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Using hydrodynamical $N$-body simulations, we show that the observed structure and kinematics of the extremely metal-poor, dwarf irregular galaxy DDO 68 is compatible with a merger event with at least two smaller satellite galaxies. We were able to obtain a self-consistent model that simultaneously reproduces several of its observed features, including: the very asymmetric and disturbed shape of the stellar component, the overall HI distribution and its velocity field, the arc-like stellar structure to the west, the low-surface brightness stellar stream to the north. The model implies the interaction of the main progenitor of DDO 68 with two systems with dynamical masses $7\times10^8\,M_{\odot}$ and almost $10^8\,M_{\odot}$ -- 1/20 and 1/150 times the dynamical mass of DDO 68, respectively. We show that the merger between DDO 68 and the most massive of its satellites offers a route to explain the large offset of DDO 68 from the mass-metallicity relation. Assuming that the interacting galaxies have metallicities prior to the merger compatible with those of galaxies with similar stellar masses, we provide quantitative evidence that gas mixing alone does not suffice at diluting the gas of the two components; according to our simulations, the HII regions observed along the Cometary Tail trace the low metallicity of the accreted satellite rather than that of DDO 68's main body. In this case, the mass corresponding to the low metallicity is that of the secondary body and DDO 68 becomes consistent with the mass-metallicity relation., Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 17 pages, 10 figures

Since the epoch of cosmic star formation peak at $z \sim 2$, most of it is obscured in high mass galaxies, while in low mass galaxies the radiation escapes unobstructed. During the reionization epoch, the presence of evolved, dust obscured galaxies are a challenge to galaxy formation and evolution models. By means of a chemodynamical evolution model, we investigate the star formation and dust production required to build up the bulk of dust in galaxies with initial baryonic mass ranging from $7.5 \times 10^{7}$~M$_\odot$ to $2.0 \times 10^{12}$~M$_\odot$. The star formation efficiency was also chosen to represent the star formation rate from irregular dwarf to giant elliptical galaxies. We adopted a dust coagulation efficiency from \citep[][Case A]{dwek1998evolution} as well as a lower efficiency one (Case B), about five times smaller than Case A. All possible combination of these parameters was computed, summing forty different scenarios. We find that in high stellar formation systems the dust accretion in ISM rules over stellar production before the star formation peak, making these systems almost insensible to dust coagulation efficiency. In low star formation systems, the difference between Case A and B lasts longer, mainly in small galaxies. Thus, small irregular galaxies should be the best place to discriminate different dust sources. In our observational sample, taken from the literature, dust-to-gas ratio tends to be more spread only than dust mass, for both stellar mass and star formation rate. Dust-to-gas vs. dust-to-star diagram is a good tracer for both galaxy and dust evolution, due to the link between gas, star, dust and star formation rate. However, the model do not constrain simultaneously all this quantities. The new generation facilities (such as JWST, ELT, VLT and SPICA) will be indispensable to constrain dust formation across the cosmic time., Comment: 21 pages, 15 figures

Using the Chandra Source Catalog 2.0 and a newly compiled catalogue of galaxies in the local Universe, we deliver a census of ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) populations in nearby galaxies. We find 629 ULX candidates in 309 galaxies with distance smaller than 40\,Mpc. The foreground/background contamination is ${\sim}20\%$. The ULX populations in bona-fide star-forming galaxies scale on average with star-formation rate (SFR) and stellar mass ($M_\star$) such that the number of ULXs per galaxy is $0.45^{+0.06}_{-0.09}\times\frac{\rm SFR}{\rm M_\odot\,yr^{-1}}{+}3.3^{+3.8}_{-3.2}\times\frac{M_\star}{\rm M_\odot}$. The scaling depends strongly on the morphological type. This analysis shows that early spiral galaxies contain an additional population of ULXs that scales with $M_\star$. We also confirm the strong anti-correlation of the ULX rate with the host galaxy's metallicity. In the case of early-type galaxies we find that there is a non-linear dependence of the number of ULXs with $M_\star$, which is interpreted as the result of star-formation history differences. Taking into account age and metallicity effects, we find that the predictions from X-ray binary population synthesis models are consistent with the observed ULX rates in early-type galaxies, as well as, spiral/irregular galaxies., 21 pages, 19 figures, 6 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

