The VIMOS VLT Deep Survey. The different assembly history of passive and star-forming L_B >= L*_B galaxies in the group environment at z < 1

We use the VIMOS VLT Deep Survey to study the close environment of galaxies in groups at 0.2 = L*_B galaxies (Me_B = M_B + 1.1z <= -20) are identified with Me_B <= -18.25 and within a relative distance 5h^-1 kpc <= rp <= 100h^-1 kpc and relative velocity Delta v <= 500 km/s . The richness N of a group is defined as the number of Me_B <= -18.25 galaxies belonging to that group. We split our principal sample into red, passive galaxies with NUV - r >= 4.25 and blue, star-forming galaxies with NUV - r < 4.25. We find that blue galaxies with a close companion are primarily located in poor groups, while the red ones are in rich groups. The number of close neighbours per red galaxy increases with N, with n_red being proportional to 0.11N, while that of blue galaxies does not depend on N and is roughly constant. In addition, these trends are found to be independent of redshift, and only the average n_blue evolves, decreasing with cosmic time. Our results support the following assembly history of L_B >= L*_B galaxies in the group environment: red, massive galaxies were formed in or accreted by the dark matter halo of the group at early times (z >= 1), therefore their number of neighbours provides a fossil record of the stellar mass assembly of groups, traced by their richness N. On the other hand, blue, less massive galaxies have recently been accreted by the group potential and are still in their parent dark matter halo, having the same number of neighbours irrespective of N. As time goes by, these blue galaxies settle in the group potential and turn red and/or fainter, thus becoming satellite galaxies in the group. With a toy quenching model, we estimate an infall rate of field galaxies into the group environment of R_infall = 0.9 - 1.5 x 10^-4 Mpc^-3 Gyr^-1 at z ~ 0.7.Comment: Astronomy and Astrophysics, in press. 11 pages, 11 figures, 4 tables. Minor changes with respect to the first versio

MASSIV: Mass Assembly Survey with SINFONI in VVDS. V. The major merger rate of star-forming galaxies at 0.9 < z < 1.8 from IFS-based close pairs

We aim to measure the major merger rate of star-forming galaxies at 0.9 < z <1.8, using close pairs identified from integral field spectroscopy (IFS). We use the velocity field maps obtained with SINFONI/VLT on the MASSIV sample, selected from the star-forming population in the VVDS. We identify physical pairs of galaxies from the measurement of the relative velocity and the projected separation (r_p) of the galaxies in the pair. Using the well constrained selection function of the MASSIV sample we derive the gas-rich major merger fraction (luminosity ratio mu = L_2/L_1 >= 1/4), and, using merger time scales from cosmological simulations, the gas-rich major merger rate at a mean redshift up to z = 1.54. We find a high gas-rich major merger fraction of 20.8+15.2-6.8 %, 20.1+8.0-5.1 % and 22.0+13.7-7.3 % for close pairs with r_p <= 20h^-1 kpc in redshift ranges z = [0.94, 1.06], [1.2, 1.5) and [1.5, 1.8), respectively. This translates into a gas-rich major merger rate of 0.116+0.084-0.038 Gyr^-1, 0.147+0.058-0.037 Gyr^-1 and 0.127+0.079-0.042 Gyr^-1 at z = 1.03, 1.32 and 1.54, respectively. Combining our results with previous studies at z < 1, the gas-rich major merger rate evolves as (1+z)^n, with n = 3.95 +- 0.12, up to z = 1.5. From these results we infer that ~35% of the star-forming galaxies with stellar masses M = 10^10 - 10^10.5 M_Sun have undergone a major merger since z ~ 1.5. We develop a simple model which shows that, assuming that all gas-rich major mergers lead to early-type galaxies, the combined effect of gas-rich and dry mergers is able to explain most of the evolution in the number density of massive early-type galaxies since z ~ 1.5, with our measured gas-rich merger rate accounting for about two-thirds of this evolution.Comment: Published in Astronomy and Astrophysics, 24 pages, 30 figures, 2 tables. Appendix with the residual images from GALFIT added. Minor changes with respect to the initial versio

