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Our understanding of the structure, composition and evolution of galaxies has strongly improved in the last decades, mostly due to new results based on large spectroscopic and imaging surveys. In particular, the nature of ionized gas, its ionization mechanisms, its relation with the stellar properties and chemical composition, the existence of scaling relations that describe the cycle between stars and gas, and the corresponding evolution patterns have been widely explored and described. More recently, the introduction of additional techniques, in particular Integral Field Spectroscopy, and their use in large galaxy surveys, have forced us to re-interpret most of those recent results from a spatially resolved perspective. This review is aimed to complement recent efforts to compile and summarize this change of paradigm in the interpretation of galaxy evolution. In particular we cover three particular aspects not fully covered in detail in recent reviews: (i) the spatially resolved nature of the ionization properties in galaxies and the confusion introduced by considering just integrated quantities; (ii) the nature of the global scaling relations and their relations with the spatially resolved ones; and (iii) the dependence of the radial gradients and characteristic properties of the stellar populations and ionized gas on stellar mass and galaxy morphology. To this end we replicate published results, and present novel ones, based on the largest compilation of IFS data of galaxies in the nearby universe to date., 42 pages, 16 figures, accepted for publication in RMxAA

We present stellar metallicity measurements of more than 600 late-type stars in the central 10 pc of the Galactic Centre. Together with our previously published KMOS data, this data set allows us to investigate, for the first time, spatial variations of the nuclear star cluster's metallicity distribution. Using the integral-field spectrograph KMOS (VLT), we observed almost half of the area enclosed by the nuclear star cluster's effective radius. We extract spectra at medium spectral resolution and apply full spectral fitting utilizing the PHOENIX library of synthetic stellar spectra. The stellar metallicities range from [M/H] = −1.25 dex to [M/H] > +0.3 dex, with most of the stars having supersolar metallicity. We are able to measure an anisotropy of the stellar metallicity distribution. In the Galactic north, the portion of subsolar metallicity stars with [M/H] < 0.0 dex is more than twice as high as in the Galactic south. One possible explanation for different fractions of subsolar metallicity stars in different parts of the cluster is a recent merger event. We propose to test this hypothesis with high-resolution spectroscopy and by combining the metallicity information with kinematic data. © 2020 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society, N. N. and F. N.-L. gratefully acknowledge funding by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) – Project-ID 138713538 – SFB 881 (‘The Milky Way System’, subproject B8). The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) / ERC grant agreement n. [614922] (RS and FNL). R. S. and F. N. L. acknowledge financial support from the State Agency for Research of the Spanish MCIU through the ‘Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa’ award for the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (SEV-2017-0709). R. S. acknowledges financial support from national project PGC2018-095049-B-C21 (MCIU/AEI/FEDER, UE). A. C. S. acknowledges financial support from NSF grant AST-1350389. This research made use of the SIMBAD data base (operated at CDS, Strasbourg, France). This research made use of Montage. It is funded by the National Science Foundation under grant number ACI-1440620 and was previously funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Earth Science Technology Office, Computation Technologies Project, under Cooperative Agreement Number NCC5-626 between NASA and the California Institute of Technology.

Large multi-object spectroscopic surveys require automated algorithms to optimise their observing strategy. One of the most ambitious upcoming spectroscopic surveys is the 4MOST survey. The 4MOST survey facility is a fibre-fed spectroscopic instrument on the VISTA telescope with a large enough field of view to survey a large fraction of the southern sky within a few years. Several Galactic and extragalactic surveys will be carried out simultaneously, so the combined target density will strongly vary. In this paper, we describe a new tiling algorithm that can naturally deal with the large target density variations on the sky and which automatically handles the different exposure times of targets. The tiling pattern is modelled as a marked point process, which is characterised by a probability density that integrates the requirements imposed by the 4MOST survey. The optimal tilling pattern with respect to the defined model is estimated by the tiles configuration that maximises the proposed probability density. In order to achieve this maximisation a simulated annealing algorithm is implemented. The algorithm automatically finds an optimal tiling pattern and assigns a tentative sky brightness condition and exposure time for each tile, while minimising the total execution time that is needed to observe the list of targets in the combined input catalogue of all surveys. Hence, the algorithm maximises the long-term observing efficiency and provides an optimal tiling solution for the survey. While designed for the 4MOST survey, the algorithm is flexible and can with simple modifications be applied to any other multi-object spectroscopic survey., Comment: 20 pages, 11 figures, submitted to MNRAS

[Abridged] We present the apparent stellar angular momentum of 300 galaxies across the Hubble sequence, using integral-field spectroscopic data from the CALIFA survey. Adopting the same $\lambda_\mathrm{R}$ parameter previously used to distinguish between slow and fast rotating early-type (elliptical and lenticular) galaxies, we show that spiral galaxies as expected are almost all fast rotators. Given the extent of our data, we provide relations for $\lambda_\mathrm{R}$ measured in different apertures, including conversions to long-slit 1D apertures. Our sample displays a wide range of $\lambda_\mathrm{Re}$ values, consistent with previous IFS studies. The fastest rotators are dominated by relatively massive and highly star-forming Sb galaxies, which preferentially reside in the main star-forming sequence. These galaxies reach $\lambda_\mathrm{Re}$ values of $\sim$0.85, are the largest galaxies at a given mass, and display some of the strongest stellar population gradients. Compared to the population of S0 galaxies, our findings suggest that fading may not be the dominant mechanism transforming spirals into lenticulars. Interestingly, we find that $\lambda_\mathrm{Re}$ decreases for late-type Sc and Sd spiral galaxies, with values than in occasions puts them in the slow-rotator regime. While for some of them this can be explained by their irregular morphologies and/or face-on configurations, others are edge-on systems with no signs of significant dust obscuration. The latter are typically at the low-mass end, but this does not explain their location in the classical ($V/\sigma$,$\varepsilon$) and ($\lambda_\mathrm{Re}$,$\varepsilon$) diagrams. Our initial investigations, based on dynamical models, suggest that these are dynamically hot disks, probably influenced by the observed important fraction of dark matter within R$_\mathrm{e}$., Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures, A&A accepted

Post-starburst galaxies can be identified via the presence of prominent Hydrogen Balmer absorption lines in their spectra. We present a comprehensive study of the origin of strong Balmer lines in a volume-limited sample of 189 galaxies with $0.019.5$ and projected axis ratio $b/a>0.32$. We explore their structural properties, environments, emission lines and star formation histories, and compare them to control samples of star-forming and quiescent galaxies, and simulated galaxy mergers. Excluding contaminants, in which the strong Balmer lines are most likely caused by dust-star geometry, we find evidence for three different pathways through the post-starburst phase, with most events occurring in intermediate-density environments: (1) a significant disruptive event, such as a gas-rich major merger, causing a starburst and growth of a spheroidal component, followed by quenching of the star formation (70% of post-starburst galaxies at $9.510.5$); (2) at $9.510.5$, cyclic evolution of quiescent galaxies which gradually move towards the high-mass end of the red sequence through weak starbursts, possibly as a result of a merger with a smaller gas-rich companion (40%). Our analysis suggests that AGN are `on' for $50%$ of the duration of the post-starburst phase, meaning that traditional samples of post-starburst galaxies with strict emission line cuts will be at least $50%$ incomplete due to the exclusion of narrow-line AGN., Comment: Accepted by MNRAS; 19 figures, 39 pages

