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 The connection between shear and star formation in spiral galaxiesWe present a sample of 33 galaxies for which we have calculated (i) theaverage rate of shear from published rotation curves, (ii) thefar-infrared luminosity from IRAS fluxes, and (iii) theKs-band luminosity from the Two Micron All Sky Survey(2MASS). We show that a correlation exists between the shear rate andthe ratio of the far-infrared to Ks-band luminosity. Thisratio is essentially a measure of the star formation rate per unit mass,or the specific star formation rate. From this correlation we show thata critical shear rate exists, above which star formation would turn offin the discs of spiral galaxies. Using the correlation between shearrate and spiral arm pitch angle, this shear rate corresponds to thelowest pitch angles typically measured in near-infrared images of spiralgalaxies. Radio Continuum and Far-infrared Emission from the Galaxies in the Eridanus GroupThe Eridanus galaxies follow the well-known radio-FIR correlation. Themajority (70%) of these galaxies have their star formation rates belowthat of the Milky Way. The galaxies that have a significant excess ofradio emission are identified as low luminosity AGNs based on theirradio morphologies obtained from the GMRT observations. There are nopowerful AGNs (L20 cm>1023WHz-1) in the group. The twomost far-infrared and radio luminous galaxies in the group have opticaland HI morphologies suggestive of recent tidal interactions. TheEridanus group also has two far-infrared luminous but radio-deficientgalaxies. It is believed that these galaxies are observed within a fewMyr of the onset of an intense star formation episode after beingquiescent for at least a 100 Myr. The upper end of the radio luminositydistribution of the Eridanus galaxies (L20 cm1022WHz-1) isconsistent with that of the field galaxies, other groups, and late-typegalaxies in nearby clusters. The HI Content of the Eridanus Group of GalaxiesThe HI content of galaxies in the Eridanus group is studied using theGMRT observations and the HIPASS data. A significant HI deficiency up toa factor of 2-3 is observed in galaxies in the high galaxy densityregions. The HI deficiency in galaxies is observed to be directlycorrelated to the local projected galaxy density, and inverselycorrelated to the lineof-sight radial velocity. Furthermore, galaxieswith larger optical diameters are predominantly in the lower galaxydensity regions. It is suggested that the HI deficiency in Eridanus isdue to tidal interactions. In some galaxies, evidences of tidalinteractions are seen. An important implication is that significantevolution of galaxies can take place in the group environment. In thehierarchical way of formation of clusters via mergers of groups, afraction of the observed HI deficiency in clusters could have originatedin groups. The co-existence of S0s and severely HI deficient galaxies inthe Eridanus group suggests that tidal interaction is likely to be aneffective mechanism for transforming spirals to S0s. On the Relation between Circular Velocity and Central Velocity Dispersion in High and Low Surface Brightness GalaxiesIn order to investigate the correlation between the circular velocityVc and the central velocity dispersion of the spheroidalcomponent σc, we analyzed these quantities for a sampleof 40 high surface brightness (HSB) disk galaxies, eight giant lowsurface brightness (LSB) spiral galaxies, and 24 elliptical galaxiescharacterized by flat rotation curves. Galaxies have been selected tohave a velocity gradient <=2 km s-1 kpc-1 forR>=0.35R25. We used these data to better define theprevious Vc-σc correlation for spiralgalaxies (which turned out to be HSB) and elliptical galaxies,especially at the lower end of the σc values. We findthat the Vc-σc relation is described by alinear law out to velocity dispersions as low as σc~50km s-1, while in previous works a power law was adopted forgalaxies with σc>80 km s-1. Ellipticalgalaxies with Vc based on dynamical models or directlyderived from the H I rotation curves follow the same relation as the HSBgalaxies in the Vc-σc plane. On the otherhand, the LSB galaxies follow a different relation, since most of themshow either higher Vc or lower σc withrespect to the HSB galaxies. This argues against the relevance of baryoncollapse to the radial density profile of the dark matter halos of LSBgalaxies. Moreover, if the Vc-σc relation isequivalent to one between the mass of the dark matter halo and that ofthe supermassive black hole, then these results suggest that the LSBgalaxies host a supermassive black hole (SMBH) with a smaller masscompared to HSB galaxies with an equal dark matter halo. On the otherhand, if the