Photometry Of Galaxies Research Articles

Stacking and Analyzing MOSDEF Galaxies by Spectral Types: Implications for Dust Geometry and Galaxy Evolution

We examine star formation and dust properties for a sample of 660 galaxies at 1.37 ≤ z ≤ 2.61 in the MOSDEF survey by dividing them into groups with similarly shaped spectral energy distributions (SEDs). For each group, we combine the galaxy photometry into a finely sampled composite SED, and stack their spectra. This method enables the study of more complete galaxy samples, including galaxies with very faint emission lines. We fit these composite SEDs with Prospector to measure the stellar attenuation and SED-based star formation rates (SFRs). We also derive emission-line properties from the spectral stacks, including Balmer decrements, dust-corrected SFRs, and metallicities. We find that stellar attenuation correlates most strongly with mass, while nebular attenuation correlates strongly with both mass and SFR. Furthermore, the excess of nebular compared to stellar attenuation correlates most strongly with SFR. The highest SFR group has 2 mag of excess nebular attenuation. Our results are consistent with a model in which star-forming regions become more dusty as galaxy mass increases. To explain the increasing excess nebular attenuation, we require a progressively larger fraction of star formation to occur in highly obscured regions with increasing SFR. This highly obscured star formation could occur in dusty clumps or central starbursts. Additionally, as each galaxy group represents a different evolutionary stage, we study their locations on the UVJ and SFR-mass diagrams. As mass increases, metallicity and dust attenuation increase, while sSFR decreases. However, the most massive group moves towards the quiescent region of the UVJ diagram, while showing less obscuration, potentially indicating removal of dust.

Photometry and kinematics of dwarf galaxies from the Apertif HI survey

Understanding the dwarf galaxy population in low density environments (in the field) is crucial for testing the current Lambda Cold Dark Matter cosmological model. The increase in diversity toward low-mass galaxies is seen as an increase in the scatter of scaling relations, such as the stellar mass--size and the baryonic Tully-Fisher relation (BTFR), and is also demonstrated by recent in-depth studies of an extreme sub-class of dwarf galaxies with low surface brightnesses but large physical sizes called ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs). We aim to select dwarf galaxies independent of their stellar content and to make a detailed study of their gas and stellar properties. We selected galaxies from the APERture Tile In Focus (Apertif) survey and applied a constraint on their $i$-band absolute magnitude in order to exclude high-mass systems. The sample consists of 24 galaxies, 22 of which are resolved in by at least three beams, and they span mass ranges of 8.6 $ lesssim 9.7 and a stellar mass range of 8.0 $ lesssim 9.7 (with only three galaxies having log ( msun)>9). We determined the geometrical parameters of the and stellar disks, built kinematic models from the data using and extracted surface brightness profiles in the g-, r- and i- bands from the Pan-STARRS 1 photometric survey. We used these measurements to place our galaxies on the stellar mass--size relation and the BTFR, and we compared them with other samples from the literature. We find that at a fixed stellar mass, our dwarfs have larger optical effective radii than isolated optically selected dwarfs from the literature, and we found misalignments between the optical and morphologies for some of our sample. For most of our galaxies, we used the morphology to determine their kinematics, and we stress that deep optical observations are needed to trace the underlying stellar disks. Standard dwarfs in our sample follow the same BTFR of high-mass galaxies, whereas UDGs are slightly offset toward lower rotational velocities, in qualitative agreement with results from previous studies. Finally, our sample features a fraction (25<!PCT!>) of dwarf galaxies in pairs that is significantly larger with respect to previous estimates based on optical spectroscopic data.

