RELIABILITY OF THE DETECTION OF THE BARYON ACOUSTIC PEAK
The correlation function of the distribution of matter in the universe shows, at large scales, baryon acoustic oscillations, which were imprinted prior to recombination. This feature was first detected in the correlation function of the luminous red galaxies (LRG) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The final release (DR7) of the SDSS has been recently made available, and the useful volume is about two times bigger than in the old sample. We present here, for the first time, the redshift space correlation function of this sample at large scales together with that for one shallower, but denser volume-limited subsample drawn from the 2dF redshift survey. We test the reliability of the det…
ELDAR, a new method to identify AGN in multi-filter surveys: the ALHAMBRA test case
We present ELDAR, a new method that exploits the potential of medium- and narrow-band filter surveys to securely identify active galactic nuclei (AGN) and determine their redshifts. Our methodology improves on traditional approaches by looking for AGN emission lines expected to be identified against the continuum, thanks to the width of the filters. To assess its performance, we apply ELDAR to the data of the ALHAMBRA (Advance Large Homogeneous Area Medium Band Redshift Astronomical) survey, which covered an effective area of 2.38 deg2 with 20 contiguous medium-band optical filters down to F814W ≃ 24.5. Using two different configurations of ELDAR in which we require the detection of at lea…
Are long gamma-ray bursts biased tracers of star formation? Clues from the host galaxies of the Swift/BAT6 complete sample of LGRBs
Aims: Long gamma-ray bursts (LGRBs) are associated with massive stars and are therefore linked to star formation. However, the conditions needed for the progenitor stars to produce LGRBs can affect the relation between the LGRB rate and star formation. By using the power of a complete LGRB sample, our long-term aim is to understand whether such a bias exists and, if it does, what its origin is. Methods: To reach our goal we use the Swift/BAT6 complete sample of LGRBs. In this first paper, we build the spectral energy distribution (SED) of the 14 z ⋆) from SED fitting. To investigate the presence of a bias in the LGRB-star formation relation we compare the stellar mass distribution of the LG…
High redshift galaxies in the ALHAMBRA survey
Context. Most observational results on the high redshift restframe UV-bright galaxies are based on samples pinpointed using the so called dropout technique or Ly-alpha selection. However, the availability of multifilter data allows now replacing the dropout selections by direct methods based on photometric redshifts. In this paper we present the methodology to select and study the population of high redshift galaxies in the ALHAMBRA survey data. Aims. Our aim is to develop a less biased methodology than the traditional dropout technique to study the high redshift galaxies in ALHAMBRA and other multifilter data. Thanks to the wide area ALHAMBRA covers, we especially aim at contributing in th…
ERRATUM: “RELIABILITY OF THE DETECTION OF THE BARYON ACOUSTIC PEAK” (2009, ApJ, 696, L93)
Due to an error in applying the passive evolution to transform Mg (z = 0) magnitudes to Mg (z = 0.3), the values of the magnitude limits for the samples DR7-LRG and DR7-LRG-VL quoted in Table 1 were not correct. The corrected Table 1 is appended below. Note that although the redshift limits of the sample DR7-LRG are the same as in Eisenstein et al. (2005), the magnitude limits are therefore slightly shifted (see Table 1). Once this fact is considered, figures and results are completely unaffected. We are very grateful to Eyal Kazin for pointing out the error.
