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FIRST-based survey of compact steep spectrum sources. III. MERLIN and VLBI observations of subarcsecond-scale objects
Context: .According to a generally accepted paradigm, small intrinsicsizes of Compact Steep Spectrum (CSS) radio sources are a directconsequence of their youth, but in later stages of their evolution theyare believed to become large-scale sources. However, this notion wasestablished mainly for strong CSS sources.Aims.In this series of paperswe test this paradigm on 60 weaker objects selected from the VLA FIRSTsurvey. They have 5-GHz flux densities in the range 150 < S5GHz < 550 mJy and steep spectra in the range 0.365 ≤ ν≤ 5 GHz. The present paper is focused on sources that fulfill theabove criteria and have angular sizes in the range ~0.2 arcsec -1arcsec.Methods.Observations of 19 such sources were obtained usingMERLIN in "snapshot" mode at 5 GHz. They are presented along with1.7-GHz VLBA and 5-GHz EVN follow-up snapshot observations made for themajority of them. For one of the sources in this subsample, 1123+340, afull-track 5-GHz EVN observation was also carried out.Results.This studyprovides an important element to the standard theory of CSS sources,namely that in a number of them the activity of their host galaxiesprobably switched off quite recently and their further growth has beenstopped because of that. In the case of 1123+340, the relic of a compact"dead source" is particularly well preserved by the presence ofintracluster medium of the putative cluster of galaxies surroundingit.Conclusions.The observed overabundance of compact sources can readilybe explained in the framework of the scenario of "premature" cessationof the activity of the host galaxy nucleus. It could also explain therelatively low radio flux densities of many such sources and, in a fewcases, their peculiar, asymmetric morphologies. We propose a newinterpretation of such asymmetries based on the light-travel timeargument.

Group, field and isolated early-type galaxies - II. Global trends from nuclear data
We have derived ages, metallicities and enhanced-element ratios[α/Fe] for a sample of 83 early-type galaxies essentially ingroups, the field or isolated objects. The stellar-population propertiesderived for each galaxy correspond to the nuclear re/8aperture extraction. The median age found for Es is 5.8+/-0.6 Gyr andthe average metallicity is +0.37+/-0.03 dex. For S0s, the median age is3.0+/-0.6 Gyr and [Z/H]= 0.53+/-0.04 dex. We compare the distribution ofour galaxies in the Hβ-[MgFe] diagram with Fornax galaxies. Ourelliptical galaxies are 3-4 Gyr younger than Es in the Fornax cluster.We find that the galaxies lie in a plane defined by [Z/H]= 0.99logσ0- 0.46 log(age) - 1.60, or in linear terms Z~σ0× (age) -0.5. More massive (largerσ0) and older galaxies present, on average, large[α/Fe] values, and therefore must have undergone shorterstar-formation time-scales. Comparing group against field/isolatedgalaxies, it is not clear that environment plays an important role indetermining their stellar-population history. In particular, ourisolated galaxies show ages differing by more than 8 Gyr. Finally weexplore our large spectral coverage to derive log(O/H) metallicity fromthe Hα and NIIλ6584 and compare it with model-dependent[Z/H]. We find that the O/H abundances are similar for all galaxies, andwe can interpret it as if most chemical evolution has already finishedin these galaxies.

