The case is outlined for a new galaxy survey, including spectroscopy with AAOmega and sub-arcsecond multi-band imaging, that bridges a crucial gap between the SDSS and VVDS surveys. The science focus is to study structure and the relationship between matter and light on kpc-to-Mpc scales. The range of scales probed will enable direct constraints on the Cold Dark Matter model by: (1) measuring the halo mass function down to and its evolution to z ~ 0.4; (2) measuring the galaxy stellar mass function to very low mass limits of constraining baryonic feedback processes; and (3) quantifying the environment-dependent merger rate since z ~ 0.4. Here, we highlight the fact that the high-resolution imaging will enable the bulge-disk decomposition of ~200000 galaxies in u–K, providing a valuable resource for statistical studies of bulge properties.

To study the distribution of star formation and dust emission within nearby galaxies, we measured five morphological parameters in the 24 μm wave band for 73 galaxies observed as part of the Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxies Survey. The morphological parameters demonstrate strong variations along the Hubble sequence, including statistically significant differences between S0/a-Sab and Sc-Sd galaxies. Early-type spiral galaxies are generally found to be compact, centralized, symmetric sources in the 24 μm band, whereas late-type spiral galaxies are generally found to be extended, asymmetric 24 μm sources. These results suggest that processes that increase the real or apparent sizes of galaxies' bulges also lead to more centralized 24 μm emission.

High-resolution seeing limited and adaptive optics near-infrared imaging observations of the stellar cluster within about one parsec of the massive black hole Sagittarius A* allow us to obtain a detailed picture of the structure of the nuclear star cluster of the Milky Way. We find that the stellar number counts and the diffuse light of the unresolved stellar population can be described very well by a stellar density function in the form of a broken-power law. This agrees well with theoretical predictions on the structure of a dynamically relaxed star cluster around a massive black hole. However, the cusp slope is found to be too shallow, which may be related to mixing of different stellar populations and continuous star formation, phenomena that are not taken into account by current theory. Mass densities larger than 107 solar masses per pc3 are reached within 0.1 pc of the central black hole. Intriguingly, up to several tens of percent of the total cluster mass in the central parsec may be in the form of dark stellar remnants.

We present a study of the structure of the Galactic Bulge in the region −6° < b < 3°,−17° < l < 17° using 2MASS archive data. More than 100 fields are used. We make use of the red clump method to derive the distance of the Bulge in the studied regions. We derive a position angle of the Galactic Bulge going from 42° ± 11 to 35° ± 10 depending on the adopted bulge mass distribution.

We present extensive photometric and spectroscopic study to give a new insight in the bulge stellar population. Super-solar α/Fe and its constant value along the radial profile, in most of the galaxies, suggest that the star formation in these objects has been fast and occurred at the same time in the whole bulge.

The dynamics of a barred galaxy depends on the pattern speed of its bar. The only direct method for measuring the pattern speed of a bar is the Tremaine-Weinberg technique. This method is best suited to the analysis of the distribution and dynamics of the stellar component. Therefore it has been mostly used for early-type barred galaxies. Most of them host a classical bulge. On the other hand, a variety of indirect methods, which are based on the analysis of the distribution and dynamics of the gaseous component, has been used to measure the bar pattern speed in late-type barred galaxies. Nearly all the measured bars are as rapidly rotating as they can be. By comparing this result with high-resolution numerical simulations of bars in dark matter halos, it is possible to conclude that these bars reside in maximal disks.

In order to investigate how the growth of galactic bulges is accompanied with the growth of central black holes (BHs), we observed molecular gas (fuel for the coming star formation) in possibly young active galaxies, narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies (NLS1s). We present the results of pilot observations of 12CO (1→0) line using the Nobeyama Millimeter Array for two FIR-bright NLS1s, ending in the first detection of their CO emission. Corresponding molecular-gas masses M(H2) of (1−3)×109M⊙ are the 2nd and 4th largest ones among NLS1s. Together with CO data for other NLS1s (including our sub-kpc observations) and for broad-line Seyfert 1 galaxies (BLS1s), we found that NLS1s and BLS1s contain a similar amount of molecular–gas. We do not see a significant difference in M(H2)/MBH ratios and in M(H2)/Mbulge ratios between NLS1s and BLS1s. The lack of a clear difference in M(H2) between them indicates either that bulge and BH growth phases are not overlapped or that the duration of star formation is much longer than that of active galaxies.

