Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Day 1531

Thursday.  Friday.  Monday.



1902.01972

The Zwicky Transient Facility: data processing, products, and archive
Masci, et al

[...]  ...600 megapixel camera to scan the entire northern visible sky at rates of ~3760 sq deg/hour to median depths pf g~20.8 and r~20.6 mag (AB, 5 sigma in 30 sec).  [...] The products support a broad range of scientific applications: fast and young SNe, rare flux transients, variable stars, eclipsing binaries, variability from AGN, counterparts to gravitational wave sources, a more complete census of Type Ia SNe, and Solar System objects.


1902.02305
Interacting galaxies on FIRE-2: the connection between enhanced star formation and interstellar gas content
Moreno, et al

We present a comprehensive suite of high-resolution (parsec-scale), idealised (non-cosmological) galaxy merger simulations (24 runs, stellar mass ratio ~2.5:1) to investigate the connection between interaction-induced star formation and the evolution of the interstellar medium (ISM) in various temperature-density regimes. We use the GIZMO code and the second version of the 'Feedback in Realistic Environments' model (FIRE-2), which captures the multi-phase structure of the ISM. Our simulations are designed to represent galaxy mergers in the local Universe. In this work, we focus on the 'galaxy-pair period' between first and second pericentric passage. We split the ISM into four regimes: hot, warm, cool and cold-dense, motivated by the hot, ionised, atomic and molecular gas phases observed in real galaxies. We find that, on average, interactions enhance the star formation rate of the pair (~30%, merger-suite sample average) and elevate their cold-dense gas content (~18%). This is accompanied by a decrease in warm gas (~11%), a negligible change in cool gas (~4% increase), and a substantial increase in hot gas (~400%). The amount of cold-dense gas with densities above 1000 cm^3 (the cold ultra-dense regime) is elevated significantly (~240%), but only accounts for 0.15% (on average) of the cold-dense gas budget.


1902.02340
Satellite dwarf galaxies: stripped but not quenched
Hausammann, et al

In the Local Group, quenched gas-poor dwarfs galaxies are most often found close to the Milky Way and Andromeda, while star forming gas-rich ones are located at greater distances. This so-called morphology-density relation is often interpreted as the consequence of the ram pressure stripping of the satellites during their interaction with the Milky Way hot halo gas. While this process has been often investigated, self-consistent high resolution simulations were still missing. In this study, we have analysed the impact of both the ram pressure and tidal forces induced by a host galaxy on dwarf models as realistic as possible emerging from cosmological simulations. These models were re-simulated using both a wind tunnel and a moving box technique. The secular mass growth of the central host galaxy, as well as the gas density and temperature profiles of its hot halo have been taken into account. We show that while ram pressure is very efficient at stripping the hot and diffuse gas of the dwarf galaxies, it can remove their cold gas ($T < 10^3$~[K]) only in very specific conditions. Depending on the infall time of the satellites relatively to the build-up stage of the massive host, star formation can thus be prolonged instead of being quenched. This is the direct consequence of the clumpy nature of the cold gas and the thermal pressure the hot gas exerts onto it. We discuss the possibility that the variety in satellite populations among Milky Way-like galaxies reflects their accretion histories.


1902.02349
Transition of BH feeding from the quiescent regime into star-forming cold disk regime
Inayoshi, Ichikawa, Ostriker, Kuiper

We study the properties of rotating accretion flows onto supermassive black holes (SMBHs) using axisymmetric two-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations with radiative cooling and BH feedback. The simulations resolve the accretion dynamics of gas outside from the BH influence radius through an inner accretion disk. For lower Bondi accretion rates in units of the Eddington rate ($\dot{M}_{\rm B}\ll 10^{-3}~\dot{M}_{\rm Edd}$), the BH feeding is suppressed due to turbulent motion by several orders of magnitudes from the Bondi rate. Thus, the radiative luminosity results in as low as $\sim 10^{-10}-10^{-7}~L_{\rm Edd}$, where $L_{\rm Edd}$ is the Eddington luminosity. For higher rates of $\dot{M}_{\rm B}> 10^{-3}~\dot{M}_{\rm Edd}$, the optically-thin accreting gas cools via free-free emission and forms a geometrically-thin disk, which feeds the BH efficiently and increases the radiative luminosity to $> 10^{-3}~L_{\rm Edd}$. The transitional behavior of accreting BHs in galactic nuclei from radiatively inefficient phases to cold disk accretion naturally explains (1) the reason for the offset between the observed luminosities and theoretical predictions for nearby quiescent SMBHs, and (2) the conditions to fuel gas into the nuclear SMBH. In addition, the cold disk formed in galactic nuclei tends to be gravitationally unstable and leads to star formation when the Bondi rate is as high as $ \dot{M}_{\rm B} > 10^{-2}~M_\odot~{\rm yr}^{-1}$. This is a plausible explanation of the correlation observed between star formation rates and BH feeding rates in Seyfert galaxies.


1902.02374
Photometric biases in modern surveys
Portillo, Speagle, Finkbeiner

Most surveys use maximum-likelihood (ML) methods to fit models when extracting photometry from images. We show these ML estimators systematically overestimate the flux as a function of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the number of model parameters involved in the fit. This bias is substantially worse for galaxies: while a 1% bias is expected for a 10-sigma point source, a 10-sigma galaxy with a simplified Gaussian profile suffers a 2.5% bias. This bias also behaves differently depending how multiple bands are used in the fit: simultaneously fitting all bands leads the flux bias to become roughly evenly distributed between them, while fixing the position in `non-detection' bands (i.e. forced photometry) gives flux estimates in those bands that are biased low, compounding a bias in derived colors. We show that these effects are present in idealized simulations, outputs from the HSC fake object pipeline (SynPipe), and observations from SDSS Stripe 82. Prescriptions to correct for these biases are provided along with more detailed results related to biases in ML error estimation.


