3,252 research outputs found
A Stellar Mass Threshold for Quenching of Field Galaxies
We demonstrate that dwarf galaxies (10^7 < M_stellar < 10^9 Msun) with no
active star formation are extremely rare (<0.06%) in the field. Our sample is
based on the NASA-Sloan Atlas which is a re-analysis of the Sloan Digital Sky
Survey Data Release 8. We examine the relative number of quenched versus star
forming dwarf galaxies, defining quenched galaxies as having no Halpha emission
(EW_Halpha < 2 AA) and a strong 4000AA-break. The fraction of quenched dwarf
galaxies decreases rapidly with increasing distance from a massive host,
leveling off for distances beyond 1.5 Mpc. We define galaxies beyond 1.5 Mpc of
a massive host galaxy to be in the field. We demonstrate that there is a
stellar mass threshold of M_stellar < 1.0x10^9 Msun below which quenched
galaxies do not exist in the field. Below this threshold, we find that none of
the 2951 field dwarf galaxies are quenched; all field dwarf galaxies show
evidence for recent star formation. Correcting for volume effects, this
corresponds to a 1-sigma upper limit on the quenched fraction of 0.06%. In more
dense environments, quenched galaxies account for 23% of the dwarf population
over the same stellar mass range. The majority of quenched dwarf galaxies
(often classified as dwarf elliptical galaxies) are within 2 virial radii of a
massive galaxy, and only a few percent of quenched dwarf galaxies exist beyond
4 virial radii. Thus, for galaxies with stellar mass less than 1.0x10^9 Msun,
ending star-formation requires the presence of a more massive neighbor,
providing a stringent constraint on models of star formation feedback.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, accepted to Ap
Stellar Metallicity Gradients in SDSS galaxies
We infer stellar metallicity and abundance ratio gradients for a sample of
red galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Main galaxy sample. Because
this sample does not have multiple spectra at various radii in a single galaxy,
we measure these gradients statistically. We separate galaxies into stellar
mass bins, stack their spectra in redshift bins, and calculate the measured
absorption line indices in projected annuli by differencing spectra in
neighboring redshift bins. After determining the line indices, we use stellar
population modeling from the EZ\_Ages software to calculate ages,
metallicities, and abundance ratios within each annulus. Our data covers the
central regions of these galaxies, out to slightly higher than . We
find detectable gradients in metallicity and relatively shallow gradients in
abundance ratios, similar to results found for direct measurements of
individual galaxies. The gradients are only weakly dependent on stellar mass,
and this dependence is well-correlated with the change of with mass.
Based on this data, we report mean equivalent widths, metallicities, and
abundance ratios as a function of mass and velocity dispersion for SDSS
early-type galaxies, for fixed apertures of 2.5 kpc and of 0.5 .Comment: 19 pages; 8 tables, 12 figures. Submitted to ApJ for publicatio
Improved background subtraction for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey images
We describe a procedure for background subtracting Sloan Digital Sky Survey
(SDSS) imaging that improves the resulting detection and photometry of large
galaxies on the sky. Within each SDSS drift scan run, we mask out detected
sources and then fit a smooth function to the variation of the sky background.
This procedure has been applied to all SDSS-III Data Release 8 images, and the
results are available as part of that data set. We have tested the effect of
our background subtraction on the photometry of large galaxies by inserting
fake galaxies into the raw pixels, reanalyzing the data, and measuring them
after background subtraction. Our technique results in no size-dependent bias
in galaxy fluxes up to half-light radii of 100 arcsec; in contrast, for
galaxies of that size the standard SDSS photometric catalog underestimates
fluxes by about 1.5 mag. Our results represent a substantial improvement over
the standard SDSS catalog results and should form the basis of any analysis of
nearby galaxies using the SDSS imaging data.Comment: accepted by the Astronomical Journa
Galaxies in SDSS and DEEP2: a quiet life on the blue sequence?
