Where do 'red and dead' early-type void galaxies come from?

Void regions of the Universe offer a special environment for studying cosmology and galaxy formation, which may expose weaknesses in our understanding of these phenomena. Although galaxies in voids are observed to be predominately gas rich, star forming and blue, a subpopulation of bright-red void galaxies can also be found, whose star formation was shutdown long ago. Are the same processes that quench star formation in denser regions of the Universe also at work in voids?
We compare the luminosity function of void galaxies in the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey, to those from a galaxy formation model built on the Millennium simulation. We show that a global star formation suppression mechanism in the form of low-luminosity 'radio-mode' active galactic nuclei (AGN) heating is sufficient to reproduce the observed population of void early types. Radio-mode heating is environment independent other than its dependence on dark matter halo mass, where, above a critical mass threshold of approximately   M _vir∼ 10^12.5 M_⊙  , gas cooling on to the galaxy is suppressed and star formation subsequently fades. In the Millennium simulation, the void halo mass function is shifted with respect to denser environments, but still maintains a high-mass tail above this critical threshold. In such void haloes, radio-mode heating remains efficient and red galaxies are found; collectively these galaxies match the observed space density without any modification to the model. Consequently, galaxies living in vastly different large-scale environments but hosted by haloes of similar mass are predicted to have similar properties, consistent with observations.     

Global environmental effects versus galaxy interactions

We explore properties of close galaxy pairs and merging systems selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 4 in different environments with the aim to assess the relative importance of the role of interactions over global environmental processes. For this purpose, we perform a comparative study of galaxies with and without close companions as a function of local density and host halo mass, carefully removing sources of possible biases. We find that at low- and high-local-density environments, colours and concentration indices of close galaxy pairs are very similar to those of isolated galaxies. At intermediate densities, we detect significant differences, indicating that close pairs could have experienced a more rapid transition on to the red sequence than isolated galaxies. The presence of a correlation between concentration index and colours indicates that the physical mechanism responsible for the colour transformation also operates in the transformation of the luminous matter distribution. At fixed local densities, we find a dependence of the red galaxy fraction on dark matter halo mass for galaxies with or without a close companion. This suggests the action of host halo mass related effects. Regardless of dark matter halo mass, we show that the percentage of red galaxies in close pairs and in the control sample are comparable at low- and high-local-density environments. However, at intermediate local densities, the gap in the red fraction between close pairs and the control galaxies increases from ∼10 per cent in low-mass haloes up to ∼50 per cent in the most massive ones. Interestingly, we also detect that 50 per cent of merging systems populate the intermediate local environments, with a large fraction of them being extremely red and bulge dominated. Our findings suggest that in intermediate-density environments galaxies are efficiently pre-processed by close encounters and mergers before entering higher local density regions.     

The correlation of star formation quenching with internal galaxy properties and environment

We investigate the correlation of star formation quenching with internal galaxy properties and large-scale environment (halo mass) in empirical data and theoretical models. We make use of the halo-based group catalogue of Yang and collaborators, which is based on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Data from the Galaxy evolution explorer are also used to extract the recent star formation rate. In order to investigate the environmental effects, we examine the properties of 'central' and 'satellite' galaxies separately. For central galaxies, we are unable to conclude whether star formation quenching is primarily connected with halo mass or stellar mass, because these two quantities are themselves strongly correlated. For satellite galaxies, a nearly equally strong dependence on halo mass and stellar mass is seen. We make the same comparison for five different semi-analytic models based on three independently developed codes. We find that the models with active galactic nuclei feedback reproduce reasonably well the dependence of the fraction of central red and passive galaxies on halo mass and stellar mass. However, for satellite galaxies, the same models badly overproduce the fraction of red/passive galaxies and do not reproduce the empirical trends with stellar mass or halo mass. This satellite overquenching problem is caused by the too-rapid stripping of the satellites' hot gas haloes, which leads to rapid strangulation of star formation.     

