Astrophysics

Environmental effects are crucial to the understanding of the evolution of galaxies in dense environments, such as galaxy clusters. Using the large field-of-view of SITELLE, the unique imaging fourier transform spectrograph at CFHT, we are able to obtain 2D spectral information for a large and complete sample of cluster galaxies out to the infall region. We describe a pipeline developed to identify emission line galaxies (ELGs) from the datacube using cross-correlation techniques. We present results based on the spatial offsets between the emission-line regions and stellar continua in ELGs from two z ??0.25 galaxy clusters, Abell 2390 and Abell 2465. We find a preference in the offsets being pointed away from the cluster center. Combining the two clusters, there is a 3 ? excess for high-velocity galaxies within the virial radius having the offsets to be pointed away from the cluster center. Assuming the offset being a proxy for the velocity vector of a galaxy, as expected from ram pressure stripping, this excess indicates that ram pressure stripping occurs most effectively during the first passage of an infalling galaxy, leading to the quenching of its star formation. We also find that, outside the virial region, the continuum-normalized H α line flux for infalling galaxies with large offsets are on average lower than those with small or no measurable offset, further supporting ram pressure as a dominant quenching mechanism during the initial infall stages.

We use FIRE-2 simulations to examine 3-D variations of gas-phase elemental abundances of [O/H], [Fe/H], and [N/H] in 11 Milky Way (MW) and M31-mass galaxies across their formation histories at z??.5 ( t lookback ??.4 Gyr), motivated by characterizing the initial conditions of stars for chemical tagging. Gas within 1 kpc of the disk midplane is vertically homogeneous to ??.008 dex at all z??.5 . We find negative radial gradients (metallicity decreases with galactocentric radius) at all times, which steepen over time from ?��?0.01 dex kpc ?? at z=1 ( t lookback =7.8 Gyr) to ?��?0.03 dex kpc ?? at z=0 , and which broadly agree with observations of the MW, M31, and nearby MW/M31-mass galaxies. Azimuthal variations at fixed radius are typically 0.14 dex at z=1 , reducing to 0.05 dex at z=0 . Thus, over time radial gradients become steeper while azimuthal variations become weaker (more homogeneous). As a result, azimuthal variations were larger than radial variations at z??.8 ( t lookback ??.9 Gyr). Furthermore, elemental abundances are measurably homogeneous (to ??.05 dex) across a radial range of ?R??.5 kpc at z?? and ?R??.7 kpc at z=0 . We also measure full distributions of elemental abundances, finding typically negatively skewed normal distributions at z?? that evolve to typically Gaussian distributions by z=0 . Our results on gas abundances inform the initial conditions for stars, including the spatial and temporal scales for applying chemical tagging to understand stellar birth in the MW.

We analyze the 3D morphology and kinematics of 13 open clusters (OCs) located within 500 pc of the Sun, using Gaia EDR3 and kinematic data from literature. Members of OCs are identified using the unsupervised machine learning method StarGO, using 5D parameters (X, Y, Z, μ α cosδ, μ δ ). The OC sample covers an age range of 25Myr--2.65Gyr. We correct the asymmetric distance distribution due to the parallax error using Bayesian inversion. The uncertainty in the corrected distance for a cluster at 500~pc is 3.0--6.3~pc, depending on the intrinsic spatial distribution of its members. We determine the 3D morphology of the OCs in our sample and fit the spatial distribution of stars within the tidal radius in each cluster with an ellipsoid model. The shapes of the OCs are well-described with oblate spheroids (NGC2547, NGC2516, NGC2451A, NGC2451B, NGC2232), prolate spheroids (IC2602, IC4665, NGC2422, Blanco1, Coma Berenices), or triaxial ellipsoids (IC2391, NGC6633, NGC6774). The semi-major axis of the fitted ellipsoid is parallel to the Galactic plane for most clusters. Elongated filament-like substructures are detected in three young clusters (NGC2232, NGC2547, NGC2451B), while tidal-tail-like substructures (tidal tails) are found in older clusters (NGC2516, NGC6633, NGC6774, Blanco1, Coma Berenices). Most clusters may be super-virial and expanding. N -body models of rapid gas expulsion with an SFE of ??/3 are consistent with clusters more massive than 250 M ??, while clusters less massive than 250 M ??tend to agree with adiabatic gas expulsion models. Only six OCs (NGC2422, NGC6633, and NGC6774, NGC2232, Blanco1, Coma Berenices) show clear signs of mass segregation.

