44 research outputs found
The abundance and spatial distribution of ultra-diffuse galaxies in nearby galaxy clusters
Recent observations have highlighted a significant population of faint but
large (r_eff>1.5 kpc) galaxies in the Coma cluster. The origin of these Ultra
Diffuse Galaxies (UDGs) remains puzzling, as the interpretation of the
observational results has been hindered by the subjective selection of UDGs,
and the limited study of only the Coma (and some examples in the Virgo-)
cluster. We extend the study of UDGs using 8 clusters in the redshift range
0.044<z<0.063 with deep g- and r-band imaging data taken with MegaCam at the
CFHT. We describe an automatic selection pipeline for quantitative
identification, tested for completeness using image simulations of these
galaxies. We find that the abundance of the UDGs we can detect increases with
cluster mass, reaching ~200 in typical haloes of M200~10^15 Msun. The cluster
UDGs have colours consistent with the cluster red sequence, and have a steep
size distribution that declines as n~r_eff^-3.4. Their radial distribution is
significantly steeper than NFW in the outskirts, and is significantly shallower
in the inner parts. They follow the same radial distribution as the more
massive quiescent galaxies in the clusters, except within the core region of
r<0.15XR200 (or <300 kpc). Within this region the number density of UDGs drops
and is consistent with zero. These diffuse galaxies can only resist tidal
forces down to this cluster-centric distance if they are highly centrally
dark-matter dominated. The observation that the radial distribution of more
compact dwarf galaxies (r_eff<1.0 kpc) with similar luminosities follows the
same distribution as the UDGs, but exist down to a smaller distance of 100kpc
from the cluster centres, indicates that they may have similarly massive
sub-haloes as the UDGs. Although several scenarios can give rise to the UDG
population, our results point to differences in the formation history as the
most plausible explanation.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for publication in A&A after minor
revisio
The stellar mass function of galaxies in Planck-selected clusters at 0.5 < z < 0.7: new constraints on the timescale and location of satellite quenching
We study the abundance of star-forming and quiescent galaxies in a sample of
21 massive clusters at 0.5<z<0.7, detected with the Planck satellite. We
measure the cluster galaxy stellar mass function (SMF), which is a fundamental
observable to study and constrain the formation and evolution of galaxies. Our
measurements are based on homogeneous and deep multi-band photometry spanning
u- to the Ks-band for each cluster and are supported by spectroscopic data from
different programs. The galaxy population is separated between quiescent and
star-forming galaxies based on their rest-frame U-V and V-J colours. The SMF is
compared to that of field galaxies at the same redshifts, using data from the
COSMOS/UltraVISTA survey. We find that the shape of the SMF of star-forming
galaxies does not depend on environment, while the SMF of quiescent galaxies
has a significantly steeper low-mass slope in the clusters compared to the
field. We estimate the environmental quenching efficiency (f_EQ), i.e. the
probability for a galaxy that would normally be star forming in the field, to
be quenched due to its environment. The f_EQ shows no stellar-mass dependence
in any environment, but it increases from 40% in the cluster outskirts to ~90%
in the cluster centres. The radial signature of f_EQ provides constraints on
where the dominant quenching mechanism operates in these clusters and on what
timescale. Exploring these using a simple model based on galaxy orbits obtained
from an N-body simulation, we find a clear degeneracy between both parameters.
For example, the quenching process may either be triggered on a long (~3 Gyr)
time scale at large radii (r~8R_500), or happen well within 1 Gyr at r<R_500.
