189 research outputs found
Reproducing the assembly of massive galaxies within the hierarchical cosmogony
In order to gain insight into the physical mechanisms leading to the
formation of stars and their assembly in galaxies, we compare the predictions
of the MOdel for the Rise of GAlaxies aNd Active nuclei (MORGANA) to the
properties of K- and 850 micron-selected galaxies (such as number counts,
redshift distributions and luminosity functions) by combining MORGANA with the
spectrophotometric model GRASIL. We find that it is possible to reproduce the
K- and 850 micron-band datasets at the same time and with a standard Salpeter
IMF, and ascribe this success to our improved modeling of cooling in DM halos.
We then predict that massively star-forming discs are common at z~2 and
dominate the star-formation rate, but most of them merge with other galaxies
within ~100 Myr. Our preferred model produces an overabundance of bright
galaxies at z<1; this overabundance might be connected to the build-up of the
diffuse stellar component in galaxy clusters, as suggested by Monaco et al.
(2006), but a naive implementation of the mechanism suggested in that paper
does not produce a sufficient slow-down of the evolution of these objects.
Moreover, our model over-predicts the number of 10^{10}-10^{11} M_sun galaxies
at z~1; this is a common behavior of theoretical models as shown by Fontana et
al. (2006). These findings show that, while the overall build-up of the stellar
mass is correctly reproduced by galaxy formation models, the ``downsizing''
trend of galaxies is not fully reproduced yet. This hints to some missing
feedback mechanism in order to reproduce at the same time the formation of both
the massive and the small galaxies.Comment: 14 pages; 11 figures; accepted for publication by MNRA
Il Cispio e le sue adiacenze in età antica. Storia urbana e analisi topografica di un settore dell'Esquilino
La ricerca è stata avviata col fine di analizzare la topografia storica di uno dei settori della città antica meno conosciuti: il Cispio. Ci si è così proposti di restituire la storia urbana di una delle aree di Roma che, a causa di una marginalità evidente all’interno delle fonti letterarie risulta tra le più neglette negli studi contemporanei. A livello metodologico si è operato distinguendo tre differenti livelli: analitico, sintetico e interpretativo.
Nella struttura della ricerca si è imposta una qualche ridondanza nella organizzazione e nell’analisi delle fonti disponibili, interrogandole sulle diverse tematiche affrontate e riarticolandole secondo prospettive interpretative differenti. La natura stessa del dossier non ha consentito, infatti, una narrazione continua e cronologicamente ordinata, a cui si è così rinunciato. La raccolta dei dati ha mirato a ricostruire ogni ritrovamento occorso lungo la superficie del Cispio, confluito poi nella carta archeologica, che costituisce la parte catalogica di questo lavoro.
Ad un livello successivo, quello di sintesi, si è scelto di esaminare ogni tematica topografica sotto una duplice prospettiva quella delle fonti archeologiche e quella delle fonti scritte, cercando in questo modo sia di distinguere il più possibile la lettura dall’interpretazione, sia di valorizzare un dossier di sua natura poco “parlante”.
Sono state così affrontate problematiche quali la toponomastica e la topografia, le suddivisioni dello spazio urbano, la viabilità e gli spazi pubblici e i luoghi di culto nell’ambito delle fonti scritte. Per quelle archeologiche, invece, si sono esaminate le dinamiche dello sviluppo pre-urbano, il tessuto insediativo, la viabilità e, seppur brevemente, l’analisi dei reperti mobili.
Un apposito spazio, inoltre, è stato dedicato alla complessa problematica della localizzazione del tempio di Giunone Lucina sul Cispio, di fatto il solo edificio che le fonti antiche situano con certezza sul mons. La proposta di localizzazione, ottenuta tramite l’analisi integrata del dossier archeologico con quello letterario ed epigrafico, si è giovata in gran parte della ricerca archivistica sopramenzionata. Si è tentato comunque, per quanto possibile, di restituire un quadro e un areale accettabile per la localizzazione del luogo di culto, e successivamente indagare le distinte possibilità, avanzando una proposta specifica.
