261 research outputs found
Do cluster properties affect the quenching rate?
The quenching rate is known to depend on galaxy stellar mass and environment,
however, possible dependences on the hosting halo properties, such as mass,
richness, and dynamical status, are still debated. The determination of these
dependences is hampered by systematics, induced by noisy estimates of cluster
mass or by the lack of control on galaxy stellar mass, which may mask existing
trends or introduce fake trends. We studied a sample of local clusters (20 with
0.0214), selected independent of the galaxy
properties under study, having homogeneous optical photometry and X-ray
estimated properties. Using those top quality measurements of cluster mass,
hence of cluster scale, richness, iron abundance, and cooling time/presence of
a cool-core, we study the simultaneous dependence of quenching on these cluster
properties on galaxy stellar mass M and normalised cluster-centric distance
r/r200. We found that the quenching rate can be completely described by two
variables only, galaxy stellar mass and normalised cluster-centric distance,
and is independent of halo properties (mass, richness, iron abundance, presence
of a cool-core, and central cooling time). These halo properties change, in
most cases, by less than 3% the probability that a galaxy is quenched, once the
mass-size (M200-r200) scaling relation is accounted for through cluster-centric
distance normalisation.Comment: 12 pages, accepted for publication in A&
Star formation and environment in clusters up to z~2.2
The dependence of galaxy star formation activity on environment - especially
in clusters - at high redshift is still poorly understood, as illustrated by
the still limited number of z>1.4 clusters on the one hand, and by the still
debated star formation-density relation at high redshift on the other hand. The
zphot~2.2 JKCS041 cluster allows to probe such environmental dependence of star
formation activity at an unprecedented combination of redshifts and
environments. Its study permits to enlarge the knowledge of high redshift
clusters and to put strong leverage on observational constraints for galaxy
evolution models. We analyze deep u\astg'r'i'z'JHKs images from the
CFHTLS/WIRDS surveys, which cover JKCS041 cluster field. We first estimate
photometric redshifts based on multi-wavelength photometry. We then lead a
careful analysis to test the presence of a Butcher-Oemler effect. We work on
galaxies within 2\timesr200 and with masses >1.34\times10^11 Msun, and use two
comparison clusters at z=0 and z=1 of similar mass. We estimate the radial
profiles of the fraction of blue galaxies, taking into account the star aging
with decreasing redshift. After confirming the high redshift nature of JKCS041,
we find no evidence for a Butcher-Oemler effect between z~2.2 and z~0 for
galaxies more massive than 1.34\times10^11 Msun. In the cluster center, a
change greater than \Deltafblue/\Deltaz=0.16 between z~0 and z~2.2 would be
easily detected. We also find that JKCS041 shows a consistent and systematic
increase of the fraction of star-forming galaxies with cluster-centric
distance, hence with decreasing density, for both a M>1.34\times10^11 Msun
selected sample and a lower mass sample. In particular, very few (less than
15%) star-forming galaxies are found within r200/2 among high mass
(M>1.34\times10^11 Msun) galaxies. Our results show that the present-day star
formation-density relation is already in place at z~2.2.Comment: 10 pages, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic
Size growth of red-sequence early-type galaxies in clusters in the last 10 Gyr
We carried out a photometric and structural analysis in the rest-frame
band of a mass-selected () sample of red-sequence
galaxies in 14 galaxy clusters, 6 of which are at . To this end, we
reduced/analyzed about 300 orbits of multicolor images taken with the Advanced
Camera for Survey and the Wide Field Camera 3 on the Hubble Space Telescope. We
uniformly morphologically classified galaxies from to , and
we homogeneously derived sizes (effective radii) for the entire sample.