Recent photometric observations revealed a massive, extended (MGC ≳ 105 M⊙; Rh ∼ 14 pc) globular cluster (GC) in the central region (D3D ≲ 100 pc) of the low-mass (M* ∼ 5 × 106 M⊙) dwarf irregular galaxy Pegasus. This massive GC offers a unique opportunity to study star cluster inspiral as a mechanism for building up nuclear star clusters, and the dark matter (DM) density profile of the host galaxy. Here, we present spectroscopic observations indicating that the GC has a systemic velocity of ΔV = 3 ± 8 km s−1 relative to the host galaxy, and an old, metal-poor stellar population. We run a suite of orbital evolution models for a variety of host potentials (cored to cusped) and find that the GC’s observed tidal radius (which is ∼3 times larger than the local Jacobi radius), relaxation time, and relative velocity are consistent with it surviving inspiral from a distance of Dgal ≳ 700 pc (up to the maximum tested value of Dgal = 2000 pc). In successful trials, the GC arrives to the galaxy centre only within the last ∼1.4 ± 1 Gyr. Orbits that arrive in the centre and survive are possible in DM haloes of nearly all shapes, however to satisfy the GC’s structural constraints a galaxy DM halo with mass MDM ≃ 6 ± 2 × 109 M⊙, concentration c ≃ 13.7 ± 0.6, and an inner slope to the DM density profile of −0.9 ≤ γ ≤ −0.5 is preferred. The gas densities necessary for its creation and survival suggest the GC could have formed initially near the dwarf’s centre, but then was quickly relocated to the outskirts where the weaker tidal field permitted an increased size and relaxation time – with the latter preserving the former during subsequent orbital decay.

From the early stages of Astronomy, the classification of galaxies has been a conundrum that has left astrophysicists in a situation of quandary. Although, previous methods did a phenomenal job in classifying galaxies but while analysing them, certain inefficiencies had been revealed which cannot be overlooked. The objective had been to conduct an analysis of different types of machine learning techniques that have been used to classify galaxies. This analysis had been conducted on the basis of different attributes taken for different types of classification of galaxies. A method had been proposed to classify galaxies with higher accuracy than previous methods. The configuration for the literature analysis used datasets such as ESO-LV and SDSS and discussed the antecedent techniques for classifying galaxies. It had been inferred that a Convolutional Neural Network with certain data augmentation for irregular Galaxies (Irr) gives the best result of all the algorithms that have been discussed in the literature and its analysis. Owing to the aforementioned, an implementation accentuating the use of deep learning algorithms with certain Data Augmentation techniques and certain different activation functions, named daMCOGCNN (data augmentation-based MOrphological Classifier Galaxy Using Convolutional Neural Networks) had been proposed for morphological classification of galaxies. The dataset comprises of 4614 images from SDSS Image Gallery, Galaxy Zoo challenge and Hubble Image Gallery. The efficient implementation of this method gave a testing accuracy of approximately 98% and 97.92% accuracy had been achieved on a dataset taken from different websites such as AstroBin and other such sources. The model introduced here outperforms its earlier contemporaries.

WLM is a dwarf irregular that is seen almost edge-on that has prompted a number of kinematical studies investigating its rotation curve and its dark matter content. In this paper, we investigate the origin of the strong asymmetry of the rotation curve, which shows a significant discrepancy between the approaching and the receding side. We first examine whether an $m = 1$ perturbation (lopsidedness) in the halo potential could be a mechanism creating such kinematical asymmetry. To do so, we fit a theoretical rotational velocity associated with an $m = 1$ perturbation in the halo potential model to the observed data via a $\chi-$squared minimization method. We show that a lopsided halo potential model can explain the asymmetry in the kinematic data reasonably well. We then verify that the kinematical classification of WLM shows that its velocity field is significantly perturbed due to both its asymmetrical rotation curve and also its peculiar velocity dispersion map. In addition, based on a kinemetry analysis, we find that it is possible for WLM to lie in the transition region, where the disk and merger coexist. In conclusion, it appears that the rotation curve of WLM diverges significantly from that of an ideal rotating disk, which may significantly affect investigations of its dark matter content., Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics (A & A), Preprint version available online

We present a panoramic survey of the isolated Local Group dwarf irregular galaxy NGC 6822. Our photometry reaches $\sim2-3$ magnitudes deeper than most previous studies and spans the widest area around the dwarf compared to any prior work. We observe no stellar over-densities in the outskirts of NGC 6822 to $V\sim 30$ mag$\,$arcsec$^{-2}$ and a projected radius of $16.5$ kpc. This indicates that NGC 6822 has not experienced any recent interaction with a companion galaxy, despite previous suggestions to the contrary. Similarly, we find no evidence for any dwarf satellites of NGC 6822 to a limiting luminosity $M_V\approx -5$. NGC 6822 contains a disk of HI gas and young stars, oriented at $\sim 60$ degrees to an extended spheroid composed of old stellar populations. We observe no correlation between the distribution of young stars and spheroid members. Our imaging allows us to trace the spheroid to nearly $11$ kpc along its major axis, commensurate with the extent of the NGC 6822 globular cluster system. We find that the spheroid becomes increasingly flattened at larger radii, and its position angle twists by up to $40$ degrees. We use Gaia EDR3 astrometry to measure a proper motion for NGC 6822, and then sample its orbital parameter space. While this galaxy has spent the majority of its life in isolation, we find that it likely passed within the virial radius of the Milky Way $\sim3-4$ Gyr ago. This may explain the apparent flattening and twisting observed in the outskirts of its spheroid., Accepted for publication in MNRAS

