Physics Commons^™

Development Of Graphical Models And Statistical Physics Motivated Approaches To Genomic Investigations, Yashwanth Lagisetty

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

Identifying genes involved in disease pathology has been a goal of genomic research since the early days of the field. However, as technology improves and the body of research grows, we are faced with more questions than answers. Among these is the pressing matter of our incomplete understanding of the genetic underpinnings of complex diseases. Many hypotheses offer explanations as to why direct and independent analyses of variants, as done in genome-wide association studies (GWAS), may not fully elucidate disease genetics. These range from pointing out flaws in statistical testing to invoking the complex dynamics of epigenetic processes. In the …

Quantum Simulation Of Schrödinger's Equation, Mohamed Eltohfa

Capstone and Graduation Projects

Quantum computing is one of the promising active areas in physics research. This is because of the potential of quantum algorithms to outperform their classical counterparts. Grover’s search algorithm has a quadratic speed-up compared to the classical linear search. The quantum simulation of Schrödinger’s equation has an exponential memory save-up compared to the classical simulation. In this thesis, the ideas and tools of quantum computing are reviewed. Grover’s algorithm is studied and simulated as an example. Using the Qiskit quantum computing library, a code to simulate Schrödinger’s equation for a particle in one dimension is developed, simulated locally, and run …

Modeling Disorder In Proteins Yields Insights Into The Evolution Of Stability And Function, Jonathan Huihui

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The central dogma of molecular biology dictates that a DNA sequence codes for an RNA sequence, which in turn codes for a sequence of amino acids that comprises a protein. Proteins are responsible with performing myriad functions within living organisms and most proteins require a folded structure in order to perform their function. The protein's structure is the direct link from sequence to function. This is known as the sequence - structure - function paradigm. However, this does not mean that the unfolded state is unimportant. In order to properly model the stability of the folded state, one needs to …

Power Amplification Strategies Across Animals, Rayhan Asif

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Animals use muscles for movement, but some have evolved mechanisms to exceed maximum power used in a motion known as power amplification. In this literature review, I analyzed and compared the evolution of structures capable of power amplification between species. Structures capable of power amplification were broken down into the basic components of the engine, amplifier, and tool. The species analyzed were found to possess necessary structures for power amplification which were relatively similar to each other in morphology, but varied greatly in function. The ease with which these structures evolved was evaluated based on the amount of divergence which …

Consciousness As A Factor In Evolution, Kenneth A. Augustyn

Michigan Tech Publications

What I call the mind began as a non-conscious robotic biochemical process control system in the very earliest forms of life. As life evolved, problems in control became more difficult and exceeded the computational capabilities of the organisms. Nature discovered a means of transcending computable physical processes resulting in non-computational subjective mental capabilities that, while still not conscious, had a degree of genuine autonomy from the physical world. These autonomous subjective wants and goals now affected the course of (but not the mechanism of) evolution. The integrated amalgam of robotic and transrobotic unconscious capabilities eventually gave rise to consciousness, which …

Distribution And Evolution Of Fukushima Dai-Ichi Derived 137cs, 90sr, And 129i In Surface Seawater Off The Coast Of Japan, Jennifer A. Kenyon, Ken O. Buesseler, Núria Casacuberta, Maxi Castrillejo, Shigeyoshi Otosaka, Pere Masqué, Jessica A. Drysdale, Steven M. Pike, Virginie Sanial

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2020 American Chemical Society. The Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plants (FDNPPs) accident in 2011 led to an unprecedented release of radionuclides into the environment. Particularly important are 90Sr and 137Cs due to their known health detriments and long half-lives (T1/2 ≈ 30 y) relative to ecological systems. These radionuclides can be combined with the longer-lived 129I (T1/2 = 15.7 My) to trace hydrologic, atmospheric, oceanic, and geochemical processes. This study seeks to evaluate 137Cs, 90Sr, and 129I concentrations in seawater off the coast of Japan, reconcile the sources of contaminated waters, and assess the application of 137Cs/90Sr, 129I/137Cs, and …