The growth of central and satellite galaxies in cosmological smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations

We examine the accretion and merger histories of central and satellite galaxies in a smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) cosmological simulation that resolves galaxies down to  7 × 10⁹ M_⊙  . Most friends-of-friends haloes in the simulation have a distinct central galaxy, typically 2–5 times more massive than the most massive satellite. As expected, satellites have systematically higher assembly redshifts than central galaxies of the same baryonic mass, and satellites in more massive haloes form earlier. However, contrary to the simplest expectations, satellite galaxies continue to accrete gas and convert it to stars; the gas accretion declines steadily over a period of 0.5–1 Gyr after the satellite halo merges with a larger parent halo. Satellites in a cluster mass halo eventually begin to lose baryonic mass. Typically, satellites in our simulation are 0.1–0.2 mag bluer than in models that assume no gas accretion on to satellites after a halo merger. Since   z = 1  , 27 per cent of central galaxies (above  3 × 10¹⁰ M_⊙  ) and 22 per cent of present-day satellite galaxies have merged with a smaller system above a 1:4 mass ratio; about half of the satellite mergers occurred after the galaxy became a satellite and half before. In effect, satellite galaxies can remain 'central' objects of halo substructures, with continuing accretion and mergers, making the transition in assembly histories and physical properties a gradual one. Implementing such a gradual transformation in semi-analytic models would improve their agreement with observed colour distributions of satellite galaxies in groups and with the observed colour dependence of galaxy clustering.     

GHASP: an Hα kinematic survey of spiral and irregular galaxies – V. Dark matter distribution in 36 nearby spiral galaxies

The results obtained from a study of the mass distribution of 36 spiral galaxies are presented. The galaxies were observed using Fabry–Perot interferometry as part of the GHASP survey. The main aim of obtaining high-resolution Hα 2D velocity fields is to define more accurately the rising part of the rotation curves which should allow to better constrain the parameters of the mass distribution. The Hα velocities were combined with low resolution H  i data from the literature, when available. Combining the kinematical data with photometric data, mass models were derived from these rotation curves using two different functional forms for the halo: an isothermal sphere (ISO) and a Navarro–Frenk–White (NFW) profile. For the galaxies already modelled by other authors, the results tend to agree. Our results point at the existence of a constant density core in the centre of the dark matter haloes rather than a cuspy core, whatever the type of the galaxy from Sab to Im. This extends to all types the result already obtained by other authors studying dwarf and low surface brightness galaxies but would necessitate a larger sample of galaxies to conclude more strongly. Whatever model is used (ISO or NFW), small core radius haloes have higher central densities, again for all morphological types. We confirm different halo scaling laws, such as the correlations between the core radius and the central density of the halo with the absolute magnitude of a galaxy: low-luminosity galaxies have small core radius and high central density. We find that the product of the central density with the core radius of the dark matter halo is nearly constant, whatever the model and whatever the absolute magnitude of the galaxy. This suggests that the halo surface density is independent from the galaxy type.     

Building a control sample for galaxy pairs

Several observational works have attempted to isolate the effects of galaxy interactions by comparing galaxies in pairs with isolated galaxies. However, different authors have proposed different ways to build these so-called control samples (CS). By using mock galaxy catalogues of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 4 buildup from the Millennium Simulation, we explore how the way of building a CS might introduce biases which could affect the interpretation of results. We make use of the fact that the physics of interactions are not included in the semi-analytic model, to infer that any difference between the mock control and pair samples can be ascribed to selection biases. Thus, we find that galaxies in pairs artificially tend to be older and more bulge dominated, and to have less cold gas and different metallicities than their isolated counterparts. Also because of a biased selection, galaxies in pairs tend to live in higher density environments and in haloes of larger masses. We find that imposing constraints on redshift, stellar masses and local densities diminishes the selection biases by  ≈70 per cent  . Based on these findings, we suggest observers how to build a unique and unbiased CS in order to reveal the effect of galaxy interactions.     

Halo masses for optically selected and for radio-loud AGN from clustering and galaxy–galaxy lensing