In this work we characterise the properties of the object SDSS J020536.84-081424.7, an extended nebular region with projected extension of $14 \times 14$ kpc$^{2}$ in the line of sight of the ETG Mrk 1172, using unprecedented spectroscopic data from MUSE. We perform a spatially resolved stellar population synthesis and estimate the stellar mass for both Mrk 1172 ($1 \times 10^{11} M_{\odot}$) and our object of study ($3 \times 10^{9} M_{\odot}$). While the stellar content of Mrk 1172 is dominated by an old ($\sim 10$ Gyr) stellar population, the extended nebular emission has its light dominated by young to intermediate age populations (from $\sim 100$ Myr to $\sim 1$ Gyr) and presents strong emission lines such as: H${\beta}$, [O III] ${\lambda}{\lambda}$4959,5007, H${\alpha}$, [N II] ${\lambda}{\lambda}$6549,6585 and [S II] ${\lambda}{\lambda}$6717,6732. Using these emission lines we find that it is metal-poor (with $Z \sim$ 1/3 $Z_{\odot}$, comparable to the LMC) and is actively forming stars ($0.70$ M$_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$), especially in a few bright clumpy knots that are readily visible in H${\alpha}$. The object has an ionised gas mass $\geq 3.8 \times 10^{5}$ M$_{\odot}$. Moreover, the motion of the gas is well described by a gas in circular orbit in the plane of a disk and is being affected by interaction with Mrk 1172. We conclude that SDSS J020536.84-081424.7 is most likely a dwarf irregular galaxy (dIGal).

We conducted the stellar photometry using the archive images of the Hubble Space Telescope of the dwarf irregular galaxy Cas 1 located near the Milky Way. Blue supergiants detected in the obtained Hertzsprung-Russell diagram are concentrated in star-forming regions. We found that the red star branch consists of numerous AGB stars and a small number of brighter red supergiants. In the luminosity function of the peripheric red giants and AGB stars selected, the TRGB discontinuity is observed with I = 23.m67 which corresponds to the beginning of the red giant branch. Using the TRGB method, we determined the distance modulus to the Cas 1 (m - M) = 26.01 ± 0.08 which corresponds to the distance D = 1.6 ± 0.1 Mpc. This estimate shows that the galaxy is near the Local Group and isolated from other galaxies. The absolute luminosity of Cas 1 based on the new distance measurement is MV = -14.2, i.e. it is definitely a dwarf galaxy. The position of the red giant branch of AGB stars in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram and measured metallicity of red giants shows that the galaxy Cas 1 has a very low metallicity [Fe/H] = -2.8.

We report a tentative detection of the circumgalactic medium (CGM) of WLM, an isolated, low-mass (log$M_*/M_\odot\approx7.6$), dwarf irregular galaxy in the Local Group (LG). We analyze an HST/COS archival spectrum of a quasar sightline (PHL2525), which is 45 kpc (0.5 virial radius) from WLM and close to the Magellanic Stream (MS). Along this sightline, two ion absorbers are detected in Si II, Si III, Si IV, C II, and C IV at velocities of $\sim$-220 km s$^{-1}$ (Component v-220) and $\sim$-150 km s$^{-1}$ (Component v-150). To identify their origins, we study the position-velocity alignment of the components with WLM and the nearby MS. Near the Magellanic longitude of PHL2525, the MS-related neutral and ionized gas moves at $\lesssim-190$ km s$^{-1}$, suggesting an MS origin for Component v-220, but not for Component v-150. Because PHL2525 passes near WLM and Component v-150 is close to WLM's systemic velocity ($\sim$-132 km s$^{-1}$), it is likely that Component v-150 arises from the galaxy's CGM. This results in a total Si mass in WLM's CGM of $M_{\rm Si}^{\rm CGM}\sim(0.2-1.0)\times10^5~M_\odot$ using assumption from other COS dwarf studies. Comparing $M_{\rm Si}^{\rm CGM}$ to the total Si mass synthesized in WLM over its lifetime ($\sim$1.3$\times10^5~M_\odot$), we find $\sim$3% is locked in stars, $\sim$6% in the ISM, $\sim$15%-77% in the CGM, and the rest ($\sim$14%-76%) is likely lost beyond the virial radius. Our finding resonates with other COS dwarf galaxy studies and theoretical predictions that low-mass galaxies can easily lose metals into their CGM due to stellar feedback and shallow gravitational potential., Accepted for publication in MNRAS

We examine the H i total intensity maps of the VLA LITTLE-THINGS galaxies and identify an H i bar in the dwarf irregular galaxy DDO 168 which has a dense and compact dark matter halo that dominates at all radii. This is only the third galaxy found to host an H i bar. Using the H i kinematic data, we apply the Tremaine–Weinberg method to estimate the pattern speed of the bar. The H i bar is found to have an average pattern speed of 23.3 ± 5.9 $\rm km \, s^{-1} \, kpc^{-1}$. Interestingly, for the first time, we find that the observed pattern speeds of the bar in the two kinematic halves are different. We identify the origin of this difference to be the kinematic asymmetry. This observed offset in the pattern speed serves to put a stringent constraint on the lifetime of the bar set by the winding time-scale. The lifetime of the bar is found to be 5.3 × 108 yr, which is two times the dynamical time-scale of the disc. We also find the H i bar in DDO 168 to be a weak bar with a strength of 0.2. If H i bar being weak can be easily disturbed, this could possibly explain why it is extremely rare to observe H i bars in galaxies. We estimate the bar radius to be 1 kpc and the dimensionless ratio, RL/Rb to be ≥2.1 indicating a ‘slow’ bar in DDO 168. Our results confirm the proposition that the dynamical friction with the halo slows down a rotating bar in a galaxy dominated by dark matter halo from inner radii.

