Galaxy formation and evolution

Abstract:

Samples of Extremely Red Galaxies (ERGs) have generally been seen to comprise a mix of actively star-forming galaxies with significant dust reddening and evolved, passive galaxies, at redshifts about z 1 2. Initial results from deep Keck spectroscopy of ERGs (Doherty et al. 2005) revealed dominant old stellar populations in 75% of our spectroscopic sample, but only 28% have spectra with no evidence of recent star formation activity, such as would be expected for a strictly passively-evolving population. This study suggests that the bulk of the ERGs are luminous, spheroidal, evolved galaxies, but undergoing intermittent activity consistent with continued growth. Through a detailed investigation of individual galaxies in our sample we aim to address various outstanding questions. What fraction of their mass is produced in ongoing star formation? Is there a characteristic mass at which star formation is abruptly truncated? What mechanism provokes a secondary burst of star formation in evolved galaxies? We fit Bruzual & Charlot (2003; BC03) simple stellar population models to the broad band SEDs over a wide baseline, using a reduced 2 minimisation, to investigate ages, stellar masses and star formation histories. The fits for the early types agree well with information in the spectra and return ages of 23 Gyr and masses in the range 10 111012M. The objects with recent star formation episodes are more complex. Some are fit well by continuous star formation models, accounting for the effects of dust. We are now in the process of exploring multi-population fits to investigate the effects of episodic bursts. Previous morphological studies of ERGs have revealed a diverse mix of galaxies a combination of pure bulges, disks and a small fraction of irregular or interacting systems. We are curious to determine whether a morphological analysis produces results consistent with the spectroscopic properties of our sample. We are investigating a sub-sample of our galaxies which have HST imaging publically available. Initial results from a quantitative analysis using bulge/disk decomposition with GALFIT and GIM2D indicate that most galaxies with Early type spectra are bulge dominated. In contrast, a significant fraction of the galaxies showing spectroscopic signatures of on-going star formation on top of underlying old stellar populations appear to have a well-established classical spiral morphology, wih knots of star formation located in spiral arms around a central bulge. There is tenuous evidence (under further investigation) that at least half of the post-starbursts in our sample are barred spirals, lending support to theories relating post-starbursts to recent mergers. © 2007 International Astronomical Union.

Abstract:

We have conducted an Hα survey of 38 0.77 < z < 1 galaxies over ∼100arcmin2 of the Hubble Deep Field-North and Flanking Fields, to determine star formation rates (SFRs), with the near-IR multi-object spectrograph Cambridge Infrared Panoramic Survey Spectrograph (CIRPASS) on the William Herschel Telescope (WHT). This represents the first successful application of this technique to observing high-redshift galaxies. Stacking the spectra in the rest frame to infer a total SFR for the field, we find a lower limit (uncorrected for dust reddening) on the SFR density at redshift z = 1 of 0.04 M⊙ yr-1 Mpc-3. This implies rapid evolution in the SFR density from z = 0 to 1 which is proportional to (1+ z)3.1 © 2006 RAS.

Abstract:

We present results of our ongoing study of the morphology and kinematics of the ionised gas in 48 representative nearby elliptical and lenticular galaxies using the SAURON integral-field spectrograph on the 4.2m William Herschel Telescope. Making use of a recently developed technique, emission is detected in 75% of the galaxies. The ionised-gas distributions display varied morphologies, ranging from regular gas disks to filamentary structures. Additionally, the emission-line kinematic maps show, in general, regular motions with smooth variations in kinematic position angle. In most of the galaxies, the ionised-gas kinematics is decoupled from the stellar counterpart, but only some of them present signatures of recent accretion of gaseous material. The presence of dust is very common in our sample and is usually accompanied by gas emission. Our analysis of the [Om]/H beta emission-line ratios, both across the whole sample as well as within the individual galaxies, suggests that there is no unique mechanism triggering the ionisation of the gas. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Abstract:

We summarise the results and achievements of integral-field spectroscopy of early-type galaxies.. observed as part of a survey using both the SAURON and OASIS spectrographs. From the perspective of integral-field spectroscopy, these otherwise smooth and featureless objects show a wealth of structure, both in their stellar kinematics and populations. We focus on the stellar content, and examine properties on both kiloparsec scales with SAURON, and scales of 100's of parsecs with OASIS. These complementary studies reveal two types of kinematically distinct components (KDCs), differing primarily in their intrinsic sizes. In previous studies, KDCs and their host galaxies have generally been found to be unremarkable in other aspects. We show that large KDCs, typical of the well-studied cases, indeed show little or no age differences with their host galaxy. The KDCs detected with the higher spatial-resolution of OASIS are intrinsically smaller and include, in contrast, a significant fraction of young stars. We speculate on the relationship between KDCs and their host galaxies, and the implications for young populations in early-type galaxies. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.