3661557
Stellar masses of SDSS-III/BOSS galaxies at z ∼ 0.5 and constraints to galaxy formation models
We calculate stellar masses for � 400,000 massive luminous galaxies at redshift � 0.2 0.7 using the first two years of data from the Baryon Oscillation S pectroscopic Survey (BOSS). Stellar masses are obtained by fitting model spec tral energy distributions to u,g,r,i,z magnitudes. Accurate BOSS spectroscopic redshifts are used to constrain the fits. We find that the distribution of stellar masses in BOSS is narr ow (� logM � 0.5 dex) and peaks at about log M/M⊙ � 11.3 (for a Kroupa initial stellar mass function), and that the mass sampling is uniform over the redshift range 0.2 to 0.6, in agreement with the intended BOSS target selection. The galaxy masses probed by BOSS extend over � 10 12 M⊙, providing unprecedented measurements of the high-mass end of the galaxy mass function. We find that the galaxy number density above � 2.5 · 10 11 M⊙ agrees with previous determinations within 2σ, but there is a slight offset towards lower number densities in BOSS. This alleviates a tension between the z �0.1 and the high-redshift mass function. We perform a comparison with semi-analytic galaxy formation models tailored to the BOSS target selection and volume, in order to contain incompleteness. The abundance of massive galaxies in the models compare well with the BOSS data. However, no evolution is detected from redshift � 0.6 to 0 in the data, whereas the abundance of massive galaxies in the models increases to redshift zero. BOSS data display colour-magnitude (mass) relations similar to those found in the local Universe, where the most massive galaxies are the reddest. On the other hand, the model colours do not display a dependence on stellar mass, span a narrower range and are typically bluer than the observations. We argue that the lack of a colour-mass relation in the models is mostly due to metallicity, which is too low in the models.
118576878
Evolution of the most massive galaxies to z= 0.6 – I. A new method for physical parameter estimation
We use principal component analysis (PCA) to estimate stellar masses, mean stellar ages, star formation histories (SFHs), dust extinctions and stellar velocity dispersions for a set of ∼290 000 galaxies with stellar masses greater than 1011 M⊙ and redshifts in the range 0.4 < z < 0.7 from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS). We find that the fraction of galaxies with active star formation first declines with increasing stellar mass, but then flattens above a stellar mass of 1011.5 M⊙ at z∼ 0.6. This is in striking contrast to z∼ 0.1, where the fraction of galaxies with active star formation declines monotonically with stellar mass. At stellar masses of 1012 M⊙, therefore, the evolution in the fraction of star-forming galaxies from z∼ 0.6 to the present day reaches a factor of ∼10. When we stack the spectra of the most massive, star-forming galaxies at z∼ 0.6, we find that half of their [O iii] emission is produced by active galactic nuclei. The black holes in these galaxies are accreting on average at ∼0.01 the Eddington rate. To obtain these results, we use the stellar population synthesis models of Bruzual & Charlot to generate a library of model spectra with a broad range of SFHs, metallicities, dust extinctions and stellar velocity dispersions. The PCA is run on this library to identify its principal components over the rest-frame wavelength range 3700–5500 A. We demonstrate that linear combinations of these components can recover information equivalent to traditional spectral indices such as the 4000-A break strength and HδA, with greatly improved signal-to-noise ratio (S/N). In addition, the method is able to recover physical parameters such as stellar mass-to-light ratio, mean stellar age, velocity dispersion and dust extinction from the relatively low S/N BOSS spectra. We examine in detail the sensitivity of our stellar mass estimates to the input parameters in our model library, showing that almost all changes result in systematic differences in logM* of 0.1 dex or less. The biggest differences are obtained when using different population synthesis models – stellar masses derived using Maraston et al. models are systematically smaller by up to 0.12 dex at young ages.
