Search Publications
Characterizing circumgalactic gas around massive ellipticals at z ∼ 0.4 - I. Initial results
Weiner, Benjamin J.; Johnson, Sean D.; Zahedy, Fakhri S. +4 more
We present a new Hubble Space Telescope Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) absorption-line survey to study halo gas around 16 luminous red galaxies (LRGs) at z = 0.21-0.55. The LRGs are selected uniformly with stellar mass M_star>10^{11} M_{⊙} and no prior knowledge of the presence/absence of any absorption features. Based on observations of the…
Aurigaia: mock Gaia DR2 stellar catalogues from the AURIGA cosmological simulations
Springel, Volker; Grand, Robert J. J.; Gómez, Facundo A. +12 more
We present and analyse mock stellar catalogues that match the selection criteria and observables (including uncertainties) of the Gaia satellite data release 2 (DR2). The source are six cosmological high-resolution magneto-hydrodynamic ΛCDM zoom simulations of the formation of Milky Way analogues from the AURIGA project. Mock data are provided for…
Identifying the subtle signatures of feedback from distant AGN using ALMA observations and the EAGLE hydrodynamical simulations
Alexander, D. M.; Santini, P.; Swinbank, A. M. +10 more
We present sensitive 870 µm continuum measurements from our ALMA programmes of 114 X-ray selected active galactic nuclei (AGN) in the Chandra Deep Field-South and Cosmic Evolution Survey fields. We use these observations in combination with data from Spitzer and Herschel to construct a sample of 86 X-ray selected AGN, 63 with ALMA constraint…
Where does galactic dust come from?
Hunt, L. K.; Valiante, R.; Ginolfi, M. +5 more
Here we investigate the origin of the dust mass (Mdust) observed in the Milky Way (MW) and of dust scaling relations found in a sample of local galaxies from the DGS and KINGFISH surveys. To this aim, we model dust production from Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars and supernovae (SNe) in simulated galaxies forming along the assembly o…
On the insufficiency of arbitrarily precise covariance matrices: non-Gaussian weak-lensing likelihoods
Sellentin, Elena; Heavens, Alan F.
We investigate whether a Gaussian likelihood, as routinely assumed in the analysis of cosmological data, is supported by simulated survey data. We define test statistics, based on a novel method that first destroys Gaussian correlations in a data set, and then measures the non-Gaussian correlations that remain. This procedure flags pairs of data p…
The young star cluster population of M51 with LEGUS - I. A comprehensive study of cluster formation and evolution
Weber, M.; Östlin, G.; Tosi, M. +34 more
Recently acquired WFC3 UV (F275W and F336W) imaging mosaics under the Legacy Extragalactic UV Survey (LEGUS), combined with archival ACS data of M51, are used to study the young star cluster (YSC) population of this interacting system. Our newly extracted source catalogue contains 2834 cluster candidates, morphologically classified to be compact a…
Connecting the progenitors, pre-explosion variability and giant outbursts of luminous blue variables with Gaia16cfr
Filippenko, Alexei V.; Kilpatrick, Charles D.; Coulter, David A. +10 more
We present multi-epoch, multicolour pre-outburst photometry and post-outburst light curves and spectra of the luminous blue variable (LBV) outburst Gaia16cfr discovered by the Gaia satellite on 2016 December 1 UT. We detect Gaia16cfr in 13 epochs of Hubble Space Telescope imaging spanning phases of 10 yr to 8 months before the outburst and in Spit…
WISDOM Project - III. Molecular gas measurement of the supermassive black hole mass in the barred lenticular galaxy NGC4429
van de Voort, Freeke; Sarzi, Marc; Cappellari, Michele +7 more
As part of the mm-Wave Interferometric Survey of Dark Object Masses project we present an estimate of the mass of the supermassive black hole (SMBH) in the nearby fast-rotating early-type galaxy NGC4429, that is barred and has a boxy/peanut-shaped bulge. This estimate is based on Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) cycle-2 observat…
The delay time distribution of tidal disruption flares
Stone, Nicholas C.; Vasiliev, Eugene; Metzger, Brian D. +1 more
Recent observations suggest that stellar tidal disruption events (TDEs) are strongly overrepresented in rare, post-starburst galaxies. Several dynamical mechanisms have been proposed to elevate their TDE rates, ranging from central stellar overdensities to the presence of supermassive black hole (SMBH) binaries. Another such mechanism, introduced …
Investigating the rotational phase of stellar flares on M dwarfs using K2 short cadence data
Doyle, J. G.; Ramsay, G.; Wu, K. +2 more
We present an analysis of K2 short cadence data of 34 M dwarfs which have spectral types in the range M0-L1. Of these stars, 31 showed flares with a duration between ∼10 and 90min. Using distances obtained from Gaia DR2 parallaxes, we determined the energy of the flares to be in the range ∼1.2 × 1029-6 × 1034 erg. In agreemen…