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- All Subjects: Galaxies--Evolution.
- All Subjects: galaxy
- Creators: Scannapieco, Evan
Description
I combine, compare, and contrast the results from two different numerical techniques (grid vs. particle methods) studying multi-scale processes in galaxy and structure formation. I produce a method for recreating identical initial conditions for one method from those of the other, and explore methodologies necessary for making these two methods as consistent as possible. With this, I first study the impact of streaming velocities of baryons with respect to dark matter, present at the epoch of reionization, on the ability for small halos to accrete gas at high redshift. With the inclusion of this stream velocity, I find the central density profile of halos is reduced, overall gas condensation is delayed, and infer a delay in the inevitable creation of stars.
I then combine the two numerical methods to study starburst outflows as they interact with satellite halos. This process leads to shocks catalyzing the formation of molecular coolants that lead to bursts in star formation, a process that is better captured in grid methods. The resultant clumps of stars are removed from their initial dark matter halo, resemble precursors to modern-day globular clusters, and their formation may be observable with upcoming telescopes.
Finally, I perform two simulation suites, comparing each numerical method's ability to model the impact of energetic feedback from accreting black holes at the core of giant clusters. With these comparisons I show that black hole feedback can maintain a hot diffuse medium while limiting the amount of gas that can condense into the interstellar medium, reducing the central star formation by up to an order of magnitude.
I then combine the two numerical methods to study starburst outflows as they interact with satellite halos. This process leads to shocks catalyzing the formation of molecular coolants that lead to bursts in star formation, a process that is better captured in grid methods. The resultant clumps of stars are removed from their initial dark matter halo, resemble precursors to modern-day globular clusters, and their formation may be observable with upcoming telescopes.
Finally, I perform two simulation suites, comparing each numerical method's ability to model the impact of energetic feedback from accreting black holes at the core of giant clusters. With these comparisons I show that black hole feedback can maintain a hot diffuse medium while limiting the amount of gas that can condense into the interstellar medium, reducing the central star formation by up to an order of magnitude.
ContributorsRichardson, Mark Lawrence Albert (Author) / Scannapieco, Evan (Thesis advisor) / Rhoads, James (Committee member) / Scowen, Paul (Committee member) / Timmes, Frank (Committee member) / Young, Patrick (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Most stars form in groups, and these clusters are themselves nestled within larger associations and stellar complexes. It is not yet clear, however, whether stars cluster on preferred size scales within galaxies, or if stellar groupings have a continuous size distribution. I have developed two methods to select stellar groupings across a wide range of size-scales in order to assess trends in the size distribution and other basic properties of stellar groupings. The first method uses visual inspection of color-magnitude and color-color diagrams of clustered stars to assess whether the compact sources within the potential association are coeval, and thus likely to be born from the same parentmolecular cloud. This method was developed using the stellar associations in the M51/NGC 5195 interacting galaxy system. This process is highly effective at selecting single-aged stellar associations, but in order to assess properties of stellar clustering in a larger sample of nearby galaxies, an automated method for selecting stellar groupings is needed. I have developed an automated stellar grouping selection method that is sensitive to stellar clustering on all size scales. Using the Source Extractor software package on Gaussian-blurred images of NGC 4214, and the annular surface brightness to determine the characteristic size of each cluster/association, I eliminate much of the size and density biases intrinsic to other methods. This automated method was tested in the nearby dwarf irregular galaxy NGC 4214, and can detect stellar groupings with sizes ranging from compact clusters to stellar complexes. In future work, the automatic selection method developed in this dissertation will be used to identify stellar groupings in a set of nearby galaxies to determine if the size scales for stellar clustering are uniform in the nearby universe or if it is dependent on local galactic environment. Once the stellar clusters and associations have been identified and age-dated, this information can be used to deduce disruption times from the age distribution as a function of the position of the stellar grouping within the galaxy, the size of the cluster or association, and the morphological type of the galaxy. The implications of these results for galaxy formation and evolution are discussed.
