Engineering topics

Lilly, Simon J.

Publications and source records attributed to Lilly, Simon J..

11 records

DOE OSTI2023

Searching for Spectroscopic Signatures of Ongoing Quenching in SDSS Galaxies

In this paper, we estimate the “star formation change parameter,” SFR 79 , which characterizes the current SFR relative to the average during the last 800 Myr, for ~300,000 galaxies selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The goals are to examine, in a much larger and independent sample, the trends previously reported in a sample of star-forming (SF) MaNGA galaxies and also to search for spectroscopic signatures of ongoing quenching in the so-called “Green Valley,” which is generally believed to contain galaxies that are migrating from the SF population to the quenched population of galaxies. Measuring SFR 79 for our large sample of SDSS galaxies, we first confirm the basic results of SF galaxies published by Wang & Lilly. We then discuss in detail the calibration and meaning of SFR 79 for galaxies that are well below the SFMS and establish the expected statistical signature of systematic ongoing quenching from modeling the z ~ 0 quenching rate of the SF population. We conclude that it is not possible at present to establish unambiguous observational evidence for systematic ongoing quenching processes, due to limitations both in the noise of the observational data, in particular in the measurements of H δ absorption, and in the calibration of SFR 79 , as well as biases introduced by the necessity of selecting objects with significant H α emission. We do however see plausible indications of ongoing quenching, which are quantitatively consistent with expectations from “growth+quenching” models of galaxy evolution and a typical e-folding timescale for quenching of ~500 Myr.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2017

Optical variability of AGNs in the PTF/iPTF survey

We characterize the optical variability of quasars in the Palomar Transient Factory and intermediate Palomar Transient Factory (PTF/iPTF) surveys. We re-calibrate the r-band light curves for ∼28,000 luminous, broad-line active galactic nuclei from the SDSS, producing a total of ∼2.4 million photometric data points. We utilize both the structure function (SF) and power spectrum density (PSD) formalisms to search for links between the optical variability and the physical parameters of the accreting supermassive black holes that power the quasars. The excess variance (SF{sup 2}) of the quasar sample tends to zero at very short time separations, validating our re-calibration of the time-series data. We find that the the amplitude of variability at a given time-interval, or equivalently the timescale of variability to reach a certain amplitude, is most strongly correlated with luminosity with weak or no dependence on black hole mass and redshift. For a variability level of SF(τ) = 0.07 mag, the timescale has a dependency of τ∝L{sup 0.4}. This is broadly consistent with the expectation from a simple Keplerian accretion disk model, which provides τ∝L{sup 0.5}. The PSD analysis also reveals that many quasar light curves are steeper than a damped random walk. We find a correlation between the steepness of the PSD slopes, specifically the fraction of slopes steeper than 2.5, and black hole mass, although we cannot exclude the possibility that luminosity or Eddington ratio are the drivers of this effect. This effect is also seen in the SF analysis of the (i)PTF data, and in a PSD analysis of quasars in the SDSS Stripe 82.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2016

SURFACE DENSITY EFFECTS IN QUENCHING: CAUSE OR EFFECT?

There are very strong observed correlations between the specific star formation rates (sSFRs) of galaxies and their mean surface mass densities, Σ, as well as other aspects of their internal structure. These strong correlations have often been taken to argue that the internal structure of a galaxy must play a major physical role, directly or indirectly, in the control of star formation. In this paper we show by means of a very simple toy model that these correlations can arise naturally without any such physical role once the observed evolution of the size–mass relation for star-forming galaxies is taken into account. In particular, the model reproduces the sharp threshold in Σ between galaxies that are star-forming and those that are quenched and the evolution of this threshold with redshift. Similarly, it produces iso-quenched-fraction contours in the f {sub Q}( m , R {sub e}) plane that are almost exactly parallel to lines of constant Σ for centrals and shallower for satellites. It does so without any dependence on quenching on size or Σ and without invoking any differences between centrals and satellites, beyond the different mass dependences of their quenching laws. The toy model also reproduces several other observations, including the sSFR gradients within galaxies and the appearance of inside-out build-up of passive galaxies. Finally, it is shown that curvature in the main-sequence sSFR–mass relation can produce curvature in the apparent B / T ratios with mass. Our analysis therefore suggests that many of the strong correlations that are observed between galaxy structure and sSFR may well be a consequence of things unrelated to quenching and should not be taken as evidence of the physical processes that drive quenching.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2016

Minor mergers or progenitor bias? The stellar ages of small and large quenched galaxies

