No Arabic abstract
We investigate the origin of intergalactic light (IGL) in close groups of galaxies. IGL is hypothesized to be the byproduct of interaction and merger within compact groups. Comparing the X-ray point source population in our sample of compact groups that have intergalactic light with compact groups without IGL, we find marginal evidence for a small increase in ultra-luminous X-ray sources (ULXs). There is also a significant bias towards lower luminosity high mass X-ray binaries (HMXRBs). We interpret this as an indication that groups with visible IGL represent a later evolutionary phase than other compact groups. They have galaxies characterized by quenching of star formation (lower star formation rate (SFR) inferred from lower HMXRB luminosity) after stellar material has been removed from the galaxies into the intergalactic medium, which is the source of the IGL. We conclude that the presence of an increased fraction of ULXs is due to past interaction and mergers within groups that have IGL.
Star clusters are ideal tracers of star formation activity in systems outside the volume that can be studied using individual, resolved stars. These unresolved clusters span orders of magnitude in brightness and mass, and their formation is linked to the overall star formation in their host galaxy. In that sense, the age distribution of a cluster population is a good proxy of the overall star formation history of the host. This talk presents a comparative study of clusters in seven compact galaxy groups. The aim is to use the cluster age distributions to infer the star formation history of these groups and link these to a proposed evolutionary sequence for compact galaxy groups.
We analyse a high-resolution, fully cosmological, hydrodynamical disc galaxy simulation, to study the source of the double-exponential light profiles seen in many stellar discs, and the effects of stellar radial migration upon the spatio-temporal evolution of both the disc age and metallicity distributions. We find a break in the pure exponential stellar surface brightness profile, and trace its origin to a sharp decrease in the star formation per unit surface area, itself produced by a decrease in the gas volume density due to a warping of the gas disc. Star formation in the disc continues well beyond the break. We find that the break is more pronounced in bluer wavebands. By contrast, we find little or no break in the mass density profile. This is, in part, due to the net radial migration of stars towards the external parts of the disc. Beyond the break radius, we find that ~60% of the resident stars migrated from the inner disc, while ~25% formed in situ. Our simulated galaxy also has a minimum in the age profile at the break radius but, in disagreement with some previous studies, migration is not the main mechanism producing this shape. In our simulation, the disc metallicity gradient flattens with time, consistent with an inside-out formation scenario. We do not find any difference in the intensity or the position of the break with inclination, suggesting that perhaps the differences found in empirical studies are driven by dust extinction.
We compare the number density of compact (small size) massive galaxies at low and high redshift using our Padova Millennium Galaxy and Group Catalogue (PM2GC) at z=0.03-0.11 and the CANDELS results from Barro et al. (2013) at z=1-2. The number density of local compact galaxies with luminosity weighted (LW) ages compatible with being already passive at high redshift is compared with the density of compact passive galaxies observed at high-z. Our results place an upper limit of a factor ~2 to the evolution of the number density and are inconsistent with a significant size evolution for most of the compact galaxies observed at high-z. The evolution may be instead significant (up to a factor 5) for the most extreme, ultracompact galaxies. Considering all compact galaxies, regardless of LW age and star formation activity, a minority of local compact galaxies (<=1/3) might have formed at z<1. Finally, we show that the secular decrease of the galaxy stellar mass due to simple stellar evolution may in some cases be a non-negligible factor in the context of the evolution of the mass-size relation, and we caution that passive evolution in mass should be taken into account when comparing samples at different redshifts.
We investigate the possibility of measuring intergalactic magnetic fields using the dispersion measures and rotation measures of fast radio bursts. With Bayesian methods, we produce probability density functions for values of these measures. We distinguish between contributions from the intergalactic medium, the host galaxy and the local environment of the progenitor. To this end, we use constrained, magnetohydrodynamic simulations of the local Universe to compute lines-of-sight integrals from the position of the Milky Way. In particular, we differentiate between predominantly astrophysical and primordial origins of magnetic fields in the intergalactic medium. We test different possible types of host galaxies and probe different distribution functions of fast radio burst progenitor locations inside the host galaxy. Under the assumption that fast radio bursts are produced by magnetars, we use analytic predictions to account for the contribution of the local environment. We find that less than 100 fast radio bursts from magnetars in stellar-wind environments hosted by starburst dwarf galaxies at redshift $z gtrsim 0.5$ suffice to discriminate between predominantly primordial and astrophysical origins of intergalactic magnetic fields. However, this requires the contribution of the Milky Way to be removed with a precision of $approx 1 rm~rad~m^{-2}$. We show the potential existence of a subset of fast radio bursts whose rotation measure carry information on the strength of the intergalactic magnetic field and its origins.
We review the formation and evolution of fossil groups and clusters from both the theoretical and the observational points of view. In the optical band, these systems are dominated by the light of the central galaxy. They were interpreted as old systems that had enough time to merge all the M* galaxies within the central one. During the last two decades many observational studies were performed to prove the old and relaxed state of fossil systems. The majority of these studies, that spans a wide range of topics including halos global scaling relations, dynamical substructures, stellar populations, and galaxy luminosity functions, seem to challenge this scenario. The general picture that can be obtained by reviewing all the observational works is that the fossil state could be transitional. Indeed, the formation of the large magnitude gap observed in fossil systems could be related to internal processes rather than an old formation.