10522140
Evolution of the most massive galaxies to z ∼ 0.6 – II. The link between radio AGN activity and star formation
We analyze the optical spectra of massive (log M∗/M⊙ > 11.4) radio-loud galaxies at z � 0.2 and z � 0.6. Our samples are generated by crossmatching the SDSS DR7 and BOSS spectroscopic galaxy catalogues with the FIRST and NVSS radio continuum surveys. By comparing stellar population parameters of these radio-loud samples with radio-quiet control samples matched in stellar mass, velocity dispersion and redshift, we investigate how the presence of a radio-emitting jet relates to the recent star formation history of the host galaxy. We also investigate how the emissionline properties of the radio galaxies evolve with redshift by stacking their spectra. Our main results are the following. (1) Both at low and at high redshift, half as many radio-loud as radio-quiet galaxies have experienced significant star formation in the past Gyr. This difference in star formation history is independent of the luminosity of the radio AGN, except at radio luminosities greater than 10 25.5 W Hz −1 , where it disappears. (2) The Balmer absorption line properties of massive galaxies that have experienced recent star formation show that star formation occurred as a burst in many of these systems. (3) Both the radio and the emission-line luminosity of radio AGN evolve significantly with redshift. The average [O iii] rest equivalent width increases by 1 dex from z = 0.2 to z = 0.6, and emission line ratios change from LINER-like at low redshift to Seyfert-like at high redshift. However, radio galaxies with similar stellar population parameters, have similar emission-line properties both at high- and at low-redshift. These results suggest that massive galaxies experience cyclical episodes of gas accretion, star formation and black hole growth, followed by the production of a radio jet that shuts down further activity. The behaviour of galaxies with log M∗/M⊙ > 11.4 is the same at z = 0.6 as it is at z = 0.2, except that higher redshift galaxies experience more star formation and black hole growth and produce more luminous radio jets during each accretion cycle.
119187489
ABSORPTION-LINE PROBES OF THE PREVALENCE AND PROPERTIES OF OUTFLOWS IN PRESENT-DAY STAR-FORMING GALAXIES
We analyze star-forming galaxies drawn from SDSS DR7 to show how the interstellar medium (ISM) Nai λλ5890, 5896 (Na D) absorption lines depend on galaxy physical properties, and to look for evidence of galactic winds. We combine the spectra of galaxies with similar geometry/physical parameters to create composite spectra with signalto-noise ∼300. The stellar continuum is modeled using stellar population synthesis models, and the continuumnormalized spectrum is fit with two Nai absorption components. We find that (1) ISM Na D absorption lines with equivalent widths EW > 0.8 A are only prevalent in disk galaxies with specific properties—large extinction (AV ), high star formation rates (SFR), high SFR per unit area (ΣSFR), or high stellar mass (M∗); (2) the ISM Na D absorption lines can be separated into two components: a quiescent disk-like component at the galaxy systemic velocity and an outflow component; (3) the disk-like component is much stronger in the edge-on systems, and the outflow component covers a wide angle but is stronger within 60 ◦ of the disk rotation axis; (4) the EW and covering factor of the disk component correlate strongly with dust attenuation, highlighting the importance that dust shielding may play in the survival of Nai; (5) the EW of the outflow component depends primarily on ΣSFR and secondarily on AV ; and (6) the outflow velocity varies from ∼120 to 160 km s −1 but shows little hint of a correlation with galaxy physical properties over the modest dynamic range that our sample probes (1.2 dex in log ΣSFR and 1 dex in log M∗).
119299152
Spectral Classification and Redshift Measurement for the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey
We describe the automated spectral classification, redshift determination, and parameter measurement pipeline in use for the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS-III) as of the survey's ninth data release (DR9), encompassing 831,000 moderate-resolution optical spectra. We give a review of the algorithms employed, and describe the changes to the pipeline that have been implemented for BOSS relative to previous SDSS-I/II versions, including new sets of stellar, galaxy, and quasar redshift templates. For the color-selected "CMASS" sample of massive galaxies at redshift 0.4 ≲ z ≲ 0.8 targeted by BOSS for the purposes of large-scale cosmological measurements, the pipeline achieves an automated classification success rate of 98.7% and confirms 95.4% of unique CMASS targets as galaxies (with the balance being mostly M stars). Based on visual inspections of a subset of BOSS galaxies, we find that approximately 0.2% of confidently reported CMASS sample classifications and redshifts are incorrect, and about 0.4% of all CMASS spectra are objects unclassified by the current algorithm which are potentially recoverable. The BOSS pipeline confirms that ~51.5% of the quasar targets have quasar spectra, with the balance mainly consisting of stars and low signal-to-noise spectra. Statistical (as opposed to systematic) redshift errors propagated from photon noise are typically a few tens of km s–1 for both galaxies and quasars, with a significant tail to a few hundreds of km s–1 for quasars. We test the accuracy of these statistical redshift error estimates using repeat observations, finding them underestimated by a factor of 1.19-1.34 for galaxies and by a factor of two for quasars. We assess the impact of sky-subtraction quality, signal-to-noise ratio, and other factors on galaxy redshift success. Finally, we document known issues with the BOSS DR9 spectroscopic data set and describe directions of ongoing development.
