Search

In this paper we describe our search for galaxy protocluster candidates at $4.5< z < 10$ and explore the environmental and physical properties of their member galaxies identified through JWST wide-field surveys within the CEERS, JADES, and PEARLS NEP-TDF fields. Combining with HST data, we identify 2948 robust $z>4.5$ candidates within an area of 185.4 arcmin$^2$. We determine nearest neighbour statistics and galaxy environments. We find that high-$z$ galaxies in overdense environments exhibit higher star formation activity compared to those in underdense regions. Galaxies in dense environments have a slightly increased SFR at a given mass compared with galaxies in the lower density environments. At the high mass end we also find a gradual flattening of the $M_{\star}$-SFR slope. We find that galaxies in high-density regions often have redder UV slopes than those in low-density regions, suggesting more dust extinction, weaker Lyman-alpha emission and / or a higher damped Lyman-alpha absorption. We also find that the mass-size relation remains consistent and statistically similar across all environments. Furthermore, we quantitatively assess the probability of a galaxy belonging to a protocluster candidate. In total, we identified 26 overdensities at $z=5-7$ and estimate their dark matter halo masses. We find that all protocluster candidates could evolve into clusters with $M_{\rm halo} > 10^{14}M_{\odot}$ at $z = 0$, thereby supporting the theoretical and simulation predictions of cluster formation. Notably, this marks an early search for protocluster candidates in JWST wide field based on photometric data, providing valuable candidates to study cosmic structure formation at the early stages., Comment: 23 pages, 14 figures and 7 table, submitted to MNRAS

We explore models of massive ($\gt 10^{10}~{\rm M}_{\odot}$) satellite quenching in massive clusters at $z\gtrsim1$ using an MCMC framework, focusing on two primary parameters: $R_{\rm quench}$ (the host-centric radius at which quenching begins) and $\tau_{\rm quench}$ (the timescale upon which a satellite quenches after crossing $R_{\rm quench}$). Our MCMC analysis shows two local maxima in the 1D posterior probability distribution of $R_{\rm quench}$ at approximately $0.25$ and $1.0~R_{\rm{200}}$. Analyzing four distinct solutions in the $\tau_{\rm quench}$-$R_{\rm quench}$ parameter space, nearly all of which yield quiescent fractions consistent with observational data from the GOGREEN survey, we investigate whether these solutions represent distinct quenching pathways and find that they can be separated between \textquote{starvation} and \textquote{core quenching} scenarios. The starvation pathway is characterized by quenching timescales that are roughly consistent with the total cold gas (H$_{2}$+H{\scriptsize I}) depletion timescale at intermediate $z$, while core quenching is characterized by satellites with relatively high line-of-sight velocities that quench on short timescales ($\sim 0.25$ Gyr) after reaching the inner region of the cluster ($\lt 0.30~R_{\rm{200}}$). Lastly, we break the degeneracy between these solutions by comparing the observed properties of transition galaxies from the GOGREEN survey. We conclude that only the \textquote{starvation} pathway is consistent with the projected phase-space distribution and relative abundance of transition galaxies at $z \sim 1$. However, we acknowledge that ram pressure might contribute as a secondary quenching mechanism., Comment: 15 pages; 8 figures; Accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Recent observations have shown that the environmental quenching of galaxies at z ~ 1 is qualitatively different to that in the local Universe. However, the physical origin of these differences has not yet been elucidated. In addition, while low-redshift comparisons between observed environmental trends and the predictions of cosmological hydrodynamical simulations are now routine, there have been relatively few comparisons at higher redshifts to date. Here we confront three state-of-the-art suites of simulations (BAHAMAS+MACSIS, EAGLE+Hydrangea, IllustrisTNG) with state-of-the-art observations of the field and cluster environments from the COSMOS/UltraVISTA and GOGREEN surveys, respectively, at z ~ 1 to assess the realism of the simulations and gain insight into the evolution of environmental quenching. We show that while the simulations generally reproduce the stellar content and the stellar mass functions of quiescent and star-forming galaxies in the field, all the simulations struggle to capture the observed quenching of satellites in the cluster environment, in that they are overly efficient at quenching low-mass satellites. Furthermore, two of the suites do not sufficiently quench the highest-mass galaxies in clusters, perhaps a result of insufficient feedback from AGN. The origin of the discrepancy at low stellar masses (Mstar <~ 1E10 Msun), which is present in all the simulations in spite of large differences in resolution, feedback implementations, and hydrodynamical solvers, is unclear. The next generation of simulations, which will push to significantly higher resolution and also include explicit modelling of the cold interstellar medium, may help to shed light on the low-mass tension., Comment: 20 pages, 10 figures, resubmitted to MNRAS following minor revisions

