1,053 research outputs found
Taxonomy and palaeobiogeography of the Cenozoic Euro-Mediterranean rissoid gastropod Galeodinopsis and its relationship with close genera
The investigation of the Late Paleogene to Late Neogene species of rissoid gastropod Galeodinopsis in the Euro-Mediterranean area has supported the hypothesis that this genus is an intermediate form between two well-known rissoids, Alvinia and Manzonia. We recognized four species of Galeodinopsis: G. biangulata, G. germanica sp. nov., G. semperi (new name for Rissoa duboisii), and G. tiberiana. The oldest (very Late Eocene/Oligocene) representatives of Galeodinopsis, G. biangulata, and G. semperi, share similar shell shape and microsculpture with Alvinia. This suggests that Galeodinopsis originated from some Eocene species related to Alvinia. The new species represents the first occurrence within Galeodinopsis of a combination of characters very close to those of Manzonia, above all the typical pitted microsculpture. We hypothesize that Manzonia evolved from Galeodinopsis rather than from the genera Alvania or Alvinia, as previously supposed. Galeodinopsis originated during the very Late Eocene/Oligocene in the North Sea Basin. Afterwards it underwent a strong southward shift to the mid-high east Atlantic and the Mediterranean area, during the Mio-Pliocene, and to the Recent tropical eastern Atlantic coasts, where the type species G. tiberiana still lives. The shift likely was due to a combination of climate cooling and palaeogeographical changes. The distribution of G. biangulata suggests that connections between the North Sea Basin and the Atlantic domain opened through the Channel area at least during the Early Oligocene, earlier than indicated previously. The distribution of Manzonia moulinsi supports the idea of a southern connection to the Atlantic Aquitaine Basin via the Rhine Graben during the Late Oligocene. From a
palaeoecological point of view, Galeodinopsis includes warm species with planktotrophic larval development that are typical of the shelf environment in fully marine conditions
Automated reliability assessment for spectroscopic redshift measurements
We present a new approach to automate the spectroscopic redshift reliability
assessment based on machine learning (ML) and characteristics of the redshift
probability density function (PDF).
We propose to rephrase the spectroscopic redshift estimation into a Bayesian
framework, in order to incorporate all sources of information and uncertainties
related to the redshift estimation process, and produce a redshift posterior
PDF that will be the starting-point for ML algorithms to provide an automated
assessment of a redshift reliability.
As a use case, public data from the VIMOS VLT Deep Survey is exploited to
present and test this new methodology. We first tried to reproduce the existing
reliability flags using supervised classification to describe different types
of redshift PDFs, but due to the subjective definition of these flags, soon
opted for a new homogeneous partitioning of the data into distinct clusters via
unsupervised classification. After assessing the accuracy of the new clusters
via resubstitution and test predictions, unlabelled data from preliminary mock
simulations for the Euclid space mission are projected into this mapping to
predict their redshift reliability labels.Comment: Submitted on 02 June 2017 (v1). Revised on 08 September 2017 (v2).
Latest version 28 September 2017 (this version v3
Integral field spectroscopy with SINFONI of VVDS galaxies. II. The mass-metallicity relation at 1.2 < z < 1.6
This work aims to provide a first insight into the mass-metallicity (MZ)
relation of star-forming galaxies at redshift z~1.4. To reach this goal, we
present a first set of nine VVDS galaxies observed with the NIR integral-field
spectrograph SINFONI on the VLT. Oxygen abundances are derived from empirical
indicators based on the ratio between strong nebular emission-lines (Halpha,
[NII]6584 and [SII]6717,6731). Stellar masses are deduced from SED fitting with
Charlot & Bruzual (2007) population synthesis models, and star formation rates
are derived from [OII]3727 and Halpha emission-line luminosities. We find a
typical shift of 0.2-0.4 dex towards lower metallicities for the z~1.4
galaxies, compared to the MZ-relation in the local universe as derived from
SDSS data. However, this small sample of eight galaxies does not show any clear
correlation between stellar mass and metallicity, unlike other larger samples
at different redshift (z~0, z~0.7, and z~2). Indeed, our galaxies lie just
under the relation at z~2 and show a small trend for more massive galaxies to
be more metallic (~0.1 logarithmic slope). There are two possible explanations
to account for these observations. First, the most massive galaxies present
higher specific star formation rates when compared to the global VVDS sample
which could explain the particularly low metallicity of these galaxies as
already shown in the SDSS sample. Second, inflow of metal-poor gas due to tidal
interactions could also explain the low metallicity of these galaxies as two of
these three galaxies show clear signatures of merging in their velocity fields.
Finally, we find that the metallicity of 4 galaxies is lower by ~0.2 to 0.4 dex
if we take into account the N/O abundance ratio in their metallicity estimate.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, accepted in A&A Comments: Comments: more accurate
results with better stellar mass estimate
The history of mass assembly of faint red galaxies in 28 galaxy clusters since z=1.3
We measure the relative evolution of the number of bright and faint (as faint
as 0.05 L*) red galaxies in a sample of 28 clusters, of which 16 are at 0.50<=
z<=1.27, all observed through a pair of filters bracketing the 4000 Angstrom
break rest-frame. The abundance of red galaxies, relative to bright ones, is
constant over all the studied redshift range, 0<z<1.3, and rules out a
differential evolution between bright and faint red galaxies as large as
claimed in some past works. Faint red galaxies are largely assembled and in
place at z=1.3 and their deficit does not depend on cluster mass, parametrized
by velocity dispersion or X-ray luminosity. Our analysis, with respect to
previous one, samples a wider redshift range, minimizes systematics and put a
more attention to statistical issues, keeping at the same time a large number
of clusters.Comment: MNRAS, 386, 1045. Half a single sentence (in sec 4.4) change
Lyman-alpha absorption around nearby galaxies
We have used STIS aboard HST to search for Lyman-alpha (Lya) absorption lines
in the outer regions of eight nearby galaxies using background QSOs and AGN as
probes. Lya lines are detected within a few hundred km/s of the systemic
velocity of the galaxy in all cases. We conclude that a background
line-of-sight which passes within 26-200 h-1 kpc of a foreground galaxy is
likely to intercept low column density neutral hydrogen with log N(HI) >~ 13.0.
The ubiquity of detections implies a covering factor of ~ 100% for low N(HI)
gas around galaxies within 200 h-1 kpc. We discuss the difficulty in trying to
associate individual absorption components with the selected galaxies and their
neighbors, but show that by degrading our STIS data to lower resolutions, we
are able to reproduce the anti-correlation of Lya equivalent width and impact
parameter found at higher redshift. We also show that the equivalent width and
column density of Lya complexes (when individual components are summed over ~
1000 km/s) correlate well with a simple estimate of the volume density of
galaxies brighter than M(B) = -17.5 at the same redshift as a Lya complex. We
do not reject the hypothesis that the selected galaxies are directly
responsible for the observed Lya lines, but our analysis indicates that
absorption by clumpy intragroup gas is an equally likely explanation. (Abriged)Comment: Accepted for publication in Nov 20, 2002 issue of ApJ. Paper with all
figures can be found at http://www.astro.princeton.edu/~dvb/lyapaper.ps
(preferable). Minor typos fixe
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&
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