XMM-Newton temperature maps for five intermediate redshift clusters of galaxies

We have analyzed XMM-Newton archive data for five clusters of galaxies (redshifts 0.223-0.313) covering a wide range of dynamical states, from relaxed objects to clusters undergoing several mergers. We present here temperature maps of the X-ray gas together with a preliminary interpretation of the formation history of these clusters. (c) 2007 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The merging cluster Abell 1758 revisited: multi-wavelength observations and numerical simulations

Context. Cluster properties can be more distinctly studied in pairs of clusters, where we expect the effects of interactions to be strong. Aims. We here discuss the properties of the double cluster Abell 1758 at a redshift z similar to 0.279. These clusters show strong evidence for merging. Methods. We analyse the optical properties of the North and South cluster of Abell 1758 based on deep imaging obtained with the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) archive Megaprime/Megacam camera in the g' and r' bands, covering a total region of about 1.05 x 1.16 deg(2), or 16.1 x 17.6 Mpc(2). Our X-ray analysis is based on archive XMM-Newton images. Numerical simulations were performed using an N-body algorithm to treat the dark-matter component, a semi-analytical galaxy-formation model for the evolution of the galaxies and a grid-based hydrodynamic code with a parts per million (PPM) scheme for the dynamics of the intra-cluster medium. We computed galaxy luminosity functions (GLFs) and 2D temperature and metallicity maps of the X-ray gas, which we then compared to the results of our numerical simulations. Results. The GLFs of Abell 1758 North are well fit by Schechter functions in the g' and r' bands, but with a small excess of bright galaxies, particularly in the r' band; their faint-end slopes are similar in both bands. In contrast, the GLFs of Abell 1758 South are not well fit by Schechter functions: excesses of bright galaxies are seen in both bands; the faint-end of the GLF is not very well defined in g'. The GLF computed from our numerical simulations assuming a halo mass-luminosity relation agrees with those derived from the observations. From the X-ray analysis, the most striking features are structures in the metal distribution. We found two elongated regions of high metallicity in Abell 1758 North with two peaks towards the centre. In contrast, Abell 1758 South shows a deficit of metals in its central regions. Comparing observational results to those derived from numerical simulations, we could mimic the most prominent features present in the metallicity map and propose an explanation for the dynamical history of the cluster. We found in particular that in the metal-rich elongated regions of the North cluster, winds had been more efficient than ram-pressure stripping in transporting metal-enriched gas to the outskirts. Conclusions. We confirm the merging structure of the North and South clusters, both at optical and X-ray wavelengths.

THE SLOAN BRIGHT ARCS SURVEY: DISCOVERY OF SEVEN NEW STRONGLY LENSED GALAXIES FROM z=0.66-2.94

We report the discovery of seven new, very bright gravitational lens systems from our ongoing gravitational lens search, the Sloan Bright Arcs Survey (SBAS). Two of the systems are confirmed to have high source redshifts z = 2.19 and z = 2.94. Three other systems lie at intermediate redshift with z = 1.33, 1.82, 1.93 and two systems are at low redshift z = 0.66, 0.86. The lensed source galaxies in all of these systems are bright, with i-band magnitudes ranging from 19.73 to 22.06. We present the spectrum of each of the source galaxies in these systems along with estimates of the Einstein radius for each system. The foreground lens in most systems is identified by a red sequence based cluster finder as a galaxy group; one system is identified as a moderately rich cluster. In total, SBAS has now discovered 19 strong lens systems in the SDSS imaging data, 8 of which are among the highest surface brightness z similar or equal to 2-3 galaxies known.

