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E. Le Floc'h

Publications and source records attributed to E. Le Floc'h.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources

Black hole accretion and host galaxies of obscured quasars in XMM-COSMOS

We explore the connection between black hole growth at the center of obscured quasars selected from the XMM-COSMOS survey and the physical properties of their host galaxies. We study a bolometric regime ( 8 x 10^45 erg/s) where several theoretical models invoke major galaxy mergers as the main fueling channel for black hole accretion. We confirm that obscured quasars mainly reside in massive galaxies (Mstar>10^10 Msun) and that the fraction of galaxies hosting such powerful quasars monotonically increases with the stellar mass. We stress the limitation of the use of rest-frame color-magnitude diagrams as a diagnostic tool for studying galaxy evolution and inferring the influence that AGN activity can have on such a process. We instead use the correlation between star-formation rate and stellar mass found for star-forming galaxies to discuss the physical properties of the hosts. We find that at z ~1, ~62% of Type-2 QSOs hosts are actively forming stars and that their rates are comparable to those measured for normal star-forming galaxies. The fraction of star-forming hosts increases with redshift: ~71% at z ~2, and 100% at z ~3. We also find that the the evolution from z ~1 to z ~3 of the specific star-formation rate of the Type-2 QSO hosts is in excellent agreement with that measured for star-forming galaxies. From the morphological analysis, we conclude that most of the objects are bulge-dominated galaxies, and that only a few of them exhibit signs of recent mergers or disks. Finally, bulge-dominated galaxies tend to host Type-2 QSOs with low Eddington ratios (lambda<0.1), while disk-dominated or merging galaxies have at their centers BHs accreting at high Eddington ratios (lambda > 0.1).

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Dissecting Photometric redshift for Active Galactic Nuclei using XMM- and Chandra-COSMOS samples

With this paper, we release accurate photometric redshifts for 1692 counterparts to Chandra sources in the central square degree of the COSMOS field. The availability of a large training set of spectroscopic redshifts that extends to faint magnitudes enabled photometric redshifts comparable to the highest quality results presently available for normal galaxies. We demonstrate that morphologically extended, faint X-ray sources without optical variability are more accurately described by a library of normal galaxies (corrected for emission lines) than by AGN-dominated templates, even if these sources have AGN-like X-ray luminosities. Preselecting the library on the bases of the source properties allowed us to reach an accuracy sigma_(Delta z/(1+z_spec)) \sim0.015 with a fraction of outliers of 5.8% for the entire Chandra-COSMOS sample. In addition, we release revised photometric redshifts for the 1735 optical counterparts of the XMM-detected sources over the entire 2 sq. deg.of COSMOS. For 248 sources, our updated photometric redshift differs from the previous release by Delta z>0.2. These changes are predominantly due to the inclusion of newly available deep H-band photometry H_AB=24 mag. We illustrate once again the importance of a spectroscopic training sample and how an assumption about the nature of a source together with the number and the depth of the available bands influence the accuracy of the photometric redshifts determined for AGN. These considerations should be kept in mind when defining the observational strategies of upcoming large surveys targeting AGN, such as eROSITA at X-ray energies and ASKAP/EMU in the radio band.

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FIR measurements of Ly-$α$ emitters at z$\lesssim$1.0: dust attenuation from PACS-\emph{Herschel}

One remaining open question regarding the physical properties of Ly$α$ emitters (LAEs) is their dust content and its evolution with redshift. The variety of results is large and with those reported by now is difficult to establish clear relations between dust, other fundamental parameters of galaxies (star-formation rate, metallicity or age) and redshift. In this Letter, we report \emph{Herschel} PACS-100$μ$m, PACS-160$μ$m and \emph{Spitzer} MIPS-24$μ$m detections of a sample of spectroscopically GALEX-selected LAEs at z$\sim$0.3 and $\sim$1.0. Five out of ten and one out of two LAEs are detected in, at least, one PACS band at z$\sim$0.3 and $\sim$1.0, respectively. These measurements have a great importance given that they allow us to quantify, for the first time, the dust content of LAEs from direct FIR observations. MIPS-24$μ$m detections allow us to determine IR properties of the PACS-undetected LAEs. We obtain that mid-IR/FIR detected star-forming (SF) LAEs at z$\sim$0.3 have dust content within 0.75$\lesssim$ $A_{1200Å}$ $\lesssim$2.0, with a median value of A$_{1200\textrmÅ}$$\sim$1.1. This range broadens out to 0.75$\lesssim$ $A_{1200Å}$ $\lesssim$2.5 when considering those LAEs at z$\sim$1.0. Only one SF LAE is undetected both in MIPS-24$μ$m and PACS, with $A_{1200Å}$ $\lesssim$0.75. These results seem to be larger than those reported for high-redshift LAEs and, therefore, although an evolutionary trend is not clearly seen, it could point out that low-redshift LAEs are dustier than high-redshift ones. However, the diverse methods used could introduce a systematic offset in the results.