Group, field and isolated early-type galaxies - I. Observations and nuclear data
This is the first paper of a series on the investigation of stellarpopulation properties and galaxy evolution of an observationallyhomogeneous sample of early-type galaxies in groups, field and isolatedgalaxies.Here we present high signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) long-slit spectroscopyof 86 nearby elliptical and S0 galaxies. Eight of them are isolated,selected according to a rigorous criterion, which guarantees a genuinelow-density subsample. The present survey has the advantage of coveringa larger wavelength range than normally found in the literature, whichincludes [OIII]λ5007 and Hα, both lines important foremission correction. Among the 86 galaxies with S/N >= 15 (perresolution element, for re/8 central aperture), 57 have theirHβ-index corrected for emission (the average correction is 0.190Åin Hβ) and 42 galaxies reveal [OIII]λ5007 emission,of which 16 also show obvious Hα emission. Most of the galaxies inthe sample do not show obvious signs of disturbances nor tidal featuresin the morphologies, although 11 belong to the Arp catalogue of peculiargalaxies; only three of them (NGC 750, 751 and 3226) seem to be stronglyinteracting. We present the measurement of 25 central line-strengthindices calibrated to the Lick/IDS system. Kinematic information isobtained for the sample. We analyse the line-strength index versusvelocity dispersion relations for our sample of mainly low-densityenvironment galaxies, and compare the slope of the relations withcluster galaxies from the literature. Our main findings are that theindex-σ0 relations presented for low-density regionsare not significantly different from those of cluster E/S0s. The slopeof the index-σ0 relations does not seem to change forearly-type galaxies of different environmental densities, but thescatter of the relations seems larger for group, field and isolatedgalaxies than for cluster galaxies.

Circumnuclear Structure and Black Hole Fueling: Hubble Space Telescope NICMOS Imaging of 250 Active and Normal Galaxies
Why are the nuclei of some galaxies more active than others? If mostgalaxies harbor a central massive black hole, the main difference isprobably in how well it is fueled by its surroundings. We investigatethe hypothesis that such a difference can be seen in the detailedcircumnuclear morphologies of galaxies using several quantitativelydefined features, including bars, isophotal twists, boxy and diskyisophotes, and strong nonaxisymmetric features in unsharp-masked images.These diagnostics are applied to 250 high-resolution images of galaxycenters obtained in the near-infrared with NICMOS on the Hubble SpaceTelescope. To guard against the influence of possible biases andselection effects, we have carefully matched samples of Seyfert 1,Seyfert 2, LINER, starburst, and normal galaxies in their basicproperties, taking particular care to ensure that each was observed witha similar average scale (10-15 pc pixel-1). Severalmorphological differences among our five different spectroscopicclassifications emerge from the analysis. The H II/starburst galaxiesshow the strongest deviations from smooth elliptical isophotes, whilethe normal galaxies and LINERs have the least disturbed morphology. TheSeyfert 2s have significantly more twisted isophotes than any othercategory, and the early-type Seyfert 2s are significantly more disturbedthan the early-type Seyfert 1s. The morphological differences betweenSeyfert 1s and Seyfert 2s suggest that more is at work than simply theviewing angle of the central engine. They may correspond to differentevolutionary stages.

A new catalogue of ISM content of normal galaxies
We have compiled a catalogue of the gas content for a sample of 1916galaxies, considered to be a fair representation of ``normality''. Thedefinition of a ``normal'' galaxy adopted in this work implies that wehave purposely excluded from the catalogue galaxies having distortedmorphology (such as interaction bridges, tails or lopsidedness) and/orany signature of peculiar kinematics (such as polar rings,counterrotating disks or other decoupled components). In contrast, wehave included systems hosting active galactic nuclei (AGN) in thecatalogue. This catalogue revises previous compendia on the ISM contentof galaxies published by \citet{bregman} and \citet{casoli}, andcompiles data available in the literature from several small samples ofgalaxies. Masses for warm dust, atomic and molecular gas, as well asX-ray luminosities have been converted to a uniform distance scale takenfrom the Catalogue of Principal Galaxies (PGC). We have used twodifferent normalization factors to explore the variation of the gascontent along the Hubble sequence: the blue luminosity (LB)and the square of linear diameter (D225). Ourcatalogue significantly improves the statistics of previous referencecatalogues and can be used in future studies to define a template ISMcontent for ``normal'' galaxies along the Hubble sequence. The cataloguecan be accessed on-line and is also available at the Centre desDonnées Stellaires (CDS).The catalogue is available in electronic form athttp://dipastro.pd.astro.it/galletta/ismcat and at the CDS via anonymousftp to\ cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or via\http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/405/5

Bar Galaxies and Their Environments
The 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.

