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Galaxy morphologies, kinematics, and stellar populations are thought to be linked to each other. However, both simulations and observations have pointed out mismatches therein. In this work, we study the nature and origin of the present-day quenched, bulge-dominated, but dynamically cold galaxies within a stellar mass range of $10.3\,\leqslant\,\log\,M_{\ast}/\mathrm{M_{\odot}}\,\leqslant\,11.2$ in the IllustrisTNG-100 Simulation. We compare these galaxies with a population of normal star-forming dynamically cold disc galaxies and a population of normal quenched dynamically hot elliptical galaxies within the same mass range. The populations of the present-day quenched and bulge-dominated galaxies (both being dynamically cold and hot) used to have significantly higher star-formation rates and flatter morphologies at redshift of $z\sim 2$. They have experienced more frequent larger mass-ratio mergers below $z \sim 0.7$ in comparison to their star-forming disc counterparts, which is responsible for the formation of their bulge-dominated morphologies. The dynamically cold populations (both being star-forming and quenched) have experienced more frequent prograde and tangential mergers especially below $z \sim 1$, in contrast to the dynamically hot ellipticals, which have had more retrograde and radial mergers. Such different merging histories can well explain the differences on the cold and hot dynamical status among these galaxies. We point out that the real-world counterparts of these dynamically cold and hot bulge-dominated quenched populations are the fast- and slow-rotating early-type galaxies, respectively, as seen in observations and hence reveal the different evolution paths of these two distinct populations of early-type galaxies., 14 pages, 12 figures; accepted for publication in MNRAS

The gas needed to sustain star formation in galaxies is supplied by the circumgalactic medium (CGM), which in turn is affected by accretion from large scales. In a series of two papers, we examine the interplay between a galaxy's ambient CGM and central star formation within the context of the large-scale environment. We use the IllustrisTNG-100 simulation to show that the influence exerted by the large-scale galaxy environment on the CGM gas angular momentum results in either enhanced (Paper I) or suppressed (Paper II, this paper) star formation inside a galaxy. We find that for present-day quenched galaxies, both the large-scale environments and the ambient CGM have always had higher angular momenta throughout their evolutionary history since at least $z=2$, in comparison to those around present-day star-forming disk galaxies, resulting in less efficient gas inflow into the central star-forming gas reservoirs. A sufficiently high CGM angular momentum, as inherited from the larger-scale environment, is thus an important factor in keeping a galaxy quenched, once it is quenched. The process above naturally renders two key observational signatures: (1) a coherent rotation pattern existing across multiple distances from the large-scale galaxy environment, to the circumgalactic gas, to the central stellar disk; and (2) an anti-correlation between galaxy star-formation rates and orbital angular momenta of interacting galaxy pairs or groups., 13 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

Infrared quasi-stellar objects (IR QSOs) are a rare subpopulation selected from ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs) and have been regarded as promising candidates of ULIRG-to-optical QSO transition objects. Here we present NOEMA observations of the CO(1-0) line and 3 mm continuum emission in an IR QSO IRAS F07599+6508 at $z=0.1486$, which has many properties in common with Mrk 231. The CO emission is found to be resolved with a major axis of $\sim$6.1 kpc that is larger than the size of $\sim$4.0 kpc derived for 3 mm continuum. We identify two faint CO features located at a projected distance of $\sim$11.4 and 19.1 kpc from the galaxy nucleus, respectively, both of which are found to have counterparts in the optical and radio bands and may have a merger origin. A systematic velocity gradient is found in the CO main component, suggesting that the bulk of molecular gas is likely rotationally supported. Based on the radio-to-millimeter spectral energy distribution and IR data, we estimate that about 30$\%$ of the flux at 3 mm arises from free-free emission and infer a free-free-derived star formation rate of 77 $M_\odot\ {\rm yr^{-1}}$, close to the IR estimate corrected for the AGN contribution. We find a high-velocity CO emission feature at the velocity range of about -1300 to -2000 km s$^{-1}$. Additional deep CO observations are needed to confirm the presence of a possible very high-velocity CO extension of the OH outflow in this IR QSO., 20 pages, 13 figures; accepted for publication in ApJ

In this study we demonstrate that stellar masses of galaxies (Mstar) are universally correlated through a double power law function with the product of the dynamical velocities (Ve) and sizes to one-fourth power (Re^0.25) of galaxies, both measured at the effective radii. The product VeRe^0.25 represents the fourth root of the total binding energies within effective radii of galaxies. This stellar mass-binding energy correlation has an observed scatter of 0.14 dex in log(VeRe^0.25) and 0.46 dex in log(Mstar). It holds for a variety of galaxy types over a stellar mass range of nine orders of magnitude, with little evolution over cosmic time. A toy model of self-regulation between binding energies and supernovae feedback is shown to be able to reproduce the observed slopes, but the underlying physical mechanisms are still unclear. The correlation can be a potential distance estimator with an uncertainty of 0.2 dex independent of the galaxy type., Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, MNRAS in press

