New integral field spectroscopy has been obtained for IZw18, the nearby lowest-metallicity galaxy considered our best local analog of systems forming at high-z. Here we report the spatially resolved spectral map of the nebular HeII4686 emission in IZ
w18, from which we derived for the first time its total HeII-ionizing flux. Nebular HeII emission implies the existence of a hard radiation field. HeII-emitters are observed to be more frequent among high-z galaxies than for local objects. So investigating the HeII-ionizing source(s) in IZw18 may reveal the ionization processes at high-z. HeII emission in star-forming galaxies, has been suggested to be mainly associated with Wolf-Rayet stars (WRs), but WRs cannot satisfactorily explain the HeII-ionization at all times, in particular at lowest metallicities. Shocks from supernova remnants, or X-ray binaries, have been proposed as additional potential sources of HeII-ionizing photons. Our data indicate that conventional HeII-ionizing sources (WRs, shocks, X-ray binaries) are not sufficient to explain the observed nebular HeII4686 emission in IZw18. We find that the HeII-ionizing radiation expected from models for either low-metallicity super-massive O stars or rotating metal-free stars could account for the HeII-ionization budget measured, while only the latter models could explain the highest values of HeII4686/Hbeta observed. The presence of such peculiar stars in IZw18 is suggestive and further investigation in this regard is needed. This letter highlights that some of the clues of the early Universe can be found here in our cosmic backyard.
We present a study of the HII regions in the galaxy NGC 6754 from a two pointing mosaic comprising 197,637 individual spectra, using Integral Field Spectrocopy (IFS) recently acquired with the MUSE instrument during its Science Verification program.
The data cover the entire galaxy out to ~2 effective radii (re ), sampling its morphological structures with unprecedented spatial resolution for a wide-field IFU. A complete census of the H ii regions limited by the atmospheric seeing conditions was derived, comprising 396 individual ionized sources. This is one of the largest and most complete catalogue of H ii regions with spectroscopic information in a single galaxy. We use this catalogue to derive the radial abundance gradient in this SBb galaxy, finding a negative gradient with a slope consistent with the characteristic value for disk galaxies recently reported. The large number of H ii regions allow us to estimate the typical mixing scale-length (rmix ~0.4 re ), which sets strong constraints on the proposed mechanisms for metal mixing in disk galaxies, like radial movements associated with bars and spiral arms, when comparing with simulations. We found evidence for an azimuthal variation of the oxygen abundance, that may be related with the radial migration. These results illustrate the unique capabilities of MUSE for the study of the enrichment mechanisms in Local Universe galaxies.
Wolf-Rayet (WR) HII galaxies are local metal-poor star-forming galaxies, observed when the most massive stars are evolving from O stars to WR stars, making them template systems to study distant starbursts. We have been performing a program to invest
igate the interplay between massive stars and gas in WR HII galaxies using IFS. Here, we highlight some results from the first 3D spectroscopic study of Mrk 178, the closest metal-poor WR HII galaxy, focusing on the origin of the nebular HeII emission and the aperture effects on the detection of WR features.