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GOODS-Herschel A population of 24micron dropout sources at z < 2

Using extremely deep PACS 100- and 160um Herschel data from the GOODS-Herschel program, we identify 21 infrared bright galaxies previously missed in the deepest 24um surveys performed by MIPS. These MIPS dropouts are predominantly found in two redshift bins, centred at z ~0.4 and ~1.3. Their S_100/S_24 flux density ratios are similar to those of local LIRGs and ULIRGs, whose silicate absorption features at 18um (at z ~ 0.4) and 9.7um (at z ~ 1.3) are shifted into the 24um MIPS band at these redshifts. The high-z sub-sample consists of 11 infrared luminous sources, accounting for ~2% of the whole GOODS-Herschel sample and putting strong upper limits on the fraction of LIRGs/ULIRGs at 1.0 43 colour cut selects galaxies with a redshift distribution similar to that of the MIPS dropouts and when combined with a second colour cut, S_16/S_8 > 4, isolates sources at 1.0 < z < 1.7. We show that these sources have elevated specific star formation rates (sSFR) compared to main sequence galaxies at these redshifts and are likely to be compact starbursts with moderate/strong 9.7um silicate absorption features in their mid-IR spectra. Herschel data reveal that their infrared luminosities extrapolated from the 24um flux density are underestimated, on average, by a factor of ~3. These silicate break galaxies account for 16% (8%) of the ULIRG (LIRG) population in the GOODS fields, indicating a lower limit in their space density of 2.0 \times 10^(-5) Mpc^(-3). Finally, we provide estimates of the fraction of z < 2 MIPS dropout sources as a function of the 24-, 100-, 160-, 250- and 350um sensitivity limits, and conclude that previous predictions of a population of silicate break galaxies missed by the major 24um extragalactic surveys have been overestimated.

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A mid-IR study of Hickson Compact Groups II. Multi-wavelength analysis of the complete GALEX-Spitzer Sample

We present a comprehensive study on the impact of the environment of compact galaxy groups on the evolution of their members using a multi-wavelength analysis, from the UV to the infrared, for a sample of 32 Hickson compact groups (HCGs) containing 135 galaxies. Fitting the SEDs of all galaxies with the state-of-the-art model of da Cunha (2008) we can accurately calculate their mass, SFR, and extinction, as well as estimate their infrared luminosity and dust content. We compare our findings with samples of field galaxies, early-stage interacting pairs, and cluster galaxies with similar data. We find that classifying the groups as dynamically "old" or "young", depending on whether or not at least one quarter of their members are early-type systems, is physical and consistent with past classifications of HCGs based on their atomic gas content. [...ABRIDGED...] We also examine their SF properties, UV-optical and mid-IR colors, and we conclude that all the evidence point to an evolutionary scenario in which the effects of the group environment and the properties of the galaxy members are not instantaneous. Early on, the influence of close companions to group galaxies is similar to the one of galaxy pairs in the field. However, as the time progresses, the effects of tidal torques and minor merging, shape the morphology and star formation history of the group galaxies, leading to an increase of the fraction of early-type members and a rapid built up of the stellar mass in the remaining late-type galaxies.

