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Cristina C. Popescu

Publications and source records attributed to Cristina C. Popescu.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2023

Deriving the intrinsic properties of M51 with radiative transfer models

A quantitative derivation of the intrinsic properties of galaxies related to their fundamental building blocks, gas, dust and stars is essential for our understanding of galaxy evolution. A fully self-consistent derivation of these properties can be achieved with radiative transfer (RT) methods that are constrained by panchromatic imaging observations. Here we present an axi-symmetric RT model of the UV-optical-FIR/submm spectral and spatial energy distribution of the face-on spiral galaxy M51. The model reproduces reasonably well the azimuthally averaged radial profiles derived from the imaging data available for this galaxy, from GALEX, SDSS, 2MASS, Spitzer and Herschel. We model the galaxy with three distinct morphological components: a bulge, an inner disc and a main disc. We derive the length parameters of the stellar emissivity and of the dust distribution. We also derive the intrinsic global and spatially resolved parameters of M51. We find a faint \lq\lq outer disc\rq\rq\ bridging M51 with its companion galaxy M51b. Finally, we present and discuss an alternative model, with dust properties that change within the galaxy.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2022

Cool Interstellar Medium as an Evolutionary Tracer in ALMA-Observed Local Dusty Early-Type Galaxies

The content and distribution of cool interstellar medium (ISM, <30K) can indicate the evolutionary mechanisms that transform late type to early type galaxies (ETGs). To investigate this, ALMA observations of 12CO[2-1] line emission were obtained for five dusty ETGs from a complete sample in low-density environments. Four of the ETGs have massive (approximately 10^9 Msolar), extended molecular gas reservoirs with effective radii of approximately 3 to 5 kpc. This work provides a kinematic and structural analysis of these observations, to explore possible evolutionary mechanisms. Axisymmetric or bisymmetric kinematic models were fitted to observations of molecular gas discs, to quantify the dominant structures present and highlight additional structures or asymmetries. Integral Field Unit (IFU) observations of these ETGs were also examined where available. Two of the ETGs, GAMA64646 and 622305, appear to have undergone tidal disturbance leading to molecular gas discs and/or star-forming inner rings. GAMA272990 may have undergone a merger, leading to an elliptical galaxy with an embedded star-forming molecular gas disc. GAMA622429 has probably undergone a minor merger, indicated by asymmetry in molecular gas distribution and disturbance in optical images. The remaining ETG, GAMA177186, was affected by source confusion from an offset source which could be a high mass, dust- and gas- rich object at high redshift. Overall, it appears that a high proportion of dusty ETGs in low-density environments have massive, extended molecular gas reservoirs, and have undergone some kind of interaction as part of their recent evolution. Secular evolution can then (re-)transform the ETGs from star-forming to passive galaxies.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2021

A radiation transfer model for the Milky Way. II The global properties and large scale structure

We obtained an axi-symmetric model for the large-scale distribution of stars and dust in the Milky Way (MW) using a radiative transfer code that can account for the existing near-infrared (NIR)/mid-infrared/submm all-sky emission maps of our Galaxy. We find that the MW has a star-formation rate of ${ SFR}=1.25\pm0.2\,{ M}_{\odot}$/yr, a stellar mass $M_{*}=(4.9\pm 0.3)\times10^{10}\,{ M}_{\odot}$, and a specific SFR that is relatively constant with radius (except for the inner 1 kpc). We identified an inner radius $R_{ in}= 4.5$\,kpc beyond which the stellar emissivity and dust distribution fall exponentially. For $R<R_{ in}$ the emissivities fall linearly towards the centre. The old stellar populations in the disk have an exponential scalelength that increases monotonically from $h_{ s}^{ disk}(K)=2.2\pm 0.6$\,kpc in the NIR, to $h_{ s}^{ disk}(B)=3.2\pm 0.9$\,kpc at the shorter optical bands, and a scaleheight that varies with radial distance, from $z_{ s}^{ disk}(0)=140\pm 20$\,pc in the centre to $z_{ s}^{ disk}(R_{\odot})=300\pm 20$\,pc at the solar radius. The young stellar populations have a scalelength of $h_{ s}^{ tdisk}=3.2\pm 0.9$\,kpc and a scaleheight that varies from $z_{ s}^{ tdisk}(0)=50\pm 10$\,pc in the centre to $z_{ s}^{ tdisk}(R_{\odot})=90\pm 10$\,pc at the solar radius. We discovered an inner stellar disk within the central 4.5 kpc, which we associate with the extended long bar of the MW. Most of the obscured star formation happens within this inner thin disk. The diffuse dust is mainly distributed in a disk with scalelength $h_{ d}^{ disk}=5.2\pm 0.8$\,kpc and scaleheight $z_{ d}^{ disk}=0.14\pm 0.02$\,kpc. We give the first derivation of the MW attenuation curve and present it as a functional fit to the model data. We find the MW to lie in the Green Valley of the main sequence relation for spiral galaxies.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2020

