We present our new, fully automated method to detect and measure the ages of star clusters in nearby galaxies, where individual stars can be resolved. The method relies purely on statistical analysis ...of observations and Monte-Carlo simulations to define stellar overdensities in the data. It decontaminates the cluster color-magnitude diagrams and, using a revised version of the Bayesian isochrone fitting code of Ramírez-Siordia et al., estimates the ages of the clusters. Comparisons of our estimates with those from other surveys show the superiority of our method to extract and measure the ages of star clusters, even in the most crowded fields. An application of our method is shown for the high-resolution, multiband imaging of the Large Magellanic Cloud. We detect 4850 clusters in the 7 deg2 we surveyed, 3451 of which have not been reported before. Our findings suggest multiple epochs of star cluster formation, with the most probable occurring ∼310 Myr ago. Several of these events are consistent with the epochs of the interactions among the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, and the Galaxy, as predicted by N-body numerical simulations. Finally, the spatially resolved star cluster formation history may suggest an inside-out cluster formation scenario throughout the LMC, for the past 1 Gyr.
We investigate how the galaxy reservoirs of molecular gas fuelling star formation are transformed while the host galaxies infall onto galaxy cluster cores. As part of the Spatially Extended ESO ...Distant Cluster Survey (SEEDisCS), we present CO(3-2) observations of 27 star-forming galaxies obtained with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array. These sources are located inside and around CL1411.1−1148 at z = 0.5195, within five times the cluster virial radius. These targets were selected to have stellar masses (Mstar), colours, and magnitudes similar to those of a field comparison sample at similar redshift drawn from the Plateau de Bure high-z Blue Sequence Survey (PHIBSS2). We compare the cold gas fraction (μH2 = MH2/Mstar), specific star formation rates (SFR/Mstar) and depletion timescales (tdepl = MH2/SFR) of our main-sequence galaxies to the PHIBSS2 subsample. While the most of our galaxies (63%) are consistent with PHIBSS2, the remainder fall below the relation between μH2 and Mstar of the PHIBSS2 galaxies at z ∼ 0.5. These low-μH2 galaxies are not compatible with the tail of a Gaussian distribution, hence they correspond to a new population of galaxies with normal SFRs but low gas content and low depletion times (≲1 Gyr), absent from previous surveys. We suggest that the star formation activity of these galaxies has not yet been diminished by their low fraction of cold molecular gas.
We identify some of the most H i-massive and fastest rotating disc galaxies in the local universe with the aim of probing the processes that drive the formation of these extreme disc galaxies. By ...combining data from the Cosmic Flows project, which has consistently reanalysed archival galaxy H i profiles, and 3.6 μm photometry obtained with the Spitzer Space Telescope, with which we can measure stellar mass, we use the baryonic Tully–Fisher (BTF) relationship to explore whether these massive galaxies are distinct. We discuss several results, but the most striking is the systematic offset of the H i-massive sample above the BTF. These galaxies have both more gas and more stars in their discs than the typical disc galaxy of similar rotational velocity. The ‘condensed’ baryon fraction, f
C, the fraction of the baryons in a dark matter halo that settle either as cold gas or stars into the disc, is twice as high in the H i-massive sample than typical, and almost reaches the universal baryon fraction in some cases, suggesting that the most extreme of these galaxies have little in the way of a hot baryonic component or cold baryons distributed well outside the disc. In contrast, the star formation efficiency, measured as the ratio of the mass in stars to that in both stars and gas, shows no difference between the H i-massive sample and the typical disc galaxies. We conclude that the star formation efficiency is driven by an internal, self-regulating process, while f
C is affected by external factors. Neither the morphology nor the star formation rate of these galaxies is primarily determined by either their dark or stellar mass. We also found that the most massive H i detected galaxies are located preferentially in filaments. We present the first evidence of an environmental effect on galaxy evolution using a dynamical definition of a filament.
The Hubble Tarantula Treasury Project (HTTP) is an ongoing panchromatic imaging survey of stellar populations in the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud that reaches into the sub-solar ...mass regime (<0.5 Modot). HTTP utilizes the capability of the Hubble Space Telescope to operate the Advanced Camera for Surveys and the Wide Field Camera 3 in parallel to study this remarkable region in the near-ultraviolet, optical, and near-infrared spectral regions, including narrow-band H alpha images. The combination of all these bands provides a unique multi-band view. The resulting maps of the stellar content of the Tarantula Nebula within its main body provide the basis for investigations of star formation in an environment resembling the extreme conditions found in starburst galaxies and in the early universe. Access to detailed properties of individual stars allows us to begin to reconstruct the temporal and spatial evolution of the stellar skeleton of the Tarantula Nebula over space and time on a sub-parsec scale. In this first paper we describe the observing strategy, the photometric techniques, and the upcoming data products from this survey and present preliminary results obtained from the analysis of the initial set of near-infrared observations.