Our GMRT HI observations of the ultra diffuse galaxy (UDG) UGC 2162, projected $\sim$ 300 kpc from the centre of the M77 group, reveal it to a have an extended HI disk (R$_{HI}$/R$_{25}$ $\sim$ 3.3) with a moderate rotational velocity (V$_{rot} \sim$ 31 km/s). This V$_{rot}$ is in line with that of dwarf galaxies with similar HI mass. We estimate an M$_{dyn}$ of $\sim$ 1.14 $\times$ 10$^{9}$ M$_\odot$ within the galaxy's R$_{HI}$ $\sim$ 5.2 kpc. Additionally, our estimates of M$_{200}$ for the galaxy from NFW models are in the range of 5.0 to 8.8 $\times$ 10$^{10}$ M$_\odot$. Comparing UGC 2162 to samples of UDGs with HI detections show it to have amongst the smallest R$_e$ with its M$_{HI}$/M$_{\star}$ being distinctly higher and g -- i colour slightly bluer than typical values in those samples. We also compared HI and dark matter (DM) halo properties of UGC 2162 with dwarf galaxies in the LITTLE THINGS sample and find its DM halo mass and profile are within the range expected for a dwarf galaxy. While we were unable to to determine the origin of the galaxy's present day optical form from our study, its normal HI rotation velocity in relation to its HI mass, HI morphology, environment and dwarf mass DM halo ruled out some of the proposed ultra diffuse galaxy formation scenarios for this galaxy., Comment: Accepted in MNRAS

Surface photometry data on 90 dwarf irregular galaxies (dIrrs) in a wide vicinity of the Virgo cluster and 30 isolated dIrrs are presented. Images from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) are used. The following mean photometric characteristics (color and central surface brightness) are obtained for objects in the two samples: (V - I)0 = 0.75 (σ = 0.19), (B - V)0 = 0.51 (σ = 0.13), SBV = 22.16 (σ = 1.02) for the dIrrs in the vicinity of the Virgo cluster and (V - I)0 = 0.66 (σ = 0.43), (B - V)0 = 0.57 (σ = 0.16), and SBV = 22.82 (σ = 0.73) for the isolated galaxies. The mean central surface brightnesses for the isolated galaxies in this sample are significantly lower than for the dIrrs in a denser environment. The average color characteristics of the dIrrs in the different environments are the same to within ~0.2 mag.

We present a scenario for the formation and the morphology of the arrow-shaped dwarf irregular galaxy NGC 1427A in the Fornax Cluster. This galaxy shows intriguing stellar and gaseous tails pointing in different directions for which alternative but not conclusive formation scenarios have been proposed in the literature. We performed N-body/SPH simulations of dwarf galaxies falling into a model of the Fornax cluster, exhibiting a jellyfish-like appearance while undergoing ram-pressure stripping. We noted that some of our models show interesting tail morphologies similar to that of NGC 1427A. In this way, the peculiar NGC 1427A structure can be studied using models whose stellar and neutral gas photometry and kinematics are in good agreement with the observed ones, without the need of invoking an interaction with a nearby galaxy. Thanks to the tails, we can identify the requirements for a galaxy to expose such a structure and assess the possible position and velocity of the galaxy in the cluster. This puts constraints on the orbit of the galaxy, its position in the cluster and the time since its pericentre passage. From the statistics of identified snapshots following our modelling, we found that the most likely position of the galaxy is around 200 kpc in front of the cluster centre, travelling towards the cluster with a velocity angle with respect to the line-of-sight direction of around 50 deg. This analysis can be useful in future observations of similar galaxies in clusters to characterise their position and velocity in the cluster and their formation., 13 pages, 16 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

In their recent paper, Chan and Lee discuss an interesting possibility: radio continuum emission from a dwarf irregular galaxy may be used to constrain upper limits on the cross section of annihilating dark matter. They claim that the contributions from nonthermal and thermal emission can be estimated with such accuracy that one can place new upper limits on the annihilation cross section. We argue that the observations presented can be explained entirely with a standard spectrum and no contribution from dark matter. As a result, the estimated upper limits of Chan and Lee are atleast by a factor of 100 too low., 3 pages, 1 figure, comment on "Constraining the annihilating dark matter mass by the radio continuum spectral data of NGC4214 galaxy" by Chan and Lee, preprint at arXiv:2009.09562, Phys. Rev. D, in press

