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 Objective Classification of Spiral Galaxies Having Extended Rotation Curves Beyond the Optical RadiusWe carry out an objective classification of four samples of spiralgalaxies having extended rotation curves beyond the optical radius. Amultivariate statistical analysis (viz., principal component analysis[PCA]) shows that about 96% of the total variation is due to twocomponents, one being the combination of absolute blue magnitude andmaximum rotational velocity beyond the optical region and the otherbeing the central density of the halo. On the basis of PCA a fundamentalplane has been constructed that reduces the scatter in the Tully-Fisherrelation up to a maximum of 16%. A multiple stepwise regression analysisof the variation of the overall shape of the rotation curves shows thatit is mainly determined by the central surface brightness, while theshape purely in the outer part of the galaxy (beyond the optical radius)is mainly determined by the size of the galactic disk. The Hα Galaxy Survey . III. Constraints on supernova progenitors from spatial correlations with Hα emissionAims.We attempt to constrain progenitors of the different types ofsupernovae from their spatial distributions relative to star formationregions in their host galaxies, as traced by Hα + [Nii] lineemission. Methods: .We analyse 63 supernovae which have occurredwithin galaxies from our Hα survey of the local Universe. Threestatistical tests are used, based on pixel statistics, Hα radialgrowth curves, and total galaxy emission-line fluxes. Results:.Many type II supernovae come from regions of low or zero emission lineflux, and more than would be expected if the latter accurately traceshigh-mass star formation. We interpret this excess as a 40% "Runaway"fraction in the progenitor stars. Supernovae of types Ib and Ic doappear to trace star formation activity, with a much higher fractioncoming from the centres of bright star formation regions than is thecase for the type II supernovae. Type Ia supernovae overall show a weakcorrelation with locations of current star formation, but there isevidence that a significant minority, up to about 40%, may be linked tothe young stellar population. The radial distribution of allcore-collapse supernovae (types Ib, Ic and II) closely follows that ofthe line emission and hence star formation in their host galaxies, apartfrom a central deficiency which is less marked for supernovae of typesIb and Ic than for those of type II. Core-collapse supernova ratesoverall are consistent with being proportional to galaxy totalluminosities and star formation rates; however, within this total thetype Ib and Ic supernovae show a moderate bias towards more luminoushost galaxies, and type II supernovae a slight bias towardslower-luminosity hosts. GHASP: an Hα kinematic survey of spiral and irregular galaxies - IV. 44 new velocity fields. Extension, shape and asymmetry of Hα rotation curvesWe present Fabry-Perot observations obtained in the frame of the GHASPsurvey (Gassendi HAlpha survey of SPirals). We have derived the Hαmap, the velocity field and the rotation curve for a new set of 44galaxies. The data presented in this paper are combined with the datapublished in the three previous papers providing a total number of 85 ofthe 96 galaxies observed up to now. This sample of kinematical data hasbeen divided into two groups: isolated (ISO) and softly interacting(SOFT) galaxies. In this paper, the extension of the Hα discs, theshape of the rotation curves, the kinematical asymmetry and theTully-Fisher relation have been investigated for both ISO and SOFTgalaxies. The Hα extension is roughly proportional toR25 for ISO as well as for SOFT galaxies. The smallestextensions of the ionized disc are found for ISO galaxies. The innerslope of the rotation curves is found to be correlated with the centralconcentration of light more clearly than with the type or thekinematical asymmetry, for ISO as well as for SOFT galaxies. The outerslope of the rotation curves increases with the type and with thekinematical asymmetry for ISO galaxies but shows no special trend forSOFT galaxies. No decreasing rotation curve is found for SOFT galaxies.The asymmetry of the rotation curves is correlated with themorphological type, the luminosity, the (B-V) colour and the maximalrotational velocity of galaxies. Our results show that the brightest,the most massive and the reddest galaxies, which