The physical origins of gas in the circumgalactic medium using observationally-motivated TNG50 mocks

Absorbers in the spectrum of background objects probe the circumgalactic medium (CGM) surrounding galaxies, but its physical properties remain unconstrained. We use the cosmological hydrodynamical simulation TNG50 to statistically trace the origins of HI Ly-$\alpha$ absorbers around galaxies at $z = 0.5$ with stellar masses ranging from 10$^8$ to 10$^{11}$ M$_\odot$. We emulate observational CGM studies by considering all gas within a line of sight velocity range of $\pm 500$ km s$^{-1}$ from the central, to quantitatively assess the impact of other galaxy haloes and overdense gas in the IGM that intersect sightlines. The impact of satellites to the total absorber fraction is most significant at impact parameters $0.5 R_{\rm vir} < b < R_{\rm vir}$ and satellites with masses below typical detection limits ($M_* < 10^8$ M$_\odot$) account for 10 (40) per cent of absorbers that intersect any satellite bound to $10^{10}$ and $10^{11}$ $(10^9)$ M$_\odot$ centrals. After confirming outflows are more dominant along the minor axis, we additionally show that at least 20 per cent of absorbers exhibit no significant radial movement, indicating that absorbers can also trace quasi-static gas. The metallicity of absorbers also depends on the azimuthal angle, but this signal is largely driven by enriched inflowing and quasi-static gas. Our work shows that determining the stellar mass of galaxies at $z_{\rm abs}$ is essential to constrain the physical origin of the gas traced in absorption, which in turn is key to characterising the kinematics and distribution of gas and metals in the CGM.Comment: 23 pages, 13 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA

The H{\alpha} Luminosity Function of Galaxies at z {\sim} 4.5

We present the H{\alpha} luminosity function (LF) derived from a large sample of Lyman break galaxies at z {\sim} 4.5 over the GOODS-South and North fields. This study makes use of the new, full-depth Spitzer/IRAC [3.6] and [4.5] imaging from the GOODS Re-ionization Era wide-Area Treasury from the Spitzer program. The H{\alpha} flux is derived from the offset between the continuum flux estimated from the best-fit spectral energy distribution, and the observed photometry in IRAC [3.6]. From these measurements, we build the H{\alpha} LF and study its evolution providing the best constraints of this property at high redshift, where spectroscopy of H{\alpha} is not yet available. Schechter parameterizations of the H{\alpha} LF show a decreasing evolution of {\Phi^\star} with redshift, increasing evolution in L{^\star}, and no significant evolution in the faint-end slope at high z. We find that star formation rates (SFRs) derived from H{\alpha} are higher than those derived from the rest-frame UV for low SFR galaxies but the opposite happens for the highest SFRs. This can be explained by lower mass galaxies (also lower SFR) having, on average, rising star formation histories (SFHs), while at the highest masses the SFHs may be declining. The SFR function is steeper, and because of the excess SFR(H{\alpha}) compared to SFR(UV) at low SFRs, the SFR density estimated from H{\alpha} is higher than the previous estimates based on UV luminosities.Comment: Astrophysical Journal, Accepted, 17 pages, 16 figure

The BarYon CYCLE Project (ByCycle): Identifying and Localizing MgII Metal Absorbers with Machine Learning

