arXiv subjects

M. Colless

Publications and source records attributed to M. Colless.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2014

The SAMI Galaxy Survey: Cubism and covariance, putting round pegs into square holes

We present a methodology for the regularisation and combination of sparse sampled and irregularly gridded observations from fibre-optic multi-object integral-field spectroscopy. The approach minimises interpolation and retains image resolution on combining sub-pixel dithered data. We discuss the methodology in the context of the Sydney-AAO Multi-object Integral-field spectrograph (SAMI) Galaxy Survey underway at the Anglo-Australian Telescope. The SAMI instrument uses 13 fibre bundles to perform high-multiplex integral-field spectroscopy across a one degree diameter field of view. The SAMI Galaxy Survey is targeting 3000 galaxies drawn from the full range of galaxy environments. We demonstrate the subcritical sampling of the seeing and incomplete fill factor for the integral-field bundles results in only a 10% degradation in the final image resolution recovered. We also implement a new methodology for tracking covariance between elements of the resulting datacubes which retains 90% of the covariance information while incurring only a modest increase in the survey data volume.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2014

The SAMI Galaxy Survey: Towards a unified dynamical scaling relation for galaxies of all types

We take advantage of the first data from the Sydney-AAO Multi-object Integral field (SAMI) Galaxy Survey to investigate the relation between the kinematics of gas and stars, and stellar mass in a comprehensive sample of nearby galaxies. We find that all 235 objects in our sample, regardless of their morphology, lie on a tight relation linking stellar mass ($M_{*}$) to internal velocity quantified by the $S_{0.5}$ parameter, which combines the contribution of both dispersion ($σ$) and rotational velocity ($V_{rot}$) to the dynamical support of a galaxy ($S_{0.5}=\sqrt{0.5V_{rot}^{2}+σ^{2}}$). Our results are independent of the baryonic component from which $σ$ and $V_{rot}$ are estimated, as the $S_{0.5}$ of stars and gas agree remarkably well. This represents a significant improvement compared to the canonical $M_{*}$ vs. $V_{rot}$ and $M_{*}$ vs. $σ$ relations. Not only is no sample pruning necessary, but also stellar and gas kinematics can be used simultaneously, as the effect of asymmetric drift is taken into account once $V_{rot}$ and $σ$ are combined. Our findings illustrate how the combination of dispersion and rotational velocities for both gas and stars can provide us with a single dynamical scaling relation valid for galaxies of all morphologies across at least the stellar mass range 8.5$<log(M_{*}/M_{\odot})<$11. Such relation appears to be more general and at least as tight as any other dynamical scaling relation, representing a unique tool for investigating the link between galaxy kinematics and baryonic content, and a less biased comparison with theoretical models.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2014

The SAMI Galaxy Survey: Early Data Release

We present the Early Data Release of the Sydney-AAO Multi-object Integral field spectrograph (SAMI) Galaxy Survey. The SAMI Galaxy Survey is an ongoing integral field spectroscopic survey of ~3400 low-redshift (z<0.12) galaxies, covering galaxies in the field and in groups within the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey regions, and a sample of galaxies in clusters. In the Early Data Release, we publicly release the fully calibrated datacubes for a representative selection of 107 galaxies drawn from the GAMA regions, along with information about these galaxies from the GAMA catalogues. All datacubes for the Early Data Release galaxies can be downloaded individually or as a set from the SAMI Galaxy Survey website. In this paper we also assess the quality of the pipeline used to reduce the SAMI data, giving metrics that quantify its performance at all stages in processing the raw data into calibrated datacubes. The pipeline gives excellent results throughout, with typical sky subtraction residuals in the continuum of 0.9-1.2 per cent, a relative flux calibration uncertainty of 4.1 per cent (systematic) plus 4.3 per cent (statistical), and atmospheric dispersion removed with an accuracy of 0."09, less than a fifth of a spaxel.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2014