are fast rotators, arethe least asymmetric, meaning that they are the most efficient withwhich to average the mass distribution on the whole disc. Asymmetry inthe rotation curves seems to be linked with local star formation,betraying disturbances of the gravitational potential. The Tully-Fisherrelation has a smaller slope for ISO than for SOFT galaxies. Ultraluminous X-Ray Sources in Nearby Galaxies from ROSAT High Resolution Imager Observations I. Data AnalysisX-ray observations have revealed in other galaxies a class ofextranuclear X-ray point sources with X-ray luminosities of1039-1041 ergs s-1, exceeding theEddington luminosity for stellar mass X-ray binaries. Theseultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) may be powered by intermediate-massblack holes of a few thousand Msolar or stellar mass blackholes with special radiation processes. In this paper, we present asurvey of ULXs in 313 nearby galaxies withD25>1' within 40 Mpc with 467 ROSAT HighResolution Imager (HRI) archival observations. The HRI observations arereduced with uniform procedures, refined by simulations that help definethe point source detection algorithm employed in this survey. A sampleof 562 extragalactic X-ray point sources withLX=1038-1043 ergs s-1 isextracted from 173 survey galaxies, including 106 ULX candidates withinthe D25 isophotes of 63 galaxies and 110 ULX candidatesbetween 1D25 and 2D25 of 64 galaxies, from which aclean sample of 109 ULXs is constructed to minimize the contaminationfrom foreground or background objects. The strong connection betweenULXs and star formation is confirmed based on the striking preference ofULXs to occur in late-type galaxies, especially in star-forming regionssuch as spiral arms. ULXs are variable on timescales over days to yearsand exhibit a variety of long term variability patterns. Theidentifications of ULXs in the clean sample show some ULXs identified assupernovae (remnants), H II regions/nebulae, or young massive stars instar-forming regions, and a few other ULXs identified as old globularclusters. In a subsequent paper, the statistic properties of the surveywill be studied to calculate the occurrence frequencies and luminosityfunctions for ULXs in different types of galaxies to shed light on thenature of these enigmatic sources. The Distribution of Bar and Spiral Arm Strengths in Disk GalaxiesThe distribution of bar strengths in disk galaxies is a fundamentalproperty of the galaxy population that has only begun to be explored. Wehave applied the bar-spiral separation method of Buta and coworkers toderive the distribution of maximum relative gravitational bar torques,Qb, for 147 spiral galaxies in the statistically well-definedOhio State University Bright Galaxy Survey (OSUBGS) sample. Our goal isto examine the properties of bars as independently as possible of theirassociated spirals. We find that the distribution of bar strengthdeclines smoothly with increasing Qb, with more than 40% ofthe sample having Qb<=0.1. In the context of recurrent barformation, this suggests that strongly barred states are relativelyshort-lived compared to weakly barred or nonbarred states. We do notfind compelling evidence for a bimodal distribution of bar strengths.Instead, the distribution is fairly smooth in the range0.0<=Qb<0.8. Our analysis also provides a first look atspiral strengths Qs in the OSUBGS sample, based on the sametorque indicator. We are able to verify a possible weak correlationbetween Qs and Qb, in the sense that galaxies withthe strongest bars tend to also have strong spirals. Structure and star formation in disk galaxies. III. Nuclear and circumnuclear Hα emissionFrom Hα images of a carefully selected sample of 57 relativelylarge, Northern spiral galaxies with low inclination, we study thedistribution of the Hα emission in the circumnuclear and nuclearregions. At a resolution of around 100 parsec, we find that the nuclearHα emission in the sample galaxies is often peaked, andsignificantly more often so among AGN host galaxies. The circumnuclearHα emission, within a radius of two kpc, is often patchy inlate-type, and absent or in the form of a nuclear ring in early-typegalaxies. There is no clear correlation of nuclear or circumnuclearHα morphology with the presence or absence of a bar in the hostgalaxy, except for the nuclear rings which occur in barred hosts. Thepresence or absence of close bright companion galaxies does not affectthe circumnuclear Hα