arXiv subjects

A. Fontana

Publications and source records attributed to A. Fontana.

At least 271 records · Page 15Linked to original sources

arXiv2003

The K20 survey. V The evolution of the near-IR Luminosity Function

We present the galaxy rest-frame near-IR Luminosity Function (LF) and its cosmic evolution to z=1.5 based on a spectroscopic survey of a magnitude limited sample of galaxies with Ks<20 (the K20 survey, Cimatti et al. 2002b). The LFs have been derived in the rest-frame J and Ks bands using 3 z bins (z_mean= 0.5, 1, 1.5) and compared to the local near-IR LF. The faint-end of the LFs is consistent with the local estimates, with no evidence for a change either in the slope or normalization up to z<1.3. Viceversa, the density of luminous galaxies (M_Ks-5logh_70<-25.5) is higher than locally at all z and relatively constant or mildly increasing with z within our sample. The data are consistent with a mild luminosity evolution both in the J and Ks-band up to z=1.5 (DeltaM_J=-0.69+-0.12 and DeltaM_K=-0.54+-0.12 at z=1). Moreover, we find that red and early-type galaxies dominate the bright-end of the LF, and that their number density shows at most a small decrease (<30%) up to z=1, thus suggesting that massive elliptical galaxies were already in place at z=1 and they should have formed their stars and assembled their mass at higher z. There appears to be a correlation of the optical/near-IR colors with near-IR luminosities, the most luminous/massive galaxies being red/old. We find a slow evolution with z of the near-IR comoving luminosity density to z=1.5. Finally, we show that hierarchical models overpredict significantly the density of low luminosity galaxies at z<=1 and underpredict the density of luminous galaxies at z>=1, whereas PLE models are more consistent with the data up to z=1.5. The GIF model (Kaufmann et al. 1999) shows a clear deficiency of red luminous galaxies at z=1 compared to our observations and predicts a decrease of luminous galaxies with z not observed in our sample.

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arXiv2003

Transverse acoustic nature of the excess of vibrational states in vitreous silica

We present a numerical simulation study of the density-dependence (rho = 2.2 - 4.0 g/cm^3) of the high-energy collective dynamics in vitreous silica at mesoscopic wavevectors (Q = 1 - 18 nm^-1). The density-dependence of the longitudinal and transverse current spectra provides evidence that the excess modes observed in the density of states of this and many other glasses, i.e. the Boson Peak, arises from the high-Q limit of the quasi-transverse acoustic branch. This conclusion emerges from the comparison of the numerical results with the experimentally observed energy-shift and intensity variation of the Boson Peak with increasing density.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2003

Quasar Evolution Driven by Galaxy Encounters in Hierarchical Structures

We link the evolution of the galaxies in the hierarchical clustering scenario with the changing accretion rates of cold gas onto the central massive black holes that power the quasars. We base on galaxy interactions as main triggers of accretion; the related scaling laws are taken up from Cavaliere & Vittorini (2000), and grafted to a semi-analytic code for galaxy formation. As a result, at high $z$ the protogalaxies grow rapidly by hierarchical merging; meanwhile, much fresh gas is imported and also destabilized, so the holes are fueled at their full Eddington rates. At lower $z$ the galactic dynamical events are mostly encounters in hierarchically growing groups; now the refueling peters out, as the residual gas is exhausted while the destabilizing encounters dwindle. So, with no parameter tuning other than needed for stellar observables, our model uniquely produces at $z>3$ a rise, and at $z\lesssim 2.5 $ a decline of the bright quasar population as steep as observed. In addition, our results closely fit the observed luminosity functions of quasars, their space density at different magnitudes from $z\approx 5$ to $z\approx 0$, and the local $m_{BH}-σ$ relation.

