No Arabic abstract
We present here AMUSINGtextrm{++}; the largest compilation of nearby galaxies observed with the MUSE integral field spectrograph so far. This collection consists of 635 galaxies from different MUSE projects covering the redshift interval $0.0002<z<0.1$. The sample and its main properties are characterized and described in here. It includes galaxies of almost all morphological types, with a good coverage in the color-magnitude diagram, within the stellar mass range between 10$^8$ to 10$^{12}$M$_odot$, and with properties resembling those of a diameter-selected sample. The AMUSING++ sample is therefore suitable to study, with unprecendent detail, the properties of nearby galaxies at global and local scales, providing us with more than 50 million individual spectra. We use this compilation to investigate the presence of galactic outflows. We exploit the use of combined emission-line images to explore the shape of the different ionized components and the distribution along classical diagnostic diagrams to disentangle the different ionizing sources across the optical extension of each galaxy. We use the cross correlation function to estimate the level of symmetry of the emission lines as an indication of the presence of shocks and/or active galactic nuclei. We uncovered a total of 54 outflows, comprising $sim$8% of the sample. A large number of the discovered outflows correspond to those driven by active galactic nuclei ($sim$60%), suggesting some bias in the selection of our sample. No clear evidence was found that outflow host galaxies are highly star-forming, and outflows appear to be found within all galaxies around the star formation sequence.
The optical time-domain astronomy has grown rapidly in the past decade but the dynamic infrared sky is rarely explored. Aiming to construct a sample of mid-infrared outburst in nearby galaxies (MIRONG), we have conducted a systematical search of low-redshift ($z<0.35$) SDSS spectroscopic galaxies that have experienced recent MIR flares using their Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) light curves. A total of 137 galaxies have been selected by requiring a brightening amplitude of 0.5 magnitude in at least one WISE band with respect to their quiescent phases. Only a small faction (10.9%) has corresponding optical flares. Except for the four supernova (SNe) in our sample, the MIR luminosity of remaining sources ($L_{rm 4.6mu m}>10^{42}~rm erg~s^{-1}$) are markedly brighter than known SNe and their physical locations are very close to the galactic center (median <0.1). Only four galaxies are radio-loud indicating that synchrotron radiation from relativistic jets could contribute MIR variability. We propose that these MIR outburst are dominated by the dust echoes of transient accretion onto supermassive black holes, such as tidal disruption events (TDEs) and turn-on (changing-look) AGNs. Moreover, the inferred peak MIR luminosity function is generally consistent with the X-ray and optical TDEs at high end albeit with large uncertainties. Our results suggest that a large population of transients have been overlooked by optical surveys, probably due to dust obscuration or intrinsically optical weakness. Thus, a search in the infrared band is crucial for us to obtain a panoramic picture of nuclear outburst. The multiwavength follow-up observations of the MIRONG sample are in progress and will be presented in a series of subsequent papers.
Theoretical models of galaxy formation suggest that the presence of an active galactic nucleus (AGN) is required to regulate the growth of its host galaxy through feedback mechanisms, produced by e.g. AGN-driven outflows. Although such outflows are common both at low and high redshift, a comprehensive picture is still missing. The peak epoch of galaxy assembly (1<z<3) has been poorly explored so far, and current observations in this redshift range are mostly limited to targets with high chances to be in an outflowing phase. This paper introduces SUPER (a SINFONI Survey for Unveiling the Physics and Effect of Radiative feedback), an ongoing ESOs VLT/SINFONI Large Programme. SUPER will perform the first systematic investigation of ionized outflows in a sizeable and blindly-selected sample of 39 X-ray AGN at z~2, which reaches high spatial resolutions (~2 kpc) thanks to the adaptive optics-assisted IFU observations. The outflow morphology and star formation in the host galaxy will be mapped through the broad component of [OIII] and the narrow component of Ha emission lines. The main aim of our survey is to infer the impact of outflows on the on-going star formation and to link the outflow properties to a number of AGN and host galaxy properties. We describe here the survey characteristics and goals, as well as the selection of the target sample. Moreover, we present a full characterization of its multi-wavelength properties: we measure, via spectral energy distribution fitting of UV-to-FIR photometry, stellar masses (4x10^9-2x10^11 Msun), star formation rates (25-680 Msun yr^-1) and AGN bolometric luminosities (2x10^44-8x10^47 erg s^-1), along with obscuring column densities (<2x10^24 cm^-2) and 2-10 keV luminosities (2x10^43-6x10^45 erg s^-1) derived through X-ray spectral analysis. Finally, we classify our AGN as jetted or non-jetted according to their radio and FIR emission.