ContributorsKaleida, Catherine (Author) / Scowen, Paul A. (Thesis advisor) / Windhorst, Rogier A. (Thesis advisor) / Jansen, Rolf A. (Committee member) / Timmes, Francis X. (Committee member) / Scannapieco, Evan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
The first part of this dissertation presents the implementation of Bayesian statistics with galaxy surface luminosity (SL) prior probabilities to improve the ac- curacy of photometric redshifts. The addition of the SL prior probability helps break the degeneracy of spectro-photometric redshifts (SPZs) between low redshift 4000 A break galaxies and high redshift Lyman break galaxies which are mostly catas- trophic outliers. For a sample of 1138 galaxies with spectroscopic redshifts in the GOODS North and South fields at z < 1.6, the application of the surface luminosity prior reduces the fraction of galaxies with redshift deviation sigma(z) > 0.2 from 15.0% to 10.4%. The second part of this dissertation presents the study of the chemical evolution of the star-forming galaxies. The Hubble Space Telescope Probing Evolution and Reionization Spectroscopically (PEARS) grism Survey effectively selects emission line galaxies (ELGs) to mAB ~ 27. Follow-up Magellan LDSS3+IMACS spectroscopy of the HST/ACS PEARS ELGs confirms an accuracy of sigma_z = 0.006 for the HST/ACS PEARS grism redshifts. The luminosity-metallicity (L-Z) relation and the mass-metallicity (M-Z) relation of the PEARS ELGs at z ~ 0.6 are offset by ~ - 0.8 dex in metallicity for a given rest-frame B absolute magnitude and stellar mass relative to the local relations from SDSS galaxies. The offsets in both relations are ~ - 0.4 dex larger than that given by other samples at same redshifts, which are demonstrated to be due to the selection of different physical properties of the PEARS ELGs: low metallicities, very blue colors, small sizes, compact disturbed morphologies, high SSFR > 10^-9 yr^-1 , and high gas fraction. The downsizing effect, the tidal interacting induced inflow of metal-poor gas, and the SNe driven galactic winds outflows, may account for the significant offset of the PEARS galaxies in the L-Z and the M-Z relations relative to the local relations. The detection of the emission lines of ELGs down to m ~ 26 mag in the HST/ACS PEARS + HST/WCF3 ERS NIR composit grism spectra enables to extend the study of the evolution of the L-Z and M-Z relations to 0.6 < z < 2.4.
ContributorsXia, Lifang (Author) / Malhotra, Sangeeta (Thesis advisor) / Rhoads, James (Committee member) / Scannapieco, Evan (Committee member) / Jansen, Rolf (Committee member) / Young, Patrick (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Green pea galaxies are a class of rare, compact starburst galaxies that have powerful optical emission line [OIII]$\lambda$5007. They are the best low-redshift analogs of high-redshift (z$>$2) Lyman-alpha emitting galaxies (LAEs). They provide unique opportunities to study physical conditions in high-redshift LAEs in great detail. In this dissertation, a few physical properties of green peas are investigated. The first study in the dissertation presents star formation rate (SFR) surface density, thermal pressure in HII regions, and a correlation between them for 17 green peas and 19 Lyman break analogs, which are nearby analogs of high-redshift Lyman break galaxies. This correlation is consistent with that found from the star-forming galaxies at z $\sim$ 2.5. In the second study, a new large sample of 835 green peas in the redshift range z = 0.011 -- 0.411 are assembled from Data Release 13 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) with the equivalent width of the line [OIII]$\lambda$5007 $>$ 300\AA\ or the equivalent width of the line H$\beta$ $>$ 100\AA. The size of this new sample is ten times that of the original 80 star-forming green pea sample. With reliable T$_e$-based gas-phase metallicity measurements for the 835 green peas, a new empirical calibration of R23 (defined as ([OIII]$\lambda$$\lambda$4959,5007 + [OII]$\lambda$$\lambda$3726,3729)/H$\beta$) for strong line emitters is then derived. The double-value degeneracy of the metallicity is broken for galaxies with large ionization parameter (which manifests as log([OIII]$\lambda$$\lambda$4959,5007/[OII]$\lambda$$\lambda$3726,3729) $\geq$ 0.6). This calibration offers a good way to estimate metallicities for extreme emission-line galaxies and high-redshift LAEs. The third study presents stellar mass measurements and the stellar mass-metallicity relation of 828 green peas from the second study. The stellar mass covers 6 orders of magnitude in the range 10$^{5}$ -- 10$^{11}$ M$_{\odot}$, with a median value of 10$^{8.8}$ M$_{\odot}$. The stellar mass-metallicity relation of green peas is flatter and displays about 0.2 - 0.5 dex offset to lower metallicities in the range of stellar mass higher than 10$^{8}$ M$_{\odot}$ compared to the local SDSS star-forming galaxies. A significant dependence of the stellar mass-metallicity relation on star formation rate is not found in this work.
