TY - JOUR A1 - Marino, Raffaella Anna A1 - Cantalupo, Sebastiano A1 - Lilly, Simon J. A1 - Gallego, Sofia G. A1 - Straka, Lorrie A. A1 - Borisova, Elena A1 - Pezzulli, Gabriele A1 - Bacon, Roland A1 - Brinchmann, Jarle A1 - Carollo, C. Marcella A1 - Caruana, Joseph A1 - Conseil, Simon A1 - Contini, Thierry A1 - Diener, Catrina A1 - Finley, Hayley A1 - Inami, Hanae A1 - Leclercq, Floriane A1 - Muzahid, Sowgat A1 - Richard, Johan A1 - Schaye, Joop A1 - Wendt, Martin A1 - Wisotzki, Lutz T1 - Dark Galaxy Candidates at Redshift similar to 3.5 Detected with MUSE JF - The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics N2 - Recent theoretical models suggest that the early phase of galaxy formation could involve an epoch when galaxies are gas rich but inefficient at forming stars: a "dark galaxy" phase. Here, we report the results of our Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) survey for dark galaxies fluorescently illuminated by quasars at z > 3. Compared to previous studies which are based on deep narrowband (NB) imaging, our integral field survey provides a nearly uniform sensitivity coverage over a large volume in redshift space around the quasars as well as full spectral information at each location. Thanks to these unique features, we are able to build control samples at large redshift distances from the quasars using the same data taken under the same conditions. By comparing the rest-frame equivalent width (EW0) distributions of the Ly alpha sources detected in proximity to the quasars and in control samples, we detect a clear correlation between the locations of high-EW0 objects and the quasars. This correlation is not seen in other properties, such as Ly alpha luminosities or volume overdensities, suggesting the possible fluorescent nature of at least some of these objects. Among these, we find six sources without continuum counterparts and EW0 limits larger than 240 angstrom that are the best candidates for dark galaxies in our survey at z > 3.5. The volume densities and properties, including inferred gas masses and star formation efficiencies, of these dark galaxy candidates are similar to those of previously detected candidates at z approximate to 2.4 in NB surveys. Moreover, if the most distant of these are fluorescently illuminated by the quasar, our results also provide a lower limit of t - 60 Myr on the quasar lifetime. KW - galaxies: formation KW - galaxies: high-redshift KW - galaxies: star formation KW - intergalactic medium KW - quasars: emission lines KW - quasars: general Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aab6aa SN - 0004-637X SN - 1538-4357 VL - 859 IS - 1 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Monreal-Ibero, Ana A1 - Weilbacher, Peter Michael A1 - Wendt, Martin T1 - Diffuse interstellar bands lambda 5780 and lambda 5797 in the Antennae Galaxy as seen by MUSE JF - Astronomy and astrophysics : an international weekly journal N2 - Context. Diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs) are faint spectral absorption features of unknown origin. Research on DIBs beyond the Local Group is very limited and will surely blossom in the era of the Extremely Large Telescopes. However, we can already start paving the way. One possibility that needs to be explored is the use of high-sensitivity integral field spectrographs. Aims. Our goals are twofold. First, we aim to derive reliable mapping of at least one DIB in a galaxy outside the Local Group. Second, we want to explore the relation between DIBs and other properties of the interstellar medium (ISM) in the galaxy. Methods. We use Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) data for the Antennae Galaxy, the closest major galaxy merger. High signal-to-noise spectra were created by co-adding the signal of many spatial elements with the Voronoi binning technique. The emission of the underlying stellar population was modelled and substracted with the STARLIGHT spectral synthesis code. Flux and equivalent width of the features of interest were measured by means of fitting to Gaussian functions. Conclusions. The results illustrate the enormous potential of integral field spectrographs for extragalactic DIB research. KW - dust, extinction KW - ISM: lines and bands KW - galaxies: ISM KW - galaxies: individual: Antennae Galaxy KW - galaxies: interactions KW - ISM: structure Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201732178 