Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Galaxy'

We study the environmental dependence of the formation history of dark matter haloes in a large dark matter simulation, the Millennium Run. Adopting a sensitive test of this dependence —— the marked correlation function —— reveals highly significant evidence that haloes of a given mass form earlier in denser regions. We explore the effect further using a new variant of this statistic, and confirm our results using some simpler tests made possible by the size and resolution of the simulation. We go on to study the effect of this environmental dependence on the galaxy population generated by a recent semi-analytic model run in the Millennium Run. We show that environmentally dependent halo formation imparts a small but cleanly detected change to the correlation function and void probability function of galaxies. We can model this change by applying a modulation based on local density to the halo occupation distribution of galaxies. We also note that having the correct placement scheme for galaxies within haloes is at least as important as correctly accounting for environmental effects. Two more dark matter simulations are run, and their outputs are appropriately relabelled and rescaled to represent different cosmologies. We generate consistent semi- analytic galaxy populations in these simulations, using two versions of each of three variants of our semi-analytic model. We compare the predictions for the galaxy clustering from these models to the projected two-point correlation function of the SDSS, obtaining a constraint on the amplitude of the fluctuations in the mass, σ(_8) = 0.96 士 0.05. We find that environmental effects do not significantly affect this estimate, but discuss other possible effects which might. We remark on how this result compares to other recent determinations of σ(_8).

La disponibilità di osservazioni profonde di ammassi di galassie, ottenute con telescopi spaziali, ha permesso la scoperta di diversi casi di lensing forte che coinvolgono una galassia d'ammasso e una sorgente retrostante (eventi di galaxy-galaxy strong lensing, GGSL). Ciononostante, questo tipo di eventi sembra essere molto raro nelle più recenti simulazioni idrodinamiche di ammassi di galassie. Questo apparente contrasto fra teoria e osservazioni è uno dei motivi che ci hanno spinto ad indagare sulla fenomenologia degli eventi di GGSL negli ammassi di galassie. Inoltre, lo studio delle sottostrutture presenti negli ammassi è di fondamentale importanza per vincolare le proprietà della materia oscura. In particolare, nella presente tesi abbiamo cercato di verificare la possibile esistenza di un collegamento fra le proprietà fisiche degli ammassi di galassie e la probabilità di osservare eventi di GGSL. Abbiamo quantificato questa probabilità definendo la sezione d'urto per il GGSL. Nel corso del lavoro sono state impiegate simulazioni numeriche di lensing da ammassi di galassie, le cui proprietà rispettano le predizioni del modello cosmologico Lambda-CDM. Nel corso della tesi abbiamo messo in luce come alcune proprietà degli ammassi, quali la pendenza del loro profilo di densità, la funzione di distribuzione radiale e la funzione di massa delle sottostrutture influenzino la sezione d'urto. Questi risultati sono stati confermati quando abbiamo applicato la nostra procedura all'ammasso MACSJ1149. Inoltre, grazie al nostro metodo, abbiamo potuto saggiare la validità di due modelli di massa, ottenuti da un'analisi di lensing forte degli ammassi MACSJ1149 e MACSJ1206, confrontando il numero di eventi di GGSL predetti dai modelli con quelli effettivamente osservati.

