arXiv subjects

Brigitte Rocca-Volmerange

Publications and source records attributed to Brigitte Rocca-Volmerange.

22 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv1999

Far-UV and deep surveys: bursting dwarfs versus normal galaxies

Galaxy counts from bright ultraviolet (UV) and deep optical spectroscopic surveys have revealed an unexpectedly large number of very blue galaxies. The colors and luminosities of these objects indicate that they are dwarf galaxies undergoing bursts of star formation. We use a galaxy evolution model (PEGASE, Fioc & Rocca-Volmerange 1997) to describe this population as galaxies undergoing cyclical bursts of star formation, thereby determining the luminosity function of these galaxies. When these bursting galaxies are added to normally evolving populations, the combination reproduces the UV number counts, color distributions and deep optical redshift distributions fairly well. Optical (including the Hubble Deep Field) and near-infrared number counts are fitted assuming an open or a flat, Lambda-dominated, Universe. The high amplitude of the angular correlation function of very blue galaxies discovered by Landy et al. (1996) is also recovered in this modelling. The number of bursting galaxies is only a small fraction of the total number of galaxies at optical and near-infrared wavelengths, even at faintest magnitudes. In our evolution modelling, normal galaxies explain most of the blue excess in a low-Omega Universe. The problem of the blue excess remains in a flat Universe without a cosmological constant.

astro-ph↗

arXiv1997

Bursting dwarf galaxies from the far-UV and deep surveys

The far-ultraviolet (UV) counts and the deep optical spectroscopic surveys have revealed an unexpected number of very blue galaxies (vBG). Using constraints from the UV and optical, we apply the galaxy evolution model PEGASE (Fioc & Rocca-Volmerange 1997, hereafter FRV) to describe this population with a cycling star formation. When added to normally evolving galaxy populations, vBG are able to reproduce UV number counts and color distributions as well as deep optical redshift distributions fairly well. Good agreement is also obtained with optical counts (including the Hubble Deep Field). The number of vBG is only a small fraction of the number of normal galaxies, even at faintest magnitudes. In our modelling, the latter explain the bulk of the excess of faint blue galaxies in an open Universe. The problem of the blue excess remains in a flat Universe without cosmological constant.

astro-ph↗

arXiv1997

Merging History Trees of Dark Matter Haloes: a Tool for Exploring Galaxy Formation Models

A method of deriving and using merging history trees of dark matter galaxy haloes directly from pure gravity N-body simulations is presented. This combines the full non-linearity of N-body simulations with the flexibility of the semi-analytical approach. Merging history trees derived from power-law initial perturbation spectrum simulations (for indices $n=-2$ and $n=0$) by Warren et al. (1992) are shown. As an example of a galaxy formation model, these are combined with evolutionary stellar population synthesis, via simple scaling laws for star formation rates, showing that if most star formation occurs during merger-induced bursts, then a nearly flat faint-end slope of the galaxy luminosity function may be obtained in certain cases. Interesting properties of hierarchical halo formation are noted: (1) In a given model, merger rates may vary widely between individual haloes, and typically 20%-30% of a halo's mass may be due to infall of uncollapsed material. (2) Small mass haloes continue to form at recent times: as expected, the existence of young, low redshift, low metallicity galaxies (e.g., Izotov et al. 1997) is consistent with hierarchical galaxy formation models. (3) For $n=-2,$ the halo spatial correlation function can have a very high initial bias due to the high power on large scales.

astro-ph↗

arXiv1997

PEGASE: a UV to NIR spectral evolution model of galaxies - Application to the calibration of bright galaxy counts

PEGASE is a new spectrophotometric evolution model for starbursts and evolved galaxies of the Hubble sequence. Its main originality is the extension to the near-infrared (NIR) of the atlas of synthetic spectra of Rocca-Volmerange & Guiderdoni (1988) with a revised stellar library including cold star parameters and stellar tracks extended to the TP-AGB and the post-AGB phase. The NIR is coherently linked to the visible and the ultraviolet, so that the model is continuous on an exceptionally large wavelength range from 220 A up to 5 microns. Moreover, a precise algorithm allows to follow very rapid evolutionary phases such as red supergiants or AGB crucial in the NIR. The nebular component is also computed in the NIR. The extinction correction is gas-dependent for spirals and ellipticals. A set of reference synthetic spectra at z=0, to which apply cosmological k- and evolution e- corrections for high-redshift galaxies, is built from fits of observational templates. Because of the lack of visible to NIR spectral templates for each Hubble type, we adopt statistical samples of colors, not fitted by previous models. A first application of this continuous model is to solve the problem of the slope of the bright galaxy counts from B=15 to 19 and of the normalization parameter of the Schechter luminosity function. Code sources, input and output data are available by anonymous ftp or at the WEB address of the authors.

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