Formation and Evolution of Galaxies: Observations in Infrared and other Wavelengths

    General
    Description

    This IAC research group carries out several extragalactic projects in different spectral ranges, using space as well as ground-based telescopes, to study the cosmological evolution of galaxies and the origin of nuclear activity in active galaxies. The group is a member of the international consortium which built the SPIRE instrument for the Herschel Space Observatory and of the European consortium which is developing the SAFARI instrument for the infrared space telescope SPICA of the space agencies ESA and JAXA.

    The main projects in 2018 were:

    a) High-redshift galaxies and quasars with far-infrared emission discovered with the Herschel Space Observatory in the HerMES and Herschel-ATLAS Key Projects.

    b) Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV: BELLS GALLERY galaxies and very luminous Lyman alpha emitting galaxies.

    c) Participation in the development of the SAFARI instrument, one of the European contributions to the SPICA infrared space telescope.

    d) Discovery of the most distant individual star ever observed, in one of the fields of the "HST Frontier Fields".

    e) Search for supernovae in distant, gravitationally lensed galaxies.

    f) Several studies with GTC of absorption line systems in the line of sight to red quasars.

    Principal investigator
    Project staff
    Dr.
    Stefan Geier
    Collaborators
    Herschel SPIRE, HerMES, Herschel-ATLAS, SPICA, SAFARI, BELLS GALLERY, SERVS, DEEPDRILL, SDSS-IV y SHARDS Frontier Fields
    1. Marques-Chaves et al. (2018) present a study of the submillimeter galaxy HLock01 at z = 2.9574, one of the brightest gravitationally lensed sources discovered in the Herschel Multi-tiered Extragalactic Survey. Detailed analysis of the high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) rest-frame UV GTC OSIRIS spectrum shows complex kinematics of the gas.
    2. Rigopoulou et al. (2018) using new, Herschel spectroscopic observations of key far-infrared fine structure lines of the z 3 galaxy HLSW-01 derive gas-phase metallicities and find that the metallicities of z 3 submm-luminous galaxies are consistent with solar metallicities and that they appear to follow the mass–metallicity relation expected for z 3 systems.
    3. Cornachione et al. (2018) present a morphological study of 17 lensed Lyα emitter (LAE) galaxies of the BELLS GALLERY sample. The analysis combines the magnification effect of strong galaxy–galaxy lensing with the high resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope to achieve a physical resolution of ~80 pc for this 2 < z < 3 LAE sample.
    4. Oteo et al. (2018) report the identification of an extreme protocluster of galaxies in the early universe whose core (nicknamed Distant Red Core, DRC, because of its very red color in Herschel SPIRE bands) is formed by at least 10 dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs), spectroscopically confirmed to lie at z = 4.002 via detection of emission lines with ALMA and ATCA.
    5. Kelly et al. (2018) report the discovery of an individual star, Icarus, at redshift z = 1.49 magnified by more than × 2,000 by gravitational lensing of the galaxy cluster MACS J1149+222. Icarus is located in a spiral galaxy that is so far from Earth that its light has taken 9000 million years to reach the Earth.

