Browsing by Author "Johnston, Evelyn J."

Now showing 1 - 11 of 11
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    A MUSE view of the core of the giant low-surface-brightness galaxy Malin 1
    (2024) Johnston, Evelyn J.; Galaz, Gaspar; Blana, Matias; Amram, Philippe; Boissier, Samuel; Eigenthaler, Paul; Epinat, Benoit; Junais; Ordenes-Briceno, Yasna; Puzia, Thomas; Weilbacher, Peter M.
    Aims. The central region of the giant low-surface-brightness galaxy Malin 1 has long been known to have a complex morphology, with evidence of a bulge, disc, and potentially a bar hosting asymmetric star formation. In this work, we use VLT/MUSE data to resolve the central region of Malin 1 in order to determine its structure. Methods. We used careful light profile fitting in every image slice of the datacube to create wavelength-dependent models of each morphological component, from which we were able to cleanly extract their spectra. We then used the kinematics and emission line properties from these spectra to better understand the nature of each component extracted from our model fitting. Results. We report the detection of a pair of distinct sources at the centre of this galaxy with a separation of similar to 1.05 '', which corresponds to a separation on sky of similar to 1.9 kpc. The radial velocity data of each object confirm that they both lie in the kinematic core of the galaxy. An analysis of the emission lines reveals that the central compact source is more consistent with being ionised through star formation and/or a LINER, while the off-centre compact source lies closer to the separation between star-forming galaxies and active galactic nuclei. Conclusions. This evidence suggests that the centre of Malin 1 hosts either a bar with asymmetric star formation or two distinct components. In the latter scenario, we propose two hypotheses for the nature of the off-centre compact source-it could either be a star-forming clump, containing one or more star clusters, that is in the process of falling into the core of the galaxy and eventually merging with the central nuclear star cluster, or it could be a clump of gas falling into the centre of the galaxy from either outside or from the disc and triggering star formation there.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    BUDDI-MaNGA II: the star-formation histories of bulges and discs of S0s
    (OXFORD UNIV PRESS, 2022) Johnston, Evelyn J.; Haussler, Boris; Jegatheesan, Keerthana; Fraser-McKelvie, Amelia; Coccato, Lodovico; Cortesi, Arianna; Jaffe, Yara; Galaz, Gaspar; Mora, Marcelo; Ordenes-Briceno, Yasna
    Many processes have been proposed to explain the quenching of star formation in spiral galaxies and their transformation into S0s. These processes affect the bulge and disc in different ways, and so by isolating the bulge and disc spectra, we can look for these characteristic signatures. In this work, we used BUDDI to cleanly extract the spectra of the bulges and discs of 78 S0 galaxies in the MaNGA Survey. We compared the luminosity and mass weighted stellar populations of the bulges and discs, finding that bulges are generally older and more metal rich than their discs. When considering the mass and environment of each galaxy, we found that the galaxy stellar mass plays a more significant role on the formation of the bulges. Bulges in galaxies with masses >= 10(10) M-circle dot built up the majority of their mass rapidly early in their lifetimes, while those in lower mass galaxies formed over more extended time-scales and more recently. No clear difference was found in the formation or quenching processes of the discs as a function of galaxy environment. We conclude that more massive S0 galaxies formed through an inside-out scenario, where the bulge formed first and evolved passively while the disc underwent a more extended period of star formation. In lower mass S0s, the bulges and discs either formed together from the same material, or through an outside-in scenario. Our results therefore imply multiple formation mechanisms for S0 galaxies, the pathway of which is chiefly determined by a galaxy's current stellar mass.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Extending the evolution of the stellar mass-size relation at z ≤ 2 to low stellar mass galaxies from HFF and CANDELS
    (2021) Nedkova, Kalina, V; Haussler, Boris; Marchesini, Danilo; Dimauro, Paola; Brammer, Gabriel; Eigenthaler, Paul; Feinstein, Adina D.; Ferguson, Henry C.; Huertas-Company, Marc; Johnston, Evelyn J.; Kado-Fong, Erin; Kartaltepe, Jeyhan S.; Labbe, Ivo; Lange-Vagle, Daniel; Martis, Nicholas S.; McGrath, Elizabeth J.; Muzzin, Adam; Oesch, Pascal; Ordenes-Briceno, Yasna; Puzia, Thomas; Shipley, Heath, V; Simmons, Brooke D.; Skelton, Rosalind E.; Stefanon, Mauro; van der Wel, Arjen; Whitaker, Katherine E.