118466086
Autocorrelations of stellar light and mass at z∼ 0 and ∼1: from SDSS to DEEP2
We present measurements of projected autocorrelation functions wp(rp) for the stellar mass of galaxies and for their light in the U, B and V bands, using data from the third data release of the DEEP2 Galaxy Redshift Survey and the final data release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). We investigate the clustering bias of stellar mass and light by comparing these to projected autocorrelations of dark matter estimated from the Millennium Simulations (MS) at z = 1 and 0.07, the median redshifts of our galaxy samples. All of the autocorrelation and bias functions show systematic trends with spatial scale and waveband which are impressively similar at the two redshifts. This shows that the well-established environmental dependence of stellar populations in the local Universe is already in place at z = 1. The recent MS-based galaxy formation simulation of Guo et al. (2011) reproduces the scale-dependent clustering of luminosity to an accuracy better than 30% in all bands and at both redshifts, but substantially overpredicts mass autocorrelations at separations below about 2 Mpc. Further comparison of the shapes of our stellar mass bias functions with those predicted by the model suggests that both the SDSS and DEEP2 data prefer a fluctuation amplitude of σ8 � 0.8 rather than the σ8 = 0.9 assumed by the MS.
814448
The Sequential Empirical Bayes Method: An Adaptive Constrained-Curve Fitting Algorithm for Lattice QCD
We introduce the ``Sequential Empirical Bayes Method'', an adaptive constrained-curve fitting procedure for extracting reliable priors. These are then used in standard augmented-$\chi^2$ fits on separate data. This better stabilizes fits to lattice QCD overlap-fermion data at very low quark mass where {\it a priori} values are not otherwise known. Lessons learned (including caveats limiting the scope of the method) from studying artificial data are presented. As an illustration, from local-local two-point correlation functions, we obtain masses and spectral weights for ground and first-excited states of the pion, give preliminary fits for the $a_0$ where ghost states (a quenched artifact) must be dealt with, and elaborate on the details of fits of the Roper resonance and $S_{11}(N^{1/2-})$ previously presented elsewhere. The data are from overlap fermions on a quenched $16^3\times 28$ lattice with spatial size $La=3.2 {\rm fm}$ and pion mass as low as $\sim 180 {\rm MeV}$.
15339664
Lithium abundances for 185 main-sequence stars - Galactic evolution and stellar depletion of lithium
We present a survey of lithium abundances in 185 main-sequence field stars with $5600 \la T_{\rm eff} \la 6600$ K and $-1.4 \la {\rm [Fe/H]} \la +0.2$ based on new measurements of the equivalent width of the $\lambda 6708$ Lii line in high-resolution spectra of 130 stars and a reanalysis of data for 55 stars from Lambert et al. ([CITE]). The survey takes advantage of improved photometric and spectroscopic determinations of effective temperature and metallicity as well as mass and age derived from Hipparcos absolute magnitudes, offering an opportunity to investigate the behaviour of Li as a function of these parameters. An interesting result from this study is the presence of a large gap in the $\log \varepsilon ({\rm Li}) - T_{\rm eff}$ plane, which distinguishes "Li-dip"stars like those first identified in the Hyades cluster by Boesgaard & Tripicco ([CITE]) from other stars with a much higher Li abundance. The Li-dip stars concentrate on a certain mass, which decreases with metallicity from about 1.4 $M_{\odot}$ at solar metallicity to 1.1 $M_{\odot}$ at ${\rm [Fe/H]} \simeq -1.0$. Excluding the Li-dip stars and a small group of lower mass stars with $T_{\rm eff} < 5900$ K and $\log \varepsilon ({\rm Li}) < 1.5$, the remaining stars, when divided into four metallicity groups, may show a correlation between Li abundance and stellar mass. The dispersion around the $\log \varepsilon ({\rm Li})$-mass relation is about 0.2 dex below ${\rm [Fe/H]} \simeq -0.4$ and 0.3 dex above this metallicity, which cannot be explained by observational errors or differences in metallicity. Furthermore, there is no correlation between the residuals of the $\log \varepsilon ({\rm Li})$-mass relations and stellar age, which ranges from 1.5 Gyr to about 15 Gyr. This suggests that Li depletion occurs early in stellar life and that parameters other than stellar mass and metallicity affect the degree of depletion, e.g. initial rotation velocity and/or the rate of angular momentum loss. It cannot be excluded, however, that a cosmic scatter of the Li abundance in the Galaxy at a given metallicity contributes to the dispersion in Li abundance. These problems make it difficult to determine the Galactic evolution of Li from the data, but a comparison of the upper envelope of the distribution of stars in the $\log \varepsilon ({\rm Li}) - {\rm [Fe/H]}$ plane with recent Galactic evolutionary models by Romano et al. ([CITE]) suggests that novae are a major source for the Li production in the Galactic disk; their occurrence seems to be the explanation for the steep increase of Li abundance at ${\rm [Fe/H]} \simeq -0.4$.