We present a catalog of high-velocity CIV λ 1548,1551 mini-Broad Absorption Lines (mini-BALs) in the archives of the VLT-UVES and Keck-HIRES spectrographs. We identify high-velocity CIV mini-BALs based on smooth rounded BAL-like profiles with velocity blueshifts < ??4000 km/s and widths in the range 70 ??FWHM(1548) ??2000 km/s (for λ 1548 alone). We find 105 mini-BALs in 44 quasars from a total sample of 638 quasars. The fraction of quasars with at least one mini-BAL meeting our criteria is roughly ?? % after correcting for incomplete velocity coverage. However, the numbers of systems rise sharply at lower velocities and narrower FWHMs, suggesting that many outflow lines are missed by our study. All of the systems are highly ionized based on the strong presence of NV and OVI and/or the absence of SiII and CII when within the wavelength coverage. Two of the mini-BAL systems in our catalog, plus three others at smaller velocity shifts, have PV λ 1118,1128 absorption indicating highly saturated CIV absorption and total hydrogen column densities ??10 22 cm ?? . Most of the mini-BALs are confirmed to have optical depths ??1 with partial covering of the quasar continuum source. The covering fractions are as small as 0.06 in CIV and 0.03 in SiIV , corresponding to outflow absorbing structures <0.002 pc across. When multiple lines are measured, the lines of less abundant ions tend to have narrower profiles and smaller covering fractions indicative of inhomogeneous absorbers where higher column densities occur in smaller clumps. This picture might extend to BAL outflows if the broader and generally deeper BALs form in either the largest clumps or collections of many mini-BAL-like clumps that blend together in observed quasar spectra.

We present the analysis of the diffuse, low column density HI environment of 18 MHONGOOSE galaxies. We obtained deep observations with the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope, and reached down to a 3sigma column density detection limit of NHI=6.3x10^{17} cm^{-2} over a 20 km/s linewidth. We analyze the environment around these galaxies, with a focus on HI gas that reaches column densities below NHI=10^{19} cm^{-2}. We calculate the total amount of HI gas in and around the galaxies revealing that nearly all of these galaxies contained excess HI outside of their disks. We quantify the amount of diffuse gas in the maps of each galaxy, defined by HI gas with column densities below 10^{19} cm^{-2}, and find a large spread in percentages of diffuse gas. However, by binning the percentage of diffuse HI into quarters, we find that the bin with the largest number of galaxies is the lowest quartile (0-25\% diffuse HI). We identified several galaxies which may be undergoing gas accretion onto the galaxy disk using multiple methods of analysis, including azimuthally averaging column densities beyond the disk, and identifying structure within our integrated intensity (Moment 0) maps. We measured HI mass outside the disks of most of our galaxies, with rising cumulative flux even at large radii. We also find a strong correlation between the fraction of diffuse gas in a galaxy and its baryonic mass, and test this correlation using both Spearman and Pearson correlation coefficients. We see evidence of a dark matter halo mass threshold of M_{halo}~10^{11.1} \msun{} in which galaxies with high fractions of diffuse HI all reside below. It is in this regime in which cold-mode accretion should dominate. Finally, we suggest a rotation velocity of v_{rot}~80 km\s as an upper threshold to find diffuse gas-dominated galaxies.

The circumgalactic medium (CGM) contains information on gas flows around galaxies, such as accretion and supernova-driven winds, which are difficult to constrain from observations alone. Here, we use the high-resolution TNG50 cosmological magneto-hydrodynamical simulation to study the properties and kinematics of the CGM around star-forming galaxies in 10 11.5 ??10 12 M ??halos at z?? using mock MgII absorption lines, which we generate by post-processing halos to account for photoionization in the presence of a UV background. We find that the MgII gas is a very good tracer of the cold CGM, which is accreting inwards at an inflow velocity of ??50 km s ?? . For sightlines aligned with the galaxy's major axis, we find that MgII absorption lines are kinematically shifted due to the cold CGM's significant corotation at speeds up to 50% of the virial velocity for impact parameters up to 60 kpc. We compare mock MgII spectra to observations from the MusE GAs FLow and Wind (MEGAFLOW) survey of strong MgII absorbers ( E W 2796? 0 >0.5? ). After matching the equivalent width (EW) selection, we find that the mock MgII spectra reflect the diversity of observed kinematics and EWs from MEGAFLOW, even though the sightlines probe a very small fraction of the CGM. MgII absorption in higher-mass halos is stronger and broader than in lower-mass halos but has qualitatively similar kinematics. The median specific angular momentum of the MgII CGM gas in TNG50 is very similar to that of the entire CGM and only differs from non-CGM components of the halo by normalization factors of ??1 dex.