We investigate the cosmic evolution of the absolute and specific star formation rate (SFR, sSFR) of galaxies as derived from a spatially resolved study of the stellar populations in a set of 366 nearby galaxies from the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area (CALIFA) survey. The sample spans stellar masses from M ∼ 10 to 10M and a wide range of Hubble types. The analysis combines images obtained with the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX; far-ultraviolet and near-ultraviolet) and Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS; u; g; r; i; z) with the 4000 Å break, Hβ, and [MgFe]′ indices measured from the CALIFA data cubes to constrain parametric models for the star formation history (SFH), which are then used to study the cosmic evolution of the SFR density (ρSFR), the sSFR, the main sequence of star formation (MSSF), and the stellar mass density (ρ). Several SFH laws are used to fit the observational constrains. A delayed-τ model, SFR ∝ (t - t) exp(-(t - t)=τ), provides the best results, in good agreement with those obtained from cosmological surveys. Our main results from this model are that (a) the mass currently in the inner (≤0:5 half-light radius, HLR) regions formed at earlier epochs than the mass in the outer (1-2 HLR) regions of galaxies. The time since the onset of the star formation is longer in the inner regions (t ∼ 13-10 Gyr) than in the outer ones (t ∼ 11-9 Gyr) for all the morphologies, while the e-folding timescale τ in the inner region is similar to or shorter than in the outer regions. These results confirm that galaxies of any Hubble type grow inside-out. (b) The sSFR declines rapidly as the Universe evolves, and faster for early- than for late-type galaxies, and for the inner than for the outer regions of galaxies. (c) The evolution of ρSFR and ρ agrees well with results from cosmological surveys, particularly with the recent results from the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA), the G10-Cosmological Evolution Survey (COSMOS), and the 3D Hubble Space Telescope (HST) survey. At low redshift, z ≤ 0:5, most star formation takes place in the outer regions of late spiral galaxies, while at z > 2; the inner regions of the progenitors of the current E and S0 are the main contributors to ρSFR. (d) Similarly, the inner regions of galaxies are the main contributor to ρ at z > 0:5, growing their mass faster than the outer regions, with a lookback time at 50% ρ of t ∼ 9 and 6 Gyr for the inner and outer regions. (e) The MSSF follows a power law at high redshift, with the slope evolving with time but always remaining sub-linear, in good agreement with the Illustris simulation. (f) In agreement with galaxy surveys at different redshifts, the average SFH of CALIFA galaxies indicates that galaxies grow their mass mainly in a mode that is well represented by a delayed-τ model, with the peak at z ∼ 2 and an e-folding time of ∼3:9 Gyr.© 2018 ESO., Support from the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, through projects AYA2016-77846-P, AYA2014-57490-P, AYA2010-15081, and the Junta de Andalucía FQ1580 is gratefully acknowledged.

This paper presents the spatially resolved star formation history (SFH) of nearby galaxies with the aim of furthering our understanding of the different processes involved in the formation and evolution of galaxies. To this end, we apply the fossil record method of stellar population synthesis to a rich and diverse data set of 436 galaxies observed with integral field spectroscopy in the CALIFA survey. The sample covers a wide range of Hubble types, with stellar masses ranging from M ∼ 10 to 7 × 10 M. Spectral synthesis techniques are applied to the datacubes to retrieve the spatially resolved time evolution of the star formation rate (SFR), its intensity (Σ), and other descriptors of the 2D SFH in seven bins of galaxy morphology (E, S0, Sa, Sb, Sbc, Sc, and Sd) and five bins of stellar mass. Our main results are that (a) galaxies form very fast independently of their current stellar mass, with the peak of star formation at high redshift (z > 2). Subsequent star formation is driven by M and morphology, with less massive and later type spirals showing more prolonged periods of star formation. (b) At any epoch in the past, the SFR is proportional to M, with most massive galaxies having the highest absolute (but lowest specific) SFRs. (c) While today, the Σ is similar for all spirals and significantly lower in early-type galaxies (ETG), in the past, the Σ scales well with morphology. The central regions of today's ETGs are where the Σ reached the highest values (> 10 M Gyr pc), similar to those measured in high-redshift star-forming galaxies. (d) The evolution of Σ in Sbc systems matches that of models for Milky Way-like galaxies, suggesting that the formation of a thick disk may be a common phase in spirals at early epochs. (e) The SFR and Σ in outer regions of E and S0 galaxies show that they have undergone an extended phase of growth in mass between z = 2 and 0.4. The mass assembled in this phase is in agreement with the two-phase scenario proposed for the formation of ETGs. (f) Evidence of an early and fast quenching is found only in the most massive (M > 2 × 10 M) E galaxies of the sample, but not in spirals of similar mass, suggesting that halo quenching is not the main mechanism for the shut down of star formation in galaxies. Less massive E and disk galaxies show more extended SFHs and a slow quenching. (g) Evidence of fast quenching is also found in the nuclei of ETG and early spirals, with SFR and Σ indicating that they can be the relic of the >red nuggets> detected at high redshift.© ESO, 2017., Support from the Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad, through projects AYA2016-77846-P, AYA2014-57490-P, AYA2010-15081, and Junta de Andalucia FQ1580, AYA2010-22111-C03-03, AYA2010-10904E, AYA2013-42227P, RyC-2011-09461, AYA2013-47742-C4-3-P, EU SELGIFS exchange programme FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IRSES-612701, CONACYT-125180, DGAPA-IA100815, and PAPIIT-DGAPA-IA101217. We also thank the Viabilidad, Diseno, Acceso y Mejora funding program, ICTS-2009-10, for funding the data acquisition of this project. A.L.d.A., E.A.D.L. and R.C.F. thanks for the hospitality of the IAA and the support of CNPq. R.G.D. acknowledges the support of CNPq (Brazil) through Programa Ciencia sem Fronteiras (401452/2012-3). C.J.W. acknowledges support through the Marie Curie Career Integration Grant 303912.