We present K-band data for the brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) from the ESO Distant Cluster Survey (EDisCS). These data are combined with the photometry published by Aragón-Salamanca, Baugh & ...Kauffmann and a low-redshift comparison sample built from the BCG catalogue of von der Linden et al. BCG luminosities are measured inside a metric circular aperture with 37 kpc diameter. In agreement with previous studies, we find that the K-band Hubble diagram for BCGs exhibits very low scatter (∼0.35) over a redshift range of 0 < z < 1. The colour and rest-frame K-band luminosity evolution of the BCGs are in good agreement with population synthesis models of stellar populations which formed at z > 2 and evolved passively thereafter. In contrast with some previous studies, we do not detect any significant change in the stellar mass of the BCG since z∼ 1. These results do not seem to depend on the velocity dispersion of the parent cluster. We also find that there is a correlation between the 1D velocity dispersion of the clusters (σcl) and the K-band luminosity of the BCGs (after correcting for passive-evolution). The clusters with large velocity dispersions, and therefore masses, tend to have brighter BCGs, i.e. BCGs with larger stellar masses. This dependency, although significant, is relatively weak: the stellar mass of the BCGs changes only by ∼70 per cent over a two order of magnitude range in cluster mass. Furthermore, this dependency does not change significantly with redshift. We have compared our observational results with the hierarchical galaxy formation and evolution model predictions of De Lucia & Blaizot. We find that the models predict colours which are in reasonable agreement with the observations because the growth in stellar mass is dominated by the accretion of old stars. However, the stellar mass in the model BCGs grows by a factor of 3–4 since z= 1, a growth rate which seems to be ruled out by the observations. The models predict a dependency between the BCG's stellar mass and the velocity dispersion (mass) of the parent cluster in the same sense as the data, but the dependency is significantly stronger than observed. However, one major difficulty in this comparison is that we have measured magnitudes inside a fixed metric aperture while the models compute total luminosities.
We present a comprehensive analysis of the stellar population properties and morphologies of red-sequence galaxies in 24 clusters and groups from $z\sim0.75$ to $z\sim0.45$. The dataset, consisting ...of 215 spectra drawn from the ESO Distant Cluster Survey, constitutes the largest spectroscopic sample at these redshifts for which such an analysis has been conducted. Analysis reveals that the evolution of the stellar population properties of red-sequence galaxies depend on their mass: while the properties of the most massive are well described by passive evolution and high-redshift formation, those of the less massive galaxies are consistent with a more extended star-formation history. We show that these scenarios reproduce the index-σ relations and the galaxy colours. The two main results of this work are: (1) the evolution of the line-strength indices for the red-sequence galaxies can be reproduced if 40% of the galaxies with $\sigma< 175$ km s-1 entered the red-sequence between $z=0.75$ to $z=0.45$, in agreement with the fraction derived in studies of the luminosity functions; and (2) the percentage of red-sequence galaxies exhibiting early-type morphologies (E and S0) decreases by 20% from $z=0.75$ to $z=0.45$. This can be understood if the red-sequence becomes more populated at later times with disc galaxies whose star formation has been quenched. We conclude that the processes quenching star formation do not necessarily produce a simultaneous morphological transformation of the galaxies entering the red-sequence.
We present K-band data for the brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) from the ESO Distant Cluster Survey (EDisCS). These data are combined with the photometry published by Aragon-Salamanca, Baugh & ...Kauffmann and a low-redshift comparison sample built from the BCG catalogue of von der Linden et al. BCG luminosities are measured inside a metric circular aperture with 37kpc diameter. In agreement with previous studies, we find that the K-band Hubble diagram for BCGs exhibits very low scatter ( similar to 0.35) over a redshift range of 0 < z < 1. The colour and rest-frame K-band luminosity evolution of the BCGs are in good agreement with population synthesis models of stellar populations which formed at z > 2 and evolved passively thereafter. In contrast with some previous studies, we do not detect any significant change in the stellar mass of the BCG since z similar to 1. These results do not seem to depend on the velocity dispersion of the parent cluster. We also find that there is a correlation between the 1D velocity dispersion of the clusters ( sigma cl) and the K-band luminosity of the BCGs (after correcting for passive-evolution). The clusters with large velocity dispersions, and therefore masses, tend to have brighter BCGs, i.e. BCGs with larger stellar masses. This dependency, although significant, is relatively weak: the stellar mass of the BCGs changes only by similar to 70 per cent over a two order of magnitude range in cluster mass. Furthermore, this dependency does not change significantly with redshift. We have compared our observational results with the hierarchical galaxy formation and evolution model predictions of De Lucia & Blaizot. We find that the models predict colours which are in reasonable agreement with the observations because the growth in stellar mass is dominated by the accretion of old stars. However, the stellar mass in the model BCGs grows by a factor of 3-4 since z= 1, a growth rate which seems to be ruled out by the observations. The models predict a dependency between the BCG's stellar mass and the velocity dispersion (mass) of the parent cluster in the same sense as the data, but the dependency is significantly stronger than observed. However, one major difficulty in this comparison is that we have measured magnitudes inside a fixed metric aperture while the models compute total luminosities.