fundamental correlation of SMBH mass is with the halocircular velocity, then LSB galaxies should have larger black holemasses for a given bulge dispersion. Elliptical galaxies withVc derived from H I data and LSB galaxies were not consideredin previous studies.Based on observations made with European Southern Observatory telescopesat the Paranal Observatory under programs 67.B-0283, 69.B-0573, and70.B-0171. Inner-truncated Disks in GalaxiesWe present an analysis of the disk brightness profiles of 218 spiral andlenticular galaxies. At least 28% of disk galaxies exhibit innertruncations in these profiles. There are no significant trends oftruncation incidence with Hubble type, but the incidence among barredsystems is 49%, more than 4 times that for nonbarred galaxies. However,not all barred systems have inner truncations, and not allinner-truncated systems are currently barred. Truncations represent areal dearth of disk stars in the inner regions and are not an artifactof our selection or fitting procedures nor the result of obscuration bydust. Disk surface brightness profiles in the outer regions are wellrepresented by simple exponentials for both truncated and nontruncateddisks. However, truncated and nontruncated systems have systematicallydifferent slopes and central surface brightness parameters for theirdisk brightness distributions. Truncation radii do not appear tocorrelate well with the sizes or brightnesses of the bulges. Thissuggests that the low angular momentum material apparently missing fromthe inner disk was not simply consumed in forming the bulge population.Disk parameters and the statistics of bar orientations in our sampleindicate that the missing stars of the inner disk have not simply beenredistributed azimuthally into bar structures. The sharpness of thebrightness truncations and their locations with respect to othergalactic structures suggest that resonances associated with diskkinematics, or tidal interactions with the mass of bulge stars, might beresponsible for this phenomenon. Spiral galaxies observed in the near-infrared K band. I. Data analysis and structural parametersDeep surface photometry in the K band was obtained for 54 normal spiralgalaxies, with the aim of quantifying the percentage of faint bars andstudying the morphology of spiral arms. The sample was chosen to cover awider range of morphological types while inclination angles anddistances were limited to allow a detailed investigation of the internalstructure of their disks and future observations and studies of the diskkinematics. An additional constraint for a well defined subsample wasthat no bar structure was seen on images in the visual bands. Accuratesky projection parameters were determined from the K maps comparingseveral different methods. The surface brightness distribution wasdecomposed into axisymmetric components while bars and spiral structureswere analyzed using Fourier techniques.Bulges were best represented by a Sérsic r1/n law withan index in the typical range of 1-2. The central surface brightness ofthe exponential disk and bulge-to-disk ratio only showed weakcorrelation with Hubble type. Indications of a central point source werefound in many of the galaxies. An additional central, steep, exponentialdisk improved the fit for more than 80% of the galaxies suggesting thatmany of the bulges are oblate.Bars down to the detection level at a relative amplitude of 3% weredetected in 26 of 30 galaxies in a subsample classified as ordinary SAspirals. This would correspond to only 5% of all spiral galaxies beingnon-barred at this level. In several cases, bars are significantlyoffset compared to the starting points of the main spiral pattern whichindicates that bar and spiral have different pattern speeds. A smallfraction (10%) of the sample has complex central structuresconsisting of several sets of bars, arcs or spirals.A majority of the galaxies (60%) displays a two-armed, grand-designspiral pattern in their inner parts which often breaks up into multiplearms in their outer regions. Phase shifts between the inner and outerpatterns suggest in some cases that they belong to different spiralmodes. The pitch angles of the main two-armed symmetric spiral patternin the galaxies have a typical range of 5-30 °. The sample shows alack of strong, tight spirals which could indicate that such patternsare damped by non-linear, dynamical effects due to their high radialforce perturbations.Based on observations collected at the European Southern Observatory, LaSilla, Chile; programs: ESO 63.N-0343, 65.N-0287, 66.N-0257.Table 2 is only available in electronic form at the CDS via anonymousftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or viahttp://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/423/849Appendix