Blueberry galaxies up to 200 Mpc and their optical and infrared properties

Context. Dwarf highly star-forming galaxies (SFGs) dominated the early Universe and are considered the main driver of its reionization. However, direct observations of these distant galaxies are mainly confined to rest-frame ultraviolet and visible light, limiting our understanding of their complete properties. Therefore, it is still paramount to study their local analogs, the green pea (GP) and blueberry (BB) galaxies. Aims. This work aims to expand our knowledge of BBs by identifying a new sample that is closer and in the southern sky. Methods. In addition to the already known BBs, this new sample will allow for a statistically significant study of their properties probed by visible and infrared (IR) light. By utilizing the HECATE catalog, which provides optical and IR photometry and characterization of galaxies, along with data from Pan-STARSS and SDSS, this study selects and analyzes a new sample of BBs. We employed spectral energy distribution fitting to derive homogeneous measurements of star-formation rates and stellar masses. Additionally, we measured emission-line fluxes, including He II λ4686, through spectral fitting. Results. Through this work, we identified 48 BBs, of which 40 were first recognized as such, with the nearest at 19 Mpc. Fourteen of the BBs are in the south sky. The BBs tend to be extremely IR red in both WISE W1 – W2 and W2 – W3 colors, distinguishing them from typical SFGs. Dwarf SFGs with higher specific star-formation rates tend to have redder IR colors. Conclusions. Blueberry galaxies stand out as the most intensely star-forming sources in the local Universe among dwarf galaxies. They are intrinsically bluer in visible light, redder in the infrared, and less massive. They also have higher specific star-formation rates, equivalent widths, lower metallicities, and the most strongly ionized interstellar medium compared to typical SFGs and GPs.

Luminosity Functions of the Host Galaxies of Supernova

We present the luminosity functions and stellar mass functions of supernova (SN) host galaxies and test if they differ from the functions of normal field galaxies. We utilize homogeneous samples consisting of 273 SNe Ia (z ≤ 0.3) and 44 core-collapse (CC) SNe (z ≤ 0.1) from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey II Supernova Survey and the high-signal-to-noise-ratio photometry of galaxies from the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program. SN hosts are classified into star-forming and passive galaxy groups based on the spectral energy distribution fitting. We find that the SN host luminosity functions and stellar mass functions deviate from those of normal field galaxies. Star-forming galaxies dominate the low-mass end of the SN Ia host mass function, while passive galaxies dominate the high-mass end. CC SNe are predominantly hosted by star-forming galaxies. In addition, intermediate-mass hosts produce CC SNe with the highest efficiency, while the efficiency of producing SNe Ia monotonically increases as the hosts become more massive. Furthermore, we derive the pseudo mass normalized SN rates (pSNuM) based on the mass functions. We find that the star-forming component of pSNuM Ia is less sensitive to the changes in stellar mass, in comparison with the total rate. The behavior of pSNuM CC suggests that the CC rate is proportional to the star-forming rate.

Testing the near-far connection with FIRE simulations: inferring the stellar mass function of the proto-Local Group at z > 6 using the fossil record of present-day galaxies

ABSTRACT The shape of the low-mass (faint) end of the galaxy stellar mass function (SMF) or ultraviolet luminosity function (UVLF) at $z \gtrsim 6$ is an open question for understanding which galaxies primarily drove cosmic reionization. Resolved photometry of Local Group low-mass galaxies allows us to reconstruct their star formation histories, stellar masses, and UV luminosities at early times, and this fossil record provides a powerful ‘near-far’ technique for studying the reionization-era SMF/UVLF, probing orders of magnitude lower in mass than direct HST/JWST observations. Using 882 low-mass ($M_{\rm star}\lesssim 10^{9}\, \rm {M_\odot }$) galaxies across 11 Milky Way (MW)- and Local Group-analogue environments from the FIRE-2 cosmological baryonic zoom-in simulations, we characterize their progenitors at $z=6\!-\!9$, the mergers/disruption of those progenitors over time, and how well their present-day fossil record traces the high-redshift SMF. A present-day galaxy with $M_{\rm star}\sim 10^5\, \rm {M_\odot }$ ($\sim 10^9\, \rm {M_\odot }$) had $\approx 1$ ($\approx 30$) progenitors at $z\approx 7$, and its main progenitor comprised $\approx 100~{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ ($\approx 10~{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$) of the total stellar mass of all its progenitors at $z\approx 7$. We show that although only $\sim 15~{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ of the early population of low-mass galaxies survives to present day, the fossil record of surviving Local Group galaxies accurately traces the low-mass slope of the SMF at $z \sim 6 \!-\! 9$. We find no obvious mass dependence to the mergers and accretion, and show that applying this reconstruction technique to just low-mass galaxies at $z = 0$ and not the MW/M31 hosts correctly recovers the slope of the SMF down to $M_{\rm star} \sim 10^{4.5}\, \rm {{\rm M}_{\odot }}$ at $z \gtrsim 6$. Thus, we validate the ‘near-far’ approach as an unbiased tool for probing low-mass reionization-era galaxies.

