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van Dokkum et al. (2023) reported the serendipitous discovery of a thin linear object interpreted as the trail of star-forming regions left behind by a runaway supermassive black hole (SMBH) kicked out from the center of a galaxy. Despite the undeniable interest in the idea, the actual physical interpretation is not devoid of difficulty. The wake of a SMBH produces only small perturbations on the external medium, which has to be in exceptional physical conditions to collapse gravitationally and form a long (40 kpc) massive (3e9 Msun) stellar trace in only 39 Myr. Here we offer a more conventional explanation: the stellar trail is a bulgeless galaxy viewed edge-on. This interpretation is supported by the fact that its position--velocity curve resembles a rotation curve which, together with its stellar mass, puts the object right on top of the Tully-Fisher relation characteristic of disk galaxies. Moreover, the rotation curve (Vmax sim 110 km/s), stellar mass, extension, width (z0 sim 1.2 kpc), and surface brightness profile of the object are very much like those of IC5249, a well-known local bulgeless edge-on galaxy. These observational facts are difficult to interpret within the SMBH wake scenario. We discuss in detail the pros and cons of the two options., Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A Letters

It is generally recognized that massive galaxies form through a combination of in-situ collapse and ex-situ accretion. The in-situ component forms early, where gas collapse and compaction leads to the formation of massive compact systems (blue and red "nuggets") seen at $z>1$. The subsequent accretion of satellites brings in ex-situ material, growing these nuggets in size and mass to appear as the massive early-type galaxies (ETGs) we see locally. Due to stochasticity in the accretion process, in a few rare cases a red nugget will evolve to the present day having undergone little ex-situ mass accretion. The resulting massive, compact and ancient objects have been termed "relic galaxies". Detailed stellar population and kinematic analyses are required to characterise these systems. However, an additional crucial aspect lies in determining the fraction of ex-situ mass they have accreted since their formation. Globular cluster systems can be used to constrain this fraction, since the oldest and most metal-poor globular clusters in massive galaxies are primarily an accreted, ex-situ population. Models for the formation of relic galaxies and their globular cluster systems suggest that, due to their early compaction and limited accretion of dark-matter dominated satellites, relic galaxies should have characteristically low dark-matter mass fractions compared to ETGs of the same stellar mass., Proceedings of the IAU Symposium No. 359: Galaxy evolution and feedback across different environments. Editors: T. Storchi-Bergmann, R. Overzier, W. Forman \& R. Riffel

We present an analysis of Hubble Space Telescope observations of globular clusters (GCs) in six ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs) in the Coma cluster, a sample that represents UDGs with large effective radii ($R_{\rm e}$), and use the results to evaluate competing formation models. We eliminate two significant sources of systematic uncertainty in the determination of the number of GCs, $N_{\rm GC}$ by using sufficiently deep observations that (i) reach the turnover of the GC luminosity function and (ii) provide a sufficient number of GCs with which to measure the GC number radial distribution. We find that $N_{\rm GC}$ for these galaxies is on average $\sim$20, which implies an average total mass, $M_{\rm total}$, $\sim$ $10^{11}$ $M_{\odot}$ when applying the relation between $N_{\rm GC}$ and $M_{\rm total}$. This value of $N_{\rm GC}$ lies at the upper end of the range observed for dwarf galaxies of the same stellar mass and is roughly a factor of two larger than the mean. The GC luminosity function, radial profile and average colour are more consistent with those observed for dwarf galaxies than with those observed for the more massive ($L^*$) galaxies, while both the radial and azimuthal GC distributions closely follow those of the stars in the host galaxy. Finally, we discuss why our observations, specifically the GC number and GC distribution around these six UDGs, pose challenges for several of the currently favoured UDG formation models., Accepted for publication in MNRAS

The outskirts of galaxies have been studied from multiple perspectives for the past few decades. However, it is still unknown if all galaxies have clear-cut edges like everyday objects. We address this question by developing physically motivated criteria to define the edges of galaxies. Based on the gas density threshold required for star formation, we define the edge of a galaxy as the outermost radial location associated with a significant drop in either past or ongoing in-situ star formation. We explore $\sim$1000 low-inclination galaxies with a wide range in morphology (dwarfs to ellipticals) and stellar mass ($10^7 M_{\odot} < M_{\star} < 10^{12}M_{\odot}$). The location of the edges of these galaxies ($R_{\rm edge}$) are visually identified as the outermost cut-off or truncation in their radial profiles using deep multi-band optical imaging from the IAC Stripe82 Legacy Project. We find this characteristic feature at the following mean stellar mass density which varies with galaxy morphology: $2.9\pm0.10\,M_{\odot}$/pc$^2$ for ellipticals, $1.1\pm0.04\,M_{\odot}/$pc$^2$ for spirals and $0.6\pm0.03\,M_{\odot}/$pc$^2$ for present-day star forming dwarfs. Additionally, we find that $R_{\rm edge}$ depends on its age (colour) where bluer galaxies have larger $R_{\rm edge}$ at a fixed stellar mass. The resulting stellar mass--size plane using $R_{\rm edge}$ as a physically motivated galaxy size measure has a very narrow intrinsic scatter ($\lesssim 0.06$ dex). These results highlight the importance of new deep imaging surveys to explore the growth of galaxies and trace the limits of star formation in their outskirts., 22 pages (including appendix), 11 Figures, accepted for publication in A&A. Definition and concept explained in Section 2. Criteria to identify edges for each morphological type is detailed in Section 5. Key results in Figs. 5-8

Still largely unexplored, the diffuse light in cluster of galaxies traces the past and on-going buildup of these massive structures. Here, we present the first comprehensive study of the intracluster light (ICL) of the cluster SMACS-J0723.3-7327 (z=0.39) using the JWST Early Release Observations. These deep and high spatial resolution images allow the study of the ICL with high signal-to-noise ratio up to a radial distance of $\sim400$ kpc, twice as far with respect to previous HST studies of intermediate redshift clusters. This opens up the possibility of exploring the rich mixture of processes that are building the ICL. We find that the inner parts (R$$ 100 kpc) are mainly produced by the tidal stripping of Milky Way-like satellites. We also found that the slope of the stellar mass density radial profile of the ICL of this cluster ($\alpha_{3D} = -2.47\pm0.13$) follows closely the predicted dark matter halo slope ($\alpha_{3D\mathrm{,DM}} = -2.6$ to $-2$), supporting the idea that both components have a similar shape and thus the potential of using the ICL as a tracer of the dark matter distribution in clusters of galaxies. Future JWST studies of the ICL are set to revolutionise our understanding of cluster formation and will be crucial to improve the gravitational lensing mass maps of these structures and thus to accurately characterise the properties of the first galaxies., Comment: Submitted to ApJL. Fig 6 shows the improvement of our data reprocessing. Key results are in Fig. 1 and 3