A is only available in electronic form athttp://www.edpsciences.org Spectrophotometry of galaxies in the Virgo cluster. II. The dataDrift-scan mode (3600-6800 Å) spectra with 500 Long slit spectroscopy of a sample of isolated spirals with and without an AGNWe present the kinematical data obtained for a sample of active(Seyfert) and non active isolated spiral galaxies, based on long slitspectra along several position angles in the Hα line region and,in some cases, in the Ca triplet region as well. Gas velocitydistributions are presented, together with a simple circular rotationmodel that allows us to determine the kinematical major axes. Stellarvelocity distributions are also shown. The main result is that activeand control galaxies seem to be equivalent in all kinematical aspects.For both subsamples, the departure from pure circular rotation in somegalaxies can be explained by the presence of a bar and/or of a spiralarm. They also present the same kind of peculiarities, in particular,S-shape structures are quite common near the nuclear regions. Theydefine very similar Tully-Fisher relations. Emission line ratios aregiven for all the detected HII regions; the analysis of the[NII]/Hα metallicity indicator shows that active and non-activegalaxies have indistinguishable disk metallicities. These results arguein favour of active and non-active isolated spiral galaxies havingessentially the same properties, in agreement with our previous resultsbased on the analysis of near infrared images. It appears now necessaryto confirm these results on a larger sample.Based on observations made with WHT operated on the island of La Palmaby ING in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de Los Muchachos of theInstituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, the European SouthernObservatory (La Silla), Calar Alto Observatory (Almería, Spain)and Las Campanas Observatories (Chile).Table 3 and Figs. \ref{res_cen_u1395}, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21,23, 25, 28, 30, 32, 34, 36, 38, 40, 42, 44, 46, 48, 50 and 52 are onlyavailable in electronic form at http://www.edpsciences.orgTable 5 is only available in electronic form at the CDS via anonymousftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or viahttp://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/416/475 A new catalogue of ISM content of normal galaxiesWe have compiled a catalogue of the gas content for a sample of 1916galaxies, considered to be a fair representation of normality''. Thedefinition of a normal'' galaxy adopted in this work implies that wehave purposely excluded from the catalogue galaxies having distortedmorphology (such as interaction bridges, tails or lopsidedness) and/orany signature of peculiar kinematics (such as polar rings,counterrotating disks or other decoupled components). In contrast, wehave included systems hosting active galactic nuclei (AGN) in thecatalogue. This catalogue revises previous compendia on the ISM contentof galaxies published by \citet{bregman} and \citet{casoli}, andcompiles data available in the literature from several small samples ofgalaxies. Masses for warm dust, atomic and molecular gas, as well asX-ray luminosities have been converted to a uniform distance scale takenfrom the Catalogue of Principal Galaxies (PGC). We have used twodifferent normalization factors to explore the variation of the gascontent along the Hubble sequence: the blue luminosity (LB)and the square of linear diameter (D225). Ourcatalogue significantly improves the statistics of previous referencecatalogues and can be used in future studies to define a template ISMcontent for normal'' galaxies along the Hubble sequence. The cataloguecan be accessed on-line and is also available at the Centre desDonnées Stellaires (CDS).The catalogue is available in electronic form athttp://dipastro.pd.astro.it/galletta/ismcat and at the CDS via anonymousftp to\ cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or via\http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/405/5 Beyond the Bulge: A Fundamental Relation between Supermassive Black Holes and Dark Matter HalosThe possibility that the masses MBH of supermassive blackholes (SBHs) correlate with the total gravitational mass of their hostgalaxy, or the mass MDM of the dark matter halo in which theypresumably formed, is investigated using a sample of 16 spiral and 20elliptical galaxies. The bulge velocity dispersion σc,typically defined within an aperture of size R<~0.5 kpc, is found tocorrelate tightly with the galaxy's circular velocity vc, thelatter measured at distances from the Galactic center at which therotation curve is flat, R~20-80 kpc. By using the well-knownMBH-σc relation for SBHs and a prescriptionto