Search

We use data from the Sydney-AAO Multi-Object Integral Field Spectrograph Galaxy Survey and the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey to investigate the spatially resolved signatures of the environmental quenching of star formation in galaxies. Using dust-corrected measurements of the distribution of Ha emission, we measure the radial profiles of star formation in a sample of 201 star-forming galaxies covering three orders of magnitude in stellar mass (M*; 108.1-1010.95M⊙) and in fifth nearest neighbour local environment density (∑5; 10-1.3-102.1 Mpc-2). We show that star formation rate gradients in galaxies are steeper in dense (log10(∑5/Mpc2) > 0.5) environments by 0.58 ± 0.29 dex re-1 in galaxies with stellar masses in the range 1010 < M*/M⊙ < 1011 and that this steepening is accompanied by a reduction in the integrated star formation rate. However, for any given stellar mass or environment density, the star formation morphology of galaxies shows large scatter. We also measure the degree to which the star formation is centrally concentrated using the unitless scale-radius ratio (r50,Hα/r50,cont), which compares the extent of ongoing star formation to previous star formation. With this metric, we find that the fraction of galaxies with centrally concentrated star formation increases with environment density, from ~5 ± 4 per cent in low-density environments (log10(∑5/Mpc2) < 0.0) to 30 ± 15 per cent in the highest density environments (log10(∑5/Mpc2) > 1.0). These lines of evidence strongly suggest that with increasing local environment density, the star formation in galaxies is suppressed, and that this starts in their outskirts such that quenching occurs in an outside-in fashion in dense environments and is not instantaneous.

Recent cosmological hydrodynamical simulations suggest that integral field spectroscopy can connect the high-order stellar kinematic moments h3 (∼skewness) and h4 (∼kurtosis) in galaxies to their cosmological assembly history. Here, we assess these results by measuring the stellar kinematics on a sample of 315 galaxies, without a morphological selection, using two-dimensional integral field data from the SAMI Galaxy Survey. Proxies for the spin parameter (λRe) and ellipticity (∈e) are used to separate fast and slow rotators; there exists a good correspondence to regular and non-regular rotators, respectively, as also seen in earlier studies. We confirm that regular rotators show a strong h3 versus V/σ anti-correlation, whereas quasi-regular and non-regular rotators show a more vertical relation in h3 and V/σ. Motivated by recent cosmological simulations, we develop an alternative approach to kinematically classify galaxies from their individual h3 versus V/σ signatures. Within the SAMI Galaxy Survey, we identify five classes of high-order stellar kinematic signatures using Gaussian mixture models. Class 1 corresponds to slow rotators, whereas Classes 2-5 correspond to fast rotators. We find that galaxies with similar λRe - ∈e values can show distinctly different h3 - V/σ signatures. Class 5 objects are previously unidentified fast rotators that show a weak h3 versus V/σ anti-correlation. From simulations, these objects are predicted to be disk-less galaxies formed by gas-poor mergers. From morphological examination, however, there is evidence for large stellar disks. Instead, Class 5 objects are more likely disturbed galaxies, have counter-rotating bulges, or bars in edge-on galaxies. Finally, we interpret the strong anti-correlation in h3 versus V/σ as evidence for disks in most fast rotators, suggesting a dearth of gas-poor mergers among fast rotators.

We present a pilot analysis of the influence of galaxy stellar mass and cluster environment on the probability of slow rotation in 22 central galaxies at mean redshift z = 0.07. This includes new integral-field observations of five central galaxies selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, observed with the SPIRAL integral-field spectrograph on the Anglo-Australian Telescope. The composite sample presented here spans a wide range of stellar masses, 10.9 < log(M∗/M⊙)lt; 12.0, and are embedded in halos ranging from groups to clusters, 12.9 < log(M200 Ṁ) < 15.6. We find a mean probability of slow rotation in our sample of P(SR) = 54 ± 7%. Our results show an increasing probability of slow rotation in central galaxies with increasing stellar mass. However, when we examine the dependence of slow rotation on host cluster halo mass, we do not see a significant relationship. We also explore the influence of cluster dominance on slow rotation in central galaxies. Clusters with low dominance are associated with dynamically younger systems. We find that cluster dominance has no significant effect on the probability of slow rotation in central galaxies. These results conflict with a paradigm in which halo mass alone predetermines central galaxy properties.

We present results from the 2D anisotropic baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) signal present in the final data set from the WiggleZ Dark Energy Survey. We analyse the WiggleZ data in two ways: first using the full shape of the 2D correlation function and secondly focusing only on the position of the BAO peak in the reconstructed data set. When fitting for the full shape of the 2D correlation function we use a multipole expansion to compare with theory. When we use the reconstructed data we marginalize over the shape and just measure the position of the BAO peak, analysing the data in wedges separating the signal along the line of sight from that parallel to the line of sight. We verify our method with mock data and find the results to be free of bias or systematic offsets. We also redo the pre-reconstruction angle-averaged (1D) WiggleZ BAO analysis with an improved covariance and present an updated result. The final results are presented in the form of Ωc h2, H(z), and DA(z) for three redshift bins with effective redshifts z=0.44, 0.60, and 0.73.Within these bins and methodologies, we recover constraints between 5 and 22 per cent error. Our cosmological constraints are consistent with flat ΛCDM cosmology and agree with results from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey.

