Searcharxiv⌕ Search

arXiv subjects

Isabel Márquez

Publications and source records attributed to Isabel Márquez.

18 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2026

Deciphering The Launching of Multi-phase AGN-driven Outflows and Their (Spatially Resolved) Multi-scale Impact

Beyond deepening our understanding of the formation, growth, and evolution of supermassive black holes, it is crucial to uncover the role of feeding and feedback processes from growing black holes (i.e., active galactic nucleus; AGN) in shaping the cosmic ecosystem. Such studies include understanding the dynamics of gas flows in the interstellar (ISM), circumgalactic (CGM), intracluster (ICM), and intergalactic media (IGM). As the output of a sub-group in Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) AGN Working Group, this Science Case Development Document (SCDD) proposes to use future HWO observations to solve the following questions. Which mechanism is dominant in triggering inflows/outflows through feedback? How is AGN activity triggered, and is it associated with circumnuclear star formation and what is the overall effect of AGN feedback on star formation (SF)? In AGN feedback, which mode is more influential and does AGN feedback operate similarly or differently in the local universe and at high redshift? To answer these questions, this SCDD proposes to use potential HWO observations as follows. Resolve and characterize the spatial distribution of ionized and cold/warm molecular gas, especially those in inflows/outflows; Explore the spatial coupling and potential stratification of multi-phase inflows/outflows on different physical scales and their resolved and global correlations with AGN and/or SF activities; Investigate whether corresponding outflows/jets induce shocks and/or fluctuations that trigger or suppress the formation of molecular clouds and hence new stars. Specifically, HWO's capabilities will enable us to achieve the above scientific goals while existing facilities lack the required combination of high-throughput ultraviolet (UV) and near-infrared (NIR) integral field unit (IFU) capabilities with simultaneously sufficient spatial resolution and sensitivity.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2024

Early-Time Observations of SN 2023wrk: A Luminous Type Ia Supernova with Significant Unburned Carbon in the Outer Ejecta

We present extensive photometric and spectroscopic observations of the nearby Type Ia supernova (SN) 2023wrk at a distance of about 40 Mpc. The earliest detection of this SN can be traced back to a few hours after the explosion. Within the first few days the light curve shows a bump feature, while the B - V color is blue and remains nearly constant. The overall spectral evolution is similar to that of an SN 1991T/SN 1999aa-like SN Ia, while the C II $\lambda6580$ absorption line appears to be unusually strong in the first spectrum taken at $t \approx -$15.4 days after the maximum light. This carbon feature disappears quickly in subsequent evolution but it reappears at around the time of peak brightness. The complex evolution of the carbon line and the possible detection of Ni III absorption around 4700 Å and 5300 Å in the earliest spectra indicate macroscopic mixing of fuel and ash. The strong carbon lines is likely related to collision of SN ejecta with unbound carbon, consistent with the predictions of pulsational delayed-detonation or carbon-rich circumstellar-matter interaction models. Among those carbon-rich SNe Ia with strong C II $\lambda6580$ absorption at very early times, the line-strength ratio of C II to Si II and the B-V color evolution are found to exhibit large diversity, which may be attributed to different properties of unbound carbon and outward-mixing $^{56}$Ni.

astro-ph.SR↗
arXiv2023

Optical and near-UV spectroscopic properties of low-redshift jetted quasars in the main sequence context

This paper presents new optical and near-UV spectra of 11 extremely powerful jetted quasars, with radio to optical flux density ratio $>$ 10$^3$, that concomitantly cover the low-ionization emission of \mgii\ and \hb\ as well as the \feii\ blends in the redshift range $0.35 \lesssim z \lesssim 1$. We aim to quantify broad emission line differences between radio-loud (RL) and radio-quiet (RQ) quasars by using the 4D eigenvector 1 parameter space and its Main Sequence (MS) and to check the effect of powerful radio ejection on the low ionization broad emission lines. The \hb\ and \mgii\ emission lines were measured by using non-linear multicomponent fittings as well as by analysing their full profile. We found that broad emission lines show large redward asymmetry both in \hb\ and \mgii. The location of our RL sources in a UV plane looks similar to the optical one, with weak \feiiuv\ emission and broad \mgii. We supplement the 11 sources with large samples from previous work to gain some general inferences. We found that, compared to RQ, our extreme RL quasars show larger median \hb\ full width at half maximum (FWHM), weaker \feii\ emission, larger \mbh, lower \lledd, and a restricted bf space occupation in the optical and UV MS planes. The differences are more elusive when the comparison is carried out by restricting the RQ population to the region of the MS occupied by RL sources, albeit an unbiased comparison matching \mbh\ and \lledd\ suggests that the most powerful RL quasars show the highest redward asymmetries in \hb.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2023

