We report for the first time a relationship between galaxy kinematics and net Lyman-$\alpha$ equivalent width (net Ly$\alpha$ EW) in star-forming galaxies during the epoch of peak cosmic star formation. Building on the previously reported broadband imaging segregation of Ly$\alpha$-emitting and Ly$\alpha$-absorbing Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) at $z\sim2$ (Paper I in this series) and previously at $z\sim3$, we use the Ly$\alpha$ spectral type classification method to study the relationship between net Ly$\alpha$ EW and nebular emission-line kinematics in samples of $z\sim2$ and $z\sim3$ LBGs drawn from the literature for which matching rest-frame UV photometry, consistently measured net Ly$\alpha$ EWs, and kinematic classifications from integral field unit spectroscopy are available. We show that $z\sim2$ and $z\sim3$ LBGs segregate in colour-magnitude space according to their kinematic properties and Lyman-$\alpha$ spectral type and conclude that LBGs with Ly$\alpha$ dominant in absorption (aLBGs) are almost exclusively rotation-dominated (presumably disc-like) systems, and LBGs with Ly$\alpha$ dominant in emission (eLBGs) characteristically have dispersion-dominated kinematics. We quantify the relationship between the strength of rotational dynamic support (as measured using ${v}_{\mathrm{obs}}/2{\sigma }_{\mathrm{int}}$ and ${v}_{\mathrm{rot}}/{\sigma}_{\mathrm{0}}$) and net Ly$\alpha$ EW for subsets of our kinematic sample where these data are available, and demonstrate the consistency of our result with other properties that scale with net Ly$\alpha$ EW and kinematics. Based on these findings, we suggest a method by which large samples of rotation- and dispersion-dominated galaxies might be selected using broadband imaging in as few as three filters and/or net Ly$\alpha$ EW alone. If confirmed with larger samples, application of this method will enable an understanding of galaxy kinematic behaviour over large scales in datasets from current and future large-area and all-sky photometric surveys that will select hundreds of millions of LBGs in redshift ranges from $z\sim2-6$ across many hundreds to thousands of Mpc. Finally, we speculate that the combination of our result linking net Ly$\alpha$ EW and nebular emission-line kinematics with the known large-scale clustering behaviour of Ly$\alpha$-absorbing and Ly$\alpha$-emitting LBGs is evocative of an emergent bimodality of early galaxies that is consistent with a nascent morphology-density relation at $z\sim2-3$.

High-redshift Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) are efficiently selected in deep images using as few as three broadband filters, and have been shown to have multiple intrinsic and small- to large-scale environmental properties related to Lyman-$\alpha$. In this paper we demonstrate a statistical relationship between net Lyman-$\alpha$ equivalent width (net Ly$\alpha$ EW) and the optical broadband photometric properties of LBGs at $z\sim2$. We show that LBGs with the strongest net Ly$\alpha$ EW in absorption (aLBGs) and strongest net Ly$\alpha$ EW in emission (eLBGs) separate into overlapping but discrete distributions in $(U_n-\mathcal{R})$ colour and $\mathcal{R}$-band magnitude space, and use this segregation behaviour to determine photometric selection criteria by which sub-samples with a desired Ly$\alpha$ spectral type can be selected using data from as few as three broadband optical filters. We propose application of our result to current and future large-area and all-sky photometric surveys that will select hundreds of millions of LBGs across many hundreds to thousands of Mpc, and for which spectroscopic follow-up to obtain Ly$\alpha$ spectral information is prohibitive. To this end, we use spectrophotometry of composite spectra derived from a sample of 798 LBGs divided into quartiles on the basis of net Ly$\alpha$ EW to calculate selection criteria for the isolation of Ly$\alpha$-absorbing and Ly$\alpha$-emitting populations of $z\sim3$ LBGs using ugri broadband photometric data from the Vera Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST).