Die Forschungsergebnisse der letzten Jahre haben gezeigt, dass das Universum bei weitem nicht nur aus baryonischer Materie besteht. Tatsächlich scheinen 72% aus sogenannter Dunkler Energie zu bestehen, während selbst vom verbleibenden Teil nur etwa ein Fünftel baryonischer Materie zugeordnet werden kann. Der Rest besteht aus Dunkler Materie, deren Beschaffenheit bis heute nicht mit Sicherheit geklärt ist. Ursprünglich in den Rotationskurven von Spiralgalaxien beobachtet, wurde die Notwendigkeit ihrer Existenz inzwischen auch in elliptischen Galaxien und Galaxienhaufen nachgewiesen. Tatsächlich scheint Dunkle Materie eine entscheidende Rolle in der Strukturbildung im Universum gespielt zu haben. In der Frühzeit des Universums, als die Materieverteilung im Weltraum noch äußerst gleichmäßig war und nur sehr geringe Inhomogenitäten aufwies, bildeten sie die Kondensationskeime für den gravitativen Kollaps der Materie. Numerische Simulationen haben gezeigt, dass der heute beobachtbare Entwicklungszustand des Universums erst durch die zusätzliche Masse Dunkler Materie ermöglicht wurde, die den strukturellen Kollaps erheblich beschleunigte und nur dadurch zur heute beobachtbaren Komplexität der Strukturen führen konnte. Da Dunkle Materie nicht elektromagnetisch wechselwirkt, sondern sich nur durch ihre Schwerkraft bemerkbar macht, stellt der Gravitationslinseneffekt eine ausgezeichnete Methode dar, die Existenz und Menge an Dunkler Materie nachzuweisen. Der schwache Gravitationslinseneffekt macht sich zu Nutzen, dass die intrinsischen Orientierungen der Galaxien im Weltraum keine Vorzugsrichtung haben, gleichbedeutend mit ihrer statistischen Gleichverteilung. Die gravitationsbedingte kohärente Verzerrung der Hintergrundobjekte führt zu einer Abweichung von dieser Gleichverteilung, die von den Eigenschaften der Gravitationslinsen abhängt und daher zu deren Analyse genutzt werden kann. Diese Dissertation beschreibt die Galaxy-Galaxy-Lensing-Analyse von insgesamt 89 deg^2 optischer Daten, die im Rahmen des CFHTLS-WIDE-Surveys beobachtet wurden und aus denen im Rahmen dieser Arbeit photometrische Rotverschiebungs- und Elliptizitätskataloge erzeugt wurden. Das Galaxiensample besteht aus insgesamt 5×10^6 Linsen mit Rotverschiebungen von 0.05 < z_phot ≤ 1 und einem zugehörigen Hintergrund von insgesamt 1.7×10^6 Quellen mit erfolgreich gemessenen Elliptizitäten in einem Rotverschiebungsintervall von 0.05 < z_phot ≤ 2. Unter Annahme analytischer Galaxienhaloprofile wurden für die Galaxien die Masse, das Masse-zu-Leuchtkraft-Verhältnis und die entsprechenden Halomodellprofilparameter sowie ihre Skalenrelationen bezüglich der absoluten Leuchtkraft untersucht. Dies geschah sowohl für das gesamte Linsensample als auch für Linsensamples in Abhängigkeit des SED-Typs und der Umgebungsdichte. Die ermittelten Skalenrelationen wurden genutzt, um die durchschnittlichen Werte für die Galaxienhaloparameter und eine mittlere Masse für die Galaxien in Abhängigkeit ihres SED-Typs zu bestimmen. Es ergibt sich eine Gesamtmasse von M_total = 23.2+2.8−2.5×10^11 h^{−1} M_⊙ für eine durchschnittliche Galaxie mit einer Referenzleuchtkraft von L∗ = 1.6×10^10 h^{−2} L_⊙. Die Gesamtmasse roter Galaxien bei gleicher Leuchtkraft überschreitet diejenige des entsprechenden gemischten Samples um ca. 130%, während die mittlere Masse einer blauen Galaxie ca. 65% unterhalb des Durchschnitts liegt. Die Gesamtmasse der Galaxien steigt stark mit der Umgebungsdichte an, betrachtet man die Geschwindigkeitsdispersion ist dies jedoch nicht der Fall. Dies bedeutet, dass die zentrale Galaxienmateriedichte kaum von der Umgebung sondern fast nur von der Leuchtkraft abhängt. Die Belastbarkeit der Ergebnisse wurde von zu diesem Zweck erzeugten Simulationen bestätigt. Es hat sich dabei gezeigt, dass der Effekt mehrfacher gravitativer Ablenkung an verschiedenen Galaxien angemessen berücksichtigt werden muss, um systematische Abweichungen zu vermeiden.