We compute two-point correlation functions and measure the shear signal due to galaxy–galaxy lensing for 80 000 optically identified and 5700 radio-loud active galactic nuclei (AGN) from Data Release 4 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Halo occupation models are used to estimate halo masses and satellite fractions for these two types of AGN. The large sample size allows us to separate AGN according to the stellar mass of their host galaxies. We study how the halo masses of optical and radio AGN differ from those of the parent population at fixed   M _*  . Halo masses deduced from clustering and from lensing agree satisfactorily. Radio AGN are found in more massive haloes than optical AGN: in our samples, their mean halo masses are  1.6 × 10¹³  and  8 × 10¹¹  h ⁻¹ M_⊙  , respectively. Optical AGN follow the same relation between stellar mass and halo mass as galaxies selected without regard to nuclear properties, but radio-loud AGN deviate significantly from this relation. The dark matter haloes of radio-loud AGN are about twice as massive as those of control galaxies of the same stellar mass. This boost is independent of radio luminosity, and persists even when our analysis is restricted to field galaxies. The large-scale gaseous environment of the galaxy clearly plays a crucial role in producing observable radio emission. The dark matter halo masses that we derive for the AGN in our two samples are in good agreement with recent models in which feedback from radio AGN becomes dominant in haloes where gas cools quasi-statically.     

Merging history trees for dark matter haloes: tests of the Merging Cell Model in a CDM cosmology

The merging history of dark matter haloes is computed with the Merging Cell Model proposed by Rodrigues & Thomas. While originally discussed in the case of scale-free power spectra, it is developed and tested here in the framework of the cold dark matter cosmology. The halo mass function, the mass distribution of progenitors and child haloes, as well as the probability distribution of formation times, have been computed and compared with the available analytic predictions. The halo autocorrelation function has also been obtained (a first for a semi-analytic merging tree), and tested against analytic formulae. An overall good agreement is found between results of the model, and the predictions derived from the Press & Schechter theory and its extensions. More severe discrepancies appear when formulae that better describe N -body simulations are used for comparison. In many instances, the model can be a useful tool for following the hierarchical growth of structures. In particular, it is suitable for addressing the issue of the formation and evolution of galaxy clusters, as well as the population of Lyman-break galaxies at high redshift, and their clustering properties.     

Galaxy–dark matter correlations applied to galaxy–galaxy lensing: predictions from the semi-analytic galaxy formation models

We use semi-analytic models of galaxy formation combined with high-resolution N -body simulations to make predictions for galaxy–dark matter correlations and apply them to galaxy–galaxy lensing. We analyse cross-power spectra between the dark matter and different galaxy samples selected by luminosity, colour or star formation rate. We compare the predictions with the recent detection by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). We show that the correlation amplitude and the mean tangential shear depend strongly on the luminosity of the sample on scales below 1  h ⁻¹ Mpc, reflecting the correlation between the galaxy luminosity and the halo mass. The cross-correlation cannot, however, be used to infer the halo profile directly because different halo masses dominate on different scales and because not all galaxies are at the centres of the corresponding haloes. We compute the redshift evolution of the cross-correlation amplitude and compare it with those of galaxies and dark matter. We also compute the galaxy–dark matter correlation coefficient and show that it is close to unity on scales above 1  h ⁻¹ Mpc for all considered galaxy types. This would allow one to extract the bias and the dark matter power spectrum on large scales from the galaxy and galaxy–dark matter correlations.     

The environmental dependence of the chemical properties of star-forming galaxies

We use a  0.040 < z < 0.085  sample of 37 866 star-forming galaxies from the Fourth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to investigate the dependence of gas-phase chemical properties on stellar mass and environment. The local density, determined from the projected distances to the fourth and fifth nearest neighbours, is used as an environment indicator. Considering environments ranging from voids, i.e.  log Σ≲−0.8  , to the periphery of galaxy clusters, i.e.  log Σ≈ 0.8  , we find no dependence of the relationship between galaxy stellar mass and gas-phase oxygen abundance, along with its associated scatter, on local galaxy density. However, the star-forming gas in galaxies shows a marginal increase in the chemical enrichment level at a fixed stellar mass in denser environments. Compared with galaxies of similar stellar mass in low-density environments, they are enhanced by a few per cent for massive galaxies to about 20 per cent for galaxies with stellar masses  ≲10^9.5 M_⊙  . These results imply that the evolution of star-forming galaxies is driven primarily by their intrinsic properties and is largely independent of their environment over a large range of local galaxy density.     

