The brightest group galaxies and their large-scale environment

We use a sample of galaxy groups in SDSS data to study their brightestgalaxies (BGG), separating groups according to their large scale environment. The statistical properties of the BGG depend on the surrounding environment on large scales, characterized by the high density peaks within Future Virialized Structures (FVS). We also find that the luminosity, colour, stellar masses and concentration index of the BGG hosted by groups in superstructures are different, with statistical significance, from the corresponding properties of BGG hosted by groups elsewhere. Moreover, this signal is strongly dominated by disk-type galaxies.The results reveal connections between the large scale environment and the accretion process onto the brightest group galaxies.Estudiamos las galaxias más luminosas (del inglés Brightest Group Galaxy, BGG) de una muestra de grupos de galaxias en el SDSS, discriminando submuestras de grupos según su estructura circundante en gran escala. Encontramos que las propiedades de las BGG dependen del ambiente en gran escala, caracterizado por su pertenencia a los picos de densidad dentro de estructuras virializadas en el futuro (del inglés Future Virialized Structures, FVS). Los valores de luminosidad, índice de color, masa estelar e índice de concentración de las BGG alojadas en grupos en FVS difieren con significancia estadística de aquellas que no se encuentran en superestructuras. Esta señal está dominada por galaxias tipo disco. Estos resultados revelan conexiones entre la estructura en gran escala y los procesos de aglomeración de masa en grupos de galaxias.http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015BAAA...57...67LpublishedVersionFil: Luparello, Heliana E. Conicet. Instituto de Astronomía Teórica y Experimental; Argentina.Fil: Lares Harbin Latorre, Marcelo. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Observatorio Astronómico de Córdoba; Argentina.Fil: Luparello, Heliana E. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Observatorio Astronómico de Córdoba; Argentina.Fil: Lares Harbin Latorre, Marcelo. Conicet. Instituto de Astronomía Teórica y Experimental; Argentina.Fil: Paz, Dante Javier. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Observatorio Astronómico de Córdoba; Argentina.Fil: Paz, Dante Javier. Conicet. Instituto de Astronomía Teórica y Experimental; Argentina.Fil: Yaryura, Claudia Yamila. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Observatorio Astronómico de Córdoba; Argentina.Fil: Yaryura, Claudia Yamila. Conicet. Instituto de Astronomía Teórica y Experimental; Argentina.Fil: Lambas, Diego García. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Observatorio Astronómico de Córdoba; Argentina.Fil: Lambas, Diego García. Conicet. Instituto de Astronomía Teórica y Experimental; Argentina.Astronomía (incluye Astrofísica y Ciencias del Espacio

Calibration of semi-analytic models of galaxy formation using Particle Swarm Optimization

We present a fast and accurate method to select an optimal set of parameters in semi-analytic models of galaxy formation and evolution (SAMs). Our approach compares the results of a model against a set of observables applying a stochastic technique called Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), a self-learning algorithm for localizing regions of maximum likelihood in multidimensional spaces that outperforms traditional sampling methods in terms of computational cost. We apply the PSO technique to the SAG semi-analytic model combined with merger trees extracted from a standard $\Lambda$CDM N-body simulation. The calibration is performed using a combination of observed galaxy properties as constraints, including the local stellar mass function and the black hole to bulge mass relation. We test the ability of the PSO algorithm to find the best set of free parameters of the model by comparing the results with those obtained using a MCMC exploration. Both methods find the same maximum likelihood region, however the PSO method requires one order of magnitude less evaluations. This new approach allows a fast estimation of the best-fitting parameter set in multidimensional spaces, providing a practical tool to test the consequences of including other astrophysical processes in SAMs.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication in ApJ. Comments are welcom

Environmental effects on associations of dwarf galaxies

We study the properties of associations of dwarf galaxies and their dependence on the environment. Associations of dwarf galaxies are extended systems composed exclusively of dwarf galaxies, considering as dwarf galaxies those galaxies less massive than $M_{\star, \rm max} = 10^{9.0}$ ${\rm M}_{\odot}\,h^{-1}$. We identify these particular systems using a semi-analytical model of galaxy formation coupled to a dark matter only simulation in the $\Lambda$ Cold Dark Matter cosmological model. To classify the environment, we estimate eigenvalues from the tidal field of the dark matter particle distribution of the simulation. We find that the majority, two thirds, of associations are located in filaments ($\sim 67$ per cent), followed by walls ($\sim 26$ per cent), while only a small fraction of them are in knots ($\sim 6$ per cent) and voids ($\sim 1$ per cent). Associations located in more dense environments present significantly higher velocity dispersion than those located in less dense environments, evidencing that the environment plays a fundamental role in their dynamical properties. However, this connection between velocity dispersion and the environment depends exclusively on whether the systems are gravitational bound or unbound, given that it disappears when we consider associations of dwarf galaxies that are gravitationally bound. Although less than a dozen observationally detected associations of dwarf galaxies are currently known, our results are predictions on the eve of forthcoming large surveys of galaxies, which will enable these very particular systems to be identified and studied.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA

Associations of dwarf galaxies in a λCDM Universe

Associations of dwarf galaxies are loose systems composed exclusively of dwarf galaxies. These systems were identified in the Local Volume for the first time more than 30 yr ago. We study these systems in the cosmological framework of the λ cold dark matter (λCDM) model.We consider the Small MultiDark Planck simulation and populate its dark matter haloes by applying the semi-analytic model of galaxy formation SAG. We identify galaxy systems using a friends-of-friends algorithm with a linking length equal to b = 0.4Mpc h-1to reproduce the size of dwarf galaxy associations detected in the Local Volume. Our samples of dwarf systems are built up removing those systems that have one or more galaxies with stellar mass larger than a maximum thresholdMmax.We analyse three different samples defined by log10(Mmax[M⊙ h-1]) = 8.5, 9.0, and 9.5. On average, our systems have typical sizes of ∼ 0.2Mpc h-1, velocity dispersion of ∼ 30km s-1, and estimated total mass of ∼ 1011M⊙ h-1. Such large typical sizes suggest that individual members of a given dwarf association reside in different dark matter haloes and are generally not substructures of any other halo. Indeed, in more than 90 per cent of our dwarf systems their individual members inhabit different dark matter haloes, while only in the remaining 10 per cent members do reside in the same halo. Our results indicate that the λCDM model can naturally reproduce the existence and properties of dwarf galaxies' associations without much difficulty.Fil: Yaryura, Claudia Yamila. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Astronomía Teórica y Experimental. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Observatorio Astronómico de Córdoba. Instituto de Astronomía Teórica y Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Abadi, Mario Gabriel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Astronomía Teórica y Experimental. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Observatorio Astronómico de Córdoba. Instituto de Astronomía Teórica y Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Gottlöber, Stefan. Leibniz Universitat Hannover; AlemaniaFil: Libeskind, Noam I.. Leibniz Universitat Hannover; AlemaniaFil: Cora, Sofia Alejandra. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Ruiz, Andrés Nicolás. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Astronomía Teórica y Experimental. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Observatorio Astronómico de Córdoba. Instituto de Astronomía Teórica y Experimental; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Observatorio Astronómico de Córdoba; ArgentinaFil: Vega Martínez, Cristian Antonio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata; Argentina. Universidad de La Serena; ChileFil: Yepes, Gustavo. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid; EspañaFil: Behroozi, Peter. George Mason University. School Of Physics. Astronomy And Computational Sciences; Estados Unido

Extreme value statistics of smooth random Gaussian fields

We consider the Gumbel or extreme value statistics describing the distribution function p_G(x_max) of the maximum values of a random field x within patches of fixed size. We present, for smooth Gaussian random fields in two and three dimensions, an analytical estimate of p_G which is expected to hold in a regime where local maxima of the field are moderately high and weakly clustered. When the patch size becomes sufficiently large, the negative of the logarithm of the cumulative extreme value distribution is simply equal to the average of the Euler Characteristic of the field in the excursion x > x_max inside the patches. The Gumbel statistics therefore represents an interesting alternative probe of the genus as a test of non Gaussianity, e.g. in cosmic microwave background temperature maps or in three-dimensional galaxy catalogs. It can be approximated, except in the remote positive tail, by a negative Weibull type form, converging slowly to the expected Gumbel type form for infinitely large patch size. Convergence is facilitated when large scale correlations are weaker. We compare the analytic predictions to numerical experiments for the case of a scale-free Gaussian field in two dimensions, achieving impressive agreement between approximate theory and measurements. We also discuss the generalization of our formalism to non-Gaussian fields.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Associations of dwarf galaxies in a ΛCDM Universe

Associations of dwarf galaxies are loose systems composed exclusively of dwarf galaxies. These systems were identified in the Local Volume for the first time more than 30 yr ago. We study these systems in the cosmological framework of the Λ cold dark matter (ΛCDM) model. We consider the Small MultiDark Planck simulation and populate its dark matter haloes by applying the semi-analytic model of galaxy formation SAG. We identify galaxy systems using a friends-of-friends algorithm with a linking length equal to b=0.4Mpch−1 to reproduce the size of dwarf galaxy associations detected in the Local Volume. Our samples of dwarf systems are built up removing those systems that have one or more galaxies with stellar mass larger than a maximum threshold Mmax. We analyse three different samples defined by log10(Mmax[M⊙h−1])=8.5,9.0⁠, and 9.5. On average, our systems have typical sizes of ∼0.2Mpch−1⁠, velocity dispersion of ∼30kms−1⁠, and estimated total mass of ∼1011M⊙h−1⁠. Such large typical sizes suggest that individual members of a given dwarf association reside in different dark matter haloes and are generally not substructures of any other halo. Indeed, in more than 90 per cent of our dwarf systems their individual members inhabit different dark matter haloes, while only in the remaining 10 per cent members do reside in the same halo. Our results indicate that the ΛCDM model can naturally reproduce the existence and properties of dwarf galaxies’ associations without much difficulty.Instituto de Astrofísica de La PlataFacultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísica

The Sloan Great Wall. Morphology and galaxy content

We present the results of the study of the morphology and galaxy content of the Sloan Great Wall (SGW). We use the luminosity density field to determine superclusters in the SGW, and the fourth Minkowski functional V_3 and the morphological signature (the K_1-K_2 shapefinders curve) to show the different morphologies of the SGW, from a single filament to a multibranching, clumpy planar system. The richest supercluster in the SGW, SCl~126 and especially its core resemble a very rich filament, while another rich supercluster in the SGW, SCl~111, resembles a "multispider" - an assembly of high density regions connected by chains of galaxies. Using Minkowski functionals we study the substructure of individual galaxy populations determined by their color in these superclusters. We assess the statistical significance of the results with the halo model and smoothed bootstrap. We study the galaxy content and the properties of groups of galaxies in two richest superclusters of the SGW, paying special attention to bright red galaxies (BRGs) and to the first ranked galaxies in SGW groups. About 1/3 of BRGs are spirals. The scatter of colors of elliptical BRGs is smaller than that of spiral BRGs. About half of BRGs and of first ranked galaxies in groups have large peculiar velocities. Groups with elliptical BRGs as their first ranked galaxies populate superclusters more uniformly than the groups, which have a spiral BRG as its first ranked galaxy. The galaxy and group content of the core of the supercluster SCl~126 shows several differences in comparison with the outskirts of this supercluster and with the supercluster SCl~111. Our results suggest that the formation history and evolution of individual neighbour superclusters in the SGW has been different.Comment: Comments: 26 pages, 20 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Calibration of semi-analytic models of galaxy formation using particle swarm optimization

We present a fast and accurate method to select an optimal set of parameters in semi-analytic models of galaxy formation and evolution (SAMs). Our approach compares the results of a model against a set of observables applying a stochastic technique called Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), a self-learning algorithm for localizing regions of maximum likelihood in multidimensional spaces that outperforms traditional sampling methods in terms of computational cost. We apply the PSO technique to the SAG semi-analytic model combined with merger trees extracted from a standard Lambda Cold Dark Matter N-body simulation. The calibration is performed using a combination of observed galaxy properties as constraints, including the local stellar mass function and the black hole to bulge mass relation. We test the ability of the PSO algorithm to find the best set of free parameters of the model by comparing the results with those obtained using a MCMC exploration. Both methods find the same maximum likelihood region, however, the PSO method requires one order of magnitude fewer evaluations. This new approach allows a fast estimation of the best-fitting parameter set in multidimensional spaces, providing a practical tool to test the consequences of including other astrophysical processes in SAMs.Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y GeofísicasInstituto de Astrofísica de La Plat

Análisis estadísticos de superestructuras en el Universo /

Tesis (Doctor en Astronomía)--Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Matemática, Astronomía y Física, 2011.En esta tesis se presenta un nuevo método para determinar la probabilidad de encontrar eventos extremos en la distribución de materia oscura fría. En nuestra aproximación usamos un conjunto de simulaciones de N-Cuerpos para encontrar estructuras extremas, concluyendo que la frecuencia de estos eventos es bien descripta por la distribución de Gumbel. Esto permite enfrentar la dificultad de la falta de muestras estadísticamente confiables de estos eventos, anticipando la probabilidad de encontrarlos en una dada distribución, sin la necesidad de hacer suposiciones sobre la forma detallada de la distribución subyacente. La aplicación de dicha técnica a los supercúmulos de galaxias permite analizar la validez del modelo ΛCDM. En este trabajo también se llevó a cabo un estudio detallado sobre la dependencia del clustering de las galaxias con las superestructuras. La comparación de dicho clustering de galaxias, diferenciando entre las galaxias situadas dentro y fuera de superestructuras, brinda valiosa información sobre la evolución conjunta de las estructuras más masivas presentes actualmente en el Universo y las galaxias. Mediante este análisis, se encuentra que la estructura interna de los grupos y cúmulos es un indicador sensible de las diferentes historias de agregación jerárquica dentro y fuera de superestructuras