The Astrophysics Of Nanohertz Gravitational Waves, S. Burke-Spolaor, S. R. Taylor, M. Charisi, T. Dolch, J. S. Hazboun, A. M. Holgado, L. Z. Kelley, T. J. W. Lazio, D. R. Madison, N. Mcmann, C. M. F. Mingarelli, A. Rasskazov, X. Siemens, J. J. Simon, Tristan L. Smith

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Works

Pulsar timing array (PTA) collaborations in North America, Australia, and Europe, have been exploiting the exquisite timing precision of millisecond pulsars over decades of observations to search for correlated timing deviations induced by gravitational waves (GWs). PTAs are sensitive to the frequency band ranging just below 1 nanohertz to a few tens of microhertz. The discovery space of this band is potentially rich with populations of inspiraling supermassive black hole binaries, decaying cosmic string networks, relic post-inflation GWs, and even non-GW imprints of axionic dark matter. This article aims to provide an understanding of the exciting open science questions in …

Complete Matching For Quasidistribution Functions In Large Momentum Effective Theory, Wei Wang, Jian-Hui Zhang, Shuai Zhao, Ruilin Zhu

Physics Faculty Publications

We complete the procedure of extracting parton distribution functions (PDFs) using large momentum effective theory at leading power accuracy in the hadron momentum. We derive a general factorization formula for the quasi-PDFs in the presence of mixing and give the corresponding hard matching kernel at O(α_s), both for the unpolarized and for the polarized quark and gluon quasi-PDFs. Our calculation is performed in a regularization-independent momentum subtraction scheme. The results allow us to match the nonperturbatively renormalized quasi-PDFs to normal PDFs in the presence of mixing and therefore can be used to extract flavor-singlet quark PDFs as well …

Conformal Invariance Of Transverse-Momentum Dependent Parton Distributions Rapidity Evolution, Ian Balitsky, Giovanni A. Chirilli

Physics Faculty Publications

We discuss conformal properties of TMD operators and present the result of the conformal rapidity evolution of TMD operators in the Sudakov region.

Ccd Ubv Ri Photometry Of The Open Cluster Berkeley 8, Hi̇kmet Çakmak, Raul Michel, Yüksel Karataş

Turkish Journal of Physics

The poorly studied Berkeley 8 (Be 8) open cluster is analyzed from CCD U BV RI photometric data taken with the 0.90 m telescope at the Sierra Nevada Observatory. The Z = +0.008 PARSEC isochrone gave us a reddening of E(B-V) = 0.69 ± 0.03, a distance of 3410 ± 300 pc, and an age of 2.8 ± 0.2 Gyr. Its median Gaia DR2 distance, d = 3676 ± 810 pc, is in good agreement with our photometric distances, 3410-3620 pc within the uncertainties. The kinematic parameters of five likely members of Be 8 with the circular orbits, ecc = …

Evolving Specialization In An Agent-Based Model Without Task-Switching Costs, Shane Meyer

Dissertations

This work examines the possibility of evolving the phenotypic specialization associated with division of labor in an agent-based model without task-switching costs. The model examines two groups competing for vital resources, where members of one group are capable of sharing resources with other agents in their group. Agents attempt to collect resources which allow them to reproduce, with more resources leading to a greater number of offspring by asexual reproduction. Four variants of the model are examined, with combinations of one or two resources and the presence of a foraging risk. The presence of the foraging risk can lead to …

Evolving Specialization In An Agent-Based Model Without Task-Switching Costs, Shane Robert Meyer

Doctoral Dissertations

"This work examines the possibility of evolving the phenotypic specialization associated with division of labor in an agent-based model without task-switching costs. The model examines two groups competing for vital resources, where members of one group are capable of sharing resources with other agents in their group. Agents attempt to collect resources which allow them to reproduce, with more resources leading to a greater number of offspring by asexual reproduction. Four variants of the model are examined, with combinations of one or two resources and the presence of a foraging risk. The presence of the foraging risk can lead to …