relate vc to the mass of the dark matter haloMDM in a standard ΛCDM cosmology, the correlationbetween σc and vc is equivalent to onebetween MBH and MDM. Such a correlation is foundto be nonlinear, with the ratio MBH/MDM decreasingfrom 2×10-4 for MDM~1014Msolar to 10-5 for MDM~1012Msolar. Preliminary evidence suggests that halos of masssmaller than ~5×1011 Msolar are increasinglyless efficient at forming SBHs-perhaps even unable to form them. Bar Galaxies and Their EnvironmentsThe prints of the Palomar Sky Survey, luminosity classifications, andradial velocities were used to assign all northern Shapley-Ames galaxiesto either (1) field, (2) group, or (3) cluster environments. Thisinformation for 930 galaxies shows no evidence for a dependence of barfrequency on galaxy environment. This suggests that the formation of abar in a disk galaxy is mainly determined by the properties of theparent galaxy, rather than by the characteristics of its environment. Recovering physical parameters from galaxy spectra using MOPEDWe derive physical parameters of galaxies from their observed spectrausing MOPED, the optimized data compression algorithm of Heavens,Jimenez & Lahav. Here we concentrate on parametrizing galaxyproperties, and apply the method to the NGC galaxies in Kennicutt'sspectral atlas. We focus on deriving the star formation history,metallicity and dust content of galaxies. The method is very fast,taking a few seconds of CPU time to estimate ~17 parameters, and istherefore specially suited to studying large data sets, such as theAnglo-Australian two-degree-field (2dF) galaxy survey and the SloanDigital Sky Survey (SDSS). Without the power of MOPED, the recovery ofstar formation histories in these surveys would be impractical. InKennicutt's atlas, we find that for the spheroidals a small recent burstof star formation is required to provide the best fit to the spectrum.There is clearly a need for theoretical stellar atmospheric models withspectral resolution better than 1Å if we are to extract all therich information that large redshift surveys contain in their galaxyspectra. A study of the core of the Shapley Concentration - VI. Spectral properties of galaxies*We present the results of a study of the spectral properties of galaxiesin the central part of the Shapley Concentration, covering an extremelywide range of densities, from the rich cluster cores to the underlyingsupercluster environment. Our sample is homogeneous, in a well definedmagnitude range (17<=bJ<=18.8) and contains ~1300spectra of galaxies at the same distance, covering an area of~26deg2. These characteristics allowed an accurate spectralclassification that we performed using a principal components analysistechnique. This spectral classification, together with the [Oii]equivalent widths and the star formation rates, has been used to studythe properties of galaxies at different densities: cluster, intercluster(i.e. galaxies in the supercluster but outside clusters) and fieldenvironment. No significant differences are present between samples atlow density regimes (i.e. intercluster and field galaxies). Clustergalaxies, instead, not only have values that are significantly differentfrom the field ones, but also show a dependence on the local density.Moreover, a well defined morphology-density relation is present in thecluster complexes, although these structures are known to be involved inmajor merging events. Also the mean equivalent width of [Oii] shows atrend with the local environment, decreasing at increasing densities,even if it is probably induced by the morphology-density relation.Finally we analysed the mean star formation rate as a function of thedensity, finding again a decreasing trend (at ~3σ significancelevel). Our analysis is consistent with the claim of Balogh et al. thatthe star formation in clusters is depressed. Steps Towards a Fully Automated Classification and Redshift-measurement Pipeline for LAMOST Spectra. I. Continuum level and wavelength estimation for galaxiesThe Large Sky-Area Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) underconstruction by the National Astronomical Observatories will yield up tofour thousand multi-fiber spectra of stars and galaxies per field. Thepresent series of papers describes the automated data-reduction pipelinecurrently being designed in order to cope with the anticipated flood ofspectrographic data. In this preliminary paper, we present an automatedmethod for estimating the continuum level, the positions of strong linesand the 4000 Å break in galaxy spectra. In order to obtaindetailed information on the continuum, we use a wavelet filter bank.After continuum fitting, our software searches for a 4000 Å breakand distinguishes between emission-line galaxies (ELGs) and