The [OIII] profiles of far-infrared active and non-active optically-selected green valley galaxies

We present a study of the $\rm{[OIII]λ\,5007}$ line profile in a sub-sample of 8 active galactic nuclei (AGN) and 6 non-AGN in the optically-selected green valley at $\rm{z\,<\,0.5}$ using long-slit spectroscopic observations with the 11 m Southern African Large Telescope. Gaussian decomposition of the line profile was performed to study its different components. We observe that the AGN profile is more complex than the non-AGN one. In particular, in most AGN (5/8) we detect a blue wing of the line. We derive the FWHM velocities of the wing and systemic component, and find that AGN show higher FWHM velocity than non-AGN in their core component. We also find that the AGN show blue wings with a median velocity width of approximately 600 $\rm{km\,s^{-1}}$, and a velocity offset from the core component in the range -90 to -350 $\rm{km\,s^{-1}}$, in contrast to the non-AGN galaxies, where we do not detect blue wings in any of their $\rm{[OIII]λ\,5007}$ line profiles. Using spatial information in our spectra, we show that at least three of the outflow candidate galaxies have centrally driven gas outflows extending across the whole galaxy. Moreover, these are also the galaxies which are located on the main sequence of star formation, raising the possibility that the AGN in our sample are influencing SF of their host galaxies (such as positive feedback). This is in agreement with our previous work where we studied SF, morphology, and stellar population properties of a sample of green valley AGN and non-AGN galaxies.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2023

The miniJPAS survey quasar selection III: Classification with artificial neural networks and hybridisation

This paper is part of large effort within the J-PAS collaboration that aims to classify point-like sources in miniJPAS, which were observed in 60 optical bands over $\sim$ 1 deg$^2$ in the AEGIS field. We developed two algorithms based on artificial neural networks (ANN) to classify objects into four categories: stars, galaxies, quasars at low redshift ($z < 2.1)$, and quasars at high redshift ($z \geq 2.1$). As inputs, we used miniJPAS fluxes for one of the classifiers (ANN$_1$) and colours for the other (ANN$_2$). The ANNs were trained and tested using mock data in the first place. We studied the effect of augmenting the training set by creating hybrid objects, which combines fluxes from stars, galaxies, and quasars. Nevertheless, the augmentation processing did not improve the score of the ANN. We also evaluated the performance of the classifiers in a small subset of the SDSS DR12Q superset observed by miniJPAS. In the mock test set, the f1-score for quasars at high redshift with the ANN$_1$ (ANN$_2$) are $0.99$ ($0.99$), $0.93$ ($0.92$), and $0.63$ ($0.57$) for $17 < r \leq 20$, $20 < r \leq 22.5$, and $22.5 < r \leq 23.6$, respectively, where $r$ is the J-PAS rSDSS band. In the case of low-redshift quasars, galaxies, and stars, we reached $0.97$ ($0.97$), $0.82$ ($0.79$), and $0.61$ ($0.58$); $0.94$ ($0.94$), $0.90$ ($0.89$), and $0.81$ ($0.80$); and $1.0$ ($1.0$), $0.96$ ($0.94$), and $0.70$ ($0.52$) in the same r bins. In the SDSS DR12Q superset miniJPAS sample, the weighted f1-score reaches 0.87 (0.88) for objects that are mostly within $20 < r \leq 22.5$. Finally, we estimate the number of point-like sources that are quasars, galaxies, and stars in miniJPAS.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2023

The miniJPAS survey quasar selection II: Machine learning classification with photometric measurements and uncertainties