morphology, but their presence does correlatewith a higher fraction of nuclear Hα peaks. Nuclear rings occur inat least 21% (±5%) of spiral galaxies, and occur predominantly ingalaxies also hosting an AGN. Only two of our 12 nuclear rings occur ina galaxy which is neither an AGN nor a starburst host. We confirm thatweaker bars host larger nuclear rings. The implications of these resultson our understanding of the occurrence and morphology of massive starformation, as well as non-stellar activity, in the central regions ofgalaxies are discussed. Bar-induced perturbation strengths of the galaxies in the Ohio State University Bright Galaxy Survey - IBar-induced perturbation strengths are calculated for a well-definedmagnitude-limited sample of 180 spiral galaxies, based on the Ohio StateUniversity Bright Galaxy Survey. We use a gravitational torque method,the ratio of the maximal tangential force to the mean axisymmetricradial force, as a quantitative measure of the bar strength. Thegravitational potential is inferred from an H-band light distribution byassuming that the M/L ratio is constant throughout the disc. Galaxiesare deprojected using orientation parameters based on B-band images. Inorder to eliminate artificial stretching of the bulge, two-dimensionalbar-bulge-disc decomposition has been used to derive a reliable bulgemodel. This bulge model is subtracted from an image, the disc isdeprojected assuming it is thin, and then the bulge is added back byassuming that its mass distribution is spherically symmetric. We findthat removing the artificial bulge stretch is important especially forgalaxies having bars inside large bulges. We also find that the massesof the bulges can be significantly overestimated if bars are not takeninto account in the decomposition.Bars are identified using Fourier methods by requiring that the phasesof the main modes (m= 2, m= 4) are maintained nearly constant in the barregion. With such methods, bars are found in 65 per cent of the galaxiesin our sample, most of them being classified as SB-type systems in thenear-infrared by Eskridge and co-workers. We also suggest that as muchas ~70 per cent of the galaxies classified as SAB-types in thenear-infrared might actually be non-barred systems, many of them havingcentral ovals. It is also possible that a small fraction of the SAB-typegalaxies have weak non-classical bars with spiral-like morphologies. GHASP: an Hα kinematic survey of spiral and irregular galaxies - III. 15 new velocity fields and study of 46 rotation curvesWe present Fabry-Pérot observations obtained in the frame of theGHASP survey (Gassendi Hα survey of SPirals). We have derived theHα maps, the velocity fields and the rotation curves for a set of15 galaxies. The data presented in this paper are combined with the datapublished in our two previous papers in order to make a preliminaryanalysis of the rotation curves obtained for 46 galaxies. We check theconsistency of our data with the Tully-Fisher relationship and concludethat our Hα rotation curves reach the maximum velocity in most ofthe cases, even with solid-body rotating galaxies. We find that ourrotation curves, on average, almost reach the isophotal radiusR25. We confirm the trend, already mentioned by Rubin,Waterman & Kenney and Márquez et al., that the maximumextension of the Hα rotation curves increases with the type of thespiral galaxy, up to t~ 7-8 and we find that it decreases for magellanicand irregular galaxies. We also confirm the trend seen by Márquezet al. that later types tend to have lower values of the internal slopeof the rotation curve, in agreement with Rubin et al. A New Nonparametric Approach to Galaxy Morphological ClassificationWe present two new nonparametric methods for quantifying galaxymorphology: the relative distribution of the galaxy pixel flux values(the Gini coefficient or G) and the second-order moment of the brightest20% of the galaxy's flux (M20). We test the robustness of Gand M20 to decreasing signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) and spatialresolution and find that both measures are reliable to within 10% forimages with average S/N per pixel greater than 2 and resolutions betterthan 1000 and 500 pc, respectively. We have measured G andM20, as well as concentration (C), asymmetry (A), andclumpiness (S) in the rest-frame near-ultraviolet/optical wavelengthsfor 148 bright local normal'' Hubble-type galaxies (E-Sd) galaxies, 22dwarf irregulars, and 