    Related publications

    Probing the high-redshift universe with SPICA: Toward the epoch of reionisation and beyond 2018PASA...35...48E
    SDSS J0909+4449: A large-separation strongly lensed quasar at z ˜ 2.8 with three images 2018MNRAS.481L.136S
    SOFIA/HAWC+ Detection of a Gravitationally Lensed Starburst Galaxy at z = 1.03 2018ApJ...864...60M
    On the multiplicity of ALMA Compact Array counterparts of far-infrared bright quasars 2018MNRAS.480.4974H
    Unidentified quasars among stationary objects from Gaia DR2 2018A&A...615L...8H
    A quasar hiding behind two dusty absorbers. Quantifying the selection bias of metal-rich, damped Lyα absorption systems 2018A&A...615A..43H
    The Fourteenth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Spectroscopic Data from the Extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey and from the Second Phase of the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment 2018ApJS..235...42A
    Extreme magnification of an individual star at redshift 1.5 by a galaxy-cluster lens 2018NatAs...2..334K
    An Extreme Protocluster of Luminous Dusty Starbursts in the Early Universe 2018ApJ...856...72O
    The Strong Gravitationally Lensed Herschel Galaxy HLock01: Optical Spectroscopy Reveals a Close Galaxy Merger with Evidence of Inflowing Gas 2018ApJ...854..151M
    Photometric survey, modelling, and scaling of long-period and low-amplitude asteroids 2018A&A...610A...7M
    A precise measurement of the magnetic field in the corona of the black hole binary V404 Cygni 2017Sci...358.1299D
    SNhunt151: an explosive event inside a dense cocoon 2018MNRAS.475.2614E
    The BOSS Emission-line Lens Survey. V. Morphology and Substructure of Lensed Lyα Emitters at Redshift Z ≈ 2.5 in the BELLS GALLERY 2018ApJ...853..148C
    280 one-opposition near-Earth asteroids recovered by the EURONEAR with the Isaac Newton Telescope 2018A&A...609A.105V
    On the far-infrared metallicity diagnostics: applications to high-redshift galaxies 2018MNRAS.473...20R
    The 13th Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Spectroscopic Data from the SDSS-IV Survey Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory 2017ApJS..233...25A
    The most distant, luminous, dusty star-forming galaxies: redshifts from NOEMA and ALMA spectral scans 2017MNRAS.472.2028F
    Rise of the Titans: A Dusty, Hyper-luminous “870 μm Riser” Galaxy at z ∼ 6 2017ApJ...850....1R
    Tracing the Evolution of Dust Obscured Star Formation and Accretion Back to the Reionisation Epoch with SPICA 2017PASA...34...55G
    SHARDS Frontier Fields: Physical Properties of a Low-mass Lyα Emitter at z = 5.75 2017ApJ...849...82H
    SPICA and the Chemical Evolution of Galaxies: The Rise of Metals and Dust 2017PASA...34...53F
    The High AV Quasar Survey: A z = 2.027 metal-rich damped Lyman-α absorber towards a red quasar at z = 3.21 2017A&A...606A..13F
    GRB 161219B/SN 2016jca: A low-redshift gamma-ray burst supernova powered by radioactive heating 2017A&A...605A.107C
    Space Telescope and Optical Reverberation Mapping Project. VII. Understanding the Ultraviolet Anomaly in NGC 5548 with X-Ray Spectroscopy 2017ApJ...846...55M
    Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV: Mapping the Milky Way, Nearby Galaxies, and the Distant Universe 2017AJ....154...28B
    A Spectroscopic Follow-up Program of Very Massive Galaxies at 3 < z < 4: Confirmation of Spectroscopic Redshifts, and a High Fraction of Powerful AGNs 2017ApJ...842...21M
    Space Telescope and Optical Reverberation Mapping Project. V. Optical Spectroscopic Campaign and Emission-line Analysis for NGC 5548 2017ApJ...837..131P
    Dust in the Reionization Era: ALMA Observations of a z = 8.38 Gravitationally Lensed Galaxy 2017ApJ...837L..21L
    Space Telescope and Optical Reverberation Mapping Project.VI. Reverberating Disk Models for NGC 5548 2017ApJ...835...65S
    Discovery of a Very Bright and Intrinsically Very Luminous, Strongly Lensed Lyα Emitting Galaxy at z = 2.82 in the BOSS Emission-Line Lens Survey 2017ApJ...834L..18M
    Environment of the Submillimeter-bright Massive Starburst HFLS3 at z ~ 6.34 2015ApJ...810..130L
    HerMES: ALMA Imaging of Herschel-selected Dusty Star-forming Galaxies 2015ApJ...812...43B
    The Eleventh and Twelfth Data Releases of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Final Data from SDSS-III 2015ApJS..219...12A
    HerMES: Current Cosmic Infrared Background Estimates Can Be Explained by Known Galaxies and Their Faint Companions at z < 4 2015ApJ...809L..22V
    GLACE survey: OSIRIS/GTC tuneable filter Hα imaging of the rich galaxy cluster ZwCl 0024.0+1652 at z = 0.395. I. Survey presentation, TF data reduction techniques, and catalogue 2015A&A...578A..30S
    Frontier Fields: Combining HST, VLT, and Spitzer data to explore the z ~ 8 Universe behind the lensing cluster MACSJ0416.1-2403 2015A&A...575A..92L
    A Far-infrared Spectroscopic Survey of Intermediate Redshift (Ultra) Luminous Infrared Galaxies 2014ApJ...796...63M
    Imaging the Environment of a z = 6.3 Submillimeter Galaxy with SCUBA-2 2014ApJ...793...11R
    SPIRE point source photometry: within the Herschel interactive processing environment (HIPE) 2014ExA....37..175P