The upcoming ByCycle project on the VISTA/4MOST multi-object spectrograph will offer new prospects of using a massive sample of $\sim 1$ million high spectral resolution ($R$ = 20,000) background quasars to map the circumgalactic metal content of foreground galaxies (observed at $R$ = 4000 - 7000), as traced by metal absorption. Such large surveys require specialized analysis methodologies. In the absence of early data, we instead produce synthetic 4MOST high-resolution fibre quasar spectra. To do so, we use the TNG50 cosmological magnetohydrodynamical simulation, combining photo-ionization post-processing and ray tracing, to capture MgII ($\lambda2796$, $\lambda2803$) absorbers. We then use this sample to train a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) which searches for, and estimates the redshift of, MgII absorbers within these spectra. For a test sample of quasar spectra with uniformly distributed properties ($\lambda_{\rm{MgII,2796}}$, $\rm{EW}_{\rm{MgII,2796}}^{\rm{rest}} = 0.05 - 5.15$ \AA, $\rm{SNR} = 3 - 50$), the algorithm has a robust classification accuracy of 98.6 per cent and a mean wavelength accuracy of 6.9 \AA. For high signal-to-noise spectra ($\rm{SNR > 20}$), the algorithm robustly detects and localizes MgII absorbers down to equivalent widths of $\rm{EW}_{\rm{MgII,2796}}^{\rm{rest}} = 0.05$ \AA. For the lowest SNR spectra ($\rm{SNR=3}$), the CNN reliably recovers and localizes EW$_{\rm{MgII,2796}}^{\rm{rest}}$ $\geq$ 0.75 \AA\, absorbers. This is more than sufficient for subsequent Voigt profile fitting to characterize the detected MgII absorbers. We make the code publicly available through GitHub. Our work provides a proof-of-concept for future analyses of quasar spectra datasets numbering in the millions, soon to be delivered by the next generation of surveys.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication in MNRA

ALMACAL. XI. Over-densities as signposts to proto-clusters? A cautionary tale

It may be unsurprising that the most common approach to finding proto-clusters is to search for over-densities of galaxies. Upgrades to submillimetre (submm) interferometers and the advent of the James Webb Space Telescope will soon offer the opportunity to find more distant candidate proto-clusters in deep sky surveys without any spectroscopic confirmation. In this letter, we report the serendipitous discovery of an extremely dense region centred on the blazar, J0217-0820, at z=0.6 in the ALMACAL sky survey. Its density is eight times higher than that predicted by blind submm surveys. Among the seven submm-bright galaxies, three are as bright as conventional single-dish submm galaxies, with S_870um > 3mJy. The over-density is thus comparable to the densest known and confirmed proto-cluster cores. However, their spectra betray a wide range of redshifts. We investigate the likelihood of line-of-sight projection effects using light cones from cosmological simulations, finding that the deeper we search, the higher the chance that we will suffer from such projection effects. The extreme over-density around J0217-0820 demonstrates the strong cosmic variance we may encounter in the deep submm surveys. Thus, we should also question the fidelity of galaxy proto-cluster candidates selected via over-densities of galaxies, where the negative K correction eases the detection of dusty galaxies along an extraordinarily extended line of sight.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, update with the accepted versio

MUSE-ALMA Halos XI: Gas flows in the circumgalactic medium

The flow of gas into and out of galaxies leaves traces in the circumgalactic medium which can then be studied using absorption lines towards background quasars. We analyse 27 log(N_HI) > 18.0 HI absorbers at z = 0.2 to 1.4 from the MUSE-ALMA Halos survey with at least one galaxy counterpart within a line of sight velocity of +/-500 km s^{-1}. We perform 3D kinematic forward modelling of these associated galaxies to examine the flow of dense, neutral gas in the circumgalactic medium. From the VLT/MUSE, HST broadband imaging and VLT/UVES and Keck/HIRES high-resolution UV quasar spectroscopy observations, we compare the impact parameters, star-formation rates and stellar masses of the associated galaxies with the absorber properties. We find marginal evidence for a bimodal distribution in azimuthal angles for strong HI absorbers, similar to previous studies of the MgII and OVI absorption lines. There is no clear metallicity dependence on azimuthal angle and we suggest a larger sample of absorbers are required to fully test the relationship predicted by cosmological hydrodynamical simulations. A case-by-case study of the absorbers reveals that ten per cent of absorbers are consistent with gas accretion, up to 30 per cent trace outflows while the remainder trace gas in the galaxy disk, the intragroup medium and low-mass galaxies below the MUSE detection limit. Our results highlight that the baryon cycle directly affects the dense neutral gas required for star-formation and plays a critical role in galaxy evolution.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures, 12 pages of appendix. Accepted for publication in MNRA

Programación Anual de Física y desarrollo de la Situación de Aprendizaje "¿De qué está hecha la luz?"

