Galactic stellar haloes in the CDM model Cooper, A. P.; Cole, S.; Frenk, C. S. ...
Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society,
August 2010, Volume:
406, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
We present six simulations of galactic stellar haloes formed by the tidal disruption of accreted dwarf galaxies in a fully cosmological setting. Our model is based on the Aquarius project, a suite of ...high-resolution N-body simulations of individual dark matter haloes. We tag subsets of particles in these simulations with stellar populations predicted by the galform semi-analytic model. Our method self-consistently tracks the dynamical evolution and disruption of satellites from high redshift. The luminosity function (LF) and structural properties of surviving satellites, which agree well with observations, suggest that this technique is appropriate. We find that accreted stellar haloes are assembled between 1 < z < 7 from less than five significant progenitors. These progenitors are old, metal-rich satellites with stellar masses similar to the brightest Milky Way dwarf spheroidals (107–108 M⊙). In contrast to previous stellar halo simulations, we find that several of these major contributors survive as self-bound systems to the present day. Both the number of these significant progenitors and their infall times are inherently stochastic. This results in great diversity among our stellar haloes, which amplifies small differences between the formation histories of their dark halo hosts. The masses (∼ 108–109 M⊙) and density/surface-brightness profiles of the stellar haloes (from 10 to 100 kpc) are consistent with expectations from the Milky Way and M31. Each halo has a complex structure, consisting of well-mixed components, tidal streams, shells and other subcomponents. This structure is not adequately described by smooth models. The central regions (<10 kpc) of our haloes are highly prolate (c/a∼ 0.3), although we find one example of a massive accreted thick disc. Metallicity gradients in our haloes are typically significant only where the halo is built from a small number of satellites. We contrast the ages and metallicities of halo stars with surviving satellites, finding broad agreement with recent observations.
► We employ Machine Learning techniques in species’ potential distribution modelling. ► The distribution of 35 species from Latin America was modelled by classifiers. ► The best performance in ...potential distribution modeling was achieved by random trees.
Species’ potential distribution modelling consists of building a representation of the fundamental ecological requirements of a species from biotic and abiotic conditions where the species is known to occur. Such models can be valuable tools to understand the biogeography of species and to support the prediction of its presence/absence considering a particular environment scenario. This paper investigates the use of different supervised machine learning techniques to model the potential distribution of 35 plant species from Latin America. Each technique was able to extract a different representation of the relations between the environmental conditions and the distribution profile of the species. The experimental results highlight the good performance of random trees classifiers, indicating this particular technique as a promising candidate for modelling species’ potential distribution.
We study the evolution of disc galaxies in group environments under the effect of both the global tidal field and close encounters between galaxies, using controlled N-body simulations of isolated ...mergers. We find that close-range encounters between galaxies are less frequent and less damaging to disc galaxies than originally expected, since they mostly occur when group members have lost a significant fraction of their initial mass to tidal stripping. We also find that group members mostly affect disc galaxies indirectly by modifying their common global tidal field. Different initial orbital parameters of group members introduce a significant ‘scatter’ in the evolution of general properties of disc galaxies around a ‘median’ evolution that is similar to when only the effect of the global tidal field is included. Close encounters introduce a high variability in the properties of disc galaxies, even slowing their evolution in some cases, and could wash out correlations between galaxy properties and the group total mass. The combined effect of the global tidal field and close encounters appears to be inefficient at forming/enhancing central stellar bulges. This implies that bulges of S0 galaxies should be mostly composed of young stars, which is consistent with recent observations.
Traditional single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genome-wide association analysis (GWAA) can be inefficient because single SNPs provide limited genetic information about genomic regions. On the other ...hand, using haplotypes in the statistical analysis may increase the extent of linkage disequilibrium (LD) between haplotypes and causal variants and may also potentially capture epistastic interactions between variants within a haplotyped locus, providing an increase in the power and robustness of the association studies. We performed GWAA (413,355 SNP markers) using haplotypes based on variable-sized sliding windows and compared the results to a single-SNP GWAA using Warner-Bratzler shear force measured in the longissimus thorasis muscle of 3161 Nelore bulls to ascertain the optimal window size for identifying the genomic regions that influence meat tenderness.
The GWAA using single SNPs identified eight variants influencing meat tenderness on BTA 3, 4, 9, 10 and 11. However, thirty-three putative meat tenderness QTL were detected on BTA 1, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 15, 17, 18, 24, 25, 26 and 29 using variable-sized sliding haplotype windows. Analyses using sliding window haplotypes of 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11 SNPs identified 57, 61, 42, 39, and 21% of all thirty-three putative QTL regions, respectively; however, the analyses using the 3 and 5 SNP haplotypes, cumulatively detected 88% of the putative QTL. The genes associated with variation in meat tenderness participate in myogenesis, neurogenesis, lipid and fatty acid metabolism and skeletal muscle structure or composition processes.
GWAA using haplotypes based on variable-sized sliding windows allowed the detection of more QTL than traditional single-SNP GWAA. Analyses using smaller haplotypes (3 and 5 SNPs) detected a higher proportion of the putative QTL.
