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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MaNGIA: 10 000 mock galaxies for stellar population analysisContext. Modern astronomical observations give unprecedented access to the physical properties of nearby galaxies, including spatially resolved stellar populations. However, observations can only give a present-day view of the Universe, whereas cosmological simulations give access to the past record of the processes that galaxies have experiencedSarmiento, Regina et al.
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Chemical characterisation of the X-shooter Spectral Library (XSL): [Mg/Fe] and [Ca/Fe] abundancesContext. The X-shooter Spectral Library (XSL) is a large empirical stellar library used as a benchmark for the development of stellar population models. The inclusion of α-element abundances is crucial to disentangling the chemical evolution of any stellar system. Aims: The aim of this paper is to provide a catalogue of high-precision, accurateSantos-Peral, P. et al.
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The SAMI-Fornax Dwarfs Survey - III. Evolution of [α/Fe] in dwarfs, from Galaxy Clusters to the Local GroupUsing very deep, high spectral resolution data from the SAMI Integral Field Spectrograph, we study the stellar population properties of a sample of dwarf galaxies in the Fornax Cluster, down to a stellar mass of 10 7 M ⊙, which has never been done outside the Local Group. We use full spectral fitting to obtain stellar population parameters. AddingRomero-Gómez, J. et al.
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CEERS Key Paper. IV. A Triality in the Nature of HST-dark GalaxiesThe new capabilities that JWST offers in the near- and mid-infrared (IR) are used to investigate in unprecedented detail the nature of optical/near-IR-faint, mid-IR-bright sources, with HST-dark galaxies among them. We gather JWST data from the CEERS survey in the Extended Groth Strip, jointly with HST data, and analyze spatially resolved opticalPérez-González, Pablo G. et al.
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32023 -
The Fornax3D project: Environmental effects on the assembly of dynamically cold disks in Fornax cluster galaxiesWe apply a population-orbit superposition metho1d to 16 galaxies in the Fornax cluster observed with MUSE/VLT in the context of the Fornax3D project. By fitting the luminosity distribution, stellar kinematics, and age and metallicity maps simultaneously, we obtained the internal stellar orbit distribution, as well as the age and metallicityDing, Y. et al.
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Expectations of the Size Evolution of Massive Galaxies at 3 ≤ z ≤ 6 from the TNG50 Simulation: The CEERS/JWST ViewWe present a catalog of about 25,000 images of massive (M ⋆ ≥ 10 9 M ⊙) galaxies at redshifts 3 ≤ z ≤ 6 from the TNG50 cosmological simulation, tailored for observations at multiple wavelengths carried out with JWST. The synthetic images were created with the SKIRT radiative transfer code, including the effects of dust attenuation and scatteringCostantin, Luca et al.
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MIGHTEE-H I: possible interactions with the galaxy NGC 895The transformation and evolution of a galaxy is strongly influenced by interactions with its environment. Neutral hydrogen (H I) is an excellent way to trace these interactions. Here, we present H I observations of the spiral galaxy NGC 895, which was previously thought to be isolated. High-sensitivity H I observations from the MeerKAT large surveyNamumba, B. et al.
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WEAVE-StePS: A stellar population survey using WEAVE at WHTContext. The upcoming new generation of optical spectrographs on four-meter-class telescopes will provide valuable opportunities for forthcoming galaxy surveys through their huge multiplexing capabilities, excellent spectral resolution, and unprecedented wavelength coverage. Aims: WEAVE is a new wide-field spectroscopic facility mounted on the 4.2Iovino, A. et al.
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CEERS Key Paper. II. A First Look at the Resolved Host Properties of AGN at 3 < z < 5 with JWSTWe report on the host properties of five X-ray-luminous active galactic nuclei (AGN) identified at 3 < z < 5 in the first epoch of imaging from the Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science Survey. Each galaxy has been imaged with the JWST Near-Infrared Camera, which provides rest-frame optical morphologies at these redshifts. We also derive stellarKocevski, Dale D. et al.
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CEERS Key Paper. I. An Early Look into the First 500 Myr of Galaxy Formation with JWSTWe present an investigation into the first 500 Myr of galaxy evolution from the Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) survey. CEERS, one of 13 JWST ERS programs, targets galaxy formation from z ~ 0.5 to >10 using several imaging and spectroscopic modes. We make use of the first epoch of CEERS NIRCam imaging, spanning 35.5 arcmin 2, toFinkelstein, Steven L. et al.
