449 research outputs found
Tracing the Mass-Assembly History of Galaxies with Deep Surveys
We use the optical and near-infrared galaxy samples from the Munich
Near-Infrared Cluster Survey (MUNICS), the FORS Deep Field (FDF) and GOODS-S to
probe the stellar mass assembly history of field galaxies out to z ~ 5.
Combining information on the galaxies' stellar mass with their star-formation
rate and the age of the stellar population, we can draw important conclusions
on the assembly of the most massive galaxies in the universe: These objects
contain the oldest stellar populations at all redshifts probed. Furthermore, we
show that with increasing redshift the contribution of star-formation to the
mass assembly for massive galaxies increases dramatically, reaching the era of
their formation at z ~ 2 and beyond. These findings can be interpreted as
evidence for an early epoch of star formation in the most massive galaxies in
the universe.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures; published in B. Aschenbach, V. Burwitz, G.
Hasinger, B. Leibundgut (eds.): "Relativistic Astrophysics and Cosmology -
Einstein's Legacy. Proceedings of the Conference held in Munich, 2006", ESO
Astrophysics Symposia, Springer Verlag, 2007, p. 310. Replaced to match final
published versio
The Munich Near-Infrared Cluster Survey -- IV. Biases in the Completeness of Near-Infrared Imaging Data
We present the results of completeness simulations for the detection of point
sources as well as redshifted elliptical and spiral galaxies in the K'-band
images of the Munich Near-Infrared Cluster Survey (MUNICS). The main focus of
this work is to quantify the selection effects introduced by threshold-based
object detection algorithms used in deep imaging surveys. Therefore, we
simulate objects obeying the well-known scaling relations between effective
radius and central surface brightness, both for de Vaucouleurs and exponential
profiles. The results of these simulations, while presented for the MUNICS
project, are applicable in a much wider context to deep optical and
near-infrared selected samples. We investigate the detection probability as
well as the reliability for recovering the true total magnitude with Kron-like
(adaptive) aperture photometry. The results are compared to the predictions of
the visibility theory of Disney and Phillipps in terms of the detection rate
and the lost-light fraction. Additionally, the effects attributable to seeing
are explored. The results show a bias against detecting high-redshifted massive
elliptical galaxies in comparison to disk galaxies with exponential profiles,
and that the measurements of the total magnitudes for intrinsically bright
elliptical galaxies are systematically too faint. Disk galaxies, in contrast,
show no significant offset in the magnitude measurement of luminous objects.
Finally we present an analytic formula to predict the completeness of
point-sources using only basic image parameters.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
An axon initial segment is required for temporal precision in action potential encoding by neuronal populations
Central neurons initiate action potentials (APs) in the axon initial segment
(AIS), a compartment characterized by a high concentration of voltage-dependent
ion channels and specialized cytoskeletal anchoring proteins arranged in a
regular nanoscale pattern. Although the AIS was a key evolutionary innovation
in neurons, the functional benefits it confers are not clear. Using a mutation
of the AIS cytoskeletal protein \beta IV-spectrin, we here establish an in
vitro model of neurons with a perturbed AIS architecture that retains nanoscale
order but loses the ability to maintain a high NaV density. Combining
experiments and simulations we show that a high NaV density in the AIS is not
required for axonal AP initiation; it is however crucial for a high bandwidth
of information encoding and AP timing precision. Our results provide the first
experimental demonstration of axonal AP initiation without high axonal channel
density and suggest that increasing the bandwidth of the neuronal code and
hence the computational efficiency of network function was a major benefit of
the evolution of the AIS.Comment: Title adjusted, no other change
The Mass Function of Field Galaxies at 0.4 < z < 1.2 Derived From the MUNICS K-Selected Sample
We derive the number density evolution of massive field galaxies in the
redshift range 0.4 < z < 1.2 using the K-band selected field galaxy sample from
the Munich Near-IR Cluster Survey (MUNICS). We rely on spectroscopically
calibrated photometric redshifts to determine distances and absolute magnitudes
in the rest-frame K-band. To assign mass-to-light ratios, we use two different
approaches. First, we use an approach which maximizes the stellar mass for any
K-band luminosity at any redshift. We take the mass-to-light ratio of a Simple
Stellar Population (SSP) which is as old as the universe at the galaxy's
redshift as a likely upper limit. Second, we assign each galaxy a mass-to-light
ratio by fitting the galaxy's colours against a grid of composite stellar
population models and taking their M/L. We compute the number density of
galaxies more massive than 2 x 10^10 h^-2 Msun, 5 x 10^10 h^-2 Msun, and 1 x
10^11 h^-2 Msun, finding that the integrated stellar mass function is roughly
constant for the lowest mass limit and that it decreases with redshift by a
factor of ~ 3 and by a factor of ~ 6 for the two higher mass limits,
respectively. This finding is in qualitative agreement with models of
hierarchical galaxy formation, which predict that the number density of ~ M*
objects is fairly constant while it decreases faster for more massive systems
over the redshift range our data probe.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the ESO/USM
Workshop "The Mass of Galaxies at Low and High Redshift", Venice (Italy),
October 24-26, 200
The Munich Near-Infrared Cluster Survey (MUNICS) - Number density evolution of massive field galaxies to z ~ 1.2 as derived from the K-band selected survey
We derive the number density evolution of massive field galaxies in the
redshift range 0.4 < z < 1.2 using the K-band selected field galaxy sample from
the Munich Near-IR Cluster Survey (MUNICS). We rely on spectroscopically
calibrated photometric redshifts to determine distances and absolute magnitudes
in the rest-frame K-band. To assign mass-to-light ratios, we use an approach
which maximizes the stellar mass for any K-band luminosity at any redshift. We
take the mass-to-light ratio, M/L_K, of a Simple Stellar Population (SSP) which
is as old as the universe at the galaxy's redshift as a likely upper limit.
