8,467 research outputs found
The cosmic evolution of the spatially-resolved star formation rate and stellar mass of the CALIFA survey
We investigate the cosmic evolution of the absolute and specific star
formation rate (SFR, sSFR) of galaxies as derived from a spatially-resolved
study of the stellar populations in a set of 366 nearby galaxies from the
CALIFA survey. The analysis combines GALEX and SDSS images with the 4000 break,
H_beta, and [MgFe] indices measured from the datacubes, to constrain parametric
models for the SFH, which are then used to study the cosmic evolution of the
star formation rate density (SFRD), the sSFR, the main sequence of star
formation (MSSF), and the stellar mass density (SMD). A delayed-tau model,
provides the best results, in good agreement with those obtained from
cosmological surveys. Our main results from this model are: a) The time since
the onset of the star formation is larger in the inner regions than in the
outer ones, while tau is similar or smaller in the inner than in the outer
regions. b) The sSFR declines rapidly as the Universe evolves, and faster for
early than for late type galaxies, and for the inner than for the outer regions
of galaxies. c) SFRD and SMD agree well with results from cosmological surveys.
At z< 0.5, most star formation takes place in the outer regions of late spiral
galaxies, while at z>2 the inner regions of the progenitors of the current E
and S0 are the major contributors to SFRD. d) The inner regions of galaxies are
the major contributor to SMD at z> 0.5, growing their mass faster than the
outer regions, with a lookback time at 50% SMD of 9 and 6 Gyr for the inner and
outer regions. e) The MSSF follows a power-law at high redshift, with the slope
evolving with time, but always being sub-linear. f) In agreement with galaxy
surveys at different redshifts, the average SFH of CALIFA galaxies indicates
that galaxies grow their mass mainly in a mode that is well represented by a
delayed-tau model, with the peak at z~2 and an e-folding time of 3.9 Gyr.Comment: 23 pages, 16 figures, 6 tables, accepted for publication in Astronomy
& Astrophysics. *Abridged abstract
Census of HII regions in NGC 6754 derived with MUSE: Constraints on the metal mixing scale
We present a study of the HII regions in the galaxy NGC 6754 from a two
pointing mosaic comprising 197,637 individual spectra, using Integral Field
Spectrocopy (IFS) recently acquired with the MUSE instrument during its Science
Verification program. The data cover the entire galaxy out to ~2 effective
radii (re ), sampling its morphological structures with unprecedented spatial
resolution for a wide-field IFU. A complete census of the H ii regions limited
by the atmospheric seeing conditions was derived, comprising 396 individual
ionized sources. This is one of the largest and most complete catalogue of H ii
regions with spectroscopic information in a single galaxy. We use this
catalogue to derive the radial abundance gradient in this SBb galaxy, finding a
negative gradient with a slope consistent with the characteristic value for
disk galaxies recently reported. The large number of H ii regions allow us to
estimate the typical mixing scale-length (rmix ~0.4 re ), which sets strong
constraints on the proposed mechanisms for metal mixing in disk galaxies, like
radial movements associated with bars and spiral arms, when comparing with
simulations. We found evidence for an azimuthal variation of the oxygen
abundance, that may be related with the radial migration. These results
illustrate the unique capabilities of MUSE for the study of the enrichment
mechanisms in Local Universe galaxies.Comment: 13 pages, 7 Figurs, accepted for publishing in A&
Using Biotic Interaction Networks for Prediction in Biodiversity and Emerging Diseases
Networks offer a powerful tool for understanding and visualizing inter-species interactions within an ecology. Previously considered examples, such as trophic networks, are just representations of experimentally observed direct interactions. However, species interactions are so rich and complex it is not feasible to directly observe more than a small fraction. In this paper, using data mining techniques, we show how potential interactions can be inferred from geographic data, rather than by direct observation. An important application area for such a methodology is that of emerging diseases, where, often, little is known about inter-species interactions, such as between vectors and reservoirs. Here, we show how using geographic data, biotic interaction networks that model statistical dependencies between species distributions can be used to infer and understand inter-species interactions. Furthermore, we show how such networks can be used to build prediction models. For example, for predicting the most important reservoirs of a disease, or the degree of disease risk associated with a geographical area. We illustrate the general methodology by considering an important emerging disease - Leishmaniasis. This data mining approach allows for the use of geographic data to construct inferential biotic interaction networks which can then be used to build prediction models with a wide range of applications in ecology, biodiversity and emerging diseases
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