Mission: Impossible (Escape from the Lyman Limit)
We investigate the intrinsic opacity of high-redshift galaxies to outgoing ionising photons using high-quality photometry of a sample of 27 spectroscopically-identified galaxies of redshift 1.9<z<3.5 in the Hubble Deep Field. Our measurement is based on maximum-likelihood fitting of model galaxy spectral energy distributions-including the effects of intrinsic Lyman-limit absorption and random realizations of intervening Lyman-series and Lyman-limit absorption-to photometry of galaxies from space- and ground-based broad-band images. Our method provides several important advantages over the methods used by previous groups, including most importantly that two-dimensional sky subtraction of fai…
The ALHAMBRA survey: 2D analysis of the stellar populations in massive early-type galaxies atz< 0.3
Reproduced with permission from Astronomy & Astrophysics
High redshift galaxies in the ALHAMBRA survey. II. Strengthening the evidence of bright-end excess in UV luminosity functions at 2.5 <= z<= 4.5 by PDF analysis
Context. Knowing the exact shape of the ultraviolet (UV) luminosity function (LF) of high-redshift galaxies is important to understand the star formation history of the early Universe. However, the uncertainties, especially at the faint and bright ends of the LFs, remain significant. Aims. In this paper, we study the UV LF of redshift z = 2:5 4.5 galaxies in 2.38 deg of ALHAMBRA data with I ≤ 24. Thanks to the large area covered by ALHAMBRA, we particularly constrain the bright end of the LF. We also calculate the cosmic variance and the corresponding bias values for our sample and derive their host dark matter halo masses. Methods.We have used a novel methodology based on redshift and magn…
Lyman break and ultraviolet-selected galaxies at z ~ 1 - II. PACS 100μm/160μm FIR detections
In this work, we report the Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS) 100 μm/160 μm detections of a sample of 42 GALEX-selected and far-infrared (FIR)-detected Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) at z ~ 1 located in the Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) field and analyse their ultraviolet (UV) to FIR properties. The detection of these LBGs in the FIR indicates that they have a dust content high enough so that its emission can be directly detected. According to a spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting with stellar population templates to their UV-to-near-IR observed photometry, PACS-detected LBGs tend to be bigger (Reff ~ 4.1 kpc), more massive [log (M*/M⊙) ~ 10.7], dustier [Es(B - V) ~ …
NGC1600 - Cluster or Field Elliptical?
A study of the galaxy distribution in the field of the elliptical galaxy NGC1600 has been undertaken. Although this galaxy is often classified as a member of a loose group, all the neighbouring galaxies are much fainter and could be taken as satellites of NGC1600. The number density profile of galaxies in the field of this galaxy shows a decline with radius, with evidence of a background at approximately 1.3 Mpc. The density and number density profile are consistent with that found for other isolated early-type galaxies. NGC1600 appears as an extended source in X-rays, and the center of the X-ray emission seems not to coincide with the center of the galaxy. The velocity distribution of neig…
Radio Observations of the Hubble Deep Field South Region IV: Optical Properties of the Faint Radio Population
The Australia Telescope Hubble Deep Field-South (ATHDFS) survey of the Hubble Deep Field South reaches sensitivities of ~10 miceoJyJy at 1.4, 2.5, 5.2 and 8.7 GHz, making the ATHDFS one of the deepest surveys ever performed with the Australia Telescope Compact Array. Here we present the optical identifications of the ATHDFS radio sources using data from the literature. We find that ~66% of the radio sources have optical counterparts to I = 23.5 mag. Deep HST imaging of the area identifies a further 12% of radio sources. We present new spectroscopic observations for 98 of the radio sources, and supplement these spectroscopic redshifts with photometric ones calculated from 5-band optical imag…
REM near-IR and optical multiband observations of PKS 2155-304 in 2005
Spectral variability is the main tool for constraining emission models of BL Lac objects. By means of systematic observations of the BL Lac prototype PKS 2155-304 in the infrared-optical band, we explore variability on the scales of months, days and hours. We made our observations with the robotic 60 cm telescope REM located at La Silla, Chile. VRIJHK filters were used. PKS 2155-304 was observed from May to December 2005. The wavelength interval explored, the total number of photometric points and the short integration time render our photometry substantially superior to previous ones for this source. On the basis of the intensity and colour we distinguish three different states of the sour…
The ALHAMBRA survey: accurate merger fractions derived by PDF analysis of photometrically close pairs
[Aims]: Our goal is to develop and test a novel methodology to compute accurate close-pair fractions with photometric redshifts. [Methods]: We improved the currently used methodologies to estimate the merger fraction fm from photometric redshifts by (i) using the full probability distribution functions (PDFs) of the sources in redshift space; (ii) including the variation in the luminosity of the sources with z in both the sample selection and the luminosity ratio constrain; and (iii) splitting individual PDFs into red and blue spectral templates to reliably work with colour selections.We tested the performance of our new methodology with the PDFs provided by the ALHAMBRA photometric survey.…
Diving into exoplanets: Are water seas the most common?