The dominant role of mergers in the size evolution of massive early-type galaxies since z ∼ 1

Aims. The role of galaxy mergers in massive galaxy evolution, and in particular to mass assembly and size growth, remains an open question. In this paper we measure the merger fraction and rate, both minor and major, of massive early-type galaxies (M_⋆ ≥ 10^(11) M_⊙) in the COSMOS field, and study their role in mass and size evolution. Methods. We used the 30-band photometric catalogue in COSMOS, complemented with the spectroscopy of the zCOSMOS survey, to define close pairs with a separation on the sky plane 10 h^(-1) kpc ≤ r_p ≤ 30 h^(-1) kpc and a relative velocity Δv ≤ 500 km s^(-1) in redshift space. We measured both major (stellar mass ratio μ ≡ M_(⋆,2)/M_(⋆,1) ≥ 1/4) and minor (1/10 ≤ μ < 1/4) merger fractions of massive galaxies, and studied their dependence on redshift and on morphology (early types vs. late types). Results. The merger fraction and rate of massive galaxies evolves as a power-law (1 + z)^n, with major mergers increasing with redshift, n_(MM) = 1.4, and minor mergers showing little evolution, n_(mm) ~ 0. When split by their morphology, the minor merger fraction for early-type galaxies (ETGs) is higher by a factor of three than that for late-type galaxies (LTGs), and both are nearly constant with redshift. The fraction of major mergers for massive LTGs evolves faster (n_(MM)^(LT) ~ 4 ) than for ETGs (n_(MM)^(ET)= 1.8). Conclusions. Our results show that massive ETGs have undergone 0.89 mergers (0.43 major and 0.46 minor) since z ~ 1, leading to a mass growth of ~30%. We find that μ ≥ 1/10 mergers can explain ~55% of the observed size evolution of these galaxies since z ~ 1. Another ~20% is due to the progenitor bias (younger galaxies are more extended) and we estimate that very minor mergers (μ < 1/10) could contribute with an extra ~20%. The remaining ~5% should come from other processes (e.g., adiabatic expansion or observational effects). This picture also reproduces the mass growth and the velocity dispersion evolution of these galaxies. We conclude from these results, and after exploring all the possible uncertainties in our picture, that merging is the main contributor to the size evolution of massive ETGs at z ≲ 1, accounting for ~50−75% of that evolution in the last 8 Gyr. Nearly half of the evolution due to mergers is related to minor (μ < 1/4) events

The merger history of massive spheroids since z~1 is size independent

Using a compilation of 379 massive (stellar mass M > 10^{11} M_Sun) spheroid-like galaxies from the near-infrared Palomar/DEEP-2 survey, we have probed, up to z~1, whether the presence of companions depends on the size of the host galaxies. We have explored the presence of companions with mass ratios down to 1:10 and 1:100, with respect to the central massive galaxy, and within a projected distance of 30, 50 and 100 kpc of these objects. We find evidence for these companions being equally distributed around both compact and extended massive spheroids. This finding suggests that, at least since z~1, the merger activity in these objects is rather homogeneous across the whole population and its merger history is not affected for the size of the host galaxy. Our result could indicate that both compact and extended massive spheroid-like galaxies are growing in size at the same rate.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Extracting Hα\alpha flux from photometric data in the J-PLUS survey

