Disentangling star formation and merger growth in the evolution of luminous red galaxies

We introduce a novel technique for empirically understanding galaxy evolution. We use empirically determined stellar evolution models to predict the past evolution of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-II) Luminous Red Galaxy (LRG) sample without any a-priori assumption about galaxy evolution. By carefully contrasting the evolution of the predicted and observed number and luminosity densities we test the passive evolution scenario for galaxies of different luminosity, and determine minimum merger rates. We find that the LRG population is not purely coeval, with some of galaxies targeted at z<0.23 and at z>0.34 showing different dynamical growth than galaxies targeted throughout the sample. Our results show that the LRG population is dynamically growing, and that this growth must be dominated by the faint end. For the most luminous galaxies, we find lower minimum merger rates than required by previous studies that assume passive stellar evolution, suggesting that some of the dynamical evolution measured previously was actually due to galaxies with non-passive stellar evolution being incorrectly modelled. Our methodology can be used to identify and match coeval populations of galaxies across cosmic times, over one or more surveys.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, re-submitted to MNRAS after addressing referee's report - clarifications and references added, sections expanded and typos fixed. Conclusions unchange

The evolution of luminous red galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey 7th data release

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Recovering galaxy star formation and metallicity histories from spectra using VESPA

We introduce VErsatile SPectral Analysis (VESPA): a new method which aims to recover robust star formation and metallicity histories from galactic spectra. VESPA uses the full spectral range to construct a galaxy history from synthetic models. We investigate the use of an adaptative parametrization grid to recover reliable star formation histories on a galaxy-by-galaxy basis. Our goal is robustness as opposed to high resolution histories, and the method is designed to return high time resolution only where the data demand it. In this paper we detail the method and we present our findings when we apply VESPA to synthetic and real Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) spectroscopic data. We show that the number of parameters that can be recovered from a spectrum depends strongly on the signal-to-noise, wavelength coverage and presence or absence of a young population. For a typical SDSS sample of galaxies, we can normally recover between 2 to 5 stellar populations. We find very good agreement between VESPA and our previous analysis of the SDSS sample with MOPED.Comment: In press MNRAS, minor revisions to match accepted version by the journa

Modelling the galaxy-halo connection with semi-recurrent neural networks

We present an artificial neural network design in which past and present-day properties of dark matter halos and their local environment are used to predict time-resolved star formation histories and stellar metallicity histories of central and satellite galaxies. Using data from the IllustrisTNG simulations, we train a TensorFlow-based neural network with two inputs: a standard layer with static properties of the dark matter halo, such as halo mass and starting time; and a recurrent layer with variables such as overdensity and halo mass accretion rate, evaluated at multiple time steps from $0 \leq z \lesssim 20$. The model successfully reproduces key features of the galaxy halo connection, such as the stellar-to-halo mass relation, downsizing, and colour bimodality, for both central and satellite galaxies. We identify mass accretion history as crucial in determining the geometry of the star formation history and trends with halo mass such as downsizing, while environmental variables are important indicators of chemical enrichment. We use these outputs to compute optical spectral energy distributions, and find that they are well matched to the equivalent results in IllustrisTNG, recovering observational statistics such as colour bimodality and mass-magnitude diagrams.Comment: 22 pages, excluding references. 25 figures. Submitted to MNRA

Analysing Observables in Structure Formation Theories

This thesis presents an exploration of various aspects relating to the formation and evolution of structure in the Universe. It focuses on two main observables which provide information on two distinct epochs of the Universe: Part I analyses the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) which is used to test early Universe theories and validate current methods for cosmological parameters estimation; Part II analyses the distribution, history and content of local galaxies with a view to learn about type Ia supernovae progenitors, assembly of stellar mass in galaxies and galaxy evolution. In Part I, a search for signs of non-Gaussianity in theWilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe is conducted, using the two-point correlation function of peaks (hot and cold spots) in the temperature field. A clear deviation from Gaussianity is found in both data releases, which is associated with cold spots, the southern hemisphere, large-scales and the galactic plane. The results indicate that the presence of un-subtracted foregrounds in the data are a more likely explanation for this signal than a cosmological origin, but the latter cannot be excluded. Part I further explores the two-point correlation function of temperature peaks as an estimator to constrain fNL, a specific type of non-Gaussianity. Using sets of non-Gaussian simulated maps with the correct cosmology and resolution, this thesis explores how accurately one can hope to constrain fNL when data from the upcoming CMB experiment Planck is available. Part II presents a novel method developed to extract the star formation history of a galaxy from its spectrum: VErsatile SPectral Analysis (VESPA). VESPA dynamically adapts the number of parameters it recovers from each spectrum to each galaxy, only recovering as much information as the data warrant. This insures the recovered solutions are dominated by the signal, not the noise, and allows robust recovery of star formation and metallicity histories and up to two dust extinction values per galaxy. VESPA was applied to the fifth data release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) to construct a catalogue of histories for nearly half a million galaxies. Part II also explores how this catalogue can provide important information about the formation of structure in the local Universe. Specifically, this thesis: shows evidence for the presence of a short-lived progenitor to SNIa and explores VESPA’s potential role in future Dark Energy SNIa experiments; explores how changes in the Initial Mass Function affect stellar mass estimates and its consequences; and by using estimates of the galaxy mass function as a function of redshift (calculated using both the spectral fossil record and instantaneous star formation rate methods) explores the possibility of putting constraints on the merger history of present-day galaxies