Context.
Studies of cluster mass and velocity anisotropy profiles are useful tests of dark matter models and of the assembly history of clusters of galaxies. These studies might be affected by ...unknown systematics caused by projection effects.
Aims.
We aim to test observational methods for the determination of mass and velocity anisotropy profiles of clusters of galaxies. Particularly, we focus on the MAMPOSSt technique
Methods.
We used results from two semi-analytic models of galaxy formation, coupled with high-resolution
N
-body cosmological simulations, the DLB07 catalog, and the FIRE catalog based on the new GAlaxy Evolution and Assembly model. We tested the reliability of the Jeans equation in recovering the true mass profile when full projected phase-space information is available. We examined the reliability of the MAMPOSSt method in estimating the true mass and velocity anisotropy profiles of the simulated halos when only projected phase-space information is available, as in observations.
Results.
The spherical Jeans equation provides a reliable tool to determine cluster mass profiles, both when considering the whole population of cluster galaxies, and when considering subsamples of tracers separated by galaxy color; the exception to this is for the central region, where deviations may be attributed to dynamical friction effects or galaxy mergers. The results are equally good for prolate and oblate clusters. Using only projected phase-space information, MAMPOSSt provides estimates of the mass profile with a standard deviation of 35–69% and a negative bias of 7–17%, nearly independent of radius, which we attribute to the presence of interlopers in the projected samples. The bias changes sign; that is, the mass is over-estimated, for prolate clusters with their major axis aligned along the line of sight. The MAMPOSSt method measures the velocity anisotropy profiles accurately in the inner cluster regions and there is a slight overestimate in the outer regions for the whole sample of observationally identified cluster members, and, separately, for red and blue galaxies.
We simulate the growth of galaxies and their central supermassive black holes by implementing a suite of semi-analytic models on the output of the Millennium Run, a very large simulation of the ...concordance Λ cold dark matter cosmogony. Our procedures follow the detailed assembly history of each object and are able to track the evolution of all galaxies more massive than the Small Magellanic Cloud throughout a volume comparable to that of large modern redshift surveys. In this first paper we supplement previous treatments of the growth and activity of central black holes with a new model for ‘radio’ feedback from those active galactic nuclei that lie at the centre of a quasi-static X-ray-emitting atmosphere in a galaxy group or cluster. We show that for energetically and observationally plausible parameters such a model can simultaneously explain: (i) the low observed mass drop-out rate in cooling flows; (ii) the exponential cut-off at the bright end of the galaxy luminosity function; and (iii) the fact that the most massive galaxies tend to be bulge-dominated systems in clusters and to contain systematically older stars than lower mass galaxies. This success occurs because static hot atmospheres form only in the most massive structures, and radio feedback (in contrast, for example, to supernova or starburst feedback) can suppress further cooling and star formation without itself requiring star formation. We discuss possible physical models that might explain the accretion rate scalings required for our phenomenological ‘radio mode’ model to be successful.
Euclid preparation Adam, R.; Vannier, M.; Maurogordato, S. ...
Astronomy and astrophysics (Berlin),
07/2019, Volume:
627
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Galaxy cluster counts in bins of mass and redshift have been shown to be a competitive probe to test cosmological models. This method requires an efficient blind detection of clusters from surveys ...with a well-known selection function and robust mass estimates, which is particularly challenging at high redshift. The
Euclid
wide survey will cover 15 000 deg
2
of the sky, avoiding contamination by light from our Galaxy and our solar system in the optical and near-infrared bands, down to magnitude 24 in the
H
-band. The resulting data will make it possible to detect a large number of galaxy clusters spanning a wide-range of masses up to redshift ∼2 and possibly higher. This paper presents the final results of the
Euclid
Cluster Finder Challenge (CFC), fourth in a series of similar challenges. The objective of these challenges was to select the cluster detection algorithms that best meet the requirements of the
Euclid
mission. The final CFC included six independent detection algorithms, based on different techniques, such as photometric redshift tomography, optimal filtering, hierarchical approach, wavelet and friend-of-friends algorithms. These algorithms were blindly applied to a mock galaxy catalog with representative
Euclid
-like properties. The relative performance of the algorithms was assessed by matching the resulting detections to known clusters in the simulations down to masses of
M
200
∼ 10
13.25
M
⊙
. Several matching procedures were tested, thus making it possible to estimate the associated systematic effects on completeness to < 3%. All the tested algorithms are very competitive in terms of performance, with three of them reaching > 80% completeness for a mean purity of 80% down to masses of 10
14
M
⊙
and up to redshift
z
= 2. Based on these results, two algorithms were selected to be implemented in the
Euclid
pipeline, the Adaptive Matched Identifier of Clustered Objects (AMICO) code, based on matched filtering, and the PZWav code, based on an adaptive wavelet approach.
