Galaxy formation and evolution

Abstract:

The radio-X-ray correlation that characterizes accreting black holes at all mass scales - from stellar mass black holes in binary systems to supermassive black holes powering active galactic nuclei - is one of the most important pieces of observational evidence supporting the existence of a connection between the accretion process and the generation of collimated outflows - or jets - in accreting systems. Although recent studies suggest that the correlation extends down to low luminosities, only a handful of stellar mass black holes have been clearly detected, and in general only upper limits (especially at radio wavelengths) can be obtained during quiescence. We recently obtained detections of the black hole X-ray binary (XRB) GX 339-4 in quiescence using the Meer Karoo Array Telescope (MeerKAT) radio telescope and Swift X-ray Telescope instrument on board the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, probing the lower end of the radio-X-ray correlation. We present the properties of accretion and of the connected generation of jets in the poorly studied low-accretion rate regime for this canonical black hole XRB system.

Abstract:

We utilize deep near-infrared survey data from the UltraVISTA fourth data release (DR4) and the VIDEO survey, in combination with overlapping optical and Spitzer data, to search for bright star-forming galaxies at z ≳ 7.5. Using a full photometric redshift fitting analysis applied to the ∼6 deg2 of imaging searched, we find 27 Lyman break galaxies (LBGs), including 20 new sources, with best-fitting photometric redshifts in the range 7.4 < z < 9.1. From this sample, we derive the rest-frame UV luminosity function at z = 8 and z = 9 out to extremely bright UV magnitudes (MUV ≃ −23) for the first time. We find an excess in the number density of bright galaxies in comparison to the typically assumed Schechter functional form derived from fainter samples. Combined with previous studies at lower redshift, our results show that there is little evolution in the number density of very bright (MUV ∼ −23) LBGs between z ≃ 5 and z ≃ 9. The tentative detection of an LBG with best-fitting photometric redshift of z = 10.9 ± 1.0 in our data is consistent with the derived evolution. We show that a double power-law fit with a brightening characteristic magnitude (ΔM*/Δz ≃ −0.5) and a steadily steepening bright-end slope (Δβ/Δz ≃ −0.5) provides a good description of the z > 5 data over a wide range in absolute UV magnitude (−23 < MUV < −17). We postulate that the observed evolution can be explained by a lack of mass quenching at very high redshifts in combination with increasing dust obscuration within the first ∼1Gyr of galaxy evolution.