107 research outputs found
The Galaxy Structure-Redshift Relationship
There exists a gradual, but persistent, evolutionary effect in the galaxy
population such that galaxy structure and morphology change with redshift. This
galaxy structure-redshift relationship is such that an increasingly large
fraction of all bright and massive galaxies at redshifts 2 < z < 3 are
morphologically peculiar at wavelengths from rest-frame ultraviolet to
rest-frame optical. There are however examples of morphologically selected
spirals and ellipticals at all redshifts up to z ~ 3. At lower redshift, the
bright galaxy population smoothly transforms into normal ellipticals and
spirals. The rate of this transformation strongly depends on redshift, with the
swiftest evolution occurring between 1 < z < 2. This review characterizes the
galaxy structure-redshift relationship, discusses its various physical causes,
and how these are revealing the mechanisms responsible for galaxy formation.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figures. Invited Review to appear in "Penetrating Bars
Through Masks of Cosmic Dust: The Hubble Tuning Fork Strikes A New Note", ed.
D. Block et a
Does environment affect the star formation histories of early-type galaxies?
Differences in the stellar populations of galaxies can be used to quantify
the effect of environment on the star formation history. We target a sample of
early-type galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey in two different
environmental regimes: close pairs and a general sample where environment is
measured by the mass of their host dark matter halo. We apply a blind source
separation technique based on principal component analysis, from which we
define two parameters that correlate, respectively, with the average stellar
age (eta) and with the presence of recent star formation (zeta) from the
spectral energy distribution of the galaxy. We find that environment leaves a
second order imprint on the spectra, whereas local properties - such as
internal velocity dispersion - obey a much stronger correlation with the
stellar age distribution.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures. Proceedings of JENAM 2010, Symposium 2:
"Environment and the formation of galaxies: 30 years later
A Candidate Sub-Parsec Supermassive Binary Black Hole System
We identify SDSS J153636.22+044127.0, a QSO discovered in the Sloan Digital
Sky Survey, as a promising candidate for a binary black hole system. This QSO
has two broad-line emission systems separated by 3500 km/sec. The redder system
at z=0.3889 also has a typical set of narrow forbidden lines. The bluer system
(z=0.3727) shows only broad Balmer lines and UV Fe II emission, making it
highly unusual in its lack of narrow lines. A third system, which includes only
unresolved absorption lines, is seen at a redshift, z=0.3878, intermediate
between the two emission-line systems. While the observational signatures of
binary nuclear black holes remain unclear, J1536+0441 is unique among all QSOs
known in having two broad-line regions, indicative of two separate black holes
presently accreting gas. The interpretation of this as a bound binary system of
two black holes having masses of 10^8.9 and 10^7.3 solar masses, yields a
separation of ~ 0.1 parsec and an orbital period of ~100 years. The separation
implies that the two black holes are orbiting within a single narrow-line
region, consistent with the characteristics of the spectrum. This object was
identified as an extreme outlier of a Karhunen-Loeve Transform of 17,500 z <
0.7 QSO spectra from the SDSS. The probability of the spectrum resulting from a
chance superposition of two QSOs with similar redshifts is estimated at
2X10^-7, leading to the expectation of 0.003 such objects in the sample
studied; however, even in this case, the spectrum of the lower redshift QSO
remains highly unusual.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, Nature in pres
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How do central and satellite galaxies quench? - Insights from spatially resolved spectroscopy in the MaNGA survey
We investigate how star formation quenching proceeds within central and
satellite galaxies using spatially resolved spectroscopy from the SDSS-IV MaNGA
DR15. We adopt a complete sample of star formation rate surface densities
(), derived in Bluck et al. (2020), to compute the distance
at which each spaxel resides from the resolved star forming main sequence
( relation): . We study
galaxy radial profiles in , and luminosity weighted
stellar age (), split by a variety of intrinsic and environmental
parameters. Via several statistical analyses, we establish that the quenching
of central galaxies is governed by intrinsic parameters, with central velocity
dispersion () being the most important single parameter. High mass
satellites quench in a very similar manner to centrals. Conversely, low mass
satellite quenching is governed primarily by environmental parameters, with
local galaxy over-density () being the most important single
parameter. Utilising the empirical - relation, we estimate
that quenching via AGN feedback must occur at , and is marked by steeply rising radial
profiles in the green valley, indicating `inside-out' quenching. On the other
hand, environmental quenching occurs at over-densities of 10 - 30 times the
average galaxy density at z0.1, and is marked by steeply declining
profiles, indicating `outside-in' quenching. Finally,
through an analysis of stellar metallicities, we conclude that both intrinsic
and environmental quenching must incorporate significant starvation of gas
supply.ERC
STF
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Towards robust determination of non-parametric morphologies in marginal astronomical data: Resolving uncertainties with cosmological hydrodynamical simulations
Quantitative morphologies, such as asymmetry and concentration, have long
been used as an effective way to assess the distribution of galaxy starlight in
large samples. Application of such quantitative indicators to other data
products could provide a tool capable of capturing the 2-dimensional
distribution of a range of galactic properties, such as stellar mass or
star-formation rate maps. In this work, we utilize galaxies from the Illustris
and IllustrisTNG simulations to assess the applicability of concentration and
asymmetry indicators to the stellar mass distribution in galaxies.
