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Galaxy interactions and mergers can enhance or reduce star formation, but a complete understanding of the involved processes is still lacking. The effect of dwarf galaxy mergers is even less clear than their massive counterpart. We present a study on a dwarf merger remnant in the Virgo cluster, VCC322, which might form a triple system with VCC334 and VCC319. We identify a prominent long and straight tail-like substructure that has a size comparable to its host galaxy VCC322. By comparing the color–color (g − r versus r − H) distribution with simple stellar population models, we infer that the metallicity and stellar age of this tail are Z ⋆ ∼ 0.02 Z ⊙ and t ⋆ ∼ 10 Gyr, respectively. In VCC319, we find a sign of isophotal twisting. This suggests that VCC319 may be subject to tidal interaction. An analysis of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey optical spectra of VCC322 indicates mass- and light-weighted ages of about 109.8 yr and 107.5 yr, respectively, indicating an ongoing star formation activity. However, the star formation in VCC322 seems suppressed when compared to other star-forming dwarfs of comparable stellar masses. Our finding of shock excitation of optical emission lines indicates that interaction-induced shock may contribute to the heating of cold gas and suppression of star formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we present our studies on the stellar populations and star formation histories (SFHs) for the Reines et al. sample of 136 dwarf galaxies that host active galactic nuclei (AGNs), selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 8. We derive stellar populations and reconstruct SFHs for these AGN-host dwarfs using the stellar population synthesis code STARLIGHT. Our results suggest that these AGN-host dwarfs have assembled their stellar masses within a narrow period of time with the stellar mass-weighted ages in the range of 109–1010 yr, but show a wide diversity of SFHs with the luminosity-weighted stellar ages in the range of 107–1010 yr. The old population (t > 109 yr) contributes most to the galaxy light for the majority of the sample; the young population (t < 108 yr) also appears in significant but widely varying fractions, while the intermediate-age population (108 < t < 109 yr) in general contributes less to the optical continuum at 4020 Å. We also find that these dwarfs follow a similar mass–metallicity relation to normal star-forming galaxies, indicating that AGNs have little effect on the chemical evolution of the host galaxy. We further investigate the relation between the derived SFHs and morphology of the host galaxy, and find no correlation. Comparing the SFHs with the luminosity of the [O iii ] λ5007 line (), we find a mild correlation exists when erg s−1, indicating a physical connection between star formation and AGN activities in these dwarf galaxies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A clear link between a dwarf–dwarf merger event and enhanced star formation (SF) in the recent past was recently identified in the gas-dominated merger remnant VCC 848, offering by far the clearest view of a gas-rich late-stage dwarf–dwarf merger. We present a joint analysis of JVLA H i emission line mapping, optical imaging, and numerical simulations of VCC 848 in order to examine the effect of the merger on the stellar and gaseous distributions. VCC 848 has less than 30% of its H i gas concentrated within the central high-surface-brightness star-forming region, while the remaining H i is entrained in outlying tidal features. Particularly, a well-defined tidal arm reaches N(H i) comparable to the galaxy center but lacks SF. The molecular gas mass inferred from the current SF rate (SFR) dominates over the atomic gas mass in the central ∼1.5 kpc. VCC 848 is consistent with being a main-sequence star-forming galaxy for its current stellar mass and SFR. The H ii region luminosity distribution largely agrees with that of normal dwarf irregulars with similar luminosities, except that the brightest H ii region is extraordinarily luminous. Our N-body/hydrodynamical simulations imply that VCC 848 is a merger between a gas-dominated primary progenitor and a gas-bearing star-dominated secondary. The progenitors had their first passage on a near-radial noncoplanar orbit more than 1 Gyr ago. The merger did not build up a core as compact as typical compact dwarfs with a centralized starburst, which may be partly ascribed to the star-dominated nature of the secondary and, in a general sense, a negative stellar feedback following intense starbursts triggered at early stages of the merger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present an Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array observation of the Submillimeter galaxy ID 141 at z = 4.24 in the [N ii ] 205 μm line (hereafter [N ii ]) and the underlying continuum at (rest-frame) 197.6 μm. Benefiting from lensing magnification by a galaxy pair at z = 0.595, ID 141 is one of the brightest SMGs. At the angular resolutions of –1.