Countless low-surface brightness objects - including spiral galaxies, dwarf galaxies, and noise patterns - have been detected in recent large surveys. Classically, astronomers visually inspect those detections to distinguish between real low-surface brightness galaxies and artefacts. Employing the Dark Energy Survey (DES) and machine learning techniques, Tanoglidis et al. (2020) have shown how this task can be automatically performed by computers. Here, we build upon their pioneering work and further separate the detected low-surface brightness galaxies into spirals, dwarf ellipticals, and dwarf irregular galaxies. For this purpose, we have manually classified 5567 detections from multi-band images from DES and searched for a neural network architecture capable of this task. Employing a hyperparameter search, we find a family of convolutional neural networks achieving similar results as with the manual classification, with an accuracy of 85% for spiral galaxies, 94% for dwarf ellipticals, and 52% for dwarf irregulars. For dwarf irregulars - due to their diversity in morphology - the task is difficult for humans and machines alike. Our simple architecture shows that machine learning can reduce the workload of astronomers studying large data sets by orders of magnitudes, as will be available in the near future with missions such as Euclid., 8 pages, 6 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in The Open Journal of Astrophysics. The code can be found on GitLab: https://gitlab.com/VoltarCH/deeplearning_des

We present an analysis of the chemical abundance properties of $\approx$650 star-forming galaxies at $z \approx0.6-1.8$. Using integral-field observations from the $K$-band Multi-Object Spectrograph (KMOS), we quantify the [NII]/H$\alpha$ emission-line ratio, a proxy for the gas-phase Oxygen abundance within the interstellar medium. We define the stellar mass-metallicity relation at $z \approx0.6-1.0$ and $z \approx1.2-1.8$ and analyse the correlation between the scatter in the relation and fundamental galaxy properties (e.g. H$\alpha$ star-formation rate, H$\alpha$ specific star-formation rate, rotation dominance, stellar continuum half-light radius and Hubble-type morphology). We find that for a given stellar mass, more highly star-forming, larger and irregular galaxies have lower gas-phase metallicities, which may be attributable to their lower surface mass densities and the higher gas fractions of irregular systems. We measure the radial dependence of gas-phase metallicity in the galaxies, establishing a median, beam smearing-corrected, metallicity gradient of $ \Delta Z/ \Delta R=0.002 \pm0.004$ dex kpc$^{-1}$, indicating on average there is no significant dependence on radius. The metallicity gradient of a galaxy is independent of its rest-frame optical morphology, whilst correlating with its stellar mass and specific star-formation rate, in agreement with an inside-out model of galaxy evolution, as well as its rotation dominance. We quantify the evolution of metallicity gradients, comparing the distribution of $\Delta Z/ \Delta R$ in our sample with numerical simulations and observations at $z \approx0-3$. Galaxies in our sample exhibit flatter metallicity gradients than local star-forming galaxies, in agreement with numerical models in which stellar feedback plays a crucial role redistributing metals., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. Comments welcome. 20 pages, 12 figures. Revised version with updated introduction and FMR evolution following comments

Physical review / D 103(10), 102002 (2021). doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.103.102002, We search for an indirect signal of dark matter through very high-energy γ rays from the Wolf-Lundmark-Melotte (WLM) dwarf irregular galaxy. The pair annihilation of dark matter particles would produce Standard Model particles in the final state such as γ rays, which might be detected by ground-based Cherenkov telescopes. Dwarf irregular galaxies represent promising targets as they are dark matter dominated objects with well-measured kinematics and small uncertainties on their dark matter distribution profiles. In 2018, the five-telescopes of the high energy stereoscopic system observed the dwarf irregular galaxy WLM for 18 hours. We present the first analysis based on data obtained from an imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescope for this subclass of dwarf galaxy. As we do not observe any significant excess in the direction of WLM, we interpret the result in terms of constraints on the velocity-weighted cross section for dark matter pair annihilation ⟨σv⟩ as a function of the dark matter particle mass for various continuum channels, as well as the prompt γγ emission. For the τ+τ- channel, the limits reach a ⟨σv⟩ value of about 4×10-22 cm3 s-1 for a dark matter particle mass of 1 TeV. For the prompt γγ channel, the upper limit reaches a ⟨σv⟩ value of about 5×10-24 cm3 s-1 for a mass of 370 GeV. These limits represent an improvement of up to a factor 200, with respect to previous results for the dwarf irregular galaxies for TeV dark matter search., Published by Inst., Melville, NY

Spectroscopic observations of 32 HII regions in the spiral galaxy NGC 3963 and the barred irregular galaxy NGC 7292 were carried out with the 2.5-m telescope of the Caucasus Mountain Observatory of the Sternberg Astronomical Institute using the Transient Double-beam Spectrograph with a dispersion of 1A/pixel and a spectral resolution of 3A. These observations were used to estimate the oxygen and nitrogen abundances and the electron temperatures in HII regions through modern strong-line methods. In general, the galaxies have oxygen and nitrogen abundances typical of stellar systems with similar luminosities, sizes, and morphology. However, we have found some peculiarities in chemical abundance distributions in both galaxies. The distorted outer segment of the southern arm of NGC 3963 shows an excess oxygen and nitrogen abundances. Chemical elements abundances in NGC 7292 are constant and do not depend on the galactocentric distance. These peculiarities can be explained in terms of external gas accretion in the case of NGC 3963 and major merging for NGC 7292., Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures, 6 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