Specifically, we test whether the intrinsic values of concentration and
asymmetry (measured directly from the simulation stellar mass particle maps)
are recovered after the application of measurement uncertainty and a point
spread function (PSF). We find that random noise has a non-negligible
systematic effect on asymmetry that scales inversely with signal-to-noise,
particularly at signal-to-noise less than 100. We evaluate different methods to
correct for the noise contribution to asymmetry at very low signal-to-noise,
where previous studies have been unable to explore due to systematics. We
present algebraic corrections for noise and resolution to recover the intrinsic
morphology parameters. Using Illustris as a comparison dataset, we evaluate the
robustness of these fits in the presence of a different physics model, and
confirm these correction methods can be applied to other datasets. Lastly, we
provide estimations for the uncertainty on different correction methods at
varying signal-to-noise and resolution regimes.STFC
ER
The host galaxies and explosion sites of long-duration gamma-ray bursts: Hubble Space Telescope near-infrared imaging
We present the results of a Hubble Space Telescope WFC3/F160WSnapshot survey of the host galaxies of 39 long-duration gamma-ray bursts (LGRBs) at z < 3. We have non-detections of hosts at the locations of four bursts. Sufficient accuracy to astrometrically align optical afterglowimages and determine the location of the LGRB within its hostwas possible for 31/35 detected hosts. In agreement with other work, we find the luminosity distribution of LGRB hosts is significantly fainter than that of a star formation rate-weighted field galaxy sample over the same redshift range, indicating LGRBs are not unbiasedly tracing the star formation rate. Morphologically, the sample of LGRB hosts is dominated by spiral-like or irregular galaxies. We find evidence for evolution of the population of LGRB hosts towards lower luminosity, higher concentrated hosts at lower redshifts. Their half-light radii are consistent with other LGRB host samples where measurements were made on rest-frame UV observations. In agreement with recent work, we find their 80 per cent enclosed flux radii distribution to be more extended than previously thought, making them intermediate between core-collapse supernova (CCSN) and superluminous supernova (SLSN) hosts. The galactocentric projectedoffset distribution confirms LGRBs as centrally concentrated, much more so than CCSNe and similar to SLSNe. LGRBs are strongly biased towards the brighter regions in their host light distributions, regardless of their offset. We find a correlation between the luminosity of the LGRB explosion site and the intrinsic column density, NH, towards the burst. © 2017 The Authors
VLT/FORS2 view at z ∼ 6: Lyman-α emitter fraction and galaxy physical properties at the edge of the epoch of cosmic reionization
The fraction of Lyman- emitters among the galaxy population has been
found to increase from to and drop dramatically at .
This drop has been interpreted as an effect of an increasingly neutral
intergalactic medium with increasing redshift, while a LyC escape fraction
evolving with redshift. We report the result of a large VLT/FORS2 program
aiming to confirm spectroscopically a large galaxy sample at that has
been selected in several independent fields through the Lyman Break technique.