An X-ray and UV flare from the galaxy XMMSL1 J061927.1-655311

New high variability extragalactic sources may be identified by comparing the flux of sources seen in the XMM-Newton Slew Survey with detections and upper limits from the ROSAT All Sky Survey. In November 2012, X-ray emission was detected from the galaxy XMMSL1 J061927.1-655311 (a.k.a. 2MASX 06192755-6553079), a factor 140 times higher than an upper limit from 20 years earlier. Both the X-ray and UV flux subsequently fell, over the following year, by factors of 20 and 4 respectively. Optically, the galaxy appears to be a Seyfert I with broad Balmer lines and weak, narrow, low-ionisation emission lines, at a redshift of 0.0729. The X-ray luminosity peaks at Lx ~ 8x10^43 ergs/s with a typical Sy I-like power-law X-ray spectrum of index ~ 2. The flare has either been caused by a tidal disruption event or by an increase in the accretion rate of a persistent AGN.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2014

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): Testing galaxy formation models through the most massive galaxies in the Universe

We have analysed the growth of Brightest Group Galaxies and Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BGGs/BCGs) over the last 3 billion years using a large sample of 883 galaxies from the Galaxy And Mass Assembly Survey. By comparing the stellar mass of BGGs and BCGs in groups and clusters of similar dynamical masses, we find no significant growth between redshift $z=0.27$ and $z=0.09$. We also examine the number of BGGs/BCGs that have line emission, finding that approximately 65 per cent of BGGs/BCGs show H$α$ in emission. From the galaxies where the necessary spectroscopic lines were accurately recovered (54 per cent of the sample), we find that half of this (i.e. 27 per cent of the sample) harbour on-going star formation with rates up to $10\,$M$_{\odot}$yr$^{-1}$, and the other half (i.e. 27 per cent of the sample) have an active nucleus (AGN) at the centre. BGGs are more likely to have ongoing star formation, while BCGs show a higher fraction of AGN activity. By examining the position of the BGGs/BCGs with respect to their host dark matter halo we find that around 13 per cent of them do not lie at the centre of the dark matter halo. This could be an indicator of recent cluster-cluster mergers. We conclude that BGGs and BCGs acquired their stellar mass rapidly at higher redshifts as predicted by semi-analytic models, mildly slowing down at low redshifts.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2014

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): Mid-Infrared Properties and Empirical Relations from $WISE$

The Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey furnishes a deep redshift catalog that, when combined with the Wide-field Infrared Explorer ($WISE$), allows us to explore for the first time the mid-infrared properties of $> 110, 000$ galaxies over 120 deg$^2$ to $z\simeq 0.5$. In this paper we detail the procedure for producing the matched GAMA-$WISE$ catalog for the G12 and G15 fields, in particular characterising and measuring resolved sources; the complete catalogs for all three GAMA equatorial fields will be made available through the GAMA public releases. The wealth of multiwavelength photometry and optical spectroscopy allows us to explore empirical relations between optically determined stellar mass (derived from synthetic stellar population models) and 3.4micron and 4.6micron WISE measurements. Similarly dust-corrected Halpha-derived star formation rates can be compared to 12micron and 22micron luminosities to quantify correlations that can be applied to large samples to $z<0.5$. To illustrate the applications of these relations, we use the 12micron star formation prescription to investigate the behavior of specific star formation within the GAMA-WISE sample and underscore the ability of WISE to detect star-forming systems at $z\sim0.5$. Within galaxy groups (determined by a sophisticated friends-of-friends scheme), results suggest that galaxies with a neighbor within 100$\,h^{-1} $kpc have, on average, lower specific star formation rates than typical GAMA galaxies with the same stellar mass.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2013

Spectroscopic Needs for Imaging Dark Energy Experiments: Photometric Redshift Training and Calibration

