• The Formation and Evolution of Massive Galaxies

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: The discovery of massive galaxies at high redshifts, especially the passive ones, poses a big challenge for the current standard galaxy formation models. Here we use the semi-analytic galaxy formation model developed by Henriques et al. to explore the formation and evolution of massive galaxies (MGs, stellar-mass $M_{*}> 10^{11}$ M$_{\odot}$). Different from previous works, we focus on the ones just formed (e.g. just reach $\simeq 10^{11}$ M$_{\odot}$). We find that most of the MGs are formed around $z=0.6$, with the earliest formation at $z>4$. Interestingly, although most of the MGs in the local Universe are passive, we find that only $13\%$ of the MGs are quenched at the formation time. Most of the quenched MGs at formation already hosts a very massive supermassive black hole (SMBH) which could power the very effective AGN feedback. For the star-forming MGs, the ones with more massive SMBH prefer to quench in shorter timescales; in particular, those with $M_{\textrm{SMBH}} > 10^{7.5}$ M$_{\odot}$ have a quenching timescale of $\sim 0.5$ Gyr and the characteristic $M_{\textrm{SMBH}}$ depends on the chosen stellar mass threshold in the definition of MGs as a result of their co-evolution. We also find that the "in-situ" star formation dominates the stellar mass growth of MGs until they are formed. Over the whole redshift range, we find the quiescent MGs prefer to stay in more massive dark matter halos, and have more massive SMBH and less cold gas masses. Our results provide a new angle on the whole life of the growth of MGs in the Universe.

  • Neutral Hydrogen Content of Dwarf Galaxies in Different Environments

    分类: 物理学 >> 地球物理学、天文学和天体物理学 提交时间: 2023-12-15 合作期刊: 《Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics》

    摘要: Environments play an important role in galaxy formation and evolution, particularly in regulating the content of neutral gas. However, current H i surveys have limitations in their depth, which prevents them from adequately studying low H i content galaxies in high-density regions. In this study, we address this issue by employing the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope with extensive integration times to complement the relatively shallow Arecibo Legacy Fast Arecibo L-band Feed Array H i survey. This approach allows us to explore the gas content of dwarf galaxies across various environments. We observe a positive relationship between H i mass and stellar mass in dwarf galaxies, with a well-defined upper boundary for H i mass that holds true in both observations and simulations. Furthermore, we find a decrease in the H i-to-stellar mass ratio (MH I/M*) as the density of the environment increases, irrespective of whether it is determined by the proximity to the nearest group or the projected number density. Comparing our observations to simulations, we note a steeper slope in the relationship, indicating a gradual gas-stripping process in the observational data. Additionally, we find that the scaling relation between the MH I/M* and optical properties can be improved by incorporating galaxy environments.

  • Radio Frequency Interference Mitigation and Statistics in the Spectral Observations of FAST

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: In radio astronomy, radio frequency interference (RFI) becomes more and more serious for radio observational facilities. The RFI always influences the search and study of the interesting astronomical objects. Mitigating the RFI becomes an essential procedure in any survey data processing. Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) is an extremely sensitive radio telescope. It is necessary to find out an effective and precise RFI mitigation method for FAST data processing. In this work, we introduce a method to mitigate the RFI in FAST spectral observation and make a statistics for the RFI using around 300 hours FAST data. The details are as follows. Firstly, according to the characteristics of FAST spectra, we propose to use the ArPLS algorithm for baseline fitting. Our test results show that it has a good performance. Secondly, we flag the RFI with four strategies, which are to flag extremely strong RFI, flag long-lasting RFI, flag polarized RFI, and flag beam-combined RFI, respectively. The test results show that all the RFI above a preset threshold could be flagged. Thirdly, we make a statistics for the probabilities of polarized XX and YY RFI in FAST observations. The statistical results could tell us which frequencies are relatively quiescent. With such statistical data, we are able to avoid using such frequencies in our spectral observations. Finally, based on the around 300 hours FAST data, we got an RFI table, which is the most complete database currently for FAST.

  • FEASTS: IGM cooling triggered by tidal interactions through the diffuse HI phase around NGC 4631

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: We use the single-dish radio telescope FAST to map the HI in the tidally interacting NGC 4631 group with a resolution of 3.24$'$ (7 kpc), reaching a 5-$\sigma$ column density limit of $10^{17.9}$ cm$^{-2}$ assuming a line width of 20 km s$^{-1}$. Taking the existing interferometric HI image from the HALOGAS project of WSRT as reference, we are able to identify and characterize a significant excess of large-scale, low-density, and diffuse HI in the group. This diffuse HI extends for more than 120 kpc across, and accounts for more than one fourth of the total HI detected by FAST in and around the galaxy NGC 4631. In the region of the tidal tails, the diffuse HI has a typical column density above $10^{19.5}$ cm$^{-2}$, and is highly turbulent with a velocity dispersion around 50 km s$^{-1}$. It increases in column density with the dense HI, and tends to be associated with the kinematically ``hotter'' part of the dense HI. Through simple modeling, we find that the majority of the diffuse HI in the tail region is likely to induce cooling out of the hot IGM instead of evaporating or being radiatively ionized. Given these relations of gas in different phases, the diffuse HI may represent a condensing phase of the IGM. Active tidal interactions on-going and in the past may have produced the wide-spreading HI distribution, and triggered the gas accretion to NGC 4631 through the phase of the diffuse HI.

  • FEASTS: IGM cooling triggered by tidal interactions through the diffuse HI phase around NGC 4631

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: We use the single-dish radio telescope FAST to map the HI in the tidally interacting NGC 4631 group with a resolution of 3.24$'$ (7 kpc), reaching a 5-$\sigma$ column density limit of $10^{17.9}$ cm$^{-2}$ assuming a line width of 20 km s$^{-1}$. Taking the existing interferometric HI image from the HALOGAS project of WSRT as reference, we are able to identify and characterize a significant excess of large-scale, low-density, and diffuse HI in the group. This diffuse HI extends for more than 120 kpc across, and accounts for more than one fourth of the total HI detected by FAST in and around the galaxy NGC 4631. In the region of the tidal tails, the diffuse HI has a typical column density above $10^{19.5}$ cm$^{-2}$, and is highly turbulent with a velocity dispersion around 50 km s$^{-1}$. It increases in column density with the dense HI, and tends to be associated with the kinematically ``hotter'' part of the dense HI. Through simple modeling, we find that the majority of the diffuse HI in the tail region is likely to induce cooling out of the hot IGM instead of evaporating or being radiatively ionized. Given these relations of gas in different phases, the diffuse HI may represent a condensing phase of the IGM. Active tidal interactions on-going and in the past may have produced the wide-spreading HI distribution, and triggered the gas accretion to NGC 4631 through the phase of the diffuse HI.