301 research outputs found
An investigation of star formation and dust attenuation in major mergers using ultraviolet and infrared data
Merger processes play an important role in galaxy formation and evolution. To
study the influence of merger processes on the evolution of dust properties and
cosmic star formation rate, we investigate a local sample of major merger
galaxies and a control sample of isolated galaxies using GALEX ultraviolet (UV)
and Spitzer infrared (IR) images. Through a statistical study, we find that
dust attenuation in merger galaxies is enhanced with respect to isolated
galaxies. We find this enhancement is contributed mainly by spiral galaxies in
spiral-spiral (S-S) pairs, and increases with the increasing stellar mass of a
galaxy. Combining the IR and UV parts of star formation rates (SFRs), we then
calculated the total SFRs and specific star formation rates (SSFRs). We find
the SSFRs to be enhanced in merger galaxies. This enhancement depends on galaxy
stellar mass and the companion's morphology, but depends little on whether the
galaxy is a primary or secondary component or on the separation between two
components. These results are consistent with a previous study based only on IR
images. In addition, we investigate the nuclear contributions to SFRs. SFRs in
paired galaxies are more concentrated in the central part of the galaxies than
in isolate galaxies. Our studies of dust attenuation show that the nuclear
parts of pairs most resemble ULIRGs. Including UV data in the present work not
only provides reliable information on dust attenuation, but also refines
analyses of SFRs.Comment: 21 pages, 21 figure
Recent star formation in clusters of galaxies: extreme compact starbursts in A539 and A634
We report on the detection of two Halpha-emitting extreme compact objects
from deep images of the Abell 634 and Abell 539 clusters of galaxies at z ~
0.03. Follow up long slit spectroscopy of these two unresolved sources revealed
that they are members of their respective clusters showing HII type spectra.
The luminosity and the extreme equivalent width of Halpha+[NII] measured for
these sources, together with their very compact appearance, has raised the
question about the origin of these intense starbursts in the cluster
environment. We propose the compact starburst in Abell 539 resulted from the
compression of the interstellar gas of a dwarf galaxy when entering the cluster
core; while the starburst galaxy in Abell 634 is likely to be the result of a
galaxy-galaxy interaction, illustrating the preprocessing of galaxies during
their infall towards the central regions of clusters. The contribution of these
compact star-forming dwarf galaxies to the star formation history of galaxy
clusters is discussed, as well as a possible link with the recently discovered
early-type ultra-compact dwarf galaxies. We note that these extreme objects
will be rarely detected in normal magnitude-limited optical or NIR surveys,
mainly due to their low stellar masses (of the order of 10^6 solar masses),
whereas they will easily show up in dedicated Halpha surveys given the high
equivalent width of their emission lines.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal. 31 pages, 10
fig
Disentangling the role of environmental processes in galaxy clusters
In this work we present the results of a novel approach devoted to
disentangle the role of the environmental processes affecting galaxies in
clusters. This is based on the analysis of the NUV-r' distributions of a large
sample of star-forming galaxies in clusters spanning more than four absolute
magnitudes. The galaxies inhabit three distinct environmental regions: virial
regions, cluster infall regions and field environment. We have applied rigorous
statistical tests in order to analyze both, the complete NUV-r' distributions
and their averages for three different bins of r'-band galaxy luminosity down
to M_r' ~ -18, throughout the three environmental regions considered. We have
identified the environmental processes that significantly affect the
star-forming galaxies in a given luminosity bin by using criteria based on the
characteristics of these processes: their typical time-scales, the regions
where they operate and the galaxy luminosity range for which their effects are
more intense. We have found that the high-luminosity (M_r'<=-20) star-forming
galaxies do not show significant signs in their star formation activity neither
of being affected by the environment in the last ~10^8 yr nor of a sudden
quenching in the last 1.5 Gyr. The intermediate-luminosity (-20<M_r'<=-19)
star-forming galaxies appear to be affected by starvation in the virial regions
and by the harassment both, in the virial and infall regions. Low-luminosity
(-19<M_r'<=-18.2) star-forming galaxies seem to be affected by the same
environmental processes as intermediate-luminosity star-forming galaxies in a
stronger way, as it would be expected for their lower luminosities.Comment: 42 pages, 7 figures, 5 tables; accepted for publication in Ap
Star formation history of galaxies from z=0 to z=0.7 A backward approach to the evolution of star-forming galaxies
We investigate whether the mean star formation activity of star-forming
galaxies from z=0 to z=0.7 in the GOODS-S field can be reproduced by simple
evolution models of these systems. In this case, such models might be used as
first order references for studies at higher z to decipher when and to what
extent a secular evolution is sufficient to explain the star formation history
in galaxies.