The Las Campanas/AAT Rich Cluster Survey - II. The environmental dependence of galaxy colours in clusters at z similar to 0.1

We present a photometric investigation of the variation in galaxy colour with environment in 11 X-ray-luminous clusters at 0.07 less than or equal to z less than or equal to 0.16 taken from the Las Campanas/AAT Rich Cluster Survey. We study the properties of the galaxy populations in individual clusters, and take advantage of the homogeneity of the sample to combine the clusters together to investigate weaker trends in the composite sample. We find that modal colours of galaxies lying on the colour-magnitude relation in the clusters become bluer by d(B - R)/dr(p) = -0.022 +/- 0.004 from the cluster core out to a projected radius of r(p) = 6 Mpc, further out in radius than any previous study. We also examine the variation in modal galaxy colour with local galaxy density, 2, for galaxies lying close to the colour-magnitude relation, and find that the median colour shifts bluewards by d(B - R)/d log(10)(Sigma) = -0.076 +/- 0.009 with decreasing local density across three orders of magnitude. We show that the position of the red envelope of galaxies in the colour-magnitude relation does not vary as a function of projected radius or density within the clusters, suggesting that the change in the modal colour results from an increasing fraction of bluer galaxies within the colour-magnitude relation, rather than a change in the colours of the whole population. We show that this shift in the colour-magnitude relations with projected radius and local density is greater than that expected from the changing morphological mix based on the local morphology-density relation. We therefore conclude that we are seeing a real change in the properties of galaxies on the colour-magnitude relation in the outskirts of clusters. The simplest interpretation of this result (and similar constraints in local clusters) is that an increasing fraction of galaxies in the lower density regions at large radii within clusters exhibit signatures of star formation in the recent past, signatures which are not seen in the evolved galaxies in the highest density regions.

Evolution and Stellar Content of AGN Host Galaxies

In this dissertation, Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) and their host galaxies are discussed. Together with transitional events, such as supernovae and gamma-ray bursts, AGN are the most energetic phenomena in the Universe. The dominant fraction of their luminosity originates from the center of a galaxy, where accreting gas falls into a supermassive black hole, converting gravitational energy to radiation. AGN have a wide range of observed properties: e.g. in their emission lines, radio emission, and variability. Most likely, these properties depend significantly on their orientation to our line-of-sight, and to unify AGN into physical classes it is crucial to observe their orientation-independent properties, such as the host galaxies. Furthermore, host galaxy studies are essential to understand the formation and co-evolution of galactic bulges and supermassive black holes. In this thesis, the main focus is on observationally characterizing AGN host galaxies using optical and near-infrared imaging and spectroscopy. BL Lac objects are a class of AGN characterized by rapidly variable and polarized continuum emission across the electromagnetic spectrum, and coredominated radio emission. The near-infrared properties of intermediate redshift BL Lac host galaxies are studied in Paper I. They are found to be large elliptical galaxies that are more luminous than their low redshift counterparts suggesting a strong luminosity evolution, and a contribution from a recent star formation episode. To analyze the stellar content of galaxies in more detail multicolor data, especially observations at blue wavelengths, are essential. In Paper III, optical - near-infrared colors and color gradients are derived for low redshift BL Lac host galaxies. They show bluer colors and steeper color gradients than inactive ellipticals which, most likely, are caused by a relatively young stellar population indicating a different evolutionary stage between AGN hosts and inactive ellipticals. In Paper II, near-infrared imaging of intermediate redshift radio-quiet quasar hosts is used to study their luminosity evolution. The hosts are large elliptical galaxies, but they are systematically fainter than the hosts of radio-loud quasars at similar redshifts, suggesting a link between the luminosity of the host galaxies and the radio properties of AGN. In Paper IV, the characteristics of near-infrared stellar absorption features of low redshift radio galaxies are compared with those of inactive early-type galaxies. The comparison suggests that early-type galaxies with AGN are in a different evolutionary stage than their inactive counterparts. Moreover, radio galaxies are found to contain stellar populations containing both old and intermediate age components.

