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Nearby Universe (nearby + universe)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Physics and Astronomy100%

Selected Abstracts

Observational biases in Lagrangian reconstructions of cosmic velocity fields

MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 4 2008
G. Lavaux
ABSTRACT Lagrangian reconstruction of large-scale peculiar velocity fields can be strongly affected by observational biases. We develop a thorough analysis of these systematic effects by relying on specially selected mock catalogues. For the purpose of this paper, we use the Monge,Ampère,Kantorovitch (MAK) reconstruction method, although any other Lagrangian reconstruction method should be sensitive to the same problems. We extensively study the uncertainty in the mass-to-light assignment due to incompleteness (missing luminous mass tracers), and the poorly determined relation between mass and luminosity. The impact of redshift distortion corrections is analysed in the context of MAK and we check the importance of edge and finite-volume effects on the reconstructed velocities. Using three mock catalogues with different average densities, we also study the effect of cosmic variance. In particular, one of them presents the same global features as found in observational catalogues that extend to 80 h,1 Mpc scales. We give recipes, checked using the aforementioned mock catalogues, to handle these particular observational effects, after having introduced them into the mock catalogues so as to quantitatively mimic the most densely sampled currently available galaxy catalogue of the nearby Universe. Once biases have been taken care of, the typical resulting error in reconstructed velocities is typically about a quarter of the overall velocity dispersion, and without significant bias. We finally model our reconstruction errors to propose an improved Bayesian approach to measure ,m in an unbiased way by comparing the reconstructed velocities to the measured ones in distance space, even though they may be plagued by large errors. We show that, in the context of observational data, it is possible to build a nearly unbiased estimator of ,m using MAK reconstruction. [source]

The environmental dependence of radio-loud AGN activity and star formation in the 2dFGRS

MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 1 2004
P. N. Best
ABSTRACT By combining the 2-degree Field Galaxy Redshift Survey with the NRAO VLA Sky Survey at 1.4 GHz, the environments of radio-loud active galactic nuclei (AGN) in the nearby Universe are investigated using both local projected galaxy densities and a friends-of-friends group-finding algorithm. Radio-loud AGN are preferentially located in galaxy groups and poor-to-moderate richness galaxy clusters. The AGN fraction appears to depend more strongly on the large-scale environment (group, cluster, etc.) in which a galaxy is located than on its more local environment, except at the lowest galaxy surface densities where practically no radio-loud AGN are found. The ratio of absorption-line to emission-line AGN changes dramatically with environment, with essentially all radio-loud AGN in rich environments showing no emission lines. This result could be connected with the lack of cool gas in cluster galaxies, and may have important consequences for analyses of optically selected AGN, which are invariably selected on emission-line properties. The local galaxy surface density of the absorption-line AGN is strongly correlated with radio luminosity, implying that the radio luminosities may be significantly boosted in dense environments due to confinement by the hot intracluster gas. The environments of a radio-selected sample of star-forming galaxies are also investigated to provide an independent test of optical studies. In line with those studies, the fraction of star-forming galaxies is found to decrease strongly with increasing local galaxy surface density; this correlation extends across the whole range of galaxy surface densities, with no evidence for the density threshold found in some optical studies. [source]

Metallicity and kinematical clues to the formation of the Local Group

ASTRONOMISCHE NACHRICHTEN, Issue 5 2010
R.F.G. Wyse
Abstract The kinematics and elemental abundances of resolved stars in the nearby Universe can be used to infer conditions at high redshift, trace how galaxies evolve and constrain the nature of dark matter. This approach is complementary to direct study of systems at high redshift, but I will show that analysis of individual stars allows one to break degeneracies, such as between star formation rate and stellar Initial Mass Function, that complicate the analysis of unresolved, distant galaxies (© 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [source]

Galaxy growth in the concordance ,CDM cosmology

MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 1 2008
Q. Guo
ABSTRACT We use galaxy and dark halo data from the public database for the Millennium Simulation to study the growth of galaxies in the De Lucia et al. model for galaxy formation. Previous work has shown this model to reproduce many aspects of the systematic properties and the clustering of real galaxies, both in the nearby universe and at high redshift. It assumes the stellar masses of galaxies to increase through three processes, major mergers, the accretion of smaller satellite systems and star formation. We show the relative importance of these three modes to be a strong function of stellar mass and redshift. Galaxy growth through major mergers depends strongly on stellar mass, but only weakly on redshift. Except for massive systems, minor mergers contribute more to galaxy growth than major mergers at all redshifts and stellar masses. For galaxies significantly less massive than the Milky Way, star formation dominates the growth at all epochs. For galaxies significantly more massive than the Milky Way, growth through mergers is the dominant process at all epochs. At a stellar mass of 6 × 1010 M,, about that of the Milk Way, star formation dominates at z > 1 and mergers at later times. At every stellar mass, the growth rates through star formation increase rapidly with increasing redshift. Specific star formation rates are the decreasing function of stellar mass not only at z= 0 but also at all higher redshifts. For comparison, we carry out a similar analysis of the growth of dark matter haloes. In contrast to the galaxies, growth rates depend strongly on redshift, but only weakly on mass. They agree qualitatively with analytic predictions for halo growth. [source]

