The Different Environmental Dependencies of Star-formation for Giant and Dwarf Galaxies

We examine the origins of the bimodality observed in the global properties of galaxies around a stellar mass of 3x10^10 M_sun by comparing the environmental dependencies of star-formation for the giant and dwarf galaxy populations. The Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR4 spectroscopic dataset is used to produce a sample of galaxies in the vicinity of the supercluster centered on the cluster A2199 at z=0.03 that is ~90% complete to a magnitude limit of M*+3.3. From these we measure global trends with environment for both giant (M_r<-20 mag) and dwarf (-19<M_r<-17.8 mag) subsamples using the luminosity-weighted mean stellar age and H_alpha emission as independent measures of star-formation history. The fraction of giant galaxies classed as old (t>7 Gyr) or passive (EW[H_alpha]<4 A) falls gradually from ~80% in the cluster cores to ~40% in field regions beyond 3-4 R_virial, as found in previous studies. In contrast, we find that the dwarf galaxy population shows a sharp transition at ~1 R_virial, from being predominantly old/passive within the cluster, to outside where virtually all galaxies are forming stars and old/passive galaxies are only found as satellites to more massive galaxies. These results imply fundamental differences in the evolution of giant and dwarf galaxies: whereas the star-formation histories of giant galaxies are determined primarily by their merger history, star-formation in dwarf galaxies is much more resilient to the effects of major mergers. Instead dwarf galaxies become passive only once they become satellites within a more massive halo, by losing their halo gas reservoir to the host halo, or through other environment-related processes such as galaxy harassment and/or ram-pressure stripping.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

Structure and Evolution of Galaxy Clusters: Internal Dynamics of ABCG 209 at z~0.21

We study the internal dynamics of the rich galaxy cluster ABGC 209 on the basis of new spectroscopic and photometric data. The distribution in redshift shows that ABCG 209 is a well isolated peak of 112 detected member galaxies at z=0.209, characterised by a high value of the line-of-sight velocity dispersion, sigma_v=1250-1400 Km/s, on the whole observed area (1 Mpc/h from the cluster center), that leads to a virial mass of M=1.6-2.2x10^15 M_sun within the virial radius, assuming the dynamical equilibrium. The presence of a velocity gradient in the velocity field, the elongation in the spatial distribution of the colour-selected likely cluster members, the elongation of the X-ray contour levels in the Chandra image, and the elongation of cD galaxy show that ABCG 209 is characterised by a preferential NW-SE direction. We also find a significant deviation of the velocity distribution from a Gaussian, and relevant evidence of substructure and dynamical segregation. All these facts show that ABCG 209 is a strongly evolving cluster, possibly in an advanced phase of merging.Comment: 26 pages, 14 figures. A&A in pres

Weak Lensing Mass Reconstruction of the Galaxy Cluster Abell 209

Weak lensing applied to deep optical images of clusters of galaxies provides a powerful tool to reconstruct the distribution of the gravitating mass associated to these structures. We use the shear signal extracted by an analysis of deep exposures of a region centered around the galaxy cluster Abell 209, at redshift z=0.2, to derive both a map of the projected mass distribution and an estimate of the total mass within a characteristic radius. We use a series of deep archival R-band images from CFHT-12k, covering an area of 0.3 deg^2. We determine the shear of background galaxy images using a new implementation of the modified Kaiser-Squires-Broadhurst pipeline for shear determination, which we has been tested against the ``Shear TEsting Program 1 and 2'' simulations. We use mass aperture statistics to produce maps of the 2 dimensional density distribution, and parametric fits using both Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW) and singular-isothermal-sphere profiles to constrain the total mass. The projected mass distribution shows a pronounced asymmetry, with an elongated structure extending from the SE to the NW. This is in general agreement with the optical distribution previously found by other authors. A similar elongation was previously detected in the X-ray emission map, and in the distribution of galaxy colours. The circular NFW mass profile fit gives a total mass of M_{200} = 7.7^{+4.3}_{-2.7} 10^{14} solar masses inside the virial radius r_{200} = 1.8\pm 0.3 Mpc. The weak lensing profile reinforces the evidence for an elongated structure of Abell 209, as previously suggested by studies of the galaxy distribution and velocities.Comment: accepted by A&A, 15 pages, 11 figure

ACCESS - V. Dissecting ram-pressure stripping through integral-field spectroscopy and multi-band imaging

We study the case of a bright (L>L*) barred spiral galaxy from the rich cluster A3558 in the Shapley supercluster core (z=0.05) undergoing ram-pressure stripping. Integral-field spectroscopy, complemented by multi-band imaging, allows us to reveal the impact of ram pressure on the interstellar medium. We study in detail the kinematics and the physical conditions of the ionized gas and the properties of the stellar populations. We observe one-sided extraplanar ionized gas along the full extent of the galaxy disc. Narrow-band Halpha imaging resolves this outflow into a complex of knots and filaments. The gas velocity field is complex with the extraplanar gas showing signature of rotation. In all parts of the galaxy, we find a significant contribution from shock excitation, as well as emission powered by star formation. Shock-ionized gas is associated with the turbulent gas outflow and highly attenuated by dust. All these findings cover the whole phenomenology of early-stage ram-pressure stripping. Intense, highly obscured star formation is taking place in the nucleus, probably related to the bar, and in a region 12 kpc South-West from the centre. In the SW region we identify a starburst characterized by a 5x increase in the star-formation rate over the last ~100 Myr, possibly related to the compression of the interstellar gas by the ram pressure. The scenario suggested by the observations is supported and refined by ad hoc N-body/hydrodynamical simulations which identify a rather narrow temporal range for the onset of ram-pressure stripping around t~60 Myr ago, and an angle between the galaxy rotation axis and the intra-cluster medium wind of ~45 deg. Taking into account that the galaxy is found ~1 Mpc from the cluster centre in a relatively low-density region, this study shows that ram-pressure stripping still acts efficiently on massive galaxies well outside the cluster cores.Comment: 46 pages, 21 figures, accepted for publication; MNRAS 201

