No Arabic abstract
The Herschel Space Observatory has revealed a very different galaxyscape from that shown by optical surveys which presents a challenge for galaxy-evolution models. The Herschel surveys reveal (1) that there was rapid galaxy evolution in the very recent past and (2) that galaxies lie on a a single Galaxy Sequence (GS) rather than a star-forming `main sequence and a separate region of `passive or `red-and-dead galaxies. The form of the GS is now clearer because far-infrared surveys such as the Herschel ATLAS pick up a population of optically-red star-forming galaxies that would have been classified as passive using most optical criteria. The space-density of this population is at least as high as the traditional star-forming population. By stacking spectra of H-ATLAS galaxies over the redshift range 0.001 < z < 0.4, we show that the galaxies responsible for the rapid low-redshift evolution have high stellar masses, high star-formation rates but, even several billion years in the past, old stellar populations - they are thus likely to be relatively recent ancestors of early-type galaxies in the Universe today. The form of the GS is inconsistent with rapid quenching models and neither the analytic bathtub model nor the hydrodynamical EAGLE simulation can reproduce the rapid cosmic evolution. We propose a new gentler model of galaxy evolution that can explain the new Herschel results and other key properties of the galaxy population.
Understanding how galaxies form in the early universe and their subsequent evolution through cosmic time is a major goal of modern astrophysics. Panchromatic look-back sky surveys significantly advanced the field in the past decades, and we are now entering an even more fruitful period - a golden age of radio astronomy - with upgraded, and new facilities delivering an order of magnitude increase in sensitivity. An overview of recent developments in radio continuum sky surveys, focusing on the physical properties and cosmic evolution of radio AGN since z~5 is presented here.
Roughly half of the radiation from evolving galaxies in the early universe reaches us in the far-infrared and submillimeter wavelength range. Recent major advances in observing capabilities, in particular the launch of the Herschel Space Observatory in 2009, have dramatically enhanced our ability to use this information in the context of multiwavelength studies of galaxy evolution. Near its peak, three quarters of the cosmic infrared background is now resolved into individually detected sources. The use of far-infrared diagnostics of dust-obscured star formation and of interstellar medium conditions has expanded from rare extreme high-redshift galaxies to more typical main sequence galaxies and hosts of active galactic nuclei, out to z>~2. These studies shed light on the evolving role of steady equilibrium processes and of brief starbursts, at and since the peak of cosmic star formation and black hole accretion. This review presents a selection of recent far-infrared studies of galaxy evolution, with an emphasis on Herschel results
We present a preliminary analysis of the small-scale structure found in new 70-520 micron continuum maps of the Rosette molecular cloud (RMC), obtained with the SPIRE and PACS instruments of the Herschel Space Observatory. We find 473 clumps within the RMC using a new structure identification algorithm, with sizes up to ~1.0 pc in diameter. A comparison with recent Spitzer maps reveals that 371 clumps are starless (without an associated young stellar object), while 102 are protostellar. Using the respective values of dust temperature, we determine the clumps have masses (M_C) over the range -0.75 <= log (M_C/M_sun) <= 2.50. Linear fits to the high-mass tails of the resulting clump mass spectra (CMS) have slopes that are consistent with those found for high-mass clumps identified in CO emission by other groups.
We report the discovery of recombining plasmas in three supernova remnants (SNRs) with the Suzaku X-ray astronomy satellite. During SNRs evolution, the expanding supernova ejecta and the ambient matter are compressed and heated by the reverse and forward shocks to form an X-ray emitting hot plasma. Since ionization proceeds slowly compared to shock heating, most young or middle-aged SNRs have ionizing (underionized) plasmas. Owing to high sensitivity of Suzaku, however, we have detected radiative recombination continua (RRCs) from the SNRs IC 443, W49B, and G359.1-0.5. The presence of the strong RRC is the definitive evidence that the plasma is recombining (overionized). As a possible origin of the overionization, an interaction between the ejecta and dense circumstellar matter is proposed; the highly ionized gas was made at the initial phase of the SNR evolution in dense regions, and subsequent rapid adiabatic expansion caused sudden cooling of the electrons. The analysis on the full X-ray band spectrum of IC 443, which is newly presented in this paper, provides a consistent picture with this scenario. We also comment on the implications from the fact that all the SNRs having recombining plasmas are correlated with the mixed-morphology class.
For nearly a century, imaging and spectroscopic surveys of galaxies have given us information about the contents of the universe. We attempt to define the logical endpoint of such surveys by defining not the next galaxy survey, but the final galaxy survey at NIR wavelengths; this would be the galaxy survey that exhausts the information content useful for addressing extant questions. Such a survey would require incredible advances in a number of technologies and the survey details will depend on the as yet poorly constrained properties of the earliest galaxies. Using an exposure time calculator, we define nominal surveys for extracting the useful information for three science cases: dark energy cosmology, galaxy evolution, and supernovae. We define scaling relations that trade off sky background, telescope aperture, and focal plane size to allow for a survey of a given depth over a given area. For optimistic assumptions, a 280m telescope with a marginally resolved focal plane of 20 deg$^2$ operating at L2 could potentially exhaust the cosmological information content of galaxies in a 10 year survey. For galaxy evolution (making use of gravitational lensing to magnify the earliest galaxies) and SN, the same telescope would suffice. We discuss the technological advances needed to complete the last galaxy survey. While the final galaxy survey remains well outside of our technical reach today, we present scaling relations that show how we can progress toward the goal of exhausting the information content encoded in the shapes, positions, and colors of galaxies.