Delaunay Tessellation Field Estimator analysis of the PSCz local Universe: density field and cosmic flow

MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 1 2007
Emilio Romano-Díaz
ABSTRACT We apply the Delaunay Tessellation Field Estimator (DTFE) to reconstruct and analyse the matter distribution and cosmic velocity flows in the local Universe on the basis of the PSCz galaxy survey. The prime objective of this study is the production of optimal resolution 3D maps of the volume-weighted velocity and density fields throughout the nearby universe, the basis for a detailed study of the structure and dynamics of the cosmic web at each level probed by underlying galaxy sample. Fully volume-covering 3D maps of the density and (volume-weighted) velocity fields in the cosmic vicinity, out to a distance of 150 h,1 Mpc, are presented. Based on the Voronoi and Delaunay tessellation defined by the spatial galaxy sample, DTFE involves the estimate of density values on the basis of the volume of the related Delaunay tetrahedra and the subsequent use of the Delaunay tessellation as natural multidimensional (linear) interpolation grid for the corresponding density and velocity fields throughout the sample volume. The linearized model of the spatial galaxy distribution and the corresponding peculiar velocities of the PSCz galaxy sample, produced by Branchini et al., forms the input sample for the DTFE study. The DTFE maps reproduce the high-density supercluster regions in optimal detail, both their internal structure as well as their elongated or flattened shape. The corresponding velocity flows trace the bulk and shear flows marking the region extending from the Pisces,Perseus supercluster, via the Local Superclusters, towards the Hydra,Centaurus and the Shapley concentration. The most outstanding and unique feature of the DTFE maps is the sharply defined radial outflow regions in and around underdense voids, marking the dynamical importance of voids in the local Universe. The maximum expansion rate of voids defines a sharp cut-off in the DTFE velocity divergence probability distribution function. We found that on the basis of this cut-off DTFE manages to consistently reproduce the value of ,m, 0.35 underlying the linearized velocity data set. [source]

Ram pressure stripping of disk galaxies in galaxy clusters

ASTRONOMISCHE NACHRICHTEN, Issue 9-10 2009
E. Roediger
Abstract While galaxies move through the intracluster medium of their host cluster, they experience a ram pressure which removes at least a significant part of their interstellar medium. This ram pressure stripping appears to be especially important for spiral galaxies: this scenario is a good candidate to explain the differences observed between cluster spirals in the nearby universe and their field counterparts. Thus, ram pressure stripping of disk galaxies in clusters has been studied intensively during the last decade. I review advances made in this area, concentrating on theoretical work, but continuously comparing to observations (© 2009 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [source]

Six-Degree Field Galaxy Survey complete

ASTRONOMY & GEOPHYSICS, Issue 3 2009
Article first published online: 29 MAY 200
An international research group has announced that the the Six-Degree Field Galaxy Survey, the most detailed map of the nearby universe, is now complete. [source]

Life, the universe and everything, with GAIA

ASTRONOMY & GEOPHYSICS, Issue 5 2001
Gerry Gilmore
Great things are expected of the GAIA Observatory, currently expected to launch in 2011. Gerry Gilmore explains how it will provide accurate measurements that will help us understand the formation of the Milky Way and the distribution of dark matter. The GAIA Observatory, ESA's Cornerstone 6 mission, addresses the origin and evolution of our galaxy, and a host of other scientific challenges. GAIA will provide unprecedented positional and radial velocity measurements with the accuracies needed to produce a stereoscopic and kinematic census of about one billion stars in our galaxy and throughout the Local Group, about 1% of the galactic stellar population. Combined with astrophysical information for each star, provided by on-board multicolour photometry, these data will have the precision and depth necessary to address the three key questions which underlie the GAIA science case: l when did the stars in the Milky Way form? l when and how was the Milky Way assembled? l what is the distribution of dark matter in our galaxy? The accurate stellar data acquired for this purpose will also have an enormous impact on all areas of stellar astrophysics, including luminosity calibrations, structural studies, and the cosmic distance scale. Additional scientific products include detection and orbital classification of tens of thousands of extrasolar planetary systems, a comprehensive survey of objects ranging from huge numbers of minor bodies in our solar system, including near-Earth objects, through galaxies in the nearby universe, to some 500 000 distant quasars. GAIA will also provide several stringent new tests of general relativity and cosmology. [source]