[KKS2000]04 (NGC1052-DF2) has become a controversial and well-studied galaxy after the claims suggesting a lack of dark matter and the presence of an anomalously bright globular cluster (GC) system around it. A precise determination of its overall star formation history (SFH) as well as a better characterisation of its GC or planetary nebulae (PN) systems are crucial aspects to: i) understand its real nature, in particular placing it within the family of ultra diffuse galaxies; ii) shed light on its possible formation, evolution, and survival in the absence of dark matter. With this purpose we expand on the knowledge of [KKS2000]04 from the analysis of OSIRIS@GTC spectroscopic data. On the one hand, we claim the possible detection of two new PNe and confirm membership of 5 GCs. On the other hand, we find that the stars shaping [KKS2000]04 are intermediate-age to old (90\% of its stellar mass older than 5 Gyr, average age of 8.7 $\pm$ 0.7 Gyr) and metal-poor ([M/H] $\sim$ -1.18 $\pm$ 0.05), in general agreement with previous results. We do not find any clear hints of significant changes in its stellar content with radius. In addition, the possibility of [KKS2000]04 being a tidal dwarf galaxy with no dark matter is highly disfavoured., 10 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

Using ultra-deep imaging ($\mu_g = 30.4$ mag/arcsec$^2$; 3$\sigma$, 10"x10"), we probed the surroundings of the first galaxy "lacking" dark matter KKS2000[04] (NGC 1052-DF2). Signs of tidal stripping in this galaxy would explain its claimed low content of dark matter. However, we find no evidence of tidal tails. In fact, the galaxy remains undisturbed down to a radial distance of 80 arcsec. This radial distance triples previous spatial explorations of the stellar distribution of this galaxy. In addition, the distribution of its globular clusters (GCs) is not extended in relation to the bulk of the galaxy (the radius containing half of the GCs is 21 arcsec). We also found that the surface brightness radial profiles of this galaxy in the g and r bands decline exponentially from 35 to 80 arcsec. That, together with a constant ellipticity and position angle in the outer parts of the galaxy strongly suggests the presence of a low-inclination disk. This is consistent with the evidence of rotation found for this object. This finding implies that the dynamical mass of this galaxy is a factor of 2 higher than previously reported, bringing the dark matter content of this galaxy in line with galaxies of similar stellar mass., Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. The 1D profile of DF2, in Fig. 4 and 5, shows an exponential decline at r> 35 arcsec (disk). Fig. 7 shows no signatures of tidal features in the outer parts of the galaxy

Self-gravitating astronomical objects often show a central plateau in the density profile (core) whose physical origin is hotly debated. Cores are theoretically expected in N-body systems of maximum entropy, however, they are not present in the canonical N-body numerical simulations of cold dark matter (CDM). Our work shows that despite this apparent contradiction between theory and numerical simulations, they are fully consistent. Simply put, cores are characteristic of systems in thermodynamic equilibrium, but thermalizing collisions are purposely suppressed in CDM simulations. When collisions are allowed, N-body numerical simulations develop cored density profiles, in perfect agreement with the theoretical expectation. We compare theory and two types of numerical simulations: (1) when DM particles are self-interacting (SIDM) with enough cross-section, then the effective two-body relaxation timescale becomes shorter than the Hubble time resulting in cored DM haloes. The haloes thus obtained, with masses from dwarf galaxies to galaxy clusters, collapse to a single shape after normalization, and this shape agrees with the polytropic density profile theoretically expected. (2) The inner radii in canonical N-body numerical simulations are always discarded because the use of finite-mass DM particles artificially increases the two-body collision rate. We show that the discarded radii develop cores that are larger than the employed numerical softening and have polytropic shapes independently of halo mass. Our work suggests that the presence of cores in simulated (or observed) density profiles can used as evidence for systems in thermodynamic equilibrium., Comment: Accepted for publications in MNRAS. 6 figures, 9 pages. Paper that complements arXiv:2009.08994

The ubiquitous presence of Galactic cirri in deep optical images represents a major obstacle to study the low surface brightness features of extragalactic sources. To address this issue, we have explored the optical properties of cirri using g, r, i, and z bands in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Stripe82 region. Using state-of-the-art, custom made, image processing techniques, including the modeling and removal of the instrumental scattered light produced by the stars, we managed to isolate the optical diffuse emission by the cirri, allowing their photometric characterization. We find that their optical colors are driven by the dust column density: The cirri become redder as their 100 μm emission increases. Remarkably, the optical colors of the Galactic cirri differ significantly from those of extragalactic sources, with a characteristic bluer r-i color for a given g-r, allowing one to detect these by using a simple color relation. Our results show the high potential of deep multi-band optical photometry, on its own, identifying the presence of cirri at a higher spatial resolution than those provided by far-infrared observations. The combination of very deep data and multi-band photometry (as the one produced by LSST and Euclid) would make it possible to build dust maps of unprecedented quality. © 2020 ESO., The authors of this paper also acknowledge support from grant AYA2016-77 237-C3-1-P from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) and from IAC project P/300624, financed by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, through the State Budget and by the Canary Islands Department of Economy, Knowledge and Employment, through the Regional Budget of the Autonomous Community. We acknowledge support from the Fundación BBVA under its 2017 program of assistance to scientific research groups, for the project “Using machine-learning techniques to drag galaxies from the noise in deep imaging”. JR acknowledge financial support from the grants AYA2015-65973-C3-1-R and RTI2018-096228-B-C31 (MINECO/FEDER, UE), as well as from the State Agency for Research of the Spanish MCIU through the “Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa” award to the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (SEV-2017-0709). I.T. acknowledges financial support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 721463 to the SUNDIAL ITN network. We thank Timothy Brandt for sharing the spectrum of the diffuse galactic light with us. We thank Adolf Witt for interesting suggestions about our work. We thank Jorge Sánchez Almeida and David Valls-Gabaud for interesting discussions about the results. We thank Aaron Watkins for complementary analysis about the galactic dust colors and Juergen Fliri for his excellent work on the construction of the IAC Stripe82 Legacy Survey. We thank Lee Kelvin for sharing his code to compute beautiful color composed images. JR thanks Anastasia Khamatullina for interesting discussions. We thank the participants of the workshop “Exploring the Ultra-Low Surface Brightness Universe” hosted in the ISSI headquarters, Bern, Switzerland on January 2017, in which preliminary result were shown. We also thank the participants of the meeting “The low surface brightness Universe as seen by LSST” hosted in Sesto, Italy on January 2020 for interesting discussions

