arXiv subjects

A. Cappi

Publications and source records attributed to A. Cappi.

At least 181 records · Page 10Linked to original sources

arXiv2003

Clues on galaxy and cluster formation from their scaling relations

By means of high-resolution N-body simulations in a LambdaCDM cosmology, we verify that scaling relations similar to those observed for nearby galaxy clusters are also defined by their dark matter hosts; the slopes, however, are not the same. We then show that the scaling relations of galaxy clusters can be explained as the result of the cosmological collapse of density fluctuations at the appropriate scales, plus a systematic trend of the M/L ratio with cluster mass. The empirical fact that the exponent of the Faber-Jackson relation of elliptical galaxies is significantly different (higher) than that of clusters, force us to conclude that the galaxy scaling laws might derive from the cosmological collapse of density fluctuations at the epoch when galactic scales became non-linear, plus modifications afterward due to early-time dissipative merging.

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arXiv2003

Comparison of two optical cluster finding algorithms for the new generation of deep galaxy surveys

We present a comparison between two optical cluster finding methods: a matched filter algorithm using galaxy angular coordinates and magnitudes, and a percolation algorithm using also redshift information. We test the algorithms on two mock catalogues. The first mock catalogue is built by adding clusters to a Poissonian background, while the other is derived from N-body simulations. Choosing the physically most sensible parameters for each method, we carry out a detailed comparison and investigate advantages and limits of each algorithm, showing the possible biases on final results. We show that, combining the two methods, we are able to detect a large part of the structures, thus pointing out the need to search for clusters in different ways in order to build complete and unbiased samples of clusters, to be used for statistical and cosmological studies. In addition, our results show the importance of testing cluster finding algorithms on different kinds of mock catalogues to have a complete assessment of their behaviour.

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arXiv2003

The scaling relations of galaxy clusters and their dark matter halos

Like early-type galaxies, also nearby galaxy clusters define a Fundamental Plane, a luminosity-radius, and a luminosity-velocity dispersion relations, whose physical origin is still unclear. By means of high resolution N--body simulations of massive dark matter halos in a Lambda-CDM cosmology, we find that scaling relations similar to those observed for galaxy clusters are already defined by their dark matter hosts. The slopes however are not the same, and among the various possibilities in principle able to bring the simulated and the observed scaling relations in mutual agreement, we show that the preferred solution is a luminosity dependent mass-to-light ratio (M/L ~ L^0.3), that well corresponds to what inferred observationally. We then show that at galactic scales there is a conflict between the cosmological predictions of structure formation, the observed trend of the mass-to-light ratio in ellipticals, and the slope of their luminosity-velocity dispersion relation (that significantly differs from the analogous one followed by clusters). The conclusion is that the scaling laws of elliptical galaxies might be the combined result of the cosmological collapse of density fluctuations at the epoch when galactic scales became non-linear, plus important modifications afterward due to early-time dissipative merging. Finally, we briefly discuss the possible evolution of the cluster scaling relations with redshift.

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arXiv2003

The VLA-VIRMOS Deep Field I. Radio observations probing the microJy source population

We have conducted a deep survey (r.m.s noise 17 microJy) with the Very Large Array (VLA) at 1.4 GHz, with a resolution of 6 arcsec, of a 1 square degree region included in the VIRMOS VLT Deep Survey. In the same field we already have multiband photometry down to I(AB)=25, and spectroscopic observations will be obtained during the VIRMOS VLT survey. The homogeneous sensitivity over the whole field has allowed to derive a complete sample of 1054 radio sources (5 sigma limit). We give a detailed description of the data reduction and of the analysis of the radio observations, with particular care to the effects of clean bias and bandwidth smearing, and of the methods used to obtain the catalogue of radio sources. To estimate the effect of the resolution bias on our observations we have modelled the effective angular-size distribution of the sources in our sample and we have used this distribution to simulate a sample of radio sources. Finally we present the radio count distribution down to 0.08 mJy derived from the catalogue. Our counts are in good agreement with the best fit derived from earlier surveys, and are about 50 % higher than the counts in the HDF. The radio count distribution clearly shows, with extremely good statistics, the change in the slope for the sub-mJy radio sources.