non-ELGsaccording to whether the break is small or large. It then searches forstrong lines and measures the intensities of emission lines and theequivalent widths of absorption lines. For non-ELGs, the absorptionlines are identified automatically yielding redshift measurements. A Method of Obtaining the Pitch Angle of Spiral Arms and the Inclination of Galactic DiscsWe investigate the mathematical form, the symmetry of spiral structureand the projected images of galactic discs. The measured pitch angles ofspiral arms and inclination angles of galactic discs for 60 spiralgalaxies are presented. The global spiral structure is emphasized in thestudy. It is found that, except for small-scale distortions, the spiralarms of those galaxies that were classified as AC 12 in the armclassification system of Elmegreen & Elmegreen, can be representedby the logarithmic spiral form. Strömgren Photometry from z=0 to z~1. I. The MethodWe use rest-frame Strömgren photometry to observe clusters ofgalaxies in a self-consistent manner from z=0 to z=0.8. Strömgrenphotometry of galaxies is intended as a compromise between standardbroadband photometry and spectroscopy, in the sense that it is moresensitive to subtle variations in spectral energy distributions than theformer, yet much less time-consuming than the latter. principalcomponent analysis is used to facilitate extraction of information fromthe Strömgren data. By calibrating the principal components usingwell-studied galaxies, as well as models of stellar populations, wedevelop a purely empirical method to detect, and subsequently classify,cluster galaxies at all redshifts smaller than 0.8. Interlopers arediscarded with unprecedented efficiency (up to 100%). The firstprincipal component essentially reproduces the Hubble sequence and canthus be used to determine the global star formation history of clustermembers. The (PC2, PC3) plane allows us to identify Seyfert galaxies(and distinguish them from starbursts) based on photometric colorsalone. In the case of E/S0 galaxies with known redshift, we are able toresolve the age-dust-metallicity degeneracy, albeit at the accuracylimit of our present observations. We use this technique in later papersto probe galaxy clusters well beyond their cores and to faintermagnitudes than spectroscopy can achieve, because the faint end of theluminosity function as well as the outer cluster regions seem to exhibitthe strongest evolutionary trends. We are able to directly compare thesedata over the entire redshift range without a priori assumptions becauseour observations do not require first-order k-corrections. Thecompilation of such data for different cluster types over a wideredshift range is likely to set important constraints on the evolutionof galaxies and on the clustering process. Nearby Optical Galaxies: Selection of the Sample and Identification of GroupsIn this paper we describe the Nearby Optical Galaxy (NOG) sample, whichis a complete, distance-limited (cz<=6000 km s-1) andmagnitude-limited (B<=14) sample of ~7000 optical galaxies. Thesample covers 2/3 (8.27 sr) of the sky (|b|>20deg) andappears to have a good completeness in redshift (97%). We select thesample on the basis of homogenized corrected total blue magnitudes inorder to minimize systematic effects in galaxy sampling. We identify thegroups in this sample by means of both the hierarchical and thepercolation friends-of-friends'' methods. The resulting catalogs ofloose groups appear to be similar and are among the largest catalogs ofgroups currently available. Most of the NOG galaxies (~60%) are found tobe members of galaxy pairs (~580 pairs for a total of ~15% of objects)or groups with at least three members (~500 groups for a total of ~45%of objects). About 40% of galaxies are left ungrouped (field galaxies).We illustrate the main features of the NOG galaxy distribution. Comparedto previous optical and IRAS galaxy samples, the NOG provides a densersampling of the galaxy distribution in the nearby universe. Given itslarge sky coverage, the identification of groups, and its high-densitysampling, the NOG is suited to the analysis of the galaxy density fieldof the nearby universe, especially on small scales. A Dynamical Study of Galaxies in the Hickson Compact GroupsTo investigate dynamical properties of spiral galaxies in the Hicksoncompact groups (HCGs), we present rotation curves of 30 galaxies in 20HCGs. We found as follows: (1) There is no significant relation betweendynamical peculiarity and morphological peculiarity in HCG spiralgalaxies. (2) There is no significant relation between the dynamicalproperties and the frequency distribution of nuclear activities in HCGspiral galaxies. (3) There are no significant correlations between thedynamical properties