We study the outskirts ($R<3R_{200c}$) of 40 groups and clusters of galaxies of the local Universe ($0.02<z<0.045$) with 300~km~s$^{-1}<σ<950$~km~s$^{-1}$. Using the SDSS DR10 catalog data, we measured the stellar mass of galaxy clusters in accordance with the previously determined $K_s$-luminosity (2MASX data) and found their correlation in the form $M_*/M_{\odot} \propto (L_K/L_{\odot})^{1.010\pm0.004}$ ($M_K<-21\,.\!\!^{\rm m}5$, $R<R_{200c}$). We also found the dependence of the galaxy cluster stellar mass on halo mass: $M_*/M_{\odot} \propto (M_{200c}/M_{\odot})^{0.77\pm0.01}$}. Our results show that the fraction of galaxies with quenched star formation ($M_K<-21\,.\!\!^{\rm m}5$) is maximal in the central regions of the galaxy clusters and equals, on the average, $0.81\pm0.02$; it decreases to $0.44\pm0.02$ outside of the projected radius $R_{sp}$ ($2<R/R_{200c}<3$), which we found from the observed profile, but still remains higher than that in the field by 27\%. The fraction of early-type "red sequence" galaxies decreases from $0.54\pm0.02$ in the center to $0.24\pm0.01$ beyond $R_{\rm sp}$, reaching its field value.
Low surface brightness galactic stellar halos provide a challenging but promising path towards unraveling the past assembly histories of individual galaxies. Here, we present detailed comparisons between the stellar halos of Milky Way-mass disk galaxies observed as part of the Dragonfly Nearby Galaxies Survey (DNGS) and stellar mass-matched galaxies in the TNG100 run of the IllustrisTNG project. We produce stellar mass maps as well as mock $g$ and $r$-band images for randomly oriented simulated galaxies, convolving the latter with the Dragonfly PSF and taking care to match the background noise…
A recent comparison by Merritt et al. 2020 of simulated and observed Milky Way-mass galaxies has identified a significant tension between the outskirts ($r>20\kpc$) of the stellar halos in simulated and observed galaxies. Using observations from the Dragonfly telescope and simulated galaxies from the Illustris-TNG100 project, Merritt et al. 2020 finds that the outskirts of stellar halos in simulated galaxies have surface densities $1-2$ dex higher than observed galaxies. In this paper, we compare two suites of 15 simulated Milky Way-like galaxies, each drawn from the same initial conditions, s…
HST/ACS observations along the major axis of M33 show that the mean age of its stars decreases with increasing distance from the galaxy center. Such a behavior is consistent with an inside-out growth of the disc. However, in the outermost observed field, at r$\simeq$11.6 kpc, a reversal of this gradient is detected, with old stars found in high percentages beyond this radius. In this work we investigate the origin of such a reversal in stellar age gradient, by using a simulated M33 analogue from the Constrained Local UniversE Simulations (CLUES). The simulated M33 is similar to the observed on…
The mid-infrared provides a unique view of galaxy stellar populations, sensitive to both the integrated light of old, low-mass stars and to individual dusty mass-losing stars. We present results from an extended Spitzer/IRAC survey of M31 with total lengths of 6.6 and 4.4 degrees along the major and minor axes, respectively. The integrated surface brightness profile proves to be surprisingly diffcult to trace in the outskirts of the galaxy, but we can also investigate the disk/halo transition via a star count profile, with careful correction for foreground and background contamination. Our poi…
Stellar migration, whether due to trapping by transient spirals (churning), or to scattering by non-axisymmetric perturbations, has been proposed to explain the presence of stars in outer disks. After a review of the basic theory, we present compelling, but not yet conclusive, evidence that churning has been important in the outer disks of galaxies with type II (down-bending) profiles, while scattering has produced the outer disks of type III (up-bending) galaxies. In contrast, field galaxies with type I (pure exponential) profiles appear to not have experienced substantial migration. We concl…
We use the Illustris Simulations to gain insight into the build-up of the outer, low-surface brightness regions which surround galaxies. We characterize the stellar haloes by means of the logarithmic slope of the spherically-averaged stellar density profiles, alphaSTARS at z=0, and we relate these slopes to the properties of the underlying Dark-Matter (DM) haloes, their central galaxies, and their assembly histories. We analyze a sample of ~5,000 galaxies resolved with more than 5x10^4 particles each, and spanning a variety of morphologies and halo masses (3x10^11 < Mvir < 10^14 Msun). We find…
