No Arabic abstract
We perform a morphological study of 124 spectroscopically confirmed cluster galaxies in the z=0.84 galaxy cluster RX J0152.7-1357. Our classification scheme includes color information, visual morphology, and 1-component and 2-component light profile fitting derived from Hubble Space Telescope riz imaging. We adopt a modified version of a detailed classification scheme previously used in studies of field galaxies and found to be correlated with kinematic features of those galaxies. We compare our cluster galaxy morphologies to those of field galaxies at similar redshift. We also compare galaxy morphologies in regions of the cluster with different dark-matter density as determined by weak-lensing maps. We find an early-type fraction for the cluster population as a whole of 47%, about 2.8 times higher than the field, and similar to the dynamically young cluster MS 1054 at similar redshift. We find the most drastic change in morphology distribution between the low and intermediate dark matter density regions within the cluster, with the early type fraction doubling and the peculiar fraction dropping by nearly half. The peculiar fraction drops more drastically than the spiral fraction going from the outskirts to the intermediate-density regions. This suggests that many galaxies falling into clusters at z~0.8 may evolve directly from peculiar, merging, and compact systems into early-type galaxies, without having the chance to first evolve into a regular spiral galaxy.
We obtained Subaru FMOS observations of Halpha emitting galaxies selected from the HiZELS narrow-band survey, to investigate the relationship between stellar mass, metallicity and star-formation rate at z = 0.84 - 1.47, for comparison with the Fundamental Metallicity Relation seen at low redshift. Our findings demonstrate, for the first time with a homogeneously selected sample, that a relationship exists for typical star-forming galaxies at z = 1 - 1.5 and that it is surprisingly similar to that seen locally. Therefore, star-forming galaxies at z = 1 - 1.5 are no less metal abundant than galaxies of similar mass and star formation rate (SFR) at z = 0.1, contrary to claims from some earlier studies. We conclude that the bulk of the metal enrichment for this star-forming galaxy population takes place in the 4 Gyr before z = 1.5. We fit a new mass-metallicity-SFR plane to our data which is consistent with other high redshift studies. However, there is some evidence that the mass-metallicity component of this high redshift plane is flattened, at all SFR, compared with z = 0.1, suggesting that processes such as star-formation driven winds, thought to remove enriched gas from low mass halos, are yet to have as large an impact at this early epoch. The negative slope of the SFR-metallicity relation from this new plane is consistent with the picture that the elevation in the SFR of typical galaxies at z > 1 is fuelled by the inflow of metal-poor gas and not major merging.
We present a rest-frame ultraviolet morphological analysis of 78 resolved, high S/N z ~ 3.1 Lyman Alpha Emitters (LAEs) in the Extended Chandra Deep Field South (ECDF-S). Using HST/ACS V -band images taken as part of the GEMS, GOODS, and HUDF surveys. For each LAE system identified via our ground-based narrow-band imaging, we have identified those LAE systems with multiple components. We measure the concentration index and present the results of our GALFIT fits for ellipticity, Sersic index, and sizes for each resolved component with S/N > 30 as well as for each LAE system with S/N > 30. The LAEs show a heterogeneous distribution of morphologies while the ma jority tend to be highly concentrated and compact in size. We only measure the morphological properties of resolved LAEs. For systems showing multiple components we also measured the morphology of the individual components. The resolved LAEs are highly concentrated (2 < C < 4) and show a similar distribution to that measured for stars, suggesting that this diagnostic is a poor discriminator near the resolution limit. The measured ellipticities for components show a distribution peaked at {epsilon} ~ 0.55 which is significantly different from the flat distribution of ellipticities observed for local spiral galaxies and is similar to the distribution found for Lyman-break galaxies at the same redshift. There is a wide range of best-fit Sersic indices (1 < n < 10) with the majority being between 0 < n < 2. The distribution is similar to the distribution of Sersic indices seen locally. A visual inspection of the images suggests a qualitative morphological transition at n ~ 2, with small-n LAEs having extended or multimodal light distributions and relatively little diffuse emission and large-n LAEs have compact central components surrounded by diffuse emission.