73 0.05 Inner-truncated Disks in GalaxiesWe present an analysis of the disk brightness profiles of 218 spiral andlenticular galaxies. At least 28% of disk galaxies exhibit innertruncations in these profiles. There are no significant trends oftruncation incidence with Hubble type, but the incidence among barredsystems is 49%, more than 4 times that for nonbarred galaxies. However,not all barred systems have inner truncations, and not allinner-truncated systems are currently barred. Truncations represent areal dearth of disk stars in the inner regions and are not an artifactof our selection or fitting procedures nor the result of obscuration bydust. Disk surface brightness profiles in the outer regions are wellrepresented by simple exponentials for both truncated and nontruncateddisks. However, truncated and nontruncated systems have systematicallydifferent slopes and central surface brightness parameters for theirdisk brightness distributions. Truncation radii do not appear tocorrelate well with the sizes or brightnesses of the bulges. Thissuggests that the low angular momentum material apparently missing fromthe inner disk was not simply consumed in forming the bulge population.Disk parameters and the statistics of bar orientations in our sampleindicate that the missing stars of the inner disk have not simply beenredistributed azimuthally into bar structures. The sharpness of thebrightness truncations and their locations with respect to othergalactic structures suggest that resonances associated with diskkinematics, or tidal interactions with the mass of bulge stars, might beresponsible for this phenomenon. The Hα galaxy survey. I. The galaxy sample, Hα narrow-band observations and star formation parameters for 334 galaxiesWe discuss the selection and observations of a large sample of nearbygalaxies, which we are using to quantify the star formation activity inthe local Universe. The sample consists of 334 galaxies across allHubble types from S0/a to Im and with recession velocities of between 0and 3000 km s-1. The basic data for each galaxy are narrowband H\alpha +[NII] and R-band imaging, from which we derive starformation rates, H\alpha +[NII] equivalent widths and surfacebrightnesses, and R-band total magnitudes. A strong correlation is foundbetween total star formation rate and Hubble type, with the strongeststar formation in isolated galaxies occurring in Sc and Sbc types. Moresurprisingly, no significant trend is found between H\alpha +[NII]equivalent width and galaxy R-band luminosity. More detailed analyses ofthe data set presented here will be described in subsequent papers.Based on observations made with the Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope operatedon the island of La Palma by the Isaac Newton Group in the SpanishObservatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto deAstrofísica de Canarias.The full version of Table \ref{tab3} is available in electronic form atthe CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or viahttp://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/414/23 Reduced image datafor this survey can be downloaded fromhttp://www.astro.livjm.ac.uk/HaGS/ Classifications of the Host Galaxies of Supernovae, Set IIClassifications on the DDO system are given for an additional 231 hostgalaxies of supernovae that have been discovered during the course ofthe Lick Observatory Supernova Search with the Katzman Automatic ImagingTelescope (KAIT). This brings the total number of hosts of supernovae(SNe) discovered (or independently rediscovered) by KAIT, which have sofar been classified on a homogeneous system, to 408. The probabilitythat SNe Ia and SNe II have a different distribution of host-galaxyHubble types is found to be 99.7%. A significant difference is alsofound between the distributions of the host galaxies of SNe Ia and ofSNe Ibc (defined here to include SNe Ib, Ib/c, and Ic). However, nosignificant difference is detected between the frequency distributionsof the host galaxies of SNe II and SNe IIn. This suggests that SNe IInare generally not SNe Ia embedded in circumstellar material that aremasquerading as SNe II. Furthermore, no significant difference is foundbetween the distribution of the Hubble types of the hosts of SNe Ibc andof SNe II. Additionally, SNe II-P and SNe II-L are found to occur amongsimilar stellar populations. The ratio of the number of SNe Ia-pec tonormal SNe Ia appears to be higher in early-type galaxies