The scientific results over the past years have shown that the Universe is by far not only composed of baryonic matter. In fact the major energy content of 72% of the Universe appears to be represented by so-called dark energy, while even from the remaining components only about one fifth is of baryonic origin, whereas 80% have to be attributed to dark matter. Originally appearing in observations of spiral galaxy rotation curves, the need for dark matter has also been verified investigating elliptical galaxies and galaxy clusters. In fact, it appears that dark matter played a major role during structure formation in the early Universe. Shortly after the Big Bang, when the matter distribution was almost homogeneous, initially very small inhomogeneities in the matter distribution formed the seeds for the gravitational collapse of the matter structures. Numerical n-body simulations, for instance, clearly indicate that the presently observable evolutionary state and complexity of the matter structure in the Universe would not have been possible without dark matter, which significantly accelerated the structure collapse due to its gravitational interaction. As dark matter does not interact electromagnetically and therefore is non-luminous but only interacts gravitationally, the gravitational lens effect provides an excellent opportunity for its detection and estimation of its amount. Weak gravitational lensing is a technique that makes use of the random orientation of the intrinsic galaxy ellipticities and thus their uniform distribution. Gravitational tidal forces introduce a coherent distortion of the background object shapes, leading to a deviation from the uniform distribution which depends on the lens galaxy properties and therefore can be used to study them. This thesis describes the galaxy-galaxy lensing analysis of 89 deg^2 of optical data, observed within the CFHTLS-WIDE survey. In the framework of this thesis the data were used in order to create photometric redshift and galaxy shape catalogs. The complete galaxy sample consists of a total number of 5×10^6 lens galaxies within a redshift range of 0.05 < z_phot ≤ 1 and 1.7×10^6 corresponding source galaxies with redshifts of 0.05 < z_phot ≤ 2 and successfully extracted shapes. Assuming that the galaxy halos can be described by analytic profiles, the scaling relations with absolute luminosity for the galaxy masses, their mass-to-light ratios and the corresponding halo parameters have been extracted. Based on the obtained scaling relations, the average values for the corresponding halo parameters and the mean galaxy masses for a given luminosity were derived as a function of considered halo model, the galaxy SED and the local environment density. We obtain a total mass of M_total = 23.2+2.8−2.5 ×10^11 h{−1} M_⊙ for an average galaxy with chosen reference luminosity of L∗ = 1.6×10^10 h{−2} L_⊙. In contrast, the mean total masses for red galaxies of same luminosity exceed the value of the average galaxy about 130%, while the mass of a blue galaxy is about 65% below the value of an average fiducial galaxy. Investigating the influence of the environmental density on the galaxy properties we observe a significant increase of the total integrated masses with galaxy density, however the velocity dispersions are not affected. This indicates that the central galaxy matter density mostly depends on the galaxy luminosity but not on the environment. Simulations based on the extracted scientific results were built, verifying the robustness of the scientific results. They give a clear hint that multiple deflections on different lens galaxies have to be properly accounted for in order to avoid systematically biased results.