Deep observations of galaxy outskirts reveal faint extended stellar components (ESCs) of streams, shells, and halos, which are ghostly remnants of the tidal disruption of satellite galaxies. We use cosmological galaxy formation simulations in Cold Dark Matter (CDM) and Warm Dark Matter (WDM) models to explore how the dark matter model influences the spatial, kinematic, and orbital properties of ESCs. These reveal that the spherically averaged stellar mass density at large galacto-centric radius can be depressed by up to a factor of 10 in WDM models relative to the CDM model, reflecting the ant…
We explore the stellar mass density and colour profiles of 118 low redshift, massive, central galaxies, selected to have assembled 90 percent of their stellar mass 6 Gyr ago, finding evidence of the minor merger activity expected to be the driver behind the size growth of quiescent galaxies. We use imaging data in the $g, r, i, z, y$ bands from the Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam survey and perform SED fitting to construct spatially well-resolved radial profiles in colour and stellar mass surface density. Our visual morphological classification reveals that $\sim 42$ percent of our sample displays ti…
The properties and star formation processes in the far-outer disks of nearby spiral and dwarf irregular galaxies are reviewed. The origin and structure of the generally exponential profiles in stellar disks is considered to result from cosmological infall combined with a non-linear star formation law and a history of stellar migration and scattering from spirals, bars, and random collisions with interstellar clouds. In both spirals and dwarfs, the far-outer disks tend to be older, redder and thicker than the inner disks, with the overall radial profiles suggesting inside-out star formation plu…
Current data broadly support trends of galaxy surface brightness profile amplitude and shape with total stellar mass predicted by state-of-the-art Lambda-CDM cosmological simulations, although recent results show signs of interesting discrepancies, particularly for galaxies less massive than the Milky Way. Here I discuss how perhaps the largest contribution to such discrepancies can be inferred almost directly from how well a given model agrees with the observed present-day galaxy stellar mass function.
Galaxy haloes contain fundamental clues about the galaxy formation and evolution process: hierarchical cosmological models predict haloes to be ubiquitous, and to be (at least in part) the product of past merger and/or accretion events. The advent of wide-field surveys in the last two decades has revolutionized our view of our own Galaxy and its closest "sister", Andromeda, revealing copious tidal streams from past and ongoing accretion episodes, as well as doubling the number of their known faint satellites. The focus shall now be shifted to galaxy haloes beyond the Local Group: resolving ind…
Extended, old, and round stellar halos appear to be ubiquitous around high-mass dwarf galaxies ($10^{8.5}<M_\star/M_\odot<10^{9.6}$) in the observed universe. However, it is unlikely that these dwarfs have undergone a sufficient number of minor mergers to form stellar halos that are composed of predominantly accreted stars. Here, we demonstrate that FIRE-2 (Feedback in Realistic Environments) cosmological zoom-in simulations are capable of producing dwarf galaxies with realistic structure, including both a thick disk and round stellar halo. Crucially, these stellar halos are formed in-situ, la…
Neutral gas is commonly believed to dominate over stars in the outskirts of galaxies, and investigations of the disk-halo interface are generally considered to be in the domain of radio astronomy. This may simply be a consequence of the fact that deep HI observations typically probe to a lower mass surface density than visible wavelength data. This paper presents low surface brightness optimized visible wavelength observations of the extreme outskirts of the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 2841. We report the discovery of an enormous low-surface brightness stellar disk in this object. When azimuthall…
Cluster finding with outskirt stellar masses and percolation
California State University, Northridge（北岭加州州立大学）；University of California, Santa Cruz（加州大学圣克鲁兹分校）；Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics（圣克鲁兹粒子物理研究所）；University of Maryland, College Park（马里兰大学帕克分校）；Tsinghua University（清华大学）
The outer stellar halos of galaxies contain vital information about the formation history of galaxies, since the relaxation timescales in the outskirts are long enough to keep the memory, while the information about individual formation events in the central parts has long been lost due to mixing, star formation and relaxation. To unveil some of the information encoded in these faint outer halo regions, we study the stellar outskirts of galaxies selected from a fully hydrodynamical high resolution cosmological simulation, called Magneticum. We find that the density profiles of the outer stella…
