1,422 research outputs found
Comparison of the VIMOS-VLT Deep Survey with the Munich semi-analytical model. II. The colour-density relation up to z=1.5
[Abridged] We perform on galaxy mock catalogues the same colour-density
analysis made by Cucciati et al. (2006) on a 5 Mpc/h scale using the VVDS-Deep
survey, and compare the results from mocks with observed data. We use mocks
with the same flux limits (I=24) as the VVDS (CMOCKS), built using the semi-
analytic model by De Lucia & Blaizot (2007) applied to the Millennium
Simulation. From CMOCKS, we extracted samples of galaxies mimicking the VVDS
observational strategy (OMOCKS). We computed the B-band Luminosity Function LF
and the colour-density relation (CDR) in the mocks. We find that the LF in
mocks roughly agrees with the observed LF, but at z<0.8 the faint-end slope of
the model LF is steeper than the VVDS one. Computing the LF for early and late
type galaxies, we show that mocks have an excess of faint early-type and of
bright late-type galaxies with respect to data. We find that the CDR in OMOCKS
is in excellent agreement with the one in CMOCKS. At z~0.7, the CDR in mocks
agrees with the VVDS one (red galaxies reside mainly in high densities). Yet,
the strength of the CDR in mocks does not vary within 0.2<z<1.5, while the
observed relation flattens with increasing z and possibly inverts at z=1.3. We
argue that the lack of evolution in the CDR in mocks is not due only to
inaccurate prescriptions for satellite galaxies, but that also the treatment of
central galaxies has to be revised. The reversal of the CDR can be explained by
wet mergers between young galaxies, producing a starburst event. This should be
seen on group scales. A residual of this is found in observations at z=1.5 on
larger scales, but not in the mocks, suggesting that the treatment of physical
processes affecting satellites and central galaxies in models should be
revised.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in A&
HeII emitters in the VIMOS VLT Deep Survey: PopIII star formation or peculiar stellar populations in galaxies at 2<z<4.6?
The aim of this work is to identify HeII emitters at 2<z<4.6 and to constrain
the source of the hard ionizing continuum that powers the HeII emission. We
have assembled a sample of 277 galaxies with a high quality spectroscopic
redshift at 2<z<4.6 from the VVDS survey, and we have identified 39 HeII1640A
emitters. We study their spectral properties, measuring the fluxes, equivalent
widths (EW) and FWHM for most relevant lines. About 10% of galaxies at z~3 show
HeII in emission, with rest frame equivalent widths EW0~1-7A, equally
distributed between galaxies with Lya in emission or in absorption. We find 11
high-quality HeII emitters with unresolved HeII line (FWHM_0<1200km/s), 13
high-quality emitters with broad He II emission (FWHM_0>1200km/s), 3 AGN, and
an additional 12 possible HeII emitters. The properties of the individual broad
emitters are in agreement with expectations from a W-R model. On the contrary,
the properties of the narrow emitters are not compatible with such model,
neither with predictions of gravitational cooling radiation produced by gas
accretion. Rather, we find that the EW of the narrow HeII line emitters are in
agreement with expectations for a PopIII star formation, if the episode of star
formation is continuous, and we calculate that a PopIII SFR of 0.1-10 Mo yr-1
only is enough to sustain the observed HeII flux. We conclude that narrow HeII
emitters are either powered by the ionizing flux from a stellar population rare
at z~0 but much more common at z~3, or by PopIII star formation. As proposed by
Tornatore et al. (2007), incomplete ISM mixing may leave some small pockets of
pristine gas at the periphery of galaxies from which PopIII may form, even down
to z~2 or lower. If this interpretation is correct, we measure at z~3 a SFRD in
PopIII stars of 10^6Mo yr^-1 Mpc^-3 qualitatively comparable to the value
predicted by Tornatore et al. (2007).Comment: accepted for publication in A&
Studying the evolution of large-scale structure with the VIMOS-VLT Deep Survey
The VIMOS-VLT Deep Survey (VVDS) currently offers a unique combination of
depth, angular size and number of measured galaxies among surveys of the
