Start year
2006
Organizational Unit
Organizing institutions
Grants related:
General
Description
Welcome to the Traces of Galaxy Formation research group website.
We are a large, diverse, and very active research group aiming to provide a comprehensive picture for the formation of galaxies in the Universe. Rooted in detailed stellar population analysis, we are constantly exploring and developing new tools and ideas to understand how galaxies came to be what we now observe.
A complex star formation history, as the one expected to describe galaxy evolution, needs a multidisciplinary approach to be fully understood. Our group at the IAC consists of experienced researchers in cosmological simulations, dynamical studies, stellar populations and morphological properties of galaxies up to high redshift. We combine different approaches (e.g. observations and theory, secular and cosmological evolution studies) to obtain a complete view of the dominant mechanisms driving the evolution of galaxies.
Within this general framework, we are currently exploring three main areas of research:
- Stellar population synthesis models
- Development of new stellar population synthesis models
- Stellar population analysis tools
- Universality of the stellar initial mass function (IMF)
- Cosmic evolution of galaxies
- Massive galaxy evolution
- Stellar populations in different environments
- Low surface brightness science
- Machine learning and cosmological simulations
- Evolutionary processes in nearby galaxies
- The role of black holes in the evolution of galaxies
- Surveys of nearby galaxies
- Stellar kinematics and dynamical models
If you want to get in contact or work with us, please send an email to the head of the group (Ignacio Martín-Navarro ignacio.martin [at] iac.es (ignacio[dot]martin[at]iac[dot]es)).
Members
Principal investigator
Ignacio
Martín Navarro
Project staff
Ignacio
Trujillo Cabrera
Alexandre
Vazdekis Vazdekis
Ignacio Alfonso
Ferreras Páez
Jesús
Falcón Barroso
Marc
Huertas-Portocarrero Company
Adriana de
Lorenzo-Cáceres Rodríguez
Anna
Ferré Mateu
Mireia
Montes Quiles
Regina
Sarmiento
Iveth Adaena
Gaspar Gorostieta
Eirini
Angeloudi
Giulia
Golini
Laura Elizabeth
Scholz Díaz
Pablo
Rodríguez Beltrán
Results
Here you can find some of our most recent highlights:
- Local variations of the stellar velocity ellipsoid - II. The effect of the bar in the inner regions of Auriga galaxies. Walo et al. 2022, MNRAS (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2022MNRAS.513.4587W)
- Anisotropic satellite galaxy quenching modulated by black hole activity. Martín-Navarro et al. 2021, Nature (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2021Natur.594..187M)
- Evaluating hydrodynamical simulations with green valley galaxies. Angthopo et al. 2021, MNRAS (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2021MNRAS.502.3685A)
- Sub one per cent mass fractions of young stars in red massive galaxies. Salvador-Rusiñol et al. 2020, Nature Astronomy (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2020NatAs...4..252S)
- Detection of young stellar populations in apparently quenched low-mass galaxies using red spectral line indices. de Lorenzo-Cáceres et al. 2020, MNRAS (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2020MNRAS.498.1002D)
Scientific activity
Related publications
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Sampling methods for stellar masses and the mmax-Mecl relation in the starburst dwarf galaxy NGC 4214It has been claimed in the recent literature that a non-trivial relation between the mass of the most-massive star, mmax, in a star cluster and its embedded star cluster mass (the mmax - Mecl relation) is falsified by observations of the most-massive stars and the Hα luminosity of young star clusters in the starburst dwarf galaxy NGC 4214. Here, itWeidner, C. et al.
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72014 -
Satellite galaxies around present-day massive ellipticalsUsing the spectroscopic New York University Value-Added Galaxy Catalogue and the photometric photo-z catalogues of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7, we have explored the satellite distribution around ˜1000 massive (M⋆ ≳ 2 × 1011 M⊙) visually classified elliptical galaxies down to a satellite mass ratio of 1:400 (i.e. 5 × 108 ≲ Msat ≲ 2 ×Ruiz, P. et al.
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72014 -
Stellar haloes outshine disc truncations in low-inclined spiralsThe absence of stellar disc truncations in low-inclined spiral galaxies has been a matter of debate in the last decade. Disc truncations are often observed in highly inclined galaxies but no obvious detection of this feature has so far been made in face-on spirals. Here we show, using a simple exponential disc plus stellar halo model based onMartín-Navarro, I. et al.