A radiative transfer model for the spiral galaxy M33

We present the first radiative transfer (RT) model of a non-edge-on disk galaxy in which the large-scale geometry of stars and dust is self-consistently derived through fitting of multiwavelength imaging observations from the UV to the submm. To this end we used the axi-symmetric RT model of Popescu et al. and a new methodology for deriving geometrical parameters, and applied this to decode the{spectral energy distribution (SED) of M33. We successfully account for both the spatial and spectral energy distribution, with residuals typically within $7\%$ in the profiles of surface brightness and within $8\%$ in the spatially-integrated SED. We predict well the energy balance between absorption and re-emission by dust, with no need to invoke modified grain properties, and we find no submm emission that is in excess of our model predictions. We calculate that $80\pm8\%$ of the dust heating is powered by the young stellar populations. We identify several morphological components in M33, a nuclear, an inner, a main and an outer disc, showing a monotonic trend in decreasing star-formation surface-density ($Σ_{\rm SFR}$) from the nuclear to the outer disc. In relation to surface density of stellar mass, the $Σ_{\rm SFR}$ of these components define a steeper relation than the "main sequence" of star-forming galaxies, which we call a "structurally resolved main sequence". Either environmental or stellar feedback mechanisms could explain the slope of the newly defined sequence. We find the star-formation rate to be ${\rm SFR}=0.28^{+0.02}_{-0.01}{\rm M}_{\odot}{\rm yr}^{-1}$.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2019

The imprint of clump formation at high redshift. I. A disc alpha-abundance dichotomy

The disc structure of the Milky Way is marked by a chemical dichotomy, with high-alpha and low-alpha abundance sequences, traditionally identified with the geometric thick and thin discs. This identification is aided by the old ages of the high-alpha stars, and lower average ages of the low-alpha ones. Recent large scale surveys such as APOGEE have provided a wealth of data on this chemical structure, including showing that an identification of chemical and geometric thick discs is not exact, but the origin of the chemical dichotomy has remained unclear. Here we demonstrate that a dichotomy arises naturally if the early gas-rich disc fragments, leading to some fraction of the star formation occurring in clumps of the type observed in high-redshift galaxies. These clumps have high star formation rate density. They, therefore, enrich rapidly, moving from the low-alpha to the high-alpha sequence, while more distributed star formation produces the low-alpha sequence. We demonstrate that this model produces a chemically-defined thick disc that has many of the properties of the Milky Way's thick disc. Because clump formation is common in high redshift galaxies, we predict that chemical bimodalities are common in massive galaxies.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2018

The consequence of a new ISRF model of the Milky Way on predictions for diffuse gamma-ray emission

We investigate the impact of the recently published ISRF model of the Milky Way by Popescu et al. on the CR electrons and positrons in the context of cosmic-ray transport modelling. We also study predictions for diffuse Galactic gamma radiation and underline the importance of the increased ISRF intensities.We use the PICARD code for solving the CR transport equation to obtain predictions based on Galactic cosmic-ray electron fluxes. We show that the new ISRF yields gamma-ray intensity increases, most particular at the Galactic Center and in the Galactic Plane. The impact is largest at energies around 220 GeV.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2018

Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA): Variation in Galaxy Structure Across the Green Valley

Using a sample of 472 local Universe (z<0.06) galaxies in the stellar mass range 10.25 < log M*/M_sun < 10.75, we explore the variation in galaxy structure as a function of morphology and galaxy colour. Our sample of galaxies is sub-divided into red, green and blue colour groups and into elliptical and non-elliptical (disk-type) morphologies. Using KiDS and VIKING derived postage stamp images, a group of eight volunteers visually classified bars, rings, morphological lenses, tidal streams, shells and signs of merger activity for all systems. We find a significant surplus of rings ($2.3σ$) and lenses ($2.9σ$) in disk-type galaxies as they transition across the green valley. Combined, this implies a joint ring/lens green valley surplus significance of $3.3σ$ relative to equivalent disk-types within either the blue cloud or the red sequence. We recover a bar fraction of ~44% which remains flat with colour, however, we find that the presence of a bar acts to modulate the incidence of rings and (to a lesser extent) lenses, with rings in barred disk-type galaxies more common by ~20-30 percentage points relative to their unbarred counterparts, regardless of colour. Additionally, green valley disk-type galaxies with a bar exhibit a significant $3.0σ$ surplus of lenses relative to their blue/red analogues. The existence of such structures rules out violent transformative events as the primary end-of-life evolutionary mechanism, with a more passive scenario the favoured candidate for the majority of galaxies rapidly transitioning across the green valley.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2017