ABSTRACT
We derived stellar ages and metallicities Z/H for ∼70 passive early-type galaxies (ETGs) selected from VANDELS survey over the redshift range 1.0 < z < 1.4 and stellar mass range 10 < ...log(M*/M⊙) < 11.6. We find significant systematics in their estimates depending on models and wavelength ranges considered. Using the full-spectrum fitting technique, we find that both Z/H and age increase with mass as for local ETGs. Age and metallicity sensitive spectral indices independently confirm these trends. According to EMILES models, for 67 per cent of the galaxies we find Z/H > 0.0, a percentage which rises to ∼90 per cent for log(M*/M⊙) > 11 where the mean metallicity is Z/H = 0.17 ± 0.1. A comparison with homogeneous measurements at similar and lower redshift does not show any metallicity evolution over the redshift range 0.0 < z < 1.4. The derived star formation (SF) histories show that the stellar mass fraction formed at early epoch increases with the mass of the galaxy. Galaxies with log(M*/M⊙) > 11.0 host stellar populations with Z/H > 0.05, formed over short time-scales (Δt50 < 1 Gyr) at early epochs (tform < 2 Gyr), implying high star formation rates (SFR > 100 M⊙ yr−1) in high-mass density regions (log(Σ1kpc) > 10 M⊙/kpc2). This sharp picture tends to blur at lower masses: log(M*/M⊙) ∼ 10.6 galaxies can host either old stars with Z/H < 0.0 or younger stars with Z/H > 0.0, depending on the duration (Δt50) of the SF. The relations between galaxy mass, age, and metallicities are therefore largely set up ab initio as part of the galaxy formation process. Mass, SFR, and SF time-scale all contribute to shape up the stellar mass–metallicity relation with the mass that modulates metals retention.
A cost-effective strategy to explore the complete DNA sequence in animals for genetic evaluation purposes is to sequence key ancestors of a population, followed by imputation mechanisms to infer ...marker genotypes that were not originally reported in a target population of animals genotyped with single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) panels. The feasibility of this process relies on the accuracy of the genotype imputation in that population, particularly for potential causal mutations which may be at low frequency and either within genes or regulatory regions. The objective of the present study was to investigate the imputation accuracy to the sequence level in a Nellore beef cattle population, including that for variants in annotation classes which are more likely to be functional.
Information of 151 key sequenced Nellore sires were used to assess the imputation accuracy from bovine HD BeadChip SNP (~ 777 k) to whole-genome sequence. The choice of the sires aimed at optimizing the imputation accuracy of a genotypic database, comprised of about 10,000 genotyped Nellore animals. Genotype imputation was performed using two computational approaches: FImpute3 and Minimac4 (after using Eagle for phasing). The accuracy of the imputation was evaluated using a fivefold cross-validation scheme and measured by the squared correlation between observed and imputed genotypes, calculated by individual and by SNP. SNPs were classified into a range of annotations, and the accuracy of imputation within each annotation classification was also evaluated.
High average imputation accuracies per animal were achieved using both FImpute3 (0.94) and Minimac4 (0.95). On average, common variants (minor allele frequency (MAF) > 0.03) were more accurately imputed by Minimac4 and low-frequency variants (MAF ≤ 0.03) were more accurately imputed by FImpute3. The inherent Minimac4 Rsq imputation quality statistic appears to be a good indicator of the empirical Minimac4 imputation accuracy. Both software provided high average SNP-wise imputation accuracy for all classes of biological annotations.
Our results indicate that imputation to whole-genome sequence is feasible in Nellore beef cattle since high imputation accuracies per individual are expected. SNP-wise imputation accuracy is software-dependent, especially for rare variants. The accuracy of imputation appears to be relatively independent of annotation classification.
We study the amount and distribution of dark matter substructures within dark matter haloes, using a large set of high-resolution simulations ranging from group-size to cluster-size haloes, and ...carried out within a cosmological model consistent with Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) 7-year data. In particular, we study how the measured properties of subhaloes vary as a function of the parent halo mass, the physical properties of the parent halo and redshift. The fraction of halo mass in substructures increases with increasing mass: it is of the order of 5 per cent for haloes with M
200∼ 1013 M⊙ and of the order of 10 per cent for the most massive haloes in our sample, with M
200∼ 1015 M⊙. There is, however, a very large halo-to-halo scatter that can be explained only in part by a range of halo physical properties, e.g. concentration. At a given halo mass, less concentrated haloes contain significantly larger fractions of mass in substructures because of the reduced strength of tidal disruption. Most of the substructure mass is located at the outskirts of the parent haloes, in relatively few massive subhaloes. This mass segregation appears to become stronger at increasing redshift, and should reflect into a more significant mass segregation of the galaxy population at different cosmic epochs. When haloes are accreted on to larger structures, their mass is significantly reduced by tidal stripping. Haloes that are more massive at the time of accretion (these should host more luminous galaxies) are brought closer to the centre on shorter time-scales by dynamical friction, and therefore suffer a more significant stripping. The halo merger rate depends strongly on the environment with substructure in more massive haloes suffering more important mergers than their counterparts residing in less massive systems. This should translate into a different morphological mix for haloes of different mass.
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