Astrophysical surveys rely heavily on the classification of sources as stars, galaxies or quasars from multi-band photometry. Surveys in narrow-band filters allow for greater discriminatory power, but the variety of different types and redshifts of the objects present a challenge to standard template-based methods. In this work, which is part of larger effort that aims at building a catalogue of quasars from the miniJPAS survey, we present a Machine Learning-based method that employs Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) to classify point-like sources including the information in the measurement errors. We validate our methods using data from the miniJPAS survey, a proof-of-concept project of the J-PAS collaboration covering $\sim$ 1 deg$^2$ of the northern sky using the 56 narrow-band filters of the J-PAS survey. Due to the scarcity of real data, we trained our algorithms using mocks that were purpose-built to reproduce the distributions of different types of objects that we expect to find in the miniJPAS survey, as well as the properties of the real observations in terms of signal and noise. We compare the performance of the CNNs with other well-established Machine Learning classification methods based on decision trees, finding that the CNNs improve the classification when the measurement errors are provided as inputs. The predicted distribution of objects in miniJPAS is consistent with the putative luminosity functions of stars, quasars and unresolved galaxies. Our results are a proof-of-concept for the idea that the J-PAS survey will be able to detect unprecedented numbers of quasars with high confidence.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2022

Physical properties of more than one thousand brightest cluster galaxies detected in the Canada France Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey

Brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) are very massive elliptical galaxies found at the centers of clusters. Their study gives clues on the formation and evolution of the clusters in which they are embedded. We analysed here in a homogeneous way the properties of a sample of more than one thousand BCGs in the redshift range 0.15 < z < 0.7, based on images from the Canada France Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey. Based on the cluster catalogue of 1371 clusters by Sarron et al. (2018), we applied our automatic BCG detection algorithm and identified successfully 70% of the BCGs in our sample. We analysed their 2D photometric properties with GALFIT. We also compared the position angles of the BCG major axes with those of the overall cluster to which they belong. We found no evolution of the BCG properties with redshift up to z = 0.7, in agreement with previous results by Chu et al. (2021), who analysed an order of magnitude smaller sample, but reaching a redshift z = 1.8. The Kormendy relation for BCGs is tight and consistent with that of normal elliptical galaxies and BCGs measured by other authors. The position angles of the BCGs and of the cluster to which they belong agree within 30 degrees for 55% of the objects with well defined position angles. The study of this very large sample of more than one thousand BCGs shows that they were mainly formed before z = 0.7, as we find no significant growth for the luminosities and sizes of central galaxies. We discuss the importance of the intracluster light in the interpretation of these results. We highlight the role of image depth in the modelisation of the luminosity profiles of BCGs, and give evidence for the presence of an inner structure which can only be resolved on deep surveys with limiting apparent magnitude at 80% completeness m80 > 26 mag/arcsec2.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2022

A search for ionised gas outflows in an Halpha imaging atlas of nearby LINERs

Outflows play a major role in the evolution of galaxies. However, we do not have yet a complete picture of their properties (extension, geometry, orientation and clumpiness). For low-luminosity Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs), in particular, low-ionisation nuclear emission line regions (LINERs), the rate of outflows and their properties are largely unknown. The main goal of this work is to create the largest, up-to-date atlas of ionised gas outflow candidates in a sample of 70 nearby LINERs. We use narrow-band, imaging data to analyse the morphological properties of the ionised gas nuclear emission of these galaxies and to identify signatures of extended emission with distinctive outflow-like morphologies. We obtained new imaging data from ALFOSC/NOT for 32 LINERs. We complemented it with HST archival data for 6 objects and with results from the literature for other 32 targets. We additionally obtained soft X-ray data from Chandra archive to compare with the ionised gas. The distribution of the ionised gas in these LINER shows that $\sim$32% have bubble-like emission, $\sim$28% show a 'Core-halo', unresolved emission, and $\sim$21% have a disky-like distribution. Dust lanes prevent a detailed classification for $\sim$11% of the sample ('Dusty'). If we account for the kinematical information, available for 60 galaxies, we end up with 48% of the LINERs with detected outflows/inflows (50% considering only kinematical information based on Integral Field Spectroscopy). Our results suggest that the incidence of outflows in LINERs may vary from 41% up to 56%, based on both the Halpha morphology and the kinematical information from the literature. The ionised gas is co-spatial with the soft X-ray emission for the majority of cases ($\sim$60%), so that they may have a common origin. We discuss the use of Halpha imaging for the pre-selection of candidates likely hosting ionised gas outflows.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2021

