Groups of galaxies. IV. Effect of observational selection on the relationship between the characteristics and distance of groups and a comparison with the groups of Geller and Huchra

The effect of observational selection on the relationship between the characteristics of groups of galaxies and their distances is discussed in this paper. For our groups the dependence of the pairwise distance between the members on the distance of the group is just that. For the groups of Geller and Huchra, on the other hand, the analogous dependence is distorted by the effect of their selection criteria for groups of galaxies. The average dispersion of the radial velocities of the galaxies for our groups is less than half that for the groups of Geller and Huchra, while the mass-to-luminosity ratio is smaller, on the average, by more than an order of magnitude in our case. Geller-Huchra groups with mass-to-luminosity ratios greater than 1000 are most likely unreal. __________ Translated from Astrofizika, Vol. 50, No. 4, pp. 535–546 (November 2007).     

Metallicity of Young and Old Stars in Irregular Galaxies

Based on archived images obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope, stellar photometry for 105 irregular galaxies has been conducted. We have shown the red supergiant and giant branches in the obtained Hertzsprung-Russel diagrams. Using the TRGB method, distances to galaxies and metallicity of red giants have been determined. The color index (V ? I) of the supergiant branch at the luminosity level M_I = ?7 was chosen as the metallicity index of red supergiants. For the galaxies under study, the diagrams have been built, in which the correlation can be seen between the luminosity of galaxies (M_B) and metallicity of red giants and supergiants. The main source of variance of the results in the obtained diagrams is, in our opinion, uncertainty inmeasurements of galaxy luminosities and star-forming outburst. The relation between metallicity of young and old stars shows that main enrichment of galaxies with metals has taken place in the remote past. Deviations of some galaxies in the obtained relation can possibly be explained with the fall of the intergalactic gas on them, although, this inconsiderably affects metallicities of the stellar content.     

Galaxy populations in the Fornax and Virgo clusters

In these first results from a photographic survey of nearby clusters and groups of galaxies, we compare the luminosity functions of galaxies of various Hubble types in the core of the Formax cluster to luminosity functions in the core of the Virgo cluster from Sandageet al. (1985). The galaxy classifications for the two clusters are based on identical plate material, and are hence directly comparable. The properties (galaxy density, velocity dispersion, X-ray luminosity) of the two clusters are quite different, yet we find few significant differences in the luminosity functions, or in the morphological mix of galaxies between the two clusters. In particular, while there is some indication that the ratios of giants to dwarfs and early to late-type galaxies in the two clusters differ, we cannot exclude the possibility that the ratios are identical. We discuss the selection limits of our survey and the completeness corrections that must be applied to the faint end of the luminosity function. The effective surface brightness of early-type galaxies in our sample decreases with decreasing luminosity. We show that this correlation is not an artifact of our selection criteria for dwarf spheroidal galaxies and use it to determine the relative distances to the Fornax and Virgo clusters. We also present evidence for a radial variation in the luminosity function of dwarf ellipticals within the two clusters in the sense that the faint end of the luminosity distribution is enhanced at the centre of each cluster.     

Star formation in nearby isolated galaxies

We use the FUV fluxes measured with the GALEX to study the star formation properties of galaxies collected in the “Local Orphan Galaxies” catalog (LOG). Among 517 LOG galaxies having radial velocities V _LG < 3500 km/s and Galactic latitudes |b| > 15°, 428 objects have been detected in FUV. We briefly discuss some scaling relations between the specific star formation rate (SSFR) and stellar mass, HI-mass, morphology, and surface brightness of galaxies situated in extremely low density regions of the Local Supercluster. Our sample is populated with predominantly late-type, gas-rich objects with the median morphological type of Sdm. Only 5% of LOG galaxies are classified as early types: E, S0, S0/a, however, they systematically differ from normal E and S0 galaxies by lower luminosity and presence of gas and dust. We find that almost all galaxies in our sample have their SSFR below 0.4 [Gyr^?1]. This limit is also true even for a sample of 270 active star-burst Markarian galaxies situated in the same volume. The existence of such a quasi-Eddington limit for galaxies seems to be a key factor which characterizes the transformation of gas into stars at the current epoch.     