We confirm the detection of 3 groups in the Lynx supercluster, at z~1.3, and give their redshifts and masses. We study the properties of the group galaxies as compared to the central clusters, RXJ0849+4452 and RXJ0848+4453, selecting 89 galaxies in the clusters and 74 galaxies in the groups. We morphologically classify galaxies by visual inspection, noting that our early-type galaxy (ETG) sample would have been contaminated at the 30% -40% level by simple automated classification methods (e.g. based on Sersic index). In luminosity selected samples, both clusters and groups show high fractions of Sa galaxies. The ETG fractions never rise above ~50% in the clusters, which is low compared to the fractions observed in clusters at z~1. However, ETG plus Sa fractions are similar to those observed for ETGs in clusters at z~1. Bulge-dominated galaxies visually classified as Sas might also be ETGs with tidal features or merger remnants. They are mainly red and passive, and span a large range in luminosity. Their star formation seems to have been quenched before experiencing a morphological transformation. Because their fraction is smaller at lower redshifts, they might be the spiral population that evolves into ETGs. For mass-selected samples, the ETG fraction show no significant evolution with respect to local clusters, suggesting that morphological transformations occur at lower masses and densities. The ETG mass-size relation shows evolution towards smaller sizes at higher redshift in both clusters and groups, while the late-type mass-size relation matches that observed locally. The group ETG red sequence shows lower zero points and larger scatters than in clusters, both expected to be an indication of a younger galaxy population. The estimated age difference is small when compared to the difference in age at different galaxy masses.
Cluster properties do not seem to be changing significantly during their mature evolution phase, for example they do not seem to show strong dynamical evolution at least up to z~0.5, their galaxy red sequence is already in place at least up to z$sim$1.2, and their diffuse light content remains stable up to z~0.8. The question is now to know if cluster properties can evolve more significantly at redshifts notably higher than 1. We propose here to see how the properties of the intracluster light (ICL) evolve with redshift by detecting and analysing the ICL in the X-ray cluster CL J1449+0856 at z=2.07 (discovered by Gobat et al. 2011), based on deep HST NICMOS H band exposures.We used the same wavelet-based method as that applied to 10 clusters between z=0.4 and 0.8 by Guennou et al. (2012). We detect three diffuse light sources with respective total magnitudes of H=24.8, 25.5, and 25.9, plus a more compact object with a magnitude H=25.3. We discuss the significance of our detections and show that they are robust. The three sources of diffuse light indicate an elongation along a north-east south-west axis, similar to that of the distribution of the central galaxies and to the X-ray elongation. This strongly suggests a history of merging events along this direction. While Guennou et al. (2012) found a roughly constant amount of diffuse light for clusters between z~0 and 0.8, we put in evidence at least a 1.5 magnitude increase between z~0.8 and 2. If we assume that the amount of diffuse light is directly linked to the infall activity on the cluster, this implies that CL J1449+0856 is still undergoing strong merging events.
New results from a large survey of H-alpha emission-line galaxies at z=0.84 using WFCAM/UKIRT and a custom narrow-band filter in the J band are presented as part of the HiZELS survey. Reaching an effective flux limit of 1e-16 erg/s/cm^2 in a comoving volume of 1.8e5 Mpc^3, this represents the largest and deepest survey of its kind ever done at z~1. There are 1517 potential line emitters detected across 1.4 sq.deg of the COSMOS and UKIDSS UDS fields, of which 743 are selected as H-alpha emitters. These are used to calculate the H-alpha luminosity function, which is well-fitted by a Schechter function with phi*=10^(-1.92+-0.10) Mpc^-3, L*=10^(42.26+-0.05)erg/s, and alpha=-1.65+-0.15. The integrated star formation rate density (SFRD) at z=0.845 is 0.15+-0.01 M_sun/yr/Mpc^3. The results robustly confirm a strong evolution of SFRD from the present day out to z~1 and then flattening to z~2, using a single star-formation indicator. Out to z~1, both the characteristic luminosity and space density of the H-alpha emitters increase significantly; at higher redshifts, L* continues to increase, but phi* decreases. The z=0.84 H-alpha emitters are mostly disk galaxies (82+-3%), while 28+-4% of the sample show signs of merger activity and contribute ~20% to the total SFRD. Irregulars and mergers dominate the H-alpha luminosity function above L*, while disks are dominant at fainter luminosities. These results demonstrate that it is the evolution of normal disk galaxies that drives the strong increase in the SFRD from the current epoch to z~1, although the continued strong evolution of L* beyond z=1 suggests an increasing importance of merger activity at higher redshifts.