Chemical abundances in the nuclear region of nearby galaxies from the Palomar Survey

We estimate chemical abundances and ionization parameters in the nuclear region of a sample of 143 galaxies from the Palomar Spectroscopic Survey, composed by Star-Forming Galaxies (87), Seyferts 2 (16) and LINERs (40) using the \textsc{Hii-Chi-mistry} code. We also study for each spectral type the correlation of the derived quantities with other different properties of the host galaxies, such as morphology, stellar mass, luminosity and mass of their Supermassive Black Holes. The results obtained for Star-Forming Galaxies are used to check the soundness of our methodology. Then, we replicate a similar study for our sample of AGN, distinguishing between Seyferts 2 and LINERs. We report a saturation of Oxygen abundances for the nuclear regions of SFG. The correlations between chemical abundances and their host galaxy properties for SFG are in good agreement with previous studies. We find that Seyferts 2 present slightly higher chemical abundances but this result must be reexamined in larger samples of Seyfert galaxies. In contrast, we obtain lower chemical abundances for LINERs than for SFG. We confirm these relatively lower abundances for another sample of infrared luminous LINERs in the same stellar mass range. Our analysis of AGNs (both LINERs and Seyferts) shows that their host galaxy properties are not correlated with our estimated chemical abundances.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2021

Efficient detection of emission line galaxies in the Cl0016+1609 and MACSJ1621.4+3810 supercluster filaments using SITELLE

We observe a system of filaments and clusters around Cl0016+1609 and MACSJ1621.4+3810 using the SITELLE Fourier transform spectrograph at the Canada France Hawaii Telescope. For Cl0016+1609 (z=0.546), the observations span an 11.8 Mpc x 4.3 Mpc region along an eastern filament which covers the main cluster core, as well as two 4.3 Mpc x 4.3 Mpc regions which each cover southern subclumps. For MACSJ1621.4+3810 (z= 0.465), 3.9 Mpc x 3.9 Mpc around the main cluster core is covered. We present the frequency and location of the emission line galaxies, their emission line images, and calculate the star formation rates, specific star formation rates and merger statistics. In Cl0016+1609, we find thirteen [OII]~3727 Angstrom emitting galaxies with star formation rates between 0.2 and 14.0 M$_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$. 91$^{+3}_{-10}$% are found in regions with moderate local galaxy density, avoiding the dense cluster cores. These galaxies follow the main filament of the superstructure, and are mostly blue and disky, with several showing close companions and merging morphologies. In MACSJ1621.4+3810, we find ten emission line sources. All are blue (100$^{+0}_{-15}$%), with 40$^{+16}_{-12}$% classified as disky and 60$^{+12}_{-16}$% as merging systems. Eight avoid the cluster core (80$^{+7}_{-17}$%), but two (20$^{+17}_{-7}$%) are found near high density regions, including the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG). These observations push the spectroscopic study of galaxies in filaments beyond z~ 0.3 to z~ 0.5. Their efficient confirmation is paramount to their usefulness as more galaxy surveys come online.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2019

The 3XMM/SDSS Stripe 82 Galaxy Cluster Survey II. X-ray and optical properties of the cluster sample