Dynamical friction and galaxy merging time-scales

The time-scale for galaxies within merging dark matter haloes to merge with each other is an important ingredient in galaxy formation models. Accurate estimates of merging time-scales are required for predictions of astrophysical quantities such as black hole binary merger rates, the build-up of stellar mass in central galaxies and the statistical properties of satellite galaxies within dark matter haloes. In this paper, we study the merging time-scales of extended dark matter haloes using N -body simulations. We compare these results to standard estimates based on the Chandrasekhar theory of dynamical friction. We find that these standard predictions for merging time-scales, which are often used in semi-analytic galaxy formation models, are systematically shorter than those found in simulations. The discrepancy is approximately a factor of 1.7 for M _sat/ M _host≈ 0.1 and becomes larger for more disparate satellite-to-host mass ratios, reaching a factor of ∼3.3 for M _sat/ M _host≈ 0.01. Based on our simulations, we propose a new, easily implementable fitting formula that accurately predicts the time-scale for an extended satellite to sink from the virial radius of a host halo down to the halo's centre for a wide range of M _sat/ M _host and orbits. Including a central bulge in each galaxy changes the merging time-scale by ≲10 per cent. To highlight one concrete application of our results, we show that merging time-scales often used in the literature overestimate the growth of stellar mass by satellite accretion by ≈40 per cent, with the extra mass gained in low mass ratio mergers.     

Satellite kinematics – II. The halo mass–luminosity relation of central galaxies in SDSS

The kinematics of satellite galaxies reflect the masses of the extended dark matter haloes in which they orbit, and thus shed light on the mass–luminosity relation (MLR) of their corresponding central galaxies. In this paper, we select a large sample of centrals and satellites from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and measure the kinematics (velocity dispersions) of the satellite galaxies as a function of the r -band luminosity of the central galaxies. Using the analytical framework presented in More, van den Bosch & Cacciato, we use these data to infer both the mean and the scatter of the MLR of central galaxies, carefully taking account of selection effects and biases introduced by the stacking procedure. As expected, brighter centrals on average reside in more massive haloes. In addition, we find that the scatter in halo masses for centrals of a given luminosity,  σ_{log  M}   , also increases with increasing luminosity. As we demonstrate, this is consistent with  σ_{log  L}   , which reflects the scatter in the conditional probability function   P ( L _c| M )  , being independent of halo mass. Our analysis of the satellite kinematics yields  σ_{log  L} = 0.16  ±  0.04  , in excellent agreement with constraints from clustering and group catalogues, and with predictions from a semi-analytical model of galaxy formation. We thus conclude that the amount of stochasticity in galaxy formation, which is characterized by  σ_{log  L}   , is well constrained, independent of halo mass and in a good agreement with current models of galaxy formation.     

A catalogue and analysis of local galaxy ages and metallicities

We have assembled a catalogue of relative ages, metallicities and abundance ratios for about 150 local galaxies in field, group and cluster environments. The galaxies span morphological types from cD and ellipticals, to late-type spirals. Ages and metallicities were estimated from high-quality published spectral line indices using Worthey & Ottaviani (1997) single stellar population evolutionary models.
The identification of galaxy age as a fourth parameter in the fundamental plane ( Forbes, Ponman & Brown 1998 ) is confirmed by our larger sample of ages. We investigate trends between age and metallicity, and with other physical parameters of the galaxies, such as ellipticity, luminosity and kinematic anisotropy. We demonstrate the existence of a galaxy age–metallicity relation similar to that seen for local galactic disc stars, whereby young galaxies have high metallicity, while old galaxies span a large range in metallicities.
We also investigate the influence of environment and morphology on the galaxy age and metallicity, especially the predictions made by semi-analytic hierarchical clustering models (HCM). We confirm that non-cluster ellipticals are indeed younger on average than cluster ellipticals as predicted by the HCM models. However we also find a trend for the more luminous galaxies to have a higher [Mg/Fe] ratio than the lower luminosity galaxies, which is opposite to the expectation from HCM models.     

Satellite systems around galaxies in hydrodynamic simulations

We investigate the properties of satellite galaxies formed in N -body/SPH simulations of galaxy formation in the ΛCDM cosmology. The simulations include the main physical effects thought to be important in galaxy formation and, in several cases, produce realistic spiral discs. In total, a sample of nine galaxies of luminosity comparable to the Milky Way was obtained. At magnitudes brighter than the resolution limit,   M_V =−12  , the luminosity function of the satellite galaxies in the simulations is in excellent agreement with data for the Local Group. The radial number density profile of the model satellites, as well as their gas fractions also match observations very well. In agreement with previous N -body studies, we find that the satellites tend to be distributed in highly flattened configurations whose major axis is aligned with the major axis of the (generally triaxial) dark halo. In two out of three systems with sufficiently large satellite populations, the satellite system is nearly perpendicular to the plane of the galactic disc, a configuration analogous to that observed in the Milk Way. The discs themselves are perpendicular to the minor axis of their host haloes in the inner parts, and the correlation between the orientation of the galaxy and the shape of the halo persists even out to the virial radius. However, in one case the disc's minor axis ends up, at the virial radius, perpendicular to the minor axis of the halo. The angular momenta of the galaxies and their host halo tend to be well aligned.     

