Probing the evolution of the near-infrared luminosity function of galaxies to z≃ 3 in the Hubble Deep Field-South     

P. Saracco  A. Fiano  G. Chincarini  E. Vanzella  M. Longhetti  S. Cristiani  A. Fontana  E. Giallongo  M. Nonino 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2006,367(1):349-365

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Cosmic dynamics in the era of Extremely Large Telescopes     

J. Liske  A. Grazian  E. Vanzella  M. Dessauges  M. Viel  L. Pasquini  M. Haehnelt  S. Cristiani  F. Pepe  G. Avila  P. Bonifacio  F. Bouchy  H. Dekker  B. Delabre  S. D'Odorico  V. D'Odorico  S. Levshakov  C. Lovis  M. Mayor  P. Molaro  L. Moscardini  M. T. Murphy  D. Queloz  P. Shaver  S. Udry  T. Wiklind  S. Zucker 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2008,386(3):1192-1218

The redshifts of all cosmologically distant sources are expected to experience a small, systematic drift as a function of time due to the evolution of the Universe's expansion rate. A measurement of this effect would represent a direct and entirely model-independent determination of the expansion history of the Universe over a redshift range that is inaccessible to other methods. Here we investigate the impact of the next generation of Extremely Large Telescopes on the feasibility of detecting and characterizing the cosmological redshift drift. We consider the Lyα forest in the redshift range  2 < z < 5  and other absorption lines in the spectra of high-redshift QSOs as the most suitable targets for a redshift drift experiment. Assuming photon-noise-limited observations and using extensive Monte Carlo simulations we determine the accuracy to which the redshift drift can be measured from the Lyα forest as a function of signal-to-noise ratio and redshift. Based on this relation and using the brightness and redshift distributions of known QSOs we find that a 42-m telescope is capable of unambiguously detecting the redshift drift over a period of ∼20 yr using 4000 h of observing time. Such an experiment would provide independent evidence for the existence of dark energy without assuming spatial flatness, using any other cosmological constraints or making any other astrophysical assumption.  相似文献   

Faint Lyman-break galaxies as a crucial test for galaxy formation models     

Barbara Lo Faro  Pierluigi Monaco  Eros Vanzella  Fabio Fontanot  Laura Silva  Stefano Cristiani 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2009,399(2):827-841

It has recently been shown that galaxy formation models within the Λ cold dark matter cosmology predict that, compared to the observed population, small galaxies (with stellar masses  <10¹¹ M_⊙  ) form too early, are too passive since   z ∼ 3  and host too old stellar populations at   z = 0  . We then expect an overproduction of small galaxies at   z ≳ 4  that should be visible as an excess of faint Lyman-break galaxies. To check whether this excess is present, we use the morgana galaxy formation model and grasil spectrophotometric  +  radiative transfer code to generate mock catalogues of deep fields observed with Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys. We add observational noise and the effect of Lyman α emission, and perform colour–colour selections to identify Lyman-break galaxies. The resulting mock candidates have plausible properties that closely resemble those of observed galaxies. We are able to reproduce the evolution of the bright tail of the luminosity function of Lyman-break galaxies (with a possible underestimate of the number of the brightest i -dropouts), but uncertainties and degeneracies in dust absorption parameters do not allow to give strong constraints to the model. Besides, our model shows a clear excess with respect to observations of faint Lyman-break galaxies, especially of   z ₈₅₀∼ 27 V   -dropouts at   z ∼ 5  . We quantify the properties of these 'excess' galaxies and discuss the implications: these galaxies are hosted in dark matter haloes with circular velocities in excess of 100 km s⁻¹, and their suppression may require a deep rethinking of stellar feedback processes taking place in galaxy formation.  相似文献   

X‐shooter observations of QSO pairs     

G. Cupani  V. D'Odorico  S. Cristiani  M. Viel  E. Vanzella 《Astronomische Nachrichten》2011,332(3):319-320

Observations of quasar pairs represent a powerful tool in the study of the intergalactic medium, providing in particular information on the quasar radiative feedback not only along the line of sight, but also in the transverse direction. In this paper, we present the spectra of the four quasar pairs we observed so far with X‐shooter, and we discuss two individual spectra affected by the presence of a close quasar in the foreground (© 2011 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)  相似文献