Numerical simulations challenged on the prediction of massive subhalo abundance in galaxy clusters: the case of Abell 2142

In this Letter we compare the abundance of member galaxies of a rich, nearby ($z=0.09$) galaxy cluster, Abell 2142, with that of halos of comparable virial mass extracted from sets of state-of-the-art numerical simulations, both collisionless at different resolutions and with the inclusion of baryonic physics in the form of cooling, star formation, and feedback by active galactic nuclei. We also use two semi-analytical models to account for the presence of orphan galaxies. The photometric and spectroscopic information, taken from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 12 (SDSS DR12) database, allows us to estimate the stellar velocity dispersion of member galaxies of Abell 2142. This quantity is used as proxy for the total mass of secure cluster members and is properly compared with that of subhalos in simulations. We find that simulated halos have a statistically significant ($\gtrsim 7$ sigma confidence level) smaller amount of massive (circular velocity above $200\,{\rm km\, s^{-1}}$) subhalos, even before accounting for the possible incompleteness of observations. These results corroborate the findings from a recent strong lensing study of the Hubble Frontier Fields galaxy cluster MACS J0416 \citep{grillo2015} and suggest that the observed difference is already present at the level of dark matter (DM) subhalos and is not solved by introducing baryonic physics. A deeper understanding of this discrepancy between observations and simulations will provide valuable insights into the impact of the physical properties of DM particles and the effect of baryons on the formation and evolution of cosmological structures.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures. Modified to match the version published in ApJ

Shapley Supercluster Survey (ShaSS): Galaxy Evolution from Filaments to Cluster Cores

We present an overview of a multi-wavelength survey of the Shapley supercluster (SSC; z~0.05) covering a contiguous area of 260 h^-2_70 Mpc^2 including the supercluster core. The project main aim is to quantify the influence of cluster-scale mass assembly on galaxy evolution in one of the most massive structures in the local Universe. The Shapley supercluster survey (ShaSS) includes nine Abell clusters (A3552, A3554, A3556, A3558, A3559, A3560, A3562, AS0724, AS0726) and two poor clusters (SC1327- 312, SC1329-313) showing evidence of cluster-cluster interactions. Optical (ugri) and near-infrared (K) imaging acquired with VST and VISTA allow us to study the galaxy population down to m*+6 at the supercluster redshift. A dedicated spectroscopic survey with AAOmega on the Anglo-Australian Telescope provides a magnitude-limited sample of supercluster members with 80% completeness at ~m*+3. We derive the galaxy density across the whole area, demonstrating that all structures within this area are embedded in a single network of clusters, groups and filaments. The stellar mass density in the core of the SSC is always higher than 9E09 M_sun Mpc^-3, which is ~40x the cosmic stellar mass density for galaxies in the local Universe. We find a new filamentary structure (~7 Mpc long in projection) connecting the SSC core to the cluster A3559, as well as previously unidentified density peaks. We perform a weak-lensing analysis of the central 1 sqdeg field of the survey obtaining for the central cluster A3558 a mass of M_500=7.63E14 M_sun, in agreement with X-ray based estimates.Comment: 22 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for publication on MNRA

Discovery of a faint, star-forming, multiply lensed, Lyman-alpha blob

We report the discovery of a multiply lensed Lyman-$\alpha$ blob (LAB) behind the galaxy cluster AS1063 using the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) on the Very Large Telescope (VLT). The background source is at $z=$ 3.117 and is intrinsically faint compared to almost all previously reported LABs. We used our highly precise strong lensing model to reconstruct the source properties, and we find an intrinsic luminosity of $L_{\rm Ly\alpha}$=$1.9\times10^{42}$ erg s$^{-1}$, extending to 33 kpc. We find that the LAB is associated with a group of galaxies, and possibly a protocluster, in agreement with previous studies that find LABs in overdensities. In addition to Lyman-$\alpha$ (Ly$\alpha$) emission, we find \ion{C}{IV}, \ion{He}{II}, and \ion{O}{III}] ultraviolet (UV) emission lines arising from the centre of the nebula. We used the compactness of these lines in combination with the line ratios to conclude that the \Lya nebula is likely powered by embedded star formation. Resonant scattering of the \Lya photons then produces the extended shape of the emission. Thanks to the combined power of MUSE and strong gravitational lensing, we are now able to probe the circumgalatic medium of sub-$L_{*}$ galaxies at $z\approx 3$.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures; moderate changes to match the accepted A&A versoi