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arXiv2002

An ESO/VLT survey of NIR (Z<=25) selected galaxies at redshifts 4.5<z<6: constraining the cosmic star formation rate near the reionization epoch

We present the results of a VLT and HST imaging survey aimed at the identification of 4.5 4.5 galaxies. The resulting integral surface density of the Z<25 candidates at z>4.5z is in the range 0.13-0.44/arcmin^2 and that in the highest redshift bin 5<z<6 is between 0.07-0.13/arcmin^2. In the two HDFs, we identify at I<27.2 25 galaxies in the range 4.5<z<5 and 16 at 5<z<6$, corresponding to surface densities of 3.1 arcmin^-2 and 2 arcmin^-2, respectively. We show that the observed Z<25 UV luminosity density appear to drop by about one order of magnitude from z~3 to z~6. However, if we apply a threshold to obtain an absolute--magnitude limited sample, the UV luminosity density results to be roughly constant up to z~6. We finally show that recent semi-analytic hierarchical models for galaxy formation, while predicting a nearly constant total UV luminosity density up to z~6, under-predict the observed UV luminosity density at Z<25 and over-predicts the I<27.2 one. This behaviour can be understood in term of a poor match to the slope of the UV luminosity function.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2002

A VLT/FORS2 spectroscopic survey in the HDF-S

We report on low-resolution multi-object spectroscopy of 65 objects from I(AB) ~= 20 to I(AB) ~= 25 in the HDF-S obtained with the VLT Focal Reducer/low dispersion Spectrograph (FORS2). 18 objects belong to the HDF-S proper, i.e. the WFPC2 deep area. 15 high-redshift galaxies with 2.0 < z < 3.5 (10 in the HDF-S proper) have been identified. The spectroscopic redshifts are in good agreement with the photometric ones derived from a chi^{2} minimization technique comparing the observed spectral energy distribution with synthetic libraries and with a new neural network (NN) approach. The dispersion with the former method is sigma_z=0.16 whereas the latter provides sigma_z=0.13. No "catastrophic" difference is encountered. The inferred star formation rates of the individual objects range from tens to a few hundreds of M_{\odot} yr^{-1} and the global star formation rate of the Universe at =~2.4 is estimated to be 0.15 M_{\odot} yr^{-1} Mpc^{-3} with a statistical error of 0.04. Evidence for large scale structure is found with two groups' redshifts observed at z ~= 2.1 and z ~= 2.7 and a pronounced low redshift peak around z ~= 0.58. An elliptical galaxy lensing a background object turns out to be at a redshift z=0.577.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2002

The K20 survey. IV. The redshift distribution of Ks<20 galaxies: a test of galaxy formation models

We present the redshift distribution of a complete sample of 480 galaxies with Ks<20 distributed over two independent fields covering a total area of 52 arcmin^2. The redshift completeness is 87% and 98% respectively with spectroscopic and high-quality and tested photometric redshifts. The redshift distribution of field galaxies has a median redshift z_{med}\sim 0.80, with \sim 32% and \sim 9% of galaxies at z>1 and z>1.5 respectively. A ``blind'' comparison is made with the predictions of a set of the most recent LambdaCDM hierarchical merging and pure luminosity evolution (PLE) models. The hierarchical merging models overpredict and underpredict the number of galaxies at low-z and high-z respectively, whereas the PLE models match the median redshift and the low-z distribution, still being able to follow the high-z tail of N(z). We briefly discuss the implications of this comparison and the possible origins of the observed discrepancies. We make the redshift distribution publicly available.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2002

The K20 survey. III. Photometric and spectroscopic properties of the sample

The K20 survey is an ESO VLT optical and near-infrared spectroscopic survey aimed at obtaining spectral information and redshifts of a complete sample of about 550 objects to K_s\leq20.0 over two independent fields with a total area of 52 arcmin^2. In this paper we discuss the scientific motivation of such a survey, we describe the photometric and spectroscopic properties of the sample, and we release the $K_s$-band photometric catalog. Extensive simulations showed that the sample is photometrically highly complete to K_s=20. The observed galaxy counts and the R-K_s color distribution are consistent with literature results. We observed spectroscopically 94% of the sample, reaching a spectroscopic redshift identification completeness of 92% to K_s\leq20.0 for the observed targets, and of 87% for the whole sample (i.e. counting also the unobserved targets). Deep spectroscopy was complemented with multi-band deep imaging in order to derive tested and reliable photometric redshifts for the galaxies lacking spectroscopic redshifts. The results show a very good agreement between the spectroscopic and the photometric redshifts with =0.01 and with a dispersion of σ_{Δz}=0.09. Using both the spectroscopic and the photometric redshifts, we reached an overall redshift completeness of about 98%. The size of the sample, the redshift completeness, the availability of high quality photometric redshifts and multicolor spectral energy distributions make the K20 survey database one of the most complete samples available to date for constraining the currently competing scenarios of galaxy formation and for a variety of other galaxy evolution studies.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2002

