Search

Identifying very high-redshift galaxies is crucial for understanding the formation and evolution of galaxies. However, many questions still remain, and the uncertainty on the epoch of reionization is large. In this approach, some models allow a double-reionization scenario, although the number of confirmed detections at very high $z$ is still too low to serve as observational proof. The main goal of this project is studying whether we can search for Lyman-$\alpha$ emitters (LAEs) at $z \sim 9$ using a narrow-band (NB) filter that was specifically designed by our team and was built for this experiment. We used the NB technique to select candidates by measuring the flux excess due to the Ly$\alpha$ emission. The observations were taken with an NB filter (full width at half minimum of 11 nm and central wavelength $\lambda_{c} = 1.257 \mu$m) and the CIRCE near-infrared camera for the GTC. We describe a data reduction procedure that was especially optimized to minimize instrumental effects. With a total exposure time of 18.3 hours, the final NB image covers an area of $\sim 6.7$ arcmin$^{2}$, which corresponds to a comoving volume of $1.1 \times 10^{3}$ Mpc$^{3}$ at $z = 9.3$. We pushed the source detection to its limit, which allows us to analyze an initial sample of 97 objects. We detail the different criteria we applied to select the candidates. The criteria included visual verifications in different photometric bands. None of the objects resembled a reliable LAE, however, and we found no robust candidate down to an emission-line flux of $2.9 \times 10^{-16}$ erg s$^{-1} $cm$^{-2}$, which corresponds to a Ly$\alpha$ luminosity limit of $3 \times 10^{44}$ erg s$^{-1}$. We derive an upper limit on the Ly$\alpha$ luminosity function at $z \sim 9$ that agrees well with previous constraints. We conclude that deeper and wider surveys are needed to study the LAE population at the cosmic dawn., Comment: 17 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics

We show herein that a proto-cluster of Ly$\alpha$ emitting galaxies, spectroscopically confirmed at redshift 6.5, produces a remarkable number of ionising continuum photons. We start from the Ly$\alpha$ fluxes measured in the spectra of the sources detected spectroscopically. From these fluxes we derive the ionising emissivity of continuum photons of the proto-cluster, which we compare with the ionising emissivity required to reionise the proto-cluster volume. We find that the sources in the proto-cluster are capable of ionising a large bubble, indeed larger than the volume occupied by the proto-cluster. For various calculations we have used the model AMIGA, in particular to derive the emissivity of the Lyman continuum photons required to maintain the observed volume ionised. Besides, we have assumed the ionising photons escape fraction given by AMIGA at this redshift., Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure; MNRAS Letter, Accepted

We present ALMA Atacama Compact Array (ACA) 870 micron continuum maps of 28 infrared-bright SDSS quasars with Herschel/SPIRE detections at redshifts 2-4, the largest such sample ever observed with ALMA. The ACA detections are centred on the SDSS coordinates to within 1 arcsec for about 80 per cent of the sample. Larger offsets indicate that the far-infrared (FIR) emission detected by Herschel might come from a companion source. The majority of the objects (about 70 per cent) have unique ACA counterparts within the SPIRE beam down to 3-4 arcsec resolution. Only 30 per cent of the sample shows clear evidence for multiple sources with secondary counterparts contributing to the total 870 micron flux within the SPIRE beam to at least 25 per cent. We discuss the limitations of the data based on simulated pairs of point-like sources at the resolution of the ACA and present an extensive comparison of our findings with recent works on the multiplicities of sub-millimetre galaxies. We conclude that, despite the coarse resolution of the ACA, our data support the idea that, for a large fraction of FIR-bright quasars, the sub-mm emission comes from single sources. Our results suggest that, on average, optically bright quasars with strong FIR emission are not triggered by early-stage mergers but are, instead, together with their associated star formation rates, the outcome of either late-stage mergers or secular processes., Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures

We present the results of our search for the faint galaxies near the end of the Reionisation Epoch. This has been done using very deep OSIRIS images obtained at the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC). Our observations focus around two close, massive Lyman Alpha Emitters (LAEs) at redshift 6.5, discovered in the SXDS field within a large-scale overdense region (Ouchi et al. 2010). The total GTC observing time in three medium band filters (F883w35, F913w25 and F941w33) is over 34 hours covering $7.0\times8.5$ arcmin$^2$ (or $\sim30,000$ Mpc$^3$ at $z=6.5$). In addition to the two spectroscopically confirmed LAEs in the field, we have identified 45 other LAE candidates. The preliminary luminosity function derived from our observations, assuming a spectroscopic confirmation success rate of $\frac{2}{3}$ as in previous surveys, suggests this area is about 2 times denser than the general field galaxy population at $z=6.5$. If confirmed spectroscopically, our results will imply the discovery of one of the earliest protoclusters in the universe, which will evolve to resemble the most massive galaxy clusters today., Comment: 17 pages, 15 figures, 3 tables

The origin of the deficiency in neutral Hydrogen of 13 spiral galaxies lying in the outskirts of the Virgo cluster is reassessed. If these galaxies have passed through the core of the cluster, their interstellar gas should have been lost through ram pressure stripping by the hot X-ray emitting gas of the cluster. We analyze the positions of these HI-deficient and other spiral galaxies in velocity-distance plots, in which we include our compilation of velocity-distance data on 61 elliptical galaxies, and compare with simulated velocity-distance diagrams obtained from cosmological N-body simulations. We find that ~20% relative Tully-Fisher distance errors are consistent with the great majority of the spirals, except for a small number of objects, whose positions in the velocity-distance diagram suggest grossly incorrect distances, which implies that the Tully-Fisher error distribution function has non-gaussian wings. Moreover, we find that the distance errors may lead to an incorrect fitting of the Tolman-Bondi solution that can generate significant errors in the distance and especially the mass estimates of the cluster. We suggest 4 possibilities for the outlying HI-deficient spirals (in decreasing frequency): 1) they have large relative distance errors and are in fact close enough (at distances between 12.7 and 20.9 Mpc from us) to the cluster to have passed through its core and seen their gas removed by ram pressure stripping; 2) their gas is converted to stars by tidal interactions with other galaxies; 3) their gas is heated during recent mergers with smaller galaxies; and 4) they are in reality not HI-deficient (e.g. S0/a's misclassified as Sa's)., Comment: 22 pages, 6 figures. Accepted for publication in A&A

Spiral galaxies that are deficient in neutral Hydrogen are observed on the outskirts of the Virgo cluster. If their orbits have crossed the inner parts of the cluster, their interstellar gas may have been lost through ram pressure stripping by the hot X-ray emitting gas of the cluster. We estimate the maximum radius out to which galaxies can bounce out of a virialized system using analytical arguments and cosmological N-body simulations. In particular, we derive an expression for the turnaround radius in a flat cosmology with a cosmological constant that is simpler than previously derived expressions. We find that the maximum radius reached by infalling galaxies as they bounce out of their cluster is roughly between 1 and 2.5 virial radii. Comparing to the virial radius of the Virgo cluster, which we estimate from X-ray observations, these HI-deficient galaxies appear to lie significantly further away from the cluster center. Therefore, if their distances to the cluster core are correct, the HI-deficient spiral galaxies found outside of the Virgo cluster cannot have lost their gas by ram pressure from the hot intracluster gas., Comment: A&A, in press. 8 pages LaTeX2e with 1 figure

(Abridged) The distances and HI contents of 161 spiral galaxies in the region of Virgo cluster are used to gain insight into the complicated structure of this galaxy system. The 3D galaxy distribution has been inferred from quality distance estimates obtained by averaging distance moduli based upon the TF relationship taken from eight published datasets previously homogenized. Previous findings that the spiral distribution is substantially more elongated along the line-of-sight than in the plane of the sky are confirmed by the current data. In addition, an important east-west disparity in this effect has been detected. The overall width-to-depth ratio of the Virgo cluster region is about 1:4, with the most distant objects concentrated in the western half. The filamentary structure of the spiral population and its orientation are also reflected by the HI-deficient objects alone. The HI deficiency pattern shows a central enhancement arising from galaxies that belong to the Virgo cluster proper. However, significant gas deficiencies are also detected outside the main body of the cluster in a probable group of galaxies at line-of-sight distances 25-30 Mpc, as well as in various foreground galaxies. In the Virgo region, the HI content of the galaxies then is not a straightforward indicator of cluster membership., Comment: 35 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication by the Astronomical Journal