    We reliably extend the stellar mass-size relation over 0.2 <= z <= 2 to low stellar mass galaxies by combining the depth of Hubble Frontier Fields with the large volume covered by CANDELS. Galaxies are simultaneously modelled in multiple bands using the tools developed by the MegaMorph project, allowing robust size (i.e. half-light radius) estimates even for small, faint, and high redshift galaxies. We show that above 10(7) M-circle dot, star-forming galaxies are well represented by a single power law on the mass-size plane over our entire redshift range. Conversely, the stellar mass-size relation is steep for quiescent galaxies with stellar masses >= 10(10.3)M(circle dot) and flattens at lower masses, regardless of whether quiescence is selected based on star-formation activity, rest-frame colours, or structural characteristics. This flattening occurs at sizes of similar to 1 kpc at z <= 1. As a result, a double power law is preferred for the stellar mass-size relation of quiescent galaxies, at least above 10(7)M(circle dot). We find no strong redshift dependence in the slope of the relation of star-forming galaxies as well as of high mass quiescent galaxies. We also show that star-forming galaxies with stellar masses >= 10(9.5)M(circle dot) and quiescent galaxies with stellar masses >= 10(10.3)M(circle dot) have undergone significant size growth since z similar to 2, as expected; however, low mass galaxies have not. Finally, we supplement our data with predominantly quiescent dwarf galaxies from the core of the Fornax cluster, showing that the stellar mass-size relation is continuous below 10(7)M(circle dot), but a more complicated functional form is necessary to describe the relation.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    First Detection of Molecular Gas in the Giant Low Surface Brightness Galaxy Malin 1
    (2024) Galaz, Gaspar; Gonzalez-Lopez, Jorge; Guzman, Viviana; Messias, Hugo; Junais, Samuel; Boissier, Samuel; Epinat, Benoit; Weilbacher, Peter M.; Puzia, Thomas; Johnston, Evelyn J.; Amram, Philippe; Frayer, David; Blana, Matias; Howk, J. Christopher; Berg, Michelle; Bustos-Espinoza, Roy; Munoz-Mateos, Juan Carlos; Cortes, Paulo; Garcia-Appadoo, Diego; Joachimi, Katerine
    After over three decades of unsuccessful attempts, we report the first detection of molecular gas emission in Malin 1, the largest spiral galaxy observed to date, and one of the most iconic giant low surface brightness galaxies. Using Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, we detect significant 12CO (J = 1-0) emission in the galaxy's central region and tentatively identify CO emission across three regions on the disk. These observations allow for a better estimate of the H2 mass and molecular gas mass surface density, both of which are remarkably low given the galaxy's scale. By integrating data on its H i mass, we derive a very low molecular-to-atomic gas mass ratio. Overall, our results highlight the minimal presence of molecular gas in Malin 1, contrasting sharply with its extensive, homogeneous atomic gas reservoir. For the first time, we position Malin 1 on the Kennicutt-Schmidt diagram, where it falls below the main sequence for normal spirals, consistent with previous upper limits but now with more accurate figures. These findings are crucial for constraining our understanding of star formation processes in environments characterized by extremely low molecular gas densities and for refining models of galaxy formation, thereby improving predictions concerning the formation, evolution, and distribution of these giant, elusive galaxies.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Formation of S0s in extreme environments II: The star-formation histories of bulges, discs, and lenses
    (2021) Johnston, Evelyn J.; Aragon-Salamanca, Alfonso; Fraser-McKelvie, Amelia; Merrifield, Michael; Haeussler, Boris; Coccato, Lodovico; Jaffe, Yara; Cortesi, Ariana; Chies-Santos, Ana; Rodriguez Del Pino, Bruno; Sheen, Yun-Kyeong