The existence of long-lived galaxies lacking dark matter represents a challenge to our understanding of how galaxies form. Here, we present evidence that explains the lack of dark matter in one such galaxy: NGC 1052-DF4. Deep optical imaging of the system has detected tidal tails in this object caused by its interaction with its neighboring galaxy NGC 1035. As stars are more centrally concentrated than dark matter, tidal stripping will remove a significant percentage of dark matter before affecting the stars of the galaxy. Only similar to 7% of the stellar mass of the galaxy is in the tidal tails, suggesting that the stars of NGC 1052-DF4 are only now starting to be affected by the interaction, while the percentage of remaining dark matter is.1%. This naturally explains the low content of dark matter inferred for this galaxy and reconciles these types of galaxies with our current models of galaxy formation. © 2020. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved., We acknowledge support from grant PID2019107427GB-C32 from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. We acknowledge financial support from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 721463 to the SUNDIAL ITN network and the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER), from IAC project P/300624, financed by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, through the State Budget and by the Canary Islands Department of Economy, Knowledge and Employment, through the Regional Budget of the Autonomous Community, and from the Fundacion BBVA under its 2017 program of assistance to scientific research groups, for the project "Using machine-learning techniques to drag galaxies from the noise in deep imaging." J.R. acknowledge financial support from grants AYA2015-65973-C3-1-R and RTI2018-096228-B-C31 (MINECO/FEDER, UE), as well as from the State Agency for Research of the Spanish MCIU through the "Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa" award to the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia (SEV-2017-0709). A.B. was supported by an appointment to the NASA Postdoctoral Program at the NASA Ames Research Center, administered by Universities Space Research Association under contract with NASA. Based on observations made with the GTC telescope, in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, under Director's Discretionary Time. Facilities: HST(ACS), GTC, IAC80.

Now almost 70 years since its introduction, the effective or half-light radius has become a very popular choice for characterising galaxy size. However, the effective radius measures the concentration of light within galaxies and thus does not capture the intuitive definition of size which is related to the edge or boundary of objects. For this reason, we aim to demonstrate the undesirable consequence of using the effective radius to draw conclusions about the nature of faint 'ultra-diffuse galaxies' (UDGs) when compared to dwarfs and Milky Way-like galaxies. Instead of the effective radius, we use a measure of galaxy size based on the location of the gas density threshold required for star formation. Compared to the effective radius, this physically motivated definition places the sizes much closer to the boundary of a galaxy. Therefore, considering the sizes and stellar mass density profiles of UDGs and regular dwarfs, we find that the UDGs have sizes that are within the size range of dwarfs. We also show that currently known UDGs do not have sizes comparable to Milky Way-like objects. We find that, on average, UDGs are ten times smaller in extension than Milky Way-like galaxies. These results show that the use of size estimators sensitive to the concentration of light can lead to misleading results., 9 pages, 7 figures, published in A&A Letters. Key result of the paper is shown in Figure 5. For a discussion on the physically motivated size definition used, see Trujillo et al. (2020)

Present-day multi-wavelength deep imaging surveys allow to characterise the outskirts of galaxies with unprecedented precision. Taking advantage of this situation, we define a new physically motivated measurement of size for galaxies based on the expected location of the gas density threshold for star formation. Employing both theoretical and observational arguments, we use the stellar mass density contour at 1 $M_{\rm \odot}$ pc$^{-2}$ as a proxy for this density threshold for star formation. This choice makes our size definition operative. With this new size measure, the intrinsic scatter of the global stellar mass ($M_{\rm \star}$) - size relation (explored over five orders of magnitude in stellar mass) decreases to $\sim$0.06 dex. This value is 2.5 times smaller than the scatter measured using the effective radius ($\sim$0.15 dex) and between 1.5 and 1.8 times smaller than those using other traditional size indicators such as $R_{\rm 23.5,i}$ ($\sim$0.09 dex), the Holmberg radius $R_{\rm H}$ ($\sim$0.09 dex) and the half-mass radius $R_{\rm e,M_{\star}}$ ($\sim$0.11 dex). Moreover, galaxies with 10$^7$ $M_{\rm \odot} $10$^{11}$ $M_{\rm \odot}$ show a different slope with stellar mass, which is suggestive of a larger gas density threshold for star formation at the epoch when their star formation peaks., Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures, MNRAS, in press. Key results of the paper are shown in Figures 2, 3 and 4. Chamba et al. (2020) applies this new size definition to ultra-diffuse galaxies showing that they have sizes of dwarf galaxies

There is a growing consensus that the vast majority of ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs) are dwarf galaxies. However, there remain a few UDGs that seem to be special in terms of their globular cluster (GC) systems. In particular, according to some authors, certain UDGs exhibit large GC populations when compared to expectations from their stellar (or total) mass. Among these special UDGs, DF44 in the Coma cluster is one of the better-known examples. DF44 has been claimed to have a relatively high number of GCs, $N_{GC}=74^{+18}_{-18}$, for a stellar mass of only $3\times 10^8$ $M_{ \odot }$ which would indicate a much larger dark halo mass than dwarfs of similar stellar mass. In this paper we revisit this number and, contrary to previous results, find $N_{GC}=21^{+7}_{-9}$ assuming that the distribution of the GCs follows the same geometry as the galaxy. If we assume that the GCs around DF44 are distributed in a (projected) circularly symmetric way and, if we use a less strict criterion for the selection of the GCs, we find $N_{GC}=18^{+23}_{-12}$. Making use of the $M_{\rm GC} - M_{\rm halo}$ relation, this number of GCs suggests a dark matter halo mass of $M_{halo}=1.1^{+0.4}_{-0.5} \times 10^{11} M_{\odot}$, a value which is consistent with the expected total mass for DF44 based on its velocity dispersion, $\sigma=33^{+3}_{-3}$ km s$^{-1}$. We conclude that the number of GCs around DF44 is as expected for regular dwarf galaxies of similar stellar mass and DF44 is not extraordinary in this respect., Comment: 16 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS, minor changes on the text to match the accepted version

