118 research outputs found
Galaxy surface photometry
We describe galaxy surface photometry based on fitting ellipses to the
isophotes of the galaxies. Example galaxies with different isophotal shapes are
used to illustrate the process, including how the deviations from elliptical
isophotes are quantified using Fourier expansions. We show how the definitions
of the Fourier coefficients employed by different authors are linked. As
examples of applications of surface photometry we discuss the determination of
the relative disk luminosities and the inclinations for E and S0 galaxies. We
also describe the color-magnitude and color-color relations. When using both
near-infrared and optical photometry, the age-metallicity degeneracy may be
broken. Finally we discuss the Fundamental Plane where surface photometry is
combined with spectroscopy. It is shown how the FP can be used as a sensitive
tool to study galaxy evolution.Comment: 40 pages. Lectures given at the Nordic-Baltic Research Course in
Applied Astrophysical Photometry, held September 1999 at the Moletai
Observatory, Lithuania. Baltic Astronomy, 8, 535 (1999), in press. Note the
year. The paper with Fig. 2, 14 and 15 in original (high) resolution is
available at http://www.astro.ku.dk/~milvang/papers/BA_MJ_J.ps.gz or
http://www.gemini.edu/documentation/preprints/pre58.htm
Probing the truncation of galaxy dark matter halos in high density environments from hydrodynamical N-body simulations
We analyze high resolution, N-body hydrodynamical simulations of fiducial
galaxy clusters to probe tidal stripping of the dark matter subhalos. These
simulations include a prescription for star formation allowing us to track the
fate of the stellar component as well. We investigate the effect of tidal
stripping on cluster galaxies hosted in these dark matter subhalos as a
function of cluster-centric radius. To quantify the extent of the dark matter
halos of cluster galaxies, we introduce the half mass radius r_half as a
diagnostic, and study its evolution with projected cluster-centric distance R
as a function of redshift. We find a well defined trend for (r_half,R): the
closer the galaxies are to the center of the cluster, the smaller the half mass
radius. Interestingly, this trend is inferred in all redshift frames examined
in this work ranging from z=0 to z=0.7. At z=0, galaxy halos in the central
regions of clusters are found to be highly truncated, with the most compact
half mass radius of 10 kpc. We also find that r_half depends on luminosity and
we present scaling relations of r_half with galaxy luminosity. The
corresponding total mass of the cluster galaxies is also found to increase with
projected cluster-centric distance and luminosity, but with more scatter than
the (r_half,R) trend. Comparing the distribution of stellar mass to total mass
for cluster galaxies, we find that the dark matter component is preferentially
stripped, whereas the stellar component remains protected by the halo and is
much less affected by tidal forces. We compare these results with galaxy-galaxy
lensing probes of r_half and find qualitative agreement. (Abridged)Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap
The Optically Unbiased GRB Host (TOUGH) survey. IV. Lyman-alpha emitters
We report the results of a spectroscopic search for Lyman-alpha emission from
gamma-ray burst host galaxies. Based on the well-defined TOUGH sample of 69
X-ray selected Swift GRBs, we have targeted the hosts of a subsample of 20 GRBs
known from afterglow spectroscopy to be in the redshift range 1.8-4.5. We
detect Lya emission from 7 out of the 20 hosts, with the typical limiting
3sigma line flux being 8E-18 erg/cm2/s, corresponding to a Lya luminosity of
6E41 erg/s at z=3. The Lya luminosities for the 7 hosts in which we detect Lya
emission are in the range (0.6-2.3)E42 erg/s corresponding to star-formation
rates of 0.6-2.1 Msun/yr (not corrected for extinction). The rest-frame Lya
equivalent widths (EWs) for the 7 hosts are in the range 9-40A. For 6 of the 13
hosts for which Lya is not detected we place fairly strong 3sigma upper limits
on the EW (<20A), while for others the EW is either unconstrained or has a less
constraining upper limit. We find that the distribution of Lya EWs is
inconsistent with being drawn from the Lya EW distribution of bright Lyman
break galaxies at the 98.3% level, in the sense that the TOUGH hosts on average
have larger EWs than bright LBGs. We can exclude an early indication, based on
a smaller, heterogeneous sample of pre-Swift GRB hosts, that all GRB hosts are
Lya emitters. We find that the TOUGH hosts on average have lower EWs than the
pre-Swift GRB hosts, but the two samples are only inconsistent at the 92%
level. The velocity centroid of the Lya line is redshifted by 200-700 km/s with
respect to the systemic velocity, similar to what is seen for LBGs, possibly
indicating star-formation driven outflows from the host galaxies. There seems
to be a trend between the Lya EW and the optical to X-ray spectral index of the
afterglow (beta_OX), hinting that dust plays a role in the observed strength
and even presence of Lya emission. [ABRIDGED]Comment: ApJ accepted (v2: minor changes in the Subject headings and reference
list
Chasing Lyman alpha-emitting galaxies at z = 8.8
With a total integration time of 168 hours and a narrowband (NB) filter tuned
to Lyman alpha at z = 8.8, the UltraVISTA survey has set out to find some of
