Correlation Function of Galaxy Groups

We use the Updated Zwicky Catalog of galaxies (Falco et al. 1999) to generate a catalog of groups, by means of a friend-of-friend algorithm. The correlation length of the total sample is well fitted with a power law $\xi(r)=(r/r_0)^\gamma$ with parameters $r_0=9.0 \pm 0.4 h^{-1}Mpc$ and $\gamma = -1.67 \pm 0.09$ for values of $r<70 h^{-1} Mpc$. Three subsamples defined by the range of group virial masses ${\cal M}$ were used to have their clustering properties examined throughout the autocorrelation function. We find an increase of the amplitude of the correlation function according to the group masses which extends the results of the $r_0-d_c$ relation for galaxy systems at small $d_c$. For completeness we have also analyzed a sample of groups obtained from the Southern Sky Redshift Survey (da Costa et al.1998) in the range of virial masses $5\times10^{12}M_{\odot}<{\cal M}<4\times10^{14}M_{\odot}$ to compare the results with those obtained from GUZC.Comment: 9 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

A simple prescription for simulating and characterizing gravitational arcs

Simple models of gravitational arcs are crucial to simulate large samples of these objects with full control of the input parameters. These models also provide crude and automated estimates of the shape and structure of the arcs, which are necessary when trying to detect and characterize these objects on massive wide area imaging surveys. We here present and explore the ArcEllipse, a simple prescription to create objects with shape similar to gravitational arcs. We also present PaintArcs, which is a code that couples this geometrical form with a brightness distribution and adds the resulting object to images. Finally, we introduce ArcFitting, which is a tool that fits ArcEllipses to images of real gravitational arcs. We validate this fitting technique using simulated arcs and apply it to CFHTLS and HST images of tangential arcs around clusters of galaxies. Our simple ArcEllipse model for the arc, associated to a S\'ersic profile for the source, recovers the total signal in real images typically within 10%-30%. The ArcEllipse+S\'ersic models also automatically recover visual estimates of length-to-width ratios of real arcs. Residual maps between data and model images reveal the incidence of arc substructure. They may thus be used as a diagnostic for arcs formed by the merging of multiple images. The incidence of these substructures is the main factor preventing ArcEllipse models from accurately describing real lensed systems.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in A&

The first 62 AGN observed with SDSS-IV MaNGA - IV: gas excitation and star-formation rate distributions

We present maps of the ionized gas flux distributions, excitation, star-formation rate SFR, surface mass density $\Sigma_{H+}$, and obtain total values of SFR and ionized gas masses {\it M} for 62 Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) observed with SDSS-IV MaNGA and compare them with those of a control sample of 112 non-active galaxies. The most luminous AGN -- with L(\rm{[OIII]}\lambda 5007) \ge 3.8\times 10^{40}\,\mbox{erg}\,\mbox{s}^{-1}, and those hosted by earlier-type galaxies are dominated by Seyfert excitation within 0.2 effective radius $R_e$ from the nucleus, surrounded by LINER excitation or transition regions, while the less luminous and hosted by later-type galaxies show equally frequent LINER and Seyfert excitation within $0.2\,R_e$. The extent $R$ of the region ionized by the AGN follows the relation $R\propto\,L(\rm{[OIII]})^{0.5}$ -- as in the case of the Broad-Line Region. The SFR distribution over the region ionized by hot stars is similar for AGN and controls, while the integrated SFR -- in the range $10^{-3}-10$\,M$_\odot$\,yr$^{-1}$ is also similar for the late-type sub-sample, but higher in the AGN for 75\% of the early-type sub-sample. We thus conclude that there is no signature of AGN quenching star formation in the body of the galaxy in our sample. We also find that 66\% of the AGN have higher ionized gas masses $M$ than the controls -- in the range 10$^5-3\times10^7$\,M$_\odot$ -- while 75\% of the AGN have higher $\Sigma_{H+}$ within $0.2\,R_e$ than the control galaxies

StarHorse: A Bayesian tool for determining stellar masses, ages, distances, and extinctions for field stars

