Search

The current cosmological paradigm asserts that dark matter halos provide the gravitational scaffolding for galaxy formation through a combination of hierarchical structure formation and non-linear local (g)astrophysical processes. This close relationship, known as the galaxy-halo connection, suggests that the growth and assembly of dark matter halos impact the properties of galaxies. While the stellar mass of galaxies correlates strongly with the mass of their halos, it is important to note that the galaxy-halo connection encompasses a broader distribution of galaxy and halo properties. This distribution can be constrained using data from astronomical observations and cosmological $N$-body simulations, a technique known as semi-empirical modeling. By operating at the intersection of observational data and the cosmological structure formation model, the semi-empirical modeling provides valuable insights into galaxy formation and evolution from a cosmological perspective. In this proceeding, we utilize a new sEM-emPIRical modEl, EMPIRE, to explore the star formation, SF, history of central galaxies across cosmic epochs, spanning from dwarfs to massive ellipticals. EMPIRE aims to constrain the multivariate distribution that links galaxy and halo properties. Our findings reveal distinct growth stages for progenitors of central massive galaxies. Evidence suggests that cold streams played a significant role in sustaining SF at higher $z$, while virial shock heating became more prominent at lower $z$. The maximum star formation efficiency, SFE, occurs at a factor of $\sim1.5-2$ below $M_{\rm vir \; shocks}$ for $z\lesssim1$. Furthermore, at higher redshifts, $z>1$, this peak tends towards higher masses, $M_{\rm vir}\sim 2\times 10^{12} M_{\odot}$. Notably, at redshifts higher than $z\sim2$, the peak of SFE aligns comfortably within the region characterized by cold streams., Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures. Extended contribution to the original proceeding for the XVII Latin American Regional IAU Meeting

We investigate the relation between galaxy structure and star formation rate (SFR) in a sample of $\sim2.9\times10^{4}$ central galaxies with $z<0.0674$ and axial ratios $b/a>0.5$. The star-forming main sequence (SFMS) shows a bend around the stellar mass of $M_\ast\leq{}M_c=2\times10^{10}{}M_{\odot}$. At $M_\ast\leq{}M_c$ the SFMS follows a power-law $\text{SFR}\propto{}M_\ast^{0.85}$, while at higher masses it flattens. $M_c$ corresponds to a dark matter halo mass of $M_\text{vir}\sim{}10^{11.8}M_{\odot}$ where virial shocks occurs. Some galaxy structure (e.g., half-light radius, $R_e$) exhibits a non-monotonic dependence across the SFMS at a fixed $M_\ast$. We find $\text{SFR}\propto{R_e^{-0.28}}$ at fixed $M_\ast$, consistent with the global Kennicutt-Schmidt (KS) law. This finding suggests that galaxy sizes contribute to the scatter of the SFMS. However, at $M_\ast>M_c$ the relationship between SFR and $R_e$ diminishes. Low-mass galaxies above the mean of the SFMS have smaller radii, exhibit compact and centrally concentrated profiles resembling green valley (GV) and quiescent galaxies at the same mass, and have higher $M_{\text{H}_2}/M_\text{HI}$. Conversely, those below the SFMS exhibit larger radii, lower densities, have no GV or quiescent counterparts at their mass and have lower $M_{\text{H}_2}/M_\text{HI}$. The above data suggest two pathways for quenching low-mass galaxies, $M_\ast\leq{}M_c$: a fast one that changes the morphology on the SFMS and a slow one that does not. Above $M_c$, galaxies below the SFMS resemble GV and quiescent galaxies structurally, implying that they undergo a structural transformation already within the SFMS. For these massive galaxies, CG are strongly bimodal, with SFMS galaxies exhibiting negative color gradients, suggesting most star formation occurs in their outskirts, maintaining them within the SFMS., Comment: 30 pages, 28 figures, submitted to MNRAS