Ray-tracing 3D dust radiative transfer with DART-Ray: code upgrade and public release

We present an extensively updated version of the purely ray-tracing 3D dust radiation transfer code DART-Ray. The new version includes five major upgrades : 1) a series of optimizations for the ray-angular density and the scattered radiation source function; 2) the implementation of several data and task parallelizations using hybrid MPI+OpenMP schemes; 3) the inclusion of dust self-heating; 4) the ability to produce surface brightness maps for observers within the models in HEALPix format; 5) the possibility to set the expected numerical accuracy already at the start of the calculation. We tested the updated code with benchmark models where the dust self-heating is not negligible. Furthermore, we performed a study of the extent of the source influence volumes, using galaxy models, which are critical in determining the efficiency of the DART-Ray algorithm. The new code is publicly available, documented for both users and developers, and accompanied by several programmes to create input grids for different model geometries and to import the results of N-body and SPH simulations. These programmes can be easily adapted to different input geometries, and for different dust models or stellar emission libraries.

astro-ph.IM↗
arXiv2016

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): $\mathcal{M_\star}-R_{\rm e}$ relations of $z=0$ bulges, discs and spheroids

We perform automated bulge + disc decomposition on a sample of $\sim$7500 galaxies from the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey in the redshift range of 0.002$<$z$<$0.06 using SIGMA, a wrapper around GALFIT3. To achieve robust profile measurements we use a novel approach of repeatedly fitting the galaxies, varying the input parameters to sample a large fraction of the input parameter space. Using this method we reduce the catastrophic failure rate significantly and verify the confidence in the fit independently of $χ^2$. Additionally, using the median of the final fitting values and the 16$^{th}$ and 84$^{th}$ percentile produces more realistic error estimates than those provided by GALFIT, which are known to be underestimated. We use the results of our decompositions to analyse the stellar mass - half-light radius relations of bulges, discs and spheroids. We further investigate the association of components with a parent disc or elliptical relation to provide definite $z=0$ disc and spheroid $\mathcal{M_\star}-R_{\rm e}$ relations. We conclude by comparing our local disc and spheroid $\mathcal{M_\star}-R_{\rm e}$ to simulated data from EAGLE and high redshift data from CANDELS-UDS. We show the potential of using the mass-size relation to study galaxy evolution in both cases but caution that for a fair comparison all data sets need to be processed and analysed in the same manner.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2015

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): the wavelength dependence of galaxy structure versus redshift and luminosity

We study how the sizes and radial profiles of galaxies vary with wavelength, by fitting Sersic functions simultaneously to imaging in nine optical and near-infrared bands. To quantify the wavelength dependence of effective radius we use the ratio, $\mathcal{R}$, of measurements in two restframe bands. The dependence of Sersic index on wavelength, $\mathcal{N}$, is computed correspondingly. Vulcani et al. (2014) have demonstrated that different galaxy populations present sharply contrasting behaviour in terms of $\mathcal{R}$ and $\mathcal{N}$. Here we study the luminosity dependence of this result. We find that at higher luminosities, early-type galaxies display a more substantial decrease in effective radius with wavelength, whereas late-types present a more pronounced increase in Sersic index. The structural contrast between types thus increases with luminosity. By considering samples at different redshifts, we demonstrate that lower data quality reduces the apparent difference between the main galaxy populations. However, our conclusions remain robust to this effect. We show that accounting for different redshift and luminosity selections partly reconciles the size variation measured by Vulcani et al. with the weaker trends found by other recent studies. Dividing galaxies by visual morphology confirms the behaviour inferred using morphological proxies, although the sample size is greatly reduced. Finally, we demonstrate that varying dust opacity and disc inclination can account for features of the joint distribution of $\mathcal{R}$ and $\mathcal{N}$ for late-type galaxies. However, dust does not appear to explain the highest values of $\mathcal{R}$ and $\mathcal{N}$. The bulge-disc nature of galaxies must also contribute to the wavelength-dependence of their structure.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2015

