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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Smooth kinematic and metallicity gradients reveal that the Milky Way's nuclear star cluster and disc might be part of the same structureContext. The innermost regions of most galaxies are characterised by the presence of extremely dense nuclear star clusters. Nevertheless, these clusters are not the only stellar component present in galactic nuclei, where larger stellar structures known as nuclear stellar discs, have also been found. Understanding the relation between nuclear starNogueras-Lara, F. et al.
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122023 -
JWST Constraints on the UV Luminosity Density at Cosmic Dawn: Implications for 21 cm CosmologyAn unprecedented array of new observational capabilities are starting to yield key constraints on models of the epoch of first light in the Universe. In this Letter we discuss the implications of the UV radiation background at cosmic dawn inferred by recent JWST observations for radio experiments aimed at detecting the redshifted 21 cm hyperfineHassan, Sultan et al.
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112023 -
A Milky Way-like barred spiral galaxy at a redshift of 3The majority of massive disk galaxies in the local Universe show a stellar barred structure in their central regions, including our Milky Way 1,2. Bars are supposed to develop in dynamically cold stellar disks at low redshift, as the strong gas turbulence typical of disk galaxies at high redshift suppresses or delays bar formation 3,4. MoreoverCostantin, Luca et al.
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Expanding on the fundamental metallicity relation in dwarf galaxies with MUSEThe mass-metallicity relation (MZR) represents one of the most important scaling relations in the context of galaxy evolution, comprising a positive correlation between stellar mass and metallicity (Z). The fundamental metallicity relation (FMR) introduces a new parameter into the dependence, namely, the star formation rate (SFR). While severalBulichi, Teodora-Elena et al.
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112023 -
Composite Bulges. III. A Study of Nuclear Star Clusters in Nearby Spiral GalaxiesWe present photometric and morphological analyses of nuclear star clusters (NSCs)-very dense, massive star clusters present in the central regions of most galaxies-in a sample of 33 massive disk galaxies within 20 Mpc, part of the "Composite Bulges Survey." We use data from the Hubble Space Telescope including optical (F475W and F814W) and near-IRAshok, Aishwarya et al.
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112023 -
Looking into the faintEst WIth MUSE (LEWIS): Exploring the nature of ultra-diffuse galaxies in the Hydra-I cluster. I. Project description and preliminary resultsLooking into the faintEst WIth MUSE (LEWIS) is an ESO large observing programme that aims at obtaining the first homogeneous integral-field spectroscopic survey of 30 extremely low-surface-brightness (LSB) galaxies in the Hydra I cluster of galaxies with MUSE at ESO-VLT. The majority of LSB galaxies in the sample (22 in total) are ultra-diffuseIodice, Enrichetta et al.
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Confirmation and refutation of very luminous galaxies in the early UniverseDuring the first 500 million years of cosmic history, the first stars and galaxies formed, seeding the Universe with heavy elements and eventually reionizing the intergalactic medium 1-3. Observations with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have uncovered a surprisingly high abundance of candidates for early star-forming galaxies, with distancesArrabal Haro, Pablo et al.
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102023 -
Disc galaxies are still settling. Discovery of the smallest nuclear discs and their young stellar barsWhen galactic discs settle and become massive enough, they are able to form stellar bars. These non-axisymmetric structures induce shocks in the gas, causing it to flow to the centre where nuclear structures, such as nuclear discs and rings, are formed. Previous theoretical and observational studies have hinted at the co-evolution of bars andde Sá-Freitas, Camila et al.
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102023 -
Bridging the gap in the mass-size relation of compact galaxies with MaNGAWe present the analysis of the full Mapping Nearby Galaxies at APO (MaNGA) DR17 sample to characterize its population of compact galaxies. We focus on galaxies that fill the stellar mass (M ⋆) gap between compact elliptical galaxies (cEs; 8 ≲ log (M ⋆/M ⊙) ≲ 10) and compact massive galaxies (CMGs; 10 ≲ log (M ⋆/M ⊙)). We study their stellarGrèbol-Tomàs, P. et al.
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122023 -
The star formation histories of quiescent ultra-diffuse galaxies and their dependence on environment and globular cluster richnessWe derive the stellar population parameters of 11 quiescent ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs) from Keck/KCWI data. We supplement these with 14 literature UDGs, creating the largest spectroscopic sample of UDGs to date (25). We find a strong relationship between their α-enhancement and their star formation histories: UDGs that formed on very short timeFerré-Mateu, Anna et al.
