In this paper, we demonstrate a new method for fitting galaxy profiles which makes use of the full multiwavelength data provided by modern large optical-near-infrared imaging surveys. We present a ...new version of galapagos, which utilizes a recently developed multiwavelength version of galfit, and enables the automated measurement of wavelength-dependent Sérsic profile parameters for very large samples of galaxies. Our new technique is extensively tested to assess the reliability of both pieces of software, galfit and galapagos on both real ugrizY JHK imaging data from the Galaxy And Mass Assembly survey and simulated data made to the same specifications. We find that fitting galaxy light profiles with multiwavelength data increases the stability and accuracy of the measured parameters, and hence produces more complete and meaningful multiwavelength photometry than has been available previously. The improvement is particularly significant for magnitudes in low-S/N bands and for structural parameters like half-light radius r
e and Sérsic index n for which a prior is used by constraining these parameters to a polynomial as a function of wavelength. This allows the fitting routines to push the magnitude of galaxies for which sensible values can be derived to fainter limits. The technique utilizes a smooth transition of galaxy parameters with wavelength, creating more physically meaningful transitions than single-band fitting and allows accurate interpolation between passbands, perfect for derivation of rest-frame values.
Abstract
Our nearest large cosmological neighbour, the Andromeda galaxy (M31), is a dynamical system, and an accurate measurement of its total mass is central to our understanding of its assembly ...history, the life-cycles of its satellite galaxies, and its role in shaping the Local Group environment. Here, we apply a novel approach to determine the dynamical mass of M31 using high-velocity Planetary Nebulae, establishing a hierarchical Bayesian model united with a scheme to capture potential outliers and marginalize over tracers unknown distances. With this, we derive the escape velocity run of M31 as a function of galactocentric distance, with both parametric and non-parametric approaches. We determine the escape velocity of M31 to be 470 ± 40 km s−1 at a galactocentric distance of 15 kpc, and also, derive the total potential of M31, estimating the virial mass and radius of the galaxy to be 0.8 ± 0.1 × 1012 M⊙ and 240 ± 10 kpc, respectively. Our M31 mass is on the low side of the measured range, this supports the lower expected mass of the M31–Milky Way system from the timing and momentum arguments, satisfying the H i constraint on circular velocity between 10 ≲ R/ kpc < 35, and agreeing with the stellar mass Tully–Fisher relation. To place these results in a broader context, we compare them to the key predictions of the ΛCDM cosmological paradigm, including the stellar-mass–halo-mass and the dark matter halo concentration–virial mass correlation, and finding it to be an outlier to this relation.
Abstract
We use the energy-balance code magphys to determine stellar and dust masses, and dust corrected star formation rates for over 200 000 GAMA galaxies, 170 000 G10-COSMOS galaxies, and 200 000 ...3D-HST galaxies. Our values agree well with previously reported measurements and constitute a representative and homogeneous data set spanning a broad range in stellar-mass (108–1012 M⊙), dust-mass (106–109 M⊙), and star formation rates (0.01–100 M⊙yr−1), and over a broad redshift range (0.0 < z < 5.0). We combine these data to measure the cosmic star formation history (CSFH), the stellar-mass density (SMD), and the dust-mass density (DMD) over a 12 Gyr timeline. The data mostly agree with previous estimates, where they exist, and provide a quasi-homogeneous data set using consistent mass and star formation estimators with consistent underlying assumptions over the full time range. As a consequence our formal errors are significantly reduced when compared to the historic literature. Integrating our CSFH we precisely reproduce the SMD
with an interstellar medium replenishment factor of 0.50 ± 0.07, consistent with our choice of Chabrier initial mass function plus some modest amount of stripped stellar mass. Exploring the cosmic dust density evolution, we find a gradual increase in dust density with lookback time. We build a simple phenomenological model from the CSFH to account for the dust-mass evolution, and infer two key conclusions: (1) For every unit of stellar mass which is formed 0.0065–0.004 units of dust mass is also formed. (2) Over the history of the Universe approximately 90–95 per cent of all dust formed has been destroyed and/or ejected.
ABSTRACT
We present a simple model for galaxy attenuation by fitting skirt radiative transfer calculations for ∼10 000 eagle galaxies at redshifts z = 2 − 0. Our model adapts the two-component screen ...model of Charlot & Fall, parametrizing the optical depth and slope of the interstellar medium screen using the average dust surface density, Σdust. We recover relatively tight relations between these parameters for the eagle sample, but also provide the scatter in these parameters owing to the morphological variation and orientation of galaxies. We also find that these relations are nearly independent of redshift in the eagle model. By pairing our model with an empirical prescription for birth clouds below the resolution scale of the simulation, we reproduce the observed relation between attenuation slope and optical depth for the first time in a cosmological simulation. We demonstrate that this result is remarkably independent of the attenuation properties assumed for the birth cloud screen, merely requiring a boosted attenuation for infant stars. We present this model with a view to interpreting observations, as well as processing semi-analytic models and other hydrodynamic simulations.