of HCG spiral galaxies and any group properties(i.e., size, velocity dispersion, galaxy number density, and crossingtime). (4) Asymmetric and peculiar rotation curves are more frequentlyseen in the HCG spiral galaxies than in field spiral galaxies or incluster ones. However, this tendency is more obviously seen in late-typeHCG spiral galaxies. These results suggest that the dynamical propertiesof HCG spiral galaxies do not strongly correlate with the morphology,the nuclear activity, and the group properties. Our results also suggestthat more frequent galaxy collisions occur in the HCGs than in the fieldand in the clusters. The emission line sequence of normal spiral galaxiesWe have analyzed the emission line properties in the integrated spectraof 15 normal spiral galaxies. We show that very clear trends appear whenplotting relevant emission line ratios or equivalent widths as afunction of galaxy spectral types, obtained with a Principal ComponentAnalysis of the continua and absorption features of spectra. Theequivalent widths of all the lines analyzed correlate extremely wellwith spectral types, implying that each of them can be considered a goodindicator of the spectral type in normal galaxies. The position of mostgalaxies of our sample in classical emission line diagnostic diagramsfollows that of individual giant HII regions in spiral galaxies, but forthe earliest type galaxies, the emission line pattern resembles morethat of LINERs. Therefore, the direct interpretation of equivalentwidths in terms of star formation rates would be misleading in suchcases. The observed trends in the emission line ratios as a function ofgalaxy spectral type suggest a decrease of O/H, a decrease of N/O, anincrease of the average effective temperature or ionization parameter,and a decrease of the effective internal extinction of galaxies withincreasing (early to late) spectral type. Bulge-Disk Decomposition of 659 Spiral and Lenticular Galaxy Brightness ProfilesWe present one of the largest homogeneous sets of spiral and lenticulargalaxy brightness profile decompositions completed to date. The 659galaxies in our sample have been fitted with a de Vaucouleurs law forthe bulge component and an inner-truncated exponential for the diskcomponent. Of the 659 galaxies in the sample, 620 were successfullyfitted with the chosen fitting functions. The fits are generally welldefined, with more than 90% having rms deviations from the observedprofile of less than 0.35 mag. We find no correlations of fittingquality, as measured by these rms residuals, with either morphologicaltype or inclination. Similarly, the estimated errors of the fittedcoefficients show no significant trends with type or inclination. Thesedecompositions form a useful basis for the study of the lightdistributions of spiral and lenticular galaxies. The object base issufficiently large that well-defined samples of galaxies can be selectedfrom it. The Southern Sky Redshift SurveyWe report redshifts, magnitudes, and morphological classifications for5369 galaxies with m_B <= 15.5 and for 57 galaxies fainter than thislimit, in two regions covering a total of 1.70 sr in the southerncelestial hemisphere. The galaxy catalog is drawn primarily from thelist of nonstellar objects identified in the Hubble Space TelescopeGuide Star Catalog (GSC). The galaxies have positions accurate to ~1"and magnitudes with an rms scatter of ~0.3 mag. We compute magnitudes(m_SSRS2) from the relation between instrumental GSC magnitudes and thephotometry by Lauberts & Valentijn. From a comparison with CCDphotometry, we find that our system is homogeneous across the sky andcorresponds to magnitudes measured at the isophotal level ~26 magarcsec^-2. The precision of the radial velocities is ~40 km s^-1, andthe redshift survey is more than 99% complete to the m_SSRS2 = 15.5 maglimit. This sample is in the direction opposite that of the CfA2; incombination the two surveys provide an important database for studies ofthe properties of galaxies and their large-scale distribution in thenearby universe. Based on observations obtained at Cerro TololoInter-American Observatory, National Optical Astronomy Observatories,operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy,Inc., under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation;Complejo Astronomico El Leoncito, operated under agreement between theConsejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas de laRepública Argentina and the National Universities of La Plata,Córdoba, and San Juan; the European Southern Observatory, LaSilla, Chile, partially under the bilateral ESO-ObservatórioNacional agreement; Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory;Laboratório Nacional de Astrofísica, Brazil; and the SouthAfrican