Galaxies in the local Universe are known to follow bimodal distributions in the global stellar population properties. We analyse the distribution of the local average stellar population ages of 654 053 sub-galactic regions resolved on ∼1 kpc scales in a volume-corrected sample of 394 galaxies, drawn from the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area (CALIFA) DR3 integral-field-spectroscopy survey and complemented by Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) imaging. We find a bimodal local-age distribution, with an old and a young peak primarily due to regions in early-type galaxies and star-forming regions of spirals, respectively. Within spiral galaxies, the older ages of bulges and interarm regions relative to spiral arms support an internal age bimodality. Although regions of higher stellar mass surface density, μ*, are typically older, μ* alone does not determine the stellar population age and a bimodal distribution is found at any fixed μ*. We identify an ‘old ridge’ of regions of age ∼9 Gyr, independent of μ*, and a ‘young sequence’ of regions with age increasing with μ* from 1–1.5 to 4–5 Gyr. We interpret the former as regions containing only old stars, and the latter as regions where the relative contamination of old stellar populations by young stars decreases as μ* increases. The reason why this bimodal age distribution is not inconsistent with the unimodal shape of the cosmic-averaged star formation history is that (i) the dominating contribution by young stars biases the age low with respect to the average epoch of star formation, and (ii) the use of a single average age per region is unable to represent the full time extent of the star formation history of ‘young sequence’ regions., Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 468 (2), ISSN:0035-8711, ISSN:1365-2966, ISSN:1365-8711

Context. The study of the integrated properties of star-forming galaxies is central to understand their formation and evolution. Some of these properties are extensive and therefore their analysis require totally covering and spatially resolved observations. Among these properties, metallicity can be defined in spiral discs by means of integral field spectroscopy (IFS) of individual H ii regions. The simultaneous analysis of the abundances of primary elements, as oxygen, and secondary, as nitrogen, also provides clues about the star formation history and the processes that shape the build-up of spiral discs. Aims. Our main aim is to analyse simultaneously O/H and N/O abundance ratios in H ii regions in different radial positions of the discs in a large sample of spiral galaxies to obtain the slopes and the characteristic abundance ratios that can be related to their integrated properties. Methods. We analysed the optical spectra of individual selected H ii regions extracted from a sample of 350 spiral galaxies of the CALIFA survey. We calculated total O/H abundances and, for the first time, N/O ratios using the semi-empirical routine Hii-Chi-mistry, which, according to Pérez-Montero (2014, MNRAS, 441, 2663), is consistent with the direct method and reduces the uncertainty in the O/H derivation using [N ii] lines owing to the dispersion in the O/H-N/O relation. Then we performed linear fittings to the abundances as a function of the de-projected galactocentric distances. Results. The analysis of the radial distribution both for O/H and N/O in the non-interacting galaxies reveals that both average slopes are negative, but a non-negligible fraction of objects have a flat or even a positive gradient (at least 10% for O/H and 4% for N/O). The slopes normalised to the effective radius appear to have a slight dependence on the total stellar mass and the morphological type, as late low-mass objects tend to have flatter slopes. No clear relation is found, however, to explain the presence of inverted gradients in this sample, and there is no dependence between the average slopes and the presence of a bar. The relation between the resulting O/H and N/O linear fittings at the effective radius is much tighter (correlation coefficient ρ = 0.80) than between O/H and N/O slopes (ρ = 0.39) or for O/H and N/O in the individual H ii regions (ρ = 0.37). These O/H and N/O values at the effective radius also correlate very tightly (less than 0.03 dex of dispersion) with total luminosity and stellar mass. The relation with other integrated properties, such as star formation rate, colour, or morphology, can be understood only in light of the found relation with mass., E.P.M., J.M.V., C.K., S.P., and J.I.P. acknowledge support from the Spanish MICINN through grants AYA2010-21887-C04-01 and AYA2013-47742-C4-1-P and the Junta de Andalucia for grant EXC/2011 FQM-7058. R.G.B., R.G.D., and E.P. acknowledge support from grants AYA2014-57490-P and JA-FQM-2828. Support for L.G. is provided by the Ministry of Economy, Development, and Tourism's Millennium Science Initiative through grant IC120009, awarded to The Millennium Institute of Astrophysics, MAS. L.G. acknowledges support by CONICYT through FONDECYT grant 3140566

This paper aims at providing aperture corrections for emission lines in a sample of spiral galaxies from the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area Survey (CALIFA) database. In particular, we explore the behavior of the log([OIII]5007/Hbeta)/([NII]6583/Halpha) (O3N2) and log[NII]6583/Halpha (N2) flux ratios since they are closely connected to different empirical calibrations of the oxygen abundances in star forming galaxies. We compute median growth curves of Halpha, Halpha/Hbeta, O3N2 and N2 up to 2.5R_50 and 1.5 disk R_eff. The growth curves simulate the effect of observing galaxies through apertures of varying radii. The median growth curve of the Halpha/Hbeta ratio monotonically decreases from the center towards larger radii, showing for small apertures a maximum value of ~10% larger than the integrated one. The median growth curve of N2 shows a similar behavior, decreasing from the center towards larger radii. No strong dependence is seen with the inclination, morphological type and stellar mass for these growth curves. Finally, the median growth curve of O3N2 increases monotonically with radius. However, at small radii it shows systematically higher values for galaxies of earlier morphological types and for high stellar mass galaxies. Applying our aperture corrections to a sample of galaxies from the SDSS survey at 0.02, Accepted for publication in ApJ

Recent improvements in the age dating of stellar populations and single stars allow us to study the ages and abundance of stars and galaxies with unprecedented accuracy. We here compare the relation between age and \alpha-element abundances for stars in the solar neighborhood to that of local, early-type galaxies. We find both relations to be very similar. Both fall into two regimes with a flat slope for ages younger than ~9 Gyr and a steeper slope for ages older than that value. This quantitative similarity seems surprising, given the different types of galaxies and scales involved. For the sample of early-type galaxies we also show that the data are inconsistent with literature delay time distributions of either single or double Gaussian shape. The data are consistent with a power law delay time distribution. We thus confirm that the delay time distribution inferred for the Milky Way from chemical evolution arguments also must apply to massive early-type galaxies. We also offer a tentative explanation for the seeming universality of the age-[\alpha/Fe] relation as the manifestation of averaging of different stellar populations with varying chemical evolution histories., Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, submitted to A&A, version in reply to first referee report

We present a new morphological indicator designed for automated recognition of galaxies with faint asymmetric tidal features suggestive of an ongoing or past merger. We use this new indicator, together with preexisting diagnostics of galaxy structure to study the role of galaxy mergers in inducing (post-)starburst spectral signatures in local galaxies, and investigate whether (post-)starburst galaxies play a role in the build up of the `red sequence'. Our morphological and structural analysis of an evolutionary sample of 335 (post-)starburst galaxies in the SDSS DR7 with starburst ages 0, Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 20 pages, 13 figures

The metallicity of a supernova progenitor, together with its mass, is one of the main parameters that can rule the progenitor's fate. We present the second study of nearby supernova (SN) host galaxies (0.005 10 dex) by targeted searches. We neither found evidence that the metallicity at the SN location differs from the average metallicity at the galactocentric distance of the SNe. By extending our SN sample with published metallicities at the SN location, we are able to study the metallicity distributions for all SN subtypes split into SN discovered in targeted and untargeted searches. We confirm a bias toward higher host masses and metallicities in the targeted searches. By combining data from targeted and untargeted searches, we found a sequence from higher to lower local metallicity: SN Ia, Ic, and II show the highest metallicity, which is significantly higher than those of SN Ib, IIb, and Ic-BL. Our results support the scenario according to which SN Ib result from binary progenitors. Additionally, at least part of the SN Ic are the result of single massive stars that were stripped of their outer layers by metallicity-driven winds. We studied several proxies of the local metallicity that are frequently used in the literature and found that the total host metallicity allows estimating the metallicity at the SN location with an accuracy better than 0.08 dex and very small bias. In addition, weak AGNs that cannot be seen in the total spectrum may weakly bias (by 0.04 dex) the metallicity estimate that is derived from the galaxy-integrated spectrum. © ESO, 2016., This work was partly funded by FCT with the research grant PTDC/CTE-AST/112582/2009. Support for L.G. is partially provided by FCT, by CONICYT through FONDECYT grant 3140566, and from the Ministry of Economy, Development, and Tourism's Millennium Science Initiative through grant IC12009, awarded to The Millennium Institute of Astrophysics (MAS). V.S. acknowledges financial support from Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (FCT) under program Ciencia 2008. C.J.W. acknowledges support through the Marie Curie Career Integration Grant 303912.

