Search Results
Scaling relations of z ∼ 0.25–1.5 galaxies in various environments from the morpho-kinematics analysis of the MAGIC sample
Context. The evolution of galaxies is influenced by many physical processes, which may vary depending on their environment. Aims. We combine Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) data of galaxies at 0.25-1.5 to probe the impact of environment on the size-mass relation, the main sequence (MS) relation, and the Tully-Fisher relation (TFR). Methods. We perform a morpho-kinematics modelling of 593 [O-II] emitters in various environments in the COSMOS area from the MUSE-gAlaxy Groups In Cosmos survey. The HST F814W images are modelled with a bulge-disk decomposition to estimate their bulge-disk ratio, effective radius, and disk inclination. We use the [O-II]λλ3727, 3729 doublet to extract the galaxies ionised gas kinematics maps from the MUSE cubes, and we model those maps for a sample of 146 [O-II] emitters, including bulge and disk components constrained from morphology and a dark matter halo. Results. We find an offset of 0.03 dex (1 significant) on the size-mass relation zero point between the field and the large structure sub-samples, with a richness threshold of N=10 to separate between small and large structures, and of 0.06 dex (2) with N=20. Similarly, we find a 0.1 dex (2A) difference on the MS relation with N=10 and 0.15 dex (3) with N=20. These results suggest that galaxies in massive structures are smaller by 14% and have star formation rates reduced by a factor of 1.31.5 with respect to field galaxies at z 0.7. Finally, we do not find any impact of the environment on the TFR, except when using N=20 with an offset of 0.04 dex (1). We discard the effect of quenching for the largest structures, which would lead to an offset in the opposite direction. We find that, at z0.7, if quenching impacts the mass budget of galaxies in structures, these galaxies would have been affected quite recently and for roughly 0.7-+1.5 Gyr. This result holds when including the gas mass but vanishes once we include the asymmetric drift correction.
Elevated ionizing photon production efficiency in faint high-equivalent-width Lyman-α emitters
While low-luminosity galaxies dominate number counts at all redshifts, their contribution to cosmic reionization is poorly understood due to a lack of knowledge of their physical properties. We isolate a sample of 35 z ≈ 4–5 continuum-faint Lyman-α emitters from deep VLT/MUSE spectroscopy and directly measure their H α emission using stacked Spitzer/IRAC Ch. 1 photometry. Based on Hubble Space Telescope imaging, we determine that the average UV continuum magnitude is fainter than −16 (≈ 0.01 L*), implying a median Lyman-α equivalent width of 259 Å. By combining the H α measurement with the UV magnitude, we determine the ionizing photon production efficiency, ξion, a first for such faint galaxies. The measurement of log10 (ξion [Hz erg−1]) = 26.28 (+−002840) is in excess of literature measurements of both continuum- and emission line-selected samples, implying a more efficient production of ionizing photons in these lower luminosity, Lyman-α-selected systems. We conclude that this elevated efficiency can be explained by stellar populations with metallicities between 4 × 10−4 and 0.008, with light-weighted ages less than 3 Myr.
The tully-fisher relation in dense groups at z ∼ 0.7 in the MAGIC survey
Context. Galaxies in dense environments are subject to interactions and mechanisms that directly affect their evolution by lowering their gas fractions and consequently reducing their star-forming capacity earlier than their isolated counterparts. Aims. The aim of our project is to get new insights into the role of environment in the stellar and baryonic content of galaxies using a kinematic approach, through the study of the Tully-Fisher relation (TFR). Methods. We study a sample of galaxies in eight groups, over-dense by a factor larger than 25 with respect to the average projected density, spanning a redshift range of 0.5 < z < 0.8 and located in ten pointings of the MAGIC MUSE Guaranteed Time Observations program. We perform a morpho-kinematics analysis of this sample and set up a selection based on galaxy size, [O » II]λλ3727,3729 emission line doublet signal-to-noise ratio, bulge-to-disk ratio, and nuclear activity to construct a robust kinematic sample of 67 star-forming galaxies. Results. We show that this selection considerably reduces the number of outliers in the TFR, which are predominantly dispersion-dominated galaxies. Similar to other studies, we find that including the velocity dispersion in the velocity budget mainly affects galaxies with low rotation velocities, reduces the scatter in the relation, increases its slope, and decreases its zero-point. Including gas masses is more significant for low-mass galaxies due to a larger gas fraction, and thus decreases the slope and increases the zero-point of the relation. Our results suggest a significant offset of the TFR zero-point between galaxies in low- and high-density environments, regardless of the kinematics estimator used. This can be interpreted as a decrease in either stellar mass by ∼0.05 - 0.3 dex or an increase in rotation velocity by ∼0.02 - 0.06 dex for galaxies in groups, depending on the samples used for comparison. We also studied the stellar and baryon mass fractions within stellar disks and found they both increase with stellar mass, the trend being more pronounced for the stellar component alone. These fractions do not exceed 50%. We show that this evolution of the TFR is consistent either with a decrease in star formation or with a contraction of the mass distribution due to the environment. These two effects probably act together, with their relative contribution depending on the mass regime. © V. Abril-Melgarejo et al. 2021.
FROM GLOBAL TO SPATIALLY RESOLVED IN LOW-REDSHIFT GALAXIES
Our understanding of the structure, composition and evolution of galaxies has strongly improved in the last decades, mostly due to new results based on large spectroscopic and imaging surveys. In particular, the nature of ionized gas, its ionization mechanisms, its relation with the stellar properties and chemical composition, the existence of scaling relations that describe the cycle between stars and gas, and the corresponding evolution patterns have been widely explored and described. More recently, the introduction of additional techniques, in particular integral field spectroscopy, and their use in large galaxy surveys, have forced us to re-interpret most of those recent results from a spatially resolved perspective. This review is aimed to complement recent efforts to compile and summarize this change of paradigm in the interpretation of galaxy evolution. To this end we replicate published results, and present novel ones, based on the largest compilation of IFS data of galaxies in the nearby universe to date. © 2021: Instituto de Astronomía, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
Astraeus I: The interplay between galaxy formation and reionization
We introduce a new self-consistent model of galaxy evolution and reionization, ASTRAEUS (seminumerical rAdiative tranSfer coupling of galaxy formaTion and Reionization in N-body dArk mattEr simUlationS), which couples a state-of-the-art N-body simulation with the semi-analytical galaxy evolution DELPHI and the seminumerical reionization scheme CIFOG. ASTRAEUS includes all the key processes of galaxy formation and evolution (including accretion, mergers, supernova, and radiative feedback) and follows the time and spatial evolution of the ionized regions in the intergalactic medium (IGM). Importantly, it explores different radiative feedback models that cover the physically plausible parameter space, ranging from a weak and delayed to a strong and immediate reduction of gas mass available for star formation. From our simulation suite that covers the different radiative feedback prescriptions and ionization topologies, we find that radiative feedback continuously reduces star formation in galaxies with Mh ≲ 109.5 M☉ upon local reionization; larger mass haloes are unaffected even for the strongest and immediate radiative feedback cases during reionization. For this reason, the ionization topologies of different radiative feedback scenarios differ only on scales smaller than 1–2 comoving Mpc, and significant deviations are found only when physical parameters (e.g. the escape fraction of ionizing photons) are altered based on galactic properties. Finally, we find that observables (the ultraviolet luminosity function, stellar mass function, reionization histories and ionization topologies) are hardly affected by the choice of the used stellar population synthesis models that model either single stars or binaries.