We examine the long-term stability (on decade-like timescales) of optical ‘high polarisation’ (HP) state with ${p_{opt}}$ ${> 3\%}$, which commonly occurs in flat-spectrum (i.e., beamed) radio quasars (FSRQs) and is a prominent marker of blazar state. Using this clue, roughly a quarter of the FSRQ population has been reported to undergo HP $\leftrightarrow$ non-HP state transition on year-like timescales. This work examines the extent to which HP (i.e., blazar) state can endure in a FSRQ, despite these ‘frequent’ state transitions. This is the first attempt to verify, using purely opto-polarimetric data for a much enlarged sample of blazars, the recent curious finding that blazar state in individual quasars persists for at least a few decades, despite its changing/swinging observed fairly commonly on year-like timescales. The present analysis is based on a well-defined sample of 83 radio quasars, extracted from the opto-polarimetric survey RoboPol (2013–2017), for which old opto-polarimetric data taken prior to 1990 could be found in the literature. By a source-wise comparison of these two datasets of the same observable ($p_{opt}$), we find that $\sim$90% of the 63 quasars found in blazar state in our RoboPol sample, were also observed to be in that state about three decades before. On the other hand, within the RoboPol survey itself, we find that roughly a quarter of the blazars in our sample migrated to the other polarisation state on year-like timescales, by crossing the customary $p_{opt}$ = 3% threshold. Evidently, these relatively frequent transitions (in either direction) do not curtail the propensity of a radio quasar to retain its blazar (i.e., HP) state for at least a few decades. The observed transitions/swings of polarisation state are probably manifestation of transient processes, like ejections of synchrotron plasma blobs (VLBI radio knots) from the active nucleus.

In the standard cosmological model of galaxy evolution, mergers and interactions play a fundamental role in shaping galaxies. Galaxies that are currently isolated are thus interesting, allowing us to identify how internal or external processes impact galactic structure. However, current observational limits may be obscuring crucial information in the low-mass or low-brightness regime. We use the AMIGA catalog of isolated galaxies to explore the impact of different factors on the structure of these galaxies. In particular, we study the type of disk break based on the degree of isolation and the presence of interactions which are only detectable in the ultra-low surface brightness regime. We present the first results of an extensive observational campaign of ultra-deep optical imaging targeting a sample of 25 low-redshift (z < 0.035) isolated galaxies. The nominal surface brightness limits achieved are comparable to those to be obtained in the 10-year LSST coadds ( mag arcsec−2; 3σ ; 10” × 10”). We find that isolated galaxies have a considerably higher fraction of purely exponential disk profiles and a lower presence of up-bending breaks than field or cluster galaxies. Our extreme imaging depth allows us to detect the presence of previously unreported interactions with minor companions in some of the galaxies in our sample (∼40% of the galaxies show signs of interaction). The results of our work fit with the general framework of galactic structure in which up-bending breaks (Type III) would be produced by mergers and down-bending breaks (Type II) due to a threshold in star formation that would tend to become single exponential disk (Type I) in case of cessation or decrease of star formation.

We investigate how the properties of spiral arms relate to other fundamental galaxy properties. To this end, we use previously published measurements of those properties, and our own measurements of arm-interarm luminosity contrasts for a large sample of galaxies, using 3.6μm images from the Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in Galaxies. Flocculent galaxies are clearly distinguished from other spiral arm classes, especially by their lower stellar mass and surface density. Multi-armed and grand-design galaxies are similar in most of their fundamental parameters, excluding some bar properties and the bulge-to-total luminosity ratio. Based on these results, we discuss dense, classical bulges as a necessary condition for standing spiral wave modes in grand-design galaxies. We further find a strong correlation between bulge-to-total ratio and bar contrast, and a weaker correlation between arm and bar contrasts.

