232 research outputs found
Galaxy Merger Candidates in High-Redshift Cluster Environments
We compile a sample of spectroscopically- and photometrically-selected
cluster galaxies from four high-redshift galaxy clusters ()
from the Spitzer Adaptation of the Red-Sequence Cluster Survey (SpARCS), and a
comparison field sample selected from the UKIDSS Deep Survey. Using
near-infrared imaging from the \textit{Hubble Space Telescope} we classify
potential mergers involving massive () cluster members by eye, based on morphological
properties such as tidal distortions, double nuclei, and projected near
neighbors within 20 kpc. With a catalogue of 23 spectroscopic and 32
photometric massive cluster members across the four clusters and 65
spectroscopic and 26 photometric comparable field galaxies, we find that after
taking into account contamination from interlopers, of
the cluster members are involved in potential mergers, compared to
of the field galaxies. We see no evidence of merger
enhancement in the central cluster environment with respect to the field,
suggesting that galaxy-galaxy merging is not a stronger source of galaxy
evolution in cluster environments compared to the field at these redshifts.Comment: Accepted by Ap
ALMA Observations of Gas-Rich Galaxies in z~1.6 Galaxy Clusters: Evidence for Higher Gas Fractions in High-Density Environments
We present ALMA CO (2-1) detections in 11 gas-rich cluster galaxies at z~1.6,
constituting the largest sample of molecular gas measurements in z>1.5 clusters
to date. The observations span three galaxy clusters, derived from the Spitzer
Adaptation of the Red-sequence Cluster Survey. We augment the >5sigma
detections of the CO (2-1) fluxes with multi-band photometry, yielding stellar
masses and infrared-derived star formation rates, to place some of the first
constraints on molecular gas properties in z~1.6 cluster environments. We
measure sizable gas reservoirs of 0.5-2x10^11 solar masses in these objects,
with high gas fractions and long depletion timescales, averaging 62% and 1.4
Gyr, respectively. We compare our cluster galaxies to the scaling relations of
the coeval field, in the context of how gas fractions and depletion timescales
vary with respect to the star-forming main sequence. We find that our cluster
galaxies lie systematically off the field scaling relations at z=1.6 toward
enhanced gas fractions, at a level of ~4sigma, but have consistent depletion
timescales. Exploiting CO detections in lower-redshift clusters from the
literature, we investigate the evolution of the gas fraction in cluster
galaxies, finding it to mimic the strong rise with redshift in the field. We
emphasize the utility of detecting abundant gas-rich galaxies in high-redshift
clusters, deeming them as crucial laboratories for future statistical studies.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, published in ApJ Letters; updated to match
published versio
The Evolution of Environmental Quenching Timescales to
Using a sample of 4 galaxy clusters at and 10 galaxy
clusters at , we measure the environmental quenching
timescale, , corresponding to the time required after a galaxy is accreted
by a cluster for it to fully cease star formation. Cluster members are selected
by a photometric-redshift criterion, and categorized as star-forming,
quiescent, or intermediate according to their dust-corrected rest-frame colors
and magnitudes. We employ a "delayed-then-rapid" quenching model that relates a
simulated cluster mass accretion rate to the observed numbers of each type of
galaxy in the cluster to constrain . For galaxies of mass , we find a quenching timescale of 1.24 Gyr
in the cluster sample, and 1.50 Gyr at . Using values
drawn from the literature, we compare the redshift evolution of to
timescales predicted for different physical quenching mechanisms. We find
to depend on host halo mass such that quenching occurs over faster timescales
in clusters relative to groups, suggesting that properties of the host halo are
responsible for quenching high-mass galaxies. Between and , we
find that evolves faster than the molecular gas depletion timescale and
slower than an SFR-outflow timescale, but is consistent with the evolution of
the dynamical time. This suggests that environmental quenching in these
galaxies is driven by the motion of satellites relative to the cluster
environment, although due to uncertainties in the atomic gas budget at high
redshift, we cannot rule out quenching due to simple gas depletion
The importance of major mergers in the build up of stellar mass in brightest cluster galaxies at z=1
Recent independent results from numerical simulations and observations have
shown that brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) have increased their stellar mass
by a factor of almost two between z~0.9 and z~0.2. The numerical simulations
further suggest that more than half this mass is accreted through major
