Search

We present an analysis of the kinematics and ionization conditions in a sample composed of seven star-forming galaxies undergoing ram-pressure stripping in the A1367 cluster, and the galaxy ESO137-001 in the Norma cluster. MUSE observations of two new galaxies in this sample, CGCG097-073 and CGCG097-079, are also presented. This sample is characterized by homogeneous integral field spectroscopy with MUSE and by a consistent selection based on the presence of ionised gas tails. The ratio [OI]/H${\alpha}$ is consistently elevated in the tails of these objects compared to what observed in unperturbed galaxy disks, an ubiquitous feature which we attribute to shocks or turbulent phenomena in the stripped gas. Compact star-forming regions are observed in only $\approx$ 50% of the tails, implying that specific (currently unknown) conditions are needed to trigger star formation inside the stripped gas. Focusing on the interface regions between the interstellar and intracluster medium, we observe different line ratios that we associate to different stages of the stripping process, with galaxies at an early stage of perturbation showing more prominent signatures of elevated star formation. Our analysis thus demonstrates the power of a well selected and homogeneous sample to infer general properties arising from ram-pressure stripping inside local clusters., Comment: 19 pages, 14 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

We present spectroscopic measurements for 71 galaxies associated with 62 of the brightest high-redshift submillimeter sources from the Southern fields of the Herschel Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey (H-ATLAS), while targeting 85 sources which resolved into 142. We have obtained robust redshift measurements for all sources using the 12-m Array and an efficient tuning of ALMA to optimise its use as a redshift hunter, with 73 per cent of the sources having a robust redshift identification. Nine of these redshift identifications also rely on observations from the Atacama Compact Array. The spectroscopic redshifts span a range $1.41

This report is the result of a joint discussion between the Rubin and Euclid scientific communities. The work presented in this report was focused on designing and recommending an initial set of Derived Data products (DDPs) that could realize the science goals enabled by joint processing. All interested Rubin and Euclid data rights holders were invited to contribute via an online discussion forum and a series of virtual meetings. Strong interest in enhancing science with joint DDPs emerged from across a wide range of astrophysical domains: Solar System, the Galaxy, the Local Volume, from the nearby to the primaeval Universe, and cosmology., Comment: Report of the Rubin-Euclid Derived Data Products Working Group, 78 pages, 11 figures

We present the Strong Lensing Science Collaboration's (SLSC) recommended observing targets for the science verification and science validation phases of commissioning. Our recommendations have been developed in collaboration with the Dark Energy Science Collaboration (DESC) Strong Lensing Topical Team. In summary, our key recommendations are as follows: (1) Prioritize fields that span the full range of declination observable from Cerro Pachon during the engineering focused Science Verification phase of commissioning, before concentrating on equatorial fields for the Science Validation surveys. (2) Observe quadruply lensed quasars as the ultimate test of the Active Optics system towards the end of the Science Verification phase of commissioning. These systems are the strongest tests known for delivered image quality. (3) Prioritize science validation survey fields (both single deep pointings and wide fields) that have been searched thoroughly by precursor surveys for strong lenses. (4) The optimal wide (~100 degree^2) science validation field would include the CFHT-LS W4 field, and overlap with the SDSS Stripe 82, DES-SN, KIDS and HSC-SSP fields. (5) The optimal single pointing science validation fields are the XMM-LSS and COSMOS Deep Drilling Fields, the equatorial Hubble Frontier Fields galaxy clusters, and strongly lensed quasars with measured time delays that are well-matched to commissioning timescales., Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure

As part of the VESTIGE survey, a blind narrow-band Ha+[NII] imaging survey of the Virgo cluster carried out with MegaCam at the CFHT, we discovered 8 massive lenticular galaxies with prominent ionised gas emission features in their inner (few kpc) regions. These features are either ionised gas filaments similar to those observed in cooling flows (2 gal), or thin discs with sizes 0.7

