7,171 research outputs found
Near-Infrared spectroscopy of the super star cluster in NGC1705
We study the near-infrared properties of the super star cluster NGC1750-1 in
order to constrain its spatial extent, its stellar population and its age. We
use adaptive optics assisted integral field spectroscopy with SINFONI on the
VLT. We estimate the spatial extent of the cluster and extract its K-band
spectrum from which we constrain the age of the dominant stellar population.
Our observations have an angular resolution of about 0.11", providing an upper
limit on the cluster radius of 2.85+/-0.50 pc depending on the assumed
distance. The K-band spectrum is dominated by strong CO absorption bandheads
typical of red supergiants. Its spectral type is equivalent to a K4-5I star.
Using evolutionary tracks from the Geneva and Utrecht groups, we determine an
age of 12+/-6 Myr. The large uncertainty is rooted in the large difference
between the Geneva and Utrecht tracks in the red supergiants regime. The
absence of ionized gas lines in the K-band spectrum is consistent with the
absence of O and/or Wolf-Rayet stars in the cluster, as expected for the
estimated age.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. Research Note accepted in Astronomy and
Astrophysic
The Physical Properties of LBGs at z>5: Outflows and the "pre-enrichment problem"
We discuss the properties of Lyman Break galaxies (LBGs) at z>5 as determined
from disparate fields covering approximately 500 sq. arcmin. While the broad
characteristics of the LBG population has been discussed extensively in the
literature, such as luminosity functions and clustering amplitude, we focus on
the detailed physical properties of the sources in this large survey (>100 with
spectroscopic redshifts). Specifically, we discuss ensemble mass estimates,
stellar mass surface densities, core phase space densities, star-formation
intensities, characteristics of their stellar populations, etc as obtained from
multi-wavelength data (rest-frame UV through optical) for a subsample of these
galaxies. In particular, we focus on evidence that these galaxies drive
vigorous outflows and speculate that this population may solve the so-called
``pre-enrichment problem''. The general picture that emerges from these studies
is that these galaxies, observed about 1 Gyr after the Big Bang, have
properties consistent with being the progenitors of the densest stellar systems
in the local Universe -- the centers of old bulges and early type galaxies.Comment: 4 pages, to appear in "Pathways Through an Eclectic Universe", J. H.
Knappen, T. J. Mahoney, and A. Vazedekis (Eds.), ASP Conf. Ser., 200
Measures of galaxy dust and gas mass with Herschel photometry and prospects for ALMA
(Abridged) Combining the deepest Herschel extragalactic surveys (PEP,
GOODS-H, HerMES), and Monte Carlo mock catalogs, we explore the robustness of
dust mass estimates based on modeling of broad band spectral energy
distributions (SEDs) with two popular approaches: Draine & Li (2007, DL07) and
a modified black body (MBB). As long as the observed SED extends to at least
160-200 micron in the rest frame, M(dust) can be recovered with a >3 sigma
significance and without the occurrence of systematics. An average offset of a
factor ~1.5 exists between DL07- and MBB-based dust masses, based on consistent
dust properties. At the depth of the deepest Herschel surveys (in the GOODS-S
field) it is possible to retrieve dust masses with a S/N>=3 for galaxies on the
main sequence of star formation (MS) down to M(stars)~1e10 [M(sun)] up to z~1.