mergers. Using a sample of 18 distant galaxy clusters with over 600
spectroscopically confirmed cluster members between them, we search for
observational evidence that major mergers do play a significant role. We find a
major merger rate of 0.38 +/- 0.14 mergers per Gyr at z~1. While the
uncertainties, which stem from the small size of our sample, are relatively
large, our rate is consistent with the results that are derived from numerical
simulations. If we assume that this rate continues to the present day and that
half of the mass of the companion is accreted onto the BCG during these
mergers, then we find that this rate can explain the growth in the stellar mass
of the BCGs that is observed and predicted by simulations. Major mergers
therefore appear to be playing an important role, perhaps even the dominant
one, in the build up of stellar mass in these extraordinary galaxies.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS. Reduced data
will be made available through the ESO archiv
Radon backgrounds in the DEAP-1 liquid-argon-based Dark Matter detector
The DEAP-1 \SI{7}{kg} single phase liquid argon scintillation detector was
operated underground at SNOLAB in order to test the techniques and measure the
backgrounds inherent to single phase detection, in support of the
\mbox{DEAP-3600} Dark Matter detector. Backgrounds in DEAP are controlled
through material selection, construction techniques, pulse shape discrimination
and event reconstruction. This report details the analysis of background events
observed in three iterations of the DEAP-1 detector, and the measures taken to
reduce them.
The Rn decay rate in the liquid argon was measured to be between 16
and \SI{26}{\micro\becquerel\per\kilogram}. We found that the background
spectrum near the region of interest for Dark Matter detection in the DEAP-1
detector can be described considering events from three sources: radon
daughters decaying on the surface of the active volume, the expected rate of
electromagnetic events misidentified as nuclear recoils due to inefficiencies
in the pulse shape discrimination, and leakage of events from outside the
fiducial volume due to imperfect position reconstruction. These backgrounds
statistically account for all observed events, and they will be strongly
reduced in the DEAP-3600 detector due to its higher light yield and simpler
geometry
Evidence for significant growth in the stellar mass of brightest cluster galaxies over the past 10 billion years
Using new and published data, we construct a sample of 160 brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) spanning the redshift interval 0.03 < z < 1.63. We use this sample, which covers 70 per cent of the history of the universe, to measure the growth in the stellar mass of BCGs after correcting for the correlation between the stellar mass of the BCG and the mass of the cluster in which it lives. We find that the stellar mass of BCGs increases by a factor of 1.8 ± 0.3 between z = 0.9 and z = 0.2. Compared to earlier works, our result is closer to the predictions of semi-analytic models. However, BCGs at z = 0.9, relative to BCGs at z = 0.2, are still a factor of 1.5 more massive than the predictions of these models. Star formation rates in BCGs at z ∼ 1 are generally too low to result in significant amounts of mass. Instead, it is likely that most of the mass build up occurs through mainly dry mergers in which perhaps half of the mass is lost to the intra-cluster medium of the cluster
Improving Photoelectron Counting and Particle Identification in Scintillation Detectors with Bayesian Techniques
Many current and future dark matter and neutrino detectors are designed to
measure scintillation light with a large array of photomultiplier tubes (PMTs).
The energy resolution and particle identification capabilities of these
detectors depend in part on the ability to accurately identify individual
photoelectrons in PMT waveforms despite large variability in pulse amplitudes
and pulse pileup. We describe a Bayesian technique that can identify the times
of individual photoelectrons in a sampled PMT waveform without deconvolution,
even when pileup is present. To demonstrate the technique, we apply it to the
general problem of particle identification in single-phase liquid argon dark
matter detectors. Using the output of the Bayesian photoelectron counting
algorithm described in this paper, we construct several test statistics for
rejection of backgrounds for dark matter searches in argon. Compared to simpler
methods based on either observed charge or peak finding, the photoelectron
counting technique improves both energy resolution and particle identification
of low energy events in calibration data from the DEAP-1 detector and
simulation of the larger MiniCLEAN dark matter detector.Comment: 16 pages, 16 figure
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