SN - 1432-0746 VL - 615 PB - EDP Sciences CY - Les Ulis ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Johnson, Sean D. A1 - Chen, Hsiao-Wen A1 - Straka, Lorrie A1 - Schaye, Joop A1 - Cantalupo, Sebastiano A1 - Wendt, Martin A1 - Muzahid, Sowgat A1 - Bouché, Nicolas A1 - Herenz, Edmund Christian A1 - Kollatschny, Wolfram A1 - Mulchaey, John S. A1 - Marino, Raffaella A. A1 - Maseda, Michael A1 - Wisotzki, Lutz T1 - Galaxy and quasar fueling caught in the act from the intragroup to the interstellar medium JF - The astrophysical journal : Part 2, Letters N2 - We report the discovery of six spatially extended (10-100 kpc) line-emitting nebulae in the z approximate to 0.57 galaxy group hosting PKS 0405-123, one of the most luminous quasars at z < 1. The discovery is enabled by the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer and provides tantalizing evidence connecting large-scale gas streams with nuclear activity on scales of <10 proper kpc (pkpc). One of the nebulae exhibits a narrow, filamentary morphology extending over 50 pkpc toward the quasar with narrow internal velocity dispersion (50 km s(-1)) and is not associated with any detected galaxies, consistent with a cool intragroup medium filament. Two of the nebulae are 10 pkpc north and south of the quasar with tidal-arm-like morphologies. These two nebulae, along with a continuum-emitting arm extending 60 pkpc from the quasar, are signatures of interactions that are expected to redistribute angular momentum in the host interstellar medium (ISM) to facilitate star formation and quasar fueling in the nucleus. The three remaining nebulae are among the largest and most luminous [O III] emitting "blobs" known (1400-2400 pkpc(2)) and correspond both kinematically and morphologically to interacting galaxy pairs in the quasar host group, consistent with arising from stripped ISM rather than large-scale quasar outflows. The presence of these large- and small-scale nebulae in the vicinity of a luminous quasar bears significantly on the effect of large-scale environment on galaxy and black hole fueling, providing a natural explanation for the previously known correlation between quasar luminosity and cool circumgalactic medium. KW - galaxies: interactions KW - intergalactic medium KW - quasars: general KW - quasars: individual (PKS 0405-123) Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/aaf1cf SN - 2041-8205 SN - 2041-8213 VL - 869 IS - 1 PB - IOP Publishing Ltd. (Bristol) CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Weilbacher, Peter Michael A1 - Monreal-Ibero, Ana A1 - Verhamme, Anne A1 - Sandin, Christer A1 - Steinmetz, Matthias A1 - Kollatschny, Wolfram A1 - Krajnovic, Davor A1 - Kamann, Sebastian A1 - Roth, Martin M. A1 - Erroz-Ferrer, Santiago A1 - Marino, Raffaella Anna A1 - Maseda, Michael V. A1 - Wendt, Martin A1 - Bacon, Roland A1 - Dreizler, Stefan A1 - Richard, Johan A1 - Wisotzki, Lutz T1 - Lyman-continuum leakage as dominant source of diffuse ionized gas in the Antennae galaxy JF - Astronomy and astrophysics : an international weekly journal N2 - The Antennae galaxy (NGC 4038/39) is the closest major interacting galaxy system and is therefore often studied as a merger prototype. We present the first comprehensive integral field spectroscopic dataset of this system, observed with the MUSE instrument at the ESO VLT. We cover the two regions in this system which exhibit recent star formation: the central galaxy interaction and a region near the tip of the southern tidal tail. In these fields, we detect H II regions and diffuse ionized gas to unprecedented depth. About 15% of the ionized gas was undetected by previous observing campaigns. This newly detected faint ionized gas is visible everywhere around the central merger, and shows filamentary structure. We estimate diffuse gas fractions of about 60% in the central field and 10% in the southern region. We are able to show that the southern region contains a significantly different population of H II regions, showing fainter luminosities. By comparing H II region luminosities with the HST catalog of young star clusters in the central field, we estimate that there is enough Lyman-continuum leakage in the merger to explain the amount of diffuse ionized gas that we detect. We compare the Lyman-continuum escape fraction of each H II region against emission line ratios that are