Based on a combined analysis of SDSS imaging and CALIFA integral field spectroscopy data, we report on the detection of faint (24, This paper is based on data from the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area Survey, CALIFA (http://califa.caha.es), funded by the Spanish Ministery of Science under grant ICTS-2009-10, and the Centro Astronomico Hispano-Aleman. J.M.G. acknowledges support by Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (FCT) through the Fellowship SFRH/BPD/66958/2009 and POPH/FSE (EC) by FEDER funding through the program Programa Operacional de Factores de Competitividade (COMPETE). P.P. is supported by FCT through the Investigador FCT Contract No. IF/01220/2013 and POPH/FSE (EC) by FEDER funding through the program COMPETE. J.M.G. and P.P. acknowledge support by FCT under project FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-029170 (Ref. PTDC/FIS-AST/3214/2012), funded by FCT-MEC (PIDDAC) and FEDER (COMPETE) and the exchange programme >Study of Emission-Line Galaxies with Integral-Field Spectroscopy> (SELGIFS, FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IRSES-612701), funded by the EU through the IRSES scheme. S.F.S. acknowledges support from CONACyT-180125 and PAPIIT-IA100815 grants. Support for L.G. is provided by the Ministry of Economy, Development, and Tourism's Millennium Science Initiative through grant IC120009, awarded to The Millennium Institute of Astrophysics, MAS. L.G. acknowledges support by CONICYT through FONDECYT grant 3140566. C.J.W. acknowledges support through the Marie Curie Career Integration Grant 303912. I.M. acknowledges financial support by the Junta de Andalucia through project TIC114, and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) through projects AYA2010-15169 and AYA2013-42227-P. R.A. Marino is funded by the Spanish program of International Campus of Excellence Moncloa (CEI). This research made use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Astronomy and Astrophysics 576 (2015): A102 reproduced with permission from Astronomy & Astrophysics, © ESO, Context. The bar pattern speed (Ωb) is defined as the rotational frequency of the bar, and it determines the bar dynamics. Several methods have been proposed for measuring Ωb. The non-parametric method proposed by Tremaine & Weinberg (1984, ApJ, 282, L5; TW) and based on stellar kinematics is the most accurate. This method has been applied so far to 17 galaxies, most of them SB0 and SBa types. Aims. We have applied the TW method to a new sample of 15 strong and bright barred galaxies, spanning a wide range of morphological types from SB0 to SBbc. Combining our analysis with previous studies, we investigate 32 barred galaxies with their pattern speed measured by the TW method. The resulting total sample of barred galaxies allows us to study the dependence of Ωb on galaxy properties, such as the Hubble type. Methods. We measured Ωb using the TW method on the stellar velocity maps provided by the integral-field spectroscopy data from the CALIFA survey. Integral-field data solve the problems that long-slit data present when applying the TW method, resulting in the determination of more accurate Ωb. In addition, we have also derived the ratio R of the corotation radius to the bar length of the galaxies. According to this parameter, bars can be classified as fast (R < 1.4) and slow (R > 1.4). Results. For all the galaxies, R is compatible within the errors with fast bars. We cannot rule out (at 95% level) the fast bar solution for any galaxy. We have not observed any significant trend between R and the galaxy morphological type. Conclusions. Our results indicate that independent of the Hubble type, bars have been formed and then evolve as fast rotators. This observational result will constrain the scenarios of formation and evolution of bars proposed by numerical simulations, J.A.L.A. have been partly funded by the Spanish Ministry for Science, project AYA2013-43188-P. J.M.A. acknowledges support from the European Research Council Starting Grant (SEDmorph; P.I. V. Wild). R. A. Marino is funded by the Spanish program of International Campus of Excellence Moncloa (CEI). I.M. acknowledges the financial support from the Spanish grant AYA2010-15169 and from the Junta de Andalucia through TIC-114 and the Excellence Project P08-TIC-03531. R.G.D. and E.P. have been partly funded by Spanish grant AYA2010-1581. J.I.P. acknowledges financial support from MINECO AYA2010-21887-C04-01 grant and from Junta de Andalucía Excellence Project PEX2011-FQM7058. S.F.S. acknowledges support from CONACyT grant 180125. This study makes uses of the data provided by the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area (CALIFA) survey (http://www.califa.caha.es). Based on observations collected at the Centro Astronómico Hispano Alemán (CAHA) at Calar Alto, operated jointly by the Max-PlanckInstitut fur Astronomie and the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (CSIC). CALIFA is the first legacy survey being performed at Calar Alto.The CALIFA collaboration would like to thank the IAA-CSIC and MPIA-MPG as major partners of the observatory, and CAHA itself, for the unique access to telescope time and support in manpower and infrastructures. The CALIFA collaboration thanks also the CAHA staff for the dedication to this project. R.G.D., E.P., R.G.B., and C.C.F. wants to thanks finalcial support from AYA2010-15081. J.F.-B. acknowledgessupport from grant AYA2013-48226-C3-1-P from MINECO

We use spatially and temporally resolved maps of stellar population properties of 300 galaxies from the CALIFA integral field survey to investigate how the stellar metallicity (Z*) relates to the total stellar mass (M*) and the local mass surface density ($\mu$*) in both spheroidal and disk dominated galaxies. The galaxies are shown to follow a clear stellar mass-metallicity relation (MZR) over the whole 10$^9$ to 10$^{12}$ M$_{\odot}$ range. This relation is steeper than the one derived from nebular abundances, which is similar to the flatter stellar MZR derived when we consider only young stars. We also find a strong relation between the local values of $\mu$* and Z* (the $\mu$ZR), betraying the influence of local factors in determining Z*. This shows that both local ($\mu$*-driven) and global (M*-driven) processes are important in determining the metallicity in galaxies. We find that the overall balance between local and global effects varies with the location within a galaxy. In disks, $\mu$* regulates Z*, producing a strong $\mu$ZR whose amplitude is modulated by M*. In spheroids it is M* who dominates the physics of star formation and chemical enrichment, with $\mu$* playing a minor, secondary role. These findings agree with our previous analysis of the star formation histories of CALIFA galaxies, which showed that mean stellar ages are mainly governed by surface density in galaxy disks and by total mass in spheroids., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in ApJL