Large scale observations of the Universe have highlighted that a galaxy’s mass, morphology, and environment are all key factors in a galaxy’s evolution. To what extent each of these contribute however, is still an openly debated question. In this thesis, I attempt to address the aforementioned question providing original research based on a sample of galaxies gathered from the MaNGA IFU survey. Stellar population properties are derived from the data using a newly developed full spectral fitting code, FIREFLY, and state of the art stellar population models. A number of tests using mock galaxies, globular clusters and data from the SDSS DR7 are conducted with FIREFLY in an attempt to assess the codes ability to accurately recover stellar population properties and star formation histories. FIREFLY recovers galaxy properties reliably down to S/N ≥ 5 and S/N ≥ 10 for mock galaxies with both simple and complex star formation histories, respectively. The ages and metallicities derived for globular clusters and galaxies from the SDSS are in good agreement with determinations from colour-magnitude diagram fitting, stellar spectroscopy and other full spectral fitting codes. FIREFLY is then applied to MaNGA data enabling three scientific analyses to be conducted. First, I construct a value added catalogue based on the spatially resolved stellar population properties of MaNGA galaxies, derived from both FIREFLY and absorption line-strength indices. Secondly, I investigate the dependence of light- and mass-weighted stellar population properties, and their radial gradients, on galaxy mass and morphology. Full star formation and metal enrichment histories are reconstructed, and the impact of different stellar population models and full spectral fitting routines on the derived properties is quantified. Light-weighted age gradients are found to be flat for early-type galaxies, and negative for late-type galaxies (∼− 0.11 dex/Re), suggesting an ‘inside-out’ formation of discs. Mass weighted age gradients of early-types are positive (∼0.09 dex/Re) pointing to an ‘outside-in’ progression of star formation. Negative metallicity gradients are detected for both morphological types, but these are significantly steeper in late-types. Metallicity gradients correlate with galaxy mass, with negative gradients becoming steeper with increasing mass. The correlation is stronger for late-types, with a slope of d(∇[Z/H])/d(logM)∼−0.2±0.05, compared to d(∇[Z/H])/d(logM)∼− 0.05 ± 0.05 for early-types. Lastly, I study the effect of galaxy environment on the derived stellar population gradients using three complementary measures of environment, namely the Nth nearest neighbour method, the tidal strength parameter, Q, and distinguishing between central and satellite galaxies. In all cases, no significant correlation between the gradients and environment is found, both at fixed galaxy mass, and for both morphologies. The scientific analysis presented in this thesis suggests that the cumulative merger history of galaxies plays a relatively small role in shaping their metallicity gradients and that internal processes, such as supernova and AGN feedback, matter most to the determination of stellar population gradients. These results set stringent constraints on future models of galaxy formation and evolution.

Diploma thesis deals with a Casino Galaxy´s project documentation. this casino is situated in Brno - Přízřenice. The object is designed as a cubic five-storey building without basement and with a flat roof. Whole construction is composed by Sendwix system.

L'objectif de cette thèse est d'identifier et d'étudier la population à haut décalage spectral. J'ai utilisé des données dans le proches infrarouge venant du sondage UltraVista associé à des données multi-longueur d'onde disponible dans le champ COSMOS ainsi que le sondage ultra profond de VIMOS utilisé comme un échantillon de contrôle pour la sélection des candidats à grand décalage spectrale. Cette analyse m'a amené à sélectionner des galaxies à z>4.5 en utilisant les décalages spectraux photométriques estimés à partir de la distribution spectrale d'énergie complète ainsi que des limites en magnitudes basés sur la profondeur des données dans chaque bande. Cette sélection a amené à la production d'un catalogue unique de 2036 galaxies dans l'intervalle z~5 et de 330 galaxies dans l'intervalle z~6 faisant de ce catalogue le catalogue le plus grand et le plus complet à ce jour. J'ai trouvé que la fonction de luminosité à z~5 est bien reproduite par une fonction de Schechter. A z~6, j'ai observé que le fin lumineuse de la fonction de luminosité semble être plus peuplée qu'une fonction de Schechter le laisse présager, en accord avec les résultats d'autres études Ceci étant une indication que les processus d'assemblage de la masse ont évolué rapidement. Finalement, j'ai intégré la fonction de luminosité pour en déduire la densité de luminosité et dérivé la densité de formation stellaire entre z=4.5 et z=6.5. Mes résultats montrent une densité de formation stellaire importante, en comparaison des derniers résultats avec les données du télescope Hubble, ainsi qu'une précision plus grande liée aux meilleures contraintes sur la fin lumineuse de la fonction de luminosité