A robust and extended characterization of the point spread function (PSF) is crucial to extract the photometric information produced by deep imaging surveys. Here, we present the extended PSFs of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), one of the most productive astronomical surveys of all time. By stacking similar to 1000 images of individual stars with different brightness, we obtain the bidimensional SDSS PSFs extending over 8 arcmin in radius for all the SDSS filters (u, g, r, i, z). This new characterization of the SDSS PSFs is near a factor of 10 larger in extension than previous PSFs characterizations of the same survey. We found asymmetries in the shape of the PSFs caused by the drift scanning observing mode. The flux of the PSFs is larger along the drift scanning direction. Finally, we illustrate with an example how the PSF models can be used to remove the scattered light field produced by the brightest stars in the central region of the Coma cluster field. This particular example shows the huge importance of PSFs in the study of the low-surface brightness Universe, especially with the upcoming of ultradeep surveys, such as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). Following a reproducible science philosophy, we make all the PSF models and the scripts used to do the analysis of this paper publicly available (snapshot v0.4-0-gd966ad0). ©2019 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society, We thank the referee for a constructive report that helped to improve the presentation of the manuscript. This research has been supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) under grants AYA2016-77237-C3-1-P and AYA2016-76219-P. We also acknowledge support from the Fundacion BBVA under its 2017 programme of assistance to scientific research groups, for the project 'Using machine-learning techniques to drag galaxies from the noise in deep imaging'. This work was partly done using the reproducible template project (Akhlaghi et al. in preparation). The reproducible template was also supported by European Union's Horizon 2020 (H2020) research and innovation programme via the RDA EU 4.0 project (ref. GA no. 777388). We thank Mohammad Akhlaghi for all his time spent in explaining how to make the core part of this project reproducible. We thank Roelof de Jong for kindly providing us the PSF profiles obtained in his work. We thank Alejandro Borlaff, Nushkia Chamba, and Simon Diaz-Garcia for their comments. This work was partly done using GNU Astronomy Utilities (Gnuastro, ascl.net/1801.009) version 0.10. Work on Gnuastro has been funded by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) scholarship and its Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (21244012, 24253003), the European Research Council (ERC) advanced grant 339659-MUSICOS, European Unions Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 721463 to the SUNDIAL ITN. Funding for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, and the Participating Institutions. SDSS-IV acknowledges support and resources from the Center for High-Performance Computing at the University of Utah. The SDSS web site is www.sdss.org.SDSS-IV is managed by the Astrophysical Research Consortium for the Participating Institutions of the SDSS Collaboration including the Brazilian Participation Group, the Carnegie Institution for Science, Carnegie Mellon University, the Chilean Participation Group, the French Participation Group, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, The Johns Hopkins University, Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (IPMU) / University of Tokyo, the Korean Participation Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Leibniz Institut fur Astrophysik Potsdam (AIP), Max-Planck-Institut fur Astronomie (MPIA Heidelberg), Max-Planck-Institut fur Astrophysik (MPA Garching), Max-Planck-Institut fur Extraterrestrische Physik (MPE), National Astronomical Observatories of China, New Mexico State University, New York University, University of Notre Dame, Observatario Nacional/MCTI, The Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, United Kingdom Participation Group, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, University of Arizona, University of Colorado Boulder, University of Oxford, University of Portsmouth, University of Utah, University of Virginia, University of Washington, University of Wisconsin, Vanderbilt University, and Yale University.

We present results from an ongoing investigation using the Kilo Degree Survey (KiDS) on the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) to provide a census of ultra-compact massive galaxies (UCMGs), defined as galaxies with stellar masses $M_{\rm \star} > 8 \times 10^{10} \rm M_{\odot}$ and effective radii $R_{\rm e} < 1.5\,\rm kpc$. UCMGs, which are expected to have undergone very few merger events, provide a unique view on the accretion history of the most massive galaxies in the Universe. Over an effective sky area of nearly 330 square degrees, we select UCMG candidates from KiDS multi-colour images, which provide high quality structural parameters, photometric redshifts and stellar masses. Our sample of $\sim 1000$ photometrically selected UCMGs at $z < 0.5$ represents the largest sample of UCMG candidates assembled to date over the largest sky area. In this paper we present the first effort to obtain their redshifts using different facilities, starting with first results for 28 candidates with redshifts $z < 0.5$, obtained at NTT and TNG telescopes. We confirmed, as bona fide UCMGs, 19 out of the 28 candidates with new redshifts. A further 46 UCMG candidates are confirmed with literature spectroscopic redshifts (35 at $z < 0.5$), bringing the final cumulative sample of spectroscopically-confirmed lower-z UCMGs to 54 galaxies, which is the largest sample at redshifts below $0.5$. We use these spectroscopic redshifts to quantify systematic errors in our photometric selection, and use these to correct our UCMG number counts. We finally compare the results to independent datasets and simulations., Accepted for publication on MNRAS, 27 pages, 13 figures, 7 tables. This revised and improved version presents different updates. In particular, systematics and uncertainties in the measurement of the effective radii are now better discussed, and new plots are added

Understanding the peculiar properties of Ultra Diffuse Galaxies (UDGs) via spectroscopic analysis is a challenging task that is now becoming feasible. The advent of 10m-class telescopes and high sensitivity instruments is enabling the gathering of high quality spectra even for the faintest systems. In addition, advances in the modelling of stellar populations, stellar libraries, and full-spectral fitting codes are allowing the recovery of the stellar content shaping those spectra with unprecedented reliability. In this contribution we report on the extensive tests we have carried out using the inversion code STECKMAP. The similarities between the Star Formation Histories (SFH) recovered from STECKMAP (applied to high-quality spectra) and deep Colour-Magnitude diagrams fitting (resolved stars) in two Local Group dwarf galaxies (LMC and LeoA) are remarkable, demonstrating the impressive performance of STECKMAP. We exploit the capabilities of STECKMAP and perform one of the most complete and reliable characterisations of the stellar component of UDGs to date using deep spectroscopic data. We measure radial and rotation velocities, SFHs and mean population parameters, such as ages and metallicities, for a sample of five UDG candidates in the Coma cluster. From the radial velocities, we confirm the Coma membership of these galaxies. We find that their rotation properties, if detected at all, are compatible with dwarf-like galaxies. The SFHs of the UDG are dominated by old (∼ 7 Gyr), metal-poor ([M/H] ∼ -1.1) and alpha-enhanced ([Mg/Fe]∼ 0.4) populations followed by a smooth or episodic decline which halted ∼ 2 Gyr ago, possibly a sign of cluster-induced quenching. We find no obvious correlation between individual SFH shapes and any UDG morphological properties. The recovered stellar properties for UDGs are similar to those found for DDO 44, a local UDG analogue resolved into stars. We conclude that the UDGs in our sample are extended dwarfs whose properties are likely the outcome of both internal processes, such as bursty SFHs and/or high-spin haloes, as well as environmental effects within the Coma cluster.