HaloFlow. I. Neural Inference of Halo Mass from Galaxy Photometry and Morphology

We present HaloFlow, a new machine-learning approach for inferring the mass of host dark matter halos, M h , from the photometry and morphology of galaxies (https://github.com/changhoonhahn/haloflow/). HaloFlow uses simulation-based inference with normalizing flows to conduct rigorous Bayesian inference. It is trained on state-of-the-art synthetic galaxy images from Bottrell et al. that are constructed from the IllustrisTNG hydrodynamic simulation and include realistic effects of the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategy Program observations. We design HaloFlow to infer M h and stellar mass, M *, using grizy band magnitudes, morphological properties quantifying characteristic size, concentration and asymmetry, total measured satellite luminosity, and number of satellites. We demonstrate that HaloFlow infers accurate and unbiased posteriors of M h . Furthermore, we quantify the full information content in the photometric observations of galaxies in constraining M h . With magnitudes alone, we infer M h with σlogMh∼0.115 and 0.182 dex for field and group galaxies. Including morphological properties significantly improves the precision of M h constraints, as does total satellite luminosity: σlogMh∼0.095 and 0.132 dex. Compared to the standard approach using the stellar-to-halo mass relation, we improve M h constraints by ∼40%. In subsequent papers, we will validate and calibrate HaloFlow with galaxy–galaxy lensing measurements on real observational data.

BANG-MaNGA: A census of kinematic discs and bulges across mass and star formation in the local Universe

In this work, we aim to quantify the relevance of kinematically identified bulges and discs and their role in the process of galaxy quenching. To achieve this, we utilised an analysis of the SDSS-MaNGA survey conducted with the GPU-based codeBANGwhich simultaneously models galaxy photometry and kinematics to decompose galaxies into their structural components. We found that belowM⋆ ≃ 1011 M⊙, galaxies span a wide range in their dynamical properties. The overall dynamical state of a galaxy is determined by the relative prominence of a dispersion-supported inner region and a rotationally supported disc. Our decomposition reveals a natural separation between these classes, with only a minor fraction of stellar mass retained by structures exhibiting intermediate dynamical support. When examining galaxies in terms of their star formation activity, an apparent substantial decrease in rotational support is observed as they move below the star-forming main sequence. This behaviour is particularly evident when using luminosity-weighted tracers of kinematics, while it almost vanishes with mass-weighted tracers. Luminosity-weighted quantities not only capture differences in kinematics but also in the stellar population, potentially leading to biased interpretations of galaxy dynamical properties and quenching. Our findings indicate that quenching implies almost no any structural transformation in galaxies belowM⋆ ≃ 1011 M⊙. Processes such as disc fading are more likely explanations for the observed differences in mass-weighted and luminosity-weighted galaxy properties. When the galactic disc ceases star formation, its mass-to-light ratio does indeed increase without any significant morphological transformation. The picture is remarkably different aboveM⋆ ≃ 1011 M⊙. In this case, regardless of the tracer used, a substantial increase in galaxy dispersion support is observed along with a significant structural change. A different quenching mechanism, most likely associated with mergers, dominates. Notably, this mechanism is confined to a very limited range of high masses.

Total and dark mass from observations of galaxy centers with machine learning

Context.The galaxy total mass inside the effective radius is a proxy of the galaxy dark matter content and the star formation efficiency. As such, it encodes important information on the dark matter and baryonic physics.Aims.Total central masses can be inferred via galaxy dynamics or gravitational lensing, but these methods have limitations. We propose a novel approach based on machine learning to make predictions on total and dark matter content using simple observables from imaging and spectroscopic surveys.Methods.We used catalogs of multiband photometry, sizes, stellar mass, kinematic measurements (features), and dark matter (targets) of simulated galaxies from the Illustris-TNG100 hydrodynamical simulation to train a Mass Estimate machine Learning Algorithm (MELA) based on random forests.Results.We separated the simulated sample into passive early-type galaxies (ETGs), both normal and dwarf, and active late-type galaxies (LTGs) and showed that the mass estimator can accurately predict the galaxy dark masses inside the effective radius in all samples. We finally tested the mass estimator against the central mass estimates of a series of low-redshift (z ≲ 0.1) datasets, including SPIDER, MaNGA/DynPop, and SAMI dwarf galaxies, derived with standard dynamical methods based on the Jeans equations. We find that MELApredictions are fully consistent with the total dynamical mass of the real samples of ETGs, LTGs, and dwarf galaxies.Conclusions.MELAlearns from hydro-simulations how to predict the dark and total mass content of galaxies, provided that the real galaxy samples overlap with the training sample or show similar scaling relations in the feature and target parameter space. In this case, dynamical masses are reproduced within 0.30 dex (∼2σ), with a limited fraction of outliers and almost no bias. This is independent of the sophistication of the kinematical data collected (fiber vs. 3D spectroscopy) and the dynamical analysis adopted (radial vs. axisymmetric Jeans equations, virial theorem). This makes MELAa powerful alternative to predict the mass of galaxies of massive stage IV survey datasets using basic data, such as aperture photometry, stellar masses, fiber spectroscopy, and sizes. We finally discuss how to generalize these results to account for the variance of cosmological parameters and baryon physics using a more extensive variety of simulations and the further option of reverse engineering this approach and using model-free dark matter measurements (e.g., via strong lensing), plus visual observables, to predict the cosmology and the galaxy formation model.

