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Project titleNew generation of stellar population models for galaxy evolution studies using the Big Data approach

AffiliationFederal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education Lomonosov Moscow State University,

Research area 02 - PHYSICS AND SPACE SCIENCES, 02-704 - Physics and evolution of stellar and interstellar medium

Keywordsextragalactic astronomy, galaxy evolution, stellar libraries, stellar population models, intermediate mass black holes, data science, big data

Annotation
This project aims to solve the fundamental problem of modern astrophysics, the formation and evolution of galaxies in the Universe, using the methods of the Virtual Observatory and Big Data Analysis (Big Data). During the first three years of this project, we achieved a number of scientific and methodological results in the fields of studying the evolution of galaxies and their central black holes, as well as the analysis of stellar spectra and stellar population modeling. We published 21 papers, including 14 in highl-impact refereed journals (Q1), which at the end of the first three years of the project (May 2020) have already been cited 159 times in the literature according to NASA ADS. The most striking result from the Project 2017 featuring broad media coverage and cited over 40 times in 1.5 years since the publication was the discovery of a population of intermediate mass black holes (with masses from 100 to 100,000 solar masses), which in the recent past were still considered hypothetical objects. The very detection of these objects significantly constrained the scenarios of formation and the growth of supermassive black holes in the galaxy centers. The most important methodological results are our new methods for analyzing stellar spectra and determining the parameters of stellar atmospheres, their application to more than 1700 optical spectra of stars, and the creation of an information resource (https://sl.voxastro.org/) for accessing these data, as well as the automated pipeline processing systems of optical and infrared spectra from large telescopes, also available as open source software packages. In 2019--2020, we started a large multi-wavelength observational campaign for a detailed study of the intermediate mass black holes that we discovered, which includes programs on 4 large ground-based optical and infrared telescopes (2.5 to 10m in diameter), as well as using three orbital X-ray observatories. To establish the priority of our team in this very promising scientific direction among the world-wide astronomical community, we need to continue to work on this topic. During the two years of the continuation of our project, we plan to analyze the already collected rich observational material and obtain additional data from the XMM-Newton and Chandra X-ray telescopes from our programs approved by the time allocation committees. This will bring the sample size of confirmed intermediate mass black holes to a statistically significant size (about 30 objects). In the final stage of our Project (2017), we developed a new algorithm for multidimensional minimization of functionals, some of the parameters of which are defined on a discrete set of values in the parameter space, and the other parameters are defined on continuous intervals. This algorithm became the basis of our new method for determining the parameters of stellar atmospheres, which also allows the use of additional characteristics of stars, such as parallaxes and broadband photometry, to remove the degeneracy between the parameters. A logical application of this method is the analysis of a large volume of stellar spectra from several spectral libraries (including three that we studied in the first three years of our project) in order to obtain a uniform set of parameters of stellar atmospheres of stars with available high-quality spectra to create models of stellar populations (free from the problems associated with the systematics of all existing methods for analyzing stellar spectra). In the same task, we will use additional information from the third release of the Gaia DR3 review data, which is scheduled for release in 2021. Thus, during the next two years, we plan to qualitatively and quantitatively expand and deepen the results of the Project 2017 and significantly advance in the direction of studying the origin and evolution of galaxies and their central black holes, for which we will need to bring the modeling of stellar populations to a new level.

Expected results
The results of the project for 2 years will be published in at least 9 papers in refereed journals indexed in Web of Science, of which at least 7 will be in prestigious journals Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (UK, IF=5.107), Astrophysical Journal (USA, IF=5.993), Astrophysical Journal Supplement (IF=11.7), Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (USA, IF=3.496). The main expected results of the continuation of our project in the direction of studying intermediate-mass black holes are: (a) expanding the sample of IMBHs confirmed in X-ray to a statistically significant number (30 objects or more); (b) the construction of the fundamental relations between black hole masses and their host galaxies in the low-mass regime (the MBH-sigma relation with the stellar velocity dispersion and the MBH-Mbulge relation with a mass of the bulge/spheroid), as well as a detailed description of properties of stellar populations and the environment of host galaxies. The main expected results in the construction of stellar libraries and modeling of stellar populations will be: (a) a novel publicly available method for analyzing stellar atmospheres, implemented as an open-source publicly distributed program code; (b) parameters of stellar atmospheres of several thousand stars obtained by applying this method to several large libraries of stellar spectra (UVES-POP, INDO-US, LCO-SL, ELODIE, MILES, STELIB) using several grids of models of stellar atmospheres - this dataset aims to become a reference sample for research in stellar astrophysics for the next decades; (c) grids of models of stellar populations prepared for the analysis of data from the James Webb space telescope, as well as large optical spectral surveys DESI and 4MOST. All results in this area will be presented on the constantly updated web-site of our project https://sl.voxastro.org/.