GALAXY EVOLUTION IN A COMPLEX ENVIRONMENT: A MULTI-WAVELENGTH STUDY OF HCG 7

The environment where galaxies are found heavily influences their evolution. Close groupings, like the ones in the cores of galaxy clusters or compact groups, evolve in ways far more dramatic than their isolated counterparts. We have conducted a multi-wavelength study of Hickson Compact Group 7 (HCG 7), consisting of four giant galaxies: three spirals and one lenticular. We use Hubble Space Telescope (HST) imaging to identify and characterize the young and old star cluster populations. We find young massive clusters (YMCs) mostly in the three spirals, while the lenticular features a large, unimodal population of globular clusters (GCs) but no detectable clusters with ages less than a few Gyr. The spatial and approximate age distributions of the similar to 300 YMCs and similar to 150 GCs thus hint at a regular star formation history in the group over a Hubble time. While at first glance the HST data show the galaxies as undisturbed, our deep ground-based, wide-field imaging that extends the HST coverage reveals faint signatures of stellar material in the intragroup medium (IGM). We do not, however, detect the IGM in H I or Chandra X-ray observations, signatures that would be expected to arise from major mergers. Despite this fact, we find that the H I gas content of the individual galaxies and the group as a whole are a third of the expected abundance. The appearance of quiescence is challenged by spectroscopy that reveals an intense ionization continuum in one galaxy nucleus, and post-burst characteristics in another. Our spectroscopic survey of dwarf galaxy members yields a single dwarf elliptical galaxy in an apparent stellar tidal feature. Based on all this information, we suggest an evolutionary scenario for HCG 7, whereby the galaxies convert most of their available gas into stars without the influence of major mergers and ultimately result in a dry merger. As the conditions governing compact groups are reminiscent of galaxies at intermediate redshift, we propose that HCGs are appropriate for studying galaxy evolution at z similar to 1-2.

The 2dF-SDSS LRG and QSO (2SLAQ) luminous red galaxy survey

We present a spectroscopic survey of almost 15 000 candidate intermediate-redshift luminous red galaxies (LRGs) brighter than i = 19.8, observed with 2dF on the Anglo-Australian Telescope. The targets were selected photometrically from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and lie along two narrow equatorial strips covering 180 deg(2). Reliable redshifts were obtained for 92 per cent of the targets and the selection is very efficient: over 90 per cent have 0.45 < z < 0.8. More than 80 per cent of the similar to 11 000 red galaxies have pure absorption-line spectra consistent with a passively evolving old stellar population. The redshift, photometric and spatial distributions of the LRGs are described. The 2SLAQ data will be released publicly from mid-2006, providing a powerful resource for observational cosmology and the study of galaxy evolution.

Far-infrared constraints on the contamination by dust-obscured galaxies of high-z dropout searches

The spectral energy distributions (SED) of dusty galaxies at intermediate redshift may look similar to very high-redshift galaxies in the optical/near infrared (NIR) domain. This can lead to the contamination of high-redshift galaxy searches based on broad-band optical/NIR photometry by lower redshift dusty galaxies because both kind of galaxies cannot be distinguished. The contamination rate could be as high as 50%. This work shows how the far-infrared (FIR) domain can help to recognize likely low-z interlopers in an optical/NIR search for high-z galaxies. We analyze the FIR SEDs of two galaxies that are proposed to be very high-redshift (z > 7) dropout candidates based on deep Hawk-I/VLT observations. The FIR SEDs are sampled with PACS/Herschel at 100 and 160 μm, with SPIRE/Herschel at 250, 350 and 500 μm and with LABOCA/APEX at 870 μm. We find that redshifts > 7 would imply extreme FIR SEDs (with dust temperatures >100 K and FIR luminosities >10^13 L_⊙). At z ~ 2, instead, the SEDs of both sources would be compatible with those of typical ultra luminous infrared galaxies or submillimeter galaxies. Considering all available data for these sources from visible to FIR we re-estimate the redshifts and find z ~ 1.6–2.5. Owing to the strong spectral breaks observed in these galaxies, standard templates from the literature fail to reproduce the visible-to-near-IR part of the SEDs even when additional extinction is included. These sources strongly resemble dust-obscured galaxies selected in Spitzer observations with extreme visible-to-FIR colors, and the galaxy GN10 at z = 4. Galaxies with similar SEDs could contaminate other high-redshift surveys.