This paper reports detections of H$α$ emission and stellar continuum out to approximately 30 physical kpc, and H$α$ directionality in the outskirts of H$α$-emitting galaxies (H$α$ emitters) at $z=0.4$. This research adopts narrow-band selected H$α$ emitters at $z=0.4$ from the emission-line object catalog by Hayashi et al. (2020), which is based on data in the Deep and Ultradeep layers of the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program. Deep narrow- and broad-band images of 8625 H$α$ emitters across 16.8 deg$^2$ enable us to construct deep composite emission-line and continuum images. The stack…
Observations show that the surface brightness of disc galaxies can be well-described by a single exponential (TI), up-bending (TIII) or down-bending (TII) profiles in the outskirts. Here we characterize the mass surface densities of simulated late-type galaxies from the EAGLE project according to their distribution of mono-age stellar populations, the star formation activity and angular momentum content. We find a clear correlation between the inner scale-lengths and the stellar spin parameter, λ, for all three disc types with λ > 0.35. The outer scale-lengths of TII and TIII discs show a posi…
We use Gaia EDR3 data to identify stars associated with six classical dwarf spheroidals (Draco, Ursa Minor, Sextans, Sculptor, Fornax, Carina) at their outermost radii, beyond their nominal King stellar limiting radius. For all of the dSphs examined, we find radial velocity matches with stars residing beyond the King limiting radius and with $> 50\%$ astrometric probability (four in Draco, two in Ursa Minor, eight in Sextans, two in Sculptor, twelve in Fornax, and five in Carina), indicating that these stars are associated with their respective dwarf spheroidals (dSphs) at high probability. We…
Inferring line-of-sight distances from redshifts in and around galaxy clusters is complicated by peculiar velocities, a phenomenon known as the "Fingers of God" (FoG). This presents a significant challenge for finding filaments in large observational data sets as these artificial elongations can be wrongly identified as cosmic web filaments by extraction algorithms. Upcoming targeted wide-field spectroscopic surveys of galaxy clusters and their infall regions such as the WEAVE Wide-Field Cluster Survey motivate our investigation of the impact of FoG on finding filaments connected to clusters. …
The late assembly of massive galaxies is thought to be dominated by stellar accretion in their outskirts (beyond 2 effective radii Re) due to dry, minor galaxy mergers. We use observations of 1010 passive early-type galaxies (ETGs) within z<0.15 from SDSS IV MaNGA to search for evidence of this accretion. The outputs from the stellar population fitting codes FIREFLY, pPXF, and Prospector are compared to control for systematic errors in stellar metallicity (Z) estimation. We find that the average radial logZ/Zsun profiles of ETGs in various stellar mass (M) bins are not linear. As a result, the…
We present the first metal abundance profiles for a representative sample of massive clusters. Our measures extend to $R_{500}$ and are corrected for a systematic error plaguing previous outskirt estimates. Our profiles flatten out at large radii, admittedly not a new result, however the radial range and representative nature of our sample extends its import well beyond previous findings. We find no evidence of segregation between cool-core and non-cool-core systems beyond $\sim 0.3 R_{500}$, implying that, as was found for thermodynamic properties (Ghirardini et al, 2019), the physical state …
Though smooth, extended spheroidal stellar outskirts have long been observed around nearby dwarf galaxies, it is unclear whether dwarfs generically host an extended stellar halo. We use imaging from the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program (HSC-SSP) to measure the shapes of dwarf galaxies out to four effective radii for a sample of dwarfs at 0.005<z<0.2 and 10^7<M_star/M_sun<10^9.6. We find that dwarfs are slightly triaxial, with a <B/A> >~ 0.75 (where the ellipsoid is characterized by three principle semi-axes constrained by C<=B<=A). At M_star>10^8.5 M_sun, the galaxies grow from thick…
Due to longer dynamical timescales, the outskirts of early-type galaxies retain the footprint of their formation and assembly. Under the popular two-phase galaxy formation scenario, an initial in-situ phase of star formation is followed by minor merging and accretion of ex-situ stars leading to the expectation of observable transitions in the kinematics and stellar populations on large scales. However, observing the faint galactic outskirts is challenging, often leaving the transition unexplored. The large scale, spatially-resolved stellar kinematic data from the SAGES Legacy Unifying Galaxies…