In 2004 the Sagittarius Window Eclipsing Extrasolar Planet Search (SWEEPS) project undertook a very deep ACS/WFC exposure-set of the Sgr-I low-reddening window in the Galactic Bulge, with repeat observations 2.04 years later. The combination of superb first-epoch sampling, wide field of view and high PSF stability of ACS/WFC on Hubble allows proper motions to be extracted for more than 137,000 objects, over 85,000 to accuracy better than 0.3 mas yr−1. We present these proper motions and outline some of the uses to which they have been put, including the separation of a pure-Bulge sample and the inner Galactic rotation curve.

In this work, using the database of the university of Michigan Radio Astronomy Observatory (UMRAO), we determined the brightness temperatures, TB for a sample of 167 radio sources. The value of TB is in a range of log TB(K) = 10.46 to 20.08, which suggested that the boosting factors are in a range of δ = 0.41 to 41.26.

Recently a new approach was presented where astronomical objects as galaxies and clusters are idealized as self-gravitating systems living in a universe endowed with more than 3+1 dimensions. A such paradigm, named GEDi (Gravitation with Extra Dimensions), may solve exactly the missing mass problem for rotation curves of galaxies or gravitational lensing of clusters with no dark matter particles. Here we present an introductory discussion about the construction of a real galaxy using a Miyamoto-Nagai solution for isotropical coordinates to mimic spiral galaxies with bulges.

High redshift galaxies play a key role in our developing understanding of galaxy formation and evolution. Since such galaxies are being studied within a Gyr of the big bang, they provide a unique probe of the physics of one of the first generations of large-scale star-formation. We have performed a complete statistical study of the physical properties of a robust sample of z~5 UV luminous galaxies selected using the Lyman-break technique. The characteristic properties of this sample differ from LBGs at z~3 of comparable luminosity in that they are a factor of ten less massive (~few×109 M⊙) and the majority (~70%) are considerably younger (<100Myr). Our results support no more than a modest decline in the global star formation rate density at high redshifts and suggest that ~1% of the stellar mass density of the universe had already assembled at z~5. The constraint derived for the latter is affected by their young ages and short duty cycles which imply existing z~5 LBG samples may be highly incomplete. These intense starbursts have high unobscured star formation rate surface densities (~100s M⊙ yr−1 kpc−2), suggesting they drive outflows and winds that enrich the intra- and inter-galactic media with metals. These properties imply that the majority of z~5 LBGs are in formation meaning that most of their star-formation has likely occurred during the last few crossing times. They are experiencing their first (few) generations of large-scale star formation and are accumulating their first significant stellar mass. As such, z~5 LBGs are the likely progenitors of the spheroidal components of present-day massive galaxies (supported by their high stellar mass surface densities and their core phase-space densities).

Japan Astrometry Satellite Mission for Infrared Exploration (JASMINE) aims to construct a map of the Galactic bulge with 10 μ arc sec accuracy. We use z-band CCD for avoiding dust absorption, and observe about 10 × 20 degrees area around the Galactic bulge region. Because the stellar density is very high, each FOVs can be combined with high accuracy. With 5 years observation, we will construct 10 μ arc sec accurate map.

In this poster, I will show the observation strategy, design of JASMINE hardware, reduction scheme, and error budget. We also construct simulation software named JASMINE Simulator. We also show the simulation results and design of software.

The core structure of early-type galaxies is revisited in light of recent results from the ACS Virgo and Fornax Cluster Surveys. These surveys are comprised of HST/ACS g, z band images for a representative sample of 143 early-type galaxies, spanning a factor 720 in B-band luminosity. The data indicates a clear transition in the core structure going from the brightest to the faintest galaxies. In contrast to previous claims, however, this transition is found to be a continuous function of galaxy magnitude. We characterize the core structure in terms of deviations of the observed surface brightness profile – measured within ~ 2% of the galaxy effective radius – relative to the inner extrapolation of the Sérsic law that best fits the profiles on larger scales. Virtually all galaxies fainter than MB ~ −20 mag contain distinct stellar nuclei, and are described by surface brightness profiles that lie above the Sérsic extrapolation, while the reverse is true for brighter galaxies. The latter are also known to host supermassive black holes. A relation between SBHs and stellar nuclei is suggested by the fact that both types of “central massive objects” contain the same fraction, 0.2% of the total mass of the host galaxy.

We present discovery of compact elliptical galaxies in the centres of clusters and briefly discuss their evolution.