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PACS Evolutionary Probe (PEP) - A Herschel Key Program

Deep far-infrared photometric surveys studying galaxy evolution and the nature of the cosmic infrared background are a key strength of the Herschel mission. We describe the scientific motivation for the PACS Evolutionary Probe (PEP) guaranteed time key program and its role in the complement of Herschel surveys, and the field selection which includes popular multiwavelength fields such as GOODS, COSMOS, Lockman Hole, ECDFS, EGS. We provide an account of the observing strategies and data reduction methods used. An overview of first science results illustrates the potential of PEP in providing calorimetric star formation rates for high redshift galaxy populations, thus testing and superseeding previous extrapolations from other wavelengths, and enabling a wide range of galaxy evolution studies.

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Building the cosmic infrared background brick by brick with Herschel/PEP

The cosmic infrared background (CIB) includes roughly half of the energy radiated by all galaxies at all wavelengths across cosmic time, as observed at the present epoch. The PACS Evolutionary Probe (PEP) survey is exploited here to study the CIB and its redshift differential, at 70, 100 and 160 micron, where the background peaks. Combining PACS observations of the GOODS-S, GOODS-N, Lockman Hole and COSMOS areas, we define number counts spanning over more than two orders of magnitude in flux: from ~1 mJy to few hundreds mJy. Stacking of 24 micron sources and P(D) statistics extend the analysis down to ~0.2 mJy. Taking advantage of the wealth of ancillary data in PEP fields, differential number counts and CIB are studied up to z=5. Based on these counts, we discuss the effects of confusion on PACS blank field observations and provide confusion limits for the three bands considered. The total CIB surface brightness emitted above PEP 3 sigma flux limits is 4.52 +/- 1.18, 8.35 +/- 0.95 and 9.49 +/- 0.59 [nW/m2/sr] at 70, 100, and 160 micron, respectively. These values correspond to 58 +/- 7% and 74 +/- 5% of the COBE/DIRBE CIB direct measurements at 100 and 160 micron. Employing the P(D) analysis, these fractions increase to ~65% and ~89%. More than half of the resolved CIB was emitted at redshift z<=1. The 50%-light redshifts lie at z=0.58, 0.67 and 0.73 at the three PACS wavelengths. The distribution moves towards earlier epochs at longer wavelengths: while the 70 micron CIB is mainly produced by z<=1.0 objects, the contribution of z>1.0 sources reaches 50% at 160 micron. Most of the CIB resolved in the three PACS bands was emitted by galaxies with infrared luminosities in the range 1e11-1e12 L(sun).

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Dust-obscured star formation and the contribution of galaxies escaping UV/optical color selections at z~2

A substantial fraction of the stellar mass growth across cosmic time occurred within dust-enshrouded environments. Yet, the exact amount of star-forming activity that took place in high-redshift dusty galaxies currently missed by optical surveys has been barely explored. Using the Spitzer observations of COSMOS we determined the fraction of luminous star-forming galaxies at 1.5<z<3 escaping the traditional color selection techniques because of dust extinction, as well as their contribution to the cosmic star formation density at high redshift. We find that the BzK criterion offers an almost complete (~90%) identification of the 24mic sources at 1.4<z<2.5, while the BM/BX criterion miss 50% of the MIPS population. Similarly the criterion based on the presence of a stellar bump in massive sources (so-called "IRAC peakers") miss up to 40% of the IR luminosity density and only 25% of the IR energy density at z~2 is produced by Optically-Faint IR-bright galaxies selected based on their extreme mid-IR to optical flux ratios. We conclude that color selections of distant star-forming galaxies must be used with lots of care given the substantial bias they can suffer. In particular, the effect of dust extinction strongly impacts the completeness of identifications at the bright end of the bolometric luminosity function, which implies large and uncertain extrapolations to account for the contribution of dusty galaxies missed by these selections. In the context of forthcoming facilities that will operate at long wavelengths (e.g., $JWST$, ALMA, SAFARI, EVLA, SKA), this emphasizes the importance of minimizing the extinction biases when probing the activity of star formation in the early Universe.

