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    The MUSE Extremely Deep Field: The cosmic web in emission at high redshift
    (Les Ulis : EDP Sciences, 2021) Bacon, Roland; Mary, David; Garel, Thibault; Blaizot, Jeremy; Maseda, Michael; Schaye, Joop; Wisotzki, Lutz; Conseil, Simon; Brinchmann, Jarle; Leclercq, Floriane; Abril-Melgarejo, Valentina; Boogaard, Leindert; Bouché, Nicolas; Contini, Thierry; Feltre, Anna; Guiderdoni, Bruno; Herenz, Christian; Kollatschny, Wolfram; Kusakabe, Haruka; Matthee, Jorryt; Michel-Dansac, Léo; Nanayakkara, Themiya; Richard, Johan; Roth, Martin; Schmidt, Kasper B.; Steinmetz, Matthias; Tresse, Laurence; Urrutia, Tanya; Verhamme, Anne; Weilbacher, Peter M.; Zabl, Johannes; Zoutendijk, Sebastiaan L.
    We report the discovery of diffuse extended Lyα emission from redshift 3.1 to 4.5, tracing cosmic web filaments on scales of 2.5-4 cMpc. These structures have been observed in overdensities of Lyα emitters in the MUSE Extremely Deep Field, a 140 h deep MUSE observation located in the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field. Among the 22 overdense regions identified, five are likely to harbor very extended Lyα emission at high significance with an average surface brightness of 5  ×  10-20 erg s-1 cm-2 arcsec-2. Remarkably, 70% of the total Lyα luminosity from these filaments comes from beyond the circumgalactic medium of any identified Lyα emitter. Fluorescent Lyα emission powered by the cosmic UV background can only account for less than 34% of this emission at z  ≈  3 and for not more than 10% at higher redshift. We find that the bulk of this diffuse emission can be reproduced by the unresolved Lyα emission of a large population of ultra low-luminosity Lyα emitters (< 1040 erg s-1), provided that the faint end of the Lyα luminosity function is steep (α ⪅ -1.8), it extends down to luminosities lower than 1038 -  1037 erg s-1, and the clustering of these Lyα emitters is significant (filling factor < 1/6). If these Lyα emitters are powered by star formation, then this implies their luminosity function needs to extend down to star formation rates < 10-4M yr-1. These observations provide the first detection of the cosmic web in Lyα emission in typical filamentary environments and the first observational clue indicating the existence of a large population of ultra low-luminosity Lyα emitters at high redshift. © R. Bacon et al. 2021.
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    Distortion of meteor count rates due to cosmic radio noise and atmospheric particularities
    (Göttingen : Copernicus, 2010) Stober, G.; Jacobi, C.; Keuer, D.
    The determination of the meteoroid flux is still a scientifically challenging task. This paper focusses on the impact of extraterrestrial noise sources as well as atmospheric phenomena on the observation of specular meteor echoes. The effect of cosmic radio noise on the meteor detection process is estimated by computing the relative difference between radio loud and radio quiet areas and comparing the monthly averaged meteor flux for fixed signal-to-noise ratios or fixed electron line density measurements. Related to the cosmic radio noise is the influence of D-layer absorption or interference with sporadic E-layers, which can lead to apparent day-to-day variation of the meteor flux of 15-20%. © 2010 Author(s).
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    The x-ray luminous galaxy cluster population at 0.9 < z ≲ 1.6 as revealed by the XMM-Newton Distant Cluster Project*
    (Bristol : IOP, 2011) Fassbender, R.; Böhringer, H.; Nastasi, A.; Šuhada, R.; Mühlegger, M.; De Hoon, A.; Kohnert, J.; Lamer, G.; Mohr, J.J.; Pierini, D.; Pratt, G.W.; Quintana, H.; Rosati, P.; Santos, J.S.; Schwope, A.D.