than it is ingalaxies of later morphological types. This suggests that the ancestorsof SNe Ia-pec may differ systematically in age or composition from theprogenitors of normal SNe Ia. Unexpectedly, five SNe of Types Ib/c, II,and IIn (all of which are thought to have massive progenitors) are foundin host galaxies that are nominally classified as types E and S0.However, in each case the galaxy classification is uncertain, or newlyinspected images show evidence suggesting a later classification. Amongthese five objects, NGC 3720, the host galaxy of SN 2002at, wasapparently misidentified in the Carnegie Atlas of Galaxies. Structure and star formation in disc galaxies - I. Sample selection and near-infrared imagingWe present near-infrared imaging of a sample of 57 relatively large,northern spiral galaxies with low inclination. After describing theselection criteria and some of the basic properties of the sample, wegive a detailed description of the data collection and reductionprocedures. The Ksλ= 2.2-μm images cover most ofthe disc for all galaxies, with a field of view of at least 4.2 arcmin.The spatial resolution is better than 1 arcsec for most images. We fitbulge and exponential disc components to radial profiles of the lightdistribution. We then derive the basic parameters of these components,and the bulge/disc ratio, and explore correlations of these parameterswith several galaxy parameters. The Relationship between Stellar Light Distributions of Galaxies and Their Formation HistoriesA major problem in extragalactic astronomy is the inability todistinguish in a robust, physical, and model-independent way how galaxypopulations are physically related to each other and to their formationhistories. A similar, but distinct, and also long-standing question iswhether the structural appearances of galaxies, as seen through theirstellar light distributions, contain enough physical information tooffer this classification. We argue through the use of 240 images ofnearby galaxies that three model-independent parameters measured on asingle galaxy image reveal its major ongoing and past formation modesand can be used as a robust classification system. These parametersquantitatively measure: the concentration (C), asymmetry (A), andclumpiness (S) of a galaxy's stellar light distribution. When combinedinto a three-dimensional CAS'' volume all major classes of galaxies invarious phases of evolution are cleanly distinguished. We argue thatthese three parameters correlate with important modes of galaxyevolution: star formation and major merging activity. This is arguedthrough the strong correlation of Hα equivalent width andbroadband colors with the clumpiness parameter S, the uniquely largeasymmetries of 66 galaxies undergoing mergers, and the correlation ofbulge to total light ratios, and stellar masses, with the concentrationindex. As an obvious goal is to use this system at high redshifts totrace evolution, we demonstrate that these parameters can be measured,within a reasonable and quantifiable uncertainty with available data outto z~3 using the Hubble Space Telescope GOODS ACS and Hubble Deep Fieldimages. The Contribution of H I-rich Galaxies to the Damped Lyα Absorber Population at z = 0We present a study of the expected properties of the low-redshift dampedLyα absorber population determined from a sample of H I-selectedgalaxies in the local universe. Because of a tight correlation betweenthe H I mass and H I cross section, which we demonstrate spans allgalaxy types, we can use our H I-selected sample to predict theproperties of the absorption-line systems. We use measurements of thenumber density and H I cross section of galaxies to show that the totalH I cross section at column densities sufficient to produce dampedLyα absorption is consistent with no evolution of the absorberpopulation. We also find that the dN/dz distribution is dominated bygalaxies with H I masses near 109 Msolar. However,because of the large dispersion in the correlation between H I mass andstellar luminosity, we find that the distribution of dN/dz as a functionof LJ is fairly flat. In addition, we examine the line widthsof the H I-selected galaxies and show that there may be evolution in thekinematics of H I-rich galaxies, but it is not necessary for the higherredshift population to contain a greater proportion of high-massgalaxies than we find locally. Companions of Bright Barred Shapley-Ames GalaxiesCompanion galaxy environment for