Large sets of objects with spectroscopic redshift measurements will be needed for imaging dark energy experiments to achieve their full potential, serving two goals:_training_, i.e., the use of objects with known redshift to develop and optimize photometric redshift algorithms; and_calibration_, i.e., the characterization of moments of redshift (or photo-z error) distributions. Better training makes cosmological constraints from a given experiment stronger, while highly-accurate calibration is needed for photo-z systematics not to dominate errors. In this white paper, we investigate the required scope of spectroscopic datasets which can serve both these purposes for ongoing and next-generation dark energy experiments, as well as the time required to obtain such data with instruments available in the next decade. Large time allocations on kilo-object spectrographs will be necessary, ideally augmented by infrared spectroscopy from space. Alternatively, precision calibrations could be obtained by measuring cross-correlation statistics using samples of bright objects from a large baryon acoustic oscillation experiment such as DESI. We also summarize the additional work on photometric redshift methods needed to prepare for ongoing and future dark energy experiments.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2013

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): Resolving the role of environment in galaxy evolution

We present observations of 18 galaxies from the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey made with the SPIRAL optical integral field unit (IFU) on the Anglo-Australian Telescope. The galaxies are selected to have a narrow range in stellar mass (6x10^9Msolar < M* <2x10^10 Msolar) in order to focus on the effects of environment. Local galaxy environments are measured quantitatively using 5th nearest neighbour surface densities. We find that the total star formation rates (SFR) measured from the IFU data are consistent with total SFRs measured from aperture correcting either GAMA or Sloan Digital Sky Survey single-fibre observations. The mean differences are SFR_GAMA/SFR_IFU = 1.26+/-0.23, sigma=0.90 and for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey we similarly find SFR_Brinchmann/SFR_IFU = 1.34+/-0.17, sigma=0.67. Examining the relationships with environment, we find off-centre and clumpy Halpha emission is not significantly dependent on environment, being present in 2/7 (29^+20_-11 per cent) galaxies in high-density environments (>0.77 Mpc^-2), and 5/11 (45^+15_-13 per cent) galaxies in low-density environments (<0.77 Mpc^-2). We find a weak but not significant relationship of the total star formation rates of star-forming galaxies with environment. Due to the size of our sample and the scatter observed we do not draw a definitive conclusion about a possible SFR dependence on environment. Examining the spatial distribution of the Halpha emission, we find no evidence for a change in shape or amplitude of the radial profile of star-forming galaxies with environment. If these observations are borne out in larger samples this would infer that any environment-driven star-formation suppression must either act very rapidly (the `infall-and-quench' model) or that galaxies must evolve in a density-dependent manner (an `in-situ evolution' model).

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2013

Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA): Witnessing the assembly of the cluster Abell 1882

We present a combined optical and X-ray analysis of the rich cluster Abell 1882 with the aim of identifying merging substructure and understanding the recent assembly history of this system. Our optical data consist of spectra drawn from the Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey, which lends itself to this kind of detailed study thanks to its depth and high spectroscopic completeness. We use 283 spectroscopically confirmed cluster members to detect and characterize substructure. We complement the optical data with X-ray data taken with both Chandra and XMM. Our analysis reveals that A1882 harbors two main components, A1882A and A1882B, which have a projected separation of 2Mpc and a line of sight velocity difference of v_{los}=-428km/s. The primary system, A1882A, has velocity dispersion sigma_v=500km/s and Chandra (XMM) temperature kT=3.57keV (3.31keV) while the secondary, A1882B, has sigma_v=457km/s and Chandra (XMM) temperature kT=2.39keV (2.12keV). The optical and X-ray estimates for the masses of the two systems are consistent within the uncertainties and indicate that there is twice as much mass in A1882A (M_{500}=1.5-1.9x10^{14}Msolar) when compared with A1882B (M_{500}=0.8-1.0x10^{14}Msolar). We interpret the A1882A/A1882B system as being observed prior to a core passage. Supporting this interpretation is the large projected separation of A1882A and A1882B and the dearth of evidence for a recent (<2Gyr) major interaction in the X-ray data. Two-body analyses indicate that A1882A and A1882B form a bound system with bound incoming solutions strongly favored. We compute blue fractions of f_b=0.28 and 0.18 for the spectroscopically confirmed member galaxies within r_{500} of the centers of A1882A and A1882B, respectively. These blue fractions do not differ significantly from the blue fraction measured from an ensemble of 20 clusters with similar mass and redshift.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2013