sensitive to the ionization parameter. While we find no systematic trend between these properties, the most extreme line ratios seem to be strong indicators of density bounded ionization. Extrapolating the Lyman-continuum escape fractions to the southern region, we conclude that simply from the comparison of the young stellar populations to the ionized gas there is no need to invoke other ionization mechanisms than Lyman-continuum leaking H II regions for the diffuse ionized gas in the Antennae. KW - galaxies: interactions KW - galaxies: individual: NGC 4038, NGC 4039 KW - galaxies: ISM KW - ISM: structure KW - H II regions Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201731669 SN - 1432-0746 VL - 611 PB - EDP Sciences CY - Les Ulis ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Guber, Christoph Rudolf A1 - Richter, Philipp A1 - Wendt, Martin T1 - Multiple origins for the DLA at zabs = 0.313 toward PKS 1127–145 indicated by a complex dust depletion pattern of Ca, Ti, and Mn JF - Astronomy and astrophysics : an international weekly journal N2 - Aims: We aim to investigate the dust depletion properties of optically thick gas in and around galaxies and its origin we study in detail the dust depletion patterns of Ti, Mn, and Ca in the multi-component damped Lyman alpha (DLA) absorber at z(abs) = 0.313 toward the quasar PKS 1127-145. Methods: We performed a detailed spectral analysis of the absorption profiles of Ca II, Mn II, TIII, and Na I associated with the DLA toward PKS 1127-145, based on optical high-resolution data obtained with the UVES instrument at the Very Large Telescope. We obtained column densities and Doppler-parameters for the ions listed above and determine their gas-phase abundances, from which we conclude on their dust depletion properties. We compared the Ca and Ti depletion properties of this DLA with that of other DLAs. Results: One of the six analyzed absorption components (component 3) shows a striking underabundance of Ti and Mn in the gas-phase, indicating the effect of dust depletion for these elements and a locally enhanced dust-to-gas ratio. In this DLA and in other similar absorbers, the Mn II abundance follows that of Ti II very closely, implying that both ions are equally sensitive to the dust depletion effects. Conclusions: Our analysis indicates that the DLA toward PKS 1127 145 has multiple origins. With its narrow line width and its strong dust depletion, component 3 points toward the presence of a neutral gas disk from a faint LSB galaxy in front of PKS 1127 145, while the other, more diffuse and dust-poor, absorption components possibly are related to tidal gas features from the interaction between the various, optically confirmed galaxy-group members. In general, the Mn/Ca II ratio in sub-DLAs and DLAs possibly serves as an important indicator to discriminate between dust-rich and dust-poor in neutral gas in and around galaxies. KW - quasars: absorption lines KW - galaxies: abundances KW - intergalactic medium KW - quasars: individual: PKS1127-145 KW - dust, extinction KW - ISM: kinematics and dynamics Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201730984 SN - 1432-0746 VL - 609 PB - EDP Sciences CY - Les Ulis ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wisotzki, Lutz A1 - Bacon, R. A1 - Brinchmann, J. A1 - Cantalupo, S. A1 - Richter, Philipp A1 - Schaye, J. A1 - Schmidt, Kasper Borello A1 - Urrutia, Tanya A1 - Weilbacher, Peter Michael A1 - Akhlaghi, M. A1 - Bouche, N. A1 - Contini, T. A1 - Guiderdoni, B. A1 - Herenz, E. C. A1 - Inami, H. A1 - Kerutt, Josephine Victoria A1 - Leclercq, F. A1 - Marino, R. A. A1 - Maseda, M. A1 - Monreal-Ibero, A. A1 - Nanayakkara, T. A1 - Richard, J. A1 - Saust, R. A1 - Steinmetz, Matthias A1 - Wendt, Martin T1 - Nearly all the sky is covered by Lyman-alpha emission around high-redshift galaxies JF - Nature : the international weekly journal of science N2 - Galaxies are surrounded by large reservoirs of gas, mostly hydrogen, that are fed by inflows from the intergalactic medium and by outflows from galactic winds. Absorption-line measurements along the lines of sight to bright and rare background quasars indicate that this circumgalactic medium extends far beyond the starlight seen in galaxies, but very little is known about its spatial distribution. The Lyman-alpha transition of atomic hydrogen at a wavelength of 121.6 nanometres is an important