ContributorsJiang, Tianxing (Author) / Malhotra, Sangeeta (Thesis advisor) / Rhoads, James E (Committee member) / Scannapieco, Evan (Committee member) / Borthakur, Sanchayeeta (Committee member) / Jansen, Rolf A (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
In the upcoming decade, powerful new astronomical facilities such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the Square Kilometer Array (SKA), and ground-based 30-meter telescopes will open up the epoch of reionization to direct astronomical observation. One of the primary tools used to understand the bulk astrophysical properties of the high-redshift universe are empirically-derived star-forming laws, which relate observed luminosity to fundamental astrophysical quantities such as star formation rate. The radio/infrared relation is one of the more mysterious of these relations: despite its somewhat uncertain astrophysical origins, this relation is extremely tight and linear, with 0.3 dex of scatter over five orders of magnitude in galaxy luminosity. The effects of primordial metallicities on canonical star-forming laws is an open question: a growing body of evidence suggests that the current empirical star forming laws may not be valid in the unenriched, metal-poor environment of the very early universe.
In the modern universe, nearby dwarf galaxies with less than 1/10th the Solar metal abundance provide an opportunity to recalibrate our star formation laws and study the astrophysics of extremely metal-deficient (XMD) environments in detail. I assemble a sample of nearby dwarf galaxies, all within 100 megaparsecs, with nebular oxygen abundances between 1/5th and 1/50th Solar. I identify the subsample of these galaxies with space-based mid- and far-infrared data, and investigate the effects of extreme metallicities on the infrared-radio relationship. For ten of these galaxies, I have acquired 40 hours of observations with the Jansky Very Large Array (JVLA). C-band (4-8 GHz) radio continuum emission is detected from all 10 of these galaxies. These represent the first radio continuum detections from seven galaxies in this sample: Leo A, UGC 4704, HS 0822+3542, SBS 0940+544, and SBS 1129+476. The radio continuum in these galaxies is strongly associated with the presence of optical H-alpha emission, with spectral slopes suggesting a mix of thermal and non-thermal sources. I use the ratio of the radio and far-infrared emission to investigate behavior of the C-band (4-8 GHz) radio/infrared relation at metallicities below 1/10th Solar.
I compare the low metallicity sample with the 4.8 GHz radio/infrared relationship from the KINGFISHER nearby galaxy sample Tabatabaei et al. 2017 and to the 1.4 GHz radio/infrared relationship from the blue compact dwarf galaxy sample of Wu et al. 2008. The infrared/radio ratio q of the low metallicity galaxies is below the average q of star forming galaxies in the modern universe. I compare these galaxies' infrared and radio luminosities to their corresponding Halpha luminosities, and find that both the infrared/Halpha and the radio/H-alpha ratios are reduced by nearly 1 dex in the low metallicity sample vs. higher metallicity galaxies; however the deficit is not straightforwardly interpreted as a metallicity effect.
