Exploring the Structures and Substructures of the Andromeda Satellite Dwarf Galaxies Cassiopeia III, Perseus I, and Lacerta I

Abstract

We present results from wide-field imaging of the resolved stellar populations of the dwarf spheroidal galaxies Cassiopeia III (And XXXII) and Perseus I (And XXXIII), two satellites in the outer stellar halo of the Andromeda galaxy (M31). Our WIYN pODI photometry traces the red giant star population in each galaxy to ∼2.5−3 half-light radii from the galaxy center. We use the tip of the red giant branch (TRGB) method to derive distances of ( m − M ) _0 = 24.62 ± 0.12 mag (839 ${}_{-45}^{+48}$ kpc, or ${156}_{-13}^{+16}$ kpc from M31) for Cas III and 24.47 ± 0.13 mag (738 ${}_{-45}^{+48}$ kpc, or 351 ${}_{-16}^{+17}$ kpc from M31) for Per I. These values are consistent within the errors with TRGB distances derived from a deeper Hubble Space Telescope study of the galaxies’ inner regions. For each galaxy, we derive structural parameters, total magnitude, and central surface brightness. We also place upper limits on the ratio of neutral hydrogen gas mass to optical luminosity, confirming the gas-poor nature of both galaxies. We combine our data set with corresponding data for the M31 satellite galaxy Lacerta I (And XXXI) from earlier work and search for substructure within the RGB star populations of Cas III, Per I, and Lac I. We find an overdense region on the west side of Lac I at a significance level of 2.5 σ –3 σ and a low-significance filament extending in the direction of M31. In Cas III, we identify two modestly significant overdensities near the center of the galaxy and another at two half-light radii. Per I shows no evidence for substructure in its RGB star population, which may reflect this galaxy’s isolated nature.

Keywords

• Dwarf galaxies
• Local Group
• Andromeda Galaxy
• Dwarf spheroidal galaxies
• Sloan photometry
• Broad band photometry