    Different processes have been proposed to explain the formation of S0s, including mergers, disc instabilities, and quenched spirals. These processes are expected to dominate in different environments, and thus leave characteristic footprints in the kinematics and stellar populations of the individual components within the galaxies. New techniques enable us to cleanly disentangle the kinematics and stellar populations of these components in IFU observations. In this paper, we use BUDDI to spectroscopically extract the light from the bulge, disc, and lens components within a sample of eight S0 galaxies in extreme environments observed with MUSE. While the spectra of bulges and discs in S0 galaxies have been separated before, this work is the first to isolate the spectra of lenses. Stellar populations analysis revealed that the bulges and lenses have generally similar or higher metallicities than the discs, and the alpha-enhancement of the bulges and discs are correlated, while those of the lenses are completely unconnected to either component. We conclude that the majority of the mass in these galaxies was built up early in the lifetime of the galaxy, with the bulges and discs forming from the same material through dissipational processes at high redshift. The lenses, on the other hand, formed over independent time-scales at more random times within the lifetime of the galaxy, possibly from evolved bars. The younger stellar populations and asymmetric features seen in the field S0s may indicate that these galaxies have been affected more by minor mergers than the cluster galaxies.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Intrinsic Morphology of Ultra-diffuse Galaxies
    (IOP PUBLISHING LTD, 2020) Rong, Yu; Dong, Xiao Yu; Puzia, Thomas H.; Galaz, Gaspar; Sanchez Janssen, Ruben; Cao, Tianwen; van der Burg, Remco F. J.; Sifon, Cristobal; Pina, Pavel E. Mancera; Marcelo, Mora; D'Ago, Giuseppe; Zhang, Hong Xin; Johnston, Evelyn J.; Eigenthaler, Paul
    With the published data of apparent axis ratios for 1109 ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs) located in 17 low-redshift (z similar to 0.020-0.063) galaxy clusters and 84 UDGs in two intermediate-redshift (z similar to 0.308-0.348) clusters, we take advantage of a Markov Chain Monte Carlo approach and assume a triaxial model to investigate the intrinsic morphologies of UDGs. In contrast to the conclusion of Burkert, i.e., the underlying shapes of UDGs are purely prolate (C = B < A), we find that the data favor the oblate-triaxial models (i.e., thick disks with C < B less than or similar to A) over the nearly prolate ones. We also find that the intrinsic morphologies of UDGs are related to their stellar masses/luminosities, environments, and redshifts. First, the more luminous UDGs have puffier morphologies compared with the less luminous counterparts; the UDG morphologic dependence on luminosity is distinct from that of the typical quiescent dwarf ellipticals (dEs) and dwarf spheroidals (dSphs); in this sense, UDGs may not be simply treated as an extension of the dE/dSph class with similar evolutionary histories; they may differ not only in size. Second, the UDGs with smaller clustercentric distances are more puffed up, compared with the counterparts with larger clustercentric distances; in combination with the UDG thickness dependence on luminosity, the puffier morphologies of UDGs with high luminosities or located in the denser environments are very likely to be attributed to tidal interactions with massive galaxies. Third, we find that the intermediate-redshift UDGs are more flattened, compared with the low-redshift counterparts, which plausibly suggests a "disky" origin for the high-redshift, newly born UDGs.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Lessons on Star-forming Ultra-diffuse Galaxies from the Stacked Spectra of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
    (2020) Rong, Yu; Zhu, Kai; Johnston, Evelyn J.; Zhang, Hong-Xin; Cao, Tianwen; Puzia, Thomas H.; Galaz, Gaspar