Emission line predictions for mock galaxy catalogues: a new differentiable and empirical mapping from DESI

ABSTRACT We present a simple, differentiable method for predicting emission line strengths from rest-frame optical continua using an empirically determined mapping. Extensive work has been done to develop mock galaxy catalogues that include robust predictions for galaxy photometry, but reliably predicting the strengths of emission lines has remained challenging. Our new mapping is a simple neural network implemented using the JAX Python automatic differentiation library. It is trained on Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument Early Release data to predict the equivalent widths (EWs) of the eight brightest optical emission lines (including H α, H β, [O ii], and [O iii]) from a galaxy’s rest-frame optical continuum. The predicted EW distributions are consistent with the observed ones when noise is accounted for, and we find Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient ρs > 0.87 between predictions and observations for most lines. Using a non-linear dimensionality reduction technique, we show that this is true for galaxies across the full range of observed spectral energy distributions. In addition, we find that adding measurement uncertainties to the predicted line strengths is essential for reproducing the distribution of observed line-ratios in the BPT diagram. Our trained network can easily be incorporated into a differentiable stellar population synthesis pipeline without hindering differentiability or scalability with GPUs. A synthetic catalogue generated with such a pipeline can be used to characterize and account for biases in the spectroscopic training sets used for training and calibration of photo-z’s, improving the modelling of systematic incompleteness for the Rubin Observatory LSST and other surveys.

Cosmology with Galaxy Photometry Alone

We present the first cosmological constraints using only the observed photometry of galaxies. Villaescusa-Navarro et al. recently demonstrated that the internal physical properties of a single simulated galaxy contain a significant amount of cosmological information. These physical properties, however, cannot be directly measured from observations. In this work, we present how we can go beyond theoretical demonstrations to infer cosmological constraints from actual galaxy observables (e.g., optical photometry) using neural density estimation and the CAMELS suite of hydrodynamical simulations. We find that the cosmological information in the photometry of a single galaxy is limited. However, we combine the constraining power of photometry from many galaxies using hierarchical population inference and place significant cosmological constraints. With the observed photometry of ∼20,000 NASA-Sloan Atlas galaxies, we constrain Ωm=0.323−0.095+0.075 and σ8=0.799−0.085+0.088 .

Constraints on the z ∼ 5 Star-forming Galaxy Luminosity Function From Hubble Space Telescope Imaging of an Unbiased and Complete Sample of Long Gamma-Ray Burst Host Galaxies

We present rest-frame UV Hubble Space Telescope imaging of the largest and most complete sample of 23 long-duration gamma-ray burst (GRB) host galaxies between redshifts 4 and 6. Of these 23, we present new WFC3/F110W imaging for 19 of the hosts, which we combine with archival WFC3/F110W and WFC3/F140W imaging for the remaining four. We use the photometry of the host galaxies from this sample to characterize both the rest-frame UV luminosity function (LF) and the size–luminosity relation of the sample. We find that when assuming the standard Schechter-function parameterization for the UV LF, the GRB host sample is best fit with α=−1.30−0.25+0.30 and M*=−20.33−0.54+0.44 mag, which are consistent with results based on z ∼ 5 Lyman-break galaxies. We find that ∼68% of our size–luminosity measurements fall within or below the same relation for Lyman-break galaxies at z ∼ 4. This study observationally confirms expectations that at z ∼ 5 Lyman-break and GRB host galaxies should trace the same population and demonstrates the utility of GRBs as probes of hidden star formation in the high-redshift Universe. Under the assumption that GRBs unbiasedly trace star formation at this redshift, our nondetection fraction of 7/23 is consistent at the 95% confidence level with 13%–53% of star formation at redshift z ∼ 5 occurring in galaxies fainter than our detection limit of M 1600Å ≈ −18.3 mag.

