This paper describes the Seventh Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), marking the completion of the original goals of the SDSS and the end of the phase known as SDSS-II. It includes 11,663 deg^2 of imaging data, with most of the ~2000 deg^2 increment over the previous data release lying in regions of low Galactic latitude. The catalog contains five-band photometry for 357 million distinct objects. The survey also includes repeat photometry on a 120° long, 2°.5 wide stripe along the celestial equator in the Southern Galactic Cap, with some regions covered by as many as 90 individual imaging runs. We include a co-addition of the best of these data, going roughly 2 mag fainter than the main survey over 250 deg^2. The survey has completed spectroscopy over 9380 deg^2; the spectroscopy is now complete over a large contiguous area of the Northern Galactic Cap, closing the gap that was present in previous data releases. There are over 1.6 million spectra in total, including 930,000 galaxies, 120,000 quasars, and 460,000 stars. The data release includes improved stellar photometry at low Galactic latitude. The astrometry has all been recalibrated with the second version of the USNO CCD Astrograph Catalog, reducing the rms statistical errors at the bright end to 45 milliarcseconds per coordinate. We further quantify a systematic error in bright galaxy photometry due to poor sky determination; this problem is less severe than previously reported for the majority of galaxies. Finally, we describe a series of improvements to the spectroscopic reductions, including better flat fielding and improved wavelength calibration at the blue end, better processing of objects with extremely strong narrow emission lines, and an improved determination of stellar metallicities.

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The Seventh Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

Supermassive black holes (BHs) have been found in 85 galaxies by dynamical modeling of spatially resolved kinematics. The Hubble Space Telescope revolutionized BH research by advancing the subject from its proof-of-concept phase into quantitative studies of BH demographics. Most influential was the discovery of a tight correlation between BH mass and the velocity dispersion σ of the bulge component of the host galaxy. Together with similar correlations with bulge luminosity and mass, this led to the widespread belief that BHs and bulges coevolve by regulating each other's growth. Conclusions based on one set of correlations from in brightest cluster ellipticals to in the smallest galaxies dominated BH work for more than a decade. New results are now replacing this simple story with a richer and more plausible picture in which BHs correlate differently with different galaxy components. A reasonable aim is to use this progress to refine our understanding of BH-galaxy coevolution. BHs with masses of 105−106M...

https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/suppl/10.1146/annurev-astro-082708-101811/suppl_file/aa51_kormendy_supmat.pdf

Coevolution (Or Not) of Supermassive Black Holes and Host Galaxies

Evolutionary population synthesis models for a wide range of metallicities, ages, star formation histories, initial mass functions and horizontal branch morphologies, including blue morphologies at high metallicity, are computed. The model output comprises spectral energy distributions, colours, stellar M/L ratios, bolometric corrections and near-infrared (IR) spectral line indices. The energetics of the post main sequence evolutionary phases are evaluated with the fuel consumption theorem. The impact on the models of the stellar evolutionary tracks (in particular with and without overshooting) is assessed. We find modest differences in synthetic broad-band colours as induced by the use of different tracks in our code [e.g. �( V − K ) ∼ 0.08 mag, �( B − V ) ∼ 0.03 mag]. Noticeably, these differences are substantially smaller than the scatter among other models in the literature, even when the latter adopt the same evolutionary tracks. The models are calibrated with globular cluster data from the Milky Way for old ages, and the Magellanic clouds plus the merger remnant galaxy NGC 7252, both for young ages of ∼0.1‐2 Gyr, in a large wavelength range from the U band to the K band. Particular emphasis is put on the contribution from the thermally pulsing asymptotic giant branch (TP-AGB) phase. We show that this evolutionary phase is crucial for the modelling of young stellar populations by direct comparison with observed spectral energy distributions of Magellanic cloud clusters, which are characterized by relatively high fluxes, both blueward and redward of the V band. We find that the combination of the near-IR spectral indices C2 and H2O can be used to determine the metallicity of ∼1 Gyr stellar populations. As an illustrative application, we re-analyse the spectral energy distributions of some of the high-z galaxies (2.4 z 2.9) observed with the Spitzer Space Telescope by Yan et al. Their high rest-frame near-IR fluxes is reproduced very well with the models including TP-AGB stars for ages in the range ∼0.6‐1.5 Gyr, suggesting formation redshifts for these objects around z ∼ 3‐6. Ke yw ords: stars: AGB and post-AGB ‐ stars: evolution ‐ galaxies: evolution ‐ galaxies: stellar content ‐ cosmology: early Universe.