Within the central 10pc of our Galaxy lies a dense nuclear star cluster (NSC), and similar NSCs are found in most nearby galaxies. Studying the structure and kinematics of NSCs reveals the history of mass accretion of galaxy nuclei. Because the Milky Way (MW) NSC is at a distance of only 8kpc, we can spatially resolve the MWNSC on sub-pc scales. This makes the MWNSC a reference object for understanding the formation of all NSCs. We have used the NIR long-slit spectrograph ISAAC (VLT) in a drift-scan to construct an integral-field spectroscopic map of the central 9.5 x 8pc of our Galaxy. We use this data set to extract stellar kinematics both of individual stars and from the unresolved integrated light spectrum. We present a velocity and dispersion map from the integrated light and model these kinematics using kinemetry and axisymmetric Jeans models. We also measure CO bandhead strengths of 1,375 spectra from individual stars. We find kinematic complexity in the NSCs radial velocity map including a misalignment of the kinematic position angle by 9 degree counterclockwise relative to the Galactic plane, and indications for a rotating substructure perpendicular to the Galactic plane at a radius of 20" or 0.8pc. We determine the mass of the NSC within r = 4.2pc to 1.4 x 10^7 Msun. We also show that our kinematic data results in a significant underestimation of the supermassive black hole (SMBH) mass. The kinematic substructure and position angle misalignment may hint at distinct accretion events. This indicates that the MWNSC grew at least partly by the mergers of massive star clusters. Compared to other NSCs, the MWNSC is on the compact side of the r_eff - M_NSC relation. The underestimation of the SMBH mass might be caused by the kinematic misalignment and a stellar population gradient. But it is also possible that there is a bias in SMBH mass measurements obtained with integrated light., 20 pages, 19 Figures, Accepted for publication in A&A

Astronomy and Astrophysics 561 (2014): A129 reproduced with permission from Astronomy & Astrophysics, Context. Over the past decade, 3D optical spectroscopy has become the preferred tool for understanding the properties of galaxies and is now increasingly used to carry out galaxy surveys. Low redshift surveys include SAURON, DiskMass, ATLAS3D, PINGS, and VENGA. At redshifts above 0.7, surveys such as MASSIV, SINS, GLACE, and IMAGES have targeted the most luminous galaxies to study mainly their kinematic properties. The on-going CALIFA survey (z ~ 0.02) is the first of a series of upcoming integral field spectroscopy (IFS) surveys with large samples representative of the entire population of galaxies. Others include SAMI and MaNGA at lower redshift and the upcoming KMOS surveys at higher redshift. Given the importance of spatial scales in IFS surveys, the study of the effects of spatial resolution on the recovered parameters becomes important. Aims. We explore the capability of the CALIFA survey and a hypothetical higher redshift survey to reproduce the properties of a sample of objects observed with better spatial resolution at lower redshift. Methods. Using a sample of PINGS galaxies, we simulated observations at different redshifts. We then studied the behaviour of different parameters as the spatial resolution degrades with increasing redshift. Results. We show that at the CALIFA resolution, we are able to measure and map common observables in a galaxy study: the number and distribution of H ii regions (Hα flux structure), the gas metallicity (using the O3N2 method), the gas ionization properties (through the [N ii]/Hα and [O iii]/Hβ line ratios), and the age of the underlying stellar population (using the D4000 index). This supports the aim of the survey to characterise the observable properties of galaxies in the Local Universe. Our analysis of simulated IFS data cubes at higher redshifts highlights the importance of the projected spatial scale per spaxel as the most important figure of merit in the design of an integral field survey., Financial support from the Mexican National Council for Science and Technology (CONACYT) under the programme Estancias Posdoctorales y Sabáticas al Extranjero para la Consolidación de Grupos de Investigación, 2010-2012. I.M. financial support from the Spanish MINECO grant AYA 2010-15169, and from Junta de Andalucía TIC114 and Proyecto de Excelencia P08-TIC-03531; J.F.-B. from the Ramón y Cajal Program, grants AYA2010-21322-C03-02 and AIB-2010-DE-00227 from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO), as well as from the FP7 Marie Curie Actions of the European Commission, via the Initial Training Network DAGAL under REA grant agreement na 289313. Support through the Marie Curie Career Integration Grant 303912. Support from the Spanish Programa Nacional de Astronomía y Astrofísica under grant AYA2010-21322-C03-02. This work has been partially funded by the Spanish PNAYA, project AYA2010-21887 of the Spanish MINECO. R.A. Marino was also funded by the Spanish Programme of International Campus of Excellence Moncloa (CEI).

We explore the properties of the submillijansky radio population at 20 cm by applying a newly developed optical color-based method to separate star forming (SF) from AGN galaxies at intermediate redshifts (z1.3) galaxies. We find, for the composition of the submillijansky radio population, that SF galaxies are not the dominant population at submillijansky flux levels, as previously often assumed, but that they make up an approximately constant fraction of 30-40% in the flux density range of ~50 microJy to 0.7 mJy. In summary, based on the entire VLA-COSMOS radio population at 20 cm, we find that the radio population at these flux densities is a mixture of roughly 30-40% of SF and 50-60% of AGN galaxies, with a minor contribution (~10%) of QSOs., 26 pages, 26 figures; accepted for publication in ApJS

Using the first-epoch data from the VIMOS-VLT Deep Survey (VVDS), we investigate the evolution of the projected two-point correlation function of galaxies between z ∼ 1 and the present epoch. For the global galaxy population we do not find strong variations of clustering with redshift. However, dependence of clustering on intrinsic luminosities and stellar masses of galaxies evolves significantly during this period. We observe more close pairs for the most luminous and (less distinctly) most massive objects at z ∼ 1 as compared to what is seen locally, resulting in a non–power-law shape of their correlation function, with an upturn on small scales. This effect can be modeled within the framework of the halo occupation distribution models and leads to the conclusion that at z ∼ 1 we are possibly observing a population of luminous and not very massive satellite galaxies that occupy the most massive dark-matter halos—an effect that is not seen locally.

The VIMOS VLT Deep Survey is enabling to trace from one single survey the star formation history in the Universe over 12 billion years of evolution. We find that the star formation rate is strongly linked to the different types of galaxies. While the Luminosity Density of irregular-like galaxies decreased by more than a factor 3.5 from z = 1.2 to z = 0.2, the LD for early-type galaxies increased by a factor 1.7. Star formation happened in several phases, strongly luminosity dependent, with star formation gradually shifting from the first massive galaxies to less massive systems. The peak in SFR at z = 3.5 is identified with the end of the mass assembly of the most luminous galaxies (M-AB(1500 angstrom) < -21). We use the SWIRE Spitzer-IRAC observations of the VVDS-02h field to assemble a flux-limited sample at 3.8 mu m of 1500 galaxies with spectroscopic redshifts and more than 22000 galaxies with photometric redshifts up to z = 2 and build the rest-frame K-band luminosity function and stellar mass density. We find that the global stellar mass density has remained relatively constant since z similar to 1, but the epoch 1 < z < 2 has seen an increase of more than a factor 10 in the stellar mass density of red galaxies selected based on the bimodal distribution of (NUV-r) colors, while in the same period blue galaxies have seen only a modest factor 2 increase. We interpret this as the fast build-up of the red sequence of galaxies, essentially complete by z similar to 1.