The main purpose of this THESIS is to identify and study the population of high redshift galaxies in the redshift range (4.5 < z < 6.5). I use the near infrared data from the UltraVista survey conducted with the Vista telescope in combination with multi-wavelength data available in the COSMOS field and use The VIMOS Ultra Deep spectroscopic redshift survey (VUDS) as a control sample for the selection of high redshift candidates. I made a analysis leads me to select galaxies at z ≥ 4.5 using photometric redshifts computed from the full spectral energy distribution (SED) combined with well tuned magnitude limits based on the depth of the data in each band. At the end of this process I produce a unique catalogue of 2036 galaxies with 4.5 ≤ z ≤ 5.5 and 330 galaxies with 5.5 ≤ z ≤ 6.5, the largest and most complete catalogue of sources at these redshifts existing today. I find that the LF at z ∼ 5 is well fit by a Schechter function. At z ∼ 6 I find that the bright end might be more populated than expected from a Schechter function, in line with results from other authors, an indication that the mass assembly processes have evolved quickly in a short 0.5-1 Gyr timescale. Finally I integrate the luminosity functions to compute the luminosity density and derive the star formation rate density (SFRD) in 4.5 ≤ z ≤ 6.5. My results show a high SFRD comparable to the latest results derived from the HST data, with an improved accuracy linked to the better constraints at the bright end of the LF

Cette thèse présente un certain nombre de résultats récents à propos de l'évolution des galaxies et la cosmologie, à partir de l'observation d'amas de galaxies en lumière visible. Nous introduisons d'abord les principales propriétés des amas de galaxies (Chapitre 1.1) et la façon dont ces objets permettent de contraindre le modèle cosmologique standard (Chapitre 1.2). Une grande partie des résultats présentés ici ont été obtenus à partir de l'étude du relevé d'amas DAFT/FADA, qui regroupe des amas dans la gamme de décalages spectraux 0.4
This thesis presents some recent results concerning galaxy evolution and cosmology,based on the observation of galaxy clusters at optical wavelengths. We first introduce the main properties of galaxy clusters (Sect. 1.1) and how they can be used for cosmology within the standard cosmological model (Sect. 1.2). A large fraction of the presented results comes from the study of the DAFT/FADA galaxy cluster survey at redshifts 0.4 < z < 0.9 (Sect. 1.3). We divide our study in two parts according to the observable that is considered: galaxy luminosity or galaxy shape. The distribution of galaxy luminosities is called the galaxy luminosity function (GLF), which can be used to probe the evolution of cluster galaxies (Sect. 2.1). Computing the GLFs for a sub sample of 25 DAFT/FADA clusters, we find that faint blue star forming galaxies are quenched into red quiescent galaxies from high redshift until today. Comparing to the field shows that this transformation is more efficient in high density environments.We also study the fraction of baryons in galaxy groups and clusters (Sect. 2.2). Wefind that in groups, the stars contained in galaxies can reach masses of the same order as those of the intra-cluster gas, while in clusters they are usually negligible relatively to the gas. Taking both stars and gas into account we constrain the matter density parameter Galaxy shapes are distorted by foreground objects that bend light in their vicinity. This lensing signal can be exploited to measure the mass distribution of a foreground cluster. We review the basic theory of weak lensing and shear measurement (Sect. 3.1), and then apply it to a subsample of 16 DAFT/FADA clusters, with Subaru/SuprimeCam or CFHT/MegaCam imaging (Sect. 3.2). We estimate the masses of these clusters, and take advantage of the large fields of view of our images to detect filaments and structures in the cluster vicinity, observationally supporting the hierarchical scenario of cluster growth. Finally, we detect shear peaks in Euclid-like simulations, and use their statistics as a cosmological probe, similarly to cluster counts (Sect. 3.3). We forecast the cosmological constraints that this technique will achieve when applied to the Euclid space mission, and develop a tomographic analysis that adds information from redshifts. We conclude with a discussion of our perspectives on future studies in all the fieldsinvestigated in the present thesis