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): Linking Star Formation Histories and Stellar Mass Growth

We present evidence for stochastic star formation histories in low-mass (M* < 10^10 Msun) galaxies from observations within the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey. For ~73,000 galaxies between 0.05<z<0.32, we calculate star formation rates (SFR) and specific star formation rates (SSFR = SFR/M*) from spectroscopic Halpha measurements and apply dust corrections derived from Balmer decrements. We find a dependence of SSFR on stellar mass, such that SSFRs decrease with increasing stellar mass for star-forming galaxies, and for the full sample, SSFRs decrease as a stronger function of stellar mass. We use simple parametrizations of exponentially declining star formation histories to investigate the dependence on stellar mass of the star formation timescale and the formation redshift. We find that parametrizations previously fit to samples of z~1 galaxies cannot recover the distributions of SSFRs and stellar masses observed in the GAMA sample between 0.05<z<0.32. In particular, a large number of low-mass (M* < 10^10 Msun) galaxies are observed to have much higher SSFRs than can be explained by these simple models over the redshift range of 0.05<z<0.32, even when invoking mass-dependent staged evolution. For such a large number of galaxies to maintain low stellar masses, yet harbour such high SSFRs, requires the late onset of a weak underlying exponentially declining SFH with stochastic bursts of star formation superimposed.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2013

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): A deeper view of the mass, metallicity, and SFR relationships

A full appreciation of the role played by gas metallicity (Z), star-formation rate (SFR), and stellar mass is fundamental to understanding how galaxies form and evolve. The connections between these three parameters at different redshifts significantly affect galaxy evolution, and thus provide important constraints for galaxy evolution models. Using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-Data Release 7 (SDSS-DR7) and the Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA) surveys we study the relationships and dependencies between SFR, Z, and stellar mass, as well as the Fundamental Plane for star-forming galaxies. We combine both surveys using volume-limited samples up to a redshift of z ~ 0.36. The GAMA and SDSS surveys complement each other when analyzing the relationships between SFR, Mass and Z. We present evidence for SFR and metallicity evolution to z ~ 0.2. We study the dependencies between SFR, Mass, Z, and specific star-formation rate (SSFR) on the M-Z, M-SFR, M-SSFR, Z-SFR, and Z-SSFR relations, finding strong correlations between all. Based on those dependencies, we propose a simple model that allows us to explain the different behaviour observed between low and high mass galaxies. Finally, our analysis allows us to confirm the existence of a Fundamental Plane, for which Mass=f(Z, SFR) in star-forming galaxies.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2013

Galaxy And Mass Assembly: Evolution of the Halpha luminosity function and star formation rate density up to z<0.35

Measurements of the low-z Halpha luminosity function have a large dispersion in the local number density of sources, and correspondingly in the SFR density. The possible causes for these discrepancies include limited volume sampling, biases arising from survey sample selection, different methods of correcting for dust obscuration and AGN contamination. The Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey and Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) provide deep spectroscopic observations over a wide sky area enabling detection of a large sample of star-forming galaxies spanning 0.001<SFR(Halpha)<100 with which to robustly measure the evolution of the SFR density in the low-z universe. The large number of high SFR galaxies present in our sample allow an improved measurement of the bright end of the luminosity function, indicating that the decrease in number density of sources at bright luminosities is best described by a Saunders functional form rather than the traditional Schechter function. This result is consistent with other published luminosity functions in the FIR and radio. For GAMA and SDSS we find the r-band apparent magnitude limit, combined with the subsequent requirement for Halpha detection leads to an incompleteness due to missing bright Halpha sources with faint r-band magnitudes.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2013

A high Eddington-ratio, true Seyfert 2 galaxy candidate: implications for broad-line-region models