a subset of 78 bright and nearby barredgalaxies from the Shapley-Ames Catalog is presented. Among the spiralbarred galaxies, there are Seyfert galaxies, galaxies with circumnuclearstructures, galaxies not associated with any large-scale galaxy cloudstructure, galaxies with peculiar disk morphology (crooked arms), andgalaxies with normal disk morphology; the list includes all Hubbletypes. The companion galaxy list includes the number of companiongalaxies within 20 diameters, their Hubble type, and projectedseparation distance. In addition, the companion environment was searchedfor four known active spiral galaxies, three of them are Seyfertgalaxies, namely, NGC 1068, NGC 1097, and NGC 5548, and one is astarburst galaxy, M82. Among the results obtained, it is noted that theonly spiral barred galaxy classified as Seyfert 1 in our list has nocompanions within a projected distance of 20 diameters; six out of 10Seyfert 2 bar galaxies have no companions within 10 diameters, six outof 10 Seyfert 2 galaxies have one or more companions at projectedseparation distances between 10 and 20 diameters; six out of 12 galaxieswith circumnuclear structures have two or more companions within 20diameters. Molecular gas in the central regions of the latest-type spiral galaxiesUsing the IRAM 30 >m telescope, we have surveyed an unbiased sampleof 47 nearby spiral galaxies of very late (Scd-Sm) Hubble-type foremission in the 12CO(1-0) and (2-1) lines. The sensitivity ofour data (a few mK) allows detection of about 60% of our sample in atleast one of the CO lines. The median detected H2 mass is1.4x 107 >msun within the central few kpc, assuming astandard conversion factor. We use the measured line intensities tocomplement existing studies of the molecular gas content of spiralgalaxies as a function of Hubble-type and to significantly improve thestatistical significance of such studies at the late end of the spiralsequence. We find that the latest-type spirals closely follow thecorrelation between molecular gas content and galaxy luminosityestablished for earlier Hubble types. The molecular gas in late-typegalaxies seems to be less centrally concentrated than in earlier types.We use Hubble Space Telescope optical images to correlate the moleculargas mass to the properties of the central galaxy disk and the compactstar cluster that occupies the nucleus of most late-type spirals. Thereis no clear correlation between the luminosity of the nuclear starcluster and the molecular gas mass, although the CO detection rate ishighest for the brightest clusters. It appears that the central surfacebrightness of the stellar disk is an important parameter for the amountof molecular gas at the galaxy center. Whether stellar bars play acritical role for the gas dynamics remains unclear, in part because ofuncertainties in the morphological classifications of our sample. Galaxy classification using fractal signatureFractal geometry is becoming increasingly important in the study ofimage characteristics. For recognition of regions and objects in naturalscenes, there is always a need for features that are invariant and theyprovide a good set of descriptive values for the region. There are manyfractal features that can be generated from an image. In this paper,fractal signatures of nearby galaxies are studied with the aim ofclassifying them. The fractal signature over a range of scales proved tobe an efficient feature set with good discriminating power. Classifierswere designed using nearest neighbour method and neural networktechnique. Using the nearest distance approach, classification rate wasfound to be 92%. By the neural network method it has been found toincrease to 95%. Supernova 2002bu in NGC 4242IAUC 7923 available at Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams. Supernova 2002bu in NGC 4242IAUC 7864 available at Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams. Supernova 2002bu in NGC 4242IAUC 7863 available at Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams. GHASP: A 3-D Survey of Spiral and Irregular Galaxies at HαNot Available Bar Galaxies and Their EnvironmentsThe prints of the Palomar Sky Survey, luminosity classifications, andradial velocities were used to assign all northern Shapley-Ames galaxiesto either (1) field, (2) group, or (3) cluster environments. Thisinformation for 930 galaxies shows no evidence for a dependence of barfrequency on galaxy environment. This suggests that the formation of abar