Polytropes have gained renewed interest because they account for several seemingly-disconnected observational properties of galaxies. Here we study if polytropes are also able to explain the stellar mass distribution within galaxies. We develop a code to fit surface density profiles using polytropes projected in the plane of the sky (propols). Sersic profiles are known to be good proxies for the global shapes of galaxies and we find that, ignoring central cores, propols and Sersic profiles are indistinguishable within observational errors (within 5 % over 5 orders of magnitude in surface density). The range of physically meaningful polytropes yields Sersic indexes between 0.4 and 6. The code has been systematically applied to ~750 galaxies with carefully measured mass density profiles and including all morphological types and stellar masses (7 < log (Mstar/Msun) < 12). The propol fits are systematically better than Sersic profiles when log(Mstar/Msun) < 9 and systematically worst when log(Mstar/Msun) > 10. Although with large scatter, the observed polytropic indexes increase with increasing mass and tend to cluster around m=5. For the most massive galaxies, propols are very good at reproducing their central parts, but they do not handle well cores and outskirts altogether. Polytropes are self-gravitating systems in thermal meta-equilibrium as defined by the Tsallis entropy. Thus, the above results are compatible with the principle of maximum Tsallis entropy dictating the internal structure in dwarf galaxies and in the central region of massive galaxies., Accepted for publication in ApJ. The fitting code is publicly available at https://github.com/jorgesanchezalmeida/polytropic-fits

We present the first results of the LBT Imaging of Galaxy Haloes and Tidal Structures (LIGHTS) survey. LIGHTS is an ongoing observational campaign with the 2 × 8.4 m Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) aiming to explore the stellar haloes and the low surface brightness population of satellites down to a depth of μV ∼31 mag arcsec-2 (3σ in 10″ × 10″ boxes) of nearby galaxies. We simultaneously collected deep imaging in the g and r Sloan filters using the Large Binocular Cameras. The resulting images are 60 times (i.e. ∼4.5 mag) deeper than those from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and they have characteristics comparable (in depth and spatial resolution) to the ones expected from the future Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). Here we show the first results of our pilot programme targeting NGC 1042 (an M 33 analogue at a distance of 13.5 Mpc) and its surroundings. The depth of the images allowed us to detect an asymmetric stellar halo in the outskirts of this galaxy whose mass (1.4 ± 0.4 × 108 M) is in agreement with the ΛCDM expectations. Additionally, we show that deep imaging from the LBT reveals low mass satellites (a few times 105 M) with very faint central surface brightness μV(0) ∼27 mag arcsec-2 (i.e. similar to Local Group dwarf spheroidals, such as Andromeda XIV or Sextans, but at distances well beyond the local volume). The depth and spatial resolution provided by the LIGHTS survey open up a unique opportunity to explore the 'missing satellites' problem in a large variety of galaxies beyond our Local Group down to masses where the difference between the theory and observation (if any) should be significant. © 2021 ESO., We acknowledge support from grant PID2019-107427GB-C32 from The Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. We acknowledge financial support from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 721463 to the SUNDIAL ITN network, and the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER), from IAC project P/300624, financed by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, through the State Budget and by the Canary Islands Department of Economy, Knowledge and Employment, through the Regional Budget of the Autonomous Community. DZ acknowledges financial support from NSF AST-2006785. NC acknowledges support from the research project grant "Understanding the Dynamic Universe" funded by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation under Dnr KAW 2018.0067 and Chris Usher for interesting comments. DJS acknowledges support from NSF grants AST-1821967 and 1813708. JR acknowledges funding from the State Agency for Research of the Spanish MCIU through the `Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa' award to the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia (SEV-2017-0709), financial support from the grants AYA2015-65973-C3-1-R and RTI2018-096228B-C31 (MINECO/FEDER, UE) as well as support from the State Research Agency (AEI-MCINN) of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation under the grant `The structure and evolution of galaxies and their central regions' with reference PID2019-105602GB-I00/10.13039/501100011033. The LBT is an international collaboration among institutions in the United States, Italy and Germany. LBT Corporation partners are: The University of Arizona on behalf of the Arizona Board of Regents; Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Italy; LBT Beteiligungsgesellschaft, Germany, representing the Max-Planck Society, The Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam, and Heidelberg University; The Ohio State University, representing OSU, University of Notre Dame, University of Minnesota and University of Virginia. This research has made use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED), which is funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and operated by the California Institute of Technology. This work was partly done using GNU Astronomy Utilities (Gnuastro, ascl.net/1801.009) version 0.13.12-f50c. Work on Gnuastro has been funded by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) scholarship and its Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (21244012, 24253003), the European Research Council (ERC) advanced grant 339659-MUSICOS, and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) under grant number AYA2016-76219-P.

Taking advantage of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Stripe82 data, we have explored the spatial distribution of ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs) within an area of 8$\times$8 Mpc$^2$ centred around the galaxy cluster Abell 168 ($z$ = 0.045). This intermediate massive cluster ($\sigma$ = 550 km s$^{-1}$) is surrounded by a complex large-scale structure. Our work confirms the presence of UDGs in the cluster and in the large-scale structure that surrounds it, and it is the first detection of UDGs outside clusters. Approximately 50 per cent of the UDGs analysed in the selected area inhabit the cluster region ($\sim$11 $\pm$ 5 per cent in the core and $\sim$39 $\pm$ 9 per cent in the outskirts), whereas the remaining UDGs are found outside the main cluster structure ($\sim$50 $\pm$ 11 per cent). The colours and the spatial distribution of the UDGs within this large-scale structure are more similar to the dwarf galaxies than to L$_\star$ galaxies, suggesting that most of UDGs could be bona fide dwarf galaxies., Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures. Accepted version for publication in MNRAS

The possible existence of two dark matter free galaxies (NGC1052-DF2 and NGC1052-DF4) in the field of the early-type galaxy NGC1052 presents a challenge to theories of dwarf galaxy formation according to the current cosmological paradigm. We carried out a search for signatures of past interactions connected to the putative hosts of NGC1052-DF2 and NGC1052-DF4 using a very deep L-band image obtained with the 0.7m Jeanne Rich telescope that reach a surface brightness limit of 28.5 mag arcsec-2 in the r band. We found several low-surface brightness features, possibly consistent with an ongoing merger history in this group. We find a tidal interaction between NGC1052 and NGC1047, confirming a physical association. Furthermore we find a stellar loop around NGC1052 in the direction of NGC1042 and a stellar stream pointing in the direction of NGC1052-DF2 - but both are not directly connected. We find no evidence for a recent tidal interaction for NGC1052-DF2 and NGC1052-DF4. No low surface brightness features have been uncovered around the spiral galaxy NGC1042, which leaves the association (physical or projected) between NGC1052 and NGC1042 ambiguous, though they have similar radial velocities. Their association will only be established once accurate distances to both objects have been measured., 5 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in A&A Letters

We show how present-day 10 meter class telescopes can provide broadband imaging 1.5-2 mag deeper than most previous results within a reasonable amount of time ( ~ 8h on source integration). We illustrate the ability of the 10.4 m Gran Telescopio de Canarias (GTC) telescope to produce imaging with a limiting surface brightness of 31.5 mag/arcsec2 (3σ in 10 × 10 arcsec boxes). We explore the stellar halos of nearby galaxies obtaining surface brightness radial profiles down to μr ~ 33 mag/arcsec2. This depth is similar to that obtained using star counts techniques of Local Group galaxies, but is achieved at a distance where this technique is unfeasible.

