University of Groningen The influence of the environment on the evolution of galaxies Sikkema, Geert IMPORTANT NOTE: You are advised to consult the publisher's version (publisher's PDF) if you wish to cite from it. Please check the document version below. Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Publication date: 2009 Link to publication in University of Groningen/UMCG research database Citation for published version (APA): Sikkema, G. (2009). The influence of the environment on the evolution of galaxies. s.n. Copyright Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). The publication may also be distributed here under the terms of Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act, indicated by the “Taverne” license. More information can be found on the University of Groningen website: https://www.rug.nl/library/open-access/self-archiving-pure/taverne- amendment. Take-down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Downloaded from the University of Groningen/UMCG research database (Pure): http://www.rug.nl/research/portal. For technical reasons the number of authors shown on this cover page is limited to 10 maximum. Download date: 07-10-2021 The Influence of the Environment on the Evolution of Galaxies Proefschrift ter verkrijging van het doctoraat in de Wiskunde en Natuurwetenschappen aan de Rijksuniversiteit Groningen op gezag van de Rector Magnificus, dr. F. Zwarts, in het openbaar te verdedigen op vrijdag 13 maart 2009 om 13.15 uur door Geert Sikkema geboren op 19 maart 1973 Delfzijl Promotores: Prof. dr. R. F. Peletier Prof. dr. E. A. Valentijn Beoordelingscommissie: Prof. dr. D. Carter Prof. dr. S. Trager Dr. M. Balcells ISBN 978-90-367-3749-4 ISBN 978-90-367-3748-7 (electronic version) If you think you understand quan- tum physics you don’t understand quantum physics. –Richard Feynman Cover page: Drawing by Gert Sikkema Contact information: Gert Sikkema [email protected] Contents 1 Introduction 9 1.1 Background . 10 1.1.1 Morphology and evolution of galaxies . 10 1.1.2 Bars in disk dominated galaxies . 11 1.1.3 Shell galaxies . 13 1.1.4 Globular cluster systems . 14 1.2 This Thesis . 15 1.2.1 Part I: Galaxy properties as a function of environment . 15 1.2.2 Part II: HST ACS observations of six shell galaxies . 16 2 Environmental Influences on the Evolution of Galaxies 17 2.1 Introduction . 18 2.2 Observations . 19 2.2.1 Targets . 19 2.3 Data Reduction . 21 2.3.1 The Calibration Pipeline . 24 2.3.2 Photometric Calibrations . 26 2.3.3 Image Pipeline . 28 2.4 Data Analysis . 29 2.4.1 Source catalogues . 29 2.4.2 Source Selections . 30 2.4.3 Galaxy Density Calculations. 32 2.4.4 Structural/Morphological parameters . 36 2.4.5 Sample Definitions . 40 2.4.6 Classification . 43 2.5 Results . 46 2.5.1 Classification vs. parameters . 46 2.5.2 Morphology Density Relation . 46 2.5.3 Parameters as a function of environment . 47 2.5.4 Colour Selected subsamples: red spirals and blue ellipticals . 49 2.6 Discussion . 51 2.6.1 Suppression of star formation . 51 2.6.2 Origin of S0s . 54 vi CONTENTS 2.6.3 The red spirals . 55 2.7 Summary . 56 3 Bars in large scale structures at z=0.11 ± 0.02 59 3.1 Introduction . 59 3.2 Data Analysis . 61 3.2.1 Detection of bars . 61 3.3 Results . 64 3.3.1 Bars . 64 3.4 Discussion . 65 3.4.1 Bar frequencies in previous studies . 66 3.4.2 Environmental related bar frequency in spirals vs. bar formation theories . 67 3.4.3 Bars in S0s . 68 3.5 Summary . 68 4 HST/ACS observations of shell galaxies. 71 4.1 Introduction . 72 4.2 Observations and Data Reduction . 73 4.3 Data Analysis . 75 4.3.1 Global parameters . 75 4.3.2 Shell radii . 76 4.3.3 Shell fluxes . 76 4.3.4 Shell colours . 79 4.3.5 Galaxy colours . 79 4.3.6 Shell radial profiles . 80 4.4 Notes on the individual systems . 81 4.4.1 NGC 474 . 81 4.4.2 NGC 1344 . 84 4.4.3 NGC 2865 . 84 4.4.4 NGC 3923 . 86 4.4.5 NGC 5982 . 86 4.4.6 NGC 7626 . 87 4.5 General results . 89 4.5.1 Shell radial distributions . 89 4.5.2 Shell brightness profiles . 90 4.5.3 Shell colours . 91 4.5.4 Dust in the centres of shell galaxies . 92 4.5.5 Dust origin . 93 4.6 Summary . 95 Appendix 4.A Results for NGC 474 . 96 Appendix 4.B Results for NGC 1344 . 100 Appendix 4.C Results for NGC 2865. 104 Appendix 4.D Results for NGC 3923 . 107 Appendix 4.E Results for NGC 5982 . 111 Appendix 4.F Results for NGC 7626 . 114 CONTENTS vii 5 Globular Clusters of Shell Galaxies 119 5.1 Introduction . 119 5.2 Observations and Data Reduction . 122 5.3 Data Analysis . 124 5.3.1 GALPHOT . 124 5.3.2 Globular cluster candidates . 125 5.3.3 Photometry . 126 5.3.4 Completeness . 126 5.3.5 Photometric errors and aperture selection . 126 5.3.6 Selection of GCCs . 127 5.4 V-I distributions and spatial distributions . 130 5.4.1 V-I distributions . 130 5.4.2 Components of the colour distributions. 131 5.4.3 Spatial distributions of the globular clusters . 132 5.4.4 Globular cluster surface densities . 136 5.5 Globular cluster luminosity function in I . 137 5.5.1 Determination . 140 5.5.2 GCLF as a distance estimator for NGC 1344 and NGC 3923 . 140 5.5.3 Total numbers of GCs . 140 5.6 Total number of globular clusters and specific frequencies . 142 5.7 Discussion . 143 5.7.1 The shell galaxies . 143 5.7.2 Comparison of the GC systems with normal ellipticals . 144 5.7.3 Possible evidence for recent GC formation in NGC 7626 and NGC 2865 . 147 5.7.4 Ages and minor mergers. 148 5.8 Conclusions . 149 Bibliography 151 Nederlandse samenvatting 163 Acknowledgements 175 Chapter 1 Introduction New discoveries in astronomy depend very much on improvements in technology, begin- ning of course with the invention and astronomical usage of the telescope, now about 400 years ago. Since then, the telescopes have grown dramatically in size, allowing to detect fainter sources. This culminated in the construction of the 5m Hale telescope, which was completed in 1948. For 45 years, this was the best optical telescope on earth. Building larger mirrors, with the correct shape was impossible, since their huge weight caused unacceptable deformations. In the 1980s, engineers had developed new building techniques and materials, which allowed the construction of a much larger class of telescopes. They introduced light-weight mirrors that keep their shape using active optics: this technology continuously adjusts the shape of the mirror by using actuators behind it. This resulted in a class of ≈ 10m telescopes with segmented mirrors like Keck, GTC and SALT. Slightly smaller, but consisting of single mirrors, are the 8m class telescopes like VLT, Subaru and Gemini. This development has not stopped yet and the nearby future promises the realisation of 25m class telescopes or even larger: the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT, 42m), Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT, 30m) and the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT, 25m). These will all have segmented mirrors. The space era has brought many telescopes beyond the Earth’s atmosphere, notably the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), providing an undisturbed view of the Universe ∗. Meanwhile, also the detection methods have been improved, making it possible to detect fainter sources with the same telescope as well as.