Fine-grained estimation of galaxy merger stages from observations is a key problem useful for validation of our current theoretical understanding of galaxy formation. To this end, we demonstrate a CNN-based regression model that is able to predict, for the first time, using a single image, the merger stage relative to the first perigee passage with a median error of 38.3 million years (Myrs) over a period of 400 Myrs. This model uses no specific dynamical modeling and learns only from simulated merger events. We show that our model provides reasonable estimates on real observations, approximately matching prior estimates provided by detailed dynamical modeling. We provide a preliminary interpretability analysis of our models, and demonstrate first steps toward calibrated uncertainty estimation.

We report results from a FUSE survey of interstellar molecular hydrogen (H2) in the Galactic disk toward 139 O-type and early B-type stars at Galactic latitudes |b|< 10 ??, with updated photometric and parallax distances. The H2 absorption is measured using the far-ultraviolet Lyman and Werner bands, including strong R(0), R(1), and P(1) lines from rotational levels J=0 and J=1 and excited states up to J=5 (sometimes J=6 and 7). For each sight line, we report column densities N H2 , N HI , N(J) , N H = N HI +2 N H2 , and molecular fraction, f H2 =2 N H2 / N H . Our survey extends the 1977 Copernicus H2 survey up to N H ??? 10 21 cm ?? . The lowest rotational states have mean excitation temperatures and rms dispersions, T 01 =88±20 K and T 02 =77±18 K, suggesting that J = 0,1,2 are coupled to the gas kinetic temperature. Populations of higher-J states exhibit mean excitation temperatures, T 24 =237±91 K and T 35 =304±108 K, produced primarily by UV radiative pumping. Correlations of f H2 with E(B-V) and N_H show a transition to f H2 ??.1 at N H ??10 21 cm ?? and E(B?�V)>0.2 , interpreted with an analytic model of H2 formation-dissociation equilibrium and attenuation of the far-UV radiation field by self-shielding and dust opacity. Results of this disk survey are compared to previous FUSE studies of H2 in translucent clouds, at high Galactic latitudes, and in the Magellanic Clouds. Using updated distances to the target stars, we find average sight-line values ??f H2 ?�≥0.20 and ??N H /E(B?�V)??(6.07±1.01)? 10 21 cm ?? mag ?? .

I try to describe the stepwise progress in proving that massive black holes do exist in the Universe. As compared to forty years ago, measurements have pushed the 'size' of the 4 million solar mass concentration in the Galactic Center downward by almost 10^6, and its density up by 10^18. Looking ahead toward the future, the question is probably no longer whether SgrA* must be a MBH, but rather whether GR is correct on the scales of the event horizon, whether space-time is described by the Kerr metric and whether the 'no hair theorem' holds. Further improvements of the VLT interferometer GRAVITY (to GRAVITY+) and the next generation 25-40m telescopes (the ESO-ELT, the TMT and the GMT) promise further progress. A test of the no hair theorem in the Galactic Center might come from combining the stellar dynamics with EHT measurements of the photon ring of SgrA*.

Both observations and recent numerical simulations of the circumgalactic medium (CGM) support the hypothesis that a self-regulating feedback loop suspends the gas density of the ambient CGM close to the galaxy in a state with a ratio of cooling time to freefall time >10. This limiting ratio is thought to arise because circumgalactic gas becomes increasingly susceptible to multiphase condensation as the ratio declines. If the timescale ratio gets too small, then cold clouds precipitate out of the CGM, rain into the galaxy, and fuel energetic feedback that raises the ambient cooling time. The astrophysical origin of this so-called precipitation limit is not simple but is critical to understanding the CGM and its role in galaxy evolution. This paper therefore attempts to interpret its origin as simply as possible, relying mainly on conceptual reasoning and schematic diagrams. It illustrates how the precipitation limit can depend on both the global configuration of a galactic atmosphere and the degree to which dynamical disturbances drive CGM perturbations. It also frames some tests of the precipitation hypothesis that can be applied to both CGM observations and numerical simulations of galaxy evolution.