tracer of warm (about 104 kelvin) gas in and around galaxies, especially at cosmological redshifts greater than about 1.6 at which the spectral line becomes observable from the ground. Tracing cosmic hydrogen through its Lyman-a emission has been a long-standing goal of observational astrophysics(1-3), but the extremely low surface brightness of the spatially extended emission is a formidable obstacle. A new window into circumgalactic environments was recently opened by the discovery of ubiquitous extended Lyman-alpha emission from hydrogen around high-redshift galaxies(4,5). Such measurements were previously limited to especially favourable systems(6-8) or to the use of massive statistical averaging(9,10) because of the faintness of this emission. Here we report observations of low-surface-brightness Lyman-alpha emission surrounding faint galaxies at redshifts between 3 and 6. We find that the projected sky coverage approaches 100 per cent. The corresponding rate of incidence (the mean number of Lyman-alpha emitters penetrated by any arbitrary line of sight) is well above unity and similar to the incidence rate of high-column-density absorbers frequently detected in the spectra of distant quasars(11-14). This similarity suggests that most circumgalactic atomic hydrogen at these redshifts has now been detected in emission. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0564-6 SN - 0028-0836 SN - 1476-4687 VL - 562 IS - 7726 SP - 229 EP - 232 PB - Nature Publ. Group CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Paalvast, M. A1 - Verhamme, A. A1 - Straka, L. A. A1 - Brinchmann, J. A1 - Herenz, Edmund Christian A1 - Carton, D. A1 - Gunawardhana, M. L. P. A1 - Boogaard, L. A. A1 - Cantalupo, S. A1 - Contini, T. A1 - Epinat, Benoit A1 - Inami, H. A1 - Marino, R. A. A1 - Maseda, M. V. A1 - Michel-Dansac, L. A1 - Muzahid, S. A1 - Nanayakkara, T. A1 - Pezzulli, Gabriele A1 - Richard, J. A1 - Schaye, Joop A1 - Segers, M. C. A1 - Urrutia, Tanya A1 - Wendt, Martin A1 - Wisotzki, Lutz T1 - Properties and redshift evolution of star-forming galaxies with high [0 III]/[O II] ratios with MUSE at 0.28 < z < 0.85 JF - Astronomy and astrophysics : an international weekly journal N2 - We present a study of the [O III]/[O II] ratios of star-forming galaxies drawn from Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) data spanning a redshift range 0.28 < z < 0.85. Recently discovered Lyman continuum (LyC) emitters have extremely high oxygen line ratios: [O III]lambda 5007/[O II]lambda lambda 3726, 3729 > 4. Here we aim to understand the properties and the occurrences of galaxies with such high line ratios. Combining data from several MUSE Guaranteed Time Observing (GTO) programmes, we select a population of star-forming galaxies with bright emission lines, from which we draw 406 galaxies for our analysis based on their position in the z-dependent star formation rate (SFR) stellar mass (M*) plane. Out of this sample 15 are identified as extreme oxygen emitters based on their [O III]/[O II] ratios (3.7%) and 104 galaxies have [O III]/[O II] > 1 (26%). Our analysis shows no significant correlation between M*, SFR, and the distance from the SFR M, relation with [O III]/[O II]. We find a decrease in the fraction of galaxies with [O III]/[O II] > 1 with increasing M*, however, this is most likely a result of the relationship between [O III]/[O II] and metallicity, rather than between [O III]/[O II] and M. We draw a comparison sample of local analogues with < z > 0.03 from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and find similar incidence rates for this sample. In order to investigate the evolution in the fraction of high [O III]/[O II] emitters with redshift, we bin the sample into three redshift subsamples of equal number, but find no evidence for a dependence on redshift. Furthermore, we compare the observed line ratios with those predicted by nebular models with no LyC escape and find that most of the extreme oxygen emitters can be reproduced by low metallicity models. The remaining galaxies are likely LyC emitter candidates. KW - galaxies: evolution KW - galaxies: ISM KW - galaxies: abundances KW - ISM: structure KW - ISM: kinematics and dynamics KW - dark ages, reionization, first stars Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201832866 SN - 0004-6361 SN - 1432-0746 VL - 618 PB - EDP Sciences CY - Les Ulis ER -