Properties of the H II regions derived using integral field spectroscopy

Here we review some of our more recent results on the observed properties of HII regions using Integral Field Spectroscopy. In particular, we illustrate the use of this technique to study in detail the ionization conditions across the nebulae for galactic HII regions (focused on the Orion Nebula) and the statistical study of large samples of extragalactic HII regions. We review the reported new scaling relation between the local mass density and the oxygen abundance across the disk galaxies and the recently discovered universal gradient for oxygen abundances. We update our previous results the lack of a dependence of the Mass-Metallicity relation with the starformation rate, including new unpublished data. Finally we discuss on the relation between the ionization conditions in the nebulae and the underlying stellar population. All together our results indicate that disk galaxies present a chemical enrichment dominated by an inside-out growth scenario, with a less evident effect of radial migrations and/or outflows. © 2013 Sebastian F. Sánchez.Sebastian F. Sanchez thanks thedirector ofCEFCA, M. Moles, for his sincere support of this project. This study makes use of the data provided by the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area (CALIFA) survey (http://califa.caha.es/). CALIFA is the first legacy survey being performed at Calar Alto. The CALIFA collaboration would like to thank the IAA-CSIC and MPIA-MPG as major partners of the observatory and CAHA itself, for the unique access to telescope time and support in manpower and infrastructures. The CALIFA collaboration also thanks the CAHA staff for the dedication to this project. Based on observations collected at the Centro Astronomico Hispano Aleman (CAHA) at Calar Alto, operated jointly by the Max-Planck-Institut fur Astronomie and the Instituto de Astrof sica de Andalucia (CSIC). The author thanks the anonymous referee for the many useful and detailed comments. The author also thanks P. Papaderos for the useful comments and the suggestions to clean and clarify the text. We thank the Viabilidad, Diseno, Acceso y Mejora funding program, ICTS-2009-10, for supporting the initial development of this project. He thanks the Plan Nacional de Investigacion y Desarrollo funding programs, AYA2010-22111-C03-03 and AYA2010-10904E, of the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion, for the support given to this project. He thanks the the Ramon y Cajal project RyC-2011-07590 of the spanish Ministerio de Econom a y Competitividad, for the support give to this project. He acknowledges suuport by the Grants nos. M100031241 and M100031201 of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (ASCR internal support program of international cooperation projects-PIPPMS) and by the Czech Republic program for the long-term development of the research institution no. RVO67985815.Peer Reviewe

Serendipitous discovery of a strong-lensed galaxy in integral field spectroscopy from MUSE

2MASX J04035024-0239275 is a bright red elliptical galaxy at redshift 0.0661 that presents two extended sources at 2\arcsec~to the north-east and 1\arcsec~to the south-west. The sizes and surface brightnesses of the two blue sources are consistent with a gravitationally-lensed background galaxy. In this paper we present MUSE observations of this galaxy from the All-weather MUse Supernova Integral-field Nearby Galaxies (AMUSING) survey, and report the discovery of a background lensed galaxy at redshift 0.1915, together with other 15 background galaxies at redshifts ranging from 0.09 to 0.9, that are not multiply imaged. We have extracted aperture spectra of the lens and all the sources and fit the stellar continuum with STARLIGHT to estimate their stellar and emission line properties. A trace of past merger and active nucleus activity is found in the lensing galaxy, while the background lensed galaxy is found to be star-forming. Modeling the lensing potential with a singular isothermal ellipsoid, we find an Einstein radius of 1\farcs45$\pm$0\farcs04, which corresponds to 1.9 kpc at the redshift of the lens and it is much smaller than its effective radius ($r_{\rm eff}\sim$ 9\arcsec). Comparing the Einstein mass and the STARLIGHT stellar mass within the same aperture yields a dark matter fraction of $18 \% \pm 8$ \% within the Einstein radius. The advent of large surveys such as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will discover a number of strong-lensed systems, and here we demonstrate how wide-field integral field spectroscopy offers an excellent approach to study them and to precisely model lensing effects.Comment: 12 pages, 12 Figures, 4 Tables. Accepted in MNRA

AGN in the CALIFA survey: X-ray detection of nuclear sources

A complete demographic of active galactic nuclei (AGN) is essential to understand the evolution of the Universe. Optical surveys estimate the population of AGN in the local Universe to be of $\sim$ 4%. However, these results could be biased towards bright sources, not affected by the host galaxy attenuation. An alternative method for detecting these objects is through the X-ray emission. In this work, we aim to complement the AGN population of the optical CALIFA survey (941 sources), by using X-ray data from Chandra, which provides the best spatial resolution to date, essential to isolate the nuclear emission from the host galaxy. We study a total of 138 sources with available data. We find 34 new bonafide AGN and 23 AGN candidates, which could increase the AGN population to 7-10\% among the CALIFA survey. X-rays are particularly useful for low-luminosity AGN since they are excluded by the criterion of large equivalent width of the $H\alpha$ emission line when applied to optical selections. Indeed, placing such a restrictive criteria might cause a loss of up to 70% of AGN sources. X-ray detected sources are preferentially located in the right side of the [$OIII$]/$H\beta$ versus [$NII$]/$H\alpha$ diagram, suggesting that this diagram might be the most reliable at classifying AGN sources. Our results support the idea that multi-wavelength studies are the best way to obtain a complete AGN population.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures, 7 tables, 5 pages of supplementary online material available. Accepted for publication in MNRA