High-resolution N-body simulations of hierarchical cosmologies have shown that the density and velocity dispersion profiles of dark-matter haloes display well-definite universal forms whose origin remains unknown. In the present paper, we calculate the internal structure of haloes expected to arise in any such cosmologies by simply taking into account that halo growth proceeds through an alternate sequence of discrete major mergers and long periods of gentle accretion. Major mergers cause the violent relaxation of the system subject to the boundary conditions imposed by accreting layers beginning to fall in at that moment. Accretion makes the system develop inside-out from the previous seed according to the spherical infall model. The predicted structure is in very good agreement with the results of numerical simulations, particularly for moderate and low mass haloes. We find strong indications that the slight departure observed in more massive systems is not due to a poorer theoretical prediction, but to the more marked effects of the limited resolution used in the simulations on the empirical profiles. This may have important consequences on the reported universality of halo structure., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures. Submitted to MNRAS

A modified version of the extended Press-Schechter model for the growth of dark-matter haloes was introduced in two previous papers with the aim at explaining the mass-density relation shown by haloes in high-resolution cosmological simulations. In this model major mergers are well separated from accretion, thereby allowing a natural definition of halo formation and destruction. This makes it possible to derive analytic expressions for halo formation and destruction rates, the mass accretion rate, and the probability distribution functions of halo formation times and progenitor masses. The stochastic merger histories of haloes can be readily derived and easily incorporated into semi-analytical models of galaxy formation, thus avoiding the usual problems encountered in the construction of Monte Carlo merger trees from the original extended Press-Schechter formalism. Here we show that the predictions of the modified Press-Schechter model are in good agreement with the results of N-body simulations for several scale-free cosmologies., Comment: 17 pages including 7 figures, MNRAS in press

Subclustering is investigated in a set of 67 rich cluster galaxy samples extracted from the ESO Nearby Abell Cluster Survey (ENACS) catalog. We apply four well-known statistical techniques to evaluate the frequency with which substructure occurs. These diagnostics are sensitive to different aspects of the spatial and velocity distribution of galaxies and explore different scales, thus providing complementary tests of subclustering. The skewness and kurtosis of the global radial velocity distributions, useful for judging the normality, and the powerful $\Delta$ test of Dressler & Shectman, which measures local deviations from the global kinematics, show that the ENACS clusters exhibit a degree of clumpiness in reasonable agreement with that found in other less homogeneous and smaller cluster datasets. On the other hand, the average two-point correlation function of the projected galaxy distributions reveals that only $\sim 10%$ of the systems investigated show evidence for substructure at scale lengths smaller than 0.2 \mpc. This is much less than in earlier studies based on the Dressler & Shectman's cluster sample. We find indications of a possible systematic deficiency of galaxies at small intergalactic separations in the ENACS clusters., Comment: Accepted by A&A, 11 pages incl. 2 ps figures

We analyze the physical justification of the picture proposed by Salvador-Sole et al. in these proceedings for the time evolution of the universal density profile of dark-matter halos. According to this picture, halos have at formation a stable (i.e. independent of mass and time) dimensionless density profile, the characteristic length and density scales of the profile depending on the underlying cosmogony. Subsequent evolution is driven by mass accretion onto the outskirts of halos and can be characterized simply by the increment of halo radius with time and the corresponding decrease of the critical density of the universe. We find this picture to be a reasonable good description of the expected evolution of halos in hierarchical models of structure formation., Comment: More details on the results described by Raig et al. 1998 (astro-ph/9810168) can be found in this article from a talk given at the Sesto 1998 workshop on Observational Cosmology: The Development of Galaxy Systems. Proceedings to be published in ASP Conference Series. Includes 3 eps figures and uses paspconf.sty

High resolution cosmological N-body simulations show that the density profiles of dark matter halos in hierarchical cosmogonies are universal, with low mass halos typically denser than more massive ones. This mass-density correlation is interpreted as reflecting the earlier formation of less massive objects. We investigate this hypothesis in the light of formation times defined as the epoch at which halos experience their last major merger. We find that the characteristic density and the scale radius of halos are essentially proportional, respectively, to the critical density of the universe and the virial radius at the time of their formation. These two relations are consistent with the following simple evolutionary picture. Violent relaxation caused by major mergers rearrange the structure of halos leading to a universal dimensionless density profile. Between major mergers, halos gradually grow through the accretion of surrounding layers by keeping the central part steady and only expanding their virial radius as the critical density of the universe diminishes., Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures. To appear in `Observational Cosmology: The development of galaxy systems', eds. G. Giuricin, et al., PASP Conference Series