We present a search for disturbed, candidate ram pressure stripping galaxies across more than 50 spectroscopically selected SDSS groups and clusters. Forty-eight ram pressure candidates are visually identified in these systems using high quality UNIONS imaging from the Canada-France Hawaii Telescope, covering ~6200 and ~2800 square degrees in the u- and r-bands respectively. Ram pressure candidates are found in groups and clusters spanning a wide range in halo mass and include ~30 ram pressure candidates in the group regime ($M_h < 10^{14}$). The observed frequency of ram pressure candidates shows substantial scatter with group/cluster mass, but on average is larger in clusters ($M_h > 10^{14}\,M_\odot$) than groups ($M_h < 10^{14}\,M_\odot$) by a factor of ~2. We find that ram pressure candidates are most commonly low-mass galaxies and have enhanced star formation rates relative to star-forming field galaxies. The enhancement in star formation is largely independent of galaxy mass and strongest for galaxies in clusters. As a result of the large survey footprint and excellent image quality from UNIONS, we are able to identify disturbed galaxies, potentially affected by ram pressure stripping, across a wide range of host environment., Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, 1 appendix, accepted for publication in MNRAS

We present a search for galaxy-scale strong gravitational lenses in the initial 2 500 square degrees of the Canada-France Imaging Survey (CFIS). We designed a convolutional neural network (CNN) committee that we applied to a selection of 2 344 002 exquisite-seeing $r$-band images of color-selected luminous red galaxies (LRGs). Our classification uses a realistic training set where the lensing galaxies and the lensed sources are both taken from real data, namely the CFIS $r$-band images themselves and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). A total of 9 460 candidates obtain a score above 0.5 with the CNN committee. After a visual inspection of the candidates, we find a total of 133 lens candidates, of which 104 are completely new. The set of false positives mainly contains ring, spiral, and merger galaxies, and to a lesser extent galaxies with nearby companions. We classify 32 of the lens candidates as secure lenses and 101 as maybe lenses. For the 32 highest quality lenses, we also fit a singular isothermal ellipsoid mass profile with external shear along with an elliptical Sersic profile for the lens and source light. This automated modeling step provides distributions of properties for both sources and lenses that have Einstein radii in the range $0.5\arcsec<\theta_E<2.5\arcsec$. Finally, we introduce a new lens and/or source single-band deblending algorithm based on auto-encoder representation of our candidates. This is the first time an end-to-end lens-finding and modeling pipeline is assembled together, in view of future lens searches in a single band, as will be possible with Euclid., Comment: 29 pages, 21 figures, accepted by A&A, in press

We report the discovery of five new doubly-imaged lensed quasars from the first 2500 square degrees of the ongoing Canada-France Imaging Survey (CFIS), which is a component of the Ultraviolet Near Infrared Optical Northern Survey (UNIONS), selected from initial catalogues of either Gaia pairs or MILLIQUAS quasars. We take advantage of the deep, 0.6'' median-seeing $r$-band imaging of CFIS to confirm the presence of multiple point sources with similar colour of $u-r$, via convolution of the Laplacian of the point spread function. Requiring similar-colour point sources with flux ratios less than 2.5 mag in $r$-band, reduces the number of candidates from 256314 to 7815. After visual inspection we obtain 30 high-grade candidates, and prioritise spectroscopic follow-up for those showing signs of a lensing galaxy upon subtraction of the point sources. We obtain long-slit spectra for 18 candidates with ALFOSC on the 2.56-m Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT), confirming five new doubly lensed quasars with $1.21

We present a comparative analysis of the $\rm CH^+$(1-0) and $\rm Ly \alpha$ lines, observed with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) and Keck telescope respectively, in the field of the submillimetre-selected galaxy (SMG) SMM\,J02399$-$0136 at $z\sim2.8$, which comprises a heavily obscured starburst galaxy and a broad absorption line quasar, immersed in a large $\rm Ly \alpha$ nebula. This comparison highlights the critical role played by turbulence in channeling the energy across gas phases and scales, splitting the energy trail between hot/thermal and cool/turbulent phases in the circum-galactic medium (CGM). The unique chemical and spectroscopic properties of $\rm CH^+$ are used to infer the existence of a massive ($\sim 3.5 \times 10^{10}$ ${\rm M}_\odot$), highly turbulent reservoir of diffuse molecular gas of radius $\sim 20\,$kpc coinciding with the core of the $\rm Ly \alpha$ nebula. The whole cool and cold CGM is shown to be inflowing towards the galaxies at a velocity $\sim$ 400 km$\,s^{-1}$. Several kpc-scale shocks are detected tentatively in $\rm CH^+$ emission. Their specific location in space and velocity with respect to the high-velocity $\rm Ly \alpha$ emission suggests that they lie at the interface of the inflowing CGM and the high-velocity $\rm Ly \alpha$ emission, and signpost the feeding of CGM turbulence by AGN- and stellar-driven outflows. The mass and energy budgets of the CGM require net mass accretion at a rate commensurate with the star formation rate (SFR). From this similarity, we infer that the merger-driven burst of star formation and black-hole growth are ultimately fuelled by large-scale gas accretion., Comment: 24 pages, 17 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