The bulk of stars in galaxy clusters are confined within their constituent galaxies. Those stars do not trace the extended distribution of dark matter well as they are located in the central regions of the cluster's dark matter sub-halos. A small fraction of stars is expected, however, to follow the global dark matter shape of the cluster. These are the stars whose extended spatial distribution results from the merging activity of galaxies and form the intracluster light (ICL). In this work, we compare the bi-dimensional distribution of dark matter in massive galaxy clusters (as traced by gravitational lensing models) with the distribution of the ICL. To do that, we use the superb data from the Hubble Frontier Fields Initiative. Using the Modified Hausdorff distance (MHD) as a way of quantifying the similarities between the mass and ICL distributions, we find an excellent agreement (MHD~25 kpc) between the two components. This result shows that the ICL exquisitely follows the global dark matter distribution, providing an accurate luminous tracer of dark matter. This finding opens up the possibility of exploring the distribution of dark matter in galaxy clusters in detail using only deep imaging observations., Accepted for publication in MNRAS. Fig. 2 summarizes the key result of the paper

On June 25th 2017, the new intermediate-resolution optical IFU and MOS of the 10.4-m GTC had its first light. As part of the tests carried out to verify the performance of the instrument in its two modes (IFU and MOS) and 18 spectral setups (identical number of VPHs with resolutions R=6000-20000 from 0.36 to 1 micron) a number of astronomical objects were observed. These observations show that MEGARA@GTC is called to fill a niche of high-throughput, intermediateresolution IFU and MOS observations of extremely-faint narrow-lined objects. Lyman-¿ absorbers, star-forming dwarfs or even weak absorptions in stellar spectra in our Galaxy or in the Local Group can now be explored to a new level. Thus, the versatility of MEGARA in terms of observing modes and spectral resolution and coverage will allow GTC to go beyond current observational limits in either depth or precision for all these objects. The results to be presented in this talk clearly demonstrate the potential of MEGARA in this regard. © 2018 SPIE.

Understanding the peculiar properties of Ultra Diffuse Galaxies (UDGs) via spectroscopic analysis is a challenging task requiring very deep observations and exquisite data reduction. In this work we perform one of the most complete characterisations of the stellar component of UDGs to date using deep optical spectroscopic data from OSIRIS at GTC. We measure radial and rotation velocities, star formation histories (SFH) and mean population parameters, such as ages and metallicities, for a sample of five UDG candidates in the Coma cluster. From the radial velocities, we confirm the Coma membership of these galaxies. We find that their rotation properties, if detected at all, are compatible with dwarf-like galaxies. The SFHs of the UDG are dominated by old (~ 7 Gyr), metal-poor ([M/H] ~ -1.1) and alpha-enhanced ([Mg/Fe] ~ 0.4) populations followed by a smooth or episodic decline which halted ~ 2 Gyr ago, possibly a sign of cluster-induced quenching. We find no obvious correlation between individual SFH shapes and any UDG morphological properties. The recovered stellar properties for UDGs are similar to those found for DDO44, a local UDG analogue resolved into stars. We conclude that the UDGs in our sample are extended dwarfs whose properties are likely the outcome of both internal processes, such as bursty SFHs and/or high-spin haloes, as well as environmental effects within the Coma cluster., Accepted for publication in MNRAS

Free access at publisher's website https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/pdf/2019/01/aa34312-18.pdf., he Hubble Ultra Deep field (HUDF) is the deepest region ever observed with the Hubble Space Telescope. With the main objective of unveiling the nature of galaxies up to z ∼ 7 - 8, the observing and reduction strategy have focused on the properties of small and unresolved objects, rather than the outskirts of the largest objects, which are usually over-subtracted. Aims. We aim to create a new set of WFC3 IR mosaics of the HUDF using novel techniques to preserve the properties of the low surface brightness regions. Methods. We created ABYSS: A pipeline that optimises the estimate and modelling of low-level systematic effects to obtain a robust background subtraction. We have improved four key points in the reduction: 1) creation of new absolute sky flat fields, 2) extended persistence models, 3) dedicated sky background subtraction and 4) robust co-adding. Results. The new mosaics successfully recover the low surface brightness structure removed on the previous HUDF published reductions. The amount of light recovered with a mean surface brightness dimmer than μ = 26 mag arcsec -2 is equivalent to a m = 19 mag source when compared to the XDF and a m = 20 mag compared to the HUDF12. Conclusions. We present a set of techniques to reduce ultra-deep images (μ > 32.5 mag arcsec -2 , 3σ in 10 × 10 arcsec boxes), that successfully allow us to detect the low surface brightness structure of extended sources on ultra deep surveys. The developed procedures are applicable to HST, JWST, Euclid and many other space and ground-based observatories. © ESO 2019., The authors would like to thank the XDF and HUDF12 teams for their extraordinary work in which this contribution is based on, truly standing on the shoulders of giants. This work would not have been possible without the kind assistance of all the members of the STScI Help Desk. We specially thank Knox Long by its work on persistence effects and its extraordinary support during this work. A.B. acknowledges support from the International Space Science Institute (ISSI) as part of the Exploring the Ultra-Low Surface Brightness Universe International team. Some/all of the data presented in this paper were obtained from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST). STScI is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS5-26555. I.T. and C.M.L acknowledges the support from the SUNDIAL EU Network and from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 721463 and the SUNDIAL ITN network. C.M.L. acknowledges financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) under grant number AYA2016-76219-P. N.C acknowledged support from the Spanish Programa Nacional de Astronimía y Astrofísica under grant AYA2016-75808-R. C.G.G. acknowledges support from the European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant funding scheme (project ConTExt, grant number 648179). Support for MAST for non-HST data is provided by the NASA Office of Space Science via grant NNX09AF08G and by other grants and contracts. This work was partly done using GNU Astronomy Utilities Gnuastro version 0.5. Gnuastro is a generic package for astronomical data manipulation and analysis which was primarily created and developed for research funded by the Monbukagakusho (Japanese government) scholarship and ERC advanced grant 339659-MUSICOS. Support for this work was provided by the Spanish Ministe-rio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO; grant AYA 2016-77237-C3-I-P). This research made use of Astropy (http://www.astropy.org) a community-developed core Python package for Astronomy (Astropy Collaboration 2013; Price-Whelan et al. 2018).