Role of galaxy mergers in cosmic star formation history

We present a morphology study of intermediate-redshift (0.2 < z < 1.2) luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs) and general field galaxies in the GOODS fields using a revised asymmetry measurement method optimized for deep fields. By taking careful account of the importance of the underlying sky-background structures, our new method does not suffer from systematic bias and offers small uncertainties. By redshifting local LIRGs and low-redshift GOODS galaxies to different higher redshifts, we have found that the redshift dependence of the galaxy asymmetry due to surface-brightness dimming is a function of the asymmetry itself, with larger corrections for more asymmetric objects. By applying redshift-, infrared (IR)-luminosity- and optical-brightness-dependent asymmetry corrections, we have found that intermediate-redshift LIRGs generally show highly asymmetric morphologies, with implied merger fractions ~50% up to z = 1.2, although they are slightly more symmetric than local LIRGs. For general field galaxies, we find an almost constant relatively high merger fraction (20%-30%). The B-band luminosity functions (LFs) of galaxy mergers are derived at different redshifts up to z = 1.2 and confirm the weak evolution of the merger fraction after breaking the luminosity-density degeneracy. The IR LFs of galaxy mergers are also derived, indicating a larger merger fraction at higher IR luminosity. The integral of the merger IR LFs indicates a dramatic evolution of the merger-induced IR energy density [(1 + z)^~(5-6)], and that galaxy mergers start to dominate the cosmic IR energy density at z greater than or ~ 1.

Unveiling the expansion history of the universe with cosmic chronometers and gravitational waves

This Thesis explores two novel and independent cosmological probes, Cosmic Chronometers (CCs) and Gravitational Waves (GWs), to measure the expansion history of the Universe. CCs provide direct and cosmology-independent measurements of the Hubble parameter H(z) up to z∼2. In parallel, GWs provide a direct measurement of the luminosity distance without requiring additional calibration, thus yielding a direct measurement of the Hubble constant H0=H(z=0). This Thesis extends the methodologies of both of these probes to maximize their scientific yield. This is achieved by accounting for the interplay of cosmological and astrophysical parameters to derive them jointly, study possible degeneracies, and eventually minimize potential systematic effects. As a legacy value, this work also provides interesting insights into galaxy evolution and compact binary population properties. The first part presents a detailed study of intermediate-redshift passive galaxies as CCs, with a focus on the selection process and the study of their stellar population properties using specific spectral features. From their differential aging, we derive a new measurement of the Hubble parameter H(z) and thoroughly assess potential systematics. In the second part, we develop a novel methodology and pipeline to obtain joint cosmological and astrophysical population constraints using GWs in combination with galaxy catalogs. This is applied to GW170817 to obtain a measurement of H0. We then perform realistic forecasts to predict joint cosmological and astrophysical constraints from black hole binary mergers for upcoming gravitational wave observatories and galaxy surveys. Using these two probes we provide an independent reconstruction of H(z) with direct measurements of H0 from GWs and H(z) up to z∼2 from CCs and demonstrate that they can be powerful independent probes to unveil the expansion history of the Universe.

Kinematic constraints to the transition redshift from supernovae type Ia union data

The kinematic approach to cosmological tests provides direct evidence to the present accelerating stage of the Universe that does not depend on the validity of general relativity, as well as on the matter-energy content of the Universe. In this context, we consider here a linear two-parameter expansion for the decelerating parameter, q(z)=q(0)+q(1)z, where q(0) and q(1) are arbitrary constants to be constrained by the union supernovae data. By assuming a flat Universe we find that the best fit to the pair of free parameters is (q(0),q(1))=(-0.73,1.5) whereas the transition redshift is z(t)=0.49(-0.07)(+0.14)(1 sigma) +0.54-0.12(2 sigma). This kinematic result is in agreement with some independent analyses and more easily accommodates many dynamical flat models (like Lambda CDM).