distant Universe: ~ 11,000 spectra over 0.5 deg2 to I_{AB}=24 (VVDS-Deep),
35,000 spectra over ~ 7 deg2 to I_{AB}=22.5 (VVDS-Wide). The current ``First
Epoch'' data from VVDS-Deep already allow investigations of galaxy clustering
and its dependence on galaxy properties to be extended to redshifts ~1.2-1.5,
in addition to measuring accurately evolution in the properties of galaxies up
to z~4. This paper concentrates on the main results obtained so far on galaxy
clustering. Overall, L* galaxies at z~ 1.5 show a correlation length r_0=3.6\pm
0.7. As a consequence, the linear galaxy bias at fixed luminosity rises over
the same range from the value b~1 measured locally, to b=1.5 +/- 0.1. The
interplay of galaxy and structure evolution in producing this observation is
discussed in some detail. Galaxy clustering is found to depend on galaxy
luminosity also at z~ 1, but luminous galaxies at this redshift show a
significantly steeper small-scale correlation function than their z=0
counterparts. Finally, red galaxies remain more clustered than blue galaxies
out to similar redshifts, with a nearly constant relative bias among the two
classes, b_{rel}~1.4, despite the rather dramatic evolution of the
color-density relation over the same redshift range.Comment: 14 pages. Extended, combined version of two invited review papers
presented at: 1) XXVIth Astrophysics Moriond Meeting: "From Dark Halos to
Light", March 2006, proc. edited by L.Tresse, S. Maurogordato and J. Tran
Thanh Van (Editions Frontieres); 2) Vulcano Workshop 2006 "Frontier Objects
in Astrophysics and Particle Physics", May 2006, proc. edited by F.
Giovannelli & G. Mannocchi, Italian Physical Society (Editrice Compositori,
Bologna
The VANDELS survey: A strong correlation between Ly equivalent width and stellar metallicity at
We present the results of a new study investigating the relationship between
observed Ly equivalent width ((Ly)) and the
metallicity of the ionizing stellar population () for a sample of
star-forming galaxies at drawn from the VANDELS survey.
Dividing our sample into quartiles of rest-frame (Ly)
across the range -58 \unicode{xC5} \lesssim (Ly)
\lesssim 110 \unicode{xC5} we determine from full spectral
fitting of composite far-ultraviolet (FUV) spectra and find a clear
anti-correlation between (Ly) and . Our results
indicate that decreases by a factor between the lowest
(Ly) quartile
((Ly)\rangle=-18\unicode{xC5}) and the highest
(Ly) quartile
((Ly)\rangle=24\unicode{xC5}). Similarly,
galaxies typically defined as Lyman Alpha Emitters (LAEs;
(Ly) >20\unicode{xC5}) are, on average, metal poor with
respect to the non-LAE galaxy population ((Ly)
\leq20\unicode{xC5}) with
. Finally, based on the best-fitting stellar models, we
estimate that the increasing strength of the stellar ionizing spectrum towards
lower is responsible for of the observed variation
in (Ly) across our sample, with the remaining contribution
() being due to a decrease in the HI/dust covering fractions in
low galaxies.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, MNRAS accepte
The 10k zCOSMOS: morphological transformation of galaxies in the group environment since z~1
We study the evolution of galaxies inside and outside of the group
environment since z=1 using a large well defined set of groups and galaxies
from the zCOSMOS-bright redshift survey in the COSMOS field. The fraction of
galaxies with early-type morphologies increases monotonically with M_B
luminosity and stellar mass and with cosmic epoch. It is higher in the groups
than elsewhere, especially at later epochs. The emerging environmental effect
is superposed on a strong global mass-driven evolution, and at z~0.5 and
log(M*/Msol)~10.2, the "effect" of group environment is equivalent to (only)
about 0.2 dex in stellar mass or 2 Gyr in time. The stellar mass function of
galaxies in groups is enriched in massive galaxies. We directly determine the
transformation rates from late to early morphologies, and for transformations
involving colour and star formation indicators. The transformation rates are
systematically about twice as high in the groups as outside, or up to 3-4 times
higher correcting for infall and the appearance of new groups. The rates reach
values, for masses around the crossing mass 10^10.5 Msol, as high as