We present the main steps that will be taken to extract H$\alpha$ emission flux from Javalambre Photometric Local Universe Survey (J-PLUS) photometric data. For galaxies with $z\lesssim0.015$, the H$\alpha$+[NII] emission is covered by the J-PLUS narrow-band filter $F660$. We explore three different methods to extract the H$\alpha$ + [NII] flux from J-PLUS photometric data: a combination of a broad-band and a narrow-band filter ($r'$ and $F660$), two broad-band and a narrow-band one ($r'$, $i'$ and $F660$), and a SED-fitting based method using 8 photometric points. To test these methodologies, we simulated J-PLUS data from a sample of 7511 SDSS spectra with measured H$\alpha$ flux. Based on the same sample, we derive two empirical relations to correct the derived H$\alpha$+[NII] flux from dust extinction and [NII] contamination. We find that the only unbiased method is the SED fitting based one. The combination of two filters underestimates the measurements of the H$\alpha$ + [NII] flux by a 28%, while the three filters method by a 9%. We study the error budget of the SED-fitting based method and find that, in addition to the photometric error, our measurements have a systematic uncertainty of a 4.3%. Several sources contribute to this uncertainty: differences between our measurement procedure and the one used to derive the spectroscopic values, the use of simple stellar populations as templates, and the intrinsic errors of the spectra, which were not taken into account. Apart from that, the empirical corrections for dust extinction and [NII] contamination add an extra uncertainty of 14%. Given the J-PLUS photometric system, the best methodology to extract H$\alpha$ + [NII] flux is the SED-fitting based one. Using this method, we are able to recover reliable H$\alpha$ fluxes for thousands of nearby galaxies in a robust and homogeneous way.Comment: 11 pages, 14 figures. Minor changes to match the published versio

The ALHAMBRA survey: An empirical estimation of the cosmic variance for merger fraction studies based on close pairs

Aims. Our goal is to estimate empirically the cosmic variance that affects merger fraction studies based on close pairs for the first time. Methods. We compute the merger fraction from photometric redshift close pairs with 10 h-1 kpc ≤ rp ≤ 50 h-1 kpc and Δv ≤ 500 km s-1 and measure it in the 48 sub-fields of the ALHAMBRA survey. We study the distribution of the measured merger fractions that follow a log-normal function and estimate the cosmic variance σv as the intrinsic dispersion of the observed distribution. We develop a maximum likelihood estimator to measure a reliable σv and avoid the dispersion due to the observational errors (including the Poisson shot noise term). Results. The cosmic variance σv of the merger fraction depends mainly on (i) the number density of the populations under study for both the principal (n1) and the companion (n2) galaxy in the close pair and (ii) the probed cosmic volume Vc. We do not find a significant dependence on either the search radius used to define close companions, the redshift, or the physical selection (luminosity or stellar mass) of the samples. Conclusions. We have estimated the cosmic variance that affects the measurement of the merger fraction by close pairs from observations. We provide a parametrisation of the cosmic variance with n1, n2, and Vc, σv ∝ n1-0.54Vc-0.48 (n_2/n_1)-0.37 . Thanks to this prescription, future merger fraction studies based on close pairs could properly account for the cosmic variance on their results

The galaxy major merger fraction to z ~ 1

Aims. The importance of disc-disc major mergers in galaxy evolution remains uncertain. We study the major merger fraction in a SPITZER/IRAC-selected catalogue in the GOODS-S field up to z ~ 1 for luminosity- and mass-limited samples. Methods. We select disc-disc merger remnants on the basis of morphological asymmetries/distortions, and address three main sources of systematic errors: (i) we explicitly apply morphological K-corrections; (ii) we measure asymmetries in galaxies artificially redshifted to z_d = 1.0 to deal with loss of morphological information with redshift; and (iii) we take into account the observational errors in z and A, which tend to overestimate the merger fraction, though use of maximum likelihood techniques. Results. We obtain morphological merger fractions (f_m^mph) below 0.06 up to z ~ 1. Parameterizing the merger fraction evolution with redshift as f_m^mph (z) = f_m^mph (0)(1 + z)^m, we find that m = 1.8 ± 0.5 for M(B)≤ -20 galaxies, while m = 5.4 ± 0.4 for M_* ≥ 10^10 M_⨀ galaxies. When we translate our merger fractions to merger rates (R_m^mph), their evolution, parameterized as R_m^mph (z) = R_m^mph (0)(1+ z)^n, is quite similar in both cases: n = 3.3 ± 0.8 for M(B) ≤ -20 galaxies, and n = 3.5 ± 0.4 for M_* ≥10^10 M_⨀ galaxies. Conclusions. Our results imply that only similar to 8% of today's M(star) ≥ 10^10 M_⨀ galaxies have undergone a disc-disc major merger since z ~ 1. In addition, ~ 21% of M_* ≥ 10(10) M_⨀ galaxies at z ~ 1 have undergone one of these mergers since z similar to 1.5. This suggests that disc-disc major mergers are not the dominant process in the evolution of M_* ≥ 10(10) M_⨀ galaxies since z 1, with only 0.2 disc-disc major mergers per galaxy, but may be an important process at z > 1, with ~ 1 merger per galaxy at 1 < z < 3