Recent studies have highlighted the potential significance of intracluster medium (ICM) clumping and its important implications for cluster cosmology and baryon physics. Many of the ICM clumps can originate from infalling galaxies, as stripped interstellar medium (ISM) mixing into the hot ICM. However, a direct connection between ICM clumping and stripped ISM has not been unambiguously established before. Here we present the discovery of the first and still the only known isolated cloud (or orphan cloud, OC) detected in both X-rays and H$\alpha$ in the nearby cluster Abell 1367. With an effective radius of 30 kpc, this cloud has an average X-ray temperature of 1.6 keV, a bolometric X-ray luminosity of $\sim 3.1\times 10^{41}$ erg s$^{-1}$ and a hot gas mass of $\sim 10^{10}\ {\rm M}_\odot$. From the MUSE data, the OC shows an interesting velocity gradient nearly along the east-west direction with a low level of velocity dispersion of $\sim 80$ km/s, which may suggest a low level of the ICM turbulence. The emission line diagnostics suggest little star formation in the main H$\alpha$ cloud and a LI(N)ER-like spectrum, but the excitation mechanism remain unclear. This example shows that the stripped ISM, even long time after the initial removal from the galaxy, can still induce the ICM inhomogeneities. We suggest that magnetic field can stabilize the OC by suppressing hydrodynamic instabilities and thermal conduction. This example also suggests that at least some ICM clumps are multi-phase in nature and implies that the ICM clumps can also be traced in H$\alpha$. Thus, future deep and wide-field H$\alpha$ survey can be used to probe the ICM clumping and turbulence., Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables, MNRAS, in press, minor changes with abstract/conclusion the same

The impact of ram pressure stripping on galaxy evolution is well known. Recent multi-wavelength data have revealed many examples of galaxies undergoing stripping, often accompanied with multi-phase tails. As energy transfer in the multi-phase medium is an outstanding question in astrophysics, galaxies in stripping are great objects to study. Despite the recent burst of observational evidence, the relationship between gas in different phases in the tails is poorly known. Here we report a strong linear correlation between the X-ray surface brightness and the H$\alpha$ surface brightness of the diffuse gas in the stripped tails at $\sim$ 10 - 40 kpc scales, with a slope of $\sim$ 3.5. This discovery provides evidence for the mixing of the stripped interstellar medium with the hot intracluster medium as the origin of the multi-phase tails. The established relation in stripped tails, also in comparison with the likely related correlations in similar environments like galactic winds and X-ray cool cores, provides an important test for models of energy transfer in the multi-phase gas. It also indicates the importance of the H$\alpha$ data to study clumping and turbulence in the intracluster medium., Comment: Published on Nature Astronomy on Dec. 13, 2021, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-021-01516-8; results updated with more MUSE data, region updates and more discussion; conclusions unchanged