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): Trends in galaxy colours, morphology, and stellar populations with large scale structure, group, and pair environments

We explore trends in galaxy properties with Mpc-scale structures using catalogues of environment and large scale structure from the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey. Existing GAMA catalogues of large scale structure, group and pair membership allow us to construct galaxy stellar mass functions for different environmental types. To avoid simply extracting the known underlying correlations between galaxy properties and stellar mass, we create a mass matched sample of galaxies with stellar masses between $9.5 \leq \log{M_*/h^{-2} M_{\odot}} \leq 11$ for each environmental population. Using these samples, we show that mass normalised galaxies in different large scale environments have similar energy outputs, $u-r$ colours, luminosities, and morphologies. Extending our analysis to group and pair environments, we show galaxies that are not in groups or pairs exhibit similar characteristics to each other regardless of broader environment. For our mass controlled sample, we fail to see a strong dependence of Sérsic index or galaxy luminosity on halo mass, but do find that it correlates very strongly with colour. Repeating our analysis for galaxies that have not been mass controlled introduces and amplifies trends in the properties of galaxies in pairs, groups, and large scale structure, indicating that stellar mass is the most important predictor of the galaxy properties we examine, as opposed to environmental classifications.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2015

Predicting the stellar and non-equilibrium dust emission spectra of high-resolution simulated galaxies with DART-Ray

We describe the calculation of the stochastically heated dust emission using the 3D ray-tracing dust radiative transfer code DART-Ray, which is designed to solve the dust radiative transfer problem for galaxies with arbitrary geometries. In order to reduce the time required to derive the non-equilibrium dust emission spectra from each volume element within a model, we implemented an adaptive SED library approach, which we tested for the case of axisymmetric galaxy geometries. To show the capabilities of the code, we applied DART-Ray to a high-resolution N-body+SPH galaxy simulation to predict the appearance of the simulated galaxy at a set of wavelengths from the UV to the sub-mm. We analyse the results to determine the effect of dust on the observed radial and vertical profiles of the stellar emission as well as on the attenuation and scattering of light from the constituent stellar populations. We also quantify the proportion of dust re-radiated stellar light powered by young and old stellar populations, both bolometrically and as a function of infrared wavelength.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2014

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): Stellar mass functions by Hubble type

We present an estimate of the galaxy stellar mass function and its division by morphological type in the local (0.025 < z < 0.06) Universe. Adopting robust morphological classifications as previously presented (Kelvin et al.) for a sample of 3,727 galaxies taken from the Galaxy And Mass Assembly survey, we define a local volume and stellar mass limited sub-sample of 2,711 galaxies to a lower stellar mass limit of M = 10^9.0 M_sun. We confirm that the galaxy stellar mass function is well described by a double Schechter function given by M* = 10^10.64 M_sun, α1 = -0.43, ϕ*1 = 4.18 dex^-1 Mpc^-3, α2 = -1.50 and ϕ*2 = 0.74 dex^-1 Mpc^-3. The constituent morphological-type stellar mass functions are well sampled above our lower stellar mass limit, excepting the faint little blue spheroid population of galaxies. We find approximately 71+3-4% of the stellar mass in the local Universe is found within spheroid dominated galaxies; ellipticals and S0-Sas. The remaining 29+4-3% falls predominantly within late type disk dominated systems, Sab-Scds and Sd-Irrs. Adopting reasonable bulge-to-total ratios implies that approximately half the stellar mass today resides in spheroidal structures, and half in disk structures. Within this local sample, we find approximate stellar mass proportions for E : S0-Sa : Sab-Scd : Sd-Irr of 34 : 37 : 24 : 5.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2014

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): the wavelength-dependent sizes and profiles of galaxies revealed by MegaMorph

We investigate the relationship between colour and structure within galaxies using a large, volume-limited sample of bright, low-redshift galaxies with optical to near-infrared imaging from the GAMA survey. We fit single-component, wavelength-dependent, elliptical Sersic models to all passbands simultaneously, using software developed by the MegaMorph project. Dividing our sample by Sersic index and colour, the recovered wavelength variations in effective radius (R_e) and Sersic index (n) reveal the internal structure, and hence formation history, of different types of galaxies. All these trends depend on n; some have an additional dependence on galaxy colour. Late-type galaxies (n_r < 2.5) show a dramatic increase in Sersic index with wavelength. This might be a result of their two-component (bulge-disk) nature, though stellar population gradients within each component and dust attenuation are likely to play a role. All galaxies show a substantial decrease in R_e with wavelength. This is strongest for early-types (n_r > 2.5), even though they maintain constant n with wavelength, revealing that ellipticals are a superimposition of different stellar populations associated with multiple collapse and merging events. Processes leading to structures with larger R_e must be associated with lower metallicity or younger stellar populations. This appears to rule out the formation of young cores through dissipative gas accretion as an important mechanism in the recent lives of luminous elliptical galaxies.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2014

