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6. SUSPECTED WR GALAXIES AND GALAXIES WITHOUT HeII lambda4686

6.1. Suspected WR galaxies

Candidate WR galaxies resulting from some of the searches discussed in Sect. 2 or found loosely in the literature are listed in Table 3. The reader is referred to the original papers for the justification of the possible presence of WR stars.

Table 3. List of suspected WR galaxies

  R.A. Decl. Morphology mb Vrad Reference
Name [1950] [1950]   [mag] [km s-1]  

Fairall 4 00 12 49.2 -57 31 22 (R)SA(r)b 15.1 9796 P99
Tol 0030-388 00 30 38.3 -38 50 29     13800 MMO91
Fairall 0007 00 42 06.0 -60 07 00       MMO91
UM 080 00 57 46.8 +04 23 46   17.8 4797 P99
EQ 0102-310 01 02 -31.0       MMO91
Tol 0127-397 01 27 02.4 -39 46 03     4797 P99
UM 354 01 37 11.1 +01 10 57     9294 P99
UM 377 01 52 18.8 +01 02 28     8694 P99
UM 396 02 04 51.0 +02 42 41     6296 P99
NGC 848 02 07 50.4 -10 33 25 (R')SB(s)ab 13.6 4001 GIT98
NGC 1068 02 40 07.0 -00 13 32 (R)SA(rs)b 9.6 1136 ED86
CAM 0357-3915 03 57 22.1 -39 14 51 HII   22545 P99
Tol 0440-381 04 40 23.3 -38 06 41     12300 MMO91,P99
Tol 0513-393 05 13 39.7 -39 20 59     15000 P99
Tol 0538-416 05 38 32.9 -41 38 37 HII   13491 P99
Tol 0559-393 05 59 04.9 -39 19 08 Irr 15.0 24915 MMO91,P99
Tol 0620-386 06 30 08.3 -38 39 11     20100 P99
Tol 0645-376 06 45 07.0 -37 40 02     7795 MMO91
NPM1G+16.0158 08 41 01.4 +16 10 38   18.3   P99
ESO 566-8 09 42 39.2 -19 28 55 S pec 16.3 9761 C96
Mrk 709 09 46 33.2 +17 06 44 BCD 17.0 1197 P99
Tol 1021-289 10 21 22.0 -28 58 30 Interacting 16.9 17658 P99
Tol 1025-285 10 25 06.2 -28 32 13 N 16.2 8694 P99
Abell 1068 10 37 51.3 +40 12 51 cD 16.0 41580 A95
Tol 1032-283 10 32 18.4 -28 19 52 E4: 14.4 3190 KS86
Mrk 1301 11 33 10.9 +35 36 43 S0/a 14.5 1603 RC93
UM 456 11 48 02.5 -00 17 21 Pec 15.9 1757 P99
Pox 52 12 00 22.9 -20 39 21   17.2   KSB87
UM 482 12 09 29.4 -00 19 43 Sm 16.2 10544 P99
UM 483 12 09 41.0 +00 21 01   16.7 2099 P99
M100 12 20 22.9 +16 05 58 SAB(s)bc 7.4 1571 WO98
NGC 4509 12 30 38.9 +32 22 02 Sab pec? 14.1 937 RC93
Tol 1258-363 12 58 19.0 -36 19 54     4887 P99
UM 594 13 35 32.7 +00 16 26 HII? 15.8 6653 P99
NGC 5257 (W) 13 37 19.7 +01 05 33 SAB(s)b pec 12.9 6798 MMO91
NGC 5291 13 44 33.3 -30 09 31 E pec: 15.1 4386 DM98
Tol 1345-419 13 45 14.2 -41 55 23 Sy2 17.0 11572 P99
UM 618 13 50 03.1 +00 16 07   18.4 4197 P99
Abell 1835 13 58 30.0 +03 06 00 cD 19.3 75690 A95
EQ 1409-120 14 09 +01 20       MMO91
Cam 1409+1200 14 09 14.3 +11 59 33     16800 P99
NGC 6090 16 10 24.0 +52 35 04 Sd pec 14.5 8822 RC93
Tol 2006-393 20 06 39.7 -39 22 32     9294 P99
Tol 2138-405 21 38 14.8 -40 32 35     16800 P99
Tol 2146-391 21 46 45.0 -39 08 10     8994 MMO91,P99
Tol 2259-398 22 59 34.0 -39 49 42 Compact 15.6 8858 MMO91,P99
UM 159 23 19 31.9 +01 12 24 HII   8694 P99
UM 160 W 23 21 46.0 -00 23 30     2400 P99