One of the basic tenets of exobiology is the need for a liquid substratum in which life can arise, evolve, and develop. The most common version of this idea involves the necessity of water to act as such a substratum, both because that is the case on Earth and because it seems to be the most viable liquid for chemical reactions that lead to life. Other liquid media that could harbor life, however, have occasionally been put forth. In this work, we investigate the relative probability of finding superficial seas on rocky worlds that could be composed of nine different, potentially abundant, liquids, including water. We study the phase space size of habitable zones defined for those substance…
Stellar physics with the ALHAMBRA photometric system
GREAT-ESF Workshop: Stellar Atmospheres in the Gaia Era 23–24 June 2011, Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Belgium.
Recovering the real-space correlation function from photometric redshift surveys
Measurements of clustering in large-scale imaging surveys that make use of photometric redshifts depend on the uncertainties in the redshift determination. We have used light-cone simulations to show how the deprojection method successfully recovers the real space correlation function when applied to mock photometric redshift surveys. We study how the errors in the redshift determination affect the quality of the recovered two-point correlation function. Considering the expected errors associated to the planned photometric redshift surveys, we conclude that this method provides information on the clustering of matter useful for the estimation of cosmological parameters that depend on the la…
OCTOCAM: A fast multichannel imager and spectrograph for the 10.4m GTC
OCTOCAM is a multi-channel imager and spectrograph that has been proposed for the 10.4m GTC telescope. It will use dichroics to split the incoming light to produce simultaneous observations in 8 different bands, ranging from the ultraviolet to the near-infrared. The imaging mode will have a field of view of 2' x 2' in u, g, r, i, z, J, H and Ks bands, whereas the long-slit spectroscopic mode will cover the complete range from 4,000 to 23,000 {\AA} with a resolution of 700 - 1,700 (depending on the arm and slit width). An additional mode, using an image slicer, will deliver a spectral resolution of over 3,000. As a further feature, it will use state of the art detectors to reach high readout…
The impact from survey depth and resolution on the morphological classification of galaxies
We consistently analyse for the first time the impact of survey depth and spatial resolution on the most used morphological parameters for classifying galaxies through non-parametric methods: Abraham and Conselice-Bershady concentration indices, Gini, M20moment of light, asymmetry, and smoothness. Three different non-local data sets are used, Advanced Large Homogeneous Area Medium Band Redshift Astronomical (ALHAMBRA) and Subaru/XMMNewton Deep Survey (SXDS, examples of deep ground-based surveys), and Cosmos Evolution Survey (COSMOS, deep space-based survey). We used a sample of 3000 local, visually classified galaxies, measuring their morphological parameters at their real redshifts (z ~ 0)…
XMM-Newton and VLT observations of the afterglow of GRB040827
The field of the Gamma-Ray Burst GRB 040827 was observed with XMM-Newton and with the ESO/VLT starting ~6 and ~12 hours after the burst, respectively. A fading X-ray afterglow is clearly detected with the XMM-Newton/EPIC instrument, with a time decay t^(-delta), with delta=1.41+/-0.10. Its spectrum is well described by a power law (photon index Gamma=2.3+/-0.1) affected by an absorption largely exceeding (by a factor ~5) the expected Galactic one, requiring the contribution of an intrinsic, redshifted absorber. In the optical/NIR range, the afterglow emission was observed in the Ks band, as a weak source superimposed to the host galaxy, with magnitude Ks=19.44+/-0.13 (12 hours after the GRB…
A tale of two GRB-SNe at a common redshift of z=0.54
We present ground-based and HST optical observations of the optical transients (OTs) of long-duration Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) 060729 and 090618, both at a redshift of z = 0.54. For GRB 060729, bumps are seen in the optical light curves (LCs), and the late-time broadband spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of the OT resemble those of local type Ic supernovae (SNe). For GRB 090618, the dense sampling of our optical observations has allowed us to detect well-defined bumps in the optical LCs, as well as a change in colour, that are indicative of light coming from a core-collapse SN. The accompanying SNe for both events are individually compared with SN1998bw, a known GRB-supernova, and SN1994I…
THE ALHAMBRA SURVEY: EVOLUTION OF GALAXY SPECTRAL SEGREGATION
arXiv:1601.03668v1
Multiband Photometry of the Blazar PKS 0537-441: A Major Active State in December 2004 - March 2005
Multiband VRIJHK photometry of the Blazar PKS 0537-441 obtained with the REM telescope from December 2004 to March 2005 is presented. A major period of activity is found with more than four magnitudes variability in the V filter in 50 days and of 2.5 in 10 days. In intensity and duration the activity is similar to that of 1972 reported by Eggen (1973), but it is much better documented. No clear evidence of variability on time-scale of minutes is found. The spectral energy distribution is roughly described by a power-law, with the weaker state being the softer.