Magnitude-Redshift Relation in Clusters,Groups and Pairs of Galaxies

Magnitude-redshift (m, z) relation within systems of galaxies is studied in detail in several kinds of systems. The main data contains 17 clusters, 64 groups, 121 pairs and 14 systems with two measured members, altogether 1043 galaxies in 162 separate systems. In addition, another sample of nearby groups and pairs, recently published data on six clusters with 121 measured members, as well as 65 compact galaxies in four groups and 23 pairs are studied. In Section 2 the data and the method are described. The numerical results for the main data are given in Table 1. There exists a significant positive (m, z)-relation in groups and pairs, but for clusters the same is valid only with a rather loose selection of members. The (m, z)-relations are calculated separately for each morphological type, but systematic differences between the types are not found. In Section 3 some properties of the velocity (redshift) dispersion σ_V are discussed. The joint dispersion decreases significantly from the early to the late types. This may point to an early dynamical state of the systems but it is also quite possible that this result is due to a selection effect. The presence of a selection effect in some commonly used samples of systems is indicated by the increase of velocity dispersion σ_V with increasing distance (Section 4). This effect which was first found for clusters and groups by SCOTT is present also in the larger sample of these systems and in the sample of pairs. Implications of this feature are discussed. As one of them, it is concluded in Section 5 that there exists no separate Canes Venatici cluster of galaxies but the galaxies supposed to form it belong to the Ursa Major cloud of galaxies. Several independent arguments supporting this conclusion are pointed out. In the Ursa Major-Canes Venatici complex of galaxies a distinct positive (m, z)-relation is found. In Section 4 the distance-dependence of the (m, z)-relations is studied and it is found that positive relations are most common for nearby systems. This is natural if the effect is an intergalactic one, the redshift being dependent on the distance of the galaxy. The (m, z)-relations is are studied as function of size of the systems in Section 6. It is found that σ_V, (m, z) regression coefficient b_m, and parameter h which measures strength of redshift within the system, are largest in the systems with smallest radii. The result is opposite to that obtained using the virial theorem. In the Dopplerian context it would mean that the systems disperse the more rapidly the more dense these are. Dependence of the results on the number of data is studied in Section 7. As expected for a real effect, the frequency of positive relations increases with increasing number. The dispersion σ_V is usually larger in the central areas of the clusters than in the outskirts (Section 8). In these areas, σ_V is systematically larger for faint galaxies than for bright ones. The reason for large σ_V for faint galaxies projected on the centre is considered, studying in particular in the Coma cluster the velocity (redshift) distribution, colour-redshirt relation and morphological features which might be used in localization of the galaxies along the line of sight. The results of these three kinds of tests point to the possibility that redshift increases along the line of sight, but the results refer to sparse data and are very uncertain. A similar effect is suggested independently by observations of the galaxies in the background of the clusters. If true, the effect must be non-Dopplerian. In combination with brightness seggregation and preponderance of measured galaxies in the near side over those in the rear, this may cause the observed negative (m, z)-relations for some clusters. In SANDAGE 's and TAMMANN 's sample of nearby groups and pairs redshift appears dependent on luminosity class. This points to intrinsic redshifts in faint galaxies (Section 9). A similar implication is valid for the positive (m, z)-relations in the case of pairs and groups of compact galaxies (Section 10). Since there are indications of physical association in the latter case, the result cannot be explained by optical members. The present results are compared with previous ones in Section 11. This includes a study of redshifts with regard to brightness and surface brightness simultaneously, leading to a new statistical definition of relative compacity of galaxies belonging to the systems. Recent observations not included in the main data are viewed in Section 12. These show a positive (m, z)-relation. Interpretation of the results is discussed in Sections 13 and 14. From the numerous ones, three main possibilities remain, i. e. projected galaxies, intrinsic redshifts in faint galaxies and non-Dopplerian integalactic redshifts. There are several arguments suggesting that chance projections are not the principal explanation of the positive (m, z)-relations. If so, intrinsic redshifts in faint galaxies give probably the main explanation for pairs and small groups and integralactic redshifts for larger systems. This is in accordance with the general view of the redshift phenomenon in other scales. However, definitive proof of this conclusion could not be obtained from the present data which, though considerably large in number, is too small regarding the complexity of the problem.     

Faint companions of isolated 2MIG galaxies

We present the results of a search for companions around the isolated galaxies from the 2MIG catalog. Among 3227 2MIG galaxies we detected 125 objects with a total of 214 neighbors having radial velocity differences of ΔV < 500 km/s and projected separations of R _p < 500 kpc relative to the 2MIG galaxies. The median luminosity of the companions is 1/25 of the luminosity of catalog galaxies, which has little effect on the dynamic isolation of the latter. The median ratio of the orbital mass to the K-luminosity determined from 60 companions of E and S0 2MIG galaxies, 63M _⊙/L _⊙, is significantly greater than that found from the spiral galaxy companions (17M _⊙/L _⊙). We note that a fraction of 2MIG galaxies with companions may be a part of low-contrast diffuse structures: clouds and filaments.     