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HST Morphologies of z ~ 2 Dust-Obscured Galaxies II: Bump Sources

We present Hubble Space Telescope (HST) imaging of 22 ultra-luminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs) at z~2 with extremely red R-[24] colors (called dust-obscured galaxies, or DOGs) which have a local maximum in their spectral energy distribution (SED) at rest-frame 1.6um associated with stellar emission. These sources, which we call "bump DOGs", have star-formation rates of 400-4000 Msun/yr and have redshifts derived from mid-IR spectra which show strong polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon emission --- a sign of vigorous on-going star-formation. Using a uniform morphological analysis, we look for quantifiable differences between bump DOGs, power-law DOGs (Spitzer-selected ULIRGs with mid-IR SEDs dominated by a power-law and spectral features that are more typical of obscured active galactic nuclei than starbursts), sub-millimeter selected galaxies (SMGs), and other less-reddened ULIRGs from the Spitzer extragalactic First Look Survey (XFLS). Bump DOGs are larger than power-law DOGs (median Petrosian radius of 8.4 +/- 2.7 kpc vs. 5.5 +/- 2.3 kpc) and exhibit more diffuse and irregular morphologies (median M_20 of -1.08 +/- 0.05 vs. -1.48 +/- 0.05). These trends are qualitatively consistent with expectations from simulations of major mergers in which merging systems during the peak star-formation rate period evolve from M_20 = -1.0 to M_20 = -1.7. Less obscured ULIRGs (i.e., non-DOGs) tend to have more regular, centrally peaked, single-object morphologies rather than diffuse and irregular morphologies. This distinction in morphologies may imply that less obscured ULIRGs sample the merger near the end of the peak star-formation rate period. Alternatively, it may indicate that the intense star-formation in these less-obscured ULIRGs is not the result of a recent major merger.

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The Mid-IR and X-ray Selected QSO Luminosity Function

We present the J-band luminosity function of 1838 mid-infrared and X-ray selected AGNs in the redshift range 0 3 we observe a decrease in the space density of quasars of all brightnesses. We model the luminosity function by a double power-law and find that its evolution cannot be described by either pure luminosity or pure density evolution, but must be a combination of both. Our best-fit model has bright and faint power-law indices consistent with the low redshift measurements based on the 2QZ and 2SLAQ surveys and it generally agrees with the number of bright quasars predicted by other LFs at all redshifts. If we construct the QSO luminosity function using only the IRAC-selected AGNs, we find that the biases inherent to this selection method significantly modify the behavior of phi*(z) only for z<1 and have no significant impact upon the characteristic magnitude M*_J(z).

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Evolution of Dust Temperature of Galaxies through Cosmic Time as seen by Herschel

We study the dust properties of galaxies in the redshift range 0.1 0.5 with L_IR>5x10^{10} L_\odot, appears to be 2-5 K colder than that of AKARI-selected local galaxies with similar luminosities; and the dispersion in T_dust for high-z galaxies increases with L_IR due to the existence of cold galaxies that are not seen among local galaxies. We show that this large dispersion of the L_IR-T_dust relation can bridge the gap between local star-forming galaxies and high-z submillimeter galaxies (SMGs). We also find that three SMGs with very low T_dust (<20 K) covered in this study have close neighbouring sources with similar 24-\mum brightness, which could lead to an overestimation of FIR/(sub)millimeter fluxes of the SMGs.

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The Cosmic Far-Infrared Background Buildup Since Redshift 2 at 70 and 160 microns in the COSMOS and GOODS fields

The Cosmic Far-Infrared Background (CIB) at wavelengths around 160 μm corresponds to the peak intensity of the whole Extragalactic Background Light, which is being measured with increasing accuracy. However, the build up of the CIB emission as a function of redshift, is still not well known. Our goal is to measure the CIB history at 70 μm and 160 μm at different redshifts, and provide constraints for infrared galaxy evolution models. We use complete deep Spitzer 24 μm catalogs down to about 80 μJy, with spectroscopic and photometric redshifts identifications, from the GOODS and COSMOS deep infrared surveys covering 2 square degrees total. After cleaning the Spitzer/MIPS 70 μm and 160 μm maps from detected sources, we stacked the far-IR images at the positions of the 24 μm sources in different redshift bins. We measured the contribution of each stacked source to the total 70 and 160 μm light, and compare with model predictions and recent far-IR measurements made with Herschel/PACS on smaller fields. We have detected components of the 70 and 160 μm backgrounds in different redshift bins up to z ~ 2. The contribution to the CIB is maximum at 0.3 <= z <= 0.9 at 160μm (and z <= 0.5 at 70 μm). A total of 81% (74%) of the 70 (160) μm background was emitted at z < 1. We estimate that the AGN relative contribution to the far-IR CIB is less than about 10% at z < 1.5. We provide a comprehensive view of the CIB buildup at 24, 70, 100, 160 μm. IR galaxy models predicting a major contribution to the CIB at z < 1 are in agreement with our measurements, while our results discard other models that predict a peak of the background at higher redshifts. Our results are available online http://www.ias.u-psud.fr/irgalaxies/ .