in a disk galaxy is mainly determined by the properties of theparent galaxy, rather than by the characteristics of its environment. The UZC-SSRS2 Group CatalogWe apply a friends-of-friends algorithm to the combined Updated ZwickyCatalog and Southern Sky Redshift Survey to construct a catalog of 1168groups of galaxies; 411 of these groups have five or more members withinthe redshift survey. The group catalog covers 4.69 sr, and all groupsexceed the number density contrast threshold, δρ/ρ=80. Wedemonstrate that the groups catalog is homogeneous across the twounderlying redshift surveys; the catalog of groups and their membersthus provides a basis for other statistical studies of the large-scaledistribution of groups and their physical properties. The medianphysical properties of the groups are similar to those for groupsderived from independent surveys, including the ESO Key Programme andthe Las Campanas Redshift Survey. We include tables of groups and theirmembers. Neutral hydrogen and optical observations of edge-on galaxies: Hunting for warpsWe present 21-cm HI line and optical R-band observations for a sample of26 edge-on galaxies. The HI observations were obtained with theWesterbork Synthesis Radio Telescope, and are part of the WHISP database(Westerbork HI Survey of Spiral and Irregular Galaxies). We present HImaps, optical images, and radial HI density profiles. We have alsoderived the rotation curves and studied the warping and lopsidedness ofthe HI disks. 20 out of the 26 galaxies of our sample are warped,confirming that warping of the HI disks is a very common phenomenon indisk galaxies. Indeed, we find that all galaxies that have an extendedHI disk with respect to the optical are warped. The warping usuallystarts around the edge of the optical disk. The degree of warping variesconsiderably from galaxy to galaxy. Furthermore, many warps areasymmetric, as they show up in only one side of the disk or exhibitlarge differences in amplitude in the approaching and receding sides ofthe galaxy. These asymmetries are more pronounced in rich environments,which may indicate that tidal interactions are a source of warpasymmetry. A rich environment tends to produce larger warps as well. Thepresence of lopsidedness seems to be related to the presence of nearbycompanions. Full Fig. 13 is only available in electronic form athttp://www.edpsciences.org The Westerbork HI survey of spiral and irregular galaxies. II. R-band surface photometry of late-type dwarf galaxiesR-band surface photometry is presented for 171 late-type dwarf andirregular galaxies. For a subsample of 46 galaxies B-band photometry ispresented as well. We present surface brightness profiles as well asisophotal and photometric parameters including magnitudes, diameters andcentral surface brightnesses. Absolute photometry is accurate to 0.1 magor better for 77% of the sample. For over 85% of the galaxies the radialsurface brightness profiles are consistent with published data withinthe measured photometric uncertainty. For most of the galaxies in thesample H I data have been obtained with the Westerbork Synthesis RadioTelescope. The galaxies in our sample are part of the WHISP project(Westerbork H I Survey of Spiral and Irregular Galaxies), which aims atmapping about 500 nearby spiral and irregular galaxies in H I. Theavailability of H I data makes this data set useful for a wide range ofstudies of the structure, dark matter content and kinematics oflate-type dwarf galaxies. Based on observations made with INT operatedon the island of La Palma by the Isaac Newton Group in the SpanishObservatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofisicade Canarias. The tables in Appendix A are only available in electronicform at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5)or via http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/390/863. Thefigures in Appendix B are only available in electronic formhttp://www.edpsciences.org The Westerbork HI survey of spiral and irregular galaxies. I. HI imaging of late-type dwarf galaxiesNeutral hydrogen observations with the Westerbork Synthesis RadioTelescope are presented for a sample of 73 late-type dwarf galaxies.These observations are part of the WHISP project (Westerbork H I Surveyof Spiral and Irregular Galaxies). Here we present H I maps, velocityfields, global profiles and radial surface density profiles of H I, aswell as H I masses, H I radii and line widths. For the late-typegalaxies