/pdf/evolutionary-population-synthesis-models-analysis-of-the-2nvt8b3ulb.pdf

Evolutionary population synthesis: models, analysis of the ingredients and application to high‐z galaxies

This is the Supplemental Material to Kormendy and Ho 2013, ARAA, 51, 511 (arXiv:1304.7762). Section S1 summarizes indirect methods that are used to estimate black hole (BH) masses for galaxies with active nuclei (AGNs). Section S2 lists the observational criteria that are used to classify classical and pseudo bulges. The (pseudo)bulge classifications used in the main paper are not based on physical interpretation; rather, they are based on these observational criteria. Section S3 supplements the BH database in Section 5 of the main paper and Section S4 here. It discusses corrections to galaxy and BH parameters, most importantly to 2MASS K-band apparent magnitudes. It presents evidence that corrections are needed because 2MASS misses light at large radii when the images of galaxies subtend large angles on the sky or have shallow outer brightness gradients. Section S4 reproduces essentially verbatim the first part of Section 5 in the main paper, the BH database. It includes the list of BH and host-galaxy properties (Tables 2 and 3). Its most important purpose is to provide all of the notes on individual objects.

Coevolution (Or Not) of Supermassive Black Holes and Host Galaxies: Supplemental Material

Pulsar surveys offer a rare opportunity to monitor the radio sky for impulsive burst-like events with millisecond durations. We analyzed archival survey data and found a 30-jansky dispersed burst, less than 5 milliseconds in duration, located 3 degrees from the Small Magellanic Cloud. The burst properties argue against a physical association with our Galaxy or the Small Magellanic Cloud. Current models for the free electron content in the universe imply that the burst is less than 1 gigaparsec distant. No further bursts were seen in 90 hours of additional observations, which implies that it was a singular event such as a supernova or coalescence of relativistic objects. Hundreds of similar events could occur every day and, if detected, could serve as cosmological probes.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/318/5851/777.full.pdf

A Bright Millisecond Radio Burst of Extragalactic Origin

We present the new catalog of principal galaxies (PGC2003). It constitutes the framework of the HYPERLEDA database that supersedes the LEDA one, with more data and more capabilities. The catalog is still restricted to confirmed galaxies, i.e. about one million galaxies, brighter than similar to 18 B-mag.
In order to provide the best possible identification for each galaxy we give: accurate coordinates ( typical accuracy better than 2 arcsec), diameter, axis ratio and position angle. Diameters and axis ratios have been homogenized to the RC2 system at the limiting surface brightness of 25B - mag arcsec(-2), using a new method, the EPIDEMIC method. In order to provide the best designation for each galaxy, we collected the names from 50 catalogues. The compatibility of the spelling is tested against NED and SIMBAD, and, as far as possible we used a spelling compatible with both. For some cases, where no consensus exists between NED, SIMBAD and LEDA, we propose some changes that could make the spelling of names fully compatible.
The full catalog is distributed through the CDS and can be extracted from HYPERLEDA.

