Limits on Cosmological Birefringence from the Ultraviolet Polarization of Distant Radio Galaxies

We report on an update of the test on the rotation of the plane of linear polarization for light traveling over cosmological distances, using a comparison between the measured direction of the UV polarization in 8 radio galaxies at z>2 and the direction predicted by the model of scattering of anisotropic nuclear radiation, which explains the polarization. No rotation is detected within a few degrees for each galaxy and, if the rotation does not depend on direction, then the all-sky-average rotation is constrained to be \theta = -0.8 +/- 2.2. We discuss the relevance of this result for constraining cosmological birefringence, when this is caused by the interaction with a cosmological pseudo-scalar field or by the presence of a Cherns-Simons term.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal: changed to correspond to the proof-read versio

Jet-gas interactions in z~2.5 radio galaxies: evolution of the ultraviolet line and continuum emission with radio morphology

We present an investigation into the nature of the jet-gas interactions in a sample of 10 radio galaxies at 2.3<z<2.9 using deep spectroscopy of the UV line and continuum emission obtained at Keck II and the Very Large Telescope. Kinematically perturbed gas, which we have shown to be within the radio structure in previous publications, is always blueshifted with respect to the kinematically quiescent gas, is usually spatially extended, and is usually detected on both sides of the nucleus. In the three objects from this sample for which we are able to measure line ratios for both the perturbed and quiescent gases, we suggest that the former has a lower ionization state than the latter. We propose that the perturbed gas is part of a jet-induced outflow, with dust obscuring the outflowing gas that lies on the far side of the object. The spatial extent of the blueshifted perturbed gas, typically ~35 kpc, implies that the dust is spatially extended at least on similar spatial scales. We also find interesting interrelationships between UV line, UV continuum and radio continuum properties of this sample.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA

Intrinsic colors and ages of extremely red elliptical galaxies at high redshift

In order to know the formation epoch of the oldest elliptical galaxies as a function of mass and observed redshift, a statistical analysis for 333 extremely red objects (EROs) classified as old galaxies (OGs) at 0.8<z<2.3 is carried out. Once we get M_V and (B-V) at rest for each galaxy, we calculate the average variation of this intrinsic color with redshift and derive the average age through a synthesis model (the code for the calculation of the age has been made publicly available). The average gradient of the (B-V) color at rest of EROs/OGs is 0.07-0.10 Gyr^{-1} for a fixed luminosity. The stars in these extremely red elliptical galaxies were formed when the Universe was ~2 Gyr old on average. We have not found a significant enough dependence on the observed redshift and stellar mass: dt_{formation}/dt_{observed}=-0.46+/-0.32, dt_{formation}/(d log_10 M_*)=-0.81+/-0.98 Gyr. This fits a scenario in which the stellar formation of the objects that we denominate as EROs-OGs is more intense at higher redshifts, at which the stellar populations of the most massive galaxies form earlier than or at the same time as less massive galaxies.Comment: accepted to be published in A

Dante's Inferno

We present a simple two-field model of inflation and show how to embed it in string theory as a straightforward generalization of axion monodromy models. Phenomenologically, the predictions are equivalent to those of chaotic inflation, and in particular include observably large tensor modes. The whole high-scale large-field inflationary dynamics takes place within a region of field space that is parametrically subplanckian in diameter, hence improving our ability to control quantum corrections and achieve slow-roll inflation