Large amounts of deep optical images will be available in the near future, allowing statistically significant studies of low surface brightness structures such as intracluster light (ICL) in galaxy clusters. The detection of these structures requires efficient algorithms dedicated to this task, where traditional methods suffer difficulties. We present our new Detection Algorithm with Wavelets for Intracluster light Studies (DAWIS), developed and optimised for the detection of low surface brightness sources in images, in particular (but not limited to) ICL. DAWIS follows a multiresolution vision based on wavelet representation to detect sources, embedded in an iterative procedure called synthesis-by-analysis approach to restore the complete unmasked light distribution of these sources with very good quality. The algorithm is built so sources can be classified based on criteria depending on the analysis goal; we display in this work the case of ICL detection and the measurement of ICL fractions. We test the efficiency of DAWIS on 270 mock images of galaxy clusters with various ICL profiles and compare its efficiency to more traditional ICL detection methods such as the surface brightness threshold method. We also run DAWIS on a real galaxy cluster image, and compare the output to results obtained with previous multiscale analysis algorithms. We find in simulations that in average DAWIS is able to disentangle galaxy light from ICL more efficiently, and to detect a greater quantity of ICL flux due to the way it handles sky background noise. We also show that the ICL fraction, a metric used on a regular basis to characterise ICL, is subject to several measurement biases both on galaxies and ICL fluxes. In the real galaxy cluster image, DAWIS detects a faint and extended source with an absolute magnitude two orders brighter than previous multiscale methods., Comment: 31 pages, 12 figures

We study the IB(s)m galaxy IC 3476 observed in the context of VESTIGE, a blind narrow-band Halpha+[NII] imaging survey of the Virgo cluster. The deep narrow-band (NB) image reveals a very pertubed ionised gas distribution, characterised by a prominent banana-shaped structure in the front of the galaxy formed of giant HII regions crossing the stellar disc, with star forming structures at ~8 kpc from the edges of the stellar disc, detected also in a deep FUV ASTROSAT/UVIT image. This particular morphology indicates that the galaxy is undergoing an almost edge-on ram pressure stripping event. The NB image also shows that the star formation activity is totally quenched in the leading edge of the disc, where the gas has been removed during the interaction. The SED fitting analysis indicates that this quenching episode is very recent (~50 Myr), and roughly corresponds to an increase of the star formation activity in the inner regions with respect to what expected for secular evolution. The analysis of these data, whose angular resolution allows the study of the induced effects of the perturbation down to the scale of individual HII regions, also suggests that the increase of the star formation activity is due to the compression of the gas along the stellar disc of the galaxy, which is able to increase its mean electron density and boost the star formation process producing bright HII regions. The hydrodynamic interaction has deeply perturbed the velocity field of the ionised gas component while leaving unaffected that of the stellar disc. The comparison of the data with hydrodynamic simulations accounting for the different gas phases (atomic, molecular, ionised) consistently indicates that the perturbing event is very recent, once again confirming that ram pressure stripping is a violent phenomenon able to perturb on short timescales the evolution of galaxies in rich environments., Comment: Accepted for publication on Astronomy & Astrophysics

(Abridged) Exploiting the sensitivity and broad band width of NOEMA, we have studied the molecular gas and dust in the galaxy HerBS-89a, at z=2.95. High angular resolution images reveal a partial 1.0" diameter Einstein ring in the dust continuum emission and the molecular emission lines of 12CO(9-8) and H2O(2_02-1_11). We report the detection of the three fundamental transitions of the molecular ion OH+, seen in absorption; the molecular ion CH+(1-0) seen in absorption (and tentatively in emission); two transitions of amidogen (NH2), seen in emission; and HCN(11-10) and/or NH(1_2-0_1) seen in absorption. The NOEMA data are complemented with VLA data tracing the 12CO(1-0) emission line, which provides a measurement of the total mass of molecular gas and an anchor for a CO excitation analysis. In addition, we present HST imaging that reveals the foreground lensing galaxy in the near-infrared. Together with data from the GTC, we derive a photometric redshift of z(phot)~0.9 for the foreground lensing galaxy. Modelling the lensing of HerBS-89a, we reconstruct the dust continuum and molecular emission lines (magnified by a factor ~4-5) in the source plane. The 12CO(9-8) and H2O emission lines have comparable spatial and kinematic distributions; the source-plane reconstructions do not clearly distinguish between a one-component and a two-component scenario, but the latter accounts for the observed broad line widths. HerBS-89a is a powerful star forming galaxy with a dust-to-gas ratio delta(GDR)~80, a SFR = 614 +/- 59 Msun/yr and a depletion timescale tau(depl) = (3.4 +/- 1.0) 1e8 years. The OH+ and CH+ absorption lines, all have their main velocity component red-shifted by \Delta(V)~100 km/s relative to the global CO reservoir. We argue that these absorption lines trace a rare example of gas inflow towards the center of the galaxy., Comment: 33 pages, Accepted for publication on A&A