Peculiar Velocities and the Mean Density Parameter

We study the peculiar velocity field inferred from the Mark III spirals using a new method of analysis. We estimate optimal values of Tully-Fisher scatter and zero-point offset, and we derive the 3-dimensional rms peculiar velocity ($\sigma_v$) of the galaxies in the samples analysed. We check our statistical analysis using mock catalogs derived from numerical simulations of CDM models considering measurement uncertainties and sampling variations. Our best determination for the observations is $\sigma_v= (660\pm50) km/s$. We use the linear theory relation between $\sigma_v$, the density parameter $\Omega$, and the galaxy correlation function $\xi(r)$ to infer the quantity $\beta =\Omega^{0.6}/b = 0.60^{+0.13}_{-0.11}$ where $b$ is the linear bias parameter of optical galaxies and the uncertainties correspond to bootstrap resampling and an estimated cosmic variance added in quadrature. Our findings are consistent with the results of cluster abundances and redshift space distortion of the two-point correlation function. These statistical measurements suggest a low value of the density parameter $\Omega \sim 0.4$ if optical galaxies are not strongly biased tracers of mass.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 8 pages latex (mn.sty), including 7 figure

Properties of galaxies in SDSS Quasar environments at z < 0.2

We analyse the environment of low redshift, z < 0.2, SDSS quasars using the spectral and photometric information of galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Third Data Release (SDSS-DR3). We compare quasar neighbourhoods with field and high density environments through an analysis on samples of typical galaxies and groups. We compute the surrounding surface number density of galaxies finding that quasar environments systematically avoid high density regions. Their mean environments correspond to galaxy density enhancements similar to those of typical galaxies. We have also explored several galaxy properties in these environments, such as spectral types, specific star formation rates, concentration indexes, colours and active nuclei activity. We conclude that low redshift quasar neighbourhoods (r_p < 1 Mpc h^-1, Delta V < 500 km/s) are populated by bluer and more intense star forming galaxies of disk-type morphology than galaxies in groups and in the field. Although star formation activity is thought to be significantly triggered by interactions, we find that quasar fueling may not require the presence of a close companion galaxy (r_p < 100 kpc h^-1, Delta V< 350 km/s). As a test of the unified AGN model, we have performed a similar analysis to the neighbours of a sample of active galaxies. The results indicate that these neighbourhoods are comparable to those of quasars giving further support to this unified scenario.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures, submitted to MNRA

The evolution of the bi-modal colour distribution of galaxies in SDSS groups

We analyse $u-r$ colour distributions for several samples of galaxies in groups drawn from the Fourth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. For all luminosity ranges and environments considered the colour distributions are well described by the sum of two Gaussian functions. We find that the fraction of galaxies in the red sequence is an increasing function of group virial mass. We also study the evolution of the galaxy colour distributions at low redshift, $z\le0.18$ in the field and in groups for galaxies brighter than $M_r-5\log(h)=-20$, finding significant evidence of recent evolution in the population of galaxies in groups. The fraction of red galaxies monotonically increases with decreasing redshift, this effect implies a much stronger evolution of galaxies in groups than in the field.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, submited to MNRAS after minor revisio

Velocity dispersion estimates of APM galaxy clusters

We present 83 new galaxy radial velocities in the field of 18 APM clusters with redshifts between 0.06 and 0.13. The clusters have Abell identifications and the galaxies were selected within 0.75 h$^{-1}$Mpc in projection from their centers. We derive new cluster velocity dispersions for 13 clusters using our data and published radial velocities. We analyze correlations between cluster velocity dispersions and cluster richness counts as defined in Abell and APM catalogs. The correlations show a statistically significant trend although with a large scatter suggesting that richness is a poor estimator of cluster mass irrespectively of cluster selection criteria and richness definition. We find systematically lower velocity dispersions in the sample of Abell clusters that do not fulfill APM cluster selection criteria suggesting artificially higher Abell richness counts due to contamination by projection effects in this subsample.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA

Effects of galaxy interactions in different environments

We analyse star formation rates derived from photometric and spectroscopic data of galaxies in pairs in different environments using the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey (2dFGRS) and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The two samples comprise several thousand pairs, suitable to explore into detail the dependence of star formation activity in pairs on orbital parameters and global environment. We use the projected galaxy density derived from the fifth nearest neighbour of each galaxy, with convenient luminosity thresholds to characterise environment in both surveys in a consistent way. Star formation activity is derived through the $\eta$ parameter in 2dFGRS and through the star formation rate normalised to the total mass in stars, $SFR/M^*$, given by Brinchmann et al. (2004) in the second data release SDSS-DR2. For both galaxy pair catalogs, the star formation birth rate parameter is a strong function of the global environment and orbital parameters. Our analysis on SDSS pairs confirms previous results found with the 2dFGRS where suitable thresholds for the star formation activity induced by interactions are estimated at a projected distance r_{\rm p} = 100 \kpc and a relative velocity $\Delta V = 350$ km $s^{-1}$. We observe that galaxy interactions are more effective at triggering important star formation activity in low and moderate density environments with respect to the control sample of galaxies without a close companion. Although close pairs have a larger fraction of actively star-forming galaxies, they also exhibit a greater fraction of red galaxies with respect to those systems without a close companion, an effect that may indicate that dust stirred up during encounters could be affecting colours and, partially, obscuring tidally-induced star formation.Comment: accepted MNRA

The distant red galaxy neighbour population of 1 < z < 2 QSOs and optically obscured sources

We study the Distant Red Galaxy (DRG, J-K_s > 2.3) neighbour population of Quasi Stellar Objects (QSOs) selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) in the redshift range 1 < z < 2. We perform a similar analysis for optically obscured AGNs (i.e. with a limiting magnitude I > 24) detected in the mid-infrared (24 $\mu$m) with the Spitzer Space Telescope and a mean redshift $z\sim 2.2$ in the Flamingos Extragalactic Survey (FLAMEX). Both QSOs and obscured AGN target samples cover 4.7 deg$^2$ in the same region of the sky. We find a significant difference in the environment of these two target samples. Neighbouring galaxies close to QSOs tend to be bluer than galaxies in optically obscured source environments. We also present results on the cross-correlation function of DRGs around QSOs and optically faint mid-infrared sources. The corresponding correlation length obtained for the QSO sample targets is $r_0$=$5.4\pm1.6$ Mpc h$^{-1}$ and a slope of $\gamma$=$1.94\pm0.10$ . For the optically obscured galaxy sample we find $r_0$=$8.9\pm1.4$ Mpc h$^{-1}$ and a slope of $\gamma$=$2.27\pm0.20$. These results indicate that optically faint obscured sources are located in denser environment of evolved red galaxies compare to QSOs.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 9 pages including 5 PostScript figures and 3 table