Binary Aggregations in Hierarchical Galaxy Formation: The Evolution of the Galaxy Luminosity Function

We develop a semi-analytic model of hierarchical galaxy formation with an improved treatment of the evolution of galaxies inside dark matter haloes. We take into account not only dynamical friction processes building up the central dominant galaxy, but also binary aggregations of satellite galaxies inside a common halo described using the kinetic Smoluchowski equation. The description of gas cooling, star formation and evolution, and Supernova feedback follows the standard prescriptions widely used in semi-analytic modelling. We find that binary aggregations are effective in depleting the number of small/intermediate mass galaxies over the redshift range 1 -16. We compare our predicted luminosity functions with those obtained from deep multicolor surveys in the rest-frame B and UV bands for the redshift ranges 0 1 and even more at z ~ 3 by the effect of binary aggregations. The predictions from our dynamical model are discussed and compared with the effects of complementary processes which may conspire in affecting the shape of the luminosity function.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2002

Clustering at high redshift

The addition of deep near infrared images to the database provided by the HDF-S WFPC2 is essential to monitor the SEDs of the objects on a wide baseline and address a number of key issues including the total stellar content of baryonic mass, the effects of dust extinction, the dependence of morphology on the rest frame wavelength, the photometric redshifts, the detection and nature of extremely red objects (EROs). For these reasons deep near infrared images were obtained with the ISAAC instrument at the ESO VLT in the Js, H and Ks bands reaching, respectively, 23.5, 22.0, 22.0 limiting Vega-magnitude. A multi-color (F300, F450, F606, F814, Js, H, Ks) photometric catalog of the HDF-S has been produced. Photometric redshifts have been generated both fitting templates to the observed SEDs and with neural network techniques. Spectroscopic observations of the 9 candidates with I_AB <24.25 have confirmed all of them to be galaxies with 2<z<3.5. The photometric redshifts for all the galaxies brighter than I_AB< 27.5 have been used to study the evolution of galaxy clustering in the interval 0<z<4.5.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2002

A Low Upper Limit to the Lyman Continuum Emission of two galaxies at z 3

Long exposure, long-slit spectra have been obtained in the UV/optical bands for two galaxies at z=2.96 and z=3.32 to investigate the fraction of ionizing UV photons escaping from high redshifts galaxies. The two targets are among the brightest galaxies discovered by Steidel and collaborators and they have different properties in terms of Lyman-alpha emission and dust reddening. No significant Lyman continuum emission has been detected. The noise level in the spectra implies an upper limit of f_{rel,esc}\equiv 3 f(900)/f(1500)< 16% for the relative escape fraction of ionizing photons, after correction for absorption by the intervening intergalactic medium. This upper limit is 4 times lower than the previous detection derived from a composite spectrum of 29 Lyman break galaxies at z 3.4. If this value is typical of the escape fraction of the z 3 galaxies, and is added to the expected contribution of the QSO population, the derived UV background is in good agreement with the one derived by the proximity effect.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2002

The K20 survey. II. The Different Spatial Clustering of z~1 Old and Dusty Star-Forming EROs

We compare the 3D clustering of old passively-evolving and dusty star-forming z~1 EROs from the K20 survey. With detailed simulations of clustering, the comoving correlation length of dusty star-forming EROs is constrained to be less than r_0~2.5 Mpc/h. In contrast, the old EROs are much more positively correlated, with 5.5<~r_0/(Mpc/h)<~16, consistent with previous claims for z~1 field early-type galaxies based on analyses of ERO angular clustering. The low level of clustering of dusty star-forming EROs does not support these to be major mergers building up an elliptical galaxy, or typical counterparts of SCUBA sources, but it is instead consistent with the weak clustering of high redshift blue galaxies and of luminous local IRAS galaxies. Current hierarchical merging models can explain the large r_0 for z~1 field early-type galaxies, but fail in matching their high number density and overall old ages.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2001