Sdss-Iv Manga: Spatially Resolved Star Formation Main Sequence And Li(N)Er Sequence, B. C. Hsieh, Lihwai Lin, J. H. Lin, H. A. Pan, C. H. Hsu, S. F. Sánchez, M. Cano-Díaz, Kai Zhang, Renbin Yan, J. K. Barrera-Ballesteros, M. Boquien, R. Riffel, J. Brownstein, I. Cruz-González, A. Hagen, H. Ibarra, K. Pan, D. Bizyaev, D. Oravetz, A. Simmons

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We present our study on the spatially resolved Hα and M_* relation for 536 star-forming and 424 quiescent galaxies taken from the MaNGA survey. We show that the star formation rate surface density (Σ_SFR), derived based on the Hα emissions, is strongly correlated with the M_* surface density (Σ_*) on kiloparsec scales for star-forming galaxies and can be directly connected to the global star-forming sequence. This suggests that the global main sequence may be a consequence of a more fundamental relation on small scales. On the other hand, our result suggests that …

Evolution Of Barred Galaxies In Spinning Dark Matter Halos: High Resolution N-Body Simulations At Dlx, Angela Collier, Isaac Shlosman, Clayton Heller

Commonwealth Computational Summit

Observations show that galaxies are dominated by stellar disks immersed in much more massive, slowly tumbling dark matter (DM) halos. Large fraction of galactic disks, at least 75%, are barred (see Hubble Fork on the right). Stellar bars form either via spontaneous break of axial symmetry or via galaxy interactions.

The formation and evolution of stellar bars is not fully understood. Stellar bar evolution is highly nonlinear and cannot be treated analytically. The main approach to study these disk-halo systems is via numerical simulations, whose goal is to explain why galaxies have such a wide range of morphologies as shown …

Spatially Offset Active Galactic Nuclei. Ii. Triggering In Galaxy Mergers, R Scott Barrows, Julia M. Comerford, Jenny E. Greene, David Pooley

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Research

Galaxy mergers are likely to play a role in triggering active galactic nuclei (AGNs), but the conditions under which this process occurs are poorly understood. In Paper I, we constructed a sample of spatially offset X-ray AGNs that represent galaxy mergers hosting a single AGN. In this paper, we use our offset AGN sample to constrain the parameters that affect AGN observability in galaxy mergers. We also construct dual-AGN samples with similar selection properties for comparison. We find that the offset AGN fraction shows no evidence for a dependence on AGN luminosity, while the dual-AGN fractions show stronger evidence for …

Reconciling Ag-Star Formation, The Soltan Argument, And Meier's Paradox, David Garofalo, Matthew I. Kim, Damian J. Christian, Emily Hollingworth

Faculty and Research Publications

We provide a theoretical context for understanding the recent work of Kalfountzou et al. showing that star formation is enhanced at lower optical luminosity in radio-loud quasars. Our proposal for coupling the assumption of collimated FRII quasar-jet-induced star formation with lower accretion optical luminosity also explains the observed jet power peak in active galaxies at higher redshift compared to the peak in accretion power, doing so in a way that predicts the existence of a family of radio-quiet active galactic nuclei associated with rapidly spinning supermassive black holes at low redshift, as mounting observations suggest. The relevance of this work …

The Inferred Evolution Of The Cold Gas Properties Of Candels Galaxies At 0.5 < Z < 3.0, G. Popping, K. Caputi, S. C. Trager, Rachel S. Somerville, Avishai Dekel, Susan A. Kassin, Dale D. Kocevski, Anton M. Koekemoer, Sandra M. Faber, Henry C. Ferguson, A. Galametz, Norman A. Grogin, Yicheng Guo, Y. Lu, Arjen Van Der Wel, Benjamin J. Weiner

