494 research outputs found
Starburst Intensity Limit of Galaxies at z~5-6
The peak star formation intensity in starburst galaxies does not vary
significantly from the local universe to redshift z~6. We arrive at this
conclusion through new surface brightness measurements of 47 starburst galaxies
at z~5-6, doubling the redshift range for such observations. These galaxies are
spectroscopically confirmed in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF) through the
GRism ACS program for Extragalactic Science (GRAPES) project. The starburst
intensity limit for galaxies at z~5-6 agree with those at z~3-4 and z~0 to
within a factor of a few, after correcting for cosmological surface brightness
dimming and for dust. The most natural interpretation of this constancy over
cosmic time is that the same physical mechanisms limit starburst intensity at
all redshifts up to z~6 (be they galactic winds, gravitational instability, or
something else). We do see two trends with redshift: First, the UV spectral
slope of galaxies at z~5-6 is bluer than that of z~3 galaxies, suggesting an
increase in dust content over time. Second, the galaxy sizes from z~3 to z~6
scale approximately as the Hubble parameter 1/H(z). Thus, galaxies at z~6 are
high redshift starbursts, much like their local analogs except for slightly
bluer colors, smaller physical sizes, and correspondingly lower overall
luminosities. If we now assume a constant maximum star formation intensity, the
differences in observed surface brightness between z~0 and z~6 are consistent
with standard expanding cosmology and strongly inconsistent with tired light
model.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ (23 pages, 5 figures). Minor changes
to tex
"GiGa": the Billion Galaxy HI Survey -- Tracing Galaxy Assembly from Reionization to the Present
In this paper, we review the Billion Galaxy Survey that will be carried out
at radio--optical wavelengths to micro--nanoJansky levels with the telescopes
of the next decades. These are the Low-Frequency Array, the Square Kilometer
Array and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope as survey telescopes, and the
Thirty Meter class Telescopes for high spectral resolution+AO, and the James
Webb Space Telescope (JWST) for high spatial resolution near--mid IR follow-up.
With these facilities, we will be addressing fundamental questions like how
galaxies assemble with super-massive black-holes inside from the epoch of First
Light until the present, how these objects started and finished the
reionization of the universe, and how the processes of star-formation, stellar
evolution, and metal enrichment of the IGM proceeded over cosmic time. We also
summarize the high-resolution science that has been done thus far on high
redshift galaxies with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Faint galaxies have
steadily decreasing sizes at fainter fluxes and higher redshifts, reflecting
the hierarchical formation of galaxies over cosmic time. HST has imaged this
process in great structural detail to z<~6. We show that ultradeep
radio-optical surveys may slowly approach the natural confusion limit, where
objects start to unavoidably overlap because of their own sizes, which only SKA
can remedy with HI redshifts for individual sub-clumps. Finally, we summarize
how the 6.5 meter James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will measure first light,
reionization, and galaxy assembly in the near--mid-IR.Comment: 8 pages, LaTeX2e requires 'aip' style (included), 8 postscript
figures. To appear in the proceedings of the `The Evolution of Galaxies
through the Neutral Hydrogen Window' conference, Arecibo Observatory Feb 1-3,
2008; Eds. R. Minchin & E. Momjian, AIP Conf Pro
Country Report on Malawi, in Every woman, every child: a post-2015 vision: the third report of the Independent Expert Review Group on Information and Accountability for Women's and Children's Health
Tracing Galaxy Assembly: Tadpole Galaxies in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field
In the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF) an abundance of galaxies is seen with a
knot at one end plus an extended tail, resembling a tadpole. These "tadpole
galaxies" appear dynamically unrelaxed--presumably in an early merging
state--where tidal interactions likely created the distorted knot-plus-tail
morphology. Here we systematically select tadpole galaxies from the HUDF and
study their properties as a function of their photometric redshifts. In a
companion HUDF variability study, Cohen et al. (2005) revealed a total of 45
variable objects believed to be Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). Here we show that
this faint AGN sample has no overlap with the tadpole galaxy sample, as
predicted by theoretical work. The tadpole morphology--combined with the lack
of overlap with the variable objects--supports the idea that these galaxies are
in the process of an early-stage merger event, i.e., at a stage that likely
precedes the "turn-on" of any AGN component and the onset of any point-source
variability.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication by Astrophysical Journa
Recommended from our members
Martian atmospheric O<sub>3</sub> retrieval development for the NOMAD-UVIS spectrometer
The composition of atmospheric trace gases and aerosols is a highly variable and poorly constrained component of the martian atmosphere, and by affecting martian climate and UV surface dose, represents a key parameter in the assessment of suitability for martian habitability. The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) carries the Open University (OU) designed Ultraviolet and VIsible Spectrometer (UVIS) instrument as part of the Belgian-led Nadir and Occultation for MArs Discovery (NOMAD) spectrometer suite. NOMAD will begin transmitting science observations of martian surface and atmosphere back-scattered UltraViolet (UV) and visible radiation in Spring 2018, which will be processed to derive spatially and temporally averaged atmospheric trace gas and aerosol concentrations, intended to provide a better understanding of martian atmospheric photo-chemistry and dynamics, and will also improve models of martian atmospheric chemistry, climate and habitability. Work presented here illustrates initial development and testing of the OU’s new retrieval algorithm for determining O3 and aerosol concentrations from the UVIS instrument
Surface Brightness Profiles of Composite Images of Compact Galaxies at z~4-6 in the HUDF
The Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF) contains a significant number of B, V and
i'-band dropout objects, many of which were recently confirmed to be young
star-forming galaxies at z~4-6. These galaxies are too faint individually to
accurately measure their radial surface brightness profiles. Their average
light profiles are potentially of great interest, since they may contain clues
to the time since the onset of significant galaxy assembly. We separately
co-add V, i' and z'-band HUDF images of sets of z~4,5 and 6 objects,
pre-selected to have nearly identical compact sizes and the roundest shapes.