/pdf/hyperleda-i-identification-and-designation-of-galaxies-5aptn1odp0.pdf

Hyperleda. I. Identification and designation of galaxies

We present the compilation catalogue of redshift-independent distances included in the HyperLEDA database. It is actively maintained to be up-to-date, and the current version counts 6640 distance measurements for 2335 galaxies compiled from 430 published articles. Each individual series is recalibrated onto a common distance scale based on a carefully selected set of high-quality measurements. This information together with data on H i line width, central velocity dispersion, magnitudes, diameters, and redshift is used to derive a homogeneous distance estimate and physical properties of galaxies, such as their absolute magnitudes and intrinsic size.

/pdf/hyperleda-iii-the-catalogue-of-extragalactic-distances-3935hi4dsd.pdf

HyperLEDA. III. The catalogue of extragalactic distances

We present a database of 908 spectra of 709 stars obtained with the ELODIE spectrograph at the Observatoire de Haute-Provence. 52 orders of the echelle spectra have been carefully tted together to provide continuous, high-resolution spectra in the wavelength range = 410 680 nm. The archive provides a large coverage of the space of atmospheric parameters: Te from 3700 K to 13 600 K, log g from 0.03 to 5.86 and (Fe/H) from 2:8 to +0.7. At the nominal resolution, R = 42 000, the mean signal-to-noise ratio is 150 per pixel. The spectra given at this resolution are normalized to their pseudo-continuum and are intended to serve for abundance studies, spectral classication and tests of stellar atmosphere models. A lower resolution version of the archive, at R = 10 000, is calibrated in physical flux with a broad-band photometric precision of 2.5% and narrow-band precision of 0.5%. It is well suited to stellar population synthesis of galaxies and clusters, and to kinematical investigations of stellar systems. The archive is distributed in FITS format through the HYPERCAT and CDS databases.

/pdf/a-database-of-high-and-medium-resolution-stellar-spectra-5bfz1rbp0k.pdf

A database of high and medium-resolution stellar spectra ?;??

We present the compilation catalogue of redshift-independent distances included in the HyperLEDA database. It is actively maintained to be up-to-date, and the current version counts 6640 distance measurements for 2335 galaxies compiled from 430 published articles. Each individual series is recalibrated onto a common distance scale based on a carefully selected set of high-quality measurements. This information together with data on HI line-width, central velocity dispersion, magnitudes, diameters, and redshift is used to derive a homogeneous distance estimate and physical properties of galaxies, such as their absolute magnitudes and intrinsic size.

/pdf/hyperleda-iii-the-catalogue-of-extragalactic-distances-2lvw2wdubm.pdf

Aims. We provide an easy-to-use full-spectrum fitting package and explore its applications to (i) the determination of the stellar atmospheric parameters and (ii) the study of the history of stellar populations. Methods. We developed ULySS, a package to fit spectroscopic observations against a linear combination of non-linear model components convolved with a parametric line-of-sight velocity distribution. The minimization can be either local or global, and determines all the parameters in a single fit. We use χ 2 maps, convergence maps and Monte-Carlo simulations to study the degeneracies, local minima and to estimate the errors. Results. We show the importance of determining the shape of the continuum simultaneously to the other parameters by including a multiplicative polynomial in the model (without prior pseudo-continuum determination, or rectification of the spectrum). We also stress the usefulness of using an accurate line-spread function, depending on the wavelength, so that the line-shape of the models properly matches the observation. For simple models, i.e., to measure the atmospheric parameters or the age/metallicity of a singleage stellar population, there is often a unique minimum, or when local minima exist they can be recognized unambiguously. For more complex models, Monte-Carlo simulations are required to assess the validity of the solution. Conclusions. The ULySS package is public, simple to use and flexible. The full spectrum fitting makes optimal use of the signal.

/pdf/ulyss-a-full-spectrum-fitting-package-buf7y8zxdo.pdf

Philippe Prugniel

Papers

Hyperleda. I. Identification and designation of galaxies

HyperLEDA. III. The catalogue of extragalactic distances

A database of high and medium-resolution stellar spectra ?;??

HyperLEDA. III. The catalogue of extragalactic distances

ULySS: a full spectrum fitting package