>Magister Scientiae - MSc / Next-generation surveys of the large-scale structure of the Universe will be of great importance in allowing us to extract invaluable information about the nature of the Universe and the physical laws that govern it, at a higher precision than previously possible. In particular, they will allow us to more closely study primordial non-Gaussianity, a feature which leaves an imprint on the power spectrum of galaxies on the ultra-large scales and which acts as a powerful probe of the physics of the early Universe. To investigate the extent to which upcoming surveys will be able to improve our knowledge of primordial non-Gaussianity, we perform a forecast to predict the observational constraints on local-type primordial non-Gaussianity, as well as an extension that includes a scale dependence. We study the constraining power of a multi-tracer approach, where information from different surveys is combined to help suppress cosmic variance and break parameter degeneracies. More specifically, we consider the combination of a 21cm intensity mapping survey with each of two different photometric galaxy surveys, and also examine the effect of including CMB lensing as an additional probe. The forecast constraint from a combination of SKA1, a Euclid-like (LSST-like) survey and a CMB Stage 4 lensing experiment is (fNL) ' 0:9 (1:4) which displays a factor of 2 improvement over the case without CMB lensing, indicating that the surveys considered are indeed complementary. The constraints on the running index of the scale-dependent model are forecast as (nNL) ' 0:12 (0:22) from the same combination of surveys.

The focus of this thesis is the study of stellar populations of extra-galactic glob- ular clusters (GCs) by measuring spectral indices and comparing them to simple stellar population models. We present the study of GCs in the context of tracing elliptical galaxy star formation, chemical enrichment and mass assembly. In this thesis we set out to test how can be determined about a galaxy's formation history by studying the spectra of a small sample of GCs. Are the stellar population parameters of the GCs strongly linked with the formation history of the host galaxy? We present spectra and Lick index measurements for GCs associated with 3 el- liptical galaxies, NGC 1052, NGC 3379 and NGC 4649. We derive ages, metallicities and a-element abundance ratios for these GCs using the x2 minimisation approach of Proctor & Sansom (2002). The metallicities we derive are quite consistent, for old GCs, with those derived by empirical calibrations such as Brodie & Huchra (1990) and Strader & Brodie (2004). For each galaxy the GCs observed span a large range in metallicity from approximately [Z/H]=�2 to solar. We find that the majority of GCs are more than 10 Gyrs old and that we can- not distinguish any finer, age details amongst the old GC populations. However, amongst our three samples we find two age distributions contrary to our expecta- tions. From our sample of 16 GCs associated with the 1-2 Gyr old merger remnant NGC 1052, we find no young GCs. If a significant population of GCs formed during this merger we would expect those GCs to have low mass-to-light ratios and be included in our sample of bright GCs. We find 4 young GCs in our sample of 38 around NGC 4649, an old massive cluster elliptical. There are no signs of recent star formation and therefore we do not expect any GCs to have formed within the galaxy. These results seem to indicate that the GC systems of elliptical galaxies are not strongly associated with recent field star formation. We find a correlation between the α-element abundance ratio and the metallicity for all three samples. Using Thomas, Maraston & Korn (2004) models, we measure much higher α abundance ratios for low metallicity GCs than high metallicity GCs. With current data and models we are limited in both the accuracy and the detail with which we can probe this relationship. We suggest that there are some difficulties reconciling measured GC parameters with our expectations and propose some future work which could help to resolve these and other issues.

<p>Anyone who has read Douglas Adams’ novel cycle, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the </p><p>Galaxy, will probably agree that it is saturated with irony, but few people would </p><p>manage to define how or why. Irony can be used as an indirect but clear communicative strategy, by which the true meaning of a text is eventually eradicated. There are many different types of irony, and all types can be used for miscommunication. In this essay I have tried to establish what Adams' text is telling the reader and I have found that it is not simply a science fiction story about the humorous travels of Arthur Dent. In fact, what the text is not telling </p><p>the reader is at least as interesting. Adams' text is a multi-layered ironic </p><p>miscommunication, telling the reader that there is no truth or meaning in existence.</p>

Anyone who has read Douglas Adams’ novel cycle, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, will probably agree that it is saturated with irony, but few people would manage to define how or why. Irony can be used as an indirect but clear communicative strategy, by which the true meaning of a text is eventually eradicated. There are many different types of irony, and all types can be used for miscommunication. In this essay I have tried to establish what Adams' text is telling the reader and I have found that it is not simply a science fiction story about the humorous travels of Arthur Dent. In fact, what the text is not telling the reader is at least as interesting. Adams' text is a multi-layered ironic miscommunication, telling the reader that there is no truth or meaning in existence.