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72014 -
The HST/ACS Coma Cluster Survey - VII. Structure and assembly of massive galaxies in the centre of the Coma clusterWe constrain the assembly history of galaxies in the projected central 0.5 Mpc of the Coma cluster by performing structural decomposition on 69 massive (M⋆ ≥ 109 M⊙) galaxies using high-resolution F814W images from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Treasury Survey of Coma. Each galaxy is modelled with up to three Sérsic components having a freeWeinzirl, T. et al.
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72014 -
The X-shooter Spectral Library (XSL). I. DR1: Near-ultraviolet through optical spectra from the first year of the surveyWe present the first release of the X-shooter Spectral Library (XSL). This release contains 237 stars. The spectra in this release span a wavelength range of 3000-10 200 Å and have been observed at a resolving power of R ≡ λ/ Δλ ~ 10 000. The spectra were obtained at ESO's 8-m Very Large Telescope (VLT). The sample contains O-M, long-periodChen, Y.-P. et al.
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52014 -
The mass and angular momentum distribution of simulated massive early-type galaxies to large radiiWe study the dark and luminous mass distributions, circular velocity curves (CVCs), line-of-sight kinematics and angular momenta for a sample of 42 cosmological zoom simulations of galaxies with stellar masses from 2.0 × 1010 to 3.4 × 1011 M⊙ h-1. Using a temporal smoothing technique, we are able to reach large radii. We find the following. TheWu, Xufen et al.
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32014 -
Evolution induced by dry minor mergers onto fast-rotator S0 galaxiesContext. Numerical studies have shown that the properties of the S0 galaxies with kinematics intermediate between fast and slow rotators are difficult to explain by a scenario of major mergers. Aims: We investigate whether the smoother perturbation induced by minor mergers can reproduce these systems. Methods: We analysed collisionless N-bodyTapia, T. et al.
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52014 -
A Near-infrared Census of the Multicomponent Stellar Structure of Early-type Dwarf Galaxies in the Virgo ClusterThe fraction of star-forming to quiescent dwarf galaxies varies from almost infinity in the field to zero in the centers of rich galaxy clusters. What is causing this pronounced morphology-density relation? What do quiescent dwarf galaxies look like when studied in detail, and what conclusions can be drawn about their formation mechanism? Here weJanz, J. et al.
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52014 -
The discrepancy between dynamical and stellar masses in massive compact galaxies traces non-homologyFor many massive compact galaxies, their dynamical masses (Mdyn ∝ σ2re) are lower than their stellar masses (M⋆). We analyse the unphysical mass discrepancy M⋆/Mdyn > 1 on a stellar-mass-selected sample of early-type galaxies (M⋆ ≳ 1011 M⊙) at redshifts z ˜ 0.2 to z ˜ 1.1. We build stacked spectra for bins of redshift, size and stellar mass, obtainPeralta de Arriba, L. et al.
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32014 -
A characteristic oxygen abundance gradient in galaxy disks unveiled with CALIFAWe present the largest and most homogeneous catalog of H ii regions and associations compiled so far. The catalog comprises more than 7000 ionized regions, extracted from 306 galaxies observed by the CALIFA survey. We describe the procedures used to detect, select, and analyze the spectroscopic properties of these ionized regions. In the currentSánchez, S. F. et al.
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32014 -
Stellar Kinematics and Structural Properties of Virgo Cluster Dwarf Early-type Galaxies from the SMAKCED Project. I. Kinematically Decoupled Cores and Implications for Infallen Groups in ClustersWe present evidence for kinematically decoupled cores (KDCs) in two dwarf early-type (dE) galaxies in the Virgo cluster, VCC 1183 and VCC 1453, studied as part of the SMAKCED stellar absorption-line spectroscopy and imaging survey. These KDCs have radii of 1.''8 (0.14 kpc) and 4.''2 (0.33 kpc), respectively. Each of these KDCs is distinct from theToloba, E. et al.
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32014 -
Virgo Cluster and field dwarf ellipticals in 3D - II. Internal dynamics points to tidal harassment?We present the dynamical analysis of a sample of 12 dwarf elliptical (dE) galaxies for which we have obtained SAURON large-scale two-dimensional spectroscopic data. We construct Jeans axisymmetric models and obtain total dynamical masses enclosed within one effective radius. We use the obtained values to show that the validity of the dynamicalRyś, A. et al.
