Probing Galaxy Evolution with AKARI
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Open Research Online The Open University’s repository of research publications and other research outputs Probing Galaxy Evolution with AKARI Thesis How to cite: Davidge, Helen Rosemary (2017). Probing Galaxy Evolution with AKARI. PhD thesis The Open University. For guidance on citations see FAQs. c 2016 The Author https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Version: Version of Record Link(s) to article on publisher’s website: http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21954/ou.ro.0000c192 Copyright and Moral Rights for the articles on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. For more information on Open Research Online’s data policy on reuse of materials please consult the policies page. oro.open.ac.uk Probing Galaxy Evolution With AKARI A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Astronomy Discipline, Department of Physical Sciences Helen Rosemary Davidge, BSc The Open University 30th June 2016 Abstract This thesis presents the first detailed analysis of three extragalactic fields observed by the infrared satellite, AKARI. AKARI is the only telescope able to observe deeply in the Spitzer/IRAC - Spitzer/MIPS band gap of 8 − 24 mm. The first analysis of these extragalactic fields, was to perform galaxy number counts, the most basic statistical property of galaxy populations. Presented are the counts at 3, 4, 7, 11, 15 and 18 mm. These number counts were compared with published results and galaxy evolution mod- els. These models are dependent on both the Spectral Energy Distribution (SED) tem- plates and evolution of the galaxy types. The phenomenological backwards evolution model of Pearson (2005) appeared to be consistent with the number counts. To probe this, number counts were extracted from below the survey limit by performing Prob- ability of Deflection (P(D)) fluctuation analysis. The Pearson model was found to be consistent with the 11 mm P(D) analysis but not with the 15 mm. The results from the 15 mm P(D) analysis indicates that the Pearson model under predicts the evolution of star forming galaxies. Multi-wavelength band-merged catalogues for the two deep extragalactic fields were created using AKARI data from the work of this thesis and ancillary data. The separation of galaxy type using AKARI/IRC filter colours was ex- plored. For z < 2 a separation criteria was found for Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), but to accurately classify galaxy type, SED fitting is required. Submm-selected galax- ies detected by AKARI were found to resemble scaled-up normal local spiral galaxies, rather than starbursts, consistent with them lying on the high-redshift ‘main sequence’ unlike local ultraluminous infrared galaxies. The thesis concludes by measuring the the percentage of the far-infrared Cosmic Infrared Background (CIB) resolved by AKARI mid-infrared galaxies. By performing stacking analysis on a Herschel/SPIRE 250 mm image of AKARI galaxy positions, it was found that AKARI mid-infrared galaxies resolve ∼ 10% of the 250 mm CIB. Acknowledgements Firstly thank you to my supervisors Stephen Serjeant, for taking me on as a PhD stu- dent, and to Chris Pearson for adopting me as a student. Domo arigato gozaimasu (thank you very much) to the Infrared Astronomy group at JAXA in Japan, especially Kazumi Murata for all those Skype meetings, Hideo Mat- suhara for hosting me as a JSPS Summer Fellowship student and Takehiko Wada for his help with the AKARI instrumentation. Closer to home, at the Open University, a special thanks goes to Laia Barrufet, Ben Dryer, Chris Sedgwick and Jo Jarvis and my colleagues in the PhD student office. Lucia Marchetti and Mattia Vaccari have been most useful with providing the Spitzer Data Fusion catalogue and help with use of LePhare. A thank you to Jessica Krick for the use of the IRAC Dark Field multi-wavelength catalogue. Also thank you to Francis Ring of the William Herschel Society, for information about Herschel’s discovery of infrared radiation. None of the work of this thesis could have been done without the help of my other half, Graham Woodhouse. I would especially like to thank Aleksi Suutarinen, Andrew Clements, Vicky Bending, Jean-David Bodénan, Anna Parrika, Tobias Hastings, Alex Barrett, Zoë Ellery, Re- becca Brodeur, Ashley James, Do Young Kim and Roger Axtell for all their support and for putting up with me! Thanks to Martin Davidge for all those science and