(0.3-0.7)/Gyr in the groups, implying transformation timescales of 1.4-3 Gyr,
compared with less than 0.2/Gyr, i.e. timescales >5 Gyr, outside of groups. All
three transformation rates decrease at higher stellar masses, and must decrease
also at the lower masses below 10^10 Msol which we cannot well probe. The rates
involving colour and star formation are consistently higher than those for
morphology, by a factor of about 50%. Our conclusion is that the
transformations which drive the evolution of the overall galaxy population
since z~1 must occur at a rate 2-4 times higher in groups than outside of them.Comment: 21 pages, 13 figures, submitted to Ap
The VIMOS-VLT Deep Survey - The evolution of galaxy clustering per spectral type to z~1.5
We measure the evolution of clustering for galaxies with different spectral
types from 6495 galaxies with 17.5<=I_AB<=24 and measured spectroscopic
redshift in the first epoch VIMOS-VLT Deep Survey. We classify our sample into
4 classes, based on the fit of well-defined galaxy spectral energy
distributions on observed multi-color data. We measure the projected function
wp(rp) and estimate the best-fit parameters for a power-law real-space
correlation function. We find the clustering of early-spectral-type galaxies to
be markedly stronger than that of late-type galaxies at all redshifts up to
z<=1.2. At z~0.8, early-type galaxies display a correlation length
r_0=4.8+/-0.9h^{-1}Mpc, while late types have r_0=2.5+/-0.4h^{-1}Mpc. The
clustering of these objects increases up to r_0=3.42+/-0.7h^{-1}Mpc for z~1.4.
The relative bias between early- and late-type galaxies within our
magnitude-limited survey remains approximately constant with b~1.7-1.8 from
z~=0.2 up to z~=1, with indications for a decrease at z>1.2, due to the growth
in clustering of the star-forming population. We find similar results when
splitting the sample into `red' and `blue' galaxies using the observed color
bi-modality. When compared to the expected linear growth of mass fluctuations,
a natural interpretation of these observations is that: (a) the assembly of
massive early type galaxies is already mostly complete in the densest dark
matter halos at z~=1; (b) luminous late-type galaxies are located in
higher-density, more clustered regions of the Universe at z~=1.5 than at
present, indicating that star formation activity is progressively increasing,
going back in time, in the higher-density peaks that today are mostly dominated
by old galaxies.Comment: 12 pages, Accepted on 11-Feb-06 for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysic
The VIMOS Public Extragalactic Redshift Survey (VIPERS). Never mind the gaps: comparing techniques to restore homogeneous sky coverage
[Abridged] Non-uniform sampling and gaps in sky coverage are common in galaxy
redshift surveys, but these effects can degrade galaxy counts-in-cells and
density estimates. We carry out a comparison of methods that aim to fill the
gaps to correct for the systematic effects. Our study is motivated by the
analysis of the VIMOS Extragalactic Redshift Survey (VIPERS), a flux-limited
survey (i<22.5) based on one-pass observations with VIMOS, with gaps covering
25% of the surveyed area and a mean sampling rate of 35%. Our findings are
applicable to other surveys with similar observing strategies. We compare 1)
two algorithms based on photometric redshift, that assign redshifts to galaxies
based on the spectroscopic redshifts of the nearest neighbours, 2) two Bayesian
methods, the Wiener filter and the Poisson-Lognormal filter. Using galaxy mock
catalogues we quantify the accuracy of the counts-in-cells measurements on
scales of R=5 and 8 Mpc/h after applying each of these methods. We also study
how they perform to account for spectroscopic redshift error and inhomogeneous
and sparse sampling rate. We find that in VIPERS the errors in counts-in-cells
measurements on R<10 Mpc/h scales are dominated by the sparseness of the
sample. All methods underpredict by 20-35% the counts at high densities. This
systematic bias is of the same order as random errors. No method outperforms
the others. Random and systematic errors decrease for larger cells. We show
that it is possible to separate the lowest and highest densities on scales of 5
Mpc/h at redshifts 0.5<z<1.1, over a large volume such as in VIPERS survey.