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arXiv2002

High-resolution re-simulations of massive DM halos and the Fundamental Plane of galaxy clusters

Pure N-body high-resolution re-simulations of 13 massive dark matter halos in a Lambda-CDM cosmology are presented. The resulting sample is used to investigate the physical origin of the Fundamental Plane, ``Faber-Jackson'', and ``Kormendy'' relations observed for nearby galaxy clusters. In particular, we focus on the role of dissipationless hierarchical merging in establishing or modifying these relations. Contrarily to what found in the case of the Faber-Jackson and Kormendy relations for galaxies (see Londrillo, Nipoti and Ciotti, this conference), dissipationless merging on cluster scales produces scaling relations remarkably similar to the observed ones. This suggests that gas dissipation plays a minor role in the formation of galaxy clusters, and the hierarchical merger scenario is not at odd with the observed regularity of these systems.

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arXiv2002

Multiple merging events in Abell 521

We present a detailed spatial and dynamical analysis of the central $\sim$~2.2~\h~Mpc region of the galaxy cluster Abell~521 (z=0.247), based on 238 spectra obtained at the 3.6~m Telescope of ESO and at the CFHT. From the analysis of the 125 galaxies confirmed members of the cluster, we derive a mean velocity of $74019 ^{+112}_{-125}$ km/s and detect a complex velocity distribution with high velocity dispersion, $1325 ^{+145}_{-100}$ km/s), but clear departure from a single gaussian component. The general structure of the cluster follows a NW/SE direction, crossed by a perpendicular high density ``ridge'' of galaxies in the core region. The northern region of the cluster is characterized by a lower velocity dispersion as compared to the whole cluster value; it hosts the BCG and a dynamically bound complex of galaxies, and it is associated to a group detected in X-ray (Arnaud et al 2000). This region could be in pre-merger stage onto the main cluster nearly in the plane of the sky. These results, taken together with the fact that most of the clumps detected on the isodensity maps, as well as the early type galaxies and the brightest ones are aligned, suggest that this NW/SE direction is the preferred one for the formation of this cluster. The central high dense region shows a lower velocity location ($73625 ^{+344}_{-350}$ km/s) and significantly higher scale ($1780 ^{+234}_{-142}$ km/s) as compared to the whole cluster values. This is due to the presence of a low-velocity group of galaxies with a high fraction of emission line objects. This can be explained in a scenario in which a merging of subclusters has recently occurred along the direction of the ``ridge'' with a significant component along the line of sight.

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arXiv2001

The VIRMOS-VLT Deep Survey

The aim of the VIRMOS VLT Deep Survey (VVDS) is to study of the evolution of galaxies, large scale structures and AGNs from a sample of more than 150,000 galaxies with measured redshifts in the range 0<z<5+. The VVDS will rely on the VIMOS and NIRMOS wide field multi-object spectrographs, which the VIRMOS consortium is delivering to ESO. Together, they offer unprecedented multiplex capability in the wavelength range 0.37-1.8microns, allowing for large surveys to be carried out. The VVDS has several main aspects: (1) a deep multi-color imaging survey over 18deg^2 of more than one million galaxies, (2) a "wide" spectroscopic survey with more than 130,000 redshifts measured for objects brighter than IAB=22.5 over 18deg^2, (3) a "deep" survey with 50,000 redshifts measured to IAB=24, (4) ultra-deep" surveys with several thousand redshifts measured to IAB=25, (5) multi-wavelength observations with the VLA and XMM.

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arXiv1999

Abell 521: Dynamical analysis of a young cluster

We present the results of a dynamical analysis of the rich X-Ray luminous galaxy cluster Abell 521, and discuss the nature of the arc-like structure first noted by Maurogordato et al. (1996). Our study is based on radial velocities for 41 cluster members, measured from spectra obtained at the European Southern Observatory and the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. We find that Abell 521 is an intermediate-redshift cluster (CBI= 74132 (-250,+202)km/s) with a rather high apparent value of the velocity dispersion (SBI= 1386 (-139,+206) km/s). This high value, which cannot be explained by trivial projection effects, and the significant clumping in the two-dimensional projected positions of the galaxies in the cluster indicate it is still undergoing strong dynamical evolution. The two brightest knots of the giant arc candidate are shown to be at the velocity of the cluster. This makes the gravitational lensing interpretation for the bright curved structure very improbable, although gravitational lensing might still be present in this cluster, as suggested by the colors of two fainter arclet-like structures.