Understanding the formation and evolution of our Galaxy requires accurate distances, ages and chemistry for large populations of field stars. Here we present several updates to our spectro-photometric distance code, that can now also be used to estimate ages, masses, and extinctions for individual stars. Given a set of measured spectro-photometric parameters, we calculate the posterior probability distribution over a given grid of stellar evolutionary models, using flexible Galactic stellar-population priors. The code (called {\tt StarHorse}) can acommodate different observational datasets, prior options, partially missing data, and the inclusion of parallax information into the estimated probabilities. We validate the code using a variety of simulated stars as well as real stars with parameters determined from asteroseismology, eclipsing binaries, and isochrone fits to star clusters. Our main goal in this validation process is to test the applicability of the code to field stars with known {\it Gaia}-like parallaxes. The typical internal precision (obtained from realistic simulations of an APOGEE+Gaia-like sample) are $\simeq 8\%$ in distance, $\simeq 20\%$ in age,$\simeq 6\$ in mass, and $\simeq 0.04$ mag in $A_V$. The median external precision (derived from comparisons with earlier work for real stars) varies with the sample used, but lies in the range of $\simeq [0,2]\%$ for distances, $\simeq [12,31]\%$ for ages, $\simeq [4,12]\%$ for masses, and $\simeq 0.07$ mag for $A_V$. We provide StarHorse distances and extinctions for the APOGEE DR14, RAVE DR5, GES DR3 and GALAH DR1 catalogues.Comment: 21 pages, 12 figures, accepte

The SOAR Gravitational Arc Survey - I: Survey overview and photometric catalogs

We present the first results of the SOAR (Southern Astrophysical Research) Gravitational Arc Survey (SOGRAS). The survey imaged 47 clusters in two redshift intervals centered at $z=0.27$ and $z=0.55$, targeting the richest clusters in each interval. Images were obtained in the $g'$, $r'$ and $i'$ bands using the SOAR Optical Imager (SOI), with a median seeing of 0.83, 0.76 and 0.71 arcsec, respectively, in these filters. Most of the survey clusters are located within the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Stripe 82 region and all of them are in the SDSS footprint. Photometric calibration was therefore performed using SDSS stars located in our SOI fields. We reached for galaxies in all fields the detection limits of $g \sim 23.5$, $r \sim 23$ and $i \sim 22.5$ for a signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) = 3. As a by-product of the image processing, we generated a source catalogue with 19760 entries, the vast majority of which are galaxies, where we list their positions, magnitudes and shape parameters. We compared our galaxy shape measurements to those of local galaxies and concluded that they were not strongly affected by seeing. From the catalogue data, we are able to identify a red sequence of galaxies in most clusters in the lower $z$ range. We found 16 gravitational arc candidates around 8 clusters in our sample. They tend to be bluer than the central galaxies in the lensing cluster. A preliminary analysis indicates that $\sim 10$ of the clusters have arcs around them, with a possible indication of a larger efficiency associated to the high-$z$ systems when compared to the low-$z$ ones. Deeper follow-up images with Gemini strengthen the case for the strong lensing nature of the candidates found in this survey.Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures (most of them multi-panel) MNRAS (2013

The first 62 AGN observed with SDSS-IV MaNGA -- III: stellar and gas kinematics

We investigate the effects of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) on the gas kinematics of their host galaxies, using MaNGA data for a sample of 62 AGN hosts and 109 control galaxies (inactive galaxies). We compare orientation of the line of nodes (kinematic Position Angle - PA) measured from the gas and stellar velocity fields for the two samples. We found that AGN hosts and control galaxies display similar kinematic PA offsets between gas and stars. However, we note that AGN have larger fractional velocity dispersion $\sigma$ differences between gas and stars [$\sigma_{frac}=(\sigma_{\rm gas}-\sigma_{stars})/\sigma_{\rm stars}$] when compared to their controls, as obtained from the velocity dispersion values of the central (nuclear) pixel (2.5" diameter). The AGN have a median value of $\sigma_{\rm frac}$ of $_{\rm AGN}=0.04$, while the the median value for the control galaxies is $_{\rm CTR}=-0.23$. 75% of the AGN show $\sigma_{frac}>-0.13$, while 75% of the normal galaxies show $\sigma_{\rm frac}<-0.04$, thus we suggest that the parameter $\sigma_{\rm frac}$ can be used as an indicative of AGN activity. We find a correlation between the [OIII]$\lambda$5007 luminosity and $\sigma_{frac}$ for our sample. Our main conclusion is that the AGN already observed with MaNGA are not powerful enough to produce important outflows at galactic scales, but at 1-2 kpc scales, AGN feedback signatures are always present on their host galaxies.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures, published in MNRA