The K20 survey. I. Disentangling old and dusty star-forming galaxies in the ERO population

We present the results of VLT optical spectroscopy of a complete sample of 78 EROs with R-Ks\geq5 over a field of 52 arcmin^2. About 70% of the 45 EROs with Ks\leq19.2 have been spectroscopically identified with old passively evolving and dusty star-forming galaxies at 0.7<z<1.5. The two classes are about equally populated and for each of them we present and discuss the average spectrum. From the old ERO average spectrum and for Z=Z_{\odot} we derive a minimum age of \sim 3 Gyr, corresponding to a formation redshift of z_f \gtsima 2.4. PLE models with such formation redshifts well reproduce the density of old EROs (consistent with being passively evolving ellipticals), whereas the predictions of the current hierarchical merging models are lower than the observed densities by large factors (up to an order of magnitude). From the average spectrum of the star-forming EROs we estimate a substantial dust extinction with E(B-V) \gtsima 0.5. The star formation rates, corrected for the average reddening, suggest a significant contribution from EROs to the cosmic star-formation density at z \sim 1.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2001

Measuring the Redshift Evolution of Clustering: the Hubble Deep Field South

We present an analysis of the evolution of galaxy clustering in the redshift interval 0<z<4.5 in the HDF-S. The HST optical data are combined with infrared ISAAC/VLT observations, and photometric redshifts are used for all the galaxies brighter than I_AB<27.5. The clustering signal is obtained in different redshift bins using two different approaches: a standard one, which uses the best redshift estimate of each object, and a second one, which takes into account the redshift probability function of each object. This second method makes it possible to improve the information in the redshift intervals where contamination from objects with insecure redshifts is important. With both methods, we find that the clustering strength up to z~3.5 in the HDF-S is consistent with the previous results in the HDF-N. While at redshift lower than z~1 the HDF galaxy population is un/anti-biased (b<1) with respect to the underlying dark matter, at high redshift the bias increases up to b~2-3, depending on the cosmological model. These results support previous claims that, at high redshift, galaxies are preferentially located in massive haloes, as predicted by the biased galaxy formation scenario. The impact of cosmic errors on our analyses has been quantified, showing that errors in the clustering measurements in the HDF surveys are indeed dominated by shot-noise in most regimes. Future observations with instruments like the ACS on HST will improve the S/N by at least a factor of two and more detailed analyses of the errors will be required. In fact, pure shot-noise will give a smaller contribution with respect to other sources of errors, such as finite volume effects or non-Poissonian discreteness effects.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2001

Multicolor observations of the Hubble Deep Field South

We present a deep multicolor (UBVIJsHKs) catalog of galaxies in the HDF-S, based on observations obtained with the HST WFPC2 in 1998 and VLT-ISAAC in 1999. The photometric procedures were tuned to derive a catalog optimized for the estimation of photometric redshifts. In particular we adopted a ``conservative'' detection threshold which resulted in a list of 1611 objects. The behavior of the observed source counts is in general agreement with the result of Casertano et al. (2000) in the HDF-S and Williams et al. (1996) in the HDF-N, while the corresponding counts in the HDF-N provided by Fernandez-Soto et al. (1999) are systematically lower by a factor 1.5 beyond I_AB=26. After correcting for the incompleteness of the source counts, the object surface density at I_AB<27.5 is estimated to be 220 per square arcmin, providing an estimate of the Extragalactic Background Light in the I band consistent with the work of Madau & Pozzetti(2000). The comparison between the median V-I color in the HDF-North and South shows a significant difference around I_AB~26, possibly due to the presence of large scale structure at z~1 in the HDF-N. High-z galaxy candidates (90 U dropout and 17 B dropout) were selected by means of color diagrams, down to a magnitude I_AB=27, with a surface density of (21+-1) and (3.9+-0.9) per square arcmin, respectively. 11 EROs (with (I-K)_AB>2.7) were selected down to K_AB=24, plus 3 objects whose upper limit to the Ks flux is still compatible with the selection criterion. The corresponding surface density of EROs is (2.5+-0.8) per sq.arcmin ((3.2+-0.9) per sq.arcmin if we include the three Ks upper limits). They show a remarkably non-uniform spatial distribution and are classified with roughly equal fractions in the categories of elliptical and starburst galaxies.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2001