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arXiv1999

The ESO Slice Project (ESP) Galaxy Redshift Survey. VII. The Redshift and Real-Space Correlation Functions

We present analyses of the two-point correlation properties of the ESP galaxy redshift survey. From the redshift-space correlation function xi(s), we see positive clustering out to separations ~50/h Mpc, with a smooth break on larger scales and zero-crossing between 60 and 80/h Mpc. xi(s) is reasonably well described by a shallow power law with γ~1.5 between 3 and 50/h Mpc, while on smaller scales (0.2-2/h Mpc) it has a shallower slope (γ~ 1). We examine the full effect of redshift-space distortions through the two-dimensional correlation function xi(rp,pi), from which we project out the real-space xi(r) below 10/h Mpc. This function is well described by a power-law model (r/r_o)^{-γ}, with r_o=4.15^{+0.20}_{-0.21} h^{-1} Mpc and γ=1.67^{+0.07}_{-0.09}. Comparison to other redshift surveys shows a consistent picture in which clustering remains positive out to separations of 50/h Mpc or larger, in substantial agreement with the results obtained from angular surveys like the APM and EDSGC. Also the shape of the two-point correlation function is remarkably unanimous among these data sets, in all cases requiring more power above 5/h Mpc (a `shoulder'), than a simple extrapolation of the canonical xi(r)=(r/5)^{-1.8}. xi(s) for volume-limited subsamples shows evidence of luminosity segregation only for the most luminous sample with M_{b_J}\le -20.5. When redshift-space distortions are removed through projection of xi(rp,pi), however, a weak dependence on luminosity is seen at small separations also at fainter magnitudes. This effect is masked in redshift space, as the mean pairwise velocity dispersion experiences a parallel increase, basically erasing the effect of the clustering growth on xi(s).

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arXiv1998

The ESO Slice Project (ESP) galaxy redshift survey: VI Groups of Galaxies

In this paper we identify objectively and analyze groups of galaxies in the recently completed ESP survey. We find 231 groups above the number overdensity threshold delta(rho)/rho=80 in the redshift range 5000<cz <60000 km/s. These groups contain 1250 members, 40.5% of the 3085 ESP galaxies within the same redshift range. The median velocity dispersion (corrected for measurement errors and computed at the redshift of the group) is sigma_{ESP,median} = 194 km/s. We show that our result is reliable in spite of the particular geometry of the ESP survey (two rows of tangent circular fields of radius 15 arcmin), which causes most systems to be only partially surveyed. In general, we find that the properties of ESP groups are consistent with those of groups in shallower (and wider) catalogs (e.g. CfA2N and SSRS2). As in shallower catalogs, ESP groups trace very well the geometry of the large scale structure. Our results are of particular interest because the depth of the ESP survey allows us to sample group properties over a large number of structures. We also compare luminosity function and spectral properties of galaxies that are members of groups with those of isolated galaxies. We find that galaxies in groups have a brighter M* with respect to non--member galaxies; the slope αis the same, within the errors, in the two cases. We find that 34% of ESP galaxies with detectable emission lines are members of groups. The fraction of galaxies without detectable emission lines in groups is significantly higher: 45%. More generally, we find a gradual decrease of the fraction of emission line galaxies among members of systems of increasing richness. This result confirms that the morphology-density relation found for clusters also extends toward systems of lower density.

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arXiv1998

Real and Redshift-Space Clustering in the ESP Galaxy Redshift Survey

We discuss the two-point correlation properties of galaxies in the ESO Slice Project (ESP) redshift survey, both in redshift and real space. The redshift-space correlation function xi(s) for the whole magnitude-limited survey is well described by a power law with γ~ 1.55 between 3 and ~40/h Mpc, where it smoothly breaks down, crossing the zero value on scales as large as ~80/h Mpc. On smaller scales (0.2-2/h Mpc), the slope is shallower, mostly due to redshift-space depression by virialized structures. This effect is found to be enhanced by the J3 optimal-weighting estimator for xi. We explicitly evidence these effects by computing xi(r_p,pi) and the projected function w_p(r_p). In this way we recover the real-space correlation function xi(r), which we fit below 10/h Mpc with a power-law model. This gives a reasonable fit, with r_o=4.15^{+0.20}_{-0.21} /h Mpc and γ=1.67^{+0.07}_{-0.09}. This results on xi(r) and xi(s), and the comparison with other surveys, clearly confirm how the shape of spatial correlations above ~3/h Mpc is characterised by a significant `shoulder' with respect to the small-scale ~ -1.8 power law, corresponding to a steepening of P(k) near the turnover.