We investigate the star formation histories (SFHs) of massive red spiral galaxies with stellar mass $M_\ast>10^{10.5}M_\odot$, and make comparisons with blue spirals and red ellipticals of similar masses. We make use of the integral field spectroscopy from the SDSS-IV/DR15 MaNGA sample, and estimate spatially resolved SFHs and stellar population properties of each galaxy by applying a Bayesian spectral fitting code to the MaNGA spectra. We find that both red spirals and red ellipticals have experienced only one major star formation episode at early times, and the result is independent of the adopted SFH model. On average, more than half of their stellar masses were formed $>$10 Gyrs ago, and more than 90\% were formed $>6$ Gyrs ago. The two types of galaxies show similarly flat profiles in a variety of stellar population parameters: old stellar ages indicated by $D4000$ (the spectral break at around 4000��), high stellar metallicities, large Mgb/Fe ratios indicating fast formation, and little stellar dust attenuation. In contrast, although blue spirals also formed their central regions $>$10 Gyrs ago, both their central regions and outer disks continuously form stars over a long timescale. Our results imply that, massive red spirals are likely to share some common processes of formation (and possibly quenching) with massive red ellipticals in the sense that both types were formed at $z > 2$ through a fast formation process.Possible mechanisms for the formation and quenching of massive red spirals are discussed., 17 pages, 6 figures, APJ accepted

To understand the formation and quenching processes of local massive red spiral galaxies with $M_{\ast} > 10^{10.5}M_{\odot}$, we perform a statistical analysis of their spectroscopic and structural properties, and compare them with elliptical and blue spiral galaxies of similar mass. The sample was selected from the stellar mass catalog of galaxies in SDSS DR7, according to their locations on the u-r color-stellar mass diagram. We find that red spirals harbor compact cores with high stellar mass surface densities measured by $\Sigma_1$ and they are bulge-dominated. Particularly, the red spirals, especially their bulges follow the $\Sigma_1$-$M_{\ast}$ ridgeline for quenched galaxies. Furthermore, the red spirals show similarly large central D$_n(4000)$, high [Mg/Fe] and dark matter halo mass to ellipticals. These results suggest that the bulges of red spirals formed within a short timescale before redshift ~ 1-2 and were quenched via a fast mode, similar to ellipticals. Careful examinations of the optical morphologies reveal that ~70% of red spirals show strong bars, rings/shells and even merging features, which suggests that interactions or mergers might have played an important role in the formation of red spirals. In contrast, most of the massive blue spirals have completely different spectral and structural properties from red spirals. However, the blue spirals with high $\Sigma_1$ ($\Sigma_1 > 10^{9.5} M_\odot \, {\rm kpc}^{-2}$) show similar structural and morphological properties, as well as similar halo mass and HI mass to red spirals. We discuss rejuvenation from red to blue as a possible explanation for these high $\Sigma_1$ blue spirals., Comment: 26 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

We present ALMA observations of the CO(1-0) line and 3-mm continuum emission in eight ultraluminous infrared (IR) quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) at z = 0.06-0.19. All eight IR QSO hosts are clearly resolved in their CO molecular gas emission with a median source size of 3.2 kpc, and seven out of eight sources are detected in 3-mm continuum, which is found to be more centrally concentrated with respect to molecular gas with sizes of 0.4-1.0 kpc. Our observations reveal a diversity of CO morphology and kinematics for the IR QSO systems which can be roughly classified into three categories, rotating gas disk with ordered velocity gradient, compact CO peak with disturbed velocity, and multiple CO distinct sources undergoing a merger between luminous QSO and a companion galaxy separated by a few kpc. The molecular gas in three of IR QSO hosts are found to be rotation-dominated with the ratio of the maximum rotation velocity to the local velocity dispersion of $V_{\rm rot}/\sigma=4-6$. Basic estimates of the dynamical masses within the CO-emitting regions give masses between $7.4\times10^9$ and $6.9\times10^{10}$ $M_\odot$. We find an increasing trend between BH mass accretion rate and star formation rate (SFR) over three orders of magnitude in far-IR luminosity/SFR, in line with the correlation between QSO bolometric luminosity and SF activity, indicative of a likely direct connection between AGN and SF activity over galaxy evolution timescales., Comment: 25 pages, 7 figures, and 4 tables; accepted for publication in ApJ