We present a new cosmologically motivated mock redshift survey of the Dusty Star-Forming Galaxy population. Our mock survey is based on the Bolshoi-Planck dark-matter halo simulation and covers an area of 5.3 sq. degree. Using a semi-empirical approach, we generate a light cone and populate the dark-matter haloes with galaxies. Infrared properties are assigned to the galaxies based on theoretical and empirical relations from the literature. Additionally, background galaxies are gravitationally lensed by dark-matter haloes along the line-of-sight assuming a point-mass model approximation. We characterize the mock survey by measuring the star formation rate density, integrated number counts, redshift distribution, and infrared luminosity function. When compared with single-dish and interferometric observations, the predictions from our mock survey closely follow the compiled results from the literature. We have also directed this study towards characterizing one of the extragalactic legacy surveys to be observed with the TolTEC camera at the Large Millimeter Telescope: the 0.8 sq. degree Ultra Deep Survey, with expected depths of 0.025, 0.018 and 0.012 mJy beam$^{-1}$ at 1.1, 1.4 and 2.0 mm. Exploiting the clustering information in our mock survey, we investigate its impact on the effect of flux boosting by the fainter population of dusty galaxies, finding that clustering can increase the median boosting by 0.5 per cent at 1.1 mm, 0.8 per cent at 1.4 mm and, 2.0 per cent at 2.0 mm, and with higher dispersion., Comment: 17 pages, 12 figures

We measure the clustering of low-redshift SDSS galaxies as a function of stellar mass ($10.0<\log(M_*/M_\odot)<11.5$) and specific star formation rate (sSFR) and compare the results to models of the galaxy--halo connection. We find that the auto-correlation functions of central galaxies exhibit little dependence on sSFR, with the well-known stronger clustering of quiescent galaxies mainly attributable to satellites. Because halo assembly history is known to affect distinct halo clustering, this result implies that there is little net correlation between halo assembly history and central galaxy sSFR. However, cross-correlations with satellites are stronger for quiescent centrals than star-forming centrals, consistent with quiescent centrals having more satellites in their haloes at fixed $M_*$, as found in SDSS group catalogues. We model the galaxy--halo connection in an $N$-body simulation by assigning sSFRs to central galaxies in three different ways. Two of the models depend on halo assembly history (being based on halo accretion rate or concentration), while the third is independent of halo assembly history (being based on peak halo circular velocity, $V_\text{peak}$, a proxy for halo mass). All three models replicate the observed auto-correlations of central galaxies, while only the $V_\text{peak}$ model reproduces the observed cross-correlations with satellites. This further suggests that the effects of halo assembly history may not be easily seen in auto-correlations of centrals and implies that a more complete understanding of central galaxy clustering may require more than auto-correlations of centrals alone. Additionally, the good agreement with the $V_\text{peak}$ model supports the idea that quiescent galaxies reside in more massive haloes than star-forming galaxies at fixed $M_*$., Comment: MNRAS accepted, 26 pages

Using spatially-resolved fossil record analysis on a large sample of 'red and dead' elliptical galaxies (classical ellipticals, CLEs) from the MaNGA/SDSS-IV DR15 survey, we reconstruct the archaeological evolution of their radial gradients in mass-to-luminosity ratio ($M/L$), $g-r$ color, and specific star formation (SF) rate. We also calculate other metrics that quantify the inside-out SF quenching and external mass growth processes. The $M/L$ gradients, $\nabla\Upsilon_{\star}$, are approximately flat at high look-back times ($t_{\rm lb}$), but then they become negative and steeper until an epoch, when this trend reverses. These trends are shifted to later epochs the less massive the galaxies are. Color gradients follow qualitatively similar trends. We find that these trends are mainly driven by strong inside-out quenching, without significant outer growth or structural changes overall. Our results suggest a scenario where the main progenitors of local CLE galaxies evolved quasi-passively after an early dissipative phase, but underwent radial photometric changes due to the inside-out quenching that led to the systematic decrease of $\nabla\Upsilon_{\star}$ and to an increase of the light-weighted radius. The late reversing of $\nabla\Upsilon_{\star}$, $t_{\rm lb}\approx2-4$ Gyr, roughly coincides with the global quenching of the CLE galaxies. We have pushed archaeological inferences to the limit, but thanks to the large number of objects and an understanding of how the caveats and assumptions affect our results, we conclude that they offer an average description of evolutionary behaviors of CLE progenitors that is valid at least qualitatively., Comment: 17 pages, 14 figures. Submitted to MNRAS, after Referee Report