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We derive the total cold gas, atomic hydrogen, and molecular gas masses of approximately 24 000 galaxies covering four decades in stellar mass at redshifts 0.5 < z < 3.0, taken from the Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey survey. Our inferences are based on the inversion of a molecular hydrogen based star formation law, coupled with a prescription to separate atomic and molecular gas. We find that: (1) there is an increasing trend between the inferred cold gas (H i and H₂), H i, and H₂ mass and the stellar mass of galaxies down to stellar masses of 10⁸ M_⊙ already in place at z = 3; (2) the molecular fractions of cold gas increase with increasing stellar mass and look-back time; (3) there is hardly any evolution in the mean H i content of galaxies at fixed stellar mass; (4) the cold gas fraction and relative amount of molecular …

Structure Symmetry Determination And Magnetic Evolution In Sr2Ir1−XRhXO4, Feng Ye, Xiaoping Wang, Christina Hoffmann, Jinchen Wang, Songxue Chi, Masaaki Matsuda, Bryan C. Chakoumakos, Jaime A. Fernandez-Baca, Gang Cao

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We use single-crystal neutron diffraction to determine the crystal structure symmetry and the magnetic evolution in the rhodium-doped iridates Sr₂Ir_1−xRh_xO₄ (0≤ x ≤ 0.16). Throughout this doping range, the crystal structure retains a tetragonal symmetry (space group I4₁/a) with two distinct magnetic Ir sites in the unit cell forming staggered IrO₆ rotation. Upon Rh doping, the magnetic order is suppressed and the magnetic moment of Ir⁴⁺ is reduced from 0.21μ_B/Ir for x=0 to 0.18μ_B/Ir for x=0.12. The magnetic structure …

Stellar Metallicity Gradients In Sdss Galaxies, Benjamin Roig, Michael R. Blanton, Renbin Yan

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We infer stellar metallicity and abundance ratio gradients for a sample of red galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Main galaxy sample. Because this sample does not have multiple spectra at various radii in a single galaxy, we measure these gradients statistically. We separate galaxies into stellar mass bins, stack their spectra in redshift bins, and calculate the measured absorption-line indices in projected annuli by differencing spectra in neighboring redshift bins. After determining the line indices, we use stellar population modeling from the EZ_Ages software to calculate ages, metallicities, and abundance ratios within each annulus. Our data cover …

Evolution Of Magnetism In Single-Crystal Ca2Ru1−XIrXO4(0≤X≤0.65), Shujuan Yuan, Jsaminka Terzic, J. C. Wang, L. Li, Saicharan Aswartham, W. H. Song, F. Ye, Gang Cao

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We report structural, magnetic, transport, and thermal properties of single-crystal Ca₂Ru_1−xIr_xO₄(0≤x≤0.65). Ca₂RuO₄ is a structurally driven Mott insulator with a metal-insulator transition at T_MI=357K, which is well separated from antiferromagnetic order at T_N=110K. Substitution of a 5_d element, Ir, for Ru enhances spin-orbit coupling and locking between the structural distortions and magnetic moment canting. Ir doping intensifies the distortion or rotation of Ru/IrO₆ octahedra and induces weak ferromagnetic behavior along the c axis. In particular, Ir doping suppresses T_N but …

Star Formation And Quenching Among The Most Massive Galaxies At Z ∼ 1.7, C. Mancini, A. Renzini, E. Daddi, G. Rodighiero, S. Berta, N. Grogin, Dale D. Kocevski, A. Koekemoer

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We have conducted a detailed object-by-object study of a mass-complete (M_* ≥ 10¹¹ M_⊙) sample of 56 galaxies at 1.4 ≤ z ≤ 2 in the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey-South field, showing that an accurate deblending in 24 μm images is essential to properly assign to each galaxy its own star formation rate (SFR), whereas an automatic procedure often fails. This applies especially to galaxies with SFRs below the main sequence (MS) value, which may be in their quenching phase. After that, the sample splits evenly between galaxies forming stars within a factor of …

Metal-Poor, Strongly Star-Forming Galaxies In The Deep2 Survey: The Relationship Between Stellar Mass, Temperature-Based Metallicity, And Star Formation Rate, Chun Ly, Jane R. Rigby, Michael Cooper, Renbin Yan

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We report on the discovery of 28 z ≈ 0.8 metal-poor galaxies in DEEP2.