The VISCACHA (VIsible Soar photometry of star Clusters in tApii and Coxi HuguA†) Survey is an ongoing project based on deep and spatially resolved photometric observations of Magellanic Cloud star clusters, collected using the SOuthern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) telescope together with the SOAR Adaptive Module Imager. So far we have used >300h of telescope time to observe ∼150 star clusters, mostly with low mass (M < 104M⊙) on the outskirts of the LMC and SMC. With this high-quality data set, we homogeneously determine physical properties using deep colour-magnitude diagrams (ages, metallicities, reddening, distances, mass, luminosity and mass functions) and structural parameters (radial density profiles, sizes) for these clusters which are used as a proxy to investigate the interplay between the Magellanic Clouds and their evolution. We present the VISCACHA survey and its initial results, based on our first two papers. The project’s long term goals and expected legacy to the community are also addressed.

The Fornax Deep Survey (FDS) is a multi-band imaging survey of the Fornax cluster of galaxies, executed with the ESO VLT Survey Telescope (VST). The survey is designed to reach unprecedented surface brightness and point-source magnitude depth over one virial radius of the cluster. The scientific objectives of the survey are numerous: the study of the galaxy luminosity function, derivation of galaxy scaling relations, determination of the properties of compact stellar systems, an accurate determination of distances and 3-D geometry of the Fornax cluster, analysis of diffuse stellar light and galaxy interactions, etc.

In this contribute we give an overview on the interest of the survey on globular clusters (GC) populations, and present a report the status of the study of GCs also providing some preliminary results of our analysis, with particular regard to the two-dimensional distribution of GC candidates over ∼20 sq. degree area of Fornax centered on NGC 1399.

We present our new, spatially-resolved, photometry in FUV and NUV from images obtained by GALEX, and IRAC1 (3.6 μm) photometry obtained by the Spitzer Space Telescope. We analyzed the surface brightness profiles μFUV, μNUV, μ[3.6], as well as the radial evolution of the (FUV-NUV), (FUV - [3.6]), and (NUV - [3.6]) colors in the Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structures in Galaxies (S4G) galaxies (d < 40 Mpc) sample. We defined the GALEX Blue Sequence (GBS) and GALEX Red Sequence (GBR) from the (FUV - NUV) versus (NUV - [3.6]) color-color diagram, populated by late-type star forming galaxies and quiescent early-type galaxies respectively. While most disk becomes radially bluer for GBS galaxies, and stay constant for GRS galaxies, a large fraction ( > 50%) of intermediary GALEX Green Valley (GGV) galaxies’ outer disks are becoming redder. An outside-in quenching mechanism such as environmentally-related mechanisms such as starvation or ram-pressure-stripping could explain our results.

We show how present-day 10 meter class telescopes can provide broadband imaging 1.5-2 mag deeper than most previous results within a reasonable amount of time ( ~ 8h on source integration). We illustrate the ability of the 10.4 m Gran Telescopio de Canarias (GTC) telescope to produce imaging with a limiting surface brightness of 31.5 mag/arcsec2 (3σ in 10 × 10 arcsec boxes). We explore the stellar halos of nearby galaxies obtaining surface brightness radial profiles down to μr ~ 33 mag/arcsec2. This depth is similar to that obtained using star counts techniques of Local Group galaxies, but is achieved at a distance where this technique is unfeasible.

Models of galaxy formation in a hierarchical universe predict substantial scatter in the halo-to-halo stellar properties, owing to stochasticity in galaxies’ merger histories. Currently, only few detailed observations of galaxy’s halos are available, mainly for the Milky Way and M31. The Galaxy Halos, Outer disks, Substructure, Thick disks and Star clusters (GHOSTS) HST survey is the largest study to date of the resolved stellar populations in the outskirts of disk galaxies and its observations offer a direct test of model predictions. Here we present the results we obtain for six highly inclined nearby Milky Way-mass spiral galaxies. We find a great diversity in the properties of their stellar halos.

I review briefly some dynamical models of structures in the outer parts of disc galaxies, including models of polar rings, tidal tails and bridges. I then discuss the density distribution in the outer parts of discs. For this, I compare observations to results of a model in which the disc galaxy is in fact the remnant of a major merger, and find good agreement. This comparison includes radial profiles of the projected surface density and of stellar age, as well as time evolution of the break radius and of the inner and outer disc scale lengths. I also compare the radial projected surface density profiles of dynamically motivated mono-age populations and find that, compared to older populations, younger ones have flatter density profiles in the inner region and steeper in the outer one. The break radius, however, does not vary with stellar age, again in good agreement with observations.