We analyze 11 years of Fermi-LAT data corresponding to the sky regions of 7 dwarf irregular (dIrr) galaxies. DIrrs are dark matter (DM) dominated systems, proposed as interesting targets for the indirect search of DM with gamma rays. The galaxies represent interesting cases with a strong disagreement between the density profiles (core vs. cusp) inferred from observations and numerical simulations. In this work, we addressed the problem by considering two different DM profiles, based on both the fit to the rotation curve (in this case a Burkert cored profile) and results from N-body cosmological simulations (i.e., NFW cuspy profile). We also include halo substructures in our analysis, which is expected to boost the DM signal a factor of ten in halos such as those of dIrrs. For each DM model and dIrr, we create a spatial template of the expected DM-induced gamma-ray signal to be used in the analysis of Fermi-LAT data. No significant emission is detected from any of the targets in our sample. Thus, we compute upper limits on the DM annihilation cross-section versus mass parameter space. Among the 7 dIrrs, we find IC10 and NGC6822 to yield the most stringent individual constraints, independently of the adopted DM profile. We also produce combined DM limits for all objects in the sample, which turn out to be dominated by IC10 for all DM models and annihilation channels, i.e. $b\bar{b}$, $\tau^+\tau^-$ and $W^+W^-$. The strongest constraints are obtained for $b\bar{b}$ and are at the level of $\langle\sigma v \rangle \sim 7 \times 10^{-26}\text{cm}^{3}\text{s}^{-1}$ at $m_\chi\sim 6$ GeV. Though these limits are a factor of 3 higher than the thermal relic cross section at low WIMP masses, they are independent from and complementary to those obtained by means of other targets., Comment: 19 pages, 9 figures, Accepted for Publication in PRD

ESO 149-G003 is a close-by, isolated dwarf irregular galaxy. Previous observations with the ATCA indicated the presence of anomalous neutral hydrogen (HI) deviating from the kinematics of a regularly rotating disc. We conducted follow-up observations with the MeerKAT radio telescope during the 16-dish Early Science programme as well as with the MeerLICHT optical telescope. Our more sensitive radio observations confirm the presence of anomalous gas in ESO 149-G003, and further confirm the formerly tentative detection of an extraplanar HI component in the galaxy. Employing a simple tilted-ring model, in which the kinematics is determined with only four parameters but including morphological asymmetries, we reproduce the galaxy's morphology, which shows a high degree of asymmetry. By comparing our model with the observed HI, we find that in our model we cannot account for a significant (but not dominant) fraction of the gas. From the differences between our model and the observed data cube we estimate that at least 7%-8% of the HI in the galaxy exhibits anomalous kinematics, while we estimate a minimum mass fraction of less than 1% for the morphologically confirmed extraplanar component. We investigate a number of global scaling relations and find that, besides being gas-dominated with a neutral gas-to-stellar mass ratio of 1.7, the galaxy does not show any obvious global peculiarities. Given its isolation, as confirmed by optical observations, we conclude that the galaxy is likely currently acquiring neutral gas. It is either re-accreting gas expelled from the galaxy or accreting pristine intergalactic material., 16 pages, 14 figures, MNRAS, Accepted 2020 December 2, in original form 2019 September 18

We present an ultra-violet study of two nearby dwarf irregular galaxies WLM and IC~2574, using the Far-UV and Near-UV data from the Ultra-Violet Imaging Telescope (UVIT). We used the F148W band Far-UV images and identified 180 and 782 young star-forming clumps in WLM and IC~2574, respectively. The identified clumps have sizes between 7 - 30 pc in WLM and 26 - 150 pc in IC~2574. We noticed more prominent hierarchical splitting in the structure of star-forming regions at different flux levels in IC~2574 than WLM. We found that the majority of the clumps have elongated shapes in the sky plane with ellipticity ($\epsilon$) greater than 0.6 in both the galaxies. The major axis of the identified clumps is found to show no specific trend of orientation in IC~2574, whereas in WLM the majority are aligned along south-west to north-east direction. We estimated (F148W$-$N242W) colour for the clumps identified in WLM and noticed that the younger ones (with (F148W$-$N242W) $, Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures, Accepted for publication in Journal of Astrophysics and Astronomy