Annotation of the results obtained in 2021
During the second year of the project extension, our research team has published 6 papers in peer-reviewed journals (5 papers in Q1 journals, one paper in Q2), which, at the time of writing, were cited 18 times in the literature, as well as 6 papers in proceedings of conferences. 7 oral presentations were made at international conferences, as well as three invited presentations at scientific seminars. A scenario has been established for the formation of dwarf galaxies in clusters, including one of the most extreme subclasses of such objects, ultra-diffuse galaxies. For the young analogs of these objects in the Coma Berenices and Abell 2147 clusters, for the first time, detailed profiles of the age of the last star formation episode were obtained, and parametrized star formation histories were reconstructed based on spectrum modeling and broadband photometry. This result was published in the prestigious journal Nature Astronomy. For the isolated low-surface-brightness galaxy Ark18, our work published in the journal MNRAS showed that it was formed as a result of the merger of two dwarf galaxies. For globular clusters near M49, evidence of a gradual transition of clusters into the intergalactic medium was found, an anomalously low value of the dispersion of cluster velocities in the inner part of the globular cluster system was found, a subsample of globular clusters was identified, whose radial velocity corresponds to the nearby galaxy VCC 1249, and their distribution on the picture plane repeats the morphology of the isophotes of this galaxy. This is evidence of a dwarf galaxy being ripped off during its passage through M49's halo. Data for massive star clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud were analyzed using a novel technique and individual abundances of several chemical elements were estimated from this analysis. A paper presenting these results was published in ApJ (Q1). As part of the study of host galaxies with low luminosity active nuclei, an analysis of data for the MaNGA 1-166919 galaxy was carried out, which showed that the outflow of gas caused by an active nucleus can both induce and suppress star formation in the galaxy.

Publications

1. Al Yazeedi A., Katkov I., Gelfand J., Wylezalek D., Zakamska N., Liu W. The impact of low luminosity AGN on their host galaxies: A radio and optical investigation of the kpc-scale outflow in MaNGA 1-166919 The Astrophysical Journal, The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 916, Issue 2, id.102, 23 pp. (year - 2021) https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/abf5e1

2. Borisov S., Chilingarian I., Rubtsov E., Grishin K., Katkov I., Goradzhanov V., Afanasiev A., Saburova A., Kasparova A., Zolotukhin I. Multi-segment and Echelle stellar spectra processing issues and how to solve them Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series, - (year - 2022)

3. Demianenko M., Grishin K., Toptun V., Chilingarian I., Katkov I., Goradzhanov V., Kuzmin I. Optical Variability of "Light-weight" Supermassive Black Holes at a Few Percent Level from ZTF Forced-Photometry Light Curves Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series, - (year - 2022)

4. Demianenko M., Grishin K., Toptun V., Chilingarian I., Katkov I., Goradzhanov V., Kuzmin I. Optical light curves of light-weight supermassive black holes produced by the Zwicky Transient Facility Forced Photometry Service Astronomy at the epoch of multimessenger studies. Proceedings of the VAK-2021 conference, Janus-K, p. 359-361 (year - 2021)

5. Egorova E., Egorov O., Moiseev A., Saburova A., Grishin K., Chilingarian I. Search for gas accretion imprints in voids: II. The galaxy Ark 18 as a result of a dwarf-dwarf merger Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 504, Issue 4, pp.6179-6197 (year - 2021) https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stab1192

6. Goradzhanov V., Chilingarian I., Katkov I., Grishin K., Toptun V., Kuzmin I., Demianenko M. Optical spectroscopic observations of intermediate-mass black holes and their host galaxies: the MBH−σ∗ relation Astronomy at the epoch of multimessenger studies. Proceedings of the VAK-2021 conference, Janus-K, p. 367-369 (year - 2022)

7. Grishin K., Chilingarian I., Afanasiev A., Fabricant D., Katkov I., Moran S., Yagi M. Transforming gas-rich low-mass disky galaxies into ultra-diffuse galaxies by ram pressure Nature Astronomy, Nature Astronomy volume 5, pages 1308–1318 (2021) (year - 2021) https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4365/228/2/14

8. Nekrasov A., Grishin K., Kovaleva D., Malkov O. Approximate analytical description of the high latitude extinction The European Physical Journal Special Topics, The European Physical Journal Special Topics, Volume 230, Issue 10, p.2193-2205 (year - 2021) https://doi.org/10.1140/epjs/s11734-021-00210-0

9. Randa Asa'd, S. Hernandez, A. As'ad, M. Molero, F. Matteucci, S. Larsen, Igor V. Chilingarian Detailed Chemical Abundances of Star Clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud Astrophysical Journal, Volume 929, Issue 2, id.174, 10 pp. (year - 2022) https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac5f3e

10. Rubtsov E., Chilingarian I., Katkov I., Grishin K., Goradzhanov V., Borisov S. Hybrid minimization algorithm for computationally expensive multi-dimensional fitting Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series, - (year - 2022)

11. Taylor M., Ko Y., Côté P., Ferrarese L., Peng E., Zabludoff A., Roediger J., Sánchez-Janssen R., Hendel D., Chilingarian I., Liu C., Spengler C., Zhang H. Fresh Insights on the Kinematics of M49’s Globular Cluster System with MMT/Hectospec Spectroscopy The Astrophysical Journal, The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 915, Issue 2, id.83, 11 pp. (year - 2021) https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/abffcf