We look for correlated changes in stellar mass and star formation rate (SFR) along filaments in the cosmic web by examining the stellar masses and UV-derived SFRs of 1799 ungrouped and unpaired ...spiral galaxies that reside in filaments. We devise multiple distance metrics to characterize the complex geometry of filaments, and find that galaxies closer to the cylindrical centre of a filament have higher stellar masses than their counterparts near the periphery of filaments, on the edges of voids. In addition, these peripheral spiral galaxies have higher SFRs at a given mass. Complementing our sample of filament spiral galaxies with spiral galaxies in tendrils and voids, we find that the average SFR of these objects in different large-scale environments are similar to each other with the primary discriminant in SFR being stellar mass, in line with previous works. However, the distributions of SFRs are found to vary with large-scale environment. Our results thus suggest a model in which in addition to stellar mass as the primary discriminant, the large-scale environment is imprinted in the SFR as a second-order effect. Furthermore, our detailed results for filament galaxies suggest a model in which gas accretion from voids on to filaments is primarily in an orthogonal direction. Overall, we find our results to be in line with theoretical expectations of the thermodynamic properties of the intergalactic medium in different large-scale environments.
Abstract
We present an analysis of the global stellar populations of galaxies in the SAMI (Sydney-AAO Multi-object Integral field spectrograph) Galaxy Survey. Our sample consists of 1319 galaxies ...spanning four orders of magnitude in stellar mass and includes all morphologies and environments. We derive luminosity-weighted, single stellar population equivalent stellar ages, metallicities and alpha enhancements from spectra integrated within one effective radius apertures. Variations in galaxy size explain the majority of the scatter in the age–mass and metallicity–mass relations. Stellar populations vary systematically in the plane of galaxy size and stellar mass, such that galaxies with high stellar surface mass density are older, more metal rich and alpha enhanced than less dense galaxies. Galaxies with high surface mass densities have a very narrow range of metallicities; however, at fixed mass, the spread in metallicity increases substantially with increasing galaxy size (decreasing density). We identify residual correlations with morphology and environment. At fixed mass and size, galaxies with late-type morphologies, small bulges and low Sérsic n are younger than early type, high n, high bulge-to-total galaxies. Both age and metallicity show small residual correlations with environment; at fixed mass and size, galaxies in denser environments or more massive haloes are older and somewhat more metal rich than those in less dense environments. We connect these trends to evolutionary tracks within the size–mass plane.
We present the properties of the first 250 μm blind sample of nearby galaxies (15 < D < 46 Mpc) containing 42 objects from the Herschel Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey. Herschel's ...sensitivity probes the faint end of the dust luminosity function for the first time, spanning a range of stellar mass (7.4 < M
⋆ < 11.3 log10 M⊙), star formation activity (−11.8 < SSFR < −8.9 log10 yr−1), gas fraction (3–96 per cent), and colour (0.6 < FUV–K
S < 7.0 mag). The median cold dust temperature is 14.6 K, colder than in the Herschel Reference Survey (18.5 K) and Planck Early Release Compact Source Catalogue (17.7 K). The mean dust-to-stellar mass ratio in our sample is higher than these surveys by factors of 3.7 and 1.8, with a dust mass volume density of (3.7 ± 0.7) × 105 M⊙ Mpc−3. Counter-intuitively, we find that the more dust rich a galaxy, the lower its UV attenuation. Over half of our dust-selected sample are very blue in FUV–K
S colour, with irregular and/or highly flocculent morphology; these galaxies account for only 6 per cent of the sample's stellar mass but contain over 35 per cent of the dust mass. They are the most actively star-forming galaxies in the sample, with the highest gas fractions and lowest UV attenuation. They also appear to be in an early stage of converting their gas into stars, providing valuable insights into the chemical evolution of young galaxies.
The Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey has obtained spectra of over 230 000 targets using the Anglo-Australian Telescope. To homogenize the redshift measurements and improve the reliability, a ...fully automatic redshift code was developed (autoz). The measurements were made using a cross-correlation method for both the absorption- and the emission-line spectra. Large deviations in the high-pass-filtered spectra are partially clipped in order to be robust against uncorrected artefacts and to reduce the weight given to single-line matches. A single figure of merit (FOM) was developed that puts all template matches on to a similar confidence scale. The redshift confidence as a function of the FOM was fitted with a tanh function using a maximum likelihood method applied to repeat observations of targets. The method could be adapted to provide robust automatic redshifts for other large galaxy redshift surveys. For the GAMA survey, there was a substantial improvement in the reliability of assigned redshifts and in the lowering of redshift uncertainties with a median velocity uncertainty of 33 km s−1.
ABSTRACT
We analyse the metallicity histories of ∼4500 galaxies from the GAMA survey at z < 0.06 modelled by the SED-fitting code ProSpect using an evolving metallicity implementation. These ...metallicity histories, in combination with the associated star formation histories, allow us to analyse the inferred gas-phase mass–metallicity relation. Furthermore, we extract the mass–metallicity relation at a sequence of epochs in cosmic history, to track the evolving mass–metallicity relation with time. Through comparison with observations of gas-phase metallicity over a large range of redshifts, we show that, remarkably, our forensic SED analysis has produced an evolving mass–metallicity relationship that is consistent with observations at all epochs. We additionally analyse the three-dimensional mass–metallicity–SFR space, showing that galaxies occupy a clearly defined plane. This plane is shown to be subtly evolving, displaying an increased tilt with time caused by general enrichment, and also the slowing down of star formation with cosmic time. This evolution is most apparent at lookback times greater than 7 Gyr. The trends in metallicity recovered in this work highlight that the evolving metallicity implementation used within the SED-fitting code ProSpect produces reasonable metallicity results over the history of a galaxy. This is expected to provide a significant improvement to the accuracy of the SED-fitting outputs.
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