Disc truncations are the closest feature to an edge that galaxies have, but the nature of this phenomena is not yet understood. In this paper, we explore the truncations in two nearby (D ~15 Mpc) Milky Way-like galaxies: NGC 4565 and NGC 5907. We cover a wide wavelength range from the NUV and optical, to 3.6 {\mu}m. We find that the radius of the truncation (26+/-0.5 kpc) is independent of wavelength. Surprisingly, we identify (at all wavelengths) the truncation at altitudes as high as 3 kpc above the mid-plane, which implies that the thin disc in those outer regions has a width of at least this value. We find the characteristic U-shape radial colour profile associated with a star formation threshold at the location of the truncation. Further supporting such an origin, the stellar mass density at the position of the truncation is ~1-2 M_sun pc^-2, in good agreement with the critical gas density for transforming gas into stars. Beyond the truncation, the stellar mass in the mid-plane of the disc drops to just 0.1-0.2% of the total stellar mass of the galaxies. The detection of the truncation at high altitude in combination with the U shape of the radial colour profile allows us to establish, for the first time, an upper limit to the present-day growth rate of galactic discs. We find that, if the discs of the galaxies are growing inside-out, their growth rate is less than 0.6-0.9 kpc Gyr^-1., Comment: Accepted in MNRAS. 17 pages and 11 figures + appendix. We invite comments from colleagues on this manuscript

Massive early-type galaxies undergo a significant process of evolution with redshift on the stellar mass vs size plane. Furthermore, this trend does not depend on the age of their stellar populations. Therefore, such an evolution should involve processes that do not include a significant amount of star formation, leaving (mostly) dry mergers as the main growth channel. By studying close pairs involving a massive galaxy, one can quantify the role of mergers on the growth of massive galaxies. A recent study based on the SHARDS dataset reveals that minor mergers cannot be the dominant mechanism to explain the bulk of size growth in these systems. Merging is found to provide a constant fractional growth rate of ~10% per Gyr from redshift z=1, corresponding to an overall stellar mass increase of 2× between z=1 and z=0.

To provide a quantitative cosmological context to ongoing observational work on the formation histories and location of compact massive galaxies, we locate and study a sample of exceptionally compact systems in the Bolshoi simulation, using the dark matter structural parameters from a real, compact massive galaxy (NGC 1277) as a basis for our working criteria. We find that over 80% of objects in this nominal compact category are substructures of more massive groups or clusters, and that the probability of a given massive substructure being this compact increases significantly with the mass of the host structure; rising to ~30% for the most massive clusters in the simulation. Tracking the main progenitors of this subsample back to z=2, we find them all to be distinct structures with scale radii and densities representative of the population as a whole at this epoch. What does characterise their histories, in addition to mostly becoming substructures, is that they have almost all experienced below-average mass accretion since z=2; a third of them barely retaining, or even losing mass during the intervening 10 Gyr., 9 pages, 9 figures

The effects of seeing on Sersic r^{1/n} profile parameters are extensively studied using a Moffat function. This analytical approximation to the point spread function (PSF) is shown to provide the best fit to the PSF predicted from atmospheric turbulence theory when beta=4.765. The Moffat PSF is additionally shown to contain the Gaussian PSF as a limiting case beta->infinity. The Moffat function is also shown to be numerically well behaved when modelling narrow PSFs in HST images. Seeing effects are computed for elliptically symmetric surface brightness distributions. The widely used assumption of circular symmetry when studying the effects of seeing on intrinsically elliptical sources is shown to produce significant discrepancies with respect to the true effects of seeing on these sources. A prescription to correct raw (observed) central intensities, effective radii, index n and mean effective surface brightness is given., 7 pages, 6 figures, MNRAS accepted

We confirm two new local massive relic galaxies, i.e. untouched survivors of the early universe massive population: Mrk1216 and PGC032873. Both show early and peaked formation events within very short timescales (2 massive population, setting them apart of the typical z~0 massive early-type galaxies. We find that there seems to exist a "degree of relic" that is related on how far into the path to become one of these typical z~0 massive galaxies the compact relic has undergone. This path is partly dictated by the environment the galaxy lives in. For galaxies in rich environments, such as the previously reported relic galaxy NGC1277, the most extreme properties (e.g. sizes, short formation timescales, larger super-massive black holes) are expected, while lower density environments will have galaxies with delayed and/or extended star formations, slightly larger sizes and not that extreme black hole masses. The confirmation of 3 relic galaxies up to a distance of 106Mpc implies a lower limit in the number density of these red nuggets in the local universe of 6x10^{-7} Mpc^{3}, which is within the theoretical expectations., 12 pages, 9 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRAS

Multiwavelength deep observations are a key tool to understand the origin of the diffuse light in clusters of galaxies: the intra-cluster light (ICL). For this reason, we take advantage of the Hubble Frontier Fields survey to investigate the properties of the stellar populations of the ICL of its 6 massive intermediate redshift (0.3 10^15 Msol) clusters is formed by the stripping of MW-like objects that have been accreted at z, Comment: 18 pages, 9 figures, Submitted to MNRAS, first referee comments incorporated. Age and metallicity radial profiles are in Fig2. The % of light in the ICL in Fig3. Slope of the stellar mass density profile vs. the mass of the halo in Fig5

We describe the structural, stellar population and gas properties of the nearest Ultra Diffuse Galaxy (UDG) discovered so far: UGC2162 (z=0.00392; R$_{e,g}$=1.7$(\pm$0.2) kpc; $\mu_g(0)$=24.4$\pm$0.1 mag/arcsec$^2$; g-i=0.33$\pm$0.02). This galaxy, located at a distance of 12.3($\pm$1.7) Mpc, is a member of the M77 group. UGC2162 has a stellar mass of $\sim$2($^{+2}_{-1}$)$\times$10$^7$ M$_\odot$ and is embedded within a cloud of HI gas $\sim$10 times more massive: $\sim$1.9($\pm$0.6)$\times$10$^8$ M$_\odot$. Using the width of its HI line as a dynamical proxy, the enclosed mass within the inner R$\sim$5 kpc is $\sim$4.6($\pm$0.8)$\times$10$^9$ M$_\odot$ (i.e. M/L$\sim$200). The estimated virial mass from the cumulative mass curve is $\sim$8($\pm$2)$\times$10$^{10}$ M$_\odot$. Ultra-deep imaging from the IAC Stripe82 Legacy Project show that the galaxy is irregular and has many star forming knots, with a gas-phase metallicity around one-third of the solar value. Its estimated Star Formation Rate (SFR) is $\sim$0.01 M$_\odot$/yr. This SFR would double the stellar mass of the object in $\sim$2 Gyr. If the object were to stop forming stars at this moment, after a passive evolution, its surface brightness would become extremely faint: $\mu_g(0)$$\sim$27 mag/arcsec$^2$ and its size would remain large R$_{e,g}$$\sim$ 1.8 kpc. Such faintness would make it almost undetectable to most present-day surveys. This suggests that there could be an important population of M$_{\star}$$\sim$10$^7$ M$_\odot$ "dark galaxies" in rich environments (depleted of HI gas) waiting to be discovered by current and future ultra-deep surveys., Comment: 5 pages; 3 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ; minor changes to match the published version