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Initial mass function variability from the integrated light of diverse stellar systemsWe present a uniform analysis of the stellar initial mass function (IMF) from integrated light spectroscopy of 15 compact stellar systems (11 globular clusters in M31 and 4 ultra compact dwarfs in the Virgo cluster, UCDs) and two brightest Coma cluster galaxies (BCGs), covering a wide range of metallicities (-1.7 < [Fe/H] < 0.01) and velocityCheng, Chloe M. et al.
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What drives the variance of galaxy spectra?We present a study aimed at understanding the physical phenomena underlying the formation and evolution of galaxies following a data-driven analysis of spectroscopic data based on the variance in a carefully selected sample. We apply principal component analysis (PCA) independently to three subsets of continuum-subtracted optical spectraSharbaf, Zahra et al.
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112023 -
Stellar metallicity from optical and UV spectral indices: Test case for WEAVE-StePSContext. The upcoming generation of optical spectrographs on four meter-class telescopes, with their huge multiplexing capabilities, excellent spectral resolution, and unprecedented wavelength coverage, will provide high-quality spectra for thousands of galaxies. These data will allow us to examine of the stellar population properties atDitrani, F. R. et al.
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92023 -
On the accretion of a new group of galaxies onto Virgo - III. The stellar population radial gradients of dEsUsing MUSE data, we investigate the radial gradients of stellar population properties (namely age, [M/H], and the abundance ratio of α elements [α/Fe]) for a sample of nine dwarf early-type (dE) galaxies with log(M ⋆/M ⊙) ~ 9.0 and an infall time onto the Virgo cluster of 2-3 Gyr ago. We followed a similar approach as in Bidaran et al. to deriveBidaran, Bahar et al.
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112023 -
The elemental abundance of quiescent galaxies in the LEGA-C survey: the (non-)evolution of [α/Fe] from z = 0.75 to z = 0We measure the [α/Fe] abundances for 183 quiescent galaxies at z = 0.60-0.75 with stellar masses ranging 10.4 ≤ log 10(M */M ⊙) ≤ 11.6 selected from the Large Early Galaxy Astrophysics Census survey. We estimate [α/Fe] from the ratio of the spectral indices Mgb (λ ~ 5177 Å) and Fe4383, compared to predictions of simple stellar population models. WeBevacqua, Davide et al.
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A brief review of contrastive learning applied to astrophysicsReliable tools to extract patterns from high-dimensionality spaces are becoming more necessary as astronomical data sets increase both in volume and complexity. Contrastive Learning is a self-supervised machine learning algorithm that extracts informative measurements from multidimensional data sets, which has become increasingly popular in theHuertas-Company, Marc et al.
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Ultra diffuse galaxies in the Hydra I cluster from the LEWISProject: Phase-Space distribution and globular cluster richnessAlthough ultra diffuse galaxies (UDGs) are found in large numbers in clusters of galaxies, the role of the cluster environment in shaping their low surface brightness and large sizes is still uncertain. Here, we examine a sample of UDGs in the Hydra I cluster (D = 51 Mpc) with new radial velocities obtained as part of the LEWIS (Looking into theForbes, Duncan A. et al.
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102023 -
The co-evolution of strong AGN and central galaxies in different environmentsWe exploit a sample of 80 000 Sloan Digital Sky Survey central galaxies to investigate the effect of active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback on their evolution. We trace the demographics of optically selected AGN (Seyferts) as a function of their internal properties and environment. We find that the preeminence of AGN as the dominant ionizingSampaio, V. M. et al.
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Mapping the stellar population and gas excitation of MaNGA galaxies with MEGACUBES. Results for AGN versus control sampleWe present spaxel-by-spaxel stellar population fits for the ~10 000 MaNGA data cubes. We provide multiple extension fits files, nominated as MEGACUBES, with maps of several properties as well as emission-line profiles that are provided for each spaxel. All the MEGACUBES are available through a web interface (https://manga.linea.org.br/ or http:/Riffel, Rogério et al.
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102023 -
Galaxies in voids assemble their stars slowlyGalaxies in the Universe are distributed in a web-like structure characterized by different large-scale environments: dense clusters, elongated filaments, sheetlike walls and under-dense regions, called voids 1-5. The low density in voids is expected to affect the properties of their galaxies. Indeed, previous studies 6-14 have shown that galaxiesDomínguez-Gómez, Jesús et al.
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