For the remainder of the abstract, please download this article or visit https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/805/1/45.

P-Manga: Gradients In Recent Star Formation Histories As Diagnostics For Galaxy Growth And Death, Cheng Li, Enci Wang, Lin Lin, Matthew A. Bershady, Kevin Bundy, Christy A. Tremonti, Ting Xiao, Renbin Yan, Dmitry Bizyaev, Michael Blanton, Sabrina Cales, Brian Cherinka, Edmond Cheung, Niv Drory, Eric Emsellem, Hai Fu, Joseph Gelfand, David R. Law, Lahwai Lin, Nick Macdonald, Claudia Maraston, Karen L. Masters, Michael R. Merrifield, Kaike Pan, S. F. Sánchez, Donald P. Schneider, Daniel Thomas, David Wake, Lixin Wang, Anne-Marie Weijmans, David Wilkinson, Peter Yoachim, Kai Zhang, Tiantian Zheng

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We present an analysis of the data produced by the MaNGA prototype run (P-MaNGA), aiming to test how the radial gradients in recent star formation histories, as indicated by the 4000 Å break (D_n(4000)), Hδ absorption (EW(Hδ_A)), and Hα emission (EW(Hα)) indices, can be useful for understanding disk growth and star formation cessation in local galaxies. We classify 12 galaxies observed on two P-MaNGA plates as either centrally quiescent (CQ) or centrally star-forming (CSF), according to whether D_n(4000) measured in the central spaxel of each datacube exceeds 1.6. For …

Aqueous Foam Stabilized By Tricephalic Amphiphilic Surfactants, Seth A. Heerschap

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Aqueous foams can be described as a close packing of gas bubbles stabilized by surface active molecules. Their complex and diverse properties make them attractive for many chemical and physical applications where foaming, emulsifying or coating processes are needed. The recent synthesis of multi-cephalic and multi-tailed amphiphilic molecules have reportedly enhanced their antibacterial activity in connection with tail length and nature of the head group.

This report covers the foamability of two triple head, double tail cationic surfactants (M-1,14,14, M-P,14,14) and a triple head single tail cationic surfactant (M-1,1,14) and compares them with commercially available single headed, single tailed anionic …

P-Manga: Full Spectral Fitting And Stellar Population Maps From Prototype Observations, David M. Wilkinson, Claudia Maraston, Daniel Thomas, Lodovico Coccato, Rita Tojeiro, Michele Cappellari, Francesco Belfiore, Matthew Bershady, Mike Blanton, Kevin Bundy, Sabrina Cales, Brian Cherinka, Niv Drory, Eric Emsellem, Hai Fu, David Law, Cheng Li, Roberto Maiolino, Karen Masters, Christy Tremonti, David Wake, Enci Wang, Anne-Marie Weijmans, Ting Xiao, Renbin Yan, Kai Zhang, Dmitry Bizyaev, Jonathan Brinkmann, Karen Kinemuchi, Daniel Oravetz, Kaike Pan, Audrey Simmons

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

MaNGA (Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory) is a 6-yr SDSS-IV (Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV) survey that will obtain resolved spectroscopy from 3600 to 10 300 Å for a representative sample of over 10 000 nearby galaxies. In this paper, we derive spatially resolved stellar population properties and radial gradients by performing full spectral fitting of observed galaxy spectra from P-MaNGA, a prototype of the MaNGA instrument. These data include spectra for 18 galaxies, covering a large range of morphological type. We derive age, metallicity, dust, and stellar mass maps, and their radial gradients, using high spectral-resolution stellar …