We investigate the origin of the evolution of the population-averaged size of quenched galaxies (QGs) through a spectroscopic analysis of their stellar ages. This evolution has been claimed to arise from either the size growth of individual galaxies through a sequence of dry minor mergers, or the addition of larger, newly quenched galaxies to the pre-existing population (i.e., a progenitor bias effect). We use the 20k zCOSMOS-bright spectroscopic survey to select bona fide QGs at 0.2 < z < 0.8. We stack their spectra in bins of redshift, stellar mass, and size to compute stellar population parameters through fits to the rest-frame optical spectra and Lick indices. The size–age relation differs below and above ∼10{sup 11} M {sub ⊙}: at 10.5<log M{sub ∗}/M{sub ⊙}<11, at all redshifts the stellar populations of the largest galaxies are younger than those of the smaller counterparts, indicating progenitor bias as the main driver of the average size evolution. In contrast, at higher masses, there is no clear size–age trend, supporting a substantial role of dry mergers in increasing with cosmic time the sizes of these most massive QGs. The [α/Fe] abundance ratios of QGs are (i) above-solar over the entire redshift range of our analysis, hinting at universally short timescales for the buildup of the stellar populations of QGs, and (ii) similar at all masses and sizes, suggesting similar (short) timescales for the whole QG population—and strengthening the role of mergers in the buildup of the most massive QGs in the universe.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2016

Ubiquitous giant Lyα nebulae around the brightest quasars at z ∼ 3.5 revealed with MUSE

Direct Lyα imaging of intergalactic gas at z∼2 has recently revealed giant cosmological structures around quasars, e.g., the Slug Nebula. Despite their high luminosity, the detection rate of such systems in narrow-band and spectroscopic surveys is less than 10%, possibly encoding crucial information on the distribution of gas around quasars and the quasar emission properties. In this study, we use the MUSE integral-field instrument to perform a blind survey for giant Lyα nebulae around 17 bright radio-quiet quasars at 3<z<4 that does not suffer from most of the limitations of previous surveys. After data reduction and analysis performed with specifically developed tools, we found that each quasar is surrounded by giant Lyα nebulae with projected sizes larger than 100 physical kiloparsecs and, in some cases, extending up to 320 kpc. The circularly averaged surface brightness profiles of the nebulae appear to be very similar to each other despite their different morphologies and are consistent with power laws with slopes ≈−1.8. The similarity between the properties of all these nebulae and the Slug Nebula suggests a similar origin for all systems and that a large fraction of gas around bright quasars could be in a relatively “cold” (T ∼ 10{sup 4 }K) and dense phase. In addition, our results imply that such gas is ubiquitous within at least 50 kpc from bright quasars at 3<z<4 independently of the quasar emission opening angle, or extending up to 200 kpc for quasar isotropic emission.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2016

CONSTRAINING THE LIFETIME AND OPENING ANGLE OF QUASARS USING FLUORESCENT Ly α EMISSION: THE CASE OF Q0420–388

A toy model is developed to understand how the spatial distribution of fluorescent emitters in the vicinity of bright quasars could be affected by the geometry of the quasar bi-conical radiation field and by its lifetime. The model is then applied to the distribution of high-equivalent-width Ly α emitters (with rest-frame equivalent widths above 100 Å, threshold used in, e.g., Trainor and Steidel) identified in a deep narrow-band 36 × 36 arcmin{sup 2} image centered on the luminous quasar Q0420–388. These emitters are found near the edge of the field and show some evidence of an azimuthal asymmetry on the sky of the type expected if the quasar is radiating in a bipolar cone. If these sources are being fluorescently illuminated by the quasar, the two most distant objects require a lifetime of at least 15 Myr for an opening angle of 60° or more, increasing to more than 40 Myr if the opening angle is reduced to a minimum of 30°. However, some other expected signatures of boosted fluorescence are not seen at the current survey limits, e.g., a fall off in Ly α brightness, or equivalent width, with distance. Furthermore, to have most of the Ly α emission of the two distant sources to be fluorescently boosted would require the quasar to have been significantly brighter in the past. This suggests that these particular sources may not be fluorescent, invalidating the above lifetime constraints. This would cast doubt on the use of this relatively low equivalent width threshold and thus also on the lifetime analysis in Trainor and Steidel.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2016

Faraday rotation measure synthesis of intermediate redshift quasars as a probe of intervening matter

There is evidence that magnetized material along the line of sight to distant quasars is detectable in the polarization properties of the background sources. The polarization properties appear to be correlated with the presence of intervening Mg ii absorption, which is thought to arise in outflowing material from star forming galaxies. In order to investigate this further, we have obtained high spectral resolution polarization measurements, with the Very Large Array and the Australia Telescope Compact Array, of a set of 49 unresolved quasars for which we have high quality optical spectra. These enable us to produce a Faraday Depth spectrum for each source, using Rotation Measure (RM) Synthesis. Our new independent radio data confirms that interveners are strongly associated with depolarization. We characterize the complexity of the Faraday Depth spectrum using a number of parameters and show how these are related, or not, to the depolarization and to the presence of Mg ii absorption along the line of sight. We argue that complexity and structure in the Faraday Depth distribution likely arise from both intervening material and intrinsically to the background source and attempt to separate these. We find that the strong radio depolarization effects associated with intervening material at redshifts out to z≈1 arise from inhomogeneous Faraday screens producing a dispersion in RM across individual sources of around 10 rad m{sup −2}. This is likely produced by disordered fields with strengths of at least 3 μG.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2016