At higher redshift (z<=2) the same result is achieved only for objects at the
tip of the MS or lying above it. Molecular gas masses, obtained converting
M(dust) through the metallicity-dependent gas-to-dust ratio delta(GDR), are
consistent with those based on the scaling of depletion time, and on CO
spectroscopy. Focusing on CO-detected galaxies at z>1, the delta(GDR)
dependence on metallicity is consistent with the local relation. We combine
far-IR Herschel data and sub-mm ALMA expected fluxes to study the advantages of
a full SED coverage.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics. Some figures
have degraded quality for filesize reason
Lyman-break galaxies at z~5 -I. First significant stellar mass assembly in galaxies that are not simply z~3 LBGs at higher redshift
We determine the ensemble properties of z~5 Lyman break galaxies (LBGs)
selected as V-band dropouts to i(AB)<26.3 in the Chandra Deep Field South using
their rest-frame UV-to-visible SEDs. By matching the selection and performing
the same analysis that has been used for z~3 samples, we show clear differences
in the properties of two samples of LBGs which are separated by ~1Gyr in
lookback time. We find that z~5 LBGs are typically much younger (<100Myr) and
have lower stellar masses (10^9Msol) than their z~3 counterparts. The
difference in mass is significant even when considering the presence of an
older, underlying population in both samples. Such young and moderately massive
systems dominate the luminous z~5 LBG population (>70%), whereas they comprise
<30% of LBG samples at z~3. This result is robust under all reasonable
modelling assumptions. These intense starbursts appear to be experiencing their
first (few) generations of large-scale star formation and are accumulating
their first significant stellar mass. Their dominance in luminous LBG samples
suggests that z~5 witnesses a period of wide-spread, recent galaxy formation.
As such, z~5 LBGs are the likely progenitors of the spheroidal components of
present-day massive galaxies. This is supported by their high stellar mass
surface densities, their core phase-space densities, as well as the ages of
stars in the bulge of our Galaxy and other massive systems. Their high star
formation rates per unit area suggest that these systems host outflows or winds
that enrich the intra- and inter-galactic media with metals. Their estimated
young ages are consistent with inefficient metal-mixing on galaxy-wide scales.
Therefore these galaxies may contain a significant fraction of metal-free stars
as has been proposed for z~3 LBGs (Jimenez & Haiman 2006). [Abridged]Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 21 pages, 9 postscript figures.
For a PDF file with high resolution figures, see
http://www-astro.physics.ox.ac.uk/~averma
Breaking of ergodicity and long relaxation times in systems with long-range interactions
The thermodynamic and dynamical properties of an Ising model with both short
range and long range, mean field like, interactions are studied within the
microcanonical ensemble. It is found that the relaxation time of
thermodynamically unstable states diverges logarithmically with system size.
This is in contrast with the case of short range interactions where this time
is finite. Moreover, at sufficiently low energies, gaps in the magnetization
interval may develop to which no microscopic configuration corresponds. As a
result, in local microcanonical dynamics the system cannot move across the gap,
leading to breaking of ergodicity even in finite systems. These are general
features of systems with long range interactions and are expected to be valid
even when the interaction is slowly decaying with distance.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
Deep VLT V-band Imaging of the Field of a z=10 Candidate Galaxy: Below the Lyman Limit?
We present a deep 16.8 ks V-band image of the field of a candidate z=10
galaxy magnified by the foreground (z=0.25) cluster A1835. The image was
obtained with FORS1 on VLT-Kueyen to test whether the V-band lies below the
Lyman limit for this very high redshift candidate. A detection would
unambiguously rule out that the source is at z=10. The 3sigma detection limit
of the image in the area of the z=10 candidate is V_AB=28.0 mag in a 2 arcsec
diameter aperture (about 3 times the seeing FWHM of 0.7 arcsec). No source at
the position of the candidate galaxy is detected down to this limit. Formally,
this is consistent with the V-band probing below the Lyman limit in the
rest-frame of a z=10 source. However, given the recent non-detection of the
object in a deep H-band exposure with NIRI on Gemini North down to H_AB=26.0