    We investigate the on-average properties for 28 star-forming ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs) located in low-density environments, by stacking their spectra from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. These relatively isolated UDGs, with stellar masses of log(10) (M-*/M-circle dot) similar to 8.57 +/- 0.29, have the on-average total stellar metallicity [M/H] similar to -0.82 +/- 0.14, iron metallicity [Fe/H] similar to -1.00 +/- 0.16, stellar age t(*) similar to 5.2 +/- 0.5 Gyr, alpha-enhancement [alpha/Fe] similar to 0.24 +/- 0.10, and oxygen abundance 12+log(O/H) similar to 8.16 +/- 0.06, as well as central stellar velocity dispersion 54 +/- 12 km s(-1). On the star formation rate versus stellar mass diagram, these UDGs are located lower than the extrapolated star-forming main sequence from the massive spirals, but roughly follow the main sequence of low-surface-brightness dwarf galaxies. We find that these star-forming UDGs are not particularly metal-poor or metal-rich for their stellar masses, as compared with the metallicity-mass relations of the nearby typical dwarfs. With the UDG data of this work and previous studies, we also find a coarse correlation between [Fe/H] and magnesium-element enhancement [Mg/Fe] for UDGs: [Mg/Fe] similar or equal to -0.43(+/- 0.26) [Fe/H] -0.14(+/- 0.40).
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Mapping the Kinematically Decoupled Core in NGC 1407 with MUSE
    (2018) Johnston, Evelyn J.; Hau, George K. T.; Coccato, Lodovico; Herrera, Cristian
    Studies of the kinematics of NGC 1407 have revealed complex kinematical structure, consisting of the outer galaxy, an embedded disc within a radius of similar to 60 arcsec, and a kinematically decoupled core (KDC) with a radius of less than 30 arcsec. However, the size of the KDC and the amplitude of the kinematic misalignment it induces have not yet been determined. In this paper, we explore the properties of the KDC using observations from the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) Integral Field Spectrograph to map out the kinematics in the central arcminute of NGC 1407. Velocity and kinemetry maps of the galaxy reveal a twist of similar to 148 degrees in the central 10 arcsec of the galaxy, and the higher order moments of the kinematics reveal that within the same region, this slowly rotating galaxy displays no net rotation. Analysis of the stellar populations across the galaxy found no evidence of younger stellar populations in the region of the KDC, instead finding uniform age and super-solar a-enhancement across the galaxy, and a smoothly decreasing metallicity gradient with radius. We therefore conclude that NGC 1407 contains a triaxial, kiloparsec-scale KDC with distinct kinematics relative to the rest of the galaxy, and that is likely to have formed through either a major merger or a series of minor mergers early in the lifetime of the galaxy. With a radius of similar to 5 arcsec or similar to 0.6 kpc, NGC 1407 contains the smallest KDC mapped by MUSE to date in terms of both its physical and angular size.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    On the Evolutionary History of a Simulated Disk Galaxy as Seen by Phylogenetic Trees
    (2024) Silva, Danielle de Brito; Jofre, Paula; Tissera, Patricia B.; Yaxley, Keaghan J.; Jara, Jenny Gonzalez; Eldridge, Camilla J. L.; Sillero, Emanuel; Yates, Robert M.; Hua, Xia; Das, Payel; Aguilera-Gomez, Claudia; Johnston, Evelyn J.; Rojas-Arriagada, Alvaro; Foley, Robert; Gilmore, Gerard
    Phylogenetic methods have long been used in biology and more recently have been extended to other fields-for example, linguistics and technology-to study evolutionary histories. Galaxies also have an evolutionary history and fall within this broad phylogenetic framework. Under the hypothesis that chemical abundances can be used as a proxy for the interstellar medium's DNA, phylogenetic methods allow us to reconstruct hierarchical similarities and differences among stars-essentially, a tree of evolutionary relationships and thus history. In this work, we apply phylogenetic methods to a simulated disk galaxy obtained with a chemodynamical code to test the approach. We found that at least 100 stellar particles are required to reliably portray the evolutionary history of a selected stellar population in this simulation, and that the overall evolutionary history is reliably preserved when the typical uncertainties in the chemical abundances are smaller than 0.08 dex. The results show that the shapes of the trees are strongly affected by the age-metallicity relation, as well as the star formation history of the galaxy. We found that regions with low star formation rates produce shorter trees than regions with high star formation rates. Our analysis demonstrates that phylogenetic methods can shed light on the process of galaxy evolution.