Galaxy clusters are powerful tools for studying various astrophysical principles. Gas accreting onto the cluster is heated to 10^7-10^8 K through adiabatic compression and shocks, making clusters highly luminous in X-ray imaging. Measurements of the gas density and temperature profiles can be used to calculate the gas mass fraction f_gas, which is expected to closely match the cosmic baryon fraction Ω_b/Ω_m. Recent observations have found entropy profiles in cluster outskirts that are shallower than predicted and values of f_gas that are higher than the Universal baryon fraction inferred from the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). Abell 133 was an ideal candidate for studying this phenomenon, since it had recently been observed in a wide (R≈30') Chandra mosaic with an exposure time of ∼2 Ms. The X-ray imaging was combined with existing optical imaging from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) and spectroscopy obtained from the Magellan telescope, to search for any possible gas clumps and to study their properties. The photometric analysis yielded over 3200 red sequence galaxies to a depth of r'=22.5, which were used to create a Gaussian smoothed intensity map and a significance map of the cluster (compared to CFHT Legacy Survey data). About 6 significant overdensities were detected in the significance map, although these did not fully correspond to contours obtained from the X-ray image. Spectroscopy obtained on the cluster yielded ∼700 secure redshifts, of which about 180 were cluster members. This included data from the NOAO Fundamental Plane Survey (NFPS) and the 6 Degree Field Galaxy Survey (6dFGS). We found a cluster redshift of z=0.0561±0.0002 and a velocity dispersion of σ=743±43 km/s. The dynamical analysis gave a virial radius of r_v=1.44±0.03 Mpc and a virial mass of M_v=(5.9±0.8)×10^14 M_sun. We also found values of R_500=1.21±0.07 Mpc and M_500=(5.3±0.9)×10^14 M_sun for γ=1/3 and R_500=0.99±0.05 Mpc and M_500=(2.9±0.5)×10^14 M_sun for γ=1/2, where γ is a parameter related to the assumed density profile and the velocity anisotropy. About 30 overdensities with a radius R_c≥30" were detected as gas clumps on the X-ray image. The galaxy distribution in these clumps was analyzed, both for the stacked signal as well as the individual clumps, in ten parallel colour-magnitude bands to find any significant red sequences associated with them. Most of these clumps appeared to be background systems, some consisting of 1-2 galaxies, others being small groups or clusters. Only 2-3 clumps appeared to be associated with the cluster itself. This suggests that the cluster density profile is actually quite smooth, which may not agree with recent numerical simulations. Further studies are required to determine if the cluster density distribution is consistent with what is predicted and the nature of the background systems.

