Miguel Pereira Santaella

Abstract:

The high angular resolution monolithic optical and near-infrared Integral field spectrograph is the first light visible and near-infrared integral field spectrograph for the Extremely Large Telescope. To reach the diffraction limit of the telescope (≈ 10 mas) and maintain an optimal image quality over long exposures, an accurate measurement of geometrical distortions in the instrument’s guide star field is needed. Geometrical distortions affecting the guide stars map directly to pointing errors of the science field. The systematic contribution to the pointing error can be calibrated and removed by a corrective model. In this work, we propose a formulation of the corrective model that aims to calibrate the geometrical field distortions down to a given target residual, as well as reducing the time spent in calibrations. We also propose a calibration procedure that accounts for the uncertainties of the measurement process. We developed a tool named harmoni-pm to simulate the expected pointing error caused by geometrical distortions and validate the effectiveness of the proposed corrective model. We also relied on pseudo Zernike polynomials to formulate the model, and the Bayesian theoretical framework to study the propagation of uncertainties along the calibration process. Compared with the classical calibration algorithm, the Bayesian calibration algorithm was able to reduce the number of calibration points required to reach the same model residual. Additionally, we were able to optimize the hardware of the Geometrical Calibration Unit and reduce the time required to achieve the calibration goal.

Abstract:

Population III (Pop. III) stars, as of yet, have not been detected, however as we move into the era of extremely large telescopes this is likely to change. One likely tracer for Pop. III stars is the He IIλ1640 emission line, which will be detectable by the HARMONI spectrograph on the European Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) over a broad range of redshifts (2 ≤ z ≤ 14). By post-processing galaxies from the cosmological, AMR-hydrodynamical simulation NEWHORIZON with theoretical spectral energy distributions (SED) for Pop. III stars and radiative transfer (i.e. the Yggdrasil Models and CLOUDY look-up tables, respectively) we are able to compute the flux of He IIλ1640 for individual galaxies. From mock 10 h observations of these galaxies we show that HARMONI will be able to detect Pop. III stars in galaxies up to z ∼ 10 provided Pop. III stars have a top heavy initial mass function (IMF). Furthermore, we find that should Pop. III stars instead have an IMF similar to those of the Pop. I stars, the He IIλ1640 line would only be observable for galaxies with Pop. III stellar masses in excess of 107M⊙⁠, average stellar age <1Myr at z = 4. Finally, we are able to determine the minimal intrinsic flux required for HARMONI to detect Pop. III stars in a galaxy up to z = 10.

Abstract:

The extreme infrared (IR) luminosity of local luminous and ultraluminous IR galaxies (U/LIRGs; 11 < logLIR/L < 12 and logLIR/L > 12, respectively) is mainly powered by star formation processes triggered by mergers or interactions. While U/LIRGs are rare locally, at z > 1, they become more common, dominate the star formation rate (SFR) density, and a fraction of them are found to be normal disc galaxies. Therefore, there must be an evolution of the mechanism triggering these intense starbursts with redshift. To investigate this evolution, we present new optical SWIFT integral field spectroscopic H α + [N II] observations of a sample of nine intermediate-z (0.2

Abstract:

We characterize for the first time the torus properties of an ultra-hard X-ray (14–195 keV) volume-limited (DL < 40 Mpc) sample of 24 Seyfert (Sy) galaxies (BCS40 sample). The sample was selected from the Swift/BAT nine-month catalogue. We use high angular resolution nuclear infrared (IR) photometry and N-band spectroscopy, the CLUMPY torus models and a Bayesian tool to characterize the properties of the nuclear dust. In the case of the Sy1s, we estimate the accretion disc contribution to the subarcsecond resolution nuclear IR SEDs (∼0.4 arcsec) which is, on average, 46 ± 28, 23 ± 13, and 11 ± 5 per cent in the J, H, and K bands, respectively. This indicates that the accretion disc templates that assume a steep fall for longer wavelengths than 1 μm might underestimate its contribution to the near-IR emission. Using both optical (broad versus narrow lines) and X-ray (unabsorbed versus absorbed) classifications, we compare the global posterior distribution of the torus model parameters. We confirm that Sy2s have larger values of the torus covering factor (CT ∼ 0.95) than Sy1s (CT ∼ 0.65) in our volume-limited Seyfert sample. These findings are independent of whether we use an optical or X-ray classification. We find that the torus covering factor remains essentially constant within the errors in our luminosity range and there is no clear dependence with the Eddington ratio. Finally, we find tentative evidence that even an ultra-hard X-ray selection is missing a significant fraction of highly absorbed type 2 sources with very high covering factor tori.