We present a sample of 17 objects from the CALIFA survey where we find initial evidence of galactic winds based on their off-axis ionization properties. We identify the presence of outflows using various optical diagnostic diagrams (e.g., EW(H$alpha$), [Nii]/H$alpha$, [Sii]/H$alpha$, [Oi]/H$alpha$ line-ratio maps). We find that all 17 candidate outflow galaxies lie along the sequence of active star formation in the M$_star$ vs. star-formation rate diagram, without a clear excess in the integrated SFR. The location of galaxies along the star-formation main sequence (SFMS) does not influence strongly the presence or not of outflows. The analysis of the star-formation rate density ($Sigma_{rm SFR}$) reveals that the CALIFA sources present higher values when compared with normal star-forming galaxies. The strength of this relation depends on the calibrator used to estimate the SFR. This excess in $Sigma_{rm SFR}$ is significant within the first effective radius supporting the idea that most outflows are driven by processes in the inner regions of a galaxy. We find that the molecular gas mass density ($Sigma_mathrm{gas}$) is a key parameter that plays an important role in the generation of outflows through its association with the local SFR. The canonical threshold reported for the generation of outflows -- $Sigma_{rm SFR}>0.1$ $mathrm{M}_odot mathrm{yr}^{-1} mathrm{kpc}^{-2}$ -- is only marginally exceeded in our sample. Within the Kennicutt-Schmidt diagram we propose a domain for galaxies hosting starburst-driven outflows defined by $Sigma_{rm SFR}>10^{-2} ,mathrm{M}_odot mathrm{yr}^{-1} mathrm{kpc}^{-2}$ and $Sigma_mathrm{gas}>10^{1.2} , mathrm{M}_odot mathrm{pc}^{-2}$ within a central kiloparcec region.
We present a well-defined and characterized all-sky sample of classical Cepheids in the Milky Way, obtained by combining two time-domain all-sky surveys: Gaia DR2 (Gaia Collaboration et al. 2018) and ASAS-SN (Shappee et al. 2014). We first use parallax and variability information from Gaia to select ~30,000 bright (G<17) Cepheid candidates with M_K<-1. We then analyze their ASAS-SN V-band lightcurves, determining periods, and classifying the lightcurves using their Fourier parameters. This results in ~1900 likely Galactic Cepheids, which we estimate to be >90% complete and pure within our adopted selection criteria. This is the largest all-sky sample of Milky Way Cepheids that has such a well-characterized selection function, needed for population modeling and for systematic spectroscopic follow-up foreseen with SDSS-V. About 130 of these Cepheids have not been documented in the literature even as possible candidates.
We use MUSE adaptive optics (AO) data in Narrow Field Mode to study the properties of the ionised gas in MR 2251-178 and PG 1126-041, two nearby (z~0.06) bright quasars hosting sub-pc scale Ultra Fast Outflows (UFOs) detected in the X-ray band. We decompose the optical emission from diffuse gas into a low- and a high-velocity components. The former is characterised by a clean, regular velocity field and a low (~80 km/s) velocity dispersion. It traces regularly rotating gas in PG 1126-041, while in MR 2251-178 it is possibly associated to tidal debris from a recent merger or flyby. The other component is found to be extended up to a few kpc from the nuclei, and shows a high (~800 km/s) velocity dispersion and a blue-shifted mean velocity, as expected from AGN-driven outflows. We estimate mass outflow rates up to a few Mo/yr and kinetic efficiencies between 0.1-0.4 per cent, in line with those of galaxies hosting AGNs of similar luminosity. The momentum rates of these ionised outflows are comparable to those measured for the UFOs at sub-pc scales, consistent with a momentum-driven wind propagation. Pure energy-driven winds are excluded unless about 100x additional momentum is locked in massive molecular winds. By comparing the outflow properties of our sources with those of a small sample of well-studied QSOs hosting UFOs from the literature, we find that winds seem to systematically lie either in a momentum-driven or in an energy-driven regime, indicating that these two theoretical models bracket very well the physics of AGN-driven winds.