Decoupling the rotation of stars and gas - I::the relationship with morphology and halo spin

Funding: UK Science and Technology Funding Council (STFC) via an PhD studentship (grant number ST/N504427/1).We use a combination of data from the MaNGA survey and MaNGA-like observations in IllustrisTNG100 to determine the prevalence of misalignment between the rotational axes of stars and gas. This census paper outlines the typical characteristics of misaligned galaxies in both observations and simulations to determine their fundamental relationship with morphology and angular momentum. We present a sample of ˜4500 galaxies from MaNGA with kinematic classifications which we use to demonstrate that the prevalence of misalignment is strongly dependent on morphology. The misaligned fraction sharply increases going to earlier morphologies (28 ± 3 per cent of 301 early-type galaxies, 10 ± 1 per cent of 677 lenticulars, and 5.4 ±0.6 per cent of 1634 pure late-type galaxies). For early-types, aligned galaxies are less massive than the misaligned sample whereas this trend reverses for lenticulars and pure late-types. We also find that decoupling depends on group membership for early-types with centrals more likely to be decoupled than satellites. We demonstrate that misaligned galaxies have similar stellar angular momentum to galaxies without gas rotation, much lower than aligned galaxies. Misaligned galaxies also have a lower gas mass than the aligned, indicative that gas loss is a crucial step in decoupling star-gas rotation. Through comparison to a mock MaNGA sample, we find that the strong trends with morphology and angular momentum hold true in IllustrisTNG100. We demonstrate that the lowered angular momentum is, however, not a transient property and that the likelihood of star-gas misalignment at z= 0 is correlated with the spin of the dark matter halo going back to z= 1.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

The Ages of Type Ia Supernova Progenitors

Using light curves and host galaxy spectra of 101 Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) with redshift $z \lesssim 0.3$ from the SDSS Supernova Survey (SDSS-SN), we derive the SN Ia rate as a function of progenitor age (the delay time distribution, or DTD). We use the VESPA stellar population synthesis algorithm to analyze the SDSS spectra of all galaxies in the field searched by SDSS-SN, giving us a reference sample of 77,000 galaxies for our SN Ia hosts. Our method does not assume any a priori shape for the DTD and therefore is minimally parametric. We present the DTD in physical units for high stretch (luminous, slow declining) and low stretch (subluminous, fast declining) supernovae in three progenitor age bins. We find strong evidence of two progenitor channels: one that produces high stretch SNe Ia $\lesssim 400$ Myr after the birth of the progenitor system, and one that produces low stretch SNe Ia with a delay $\gtrsim 2.4$ Gyr. We find that each channel contributes roughly half of the Type Ia rate in our reference sample. We also construct the average spectra of high stretch and low stretch SN Ia host galaxies, and find that the difference of these spectra looks like a main sequence B star with nebular emission lines indicative of star formation. This supports our finding that there are two populations of SNe Ia, and indicates that the progenitors of high stretch SNe are at the least associated with very recent star formation in the last few tens of Myr. Our results provide valuable constraints for models of Type Ia progenitors and may help improve the calibration of SNe Ia as standard candles.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, 3 tables, AJ accepted. Moderate changes to match accepted version, including a table of all SNe use

Extragalactic Constraints on the Initial Mass Function

The local stellar mass density is observed to be significantly lower than the value obtained from integrating the cosmic star formation history (SFH), assuming that all the stars formed with a Salpeter initial mass function (IMF). Even other favoured IMFs, more successful in reconciling the observed $z=0$ stellar mass density with that inferred from the SFH, have difficulties in reproducing the stellar mass density observed at higher redshift. In this study we investigate to what extent this discrepancy can be alleviated for any universal power-law IMF. We find that an IMF with a high-mass slope shallower (2.15) than the Salpeter slope (2.35) reconciles the observed stellar mass density with the cosmic star formation history, but only at low redshifts. At higher redshifts $z>0.5$ we find that observed stellar mass densities are systematically lower than predicted from the cosmic star formation history, for any universal power-law IMF.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, accepted to MNRA

Testing homegeneity with Galaxy Star formation histories

Observationally confirming spatial homogeneity on sufficiently large cosmological scales is of importance to test one of the underpinning assumptions of cosmology, and is also imperative for correctly interpreting dark energy. A challenging aspect of this is that homogeneity must be probed inside our past light cone, while observations take place on the light cone. The star formation history (SFH) in the galaxy fossil record provides a novel way to do this. We calculate the SFH of stacked luminous red galaxy (LRG) spectra obtained from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We divide the LRG sample into 12 equal-area contiguous sky patches and 10 redshift slices (0.2 < z < 0.5), which correspond to 120 blocks of volume ∼0.04 Gpc3. Using the SFH in a time period that samples the history of the universe between look-back times 11.5 and 13.4 Gyr as a proxy for homogeneity, we calculate the posterior distribution for the excess large-scale variance due to inhomogeneity, and find that the most likely solution is no extra variance at all. At 95% credibility, there is no evidence of deviations larger than 5.8%.Department of HE and Training approved lis