We present X-ray and optical properties of the optically confirmed galaxy cluster sample from the 3XMM/SDSS Stripe 82 cluster survey. The sample includes 54 galaxy clusters in the redshift range of 0.05-1.2, with a median redshift of 0.36. We first present the X-ray temperature and luminosity measurements that are used to investigate the X-ray luminosity-temperature relation. The slope and intercept of the relation are consistent with those published in the literature. Then, we investigate the optical properties of the cluster galaxies including their morphological analysis and the galaxy luminosity functions. The morphological content of cluster galaxies is investigated as a function of cluster mass and distance from the cluster center. No strong variation of the fraction of early and late type galaxies with cluster mass is observed. The fraction of early type galaxies as a function of cluster radius varies as expected. The individual galaxy luminosity functions (GLFs) of red sequence galaxies were studied in the five ugriz bands for 48 clusters. The GLFs were then stacked in three mass bins and two redshift bins. Twenty clusters of the present sample are studied for the first time in X-rays, and all are studied for the first time in the optical range. Altogether, our sample appears to have X-ray and optical properties typical of average cluster properties.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2017

ELDAR, a new method to identify AGN in multi-filter surveys: the ALHAMBRA test-case

We present ELDAR, a new method that exploits the potential of medium- and narrow-band filter surveys to securely identify active galactic nuclei (AGN) and determine their redshifts. Our methodology improves on traditional approaches by looking for AGN emission lines expected to be identified against the continuum, thanks to the width of the filters. To assess its performance, we apply ELDAR to the data of the ALHAMBRA survey, which covered an effective area of $2.38\,{\rm deg}^2$ with 20 contiguous medium-band optical filters down to F814W$\simeq 24.5$. Using two different configurations of ELDAR in which we require the detection of at least 2 and 3 emission lines, respectively, we extract two catalogues of type-I AGN. The first is composed of 585 sources ($79\,\%$ of them spectroscopically-unknown) down to F814W$=22.5$ at $z_{\rm phot}>1$, which corresponds to a surface density of $209\,{\rm deg}^{-2}$. In the second, the 494 selected sources ($83\,\%$ of them spectroscopically-unknown) reach F814W$=23$ at $z_{\rm phot}>1.5$, for a corresponding number density of $176\,{\rm deg}^{-2}$. Then, using samples of spectroscopically-known AGN in the ALHAMBRA fields, for the two catalogues we estimate a completeness of $73\,\%$ and $67\,\%$, and a redshift precision of $1.01\,\%$ and $0.86\,\%$ (with outliers fractions of $8.1\,\%$ and $5.8\,\%$). At $z>2$, where our selection performs best, we reach $85\,\%$ and $77\,\%$ completeness and we find no contamination from galaxies.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2016

Star formation and AGN activity in the most luminous LINERs in the local universe

This work presents the properties of 42 objects in the group of the most luminous, highest star formation rate LINERs at z = 0.04 - 0.11. We obtained long-slit spectroscopy of the nuclear regions for all sources, and FIR data (Herschel and IRAS) for 13 of them. We measured emission line intensities, extinction, stellar populations, stellar masses, ages, AGN luminosities, and star-formation rates. We find considerable differences from other low-redshift LINERs, in terms of extinction, and general similarity to star forming (SF) galaxies. We confirm the existence of such luminous LINERs in the local universe, after being previously detected at z ~ 0.3 by Tommasin et al. (2012). The median stellar mass of these LINERs corresponds to 6 - 7 $\times$ 10$^{10}$M$_{\odot}$ which was found in previous work to correspond to the peak of relative growth rate of stellar populations and therefore for the highest SFRs. Other LINERs although showing similar AGN luminosities have lower SFR. We find that most of these sources have LAGN ~ LSF suggesting co-evolution of black hole and stellar mass. In general among local LINERs being on the main-sequence of SF galaxies is related to their AGN luminosity.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2016