We investigate the formation of brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) in the TNG300 cosmological simulation of the IllustrisTNG project. Our cluster sample consists of 700 haloes with $M_{200} \geq 5 \times 10^{13} \, \mathrm{M}_{\odot}$ at $z=0$, along with their progenitors at earlier epochs. This includes 280 systems with $M_{200} \geq 10^{14} \, \mathrm{M}_{\odot}$ at $z=0$, as well as three haloes with $M_{200} \geq 10^{15} \, \mathrm{M}_{\odot}$. We find that the stellar masses and star formation rates of our simulated BCGs are in good agreement with observations at $z \lesssim 0.4$, and that they have experienced, on average, $\sim$2 ($\sim$3) major mergers since $z=1$ ($z=2$). Separating the BCG from the intracluster light (ICL) by means of a fixed 30 kpc aperture, we find that the fraction of stellar mass contributed by ex situ (i.e. accreted) stars at $z=0$ is approximately 70, 80, and 90 per cent for the BCG, BCG+ICL, and ICL, respectively. Tracking our simulated BCGs back in time using the merger trees, we find that they became dominated by ex situ stars at $z \sim $1-2, and that half of the stars that are part of the BCG at $z=0$ formed early ($z \sim 3$) in other galaxies, but `assembled' onto the BCG until later times ($z \approx 0.8$ for the whole sample, $z \approx 0.5$ for BCGs in $M_{200} \geq 5 \times 10^{14} \, \mathrm{M}_{\odot}$ haloes). Finally, we show that the stellar mass profiles of BCGs are often dominated by ex situ stars at all radii, with stars from major mergers being found closer to the centre, while stars that were tidally stripped from other galaxies dominate the outer regions., Comment: 19 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

We present the MaNGA Dwarf galaxy, MaNDala, Value-Added-Catalog, VAC, from the final release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-IV program. MaNDala consists of 136 randomly selected bright dwarf galaxies with $M_{*}<10^{9.1}\odot$ and $M_{g}>-18.5$ making it the largest Integral Field Spectroscopy homogeneous sample of dwarf galaxies. We release a photometric analysis of the $g,r$ and $z$ broadband imaging based on the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys as well as the spectroscopic analysis based on the Pipe3D SDSS-IV VAC. Our release includes the surface brightness (SB), geometric parameters and color profiles, S\'ersic fits as well as stellar population properties (such as, stellar ages, metallicities, star formation histories), and emission lines fluxes within the FOV and the effective radii of the galaxies. We find that the majority of the MaNDala galaxies are star forming late-type galaxies with $\langle{}n_{\text{Sersic,r}}\rangle\sim1.6$ that are centrals (central/satellite dichotomy). MaNDala covers a large range of SB values (we find 11 candidates of ultra diffuse galaxies and 3 compact ones), filling the gap between classical dwarfs and low-mass galaxies in the Kormendy Diagram and in the size-mass/luminosity relation, whichseems to flatten at $10^82$, while the last $20\%$ was at $\langle{}z\rangle<0.3$. Finally, a bending of the sSFR-$M_{*}$ relation at $M_{*}\sim10^{9}\odot$ for the main sequence galaxies seems to be supported by MaNDala., Comment: 29 pages, 17 figures. Accepted to appear in The Astronomical Journal

We present here the analysis performed using the pyPipe3D pipeline for the final MaNGA dataset included in the SDSS seventeenth data-release. This dataset comprises more than 10,000 individual datacubes, being the integral field spectroscopy galaxy survey with the largest number of galaxies. pyPipe3D processes the IFS datacubes to extract spatially-resolved spectroscopic properties of both the stellar population and the ionized-gas emission lines. A brief summary of the properties of the sample and the characteristics of the analyzed data are included. The article provides details on (i) the performed analysis, (ii) a description of the pipeline, (iii) the adopted stellar population library, (iv) the morphological and photometric analysis, (v) the adopted datamodel for the derived spatially resolved properties and (vi) the individual integrated and characteristic galaxy properties included in a final catalog. Comparisons with results from a previous version of the pipeline for earlier data releases and from other tools using this dataset are included. A practical example on how to use of the full dataset, and final catalog illustrates how to handle the delivered product. Our full analysis can be accessed and downloaded from the webpage http://ifs.astroscu.unam.mx/MaNGA/Pipe3D_v3_1_1/., Comment: 66 pages, 29 figures, 18 Tables, submitted to ApJS

