The Luminosity Function of Galaxies in Some Nearby Clusters

In the present work, the galaxy luminosity function (LF) has been studied for a sample of seven clusters in the redshift range (0.0 ≲ z ≲ 0.1), within Abell radius (1.5 h−1 Mpc), in the five SDSS passbands ugriz. In each case, the absolute magnitude distribution is found and then fitted with a Schechter function. The fitting is done, using the χ2 – minimization method to find the best values of Schechter parameters Ф* (normalization constant), M* (characteristic absolute magnitude), and α (faint-end slope). No remarkable changes are found in the values of M* and α, for any cluster, in any passband. Furthermore, the LF does not seem to vary with such cluster parameters as richness, velocity dispersion, and Bautz–Morgan morphology. Finally, it is found that M* becomes brighter toward redder bands, whereas almost no variation is seen in the value of α with passband, being around (−1.00).

AGN and star formation across cosmic time

ABSTRACT We investigate the balance of power between stars and AGN across cosmic history, based on the comparison between the infrared (IR) galaxy luminosity function (LF) and the IR AGN LF. The former corresponds to emission from dust heated by stars and AGN, whereas the latter includes emission from AGN-heated dust only. We find that at all redshifts (at least up to z ∼ 2.5), the high-luminosity tails of the two LFs converge, indicating that the most IR-luminous galaxies are AGN-powered. Our results shed light to the decades-old conundrum regarding the flatter high-luminosity slope seen in the IR galaxy LF compared to that in the UV and optical. We attribute this difference to the increasing fraction of AGN-dominated galaxies with increasing total IR luminosity (LIR). We partition the LIR−z parameter space into a star formation-dominated and an AGN-dominated region, finding that the most luminous galaxies at all epochs lie in the AGN-dominated region. This sets a potential ‘limit’ to attainable star formation rates, casting doubt on the abundance of ‘extreme starbursts’: if AGN did not exist, LIR > 1013 L⊙ galaxies would be significantly rarer than they currently are in our observable Universe. We also find that AGN affect the average dust temperatures (Tdust) of galaxies and hence the shape of the well-known LIR−Tdust relation. We propose that the reason why local ULIRGs are hotter than their high-redshift counterparts is because of a higher fraction of AGN-dominated galaxies amongst the former group.

Galaxy properties in the cosmic web of EAGLE simulation

ABSTRACT We investigate the dependence of the galaxy properties on cosmic web environments using the most up-to-date hydrodynamic simulation: Evolution and Assembly of Galaxies and their Environments (EAGLE). The baryon fractions in haloes and the amplitudes of the galaxy luminosity function decrease going from knots to filaments to sheets to voids. Interestingly, the value of L* varies dramatically in different cosmic web environments. At z = 0, we find a characteristic halo mass of $10^{12}\, {\rm h}^{-1}\rm M_{\odot }$, below which the stellar-to-halo mass ratio is higher in knots, while above which it reverses. This particular halo mass corresponds to a characteristic stellar mass of $1.8\times 10^{10} \,{\rm h}^{-1}\rm M_{\odot }$. Below the characteristic stellar mass, central galaxies have redder colours, lower sSFRs, and higher metallicities in knots than those in filaments, sheets and voids, while above this characteristic stellar mass, the cosmic web environmental dependences either reverse or vanish. Such dependences can be attributed to the fact that the active galaxy fraction decreases along voids, sheets, filaments, and knots. The cosmic web dependences get weaker towards higher redshifts for most of the explored galaxy properties and scaling relations, except for the gas metallicity versus stellar mass relation.

The galaxy population within the virial radius of the Perseus cluster

Context. The Perseus cluster is one of the most massive nearby galaxy clusters and is fascinating in various respects. Though the galaxies in the central cluster region have been intensively investigated, an analysis of the galaxy population in a larger field is still outstanding. Aims. This paper investigates the galaxies that are brighter than B ≈ 20 within a field corresponding to the Abell radius of the Perseus cluster. Our first aim is to compile a new catalogue in a wide field around the centre of the Perseus cluster. The second aim of this study is to employ this catalogue for a systematic study of the cluster galaxy population with an emphasis on morphology and activity. Methods. We selected the galaxies in a 10 square degrees field of the Perseus cluster on Schmidt CCD images in B and Hα in combination with SDSS images. Morphological information was obtained both from the “eyeball” inspection and the surface brightness profile analysis. We obtained low-resolution spectra for 82 galaxies and exploited the spectra archive of SDSS and redshift data from the literature. Results. We present a catalogue of 1294 galaxies with morphological information for 90% of the galaxies and spectroscopic redshifts for 24% of them. We selected a heterogeneous sample of 313 spectroscopically confirmed cluster members and two different magnitude-limited samples with incomplete redshift data. These galaxy samples were used to derive such properties as the projected radial velocity dispersion profile, projected radial density profile, galaxy luminosity function, supermassive black hole mass function, total stellar mass, virial mass, and virial radius, to search for indications of substructure, to select active galaxies, and to study the relation between morphology, activity, density, and position. In addition, we present brief individual descriptions of 18 cluster galaxies with conspicuous morphological peculiarities.

