Mauro D’Onofrio

The fundamental plane of early-type galaxies in nearby clusters from the WINGS database

By exploting the data of three large surveys (WINGS, NFPS, and SDSS), we analyze the fundamental plane (FP) of early-type galaxies (ETGs) in 59 nearby clusters ( -->0.04 < z < 0.07). We show that the variances of the FP coefficients for our clusters are just marginally consistent with the hypothesis of universality of the FP. We found they are influenced by the distribution of photometric/kinematic properties of galaxies in the particular sample under analysis, suggesting that the FP is actually a bent surface. We also find a strong correlation between the local density and the FP coefficients, while they appear to be poorly correlated with the global properties of clusters. The relation between luminosity and mass of our galaxies, computed by assuming Sersic luminosity profiles, indicates that, for a given mass, the greater the light concentration, the higher the luminosity, while, for a given luminosity, the lower the light concentration, the greater the mass. Moreover, the M/L versus mass relation (again with Sersic profile fitting) turns out to be steeper and broader than that obtained for the Coma Cluster sample with de Vaucouleurs profile fitting. This broadness, together with the FP bending, might reconcile the FP phenomenology with the expectations from the ΛCDM cosmology. We conclude that the claimed universality of the FP of ETGs is still far from being proved and that systematic biases might affect the studies of luminosity evolution of ETGs, since data sets at different redshifts and with different distributions of the photometric/kinematic galaxy properties are compared each other.

The importance of the local density in shaping the galaxy stellar mass functions

Exploiting the capabilities of four different surveys – the Padova–Millennium Galaxy and Group Catalogue (PM2GC), the WIde-field Nearby Galaxy-cluster Survey (WINGS), the IMACS (Inamori-Magellan Areal Camera and Spectrograph) Cluster Building Survey (ICBS) and the ESO (European Southern Observatory) Distant Cluster Survey (EDisCS) – we analyse the galaxy stellarmass distribution as a function of local density in mass-limited samples, in the field and in clusters from low (z ≥ 0.04) to high (z ≤ 0.8) redshift. We find that at all redshifts and in all environments, local density plays a role in shaping themass distribution. In the field, it regulates the shape of the mass function at any mass above the mass limits. In clusters, it seems to be important only at low masses (log M_∗/M_☉ ≤ 10.1 in WINGS and log M_∗/M_☉ ≤ 10.4 in EDisCS), otherwise it seems not to influence the mass distribution. Putting together our results with those of Calvi et al. and Vulcani et al. for the global environment, we argue that at least at z ≤ 0.8 local density is more important than global environment in determining the galaxy stellar mass distribution, suggesting that galaxy properties are not much dependent on halo mass, but do depend on local scale processes.

SLOW QUENCHING OF STAR FORMATION IN OMEGAWINGS CLUSTERS: GALAXIES IN TRANSITION IN THE LOCAL UNIVERSE

The star formation quenching depends on environment, but a full understanding of what mechanisms drive it is still missing. Exploiting a sample of galaxies with masses , drawn from the WIde-field Nearby Galaxy-cluster Survey (WINGS) and its recent extension OMEGAWINGS, we investigate the star formation rate (SFR) as a function of stellar mass (M) in galaxy clusters at . We use non-member galaxies at 0.02 < z < 0.09 as a field control sample. Overall, we find agreement between the SFR–M relation in the two environments, but detect a population of cluster galaxies with reduced SFRs, which is rare in the field. These transition galaxies are mainly found within the cluster virial radius (R200), but they impact on the SFR–M relation only within 0.6R200. The ratio of transition to pure star-forming galaxies strongly depends on environment, being larger than 0.6 within 0.3R200 and rapidly decreasing with distance, while it is almost flat with M*. As galaxies move downward from the SFR–M main sequence, they become redder and present older luminosity- and mass-weighted ages. These trends, together with the analysis of the star formation histories, suggest that transition galaxies have had a reduced SFR for the past 2–5 Gyr. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that the interaction of galaxies with the intracluster medium via strangulation causes a gradual shut down of star formation, giving birth to an evolved population of galaxies in transition from being star forming to becoming passive.