On the dust properties of the UV galaxies in the redshift range z ∼ 0.6–1.2

ABSTRACT Far-infrared observations from the Herschel Space Observatory are used to estimate the infrared (IR) properties of ultraviolet-selected galaxies. We stack the PACS (100, 160 $\mu$m) and SPIRE (250, 350, and 500 $\mu$m) maps of the Chandra deep field south (CDFS) on a source list of galaxies selected in the rest-frame ultraviolet (UV) in a redshift range of 0.6–1.2. This source list is created using observations from the XMM–OM telescope survey in the CDFS using the UVW1 (2910 Å) filter. The stacked data are binned according to the UV luminosity function of these sources, and the average photometry of the UV-selected galaxies is estimated. By fitting modified black bodies and IR model templates to the stacked photometry, average dust temperatures and total IR luminosity are determined. The luminosity-weighted average temperatures are consistent with a weak trend of increasing temperature with redshift found by previous studies. Infrared excess, unobscured, and obscured star formation rate (SFR) values are obtained from the UV and IR luminosities. We see a trend in which dust attenuation increases as UV luminosity decreases. It remains constant as a function of IR luminosities at fixed redshift across the luminosity range of our sources. In comparison to local luminous infrared galaxies with similar SFRs, the higher redshift star-forming galaxies in the sample show a lesser degree of dust attenuation. Finally, the inferred dust attenuation is used to correct the unobscured SFR density in the redshift range 0.6–1.2. The dust-corrected SFR density is consistent with measurements from IR-selected samples at similar redshifts.

Less is less: Photometry alone cannot predict the observed spectral indices of z ~ 1 galaxies from the LEGA-C spectroscopic survey

Aims. We test whether we can predict optical spectra from deep-field photometry of distant galaxies. Our goal is to perform a comparison in data space, highlighting the differences between predicted and observed spectra. Methods. The Large Early Galaxy Astrophysics Census (LEGA-C) provides high-quality optical spectra of thousands of galaxies at redshift 0.6 < z < 1. Broadband photometry of the same galaxies, drawn from the recent COSMOS2020 catalog, is used to predict the optical spectra with the spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting code Prospector and the MILES stellar library. The observed and predicted spectra are compared in terms of two age and metallicity-sensitive absorption features (HδA and Fe4383). Results. The global bimodality of star-forming and quiescent galaxies in photometric space is recovered with the model spectra. However, the presence of a systematic offset in the Fe4383 line strength and the weak correlation between the observed and modeled line strength imply that accurate age or metallicity determinations cannot be inferred from photometry alone. Conclusions. For now we caution that photometry-based estimates of stellar population properties are determined mostly by the modeling approach and not the physical properties of galaxies, even when using the highest-quality photometric datasets and state-of-the-art fitting techniques. When exploring a new physical parameter space (i.e. redshift or galaxy mass) high-quality spectroscopy is always needed to inform the analysis of photometry.

Reconsidering photometric estimation of local star formation environment and its correlation with Type Ia supernova luminosity

ABSTRACT Recent studies on the environmental dependence of Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) luminosity focus on the local environment where the SN exploded, considering that this is more directly linked to the SN progenitors. However, there is a debate about the local environmental, specifically local star formation rate (SFR), dependence of the SN Ia luminosity. A recent study claims that the dependence is insignificant (0.051 ± 0.020 mag; 2.6σ), based on the local SFR measurement by fitting local ugrizy photometry data. However, we find that this photometric local SFR measurement is inaccurate. We argue this based on the theoretical background of SFR measurement and the methodology used to make that claim with their local ugrizy photometry data, especially due to a limited range of extinction parameters used when fitting the data. Therefore, we reanalyse the same host galaxies with the same fitting code, but with more physically motivated extinction treatments and global ugriz photometry of host galaxies. We estimate global stellar mass and SFR. Then, local star formation environments are inferred by using the method which showed that SNe Ia in globally passive galaxies have locally passive environments, while those in globally star-forming low-mass galaxies have locally star-forming environments. We find that there is significant local environmental dependence of SN Ia luminosities: SNe Ia in locally star-forming environments are 0.072 ± 0.021 mag (3.4σ) fainter than those in locally passive environments, even though SN Ia luminosities have been further corrected by the BEAMS with Bias Corrections method that reduces the size of the dependence.