Nearby Optical Galaxies: Selection of the Sample and Identification of Groups
In this paper we describe the Nearby Optical Galaxy (NOG) sample, whichis a complete, distance-limited (cz<=6000 km s-1) andmagnitude-limited (B<=14) sample of ~7000 optical galaxies. Thesample covers 2/3 (8.27 sr) of the sky (|b|>20deg) andappears to have a good completeness in redshift (97%). We select thesample on the basis of homogenized corrected total blue magnitudes inorder to minimize systematic effects in galaxy sampling. We identify thegroups in this sample by means of both the hierarchical and thepercolation ``friends-of-friends'' methods. The resulting catalogs ofloose groups appear to be similar and are among the largest catalogs ofgroups currently available. Most of the NOG galaxies (~60%) are found tobe members of galaxy pairs (~580 pairs for a total of ~15% of objects)or groups with at least three members (~500 groups for a total of ~45%of objects). About 40% of galaxies are left ungrouped (field galaxies).We illustrate the main features of the NOG galaxy distribution. Comparedto previous optical and IRAS galaxy samples, the NOG provides a densersampling of the galaxy distribution in the nearby universe. Given itslarge sky coverage, the identification of groups, and its high-densitysampling, the NOG is suited to the analysis of the galaxy density fieldof the nearby universe, especially on small scales.

Arcsecond Positions of UGC Galaxies
We present accurate B1950 and J2000 positions for all confirmed galaxiesin the Uppsala General Catalog (UGC). The positions were measuredvisually from Digitized Sky Survey images with rms uncertaintiesσ<=[(1.2")2+(θ/100)2]1/2,where θ is the major-axis diameter. We compared each galaxymeasured with the original UGC description to ensure high reliability.The full position list is available in the electronic version only.

The NICMOS Snapshot Survey of Nearby Galaxies
We present ``snapshot'' observations with the Near-Infrared Camera andMulti-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) on board the Hubble Space Telescope(HST) of 94 nearby galaxies from the Revised Shapley Ames Catalog.Images with 0.2" resolution were obtained in two filters, a broadbandcontinuum filter (F160W, roughly equivalent to the H band) and anarrowband filter centered on the Paα line (F187N or F190N,depending on the galaxy redshift) with the 51^''x51^'' field of view ofthe NICMOS camera 3. A first-order continuum subtraction is performed,and the resulting line maps and integrated Paα line fluxes arepresented. A statistical analysis indicates that the average Paαsurface brightness in the central regions is highest in early-type(Sa-Sb) spirals.

Groups of galaxies. III. Some empirical characteristics.
Not Available

A catalogue of Mg_2 indices of galaxies and globular clusters
We present a catalogue of published absorption-line Mg_2 indices ofgalaxies and globular clusters. The catalogue is maintained up-to-datein the HYPERCAT database. The measurements are listed together with thereferences to the articles where the data were published. A codeddescription of the observations is provided. The catalogue gathers 3541measurements for 1491 objects (galaxies or globular clusters) from 55datasets. Compiled raw data for 1060 galaxies are zero-point correctedand transformed to a homogeneous system. Tables 1, 3, and 4 areavailable in electronic form only at the CDS, Strasbourg, via anonymousftp 130.79.128.5. Table 2 is available both in text and electronic form.

Total magnitude, radius, colour indices, colour gradients and photometric type of galaxies
We present a catalogue of aperture photometry of galaxies, in UBVRI,assembled from three different origins: (i) an update of the catalogueof Buta et al. (1995) (ii) published photometric profiles and (iii)aperture photometry performed on CCD images. We explored different setsof growth curves to fit these data: (i) The Sersic law, (ii) The net ofgrowth curves used for the preparation of the RC3 and (iii) A linearinterpolation between the de Vaucouleurs (r(1/4) ) and exponential laws.Finally we adopted the latter solution. Fitting these growth curves, wederive (1) the total magnitude, (2) the effective radius, (3) the colourindices and (4) gradients and (5) the photometric type of 5169 galaxies.The photometric type is defined to statistically match the revisedmorphologic type and parametrizes the shape of the growth curve. It iscoded from -9, for very concentrated galaxies, to +10, for diffusegalaxies. Based in part on observations collected at the Haute-ProvenceObservatory.

