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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The Fornax 3D project: Thick disks in a cluster environmentWe have used deep MUSE observations to perform a stellar-kinematic and population analysis of FCC 153 and FCC 177, two edge-on S0 galaxies in the Fornax cluster. The geometrical definition of the different structural components of these two galaxies allows us to describe the nature of their thick disks. These are both old, relatively metal poor andPinna, F. et al.
Advertised on:
52019 -
Stellar content, planetary nebulae, and globular clusters of [KKS2000]04 (NGC 1052-DF2)[KKS2000]04 (NGC 1052-DF2) has become a controversial and well-studied galaxy after the claims suggesting a lack of dark matter and the presence of an anomalously bright globular cluster (GC) system around it. A precise determination of its overall star formation history (SFH) and a better characterization of its GC or planetary nebulae (PNe)Ruiz-Lara, T. et al.
Advertised on:
72019 -
A distance of 13 Mpc resolves the claimed anomalies of the galaxy lacking dark matterThe claimed detection of a diffuse galaxy lacking dark matter represents a possible challenge to our understanding of the properties of these galaxies and galaxy formation in general. The galaxy, already identified in photographic plates taken in the summer of 1976 at the UK 48-in Schmidt telescope, presents normal distance-independent propertiesTrujillo, I. et al.
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62019 -
NIHAO XXI: the emergence of low surface brightness galaxiesThe existence of galaxies with a surface brightness μ lower than the night sky has been known since three decades. Yet, their formation mechanism and emergence within a Lambda cold dark matter universe has remained largely undetermined. For the first time, we investigated the origin of low surface brightness (LSB) galaxies with M⋆ ˜ 109.5-10 M⊙Di Cintio, A. et al.
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62019 -
Comparing IMF-sensitive indices of intermediate-mass quiescent galaxies in various environmentsUsing samples drawn from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, we study for the first time the relation between large-scale environments (clusters, groups, and voids) and the stellar initial mass function (IMF). We perform an observational approach based on the comparison of IMF-sensitive indices of quiescent galaxies with similar mass in varyingEftekhari, E. et al.
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72019 -
A tidal tale: detection of several stellar streams in the environment of NGC 1052The possible existence of two dark-matter-free galaxies (NGC 1052-DF2 and NGC 1052-DF4) in the field of the early-type galaxy NGC 1052 presents a challenge to theories of dwarf galaxy formation according to the current cosmological paradigm. We carried out a search for signatures of past interactions connected to the putative hosts of NGC 1052-DF2Müller, O. et al.
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42019 -
Discovery of a red ultra-diffuse galaxy in a nearby void based on its globular cluster luminosity functionDistance determinations of extremely low-surface-brightness galaxies are expensive in terms of spectroscopic time. Because of this, their distances are often inferred by associating such galaxies with larger structures such as groups or clusters, leading to a systematic bias by selecting objects in high-density environments. Here we report theRomán, J. et al.
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62019 -
Spotting the differences between active and non-active twin galaxies on kpc-scales: a pilot studyWe present a pilot study aimed to identify large-scale galaxy properties that could play a role in activating a quiescent nucleus. To do so, we compare the properties of two isolated nearby active galaxies and their non-active twins selected from the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area (CALIFA) survey. This pilot sample includes two barred anddel Moral-Castro, I. et al.
Advertised on:
52019 -
The Fornax Deep Survey with the VST. V. Exploring the faintest regions of the bright early-type galaxies inside the virial radiusContext. This paper is based on the multi-band (ugri) Fornax Deep Survey (FDS) with the VLT Survey Telescope (VST). We study bright early-type galaxies (mB ≤ 15 mag) in the 9 square degrees around the core of the Fornax cluster, which covers the virial radius (Rvir ˜ 0.7 Mpc). Aims: The main goal of the present work is to provide an analysis of theIodice, E. et al.
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32019 -
The Fornax 3D project: Unveiling the thick disk origin in FCC 170; possible signs of accretionWe present and discuss the stellar kinematics and populations of the S0 galaxy FCC 170 (NGC 1381) in the Fornax cluster, using deep MUSE data from the Fornax 3D survey. We show the maps of the first four moments of the stellar line-of-sight velocity distribution and of the mass-weighted mean stellar age, metallicity, and [Mg/Fe] abundance ratioPinna, F. et al.
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32019 -
J-PLUS: The Javalambre Photometric Local Universe SurveyThe Javalambre Photometric Local Universe Survey (J-PLUS ) is an ongoing 12-band photometric optical survey, observing thousands of square degrees of the Northern Hemisphere from the dedicated JAST/T80 telescope at the Observatorio Astrofísico de Javalambre (OAJ). The T80Cam is a camera with a field of view of 2 deg2 mounted on a telescope with aCenarro, A. J. et al.