The evolution of early-type galaxies in clusters from z∼ 0.8 to z ∼ 0: the ellipticity distribution and the morphological mix

We present the ellipticity distribution and its evolution for early-type galaxies in clusters from z~ 0.8 to the current epoch, based on the WIde-field Nearby Galaxy-cluster Survey (0.04 ≤ z ≤ 0.07) and the ESO Distant Cluster Survey (0.4 ≤ z ≤ 0.8). We first investigate a mass-limited sample and we find that above a fixed mass limit (M_(*) ≥ 10^(10.2) M_⊙), the ellipticity (e) distribution of early-type galaxies notably evolves with redshift. In the local Universe, there are proportionally more galaxies with higher ellipticity, hence flatter, than in distant clusters. This evolution is due partly to the change in the mass distribution and mainly to the change in the morphological mix with z among the early types, the fraction of ellipticals goes from ~70 per cent at high z to ~40 per cent at low z). Analysing separately the ellipticity distribution of the different morphological types, we find no evolution both for ellipticals and for S0s. However, for ellipticals a change with redshift in the median value of the distributions is detected. This is due to a larger population of very round (e M_(B)+ 1.208z > −21. Analysing this sample, we do not recover exactly the same results as the mass-limited sample. This indicates that the selection criteria are crucial to characterize the galactic properties: the choice of the magnitude-‘delimited’ sample implies the loss of many less-massive galaxies and so it biases the final conclusions. Moreover, although we are adopting the same selection criteria, our results in the magnitude-‘delimited’ sample are also not in agreement with those of Holden et al. This is due to the fact that our and their low-zsamples have a different magnitude distribution because the Holden et al. sample suffers from incompleteness at faint magnitudes.

GASP. II. A MUSE View of Extreme Ram-Pressure Stripping along the Line of Sight: Kinematics of the Jellyfish Galaxy JO201

This paper presents a spatially-resolved kinematic study of the jellyfish galaxy JO201, one of the most spectacular cases of ram-pressure stripping (RPS) in the GASP (GAs Stripping Phenomena in Galaxies with MUSE) survey. By studying the environment of JO201, we find that it is moving through the dense intra-cluster medium of Abell 85 at supersonic speeds along our line of sight, and that it is likely accompanied by a small group of galaxies. Given the density of the intra-cluster medium and the galaxys mass, projected position and velocity within the cluster, we estimate that JO201 must so far have lost ~50% of its gas during infall via RPS. The MUSE data indeed reveal a smooth stellar disk, accompanied by large projected tails of ionised (Halpha) gas, composed of kinematically cold (velocity dispersion 100km/s) diffuse emission which extend out to at least ~50 kpc from the galaxy centre. The ionised Halpha-emitting gas in the disk rotates with the stars out to ~6 kpc but in the disk outskirts becomes increasingly redshifted with respect to the (undisturbed) stellar disk. The observed disturbances are consistent with the presence of gas trailing behind the stellar component, resulting from intense face-on RPS happening along the line of sight. Our kinematic analysis is consistent with the estimated fraction of lost gas, and reveals that stripping of the disk happens outside-in, causing shock heating and gas compression in the stripped tails.