Infine, ad un ultimo livello più interpretativo si sono analizzate le problematiche di storia urbana dell’area. In questo senso, proprio a causa della limitatezza delle fonti letterarie disponibili il lavoro si è giovato del dossier epigrafico per approfondire il paesaggio religioso e la storia sociale del quartiere. Sulla prima tematica, sostanzialmente limitata alla festività dei Matronalia ci si è proposti di chiarire la ritualità connessa alla celebrazione delle feste in onore della dea, al suo contesto storico ed alle vicende connesse alla fondazione del tempio, tra le più dibattute nella storia degli studi. Sulla storia sociale del quartiere è stata indagata e verificata la presenza di specifiche forme di sociabilità connessa alla eventuale caratterizzazione “professionale” di alcune aree del Cispio. Contestualmente si è cercato di comprendere e ricostruire la presenza di memorie di famiglie nella toponomastica, ed infine, di tracciare un quadro degli abitanti del quartiere, provando a riconoscerne le abitazioni e analizzando i caratteri specifici del popolamento.
L’obiettivo finale è stato quello di colmare un vuoto nella storia urbana della città antica, cercando di comprendere l’area nella sua integrità e il complesso sistema di fonti ad essa associate
La Velia da Massenzio a Mussolini. Ideologia, politica e paesaggio urbano
The contribution intends to analyse, investigating the ideological meanings in terms of urban policy, the long-term events that since the age of Maxentius have followed one another in the urban history of the southern slope of the Velia, one of the most representative and historically qualified areas of the centre of Ancient and modern Rome. The hill has been the object of successive transformations that have changed the image and value of this important public space up to the contemporary age. After the late ancient and medieval phases, the functional alterations of the area were followed by the loss of identity of the basilica of Maxentius, recognized as such only in the early 19th century by Antonio Nibby. The views, engravings and drawings from the 17th-19th centuries witness the evolution of the urban image of this part of the city, replaced in the role of symbolic centre by the new focal points of papal Rome. A renewed chapter in the history of the southern slope of the Velia opened up with the French government’s urban policy projects (1809-1814), followed by the 19th-century excavations and then by the idea of the “passeggiata archeologica” which has polarised the archaeological debate and urban planning of the post-unitary period. Finally, the opening of via dell’Impero was the last act of semantization of this sector of the Velia, according to an ideological and propagandist urban policy process that has directly involved the basilica of Maxentius, reinterpreting it in its functions
The Asiago-ESO/RASS QSO Survey II. The Southern Sample
This is the second paper of a series describing the Asiago-ESO/RASS QSO survey, a project aimed at the construction of an all-sky statistically well-defined sample of very bright QSOs (B_J 30^{\circ}). The area covered by the survey is 5660 sq. deg. Spectroscopy for the 137 still unidentified objects has been obtained. The total number of AGN turns out to be 111, 63 of which are new identifications. The properties of the selection are discussed. The completeness and the success rate for this survey at the final stage are 63% and 46%, respectively
The probabilistic random forest applied to the selection of quasar candidates in the QUBRICS survey
The number of known, bright (i 2.5) QSOs in the Southern hemisphere is considerably lower than the corresponding number in the Northern hemisphere due to the lack of multiwavelength surveys at δ 2.5 QSOs. The performances of the PRF, currently comparable to those of the CCA, are expected to improve as the number of high-z QSOs available for the training sample grows: results are however already promising, despite this being one of the first applications of this method to an astrophysical context
The Probabilistic Random Forest applied to the selection of quasar candidates in the QUBRICS Survey
The number of known, bright () QSOs in the
Southern Hemisphere is considerably lower than the corresponding number in the
Northern Hemisphere due to the lack of multi-wavelength surveys at .