Solution to the Conflict between the Estimations of Resolved and Unresolved Galaxy Stellar Mass from the Perspective of JWST

By utilizing the spatially resolved photometry of galaxies at 0.2 < z < 3.0 in the CEERS field, we estimate the resolved and unresolved stellar mass via fitting of the spectral energy distribution (SED) to study the discrepancy between them. We first compare M * derived from photometry with and without the JWST wavelength coverage and find that M * can be overestimated by up to 0.2 dex when lacking rest-frame near-infrared (NIR) data. The SED fitting process tends to overestimate both stellar age and dust attenuation in the absence of rest-frame NIR data, consequently leading to a larger observed mass-to-light ratio and hence an elevated M *. With the inclusion of the JWST NIR photometry, we find no significant disparity between the estimates of resolved and unresolved stellar mass, providing a plausible solution to the conflict between them out to z ∼ 3. Further investigation demonstrates that reliable M * estimates can be obtained, regardless of whether they are derived from spatially resolved or spatially unresolved photometry, so long as the reddest filter included in the SED fitting has a rest-frame wavelength longer than 10000 Å.

The MASSIVE survey – XVIII. Deep wide-field K-band photometry and local scaling relations for massive early-type galaxies

ABSTRACT We present wide-field, deep K-band photometry of 98 luminous early-type galaxies (ETGs) from the MASSIVE survey based on observations taken with the WIRCam instrument on the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope. Using these images, we extract accurate total K-band luminosities (LK) and half-light radii (Re) for this sample of galaxies. We use these new values to explore the size–luminosity and Faber–Jackson relations for massive ETGs. Within this volume-limited sample, we find clear evidence for curvature in both relations, indicating that the most luminous galaxies tend to have larger sizes and smaller velocity dispersions than expected from a simple power-law fit to less luminous galaxies. Our measured relations are qualitatively consistent with the most massive elliptical galaxies forming largely through dissipationless mergers. When the sample is separated into fast and slow rotators, we find the slow rotators to exhibit similar changes in slope with increasing LK, suggesting that low-mass and high-mass slow rotators have different formation histories. The curvatures in the Re–LK and σ–LK relations cancel, leading to a relation between dynamical mass and luminosity that is well described by a single power law: Reσ2 ∝ LKb with b ≈ 1.2. This is consistent with the tilt of the fundamental plane observed in lower mass elliptical galaxies.

Color Transformations of Photometric Measurements of Galaxies in Optical and Near-infrared Wide-field Imaging Surveys* *An online color transformation calculator is available at: https://colors.voxastro.org/.

Over the past 2 decades, wide-field photometric surveys in optical and infrared domains reached a nearly all-sky coverage thanks to numerous observational facilities operating in both hemispheres. However, subtle differences among exact realizations of Johnson and SDSS photometric systems require one to convert photometric measurements into the same system prior to analysis of composite data sets originating from multiple surveys. It turns out that the published photometric transformations lead to substantial biases when applied to integrated photometry of galaxies from the corresponding catalogs. Here we present photometric transformations based on piece-wise linear approximations of integrated photometry of galaxies in the optical surveys SDSS, DECaLS, BASS, MzLS, DES, DELVE, KiDS, VST ATLAS, and the near-infrared surveys UKIDSS, UHS, VHS, and VIKING. We validate our transformations by constructing k-corrected color–magnitude diagrams of non-active galaxies and measuring the position and tightness of the “red sequence.” We also provide transformations for aperture magnitudes and show how they are affected by the image quality difference among the surveys. We present the implementation of the derived transformations in python and idl and also a web-based color transformation calculator for galaxies. By comparing DECaLS and DES, we identified systematic issues in DECaLS photometry for extended galaxies, which we attribute to the photometric software package used by DECaLS. As an application of our method, we compiled two multi-wavelength photometric catalogs for over 200,000 low- and intermediate-redshift galaxies originating from CfA FAST and Hectospec spectral archives.