CCD photometry of seyfert galaxies

Morphology and elliptically averaged luminosity profiles have been derived from CCD surface photometry of thirteen seyfert galaxies. ApparentV andI magnitudes,V-I colour index, as well as absolute Mv and MI magnitudes have been calculatedV andI luminosity profiles of Mk 10, Mk 79, Mk 358, Mk 618, Mk 352, and Mk 110, are adjusted by the usual model bulge plus disk with structural parameters comparable to those observed in normal spirals. The averaged luminosity profiles of Mk 50, Mk 124, Mk 348, and 3C227 are fitted byr ^–1/4 law with structural parameters similar to those observed in ellipticals and red compact galaxies. Mk 42 and NGC 985 show disturbed luminosity profiles.     

Evolution of galaxy groups

We study the variations of the properties of groups of galaxies with dynamical masses of 10¹³ M _⊙<M ₂₀₀<10¹⁴ M _⊙, represented by two samples: one has redshifts of z < 0.027 and is located in the vicinity of the Coma cluster, the other has z > 0.027, and is located in the regions of the following superclusters of galaxies: Hercules, Leo, Bootes, Ursa Major, and Corona Borealis. Using the archived data of the SDSS and 2MASX catalogs, we determined the concentration of galaxies in the systems by measuring it as the inner density of the group within the distance of the fifth closest galaxy from the center brighter than M _K = ?23_. ^m 3. We also measured the magnitude gap between the first and the fourth brightest galaxies ΔM ₁₄ located within one half of the selected radius R ₂₀₀, the fraction of early-type galaxies, and the ratio of bright dwarf galaxies (Mr = [?18_. ^m 5,?16_. ^m 5]) to giant galaxies (M _r < ?18_. ^m 5) (DGR) within the radius R ₂₀₀. The main aim of the investigation is to find among these characteristics the ones that reflect the evolution of groups of galaxies.We determined that the ratio of bright dwarf galaxies to early-type giant galaxies on the red sequence depends only on the x-ray luminosity: the DGR increases with luminosity. The fraction of early-type galaxies in the considered systems is equal, on average, to 0.65 ± 0.01, and varies significantly for galaxies with σ₂₀₀ < 300 kms^?1. Based on the luminosity of the brightest galaxy, the magnitude gap between the first and the fourth brightest galaxies in the groups, and on model computations of these parameters, we selected four fossil group candidates: AWM4, NGC0533, NGC0741, and NGC6098 (where the brightest galaxy is a double).We observe no increase in the number of faint galaxies (the α parameter of the Schechter function is less than 1) in our composite luminosity function (LF) for galaxy systems with z < 0.027 in the M _K = [?26m,?21_. ^m 5] range, whereas earlier we obtained α > 1 for the LF of the Hercules and Leo superclusters of galaxies.     

V-R diagram for spiral galaxies. New insights into the hubble sequence

We examine the relation between the global parameters of spiral galaxies and their morphological type. We have represented the rotational velocityV at a radius of 25 mag arc sec^–2 against this radiusR for a sample of 56 galaxies. Different types of galaxies appear separated on this diagram. We have plotted above theV-R diagram isolines of total mass, angular momentum and mean surface density for isolated galaxies with circular motion in centrifugal equilibrium showing: (1) That the parameter that represents the morphological type is the mean surface density or its observational parameterV ²/R. (2) From aV-R diagram we can easily see what kinds of correlations we expect to find between the global properties of galaxies and their morphological type. (3) For every morphological type of galaxies there is a critical mass above which there is a change in its dynamical behaviour. Finally, consideringV ²/R as representative of the morphological type, we can deduce theoretically the empirical Tully-Fisher relation and the dependence of the slope and the zero point on the morphological type. The separation in logV that we expect to find for different types of galaxies for a constant luminosity is the same order as the experimental errors in the determination of logV. This explains the tight power-law relationship observed between this and the luminosity.     