We selected star-forming galaxies at z=0 and at z=0.7 in IR and in UV to have
access to all the recent star formation. We focused on galaxies with a stellar
mass ranging between 10^{10} and 10^{11} M_sun for which the results are not
biased by the selections. We compared the data to chemical evolution models
developed for spiral galaxies and originally built to reproduce the main
characteristics of the Milky Way and nearby spirals without fine-tuning them
for the present analysis. We find a shallow decrease in the specific star
formation rate (SSFR) when the stellar mass increases. The evolution of the
SSFR characterizing both UV and IR selected galaxies from z=0 to z=0.7 is
consistent with the models built to reproduce the present spiral galaxies.
There is no need to strongly modify of the physical conditions in galaxies to
explain the average evolution of their star formation from z=0 to z=0.7. We use
the models to predict the evolution of the star formation rate and the
metallicity on a wider range of redshift and we compare these predictions with
the results of semi-analytical models.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures. accepted for publication in Astronomy &
Astrophysic
Effect of Nd doping on the crystallographic, magnetic and magnetocaloric properties of NdxGd3-xCoNi
The crystal structure, magnetic and magnetocaloric properties, and the critical behavior of representative compounds in the pseudo-ternary NdxGd3-xCoNi series have been investigated (x = 0.15, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5). All these phases are isotypic with the parent compound Gd3CoNi, crystallizing with the monoclinic Dy3Ni2-type (mS20, C2/m, No. 12). All samples present a paramagnetic to ferromagnetic (PM-FM) second order phase transition with decreasing Curie temperature as the Nd concentration is increased (TC = 171 K, 150 K, 120 K and 96 K, respectively) and, at lower temperatures, there is a spin reorientation which leads to a complex magnetic ground state. The critical exponents (beta, gamma, delta) have been retrieved for the PM-FM transitions. On the one hand, in x = 0.15, 0.5, 1.5 the value of γ ≈ 1 indicates that the magnetic interactions are long-range order while the values of β point to a certain deviation from the 3D-Heisenberg universality class; on the other hand, NdGd2CoNi has a particular critical behaviour, as β is close to the Mean Field model while γ is close to the uniaxial 3D-Ising one. Concerning the magnetocaloric properties, the magnetic entropy change and refrigerant capacity present competitive values, interesting for cryogenic applications. Finally, the thermal diffusivity values of these compounds are extremely good for practical magnetocaloric refrigeration systems, as they are in the range 1.5-3 mm2/s.This work has been supported by Departamento de Educación del Gobierno Vasco (Project No. IT1430-22)
The infrared emission of ultraviolet selected galaxies from z = 0 to z=1
We select galaxies in UV rest-frame at z=0, z~0.7 and z~1 together with a
sample of LBGs at z~1, the samples are built in order to sample the same range
of luminosity at any redshift. The evolution of the IR and UV luminosities with
z is analysed for individual galaxies as well as in terms of luminosity
functions. The L_IR/L_UV ratio is used to measure dust attenuation. This ratio
does not exhibit a strong evolution with z for the bulk of our sample galaxies
but some trends are found for galaxies with a strong dust attenuation and for
UV luminous sources: galaxies with L_IR/L_UV>10 are more frequent at z>0 than
at z=0 and the largest values of L_IR/L_UV are found for UV faint objects;
conversely the most luminous galaxies of our samples (L_UV> 2 10^{10} L_sun$),
detected at z=1, exhibit a lower dust attenuation than the fainter ones.