The ALHAMBRA survey: Bayesian photometric redshifts with 23 bands for 3 deg2
A. Molino et al.
KIC 8462852: Will the Trojans return in 2021?
KIC 8462852 stood out among more than 100,000 stars in the Kepler catalogue because of the strange features of its light curve: a wide, asymmetric dimming taking up to 15 per cent of the light at D793 and a period of multiple, narrow dimmings happening approximately 700 days later. Several models have been proposed to account for this abnormal behaviour, most of which require either unlikely causes or a finely-tuned timing. We aim at offering a relatively natural solution, invoking only phenomena that have been previously observed, although perhaps in larger or more massive versions. We model the system using a large, ringed body whose transit produces the first dimming and a swarm of Troja…
The ALHAMBRA survey: Estimation of the clustering signal encoded in the cosmic variance
[Aims]: The relative cosmic variance (σv) is a fundamental source of uncertainty in pencil-beam surveys and, as a particular case of count-in-cell statistics, can be used to estimate the bias between galaxies and their underlying dark-matter distribution. Our goal is to test the significance of the clustering information encoded in the σv measured in the ALHAMBRA survey. [Methods]: We measure the cosmic variance of several galaxy populations selected with B-band luminosity at 0.35 ≤ z< 1.05 as the intrinsic dispersion in the number density distribution derived from the 48 ALHAMBRA subfields. We compare the observational σv with the cosmic variance of the dark matter expected from the theory…
The ALHAMBRA survey: tight dependence of the optical mass-to-light ratio on galaxy colour up to z = 1.5
[Aims] Our goal is to characterise the dependence of the optical mass-to-light ratio on galaxy colour up to z = 1.5, expanding the redshift range explored in previous work. [Methods] From the redshifts, stellar masses, and rest-frame luminosities of the ALHAMBRA multi-filter survey, we derive the mass-to-light ratio versus colour relation for quiescent and for star-forming galaxies. The intrinsic relation and its physical dispersion are derived with a Bayesian inference model. [Results] The rest-frame i-band mass-to-light ratio of quiescent and star-forming galaxies presents a tight correlation with the rest-frame (g - i) colour up to z = 1.5. The mass-to-light ratio versus colour relation …
REM near-IR and optical multiband observations of PKS 2155-304 in 2005
The miniJPAS survey: a preview of the Universe in 56 colours
Full list of authors: Bonoli, S.; Marín-Franch, A.; Varela, J.; Vázquez Ramió, H.; Abramo, L. R.; Cenarro, A. J.; Dupke, R. A.; Vílchez, J. M.; Cristóbal-Hornillos, D.; González Delgado, R. M.; Hernández-Monteagudo, C.; López-Sanjuan, C.; Muniesa, D. J.; Civera, T.; Ederoclite, A.; Hernán-Caballero, A.; Marra, V.; Baqui, P. O.; Cortesi, A.; Cypriano, E. S.; Daflon, S.; de Amorim, A. L.; Díaz-García, L. A.; Diego, J. M.; Martínez-Solaeche, G.; Pérez, E.; Placco, V. M.; Prada, F.; Queiroz, C.; Alcaniz, J.; Alvarez-Candal, A.; Cepa, J.; Maroto, A. L.; Roig, F.; Siffert, B. B.; Taylor, K.; Benitez, N.; Moles, M.; Sodré, L.; Carneiro, S.; Mendes de Oliveira, C.; Abdalla, E.; Angulo, R. E.; Apari…
Lyman break and ultraviolet-selected galaxies at z ̃ 1-I. Stellar populations from the ALHAMBRA survey