Low density structures in the local universe. I. Diffuse agglomerates of galaxies

This paper is the first of a series considering the properties of distribution of nearby galaxies in the low density regions. Among 7596 galaxies with radial velocities V _LG < 3500 km/s, absolute magnitudes M _K < ?18?4, and Galactic latitudes |b| > 15° there are 3168 field galaxies (i.e. 42%) that do not belong to pairs, groups or clusters in the Local universe. Applying to this sample the percolation method with a radius of r ₀ = 2.8Mpc, we found 226 diffuse agglomerates with n ?? 4 number of members. The structures of eight most populated objects among them (n ?? 25) are discussed. These non-virialized agglomerates are characterized by amedian dispersion of radial velocities of about 170 km/s, the linear size of around 6 Mpc, integral K-band luminosity of 3 × 10¹¹ L _??, and a formal virial-mass-to-luminosity ratio of about 700M _??/L _??. The mean density contrast for the considered agglomerates is only $\left\langle {\Delta n/\bar n} \right\rangle $ ?? 5, and their crossing time is about 30?C40 Gyr.     

Emission-line galaxies from SDSS DR4: Statistical studies of the current star formation

For a sample of 8156 emission-line galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 4 (SDSS DR4), we have determined the current star formation rates (SFR) from three parameters: the H_α luminosity of H II regions corrected for the aperture and interstellar extinction (N = 7006 galaxies), the far-infrared luminosity (IRAS data, N = 350), and the monochromatic luminosity in the radio continuum at ν = 1.4 GHz (NVSS data, N = 475). A Salpeter initial mass function with the range of stellar masses 0.1–100 M _⊙ was assumed in the SFR _FIR calculations. In calculating SFR_1.4, we assumed that the fraction of the thermal emission in the total radio continuum emission of the galaxy at 1.4 GHz was 10%. An upper limit for the starburst age has been determined for galaxies with known abundances of heavy elements. We compare our results with those of similar studies for isolated and Markarian H II galaxies.     

On the relation between radius,luminosity, surface brightness,and surface density in elliptical galaxies

We have analyzed luminosity profiles of E galaxies studied by Strom and Strom in six clusters of galaxies. We have found a relationship between radius, luminosity, and surface brightness for galaxies in each of the clusters. A dependence of the zero point of the relation with the local projected density of galaxies is likewise found:r _{e proj} ^–0.14 L ^0.445 I _e ^–0.413 . This relationship implies (i) that there is not a universal luminosity profile for elliptical galaxies, (ii) the environmental variation of radius is larger than that produced by mergers of galaxies, (iii) distance to a galaxy can be estimated from apparent magnitude, surface brightness, angular size, and apparent local projected density of galaxies.     

The Hubble relation: Differences between galaxy types Sb and Sc

The most accurate data on galaxy types, corrected apparent magnitudes and redshifts as given in the Sandage-TammanRevised Shapley-Ames catalog are analyzed. It is shown that Sb galaxies of the same luminosity class as M31 and M81 define a narrow Hubble relation withH ₀=65 _–6 ⁺¹⁵ km s^–1 Mpc^–1.In contrast, Sc galaxies deviate strongly towars higher redshift from a linear, log redshift—apparent magnitude relation. Not all this deviation can be selection effect due to increasing volume sampled at increasing redshift (Malmquist bias). Physical associations of groups of galaxies in theRSA Catalog are used to establish the existence of various amounts of excess (non-velocity) redshifts among Sc and allied types of galaxies.Independent distances fromHi line width — luminosity criterion (Tully-Fisher) are analyzed. It is shown that this criterion gives much smaller distances than redshifts do for galaxies which deviate above the Hubble line. Unless the Tully-Fisher relation gives too small distances for more luminous galaxies, this confirms the excess redshift to be intrinsic to the Galaxy. But it is next demonstrated, that for low redshift galaxies, there is no discrepancy between redshift and Tully-Fisher distance even though there is a wide range of absolute magnitudes.If Tully-Fisher distances are accepted, the onlly alternative to having a Hubble constant which increases strongly with distance is to have a component of the higher redshift Sc's contributed by a non-recessional redshift. Streaming motions would have to be large, increase with distance and be always in the receding sence. It is shown here that the Sc's which deviate most from the Hubble relation and have the largest discrepancies with Tully-Filsher distances lie predominantly in the sky toward very nearby groups of galaxies. If they were at these closer distances the discordant galaxies, mostly ScI's, would have dwarfish physical properties but not so unprecedented as the large sizes which result from redshift distances.Finally the interaction of specific high redshift ScI's with nearby galaxies is presented as an independent proof that ScI's are generally small, low luminosity galaxies. This result furnishes insight into the long standing puzzle of how apparently distant ScI's can interact with nearby galaxies such as in Stephan's Quintet, Seyfert's Sextet and NGC 4151/4156.     