Using the APEX sub-millimeter telescope we have detected for the first time the CO rotational transition 12CO(J=3→2) in two of five low surface brightness galaxies. For galaxies with positive detection, the emission is detected in their bulges, with measured gas velocity dispersion of about 80 km/s and observed main-beam brightness temperature TM B ~ 10 mK. Using a standard CO to H2 conversion factor, we are able to estimate molecular gas masses for LSBs with positive detections, and upper limits for those LSBs with negative detections. Assuming a higher gas temperature for the generation of the 12CO(J=3→2) line compared to that for the 12CO(J=1→0) one, results suggest that a warm molecular gas component is present in bulges, indicating a radiation field preventing the formation of large cooler amounts of molecular gas, compared to high surface brightness galaxies with higher metallicity and likely more dust.

We present recent results from a Keck study of the composition of the Galactic bulge, as well as results from the bulge Bulge Radial Velocity Assay (BRAVA). Culminating a 10 year investigation, Fulbright, McWilliam, & Rich (2006, 2007) solved the problem of deriving the iron abundance in the Galactic bulge, and find enhanced alpha element abundances, consistent with the earlier work of McWilliam & Rich (1994). We also report on a radial velocity survey of 2MASS-selected M giant stars in the Galactic bulge, observed with the CTIO 4m Hydra multi-object spectrograph. This program is to test dynamical models of the bulge and to search for and map any dynamically cold substructure in the Galactic bulge. We show initial results on fields at −10° < l < + 10° and b = −4°. We construct a longitude-velocity plot for the bulge stars and the model data, and find that contrary to previous studies, the bulge does not rotate as a solid body; from −5° < l < + 5° the rotation curve has a slope of ≈ 100 km s−1 and flattens considerably at greater l and reaches a maximum rotation of 45 km s−1 (heliocentric) or ~ 70 km s−1 (Galactocentric). This rotation is slower than that predicted by the dynamical model of Zhao (1996).

Substantial numbers of morphologically regular early-type (elliptical and lenticular) galaxies contain molecular gas, and the quantities of gas are probably sufficient to explain recent estimates of the current level of star formation activity. This gas can also be used as a tracer of the processes that drive the evolution of early-type galaxies. For example, in most cases the gas is forming dynamically cold stellar disks with sizes in the range of hundreds of pc to more than one kpc, although there is typically only 1% of the total stellar mass currently available to form young stars. The numbers are still small, but the molecular kinematics indicate that some of the gas probably originated from internal stellar mass loss while some was acquired from outside. Future studies will help to quantify the role of molecular gas (dissipational processes) in the formation of early-type galaxies and their evolution along the red sequence.

The gas component plays a major role in the dynamics of spiral galaxies, because of its dissipative character, and its ability to exchange angular momentum with stars in the disk. Due to its small velocity dispersion, it triggers gravitational instabilities, and the corresponding non-axisymmetric patterns produce gravity torques, which mediate these angular momentum exchanges. When a srong bar pattern develops with the same pattern speed all over the disk, only gas inside corotation can flow towards the center. But strong bars are not long lived in presence of gas, and multiple-speed spiral patterns can develop between bar phases, and help the galaxy to accrete external gas flowing from cosmic filaments. The gas is then intermittently driven to the galaxy center, to form nuclear starbursts and fuel an active nucleus. The various time-scales of these gaseous flows are described.

One of long-standing debates in modern astrophysics is the formation mechanism of early-type galaxies. The classical model, proposed by Eggel et al. (1962), explains that early-type stellar populations form in an initial highly efficient burst and evolve without further star formation until present day. The high Mg and alpha abundances found in bright elliptical galaxies support such scenarios. Early-type galaxies, therefore, are traditionally believed that they are dynamically simple stellar systems with homogeneous stellar populations (e.g. Gott 1977). The popular Lambda Cold Dark Matter (LCDM) paradigm (e.g. Toomre and Toomre 1972), however, strongly suggested a hierarchical merger picture for massive elliptical galaxies. In this model, early-type galaxies form as a result of major mergers and are thought to have continued star formation. Evidence is growing that a substantial fraction of early-type galaxies has secondary star formation. Furthermore, SAURON survey has revealed a rich diversity in the kinematics, discovering numerous central disks and kinematically decoupled cores (e.g. Emsellem et al. 2004; Sarzi et al. 2006). Early-type galaxies are thus likely to have had complex and varied formation histories.

Close examination of “pseudobulges” in several early-type disk galaxies indicates that they are actually composite structures consisting of both a flattened, kinematically cool disklike structure (“disky pseudobulge”) and a rounder, kinematically hot spheroidal structure (“classical bulge”). This indicates that pseudobulges, thought to form from internal secular evolution, and classical bulges, thought to form from rapid mergers, are not exclusive phenomena: some galaxies can have both.