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Decomposing Star Formation and Active Galactic Nucleus with Spitzer Mid-Infrared Spectra: Luminosity Functions and Co-Evolution

We present Spitzer 7-38um spectra for a 24um flux limited sample of galaxies at z~0.7 in the COSMOS field. The detailed high-quality spectra allow us to cleanly separate star formation (SF) and active galactic nucleus (AGN) in individual galaxies. We first decompose mid-infrared Luminosity Functions (LFs). We find that the SF 8um and 15um LFs are well described by Schechter functions. AGNs dominate the space density at high luminosities, which leads to the shallow bright-end slope of the overall mid-infrared LFs. The total infrared (8-1000um) LF from 70um selected galaxies shows a shallower bright-end slope than the bolometrically corrected SF 15um LF, owing to the intrinsic dispersion in the mid-to-far-infrared spectral energy distributions. We then study the contemporary growth of galaxies and their supermassive black holes (BHs). Seven of the 31 Luminous Infrared Galaxies with Spitzer spectra host luminous AGNs, implying an AGN duty cycle of 23+/-9%. The time-averaged ratio of BH accretion rate and SF rate matches the local M_BH-M_bulge relation and the M_BH-M_host relation at z ~ 1. These results favor co-evolution scenarios in which BH growth and intense SF happen in the same event but the former spans a shorter lifetime than the latter. Finally, we compare our mid-infrared spectroscopic selection with other AGN identification methods and discuss candidate Compton-thick AGNs in the sample. While only half of the mid-infrared spectroscopically selected AGNs are detected in X-ray, ~90% of them can be identified with their near-infrared spectral indices.

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A mid-IR study of Hickson Compact Groups I : Probing the Effects of Environment in Galaxy Interactions

Hickson Compact Groups (HCGs) are among the densest galaxy environments of the local universe. To examine the effects of the environment on the infrared properties of these systems, we present an analysis of Spitzer and ISO mid-infrared imaging as well as deep ground based near-infrared imaging of 14 HCGs containing a total of 69 galaxies. Based on mid-infrared color diagnostics we identify the galaxies which appear to host an active nucleus, while using a suite of templates, we fit the complete infrared spectral energy distribution for each group member. We compare our estimates of galaxy mass, star formation rate, total infrared luminosities, and specific star formation rates (sSFR) for our HCG sample, to samples of isolated galaxies and interacting pairs and find that overall there is no discernible difference among them. However, HCGs which can be considered as dynamically "old", host late-type galaxies with a slightly lower sSFR than the one found in dynamically "young" groups. This could be attributed to multiple past interactions among the galaxies in old groups, that have led to the build up of their stellar mass. It is also consistent with our prediction for the presence of diffuse cold dust in the intergalactic medium of 9 of the dynamically "old" groups.

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Obscured star-formation and environment in the COSMOS field

We investigate the effects of the environment on star-formation in a sample of massive luminous and ultra-luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs and ULIRGs) with S(24 micron)>80 uJy and i+<24 in the COSMOS field. We exploit the accurate photometric redshifts in COSMOS to characterize the galaxy environment and study the evolution of the fraction of LIRGs and ULIRGs in different environments in the redshift range z=0.3-1.2 and in bins of stellar mass. We find that the environment plays a role in the star formation processes and evolution of LIRGs and ULIRGs. We find an overall increase of the ULIRG+LIRG fraction in an optically-selected sample with increasing redshift, as expected from the evolution of the star formation rate density. We find that the ULIRG+LIRG fraction decreases with increasing density up to z~1, and that the dependence on density flattens with increasing redshift. We do not observe the reversal of the star-formation rate density relation up to z=1 in massive LIRGs and ULIRGs, suggesting that such reversal might occur at higher redshift in this infrared luminosity range.