Electromagnetic solutions of higher-dimensional gravity

The variation of spectral index _1.4 ⁵ with luminosity (P _1.4) was investigated for Fanaroff and Riley type II galaxies and also for type I and type I/II galaxies. To reduce the effect of the redshift dependence of luminosity, samples which did not have widely different median redshifts were used and the data was binned into redshift ranges.By a comparison of the median spectral indices in different redshift bins for FRII galaxies, no dependence of spectral index was formed on redshift. However, an increase in spectral index with increasing luminosity was found. The results for FRI and FRI/II galaxies were similar to those for the FRII galaxies.     

The fundamental plane and other scaling relations for galaxy groups and clusters

In this paper we study the relations between the main characteristics of groups and clusters of galaxies using the archival data of the SDSS and 2MASX catalogs. We have developed and implemented a new method of determining the size of galaxy systems and their effective radius which contains half of the galaxies and not half the luminosity, since the luminosity of the brightest galaxy in a group can account for over 50% of the total luminosity of the group. The derived parameters (log L_K, logR_e, and log σ₂₀₀) for 94 systems of galaxies (0.0038 < z < 0.09) determine the Fundamental Plane (FP), which, with a scatter of 0.15, is similar in form to the FP of galaxy clusters obtained by Schaeffer et al. (1993) and D’Onofrio et al. (2013) with other methods and for different bands. We show that the FP in the near-infrared region (NIR) for 94 galaxy systems has the form of L_K ∝ \(R_e^{0.70 \pm {{0.13}_\sigma }1.34 \pm 0.13}\), whereas in x-rays it has the form of—L_X ∝ \(R_e^{1.15 \pm {{0.39}_\sigma }2.56 \pm 0.40}\). The form of the FP for groups and clusters is consistent with the FP for early-type galaxies determined in the same way. The form of the FP for galaxy systems deviates from the shape that one would expect from virial predictions. Adding the mass-to-light ratio as a fourth independent parameter has little effect on this deviation, but decreases the scatter of the FP for a sample of rich galaxy clusters by 12%.     

The X and UV emissions of active galactic nuclei

A statistical analysis of 87 optical selected quasars and 30 type I Seyfert galaxies is carried out in this paper. Using a quasi-Monte-Carlo method, the relation between the 2 keV monochromatic X-ray luminosity 1_X and ∼2500A monochromatic ultraviolet luminosity is calculated and the result is: 1_x ∝ 1₀^bp, b = 0.93 ± 0.18 when the accretion rate ⪡ _cr, and b = 0.28 ± 0.18 when > _cr.A detailed semi-quantitative physical discussion of our results ruled out many available radiative mechanisms. We conclude that the most plausible dominant radiation in the band from 2500A UV to 2 keV soft X-ray is non-thermal synchrotron radiation. We discuss that when the accretion rate is growing, most of the X radiation is dragged into the black hole (the dragging effect). This is the main reason why the X-ray luminosity increases much more slowly with M than does the UV luminosity.Finally, in the context of pure luminosity evolution, we have obtained that 1_x evolves more slowly than does 1_0p.     

Study of galaxies in the Lynx-Cancer void. IV. Photometric properties

We present the results of a photometric study of 85 objects from the updated sample of galaxies residing in the nearby Lynx-Cancer void. We perform our photometry on u, g, r, and i-band images of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We determine model-independent galaxy parameters such as the integrated magnitudes and colors, effective radii and the corresponding surface brightness values, optical radii and Holmberg radii. We analyze the radial surface brightness profiles to determine the central brightness values and scale lengths of the model disks. We analyze the colors of the outer parts of the galaxies and compare them with model evolutionary tracks computed using the PEGASE 2 software package. This allowed us to estimate the time T _SF elapsed since the onset of star formation, which turned out to be on the order of the cosmological time T ₀ for the overwhelming majority of the galaxies studied. However, for 13 galaxies of the sample the time T _SF does not exceed T ₀/2 ～ 7 Gyr, and for 7 of them T _SF ? 3.5 Gyr. The latter are mostly unevolved objects dominated by low-luminosity galaxies with M _B > ?13.2. We use the integrated magnitudes and colors to estimate the stellar masses of the galaxies.We estimate the parameter M(H I)/L _B and the gas mass fractions for void galaxies with known HI-line fluxes. A small subgroup (about 10%) of the gas-richest void galaxies with M(H I)/L _B ? 2.5 has gas mass fractions that reach 94–99%. The outer regions of many of these galaxies show atypically blue colors. To test various statistical differences between void galaxies and galaxies from the samples selected using more general criteria, we compare some of the parameters of void galaxies with similar data for the sample of 195 galaxies from the Equatorial Survey (ES) based on a part of the HIPASS blind HI survey. The compared samples have similar properties in the common luminosity interval ?18.5<M _g < ?13.5. The faintest void galaxies differ appreciably from the ES survey galaxies. However, the ES survey also contains about 7% of the so-called “inchoate” galaxies with highM(H I)/L _B ratios, most of which are located far from massive neighbors and are probably analogs of void galaxies.     