In the outskirts of nearby spiral galaxies, star formation is observed in extremely low gas surface densities. Star formation in these regions, where the interstellar medium is dominated by diffuse atomic hydrogen, is difficult to explain with classic star formation theories. In this letter, we introduce runaway stars as an explanation for this observation. Runaway stars, produced by collisional dynamics in young stellar clusters, can travel kiloparsecs during their main-sequence lifetime. Using galactic-scale hydrodynamic simulations including a treatment of individual stars, we demonstrate t…
Current observational evidence suggests that the star formation rate (SFR) efficiency of neutral atomic hydrogen gas measured in Damped Ly-alpha Systems (DLAs) at z~3 is more than 10 times lower than predicted by the Kennicutt-Schmidt (KS) relation. To understand the origin of this deficit, and to investigate possible evolution with redshift and galaxy properties, we measure the SFR efficiency of atomic gas at z~1, z~2, and z~3 around star-forming galaxies. We use new robust photometric redshifts in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field to create galaxy stacks in these three redshift bins, and measure t…
Empirically, the estimated lifetime of a typical protoplanetary disk is $<5-10$ Myr. However, the disk lifetimes required to produce a variety of observed exoplanetary systems may exceed this timescale. Some hypothesize that this inconsistency is due to estimating disk fractions at the cores of clusters, where radiation fields external to a star-disk system can photoevaporate the disk. To test this, we have observed a field on the western outskirts of the IC 1396 star-forming region with \textit{XMM-Newton} to identify new Class III YSO cluster members. Our X-ray sample is complete for YSOs do…
We present results from deep and very spatially extended CTIO/DECam $g$ and $r$ photometry (reaching out to $\sim$ 2 mag below the oldest MSTO and covering $\sim$ 20 deg$^2$) around the Sextans dSph. We use this data-set to study the structural properties of Sextans overall stellar population and its different stellar evolutionary phases, as well as to search for signs of tidal disturbance from the MW, which would indicate departure from dynamical equilibrium. We perform the most accurate structural analysis to-date of Sextans' stellar components by applying Bayesian MCMC methods to the indivi…
About 20 percent of all nearby early-type galaxies ($M_{\star} \gtrsim 6 \times 10^{9}$ M$_{\odot}$) outside the Virgo cluster are surrounded by a disc or ring of low-column-density neutral hydrogen (HI) gas with typical radii of tens of kpc, much larger than the stellar body. In order to understand the impact of these gas reservoirs on the host galaxies, we analyse the distribution of star formation out to large radii as a function of HI properties using GALEX UV and SDSS optical images. Our sample consists of 18 HI-rich galaxies as well as 55 control galaxies where no HI has been detected. I…
We present Suzaku off-center observations of two poor galaxy groups, NGC 3402 and NGC 5129, with temperatures below 1 keV. Through spectral decomposition, we measured their surface brightnesses and temperatures out to 530 and 1430 times the critical density of the universe for NGC 3402 and NGC 5129, respectively. These quantities are consistent with extrapolations from existing inner measurements of the two groups. With the refined bolometric X-ray luminosities, both groups prefer $L_X$-$T$ relations without a break in the group regime. Furthermore, we have determined the electron number densi…
The outskirts of galaxies offer extreme environments where we can test our understanding of the formation, evolution, and destruction of molecules and their relationship with star formation and galaxy evolution. We review the basic equations that are used in normal environments to estimate physical parameters like the molecular gas mass from CO line emission and dust continuum emission. Then we discuss how those estimates may be affected when applied to the outskirts, where the average gas density, metallicity, stellar radiation field, and temperature may be lower. We focus on observations of …
The YMCA (Yes, Magellanic Clouds Again) and STEP ({The SMC in Time: Evolution of a Prototype interacting late-type dwarf galaxy) projects are deep g,i photometric surveys carried out with the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) and devoted to study the outskirts of the Magellanic System. A main goal of YMCA and STEP is to identify candidate stellar clusters and complete their census out to the outermost regions of the Magellanic Clouds. We adopted a specific over-density search technique coupled with a visual inspection of the color magnitude diagrams (CMDs) to select the best candidates and estimate t…