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Unveiling Far-Infrared Counterparts of Bright Submillimeter Galaxies Using PACS Imaging

We present a search for Herschel-PACS counterparts of dust-obscured, high-redshift objects previously selected at submillimeter and millimeter wavelengths in the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey North field. We detect 22 of 56 submillimeter galaxies (39%) with a SNR of >=3 at 100 micron down to 3.0 mJy, and/or at 160 micron down to 5.7 mJy. The fraction of SMGs seen at 160 micron is higher than that at 100 micron. About 50% of radio-identified SMGs are associated with PACS sources. We find a trend between the SCUBA/PACS flux ratio and redshift, suggesting that these flux ratios could be used as a coarse redshift indicator. PACS undetected submm/mm selected sources tend to lie at higher redshifts than the PACS detected ones. A total of 12 sources (21% of our SMG sample) remain unidentified and the fact that they are blank fields at Herschel-PACS and VLA 20 cm wavelength may imply higher redshifts for them than for the average SMG population (e.g., z>3-4). The Herschel-PACS imaging of these dust-obscured starbursts at high-redshifts suggests that their far-infrared spectral energy distributions have significantly different shapes than template libraries of local infrared galaxies.

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Bars in early- and late-type disks in COSMOS

We investigate the (large-scale) bar fraction in a mass-complete sample of M > 10^10.5 Msun disk galaxies at 0.2 < z < 0.6 in the COSMOS field. The fraction of barred disks strongly depends on mass, disk morphology, and specific star formation rate (SSFR). At intermediate stellar mass (10^10.5 < M < 10^11 Msun) the bar fraction in early-type disks is much higher, at all redshifts, by a factor ~2, than that in late-type disks. This trend is reversed at higher stellar mass (M > 10^11 Msun), where the fraction of bars in early-type disks becomes significantly lower, at all redshifts, than that in late-type disks. The bar fractions for galaxies with low and high SSFRs closely follow those of the morphologically-selected early-type and late-type populations, respectively. This indicates a close correspondence between morphology and SSFR in disk galaxies at these earlier epochs. Interestingly, the total bar fraction in 10^10.5 < M < 10^11 Msun disks is built up by a factor of ~2 over the redshift interval explored, while for M > 10^11 Msun disks it remains roughly constant. This indicates that, already by z ~ 0.6, spectral and morphological transformations in the most massive disk galaxies have largely converged to the familiar Hubble sequence that we observe in the local Universe, while for intermediate mass disks this convergence is ongoing until at least z ~ 0.2. Moreover, these results highlight the importance of employing mass-limited samples for quantifying the evolution of barred galaxies. Finally, the evolution of the barred galaxy populations investigated does not depend on the large-scale environmental density (at least, on the scales which can be probed with the available photometric redshifts).

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A Multiwavelength Study of a Sample of 70 micron Selected Galaxies in the COSMOS Field II: The Role of Mergers in Galaxy Evolution

We analyze the morphological properties of a large sample of 1503 70 micron selected galaxies in the COSMOS field spanning the redshift range 0.01 1 being difficult to classify and subject to the effects of band pass shifting, therefore, these numbers can only be considered lower limits. At z<1, where the morphological classifications are most robust, major mergers clearly dominate the ULIRG population (50-80%) and are important for the LIRG population (25-40%). At z>1 the fraction of major mergers is at least 30-40% for ULIRGs. Although the general morphological trends agree with what has been observed for local (U)LIRGs, the fraction of major mergers is slightly lower than seen locally. This is in part due to the difficulty of identifying merger signatures at high redshift. We argue that given the number of major gas-rich mergers observed and the relatively short timescale that they would be observable in the (U)LIRG phase that it is plausible for the observed red sequence of massive ellipticals (<10^12 M_sun) to have been formed entirely by gas-rich major mergers.

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