Numerical simulations of hot halo gas in galaxy mergers

Galaxy merger simulations have explored the behaviour of gas within the galactic disc, yet the dynamics of hot gas within the galaxy halo have been neglected. We report on the results of high-resolution hydrodynamic simulations of colliding galaxies with metal-free hot halo gas. To isolate the effect of the halo gas, we simulate only the dark matter halo and the hot halo gas over a range of mass ratios, gas fractions and orbital configurations to constrain the shocks and gas dynamics within the progenitor haloes. We find that (i) a strong shock is produced in the galaxy haloes before the first passage, increasing the temperature of the gas by almost an order of magnitude to   T ∼ 10^6.3 K  . (ii) The X-ray luminosity of the shock is strongly dependent on the gas fraction; it is  ≳10³⁹ erg s⁻¹  for halo gas fractions larger than 10 per cent. (iii) The hot diffuse gas in the simulation produces X-ray luminosities as large as  10⁴² erg s⁻¹  . This contributes to the total X-ray background in the Universe. (iv) We find an analytic fit to the maximum X-ray luminosity of the shock as a function of merger parameters. This fit can be used in semi-analytic recipes of galaxy formation to estimate the total X-ray emission from shocks in merging galaxies. (v) ∼10–20 per cent of the initial gas mass is unbound from the galaxies for equal-mass mergers, while 3–5 per cent of the gas mass is released for the 3:1 and 10:1 mergers. This unbound gas ends up far from the galaxy and can be a feasible mechanism to enrich the intergalactic medium with metals.     

The haloes of merger remnants

We perform collisionless N -body simulations of 1:1 galaxy mergers, using models which include a galaxy halo, disc and bulge, focusing on the behaviour of the halo component. The galaxy models are constructed without recourse to a Maxwellian approximation. We investigate the effect of varying the galaxies' orientation, their mutual orbit and the initial velocity anisotropy or cusp strength of the haloes upon the remnant halo density profiles and shape, as well as on the kinematics. We observe that the halo density profile (determined as a spherical average, an approximation we find appropriate) is exceptionally robust in mergers, and that the velocity anisotropy of our remnant haloes is nearly independent of the orbits or initial anisotropy of the haloes. The remnants follow the halo anisotropy – local density slope (β–γ) relation suggested by Hansen & Moore in the inner parts of the halo, but β is systematically lower than this relation predicts in the outer parts. Remnant halo axis ratios are strongly dependent on the initial parameters of the haloes and on their orbits. We also find that the remnant haloes are significantly less spherical than those described in studies of simulations which include gas cooling.     

Point spread function tails and the measurements of diffuse stellar halo light around edge-on disc galaxies

Measuring the integrated stellar halo light around galaxies is very challenging. The surface brightness of these haloes is expected to be many magnitudes below dark sky and the central brightness of the galaxy. Here, I show that in some of the recent literature the effect of very extended Point Spread Function (PSF) tails on the measurements of halo light has been underestimated; especially in the case of edge-on disc galaxies. The detection of a halo along the minor axis of an edge-on galaxy in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field can largely be explained by scattered galaxy light. Similarly, depending on filter and the shape one assumes for the uncertain extended PSF, 20–80 per cent of the halo light found along the minor axis of scaled and stacked Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) edge-on galaxy images can be explained by scattered galaxy light. Scattered light also significantly contributes to the anomalous halo colours of stacked SDSS images. The scattered light fraction decreases when looking in the quadrants away from the minor axis. The remaining excess light is well modelled with a Sérsic profile halo with shape parameters based on star count halo detections of nearby galaxies. Even though, the contribution from PSF scattered light does not fully remove the need for extended components around these edge-on galaxies, it will be very challenging to make accurate halo light shape and colour measurements from integrated light without very careful PSF measurements and scattered light modelling.