Context: Planetary nebulae (PNe) are excellent tracers of stellar populations with low surface brightness, and therefore provide a powerful method to detect and explore the rich system of substructures discovered around the main spiral galaxies of the Local Group. Aims: We searched the outskirts of the Local Group spiral galaxy M33 (the Triangulum) for PNe to gain new insights into the extended stellar substructure on the northern side of the disc and to study the existence of a faint classical halo. Methods: The search is based on wide field imaging covering a 4.5 square degree area out to a …
We present a study of the distribution of X-ray detected active galactic nuclei (AGN) in the five most massive, $M_{500}^{SZ}>10^{14} M_{\odot}$ , and distant, z$\sim$1, galaxy clusters in the \textit{Planck} and South Pole Telescope (SPT)\textit{} surveys. The spatial and thermodynamic individual properties of each cluster have been defined with unprecedented accuracy at this redshift using deep X-ray observations. This is an essential property of our sample in order to precisely determine the $R_{500}^{Y_{\textrm x}}$ radius of the clusters. For our purposes, we computed the X-ray point-like…
We present optical photometry of Hubble Space Telescope (HST) ACS/WFC data of the resolved stellar populations in the outer disc of the dwarf irregular galaxy DDO 154. The photometry reveals that young main sequence stars are almost absent from the outermost HI disc. Instead, most are clustered near the main stellar component of the galaxy. We constrain the stellar initial mass function (IMF) by comparing the luminosity function of the main sequence stars to simulated stellar populations assuming a constant star formation rate over the dynamical timescale. The best-fitting IMF is deficient in …
We report on the detection of three strong HI absorbers originating in the outskirts (i.e., impact parameter, $ρ_{\rm cl} \approx (1.6-4.7) r_{500}$) of three massive ($M_{500}\sim3\times10^{14} M_{\odot}$) clusters of galaxies at redshift $z_{\rm cl} \approx 0.46$, in the $Hubble Space Telescope$ Cosmic Origins Spectrograph ($HST$/COS) spectra of 3 background UV-bright quasars. These clusters were discovered by the 2500 deg$^2$ South Pole Telescope Sunyaev$-$Zel'dovich (SZ) effect survey. All three COS spectra show partial Lyman limit absorber with $N(HI) > 10^{16.5} \ \rm cm^{-2}$ near the p…
Observations of the ICM in the outskirts of the Virgo cluster with Suzaku have found the gas mass fraction in the northern direction to be significantly above the expected level, indicating that there may be a very high level of gas clumping on small scales in this direction. Here, we explore the XMM-Newton data in the outskirts of Virgo, dividing it into a Voronoi tessellation to separate the bulk ICM component from the clumped ICM component. As the nearest galaxy cluster, Virgo's large angular extent allows the spatial scale of the tessellation to be much smaller than has been achieved using…
We report the discovery of an ultra-faint dwarf in the constellation of Pegasus. Pegasus~V (Peg~V) was initially identified in the public imaging data release of the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys and confirmed with deep imaging from Gemini/GMOS-N. The colour-magnitude diagram shows a sparse red giant branch (RGB) population and a strong over-density of blue horizontal branch stars. We measure a distance to Peg~V of $D=692^{+33}_{-31}$~kpc, making it a distant satellite of Andromeda with $M_V=-6.3\pm0.2$ and a half-light radius of $r_{\rm half}=89\pm41$~pc. It is located $\sim260$~kpc from Androm…
The uniformity of the intra-cluster medium (ICM) enrichment level in the outskirts of nearby galaxy clusters suggests that chemical elements were deposited and widely spread into the intergalactic medium before the cluster formation. This observational evidence is supported by numerical findings from cosmological hydrodynamical simulations, as presented in Biffi et al. (2017), including the effect of thermal feedback from active galactic nuclei. Here, we further investigate this picture, by tracing back in time the spatial origin and metallicity evolution of the gas residing at z=0 in the outs…
Understanding the evolutionary history of the Magellanic Clouds requires an in-depth exploration and characterization of the stellar content in their outer regions, which ultimately are key to tracing the epochs and nature of past interactions. We present new deep images of a shell-like over-density of stars in the outskirts of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). The shell, also detected in photographic plates dating back to the fifties, is located at ~1.9 degr from the center of the SMC in the north-east direction.The structure and stellar content of this feature were studied with multi-band, o…
