The Faint End of the Centaurus a Satellite Luminosity Function
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Draft version January 14, 2019 Typeset using LATEX twocolumn style in AASTeX62 The faint end of the Centaurus A satellite luminosity function D. Crnojevic,´ 1,2 D. J. Sand,3 P. Bennet,2 S. Pasetto,4,1 K. Spekkens,5 N. Caldwell,6 P. Guhathakurta,7 B. McLeod,6 A. Seth,8 J. D. Simon,4 J. Strader,9 and E. Toloba10 1University of Tampa, 401 West Kennedy Boulevard, Tampa, FL 33606, USA 2Department of Physics & Astronomy, Texas Tech University, Box 41051, Lubbock, TX 79409-1051, USA 3Department of Astronomy and Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, 933 N Cherry Ave, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA 4Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science, 813 Santa Barbara Street, Pasadena, CA 91101, USA 5Department of Physics and Space Science, Royal Military College of Canada, Box 17000, Station Forces, Kingston, ON K7L 7B4, Canada 6Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA 7Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, UCO/Lick Observatory, University of California Santa Cruz, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA 8Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA 9Department of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA 10Department of Physics, University of the Pacific, 3601 Pacific Avenue, Stockton, CA 95211, USA ABSTRACT The Panoramic Imaging Survey of Centaurus and Sculptor (PISCeS) is constructing a wide-field map of the resolved stellar populations in the extended halos of these two nearby, prominent galaxies. We present new Magellan/Megacam imaging of a ∼ 3 deg2 area around Centaurus A (Cen A), which filled in much of our coverage to its south, leaving a nearly complete halo map out to a projected radius of ∼150 kpc and allowing us to identify two new resolved dwarf galaxies. We have additionally obtained deep Hubble Space Telescope (HST) optical imaging of eleven out of the thirteen candidate dwarf galaxies identified around Cen A and presented in Crnojevi´cet al. (2016b): seven are confirmed to be satellites of Cen A, while four are found to be background galaxies. We derive accurate distances, structural parameters, luminosities and photometric metallicities for the seven candidates confirmed by our HST/ACS imaging. We further study the stellar population along the ∼60 kpc long (in projection) stream associated with Dw3, which likely had an initial brightness of MV ∼−15 and shows evidence for a metallicity gradient along its length. Using the total sample of eleven dwarf satellites discovered by the PISCeS survey, as well as thirteen brighter previously known satellites of Cen A, we present a revised galaxy luminosity function for the Cen A group down to a limiting magnitude of MV ∼ −8, which has a slope of −1.14 ± 0.17, comparable to that seen in the Local Group and in other nearby groups of galaxies. Keywords: galaxies: dwarf — galaxies: evolution — galaxies: halos — groups: individual (CenA) — galaxies: luminosity function — galaxies: photometry arXiv:1809.05103v2 [astro-ph.GA] 10 Jan 2019 1. INTRODUCTION matter halos (e.g., Springel et al. 2006), and many de- Observations on large scales (&10 Mpc) are consis- tailed galaxy properties are now reproduced in dark tent with a Universe dominated by dark energy and matter simulations that include the effects of bary- Cold Dark Matter, along with a small baryonic com- onic physics (e.g., Vogelsberger et al. 2014). However, ponent (e.g., Planck Collaboration et al. 2016). Within on scales comparable to and below the size of indi- this Λ+Cold Dark Matter (ΛCDM) model for struc- vidual galaxy halos (.1 Mpc), significant challenges ture formation, galaxies grow hierarchically within dark to the ΛCDM framework have been raised (for a re- cent review, see Bullock & Boylan-Kolchin 2017), in- cluding the ‘missing satellites problem’ (Moore et al. Corresponding author: D. Crnojevi´c 1999; Klypin et al. 1999), the ‘too big to fail’ problem [email protected] (Boylan-Kolchin et al. 2011), and the apparent planes of 2 Crnojevic´ et al. satellites around nearby galaxies (e.g., Pawlowski et al. prehensive red giant branch (RGB) star map of Cen A’s 2012; Pawlowski & Kroupa 2013; Ibata et al. 2013; halo, highlighting new streams, dwarfs galaxies, and M¨uller et al. 2018a). other halo substructures (Crnojevi´cet al. 2016b). Our Significant progress has been made in addressing work represents the most complete census of the halo the small-scale challenges to the ΛCDM paradigm on stellar populations and the satellites within ∼ 150 kpc both the theoretical and observational fronts. Numer- of Cen A. Here we present two new dwarf galaxy can- ical simulations that include a sophisticated treatment didates from our 2017 observing season, which focused of baryonic physics