Traces of Galaxy Formation: Stellar populations, Dynamics and Morphology

    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:

    1. Stellar population synthesis models
      • Development of new stellar population synthesis models
      • Stellar population analysis tools
      • Universality of the stellar initial mass function (IMF)
       
    2. Cosmic evolution of galaxies
      • Massive galaxy evolution
      • Stellar populations in different environments
      • Low surface brightness science
      • Machine learning and cosmological simulations
       
    3. 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)).

    Principal investigator

    Here you can find some of our most recent highlights:

    Related publications

    • Observational constraints on the stellar recycled gas in active galactic nuclei feeding
      Near-infrared long-slit spectroscopy has been used to study the stellar population (SP) of the low luminosity active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and matched analogues (LLAMA) sample. To perform the SP fits we have employed the X-shooter simple stellar population models together with the STARLIGHT code. Our main conclusions are: The star formation
      Riffel, Rogério et al.

      Advertised on:

      6
      2024
      Citations
      5
    • Galaxy morphology from z ∼ 6 through the lens of JWST
      Context. The James Webb Space Telescope's (JWST's) unprecedented combination of sensitivity, spatial resolution, and infrared coverage has enabled a new era of galaxy morphology exploration across most of cosmic history. Aims: We analyze the near-infrared (NIR ∼ 0.8 − 1 μm) rest-frame morphologies of galaxies with log M */M ⊙ > 9 in the redshift
      Huertas-Company, M. et al.

      Advertised on:

      5
      2024
      Citations
      44
    • SMARTY: The MILES moderate resolution near-infrared stellar library
      Most of the observed galaxies cannot be resolved into individual stars and are studied through their integrated spectrum using simple stellar populations (SSPs) models, with stellar libraries being a key ingredient in building them. Spectroscopic observations are increasingly being directed towards the near-infrared (NIR), where much is yet to be
      Bertoldo-Coêlho, Michele et al.

      Advertised on:

      6
      2024
      Citations
      0
    • The wide-field, multiplexed, spectroscopic facility WEAVE: Survey design, overview, and simulated implementation
      WEAVE, the new wide-field, massively multiplexed spectroscopic survey facility for the William Herschel Telescope, saw first light in late 2022. WEAVE comprises a new 2-deg field-of-view prime-focus corrector system, a nearly 1000-multiplex fibre positioner, 20 individually deployable 'mini' integral field units (IFUs), and a single large IFU
      Jin, Shoko et al.

      Advertised on:

      5
      2024
      Citations
      124
    • Ultra-deep imaging of NGC 1052-DF2 and NGC 1052-DF4 to unravel their origins
      A number of scenarios have been proposed to explain the low velocity dispersion (and hence possible absence of dark matter) of the low surface brightness galaxies NGC 1052-DF2 and NGC 1052-DF4. Most of the proposed mechanisms are based on the removal of dark matter via the interaction of these galaxies with other objects. A common feature of these
      Golini, Giulia et al.

      Advertised on:

      4
      2024
      Citations
      9
    • The universal variability of the stellar initial mass function probed by the TIMER survey
      The debate about the universality of the stellar initial mass function (IMF) revolves around two competing lines of evidence. While measurements in the Milky Way, an archetypal spiral galaxy, seem to support an invariant IMF, the observed properties of massive early-type galaxies (ETGs) favor an IMF somehow sensitive to the local star-formation
      Martín-Navarro, Ignacio et al.

      Advertised on:

      4
      2024
      Citations
      5
    • Stellar populations and the origin of thick disks in AURIGA simulations
      Context. Recent integral-field spectroscopy observations of edge-on galaxies have led to significant progress in our knowledge of the ages and chemical compositions of thick disks. However, the origin of thick disks and their evolutionary connection with thin disks is still a matter of debate. Aims: We provide new insights into this topic by
      Pinna, Francesca et al.

      Advertised on:

      3
      2024
      Citations
      8
    • Constraining the stellar populations of ultra-diffuse galaxies in the MATLAS survey using spectral energy distribution fitting
      We use spectral energy distribution fitting to place constraints on the stellar populations of 59 ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs) in the low-to-moderate density fields of the MATLAS survey. We use the routine PROSPECTOR, coupled with archival data in the optical from the Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey, and near- and mid-infrared imaging from the
      Buzzo, Maria Luisa et al.

      Advertised on:

      4
      2024
      Citations
      15
    • The dynamical state of bars in cluster dwarf galaxies: the cases of NGC 4483 and NGC 4516
      Dwarf barred galaxies are the perfect candidates for hosting slowly rotating bars. They are common in dense environments and have a relatively shallow potential well, making them prone to heating by interactions. When an interaction induces bar formation, the bar should rotate slowly. They reside in massive and centrally concentrated dark matter
      Cuomo, Virginia et al.

      Advertised on:

      2
      2024
      Citations
      2
    • Galaxies Going Bananas: Inferring the 3D Geometry of High-redshift Galaxies with JWST-CEERS
      The 3D geometries of high-redshift galaxies remain poorly understood. We build a differentiable Bayesian model and use Hamiltonian Monte Carlo to efficiently and robustly infer the 3D shapes of star-forming galaxies in James Webb Space Telescope Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science observations with $\mathrm{log}{M}_{* }/{M}_{\odot }=9.0\mbox{--
      Pandya, Viraj et al.