1902.02535
Magnetic field and ISM in the local Galactic disc
Sofue, Nakanishi, Ichiki

Correlation analysis is obtained among Faraday rotation measure, HI column density, thermal and synchrotron radio brightness using archival all-sky maps of the Galaxy. A method is presented to calculate the magnetic strength and its line-of-sight (LOS) component, volume gas densities, effective LOS depth, effective scale height of the disk) from these data in a hybrid way. Applying the method to archival data, all-sky maps of the local magnetic field strength and its parallel component are obtained, which reveal details of local field orientation.


1902.02786
The mean H$\alpha$ EW and Lyman-continuum photon production efficiency for faint $z\approx4-5$ galaxies
Lam, et al

We present the first measurements of the Lyman-continuum photon production efficiency $\xi_{\textrm{ion,0}}$ at $z\sim4$-5 for galaxies fainter than 0.2 $L^*$ ($-$19 mag). $\xi_{\textrm{ion,0}}$ quantifies the production rate of ionizing photons with respect to the UV luminosity density assuming a fiducial escape fraction of zero. Extending previous measurements of $\xi_{\textrm{ion,0}}$ to the faint population is important, as ultra-faint galaxies are expected to contribute the bulk of the ionizing emissivity. We probe $\xi_{\textrm{ion,0}}$ to such faint magnitudes by taking advantage of 200-hour depth Spitzer/IRAC observations from the GREATS program and $\approx$300 3<$z$<6 galaxies with spectroscopic redshifts from the MUSE GTO Deep + Wide programs. Stacked IRAC [3.6]$-$[4.5] colors are derived and used to infer the H$\alpha$ rest-frame equivalent widths, which range from 403\r{A} to 2818\r{A}. The derived $\xi_{\textrm{ion,0}}$ is $\log_{10}(\xi_{\textrm{ion,0}} / \textrm{Hz erg}^{-1}) = 25.36 \pm 0.08$ over $-$20.5 < M$_{\textrm{UV}}$ < $-$17.5, similar to those derived for brighter galaxy samples at the same redshift and therefore suggesting that $\xi_{\textrm{ion}}$ shows no strong dependence on $M_{UV}$. The $\xi_{\textrm{ion,0}}$ values found in our sample imply that the Lyman-continuum escape fraction for $M_{\textrm{UV}} \approx -19$ star-forming galaxies cannot exceed $\approx$8-20\% in the reionization era.


1902.02792
Conditions for recognizing the universe with a low galaxy ionizing photon escape fraction
Finkelstein, et al

We explore scenarios for reionizing the intergalactic medium with low galaxy ionizing photon escape fractions. We combine simulation-based halo-mass dependent escape fractions with an extrapolation of the observed galaxy rest-ultraviolet luminosity functions to solve for the reionization history from z=20 to z=4. We explore the posterior distributions for key unknown quantities, including the limiting halo mass for star-formation, the ionizing photon production efficiency, and a potential contribution from active galactic nuclei (AGN). We marginalize over the allowable parameter space using a Markov Chain Monte Carlo method, finding a solution which satisfies the most model-independent constraints on reionization. Our fiducial model can match observational constraints with an average escape fraction of <5% throughout the bulk of the epoch of reionization if: i) galaxies form stars down to the atomic cooling limit before reionization and a photosuppression mass of log(M_h/Msol)~9 during/after reionization (-13<M_UV,lim<-11); ii) galaxies become more efficient producers of ionizing photons at higher redshifts and fainter magnitudes, and iii) there is a significant, but sub-dominant, contribution by AGN at z < 7. In this model the faintest galaxies (M_UV>-15) dominate the ionizing emissivity, leading to an earlier start to reionization and a smoother evolution of the ionized volume filling fraction than models which assume a single escape fraction at all redshifts and luminosities. The ionizing emissivity from this model is consistent with observations at z=4-5 (and below, when extrapolated), in contrast to some models which assume a single escape fraction. Our predicted ionized volume filling fraction at z=7 of Q_HII=78% (+\- 8%) is in ~1-2 sigma tension with observations of Lya emitters at z~7 and the damping wing analyses of the two known z>7 quasars, which prefer Q_HII,z=7~40-50%.


1902.02820
Quenching low-mass satellite galaxies: evidence for a threshold ICM density
Roberts, et al

We compile a sample of SDSS galaxy clusters with high-quality Chandra X-ray data to directly study the influence of the dense intra-cluster medium (ICM) on the quenching of satellite galaxies. We study the quenched fractions of satellite galaxies as a function of ICM density for low- ($10^9 \lesssim M_\star \lesssim 10^{10}\,\mathrm{M_\odot}$), intermediate- ($10^{10} \lesssim M_\star \lesssim 10^{10.5}\,\mathrm{M_\odot}$), and high-mass ($M_\star \gtrsim 10^{10.5}\,\mathrm{M_\odot}$) satellite galaxies with $>\!3000$ satellite galaxies across 24 low-redshift ($z < 0.1$) clusters. For low-mass galaxies we find evidence for a broken powerlaw trend between satellite quenched fraction and local ICM density. The quenched fraction increases modestly at ICM densities below a threshold before increasing sharply beyond this threshold toward the cluster center. We show that this increase in quenched fraction at high ICM density is well matched by a simple, analytic model of ram pressure stripping. These results are consistent with a picture where low-mass cluster galaxies experience an initial, slow-quenching mode driven by steady gas depletion, followed by rapid quenching associated with ram pressure of cold-gas stripping near (one quarter of the virial radius, on average) the cluster center.

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