We model satellite quenching at $z \sim 1$ by combining $14$ massive ($10^{13.8} < M_{\mathrm{halo}}/\mathrm{M}_{\odot} < 10^{15}$) clusters at $0.8 < z < 1.3$ from the GOGREEN and GCLASS surveys with accretion histories of $56$ redshift-matched analogs from the IllustrisTNG simulation. Our fiducial model, which is parameterized by the satellite quenching timescale ($\tau_{\rm quench}$), accounts for quenching in our simulated satellite population both at the time of infall by using the observed coeval field quenched fraction and after infall by tuning $\tau_{\rm quench}$ to reproduce the observed satellite quenched fraction versus stellar mass trend. This model successfully reproduces the observed satellite quenched fraction as a function of stellar mass (by construction), projected cluster-centric radius, and redshift and is consistent with the observed field and cluster stellar mass functions at $z \sim 1$. We find that the satellite quenching timescale is mass dependent, in conflict with some previous studies at low and intermediate redshift. Over the stellar mass range probed ($M_{\star}> 10^{10}~\mathrm{M}_{\odot}$), we find that the satellite quenching timescale decreases with increasing satellite stellar mass from $\sim1.6~{\rm Gyr}$ at $10^{10}~\mathrm{M}_{\odot}$ to $\sim 0.6 - 1~{\rm Gyr}$ at $10^{11}~\mathrm{M}_{\odot}$ and is roughly consistent with the total cold gas (H{\scriptsize I}+H$_{2}$) depletion timescales at intermediate $z$, suggesting that starvation may be the dominant driver of environmental quenching at $z < 2$. Finally, while environmental mechanisms are relatively efficient at quenching massive satellites, we find that the majority ($\sim65-80\%$) of ultra-massive satellites ($M_{\star} > 10^{11}~\mathrm{M}_{\odot}$) are quenched prior to infall., Comment: Key Figures: 4, 6 and 9; 16 pages; 11 figures; accepted for publication in MNRAS 26 July 2022

Brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) are very massive elliptical galaxies found at the centers of clusters. Their study gives clues on the formation and evolution of the clusters in which they are embedded. We analysed here in a homogeneous way the properties of a sample of more than one thousand BCGs in the redshift range 0.15 < z < 0.7, based on images from the Canada France Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey. Based on the cluster catalogue of 1371 clusters by Sarron et al. (2018), we applied our automatic BCG detection algorithm and identified successfully 70% of the BCGs in our sample. We analysed their 2D photometric properties with GALFIT. We also compared the position angles of the BCG major axes with those of the overall cluster to which they belong. We found no evolution of the BCG properties with redshift up to z = 0.7, in agreement with previous results by Chu et al. (2021), who analysed an order of magnitude smaller sample, but reaching a redshift z = 1.8. The Kormendy relation for BCGs is tight and consistent with that of normal elliptical galaxies and BCGs measured by other authors. The position angles of the BCGs and of the cluster to which they belong agree within 30 degrees for 55% of the objects with well defined position angles. The study of this very large sample of more than one thousand BCGs shows that they were mainly formed before z = 0.7, as we find no significant growth for the luminosities and sizes of central galaxies. We discuss the importance of the intracluster light in the interpretation of these results. We highlight the role of image depth in the modelisation of the luminosity profiles of BCGs, and give evidence for the presence of an inner structure which can only be resolved on deep surveys with limiting apparent magnitude at 80% completeness m80 > 26 mag/arcsec2., Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics

We use a large K-selected sample of 299,961 galaxies from the REFINE survey, consisting of a combination of data from three of the deepest near-infrared surveys: UKIDSS UDS, COSMOS/UltraVISTA and CFHTLS-D1/VIDEO, that were homogeneously reduced to obtain photometric redshifts and stellar masses. We detect 2588 candidate galaxy groups up to $z=3.15$ at $S/N>1.5$. We build a very pure ($>90\%$) sample of 448 candidate groups up to $z=2.5$ and study some of their properties. Cluster detection is done using the DElaunay TEssellation ClusTer IdentiFication with photo-z (DETECTIFz) algorithm that we describe. This new group finder algorithm uses the joint probability distribution functions (PDF) of redshift and stellar-mass of galaxies to detect groups as stellar-mass overdensities in overlapping redshift slices, where density is traced using Monte Carlo realisation of the Delaunay Tessellation Field Estimator (DTFE). We compute the algorithm selection function using mock galaxy catalogues taken from cosmological N-body simulation lightcones. Based on these simulations, we reach a completeness of $\sim80\%$ for clusters ($M_{200}>10^{14} M_{\odot}$) at a purity of $\sim90\%$ at $z<2.5$. Using our 403 most massive candidate groups, we constrain the redshift evolution of the group galaxy quenched fraction at $0.12\le z<2.32$, for galaxies with $10.25 < \log M_\star/M_{\odot} < 11$ in $0.5\times R_{200}$. We find that the quenched fraction in group cores is higher than in the field in the full redshift range considered, the difference growing with decreasing redshift. This indicates either more efficient quenching mechanisms in group cores at lower redshift or pre-processing by cosmic filaments., Comment: Accepted in MNRAS. 21 pages (18 + 3 in appendix). 9 figures. Include online only appendix of the published version