      Advertised on:

      3
      2024
      Citations
      23
    • A post-merger enhancement only in star-forming Type 2 Seyfert galaxies: the deep learning view
      Supermassive black holes require a reservoir of cold gas at the centre of their host galaxy in order to accrete and shine as active galactic nuclei (AGN). Major mergers have the ability to drive gas rapidly inwards, but observations trying to link mergers with AGN have found mixed results due to the difficulty of consistently identifying galaxy
      Avirett-Mackenzie, M. S. et al.

      Advertised on:

      3
      2024
      Citations
      1
    • Strong size evolution of disc galaxies since z = 1. Readdressing galaxy growth using a physically motivated size indicator
      Our understanding of how the size of galaxies has evolved over cosmic time is based on the use of the half-light (effective) radius as a size indicator. Although the half-light radius has many advantages for structurally parameterising galaxies, it does not provide a measure of the global extent of the objects, but only an indication of the size of
      Buitrago, Fernando et al.

      Advertised on:

      2
      2024
      Citations
      14
    • On the Nature of Disks at High Redshift Seen by JWST/CEERS with Contrastive Learning and Cosmological Simulations
      Visual inspections of the first optical rest-frame images from JWST have indicated a surprisingly high fraction of disk galaxies at high redshifts. Here, we alternatively apply self-supervised machine learning to explore the morphological diversity at z ≥ 3. Our proposed data-driven representation scheme of galaxy morphologies, calibrated on mock
      Vega-Ferrero, Jesús et al.

      Advertised on:

      1
      2024
      Citations
      32
    • An almost dark galaxy with the mass of the Small Magellanic Cloud
      Almost dark galaxies are objects that have eluded detection by traditional surveys such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The low surface brightness of these galaxies (μ r(0) > 26 mag arcsec −2), and hence their low surface stellar mass density (a few solar masses per pc 2 or less), suggest that the energy density released by baryonic
      Montes, Mireia et al.

      Advertised on:

      1
      2024
      Citations
      13
    • A new tidal scenario for double bar formation
      Double bars make up a significant fraction of barred galaxies. We propose a new formation scenario for double bars that involves tidal interactions. We demonstrate the viability of this scenario using two examples of simulated galaxies from run TNG50-1 of the IllustrisTNG project. In the proposed scenario the inner bar forms first, either in
      Semczuk, Marcin et al.

      Advertised on:

      2
      2024
      Citations
      4
    • INSPIRE: INvestigating Stellar Population In RElics - V. A catalogue of ultra-compact massive galaxies outside the local Universe and their degree of relicness
      This paper presents the third data release of the INvestigating Stellar Population In RElics (INSPIRE) project, comprising 52 ultra-compact massive galaxies (UCMGs) observed with the X-Shooter spectrograph. We measure integrated stellar velocity dispersion, [Mg/Fe] abundances, ages, and metallicities for all the INSPIRE objects. We thus infer star
      Spiniello, C. et al.

      Advertised on:

      1
      2024
      Citations
      14
    • The SAMI-Fornax Dwarfs Survey - IV. Star formation histories of dwarf and early-type galaxies: insights from full spectral fitting
      We present a study on the star formation histories (SFHs) of galaxies covering the range 10 4 < M ⋆/M ⊙ < 10 12, leveraging full spectral fitting algorithms. Our sample consists of 31 dwarf galaxies from the SAMI-Fornax Survey with stellar masses between 10 7-$10^{9.5} \, {\rm M}_{\odot }$, early-type galaxies from the ATLAS 3D project with stellar
      Romero-Gómez, J. et al.

      Advertised on:

      2
      2024
      Citations
      6
    • Smooth kinematic and metallicity gradients reveal that the Milky Way's nuclear star cluster and disc might be part of the same structure
      Context. The innermost regions of most galaxies are characterised by the presence of extremely dense nuclear star clusters. Nevertheless, these clusters are not the only stellar component present in galactic nuclei, where larger stellar structures known as nuclear stellar discs, have also been found. Understanding the relation between nuclear star
      Nogueras-Lara, F. et al.

      Advertised on:

      12
      2023
      Citations
      7
    • JWST Constraints on the UV Luminosity Density at Cosmic Dawn: Implications for 21 cm Cosmology
      An unprecedented array of new observational capabilities are starting to yield key constraints on models of the epoch of first light in the Universe. In this Letter we discuss the implications of the UV radiation background at cosmic dawn inferred by recent JWST observations for radio experiments aimed at detecting the redshifted 21 cm hyperfine
      Hassan, Sultan et al.

      Advertised on:

      11
      2023
      Citations
      19
    • A Milky Way-like barred spiral galaxy at a redshift of 3
      The majority of massive disk galaxies in the local Universe show a stellar barred structure in their central regions, including our Milky Way 1,2. Bars are supposed to develop in dynamically cold stellar disks at low redshift, as the strong gas turbulence typical of disk galaxies at high redshift suppresses or delays bar formation 3,4. Moreover
      Costantin, Luca et al.

      Advertised on:

      11
      2023
      Citations
      30

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