Metals are thought to have profound effects on the internal structures of molecular clouds in which stars are born. The absence of metals is expected to prevent gas from efficient cooling and fragmentation in theory. However, this effect has not yet been observed at low metallicity environments, such as in the early Universe and local dwarf galaxies, because of the lack of high spatial resolution maps of gas. We carried out ALMA observations of the carbon monoxide (CO) J=2-1 emission line at 1.4-parsec resolutions of a molecular cloud in DDO 70 at 7% solar metallicity, the most metal-poor galaxy currently known with a CO detection. In total, five clumps have been identified and they are found to follow more or less the Larson's law. Since the CO emission exists in regions with visual extinction A_V around 1.0, we converted this A_V to the gas mass surface density using a gas-to-dust ratio of 4,594+-2,848 for DDO 70. We found that the CO clumps in DDO 70 exhibit significantly larger (on average four times) sizes than those at the same gas mass surface densities in massive star-formation regions of the Milky Way. The existence of such large clumps appears to be consistent with theoretical expectations that gas fragmentation in low metallicity clouds is suppressed. While our observation is only for one cloud in the galaxy, if it is representative, the above result implies suppressed gas fragmentation during the cloud collapse and star formation in the early Universe., Comment: ApJ in press, 8 figures

We report two-dimensional spectroscopic analysis of massive red spiral galaxies ($M_{*}$ $>$ 10$^{10.5}$ $M_{\odot}$) and compare them to blue spiral and red elliptical galaxies above the same mass limit based on the public SDSS DR15 MaNGA observations. We find that the stellar population properties of red spiral galaxies are more similar to those of elliptical galaxies than to blue spiral galaxies. Red spiral galaxies show a shallow mass-weighted age profile, and they have higher stellar metallicity and Mgb/${\rm \langle Fe \rangle}$ across the whole 1.5$R_{\rm e}$ as compared to blue spirals, but all these properties are close to those of elliptical galaxies. One scenario to explain this is that red spirals form as remnants of very gas-rich major mergers that happened above $z$$\sim$1., 10 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in ApJL

The Ly$\alpha$ escape fraction is a key measure to constrain the neutral state of the intergalactic medium and then to understand how the universe was fully reionized. We combine deep narrowband imaging data from the custom-made filter NB393 and the $H_{2}S$1 filter centered at 2.14 $\mu$m to examine the Ly$\alpha$ emitters and H$\alpha$ emitters at the same redshift $z=2.24$. The combination of these two populations allows us to determine the Ly$\alpha$ escape fraction at $z=2.24$. Over an area of 383 arcmin$^{2}$ in the Extended Chandra Deep Field South (ECDFS), 124 Ly$\alpha$ emitters are detected down to NB393 = 26.4 mag at the 5$\sigma$ level, and 56 H$\alpha$ emitters come from An14. Of these, four have both Ly$\alpha$ and H$\alpha$ emissions (LAHAEs). We measure the individual/volumetric Ly$\alpha$ escape fraction by comparing the observed Ly$\alpha$ luminosity/luminosity density to the extinction-corrected H$\alpha$ luminosity/luminosity density. We revisit the extinction correction for H$\alpha$ emitters using the Galactic extinction law with the color excess for nebular emission. We also adopt the Calzetti extinction law together with an identical color excess for stellar and nebular regions to explore how the uncertainties in extinction correction affect our results. In both cases, an anti-correlation between the Ly$\alpha$ escape fraction and dust attenuation is found among the LAHAEs, suggesting that dust absorption is responsible for the suppression of the escaping Ly$\alpha$ photons. However, the estimated Ly$\alpha$ escape fraction of individual LAHAEs varies up to ~3 percentage points between the two methods of extinction correction. We find the global Ly$\alpha$ escape fraction at $z=2.24$ to be ($3.7\pm1.4$)% in the ECDFS. The variation in the color excess of the extinction causes a discrepancy of ~1 percentage point in the global Ly$\alpha$ escape fraction., Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in ApJ

Based on a sample of 79 local advanced merger (adv-merger) (U)LIRGs, we search for the evidence of quenching process by investigating the distributions of the star formation history indicators (EW(H$\alpha$), EW(H$\delta$$_A$) and D$_n(4000)$) on the NUV-r color-mass and SFR-$M_{\ast}$ diagrams. The distributions of the EW(H$\alpha$) and D$_n(4000)$ on the NUV-r color-mass diagram show clear trends that at a given stellar mass, galaxies with redder NUV-r colors have smaller EW(H$\alpha$) and larger D$_n(4000)$. The reddest adv-merger (U)LIRGs close to the green valley have D$_n(4000)$$>1.4$ mostly. In addition, in the SFR-$M_{\ast}$ diagram, as the SFR decreases, the EW(H$\alpha$) decreases and the D$_n(4000)$ increases, implying that the adv-merger (U)LIRGs on the star formation main sequence have more evolved stellar populations than those above the main sequence. These results indicate that a fraction of the adv-merger (U)LIRGs have already exhibited signs of fading from the starburst phase and that the NUV-r reddest adv-merger (U)LIRGs are likely at the initial stage of post-starbursts with age of $\sim 1$ Gyr, which is consistent with the gas exhausting time-scales. Therefore, our results offer additional support for the fast evolutionary track from the blue cloud to the red sequence., Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics

With the aim of exploring the fast evolutionary path from the blue cloud of star-forming galaxies to the red sequence of quiescent galaxies in the local universe, we select a local advanced merging infrared luminous and ultraluminous galaxy (adv-merger (U)LIRGs) sample and perform careful dust extinction corrections to investigate their positions in the SFR-$M_{\ast}$, u-r and NUV-r color-mass diagrams. The sample consists of 89 (U)LIRGs at the late merger stage, obtained from cross-correlating the IRAS Point Source Catalog Redshift Survey and 1 Jy ULIRGs samples with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR7 database. Our results show that $74\%\pm 5\%$ of adv-merger (U)LIRGs are localized above the $1\, \sigma$ line of the local star-forming galaxy main sequence. We also find that all adv-merger (U)LIRGs are more massive than and as blue as the blue cloud galaxies after corrections of Galactic and internal dust extinctions, with $95\%\pm 2\%$ and $81\%\pm 4\%$ of them outside the blue cloud on the u-r and NUV-r color-mass diagrams, respectively. These results, combined with the short timescale for exhausting the molecular gas reservoir in adv-merger (U)LIRGs ($3\times 10^{7}$ to $3\times 10^{8}$ years), imply that the adv-merger (U)LIRGs are likely at the starting point of the fast evolutionary track previously proposed by several groups. While the number density of adv-merger (U)LIRGs is only $\sim 0.1\%$ of the blue cloud star-forming galaxies in the local universe, this evolutionary track may play a more important role at high redshift., Comment: 32 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

We analyse mid-infrared (MIR) spectroscopic properties for 19 ultra-luminous infrared quasars (IR QSOs) in the local universe based on the spectra from the Infrared Spectrograph on board the Spitzer Space Telescope. The MIR properties of IR QSOs are compared with those of optically-selected Palomar-Green QSOs (PG QSOs) and ultra-luminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs). The average MIR spectral features from ~ 5 to 30um, including the spectral slopes, 6.2um PAH emission strengths and [NeII] 12.81um luminosities of IR QSOs, differ from those of PG QSOs. In contrast, IR QSOs and ULIRGs have comparable PAH and [NeII] luminosities. These results are consistent with IR QSOs being at a transitional stage from ULIRGs to classical QSOs. We also find that the colour index alpha(30, 15) is a good indicator of the relative contribution of starbursts to AGNs for all QSOs. Correlations between the [NeII] 12.81um and PAH 6.2um luminosities and those between the [NeII], PAH with 60um luminosities for ULIRGs and IR QSOs indicate that both [NeII] and PAH luminosities are approximate star formation rate indicators for IR QSOs and starburst-dominated galaxies; the scatters are, however, quite large (~ 0.7 to 0.8 dex). Finally the correlation between the EW(PAH 6.2um) and outflow velocities suggests that star formation activities are suppressed by feedback from AGNs and/or supernovae., 19 pages, 8 figures, 6 tables, accepted for publication in MNRAS

Two-dimensional bulge/disk light decomposition with GIM2D inboth the r- and g-bands has been applied to a sample of 129 early-type galaxies brighter than 13.5 magnitude in the r-band, selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 2. Intensity-weighted Fourier coefficienta4/awas also derived for each sample galaxy. Our analysis shows that there are correlations between bulge-to-total light ratio (B/T) with bulge Sersic index n B and between bulge and disk scale sizes. Isophotal shape parametera 4/ais not correlated with B/T and nB. Both bulge and disk components satisfy a color-magnitude relation. The κ space Fundamental Plane analysis shows that galaxies with larger B/T tend to lie tighter and closer to the line of κ1 + κ2 =8 (the so-called "zone of avoidance") than the galaxies with smaller B/T. It indicates that existence of the disk component may lead to scatter of the distribution on the Fundamental Plane. Our analysis also shows that κ 1 + κ2 correlates with (g-r) color and B/T, but does not correlate witha 4/afor early-type galaxies. The fitted parameters and other retrieved parameters used in this paper for all sample galaxies are available online.

We investigate the photometric properties of the early type Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCGs) using a carefully selected sample of 85 BCGs from the C4 cluster catalogue with redshift less than 0.1. We perform accurate background subtractions, and surface photometry for these BCGs to 25 $\magsec$ in the Sloan $r$-band. By quantitatively analysing the gradient of the Petrosian profiles of BCGs, we find that a large fraction of BCGs have extended stellar envelopes in their outskirts; more luminous BCGs tend to have more extended stellar halos that are likely connected with mergers. A comparison sample of elliptical galaxies was chosen with similar apparent magnitude and redshift ranges, for which the same photometric analysis procedure is applied. We find that BCGs have steeper size-luminosity ($R \propto L^\alpha$) and Faber-Jackson ($L \propto \sigma^\beta$) relations than the bulk of early type galaxies. Furthermore, the power-law indices ($\alpha$ and $\beta$) in these relations increase as the isophotal limits become deeper. For isophotal limits from 22 to 25 $\magsec$, BCGs are usually larger than the bulk of early type galaxies, and a large fraction ($\sim 49%$) of BCGs have disky isophotal shapes. The differences in the scaling relations are consistent with a scenario where the dynamical structure and formation route of BCGs may be different from the bulk of early type galaxies, in particular dry (dissipationless) mergers may play a more important role in their formation; we highlight several possible dry merger candidates in our sample.