Recent wide and deep surveys allow us to investigate the large scale structure of the Universe at high redshift. We present studies of the clustering of high redshift galaxies and galaxy clusters, using reprocessed UKIDSS DXS catalogues. The UKIDSS DXS is one of the deepest near-IR surveys to date and provides sufficient samples of the distant Universe. Firstly we measure the angular correlation function of high redshift red galaxies which are Extremely Red Objects (EROs) and Distant Red Galaxies (DRGs) in Chapters 3 and 4 from DXS SA22 and Elais-N1 fields. We found that their angular correlation functions can be described by a broken power-law. Thus we estimated clustering properties on small and large scales separately. Then we found that red or bright samples are more strongly clustered than those having the opposite characteristics. In addition old, passive EROs are found to be more clustered than dusty, star-forming EROs. The effect of cosmic variance on angular clustering was also investigated. Chapter 5 describes the halo modelling for the angular clustering of EROs. EROs reside in in dark matter haloes having > 1012.9h−1M, and have a bias of 1.93 at z = 1.12 and 3.17 at z = 1.55. From a direct comparison between the observed clustering and the cosmological model, they show good agreement. However the cosmological simulation may predict too many red satellites, especially at high redshfit. In Chapter 6, we present the details of our cluster detection algorithm based on the red sequence technique. This algorithm successfully found published galaxy clusters in the DXS Elais-N1 field. We also found many overdensities in the DXS SA22 field. Two prominent galaxy clusters were confirmed by spectroscopic observations, and we identified a supercluster candidate. Finally the clustering strength of candidate galaxy clusters showed good agreement with previous results and was consistent with the ΛCDM prediction. In the near future the full DXS catalogue will provide an opportunity to detect various high redshift populations. With other advanced surveys, it will be possible to investigate more details of the large scale structure of the Universe.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2004.
Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xix, 302 p. : ill. (some col.). Advisor: David H. Weinberg, Department of Astronomy. Includes bibliographical references (p. 291-302).

Using new wide-area galaxy redshift surveys, we explore the evolutionof the most massive galaxies and the most luminous quasars in the universe over much of cosmic history. Quasars and massive red galaxies both areextremes; the most luminous high redshift quasars likely play a key role in shaping their nearby environment and the universe as a whole. The mostmassive galaxies represent the end points of galaxy evolution and containa fossil record of the galaxy evolution process.Using the AGES redshift survey completed with the MMT and the Hectospecmulti-object spectrograph as well as new $z$-band observations of the NOAO Deep Wide-Field Survey Bootes field, we report the discovery of threenew quasars at z>5. We explore new mid-infrared selection in light of thesethree new quasars and place constraints on the slope of the high-redshiftquasar luminosity function.At lower redshift (0.12.2L*), we find that the scatter around the color-magnitude relation is quite small in colors studied.Each of three model star formation histories can reproduce the scatter we measure, none of the models producecolor distributions matching those observed.We measure the evolution of the LRG luminosity function in the redshift range 0.13L*)red galaxies have grown by less than 50% (at 99% confidence) since z=0.9 in stark contrast to the factor of 2 to 4 growth observed in the L* red galaxy population over the same epoch.Finally, we introduce the PRIsm MUlti-object Survey (PRIMUS), a new redshiftsurvey aimed at collecting ~300,000 galaxy spectra over 10 sq. deg toz~1. We summarize the current status of PRIMUS observations and datareductions and present several survey statistics. PRIMUS is the largestexisting redshift survey at intermediate redshift and holds the largestsample of redshifts for Spitzer and X-ray detected objects.

The joint analysis of galaxy-galaxy lensing and galaxy clustering is a promising method for inferring the growth function of large-scale structure. Anticipating a near future application of this analysis to Dark Energy Survey (DES) measurements of galaxy positions and shapes, we develop a practical approach to modeling the assumptions and systematic effects affecting the joint analysis of small-scale galaxy-galaxy lensing and large-scale galaxy clustering. Introducing parameters that characterize the halo occupation distribution (HOD), photometric redshift uncertainties, and shear measurement errors, we study how external priors on different subsets of these parameters affect our growth constraints. Degeneracies within the HOD model, as well as between the HOD and the growth function, are identified as the dominant source of complication, with other systematic effects being subdominant. The impact of HOD parameters and their degeneracies necessitate the detailed joint modeling of the galaxy sample that we employ. We conclude that DES data will provide powerful constraints on the evolution of structure growth in the Universe, conservatively/optimistically constraining the growth function to 7.9%/4.8% with its first-year data that cover over 1000 square degrees, and to 3.9%/2.3% with its full five-year data that will survey 5000 square degrees, including both statistical and systematic uncertainties.