mag (3sigma in a 1.4 arcsec aperture) and concerns about the detection of the
reported associated emission line, it may be possible that this source is
spurious. We discuss several astrophysical possibilities to explain the
puzzling nature of this source and find none of them compelling.Comment: accepted for publication in Ap
The size-star formation relation of massive galaxies at 1.5<z<2.5
We study the relation between size and star formation activity in a complete
sample of 225 massive (M > 5 x 10^10 Msun) galaxies at 1.5<z<2.5, selected from
the FIREWORKS UV-IR catalog of the CDFS. Based on stellar population synthesis
model fits to the observed restframe UV-NIR SEDs, and independent MIPS 24
micron observations, 65% of galaxies are actively forming stars, while 35% are
quiescent. Using sizes derived from 2D surface brightness profile fits to high
resolution (FWHM_{PSF}~0.45 arcsec) groundbased ISAAC data, we confirm and
improve the significance of the relation between star formation activity and
compactness found in previous studies, using a large, complete mass-limited
sample. At z~2, massive quiescent galaxies are significantly smaller than
massive star forming galaxies, and a median factor of 0.34+/-0.02 smaller than
galaxies of similar mass in the local universe. 13% of the quiescent galaxies
are unresolved in the ISAAC data, corresponding to sizes <1 kpc, more than 5
times smaller than galaxies of similar mass locally. The quiescent galaxies
span a Kormendy relation which, compared to the relation for local early types,
is shifted to smaller sizes and brighter surface brightnesses and is
incompatible with passive evolution. The progenitors of the quiescent galaxies,
were likely dominated by highly concentrated, intense nuclear star bursts at
z~3-4, in contrast to star forming galaxies at z~2 which are extended and
dominated by distributed star formation.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
Non-ergodic effects in the Coulomb glass: specific heat
We present a numerical method for the investigation of non-ergodic effects in
the Coulomb glass. For that, an almost complete set of low-energy many-particle
states is obtained by a new algorithm. The dynamics of the sample is mapped to
the graph formed by the relevant transitions between these states, that means
by transitions with rates larger than the inverse of the duration of the
measurement. The formation of isolated clusters in the graph indicates
non-ergodicity. We analyze the connectivity of this graph in dependence on
temperature, duration of measurement, degree of disorder, and dimensionality,
studying how non-ergodicity is reflected in the specific heat.Comment: Submited Phys. Rev.
SINFONI Integral Field Spectroscopy of z~2 UV-selected Galaxies: Rotation Curves and Dynamical Evolution
We present 0.5" resolution near-IR integral field spectroscopy of the Ha line
emission of 14 z~2 UV-selected BM/BX galaxies obtained with SINFONI at ESO/VLT.
The mean Ha half-light radius r_1/2 is about 4kpc and line emission is detected
over > ~20kpc in several sources. In 9 sources, we detect spatially-resolved
velocity gradients, from 40 to 410 km/s over ~10kpc. The observed kinematics of
the larger systems are consistent with orbital motions. Four galaxies are well
described by rotating disks with clumpy morphologies and we extract rotation
curves out to radii > ~10kpc. One or two galaxies exhibit signatures more
consistent with mergers. Analyzing all 14 galaxies in the framework of rotating
disks, we infer mean inclination- and beam-corrected maximum circular
velocities v_c of 180+-90 km/s and dynamical masses of (0.5-25)x10^10 Msun
within r_1/2. On average, the dynamical masses are consistent with photometric
stellar masses assuming a Chabrier/Kroupa IMF but too small for a 0.1-100 Msun
Salpeter IMF. The specific angular momenta of our BM/BX galaxies are similar to
those of local late-type galaxies. The specific angular momenta of their
baryons are comparable to those of their dark matter halos. Extrapolating from
the average v_c at 10kpc, the virial mass of the typical halo of a galaxy in
our sample is 10^(11.7+-0.5) Msun. Kinematic modeling of the 3 best cases
implies a ratio of v_c to local velocity dispersion of order 2-4 and
accordingly a large geometric thickness. We argue that this suggests a mass
accretion (alternatively, gas exhaustion) timescale of ~500Myr. We also argue
that if our BM/BX galaxies were initially gas rich, their clumpy disks will
subsequently lose their angular momentum and form compact bulges on a timescale
of ~1 Gyr. [ABRIDGED]Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. 17 pages, 5
color figure
- …