We select the Luminous Infrared Galaxies by cross-correlating the Faint Source Catalogue (FSC) and Point Source Catalogue (PSC) of the IRAS Survey with the Second Data Release of the SDSS for studying their infrared and optical properties. The total number of our sample is 1267 for FSC and 427 for PSC by using 2$\sigma$ significance level cross-section. The "likelihood ratio" method is used to estimate the sample's reliability and for a more reliable subsample (908 for FSC and 356 for PSC) selection. Then a Catalog with both the infrared, optical and radio informations is presented and will be used in further works. Some statistical results show that the Luminous Infrared Galaxies are quite different from the Ultra-Luminous Infrared Galaxies. The AGN fractions of galaxies with different infrared luminosities and the radio to infrared correlations are consist with previous studies., Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures. Accepted by ChJAA. Reference added

In this paper, we present a multi-color photometric study of the nearby spiral galaxy M81, using images obtained with the Beijing Astronomical Observatory 60/90 cm Schmidt Telescope in 13 intermediate-band filters from 3800 to 10000{\AA}. The observations cover the whole area of M81 with a total integration of 51 hours from February 1995 to February 1997. This provides a multi-color map of M81 in pixels of $1\arcsec.7 \times 1\arcsec.7$. Using theoretical stellar population synthesis models, we demonstrate that some BATC colors and color indices can be used to disentangle the age and metallicity effect. We compare in detail the observed properties of M81 with the predictions from population synthesis models and quantify the relative chemical abundance, age and reddening distributions for different components of M81. We find that the metallicity of M81 is about $Z=0.03$ with no significant difference over the whole galaxy. In contrast, an age gradient is found between stellar populations of the central regions and of the bulge and disk regions of M81: the stellar population in its central regions is older than 8 Gyr while the disk stars are considerably younger, $\sim 2$ Gyr. We also give the reddening distribution in M81. Some dust lanes are found in the galaxy bulge region and the reddening in the outer disk is higher than that in the central regions., Comment: Accepted for publication in AJ (May 2000 issue). 27 pages including 6 figures. Uses AASTeX aasms4 style

Intrigued by the initial report of an extended luminosity distribution perpendicular to the disk of the edge-on Sc galaxy NGC 5907, we have obtained very deep exposures of this galaxy with a Schmidt telescope, large-format CCD, and intermediate-band filters centered at 6660 A and 8020 A. These two filters, part of a 15-filter set, are custom designed to avoid the brightest (and most variable) night skylines. As a result, our images are able to go deeper with lower sky noise than those taken with broadband filters at similar effective wavelengths: e.g., 0.6 e- arcsec-2 s-1 for our observations versus 7.4 e- arcsec-2 s-1 for the R-band measures of Morrison et al. In our assessment of both random and systematic errors, we show that the flux level where the errors of observation reach 1 mag arcsec-2 are 29.00 mag arcsec-2 in the 6660 A image (corresponding to 28.7 in the R band) and 27.4 mag arcsec-2 in the 8020 A image (essentially on the I-band system). In a previous paper we have shown that NGC 5907 has a luminous ring around it, most plausibly caused by the tidal disruption of a dwarf spheroidal galaxy by the much more massive spiral. Here we show that, for values fainter than 27 R mag arcsec-2, the surface brightness around NGC 5907 is strongly asymmetric, being mostly brighter on the northwest (ring) side of the galactic midplane. This asymmetry rules out a halo as the cause of the faint surface brightness we see. We find this asymmetry is likely an artifact resulting from a combination of ring light and residual surface brightness at faint levels from stars that our star-masking procedure cannot completely eliminate. The possible existence of an optical face-on warp in NGC 5907, suggested by our Very Large Array H I observations, is too confused with foreground star contamination to be independently studied. Good agreement with the surface photometry of NGC 5907 by other observers leads us to conclude that their data are similarly affected at faint levels by ring light and the residual effects of star masking procedures. Inspection of published images confirm this to be the case. Thus, we conclude that NGC 5907 does not have a faint extended halo.