A bright, soft X-ray source was detected on 2010 July 14 during an XMM--Newton slew at a position consistent with the galaxy GSN 069 (z=0.018). Previous ROSAT observations failed to detect the source and imply that GSN 069 is now >240 times brighter than it was in 1994 in the soft X-ray band. We report here results from a ~1 yr monitoring with Swift and XMM-Newton, as well as from optical spectroscopy. GSN 069 is an unabsorbed, ultra-soft source in X-rays, with no flux detected above ~1 keV. The soft X-rays exhibit significant variability down to timescales of hundreds of seconds. The UV-to-X-ray spectrum of GSN 069 is consistent with a pure accretion disc model which implies an Eddington ratio of ~0.5 and a black hole mass of ~ 1.2 million solar masses. A new optical spectrum, obtained ~3.5 months after the XMM-Newton slew detection, is consistent with earlier spectra and lacks any broad line component, classifying the source as a Seyfert 2 galaxy. The lack of cold X-ray absorption and the short timescale variability in the soft X-rays rule out a standard Seyfert 2 interpretation of the X-ray data. We discuss our results within the framework of two possible scenarios for the broad-line-region (BLR) in AGN, namely the two-phase model (cold BLR clouds in pressure equilibrium with a hotter medium), and models in which the BLR is part of an outflow, or disc-wind. Finally, we point out that GSN 069 may be a member of a population of super-soft AGN whose SED is completely dominated by accretion disc emission, as it is the case in some black hole X-ray binary transients during their outburst evolution. The disc emission for a typical AGN with larger black hole mass than GSN 069 does not enters the soft X-ray band, so that GSN 069-like objects would likely be missed by current X-ray surveys, or mis-classified as Compton-thick candidates. (ABRIDGED)

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2013

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): Spectroscopic analysis

The Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey is a multiwavelength photometric and spectroscopic survey, using the AAOmega spectrograph on the Anglo-Australian Telescope to obtain spectra for up to ~300000 galaxies over 280 square degrees, to a limiting magnitude of r_pet < 19.8 mag. The target galaxies are distributed over 0<z<0.5 with a median redshift of z~0.2, although the redshift distribution includes a small number of systems, primarily quasars, at higher redshifts, up to and beyond z=1. The redshift accuracy ranges from sigma_v~50km/s to sigma_v~100km/s depending on the signal-to-noise of the spectrum. Here we describe the GAMA spectroscopic reduction and analysis pipeline. We present the steps involved in taking the raw two-dimensional spectroscopic images through to flux-calibrated one-dimensional spectra. The resulting GAMA spectra cover an observed wavelength range of 3750<lambda<8850 A at a resolution of R~1300. The final flux calibration is typically accurate to 10-20%, although the reliability is worse at the extreme wavelength ends, and poorer in the blue than the red. We present details of the measurement of emission and absorption features in the GAMA spectra. These measurements are characterised through a variety of quality control analyses detailing the robustness and reliability of the measurements. We illustrate the quality of the measurements with a brief exploration of elementary emission line properties of the galaxies in the GAMA sample. We demonstrate the luminosity dependence of the Balmer decrement, consistent with previously published results, and explore further how Balmer decrement varies with galaxy mass and redshift. We also investigate the mass and redshift dependencies of the [NII]/Halpha vs [OIII]/Hbeta spectral diagnostic diagram, commonly used to discriminate between star forming and nuclear activity in galaxies.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2013

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): The Life and Times of L* Galaxies