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22019 -
Dark matter response to galaxy assembly historyAims: It is well known that the presence of baryons affects the dark matter host haloes. Exploring the galaxy assembly history together with the dark matter haloes properties through time can provide a way to measure these effects. Methods: We have studied the properties of four Milky Way mass dark matter haloes from the Aquarius project duringArtale, M. C. et al.
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22019 -
Clocking the assembly of double-barred galaxies with the MUSE TIMER projectThe formation of two stellar bars within a galaxy has proved challenging for numerical studies. It is not yet clear whether the inner bar is born via a star formation process promoted by gas inflow along the outer bar or whether it is dynamically assembled from instabilities in a small-scale stellar disc. Observational constraints to thesede Lorenzo-Cáceres, A. et al.
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42019 -
The Fornax 3D project: dust mix and gas properties in the centre of early-type galaxy FCC 167Galaxies continuously reprocess their interstellar material. We can therefore expect changing dust grain properties in galaxies that have followed different evolutionary pathways. Determining the intrinsic dust grain mix of a galaxy helps in reconstructing its evolutionary history. Early-type galaxies occasionally display regular dust lanes inViaene, S. et al.
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22019 -
The missing light of the Hubble Ultra Deep FieldContext. The Hubble Ultra Deep field (HUDF) is the deepest region ever observed with the Hubble Space Telescope. With the main objective of unveiling the nature of galaxies up to z ˜ 7 - 8, the observing and reduction strategy have focused on the properties of small and unresolved objects, rather than the outskirts of the largest objects, which areBorlaff, A. et al.
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12019 -
Time Inference with MUSE in Extragalactic Rings (TIMER): properties of the survey and high-level data productsThe Time Inference with MUSE in Extragalactic Rings (TIMER) project is a survey with the VLT-MUSE integral-field spectrograph of 24 nearby barred galaxies with prominent central structures (e.g. nuclear rings or inner discs). The main goals of the project are: (i) estimating the cosmic epoch when discs of galaxies settle, leading to the formationGadotti, D. A. et al.
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12019 -
Intracluster light: a luminous tracer for dark matter in clusters of galaxiesThe bulk of stars in galaxy clusters are confined within their constituent galaxies. Those stars do not trace the extended distribution of dark matter well as they are located in the central regions of the cluster's dark matter subhaloes. A small fraction of stars is expected, however, to follow the global dark matter shape of the cluster. TheseMontes, M. et al.
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12019 -
Inner bars also buckle. The MUSE TIMER view of the double-barred galaxy NGC 1291Double bars are thought to be important features for secular evolution in the central regions of galaxies. However, observational evidence about their origin and evolution is still scarce. We report on the discovery of the first Box/Peanut (B/P) structure in an inner bar detected in the face-on galaxy NGC 1291. We use the integral field dataMéndez-Abreu, J. et al.
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12019 -
Discovery of disc truncations above the galaxies' mid-plane in Milky Way-like galaxiesDisc truncations are the closest feature to an edge that galaxies have, but the nature of this phenomenon is not yet understood. In this paper we explore the truncations in two nearby (D ˜15 Mpc) Milky Way-like galaxies: NGC 4565 and NGC 5907. We cover a wide wavelength range from the NUV and optical to 3.6 {μ m}. We find that the radius of theMartínez-Lombilla, C. et al.
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22019 -
A dynamical view on stellar metallicity gradient diversity across the Hubble sequence with CALIFAWe analyse radial stellar metallicity and kinematic profiles out to 1Re in 244 CALIFA galaxies ranging from morphological type E to Sd, to study the evolutionary mechanisms of stellar population gradients. We find that linear metallicity gradients exhibit a clear correlation with galaxy morphological type - with early-type galaxies showing theZhuang, Yulong et al.
Advertised on:
22019
![Izquierda - Imagen RGB de la nebulosa de Orión y M43 obtenida filtros estrechos con la cámara WFC en el INT: H alfa (rojo), [S II] 6716+30 (verde), [O III] 5007 (azul). Derecha - Imagen en falso color de la nebulosa planetaria NGC 6778. En azul se ve la emisión en la línea de O II tomada con el filtro sintonizable azul del instrumento OSIRIS en el GTC; en verde imagen con el filtro estrecho de [O III] del Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT).](/sites/default/files/styles/crop_square_2_2_to_320px/public/images/project/imagen_web.jpg?itok=fsBmV9CO "Izquierda - Imagen RGB de la nebulosa de Orión y M43 obtenida filtros estrechos con la cámara WFC en el INT: H alfa (rojo), [S II] 6716+30 (verde), [O III] 5007 (azul). Derecha - Imagen en falso color de la nebulosa planetaria NGC 6778. En azul se ve la emisión en la línea de O II tomada con el filtro sintonizable azul del instrumento OSIRIS en el GTC; en verde imagen con el filtro estrecho de [O III] del Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT).")
