The Redshift Evolution of Clustering in the HDF

We present a correlation function analysis for the catalogue of photometric redshifts obtained from the Hubble Deep Field image by Fernandez-Soto et al., 1998. By dividing the catalogue into redshift bins of width $\Delta z=0.4$ we measured the angular correlation function $w(\theta)$ as a function of redshift up to $z\sim 4.8$. From these measurements we derive the trend of the correlation length $r_0$. We find that $r_0(z)$ is roughly constant with look-back time up to $z \simeq 2$, and then increases to higher values at z\simgt 2.4. We estimate the values of $r_0$, assuming $\xi(r,z)=(r/r_0(z))^{-\gamma}$, $\gamma=1.8$ and different geometries. For $\Omega_0=1$ we find $r_0(z=3)\simeq 7.00\pm 4.87 h^{-1}$ Mpc, in good agreement with the values obtained from analysis of the Lyman Break Galaxies.Comment: 6 pages, 4 postscript figures, version to appear on MNRA

Gravothermal Catastrophe in Anisotropic Spherical Systems

In this paper we investigate the gravothermal instability of spherical stellar systems endowed with a radially anisotropic velocity distribution. We focus our attention on the effects of anisotropy on the conditions for the onset of the instability and in particular we study the dependence of the spatial structure of critical models on the amount of anisotropy present in a system. The investigation has been carried out by the method of linear series which has already been used in the past to study the gravothermal instability of isotropic systems. We consider models described by King, Wilson and Woolley-Dickens distribution functions. In the case of King and Woolley-Dickens models, our results show that, for quite a wide range of amount of anisotropy in the system, the critical value of the concentration of the system (defined as the ratio of the tidal to the King core radius of the system) is approximately constant and equal to the corresponding value for isotropic systems. Only for very anisotropic systems the critical value of the concentration starts to change and it decreases significantly as the anisotropy increases and penetrates the inner parts of the system. For Wilson models the decrease of the concentration of critical models is preceded by an intermediate regime in which critical concentration increases, it reaches a maximum and then it starts to decrease. The critical value of the central potential always decreases as the anisotropy increases.Comment: 7pages, 5figures, to appear in MNRAS (figures have been replaced with their corrected versions

Evidence for anisotropy in the distribution of short-lived gamma-ray bursts

Measurements of the two-point angular correlation function w(\theta) for 407 short gamma-ray bursts collected in the Current BATSE Catalogue reveal a ~2 \sigma deviation from isotropy on angular scales \theta ~ 2-4 degrees. Such an anisotropy is not observed in the distribution of long gamma-ray bursts and hints to the presence of repeated bursts for up to ~13% of the sources under exam. However, the available data cannot exclude the signal as due to the presence of large-scale structure. Under this assumption, the amplitude of the observed w(\theta) is compatible with those derived for different populations of galaxies up to redshifts ~0.5, result that suggests short gamma-ray bursts to be relatively local sources.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, submitted to MNRA

First Stars Contribution to the Near Infrared Background Fluctuations

We show that the emission from the first, metal-free stars inside Population III objects (PopIIIs) are needed to explain the level of fluctuations in the Near Infrared Background (NIRB) recently discovered by Kashlinsky et al. (2002), at least at the shortest wavelengths. Clustering of (unresolved) Pop IIIs can in fact account for the entire signal at almost all the ~1-30 arcsec scales probed by observations in the J band. Their contribution fades away at shorter frequencies and becomes negligible in the K band. ``Normal'', highly clustered, ~3 galaxies undergoing intense star-formation such as those found in the Hubble Deep Fields can 'fill in' this gap and provide for the missing signal. It is in fact found that their contribution to the intensity fluctuations is the dominant one at lambda=2.17 mum, while it gradually looses importance in the H and J bands. The joint contribution from these two populations of cosmic objects is able, within the errors, to reproduce the observed power spectrum in the whole Near Infrared range on small angular scales (theta < 200" for Pop III protogalaxies). Signals on larger scales detected by other experiments instead require the presence of more local sources.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, submitted to MNRA