In the six billion years between redshifts z=1 and z=0.1, galaxies change due
to the aging of their stellar populations, the formation of new stars, and
mergers with other galaxies. Here I explore the relative importance of these
various effects, finding that while mergers are likely to be important for the
red galaxy sequence they are unlikely to affect more than 10% of the blue
galaxy sequence. I compare the galaxy population at redshift z=0.1 from the
Sloan Digital Sky Survey to that at z=1 from the Deep Extragalactic
Evolutionary Probe 2. Galaxies are bluer at z=1: the blue sequence by about 0.3
mag and the red sequence by about 0.1 mag, in redshift z=0.1 (u-g) color. I
evaluate the change in color and in the luminosity functions of the two
sequences using some simplistic stellar population synthesis models. These
models indicate that the luminous end of the red sequence fades less than
passive evolution allows by about 0.2 mag. Due to a lack of luminous blue
progenitors, ``dry'' mergers betweeen red galaxies then must create the
luminous red population at z=0.1, if stellar population models are correct. The
blue sequence colors and luminosity function are consistent with a reduction in
the star-formation rate since redshift z=1 by a factor of about three, with no
change in the number density to within 10%. These results restrict the number
of blue galaxies that can fall onto the red sequence by any process, and in
particular suggest that if mergers are catastrophic events they must be rare
for blue galaxies.Comment: submitted to ApJ, summary and viewgraphs available at
http://cosmo.nyu.edu/blanton/deep2sdss
Counts-in-Cylinders in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey with Comparisons to N-body Simulations
Environmental statistics provide a necessary means of comparing the
properties of galaxies in different environments and a vital test of models of
galaxy formation within the prevailing, hierarchical cosmological model. We
explore counts-in-cylinders, a common statistic defined as the number of
companions of a particular galaxy found within a given projected radius and
redshift interval. Galaxy distributions with the same two-point correlation
functions do not necessarily have the same companion count distributions. We
use this statistic to examine the environments of galaxies in the Sloan Digital
Sky Survey, Data Release 4. We also make preliminary comparisons to four models
for the spatial distributions of galaxies, based on N-body simulations, and
data from SDSS DR4 to study the utility of the counts-in-cylinders statistic.
There is a very large scatter between the number of companions a galaxy has and
the mass of its parent dark matter halo and the halo occupation, limiting the
utility of this statistic for certain kinds of environmental studies. We also
show that prevalent, empirical models of galaxy clustering that match observed
two- and three-point clustering statistics well fail to reproduce some aspects
of the observed distribution of counts-in-cylinders on 1, 3 and 6-Mpc/h scales.
All models that we explore underpredict the fraction of galaxies with few or no
companions in 3 and 6-Mpc/h cylinders. Roughly 7% of galaxies in the real
universe are significantly more isolated within a 6 Mpc/h cylinder than the
galaxies in any of the models we use. Simple, phenomenological models that map
galaxies to dark matter halos fail to reproduce high-order clustering
statistics in low-density environments.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures. Accepted, Ap
Implementing the three-particle quantization condition including higher partial waves
We present an implementation of the relativistic three-particle quantization
condition including both - and -wave two-particle channels. For this, we
develop a systematic expansion about threshold of the three-particle
divergence-free K matrix, , which is a
generalization of the effective range expansion of the two-particle K matrix,
. Relativistic invariance plays an important role in this
expansion. We find that -wave two-particle channels enter first at quadratic
order. We explain how to implement the resulting multichannel quantization
condition, and present several examples of its application. We derive the
leading dependence of the threshold three-particle state on the two-particle
-wave scattering amplitude, and use this to test our implementation. We show
how strong two-particle -wave interactions can lead to significant effects
on the finite-volume three-particle spectrum, including the possibility of a
generalized three-particle Efimov-like bound state. We also explore the
application to the system, which is accessible to lattice QCD
simulations, where we study the sensitivity of the spectrum to the components
of . Finally, we investigate the circumstances
under which the quantization condition has unphysical solutions.Comment: 57 pages, 12 figures, 3 tables (v2: Made minor clarifications,
updated a reference, fixed typos
Faint, Evolving Radio AGN in SDSS Luminous Red Galaxies
We detect and study the properties of faint radio AGN in Luminous Red
Galaxies (LRGs). The LRG sample comprises 760,000 objects from a catalog of LRG
photometric redshifts constructed from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)
imaging data, and 65,000 LRGs from the SDSS spectroscopic sample. These
galaxies have typical 1.4 GHz flux densities in the 10s-100s of microJy, with
the contribution from a low-luminosity AGN dominating any contribution from
star formation. To probe the radio properties of such faint objects, we employ
a stacking technique whereby FIRST survey image cutouts at each optical LRG
position are sorted by the parameter of interest and median-combined within
bins. We find that median radio luminosity scales with optical luminosity
(L_opt) as L_1.4 GHz ~ L_opt^(beta), where beta appears to decrease from beta ~
1 at z = 0.4 to beta ~ 0 at z = 0.7, a result which could be indicative of AGN
cosmic downsizing. We also find that the overall LRG population, which is
dominated by low-luminosity AGN, experiences significant cosmic evolution
between z = 0.2 and z = 0.7. This implies a considerable increase in total AGN
heating for these massive ellipticals with redshift. By matching against the
FIRST catalog, we investigate the incidence and properties of LRGs associated
with double-lobed (FR I/II) radio galaxies. (Abridged)Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, Accepted by A
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