No Arabic abstract
The age and chemical composition of the stars in present-day galaxies carry important clues about their star formation processes. The latest generation of population synthesis models have allowed to derive age and stellar metallicity estimates for large samples of low-redshift galaxies. After reviewing the main results about the distribution in ages and metallicities as a function of galaxy mass, I will concentrate on recent analysis that aims at disentangling the dependences of stellar populations properties on environment and on galaxy stellar mass. Finally, new models that predict the response of the full spectrum to variations in [alpha/Fe] will allow us to derive accurate estimates of element abundance ratios and gain deeper insight into the timescales of star formation cessation.
We develop a novel method to extract key cosmological information, which is primarily carried by the baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) and redshift space distortions (RSD), from spectroscopic galaxy surveys, based on a joint principal component analysis (PCA) and Karhunen-Lo`eve (KL) data compression scheme. Comparing to the traditional methods using the multipoles or wedges of the galaxy correlation functions, we find that our method is able to extract the key information more efficiently, with a better control of the potential systematics, which manifests it as a powerful tool for clustering analysis for ongoing and forthcoming galaxy surveys.
We cross-matched Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) sources brighter than 1 mJy at 12um with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) galaxy spectroscopic catalog to produce a sample of ~10^5 galaxies at <z>=0.08, the largest of its kind. This sample is dominated (70%) by star-forming (SF) galaxies from the blue sequence, with total IR luminosities in the range ~10^8-10^12 L_sun. We identify which stellar populations are responsible for most of the 12um emission. We find that most (~80%) of the 12um emission in SF galaxies is produced by stellar populations younger than 0.6 Gyr. In contrast, the 12um emission in weak AGN (L[OIII]<10^7 L_sun) is produced by older stars, with ages of ~1-3 Gyr. We find that L_[12um] linearly correlates with stellar mass for SF galaxies. At fixed 12um luminosity, weak AGN deviate toward higher masses since they tend to be hosted by massive, early-type galaxies with older stellar populations. Star-forming galaxies and weak AGN follow different L_[12um]-SFR (star formation rate) relations, with weak AGN showing excess 12um emission at low SFR (~0.02-1 M_sun/yr). This is likely due to dust grains heated by older stars. While the specific star formation rate (SSFR) of SF galaxies is nearly constant, the SSFR of weak AGN decreases by ~3 orders of magnitude, reflecting the very different star formation efficiencies between SF galaxies and massive, early-type galaxies. Stronger type II AGN in our sample (L_[OIII]>10^7 L_sun), act as an extension of massive SF galaxies, connecting the SF and weak AGN sequences. This suggests a picture where galaxies form stars normally until an AGN (possibly after a starburst episode) starts to gradually quench the SF activity. We also find that 4.6-12um color is a useful first-order indicator of SF activity in a galaxy when no other data are available.
The main energy-generating mechanisms in galaxies are black hole (BH) accretion and star formation (SF) and the interplay of these processes is driving the evolution of galaxies. MIR/FIR spectroscopy are able to distinguish between BH accretion and SF, as it was shown in the past by infrared spectroscopy from the space by the Infrared Space Observatory and Spitzer. Spitzer and Herschel spectroscopy together can trace the AGN and the SF components in galaxies, with extinction free lines, almost only in the local Universe, except for a few distant objects. One of the major goals of the study of galaxy evolution is to understand the history of the luminosity source of galaxies along cosmic time. This goal can be achieved with far-IR spectroscopic cosmological surveys. SPICA in combination with ground based large single dish submillimeter telescopes, such as CCAT, will offer a unique opportunity to do this. We use galaxy evolution models linked to the observed MIR-FIR counts (including Herschel) to predict the number of sources and their IR lines fluxes, as derived from observations of local galaxies. A shallow survey in an area of 0.5 square degrees, with a typical integration time of 1 hour per pointing, will be able to detect thousands of galaxies in at least three emission lines, using SAFARI, the far-IR spectrometer onboard of SPICA.
[Abridged] We consider how galaxy clustering data, from Mpc to Gpc scales, from upcoming large scale structure surveys, such as Euclid and DESI, can provide discriminating information about the bispectrum shape arising from a variety of inflationary scenarios. Through exploring in detail the weighting of shape properties in the calculation of the halo bias and halo mass function we show how they probe a broad range of configurations, beyond those in the squeezed limit, that can help distinguish between shapes with similar large scale bias behaviors. We assess the impact, on constraints for a diverse set of non-Gaussian shapes, of galaxy clustering information in the mildly non-linear regime, and surveys that span multiple redshifts and employ different galactic tracers of the dark matter distribution. Fisher forecasts are presented for a Euclid-like spectroscopic survey of H$alpha$-selected emission line galaxies (ELGs) using recent revisions of the expected H$alpha$ luminosity function, and a DESI-like survey, of luminous red galaxies (LRGs) and [O-II] doublet-selected ELGs, in combination with Planck-like CMB temperature and polarization data. While ELG samples provide better probes of shapes that are divergent in the squeezed limit, LRG constraints, centered below $z<1$, yield stronger constraints on shapes with scale-independent large-scale halo biases, such as the equilateral template. The ELG and LRG samples provide complementary degeneracy directions for distinguishing between different shapes. If the Gaussian galaxy bias is constrained to better than a percent level, such as can be determined from the galaxy bispectrum or weak lensing, then the LSS and CMB data could provide complementary constraints that will enable differentiation of bispectra with distinct theoretical origins but with similar large scale, squeezed-limit properties.
To understand luminous AGNs in the z<1 universe, the ASCA AGN samples are the best at present. Combining the identified sample of AGNs from ASCA Large Sky Survey and Medium Sensitivity Survey, the sample of hard X-ray selected AGNs have been expanded up to 108 AGNs above the flux limit of 10^{-13} erg s^{-1} cm^{-2} in the 2-10 keV hard X-ray band. We discuss the fraction of absorbed AGNs in the hard X-ray selected AGN sample, and nature of absorbed luminous AGNs.