The revised GB/GB2 sample of extragalactic radio sources
This paper presents the revised sample of 373 extragalactic radiosources brighter than 0.2 Jy at 1.4 GHz. These sources, selected fromthe finding Green Bank surveys, were mapped at 1465 MHz using the VLA atdifferent configurations. The biases introduced into the original GB andGB2 catalogues by confusion as well as partial resolution by the VLA atA-configuration, are eliminated. In effect, a number of sources havebeen excluded, and a few other are included into the revised sample. Nowthe sample is about 99, 97, and 95 per cent complete for sources withS_{1.4}>= 0.55 ;Jy, 0.25 Jy<= S_{1.4}<0.55 ;Jy, and 0.2 Jy<=S_{1.4}<0.25 ;Jy, respectively. A compilation of the radio, optical,and X-ray data available for the sample sources are presented in Table\ref{tab3}. New 4.9-GHz VLA images of selected sources are included. Anumber of statistics describing radio morphological and spectralcontents of the sample, radio variability, revised source counts,redshift distributions, etc. are given. Table~\protect\ref{tab3

The fundamental plane of early-type galaxies: stellar populations and mass-to-light ratio.
We analyse the residuals to the fundamental plane (FP) of ellipticalgalaxies as a function of stellar-population indicators; these are basedon the line-strength parameter Mg_2_ and on UBVRI broad-band colors, andare partly derived from new observations. The effect of the stellarpopulations accounts for approximately half the observed variation ofthe mass-to-light ratio responsible for the FP tilt. The residual tiltcan be explained by the contribution of two additional effects: thedependence of the rotational support, and possibly that of the spatialstructure, on the luminosity. We conclude to a constancy of thedynamical-to-stellar mass ratio. This probably extends to globularclusters as well, but the dominant factor would be here the luminositydependence of the structure rather than that of the stellar population.This result also implies a constancy of the fraction of dark matter overall the scalelength covered by stellar systems. Our compilation ofinternal stellar kinematics of galaxies is appended.

A Catalog of Stellar Velocity Dispersions. II. 1994 Update
A catalog of central velocity dispersion measurements is presented,current through 1993 September. The catalog includes 2474 measurementsof 1563 galaxies. A standard set of 86 galaxies is defined, consistingof galaxies with at least three reliable, concordant measurements. It issuggested that future studies observe some of these standard galaxies sothat different studies can be normalized to a consistent system. Allmeasurements are reduced to a normalized system using these standards.

The CfA Redshift Survey: Data for the NGP +36 Zone
We have assembled redshifts for a complete sample of 719 galaxies withm_zw_ <= 15.5 in the declination range 32.5^deg^ <= δ <=38.5^deg^ and right ascension range 8^h^ <= α <= 17^h^. Wehave determined morphological types for all galaxies in the magnitudelimited sample by direct inspection of the POSS-O plates. 576 of theredshifts are measurements from Mount Hopkins, and 405 are newredshifts. We also include new redshifts for 77 fainter galaxies in thesame strip.

A revised catalog of CfA1 galaxy groups in the Virgo/Great Attractor flow field
A new identification of groups and clusters in the CfA1 Catalog ofHuchra et al. is presented, using a percolation algorithm to identifydensity enhancements. It is shown that in the resulting catalog,contamination by interlopers is significantly reduced. The Schechterluminosity function is redetermined, including the Malmquist bias.

General study of group membership. II - Determination of nearby groups
We present a whole sky catalog of nearby groups of galaxies taken fromthe Lyon-Meudon Extragalactic Database. From the 78,000 objects in thedatabase, we extracted a sample of 6392 galaxies, complete up to thelimiting apparent magnitude B0 = 14.0. Moreover, in order to considersolely the galaxies of the local universe, all the selected galaxieshave a known recession velocity smaller than 5500 km/s. Two methods wereused in group construction: a Huchra-Geller (1982) derived percolationmethod and a Tully (1980) derived hierarchical method. Each method gaveus one catalog. These were then compared and synthesized to obtain asingle catalog containing the most reliable groups. There are 485 groupsof a least three members in the final catalog.