Upcoming wide-field surveys are well-suited to studying the growth of galaxy clusters by tracing galaxy and gas accretion along cosmic filaments. We use hydrodynamic simulations of volumes surrounding 324 clusters from \textsc{The ThreeHundred} project to develop a framework for identifying and characterising these filamentary structures, and associating galaxies with them. We define 3-dimensional reference filament networks reaching $5R_{200}$ based on the underlying gas distribution and quantify their recovery using mock galaxy samples mimicking observations such as those of the WEAVE Wide-Field Cluster Survey. Since massive galaxies trace filaments, they are best recovered by mass-weighting galaxies or imposing a bright limit (e.g. $>L^*$) on their selection. We measure the transverse gas density profile of filaments, derive a characteristic filament radius of $\simeq0.7$--$1~h^{-1}\rm{Mpc}$, and use this to assign galaxies to filaments. For different filament extraction methods we find that at $R>R_{200}$, $\sim15$--$20%$ of galaxies with $M_*>3 \times 10^9 M_{\odot}$ are in filaments, increasing to $\sim60%$ for galaxies more massive than the Milky-Way. The fraction of galaxies in filaments is independent of cluster mass and dynamical state, and is a function of cluster-centric distance, increasing from $\sim13$% at $5R_{200}$ to $\sim21$% at $1.5R_{200}$. As a bridge to the design of observational studies, we measure the purity and completeness of different filament galaxy selection strategies. Encouragingly, the overall 3-dimensional filament networks and $\sim67$% of the galaxies associated with them are recovered from 2-dimensional galaxy positions., Comment: 22 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

Galaxy clusters and groups are thought to accrete material along the preferred direction of cosmic filaments. Yet these structures have proven difficult to detect due to their low contrast with few studies focusing on cluster infall regions. In this work, we detected cosmic filaments around galaxy clusters using photometric redshifts in the range 0.15

Obtaining large samples of galaxy clusters is important for cosmology, since cluster counts as a function of redshift and mass can constrain the parameters of our Universe. They are also useful to understand the formation and evolution of clusters. We develop an improved version of the AMACFI cluster finder (now AMASCFI) and apply it to the 154 deg2 of the Canada France Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey (CFHTLS) to obtain a catalogue of 1371 cluster candidates with mass M200 > 10^14 Msun and redshift z < 0.7. We derive the selection function of AMASCFI from the Millennium simulation, and cluster masses from a richness-mass scaling relation built from matching our candidates with X-ray detections. We study the evolution of these clusters with mass and redshift by computing the i'-band galaxy luminosity functions (GLFs) for the early (ETGs) and late-type galaxies (LTGs). This sample is 90% pure and 70% complete, therefore our results are representative the cluster population in these redshift and mass ranges. We find an increase of both the ETG and LTG faint populations with decreasing redshift (with Schechter slopes alpha_ETG = -0.65 +/- 0.03 at z=0.6 and alpha_ETG = -0.79 +\- 0.02 at z=0.2) and also a decrease of the LTG bright end, but not of the ETG's. Our large sample allows us to break the degeneracy between mass and redshift, finding that the redshift evolution is more pronounced in high-mass clusters, but that there is no significant dependence of the faint end on mass for a given redshift. These results show that the cluster red sequence is mainly formed at redshift z > 0.7, and that faint ETGs continue to enrich the red sequence through quenching of brighter LTGs at z < 0.7. The efficiency of this quenching is higher in large-mass clusters while the accretion rate of faint LTGs is lower as the more massive clusters have already emptied most of their environment at higher redshifts., Comment: 22 pages, 24 figures, matches version accepted to A&A

While our current cosmological model places galaxy clusters at the nodes of a filament network (the cosmic web), we still struggle to detect these filaments at high redshifts. We perform a weak lensing study for a sample of 16 massive, medium-high redshift (0.4

Clusters of galaxies are at the intersection of cosmic filaments and are still accreting galaxies and groups along these preferential directions, but, because of their relatively low contrast on the sky, they are difficult to detect (unless a large amount of spectroscopic data are available), and unambiguous detections have been limited until now to relatively low redshifts (z<0.3). We searched for extensions and filaments around the thirty clusters of the DAFT/FADA survey (redshift range 0.4