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arXiv1998

The Redshift and Real-Space Correlation Functions from the ESP Galaxy Redshift Survey

We discuss the behaviour of the redshift- and real-space correlation functions from the ESO Slice Project (ESP) galaxy redshift survey. xi(s) for the whole survey is positive out to ~80/h Mpc, with a smooth break from a shallow power law. Comparison to xi(s) from two other wide-angle, moderately deep surveys, the LCRS and Stromlo-APM, shows a very good agreement of all data sets, despite the different selections and geometries. By projecting xi(r_p, pi), we recover the real--space correlation function xi(r), which below 10/h Mpc is reasonably well described by a power law xi(r) = (r/r_o)^{-γ} with r_o=4.15^{+0.20}_{-0.21} /h Mpc and γ=1.67^{+0.07}_{-0.09}. The same analysis, applied to four volume-limited subsamples, evidences a small but significant growth of clustering with luminosity (r_o varies from 3.4 to 5.2/h Mpc when the luminosity threshold is increased from -18. to -20).

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arXiv1998

Biasing and high-order statistics from the SSRS2

We analyze different volume-limited samples extracted from the Southern Sky Redshift Survey (SSRS2), using counts-in-cells to compute the Count Probability Distribution Function (CPDF).From the CPDF we derive volume-averaged correlation functions to fourth order and the normalized skewness and kurtosis $S_3 = \bar{ξ_3}/\bar{ξ_2}^2$ and $S_4=\bar{ξ_4}/\bar{ξ_2}^3$. We find that the data satisfies the hierarchical relations in the range $0.3 \lsim \bar{ξ_2} \lsim 10$. In this range, we find $S_3$ to be scale-independent with a value of $\sim 1.8$, in good agreement with the values measured from other optical redshift surveys probing different volumes, but significantly smaller than that inferred from the APM angular catalog. In addition, the measured values of $S_3$ do not show a significant dependence on the luminosity of the galaxies considered. This result is supported by several tests of systematic errors that could affect our measures and estimates of the cosmic variance determined from mock catalogs extracted from N-body simulations. This result is in marked contrast to what would be expected from the strong dependence of the two-point correlation function on luminosity in the framework of a linear biasing model. We discuss the implications of our results and compare them to some recent models of the galaxy distribution which address the problem of bias.

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arXiv1998

The ESO Slice Project (ESP) galaxy redshift survey IV. A discussion of systematic biases in galaxy redshift determinations

We present a detailed discussion of the redshift errors associated to the ESO Slice Project measurements. For a subsample of 742 galaxies with redshifts determined both from the absorption lines (V_{abs}) and from the emission lines (V_{emi}), we find an average difference ~ +100$ km/s. We find that a similar effect is present in another, deeper redshift survey, the Durham/Anglo-Australian Telescope faint galaxy redshift survey, while is absent in surveys at brighter magnitude limits. We have investigated in detail many possible sources of such a discrepancy, and we can exclude possible zero-point shifts or calibration problems. We have detected and measured systematic velocity differences produced by the different templates used in the cross-correlation. We conclude that such differences can in principle explain the effect, but in this case the non-trivial implication would be that the best-fitting template does not necessarily give the best velocity estimate. As we do not have any a priori reason to select a template different from the best-fitting one, we did not apply any correction to the ESO Slice Project velocities. However, as for a small number of galaxies the effect is so large that it is likely to have a physical explanation, we have also taken into account the possibility that the discrepancy can be partly real: in this case, it might help to understand the role of gas outflows in the process of galaxy evolution. In view of the future large spectroscopic surveys, we stress the importance of using different templates and making them publicly available, in order to assess the amplitude of systematic effects, and to allow a direct comparison of different catalogues.