119292768
THE KINEMATICS AND CHEMISTRY OF RED HORIZONTAL BRANCH STARS IN THE SAGITTARIUS STREAMS
We have selected 556 red horizontal branch stars along the streams of the Sagittarius (Sgr) dwarf galaxy from Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR7 spectroscopic data using a theoretical model. The metallicity and ?-element distributions are investigated for stars in the Sgr streams and for Galactic stars at the same locations. We find that the Sgr stars have two peaks in the metallicity distribution while the Galactic stars have a more prominent metal-poor peak. Meanwhile, [?/Fe] ratios of the Sgr stars are lower than those of the Galactic stars. Among the Sgr stars, we find a difference in the metallicity distribution between the leading and trailing arms of the Sgr tidal tails. The metallicity and [?/Fe] distribution of the leading arm is similar to that of the Galaxy. The trailing arm is composed mainly of a metal-rich component and [?/Fe] is obviously lower than that of the Galactic stars. The metallicity gradient is ?(1.8 ? 0.3)? 10?3?dex?deg?1 in the first wrap of the trailing arm and ?(1.5 ? 0.4)? 10?3?dex?deg?1 in the first wrap of the leading arm. No significant gradient exists along the second wraps of the leading or trailing arms. It seems that the Sgr dwarf galaxy initially lost the metal-poor component in the second wrap (older) arms due to the tidal force of our Galaxy and then the metal-rich component is disrupted in the first wrap (younger) arms. Finally, we found that the velocity dispersion of the trailing arm from 88? < ?? < 112? is ? = 9.808 ? 1.0?km?s?1, which is consistent with previous work in the literature.
119247241
New form of the C metric with cosmological constant
The new form of the C-metric proposed by Hong and Teo, in which the two structure functions are factorised, has proved useful in its analysis. In this paper, we extend this form to the case when a cosmological constant is present. The new form of this solution has two structure functions which are partially factorised; moreover, the roots of the structure functions are now regarded as fundamental parameters. This leads to a natural representation of the solution in terms of its so-called domain structure, in which the allowed coordinate range can be visualised as a "box" in a two-dimensional plot. The solution is then completely parameterised by the locations of the edges of this box, at least in the uncharged case. We also briefly analyse other possible domain structures---in the shape of a triangle and trapezoid---that might describe physically interesting space-times within the AdS C-metric.
118533298
Black holes on gravitational instantons
Abstract In this paper, we classify and construct five-dimensional black holes on gravitational instantons in vacuum Einstein gravity, with R × U ( 1 ) × U ( 1 ) isometry. These black holes have spatial backgrounds which are Ricci-flat gravitational instantons with U ( 1 ) × U ( 1 ) isometry, and are completely regular space–times outside the event horizon. Most of the known exact five-dimensional vacuum black-hole solutions can be classified within this scheme. Amongst the new space–times presented are static black holes on the Euclidean Kerr and Taub-bolt instantons. We also present a rotating black hole on the Eguchi–Hanson instanton.