Taking advantage of the efficient VIMOS multi-slit spectrograph on the VLT, we are conducting the VIMOS VLT Deep Survey (VVDS), aimed to trace the evolution of galaxies and large-scale structures over more than 90% of the life of the Universe. The VVDS is made of three magnitude selected surveys: the wide survey at IAB = 22.5, the deep survey at IAB = 24, and the ultra-deep survey at IAB = 24.75. To date, the VVDS has assembled more than 45000 redshifts in the range 0 < z ≤ 5. A number of results have been obtained, including a comprehensive view of the luminosity and stellar mass evolution as a function of galaxy type over 0 < z ≤ 2, a detailed look at the evolution of the clustering of galaxies as a function of type and environment, and a complete census of the actively star-forming galaxy population for 1.5 < z ≤ 5. This paper focuses on current highlights and on-going work from the VVDS.

We present a detailed analysis of the Galaxy Stellar Mass Function of galaxies up to z=2.5 as obtained from the VVDS. We estimate the stellar mass from broad-band photometry using 2 different assumptions on the galaxy star formation history and show that the addition of secondary bursts to a continuous star formation history produces systematically higher (up to 40%) stellar masses. At low redshift (z=0.2) we find a substantial population of low-mass galaxies (10^8 Msun at z=1), and a mild mass-dependent average evolution (`mass-downsizing'). In particular our data are consistent with mild/negligible (6x10^10 Msun). For less massive systems the no-evolution scenario is excluded. A large fraction (>=50%) of massive galaxies have been already assembled and converted most of their gas into stars at z=1, ruling out the `dry mergers' as the major mechanism of their assembly history below z=1. This fraction decreases to 33% at z=2. Low-mass systems have decreased continuously in number and mass density (by a factor up to 4) from the present age to z=2, consistently with a prolonged mass assembly also at z, 20 pages with 12 encapsulated figures. Version accepted by A&A

Astronomy and Astrophysics 559 (2013): A114 reproduced with permission from Astronomy and Astrophysics, The use of integral field spectroscopy is since recently allowing to measure the emission line fluxes of an increasingly large number of star-forming galaxies, both locally and at high redshift. Many studies have used these fluxes to derive the gas-phase metallicity of the galaxies by applying the so-called strong-line methods. However, the metallicity indicators that these datasets use were empirically calibrated using few direct abundance data points (Te-based measurements). Furthermore, a precise determination of the prediction intervals of these indicators is commonly lacking in these calibrations. Such limitations might lead to systematic errors in determining the gas-phase metallicity, especially at high redshift, which might have a strong impact on our understanding of the chemical evolution of the Universe. The main goal of this study is to review the most widely used empirical oxygen calibrations, O3N2 and N2, by using newdirect abundance measurements. We pay special attention to (1) the expected uncertainty of these calibrations as a function of the index value or abundance derived and (2) the presence of possible systematic offsets. This is possible thanks to the analysis of the most ambitious compilation of Te-based H ii regions to date. This new dataset compiles the Te-based abundances of 603 H ii regions extracted from the literature but also includes new measurements from the CALIFA survey. Besides providing new and improved empirical calibrations for the gas abundance, we also present a comparison between our revisited calibrations with a total of 3423 additional CALIFA H ii complexes with abundances derived using the ONS calibration from the literature. The combined analysis of T e-based and ONS abundances allows us to derive their most accurate calibration to date for both the O3N2 and N2 single-ratio indicators, in terms of all statistical significance, quality, and coverage of the parameters space. In particular, we infer that these indicators show shallower abundance dependencies and statistically significant offsets compared to others'. The O3N2 and N2 indicators can be empirically applied to derive oxygen abundances calibrations from either direct abundance determinations with random errors of 0.18 and 0.16, respectively, or from indirect ones (but based on a large amount of data), reaching an average precision of 0.08 and 0.09 dex (random) and 0.02 and 0.08 dex (systematic; compared to the direct estimations), respectively, R.A. Marino is funded by the Spanish program of International Campus of Excellence Moncloa (CEI). D. Mast thank the Plan Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo funding programs, AYA2012-31935 of the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, for the support given to this project. S.F.S thanks the the Ramón y Cajal project RyC-2011-07590 of the spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, for the support giving to this project. F.F.R.O. acknowledges the Mexican National Council for Science and Technology (CONACYT) for financial support under the program Estancias Postdoctorales y Sabáticas al Extranjero para la Consolidación de Grupos de Investigación, 2010-2012. We acknowledge financial support for the ESTALLIDOS collaboration by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación under grant AYA2010- 21887-C04-03. BG-L also acknowledges support from the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) under grant AYA2012- 39408-C02-02. J.F.-B. acknowledges financial support from the Ramón y Cajal Program and grant AYA2010-21322-C03-02 from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO), as well as to the DAGAL network from the People’s Program (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union’s Seventh Framework Program FP7/2007-2013/ under REA grant agreement number PITN-GA-2011-289313. CK has been funded by project AYA2010-21887 from the Spanish PNAYA. P.P. acknowledges support by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) under project FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-029170 (Reference FCT PTDC/FIS-AST/3214/2012), funded by FCT-MEC (PIDDAC) and FEDER (COMPETE). R.M.G.D. and R.G.B. also acknowledge support from the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) under grant AyA2010-15081. V.S., L.G., and A.M.M. acknowledge financial support from the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) under program Ciência 2008 and the research grant PTDC/CTE-AST/112582/2009

Husemann, B. et. al., We present the first public data release (DR1) of the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area (CALIFA) survey. It consists of science-grade optical datacubes for the first 100 of eventually 600 nearby (0.005 < z < 0.03) galaxies, obtained with the integral-field spectrograph PMAS/PPak mounted on the 3.5 m telescope at the Calar Alto observatory. The galaxies in DR1 already cover a wide range of properties in color-magnitude space, morphological type, stellar mass, and gas ionization conditions. This offers the potential to tackle a variety of open questions in galaxy evolution using spatially resolved spectroscopy. Two different spectral setups are available for each galaxy, (i) a low-resolution V500 setup covering the nominal wavelength range 3745-7500 Å with a spectral resolution of 6.0 Å (FWHM), and (ii) a medium-resolution V1200 setup covering the nominal wavelength range 3650-4840 Å with a spectral resolution of 2.3 Å (FWHM). We present the characteristics and data structure of the CALIFA datasets that should be taken into account for scientific exploitation of the data, in particular the effects of vignetting, bad pixels and spatially correlated noise. The data quality test for all 100 galaxies showed that we reach a median limiting continuum sensitivity of 1.0 × 10-18 erg s-1 cm-2 Å-1 arcsec-2 at 5635 Å and 2.2 × 10 -18 erg s-1 cm-2 Å-1 arcsec-2 at 4500 Å for the V500 and V1200 setup respectively, which corresponds to limiting r and g band surface brightnesses of 23.6 mag arcsec-2 and 23.4 mag arcsec-2, or an unresolved emission-line flux detection limit of roughly 1 × 10-17 erg s-1 cm-2 arcsec-2 and 0.6 × 10 -17 erg s-1 cm-2 arcsec-2, respectively. The median spatial resolution is 3-7, and the absolute spectrophotometric calibration is better than 15% (1σ). We also describe the available interfaces and tools that allow easy access to this first publicCALIFA data at http://califa.caha.es/DR1. © 2013 ESO.