Mildly Suppressed Star Formation in Central Regions of MaNGA Seyfert Galaxies

Negative feedback from accretion onto super-massive black holes (SMBHs), that is to remove gas and suppress star formation in galaxies, has been widely suggested. However, for Seyfert galaxies which harbor less active, moderately accreting SMBHs in the local universe, the feedback capability of their black hole activity is elusive. We present spatially-resolved H$\alpha$ measurements to trace ongoing star formation in Seyfert galaxies and compare their specific star formation rate with a sample of star-forming galaxies whose global galaxy properties are controlled to be the same as the Seyferts. From the comparison we find that the star formation rates within central kpc of Seyfert galaxies are mildly suppressed as compared to the matched normal star forming galaxies. This suggests that the feedback of moderate SMBH accretion could, to some extent, regulate the ongoing star formation in these intermediate to late type galaxies under secular evolution.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, accepted by MNRA

Arqueología y TIC. Hacia una enseñanza/aprendizaje transversal en Secundaria. Propuesta de Innovación Educativa del Grupo de Investigación en Arqueología de la Universidad de Murcia (España)

This work presents an educational innovation proposal to archaeological education. We think the secondary classrooms are the suitable frame for training and development of a new pedagogical model which unites Archeology and ICT. Our aim is the improvement of the teaching and learning process, to achieving the Digital Competence.Este trabajo presenta una propuesta de innovación educativa en la didáctica de la Arqueología. Creemos que las aulas preuniversitarias son el marco idóneo para la puesta en marcha y desarrollo de un nuevo modelo pedagógico que aúne Arqueología y TIC. Nuestro objetivo es la mejora del proceso de enseñanza/aprendizaje, favoreciendo la adquisición de la competencia digital

Ageing and Quenching through the ageing diagram II: physical characterization of galaxies

The connection between quenching mechanisms, which rapidly turn star-forming systems into quiescent, and the properties of the galaxy population remains difficult to discern. In this work we investigate the physical properties of MaNGA and SAMI galaxies at different stages of their star formation history. Specifically, we compare galaxies with signatures of recent quenching (Quenched) -- $\rm H(\alpha)$ in absorption and low $D_n(4000)$ -- with the rest of the low star-forming and active population (Retired and Ageing, respectively). The analysis is performed in terms of characteristics such as the total stellar mass, half-light radius, velocity-to-dispersion ratio, metallicity, and environment. We find that the Ageing population comprises a heterogeneous mixture of galaxies, preferentially late-type systems, with diverse physical properties. Retired galaxies, formerly Ageing or Quenched systems, are dominated by early-type high-mass galaxies found both at low and dense environments. Most importantly, we find that recently quenched galaxies are consistent with a population of compact low-mass satellite systems, with higher metallicities than their Ageing analogues. We argue that this is compatible with being quenched after undergoing a star-burst phase induced by environmental processes (e.g. ram pressure). However, we also detect a non-negligible fraction of field central galaxies likely quenched by internal processes. This study highlights that, in order to constrain the mechanisms driving galaxy evolution, it is crucial to distinguish between old (Retired) and recently quenched galaxies, thus requiring at least two estimates of the specific star formation rate over different timescales.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA

QR-Factorization Algorithm for Computed Tomography (CT): Comparison With FDK and Conjugate Gradient (CG) Algorithms

[EN] Even though QR-factorization of the system matrix for tomographic devices has been already used for medical imaging, to date, no satisfactory solution has been found for solving large linear systems, such as those used in computed tomography (CT) (in the order of 106 equations). In CT, the Feldkamp, Davis, and Kress back projection algorithm (FDK) and iterative methods like conjugate gradient (CG) are the standard methods used for image reconstruction. As the image reconstruction problem can be modeled by a large linear system of equations, QR-factorization of the system matrix could be used to solve this system. Current advances in computer science enable the use of direct methods for solving such a large linear system. The QR-factorization is a numerically stable direct method for solving linear systems of equations, which is beginning to emerge as an alternative to traditional methods, bringing together the best from traditional methods. QR-factorization was chosen because the core of the algorithm, from the computational cost point of view, is precalculated and stored only once for a given CT system, and from then on, each image reconstruction only involves a backward substitution process and the product of a vector by a matrix. Image quality assessment was performed comparing contrast to noise ratio and noise power spectrum; performances regarding sharpness were evaluated by the reconstruction of small structures using data measured from a small animal 3-D CT. Comparisons of QR-factorization with FDK and CG methods show that QR-factorization is able to reconstruct more detailed images for a fixed voxel size.This work was supported by the Spanish Government under Grant TEC2016-79884-C2 and Grant RTC-2016-5186-1.Rodríguez-Álvarez, M.; Sánchez, F.; Soriano Asensi, A.; Moliner Martínez, L.; Sánchez Góez, S.; Benlloch Baviera, JM. (2018). QR-Factorization Algorithm for Computed Tomography (CT): Comparison With FDK and Conjugate Gradient (CG) Algorithms. IEEE Transactions on Radiation and Plasma Medical Sciences. 2(5):459-469. https://doi.org/10.1109/TRPMS.2018.2843803S4594692