KEY TO REFERENCES. -- A95 Allen 1995, C91 Conti 1991, DM98 Duc & Mirabel 1998 DRM93 Drissen et al. 1993, ED86 Evans & Dopita 1986, GIT98 Guseva et al. 1998, KS86 Kunth & Schild 1986, KSB87 Kunth et al. 1987, MMO91 Masegosa et al. 1991, P99 Pindao et al. 1999, RC93 Robledo-Rella & Conti 1993, VC92 Vacca & Conti 1992, WO98 Wozniak et al. 1998

Most of the suspected WR galaxies come from the spectrophotometric catalogue of HII galaxies of Terlevich et al. (1991), following the analysis of Masegosa et al. (1991) or Pindao et al. (1999) which also includes new objects. As stated earlier, from Masegosa et al. (1991) we take the subset of objects included in their Table 1 but not in Table 2 as candidates. Although partly based on the same observations the analysis of Masegosa et al. (1991) and Pindao et al. (1999) do not always yield the same candidates. We have retained all objects classified as "candidate" by either one of these studies. New observations will be necessary to establish the definite presence or absence of WR features.

Few objects from Vacca & Conti (1992) have only an upper limit on broad HeII lambda4686. For most of them independent observations are now available. Otherwise these objects are retained as suspected WR galaxies.

In some studies of IUE spectra strong UV P-Cygni lines of N and C (N V lambda1240, C IV lambda1550) have been interpreted as signatures of WR stars in theses objects (e.g. Durret et al. 1985, Lamb et al. 1990). However, these lines are also strong in O stars and hence cannot be used as a clear diagnostic for WR stars (cf. Leitherer et al. 1995). Therefore, objects suspected on these grounds have not been included in Table 3.

In rare cases, WR stars have also been suspected on indirect grounds (e.g. M100: Wozniak et al. 1998).

Interestingly, a broad WR bump is suggested to be present in the optical spectrum of two distant central cluster galaxies with strong cooling flows (Abell 1068 and 1835, Allen 1995). The recent study of Contini et al. (1998), however, casts serious doubt about the reality of a broad feature in Abell 1835. If true, these objects with redshifts z ~ 0.14 and 0.25 respectively, represent the most distant objects known to date where WR stars have been detected from (rest-frame) optical spectra. High redshift galaxies (z ~ 3) may, however, also show WR signatures (see Sect. 7).

6.2. Emission line galaxies without HeII

Conti (1991, his Table 3) lists a sample of emission line galaxies which have properties similar to WR galaxies, and where a search for HeII lambda4686 emission (broad or narrow) has been made with negative results. For obvious reasons such a list is necessarily incomplete and the inclusion in such a list also strongly depends on the sensitivity (S/N, resolution etc.) of the data. We therefore renounce on such a compilation. However, few updates are appropriate on some objects from Table 3 of Conti (1991).

Mrk 1087 -- While Vacca & Conti (1992) provide only an upper limit on HeII lambda4686, a detection is provided in the recent spectra of Vaceli et al. (1997). No information on the width of this line is given. Retained as suspected WR galaxy.

Mrk 1094 -- We have retained the criteria of Kunth & Joubert (1985) and hence included this object in Table 1. No new observations published.

0833+652 = IRAS 08339+6517 -- From their spectrum Veilleux et al. conclude that no WR features are present in this galaxy (=0833+652 in Conti 1991).

Tol 2 = Tol 0957-278 -- Same comment as for Mrk 1094.

Tol 9 = Tol 1032-283 Although no broad HeII lambda4686 feature seems present in this object (Kunth & Schild 1986) we list in the category of suspected WR galaxies based on the possible detection of other broad features shortward of 5876 Å (Kunth & Schild 1986).

Other objects for which an upper limit on broad WR features is given or where a non-detection is signaled are found in publications issued from the systematic searches discussed in Sect. 2.

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