Recent works, such as the QUBRICS survey, successfully identified new,
high-redshift QSOs in the South by means of a machine learning approach applied
on a large photometric dataset. Building on the success of QUBRICS, we present
a new QSO selection method based on the Probabilistic Random Forest (PRF), an
improvement of the classic Random Forest algorithm. The PRF takes into account
measurement errors, treating input data as probability distribution functions:
this allows us to obtain better accuracy and a robust predictive model. We
applied the PRF to the same photometric dataset used in QUBRICS, based on the
SkyMapper DR1, Gaia DR2, 2MASS, WISE and GALEX databases. The resulting
candidate list includes sources with . We estimate for our proposed
algorithm a completeness of and a purity of on the test
datasets. Preliminary spectroscopic campaigns allowed us to observe 41
candidates, of which 29 turned out to be QSOs. The performances of the
PRF, currently comparable to those of the CCA, are expected to improve as the
number of high-z QSOs available for the training sample grows: results are
however already promising, despite this being one of the first applications of
this method to an astrophysical context.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 12 pages, 11 figures, 4 table
Multicolor observations of the Hubble Deep Field South
We present a deep multicolor (UBVIJsHKs) catalog of galaxies in the HDF-S,
based on observations obtained with the HST WFPC2 in 1998 and VLT-ISAAC in
1999. The photometric procedures were tuned to derive a catalog optimized for
the estimation of photometric redshifts. In particular we adopted a
``conservative'' detection threshold which resulted in a list of 1611 objects.
The behavior of the observed source counts is in general agreement with the
result of Casertano et al. (2000) in the HDF-S and Williams et al. (1996) in
the HDF-N, while the corresponding counts in the HDF-N provided by
Fernandez-Soto et al. (1999) are systematically lower by a factor 1.5 beyond
I_AB=26. After correcting for the incompleteness of the source counts, the
object surface density at I_AB<27.5 is estimated to be 220 per square arcmin,
providing an estimate of the Extragalactic Background Light in the I band
consistent with the work of Madau & Pozzetti(2000). The comparison between the
median V-I color in the HDF-North and South shows a significant difference
around I_AB~26, possibly due to the presence of large scale structure at z~1 in
the HDF-N. High-z galaxy candidates (90 U dropout and 17 B dropout) were
selected by means of color diagrams, down to a magnitude I_AB=27, with a
surface density of (21+-1) and (3.9+-0.9) per square arcmin, respectively. 11
EROs (with (I-K)_AB>2.7) were selected down to K_AB=24, plus 3 objects whose
upper limit to the Ks flux is still compatible with the selection criterion.
The corresponding surface density of EROs is (2.5+-0.8) per sq.arcmin
((3.2+-0.9) per sq.arcmin if we include the three Ks upper limits). They show a
remarkably non-uniform spatial distribution and are classified with roughly
equal fractions in the categories of elliptical and starburst galaxies.Comment: 36 pages Latex, with 12 PostScript figures. Accepted for publication
in Astronomical Journa
Ultra-deep Large Binocular Camera U-band Imaging of the GOODS-North Field: Depth vs. Resolution
We present a study of the trade-off between depth and resolution using a
large number of U-band imaging observations in the GOODS-North field
(Giavalisco et al. 2004) from the Large Binocular Camera (LBC) on the Large
Binocular Telescope (LBT). Having acquired over 30 hours of data (315 images
with 5-6 mins exposures), we generated multiple image mosaics, starting with
the best atmospheric seeing images (FWHM 0.8"), which constitute
10% of the total data set. For subsequent mosaics, we added in data with
larger seeing values until the final, deepest mosaic included all images with
FWHM 1.8" (94% of the total data set). From the mosaics, we
made object catalogs to compare the optimal-resolution, yet shallower image to
the lower-resolution but deeper image. We show that the number counts for both
images are 90% complete to . Fainter than
27, the object counts from the optimal-resolution image start to
drop-off dramatically (90% between = 27 and 28 mag), while the deepest
image with better surface-brightness sensitivity ( 32
mag arcsec) show a more gradual drop (10% between 27
and 28 mag). For the brightest galaxies within the GOODS-N field, structure and
clumpy features within the galaxies are more prominent in the
optimal-resolution image compared to the deeper mosaics. Finally, we find - for
220 brighter galaxies with 24 mag - only marginal
differences in total flux between the optimal-resolution and lower-resolution
light-profiles to 32 mag arcsec. In only 10% of
the cases are the total-flux differences larger than 0.5 mag. This helps
constrain how much flux can be missed from galaxy outskirts, which is important
for studies of the Extragalactic Background Light.Comment: 24 pages, 14 figures, submitted to PASP, comments welcom
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