P-Manga Galaxies: Emission-Lines Properties – Gas Ionization And Chemical Abundances From Prototype Observations, F. Belfiore, R. Maiolino, K. Bundy, D. Thomas, C. Maraston, D. Wilkinson, S. F. Sánchez, M. Bershady, G. A. Blanc, M. Bothwell, S. L. Cales, L. Coccato, N. Drory, E. Emsellem, H. Fu, J. Gelfand, D. Law, K. Masters, J. Parejko, C. Tremonti, D. Wake, A. Weijmans, Renbin Yan, T. Xiao, K. Zhang, T. Zheng, K. Bizyaev, K. Kinemuchi, D. Oravetz, A. Simmons

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

MaNGA (Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory) is a 6-yr Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-IV) survey that will obtain spatially resolved spectroscopy from 3600 to 10 300 Å for a representative sample of over 10 000 nearby galaxies. In this paper, we present the analysis of nebular emission-line properties using observations of 14 galaxies obtained with P-MaNGA, a prototype of the MaNGA instrument. By using spatially resolved diagnostic diagrams, we find extended star formation in galaxies that are centrally dominated by Seyfert/LINER-like emission, which illustrates that galaxy characterizations based on single fibre spectra are necessarily incomplete. We observe extended …

The Role Of Bulge Formation In The Homogenization Of Stellar Populations At Z ~ 2 As Revealed By Internal Color Dispersion In Candels, Steven Boada, V. Tilvi, R. F. Quadri, M. Hilton, S. Finkelstein, Yicheng Guo, N. Bond, C. Conselice, A. Dekel, H. Ferguson, M. Giavalisco, N. A. Grogin, Dale D. Kocevski, A. M. Koekemoer, D. C. Koo

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We use data from the Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey to study how the spatial variation in the stellar populations of galaxies relates to the formation of galaxies at 1.5 < z < 3.5. We use the internal color dispersion (ICD), measured between the rest-frame UV and optical bands, which is sensitive to age (and dust attenuation) variations in stellar populations. The ICD shows a relation with the stellar masses and morphologies of the galaxies. Galaxies with the largest variation in their stellar populations as evidenced by high ICD have disk-dominated morphologies (with Sérsic indexes M/M_⊙) < 11. There is a marked decrease in the ICD as the stellar mass and/or the Sérsic index increases. By studying the relations between the ICD and other galaxy properties including size, total color, star formation rate, and dust attenuation, we conclude that the largest variations in stellar populations occur in galaxies where the light from newly, high star-forming clumps contrasts older stellar disk populations. This phase reaches a peak for galaxies only with a specific stellar mass range, 10 < log(M/M_⊙) < 11, and prior to the formation of a substantial bulge/spheroid. In contrast, galaxies at higher or lower stellar masses and/or higher Sérsic index (n > 2) show reduced ICD values, implying a greater homogeneity of their stellar populations. This indicates that if a galaxy is to have a quiescent bulge along with a star-forming disk, typical of Hubble sequence galaxies, this is most common for stellar masses 10 < log(M/M_⊙) < 11 and when the bulge component remains relatively small (n > 2).

Zfourge/Candels: On The Evolution Of M* Galaxy Progenitors From Z=3 To 0.5*, C. Papovich, I. Labbé, R. Quadri, V. Tilvi, P. Behroozi, E. F. Bell, K. Glazebrook, L. Spitler, C. M.S. Straatman, K.-V. Tran, M. Cowley, R. Davé, A. Dekel, M. Dickinson, H. C. Ferguson, S. L. Finkelstein, E. Gawiser, H. Inami, S. M. Faber, G. G. Kacprzak, L. Kawinwanichakij, Dale D. Kocevski, A. Koekemoer, D. C. Koo, P. Kurczynski, J. M. Lotz, Y. Lu, R. A. Lucas, D. Mcintosh, N. Mehrtens, B. Mobasher, A. Monson, G. Morrison, T. Nanayakkara, S. E. Persson, B. Salmon, R. Simons, A. Tomczak, P. Van Dokkum, B. Weiner, S. P. Willner