in our sample, we find that the ratio of H I extent to opticaldiameter, defined as 6.4 disk scale lengths, is on average 1.8 +/- 0.8,similar to that seen in spiral galaxies. Most of the dwarf galaxies inthis sample are rich in H I, with a typical Mion {Hi}/L_B of1.5. The relative H I content M_ion {HI}/L_R increases towards fainterabsolute magnitudes and towards fainter surface brightnesses. Dwarfgalaxies with lower average H I column densities also have lower averageoptical surface brightnesses. We find that lopsidedness is as commonamong dwarf galaxies as it is in spiral galaxies. About half of thedwarf galaxies in our sample have asymmetric global profiles, a thirdhas a lopsided H I distribution, and about half shows signs of kinematiclopsidedness. Dwarf galaxy rotation curves and the core problem of dark matter haloesThe standard cold dark matter (CDM) model has recently been challengedby the claim that dwarf galaxies have dark matter haloes withconstant-density cores, whereas CDM predicts haloes with steeply cuspeddensity distributions. Consequently, numerous alternative dark mattercandidates have recently been proposed. In this paper we scrutinize theobservational evidence for the incongruity between dwarf galaxies andthe CDM model. To this end, we analyse the rotation curves of 20late-type dwarf galaxies studied by Swaters. Taking the effects of beamsmearing and adiabatic contraction into account, we fit mass models tothese rotation curves with dark matter haloes with different cuspslopes, ranging from constant-density cores to r-2 cusps.Even though the effects of beam smearing are small for these data, theuncertainties in the stellar mass-to-light ratio and the limited spatialsampling of the halo's density distribution hamper a unique massdecomposition. Consequently, the rotation curves in our sample cannot beused to discriminate between dark haloes with constant-density cores andr-1 cusps. We show that the dwarf galaxies analysed here areconsistent with CDM haloes in a ΛCDM cosmology, and that there isthus no need to abandon the idea that dark matter is cold andcollisionless. However, the data are also consistent with anyalternative dark matter model that produces dark matter haloes withcentral cusps less steep than r-1.5. In fact, we argue thatbased on existing Hi rotation curves alone, at best weak limits can beobtained on cosmological parameters and/or the nature of the darkmatter. In order to make progress, rotation curves with higher spatialresolution and independent measurements of the mass-to-light ratio ofthe disc are required. Arm and Interarm Star Formation in Spiral GalaxiesWe present an outline of our study of the effects of star formation onthe different components of the interstellar medium in the discs ofspiral galaxies, both globally and as a function of arm and interarmenvironment. We are in the process of obtaining images of 57 spiralgalaxies at low inclinations, and analysing them to study thedistribution of recent massive star formation, old stars, young stars,gas and dust. We will dissect the images into arm and interarm regionsand compare and contrast the morphology and scale lengths within theseregions in H_α, HI, the near infrared, optical and (whereavailable) CO. Modelling will show how the scale lengths are affected bystar formation, how this differs between arms and interarms, and whetherthe Schmidt Law varies from the global values in the arm and interarmregions. A Young Stellar Cluster in the Nucleus of NGC 4449We have obtained 1-2 Å resolution optical echellette spectra ofthe nuclear star cluster in the nearby starburst galaxy NGC 4449. Thelight is clearly dominated by a very young (6-10 Myr) population ofstars. For our age dating, we have used recent population synthesismodels to interpret the observed equivalent width of stellar absorptionfeatures such as the H I Balmer series and the Ca II triplet around 8500Å. We also compare the observed spectrum of the nuclear clusterwith synthesized spectra for stellar populations of varying ages. Allthese approaches yield a consistent cluster age. Metallicity estimatesbased on the relative intensities of various ionization lines yield noevidence for significant enrichment in the center of this low-massgalaxy: the metallicity of the nuclear cluster is about one-fourth ofthe solar value, in agreement with independent estimates for the diskmaterial of NGC 4449.
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