Hintze Centre for Astrophysical Surveys

Abstract:

We present our monitoring campaign of the outburst of the black hole candidate Swift J1753.5-0127, observed with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer and the Swift satellites. After ̃4.5 yr since its discovery, the source had a transition to the hard intermediate state. We performed spectral and timing studies of the transition showing that, unlike the majority of the transient black holes, the system did not go to the soft states but it returned to the hard state after a few months. During this transition Swift J1753.5-0127 features properties which are similar to those displayed by the black hole Cygnus X-1. We compared Swift J1753.5-0127 to one dynamically confirmed black hole and two neutron stars showing that its power spectra are in agreement with the binary hosting a black hole. We also suggest that the prolonged period at low flux that followed the initial flare is reminiscent of that observed in other X-ray binaries, as well as in cataclysmic variables. © 2012 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Abstract:

We present FLAMES/GIRAFFE integral field spectroscopy of 30 galaxies in the massive cluster A1689 at z = 0.183. Conducting an analysis similar to that of ATLAS3D, we extend the baseline of the kinematic morphology-density relation by an order of magnitude in projected density and show that it is possible to use existing instruments to identify slow and fast rotators beyond the local Universe. We find 4.5 ± 1.0 slow rotators with a distribution in magnitude similar to those in the Virgo cluster. The overall slow rotator fraction of our A1689 sample is 0.15 ± 0.03, the same as in Virgo using our selection criteria. This suggests that the fraction of slow rotators in a cluster is not strongly dependent on its density. However, within A1689, we find that the fraction of slow rotators increases towards the centre, as was also found in the Virgo cluster. © 2012 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Abstract:

The recent Hubble Space Telescope near-infrared imaging with the Wide-Field Camera #3 (WFC 3) of the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey South (GOODS-S) field in the Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS) programme covering nearly 100 arcmin2, along with already existing Advanced Camera for Surveys optical data, makes possible the search for bright galaxy candidates at redshift z≈7-9 using the Lyman break technique. We present the first analysis of z'-drop z≈7 candidate galaxies in this area, finding 19 objects. We also analyse Y-drops at z≈8, trebling the number of bright (HAB < 27 mag) Y-drops from our previous work, and compare our results with those of other groups based on the same data. The bright high-redshift galaxy candidates we find serve to better constrain the bright end of the luminosity function at those redshift, and may also be more amenable to spectroscopic confirmation than the fainter ones presented in various previous work on the smaller fields (the Hubble Ultra Deep Field and the WFC 3 Early Release Science observations).We also look at the agreement with previous luminosity functions derived from WFC3 drop-out counts, finding a generally good agreement, except for the luminosity function of Yan et al. at z≈8, which is strongly ruled out. ©2012 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.