L_IR/L_UV increases with the K rest-frame luminosity of the galaxies at all the
redshifts considered and shows a residual anti-correlation with L_UV. The most
massive and UV luminous galaxies exhibit quite large specific star formation
rates. LBGs exhibit systematically lower dust attenuation than UV selected
galaxies of same luminosity but similar specific star formation rates. The
analysis of the UV+IR luminosity functions leads to the conclusion that up to z
= 1 most of the star formation activity of UV selected galaxies is emitted in
IR. Whereas we are able to retrieve all the star formation from our UV
selection at z=0.7, at z = 1 we miss a large fraction of galaxies more luminous
than ~ 10^{11} L_sun. The effect is found larger for Lyman Break Galaxies.Comment: 13 pages. accepted for publication (Astronomy and Astrophysics
Mid-infrared luminosity as an indicator of the total infrared luminosity of galaxies
The infrared (IR) emission plays a crucial role for understanding the star
formation in galaxies hidden by dust. We first examined four estimators of the
IR luminosity of galaxies, L_fir (Helou et al. 1988), L_tir (Dale et al. 2001),
revised version of L_tir (Dale & Helou 2002) (we denote L_tir2), and L_ir
(Sanders & Mirabel 1996) by using the observed SEDs of well-known galaxies. We
found that L_ir provides excellent estimates of the total IR luminosity for a
variety of galaxy SEDs. The performance of L_tir2 was also found to be very
good. Using L_ir, we then statistically analyzed the IRAS PSCz galaxy sample
(Saunders et al. 2000) and found useful formulae relating the MIR monochromatic
luminosities [L(12um) and L(25um)], and L_ir. For this purpose we constructed a
subsample of 1420 galaxies with all IRAS four band (12, 25, 60, and 100um) flux
densities. We found linear relations between L_ir and MIR luminosities, L(12um)
and L(25um). The prediction error with 95-% confidence level is a factor of
4-5. Hence, these formulae are useful for the estimation of the total IR
luminosity only from 12um or 25um observations. We further tried to make an
`interpolation' formula for galaxies at 0<z<1. For this purpose we construct
the formula of the relation between 15-um luminosity and the total IR
luminosity. We conclude that the 15-um formula can be used as an estimator of
the total IR luminosity from 24um observation of galaxies at z \simeq 0.6.Comment: A&A in press, 8 pages, 9 figures, numerical errors correcte
Star formation and dust extinction properties of local galaxies from AKARI-GALEX All-Sky Surveys: First results from most secure multiband sample from FUV to FIR
The AKARI All-Sky Survey provided the first bright point source catalog
detected at 90um. Starting from this catalog, we selected galaxies by matching
AKARI sources with those in the IRAS PSCz. Next, we have measured total GALEX
FUV and NUV flux densities. Then, we have matched this sample with SDSS and
2MASS galaxies. By this procedure, we obtained the final sample which consists
of 607 galaxies. If we sort the sample with respect to 90um, their average SED
shows a coherent trend: the more luminous at 90um, the redder the global SED
becomes. The M_r--NUV-r color-magnitude relation of our sample does not show
bimodality, and the distribution is centered on the green valley between the
blue cloud and red sequence seen in optical surveys. We have established
formulae to convert FIR luminosity from AKARI bands to the total infrared (IR)
luminosity L_TIR. With these formulae, we calculated the star formation
directly visible with FUV and hidden by dust. The luminosity related to star
formation activity (L_SF) is dominated by L_TIR even if we take into account
the far-infrared (FIR) emission from dust heated by old stars. At high star
formation rate (SFR) (> 20 Msun yr^-1), the fraction of directly visible SFR,
SFR_FUV, decreases. We also estimated the FUV attenuation A_FUV from
FUV-to-total IR (TIR) luminosity ratio. We also examined the L_TIR/L_FUV-UV
slope (FUV- NUV) relation. The majority of the sample has L_TIR/L_FUV ratios 5
to 10 times lower than expected from the local starburst relation, while some
LIRGs and all the ULIRGs of this sample have higher L_TIR/L_FUV ratios. We
found that the attenuation indicator L_TIR/L_FUV is correlated to the stellar
mass of galaxies, M*, but there is no correlation with specific SFR (SSFR),
SFR/M*, and dust attenuation L_TIR/L_FUV. (abridged)Comment: 13 pages, 18 figures, accepted for publication in A&
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