We present a detailed visual morphological classification for the 4614 MaNGA galaxies in SDSS Data Release 15, using image mosaics generated from a combination of r-band (SDSS and deeper DESI Legacy Surveys) images and their digital post-processing. We distinguish 13 Hubble types and identify the presence of bars and bright tidal debris. After correcting the MaNGA sample for volume completeness, we calculate the morphological fractions, the bi-variate distribution of type and stellar mass M*-where we recognise a morphological transition "valley" around S0a-Sa types- and the variations of the g-i colour and luminosity-weighted age over this distribution. We identified bars in 46.8% of galaxies, present in all Hubble types later than S0. This fraction amounts to a factor ~2 larger when compared with other works for samples in common. We detected 14% of galaxies with tidal features, with the fraction changing with M* and morphology. For 355 galaxies, the classification was uncertain; they are visually faint, mostly of low/intermediate masses, low concentrations, and disky in nature. Our morphological classification agrees well with other works for samples in common, though some particular differences emerge, showing that our image procedures allow us to identify a wealth of added value information as compared to SDSS-based previous estimates. Based on our classification, we also propose an alternative criteria for the E-S0 separation, in the structural semi-major to semi-minor axis versus bulge to total light ratio (b/a-B/T) and concentration versus semi-major to semi-minor axis (C-b/a) space., Comment: 23 pages, 20 figures, 4 tables, accepted for publication in MNRAS

The stochastic order redshift technique (SORT) is a simple, efficient, and robust method to improve cosmological redshift measurements. The method relies upon having a small ($\sim$10 per cent) reference sample of high-quality redshifts. Within pencil-beam-like sub-volumes surrounding each galaxy, we use the precise dN/d$z$ distribution of the reference sample to recover new redshifts and assign them one-to-one to galaxies such that the original rank order of redshifts is preserved. Preserving the rank order is motivated by the fact that random variables drawn from Gaussian probability density functions with different means but equal standard deviations satisfy stochastic ordering. The process is repeated for sub-volumes surrounding each galaxy in the survey. This results in every galaxy with an uncertain redshift being assigned multiple "recovered" redshifts from which a new redshift estimate can be determined. An earlier paper applied SORT to a mock Sloan Digital Sky Survey at $z \lesssim$ 0.2 and accurately recovered the two-point correlation function on scales $\gtrsim$4 $h^{-1}$Mpc. In this paper, we test the performance of SORT in surveys spanning the redshift range 0.75$

We apply stellar population synthesis analysis to obtain spatially-resolved archaeological inferences for a large sample of "red and dead" Elliptical galaxies (Classical Ellipticals; CLEs) from the MaNGA/SDSS-IV DR15 survey. From their 2D stellar light and mass maps, we explore the differences between the radial mass and light distributions in the rest-frame bands $g,$ $r,$ and $i$ as functions of look-back time, $t_{\rm lb}$, or redshift, $z$. We characterize these differences through the ratios between the following mass- and light-derived global properties: sizes, concentrations, and effective surface densities. We find that the mass-to-light ratios of these properties change with $t_{\rm lb}$, more the more massive the galaxies are. The CLE galaxy archaeological progenitors are, on average, less compact, concentrated, and dense in light than in mass as $z$ decreases. However, at later times, when also the evolution of the progenitors becomes passive at all radii, there is an upturn in these trends and the differences between mass and light in compactness/concentration decrease towards $z\sim 0$. The trends in the ratios of mass to light sizes agree qualitatively with results from direct observations in galaxy surveys at different redshifts. We discuss the caveats and interpretations of our results, and speculate that the strong structural evolution found in some previous studies for early-type galaxies could be explained partially by photometric changes rather than by intrinsic structural changes., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 19 pages, 11 figures

This paper documents the seventeenth data release (DR17) from the Sloan Digital Sky Surveys; the fifth and final release from the fourth phase (SDSS-IV). DR17 contains the complete release of the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) survey, which reached its goal of surveying over 10,000 nearby galaxies. The complete release of the MaNGA Stellar Library (MaStar) accompanies this data, providing observations of almost 30,000 stars through the MaNGA instrument during bright time. DR17 also contains the complete release of the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment 2 (APOGEE-2) survey which publicly releases infra-red spectra of over 650,000 stars. The main sample from the Extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS), as well as the sub-survey Time Domain Spectroscopic Survey (TDSS) data were fully released in DR16. New single-fiber optical spectroscopy released in DR17 is from the SPectroscipic IDentification of ERosita Survey (SPIDERS) sub-survey and the eBOSS-RM program. Along with the primary data sets, DR17 includes 25 new or updated Value Added Catalogs (VACs). This paper concludes the release of SDSS-IV survey data. SDSS continues into its fifth phase with observations already underway for the Milky Way Mapper (MWM), Local Volume Mapper (LVM) and Black Hole Mapper (BHM) surveys., Comment: 40 pages, 8 figures, 6 tables. In press at ApJSS (arxiv v2 corrects some minor typos and updates references)