H ii regions in galaxies are the sites of star formation and thus particular places to understand the build-up of stellar mass in the universe. The line ratios of this ionized gas are frequently used to characterize the ionization conditions. We use
the Hii regions catalogue from the CALIFA survey (~5000 H ii regions), to explore their distribution across the classical [OIII]/Hbeta vs. [NII]/Halpha diagnostic diagram, and how it depends on the oxygen abundance, ionization parameter, electron density, and dust attenuation. We compared the line ratios with predictions from photoionization models. Finally, we explore the dependences on the properties of the host galaxies, the location within those galaxies and the properties of the underlying stellar population. We found that the location within the BPT diagrams is not totally predicted by photoionization models. Indeed, it depends on the properties of the host galaxies, their galactocentric distances and the properties of the underlying stellar population. These results indicate that although H ii regions are short lived events, they are affected by the total underlying stellar population. One may say that H ii regions keep a memory of the stellar evolution and chemical enrichment that have left an imprint on the both the ionizing stellar population and the ionized gas
We revise the unireps. of $U(2,2)$ describing conformal particles with continuous mass spectrum from a many-body perspective, which shows massive conformal particles as compounds of two correlated massless particles. The statistics of the compound (b
oson/fermion) depends on the helicity $h$ of the massless components (integer/half-integer). Coherent states (CS) of particle-hole pairs (excitons) are also explicitly constructed as the exponential action of exciton (non-canonical) creation operators on the ground state of unpaired particles. These CS are labeled by points $Z$ ($2times 2$ complex matrices) on the Cartan-Bergman domain $mathbb D_4=U(2,2)/U(2)^2$, and constitute a generalized (matrix) version of Perelomov $U(1,1)$ coherent states labeled by points $z$ on the unit disk $mathbb D_1=U(1,1)/U(1)^2$. Firstly we follow a geometric approach to the construction of CS, orthonormal basis, $U(2,2)$ generators and their matrix elements and symbols in the reproducing kernel Hilbert space $mathcal H_lambda(mathbb D_4)$ of analytic square-integrable holomorphic functions on $mathbb D_4$, which carries a unitary irreducible representation of $U(2,2)$ with index $lambdainmathbb N$ (the conformal or scale dimension). Then we introduce a many-body representation of the previous construction through an oscillator realization of the $U(2,2)$ Lie algebra generators in terms of eight boson operators with constraints. This particle picture allows us for a physical interpretation of our abstract mathematical construction in the many-body jargon. In particular, the index $lambda$ is related to the number $2(lambda-2)$ of unpaired quanta and to the helicity $h=(lambda-2)/2$ of each massless particle forming the massive compound.
We present a thorough characterization of a large sample of 183 extreme emission-line galaxies (EELGs) at redshift 0.11 < z < 0.93 selected from the 20k zCOSMOS Bright Survey because of their unusually large emission line equivalent widths. We use mu
ltiwavelength COSMOS photometry, HST-ACS I-band imaging and optical zCOSMOS spectroscopy to derive the main global properties of EELGs, such as sizes, masses, SFRs, reliable metallicities from both direct and strong-line methods. The EELGs are compact (R_50 ~ 1.3 kpc), low-mass (log(M*/Msol)~7-10) galaxies forming stars at unusually high specific SFR (log(sSFR/yr) up to ~ -7) compared to main sequence SFGs of the same stellar mass and redshift. At UV wavelengths, the EELGs are luminous and show high surface brightness and include strong Ly$alpha$ emitters, as revealed by GALEX spectroscopy. We show that zCOSMOS EELGs are high-ionization, low-metallicity systems, with median 12+log(O/H)=8.16, including a handful of extremely metal-deficient galaxies (<10% solar). While ~80% of the EELGs show non-axisymmetric morphologies, including clumpy and tadpole galaxies, we find that ~29% of them show additional low surface-brightness features, which strongly suggest recent or ongoing interactions. As star-forming dwarfs in the local Universe, EELGs are most often found in relative isolation. While only very few EELGs belong to compact groups, almost one third of them are found in spectroscopically confirmed loose pairs or triplets. We conclude that EELGs are galaxies caught in a transient and probably early period of their evolution, where they are efficiently building-up a significant fraction of their present-day stellar mass in an ongoing galaxy-wide starburst. Therefore, the EELGs constitute an ideal benchmark for comparison studies between low- and high-redshift low-mass star-forming galaxies.
We study coherence and entanglement properties of the state space of a composite bi-fermion (two electrons pierced by $lambda$ magnetic flux lines) at one Landau site of a bilayer quantum Hall system. In particular, interlayer imbalance and entanglem
ent (and its fluctuations) are analyzed for a set of $U(4)$ coherent (emph{quasiclassical}) states generalizing the standard pseudospin $U(2)$ coherent states for the spin-frozen case. The interplay between spin and pseudospin degrees of freedom opens new possibilities with regard to the spin-frozen case. Actually, spin degrees of freedom make interlayer entanglement more effective and robust under perturbations than in the spin-frozen situation, mainly for a large number of flux quanta $lambda$. Interlayer entanglement of an equilibrium thermal state and its dependence with temperature and bias voltage is also studied for a pseudo-Zeeman interaction.