″5 (1″ ∼6.9 kpc), our observation clearly separates and moderately resolves the two lensed images in both continuum and line emission at a signal-to-noise ratio >5. Our continuum-based lensing model implies an averaged amplification factor of ∼5.8 and reveals that the delensed continuum image has a Sérsic index and Sérsic radius of ∼0.″18 (∼1.24 kpc). Furthermore, the reconstructed [N ii ] velocity field in the source plane is dominated by a rotation component with a maximum velocity of ∼300 km s−1 at large radii, indicating a dark matter halo mass of ∼10. This, together with the reconstructed velocity dispersion field being smooth and modest in value (<100 km s−1) over much of the outer parts of the galaxy, favors the interpretation of ID 141 being a disk galaxy dynamically supported by rotation. The observed [N ii ] /CO (7−6) and [N ii ] /[C ii ] 158 μm line-luminosity ratios, which are consistent with the corresponding line ratio versus far-infrared color correlation from local luminous infrared galaxies, imply a delensed star formation rate of (1.8 yr−1 and provide an independent estimate of the size of the star-forming region kpc in radius. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To study the high-transition dense-gas tracers and their relationships to the star formation of the inner ∼2 kpc circumnuclear region of NGC 253, we present HCN J = 4−3 and HCO+ J = 4−3 maps obtained with the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. Using the spatially resolved data, we compute the concentration indices r 90/ r 50 for the different tracers. HCN and HCO+ 4–3 emission features tend to be centrally concentrated, which is in contrast to the shallower distribution of CO 1–0 and the stellar component. The dense-gas fraction (f dense, traced by the velocity-integrated-intensity ratios of HCN/CO and HCO+/CO) and the ratio R 31 (CO 3–2/1–0) decline towards larger galactocentric distances, but increase with higher star formation rate surface density. The radial variation and the large scatter of f dense and R 31 imply distinct physical conditions in different regions of the galactic disc. The relationships of f dense versus Σstellar, and SFEdense versus Σstellar are explored. SFEdense increases with higher Σstellar in this galaxy, which is inconsistent with previous work that used HCN 1–0 data. This implies that existing stellar components might have different effects on the high-J HCN and HCO+ than their low-J emission. We also find that SFEdense seems to be decreasing with higher f dense which is consistent with previous works, and it suggests that the ability of the dense gas to form stars diminishes when the average density of the gas increases. This is expected in a scenario where only the regions with high-density contrast collapse and form stars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most intensively star-forming galaxies are extremely luminous at far-infrared (FIR) wavelengths, highly obscured at optical and ultraviolet wavelengths, and lie at |$z$| ≥ 1–3. We present a programme of FIR spectroscopic observations with the SPIRE FTS, as well as photometric observations with PACS, both on board Herschel, towards a sample of 45 gravitationally lensed, dusty starbursts across |$z$| ∼ 1–3.6. In total, we detected 27 individual lines down to |$3\, \sigma$|⁠, including nine [C  ii ] 158  |$\mu$| m lines with confirmed spectroscopic redshifts, five possible [C  ii ] lines consistent with their FIR photometric redshifts, and in some individual sources a few [O  iii ] 88  |$\mu$| m, [O  iii ] 52  |$\mu$| m, [O  i ] 145  |$\mu$| m, [O  i ] 63  |$\mu$| m, [N  ii ] 122  |$\mu$| m and OH 119  |$\mu$| m (in absorption) lines. To derive the typical physical properties of the gas in the sample, we stack all spectra weighted by their intrinsic luminosity and by their 500 |$\mu$| m flux densities, with the spectra scaled to a common redshift. In the stacked spectra, we detect emission lines of [C  ii ] 158  |$\mu$| m, [N  ii ] 122  |$\mu$| m, [O  iii ] 88  |$\mu$| m, [O  iii ] 52  |$\mu$| m, [O  i ] 63  |$\mu$| m and the absorption doublet of OH at 119  |$\mu$| m, at high fidelity. We find that the average electron densities traced by the [N  ii ] and [O  iii ] lines are higher than the average values in local star-forming galaxies and ULIRGs, using the same tracers. From the [N  ii ]/[C  ii ] and [O  i ]/[C  ii ] ratios, we find that the [C  ii ] emission is likely dominated by the photodominated regions (PDR), instead of by ionized gas or large-scale shocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]