Furthermore, our size derivation allows, and therefore is not biased by, the
presence of the usual variety of morphological structures seen in early-type
galaxies, such as bulges, bars, disks, isophote twists, and ellipiticy
gradients. By using such a mass-selected sample, composed of 244 red-sequence
early-type galaxies, we find that the of the galaxy size at a fixed
stellar mass, has increased with time at a rate of
dex per Gyr over the last 10 Gyr, in marked contrast with the
threefold increase found in the literature for galaxies in the general field
over the same period. This suggests, at face value, that secular processes
should be excluded as the primary drivers of size evolution because we observed
an environmental environmental dependent size growth. Using spectroscopic ages
of Coma early-type galaxies we also find that recently quenched early-type
galaxies are a numerically minor population not different enough in size to
alter the mean size at a given mass, which implies that the progenitor bias is
minor, i.e., that the size evolution measured by selecting galaxies at the
redshift of observation is indistinguishable from the one that compares
ancestors and descendents.Comment: A&A 593, A2 (2016) after revision of the z=1.63 cluster name,
mis-typed in previous version. No result of our paper is affected by having
mis-typed the cluster nam
Target Selection and Validation of DESI Emission Line Galaxies
Artículo escrito por un elevado número de autores, solo se referencian el que aparece en primer lugar, el nombre del grupo de colaboración, si le hubiere, y los autores pertenecientes a la UAMThe Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) will precisely constrain cosmic expansion and the growth of structure by collecting ∼40 million extragalactic redshifts across ∼80% of cosmic history and one-third of the sky. The Emission Line galaxy (ELG) sample, which will comprise about one-third of all DESI tracers, will be used to probe the universe over the 0.6 < z < 1.6 range, including the 1.1 < z < 1.6 range, which is expected to provide the tightest constraints. We present the target selection for the DESI Survey Validation (SV) and Main Survey ELG samples, which relies on the imaging of the Legacy Surveys. The Main ELG selection consists of a g-band magnitude cut and a (g − r) versus (r − z) color box, while the SV selection explores extensions of the Main selection boundaries. The Main ELG sample is composed of two disjoint subsamples, which have target densities of about 1940 deg−2 and 460 deg−2, respectively. We first characterize their photometric properties and density variations across the footprint. We then analyze the DESI spectroscopic data that have been obtained from 2020 December to 2021 December in the SV and Main Survey. We establish a preliminary criterion for selecting reliable redshifts, based on the [O ii] flux measurement, and assess its performance. Using this criterion, we are able to present the spectroscopic efficiency of the Main ELG selection, along with its redshift distribution. We thus demonstrate that the Main selection 1940 deg−2 subsample alone should provide 400 deg−2 and 460 deg−2 reliable redshifts in the 0.6 < z < 1.1 and the 1.1 < z < 1.6 ranges, respectivel
Early-type Galaxies at z ~ 1.3. II. Masses and Ages of Early-type Galaxies in Different Environments and Their Dependence on Stellar Population Model Assumptions
We have derived masses and ages for 79 early-type galaxies (ETGs) in different environments at z ~ 1.3 in the Lynx supercluster and in the GOODS/CDF-S field using multi-wavelength (0.6-4.5 μm; KPNO, Palomar, Keck, Hubble Space Telescope, Spitzer) data sets. At this redshift the contribution of the thermally pulsing asymptotic giant branch (TP-AGB) phase is important for ETGs, and the mass and age estimates depend on the choice of the stellar population model used in the spectral energy distribution fits. We describe in detail the differences among model predictions for a large range of galaxy ages, showing the dependence of these differences on age. Current models still yield large uncertainties. While recent models from Maraston and Charlot & Bruzual offer better modeling of the TP-AGB phase with respect to less recent Bruzual & Charlot models, their predictions do not often match. The modeling of this TP-AGB phase has a significant impact on the derived parameters for galaxies observed at high redshift. Some of our results do not depend on the choice of the model: for all models, the most massive galaxies are the oldest ones, independent of the environment. When using the Maraston and Charlot & Bruzual models, the mass distribution is similar in the clusters and in the groups, whereas in our field sample there is a deficit of massive (M ≳ 10^(11) M_☉) ETGs. According to those last models, ETGs belonging to the cluster environment host on average older stars with respect to group and field populations. This difference is less significant than the age difference in galaxies of different masses
Early-type Galaxies at z ~ 1.3. III. On the Dependence of Formation Epochs and Star Formation Histories on Stellar Mass and Environment
We study the environmental dependence of stellar population properties at z ~ 1.3. We derive galaxy properties (stellar masses, ages, and star formation histories) for samples of massive, red, passive early-type galaxies (ETGs) in two high-redshift clusters, RXJ0849+4452 and RXJ0848+4453 (with redshifts of z = 1.26 and 1.27, respectively), and compare them with those measured for the RDCS1252.9–2927 cluster at z = 1.24 and with those measured for a similarly mass-selected sample of field contemporaries drawn from the GOODS-South field. Robust estimates of the aforementioned parameters have been obtained by comparing a large grid of composite stellar population models with extensive 8- to 10-band photometric coverage, from the rest-frame far-ultraviolet to the infrared. We find no variations of the overall stellar population properties among the different samples of cluster ETGs. However, when comparing cluster versus field stellar population properties we find that, even if the ages are similar and depend only on galaxy mass, the ones in the field do employ longer timescales to assemble their final mass. We find that, approximately 1 Gyr after the onset of star formation, the majority (75%) of cluster galaxies have already assembled most (>80%) of their final mass, while, by the same time, fewer (35%) field ETGs have. Thus, we conclude that while galaxy mass regulates the timing of galaxy formation, the environment regulates the timescale of their star formation histories
Near-infrared jet emission in the microquasar XTE J1550-564
Context: Microquasars are accreting Galactic sources that are also observed
to launch relativistic jets. A key signature of the ejection is non-thermal
radio emission. The level of this jet component at high frequencies is still
poorly constrained. Aims: The X-ray binary and microquasar black hole candidate
XTE J1550-564 exhibited a faint X-ray outburst in April 2003 during which it
stayed in the X-ray low/hard state. We took optical and near-infrared (NIR)
observations with the ESO/NTT telescope during this outburst to disentangle the
various contributions to the spectral energy distribution (SED) and investigate
the presence of a jet component. Methods: Photometric and spectroscopic
observations allowed us to construct an SED and also to produce a high
time-resolution lightcurve. Results: The SED shows an abrupt change of slope
from the NIR domain to the optical. The NIR emission is attributed to
non-thermal synchrotron emission from the compact, self-absorbed jet that is
known to be present in the low/hard state. This is corroborated by the fast
variability, colours, lack of prominent spectral features and evidence for
intrinsic polarisation. The SED suggests the jet break from the optically thick
to the thin regime occurs in the NIR. Conclusions: The simultaneous optical-NIR
data allow an independent confirmation of jet emission in the NIR. The
transition to optically thin synchrotron occurs at NIR frequencies or below,
which leads to an estimated characteristic size greater than 2x10^8cm and
magnetic field less than 5T for the jet base, assuming a homogeneous one-zone
synchrotron model.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics (Section 7.