This is the most extreme case of pure luminosity evolution and in a more
realistic model M/L_K will probably decrease faster with redshift due to
increased star formation. We compute the number density of galaxies more
massive than 2 10^10 h^-2 solar masses, 5 10^10 h^-2 solar masses, and 1 10^11
h^-2 solar masses, finding that the integrated stellar mass function is roughly
constant for the lowest mass limit and that it decreases with redshift by a
factor of roughly 3 and by a factor of roughly 6 for the two higher mass
limits, respectively. This finding is in qualitative agreement with models of
hierarchical galaxy formation, which predict that the number density of ~ M*
objects is fairly constant while it decreases faster for more massive systems
over the redshift range our data probe.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Letter
Geology and ground-water resources of Clayton County, Iowa
https://ir.uiowa.edu/igs_wsb/1006/thumbnail.jp
The Munich Near-Infrared Cluster Survey (MUNICS) -- II. The K-Band Luminosity Function of Field Galaxies to z ~ 1.2
(Abriged) We present a measurement of the evolution of the rest-frame K-band
luminosity function to z ~ 1.2 using a sample of more than 5000 K-selected
galaxies drawn from the MUNICS dataset. Distances and absolute K-band
magnitudes are derived using photometric redshifts from spectral energy
distribution fits to BVRIJK photometry. These are calibrated using >500
spectroscopic redshifts. We obtain redshift estimates having a rms scatter of
0.055 and no mean bias. We use Monte-Carlo simulations to investigate the
influence of the errors in distance associated with photometric redshifts on
our ability to reconstruct the shape of the luminosity function. Finally, we
construct the rest-frame K-band LF in four redshift bins spanning 0.4<z<1.2 and
compare our results to the local luminosity function. We discuss and apply two
different estimators to derive likely values for the evolution of the number
density, Phi*, and characteristic luminosity, M*, with redshift. While the
first estimator relies on the value of the luminosity function binned in
magnitude and redshift, the second estimator uses the individually measured
{M,z} pairs alone. In both cases we obtain a mild decrease in number density by
\~ 25% to z=1 accompanied by brightening of the galaxy population by 0.5 to 0.7
mag. These results are fully consistent with an analogous analysis using only
the spectroscopic MUNICS sample. The total K-band luminosity density is found
to scale as dlog(rho_L)/dz = 0.24. We discuss possible sources of systematic
errors and their influence on our parameter estimates.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap
Large-Scale Structure in the NIR-Selected MUNICS Survey
The Munich Near-IR Cluster Survey (MUNICS) is a wide-area, medium-deep,
photometric survey selected in the K' band. The project's main scientific aims
are the identification of galaxy clusters up to redshifts of unity and the
selection of a large sample of field early-type galaxies up to z < 1.5 for
evolutionary studies. We created a Large Scale Structure catalog, using a new
structure finding technique specialized for photometric datasets, that we
developed on the basis of a friends-of-friends algorithm. We tested the
plausibility of the resulting galaxy group and cluster catalog with the help of
Color-Magnitude Diagrams (CMD), as well as a likelihood- and Voronoi-approach.Comment: 4 pages, to appear in "The Evolution of Galaxies III. From Simple
Approaches to Self-Consistent Models", proceedings of the 3rd EuroConference
on the evolution of galaxies, held in Kiel, Germany, July 16-20, 200
- …