74 research outputs found
The Extremely Large Telescope
Extremely large telescopes (ELTs) are considered worldwide to be one of the
highest priorities in ground-based astronomy. The European Southern Observatory
(ESO) is developing an ELT that will have a 39 m main mirror and will be the
largest visible and infrared light telescope in the world. The ELT will be
equipped with a lineup of cutting-edge instruments, designed to cover a wide
range of scientific possibilities. The leap forwards with the ELT can lead to a
paradigm shift in our perception of the Universe, much as Galileo's telescope
did 400 years ago. We illustrate here the various components of the ELT,
including the dome and main structure, the five mirrors, and the telescope
systems. We then describe the ELT instrumentation and some of the astronomical
topics it will address. We then conclude by examining the synergies with other
astronomical facilities.Comment: Published in Contemporary Physics. 25 pages, 12 figure
Determining the stellar masses of submillimetre galaxies: the critical importance of star formation histories
Submillimetre (submm) galaxies are among the most rapidly star-forming and
most massive high-redshift galaxies; thus, their properties provide important
constraints on galaxy evolution models. However, there is still a debate about
their stellar masses and their nature in the context of the general galaxy
population. To test the reliability of their stellar mass determinations, we
used a sample of simulated submm galaxies for which we derived stellar masses
via spectral energy distribution (SED) modelling (with Grasil, Magphys, Hyperz
and LePhare) adopting various star formation histories (SFHs). We found that
the assumption of SFHs with two independent components leads to the most
accurate stellar masses. Exponentially declining SFHs (tau) lead to lower
masses (albeit still consistent with the true values), while the assumption of
single-burst SFHs results in a significant mass underestimation. Thus, we
conclude that studies based on the higher masses inferred from fitting the SEDs
of real submm galaxies with double SFHs are most likely to be correct, implying
that submm galaxies lie on the high-mass end of the main sequence of
star-forming galaxies. This conclusion appears robust to assumptions of whether
or not submm galaxies are driven by major mergers, since the suite of simulated
galaxies modelled here contains examples of both merging and isolated galaxies.
We identified discrepancies between the true and inferred stellar ages (rather
than the dust attenuation) as the primary determinant of the success/failure of
the mass recovery. Regardless of the choice of SFH, the SED-derived stellar
masses exhibit a factor of ~2 scatter around the true value; this scatter is an
inherent limitation of the SED modelling due to simplified assumptions.
Finally, we found that the contribution of active galactic nuclei does not have
any significant impact on the derived stellar masses.Comment: Accepted to A&A. 11 pages, 9 figures, 1 table. V2 main changes: 1)
discussion of the stellar age as the main parameter influencing the success
of an SED model (Fig. 4, 5, 7); 2) discussion of the age-dust degeneracy (Fig
9); 3) the comparison of real and simulated submm galaxies (Fig 1
The HiZELS/UKIRT large area survey for bright Lyman-alpha emitters at z~9
We present the largest area survey to date (1.4 deg2) for Lyman-alpha
emitters (LAEs) at z~9, as part of the Hi-z Emission Line Survey (HiZELS). The
survey, which primarily targets H-alpha emitters at z < 3, uses the Wide Field
CAMera on the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope and a custom narrow-band filter
in the J band to reach a Lyman-alpha luminosity limit of ~10^43.8 erg/s over a
co-moving volume of 1.12x10^6 Mpc^3 at z = 8.96+-0.06. Two candidates were
found out of 1517 line emitters, but those were rejected as LAEs after
follow-up observations. This improves the limit on the space density of bright
Lyman-alpha emitters by 3 orders of magnitude and is consistent with
suppression of the bright end of the Lyman-alpha luminosity function beyond
z~6. Combined with upper limits from smaller but deeper surveys, this rules out
some of the most extreme models for high-redshift Lyman-alpha emitters. The
potential contamination of narrow-band Lyman-alpha surveys at z>7 by Galactic
brown dwarf stars is also examined, leading to the conclusion that such
contamination may well be significant for searches at 7.7 < z < 8.0, 9.1 < z <
9.5 and 11.7 < z < 12.2.Comment: To appear in proceedings of "UKIRT at 30: A British Success Story
Dynamical and photometric imprints of feedback processes on the early evolution of E/S0 galaxies
We show that the observed Velocity Dispersion Function of E/S0 galaxies
matches strikingly well the distribution function of virial velocities of
massive halos virializing at z > 1.5, as predicted by the standard hierarchical
clustering scenario in a \LambdaCDM cosmology, for a constant ratio sigma/V_vir
= 0.55 \pm 0.05, close to the value expected at virialization if it typically
occurred at z > 3. This strongly suggests that dissipative processes and later
merging events had little impact on the matter density profile. Adopting the
above sigma/V_vir ratio, the observed relationships between photometric and
dynamical properties which define the fundamental plane of elliptical galaxies,
such as the luminosity-sigma (Faber-Jackson) and the luminosity-effective
radius relations, as well as the M_BH-sigma relation, are nicely reproduced.