Spectroscopic observations of a sample of 73 very luminous IRAS galaxies ( for ,) from the 2 Jy redshift survey catalogue were carried out using the 2.16 m telescope at the Beijing Astronomical Observatory. The observational data, including the optical images (extracted from Digital Sky Survey) and spectra for these galaxies, are presented in Paper I (Wu et al. 1998). In this paper, we give the spectral and morphological classifications for these very luminous IRAS galaxies (VLIRGs). We show that about 60% of VLIRGs exhibit AGN-like spectra (Seyfert 1s, Seyfert 2s, LINER-like galaxies). This fraction goes up to 82% for the ultraluminous IRAS galaxies (ULIRGs) subsample (). 56% of the VLIRGs show strong interaction or merging signatures; this fraction rises to 91% for the ULIRGs. These statistical results strongly suggest that interaction triggers nuclear activities and enhances the infrared luminosity. We find that LINER and a mixture type which have optical properties of both HII galaxies and LINERs could be at the transition stage from infrared luminous HII galaxies to AGNs; their main energy production is from starbursts as well as AGNs. Both infrared luminosities and equivalent widths increase dramatically as nuclear separations between VLIRGs and their nearest neighbors decrease. There is little doubt that strong starbursts happen in the nuclei of VLIRGs. Assuming class 0 as advanced merger, we construct a simple merger sequence, from morphological classes 1 to 4 (with near or far companions), to class 5 and 6 (interacting pairs and mergers) and then to class 0 (isolated galaxies). Along this sequence, VLIRGs evolve from HII galaxies to AGNs.

In this paper, we present a statistical study of the X-ray properties of 11 isolated early-type galaxies (IEGs) observed with the Chandra ACIS-S3, and then discuss the implications of these properties.

We investigate the evolution of nuclear gas-phase oxygen abundance and star formation rate (SFR) of local far-infrared selected star-forming galaxies along the merger sequence, as traced by their optical morphologies. The sample was drawn from a cross-correlation analysis of the IRAS Point Source Catalog Redshift Survey and 1 Jy ultraluminous infrared galaxies sample with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 database. The investigation is done by comparing our sample to a control sample matched in the normalized redshift distribution in two diagnostics, which are the nuclear gas-phase metallicity vs. stellar mass and the nuclear SFR vs. stellar mass diagrams. Galaxies with different morphological types show different mass-metallicity relations (MZR). Compared to the MZR defined by the control sample, isolated spirals have comparable metallicities with the control sample at a given stellar mass. Spirals in pairs and interacting galaxies with projected separations $r_{p} >$ 20 kpc show mild metallicity dilution of 0.02-0.03 dex. Interacting galaxies with $r_{p}, Comment: 24 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics

The relation between star formation rates and stellar masses, i.e. the galaxy main sequence, is a useful diagnostic of galaxy evolution. We present the distributions relative to the main sequence of 55 optically-selected PG and 12 near-IR-selected 2MASS quasars at z, 8 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in ApJL

We report CO detections in 17 out of 19 infrared ultraluminous QSO (IR QSO) hosts observed with the IRAM 30m telescope. The cold molecular gas reservoir in these objects is in a range of 0.2--2.1$\times 10^{10}M_\odot$ (adopting a CO-to-${\rm H_2}$ conversion factor $\alpha_{\rm CO}=0.8 M_\odot {\rm (K km s^{-1} pc^2)^{-1}}$). We find that the molecular gas properties of IR QSOs, such as the molecular gas mass, star formation efficiency ($L_{\rm FIR}/L^\prime_{\rm CO}$) and the CO (1-0) line widths, are indistinguishable from those of local ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs). A comparison of low- and high-redshift CO detected QSOs reveals a tight correlation between L$_{\rm FIR}$ and $L^\prime_{\rm CO(1-0)}$ for all QSOs. This suggests that, similar to ULIRGs, the far-infrared emissions of all QSOs are mainly from dust heated by star formation rather than by active galactic nuclei (AGNs), confirming similar findings from mid-infrared spectroscopic observations by {\it Spitzer}. A correlation between the AGN-associated bolometric luminosities and the CO line luminosities suggests that star formation and AGNs draw from the same reservoir of gas and there is a link between star formation on $\sim$ kpc scale and the central black hole accretion process on much smaller scales., Comment: 30 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal

We present simultaneous observations of CO,13CO and C18O J=1-0 emission in 11 nearby (cz, 27 pages, 7 figures, accepted by RAA

We search for ongoing major dry-mergers in a well selected sample of local Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCGs) from the C4 cluster catalogue. 18 out of 515 early-type BCGs with redshift between 0.03 and 0.12 are found to be in major dry-mergers, which are selected as pairs (or triples) with $r$-band magnitude difference $\dm, 9 pages, 5 figures and 1 table; Accepted for publication in MNRAS

