163 research outputs found
Simulating High-Redshift Disk Galaxies: Applications to Long Duration Gamma-Ray Burst Hosts
The efficiency of star formation governs many observable properties of the
cosmological galaxy population, yet many current models of galaxy formation
largely ignore the important physics of star formation and the interstellar
medium (ISM). Using hydrodynamical simulations of disk galaxies that include a
treatment of the molecular ISM and star formation in molecular clouds
(Robertson & Kravtsov 2008), we study the influence of star formation
efficiency and molecular hydrogen abundance on the properties of high-redshift
galaxy populations. In this work, we focus on a model of low-mass, star forming
galaxies at 1<~z<~2 that may host long duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs).
Observations of GRB hosts have revealed a population of faint systems with star
formation properties that often differ from Lyman-break galaxies (LBGs) and
more luminous high-redshift field galaxies. Observed GRB sightlines are
deficient in molecular hydrogen, but it is unclear to what degree this
deficiency owes to intrinsic properties of the galaxy or the impact the GRB has
on its environment. We find that hydrodynamical simulations of low-stellar mass
systems at high-redshifts can reproduce the observed star formation rates and
efficiencies of GRB host galaxies at redshifts 1<~z<~2. We show that the
compact structure of low-mass high-redshift GRB hosts may lead to a molecular
ISM fraction of a few tenths, well above that observed in individual GRB
sightlines. However, the star formation rates of observed GRB host galaxies
imply molecular gas masses of 10^8 - 10^9 M_sun similar to those produced in
the simulations, and may therefore imply fairly large average H_2 fractions in
their ISM.Comment: To appear in "The Galaxy Disk in Cosmological Context"; Proceedings
of IAU254; Copenhagen; 9-13 June 2008; eds. J. Anderson, J. Bland-Hawthorn,
B. Nordstrom; CU
The Mean Ultraviolet Spectrum of a Representative Sample of Faint z~3 Lyman Alpha Emitters
We discuss the rest-frame ultraviolet emission line spectra of a large (~100)
sample of low luminosity redshift z~3.1 Lyman alpha emitters (LAEs) drawn from
a Subaru imaging survey in the SSA22 survey field. Our earlier work based on
smaller samples indicated that such sources have high [OIII]/[OII] line ratios
possibly arising from a hard ionising spectrum that may be typical of similar
sources in the reionisation era. With optical spectra secured from VLT/VIMOS,
we re-examine the nature of the ionising radiation in a larger sample using the
strength of the high ionisation diagnostic emission lines of CIII]1909,
CIV1549, HeII1640, and OIII]1661,1666 in various stacked subsets. Our analysis
confirms earlier suggestions of a correlation between the strength of Ly-alpha
and CIII] emission and we find similar trends with broad band UV luminosity and
rest-frame UV colour. Using various diagnostic line ratios and our stellar
photoionisation models, we determine both the gas phase metallicity and
hardness of the ionisation spectrum characterised by xi_ion - the number of
Lyman continuum photons per UV luminosity. We confirm our earlier suggestion
that xi_ion is significantly larger for LAEs than for continuum-selected Lyman
break galaxies, particularly for those LAEs with the faintest UV luminosities.
We briefly discuss the implications for cosmic reionisation if the metal-poor
intensely star-forming systems studied here are representative examples of
those at much higher redshift.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA
New Constraints on Cosmic Reionization from the 2012 Hubble Ultra Deep Field Campaign
Understanding cosmic reionization requires the identification and characterization of early sources of hydrogen-ionizing photons. The 2012 Hubble Ultra Deep Field (UDF12) campaign has acquired the deepest infrared images with the Wide Field Camera 3 aboard Hubble Space Telescope and, for the first time, systematically explored the galaxy population deep into the era when cosmic microwave background (CMB) data indicate reionization was underway. The UDF12 campaign thus provides the best constraints to date on the abundance, luminosity distribution, and spectral properties of early star-forming galaxies. We synthesize the new UDF12 results with the most recent constraints from CMB observations to infer redshift-dependent ultraviolet (UV) luminosity densities, reionization histories, and electron scattering optical depth evolution consistent with the available data. Under reasonable assumptions about the escape fraction of hydrogen-ionizing photons and the intergalactic medium clumping factor, we find that to fully reionize the universe by redshift z ~ 6 the population of star-forming galaxies at redshifts z ~ 7-9 likely must extend in luminosity below the UDF12 limits to absolute UV magnitudes of M UV ~ –13 or fainter. Moreover, low levels of star formation extending to redshifts z ~ 15-25, as suggested by the normal UV colors of z ≃ 7-8 galaxies and the smooth decline in abundance with redshift observed by UDF12 to z ≃ 10, are additionally likely required to reproduce the optical depth to electron scattering inferred from CMB observations
The Lyman Continuum Escape Survey: Ionizing Radiation from [O III]-Strong Sources at a Redshift of 3.1
We present results from the LymAn Continuum Escape Survey (LACES), a Hubble
Space Telescope (HST) program designed to characterize the ionizing radiation
emerging from a sample of Lyman alpha emitting galaxies at redshift . As many show intense [O III] emission characteristic of
star-forming galaxies, they may represent valuable low redshift analogs of
galaxies in the reionization era. Using HST Wide Field Camera 3 / UVIS
to image Lyman continuum emission, we investigate the escape fraction of
ionizing photons in this sample. For 61 sources, of which 77% are
spectroscopically confirmed and 53 have measures of [O III] emission, we detect
