an important role. 
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  7. null (Ed.)
    Abstract PHANGS-HST is an ultraviolet-optical imaging survey of 38 spiral galaxies within ∼20 Mpc. Combined with the PHANGS-ALMA, PHANGS-MUSE surveys and other multiwavelength data, the dataset will provide an unprecedented look into the connections between young stars, H ii regions, and cold molecular gas in these nearby star-forming galaxies. Accurate distances are needed to transform measured observables into physical parameters (e.g., brightness to luminosity, angular to physical sizes of molecular clouds, star clusters and associations). PHANGS-HST has obtained parallel ACS imaging of the galaxy halos in the F606W and F814W bands. Where possible, we use these parallel fields to derive tip of the red giant branch (TRGB) distances to these galaxies. In this paper, we present TRGB distances for 11 galaxies from ∼4 to ∼15 Mpc, based on the first year of PHANGS-HST observations. Five of these represent the first published TRGB distance measurements (IC 5332, NGC 2835, NGC 4298, NGC 4321, and NGC 4328), and eight of which are the best available distances to these targets. We also provide a compilation of distances for the 118 galaxies in the full PHANGS sample, which have been adopted for the first PHANGS-ALMA public data release. 
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