U-band photometry of 17 WINGS clusters

Context. This paper belongs to a series presenting the WIde Field Nearby Galaxy-cluster Survey (WINGS). The WINGS project has collected wide-field, optical (B, V), and near-infrared (J, K) imaging as well as medium resolution spectroscopy of galaxies in a sample of 76 X-ray selected nearby clusters (0.04 < z < 0.07) with the aim of establishing a reference sample for evolutionary studies of galaxies and galaxy clusters. Aims. We present the U-band photometry of galaxies and stars in the fields of 17 clusters of the WINGS sample. We also extend the original B-and V-band photometry (WINGS-OPT) for 9 and 6 WINGS clusters to a larger field of view. Methods. We used both the new and already existing B-band photometry to obtain reliable (U - B) colors of galaxies within three fixed apertures in kpc. To this aim, we took particular care with the astrometric precision in the reduction procedure. Since not all the observations were taken in good transparency conditions, the photometric calibration was partly obtained by relying on the SDSS and WINGS-OPT photometry for the U-and optical bands, respectively. Results. We provide U-band (also B- and V-band, where possible) total magnitudes of stars and galaxies in the fields of clusters. For galaxies only, the catalogs also provide geometrical parameters and carefully centered aperture magnitudes. The internal consistency of magnitudes was checked for clusters imaged with different cameras, while the external photometric consistency was obtained by comparison with the WINGS-OPT and SDSS surveys. Conclusions. The photometric catalogs presented here add the U-band information to the WINGS database for extending the spectral energy distribution of the galaxies, in particular in the ultraviolet wavelengths which are fundamental for deriving the star formation rate properties.

OmegaWINGS: spectroscopy in the outskirts of local clusters of galaxies

Studies of the properties of low-redshift cluster galaxies suffer, in general, from small spatial coverage of the cluster area. WINGS, the most homogeneous and complete study of galaxies in dense environments to date, obtained spectroscopic redshifts for 48 clusters at a median redshift of 0.05, out to an average distance of approximately 0.5 cluster virial radii. The WINGS photometric survey was recently extended by the VST survey OmegaWINGS to cover the outskirts of a subset of the original cluster sample. In this work, we present the spectroscopic follow-up of 33 of the 46 clusters of galaxies observed with VST over 1 square degree. The aim of this spectroscopic survey is to enlarge the number of cluster members and study the galaxy characteristics and the cluster dynamical properties out to large radii, reaching the virial radius and beyond. We used the AAOmega spectrograph at AAT to obtain fiber-integrated spectra covering the wavelength region between 3800 and 9000 A, with a spectral resolution of 3.5-6 A full width at half maximum (FWHM). Observations were performed using two different configurations and exposure times per cluster. We measured redshifts using both absorption and emission lines and used them to derive the cluster redshifts and velocity dispersions. We present here the redshift measurements for 17985 galaxies, 7497 of which turned out to be cluster members. The sample magnitude completeness is 80% at V=20. Thanks to the observing strategy, the radial completeness turned out to be relatively constant (90%) within the AAOmega field of view. The success rate in measuring redshifts is 95%, at all radii. We provide redshifts for the full sample of galaxies in OmegaWINGS clusters together with updated and robust cluster redshift and velocity dispersions. These data will be publicly accessible through the CDS and VO archives.

GASP. IV. A Muse View of Extreme Ram-pressure-stripping in the Plane of the Sky: The Case of Jellyfish Galaxy JO204

In the context of the GAs Stripping Phenomena in galaxies with Muse (GASP) survey, we present the characterization of JO204, a jellyfish galaxy in A957, a relatively low-mass cluster with

What does CIVλ1549 tell us about the physical driver of the Eigenvector quasar sequence

M=4.4 \times10^{14}M_\odot

UGC 3995: A Close Pair of Spiral Galaxies

. This galaxy shows a tail of ionized gas that extends up to 30 kpc from the main body in the opposite direction of the cluster center. No gas emission is detected in the galaxy outer disk, suggesting that gas stripping is proceeding outside-in. The stellar component is distributed as a regular disk galaxy; the stellar kinematics shows a symmetric rotation curve with a maximum radial velocity of 200km/s out to 20 kpc from the galaxy center. The radial velocity of the gas component in the central part of the disk follows the distribution of the stellar component; the gas kinematics in the tail retains the rotation of the galaxy disk, indicating that JO204 is moving at high speed in the intracluster medium. Both the emission and radial velocity maps of the gas and stellar components indicate ram-pressure as the most likely primary mechanism for gas stripping, as expected given that JO204 is close to the cluster center and it is likely at the first infall in the cluster. The spatially resolved star formation history of JO204 provides evidence that the onset of ram-pressure stripping occurred in the last 500 Myr, quenching the star formation activity in the outer disk, where the gas has been already completely stripped. Our conclusions are supported by a set of hydrodynamic simulations.