[en] Purely baryonic dark matter dominated models like modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND) based on modification of Newtonian gravity have been successful in reproducing some dynamical properties of galaxies. More recently, a relativistic formulation of MOND proposed by Bekenstein seems to agree with cosmological large scale structure formation. In this work, we revise the agreement of MOND with observations in light of the new results on the cosmic microwave anisotropies provided by the 2003 flight of Boomerang. The measurements of the height of the third acoustic peak, provided by several small scale CMB experiments have reached enough sensitivity to severely constrain models without cold dark matter. Assuming that acoustic peak structure in the CMB is unchanged and that local measurements of the Hubble constant can be applied, we find that the cold dark matter is strongly favored with Bayesian probability ratio of about one in two hundred

[en] Measurements of baryonic acoustic oscillations (BAOs) in galaxy surveys have been recognized as a powerful tool for constraining dark energy. However, this method relies on the knowledge of the size of the acoustic horizon at recombination derived from cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy measurements. This estimate is typically derived assuming a standard recombination scheme; additional radiation sources can delay recombination altering the cosmic ionization history and the cosmological inferences drawn from CMB and BAO data. In this paper we quantify the effect of delayed recombination on the determination of dark energy parameters from future BAO surveys such as the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey and the Wide-Field Multi-Object Spectrograph. We find the impact to be small but still not negligible. In particular, if recombination is nonstandard (to a level still allowed by CMB data), but this is ignored, future surveys may incorrectly suggest the presence of a redshift-dependent dark energy component. On the other hand, in the case of delayed recombination, adding to the analysis one extra parameter describing deviations from standard recombination does not significantly degrade the error bars on dark energy parameters and yields unbiased estimates. This is due to the CMB-BAO complementarity.

[en] We present our analysis of the Lyman continuum (LyC) emission and escape fraction of 111 spectroscopically verified galaxies with and without active galactic nuclei (AGN) from 2.26 < z < 4.3. We extended our ERS sample from Smith et al. with 64 galaxies in the GOODS North and South fields using WFC3/UVIS F225W, F275W, and F336W mosaics we independently drizzled using the HDUV, CANDELS, and UVUDF data. Among the 17 AGN from the 111 galaxies, one provided a LyC detection in F275W at $m_{\mathrm{A}\mathrm{B}}$ = 23.19 mag (signal-to-noise ratio, S/N, ≃ 133) and GALEX NUV at $m_{\mathrm{A}\mathrm{B}}$ = 23.77 mag (S/N ≃ 13). We simultaneously fit SDSS and Chandra spectra of this AGN to an accretion disk and Comptonization model, and find $f_{\mathrm{e}\mathrm{s}\mathrm{c}}$ values of $f_{\mathrm{e}\mathrm{s}\mathrm{c}}^{\mathrm{F}275\mathrm{W}}\simeq <!--\; ???\; -->{28}_{-<!--\; ???\; -->4}^{+20}\mathrm{\%<!--\; \%\; -->}$ and $f_{\mathrm{e}\mathrm{s}\mathrm{c}}^{\mathrm{N}\mathrm{U}\mathrm{V}}\simeq <!--\; ???\; -->{30}_{-<!--\; ???\; -->5}^{+22}\mathrm{\%<!--\; \%\; -->}$. For the remaining 110 galaxies, we stack image cutouts that capture their LyC emission using the F225W, F275W, and F336W data of the GOODS and ERS samples, and both combined, as well as subsamples of galaxies with and without AGN, and all galaxies. We find the stack of 17 AGN dominate the LyC production from $⟨<!--\; ???\; -->z⟩<!--\; ???\; -->$ ≃ 2.3–4.3 by a factor of ∼10 compared to all 94 galaxies without AGN. While the IGM of the early universe may have been reionized mostly by massive stars, there is evidence that a significant portion of the ionizing energy came from AGN.

[en] We present a spatially resolved near-UV/optical study, using the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) on board the Hubble Space Telescope, of NGC 4150, a sub-L_*, early-type galaxy (ETG) of around 6 x 10⁹ M_sun, which has been observed as part of the WFC3 Early-Release Science Programme. Previous work indicates that this galaxy has a large reservoir of molecular hydrogen gas, exhibits a kinematically decoupled core (a likely indication of recent merging) and strong, central Hβ absorption (indicative of young stars). While relatively uninspiring in its optical image, the core of NGC 4150 shows ubiquitous near-UV emission and remarkable dusty substructure. Our analysis shows this galaxy to lie in the near-UV green valley, and its pixel-by-pixel photometry exhibits a narrow range of near-UV/optical colors that are similar to those of nearby E+A (post-starburst) galaxies and lie between those of M83 (an actively star-forming spiral) and the local quiescent ETG population. We parameterize the properties of the recent star formation (RSF; age, mass fraction, metallicity, and internal dust content) in the NGC 4150 pixels by comparing the observed near-UV/optical photometry to stellar models. The typical age of the RSF is around 0.9 Gyr, consistent with the similarity of the near-UV colors to post-starburst systems, while the morphological structure of the young component supports the proposed merger scenario. The typical RSF metallicity, representative of the metallicity of the gas fuelling star formation, is ∼0.3-0.5 Z_sun. Assuming that this galaxy is a merger and that the gas is sourced mainly from the infalling companion, these metallicities plausibly indicate the gas-phase metallicity (GPM) of the accreted satellite. Comparison to the local mass-GPM relation suggests (crudely) that the mass of the accreted system is ∼3 x 10⁸ M_sun, making NGC 4150 a 1:20 minor merger. A summation of the pixel RSF mass fractions indicates that the RSF contributes ∼2%-3% of the stellar mass. This work reaffirms our hypothesis that minor mergers play a significant role in the evolution of ETGs at late epochs.

[en] We investigate the ionization structure of the nebular gas in M83 using the line diagnostic diagram, [O III](5007 A)/Hβ versus [S II](6716 A+6731 A)/Hα, with the newly available narrowband images from the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). We produce the diagnostic diagram on a pixel-by-pixel (0.''2 x 0.''2) basis and compare it with several photo- and shock-ionization models. We select four regions from the center to the outer spiral arm and compare them in the diagnostic diagram. For the photoionized gas, we observe a gradual increase of the log ([O III]/Hβ) ratios from the center to the spiral arm, consistent with the metallicity gradient, as the H II regions go from super-solar abundance to roughly solar abundance from the center out. Using the diagnostic diagram, we separate the photoionized from the shock-ionized component of the gas. We find that the shock-ionized Hα emission ranges from ∼2% to about 15%-33% of the total, depending on the separation criteria used. An interesting feature in the diagnostic diagram is a horizontal distribution around log ([O III]/Hβ) ∼ 0. This feature is well fit by a shock-ionization model with 2.0 Z_sun metallicity and shock velocities in the range of 250-350 km s^-1. A low-velocity shock component, <200 km s^-1, is also detected and is spatially located at the boundary between the outer ring and the spiral arm. The low-velocity shock component can be due to (1) supernova remnants located nearby, (2) dynamical interaction between the outer ring and the spiral arm, and (3) abnormal line ratios from extreme local dust extinction. The current data do not enable us to distinguish among those three possible interpretations. Our main conclusion is that, even at the HST resolution, the shocked gas represents a small fraction of the total ionized gas emission at less than 33% of the total. However, it accounts for virtually all of the mechanical energy produced by the central starburst in M83.