Do elliptical galaxies have r1/4 brightness profiles?
The intermediate axis surface brightness distribution of a large sampleof elliptical galaxies is studied in detail. It is shown that the deVaucouleurs law provides an excellent fit to the observed brightnessdistribution for all galaxies within the radius range 0.1 Reless than or equal to R less than or equal to 1.5 Re, withmean deviations smaller than 0.1 mag arcsec-2 and maximumdeviations smaller than 0.2 mag arcsec-2. In addition, asmall but well defined change in the slope of the best fittingr1/4-law is observed at a radius R approximately equals 0.4Re. The fact that ellipticals fit the de Vaucouleurs lawwithin the same effective radius range indicates that they not only havea remarkably similar surface density distribution but also an underlyinguniversal volume density profile which can be well represented by aJaffe or Hernquist Law. These results will provide strong constraintsfor theoretical models of E-galaxy formation.

On the external origin for dust in elliptical galaxies
Large samples of elliptical galaxies, observed at high signal-to-noiseratio with CCDs, are used with ADDSCAN 100 micron fluxes from IRAS toexamine evidence for the external origin of dust in these galaxies. Foursmall sets of galaxies are picked which show features stronglyindicative of a merger, that is, infalling H I gas, extensive dustlanes, and kinematically peculiar cores and shells. Though somecounterexamples exist, it is shown that the dust and isophotalproperties are consistent with the current merger model for thesegalaxies.

Interstellar matter in early-type galaxies. I - The catalog
A catalog is given of the currently available measurements ofinterstellar matter in the 467 early-type galaxies listed in the secondedition of the Revised Shapley-Ames Catalog of Bright Galaxies. Themorphological type range is E, SO, and Sa. The ISM tracers are emissionin the following bands: IRAS 100 micron, X-ray, radio, neutral hydrogen,and carbon monoxide. Nearly two-thirds of the Es and SOs have beendetected in one or more of these tracers. Additional observed quantitiesthat are tabulated include: magnitude, colors, radial velocity, centralvelocity dispersion, maximum of the rotation curve, angular size, 60micron flux, and supernovae. Qualitative statements as to the presenceof dust or emission lines, when available in the literature, are given.Quantities derivative from the observed values are also listed andinclude masses of H I, CO, X-ray gas, and dust as well as an estimate ofthe total mass and mass-to-luminosity ratio of the individual galaxies.

Observations of faint radio galaxies with the Ratan-600 radio telescope
The results of observations of 79 faint radio galaxies from the BolognaSurvey with the RATAN-600 radio telescope at the frequency 3.95 GHz arepresented. The dependences of spectral indices of radio emission on theratio of radio and optical luminosities are analyzed. The dependence oflinear sizes of radio galaxies on these ratios and on spectral indiceswas studied. It is shown that median angular sizes and spectral indicesincrease with flux density. It is also shown that among radio galaxieswith flat spectra objects of small linear sizes (less than 10 kpc) occurmuch more frequently than among radio galaxies with steep spectra.

Infrared studies of elliptical galaxies. II - A radio-selected sample
An IR survey of radio galaxies in the Bologna B2 catalog is reported. Itis found that 40 percent of the sample has IR luminosities of at leastone billion solar luminosities, as opposed to about 8 pecent of normalellipticals. The galaxies are inhomogeneous in their IR properties. Themost IR-luminous galaxies are those listed as peculiar by Zwicky.Statistically, these galaxies are strikingly different from Seyfertgalaxies in their IR properties in that they show much more radioemission in comparison with their IR emission than do Seyferts, evenwhen the emission from the extended radio lobes has been discounted.

Groups of galaxies in the Center for Astrophysics redshift survey
By applying the Huchra and Geller (1982) objective group identificationalgorithm to the Center for Astrophysics' redshift survey, a catalog of128 groups with three or more members is extracted, and 92 of these areused as a statistical sample. A comparison of the distribution of groupcenters with the distribution of all galaxies in the survey indicatesqualitatively that groups trace the large-scale structure of the region.The physical properties of groups may be related to the details oflarge-scale structure, and it is concluded that differences among groupcatalogs may be due to the properties of large-scale structures andtheir location relative to the survey limits.