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): ugrizYJHK Sérsic luminosity functions and the cosmic spectral energy distribution by Hubble type

We report the morphological classification of 3727 galaxies from the Galaxy and Mass Assembly survey with M_r < -17.4 mag and in the redshift range 0.025 < z < 0.06 (2.1 x 10^5 Mpc^3 ) into E, S0-Sa, SB0-SBa, Sab-Scd, SBab-SBcd, Sd-Irr and little blue spheroid classes. Approximately 70% of galaxies in our sample are disk dominated systems, with the remaining ~30% spheroid dominated. We establish the robustness of our classifications, and use them to derive morphological-type luminosity functions and luminosity densities in the ugrizYJHK passbands, improving on prior studies that split by global colour or light profile shape alone. We find that the total galaxy luminosity function is best described by a double-Schechter function while the constituent morphological-type luminosity functions are well described by a single-Schechter function. These data are also used to derive the star-formation rate densities for each Hubble class, and the attenuated and unattenuated (corrected for dust) cosmic spectral energy distributions, i.e., the instantaneous energy production budget. While the observed optical/near-IR energy budget is dominated 58:42 by galaxies with a significant spheroidal component, the actual energy production rate is reversed, i.e., the combined disk dominated populations generate ~1.3x as much energy as the spheroid dominated populations. On the grandest scale, this implies that chemical evolution in the local Universe is currently confined to mid-type spiral classes like our Milky Way.

astro-ph.CO↗
arXiv2013

The effects of dust on the photometric parameters of decomposed disks and bulges

We present results of a study to quantify the effects of dust on the derived photometric parameters of disk and bulges obtained from bulge-disk decomposition: scale-length, effective radius, Sersic index, disk axis-ratio, and bulge-to-disk ratio. The dust induced changes in these parameters were obtained by fitting simulated images of composite systems (containing a disk and a bulge) produced using radiative transfer calculations. The simulations were fitted with the GALFIT 3.0.2 data analysis algorithm. Fits were done with both a combination of an exponential plus a variable-index Sersic function as well as with a combination of two variable-index Sersic functions. We find that dust is biasing the derived exponential scale-length of decomposed disks towards smaller values than would be otherwise derived if the galaxy were to have no bulge. Similarly, the derived bulge-to-disk ratio is biased towards smaller values. However, the derived axis-ratio of the disk is not changed in the decomposition process. The derived effective radius of decomposed disks of systems having exponential bulges is found to be less affected by dust when fits are done with two variable-index Sersic functions. For the same type of fits dust is found to bias the value of the derived effective radius of decomposed disks towards lower values for systems having de Vaucouleurs bulges. All corrections derived in this paper are made available in electronic form.

astro-ph.CO↗
arXiv2013

The effects of dust on the derived photometric parameters of disks and bulges in spiral galaxies

We present results of a study to quantify the effects of dust on the derived photometric parameters of disks (old stellar disks and young stellar disks) and bulges: disk scale-lengths, axis-ratios, central surface-brightness, bulge effective radii and Sersic indexes. The changes in the derived photometric parameters from their intrinsic values (as seen in the absence of dust) were obtained by fitting simulated images of disks and bulges produced using radiative transfer calculations and the model of Popescu et al. (2011). The fits to the simulations were performed using GALFIT 3.0.2 data analysis algorithm and the fitted models were the commonly used infinitely thin disks described by exponential, general Sersic and de Vaucouleurs distributions. We find the young stellar disks to suffer the most severe variation in the photometric parameters due to dust effects. In this context we also present corrections for narrow line (Balmer line) images. Old stellar disks are also significantly affected by dust, in particular when fits are performed with exponential functions. The photometric parameters of bulges are to a lesser extent affected by dust. We also find that the variation of dust corrections with face-on dust opacity and inclination is similar for bulges with different intrinsic stellar emissivities (different Sersic index), with differences manifesting only close to edge-on orientations of the disk. Dust corrections for bulges are found to be insensitive to the choice of the truncation radius and ellipticity of the bulge. All corrections are listed in the Appendix and made available in electronic format.

astro-ph.CO↗