    We present the largest sample to date of spectroscopically confirmed x-ray luminous high-redshift galaxy clusters comprising 22 systems in the range 0.9 < z ≲ 1.6 as part of the XMM-Newton Distant Cluster Project (XDCP). All systems were initially selected as extended x-ray sources over 76.1 deg 2 of noncontiguous deep archival XMM-Newton coverage, of which 49.4 deg 2 are part of the core survey with a quantifiable selection function and 17.7 deg 2 are classified as 'gold' coverage as the starting point for upcoming cosmological applications. Distant cluster candidates were followed up with moderately deep optical and near-infrared imaging in at least two bands to photometrically identify the cluster galaxy populations and obtain redshift estimates based on the colors of simple stellar population models. We test and calibrate the most promising redshift estimation techniques based on the R-z and z-H colors for efficient distant cluster identifications and find a good redshift accuracy performance of the z-H color out to at least z ̃ 1.5, while the redshift evolution of the R-z color leads to increasingly large uncertainties at z ≳ 0.9. Photometrically identified high-z systems are spectroscopically confirmed with VLT/FORS 2 with a minimum of three concordant cluster member redshifts. We present first details of two newly identified clusters, XDCPJ0338.5+0029 at z = 0.916 and XDCP J0027.2+1714 at z = 0.959, and investigate the x-ray properties of SpARCS J003550-431224 at z = 1.335, which shows evidence for ongoing major merger activity along the line-of-sight. We provide x-ray properties and luminosity-based total mass estimates for the full sample of 22 high-z clusters, of which 17 are at z ≥ 1.0 and seven populate the highest redshift bin at z > 1.3. The median system mass of the sample is M 200 ≃ 2×10 14 M ⊙, while the probed mass range for the distant clusters spans approximately (0.7-7)×10 14 M ⊙. The majority (>70%) of the x-ray selected clusters show rather regular x-ray morphologies, albeit in most cases with a discernible elongation along one axis. In contrast to local clusters, the z > 0.9 systems mostly do not harbor central dominant galaxies coincident with the x-ray centroid position, but rather exhibit significant brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) offsets from the x-ray center with a median value of about 50 kpc in projection and a smaller median luminosity gap to the second-ranked galaxy of Δm 12 ≃ 0.3 mag. We estimate a fraction of cluster-associated NVSS 1.4 GHz radio sources of about 30%, preferentially located within 1' from the x-ray center. This value suggests an increase of the fraction of very luminous cluster-associated radio sources by about a factor of 2.5-5 relative to lowz systems. The galaxy populations in z ≳ 1.5 cluster environments show first evidence for drastic changes on the high-mass end of galaxies and signs of a gradual disappearance of a well-defined cluster red-sequence as strong star formation activity is observed in an increasing fraction of massive galaxies down to the densest core regions. The presented XDCP high-z sample will allow first detailed studies of the cluster population during the critical cosmic epoch at lookback times of 7.3-9.5Gyr on the aggregation and evolution of baryons in the cold and hot phases as a function of redshift and system mass.
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    Phase-Space Correlations among Systems of Satellite Galaxies
    (Basel : MDPI, 2021) Pawlowski, Marcel S.
    Driven by the increasingly complete observational knowledge of systems of satellite galaxies, mutual spatial alignments and relations in velocities among satellites belonging to a common host have become a productive field of research. Numerous studies have investigated different types of such phase-space correlations and were met with varying degrees of attention by the community. The Planes of Satellite Galaxies issue is maybe the best-known example, with a rich field of research literature and an ongoing, controversial debate on how much of a challenge it poses to the ΛCDM model of cosmology. Another type of correlation, the apparent excess of close pairs of dwarf galaxies, has received considerably less attention despite its reported tension with ΛCDM expectations. With the fast expansion of proper motion measurements in recent years, largely driven by the Gaia mission, other peculiar phase-space correlations have been uncovered among the satellites of the Milky Way. Examples are the apparent tangential velocity excess of satellites compared to cosmological expectations, and the unexpected preference of satellites to be close to their pericenters. At the same time, other kinds of correlations have been found to be more in line with cosmological expectations—specifically, lopsided satellite galaxy systems and the accretion of groups of satellite galaxies. The latter has mostly been studied in cosmological simulations thus far, but it offers the potential to address some of the other issues by providing a way to produce correlations among the orbits of a group’s satellite galaxy members. This review is the first to provide an introduction to the highly active field of phase-space correlations among satellite galaxy systems. The emphasis is on summarizing existing, recent research and highlighting interdependencies between the different, currently almost exclusively individually considered types of correlations. Future prospects in light of upcoming observational facilities and our ever-expanding knowledge of satellite galaxy systems beyond the Local Group are also briefly discussed