Turbulence has the potential for creating gas density enhancements that initiate cloud and star formation (SF), and it can be generated locally by SF. To study the connection between turbulence and SF, we looked for relationships between SF traced by FUV images, and gas turbulence traced by kinetic energy density (KED) and velocity dispersion ($v_{disp}$) in the LITTLE THINGS sample of nearby dIrr galaxies. We performed 2D cross-correlations between FUV and KED images, measured cross-correlations in annuli to produce correlation coefficients as a function of radius, and determined the cumulative distribution function of the cross correlation value. We also plotted on a pixel-by-pixel basis the locally excess KED, $v_{disp}$, and HI mass surface density, $\Sigma_{\rm HI}$, as determined from the respective values with the radial profiles subtracted, versus the excess SF rate density $\Sigma_{\rm SFR}$, for all regions with positive excess $\Sigma_{\rm SFR}$. We found that $\Sigma_{\rm SFR}$ and KED are poorly correlated. The excess KED associated with SF implies a $\sim0.5$% efficiency for supernova energy to pump local HI turbulence on the scale of resolution here, which is a factor of $\sim2$ too small for all of the turbulence on a galactic scale. The excess $v_{disp}$ in SF regions is also small, only $\sim0.37$ km s$^{-1}$. The local excess in $\Sigma_{\rm HI}$ corresponding to an excess in $\Sigma_{\rm SFR}$ is consistent with an HI consumption time of $\sim1.6$ Gyr in the inner parts of the galaxies. The similarity between this timescale and the consumption time for CO implies that CO-dark molecular gas has comparable mass to HI in the inner disks., Comment: In press in the Astronomical Journal

The stellar, gaseous and young stellar disks in the LITTLE THINGS sample of nearby dIrrs are fitted with functions to search for correlations between the parameters. We find that the HI radial profiles are generally flatter in the center and fall faster in the outer regions than the V-band profiles, while young stars are more centrally concentrated, especially if the HI is more centrally flat. This pattern suggests that the HI is turning into molecules in the center and the molecular clouds are forming stars and FUV. A model that assumes the molecular surface density is proportional to the total gas surface density to a power of 1.5 or 2, in analogy with the Kennicutt-Schmidt relation, reproduces the relationship between the ratio of the visible to the HI scale length and the HI Sersic index. The molecular fraction is estimated as a function of radius for each galaxy by converting the FUV to a molecular surface density using conventional calibrations. The average molecular fraction inside 3R_D is 23+/-17%. However, the break in the stellar surface brightness profile has no unified tracer related to star formation., In press in the Astronomical Journal

We apply the spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting code ProSpect to multiwavelength imaging for $\sim$7,000 galaxies from the GAMA survey at $z, 24 pages, 16 figures, accepted for publication by MNRAS

VV 655, a dwarf irregular galaxy with HI tidal debris, is a companion to the lenticular luminous infrared galaxy (LIRG) NGC 4418. NGC 4418 stands out among nearby LIRGs due to its dense central concentration of molecular gas and the dusty, bi-polar structures along its minor axis suggestive of a wind driven by a central starburst and possible nuclear activity. We seek to understand the consequences of the ongoing minor interaction between VV 655 and NGC 4418 for the evolution of the LIRG, including the origin of the gas supply responsible for its unusual nuclear properties. We investigate the structural, kinematic, and chemical properties of VV 655 and NGC 4418 by analyzing archival imaging data and optical spectroscopic observations from the SDSS-III and new spectra from SALT-RSS. We characterize their gas-phase metal abundances and spatially resolved, ionized gas kinematics, and demonstrate that the gas-phase metallicity in NGC 4418 significantly exceeds that in VV 655. No kinematic disturbances in the ionized gas are observed along the minor axis of NGC 4418, but we see evidence for ionized gas outflows from VV 655 that may increase the cross-section for gas stripping in grazing collisions. A faint, asymmetric outer arm is detected in NGC 4418 of the type normally associated with galaxy-galaxy interactions. The simplest model suggests that the minor interaction between VV 655 and NGC 4418 produced the unusual nuclear properties of the LIRG via tidal torquing of the interstellar medium of NGC 4418 rather than through a significant gas transfer event. In addition to inducing a central concentration of gas in NGC 4418, this interaction also produced an enhanced star formation rate and an outer tidal arm in the LIRG. The VV 655-NGC 4418 system offers an example of the potential for minor collisions to alter the evolutionary pathways of giant galaxies., 9 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics

The results of an optical search for supernova remnants (SNRs) in the nearby irregular galaxy NGC 2366 are presented. We took interference filter images and collected spectral data in three epochs with the f/7.7 1.5 m Russian Turkish Telescope (RTT150) at T\"{U}B\.{I}TAK National Observatory (TUG) located in Antalya, Turkey. The continuum-subtracted H$\alpha$ and continuum-subtracted [SII]$\lambda \lambda$6716, 6731 images and their ratios were used for the identification of SNRs. With [SII]/H$\alpha$ $\geq$ 0.4 criteria, four possible SNR candidates were identified in NGC 2366 with [SII]/H$\alpha$ ratios of $\sim$(0.68, 0.57, 0.55 and 0.75), H$\alpha$ intensities of $\sim$(2.10, 0.36, 0.14, 0.11)$\times 10^{-15}$ erg cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ [SII]$\lambda$6716/$\lambda$6731 average flux ratios of $\sim$(1.01 and 1.04), electron densities of $N_{\rm e}$ $\sim$(582 and 513) cm$^{-3}$ and [OIII] $\lambda$5007/H$\beta$ $\lambda$4861 $\sim$(3.6 and 2.6) line ratio values are obtained for two of the SNR candidates. A shock velocity $V_{\rm s}$ of 80 $\leq$ $V_{\rm s}$ $\leq$ 100 km s$^{-1}$ is reported. The spectral parameters are obtained for the first time for these possible SNR candidates. The locations of the four SNRs obtained here are found to be consistent with optical and radio results reported so far. One of the sources categorised earlier by XMM-Newton observations as an extended X-ray source position is found to be consistent with one of four possible SNR candidates reported here., Comment: 27 pages, 3 figures; accepted for publication in New Astronomy