Deep imaging is a fundamental tool in the study of the outermost structures of galaxies. We review recent developments in ultra-deep imaging of galaxy disks and haloes, highlighting the technical advances as well as the challenges, and summarizing observational results in the context of modern theory and simulations. The deepest modern galaxy imaging comes from three main sources: (1) surveys such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey's Stripe 82 project, (2) very long exposures on small telescopes, including by amateurs, and (3) long exposures on the largest professional telescopes. The technical challenges faced are common in all these approaches, and include the treatment of light scattered by atmosphere and telescope/instrument, correct flat fielding, and the subtraction of non-galaxy light in the images. We review scientific results on galaxy disks and haloes obtained with deep imaging, including the detection and characterization of stellar haloes, tidal features and stellar streams, disk truncations, and thick disks. The area of ultra-deep imaging is still very much unexplored territory, and future work in this area promises significant advances in our understanding of galaxy formation and evolution.

We use data from the IAC Stripe82 Legacy Project to study the surface photometry of 22 nearby, face-on to moderately inclined spiral galaxies. The reprocessed and combined Stripe 82 $g'$, $r'$ and $i'$ images allow us to probe the galaxy down to 29-30 $r'$-magnitudes/arcsec$^2$ and thus reach into the very faint outskirts of the galaxies. Truncations are found in three galaxies. An additional 15 galaxies are found to have an apparent extended stellar halo. Simulations show that the scattering of light from the inner galaxy by the Point Spread Function (PSF) can produce faint structures resembling haloes, but this effect is insufficient to fully explain the observed haloes. The presence of these haloes and of truncations is mutually exclusive, and we argue that the presence of a stellar halo and/or light scattered by the PSF can hide truncations. Furthermore, we find that the onset of the stellar halo and the truncations scales tightly with galaxy size. Interestingly, the fraction of light does not correlate with dynamic mass. Nineteen galaxies are found to have breaks in their profiles, the radius of which also correlates with galaxy size., Comment: Accepted for publication by Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. High-res versions of the paper and the online appendix are available at http://www.astro.rug.nl/~vdkruit/jea3/homepage/Petersetal-VII.pdf and ...PaperVII-online.pdf

To study how the environment can influence the relation between stellar mass and effective radius of nearby galaxies (z < 0.12), we use a mass-complete sample extracted from the NYU-Value Added Catalogue. This sample contains almost 232000 objects with masses up to $3\times10^{11}M_{\odot}$. For every galaxy in our sample, we explore the surrounding density within 2 Mpc using two different estimators of the environment. We find that galaxies tend to be larger in the field than in high density regions. This effect is more pronounced for late-type morphologies (~7.5% larger) and especially at low masses ($M < 2\times10^{10}M_{\odot}$), although early-type galaxies also show differences (~3.5%). The environment also leaves a subtle imprint in the scatter of the stellar mass-size relation. This scatter is larger in low density regions than in high density regions for both morphologies, on average ~3.5% larger for early-type and ~0.8% for late-type galaxies. Late-type galaxies with low masses ($M, 18 pages, 12 figures, 7 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

There is growing evidence suggesting that massive galaxies have growth both in mass and size mainly by the accretion of smaller satellites. This evolutionary path qualitative explains many different observations. However, there is still much work to do on trying to quantify whether this merging scenario is enough to explain the significant growth of massive galaxies since z~2. In this contribution, we show that both the number of satellite galaxies around massive galaxies at all redshifts, and the existence of massive relic galaxies in the nearby Universe are in quantitative agreement with this merging picture. Nonetheless, there is still open questions related to the properties of the stellar halos of present-day massive galaxies and the number density of massive relics at all redshifts that remain open.

In order to probe the inside-out formation of the most massive galaxies in the Universe, we have explored the radial (0.1 < R < 8 kpc) variation of the spectral energy distribution (SED) of M87 from UV to IR. For this purpose, we have combined high resolution data in 16 different bands. Our analysis indicate that the age of the stellar population of M87 remains almost unchanged with radius. However, the metallicity ([Z/H]) profile presents three different zones: the innermost kpc shows a plateau with supersolar metallicity, followed by a decline in metallicity down to 5 kpc and another plateau afterwards. The size of the inner plateau is similar to the expected size (Re) of an object with the predicted mass of M87 at z=2. The global [Z/H] gradient is -0.26 +- 0.10, similar to those found in other nearby massive ellipticals. The observed change in the stellar population of M87 is consistent with a rapid formation of the central part (R, Accepted in MNRAS

A second galaxy ``missing dark matter" (NGC1052-DF4) has been recently reported. Here we show, using the location of the Tip of the Red Giant Branch (TRGB), that the distance to this galaxy is 14.2+-0.7 Mpc. This locates the galaxy 6 Mpc closer than previously determined. We also analyse the distances to the brightest galaxies in the field-of-view (FOV) of NGC1052. We find this field is populated by two groups of galaxies in projection: one dominated by NGC1052 and NGC1047 at ~19 Mpc and another group containing NGC1042 and NGC1035 (as well as [KKS2000]04 and NGC1052-DF4) at ~13.5 Mpc. At a distance of 13.5 Mpc the globular clusters of NGC1052-DF4 have the same properties than globular clusters in the Milky Way and other dwarf galaxies., Comment: ApJ Letters in press

We identify six ultra diffuse galaxies (UDGs) outside clusters in three nearby isolated groups (z250 kpc) of our three groups, we identify a population of potential UDG progenitors (two of them confirmed spectroscopically). These progenitors have similar masses, shapes and sizes but are bluer, g-i~0.45, (and for this reason brighter, mu_g(0)24 mag arcsec -2) UDGs after ~6 Gyr. If confirmed, our observations support a scenario where UDGs are old, extended, low surface brightness dwarfs (M*~10^8 Msun) galaxies born in the field, are later on processed in groups and, ultimately, infall into galaxy clusters by group accretion., Accepted, matching the published version. Additional information about UDGs spectra