Combining those data with archival data, we create a large and homogeneous
sample of galaxies (), complete in terms of Ly
detection at for EW(Ly. We use this sample to derive
a new measurement of the LAE fraction at and derive the physical
properties of these galaxies through spectral energy distribution fitting. We
find a median LAE fraction at lower than in previous studies. The main
difference between LAEs and non-LAEs is that the latter are significantly
dustier. Using predictions of our SED fitting code accounting for nebular
emission, we find an effective Ly escape fraction
remarkably consistent with the
value derived by comparing UV luminosity function with Ly luminosity
function. We conclude that the drop in the LAE fraction from to
is less dramatic than previously found and the effect of an increasing IGM
neutral fraction is possibly observed at . Based on our derived
, we find that the IGM has a relatively small impact
on Ly photon visibility at , with a lower limit for the IGM
transmission to \lya\ photons, , likely due to the presence
of outflows. [abdridged
On the unification of dwarf and giant elliptical galaxies
The near orthogonal distributions of dwarf elliptical (dE) and giant
elliptical (E) galaxies in the mu_e-Mag and mu_e-log(R_e) diagrams have been
interpreted as evidence for two distinct galaxy formation processes. However,
continuous, linear relationships across the alleged dE/E boundary at M_B = -18
mag - such as those between central surface brightness (mu_0) and (i) galaxy
magnitude and (ii) light-profile shape (n) - suggest a similar, governing
formation mechanism. Here we explain how these latter two linear trends
necessitate a different behavior for dE and E galaxies, exactly as observed, in
diagrams involving mu_e (and also _e). A natural consequence is that the
distribution of dEs and Es in Fundamental Plane type analyses that use the
associated intensity I_e, or _e, are expected to appear different. Together
with other linear trends across the alleged dE/E boundary, such as those
between luminosity and color, metallicity, and velocity dispersion, it appears
that the dEs form a continuous extension to the E galaxies. The presence of
partially depleted cores in luminous (M_B < -20.5 mag) Es does however signify
the action of a different physical process at the centers (< ~300 pc) of these
galaxies.Comment: 5 pages from the proceedings of the 2004 conference "Penetrating bars
through masks of cosmic dust: the Hubble tuning fork strikes a new note".
Edited by D. L. Block, I. Puerari, K. C. Freeman, R. Groess, and E. K. Bloc
HST imaging of the dusty filaments and nucleus swirl in NGC4696 at the centre of the Centaurus Cluster
Narrow-band HST imaging has resolved the detailed internal structure of the
10 kpc diameter H alpha+[NII] emission line nebulosity in NGC4696, the central
galaxy in the nearby Centaurus cluster, showing that the dusty, molecular,
filaments have a width of about 60pc. Optical morphology and velocity
measurements indicate that the filaments are dragged out by the bubbling action
of the radio source as part of the AGN feedback cycle. Using the drag force we
find that the magnetic field in the filaments is in approximate pressure
equipartition with the hot gas. The filamentary nature of the cold gas
continues inward, swirling around and within the Bondi accretion radius of the
central black hole, revealing the magnetic nature of the gas flows in massive
elliptical galaxies. HST imaging resolves the magnetic, dusty, molecular
filaments at the centre of the Centaurus cluster to a swirl around and within
the Bondi radius.This is the accepted manuscript. It is currently embargoed pending publication
An ALMA survey of the SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey UKIDSS/UDS field: halo masses for submillimetre galaxies
We present an analysis of the spatial clustering of a large sample of high-resolution, interferometically identified, submillimetre galaxies (SMGs). We measure the projected cross-correlation function of ∼350 SMGs in the UKIDSS Ultra Deep-Survey Field across a redshift range of z = 1.5–3 utilizing a method that incorporates the uncertainties in the redshift measurements for both the SMGs and cross-correlated galaxies through sampling their full probability distribution functions. By measuring the absolute linear bias of the SMGs, we derive halo masses of log10(Mhalo[h−1M⊙]) ∼ 12.8 with no evidence of evolution in the halo masses with redshift, contrary to some previous work. From considering models of halo mass growth rates, we predict that the SMGs will reside in haloes of mass log10(Mhalo[h−1M⊙]) ∼ 13.2 at z = 0, consistent with the expectation that the majority of z = 1.5–3 SMGs will evolve into present-day spheroidal galaxies. Finally, comparing to models of stellar-to-halo mass ratios, we show that SMGs may correspond to systems that are maximally efficient at converting their gas reservoirs into stars. We compare them to a simple model for gas cooling in haloes that suggests that the unique properties of the SMG population, including their high levels of star formation and their redshift distribution, are a result of the SMGs being the most massive galaxies that are still able to accrete cool gas from their surrounding intragalactic medium
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