La formation et l'évolution du disque épais de la Voie Lactée restent controversées. Nous avons utilisé un modèle de synthèse de la population de la Galaxie, le Modèle de la Galaxie de Besançon (Robin et al., 2003), qui peut être utilisé pour l'interprétation des données, étudier la structure galactique et tester différents scénarios de formation et évolution Galactique. Nous avons examiné ces questions en étudiant la forme et la distribution de métallicité du disque mince et du disque épais en utilisant l'approche de synthèse de la population. Nous avons imposé sur des simulations les erreurs d'observation et les biais afin de les rendre directement comparables aux observations. Nous avons corrigé les magnitudes et les couleurs des étoiles de la simulation, en utilisant un modèle d'extinction. Les modèles d'extinction disponibles ne reproduisent pas toujours la quantité exacte d'extinction le long de la ligne de visée. Un programme a été développé pour corriger la distribution de l'extinction en fonction de la distance le long de ces lignes. Les extinctions correctes ont ensuite été appliquées sur les simulations du modèle. Nous avons étudié la forme du disque mince en utilisant des données photométriques aux basses latitudes du sondage SDSS-SEGUE. Nous avons comparé qualitativement et quantitativement les observations et les simulations et nous avons essayé de contraindre la fonction de masse initiale. En utilisant la spectroscopie du relevé SEGUE, nous avons sélectionné les étoiles du turn-off de la séquence principale (MSTO) (Cheng et al 2012) et des géantes K pour étudier la distribution de métallicité du disque mince et du disque épais. Nous avons calculé une estimation de distance pour chaque étoile à partir de la relation entre les températures effectives et magnitudes absolues pour les catalogues observés et simulés. Ces deux catalogues ont les mêmes biais sur les distances, elles sont donc comparables. Nous avons développé un outil basé sur une méthode MCMC-ABC pour déterminer la distribution de la métallicité et étudier les corrélations entre les paramètres ajustés. Nous avons confirmé la présence d'un gradient de métallicité radiale de -0.079 ± 0.015 dex kpc−1 pour le disque mince. Nous avons obtenu une métallicité du disque épais au voisinage solaire de -0.47 ± 0.03 dex, compatible avec les résultats obtenus par les études précédentes. De plus, le disque épais ne montre pas de gradient, mais les données sont compatibles avec un gradient positif intérieur suivi d'un négatif extérieur. Nous avons ensuite appliqué les outils développés au relevé spectroscopique Gaia-ESO et calculé la distribution de métallicité des étoiles F/G/K dans le disque mince et épais en supposant une formation en deux époques du disque épais de la Voie Lactée. Nous avons obtenu une métallicité locale dans le disque épais de -0.23 ± 0.04 dex légèrement plus élevée que celle obtenue avec SEGUE mais en accord avec Adibekyan et al. (2013) et un gradient de métallicité radiale du disque épais en accord avec notre analyse précédente des données de SEGUE et la littérature. La métallicité locale est en accord avec la littérature au niveau de 3σ mais parce que les données GES sont préliminaires, une analyse plus approfondie avec plus de données et de meilleurs calibrations doit être faite. L'existence d'un gradient plat dans le disque épais peut être une conséquence d'une formation à partir d’un gaz turbulent et bien homogène, ou bien un fort mélange radial a brassé après coup les étoiles
The formation and evolution of the thick disc of the Milky Way remain controversial. We made use of a population synthesis model of the Galaxy, the Besançon Galaxy Model (Robin et al. 2003), which can be used for data interpretation, study the Galactic structure and test different scenarios of Galaxy formation and evolution. We examined these questions by studying the shape and the metallicity distribution of the thin and thick disc using the population synthesis approach. We imposed on simulations observational errors and biases to make them directly comparable to observations. We corrected magnitudes and colors of stars, from the simulation, using an extinction model. The available extinction models do not always reproduce the exact quantity of extinction along the line of sight. A code to correct