the most distant galaxies, on the verge of the Epoch of Reionization. Previous
calculations of the expected number of detected Lya-emitting galaxies (LAEs) at
this redshift did not explicitly take into account the radiative transfer (RT)
of Lya. In this work we combine a theoretical model for the halo mass function
with numerical results from high-res cosmological hydrosimulations with LyC+Lya
RT, assessing the visibility of LAEs residing in these halos. Uncertainties
such as cosmic variance and the anisotropic escape of Lya are taken into
account, and it is predicted that once the survey has finished, the
probabilities of detecting none, one, or more than one are ~90%, ~10%, and ~1%;
a significantly smaller success rate compared to earlier predictions, due to
the combined effect of a highly neutral IGM scattering Lya to such large
distances from the galaxy that they fall outside the observational aperture,
and to the actual depth of the survey being less than predicted. Because the
IGM affects NB and broadband (BB) magnitudes differently, we argue for a
relaxed color selection criterion of NB - BB ~ +0.85. But since the flux is
continuum-dominated, even if a galaxy is detectable in the NB its probability
of being selected as a NB excess object is <~35%. Various properties of
galaxies at this redshift are predicted, e.g. UV and Lya LFs, M*-Mh relation,
spectral shape, optimal aperture, and the anisotropic escape of Lya through
both a dusty ISM and a partly neutral IGM. Finally, we describe and publish a
fast numerical code for adding numbers with asymmetric uncertainties
("x_{-sigma_1}^{+sigma_2}") proving to be significantly better than the
standard, but wrong, way of adding upper and lower uncertainties in quadrature
separately.Comment: Submitted to A&A, comments are welcom
Ultraviolet Emission Lines in Young Low Mass Galaxies at z~2: Physical Properties and Implications for Studies at z>7
We present deep spectroscopy of 17 very low mass (M* ~ 2.0x10^6 Msun to
1.4x10^9 Msun) and low luminosity (M_UV ~ -13.7 to -19.9) gravitationally
lensed galaxies in the redshift range z~1.5-3.0. Deep rest-frame ultraviolet
spectra reveal large equivalent width emission from numerous lines (NIV],
OIII], CIV, Si III], CIII]) which are rarely seen in individual spectra of more
massive star forming galaxies. CIII] is detected in 16 of 17 low mass star
forming systems with rest-frame equivalent widths as large as 13.5 Angstroms.
Nebular CIV emission is present in the most extreme CIII] emitters, requiring
an ionizing source capable of producing a substantial component of photons with
energies in excess of 47.9 eV. Photoionization models support a picture whereby
the large equivalent widths are driven by the increased electron temperature
and enhanced ionizing output arising from metal poor gas and stars, young
stellar populations, and large ionization parameters. The young ages implied by
the emission lines and continuum SEDs indicate that the extreme line emitters
in our sample are in the midst of a significant upturn in their star formation
activity. The low stellar masses, blue UV colors, and large sSFRs of our sample
are similar to those of typical z>6 galaxies. Given the strong attenuation of
Ly-alpha in z>6 galaxies we suggest that CIII] is likely to provide our best
probe of early star forming galaxies with ground-based spectrographs and one of
the most efficient means of confirming z>10 galaxies with the James Webb Space
Telescope.Comment: 22 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
The effect of the environment on the structure, morphology and star-formation history of intermediate-redshift galaxies
With the aim of understanding the effect of the environment on the star formation history and morphological transformation of galaxies, we present a detailed analysis of the colour, morphology and internal structure of cluster and field galaxies at 0.4≤z≤0.8. We use {\em HST} data for over 500 galaxies from the ESO Distant Cluster Survey (EDisCS) to quantify how the galaxies' light distribution deviate from symmetric smooth profiles. We visually inspect the galaxies' images to identify the likely causes for such deviations. We find that the residual flux fraction (RFF), which measures the fractional contribution to the galaxy light of the residuals left after subtracting a symmetric and smooth model, is very sensitive to the degree of structural disturbance but not the causes of such disturbance. On the other hand, the asymmetry of these residuals (Ares) is more sensitive to the causes of the disturbance, with merging galaxies having the highest values of Ares. Using these quantitative parameters we find that, at a fixed morphology, cluster and field galaxies show statistically similar degrees of disturbance. However, there is a higher fraction of symmetric and passive spirals in the cluster than in the field. These galaxies have smoother light distributions than their star-forming counterparts. We also find that while almost all field and cluster S0s appear undisturbed, there is a relatively small population of star-forming S0s in clusters but not in the field. These findings are consistent with relatively gentle environmental processes acting on galaxies infalling onto clusters
A Public Ks-selected Catalog in the COSMOS/UltraVISTA Field: Photometry, Photometric Redshifts and Stellar Population Parameters
We present a catalog covering 1.62 deg^2 of the COSMOS/UltraVISTA field with