We describe the selection of galaxies targeted in eight low-redshift clusters (APMCC0917, A168, A4038, EDCC442, A3880, A2399, A119 and A85; 0.029 < z < 0.058) as part of the Sydney-AAO Multi-Object Integral field spectrograph Galaxy Survey (SAMI-GS). We have conducted a redshift survey of these clusters using the AAOmega multi-object spectrograph on the 3.9-m Anglo-Australian Telescope. The redshift survey is used to determine cluster membership and to characterize the dynamical properties of the clusters. In combination with existing data, the survey resulted in 21 257 reliable redshift measurements and 2899 confirmed cluster member galaxies. Our redshift catalogue has a high spectroscopic completeness (~94 per cent) for rpetro ≤ 19.4 and cluster-centric distances R < 2R200. We use the confirmed cluster member positions and redshifts to determine cluster velocity dispersion, R200, virial and caustic masses, as well as cluster structure. The clusters have virial masses 14.25 ≤ log(M200/M·) ≤ 15.19. The cluster sample exhibits a range of dynamical states, from relatively relaxed-appearing systems, to clusters with strong indications of merger-related substructure. Aperture- and point spread function matched photometry are derived from Sloan Digital Sky Survey and VLT Survey Telescope/ATLAS imaging and used to estimate stellar masses. These estimates, in combination with the redshifts, are used to define the input target catalogue for the cluster portion of the SAMI-GS. The primary SAMI-GS cluster targets have R

We present radio active galactic nuclei (AGN) luminosity functions over the redshift range 0.005 < z < 0.75. The sample from which the luminosity functions are constructed is an optical spectroscopic survey of radio galaxies, identified from matched Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-cm survey (FIRST) sources and Sloan Digital Sky Survey images. The radio AGN are separated into low-excitation radio galaxies (LERGs) and high-excitation radio galaxies (HERGs) using the optical spectra. We derive radio luminosity functions for LERGs and HERGs separately in the three redshift bins (0.005 < z < 0.3, 0.3 < z < 0.5 and 0.5 < z < 0.75). The radio luminosity functions can be well described by a double power law. Assuming this double power-law shape the LERG population displays little or no evolution over this redshift range evolving as ~(1 + z)0.06+0.17 -0.18 assuming pure density evolution or ~(1 + z)0.46+0.22 -0.24 assuming pure luminosity evolution. In contrast, the HERG population evolves more rapidly, best fitted by ~(1 + z)2.93+0.46 -0.47 assuming a double power-law shape and pure density evolution. If a pure luminosity model is assumed, the best-fitting HERG evolution is parametrized by ~(1 + z)7.41+0.79 -1.33 The characteristic break in the radio luminosity function occurs at a significantly higher power (~≥1 dex) for the HERG population in comparison to the LERGs. This is consistent with the two populations representing fundamentally different accretion modes.

We present the Early Data Release of the Sydney-AAOMulti-object Integral field spectrograph (SAMI) Galaxy Survey. The SAMI Galaxy Survey is an ongoing integral field spectroscopic survey of ~3400 low-redshift (z < 0.12) galaxies, covering galaxies in the field and in groups within the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey regions, and a sample of galaxies in clusters. In the Early Data Release, we publicly release the fully calibrated data cubes for a representative selection of 107 galaxies drawn from the GAMA regions, along with information about these galaxies from the GAMA catalogues. All data cubes for the Early Data Release galaxies can be downloaded individually or as a set from the SAMI Galaxy Survey website. In this paper we also assess the quality of the pipeline used to reduce the SAMI data, giving metrics that quantify its performance at all stages in processing the raw data into calibrated data cubes. The pipeline gives excellent results throughout, with typical sky subtraction residuals in the continuum of 0.9-1.2 per cent, a relative flux calibration uncertainty of 4.1 per cent (systematic) plus 4.3 per cent (statistical), and atmospheric dispersion removed with an accuracy of 0.09 arcsec, less than a fifth of a spaxel.

We present a methodology for the regularization and combination of sparse sampled and irregularly gridded observations from fibre-optic multiobject integral field spectroscopy. The approach minimizes interpolation and retains image resolution on combining subpixel dithered data. We discuss the methodology in the context of the Sydney-AAO multiobject integral field spectrograph (SAMI) Galaxy Survey underway at the Anglo-Australian Telescope. The SAMI instrument uses 13 fibre bundles to perform high-multiplex integral field spectroscopy across a 1° diameter field of view. The SAMI Galaxy Survey is targeting ~3000 galaxies drawn from the full range of galaxy environments. We demonstrate the subcritical sampling of the seeing and incomplete fill factor for the integral field bundles results in only a 10 per cent degradation in the final image resolution recovered. We also implement a new methodology for tracking covariance between elements of the resulting data cubes which retains 90 per cent of the covariance information while incurring only a modest increase in the survey data volume.