Dark-matter halos show a universal density profile with a scaling such that less massive systems are typically denser. This mass-density relation is well described by a proportionality between the characteristic density of halos and the mean cosmic density at halo formation time. It has recently been shown that this proportionality could be the result of the following simple evolutionary picture. Halos form in major mergers with essentially the same, cosmogony-dependent, dimensionless profile, and then grow inside-outside, as a consequence of accretion. Here we verify the consistency of this picture and show that it predicts the correct zero point of the mass-density relation., Comment: 9 pages, 1 Table and 1 postscript figure, latex uses aaspp4.sty, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters

In two previous papers a semi-analytical model was presented for the hierarchical clustering of halos via gravitational instability from peaks in a random Gaussian field of density fluctuations. This model is better founded than the extended Press-Schechter model, which is known to agree with numerical simulations and to make similar predictions. The specific merger rate, however, shows a significant departure at intermediate captured masses. The origin of this was suspected as being the rather crude approximation used for the density of nested peaks. Here, we seek to verify this suspicion by implementing a more accurate expression for the latter quantity which accounts for the correlation among peaks. We confirm that the inclusion of the peak-peak correlation improves the specific merger rate, while the good behavior of the remaining quantities is preserved., Comment: ApJ accepted. 15 pages, including 4 figures. Also available at ftp://pcess1.am.ub.es/pub/ApJ/effectpp.ps.gz

High-resolution N-body simulations of hierarchical clustering in a wide variety of cosmogonies show that the density profiles of dark matter halos are universal, with low mass halos being denser than their more massive counterparts. This mass-density correlation is interpreted as reflecting the earlier typical formation time of less massive objects. We investigate this hypothesis in the light of formation times defined as the epoch at which halos experience their last major merger. Such halo formation times are calculated by means of a modification of the extended Press & Schechter formalism which includes a phenomenological frontier, Delta_m, between tiny and notable relative mass captures leading to the distinction between merger and accretion. For Delta_m=0.6, we confirm that the characteristic density of halos is essentially proportional to the mean density of the universe at their time of formation. Yet, proportionality with respect to the critical density yields slightly better results for open universes. In addition, we find that the scale radius of halos is also essentially proportional to their virial radius at the time of formation. We show that these two relations are consistent with the following simple scenario. Violent relaxation caused by mergers rearranges the structure of halos leading to the same density profile with universal values of the dimensionless characteristic density and scale radius. Between mergers, halos grow gradually through the accretion of surrounding layers by keeping their central parts steady and expanding their virial radius as the critical density of the universe diminishes., Comment: ApJ, accepted. 14 pages, including 3 figures and 1 table. Also available at http://pcess1.am.ub.es/pub/ApJ/halostruc.ps.gz

A statistical method is developed to infer the typical density profiles of poor galaxy systems without resort to binning of data or assuming a given center to each system. The method is applied to the accordant redshift quartets in Hickson's compact groups (HCGs). The distribution of separations in these groups is consistent with a unique generalized modified Hubble surface density profile, with best-fit asymptotic slope beta = 1.4 and core radius R_c = 18 h^{-1} kpc, although a King profile (beta = 1) is also consistent with the data (with R_c = 6 h^{-1} kpc). These distributions are more concentrated than what has been previously determined for these groups. HCGs are unlikely to act as strong gravitational lenses, but analogous systems 5 to 10 times more distant should produce a non-negligible fraction of giant arcs., Comment: ApJL in press. 12 pages, incl. 1 table and 2 figures. LaTeX, uses aaspp4

I review the main steps made so far towards the construction of a (semi) analytical model for describing the growth history of bound virialized objects or haloes in the gravitational instability scenario. I mainly focus on those models relying on the spherical collapse approximation which have led to the most complete description. I insist on the different assumptions of each model and outline their main advantages and shortcomings. The work is divided in two parts: a first one dealing with the theoretical mass function of objects, and a second one dealing with the typical growth times and rates. Particular attention is paid to a new model making the practical distinction between accretion and merger events., Comment: 12 pages, uuencoded compressed latex file + 1 eps figure, to appear in the ASP conference series