| 1. |
- Cirasuolo, M., et al.
(författare)
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MOONS: the Multi-Object Optical and Near-infrared Spectrograph for the VLT
- 2014
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Ingår i: Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy V. - : SPIE. - 0277-786X .- 1996-756X. ; 9147, s. 91470-91470
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- MOONS (the Multi-Object Optical and Near-infrared Spectrograph) has been selected by ESO as a third-generation instrument for the Very Large Telescope (VLT). The light grasp of the large collecting area offered by the VLT (8.2m diameter), combined with the large multiplex and wavelength coverage (optical to near-IR: 0.8 -1.8 mu m) of MOONS will provide the European astronomical community with a powerful, unique instrument able to pioneer a wide range of Galactic, extragalactic and cosmological studies, and it will provide crucial follow-up for major facilities such as Gaia, VISTA, Euclid and LSST. MOONS has the observational power needed to unveil galaxy formation and evolution over the entire history of the Universe, from stars in our Milky Way, through the redshift desert, and up to the epoch of very first galaxies and reionization of the Universe at redshifts of z > 8-9, just a few million years after the Big Bang. From five years of observations MOONS will provide high-quality spectra for > 3M stars in our Galaxy and the Local Group, and for 1-2M galaxies at z > 1 (for an SDSS-like survey), promising to revolutionize our understanding of the Universe. The baseline design consists of similar to 1000 fibres, deployable over a field-of-view of similar to 500 arcmin(2), the largest patrol field offered by the Nasmyth focus at the VLT. The total wavelength coverage is 0.8 -1.8 mu m with two spectral resolving powers: in the medium-resolution mode (R similar to 4,000-6,000) the entire wavelength range is observed simultaneously, while the high-resolution mode will cover three selected sub-regions simultaneously: one region with R similar to 8,000 near the Ca II triplet to measure stellar radial velocities, and two regions at R similar to 20,000 (one in each of the J- and H-bands), for precision measurements of chemical abundances.
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| 2. |
- Emonts, B., et al.
(författare)
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A CO-rich merger shaping a powerful and hyperluminous infrared radio galaxy at z=2: the Dragonfly Galaxy
- 2015
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Ingår i: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0035-8711 .- 1365-2966. ; 451:1, s. 1025-1035
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In the low-redshift Universe, the most powerful radio sources are often associated with gasrich galaxy mergers or interactions. We here present evidence for an advanced, gas-rich ('wet') merger associated with a powerful radio galaxy at a redshift of z similar to 2. This radio galaxy, MRC 0152-209, is the most infrared-luminous high-redshift radio galaxy known in the Southern hemisphere. Using the Australia Telescope Compact Array, we obtained highresolution CO(1-0) data of cold molecular gas, which we complement with Hubble Space Telescope (HS7)IWide Field Planetaiy Camera 2 (WFPC2) imaging and William Herschel Telescope long-slit spectroscopy. We find that, while roughly M-H2 x 10(10) Me of molecular gas coincides with the central host galaxy, another M-H2 similar to 3 x 10(10) Me is spread across a total extent of'-60 kpc. Most of this widespread CO(1-0) appears to follow prominent tidal features visible in the rest-frame near-UV HSTIWFPC2 imaging. Lya emission shows an excess over He II, but a deficiency over LIR, which is likely the result of photoionization by enhanced but very obscured star formation that was triggered by the merger. In terms of feedback, the radio source is aligned with widespread CO(1-0) emission, which suggests that there is a physical link between the propagating radio jets and the presence of cold molecular gas on scales of the galaxy's halo. Its optical appearance, combined with the transformational stage at which we witness the evolution of MRC 0152-209, leads us to adopt the name 'Dragonfly Galaxy'.
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| 3. |
- Ginolfi, M., et al.
(författare)
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Detection of companion galaxies around hot dust-obscured hyper-luminous galaxy W0410-0913
- 2022
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Ingår i: Nature Communications. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2041-1723 .- 2041-1723. ; 13:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The phase transition between galaxies and quasars is often identified with the rare population of hyper-luminous, hot dust-obscured galaxies. Galaxy formation models predict these systems to grow via mergers, that can deliver large amounts of gas toward their centers, induce intense bursts of star formation and feed their supermassive black holes. Here we report the detection of 24 galaxies emitting Lyman-α emission on projected physical scales of about 400 kpc around the hyper-luminous hot dust-obscured galaxy W0410-0913, at redshift z = 3.631, using Very Large Telescope observations. While this indicates that W0410-0913 evolves in a very dense environment, we do not find clear signs of mergers that could sustain its growth. Data suggest that if mergers occurred, as models expect, these would involve less massive satellites, with only a moderate impact on the internal interstellar medium of W0410-0913, which is sustained by a rotationally-supported fast-rotating molecular disk, as Atacama Large Millimeter Array observations suggest.