This is vital for the characterisation of cosmic variance and rare populations
(e.g, brightest galaxies) in environmental studies at these redshifts.Comment: 17 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in A&A (revised
version after minor revision and language editing
The VIMOS Public Extragalactic Redshift Survey (VIPERS): PCA-based automatic cleaning and reconstruction of survey spectra
Identifying spurious reduction artefacts in galaxy spectra is a challenge for
large surveys. We present an algorithm for identifying and repairing residual
spurious features in sky-subtracted galaxy spectra with application to the
VIPERS survey. The algorithm uses principal component analysis (PCA) applied to
the galaxy spectra in the observed frame to identify sky line residuals
imprinted at characteristic wavelengths. We further model the galaxy spectra in
the rest-frame using PCA to estimate the most probable continuum in the
corrupted spectral regions, which are then repaired. We apply the method to
90,000 spectra from the VIPERS survey and compare the results with a subset
where careful editing was performed by hand. We find that the automatic
technique does an extremely good job in reproducing the time-consuming manual
cleaning and does it in a uniform and objective manner across a large data
sample. The mask data products produced in this work are released together with
the VIPERS second public data release (PDR-2).Comment: Find the VIPERS data release at http://vipers.inaf.i
The Vimos VLT Deep Survey: Global properties of 20000 galaxies in the I_AB<=22.5 WIDE survey
The VVDS-Wide survey has been designed with the general aim of tracing the
large-scale distribution of galaxies at z~1 on comoving scales reaching
~100Mpc/h, while providing a good control of cosmic variance over areas as
large as a few square degrees. This is achieved by measuring redshifts with
VIMOS at the ESO VLT to a limiting magnitude I_AB=22.5, targeting four
independent fields with size up to 4 sq.deg. each. The whole survey covers 8.6
sq.deg., here we present the general properties of the current redshift sample.
This includes 32734 spectra in the four regions (19977 galaxies, 304 type I
AGNs, and 9913 stars), covering a total area of 6.1 sq.deg, with a sampling
rate of 22 to 24%. The redshift success rate is above 90% independently of
magnitude. It is the currently largest area coverage among redshift surveys
reaching z~1. We give the mean N(z) distribution averaged over 6.1 sq.deg.
Comparing galaxy densities from the four fields shows that in a redshift bin
Deltaz=0.1 at z~1 one still has factor-of-two variations over areas as large as
~0.25 sq.deg. This level of cosmic variance agrees with that obtained by
integrating the galaxy two-point correlation function estimated from the F22
field alone, and is also in fairly good statistical agreement with that
predicted by the Millennium mocks. The variance estimated over the survey
fields shows explicitly how clustering results from deep surveys of even ~1
sq.deg. size should be interpreted with caution. This paper accompanies the
public release of the first 18143 redshifts of the VVDS-Wide survey from the 4
sq.deg. contiguous area of the F22 field at RA=22h, publicly available at
http://cencosw.oamp.frComment: Accepted for publication on Astronomy & Astrophysic
The Vimos VLT Deep Survey: Stellar mass segregation and large-scale galaxy environment in the redshift range 0.2<z<1.4
Hierarchical models of galaxy formation predict that the properties of a dark
matter halo depend on the large-scale environment surrounding the halo. As a
result of this correlation, we expect massive haloes to be present in larger
number in overdense regions than in underdense ones. Given that a correlation
exists between a galaxy stellar mass and the hosting dark matter halo mass, the
segregation in dark matter halo mass should then result in a segregation in the
distribution of stellar mass in the galaxy population. In this work we study
the distribution of galaxy stellar mass and rest-frame optical color as a
function of the large-scale galaxy distribution using the VLT VIMOS Deep Survey
sample, in order to verify the presence of segregation in the properties of the
galaxy population. We use the VVDS redshift measurements and multi-band
photometric data to derive estimates of the stellar mass, rest-frame optical
color, and of the large-scale galaxy density, on a scale of approximately 8
Mpc, for a sample of 5619 galaxies in the redshift range 0.2<z<1.4. We observe
a significant mass and optical color segregation over the whole redshift
interval covered by our sample, such that the median value of the mass
distribution is larger and the rest-frame optical color is redder in regions of
high galaxy density. The amplitude of the mass segregation changes little with
redshift, at least in the high stellar mass regime that we can uniformely
sample over the 0.2<z<1.4 redshift interval. The color segregation, instead,
decreases significantly for z>0.7. However, when we consider only galaxies in
narrow bins of stellar mass, in order to exclude the effects of the stellar
mass segregation on the galaxy properties, we do not observe any more any
significant color segregation.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures; accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysic
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