PSF-matched photometry in 30 photometric bands. The catalog covers the
wavelength range 0.15um - 24um including the available GALEX, Subaru, CFHT,
VISTA and Spitzer data. Catalog sources have been selected from the DR1
UltraVISTA Ks band imaging that reaches a depth of K_{s,tot} = 23.4 AB (90%
completeness). The PSF-matched catalog is generated using position-dependent
PSFs ensuring accurate colors across the entire field. Also included is a
catalog of photometric redshifts (z_phot) for all galaxies computed with the
EAZY code. Comparison with spectroscopy from the zCOSMOS 10k bright sample
shows that up to z ~ 1.5 the z_phot are accurate to dz/(1 + z) = 0.013, with a
catastrophic outlier fraction of only 1.6%. The z_phot also show good agreement
with the z_phot from the NEWFIRM Medium Band Survey (NMBS) out to z ~ 3. A
catalog of stellar masses and stellar population parameters for galaxies
determined using the FAST spectral energy distribution fitting code is provided
for all galaxies. Also included are rest-frame U-V and V-J colors, L_2800 and
L_IR. The UVJ color-color diagram confirms that the galaxy bi-modality is
well-established out to z ~ 2. Star-forming galaxies also obey a star forming
"main sequence" out to z ~ 2.5, and this sequence evolves in a manner
consistent with previous measurements. The COSMOS/UltraVISTA Ks-selected
catalog covers a unique parameter space in both depth, area, and
multi-wavelength coverage and promises to be a useful tool for studying the
growth of the galaxy population out to z ~ 3 - 4.Comment: 20 pages, 14 figures. Accepted to the ApJSS. Catalog data products
available for download here:
http://www.strw.leidenuniv.nl/galaxyevolution/ULTRAVISTA
Caught in the act: cluster 'k+a' galaxies as a link between spirals and S0s
We use integral field spectroscopy of 13 disc galaxies in the cluster AC114 at z ∼ 0.31 in an attempt to disentangle the physical processes responsible for the transformation of spiral galaxies in clusters. Our sample is selected to display a dominant young stellar population, as indicated by strong Hδ absorption lines in their integrated spectra. Most of our galaxies lack the [O ii]λ3727 emission line, and hence ongoing star formation. They therefore possess ‘k+a’ spectra, indicative of a recent truncation of star formation, possibly preceded by a starburst. Discy ‘k+a’ galaxies are a promising candidate for the intermediate stage of the transformation from star-forming spiral galaxies to passive S0s. Our observations allow us to study the spatial distributions and the kinematics of the different stellar populations within the galaxies. We used three different indicators to evaluate the presence of a young population: the equivalent width of Hδ, the luminosity-weighted fraction of A stars, and the fraction of the galaxy light attributable to simple stellar populations with ages between 0.5 and 1.5 Gyr. We find a mixture of behaviours, but are able to show that in most of the galaxies the last episode of star formation occurred in an extended disc, similar to preceding generations of stars, though somewhat more centrally concentrated. We thus exclude nuclear starbursts and violent gravitational interactions as causes of the star formation truncation. Gentler mechanisms, such as ram-pressure stripping or weak galaxy–galaxy interactions, appear to be responsible for ending star formation in these intermediate-redshift cluster disc galaxies
Stellar mass functions of galaxies at 4<z<7 from an IRAC-selected sample in COSMOS/UltraVISTA: limits on the abundance of very massive galaxies
We build a Spitzer IRAC complete catalog of objects, obtained by
complementing the -band selected UltraVISTA catalog with objects
detected in IRAC only. With the aim of identifying massive (i.e.,
) galaxies at , we consider the systematic effects
on the measured photometric redshifts from the introduction of an old and dusty
SED template and from the introduction of a bayesian prior taking into account
the brightness of the objects, as well as the systematic effects from different
star formation histories (SFHs) and from nebular emission lines in the recovery
of stellar population parameters. We show that our results are most affected by
the bayesian luminosity prior, while nebular emission lines and SFHs only
introduce a small dispersion in the measurements. Specifically, the number of
galaxies ranges from 52 to 382 depending on the adopted configuration.
Using these results we investigate, for the first time, the evolution of the
massive end of the stellar mass functions (SMFs) at . Given the rarity
of very massive galaxies in the early universe, major contributions to the
total error budget come from cosmic variance and poisson noise. The SMF
obtained without the introduction of the bayesian luminosity prior does not
show any evolution from to , implying that massive
galaxies could already be present when the Universe was ~Gyr old.
However, the introduction of the bayesian luminosity prior reduces the number
of galaxies with best fit masses by 83%, implying
a rapid growth of very massive galaxies in the first 1.5 Gyr of cosmic history.
From the stellar-mass complete sample, we identify one candidate of a very
massive (), quiescent galaxy at , with
MIPS m detection suggesting the presence of a powerful obscured AGN.Comment: 23 pages, 18 figures. ApJ accepte
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