Stellar structure and evolution; 8 pages, 6 figures
The SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: selecting emission line galaxies using the Fisher discriminant
We present a new selection technique of producing spectroscopic target
catalogues for massive spectroscopic surveys for cosmology. This work was
conducted in the context of the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic
Survey (eBOSS), which will use ~200 000 emission line galaxies (ELGs) at
0.6<zspec<1.0 to obtain a precise baryon acoustic oscillation measurement. Our
proposed selection technique is based on optical and near-infrared broad-band
filter photometry. We used a training sample to define a quantity, the Fisher
discriminant (linear combination of colours), which correlates best with the
desired properties of the target: redshift and [OII] flux. The proposed
selections are simply done by applying a cut on magnitudes and this Fisher
discriminant. We used public data and dedicated SDSS spectroscopy to quantify
the redshift distribution and [OII] flux of our ELG target selections. We
demonstrate that two of our selections fulfil the initial eBOSS/ELG redshift
requirements: for a target density of 180 deg^2, ~70% of the selected objects
have 0.6<zspec<1.0 and only ~1% of those galaxies in the range 0.6<zspec<1.0
are expected to have a catastrophic zspec estimate. Additionally, the stacked
spectra and stacked deep images for those two selections show characteristic
features of star-forming galaxies. The proposed approach using the Fisher
discriminant could, however, be used to efficiently select other galaxy
populations, based on multi-band photometry, providing that spectroscopic
information is available. This technique could thus be useful for other future
massive spectroscopic surveys such as PFS, DESI, and 4MOST.Comment: Version published in A&
The Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey - Infrared (NGVS-IR): I. A new Near-UV/Optical/Near-IR Globular Cluster selection tool
The NGVS-IR project (Next Generation Virgo Survey - Infrared) is a contiguous
near-infrared imaging survey of the Virgo cluster of galaxies. It complements
the optical wide-field survey of Virgo (NGVS). The current state of NGVS-IR
consists of Ks-band imaging of 4 deg^2 centered on M87, and J and Ks-band
imaging of 16 deg^2 covering the region between M49 and M87. In this paper, we
present the observations of the central 4 deg^2 centered on Virgo's core
region. The data were acquired with WIRCam on the Canada-France-Hawaii
Telescope and the total integration time was 41 hours distributed in 34
contiguous tiles. A survey-specific strategy was designed to account for
extended galaxies while still measuring accurate sky brightness within the
survey area. The average 5\sigma limiting magnitude is Ks=24.4 AB mag and the
50% completeness limit is Ks=23.75 AB mag for point source detections, when
using only images with better than 0.7" seeing (median seeing 0.54"). Star
clusters are marginally resolved in these image stacks, and Virgo galaxies with
\mu_Ks=24.4 AB mag arcsec^-2 are detected. Combining the Ks data with optical
and ultraviolet data, we build the uiK color-color diagram which allows a very
clean color-based selection of globular clusters in Virgo. This diagnostic plot
will provide reliable globular cluster candidates for spectroscopic follow-up
campaigns needed to continue the exploration of Virgo's photometric and
kinematic sub-structures, and will help the design of future searches for
globular clusters in extragalactic systems. Equipped with this powerful new
tool, future NGVS-IR investigations based on the uiK diagram will address the
mapping and analysis of extended structures and compact stellar systems in and
around Virgo galaxies.Comment: 23 pages, 18 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ
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