From these stacked images, we are able to study the averaged radial structure
of these objects at much higher signal-to-noise ratio than possible for an
individual faint object. Here we explore the reliability and usefulness of a
stacking technique of compact objects at z~4-6 in the HUDF. Our results are:
(1) image stacking provides reliable and reproducible average surface
brightness profiles; (2) the shape of the average surface brightness profiles
show that even the faintest z~4-6 objects are resolved; and (3) if late-type
galaxies dominate the population of galaxies at z~4-6, as previous HST studies
have shown, then limits to dynamical age estimates for these galaxies from
their profile shapes are comparable with the SED ages obtained from the
broadband colors. We also present accurate measurements of the sky-background
in the HUDF and its associated 1-sigma uncertainties.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables, emulateapj; Accepted for publication
in The Astronomical Journa
The VIMOS Ultra Deep Survey. Luminosity and stellar mass dependence of galaxy clustering at z~3
We present the study of the dependence of galaxy clustering on luminosity and
stellar mass in the redshift range 2z3.5 using 3236 galaxies with robust
spectroscopic redshifts from the VIMOS Ultra Deep Survey (VUDS). We measure the
two-point real-space correlation function for four volume-limited
stellar mass and four luminosity, M absolute magnitude selected,
sub-samples. We find that the scale dependent clustering amplitude
significantly increases with increasing luminosity and stellar mass indicating
a strong galaxy clustering dependence on these properties. This corresponds to
a strong relative bias between these two sub-samples of b/b=0.43.
Fitting a 5-parameter HOD model we find that the most luminous and massive
galaxies occupy the most massive dark matter haloes with
M = 10 h M. Similar to the
trends observed at lower redshift, the minimum halo mass M depends on
the luminosity and stellar mass of galaxies and grows from M
=10 hM to M=10 hM
from the faintest to the brightest among our galaxy sample, respectively. We
find the difference between these halo masses to be much more pronounced than
is observed for local galaxies of similar properties. Moreover, at z~3, we
observe that the masses at which a halo hosts, on average, one satellite and
one central galaxy is M4M over all luminosity ranges,
significantly lower than observed at z~0 indicating that the halo satellite
occupation increases with redshift. The luminosity and stellar mass dependence
is also reflected in the measurements of the large scale galaxy bias, which we
model as b(L)=1.92+25.36(L/L). We conclude our study
with measurements of the stellar-to-halo mass ratio (SHMR).Comment: 20 pages, 11 figures, A&A in press, v2. revised discussion in sec.
5.5, changed Fig. 4 and Fig. 11, added reference
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Exomars entry and descent science
The entry, descent and landing of ExoMars offer a rare (once-per-mission) opportunity to perform in situ investigation of the martian environment over a wide altitude range. We present an initial assessment of the atmospheric science that can be performed using sensors of the Entry, Descent and Landing System (EDLS), over and above the expected engineering information. This is intended to help fulfill the concept of an Atmospheric Parameters Package (APP), as mentioned in the ExoMars draft Science Management Plan [ESA, 2005].
Mars' atmosphere is highly variable in time and space, due to phenomena including inertio-gravity waves, thermal tide effects, dust, solar wind conditions, and diurnal, seasonal and topographic effects. Atmospheric profile measurements, drawing on heritage from the Huygens Atmospheric Structure Instrument (HASI), which encountered Titan's atmosphere
in 2005 [1], should allow us to address questions of the martian atmosphere's structure, dynamics and variability
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