Structure of clusters with bimodal distribution of galaxy line-of-sight velocities III: A1831

We study the A1831 cluster within the framework of our program of the investigation of galaxy clusters with bimodal velocity distributions (i.e., clusters where the velocities of subsystems differ by more than Δ _cz ∼ 3000 km/s).We identify two subsystems in this cluster: A1831A (cz = 18970 km/s) and A1831B (cz = 22629 km/s) and directly estimate the distances to these subsystems using three methods applied to early-type galaxies: the Kormendy relation, the photometric plane, and the fundamental plane. To this end, we use the results of our observations made with the 1-m telescope of the Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the data adopted from the SDSS DR6 catalog. We confirmed at a 99% confidence level that (1) the two subsystems are located at different distances, which are close to their Hubble distances, and (2) the two subsystems are located behind one another along the line of sight and are not gravitationally bound to each other. Both clusters have a complex internal structure, which makes it difficult to determine their dynamical parameters. Our estimates for the velocity dispersions and masses of the two clusters: 480 km/s and 1.9 × 10¹⁴ M _⊙ for A1831A, 952 km/s and 1.4 × 10¹⁵ M _⊙ for A1831B should be views as upper limits. At least three spatially and kinematically distinct groups of galaxies can be identified in the foreground cluster A1831A, and this fact is indicative of its incomplete dynamical relaxation. Neither can we rule out the possibility of a random projection. The estimate of the mass of the main cluster A1831B based on the dispersion of the line-of-sight velocities of galaxies is two-to-three times greater than the independent mass estimates based on the total K-band luminosity, temperature, and luminosity of the X-ray gas of the cluster. This fact, combined with the peculiarities of its kinematical structure, leads us to conclude that the cluster is in a dynamically active state: galaxies and groups of galaxies with large line-of-sight velocities relative to the center of the cluster accrete onto the virialized nucleus of the cluster (possibly, along the filament directed close to the line of sight).     

Isolated dwarf galaxies in the local supercluster and its surroundings

We present a list of 75 isolated dwarf galaxies of later types which have no neighbors with a relative radial velocity difference of less than 500 km/s or projected distances of less than 500 kpc. These were selected from ~2000 dwarf galaxies with radial velocities V_LG<3500 km/s within the volume of the local supercluster. In terms of their sizes, luminosities, and the amplitudes of their internal motions, the isolated dwarf galaxies do not differ significantly from gas-rich dwarf galaxies in groups and clusters. However, the median mass of neutral hydrogen per unit luminosity for the isolated galaxies is a factor of two greater than for the galaxies of later types in groups. We have also identified 10 presumably isolated spheroidal dwarf galaxies. The discovery of isolated dwarf galaxies populated exclusively by old stars is of great interest for modern cosmological scenarios of galaxy formation.     

Rotation Curves of Galaxies in Various Space Environments

A sample of giant Sb-Sc spiral galaxies for which there are highly accurate and extended rotation curves was considered. Having divided the galaxies into three groups as a function of the overall spatial density of luminosity (mass) within 0.5 Mpc ( _L ), we investigated the characteristics of the rotation curves as functions of _L . It turned out that for such massive galaxies, the shape of the rotation curve (the logarithmic gradient) and the Tully-Fisher relation do not depend on the overall space environment. The only difference is that the rotation curves of galaxies in regions with high _L can be traced out to smaller relative distances from the nucleus, on the average. This may be related to destruction of the outer regions of their gaseous disks in gravitational interaction with surrounding galaxies.