Lyman continuum leakage in 20%, a rate significantly higher than is seen in
individual continuum-selected Lyman break galaxies. We estimate there is a 98%
probability that of our detections could be affected by foreground
contamination. Fitting multi-band spectral energy distributions (SEDs) to take
account of the varying stellar populations, dust extinctions and metallicities,
we derive individual Lyman continuum escape fractions corrected for foreground
intergalactic absorption. We find escape fractions of 15 to 60% for individual
objects, and infer an average 20% escape fraction by fitting composite SEDs for
our detected samples. Surprisingly however, even a deep stack of those sources
with no individual detections provides a stringent upper limit on the
average escape fraction of less than 0.5%. We examine various correlations with
source properties and discuss the implications in the context of the popular
picture that cosmic reionization is driven by such compact, low metallicity
star-forming galaxies.Comment: 26 pages, 16 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
Constraining C iii] Emission in a Sample of Five Luminous z = 5.7 Galaxies
Recent observations have suggested that the CIII] emission
lines could be alternative diagnostic lines for galaxies in the reionization
epoch. We use the F128N narrowband filter on the Hubble Space Telescope's
() Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) to search for CIII] emission in a
sample of five galaxies at z = 5.7 in the Subaru Deep Field and the
Subaru/XMM-Newton Deep Field. Using the F128N narrowband imaging, together with
the broadband imaging, we do not detect CIII] emission for the five galaxies
with ranging from 24.10 -- 27.00 in our sample. For the brightest
galaxy J132416.13+274411.6 in our sample (z = 5.70, ),
which has a significantly higher signal to noise, we report a CIII] flux of
, which places a
stringent 3- upper limit of $\mathrm{erg\
s^{-1}\ cm^{-2}}\rm\sigma\mathrm{2.55\times10^{-18}\ erg\ s^{-1}\ cm^{-2}}\rm\sigma>$ 5.70 exhibit a wide range
of distribution. Our strong limits on CIII] emission could be used as a guide
for future observations in the reionization epoch
Pixel-z: Studying Substructure and Stellar Populations in Galaxies out to z~3 using Pixel Colors I. Systematics
We perform a pixel-by-pixel analysis of 467 galaxies in the GOODS-VIMOS
survey to study systematic effects in extracting properties of stellar
populations (age, dust, metallicity and SFR) from pixel colors using the
pixel-z method. The systematics studied include the effect of the input stellar
population synthesis model, passband limitations and differences between
individual SED fits to pixels and global SED-fitting to a galaxy's colors. We
find that with optical-only colors, the systematic errors due to differences
among the models are well constrained. The largest impact on the age and SFR
e-folding time estimates in the pixels arises from differences between the
Maraston models and the Bruzual&Charlot models, when optical colors are used.
This results in systematic differences larger than the 2{\sigma} uncertainties
in over 10 percent of all pixels in the galaxy sample. The effect of
restricting the available passbands is more severe. In 26 percent of pixels in
the full sample, passband limitations result in systematic biases in the age
estimates which are larger than the 2{\sigma} uncertainties. Systematic effects
from model differences are reexamined using Near-IR colors for a subsample of
46 galaxies in the GOODS-NICMOS survey. For z > 1, the observed optical/NIR
colors span the rest frame UV-optical SED, and the use of different models does
not significantly bias the estimates of the stellar population parameters
compared to using optical-only colors. We then illustrate how pixel-z can be
applied robustly to make detailed studies of substructure in high redshift
galaxies such as (a) radial gradients of age, SFR, sSFR and dust and (b) the
distribution of these properties within subcomponents such as spiral arms and
clumps. Finally, we show preliminary results from the CANDELS survey
illustrating how the new HST/WFC3 data can be exploited to probe substructure
in z~1-3 galaxies.Comment: 37 pages, 21 figures, submitted to Ap
Tracing Galaxy Formation with Stellar Halos II: Relating Substructure in Phase- and Abundance-Space to Accretion Histories
This paper explores the mapping between the observable properties of a
stellar halo in phase- and abundance-space and the parent galaxy's accretion
history in terms of the characteristic epoch of accretion and mass and orbits
of progenitor objects. The study utilizes a suite of eleven stellar halo models
constructed within the context of a standard LCDM cosmology. The results
demonstrate that coordinate-space studies are sensitive to the recent (0-8
Gyears ago) merger histories of galaxies (this timescale corresponds to the
last few to tens of percent of mass accretion for a Milky-Way-type galaxy).
Specifically, the {\it frequency, sky coverage} and {\it fraction of stars} in
substructures in the stellar halo as a function of surface brightness are
indicators of the importance of recent merging and of the luminosity function
of infalling dwarfs. The {\it morphology} of features serves as a guide to the
orbital distribution of those dwarfs. Constraints on the earlier merger history
(> 8 Gyears ago) can be gleaned from the abundance patterns in halo stars:
within our models, dramatic differences in the dominant epoch of accretion or
luminosity function of progenitor objects leave clear signatures in the
[alpha/Fe] and [Fe/H] distributions of the stellar halo - halos dominated by
very early accretion have higher average [alpha/Fe], while those dominated by
high luminosity satellites have higher [Fe/H]. This intuition can be applied to
reconstruct much about the merger histories of nearby galaxies from current and
future data sets.Comment: 21 pages, 20 figures. To appear in the Astrophysical Journa
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