Acknowledgements. We thank the referee Eric Emsellem for his detailed comments which helped to improve the content and presentation of the article. We thank the director of CEFCA, Dr. M. Moles, for his sincere support to this project. We thank the Viabilidad, Diseno, Acceso y Mejora funding program, ICTS-2009-10, and the Plan Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo funding program, AYA2010-22111-C03-03, of the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion, for the support given to this project. I.M. and J.M. acknowledge financial support from the Spanish grant AYA2010-15169 and Junta de Andalucía TIC114 and Excellence Project P08-TIC-03531. C.K., as a Humboldt Fellow, acknowledges support from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany. B. Jungwiert acknowledges support by the grants AV0Z10030501 (Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic) and LC06014 (Center for Theoretical Astrophysics, Czech Ministry of Education). T. Bartáková acknowledges support by the grants No. 205/08/H005 (Czech Science Foundation) and MUNI/A/0968/2009 (Masaryk University in Brno). Polychronis Papaderos is supported by a Ciencia 2008 contract, funded by FCT/MCTES (Portugal) and POPH/FSE (EC). This paper makes use of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey data. Funding for the SDSS and SDSS-II has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Participating Institutions, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Japanese Monbukagakusho, the Max Planck Society, and the Higher Education Funding Council for England. The SDSS Web Site is http://www.sdss.org/. The SDSS is managed by the Astrophysical Research Consortium for the Participating Institutions. The Participating Institutions are the American Museum of Natural History, Astrophysical Institute Potsdam, University of Basel, University of Cambridge, Case Western Reserve University, University of Chicago, Drexel University, Fermilab, the Institute for Advanced Study, the Japan Participation Group, Johns Hopkins University, the Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics, the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, the Korean Scientist Group, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (LAMOST), Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Max-PlanckInstitute for Astronomy (MPIA), the Max-Planck-Institute for Astrophysics (MPA), New Mexico State University, Ohio State University, University of Pittsburgh, University of Portsmouth, Princeton University, the United States Naval Observatory, and the University of Washington., The final product of galaxy evolution through cosmic time is the population of galaxies in the local universe. These galaxies are also those that can be studied in most detail, thus providing a stringent benchmark for our understanding of galaxy evolution. Through the huge success of spectroscopic single-fiber, statistical surveys of the Local Universe in the last decade, it has become clear, however, that an authoritative observational description of galaxies will involve measuring their spatially resolved properties over their full optical extent for a statistically significant sample. We present here the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area (CALIFA) survey, which has been designed to provide a first step in this direction. We summarize the survey goals and design, including sample selection and observational strategy. We also showcase the data taken during the first observing runs (June/July 2010) and outline the reduction pipeline, quality control schemes and general characteristics of the reduced data. This survey is obtaining spatially resolved spectroscopic information of a diameter selected sample of ~600 galaxies in the Local Universe (0.005 < z < 0.03). CALIFA has been designed to allow the building of two-dimensional maps of the following quantities: (a) stellar populations: ages and metallicities; (b) ionized gas: distribution, excitation mechanism and chemical abundances; and (c) kinematic properties: both from stellar and ionized gas components. CALIFA uses the PPAK integral field unit (IFU), with a hexagonal field-of-view of ~1.3⎕′, with a 100% covering factor by adopting a three-pointing dithering scheme. The optical wavelength range is covered from 3700 to 7000 Å, using two overlapping setups (V500 and V1200), with different resolutions: R ~ 850 and R ~ 1650, respectively. CALIFA is a legacy survey, intended for the community. The reduced data will be released, once the quality has been guaranteed. The analyzed data fulfillthe expectations of the original observing proposal, on the basis of a set of quality checks and exploratory analysis: (i) the final datacubes reach a 3σ limiting surface brightness depth of ~23.0 mag/arcsec2 for the V500 grating data (~22.8 mag/arcsec2 for V1200); (ii) about ~70% of the covered field-of-view is above this 3σ limit; (iii) the data have a blue-to-red relative flux calibration within a few percent in most of the wavelength range; (iv) the absolute flux calibration is accurate within ~8%with respect to SDSS; (v) the measured spectral resolution is ~85 km s-1 for V1200 (~150 km s-1 for V500); (vi) the estimated accuracy of the wavelength calibration is ~5 km s-1 for the V1200 data (~10 km s-1 for the V500 data); (vii) the aperture matched CALIFA and SDSS spectra are qualitatively and quantitatively similar. Finally, we show that we are able to carry out all measurements indicated above, recovering the properties of the stellar populations, the ionized gas andthe kinematics of both components. The associated maps illustrate the spatial variation of these parameters across the field, reemphasizing the redshift dependence of single aperture spectroscopic measurements. We conclude from this first look at the data that CALIFA will be an important resource for archaeological studies of galaxies in the Local Universe., CEFCA, Viabilidad, Diseno, Acceso y Mejora ICTS-2009-10, Instituto de Salud Carlos III Spanish Government AYA2010-22111-C03-03, Spanish grant AYA2010-15169, Junta de Andalucia TIC114, Excellence Project P08-TIC-03531, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Czech Academy of Sciences AV0Z10030501, Center for Theoretical Astrophysics, Czech Ministry of Education LC06014, Grant Agency of the Czech Republic 205/08/H005, Masaryk University in Brno MUNI/A/0968/2009, Ciencia 2008 contract, Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, European Commission Joint Research Centre, European Social Fund (ESF), Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, National Science Foundation (NSF), United States Department of Energy (DOE), National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA), Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan (MEXT), Max Planck Society Foundation CELLEX, Higher Education Funding Council for England, Science & Technology Facilities Council (STFC) ST/H00243X/1 ST/J001538/1 ST/H004912/1

In this work we analyze the spectroscopic properties of a large number of H ii regions, \sim2600, located in 38 galaxies. The sample of galaxies has been assembled from the face-on spirals in the PINGS survey and a sample described in M\'armol-Queralt\'o (2011, henceforth Paper I). All the galaxies were observed using Integral Field Spectroscopy with a similar setup, covering their optical extension up to \sim2.4 effective radii within a wavelength range from \sim3700 to \sim6900{\AA}. We develop a new automatic procedure to detect H ii regions, based on the contrast of the H{\alpha} intensity maps. Once detected, the procedure provides us with the integrated spectra of each individual segmented region. A well-tested automatic decoupling procedure has been applied to remove the underlying stellar population, deriving the main proper- ties of the strongest emission lines in the considered wavelength range (covering from [O ii] {\lambda}3727 to [S ii] {\lambda}6731). A final catalogue of the spectroscopic properties of these regions has been created for each galaxy. In the current study we focused on the understanding of the average properties of the H ii regions and their radial distributions. We find that the gas-phase oxygen abundance and the H{\alpha} equivalent width present negative and positive gradient, respectively. The distribution of slopes is statistically compatible with a random Gaussian distribution around the mean value, if the radial distances are measured in units of the respective effective radius. No difference in the slope is found for galaxies of different morphologies: barred/non-barred, grand-design/flocculent. Therefore, the effective radius is a universal scale length for gradients in the evolution of galaxies. Other properties have a larger variance across each object., Comment: 29 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publishing in Astronomy and Astrophysics (A&A)

