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

    Spitzer 70 and 160 μm Observations of the COSMOS Field 2009AJ....138.1261F
    The shapes of BCGs and normal ellipticals in nearby clusters 2010MNRAS.404.1490F
    Superdense Massive Galaxies in the ESO Distant Cluster Survey (EDisCS) 2010ApJ...721L..19V
    Specific star formation and the relation to stellar mass from 0 < z < 2 as seen in the far-infrared at 70 and 160 μm 2010MNRAS.405.2279O
    Herschel-ATLAS: the far-infrared-radio correlation at z < 0.5 2010MNRAS.409...92J
    Herschel-ATLAS: The dust energy balance in the edge-on spiral galaxy UGC 4754 2010A&A...518L..39B
    Herschel-ATLAS: The angular correlation function of submillimetre galaxies at high and low redshift 2010A&A...518L..11M
    Herschel-ATLAS: far-infrared properties of radio-selected galaxies 2010MNRAS.409..122H
    Herschel-ATLAS: Extragalactic number counts from 250 to 500 microns 2010A&A...518L...8C
    Herschel-ATLAS: Evolution of the 250 µm luminosity function out to z = 0.5 2010A&A...518L..10D
    Herschel-ATLAS: Dust temperature and redshift distribution of SPIRE and PACS detected sources using submillimetre colours 2010A&A...518L...9A
    Herschel-ATLAS: Blazars in the science demonstration phase field 2010A&A...518L..38G
    Herschel ATLAS: The cosmic star formation history of quasar host galaxies 2010A&A...518L...7S
    H-ATLAS: PACS imaging for the Science Demonstration Phase 2010MNRAS.409...38I
    A search for debris disks in the Herschel-ATLAS 2010A&A...518L.134T
    WINGS-SPE II: A catalog of stellar ages and star formation histories, stellar masses and dust extinction values for local clusters galaxies 2011A&A...526A..45F
    Which haloes host Herschel-ATLAS galaxies in the local Universe? 2011MNRAS.412.2277G
    The first release of data from the Herschel ATLAS: the SPIRE images 2011MNRAS.415..911P
    The evolution of early-type galaxies in clusters from z˜ 0.8 to z ˜ 0: the ellipticity distribution and the morphological mix 2011MNRAS.413..921V
    The Detection of a Population of Submillimeter-Bright, Strongly Lensed Galaxies 2010Sci...330..800N
    Spitzer Imaging of Herschel-atlas Gravitationally Lensed Submillimeter Sources 2011ApJ...728L...4H
    On the Connection Between Shape and Stellar Population in Early-type Galaxies 2011ApJ...727L...6D
    Herschel-ATLAS: statistical properties of Galactic cirrus in the GAMA-9 Hour Science Demonstration Phase Field 2011MNRAS.412.1151B
    Green Bank Telescope Zpectrometer CO(1-0) Observations of the Strongly Lensed Submillimeter Galaxies from the Herschel ATLAS 2011ApJ...726L..22F
    GAMA/H-ATLAS: the ultraviolet spectral slope and obscuration in galaxies 2011MNRAS.415.1002W
    Galaxy stellar mass functions of different morphological types in clusters, and their evolution between z= 0.8 and 0 2011MNRAS.412..246V
    The Herschel-SPIRE instrument and its in-flight performance 2010A&A...518L...3G
    The Herschel Reference Survey 2010PASP..122..261B
    The HerMES SPIRE submillimeter local luminosity function 2010A&A...518L..20V
    Resolved Dust Emission in a Quasar at z = 3.65 2009ApJ...698L.188C
    Properties of dusty tori in active galactic nuclei - I. The case of SWIRE/SDSS quasars 2008MNRAS.386.1252H
    Probing the molecular interstellar medium of M82 with Herschel-SPIRE spectroscopy 2010A&A...518L..37P
    Photometric redshifts in the SWIRE Survey 2008MNRAS.386..697R
    Mid-infrared spectroscopy of infrared-luminous galaxies at z ~ 0.5-3 2009MNRAS.395.1695H
    MAMBO 1.2 mm Observations of Luminous Starbursts at z ~ 2 in the SWIRE Fields 2009ApJ...692..422L
    Herschel and SCUBA-2 imaging and spectroscopy of a bright, lensed submillimetre galaxy at z = 2.3 2010A&A...518L..35I
    HerMES: The submillimeter spectral energy distributions of Herschel/SPIRE-detected galaxies 2010A&A...518L..32S
    HerMES: The SPIRE confusion limit 2010A&A...518L...5N
    HerMES: SPIRE galaxy number counts at 250, 350, and 500 μm 2010A&A...518L..21O
    HerMES: Halo occupation number and bias properties of dusty galaxies from angular clustering measurements 2010A&A...518L..22C