The X-ray Zurich Environmental Study (X-ZENS). II. X-ray observations of the diffuse intragroup medium in galaxy groups

We present the results of a pilot XMM-Newton and Chandra program aimed at studying the diffuse intragroup medium (IGM) of optically selected nearby groups from the Zurich ENvironmental Study (ZENS) catalog. The groups are in a narrow mass range about 10{sup 13} M{sub ⊙}, a mass scale at which the interplay between the IGM and the group member galaxies is still largely unprobed. X-ray emission from the IGM is detected in the energy band 0.5–2 keV with flux ⩽10{sup −13} erg s{sup −1} cm{sup −2}, which is one order of magnitude fainter than for typical ROSAT groups (RASS). For many groups, we set upper limits on the X-ray luminosity, indicating that the detections are likely probing the upper envelope of the X-ray emitting groups. We find that weighting the group halo mass by the fraction of the total stellar mass locked in the bulge galaxy components might reduce the bias of mass estimates based on the total optical luminosity with respect to the X-ray mass estimates, (consistent with Andreon, at larger mass scales). We measure a stellar mass fraction with a median value of about 1%, with a contribution from the most massive galaxies between 30% and 50%. Optical and X-ray data often give complementary answers concerning the dynamical state of the groups, and are essential for a complete picture of the group system. Extending this pilot program to a larger sample of groups is necessary to unveil any imprint of interaction between member galaxies and IGM in halo potentials of key importance for environmentally driven galactic evolution.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2015

AGN evolution from a galaxy evolution viewpoint

We explore the connections between the evolving galaxy and active galactic nucleus (AGN) populations. We present a simple phenomenological model that links the evolving galaxy mass function and the evolving quasar luminosity function, which makes specific and testable predictions for the distribution of host galaxy masses for AGNs of different luminosities. We show that the ϕ{sup ∗} normalizations of the galaxy mass function and of the AGN luminosity function closely track each other over a wide range of redshifts, implying a constant “duty cycle” of AGN activity. The strong redshift evolution in the AGN L{sup ∗} can be produced by either an evolution in the distribution of Eddington ratios, or in the m{sub bh}/m{sub ∗} mass ratio, or both. To try to break this degeneracy we look at the distribution of AGNs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (m{sub bh}, L) plane, showing that an evolving ratio m{sub bh}/m{sub ∗}∝(1+z){sup 2} reproduces the observed data and also reproduces the local relations that connect the black hole population with the host galaxies for both quenched and star-forming populations. We stress that observational studies that compare the masses of black holes in active galaxies at high redshift with those in quiescent galaxies locally will always see much weaker evolution. Evolution of this form would produce, or could be produced by, a redshift-independent m{sub bh}–σ relation and could explain why the local m{sub bh}–σ relation is tighter than m{sub bh}–m{sub *} even if σ is not directly linked to black hole growth. Irrespective of the evolution of m{sub bh}/m{sub *}, the model reproduces both the appearance of “downsizing” and the so-called “sub-Eddington boundary” without any mass-dependence in the evolution of black hole growth rates.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

NASA NTRS1996

Exploration an the Search for Origins: A Vision for Ultraviolet-Optical-Infrared Space Astronomy

Public support and enthusiasm for astronomy have been strong in the final decades of the twentieth century. Nowhere is this better demonstrated than with the Hubble Space Telescope (HCT), a grand endeavor, which is enabling astronomers to make giant strides in understanding our universe, our place in it, and our relation to it. The NASAs first infrared observatory, the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF), promises to take the crucial next steps towards understanding the formation of stars and galaxies. Toward their completion, the HST and Beyond Committee identifies major goals, whose accomplishment will justify a commitment well into the next century: (1) the detailed study of the birth and evolution of normal galaxies such as the Milky Way; (2) the detection of Earth-like planets around other stars and the search for evidence of life on them; (3) NASA should develop a space observatory of aperture 4m or larger, optimized for imaging and spectroscopy over the wavelength range 1-5 microns; and (4) NASA should develop the capability for space interferometry.

Dressler, Alan↗

NASA NTRS1990

Galaxy evolution and formation

Results from the Hawaii imaging and spectroscopy deep survey are discussed. Cumulative galaxy counts now exceed 10 exp 6/deg. To B = 24 the bulk of these galaxies lie at low redshift. Flat spectrum sources constitute a fraction of about 30-40 percent of the sources at B = 24. There are not enough of these to explain the high number counts, but they are an exceedingly interesting population in their own right. It is argued that they are unlikely to lie at z of about 1, but could be either massive starbursters at z of about 2 - 3 or dwarf starbursting galaxies at very low redshift (less than approximately 0.1). In either case they constitute a major episode in galaxy formation.

Cowie, Lennox L.↗