Bilayer quantum Hall (BLQH) systems, which underlie a $U(4)$ symmetry, display unique quantum coherence effects. We study coherent states (CS) on the complex Grassmannian $mathbb G_2^4=U(4)/U(2)^2$, orthonormal basis, $U(4)$ generators and their matr
ix elements in the reproducing kernel Hilbert space $mathcal H_lambda(mathbb G_2^4)$ of analytic square-integrable holomorphic functions on $mathbb G_2^4$, which carries a unitary irreducible representation of $U(4)$ with index $lambdainmathbb N$. A many-body representation of the previous construction is introduced through an oscillator realization of the $U(4)$ Lie algebra generators in terms of eight boson operators. This particle picture allows us for a physical interpretation of our abstract mathematical construction in the BLQH jargon. In particular, the index $lambda$ is related to the number of flux quanta bound to a bi-fermion in the composite fermion picture of Jain for fractions of the filling factor $ u=2$. The simpler, and better known, case of spin-$s$ CS on the Riemann-Bloch sphere $mathbb{S}^2=U(2)/U(1)^2$ is also treated in parallel, of which Grassmannian $mathbb G_2^4$-CS can be regarded as a generalized (matrix) version.
We study the radial structure of the stellar mass surface density ($mu$) and stellar population age as a function of the total stellar mass and morphology for a sample of 107 galaxies from the CALIFA survey. We use the fossil record to recover the st
ar formation history (SFH) in spheroidal and disk dominated galaxies with masses from 10$^9$ to 10$^{12}$ M$_odot$. We derive the half mass radius, and we find that galaxies are on average 15% more compact in mass than in light. HMR/HLR decreases with increasing mass for disk galaxies, but is almost constant in spheroidal galaxies. We find that the galaxy-averaged stellar population age, stellar extinction, and $mu$ are well represented by their values at 1 HLR. Negative radial gradients of the stellar population ages support an inside-out formation. The larger inner age gradients occur in the most massive disk galaxies that have the most prominent bulges; shallower age gradients are obtained in spheroids of similar mass. Disk and spheroidal galaxies show negative $mu$ gradients that steepen with stellar mass. In spheroidal galaxies $mu$ saturates at a critical value that is independent of the galaxy mass. Thus, all the massive spheroidal galaxies have similar local $mu$ at the same radius (in HLR units). The SFH of the regions beyond 1 HLR are well correlated with their local $mu$, and follow the same relation as the galaxy-averaged age and $mu$; suggesting that local stellar mass surface density preserves the SFH of disks. The SFH of bulges are, however, more fundamentally related to the total stellar mass, since the radial structure of the stellar age changes with galaxy mass even though all the spheroid dominated galaxies have similar radial structure in $mu$. Thus, galaxy mass is a more fundamental property in spheroidal systems while the local stellar mass surface density is more important in disks.
Fossil record methods based on spectral synthesis techniques have matured over the past decade, and their application to integrated galaxy spectra fostered substantial advances on the understanding of galaxies and their evolution. Yet, because of the
lack of spatial resolution, these studies are limited to a global view, providing no information about the internal physics of galaxies. Motivated by the CALIFA survey, which is gathering Integral Field Spectroscopy over the full optical extent of 600 galaxies, we have developed an end-to-end pipeline which: (i) partitions the observed data cube into Voronoi zones in order to, when necessary and taking due account of correlated errors, increase the S/N, (ii) extracts spectra, including propagated errors and bad-pixel flags, (iii) feeds the spectra into the STARLIGHT spectral synthesis code, (iv) packs the results for all galaxy zones into a single file, (v) performs a series of post-processing operations, including zone-to-pixel image reconstruction and unpacking the spectral and stellar population properties into multi-dimensional time, metallicity, and spatial coordinates. This paper provides an illustrated description of this whole pipeline and its products. Using data for the nearby spiral NGC 2916 as a show case, we go through each of the steps involved, presenting ways of visualizing and analyzing this manifold. These include 2D maps of properties such as the v-field, stellar extinction, mean ages and metallicities, mass surface densities, star formation rates on different time scales and normalized in different ways, 1D averages in the temporal and spatial dimensions, projections of the stellar light and mass growth (x,y,t) cubes onto radius-age diagrams, etc. The results illustrate the richness of the combination of IFS data with spectral synthesis, providing a glimpse of what is to come from CALIFA and future surveys. (Abridged)