show improved comparisons with on extending the spatial coverage of the survey to the dwarf galaxies in the Local Group (e.g., Brooks et al. south of Cen A. We also present Hubble Space Tele- 2013; Sawala et al. 2016; Wetzel et al. 2016), while a scope (HST) follow-up of 11 dwarf galaxy candidates, critical assessment of the completeness limit of cur- along with a detailed look at a disrupting dwarf galaxy rent searches for dwarf galaxies around the Milky Way and its associated stellar stream. HST follow-up of (MW) indicate that the ’missing satellites problem’ our ground-based discoveries allows for improved dis- is not as severe as initially thought (Koposov et al. tance, structural parameters, and luminosity measure- 2008; Tollerud et al. 2008; Hargis et al. 2014; Kim et al. ments, and, in some cases, is necessary for determining 2017). Meanwhile, further Local Group dwarf galaxy whether the PISCeS ground-based candidates are indeed discoveries (e.g. most recently Drlica-Wagner et al. dwarf galaxies at the distance of Cen A. Based on the 2016; Torrealba et al. 2018; Koposov et al. 2018) add results from these HST data and our continuing ground- to the current total and point to a rich bounty of new based campaign, we provide a preliminary estimate of satellites in the era of the Large Synoptic Survey Tele- the dwarf galaxy luminosity function (LF) of Cen A to scope. compare with those calculated for other Local Volume To fully test the ΛCDM paradigm on sub-galactic groups of galaxies. Throughout this work, we assume a scales, however, we must also look beyond the Local Cen A distance of D=3.8 Mpc (Harris 2010). Group to measure dwarf and other substructure prop- erties around primary halos with different masses, mor- 2. THE PISCES SURVEY phologies and environments. Recent progress has been We begin by briefly describing the PISCeS survey as made in several nearby systems using deep, wide-field it pertains to Cen A. For more details on our survey imaging (e.g., Chiboucas et al. 2009; Sand et al. 2014, strategy and observational methods, see Crnojevi´cet al. 2015a; Crnojevi´cet al. 2014a, 2016b; Carlin et al. 2016; (2014a, 2016b), and for our preliminary results around Toloba et al. 2016; Bennet et al. 2017; Carrillo et al. the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 253, see Sand et al. (2014) 2017; Danieli et al. 2017; Smercina et al. 2017, 2018), and Toloba et al. (2016). as well as wide-field spectroscopy (Geha et al. 2017). The ultimate observational goal of PISCeS is to im- Searches for isolated dwarf galaxies provide further con- age the halos of Cen A and NGC 253 in the Sculptor straints on reionization effects and on galaxy formation group out to a projected radius of D∼150 kpc, deep mechanisms, for instance in the absence of tidal and ram enough to resolve ∼1–2 mag below the tip of the red pressure stripping (Sand et al. 2015b; Tollerud et al. giant branch (limiting magnitudes: g, r≈26-26.5 mag). 2015; Janesh et al. 2017; Tollerud & Peek 2018). The data of this areal coverage is comparable to that of Centaurus A (Cen A) is the closest accessible elliptical the Pan-Andromeda Archaeological Survey of M31 (e.g., galaxy, and it is the central galaxy of a relatively rich McConnachie et al. 2009), though three magnitudes less group (e.g., Karachentsev et al. 2007). We have thus deep in absolute magnitude. This allows for direct com- chosen Cen A as one of the targets of our Panoramic parison of the satellite and substructure properties be- Imaging Survey of Centaurus and Sculptor (PISCeS), tween the Cen A and M31 systems, and extends our a wide-field imaging survey using the Megacam imager general knowledge of substructure to new systems and at the Magellan Clay telescope. One of the principal environments. goals of PISCeS is to identify new, faint dwarf galaxies To image the outer halo of Cen A, we mosaic indi- around Cen A and around the spiral Sculptor (NGC 253; vidual pointings of the Megacam imager (McLeod et al. located in a loose group of galaxies) by imaging their 2015) on the Magellan Clay telescope. Megacam has resolved stellar populations and compare the properties a ∼24’×24’ field of view, and a typical pointing is ob- of these dwarfs to those of Local Group and simulated served for 6×300 s in each of the g and r bands. The dwarfs. In previous work around Cen A, we have high- data are reduced in a standard way by the Smithso- lighted a pair of faint satellites at D≈90 kpc in projec- nian Astrophysical Observatory Telescope Data Center tion (Crnojevi´cet al. 2014a), and have presented a com- (see McLeod et al. 2015; Crnojevi´cet al. 2016b, for fur- Faint satellites of Centaurus A 3 ther details), and point-spread function (PSF) photom- Sect. 4.2), we rename those Dw10-C16 to Dw13-C16 etry is performed on the stacked final images using the (from the original Crnojevi´cet al.