Recent Talks

I will present the first Large Millimiter Telescope spectra of 4 nearby galaxies with known high star formation rates. The individual spectra were acquired with the Redshift Search Receiver, a 3 mm spectrograph that covers simultaneously the 3 mm band from 75 to 110 GHz. The spectra show rms temperatures of around 4 mK that allow us to detect not only common molecular species such as CO, HCN, HCO+, HCN, 13CO reported widely in the literature but also other more rare molecular transitions (HC3N, CN, CH3OH, CH3C2H) and even Hydrogen recombination lines (from H39alpha to H42alpha). We are making use of theoretical radiative transfer models to analize these spectra in order to understand the variations of the observed line ratios of different lines in galaxies classified as ultraluminous infrared galaxies where the star formation rate may be as high as 100 solar masses per year. These data will help to understand the physical conditions of the gas in regions that are forming stars very efficiently. The observed line ratios in star forming galaxies are also compared to those galaxies that is known to contain an AGN.

Based on the double exponential behaviour of the gas mass profile and on the O/H gradient, Robles-Valdez, Carigi & Peimbert (2013) built a sucessful chemical evolution model for M33. The model predicts that in the inner parts of M33 the star formation history follows an inside-out scenario, like M31 or the MW, but in the outer parts of M33 the star formation history follows an outside-in scenario, as dwarf galaxies of the Local Group.

I will discuss a new, open-source astronomical image-fitting program, specialized for galaxies, which is fast, flexible, and highly extensible. A key characteristic is an object-oriented design which allows new types of image components (2D surface-brightness functions) to be easily written and added to the program. Image functions provided with the program include the usual suspects for galaxy decompositions (Sersic, exponential, Gaussian), along with Core-Sersic and broken-exponential profiles, elliptical rings, and components which perform line-of-sight integration through 3D luminosity-density models of disks and rings seen at arbitrary inclinations. Minimization can be done using the standard chi^2 statistic (using either data or model values to estimate per-pixel errors) or the Cash statistic, which is appropriate for Poisson data in low-count regimes; different minimization algorithms allow trade-offs between speed and decreased sensitivity to local minima in the fit landscape. I will also show that fitting low-S/N galaxy images by minimizing chi^2 can lead to significant biases in fitted parameter values, which are avoided if the Cash statistic is used; this is true even when Gaussian read noise is present.

 How does the group environment hamper star-formation in star-forming galaxies?

Abstract: We present the first results from the H-alpha Galaxy Groups Imaging Survey (HAGGIS), a narrow-band imaging survey of SDSS groups at z < 0.05 conducted using the Wide Field Imager (WFI) on the ESO/MPG 2.2 meter telescope and the Wide Field Camera (WFC) on the Issac Newton Telescope (INT). In total, we observed 100 galaxy groups with wide range of halo mass 10^12 - 10^14 M_sun in pairs of narrow-band filters selected to get continuum subtracted rest-frame H-alpha images for each galaxy in these groups. The excellent data allows us to detect H-alpha down to the 10^(-18) ergs/s/cm^2/arcsec^2 level. Here, we examine the role played by halo mass and galaxy stellar mass in deciding the overall star formation activity in star forming disks by comparing stacked H-alpha profiles of galaxies in different halo mass and stellar mass bins. With this preliminary study, we have found that the star-formation activity in star-forming galaxies decreases in larger halos compared to the field galaxies. Using median equivalent width profiles, we can infer how environmental processes affect star-forming galaxies differently at different radii.

As early as 10 Gyr ago, galaxies with more than 10^11 M* in stars already existed. While most of these massive galaxies must have subsequently transformed through on-going star formation and mergers with other galaxies, a small fraction (<0.1%) may have survived untouched till today. Searches for such relic galaxies, useful windows to explore the early Universe, have been inconclusive to date. In this talk, we will present the first case of a nearby galaxy, NGC1277 (at a distance of 73 Mpc in the Perseus galaxy cluster), which fulfils many criteria to be considered a relic galaxy. Using deep optical spectroscopy, we derive the star formation history along the structure of the galaxy: the stellar populations are uniformly old (>10 Gyr) with no evidence for more recent star formation episodes. The metallicity of their stars is super-solar ([Fe/H]=0.20+-0.04 with a smooth decline towards the outer regions) and alpha enriched ([alpha/Fe]=0.4+-0.1). This suggests a very short formation time scale for the bulk of stars of this galaxy. This object also rotates very fast (V_{rot}~300 km/s) and has a large central velocity dispersion (sigma>300 km/s). NGC1277 allows the explorations in full detail of properties such as the structure, internal dynamics, metallicity and initial mass function at ~10-12 Gyr back in time when the first massive galaxies were built.

The matter within a few Schwarzschild radii of accreting neutron stars and black holes is moving under the influence of a strong gravitational field, and, in stellar mass compact objects, through strongly curved spacetime. The X-rays emitted in the accretion process can be used to diagnose this motion, using both spectroscopy and rapid time variability. Similarly, X-rays emitted from the surface of accreting neutron stars can be used to diagnose neutron star mass, radius and even internal structure. I discuss these ways to probe strong gravitational fields and ultradense matter from an empirical perspective and in the context of proposed future X-ray observatories, in particular, LOFT.

Following the observational and theoretical evidence that points at core collapse supernovae as major producers of dust, we calculate the hydrodynamics of the matter reinserted within young and massive super stellar clusters under the assumption of gas and dust radiative cooling. The large supernova rate expected in massive clusters allows for a continuous replenishment of dust immersed in the high temperature thermalized reinserted matter and warrants a stationary presence of dust within the cluster volume during the type II supernova era (~ 3 Myr - 40 Myr). Such a balance determines the range of dust to gas mass ratio and this the dust cooling law. We then search for the critical line in the cluster mechanical luminosity (or cluster mass) vs cluster size, that separates quasi- adiabatic and strongly radiative cluster wind solutions from the bimodal cases. In the latter, strong radiative cooling reduces considerably the cluster wind mechanical energy output and affects particularly the cluster central regions, leading to frequent thermal instabilities that diminish the pressure and inhibit the exit of the reinserted matter. Instead matter accumulates there and is expected to eventually lead to gravitational instabilities and to further stellar formation with the matter reinserted by former massive stars. The main outcome of the calculations is that the critical line is almost two orders of magnitude or more, depending on the assumed value of V\infty, lower than when only gas radiative cooling is applied. And thus, massive clusters (M_sc > 10^5 Msun) are predicted to enter the bimodal regime.