Deep K-band surface brightness photometry of dE galaxies

Context. Dwarf elliptical galaxies (dEs) are the most abundant in the Universe. Research into these objects in connection with late-type dwarf galaxies is important for evaluating theories of dwarf galaxy formation and evolution. Aims. Our past studies (2000-2010) suggested a possible evolutionary link between early- and late-type dwarf galaxies. These results are based on deep near-infrared (NIR) surface photometry data of dwarf irregulars (dIs), blue compact dwarfs (BCDs), and a small sample of Virgo dEs. As a continuation of those works, in 2017 we embarked on a study of dEs using the same surface photometry methods, with the aim being to compare early- and late-type dwarfs based on homogeneous datasets. Methods. We selected 74 dEs from two different environments for which we obtained deep images. Isophotal analysis was performed on the images to obtain surface brightness profiles. The two sampled environments were the Local Volume and Virgo cluster, which provide the possibility to compare isolated evolution against evolution in crowded environments. To compare dwarf datasets homogeneously, we used the NIR Ks band which is known to be a better gauge of galaxy mass, with reduced extinction compared to visible bands. Results. In this first paper, we derive apparent physical parameters for 72 dEs from deep NIR imaging and provide preliminary fitting results of their surface brightness profiles. Two targets were undetected in the Ks images, indicating possible misclassification. Physical parameters of 16 dEs are measured for the first time and the parameters of the remaining 56 dEs are compared with the literature. We obtain a mean difference between the measured physical parameters and the results from prior studies of about 0.2″ for the galaxy center coordinates, ≈20″ for the semi-major axis, ≈0.4 mag for the total apparent magnitude, ≈0.11 for the ellipticity, and ≈14° for the position angle. We find well-fitting surface brightness profiles for the dEs using the hyperbolic secant (sech) model combined with an exponential component. Alternatively, we find good agreement with observations for a sech plus a de Vaucouleurs law.

A New Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer Calibration of Stellar Mass

We derive new empirical scaling relations between Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mid-IR (MIR) galaxy photometry and well-determined stellar masses from spectral energy distribution modeling of a suite of optical–infrared photometry provided by the Data Release 4 (DR4) Catalog of the GAMA-KiDS-VIKING survey of the southern G23 field. The MIR source extraction and characterization are drawn from the WISE Extended Source Catalogue and the archival ALLWISE catalog, combining both resolved and compact galaxies in the G23 sample to a redshift of 0.15. Three scaling relations are derived: W1 3.4 μm luminosity versus stellar mass, and WISE W1–W2, W1–W3 colors versus mass-to-light ratio (M/L, sensitive to a variety of galaxy types from passive to star-forming). For each galaxy in the sample, we then derive the combined stellar mass from these scaling relations, producing M ⋆ estimates with better than ∼25%–30% accuracy for galaxies with >109 M ⊙ and <40%–50% for lower-luminosity dwarf galaxies. We also provide simple prescriptions for rest-frame corrections and estimating stellar masses using only the W1 flux and the W1–W2 color, making stellar masses more accessible to users of the WISE data. Given a redshift or distance, these new scaling relations will enable stellar mass estimates for any galaxy in the sky detected by WISE with high fidelity across a range of M/L ratios.

Unveiling the nature of infrared bright, optically dark galaxies with early JWST data

ABSTRACT Over the last few years, both Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and Spitzer observations have revealed a population of likely massive galaxies at z &amp;gt; 3 that was too faint to be detected inHubble Space Telescope(HST) rest-frame ultraviolet imaging. However, due to the very limited photometry for individual galaxies, the true nature of these so-called HST-dark galaxies has remained elusive. Here, we present the first sample of such galaxies observed with very deep, high-resolution NIRCam imaging from the Early Release Science programme CEERS. 30 HST-dark sources are selected based on their red colours across 1.6–4.4 $\mu$m. Their physical properties are derived from 12-band multiwavelength photometry, including ancillary HST imaging. We find that these galaxies are generally heavily dust-obscured (AV ∼ 2 mag), massive (log (M/M⊙) ∼ 10), star-forming sources at z ∼ 2−8 with an observed surface density of ∼0.8 arcmin−2. This suggests that an important fraction of massive galaxies may have been missing from our cosmic census at z &amp;gt; 3 all the way into the Epoch of Reionization. The HST-dark sources lie on the main sequence of galaxies and add an obscured star formation rate density of $\mathrm{3.2^{+1.8}_{-1.3} \times 10^{-3} \,{\rm M}_{\odot }\,yr^{-1}\,Mpc^{-3}}$ at z ∼ 7, showing likely presence of dust in the Epoch of Reionization. Our analysis shows the unique power of JWST to reveal this previously missing galaxy population and to provide a more complete census of galaxies at z = 2−8 based on rest-frame optical imaging.