the distribution of extinction in distance along these lines have been developed and the corrected extinctions have been applied on model simulations. We studied the shape of the thin disc using photometric data at low latitudes from the SDSS-SEGUE survey. We compared qualitatively and quantitatively observations and simulations and try to constrain the Initial Mass Function. Using the spectroscopic survey SEGUE we selected Main Sequence Turnoff (MSTO) stars (Cheng et al 2012) and K giants to study the metallicity distribution of the thin and thick discs. We computed a distance for each star from the relation between effective temperatures and absolute magnitudes for the observed and simulated catalogs. These two catalogues have the same biases in distances, therefore are comparable. We developed a tool based on a MCMC-ABC method to determine the metallicity distribution and study the correlations between the fitted parameters. We confirmed a radial metallicity gradient of -0.079 ± 0.015 dex kpc−1 for the thin disc. We obtained a solar neighborhood metallicity of the thick disc of -0.47 ± 0.03 dex similar to previous studies and the thick disc shows no gradient but the data are compatible with an inner positive gradient followed by a outer negative one. Furthermore, we have applied the developed tools to the Gaia-ESO spectroscopic survey and computed the metallicity distribution of F/G/K stars in the thin and thick disc assuming a two epoch formation for the thick disc of the Milky Way. We obtained a local metallicity in the thick disc of -0.23 ± 0.04 dex slightly higher than the one obtained with SEGUE but in agreement with Adibekyan et al. (2013) and a radial metallicity gradient for the thick disc in agreement with our previous analysis of SEGUE data and the literature. The local metallicity is in fair agreement with literature at the 3σ level but because the GES data is an internal release under testing further analysis with more data and better calibrations have to be done. The existence of a flat gradient in the thick disc can be a consequence of an early formation from a highly turbulent homogeneous well mixed gas, unless it has suffered heavy radial mixing later on

We present cosmological constraints from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) using a combined analysis of angular clustering of red galaxies and their cross-correlation with weak gravitational lensing of background galaxies. We use a 139 deg(2) contiguous patch of DES data from the Science Verification (SV) period of observations. Using large-scale measurements, we constrain the matter density of the Universe as Omega(m) = 0.31 +/- 0.09 and the clustering amplitude of the matter power spectrum as sigma(8) = 0.74 +/- 0.13 after marginalizing over seven nuisance parameters and three additional cosmological parameters. This translates into S-8 = sigma(8)(Omega(m)/0.3)(0.16) = 0.74 +/- 0.12 for our fiducial lens redshift bin at 0.35 < z < 0.5, while S-8 = 0.78 +/- 0.09 using two bins over the range 0.2 < z < 0.5. We study the robustness of the results under changes in the data vectors, modelling and systematics treatment, including photometric redshift and shear calibration uncertainties, and find consistency in the derived cosmological parameters. We show that our results are consistent with previous cosmological analyses from DES and other data sets and conclude with a joint analysis of DES angular clustering and galaxy-galaxy lensing with Planck Cosmic Microwave Background data, baryon accoustic oscillations and Supernova Type Ia measurements.

We present a method for constructing end-to-end mock galaxy catalogues using a semi-analytical model of galaxy formation, applied to the halo merger trees extracted from a cosmological N-body simulation. These mocks are lightcone catalogues, which incorporate the evolution of galaxy properties with cosmic time. Interpolation is used to determine the epoch at which a galaxy will appear in the past lightcone of the observer. We discuss several applications of mock catalogues. Firstly, we consider the effectiveness of the BzK colour selection technique. The mock catalogue predictions are in reasonable agreement with the observed number counts of BzK galaxies. We predict that over 75 per cent of the model galaxies with K≤23, and redshift 1.4