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

Galaxies with stellar masses near M* contain the majority of stellar mass in the universe, and are therefore of special interest in the study of galaxy evolution. The Milky Way (MW) and Andromeda (M31) have present-day stellar masses near M*, at 5 × 10¹⁰ M _☉ (defined here to be MW-mass) and 10¹¹ M _☉ (defined to be M31-mass). We study the typical progenitors of these galaxies using the FOURSTAR Galaxy Evolution Survey (ZFOURGE). ZFOURGE is a deep medium-band near-IR imaging survey, which is sensitive to the progenitors of these galaxies out to z ~ 3. …

The Galaxy Stellar Mass Function At 3.5 ≤ Z ≤ 7.5 In The Candels/Uds, Goods-South, And Hudf Fields, A. Grazian, A. Fontana, P. Santini, J. S. Dunlop, H. C. Ferguson, M. Castellano, R. Amorin, M. L. N. Ashby, G. Barro, P. Behroozi, K. Boutsia, K. I. Caputi, R. R. Chary, A. Dekel, M. E. Dickenson, S. M. Faber, G. G. Fazio, S. L. Finkelstein, A. Galametz, E. Giallongo, M. Giavalisco, N. A. Grogin, Y. Guo, Dale D. Kocevski, A. M. Koekemoer, D. C. Koo, K.-S. Lee, Y. Lu, E. Merlin, B. Mobasher, M. Nonino, C. Paovich, D. Paris, L. Pentericci, N. Reddy, A. Renzini, B. Salmon, M. Salvato, V. Sommariva, M. Song, E. Vanzella

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

Context. The form and evolution of the galaxy stellar mass function (GSMF) at high redshifts provide crucial information on star formation history and mass assembly in the young Universe, close or even prior to the epoch of reionization.

Aims. We used the unique combination of deep optical/near-infrared/mid-infrared imaging provided by HST, Spitzer, and the VLT in the CANDELS-UDS, GOODS-South, and HUDF fields to determine the GSMF over the redshift range 3.5 ≤ z ≤ 7.5.

Methods. We used the HST WFC3/IR near-infrared imaging from CANDELS and HUDF09, reaching H ≃ 27 − 28.5 over a total area of 369 …

Galaxy Zoo: Are Bars Responsible For The Feeding Of Active Galactic Nuclei At 0.2 < Z < 1.0?, Edmond Cheung, Jonathan R. Trump, E. Athanassoula, Steven P. Bamford, Eric F. Bell, A. Bosma, Carolin N. Cardamone, Kevin R. V. Casteels, S. M. Faber, Jerome J. Fang, Lucy F. Fortson, Dale D. Kocevski, David C. Koo, Seppo Laine, Chris Lintott, Karen L. Masters, Thomas Melvin, Robert C. Nichol, Kevin Schawinski, Brooke Simmons, Rebecca Smethurst, Kyle W. Willett

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We present a new study investigating whether active galactic nuclei (AGN) beyond the local universe are preferentially fed via large-scale bars. Our investigation combines data from Chandra and Galaxy Zoo: Hubble (GZH) in the AEGIS (All-wavelength Extended Groth strip International Survey), COSMOS (Cosmological Evolution Survey), and (Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey-South) GOODS-S surveys to create samples of face-on, disc galaxies at 0.2 < z < 1.0. We use a novel method to robustly compare a sample of 120 AGN host galaxies, defined to have 10⁴² erg s⁻¹ < L_X < 10⁴⁴ erg s⁻¹, with inactive control galaxies matched in stellar mass, rest-frame colour, size, Sérsic index, and redshift. Using the GZH bar classifications of each sample, we demonstrate that …