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INSPIRE: INvestigating Stellar Population In RElics. III. Second data release (DR2): testing the systematics on the stellar velocity dispersionContext. The project called INvestigating Stellar Population In RElics (INSPIRE) is based on VLT/X-shooter data from the homonymous on-going ESO Large Program. It targets 52 ultra-compact massive galaxies at 0.1 < z < 0.5 with the goal of constraining their kinematics and stellar population properties in great detail and of analysing their relicD'Ago, G. et al.
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CEERS Key Paper. III. The Diversity of Galaxy Structure and Morphology at z = 3-9 with JWSTWe present a comprehensive analysis of the evolution of the morphological and structural properties of a large sample of galaxies at z = 3-9 using early James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) CEERS NIRCam observations. Our sample consists of 850 galaxies at z > 3 detected in both Hubble Space Telescope (HST)/WFC3 and CEERS JWST/NIRCam images, enabling aKartaltepe, Jeyhan S. et al.
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Euclid preparation. XXV. The Euclid Morphology Challenge: Towards model-fitting photometry for billions of galaxiesThe European Space Agency's Euclid mission will provide high-quality imaging for about 1.5 billion galaxies. A software pipeline to automatically process and analyse such a huge amount of data in real time is being developed by the Science Ground Segment of the Euclid Consortium; this pipeline will include a model-fitting algorithm, which willEuclid Collaboration et al.
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INSPIRE: INvestigating Stellar Population In RElics - IV. The initial mass function slope in relicsIn the last decade, growing evidence has emerged supporting a non-universal stellar initial mass function (IMF) in massive galaxies, with a larger number of dwarf stars with respect to the Milky Way (bottom-heavy IMF). However, a consensus about the mechanisms that cause IMF variations is yet to be reached. Recently, it has been suggested thatMartín-Navarro, Ignacio et al.
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The Physical Conditions of Emission-line Galaxies at Cosmic Dawn from JWST/NIRSpec Spectroscopy in the SMACS 0723 Early Release ObservationsWe present rest-frame optical emission-line flux ratio measurements for five z > 5 galaxies observed by the James Webb Space Telescope Near-Infared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) in the SMACS 0723 Early Release Observations. We add several quality-control and post-processing steps to the NIRSpec pipeline reduction products in order to ensure reliableTrump, Jonathan R. et al.
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A new method for age-dating the formation of bars in disc galaxies. The TIMER view on NGC1433's old bar and the inside-out growth of its nuclear discThe epoch in which galactic discs settle is a major benchmark for testing models of galaxy formation and evolution but remains largely unknown. Once discs settle and become sufficiently self-gravitating, stellar bars are able to form; therefore, determining the ages of bars can shed light on the epoch of disc settling, and on the onset of secularde Sá-Freitas, Camila et al.
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First Look at z > 1 Bars in the Rest-frame Near-infrared with JWST Early CEERS ImagingStellar bars are key drivers of secular evolution in galaxies and can be effectively studied using rest-frame near-infrared (NIR) images, which trace the underlying stellar mass and are less impacted by dust and star formation than rest-frame UV or optical images. We leverage the power of JWST CEERS NIRCam images to present the first quantitativeGuo, Yuchen et al.
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The vertical structure of the spiral galaxy NGC 3501: first stages of the formation of a thin metal-rich discWe trace the evolution of the edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 3501, making use of its stellar populations extracted from deep integral-field spectroscopy MUSE observations. We present stellar kinematic and population maps, as well as the star formation history, of the south-western half of the galaxy. The derived maps of the stellar line-of-sightSattler, Natascha et al.
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Exploring the stellar populations of backsplash galaxiesBacksplash galaxies are those that traverse and overshoot cluster cores as they fall into these structures. They are affected by environment, and should stand out in contrast to the infalling population. We target galaxies in the vicinity of clusters (R ≳ R 200) and select a sample in projected phase space (PPS), from the compilation of Sampaio etFerreras, I. et al.
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The origin of stars in the inner 500 parsecs in TNG50 galaxiesWe investigate the origin of stars in the innermost 500 pc of galaxies spanning stellar masses of $5\times 10^{8-12}\, \mathrm{M}_{\odot }$ at z = 0 using the cosmological magnetohydrodynamical TNG50 simulation. Three different origins of stars comprise galactic centres: (1) in situ (born in the centre), (2) migrated (born elsewhere in the galaxyBoecker, Alina et al.
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32023
![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).")