We present differential stellar population models, which allow improved determinations of the ages, iron and alpha-element abundances of old stellar populations from spectral fitting. These new models are calibrated at solar abundances using the predictions from classical, semi-empirical stellar population models. We then use the predictive power of fully synthetic models to compute predictions for different [Fe/H] and [alpha/Fe]. We show that these new differential models provide remarkably accurate fits to the integrated optical spectra of the bulge globular clusters NGC6528 and NGC6553, and that the inferred [Fe/H] and [alpha/Fe] agree with values derived elsewhere from stellar photometry and spectroscopy. The analysis of a small sample of SDSS early-type galaxies further confirms that our alpha-enhanced models provide a better fit to the spectra of massive ellipticals than the solar-scaled ones. Our approach opens new opportunities for precision measurements of abundance ratios in galaxies., 5 pages, 5 figures, MNRAS in press

Hierarchical models of galaxy formation predict that the properties of a dark matter halo depend on the large-scale environment surrounding the halo. As a result of this correlation, we expect massive haloes to be present in larger number in overdense regions than in underdense ones. Given that a correlation exists between a galaxy stellar mass and the hosting dark matter halo mass, the segregation in dark matter halo mass should then result in a segregation in the distribution of stellar mass in the galaxy population. In this work we study the distribution of galaxy stellar mass and rest-frame optical color as a function of the large-scale galaxy distribution using the VLT VIMOS Deep Survey sample, in order to verify the presence of segregation in the properties of the galaxy population. We use the VVDS redshift measurements and multi-band photometric data to derive estimates of the stellar mass, rest-frame optical color, and of the large-scale galaxy density, on a scale of approximately 8 Mpc, for a sample of 5619 galaxies in the redshift range 0.20.7. However, when we consider only galaxies in narrow bins of stellar mass, in order to exclude the effects of the stellar mass segregation on the galaxy properties, we do not observe any more any significant color segregation., Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures; accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics

We have reconstructed the three-dimensional density fluctuation maps to z ~ 1.5 using the distribution of galaxies observed in the VVDS-Deep survey. We use this overdensity field to measure the evolution of the probability distribution function and its lower-order moments over the redshift interval 0.7, Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, A&A in Press

The rotational velocity of distant galaxies, when interpreted as a size (luminosity) indicator, may be used as a tool to select high redshift standard rods (candles) and probe world models and galaxy evolution via the classical angular diameter-redshift or Hubble diagram tests. We implement the proposed testing strategy using a sample of 30 rotators spanning the redshift range 0.2, Comment: 14 pages and 11 figures. A&A in press

AIMS. We present a new Ks-band survey that represents a significant extension to the previous wide-field Ks-band imaging survey within the 0226-04 field of the VIMOS-VLT deep survey (VVDS). The new data add ~ 458 arcmin^2 to the previous imaging program, thus allowing us to cover a total contiguous area of ~ 600 arcmin^2 within this field. METHODS. Sources are identified both directly on the final K-band mosaic image and on the corresponding, deep chi^2-g'r'i' image from the CFHT Legacy Survey in order to reduce contamination while ensuring us the compilation of a truly K-selected catalogue down to the completeness limit of the Ks-band. The newly determined Ks-band magnitudes are used in combination with the ancillary multiwavelength data for the determination of accurate photometric redshifts. RESULTS. The final catalogue totals ~ 52000 sources, out of which ~ 4400 have a spectroscopic redshift from the VVDS first epoch survey. The catalogue is 90% complete down to K_Vega = 20.5 mag. We present K_s-band galaxy counts and angular correlation function measurements down to such magnitude limit. Our results are in good agreement with previously published work. We show that the use of K magnitudes in the determination of photometric redshifts significantly lowers the incidence of catastrophic errors. The data presented in this paper are publicly available through the CENCOS database., Comment: 16 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in A&A on 01/02/2008

We study the LF of the high-z galaxy population with 3

In a previous paper (Gavignaud et al. 2006), we presented the type-1 Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) sample obtained from the first epoch data of the VIMOS-VLT Deep Survey (VVDS). The sample consists of 130 faint, broad-line AGN with redshift up to z=5 and 17.5< I, 13 pages, 10 figures, submitted to A&A

(abridged abstract) We present an analysis of the stellar mass growth over the last 10 Gyrs using a large 3.6$\mu$ selected sample. We split our sample into active (blue) and quiescent (red) galaxies. Our measurements of the K-LFs and LD evolution support the idea that a large fraction of galaxies is already assembled at $z\sim 1.2$. Based on the analysis of the evolution of the stellar mass-to-light ratio (in K-band) for the spectroscopic sub-sample, we derive the stellar mass density for the entire sample. We find that the global evolution of the stellar mass density is well reproduced by the star formation rate derived from UV dust corrected measurements. Over the last 8Gyrs, we observe that the stellar mass density of the active population remains approximately constant while it gradually increases for the quiescent population over the same timescale. As a consequence, the growth of the stellar mass in the quiescent population must be due to the shutoff of star formation in active galaxies that migrate into the quiescent population. From $z=2$ to $z=1.2$, we observe a major build-up of the quiescent population with an increase by a factor of 10 in stellar mass, suggesting that we are observing the epoch when an increasing fraction of galaxies are ending their star formation activity and start to build up the red sequence., Comment: Accepted to A&A with major changes. 1 table and 13 figures

We present the Early Data Release of the Sydney-AAO Multi-object Integral field spectrograph (SAMI) Galaxy Survey. The SAMI Galaxy Survey is an ongoing integral field spectroscopic survey of ~3400 low-redshift (z, MNRAS accepted. 16 pages, 20 figures. Galaxy datacubes and related data available from http://sami-survey.org/edr . v2: Minor edits to match accepted version

We discuss the evolution of clustering of galaxies in the Universe from the present epoch back to z ~ 2, using the first-epoch data from the VIMOS-VLT Deep Survey (VVDS). We present the evolution of the projected two-point correlation function of galaxies for the global galaxy population, as well as its dependence on galaxy intrinsic luminosities and spectral types. While we do not find strong variations of the correlation function parameters with redshift for the global galaxy population, the clustering of objects with different intrinsic luminosities evolved significantly during last 8-10 billion years. Our findings indicate that bright galaxies in the past traced higher density peaks than they do now and that the shape of the correlation function of most luminous galaxies is different from observed for their local counterparts, which is a supporting evidence of a non-trivial evolution of the galaxy vs. dark matter bias., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the conference 'At the Edge of the Universe' (9-13 October 2006, Sintra, Portugal)