The outskirts of early-type galaxies (ETGs) play a key role to shed light on the mass assembly of galaxies. Deep imaging has become one of the main tools to study these regions, however artificial halos caused by bright sources hampers the photometric analysis. To get around the problem, extended PSFs are built and deconvolution is performed on images.

Faint dwarf galaxies such as those found around the Milky Way (MW) display the largest known dynamical mass-to-light ratios (up to several 100s M⊙/L⊙). However, tidal interaction with the MW may impact the dynamical equilibrium in the outer parts of some of these objects, and partly affect the derived dynamical M/L. Assessing this is crucial for the study of the dark matter content of these galaxies. A clear sign of ongoing tidal disturbance would be the presence of tidal tails. These are expected to be low surface brightness features, hence difficult to detect from star counts in systems where contamination is also present, e.g. from foreground MW stars. At present we have searched for these sorts of tidal features in the Sextans dwarf spheroidal galaxy (dSph), by adopting the Matched Filter Method (e.g. Rockosi et al. 2002), a very efficient technique to decontaminate stellar density maps with a high ratio of contamination versus source density (dwarf galaxies outer regions or ultra faint dwarf galaxies). We also calculate structural parameters from the position of stars without requiring spatial binning (Richardson et al. 2011), through a Bayesian MCMC (Foreman-Mackey et al. 2013).

We present the results from the state-of-the-art wide-field survey of the M81 galaxy group that we are conducting with Hyper Suprime-Cam on Subaru Telescope. Our photometry reaches about 2 mag below the tip of the red giant branch (RGB) and reveals the spatial distribution of both old and young stars over an area of 5°2 around the M81. The young main-sequence (MS) stars closely follow the HI distribution and can be found in a stellar stream between M81 and NGC 3077 and in numerous outlying stellar associations. Our survey also reveals for the first time the very extended (>2 × R25) halos of RGB stars around M81, M82, and NGC 3077, as well as faint tidal streams that link these systems. The gravitational interactions between M81, M82 and NGC 3077 galaxies induced star formation in tidally stripped gas, and also significantly perturbed the older stellar components leading to disturbed halo morphologies.

We report about an ongoing study of the evolution of 24 S0s with UV-bright ring/arm-like structures observed with SWIFT-UVOT and interpreted via SPH simulations with chemo-photometric implementation.

Models of galaxy formation in a hierarchical universe predict substantial scatter in the halo-to-halo stellar properties, owing to stochasticity in galaxies' merger histories. Currently, only few detailed observations of stellar halos are available, mainly for the Milky Way and M31. We present the stellar halo color/metallicity and density profiles of red giant branch stars out to ~60 kpc along the minor axis of six massive nearby Milky Way-like galaxies beyond the Local Group from the Galaxy Halos, Outer disks, Substructure, Thick disks and Star clusters (GHOSTS) HST survey. This enlargement of the sample of galaxies with observations of stellar halo properties is needed to understand the range of possible halo properties, i.e. not only the mean properties but also the halo-to-halo scatter, what a ‘typical’ halo looks like, and how similar the Milky Way halo is to other halos beyond the Local Group.

We studied the unbiased optical brightness distribution which was calculated from the survival analysis of host galaxies (HGs) data and its relationship with the Swift GRB data of the host galaxies observed by the Keck telescope. Based on the sample obtained from merging the Swift GRB table and the Keck optical data we also studied the dependence of this distribution on the GRB's data. Finally, we compared the HGs distribution with standard galaxies distribution of the DEEP2 redshift survey and checked the result with the VIPERS catalogue too.