Spectro-photometric close pairs in GOODS-S: major and minor companions of intermediate-mass galaxies

(Abriged) Our goal here is to provide merger frequencies that encompass both major and minor mergers, derived from close pair statistics. We use B-band luminosity- and mass-limited samples from an Spitzer/IRAC-selected catalogue of GOODS-S. We present a new methodology for computing the number of close companions, Nc, when spectroscopic redshift information is partial. We select as close companions those galaxies separated by 6h^-1 kpc < rp < 21h^-1 kpc in the sky plane and with a difference Delta_v <= 500 km s^-1 in redshift space. We provide Nc for four different B-band-selected samples. Nc increases with luminosity, and its evolution with redshift is faster in more luminous samples. We provide Nc of M_star >= 10^10 M_Sun galaxies, finding that the number including minor companions (mass ratio >= 1/10) is roughly two times the number of major companions alone (mass ratio >= 1/3) in the range 0.2 <= z < 1.1. We compare the major merger rate derived by close pairs with the one computed by morphological criteria, finding that both approaches provide similar merger rates for field galaxies when the progenitor bias is taken into account. Finally, we estimate that the total (major+minor) merger rate is ~1.7 times the major merger rate. Only 30% to 50% of the M_star >= 10^10 M_Sun early-type (E/S0/Sa) galaxies that appear z=1 and z=0 may have undergone a major or a minor merger. Half of the red sequence growth since z=1 is therefore unrelated to mergers.Comment: Accepted in A&A. 14 pages, 6 figures, 8 tables. We have tested the method with a local, volume-limited spectroscopic sample

MASSIV: Mass Assembly Survey with SINFONI in VVDS. VI. Metallicity-related fundamental relations in star-forming galaxies at 1<z<21 < z < 2

The MASSIV (Mass Assembly Survey with SINFONI in VVDS) project aims at finding constraints on the different processes involved in galaxy evolution. This study proposes to improve the understanding of the galaxy mass assembly through chemical evolution using the metallicity as a tracer of the star formation and interaction history. Methods. We analyse the full sample of MASSIV galaxies for which a metallicity estimate has been possible, that is 48 star-forming galaxies at $z\sim 0.9-1.8$, and compute the integrated values of some fundamental parameters, such as the stellar mass, the metallicity and the star formation rate (SFR). The sample of star-forming galaxies at similar redshift from zCOSMOS (P\'erez-Montero et al. 2013) is also combined with the MASSIV sample. We study the cosmic evolution of the mass-metallicty relation (MZR) together with the effect of close environment and galaxy kinematics on this relation. We then focus on the so-called fundamental metallicity relation (FMR) proposed by Mannucci et al. (2010) and other relations between stellar mass, SFR and metallicity as studied by Lara-L\'opez et al. (2010). We investigate if these relations are really fundamental, i.e. if they do not evolve with redshift. Results. The MASSIV galaxies follow the expected mass-metallicity relation for their median redshift. We find however a significant difference between isolated and interacting galaxies as found for local galaxies: interacting galaxies tend to have a lower metallicity. The study of the relation between stellar mass, SFR and metallicity gives such large scattering for our sample, even combined with zCOSMOS, that it is diffcult to confirm or deny the existence of a fundamental relation

The natural science of cosmology

The network of cosmological tests is tight enough now to show that the relativistic Big Bang cosmology is a good approximation to what happened as the universe expanded and cooled through light element production and evolved to the present. I explain why I reach this conclusion, comment on the varieties of philosophies informing searches for a still better cosmology, and offer an example for further study, the curious tendency of some classes of galaxies to behave as island universes.Comment: Keynote lecture at the seventh International Conference on Gravitation and Cosmology, Goa India, December 201