In this work we investigate in detail the effects local environment (groups and pairs) has on galaxies with stellar mass similar to the Milky-Way (L* galaxies). A volume limited sample of 6,150 galaxies is classified to determine emission features, morphological type and presence of a disk. This sample allows for characteristics of galaxies to be isolated (e.g. stellar mass and group halo mass), and their codependencies determined. We observe that galaxy-galaxy interactions play the most important role in shaping the evolution within a group halo, the main role of halo mass is in gathering the galaxies together to encourage such interactions. Dominant pair galaxies find their overall star formation enhanced when the pair's mass ratio is close to 1, otherwise we observe the same galaxies as we would in an unpaired system. The minor galaxy in a pair is greatly affected by its companion galaxy, and whilst the star forming fraction is always suppressed relative to equivalent stellar mass unpaired galaxies, it becomes lower still when the mass ratio of a pair system increases. We find that, in general, the close galaxy-galaxy interaction rate drops as a function of halo mass for a given amount of stellar mass. We find evidence of a local peak of interactions for Milky-Way stellar mass galaxies in Milky-Way halo mass groups. Low mass halos, and in particular Local Group mass halos, are an important environment for understanding the typical evolutionary path of a unit of stellar mass. We find compelling evidence for galaxy conformity in both groups and pairs, where morphological type conformity is dominant in groups, and emission class conformity is dominant in pairs. This suggests that group scale conformity is the result of many galaxy encounters over an extended period of time, whilst pair conformity is a fairly instantaneous response to a transitory interaction.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2012

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): The M-Z relation for galaxy groups

The stellar mass and metallicity are among the fundamental parameters of galaxies. An understanding of the interplay between those properties as well as their environmental dependence will give us a general picture of the physics and feedback processes ongoing in groups of galaxies. We study the relationships and environmental dependencies between the stellar mass, and gas metallicity for more than 1900 galaxies in groups up to redshift 0.35 using the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey. Using a control sample of more than 28,000 star-forming field galaxies, we find evidence for a decrement of the gas metallicity for galaxies in groups.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2012

The Dark Energy Spectrometer (DESpec): A Multi-Fiber Spectroscopic Upgrade of the Dark Energy Camera and Survey for the Blanco Telescope

We describe an initiative to build and use the Dark Energy Spectrometer (DESpec), a wide-field spectroscopic survey instrument for the Blanco 4 meter telescope at Cerro Tololo InterAmerican Observatory (CTIO) in Chile. A new system with about 4000 robotically positioned optical fibers will be interchangeable with the CCD imager of the existing Dark Energy Camera (DECam), accessing a field of view of 3.8 square degrees in a single exposure. The proposed instrument will be operated by CTIO and available for use by the astronomy community. Our collaboration proposes to use DESpec to conduct a wide, deep spectroscopic survey to study Dark Energy. In a survey of about 350 nights, the DESpec collaboration proposes to obtain spectroscopic redshifts for about 8 million galaxies over 5000 square degrees selected from the Dark Energy Survey (DES). This Dark Energy Spectroscopic Survey will advance our knowledge of cosmic expansion and structure growth significantly beyond that obtainable with imaging-only surveys. Since it adds a spectroscopic third dimension to the same sky as DES, DESpec will enable increasingly precise techniques to discriminate among alternative explanations of cosmic acceleration, such as Dark Energy and Modified Gravity.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2012

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): The mass-metallicity relationship

Context: The mass-metallicity relationship (MMR) of star-forming galaxies is well-established, however there is still some disagreement with respect to its exact shape and its possible dependence on other observables. Aims: We measure the MMR in the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey. We compare our measured MMR to that measured in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and study the dependence of the MMR on various selection criteria to identify potential causes for disparities seen in the literature. Methods: We use strong emission line ratio diagnostics to derive oxygen abundances. We then apply a range of selection criteria for the minimum signal-to-noise in various emission lines, as well as the apparent and absolute magnitude to study variations in the inferred MMR. Results: The shape and position of the MMR can differ significantly depending on the metallicity calibration and selection used. After selecting a robust metallicity calibration amongst those tested, we find that the mass-metallicity relation for redshifts 0.061< z<0.35 in GAMA is in reasonable agreement with that found in the SDSS despite the difference in the luminosity range probed. Conclusions: In view of the significant variations of the MMR brought about by reasonable changes in the sample selection criteria and method, we recommend that care be taken when comparing the MMR from different surveys and studies directly. We also conclude that there could be a modest level of evolution over 0.06<z<0.35 within the GAMA sample.

astro-ph.CO↗