The large scale clustering of radio sources

The observed two-point angular correlation function, w(theta), of mJy radio sources exhibits the puzzling feature of a power-law behaviour up to very large (almost 10 degrees) angular scales which cannot be accounted for in the standard hierarchical clustering scenario for any realistic redshift distribution of such sources. After having discarded the possibility that the signal can be explained by a high density local source population, we find no alternatives to assuming that - at variance with all the other extragalactic populations studied so far, and in particular with optically selected quasars - radio sources responsible for the large-scale clustering signal were increasingly less clustered with increasing look-back time, up to at least z=1. The data are accurately accounted for in terms of a bias function which decreases with increasing redshift, mirroring the evolution with cosmic time of the characteristic halo mass, M_{star}, entering the non linear regime. In the framework of the `concordance cosmology', the effective halo mass controlling the bias parameter is found to decrease from about 10^{15} M_{sun}/h at z=0 to the value appropriate for optically selected quasars, 10^{13} M_{sun}/h, at z=1.5. This suggests that, in the redshift range probed by the data, the clustering evolution of radio sources is ruled by the growth of large-scale structure, and that they are associated with the densest environments virializing at any cosmic epoch. The data provide only loose constraints on radio source clustering at z>1 so we cannot rule out the possibility that at these redshifts the clustering evolution of radio sources enters a different regime, perhaps similar to that found for optically selected quasars. The dependence of w(theta) on cosmological parameters is also discussed.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication on MNRA

On the correlation of Short Gamma--Ray Bursts and Clusters of galaxies

We cross correlate Gamma--Ray Bursts and X--Ray selected clusters of galaxies at z\leq0.45. We find a positive 2\sigma signal for the angular cross--correlation function w_{bc}(\theta) on scales \theta\leq 3 deg between short GRBs and clusters. Conversely, no correlation is found between clusters and the population of long GRBs. The comparison with the cluster autocorrelation function shows that short GRBs do not trace the cluster distribution as not all short GRBs are found in clusters. A higher signal in w_{bc}(\theta) is found if we only consider the cluster population up to z=0.1. By comparing the short burst autocorrelation function with model predictions we then constrain short bursts to mostly originate within \sim 270 Mpc (i.e. z\leq 0.06). Our analysis also reveals that short GRBs are better correlated with ``normal'' galaxies. The double compact object merger model for short GRBs would associate them preferentially to early--type galaxies but the present statistics do not allow us to exclude that at least a fraction of these events might also take place in late--type galaxies, in agreement with recent evidences.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Radio Properties of FIRST Radio Sources at 1 mJy

This paper presents a detailed analysis of the radio properties for the sample of faint radio sources introduced in Magliocchetti et al. (2000). The sample comprises mainly intrinsically low-power sources whose majority (\simgt 70 per cent) is made of FR I radio galaxies. These objects show some degree (at 1$\sigma$ confidence level) of luminosity evolution, which is also needed to correctly reproduce the total number and shape of the counts distribution at 1.4 GHz. Analysis of the de-evolved local radio luminosity function shows a good agreement between data and model predictions for this class of sources. Particular care has been devoted to the issue of 'lined' galaxies (i.e. objects presenting in their spectra a continuum typical of early-type galaxies plus emission lines of different nature), which appear as an intermediate class of sources between AGN-dominated and starburst galaxies. Different evolutionary behaviours are seen between the two sub-populations of lined and non-lined low-power radio galaxies, the first class indicating a tendency for the radio luminosity to decrease with look-back time, the second one showing positive evolution. We note that different evolutionary properties also seem to characterize BL Lacs selected in different bands, so that one might envisage an association between lined FR I and the sub-class of BL Lacs selected in the X-ray band.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, to appear in MNRA