Astronomical Observatory. Total magnitude, radius, colour indices, colour gradients and photometric type of galaxiesWe present a catalogue of aperture photometry of galaxies, in UBVRI,assembled from three different origins: (i) an update of the catalogueof Buta et al. (1995) (ii) published photometric profiles and (iii)aperture photometry performed on CCD images. We explored different setsof growth curves to fit these data: (i) The Sersic law, (ii) The net ofgrowth curves used for the preparation of the RC3 and (iii) A linearinterpolation between the de Vaucouleurs (r(1/4) ) and exponential laws.Finally we adopted the latter solution. Fitting these growth curves, wederive (1) the total magnitude, (2) the effective radius, (3) the colourindices and (4) gradients and (5) the photometric type of 5169 galaxies.The photometric type is defined to statistically match the revisedmorphologic type and parametrizes the shape of the growth curve. It iscoded from -9, for very concentrated galaxies, to +10, for diffusegalaxies. Based in part on observations collected at the Haute-ProvenceObservatory. A catalogue of spatially resolved kinematics of galaxies: BibliographyWe present a catalogue of galaxies for which spatially resolved data ontheir internal kinematics have been published; there is no a priorirestriction regarding their morphological type. The catalogue lists thereferences to the articles where the data are published, as well as acoded description of these data: observed emission or absorption lines,velocity or velocity dispersion, radial profile or 2D field, positionangle. Tables 1, 2, and 3 are proposed in electronic form only, and areavailable from the CDS, via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (to130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/Abstract.html The ESO-Sculptor Survey: spectral classification of galaxies with Z < 0.5Using the ESO-Sculptor galaxy redshift survey data (ESS), we haveextensively tested the Principal Components Analysis (PCA) method toperform the spectral classification of galaxies with z la 0.5. Thismethod allows us to classify all galaxies in an ordered and continuousspectral sequence, which is strongly correlated with the morphologicaltype. The PCA allows to quantify the systematic physical properties ofthe galaxies in the sample, like the different stellar contributions tothe observed light as well as the stellar formation history. We alsoexamine the influence of the emission lines, and the signal-to-noiseratio of the data. This analysis shows that the emission lines play asignificant role in the spectral classification, by tracing the activityand abnormal spectral features of the observed sample. The PCA alsoprovides a powerful tool to filter the noise which is carried by the ESSspectra. By comparison of the ESS PCA spectral sequence with that for aselected sample of Kennicutt galaxies (Kennicutt 1992a,b), we find thatthe ESS sample contains 26% of E/S0, 71% of Sabc and 3% of Sm/Irr. Thetype fractions for the ESS show no significant changes in the redshiftinterval z ~ 0.1-0.5, and are comparable to those found in other galaxysurveys at intermediate redshift. The PCA can be used independently fromany set of synthetic templates, providing a completely objective andunsupervised method to classify spectra. We compare the classificationof the ESS sample given by the PCA, with a chi (2) test between the ESSsample and galaxy templates from Kennicutt (Kennicutt 1992a), and obtainresults in good agreement. The PCA results are also in agreement withthe visual morphological classification carried out for the 35 brightestgalaxies in the survey. Based on observations collected at the EuropeanSouthern Observatory (ESO), La Silla, Chile Global regularities in integrated galaxy spectraWe have investigated some statistical properties of integrated spectraof galaxies from the Kennicutt spectrophotometric atlas. The input datafor the analysis are galaxy spectra sampled in 1300 bins between 3750and 6500Angstroms. We make use of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) toanalyse the 1300-dimensional space spanned by the spectra. Theirprojection on to the plane defined by the first two principalcomponents, the principal plane, shows that normal galaxies are in aquasi-linear sequence that we call the spectral sequence. We show thatthe spectral sequence is closely related to the Hubble morphologicalsequence. These results are robust in the sense that the reality of thespectral sequence does not depend on data normalization. The existenceof this sequence suggests that a single parameter may describe thespectrum of normal galaxies. We have investigated this hypothesis withthe Bruzual & Charlot models of spectral evolution. We show that,for