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

    A Comprehensive View of a Strongly Lensed Planck-Associated Submillimeter Galaxy 2012ApJ...753..134F
    The Swift/Fermi GRB 080928 from 1 eV to 150 keV 2011A&A...529A.142R
    The Highly Energetic Expansion of SN 2010bh Associated with GRB 100316D 2012ApJ...753...67B
    The circumburst density profile around GRB progenitors: a statistical study 2011A&A...526A..23S
    The Afterglows of Swift-era Gamma-Ray Bursts. II. Type I GRB versus Type II GRB Optical Afterglows 2011ApJ...734...96K
    The Afterglows of Swift-era Gamma-ray Bursts. I. Comparing pre-Swift and Swift-era Long/Soft (Type II) GRB Optical Afterglows 2010ApJ...720.1513K
    Simultaneous polarization monitoring of supernovae SN 2008D/XT 080109 and SN 2007uy: isolating geometry from dust 2010A&A...522A..14G
    HerMES: SPIRE detection of high-redshift massive compact galaxies in GOODS-N field 2010MNRAS.409L..19C
    Evidence for supernova-synthesized dust from the rising afterglow of GRB071025 at z ~ 5 2010MNRAS.406.2473P
    The Herschel Multi-tiered Extragalactic Survey: HerMES 2012MNRAS.424.1614O
    Superdense Massive Galaxies in the Nearby Universe 2009ApJ...692L.118T
    A deep search for the host galaxies of gamma-ray bursts with no detected optical afterglow 2012A&A...545A..77R
    Study of the NGC 2770 interstellar medium through Hα, millimetric and optical polarimetric data of SN 2008D and SN 2007uy 2011AdSpR..47.1421G
    Far-infrared properties of submillimeter and optically faint radio galaxies 2010A&A...518L..28M
    The far-infrared/radio correlation as probed by Herschel 2010A&A...518L..31I
    Herschel unveils a puzzling uniformity of distant dusty galaxies 2010A&A...518L..29E
    Evolution of dust temperature of galaxies through cosmic time as seen by Herschel 2010MNRAS.409...75H
    Intracluster light in the Virgo cluster: large scale distribution 2009A&A...507..621C
    Evolution of Brightest Cluster Galaxy Structural Parameters in the Last ~6 Gyr: Feedback Processes Versus Merger Events 2011ApJ...726...69A