Using a samples of 61506 spiral galaxies selected from the SDSS DR2, we examine the luminosity function (LF) of spiral galaxies with different inclination angles. We find that the characteristic luminosity of the LF, $L^*$, decreases with increasing inclination, while the faint-end slope, $\alpha$, depends only weakly on it. The inclination-dependence of the LF is consistent with that expected from a simple model where the optical depth is proportional to the cosine of the inclination angle, and we use a likelihood method to recover both the coefficient in front of the cosine, $\gamma$, and the LF for galaxies viewed face-on. The value of $\gamma$ is quite independent of galaxy luminosity in a given band, and the values of $\gamma$ obtained in this way for the 5 SDSS bands give an extinction curve which is a power law of wavelength ($\tau\propto\lambda^{-n}$), with a power index $n=0.96\pm0.04$. Using the dust extinction for galaxies obtained by Kauffmann et al. (2003), we derive an `extinction-corrected' luminosity function for spiral galaxies. Dust extinction makes $M^*$ dimmer by about 0.5 magnitudes in the $z$-band, and about 1.2 magnitudes in the $u$- band. Since our analysis is based on a sample where selection effects are well under control, the dimming of edge-on galaxies relative to face-on galaxies is best explained by assuming that galaxy disks are optically thick in dust absorptions., Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures, accepted by ApJ

We study the morphology and star formation properties of 159 local luminous infrared galaxy (LIRG) using multi-color images from Data Release 2 (DR2) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The LIRGs are selected from a cross-correlation analysis between the IRAS survey and SDSS. They are all brighter than 15.9 mag in the r-band and below redshift ~ 0.1, and so can be reliably classified morphologically. We find that the fractions of interacting/merging and spiral galaxies are ~ 48% and ~ 40% respectively. Our results complement and confirm the decline (increase) in the fraction of spiral (interacting/merging) galaxies from z ~1 to z ~ 0.1, as found by Melbourne, Koo & Le Floc'h (2005). About 75% of spiral galaxies in the local LIRGs are barred, indicating that bars may play an important role in triggering star formation rates > 20 M_{sun}/yr in the local universe. Compared with high redshift LIRGs, local LIRGs have lower specific star formation rates, smaller cold gas fractions and a narrower range of stellar masses. Local LIRGs appear to be either merging galaxies forming intermediate mass ellipticals or spiral galaxies undergoing high star formation activities regulated by bars., 22 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ, title changed, typos corrected,major revisions following referee's comments,updated references

We present results of age and metallicity gradient analysis inferred from both optical and near-infrared surface photometry. The analysis is based on a sample of 36 nearby early-type galaxies, obtained from the Early Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the Two Micron All Sky Survey. Surface brightness profiles were derived in each band, and used to study the color gradients of the galaxies. Using simple stellar population models with both optical and near infrared colors, we may interpret the color gradients in term of age and metallicity gradients of galaxies. Using $g_Z \equiv d \log Z_{\rm met} / d \log R $ and $g_A = d \log {\rm Age} / d \log R $ to represent the metallicity and age gradients, we found a median value of $g_Z=-0.25\pm 0.03$ for the metallicity gradient, with a dispersion $\sigma_{g_Z}=0.19\pm0.02$. The corresponding values for the age gradient were $g_A=0.02\pm 0.04$ and $\sigma_{g_A}=0.25\pm0.03$. These results are in good agreement with recent observational results, as well as with recent simulations that suggest both monolithic collapse and major merger have played important roles in the formation of early-type galaxies. Our results demonstrate the potential of using multi-waveband colors obtained from current and future optical and infrared surveys in constraining the age and metallicity gradients of early-type galaxies., Comment: 40 pages, 14 figures. Revised version. Accepted by ApJ

Using deep narrowband H 2 S1 and K s-band imaging data obtained with CFHT/WIRCam, we identify a sample of 56 Hα emission-line galaxies (ELGs) at z = 2.24 with the 5σ depths of H 2 S1 = 22.8 and K s = 24.8 (AB) over a 383 arcmin2 area in the Extended Chandra Deep Field South. A detailed analysis is carried out with existing multi-wavelength data in this field. Three of the 56 Hα ELGs are detected in Chandra 4 Ms X-ray observations and two of them are classified as active galactic nuclei. The rest-frame UV and optical morphologies revealed by HST/ACS and WFC3 deep images show that nearly half of the Hα ELGs are either merging systems or have a close companion, indicating that the merging/interacting processes play a key role in regulating star formation at cosmic epoch z = 2-3. About 14% are too faint to be resolved in the rest-frame UV morphology due to high dust extinction. We estimate dust extinction from spectral energy distributions. We find that dust extinction is generally correlated with Hα luminosity and stellar mass. Our results suggest that Hα ELGs are representative of star-forming galaxies. Applying extinction corrections to individual objects, we examine the intrinsic Hα luminosity function (LF) at z = 2.24, obtaining a best-fit Schechter function characterized by a faint-end slope of α = – 1.3. This is shallower than the typical slope of α –1.6 in previous works based on constant extinction correction. We demonstrate that this difference is mainly due to the different extinction corrections. The proper extinction correction is thus the key to recovering the intrinsic LF as the extinction globally increases with Hα luminosity. Moreover, we find that our Hα LF mirrors the stellar mass function of star-forming galaxies at the same cosmic epoch. This finding indeed reflects the tight correlation between star formation rate and stellar mass for star-forming galaxies, i.e., the so-called main sequence.