The complex case of MACS J0717.5+3745 and its extended filament: intra-cluster light, galaxy luminosity function, and galaxy orientations

Context. The properties of galaxies are known to be affected by their environment, but although galaxies in clusters and groups have been quite thoroughly investigated, little is known about galaxies belonging to filaments of the cosmic web, or about the properties of the filaments themselves. Aims. Here we investigate the properties of the rich cluster MACS J0717.5+3745 and its extended filament by analyzing the distribution and fractions of intra-cluster light (ICL) in its core and by trying to detect intra-filament light (IFL) in the filament. We analyze the galaxy luminosity function (GLF) of the cluster core and of the filament. We also study the orientations of galaxies in the filament to better constrain the filament properties. Methods. This work is based on Hubble Space Telescope (HST) archive data, both from the Hubble Frontier Fields in the F435W, F606W, F814W, and F105W bands, and from a mosaic of images in the F606W and F814W bands. The spatial distribution of the ICL was determined with our new wavelet-based software, DAWIS. The GLFs were extracted in the F606W and F814W bands, with a statistical subtraction of the background, and fit with Schechter functions. The galaxy orientations in the filaments were estimated with SExtractor after correction for the point spread function. Results. We detect a large amount of ICL in the cluster core, but no IFL in the cosmic filament. The fraction of ICL in the core peaks in the F606W filter before decreasing with wavelength. Though relatively noisy, the GLFs in the filament are notably different from those of field galaxies, with a flatter faint end slope and an excess of bright galaxies. We do not detect a significant alignment of the galaxies in the filament region analyzed.

The galaxy–halo connection in modified gravity cosmologies: environment dependence of galaxy luminosity function

We investigate the dependence of the galaxy–halo connection and galaxy density field in modified gravity models using the N-body simulations for f(R) and nDGP models at z = 0. Because of the screening mechanisms employed by these models, chameleon and Vainshtein, haloes are clustered differently in the non-linear regime of structure formation. We quantify their deviations in the galaxy density field from the standard Λ cold dark matter (ΛCDM) model under different environments. We populate galaxies in haloes via the (sub)halo abundance matching. Our main results are as follows: (1) The galaxy–halo connection strongly depends on the gravity model; a maximum variation of ${\sim }40{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ is observed between halo occupational distribution (HOD) parameters; (2) f(R) gravity models predict an excess of galaxies in low-density environments of ${\sim }10{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ but predict a deficit of ${\sim }10{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ at high-density environments for |fR0| = 10−4 and 10−6 while |fR0| = 10−5 predicts more high-density structures; nDGP models are consistent with ΛCDM; (3) different gravity models predict different dependences of the galaxy luminosity function (GLF) with the environment, especially in void-like regions we find differences around ${\sim }10{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ for the f(R) models while nDPG models remain closer to ΛCDM for low-luminosity galaxies but there is a deficit of ${\sim }11{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ for high-luminosity galaxies in all environments. We conclude that the dependence of the GLF with environment might provide a test to distinguish between gravity models and their screening mechanisms from the ΛCDM. We provide HOD parameters for the gravity models analysed in this paper.

The brightest galaxies in the dark ages: Galaxies’ dust continuum emission out to the reionization era

Though half of cosmic starlight is absorbed by dust and reradiated at long wavelengths (3μ m – 3 mm), constraints on the infrared through millimeter galaxy luminosity function (the ‘IRLF’) are poor in comparison to the rest-frame ultraviolet and optical galaxy luminosity function, particularly at z ⩾ 2.5. Here we present a backward evolution model for interpreting number counts, redshift distributions, and cross-band flux density correlations in the infrared and submillimeter sky, from 70μm – 2 mm, using a model for the IRLF out to the epoch of reionization. Mock submillimeter maps are generated by injecting sources according to the prescribed IRLF and flux densities drawn from model spectral energy distributions that mirror the distribution of SEDs observed in 0 < z 0 < 5 dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs). We explore two extreme hypothetical case-studies: a dust-poor early Universe model, where DSFGs contribute negligibly (< 10%) to the integrated star-formation rate density at z > 4, and an alternate dust-rich early Universe model, where DSFGs dominate > 90% of z > 4 star-formation. We find that current submm/mm datasets do not clearly rule out either of these extreme models. We suggest that future surveys at 2 mm – both from ALMA and single-dish facilities – will be crucial to measuring the IRLF beyond z > 4.