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Revealing the Nature of a Lyα Halo in a Strongly Lensed Interacting System at z=2.92
    (2022) Solimano, Manuel; Gonzalez-Lopez, Jorge; Aravena, Manuel; Johnston, Evelyn J.; Moya-Sierralta, Cristobal; Barrientos, Luis F.; Baylis, Matthew B.; Gladders, Michael; Infante, Leopoldo; Ledoux, Cedric; Lopez, Sebastian; Poudel, Suraj; Rigby, Jane R.; Sharon, Keren; Tejos, Nicolas
    Spatially extended halos of H i Ly alpha emission are now ubiquitously found around high-redshift star-forming galaxies. But our understanding of the nature and powering mechanisms of these halos is still hampered by the complex radiative transfer effects of the Ly alpha line and limited angular resolution. In this paper, we present resolved Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) observations of SGAS J122651.3+215220, a strongly lensed pair of L* galaxies at z = 2.92 embedded in a Ly alpha halo of L (Ly alpha ) = (6.2 +/- 1.3) x 10(42) erg s(-1). Globally, the system shows a line profile that is markedly asymmetric and redshifted, but its width and peak shift vary significantly across the halo. By fitting the spatially binned Ly alpha spectra with a collection of radiative transfer galactic wind models, we infer a mean outflow expansion velocity of approximate to 211 km s(-1), with higher values preferentially found on both sides of the system's major axis. The velocity of the outflow is validated with the blueshift of low-ionization metal absorption lines in the spectra of the central galaxies. We also identify a faint (M (1500) approximate to -16.7) companion detected in both Ly alpha and the continuum, whose properties are in agreement with a predicted population of satellite galaxies that contribute to the extended Ly alpha emission. Finally, we briefly discuss the impact of the interaction between the central galaxies on the properties of the halo and the possibility of in situ fluorescent Ly alpha production.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The Giant Low Surface Brightness Galaxy Malin 1: New Constraints for Its Molecular Gas Mass from GBT/ARGUS Observations
    (2022) Galaz Lladser, Gaspar; Frayer, David T.; Blaña, Matías; Howk, J. Christopher; Puzia, Thomas; Johnston, Evelyn J.; Ordenes Briceño, Yasna; Church, Sarah; Gil, Santiago; Joachimi, Katerine; Mora, Marcelo
    We report on results from GBT/ARGUS 12CO(1-0) observations for the giant low surface brightness galaxy Malin 1, which allow us to determine an upper limit for its CO mass, and hence its molecular gas mass and molecular gas mass surface density ? H 2 . Although we performed very deep observations through 17 hr on-source integration time, reaching a noise level of ?0.2 mK (T A * ) with a corresponding extended source CO limit (3?) of 0.09 K km s?1, 19 times more sensitive than previous works, we do not detect the 12CO(1-0) emission line. However, the observations allow us to estimate an upper limit (3?) for the CO mass of about 7.4 × 109 M ? for the extended emission, and 1.4 × 108 M ? for the central part of the galaxy. With these figures we conclude that the molecular gas surface density is lower than 0.3 M ? pc?2, and the corresponding molecular to atomic gas mass ratio is lower than 0.13. The evidence suggests quite different physical conditions for the interstellar medium in Malin 1 compared to that of normal, high surface brightness spirals. This, in one way to another, keeps an usual molecular gas tracer as CO hidden from our observations, in spite of the diverse stellar and structural properties of Malin 1 observed by several authors since more than 30 yr.