We present a deep, 42.79 hr image of the nearby, edge-on galaxy NGC 4565 in the Beijing-Arizona-Taipei-Connecticut (BATC) 6660A band using the large-format CCD system on the 0.6m Schmidt telescope at the Xinglong Station of the National Astronomical Observatories of China (NAOC). we obtain a final image that is calibrated to an accuracy of 0.02 mag in zero point, and for which we can measure galaxy surface brightness to an accuracy of 0.25 mag at a surface brightness at 27.5 mag arcsec^-2 at 6660A, corresponding to a distance of 22 kpc from the center of the disk. The integrated magnitude of NGC4565 in our filter is m6660=8.99 (R magnitude of 9.1) to a surface brightness of 28 mag arcsec-2. We analyze the faint outer parts of this galaxy using a two-dimensional model comprised of three components: an exponential thin disk, an exponential thick disk, and a power-law halo. A total of 12 parameters are included in our model. We determine the best values of our model parameters via 10,000 random initial values, 3,700 of which converge to final values. The thin disk and thick disk parameters we determine here are consistent with those of previous studies of this galaxy. However, our very deep image permits a better determination of the power law fit to the halo, constraining this power law to be between r^-3.2 and r^-4.0, with a best fit value of r^-3.88. We find the axis ratio of the halo to be 0.44 and its core radius to be 14.4 kpc (for an adopted distance of 14.5 Mpc)., 34 pages, 11 figures, will appear in March 2002 of AJ

We present results of searching for the possible typical scales in the spatial distribution of QSOs. Our method is based on the second derivative of the two-point correlation function. This statistic is sensitive to the scale of the maximum in the spectrum $P(k)$ of the density perturbation in the universe. This maximum or bend scale can be detected as the wavelengths of the periodic component in the second derivative of the integral correlation function. For various QSO samples compiled from surveys of pencil-beam and bright QSOs, a typical scale of about 93 $\pm$ 10 h$^{-1}$Mpc for $q_0=0.5$ has been detected. This typical scale is in good agreement with that found in the spatial distributions of galaxies, clusters of galaxies, and CIV absorption systems of QSOs if $q_0$ is taken to be $\sim 0.2$. Therefore, it is likely a common or universal scale in the large scale structure traced by these objects. This result is consistent with the assumption that the typical scale comes from a characteristic scale in the spectrum of the density perturbation in the universe., Comment: 16 pages, 13 figures (available upon request), Latex, AZPH-TH/94-02, to appear in Ap. J

We discuss new optical spectra and DSS images of a complete sample of very luminous IRAS galaxies. The statistics of classification of spectral types and interactions show that interaction can account for the nuclear activity (AGN and starburst) of ultraluminous infrared galaxies.

The edge-on, nearby spiral galaxy NGC5907 has long been used as the prototype of a ``non-interacting'' warped galaxy. We report here the discovery of two interactions with companion dwarf galaxies that substantially change this picture. First, a faint ring structure is discovered around this galaxy that is likely due to the tidal disruption of a companion dwarf spheroidal galaxy. The ring is elliptical in shape with the center of NGC5907 close to one of the ring's foci. This suggests the ring material is in orbit around NGC5907. No gaseous component to the ring has been detected either with deep H$\alpha$ images or in Very Large Array (VLA) HI 21-cm line maps. The visible material in the ring has an integrated luminosity, Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJL, 8 pages, AASTeX, 3 figures

We report the optical identifications of two X-ray luminous point sources in the spiral galaxy NGC4565 based on archive data of Chandra and the Hubble Space Telescope. The central X-ray point source, RXJ1236.3+2559, is found to be the nucleus of NGC4565 with an X-ray luminosity of Lx= 4.3 10^{39} erg. We show that its multi-waveband properties are consistent with it being a low-luminosity active galactic nucleus. A faint optical counterpart with B=25.1 and I=24.0 was identified for the off-nucleus X-ray point source, RXJ1236.2+2558. Its extinction corrected B magnitude is estimated to be 24.5. The X-ray to optical flux ratio (fx/fB) is about 540. From the optical and X-ray properties we argue that RXJ1236.2+2558 is an ultra-luminous X-ray compact source with Lx=6.5 10^{39} erg. The source is probably located in a faint globular cluster at the outer edge of NGC4565's bulge., 18 pages(include 3 figures). Accepted for publication in ApJ. added important discussion in section 3.3.3 and improved Fig.2