We take advantage of the exceptional photometric coverage provided by the combination of GALEX data in the ultraviolet (UV) and the ALHAMBRA survey in the optical and near-infrared to analyse the physical properties of a sample of 1225 GALEX-selected Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) at 0.8 ≲ z ≲ 1.2 that are located in the COSMOS field. This is the largest sample of LBGs studied in this redshift range to date. According to a spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting with synthetic stellar population templates, we find that LBGs at z ̃ 1 are mostly young galaxies with a median age of 341 Myr and have intermediate dust attenuation, (Es(B - V)) ̃ 0.20. Owing to the selection criterion, LBGs at z ̃…
Spectroscopic Confirmation of an Ultramassive and Compact Galaxy at z = 3.35: a Detailed Look at an Early Progenitor of Local Giant Ellipticals
et al.
Stellar populations of galaxies in the ALHAMBRA survey up toz ∼ 1
Aims. We aim at constraining the stellar population properties of quiescent galaxies. These properties reveal how these galaxies evolved and assembled since z similar to 1 up to the present time. Methods. Combining the ALHAMBRA multi-filter photo-spectra with the fitting code for spectral energy distribution MUFFIT (MUlti-Filter FITting), we built a complete catalogue of quiescent galaxies via the dust-corrected stellar mass vs. colour diagram. This catalogue includes stellar population properties, such as age, metallicity, extinction, stellar mass, and photometric redshift, retrieved from the analysis of composited populations based on two independent sets of simple stellar population (SSP…
The ALHAMBRA survey: evolution of galaxy clustering since z∼1
We study the clustering of galaxies as function of luminosity and redshift in the range $0.35 < z < 1.25$ using data from the Advanced Large Homogeneous Area Medium Band Redshift Astronomical (ALHAMBRA) survey. The ALHAMBRA data used in this work cover $2.38 \mathrm{deg}^2$ in 7 independent fields, after applying a detailed angular selection mask, with accurate photometric redshifts, $��_z \lesssim 0.014 (1+z)$, down to $I_{\rm AB} < 24$. Given the depth of the survey, we select samples in $B$-band luminosity down to $L^{\rm th} \simeq 0.16 L^{*}$ at $z = 0.9$. We measure the real-space clustering using the projected correlation function, accounting for photometric redshifts uncert…
Quasi-stellar objects in the ALHAMBRA survey
[Context]: Even the spectroscopic capabilities of today's ground and space-based observatories can not keep up with the enormous flow of detections (>10 5 deg -2) unveiled in modern cosmological surveys as: i) would be required enormous telescope time to perform the spectroscopic follow-ups and ii) spectra remain unattainable for the fainter detected population. In the past decade, the typical accuracy of photometric redshift (photo-z) determination has drastically improved. Nowdays, it has become a perfect complement to spectroscopy, closing the gap between photometric surveys and their spectroscopic follow-ups. The photo-z precision for active galactic nuclei (AGN) has always lagged behin…
The ALHAMBRA survey: reliable morphological catalogue of 22 051 early- and late-type galaxies
Advanced Large Homogeneous Area Medium Band Redshift Astronomical (ALHAMBRA) is photometric survey designed to trace the cosmic evolution and cosmic variance. It covers a large area of ~4 deg2 in eight fields, where seven fields overlap with other surveys, allowing us to have complementary data in other wavelengths. All observations were carried out in 20 continuous, medium band (30 nm width) optical and 3 near-infrared (JHK) bands, providing the precise measurements of photometric redshifts. In addition, morphological classification of galaxies is crucial for any kind of galaxy formation and cosmic evolution studies, providing the information about star formation histories, their environme…