En el presente Trabajo de Fin de M´aster se elabora una Programaci´on Did´actica Anual para la asignatura de F´ısica de 2º de Bachillerato del Instituto de Educaci´on Secundaria Granadilla de Abona. Dicha programaci´on pretende solventar algunas de las debilidades detectadas en la programaci´on de este mismo centro. Para ello, nos apoyaremos en el formato de Situaci´on de Aprendizaje como herramienta para abordar contenidos, siendo la metodolog´ıa constructivista el eje central de las mismas. Finalmente se desarrolla con m´as detalle una de las Situaciones de Aprendizaje propuestas: ¿De qu´e est´a hecha la luz?In this Master Thesis I develop a year syllabus (programaci´on anual did´actica) for the Physics course of the second year of Bachillerato in the IES Granadilla de Abona. This aims to address some of the issues detected in the current syllabus by using some alternative methodologies. In particular, we rely on the learning scenarios approach, working from a constructivist perspective. Finally, one of the proposed learning scenarios (What is light made of ? ) is developed in detail

Quaternized chitosan as support for the assembly of gold nanoparticles and glucose oxidase: Physicochemical characterization of the platform and evaluation of its biocatalytic activity

We report for the first time the use of quaternized chitosan (QCHI) for the immobilization of gold nanoparticles (NP) and glucose oxidase (GOD), the characterization of the resulting platform and its biocatalytic activity using glucose as substrate. The chemical substitution of chitosan has allowed us to work at physiologic pH to build up self-assembled layers of QCHI-NP as platform for the enzyme immobilization. The adsorption of GOD was analyzed by surface plasmon resonance (SPR) to compare the surface coverage of GOD in absence and presence of the QCHI-NP platform. The results obtained with cyclic voltammetry and scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM) revealed that the adsorption of NP improves the conductivity of the structure and its electrochemical reactivity, facilitating the oxidation of the hydrogen peroxide produced by GOD. The electrodes modified with NP present higher amperometric response demonstrating the efficient transduction of the enzymatic activity in this structure. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Fil: Bracamonte, Maria Victoria. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Investigaciones en Físico-química de Córdoba. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Químicas. Instituto de Investigaciones en Físico-química de Córdoba; ArgentinaFil: Bollo, Soledad. Universidad de Chile; ChileFil: Labbé, Pierre. Universite Joseph Fourier; FranciaFil: Rivas, Gustavo Adolfo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Investigaciones en Físico-química de Córdoba. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Químicas. Instituto de Investigaciones en Físico-química de Córdoba; ArgentinaFil: Ferreyra, Nancy Fabiana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Investigaciones en Físico-química de Córdoba. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Químicas. Instituto de Investigaciones en Físico-química de Córdoba; Argentin

The physical origins of gas in the circumgalactic medium using observationally motivated TNG50 mocks

International audienceAbsorbers in the spectrum of background objects probe the circumgalactic medium (CGM) surrounding galaxies, but its physical properties remain unconstrained. We use the cosmological hydrodynamical simulation TNG50 to statistically trace the origins of ${\rm H\, {\small I}}$ Ly α absorbers around galaxies at z = 0.5 with stellar masses ranging from 108 to 1011 M⊙. We emulate observational CGM studies by considering all gas within a line of sight velocity range of ±500 kms-1 from the central, to quantitatively assess the impact of other galaxy haloes and overdense gas in the IGM that intersect sightlines. We find that 75 per cent of ${\rm H\, {\small I}}$ absorbers with column densities \log [N(\mbox{{\rm H\, {\small I}}})/\rm {cm}^{-2}] 16.0 trace the central galaxy within ±150 (80) kms-1 of M* = 1010(108) M⊙ central galaxies. The impact of satellites to the total absorber fraction is most significant at impact parameters 0.5Rvir vir, and satellites with masses below typical detection limits (M* 8 M⊙) account for 10 (40) per cent of absorbers that intersect any satellite bound to 1010 and 1011 (109) M⊙ centrals. After confirming outflows are more dominant along the minor axis, we additionally show that at least 20 per cent of absorbers exhibit no significant radial movement, indicating that absorbers can also trace quasi-static gas. Our work shows that determining the stellar mass of galaxies at zabs is essential to constrain the physical origin of the gas traced in absorption, which in turn is key to characterizing the kinematics and distribution of gas and metals in the CGM