We present multi-tracer dynamical models of the low mass ($M_{*} \sim 10^{7}$), isolated dwarf irregular galaxy WLM in order to simultaneously constrain the inner slope of the dark matter (DM) halo density profile ($\gamma$) and flattening ($q_\mathrm{DM}$), and the stellar orbital anisotropy ($\beta_{z}, \beta_{r}$). For the first time, we show how jointly constraining the mass distribution from the HI gas rotation curve and solving the Jeans' equations with discrete stellar kinematics leads to a factor of $\sim2$ reduction in the uncertainties on $\gamma$. The mass-anisotropy degeneracy is also partially broken, leading to reductions on uncertainty by $\sim 30\%$ on $M_\mathrm{vir}$ (and $\sim 70\%$ at the half-light radius) and $\sim 25\%$ on anisotropy. Our inferred value of $\gamma = 0.3 \pm 0.1$ is robust to the halo geometry, and in excellent agreement with predictions of stellar feedback driven DM core creation. The derived prolate geometry of the DM halo with $q_\mathrm{DM} = 2 \pm 1$ is consistent with $\Lambda$CDM simulations of dwarf galaxy halos. While self-interacting DM (SIDM) models with $\sigma/m_{X} \sim 0.6$ can reproduce this cored DM profile, the interaction events may sphericalise the halo. The simultaneously cored and prolate DM halo may therefore present a challenge for SIDM. Finally we find that the radial profile of stellar anisotropy in WLM ($\beta_{r}$) follows a nearly identical trend of increasing tangential anisotropy to the classical dSphs, Fornax and Sculptor. Given WLM's orbital history, this result may call into question whether such anisotropy is a consequence of tidal stripping in only one pericentric passage or if it instead is a feature of the largely self-similar formation and evolutionary pathways for some dwarf galaxies., Comment: arxiv version, published in MNRAS. 23 pages, 14 figures

Stellar photometry of 53 low-mass spiral and irregular galaxies has been carried out using archival frames obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope. Young and old stars (blue supergiants and red giants) are distinguished on the resulting Hertzsprung–Russell diagrams, and the spatial sizes of the subsystems formed by these stars are determined. A correlation is found between the metallicities of red giants and the difference between the linear sizes of stellar systems of different ages. This dependence can be explained if the sizes of stellar subsystems expand over the lifetimes of galaxies, as well as the influence of the relationship between the mass of a galaxy and the metallicity of its stars.

The community of massive stars is working intensively on Local Group dwarf irregular galaxies (dIrr). They are a reservoir of metal-poor massive stars that serve to understand the physics of their higher redshift siblings and population III stars, interpret the farthest, most energetic SNe and GRBs, and compute feedback through Cosmic History. Along the way, we became interested in the recent star-formation history and initial mass-function of the host dIrr’s, their chemical evolution, and gas and dust content. Our team is working to unveil and characterize with spectroscopy the OB-stars in IC 1613, Sextans A and SagDIG, that form a sequence of decreasing metal content. We showcase some results to stimulate synergies between both communities.

We present intermediate-resolution (R$\sim$1000) spectra in the $\sim$3500-10,000 A range of 14 globular clusters in the magellanic irregular galaxy NGC 4449 acquired with the Multi Object Double Spectrograph on the Large Binocular Telescope. We derived Lick indices in the optical and the CaII-triplet index in the near-infrared in order to infer the clusters' stellar population properties. The inferred cluster ages are typically older than $\sim$9 Gyr, although ages are derived with large uncertainties. The clusters exhibit intermediate metallicities, in the range $-1.2\lesssim$[Fe/H]$\lesssim-0.7$, and typically sub-solar [$\alpha/Fe$] ratios, with a peak at $\sim-0.4$. These properties suggest that i) during the first few Gyrs NGC 4449 formed stars slowly and inefficiently, with galactic winds having possibly contributed to the expulsion of the $\alpha$-elements, and ii) globular clusters in NGC 4449 formed relatively "late", from a medium already enriched in the products of type Ia supernovae. The majority of clusters appear also under-abundant in CN compared to Milky Way halo globular clusters, perhaps because of the lack of a conspicuous N-enriched, second-generation of stars like that observed in Galactic globular clusters. Using the cluster velocities, we infer the dynamical mass of NGC 4449 inside 2.88 kpc to be M($, Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS; corrected typo in author list