The radius where quenching is triggered is at least r_quench> 0.67R_500
(95%CL). The ICM density at this location suggests that ram-pressure stripping
of the cold gas is a likely cause of quenching. [Abridged]Comment: 16 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in A&
The stellar mass function and evolution of the density profile of galaxy clusters from the Hydrangea simulations at
Galaxy clusters are excellent probes to study the effect of environment on
galaxy formation and evolution. Along with high-quality observational data,
accurate cosmological simulations are required to improve our understanding of
galaxy evolution in these systems. In this work, we compare state-of-the-art
observational data of massive galaxy clusters ()
at different redshifts () with predictions from the Hydrangea suite of
cosmological hydrodynamic simulations of 24 massive galaxy clusters ( at ). We compare three fundamental observables of
galaxy clusters: the total stellar mass to halo mass ratio, the stellar mass
function (SMF), and the radial mass density profile of the cluster galaxies. In
the first two of these, the simulations agree well with the observations,
albeit with a slightly too high abundance of galaxies at . The NFW concentrations of
cluster galaxies increase with redshift, in contrast to the decreasing dark
matter halo concentrations. This previously observed behaviour is therefore due
to a qualitatively different assembly of the smooth DM halo compared to the
satellite population. Quantitatively, we however find a discrepancy in that the
simulations predict higher stellar concentrations than observed at lower
redshifts (), by a factor of 2. This may be due to selection
bias in the simulations, or stem from shortcomings in the build-up and
stripping of their inner satellite halo.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures (excluding appendices), Accepted for publication
in MNRA
Evidence for the inside-out growth of the stellar mass distribution in galaxy clusters since z ~ 1
International audienceWe study the radial number density and stellar mass density distributions of satellite galaxies in a sample of 60 massive clusters at 0.04 <z< 0.26 selected from the Multi-Epoch Nearby Cluster Survey (MENeaCS) and the Canadian Cluster Comparison Project (CCCP). In addition to ~10 000 spectroscopically confirmed member galaxies, we use deep ugri-band imaging to estimate photometric redshifts and stellar masses, and then statistically subtract fore- and background sources using data from the COSMOS survey. We measure the galaxy number density and stellar mass density distributions in logarithmically spaced bins over 2 orders of magnitude in radial distance from the BCGs. For projected distances in the range 0.1 <R/R200< 2.0, we find that the stellar mass distribution is well-described by an NFW profile with a concentration of c = 2.03 ± 0.20. However, at smaller radii we measure a significant excess in the stellar mass in satellite galaxies of about 1011M⊙ per cluster, compared to these NFW profiles. We do obtain good fits to generalised NFW profiles with free inner slopes and to Einasto profiles. To examine how clusters assemble their stellar mass component over cosmic time, we compare this local sample to the GCLASS cluster sample at z ~ 1, which represents the approximate progenitor sample of the low-z clusters. This allows for a direct comparison, which suggests that the central parts (R< 0.4 Mpc) of the stellar mass distributions of satellites in local galaxy clusters are already in place at z ~ 1, and contain sufficient excess material for further BCG growth. Evolving towards z = 0, clusters appear to assemble their stellar mass primarily onto the outskirts, making them grow in an inside-out fashion
Complete IRAC mapping of the CFHTLS-DEEP, MUSYC AND NMBS-II FIELDS
The IRAC mapping of the NMBS-II fields program is an imaging survey at 3.6
and 4.5m with the Spitzer Infrared Array Camera (IRAC). The observations
cover three Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey Deep (CFHTLS-D)
fields, including one also imaged by AEGIS, and two MUSYC fields. These are
then combined with archival data from all previous programs into deep mosaics.
The resulting imaging covers a combined area of about 3 , with at least
2 hr integration time for each field. In this work, we present our data
reduction techniques and document the resulting coverage maps at 3.6 and
4.5m. All of the images are W-registered to the reference image, which is
either the z-band stack image of the 25\% best seeing images from the CFHTLS-D
for CFHTLS-D1, CFHTLS-D3, and CFHTLS-D4, or the K-band images obtained at the
Blanco 4-m telescope at CTIO for MUSYC1030 and MUSYC1255. We make all images
and coverage maps described herein publicly available via the Spitzer Science
Center.Comment: Accepted in PASP; released IRAC mosaics available upon publication of
the pape