The Hα Luminosity Function of Galaxies at z ∼ 4.5

We present the H α luminosity function (LF) derived from a large sample of Lyman break galaxies at z ∼ 4.5 over the GOODS-South and North fields. This study makes use of the new, full-depth Spitzer/IRAC [3.6] and [4.5] imaging from the GOODS Re-ionization Era wide-Area Treasury from the Spitzer program. The H α flux is derived from the offset between the continuum flux estimated from the best-fit spectral energy distribution, and the observed photometry in IRAC [3.6]. From these measurements, we build the H α LF and study its evolution providing the best constraints of this property at high redshift, where spectroscopy of H α is not yet available. Schechter parameterizations of the H α LF show a decreasing evolution of Φ ^∗ with redshift, increasing evolution in L ^∗ , and no significant evolution in the faint-end slope at high z . We find that star formation rates (SFRs) derived from H α are higher than those derived from the rest-frame UV for low SFR galaxies but the opposite happens for the highest SFRs. This can be explained by lower mass galaxies (also lower SFR) having, on average, rising star formation histories (SFHs), while at the highest masses the SFHs may be declining. The SFR function is steeper, and because of the excess SFR(H α ) compared to SFR(UV) at low SFRs, the SFR density estimated from H α is higher than the previous estimates based on UV luminosities

The BarYon CYCLE Project (ByCycle): Identifying and Localizing MgII Metal Absorbers with Machine Learning

International audienceThe upcoming ByCycle project on the VISTA/4MOST multi-object spectrograph will offer new prospects of using a massive sample of $\sim 1$ million high spectral resolution ($R$ = 20,000) background quasars to map the circumgalactic metal content of foreground galaxies (observed at $R$ = 4000 - 7000), as traced by metal absorption. Such large surveys require specialized analysis methodologies. In the absence of early data, we instead produce synthetic 4MOST high-resolution fibre quasar spectra. To do so, we use the TNG50 cosmological magnetohydrodynamical simulation, combining photo-ionization post-processing and ray tracing, to capture MgII ($\lambda2796$, $\lambda2803$) absorbers. We then use this sample to train a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) which searches for, and estimates the redshift of, MgII absorbers within these spectra. For a test sample of quasar spectra with uniformly distributed properties ($\lambda_{\rm{MgII,2796}}$, $\rm{EW}_{\rm{MgII,2796}}^{\rm{rest}} = 0.05 - 5.15$Å, $\rm{SNR} = 3 - 50$), the algorithm has a robust classification accuracy of 98.6 per cent and a mean wavelength accuracy of 6.9 Å. For high signal-to-noise spectra ($\rm{SNR > 20}$), the algorithm robustly detects and localizes MgII absorbers down to equivalent widths of $\rm{EW}_{\rm{MgII,2796}}^{\rm{rest}} = 0.05$Å. For the lowest SNR spectra ($\rm{SNR=3}$), the CNN reliably recovers and localizes EW$_{\rm{MgII,2796}}^{\rm{rest}}$$\geq$ 0.75 Å absorbers. This is more than sufficient for subsequent Voigt profile fitting to characterize the detected MgII absorbers. We make the code publicly available through GitHub. Our work provides a proof-of-concept for future analyses of quasar spectra datasets numbering in the millions, soon to be delivered by the next generation of surveys