Weak lensing study of 16 DAFT/FADA clusters: substructures and filaments

While our current cosmological model places galaxy clusters at the nodes of a filament network (the cosmic web), we still struggle to detect these filaments at high redshifts. We perform a weak lensing study for a sample of 16 massive, medium-high redshift (0.4<z<0.9) galaxy clusters from the DAFT/FADA survey, that are imaged in at least three optical bands with Subaru/Suprime-Cam or CFHT/MegaCam. We estimate the cluster masses using an NFW fit to the shear profile measured in a KSB-like method, adding our contribution to the calibration of the observable-mass relation required for cluster abundance cosmological studies. We compute convergence maps and select structures within, securing their detection with noise re-sampling techniques. Taking advantage of the large field of view of our data, we study cluster environment, adding information from galaxy density maps at the cluster redshift and from X-ray images when available. We find that clusters show a large variety of weak lensing maps at large scales and that they may all be embedded in filamentary structures at megaparsec scale. We classify them in three categories according to the smoothness of their weak lensing contours and to the amount of substructures: relaxed (~7%), past mergers (~21.5%), recent or present mergers (~71.5%). The fraction of clusters undergoing merging events observationally supports the hierarchical scenario of cluster growth, and implies that massive clusters are strongly evolving at the studied redshifts. Finally, we report the detection of unusually elongated structures in CLJ0152, MACSJ0454, MACSJ0717, A851, BMW1226, MACSJ1621, and MS1621.

astro-ph.CO↗
arXiv2015

Galaxy clusters and groups in the ALHAMBRA Survey

We present a catalogue of 348 galaxy clusters and groups with $0.2<z<1.2$ selected in the 2.78 $deg^2$ ALHAMBRA Survey. The high precision of our photometric redshifts, close to $1\%$, and the wide spread of the seven ALHAMBRA pointings ensure that this catalogue has better mass sensitivity and is less affected by cosmic variance than comparable samples. The detection has been carried out with the Bayesian Cluster Finder (BCF), whose performance has been checked in ALHAMBRA-like light-cone mock catalogues. Great care has been taken to ensure that the observable properties of the mocks photometry accurately correspond to those of real catalogues. From our simulations, we expect to detect galaxy clusters and groups with both $70\%$ completeness and purity down to dark matter halo masses of $M_h\sim3\times10^{13}\rm M_{\odot}$ for $z<0.85$. Cluster redshifts are expected to be recovered with $\sim0.6\%$ precision for $z<1$. We also expect to measure cluster masses with $σ_{M_h|M^*_{CL}}\sim0.25-0.35\, dex$ precision down to $\sim3\times10^{13}\rm M_{\odot}$, masses which are $50\%$ smaller than those reached by similar work. We have compared these detections with previous optical, spectroscopic and X-rays work, finding an excellent agreement with the rates reported from the simulations. We have also explored the overall properties of these detections such as the presence of a colour-magnitude relation, the evolution of the photometric blue fraction and the clustering of these sources in the different ALHAMBRA fields. Despite the small numbers, we observe tentative evidence that, for a fixed stellar mass, the environment is playing a crucial role at lower redshifts (z$<$0.5).

astro-ph.CO↗
arXiv2005

The ALHAMBRA Survey: For a systematic Study of Cosmic Evolution

ALHAMBRA is a project to gather data to sample a fraction of the Universe with enough precision to follow the evolution of its content and properties with z, a kind of Cosmic Tomography. It is defined as a 4 square degrees photometric survey with 20 contiguous, equal width, medium band filters covering from 3500 to 9700 A, plus the JHKs NIR bands. It was optimized to get (for a fixed observing time) the maximum number of objects with accurate classification and redshift and to be sensitive to relatively faint emission features. The observations will be carried out with the 3.5m telescope in Calar Alto (Spain). We intend to reach the limit AB=25 in all the optical filters from the bluest to 8300 A, and from 24.7 to 23.4 for the remainder. The expected limit in the NIR is fixed at Ks=20, H=21, J=22. The homogeneous and contiguous spectral coverage will result in several hundred thousand objects with accurate SED identification and z-values. The accuracy of the survey will allow to make detailed studies, including galactic, without the need for any further follow-up. Indeed, it will provide exciting targets for large telescopes, the GTC in particular.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2001

Structural properties of spiral galaxies with and without an AGN: morphology and kinematics

The analysis of a sample of 30 isolated spiral galaxies with and without an AGN results in active and control galaxies having similar bulge and disk properties (since both samples are selected to match in morphological and bar classification, they have similar bar percentages). Secondary bars seem also to be indistinguishable. The central kinematics (both stellar and gas) are also studied in order to put some constraints on the processes required to fuel AGNs. Together with previous results, this points to AGNs being an episode of the life of galaxies, providing that the fuel is available and the accumulation mechanisms are at work.

astro-ph↗