Intermediate motions as studied by solid-state separated local field NMR experiments

In this report, the application of a class of separated local field NMR experiments named dipolar chemical shift correlation (DIPSHIFT) for probing motions in the intermediate regime is discussed. Simple analytical procedures based on the Anderson-Weiss (AW) approximation are presented. In order to establish limits of validity of the AW based formulas, a comparison with spin dynamics simulations based on the solution of the stochastic Liouville-von-Neumann equation is presented. It is shown that at short evolution times (less than 30% of the rotor period), the AW based formulas are suitable for fitting the DIPSHIFT curves and extracting kinetic parameters even in the case of jumplike motions. However, full spin dynamics simulations provide a more reliable treatment and extend the frequency range of the molecular motions accessible by DIPSHIFT experiments. As an experimental test, molecular jumps of imidazol methyl sulfonate and trimethylsulfoxonium iodide, as well as the side-chain motions in the photoluminescent polymer poly[2-methoxy-5-(2(')-ethylhexyloxy)-1,4-phenylenevinylene], were characterized. Possible extensions are also discussed. (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics.

Intermediate motions and dipolar couplings as studied by Lee-Goldburg cross-polarization NMR: Hartmann-Hahn matching profiles

In this article, we evaluate the use of simple Lee-Goldburg cross-polarization (LG-CP) NMR experiments for obtaining quantitative information of molecular motion in the intermediate regime. In particular, we introduce the measurement of Hartmann-Hahn matching profiles for the assessment of heteronuclear dipolar couplings as well as dynamics as a reliable and robust alternative to the more common analysis of build-up curves. We have carried out dynamic spin dynamics simulations in order to test the method's sensitivity to intermediate motion and address its limitations concerning possible experimental imperfections. We further demonstrate the successful use of simple theoretical concepts, most prominently Anderson-Weiss (AW) theory, to analyze the data. We further propose an alternative way to estimate activation energies of molecular motions, based upon the acquisition of only two LG-CP spectra per temperature at different temperatures. As experimental tests, molecular jumps in imidazole methyl sulfonate, trimethylsulfoxonium iodide, and bisphenol A polycarbonate were investigated with the new method.

Enzymatic Kinetic Resolution of tert-Butyl 2-(1-Hydroxyethyl)phenylcarbamate, A Key Intermediate to Chiral Organoselenanes and Organotelluranes

The enzymatic kinetic resolution of tert-butyl 2-(1-hydroxyethyl) phenylcarbamate via lipase-catalyzed transesterification reaction was studied. We investigated several reaction conditions and the carbamate was resolved by Candida antarctica lipase B (CAL-B), leading to the optically pure (R)- and (S)-enantiomers. The enzymatic process showed excellent enantioselectivity (E > 200). (R)- and (S)-tert-butyl 2-(1-hydroxyethyl) phenylcarbamate were easily transformed into the corresponding (R)and (S)-1-(2-aminophenyl)ethanols.

Development of a Phytopharmaceutical Intermediate Product via Spray Drying

The influence of concentration and incorporation time of different drying excipients on the processing yields and physical properties of Eugenia dysenterica DC spray-dried extracts were investigated following a factorial design. Under the established conditions, the process yield ranged from 57.55 to 89.14%, and in most experiments, the recovered products presented suitable flowability and compressibility, as demonstrated by the Hausner factor, Carr index, and angle of repose. Additionally, in a general way, the parameters related to the dried products` flowability varied over a range acceptable for pharmaceutical purposes. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) proved that both factors and some of their interactions significantly affected most of the investigated responses at different levels. Mannitol proved to be an interesting alternative as an excipient for the drying of herbal extracts, even at low concentrations such as 12.5%. Furthermore, these results imply that the best condition to obtain dry extracts of E. dysenterica with high performance and adequate pharmacotechnical properties involves the lowest concentration and the highest incorporation time of mannitol.