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32014 -
Age and metallicity gradients support hierarchical formation for M87In 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 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 M87Montes, M. et al.
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32014 -
The effects of spatial resolution on integral field spectrograph surveys at different redshifts - The CALIFA perspectiveContext. Over the past decade, 3D optical spectroscopy has become the preferred tool for understanding the properties of galaxies and is now increasingly used to carry out galaxy surveys. Low redshift surveys include SAURON, DiskMass, ATLAS3D, PINGS, and VENGA. At redshifts above 0.7, surveys such as MASSIV, SINS, GLACE, and IMAGES have targetedMast, D. et al.
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12014 -
Resolving galaxies in time and space. II. Uncertainties in the spectral synthesis of datacubesAims: In a companion paper we have presented many products derived from the application of the spectral synthesis code starlight to datacubes from the CALIFA survey, including 2D maps of stellar population properties (such as mean ages, mass, and extinction) and 1D averages in the temporal and spatial dimensions. Our goal here is to assess theCid Fernandes, R. et al.
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12014 -
The star formation history of CALIFA galaxies: Radial structuresWe have studied the radial structure of the stellar mass surface density (μ∗) and stellar population age as a function of the total stellar mass and morphology for a sample of 107 galaxies from the CALIFA survey. We applied the fossil record method based on spectral synthesis techniques to recover the star formation history (SFH), resolved in spaceFalcón-Barroso, J. et al.
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22014 -
The GIRAFFE Inner Bulge Survey (GIBS). I. Survey description and a kinematical map of the Milky Way bulgeContext. The Galactic bulge is a massive, old component of the Milky Way. It is known to host a bar, and it has recently been demonstrated to have a pronounced boxy/peanut structure in its outer region. Several independent studies suggest the presence of more than one stellar populations in the bulge, with different origins and a relative fractionGonzalez, O. A. et al.
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22014 -
The circumnuclear environment of NGC 613: a nuclear starburst caught in the act?We present near-infrared (H- and K-band) integral-field observations of the inner ˜700 pc of the active spiral galaxy NGC 613, obtained with SINFONI on the Very Large Telescope. We use emission-line ratios to determine the dominant excitation mechanisms in different regions within our field of view, in particular, the active nucleus and the starLançon, A. et al.
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22014 -
Caught in the act: cluster `k+a' galaxies as a link between spirals and S0sWe use integral field spectroscopy of 13 disc galaxies in the cluster AC114 at z ˜ 0.31 in an attempt to disentangle the physical processes responsible for the transformation of spiral galaxies in clusters. Our sample is selected to display a dominant young stellar population, as indicated by strong Hδ absorption lines in their integrated spectraBalcells, M. et al.
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22014 -
SDC13 infrared dark clouds: Longitudinally collapsing filaments?Formation of stars is now believed to be tightly linked to the dynamical evolution of interstellar filaments in which they form. In this paper we analyze the density structure and kinematics of a small network of infrared dark filaments, SDC13, observed in both dust continuum and molecular line emission with the IRAM 30 m telescope. TheseWilliams, J. et al.
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12014
![Izquierda - Imagen RGB de la nebulosa de Orión y M43 obtenida filtros estrechos con la cámara WFC en el INT: H alfa (rojo), [S II] 6716+30 (verde), [O III] 5007 (azul). Derecha - Imagen en falso color de la nebulosa planetaria NGC 6778. En azul se ve la emisión en la línea de O II tomada con el filtro sintonizable azul del instrumento OSIRIS en el GTC; en verde imagen con el filtro estrecho de [O III] del Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT).](/sites/default/files/styles/crop_square_2_2_to_320px/public/images/project/imagen_web.jpg?itok=fsBmV9CO "Izquierda - Imagen RGB de la nebulosa de Orión y M43 obtenida filtros estrechos con la cámara WFC en el INT: H alfa (rojo), [S II] 6716+30 (verde), [O III] 5007 (azul). Derecha - Imagen en falso color de la nebulosa planetaria NGC 6778. En azul se ve la emisión en la línea de O II tomada con el filtro sintonizable azul del instrumento OSIRIS en el GTC; en verde imagen con el filtro estrecho de [O III] del Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT).")