single-age models (15 Gyr), the spectral sequence can beparametrized by the characteristic star formation time-scales of thedifferent morphological types. By examining the projection ofevolutionary tracks of normal galaxies on to the principal plane, weverify that the spectral sequence is also an evolutionary sequence, withgalaxy spectra evolving from later to earlier spectral types.Considering the close correspondence between the spectral andmorphological sequences, this leads us to speculate that galaxies mayevolve morphologically along the Hubble sequence, from Sm/Im to E. Molecular Gas, Morphology, and Seyfert Galaxy ActivityWe probe the cause of the elevated star formation in host galaxies ofSeyfert 2 nuclei compared with Seyfert 1 hosts and with field galaxies.12CO (1--0) observations of a large sample of Seyfert galaxies indicateno significant difference in the total amount of molecular gas as afunction of the Seyfert nuclear type, nor are Seyfert galaxiessignificantly different in this regard from a sample of field galaxiesonce selection effects are accounted for. Therefore, the total amount ofmolecular gas is not responsible for the enhanced star-forming activityin Seyfert 2 hosts. To probe how this gas is being converted moreefficiently into stars in Seyfert 2 hosts than in the other galaxies, weinvestigate the occurrence of bars, interactions, and distortedmorphologies among Seyfert galaxies. We find a significantly higher rateof asymmetric morphologies for Seyfert 2 galaxies with respect toSeyfert 1 galaxies and field galaxies. Relative to field galaxies, theeffect is at a greater than 99.9% confidence level. The presence ofasymmetric morphologies in individual Seyfert galaxies is correlatedwith their tendency to exhibit enhanced star-forming activity. Theseresults suggest that asymmetric morphologies are an important cause forthe link between Seyfert type and star-forming activity: bars anddistortions in Seyfert 2 hosts are likely both to enhance star-formingactivity and to funnel gas into the nuclear region, thus obscuring andpossibly contributing to the feeding of the active nucleus. Population analysis of faint galaxies with mixture modeling.Abstract image available at:http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?1997AJ....114..958T&db_key=AST The determination of the star formation rate in galaxies.A spectrophotometric model able to compute the integrated spectrum of agalaxy, including the contribution both of the stellar populations andof the ionized interstellar gas of the HII regions powered by young hotstars, has been used to study several spectral features and photometricquantities in order to derive calibrations of the star formation historyof late type galaxies. Attention has been paid to analyze the emissionof the Balmer lines and the [OII]λ3727 line to test theirattitude at providing estimates of the present star formation rate ingalaxies. Other features, like D_4000_ and the equivalent width of theHdelta_ line, influenced by the presence of intermediate agestars, have been considered. Several ways of estimating the starformation rates in normal galaxies are discussed and some considerationsconcerning the applicability of the models are presented. Criteria havebeen also studied for ascertaining the presence of a burst, current orended not long ago. Bursts usually hinder the determination of the paststar formation rate. An artificial neural network approach to the classification of galaxy spectra.Abstract image available at:http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?1996MNRAS.283..651F&db_key=AST The fundamental plane of early-type galaxies: stellar populations and mass-to-light ratio.We analyse the residuals to the fundamental plane (FP) of ellipticalgalaxies as a function of stellar-population indicators; these are basedon the line-strength parameter Mg_2_ and on UBVRI broad-band colors, andare partly derived from new observations. The effect of the stellarpopulations accounts for approximately half the observed variation ofthe mass-to-light ratio responsible for the FP tilt. The residual tiltcan be explained by the contribution of two additional effects: thedependence of the rotational support, and possibly that of the spatialstructure, on the luminosity. We conclude to a constancy of thedynamical-to-stellar mass ratio. This probably extends to globularclusters as well, but the dominant factor would be here the luminositydependence of the structure rather than that of the stellar population.This result also implies a constancy of the fraction of dark matter overall the scalelength covered by stellar systems. Our compilation ofinternal stellar kinematics of galaxies is appended.
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