We present the results of a multi-wavelength photometric study of the high redshift supercluster RCS2319+00. RCS2319+00 is a high-redshift (z ~ 0.9) supercluster comprising three spectroscopically confrmed cluster cores discovered in the Red Sequence Cluster Survey (RCS) (Gladders & Yee 2005). Core proximities and merger rates estimate coalescence into a 1015M⊙ cluster by z ~ 0.5 (Gilbank et al. 2008). Spectroscopic studies of the system have revealed over 300 supercluster members located in the cores and several infalling groups (Faloon et al. 2013). RCS2319 presents a diverse range of dynamical systems and densities making it an ideal laboratory in which to study the effects of environment on galaxy properties.

Imaging in optical and near infrared (griz' from MegaCam, JKs from WIRCam, both at CFHT), as well as 3.6 μm and 4.5μm from IRAC have enabled the assembly of a large photometric catalogue. Coupled with an extensive spectroscopic survey (Faloon et al. 2013) providing nearly 2400 redshifts across the field, photometric redshifts were determined using the template fitting code EAZY (Brammer et al. 2008). Nearly 80 000 photometric redshifts were measured providing a sample of nearly 3000 cluster members.

To investigate effects of global environment, analysis was done utilizing a friend-of-friends group finding algorithm identifying several large and small infalling groups along with the three cluster cores. The cores are found to be dominated by massive, red galaxies and the field galaxies are populated by low mass, blue galaxies, as is the case in the local universe. Interestingly, the large groups exhibit intermediate properties between field and core populations, suggesting possible pre-processing as they are being accreted into the core halos.

Relative fifth-nearest neighbour overdensity, log(1+δ5), is used as a proxy for local environment to investigate environmental dependence on galaxy colour. While there is an overall dependence of colour on local density, when controlled for stellar mass the dependence largely disappears. Indeed, galaxy mass is the dominant factor in determining colour, with local density a secondary effect only noticeable in lower mass galaxies at the 3 σ level for both colour and red fraction.

RCS2319+00 presents a rare opportunity to probe many different densities and environments all located within the same object. We're able to investigate how galaxy evolution is affected by the environment, from field galaxies to infalling to groups to dense cluster cores, as well as the different density regions within each environment.

Quiescent galaxy candidates are typically identified by their low unobscured star formation rates from deep field photometric surveys. However, their selection technique relies on the assumption of a universal dust attenuation curve. It is important to verify the selection through independent SFR indicators at longer wavelengths. Current mid-, far-infrared and radio surveys are limited to detecting only galaxies with very strong star formation or AGN activity. Here, I present the first comprehensive stacking results across mid-, far-infrared and radio wavelengths using Spitzer, Herschel and VLA data in the COSMOS field (Man et al. 2014). We find that the rest-frame NUV-r and r-J color criteria, combined with low 24 μm emission, provides a robust selection of truly quiescent galaxies out to z = 3. Additionally, we find evidence of radio emission in excess of the expected total star formation in quiescent galaxies at z ~ 0-1.5, indicative of a ubiquitous presence of low-luminosity radio AGN among them.

We present a systematic photometric search for spectroscopically confirmed anomalously red galaxies members of 748 low redshift clusters between 0.03 z 0.17 from the SDSS-C4 cluster catalogue (Miller et al. 2005). For each cluster we spectroscopically determine cluster membership, construct a colour-magnitude diagram and fit the red sequence using a robust bi-weight fit. We define an “anomalously red galaxy” as having a (g - r) colour of greater than 3σ redward of the fitted cluster colour-magnitude relation. We find that of 7485 galaxies at r ≤ 17.77 in (g - r), 7 galaxies are anomalously red – 0.0935 per cent of all galaxies in our sample. We show that two of the red outliers are caused by red contamination from nearby sources and are therefore not intrinsically anomalous red. However, 5 have no underlying cause to be so red and we speculate that they may have a high internal dust content. These intrinsically red galaxies are rare – comprising no more than 0.0668 per cent of all cluster galaxies. Most are morphologically early type galaxies, with a few probable late type galaxies that are viewed edge-on and one low surface brightness late type. One of our anomalously red galaxies appears to be a dust-shrouded starburst and we speculate that this may be a unique galaxy amoungst this galaxy set.