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| 4. |
- Amorín, R. O., et al.
(författare)
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Ubiquitous broad-line emission and the relation between ionized gas outflows and Lyman continuum escape in Green Pea galaxies
- 2024
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Ingår i: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 682
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We report observational evidence of highly turbulent ionized gas kinematics in a sample of 20 Lyman continuum (LyC) emitters (LCEs) at low redshift (z ∼ 0.3). Detailed Gaussian modeling of optical emission line profiles in high-dispersion spectra consistently shows that both bright recombination and collisionally excited lines can be fitted as one or two narrow components with intrinsic velocity dispersion of σ ∼ 40 − 100 km s−1, in addition to a broader component with σ ∼ 100 − 300 km s−1, which contributes up to ∼40% of the total flux and is preferentially blueshifted from the systemic velocity. We interpret the narrow emission as highly ionized gas close to the young massive star clusters and the broader emission as a signpost of unresolved ionized outflows, resulting from massive stars and supernova feedback. We find a significant correlation between the width of the broad emission and the LyC escape fraction, with strong LCEs exhibiting more complex and broader line profiles than galaxies with weaker or undetected LyC emission. We provide new observational evidence supporting predictions from models and simulations; our findings suggest that gas turbulence and outflows resulting from strong radiative and mechanical feedback play a key role in clearing channels through which LyC photons escape from galaxies. We propose that the detection of blueshifted broad emission in the nebular lines of compact extreme emission-line galaxies can provide a new indirect diagnostic of Lyman photon escape, which could be useful to identify potential LyC leakers in the epoch of reionization with the JWST.
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| 5. |
- Grazian, A., et al.
(författare)
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Lyman continuum escape fraction of faint galaxies at z similar to 3.3 in the CANDELS/GOODS-North, EGS, and COSMOS fields with LBC
- 2017
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Ingår i: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 602
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Context. The reionization of the Universe is one of the most important topics of present-day astrophysical research. The most plausible candidates for the reionization process are star-forming galaxies, which according to the predictions of the majority of the theoretical and semi-analytical models should dominate the H I ionizing background at z greater than or similar to 3. Aims. We measure the Lyman continuum escape fraction, which is one of the key parameters used to compute the contribution of star-forming galaxies to the UV background. It provides the ratio between the photons produced at lambda <= 912 angstrom rest-frame and those that are able to reach the inter-galactic medium, i.e. that are not absorbed by the neutral hydrogen or by the dust of the galaxy's inter-stellar medium. Methods. We used ultra-deep U-band imaging (U = 30.2 mag at 1 sigma) from Large Binocular Camera at the Large Binocular Telescope (LBC/LBT) in the CANDELS/GOODS-North field and deep imaging in the COSMOS and EGS fields in order to estimate the Lyman continuum escape fraction of 69 star-forming galaxies with secure spectroscopic redshifts at 3.27 <= z <= 3.40 to faint magnitude limits (L = 0.2L*, or equivalently M-1500 similar to -19). The narrow redshift range implies that the LBC U-band filter exclusively samples the lambda <= 912 angstrom rest-frame wavelengths. Results. We measured through stacks a stringent upper limit (<1.7% at 1 sigma) for the relative escape fraction of H I ionizing photons from bright galaxies (L > L*), while for the faint population (L = 0.2L*) the limit to the escape fraction is less than or similar to 10%. We computed the contribution of star-forming galaxies to the observed UV background at z similar to 3 and find that it is not sufficient to keep the Universe ionized at these redshifts unless their escape fraction increases significantly (>= 10%) at low luminosities (M-1500 >= -19). Conclusions. We compare our results on the Lyman continuum escape fraction of high-z galaxies with recent estimates in the literature, and discuss future prospects to shed light on the end of the Dark Ages. In the future, strong gravitational lensing will be fundamental in order to measure the Lyman continuum escape fraction down to faint magnitudes (M-1500 similar to -16) that are inaccessible with the present instrumentation on blank fields. These results will be important in order to quantify the role of faint galaxies to the reionization budget.
