Hintze Centre for Astrophysical Surveys

Abstract:

We present the results of a gravitational lensing analysis of the bright z s = 2.957 submillimeter galaxy (SMG) HERMES found in the Herschel/SPIRE science demonstration phase data from the Herschel Multi-tiered Extragalactic Survey (HerMES) project. The high-resolution imaging available in optical and near-IR channels, along with CO emission obtained with the Plateau de Bure Interferometer, allows us to precisely estimate the intrinsic source extension and hence estimate the total lensing magnification to be μ = 10.9 ± 0.7. We measure the half-light radius R eff of the source in the rest-frame near-UV and V bands that characterize the unobscured light coming from stars and find R eff, * = [2.0 ± 0.1] kpc, in good agreement with recent studies on the SMG population. This lens model is also used to estimate the size of the gas distribution (Reff, gas = [1.1 ± 0.5] kpc) by mapping back in the source plane the CO (J = 5 → 4) transition line emission. The lens modeling yields a relatively large Einstein radius R Ein = 4.″10 ± 0″.02, corresponding to a deflector velocity dispersion of [483 ± 16] km s -1. This shows that HERMES is lensed by a galaxy group-size dark matter halo at redshift z l ∼ 0.6. The projected dark matter contribution largely dominates the mass budget within the Einstein radius with f dm(< R Ein) ∼ 80%. This fraction reduces to f dm(< R eff, G1 ≃ 4.5 kpc) ∼ 47% within the effective radius of the main deflecting galaxy of stellar mass M *, G1 = [8.5 ± 1.6] × 1011 M ⊙. At this smaller scale the dark matter fraction is consistent with results already found for massive lensing ellipticals at z ∼ 0.2 from the Sloan Lens ACS Survey. © 2011. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.

Abstract:

We are at the dawn of a new golden age for radio astronomy, with a new generation of facilities under construction and the global community focused on the Square Kilometre Array as its goal for the next decade. These new facilities offer orders of magnitude improvements in survey speed compared to existing radio telescopes and arrays. Furthermore, the study of transient and variable radio sources, and what they can tell us about the extremes of astrophysics as well as the state of the diffuse intervening media, have been embraced as key science projects for these new facilities. In this paper we review the studies of the populations of radio transients made to date, largely based upon archival surveys. Many of these radio transients and variables have been found in the image plane, and their astrophysical origin remains unclear. We take this population and combine it with sensitivity estimates for the next generation arrays to demonstrate that in the coming decade we may find ourselves detecting 105 image plane radio transients per year, providing a vast and rich field of research and an almost limitless set of targets for multi-wavelength follow up.

Abstract:

We present an exploration of the integrated stellar populations of early-type galaxies (ETGs) from the ATLAS3D survey. We use two approaches: firstly the application of line-indices interpreted through single stellar population (SSP) models, which provide a single value of age, metallicity and abundance ratio. And secondly, by fitting a linear combination of SSP spectra to our data, smoothly weighted in the free parameters of age and metallicity, thereby inferring a star-formation history of these galaxies. Despite the significant differences in these approaches, we obtain generally consistent results, such that galaxies that are more massive appear older with enhanced abundance ratios using line indices, and have shorter star-formation histories weighted to early times. We highlight two limitations of the index-SSP approach. Firstly the SSP-equivalent ages belie the fact that ETGs are overwhelmingly composed of ancient stars. Secondly, the young stellar contributions implied in our star formation histories are required to obtain realistic UV-optical colours. We remark that, even fitting solar-abundance models, we can recover a star-formation duration that correlates with the measured alpha-enhancement, in agreement with other recent work. © 2012 International Astronomical Union.

Abstract:

Recent studies from the Galaxy Evolution Explore (GALEX) ultraviolet (UV) data have demonstrated that the recent star formation is more common in early-type galaxies (ETGs) than we used to believe. The UV is one order of magnitude more sensitive than the optical to the presence of young stellar populations. The near-ultraviolet (NUV) lights of ETGs, especially, are used to reveal their residual star formation history. Here we used the GALEX UV data of 34 nearby early-type galaxies from the SAURON sample, all of which have optical data from MDM Observatory. At least 15% of the galaxies in this sample show blue UV-optical colours suggesting recent star formation (Jeong et al. 2009). These NUV blue galaxies are generally low velocity dispersion systems and change the slopes of scaling relations (colour-magnitude relations and fundamental planes) and increase the scatters. To quantify the amount of recent star formation in our sample, we assume two bursts of star formation, allowing us to constrain the age and mass fraction of the young component pixel by pixel (Jeong et al. 2007). The pixel-by-pixel SED fitting based on UV and optical imaging reveals that the mass fraction of young (< 1 Gyr old) stars in ETGs varies between 1 and 3% in the nearby universe (Jeong et al. in prep.). We will compare our results with the prediction from the hierarchical merger paradigm to understand the mechanism of low-level recent star formation observed in early-type galaxies. © 2012 International Astronomical Union.