Their shapes turn out to be determined by the mutual feedback of star-formation
(and supernova explosions)and nuclear activity, along the lines discussed by
Granato et al. (2004). To our knowledge, this is the first semi-analytic model
for which simultaneous fits of the fundamental plane relations and of the
epoch-dependent luminosity function of spheroidal galaxies have been presented.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Ap
HiZELS: the High Redshift Emission Line Survey with UKIRT
In these proceedings we report on HiZELS, the High-z Emission Line Survey,
our successful panoramic narrow-band Campaign Survey using WFCAM on UKIRT to
detect and study emission line galaxies at z~1-9. HiZELS employs the H2(S1)
narrow-band filter together with custom-made narrow-band filters in the J and
H-bands, with the primary aim of delivering large, identically-selected samples
of H-alpha emitting galaxies at redshifts of 0.84, 1.47 and 2.23. Comparisons
between the luminosity function, the host galaxy properties, the clustering,
and the variation with environment of these H-alpha-selected samples are
yielding unique constraints on the nature and evolution of star-forming
galaxies, across the peak epoch of star-formation activity in the Universe. We
provide a summary of the project status, and detail the main scientific results
obtained so far: the measurement of the evolution of the cosmic star-formation
rate density out to z > 2 using a single star-formation indicator,
determination of the morphologies, environments and dust-content of the
star-forming galaxies, and a detailed investigation of the evolution of their
clustering properties. We also summarise the on-going work and future goals of
the project.Comment: To appear in proceedings of "UKIRT at 30: A British Success Story"
Accurate Sky Continuum Subtraction with Fibre-fed Spectrographs
Fibre-fed spectrographs now have throughputs equivalent to slit
spectrographs. However, the sky subtraction accuracy that can be reached has
often been pinpointed as one of the major issues associated with the use of
fibres. Using technical time observations with FLAMES-GIRAFFE, two observing
techniques, namely dual staring and cross beam-switching, were tested and the
resulting sky subtraction accuracy reached in both cases was quantified.
Results indicate that an accuracy of 0.6% on sky subtraction can be reached,
provided that the cross beam-switching mode is used. This is very encouraging
with regard to the detection of very faint sources with future fibre-fed
spectrographs, such as VLT/MOONS or E-ELT/MOSAIC.Comment: to appear in ESO Messenger, March 201
Optimizing high redshift galaxy surveys for environmental information
We investigate the performance of group finding algorithms that reconstruct galaxy groups from the positional information of tracer galaxies that are observed in redshift surveys carried out with multiplexed spectrographs. We use mock light-cones produced by the L-Galaxies semi-analytic model of galaxy evolution in which the underlying reality is known. We particularly focus on the performance at high redshift, and how this is affected by choices of the mass of the tracer galaxies (largely equivalent to their co-moving number density) and the (assumed random) sampling rate of these tracers. We first however compare two different approaches to group finding as applied at low redshift, and conclude that these are broadly comparable. For simplicity we adopt just one of these, "Friends-of-Friends" (FoF) as the basis for our study at high redshift. We introduce 12 science metrics that are designed to quantify the performance of the group-finder as relevant for a wide range of science investigations with a group catalogue. These metrics examine the quality of the recovered group catalogue, the median halo masses of different richness structures, the scatter in dark matter halo mass and how successful the group-finder classifies singletons, centrals and satellites. We analyze how these metrics vary with the limiting stellar mass and random sampling rate of the tracer galaxies, allowing quantification of the various trade-offs between different possible survey designs. Finally, we look at the impact of these same design parameters on the relative "costs" in observation time of the survey using as an example the potential MOONRISE survey using the MOONS instrument.ERC
STF
The cosmic assembly of stellar haloes in massive Early-Type Galaxies
Using the exquisite depth of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF12 programme) data set, we explore the ongoing assembly of the outermost regions of the most massive galaxies (Mstellar â„ 5Ă 1010 Mâ) at z †1. The outskirts of massive objects, particularly early-type Galaxies (ETGs), are expected to suffer a dramatic transformation across cosmic time due to continuous accretion of small galaxies. HUDF imaging allows us to study this process at intermediate redshifts in six massive galaxies, exploring the individual surface brightness profiles out to âŒ25 effective radii. We find that 5â20 per cent of the total stellar mass for the galaxies in our sample is contained within 10 1â2 per cent, very similar to predictions based on observed close pair counts. Therefore, the results for our small albeit meaningful sample suggest that the size and mass growth of the most massive galaxies have been solely driven by minor and major merging from z = 1 to today
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 indicates 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\sim -13 or fainter. Moreover, low levels of star formation extending to
redshifts z~15-25, as suggested by the normal UV colors of z\simeq7-8 galaxies
and the smooth decline in abundance with redshift observed by UDF12 to
z\simeq10, are additionally likely required to reproduce the optical depth to
electron scattering inferred from CMB observations.Comment: Version accepted by ApJ (originally submitted Jan 5, 2013). The UDF12
website can be found at http://udf12.arizona.ed
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