SPECTRA OF YOUNG GALAXIES

Invited review, Ringberg conference on "Galaxies in the Young Universe" (Sept94)Comment: 12 pages, uuencoded compressed Postscript fil

Toward an internally consistent astronomical distance scale

Accurate astronomical distance determination is crucial for all fields in astrophysics, from Galactic to cosmological scales. Despite, or perhaps because of, significant efforts to determine accurate distances, using a wide range of methods, tracers, and techniques, an internally consistent astronomical distance framework has not yet been established. We review current efforts to homogenize the Local Group's distance framework, with particular emphasis on the potential of RR Lyrae stars as distance indicators, and attempt to extend this in an internally consistent manner to cosmological distances. Calibration based on Type Ia supernovae and distance determinations based on gravitational lensing represent particularly promising approaches. We provide a positive outlook to improvements to the status quo expected from future surveys, missions, and facilities. Astronomical distance determination has clearly reached maturity and near-consistency.Comment: Review article, 59 pages (4 figures); Space Science Reviews, in press (chapter 8 of a special collection resulting from the May 2016 ISSI-BJ workshop on Astronomical Distance Determination in the Space Age

Horizontal Branch Stars: The Interplay between Observations and Theory, and Insights into the Formation of the Galaxy

We review HB stars in a broad astrophysical context, including both variable and non-variable stars. A reassessment of the Oosterhoff dichotomy is presented, which provides unprecedented detail regarding its origin and systematics. We show that the Oosterhoff dichotomy and the distribution of globular clusters (GCs) in the HB morphology-metallicity plane both exclude, with high statistical significance, the possibility that the Galactic halo may have formed from the accretion of dwarf galaxies resembling present-day Milky Way satellites such as Fornax, Sagittarius, and the LMC. A rediscussion of the second-parameter problem is presented. A technique is proposed to estimate the HB types of extragalactic GCs on the basis of integrated far-UV photometry. The relationship between the absolute V magnitude of the HB at the RR Lyrae level and metallicity, as obtained on the basis of trigonometric parallax measurements for the star RR Lyrae, is also revisited, giving a distance modulus to the LMC of (m-M)_0 = 18.44+/-0.11. RR Lyrae period change rates are studied. Finally, the conductive opacities used in evolutionary calculations of low-mass stars are investigated. [ABRIDGED]Comment: 56 pages, 22 figures. Invited review, to appear in Astrophysics and Space Scienc

Subaru Studies of the Cosmic Dawn

An overview on the current status of the census of the early universe population is given. Observational surveys of high redshift objects provide direct opportunities to study the early epoch of the Universe. The target population included are Lyman Alpha Emitters (LAE), Lyman Break Galaxies (LBG), gravitationally lensed galaxies, quasars and gamma-ray bursts (GRB). The basic properties of these objects and the methods used to study them are reviewed. The present paper highlights the fact that the Subaru Telescope group made significant contributions in this field of science to elucidate the epoch of the cosmic dawn and to improve the understanding of how and when infant galaxies evolve into mature ones.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in the Proceedings of the Japan Academy, Series

The CNOC2 field galaxy redshift survey

The second Canadian Network for Observational Cosmology ( CNOC) galaxy redshift survey, CNOC2, is designed to investigate the relations between the dramatic evolution of field galaxies and their clustering over the redshift range 0 to 0.7. The sample of about 6000 galaxies with accurate velocities is spread over four sky patches with a total area of about 1.5deg2. Here we report preliminary results based on two of the sky patches and within the redshift range of 0.12 to 0.55. After classifying the galaxy spectral energy distributions relative to non–evolving references, we find that the early and intermediate–type populations can be described with nearly pure luminosity evolution, whereas the late–type population requires nearly pure density evolution. The spatial two–point correlation functions have a strong colour dependence with scale, and a weaker, apparently scale–free, luminosity dependence. The population most likely to be conserved with redshift is the high–luminosity galaxies. In particular, we choose galaxies with MRke ⩽−20 mag as our tracer population. We find that the evolution of the clustered density in proper co–ordinates at r ≲ 10h−1 Mpc, ρgg ∝ r0γ(1+z)3, is best described as a ‘de–clustering’, proportional to (1+z)0.6±0.4); or equivalently, there is a weak growth of clustering in co–moving co–ordinates, x0 ∝(1+z)(−0.3±0.2). This conclusion is supported by the pairwise peculiar velocities, which show no significant change with redshift. The cosmic virial theorem applied to the CNOC2 data gives Q3ΩM/b = 0.11 ± 0.04, where Q3 is the three–point correlation parameter and b the bias

Results on Galaxy Evolution from the CNOC2 Field Galaxy Redshift Survey

The CNOC2 Field Galaxy Redshift Survey presently contains some 5000 galaxy redshifts, plus extensive UBgRI photometry, and is the largest galaxy sample at moderate redshifts 0.1 < z < 0.6. Here we present some preliminary results on the galaxy luminosity function (LF) and its redshift evolution, using a sample of R < 21.5 CNOC2 galaxies, subdivided into early, intermediate, and late types based on their B-R colors relative to non-evolving galaxy models. We find a significant steepening in the faint-end slope alpha of the LF as one proceeds from early to late types. Also, for all galaxy types we find a rate of M* evolution consistent with that from passively evolving galaxy models. Finally, late-type galaxies show positive density evolution with redshift, in contrast to negative or no density evolution for earlier types