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arXiv1998

The ESO Slice Project (ESP) galaxy redshift survey: III. The Sample

The ESO Slice Project (ESP) is a galaxy redshift survey extending over about 23 square degrees, in a region near the South Galactic Pole. The survey is ~85% complete to the limiting magnitude b_J=19.4 and consists of 3342 galaxies with redshift determination. The ESP survey is intermediate between shallow, wide angle samples and very deep, one-dimensional pencil beams; the spanned volume is ~ 5 x 10^4 Mpc^3 at the sensitivity peak (z ~ 0.1). In this paper we present the description of the observations and of the data reduction, the ESP redshift catalogue and the analysis of the quality of the velocity determinations.

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arXiv1998

Is the Universe a fractal? Results from the SSRS2

We perform a fractal analysis of the Southern Sky Redshift Survey 2, following the methods prescribed by Pietronero and collaborators, to check their claim that the galaxy distribution is fractal at all scales, and we discuss and explain the reasons of some controversial points, through tests on both galaxy samples and simulations. We confirm that the amplitude of the two-point correlation function does not depend on the sample depth, but increases with luminosity. We find that there is no contradiction between the results of standard and non-standard statistical analysis; moreover, such results are consistent with theoretical predictions derived from standard CDM models of galaxy formation, and with the hypothesis of homogeneity at large scale ($\sim 100$ \h). However, for our SSRS2 volume-limited subsamples we show that the first zero-point of the autocorrelation function $ξ(s)$ increases linearly with the sample depth, and that its value is comparable to the radius of the maximum sphere which can be completely included in the sampled volume; this implies that the true zero-crossing point of $ξ(s)$ has not been reached. We conclude that the apparent fractal behavior is due to a combination of a luminosity-dependent correlation amplitude and the recovering of power at larger scales in deeper samples.

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arXiv1998

The ESO Slice Project [ESP] galaxy redshift survey: V. Evidence for a D=3 sample dimensionality

The issue of the approximate isotropy and homogeneity of the observable universe is one of the major topics in modern Cosmology: the common use of the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker [FWR] metric relies on these assumptions. Therefore, results conflicting with the ``canonical'' picture would be of the utmost importance. In a number of recent papers it has been suggested that strong evidence of a fractal distribution with dimension D~2 exists in several samples, including Abell clusters [ACO] and galaxies from the ESO Slice Project redshift survey [ESP].Here we report the results of an independent analysis of the radial density run,N(<R)~R^D, of the ESP and ACO data. For the ESP data the situation is such that the explored volume, albeit reasonably deep, is still influenced by the presence of large structures. Moreover, the depth of the ESP survey (z<0.2) is such to cause noticeable effects according to different choices of k-corrections, and this adds some additional uncertainty in the results. However, we find that for a variety of volume limited samples the dimensionality of the ESP sample is D~3, and the value $D = 2$ is always excluded at the level of at least five (bootstrap) standard deviations. The only way in which we reproduce D~2 is by both unphysically ignoring the galaxy k-correction and using Euclidean rather than FRW cosmological distances. In the cluster case the problems related to the choice of metrics and k-correction are much lessened, and we find that ACO clusters have D_{ACO} = 3.07 +- 0.18 and D_{ACO} = 2.93 +- 0.15 for richness class R \geq 1 and R \geq 0, respectively. Therefore D=2 is excluded with high significance also for the cluster data.

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arXiv1998

Properties of Very Luminous Galaxies

Recent analysis of the SSRS2 data based on cell-counts and two-point correlation function has shown that very luminous galaxies are much more strongly clustered than fainter galaxies. In fact, the amplitude of the correlation function of very luminous galaxies ($L > L^*$) asymptotically approaches that of $R \ge 0$ clusters. In this paper we investigate the properties of the most luminous galaxies, with blue absolute magnitude $M_B \le -21$. We find that: 1) the population mix is comparable to that in other ranges of absolute magnitudes; 2) only a small fraction are located in bona fide clusters; 3) the bright galaxy-cluster cross-correlation function is significantly higher on large scales than that measured for fainter galaxies; 4) the correlation length of galaxies brighter than \MB $ \sim -20.0$, expressed as a function of the mean interparticle distance, appears to follow the universal dimensionless correlation function found for clusters and radio galaxies; 5) a large fraction of the bright galaxies are in interacting pairs, others show evidence for tidal distortions, while some appear to be surrounded by faint satellite galaxies. We conclude that very luminous optical galaxies differ from the normal population of galaxies both in the clustering and other respects. We speculate that this population is highly biased tracers of mass, being associated to dark halos with masses more comparable to clusters than typical loose groups.

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