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| 6. |
- Carniani, S., et al.
(författare)
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Extended ionised and clumpy gas in a normal galaxy at z=7.1 revealed by ALMA
- 2017
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Ingår i: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 605
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We present new ALMA observations of the [O III] 88 mu m line and high angular resolution observations of the [C II] 158 mu m line in a normal star forming galaxy at z = 7.1. Previous [C II] observations of this galaxy had detected [C II] emission consistent with the Ly alpha redshift but spatially slightly off set relative to the optical (UV-rest frame) emission. The new [C II] observations reveal that the [C II] emission is partly clumpy and partly diffuse on scales larger than about 1 kpc. [O III] emission is also detected at high significance, off set relative to the optical counterpart in the same direction as the [C II] clumps, but mostly not overlapping with the bulk of the [C II] emission. The off set between different emission components (optical/UV and different far-IR tracers) is similar to that which is observed in much more powerful starbursts at high redshift. We show that the [O III] emitting clump cannot be explained in terms of diffuse gas excited by the UV radiation emitted by the optical galaxy, but it requires excitation by in-situ (slightly dust obscured) star formation, at a rate of about 7 M circle dot yr(-1). Within 20 kpc from the optical galaxy the ALMA data reveal two additional [O III] emitting systems, which must be star forming companions. We discuss that the complex properties revealed by ALMA in the z similar to 7.1 galaxy are consistent with expectations by recent models and cosmological simulations, in which differential dust extinction, differential excitation and different metal enrichment levels, associated with different subsystems assembling a galaxy, are responsible for the various appearance of the system when observed with distinct tracers.
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| 7. |
- Flury, Sophia R., et al.
(författare)
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The Low-redshift Lyman Continuum Survey. I. New, Diverse Local Lyman Continuum Emitters
- 2022
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Ingår i: Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series. - : American Astronomical Society. - 0067-0049 .- 1538-4365. ; 260:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The origins of Lyman continuum (LyC) photons responsible for the reionization of the universe are as of yet unknown and highly contested. Detecting LyC photons from the Epoch of Reionization is not possible due to absorption by the intergalactic medium, which has prompted the development of several indirect diagnostics to infer the rate at which galaxies contribute LyC photons to reionize the universe by studying lower-redshift analogs. We present the Low-redshift Lyman Continuum Survey (LzLCS) comprising measurements made with the Hubble Space Telescope Cosmic Origins Spectrograph for a z = 0.2-0.4 sample of 66 galaxies. After careful processing of the far-UV spectra, we obtain a total of 35 Lyman continuum emitters (LCEs) detected with 97.725% confidence, nearly tripling the number of known local LCEs. We estimate escape fractions from the detected LyC flux and upper limits on the undetected LyC flux, finding a range of LyC escape fractions up to 50%. Of the 35 LzLCS LCEs, 12 have LyC escape fractions greater than 5%, more than doubling the number of known local LCEs with cosmologically relevant LyC escape.
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| 8. |
- Flury, Sophia R., et al.
(författare)
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The Low-redshift Lyman Continuum Survey. II. New Insights into LyC Diagnostics
- 2022
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Ingår i: Astrophysical Journal. - : American Astronomical Society. - 0004-637X .- 1538-4357. ; 930:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Lyman continuum (LyC) cannot be observed at the epoch of reionization (z greater than or similar to 6) owing to intergalactic H i absorption. To identify LyC emitters (LCEs) and infer the fraction of escaping LyC, astronomers have developed various indirect diagnostics of LyC escape. Using measurements of the LyC from the Low-redshift Lyman Continuum Survey (LzLCS), we present the first statistical test of these diagnostics. While optical depth indicators based on Ly alpha, such as peak velocity separation and equivalent width, perform well, we also find that other diagnostics, such as the [O iii]/[O ii] flux ratio and star formation rate surface density, predict whether a galaxy is an LCE. The relationship between these galaxy properties and the fraction of escaping LyC flux suggests that LyC escape depends strongly on H i column density, ionization parameter, and stellar feedback. We find that LCEs occupy a range of stellar masses, metallicities, star formation histories, and ionization parameters, which may indicate episodic and/or different physical causes of LyC escape.
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