maths chats dating back further than I can remember, to Sally-Jane Davidge for always being on the other end of a telephone, and to Sarah and Simon Davidge for all those Facebook chats. Also thanks for the support from the STFC Dyslexia Working Group, especially Judi Stewart. And finally thanks to Eigenvalue, Mistborn, UFRP and Dancebox for keeping me sane! Was it all worth it, yes, it was a worthwhile experience! - Freddie Mercury Contents 1 Introduction to Space Infrared Astronomy 1 1.1 Introduction . .1 1.2 Infrared Radiation . .1 1.3 Infrared Satellites . .4 1.3.1 The Infrared Astronomical Satellite . .4 1.3.2 Cosmic Background Explorer . .5 1.3.3 Infrared Space Observatory . .6 1.3.4 The Infrared Telescope in Space . .7 1.3.5 Spitzer . .7 1.3.6 AKARI . .8 1.3.7 Herschel Space Telescope . .9 1.3.8 Planck . 15 1.3.9 Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer . 16 1.4 Galaxy Evolution . 17 1.5 Overview of the Thesis . 22 2 Description of a Data Pipeline for Processing AKARI Extragalactic Deep Field Images 24 2.1 Introduction . 24 2.2 AKARI: Overview . 25 2.2.1 Launch and Orbit . 25 2.2.2 Instruments On board AKARI . 25 2.2.3 The IRC . 27 2.2.4 Observations and Mission Phases . 31 ix x Contents 2.3 The Standard IRC Pipeline . 32 2.3.1 Redbox: the Pre-Pipeline . 33 2.3.2 Greenbox: the Pipeline . 34 2.3.3 Bluebox: the Post-Pipeline . 38 2.3.4 Outstanding Issues with the Standard Pipeline . 39 2.4 A New Pipeline Optimised for Deep Fields . 40 2.4.1 Overview . 40 2.4.2 Pre-Pipeline . 40 2.4.3 Pipeline . 40 2.4.4 Post-Pipeline . 65 2.5 Conclusions on the New Data Pipeline for Processing AKARI Data . 66 3 Galaxy Number Counts and Catalogues from the IRAC Dark Field, ELAIS North 1 and AKARI Deep Field South 68 3.1 Introduction . 68 3.2 Number Counts Theory . 70 3.2.1 Calculation of Number Counts . 70 3.2.2 Reliability . 72 3.2.3 Completeness . 73 3.3 IRAC Dark Field . 75 3.3.1 The IRAC Dark Field Survey Area and Ancillary Data . 75 3.3.2 Data Reduction pf the AKARI IRAC Dark Field . 76 3.4 ELAIS North 1 . 79 3.4.1 The ELAIS North 1 Survey Area and Ancillary Data . 79 3.4.2 Data Reduction of the AKARI ELAIS North 1 Field . 85 3.5 AKARI Deep Field South . 86 3.5.1 The AKARI Deep Field South Survey Area and Ancillary Data 86 3.5.2 Data Reduction of the AKARI Dark Field South . 93 3.6 Galaxy Catalogues . 94 3.6.1 Source Extraction and Photometry . 94 3.6.2 Positional Uncertainty . 102 3.6.3 IRAC Dark Field and ELAIS-N1 Confusion Limit . 103 Contents xi 3.7 Number Counts . 106 3.7.1 Raw Number Counts . 106 3.7.2 Stellar Subtraction . 107 3.7.3 Reliability . 112 3.7.4 Completeness . 117 3.7.5 Galaxy Number Count Errors . 118 3.7.6 Final Galaxy Number Counts . 122 3.8 Non-Evolving Galaxy Model . 130 3.8.1 Explanation of Non-Evolving Galaxy Model . 130 3.8.2 Comparison of Number Counts with Non-Evolving Galaxy Number Count Model . 131 3.9 Models and Published Number Counts . 134 3.9.1 Models . 134 3.9.2 Published Number Counts . 138 3.9.3 Comparison of Number Counts with Models and Published Results . 140 3.10 Conclusions of Number Count Work . 150 4 P(D) Analysis of the AKARI IRAC Dark Field Number Counts 152 4.1 Introduction . 152 4.2 P(D) Analysis . 153 4.3 Performing P(D) Analysis . 155 4.3.1 Method . 157 4.3.2 Results from the P(D) Analysis . 161 4.4 Conclusions of P(D) Analysis . 162 5 Spectral Energy Distributions of Infrared-Selected Galaxies in the ELAIS- N1 and IRAC Dark Field 166 5.1 Introduction . 166 5.2 Ancillary Multi-Wavelength Data Sets . 167 5.2.1 ELAIS North 1 . 167 5.2.2 IRAC Dark Field . 170 xii Contents 5.3 Creating the ELAIS North 1 and IRAC Dark Field Band-Merged Cat- alogues . 176 5.3.1 Cross-Matching of the AKARI Galaxy Catalogues . 176 5.3.2 Cross-Matching of the ELAIS North 1 Galaxy Catalogues . 177 5.3.3 Cross-Matching of the IRAC Dark Field Galaxy Catalogues . 180 5.4 Spectral Energy Distribution Fitting . 182 5.4.1 LePhare . 182 5.4.2 Spectral Energy Distribution Templates . 182 5.4.3 IRAC Dark Field and ELAIS-N1 SEDs . 188 5.5 Colour-Colour Diagrams . 189 5.5.1 Mid-Infrared Galaxy Emission . 189 5.5.2 AKARI Colour-Colour Diagrams . 195 5.5.3 Calculation of Flux Uncertainty of Sources in Colour-Colour Plots . 199 5.5.4 Studying the Colour-Colour Diagrams for the Silicate Absorp- tion Feature . 201 5.5.5 Studying the Colour-Colour Diagrams for PAH Features . 201 5.5.6 AKARI, Herschel/SPIRE and Spitzer/MIPS colours . 203 5.5.7 Galaxy Separation using AKARI Colours . 203 5.6 Conclusions of AKARI Galaxies Multi-Wavelength Data .