In the modern universe, nearby dwarf galaxies with less than 1/10th the Solar metal abundance provide an opportunity to recalibrate our star formation laws and study the astrophysics of extremely metal-deficient (XMD) environments in detail. I assemble a sample of nearby dwarf galaxies, all within 100 megaparsecs, with nebular oxygen abundances between 1/5th and 1/50th Solar. I identify the subsample of these galaxies with space-based mid- and far-infrared data, and investigate the effects of extreme metallicities on the infrared-radio relationship. For ten of these galaxies, I have acquired 40 hours of observations with the Jansky Very Large Array (JVLA). C-band (4-8 GHz) radio continuum emission is detected from all 10 of these galaxies. These represent the first radio continuum detections from seven galaxies in this sample: Leo A, UGC 4704, HS 0822+3542, SBS 0940+544, and SBS 1129+476. The radio continuum in these galaxies is strongly associated with the presence of optical H-alpha emission, with spectral slopes suggesting a mix of thermal and non-thermal sources. I use the ratio of the radio and far-infrared emission to investigate behavior of the C-band (4-8 GHz) radio/infrared relation at metallicities below 1/10th Solar.
I compare the low metallicity sample with the 4.8 GHz radio/infrared relationship from the KINGFISHER nearby galaxy sample Tabatabaei et al. 2017 and to the 1.4 GHz radio/infrared relationship from the blue compact dwarf galaxy sample of Wu et al. 2008. The infrared/radio ratio q of the low metallicity galaxies is below the average q of star forming galaxies in the modern universe. I compare these galaxies' infrared and radio luminosities to their corresponding Halpha luminosities, and find that both the infrared/Halpha and the radio/H-alpha ratios are reduced by nearly 1 dex in the low metallicity sample vs. higher metallicity galaxies; however the deficit is not straightforwardly interpreted as a metallicity effect.
ContributorsMonkiewicz, Jacqueline Ann (Author) / Bowman, Judd (Thesis advisor) / Scowen, Paul (Thesis advisor) / Mauskopf, Philip (Committee member) / Scannapieco, Evan (Committee member) / Jansen, Rolf (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Learning how properties of galaxies such as star formation, galaxy interactions, chemical composition, and others evolve to produce the modern universe has long been a goal of extragalactic astronomy. In recent years, grism spectroscopy from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has provided a means to study these properties with spectroscopy while avoiding the limitations of ground-based observation. In this dissertation, I present several studies wherein I used HST G102 grism spectroscopy from the Faint Infrared Grism Survey (FIGS) to investigate these fundamental properties of galaxies and how they interact and evolve. In the first study, I combined the grism spectra with broadband photometry to produce a catalog of redshifts with improved accuracy, reducing the median redshift error from 3\% to 2\%. With this redshift catalog, I conducted a systematic search for galaxy overdensities in the FIGS fields, producing a list of 24 significant candidates. In the second study, I developed a method for identifying emission line galaxy (ELG) candidates from continuum-subtracted 1D spectra, and identified 71 ELGs in one FIGS field. In matching MUSE/VLT spectra, I measured the [OIII]$\lambda$4363 emission line for 14 FIGS ELGs, and used this to measure their $T_e$-based gas-phase metallicities. These ELGs show a low-metallicity offset on the Mass-Metallicity Relation, and I demonstrated that this offset can be explained by recent star formation. In the third study, I expanded the ELG search to all four FIGS fields, identifying 208 H$\alpha$, [OIII]$\lambda\lambda$4959,5007, and [OII]$\lambda\lambda$3727,3729 line emitters. I compiled a catalog of line fluxes, redshifts, and equivalent widths. I combined this catalog with the overdensity study to investigate a possible relationship between line luminosity, star formation, and an ELG's environment. In the fourth study, I usde 15 FIGS H$\alpha$ emitters and 49 ``green pea'' line emitters to compare H$\alpha$ and the far-UV continuum as tracers of star formation. I explored a correlation between the H$\alpha$-FUV ratio and the ratio of [OIII]$\lambda\lambda$4959,5007 to [OII]$\lambda\lambda$3727,3729 and its implications for star formation history.
ContributorsPharo, John (Author) / Malhotra, Sangeeta (Thesis advisor) / Young, Patrick (Thesis advisor) / Rhoads, James (Committee member) / Scannapieco, Evan (Committee member) / Borthakur, Sanchayeeta (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019