Context. The study of intracluster light (ICL) can help us to understand the mechanisms taking place in galaxy clusters, and to place constraints on the cluster formation history and physical ...properties. However, owing to the intrinsic faintness of ICL emission, most searches and detailed studies of ICL have been limited to redshifts z < 0.4. Aims. To help us extend our knowledge of ICL properties to higher redshifts and study the evolution of ICL with redshift, we search for ICL in a subsample of ten clusters detected by the ESO Distant Cluster Survey (EDisCS), at redshifts 0.4 < z < 0.8, that are also part of our DAFT/FADA Survey. Methods. We analyze the ICL by applying the OV WAV package, a wavelet-based technique, to deep HST ACS images in the F814W filter and to V-band VLT/FORS2 images of three clusters. Detection levels are assessed as a function of the diffuse light source surface brightness using simulations. Results. In the F814W filter images, we detect diffuse light sources in all the clusters, with typical sizes of a few tens of kpc (assuming that they are at the cluster redshifts). The ICL detected by stacking the ten F814W images shows an 8σ detection in the source center extending over a ~50 × 50 kpc2 area, with a total absolute magnitude of −21.6 in the F814W filter, equivalent to about two L∗ galaxies per cluster. We find a weak correlation between the total F814W absolute magnitude of the ICL and the cluster velocity dispersion and mass. There is no apparent correlation between the cluster mass-to-light ratio (M/L) and the amount of ICL, and no evidence of any preferential orientation in the ICL source distribution. We find no strong variation in the amount of ICL between z = 0 and z = 0.8. In addition, we find wavelet-detected compact objects (WDCOs) in the three clusters for which data in two bands are available; these objects are probably very faint compact galaxies that in some cases are members of the respective clusters and comparable to the faint dwarf galaxies of the Local Group. Conclusions. We show that the ICL is prevalent in clusters at least up to redshift z = 0.8. In the future, we propose to detect the ICL at even higher redshifts, to determine wether there is a particular stage of cluster evolution where it was stripped from galaxies and spread into the intracluster medium.
We study the morphological content of a large sample of high-redshift clusters to determine its dependence on cluster mass and redshift. Quantitative morphologies are based on PSF-convolved, ...2D bulge+disk decompositions of cluster and field galaxies on deep Very Large Telescope FORS2 images of eighteen, optically-selected galaxy clusters at $0.45 < z < 0.80$ observed as part of the ESO Distant Cluster Survey (“EDisCS”). Morphological content is characterized by the early-type galaxy fraction fet, and early-type galaxies are objectively selected based on their bulge fraction and image smoothness. This quantitative selection is equivalent to selecting galaxies visually classified as E or S0. Changes in early-type fractions as a function of cluster velocity dispersion, redshift and star-formation activity are studied. A set of 158 clusters extracted from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey is analyzed exactly as the distant EDisCS sample to provide a robust local comparison. We also compare our results to a set of clusters from the Millennium Simulation. Our main results are: (1) the early-type fractions of the SDSS and EDisCS clusters exhibit no clear trend as a function of cluster velocity dispersion. (2) Mid-z EDisCS clusters around σ = 500 km s-1 have fet $\simeq$ 0.5 whereas high-z EDisCS clusters have fet $\simeq$ 0.4. This represents a ~25% increase over a time interval of 2 Gyr. (3) There is a marked difference in the morphological content of EDisCS and SDSS clusters. None of the EDisCS clusters have early-type galaxy fractions greater than 0.6 whereas half of the SDSS clusters lie above this value. This difference is seen in clusters of all velocity dispersions. (4) There is a strong and clear correlation between morphology and star formation activity in SDSS and EDisCS clusters in the sense that decreasing fractions of OII emitters are tracked by increasing early-type fractions. This correlation holds independent of cluster velocity dispersion and redshift even though the fraction of OII emitters decreases from $z \sim0.8$ to $z \sim 0.06$ in all environments. Our results pose an interesting challenge to structural transformation and star formation quenching processes that strongly depend on the global cluster environment (e.g., a dense ICM) and suggest that cluster membership may be of lesser importance than other variables in determining galaxy properties.
PDF