12. Toptun V., Chilingarian I., Grishin K., Katkov I., Zolotukhin I., Goradzhanov V., Demianenko M., Kuzmun I. Confirmation of intermediate-mass black holes candidates with X-ray observations Astronomy at the epoch of multimessenger studies. Proceedings of the VAK-2021 conference, Janus-K, p. 304-306 (year - 2022)

13. - Под воздействием газа: учёные раскрыли тайну образования ультрадиффузных галактик Russia Today, - (year - )

14. - Межгалактическая плазма лишила ультрадиффузные галактики «топлива» для образования звезд Российский Научный Фонд, - (year - )

15. - Межгалактическую плазму уличили в краже “топлива” у ультрадиффузных галактик Агентство ТАСС, - (year - )

16. - Раскрыта тайна возникновения темных галактик Lenta.ru, - (year - )

17. - Межгалактическая плазма лишила ультрадиффузные галактики «топлива» для образования звезд National Geographic Россия, - (year - )

18. - Межгалактическая плазма лишила ультрадиффузные галактики «топлива» для образования звезд Indicator, - (year - )

19. - Раскрыта тайна возникновения темных галактик Rambler, - (year - )

20. - Tails Tell the Tale of Galaxy Evolution Сайт телескопа Subaru, - (year - )

21. - How ultra diffuse galaxies form Сайт лаборатории APC Парижского Университета, - (year - )

22. - Creating Ultra-Diffuse Galaxies Сайт Гарвард-Смитсонианского центра астрофизики, - (year - )

23. - Binospec in Nature Astronomy – See the photo! Сайт обсерватории MMT, - (year - )

Annotation of the results obtained in 2020
During the fourth year of our project (1st year of the extension) we tried to capitalize on the results we obtained during the first three years and use the methods we developed in several research projects to perform data analysis. All these efforts resulted in peer-reviewed publications in high-impact (Q1) journals (3 papers published in the Astrophysical Journal; 1 paper published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society; 1 paper submitted to Nature Astronomy). The scientific highlights include: (i) the upper limit on the central black hole mass in the low-mass galaxy IC750 by using water masers putting it into the intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) mass range; (ii) both positive and negative AGN feedback discovered in the galaxy MaNGA-ID 1-166919; (iii) discovery of a dynamically cold “shell” of extragalactic globular cluster around the giant elliptical galaxy Messier49 in the Virgo cluster suggesting a past merger event; (iv) scenario of a dwarf-dwarf galaxy merger as an explanation of a formation of an extended low-surface brightness disk in the galaxy Ark18 located in the void; (v) ram pressure stripping as viable evolutionary channel transforming dwarf irregular galaxies into ultra-diffuse galaxies in clusters. We also completed the thorough testing of the new hybrid minimization technique for multi-dimensional continuous-discrete functions, which we apply for the determination of the atmospheric parameters of stars from their intermediate-resolution spectra. We reduced about 95% of the infrared stellar spectra obtained by us in 2013-2018, which constitute the main sample of the Las Campanas Stellar Library. We continued the multi-wavelength follow-up campaign aimed at extending the sample of IMBHs with X-ray confirmation and full characterisation of their host galaxies. We collected new observations in the frameworks of our own observing programs at XMM-Newton (X-ray), AstroSat (far-UV), Magellan-Baade (optical/near-IR) and assembled the largest up-to-date sample of confirmed IMBHs. There is a hint that there is no co-evolution of central black holes and their host galaxies in the IMBH regime manifested by their strong deviation from known scaling relations (MBH - velocity dispersion and MBH - Mbulge).

Publications

1. Aisha Al Yazeedi, Ivan Yu. Katkov, Joseph D. Gelfand, Dominika Wylezalek, Nadia L. Zakamska, Weizhe Liu The impact of low luminosity AGN on their host galaxies: A radio and optical investigation of the kpc-scale outflow in MaNGA 1-166919 The Astrophysical Journal, - (year - 2021)

2. Egorova E.S., Egorov O.V., Moiseev A.V., Saburova A.S., Grishin K.A., Chilingarian I.V. Search for gas accretion imprints in voids: II. The galaxy Ark 18 as a result of a dwarf-dwarf merger. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, - (year - 2021)

3. Matthew A. Taylor, Youkyung Ko, Patrick Côté, Laura Ferrarese, Eric W. Peng, Ann Zabludoff, Joel Roediger, Rubén Sánchez-Janssen, David Hendel, Igor Chilingarian, Chengze Liu, Chelsea Spengler, Hongxin Zhang Fresh Insights on the Kinematics of M49’s Globular Cluster System with MMT/Hectospec Spectroscopy The Astrophysical Journal, - (year - 2021)

4. Zaw I., Rosenthal M.J., Katkov I.Yu., Gelfand J.D., Chen, Y., Greenhill L.J., Brisken W., Noori H. An Accreting, Anomalously Low-mass Black Hole at the Center of Low-mass Galaxy IC 750 Astrophysical Journal, Volume: 20 Issue: 8 Article Number: 119 (year - 2020) https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ab9944