Deep near-IR observations of the Chandra Deep Field and of the HDF-South - Color and Number Counts

We present near-IR (J and Ks) number counts and colors of galaxies detected in deep VLT-ISAAC images centered on the Chandra Deep Field and Hubble Deep Field-South for a total area of 13.6 arcmin$^2$. The limiting surface brightness obtained is Ks$\simeq$22.8 mag/arcsec$^2$ and J$\simeq$24.5 (1$σ$) on both fields. A d$log$N/dm relation with a slope of $\sim0.34$ in J and $\sim0.28$ in Ks is found in both fields with no evidence of decline near the magnitude limit. The median J-Ks color of galaxies becomes bluer at magnitudes fainter than Ks$\sim18$, in agreement with the different number counts slope observed in the two bands. We find a fraction ($\le5%$ of the total sample) of sources with color redder than J-Ks=2.3 at magnitudes Ks$>20$. Most of them appear as isolated sources, possibly elliptical or dusty starburst galaxies at redshift $z>2$. The comparison of the observed number counts with models shows that our J-band and Ks-band counts are consistent with the prediction of a model based on a small amount of merging in a $Ω=1$ cosmology. On the other hand, we fail to reproduce the observed counts if we do not consider merging independently of the parameters defining the universe.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2001

The Evolution of the Luminosity Function in Deep Fields: A Comparison with CDM Models

The galaxy Luminosity Function (LF) has been estimated in the rest frame B luminosity at 0<z<1.25 and at 1700 Å for 2.5<z<4.5 from deep multicolor surveys in the HDF-N, HDF-S, NTT-DF. The results have been compared with a recent version of galaxy formation models in the framework of hierarchical clustering in a flat Cold Dark Matter Universe with cosmological constant. The results show a general agreement for z<= 1, although the model LF has a steeper average slope at the faint end; at z~3 such feature results in an overprediction of the number of faint (I_{AB}~ 27) galaxies, while the agreement at the bright end becomes critically sensitive to the details of dust absorption at such redshifts. The discrepancies at the faint end show that a refined treatement of the physical processes involving smaller galaxies is to be pursued in the models, in terms of aggregation processes and/or stellar feedback heavily affecting the luminosity of the low luminosity objects. The implications of our results on the evolution of the cosmological star formation rate are discussed.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2000

Photometric redshifts and selection of high redshift galaxies in the NTT and Hubble Deep Fields

We present and compare in this paper new photometric redshift catalogs of the galaxies in three public fields: the NTT Deep Field, the HDF-N and the HDF-S. Photometric redshifts have been obtained for thewhole sample, by adopting a $χ^2$ minimization technique on a spectral library drawn from the Bruzual and Charlot synthesis models, with the addition of dust and intergalactic absorption. The accuracy, determined from 125 galaxies with known spectroscopic redshifts, is $σ_z\sim 0.08 (0.3)$ in the redshift intervals $z=0-1.5 (1.5-3.5)$. The global redshift distribution of I-selected galaxies shows a distinct peak at intermediate redshifts, z~0.6 at I_{AB}<26 and z~0.8 at I_{AB}<27.5 followed by a tail extending to z~6. We also present for the first time the redshift distribution of the total IR-selected sample to faint limits ($Ks \leq 21$ and $J\leq22$). It is found that the number density of galaxies at 1.25 5 candidates in the HDF filter set and that the 4 brightest candidates at $z>5$ in the HDF-S are indeed most likely M stars. (ABRIDGED)

astro-ph↗

arXiv2000

The nature of the short wavelength excitations in vitreous silica: X-Rays Brillouin scattering study

The dynamical structure factor (S(Q,E)) of vitreous silica has been measured by Inelastic X-ray Scattering varying the exchanged wavevector (Q) at fixed exchanged energy (E) - an experimental procedure that, contrary to the usual one at constant Q, provides spectra with much better identified inelastic features. This allows the first direct evidence of Brillouin peaks in the S(Q,E) of SiO_2 at energies above the Boson Peak (BP) energy, a finding that excludes the possibility that the BP marks the transition from propagating to localised dynamics in glasses.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