On the relationship between radio emission and optical properties in early-type galaxies
To study the origin of radio activity in early-type galaxies, thepossible dependence of their radio emission on basic optical parameters,such as the absolute magnitude, the central velocity dispersion sigma,and the mean surface brightness mu is explored. A sample of 743 E and SOgalaxies is used which is based on three independent radio surveys ofoptically selected galaxies with virtually complete information onmagnitudes, morphological types, redshift distances, diameters, andradio fluxes. For both E and SO galaxies, only the absolute magnitudeappears to be directly related to the radio activity, while sigma and mudo not. Also, a significant dependence of the apparent flattening onradio power is confirmed for E galaxies. Some relevant implications ofthese results are discussed.

Isophote shapes of elliptical galaxies. II - Correlations with global optical, radio and X-ray properties
The relations between isophote shapes and other global properties ofmassive elliptical galaxies are discussed. Only weak correlationsbetween the classical optical parameters and isophote shapes are found.In contrast, there exist striking relations between the isophote shapesand the radio- and X-ray properties of elliptical galaxies. Objectswhich are radio-loud and/or surrounded by gaseous X-ray halos generallyhave boxy or irregular isophotes. Elliptical galaxies with pointedisophotes are mostly radio-quiet and show no X-ray emission in excess ofthe discrete source contribution. Elliptical galaxies with box-shaped orirregular isophotes seem to have systematically higher mass-to-lightratios than ellipticals with weak disk components.

Cosmic evolution of the physical sizes of extragalactic radio sources and their luminosity-size correlation
The cosmic evolution of physical sizes of extragalactic radio sources isexamined in order to search for any luminosity-size correlation amongthem. Data concerning flux density, angular size, and redshift for 669optically identified extragalactic radio sources were collected and thesize distribution of the sources in different luminosity-redshift binswere examined separately for galaxies and quasars. It is found thatphysical size increases with luminosity for redshifts less than about0.5, whereas size decreases with increasing redshift for radio galaxieswith luminosity P(408) between 10 to the 26th and 10 to the 27th W/Hz.Models describing size evolution of these galaxies are discussed. Littleevidence for size evolution is found for brighter galaxies. For quasars,there is a hint of an inverse correlation between luminosity and size.

Cosmology from a galaxy group catalog. I - Binaries
A new, completely objective group-finding algorithm is described andapplied to the CfA redshift catalog. The binary galaxies are isolatedfor analysis. The assumptions underlying the analysis are (1) that lighttraces mass, (2) that our binary galaxy subsets are representative lighttracers, and (3) that the binary orbits are circular. The primary resultof the work is that the resulting bias-free binary catalogs are afunction of the assumed cosmological model. For virtually any inputvalue of Omega(0) in the range 0.01-5.00, there is a reasonablyconsistent interpretation of the CfA survey such that the specifiedvalue of Omega(0) can be derived from the binary sample obtained underthat interpretation. A secondary result is that the higher the inputvalue of Omega(0), the broader the intrinsic distribution in M/L, andhence the less valid the assumption that light traces mass.

Isophote shapes of elliptical galaxies. I - The data
CCD surface-photometry was obtained in order to determine the radialdependence of the surface brightness, ellipticity, and major-axisposition-angle for 69 bright elliptical galxies in the Cousins V, R, Isystem. Using Fourier transforms, the deviations of the isophotes frompure ellipses were analyzed for systematic components. Systematicdeviations larger than 0.2 percent in units of the semimajor axis werefound for 80 percent of the galaxies, with the deviations generallyappearing in the form of box-shaped or disk-shaped components.

Observations of faint radio galaxies from the Bologna survey with the RATAN-600 at frequencies of 3.95 and 7.69 GHz
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Observation and Astrometry data

Constellation:Canes Venatici
Right ascension:14h03m24.20s
Declination:+35°07'53.0"
Aparent dimensions:2.512′ × 1.95′

Catalogs and designations:
Proper Names   (Edit)
NGC 2000.0NGC 5444
HYPERLEDA-IPGC 50080

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