Le passé des galaxies est inscrit dans leurs populations stellaires. Les galaxies les plus nombreuses sont les naines elliptiques (dEs), survivantes de la construction hiérarchique des structures. Par conséquent, l’évolution de l’Univers peut être lue dans les populations de ces galaxies. Dans cette thèse, je présente et je valide une méthode efficace et précise pour étudier l’histoire de la formation stellaire et de l’enrichissement en métaux des systèmes stellaires en se servant de spectres intégrés le long de la ligne de visée. La méthode a été testée de manière extensive avec des spectres de 40 amas globulaires Galactiques et elle a été appliquée à un échantillon de 16 galaxies elliptiques naines d’amas et de groupes et à NGC 205. La comparaison entre les mesures des spectres intégrés et celles obtenues au moyen de diagrammes couleur-magnitude et de spectroscopie d’étoiles résolues montrent que: (1) Les mesures de métallicité faites sur des spectres intégrés ont une précision de 0.15 dex; (2) Les modèles spectroscopiques doivent être améliorés afin de prendre en compte les branches horizontales bleues et les vagabonds bleus, mais nous avons résolu ce problème en ajoutant des étoiles bleues ad hoc ; (3) Les différents modèles de spectres de population sont tr`es comparables du moment qu’ils utilisent des grandes bibliothèques stellaires. Encouragée, et rassurée, par les bons résultats j’ai étudié les populations de galaxies observées avec FORS au VLT. Les résultats les plus marquant sont: (1) Les premières étoiles des galaxies naines se sont formées dans l’Univers précoce (elles sont contemporaines des vieilles étoiles des amas globulaires) et la formation des galaxies naines est compatible avec le scenario de down-sizing pour la formation des galaxies. 40% de la masse stellaire des dEs s’est formée avant z=1; (2) les galaxies naines présentent généralement un gradient décroissant de la métallicité du centre vers l’extérieur. La métallicité décroit typiquement de 0.5 dex dans un rayon effectif. Ces gradients existent déjà dans la population vieille. Les simulations numériques les prédisent mais requièrent un temps plus long pour les établir, et les nouvelles observations vont permettre d’améliorer les modèles. L’étude de NGC 205, galaxie du Groupe Local de masse comparable, indique les mêmes caractéristiques, qui donc ne dépendent pas de l’environnement / The past of the galaxies is imprinted in their stellar populations. The most numerous galaxies in the Universe are the dwarf ellipticals (dEs), left-over of the hierarchical mass-assembly. Consequently, the evolution of the Universe can be read from the stellar populations of the dwarf elliptical galaxies. In this thesis I present and validate an accurate and efficient method to study the age and metallicity evolution in stellar systems using spectra integrated along the line-ofsight. It was extensively tested and validated on a library of 40 Galactic globular clusters and applied to a sample of 16 dwarf elliptical galaxies in cluster and group environments and to NGC 205. The comparison between the integrated light measurement and CMD estimates of the clusters age and metallicity shows that : (1) The metallicity estimations of the old stellar populations are accurate up to 0.15 dex ; (2) the models have to be improved to account for the blue-horizontal branchs and the blue stragglers stars, but this problem can be presently solved by adding ad’hoc blue stars to the models ; (3) the different synthesis models give similar results providing large libraries are used for the synthesis. Further, encouraged by the good results, I applied the full spectrum fitting to dwarf elliptical galaxies observed with FORS at the VLT. The most striking results are : (1) The small galaxies start to form stars in the early Universe (at similar ages like the ages of Galactic globular clusters) and their star formation history is in agreement with the down-sizing scenario of galaxy evolution. 40% of the stellar mass of dEs was formed before z=1 ; (2) The dwarf ellipticals have in general decreasing metallicity from the centre by typically 0.5 dex in one halflight radius. These gradients are already present in the old population. The numerical simulations predict them, but need a longer time to construct them. The new observations will allow to improve the models. The study of NGC 205, galaxy of the Local Group of a similar mass, indicate similar characteristics, suggesting that they do not depend on the environment

We present a series of numerical galaxy formation studies which apply new numerical methods to produce increasingly realistic galaxy formation models. We first investigate the metallicity evolution of a large set of idealized hydrodynamical galaxy merger simulations of colliding galaxies. We find that inflows of metal--poor interstellar gas triggered by galaxy tidal interactions can account for the systematically lower central oxygen abundances observed in local interacting galaxies. We show the central metallicity evolution during merger events is determined by a competition between the inflow of low--metallicity gas and enrichment from star formation. We find a time-averaged depression in the galactic nuclear metallicity of ~0.07 dex for gas--poor disk--disk interactions, which explains the observed close pair mass-metallicity and separation-metallicity relationships. / Astronomy

Clusters of galaxies are particularly interesting astrophysical systems, are the largest bound structures in the Universe, and contain fair sample of cosmic ingredients. Studies of cluster abundance as a function of mass and redshift were critical in establishing the standard model of cosmology. This dissertation presents results from X-ray imaging of massive distant (M > 10^14 M; 0:3 < z < 1.2) clusters, found via X-ray emission or Sunyaev-Zeldovich eff ect. This is the world's largest sample of massive galaxy clusters. We explore the radial and azimuthal profi les of the X-ray emitting gas and show that clusters are self-similar objects: their internal structure is largely independent of the cluster's mass or redshift, and the fractions of di fferent types of clusters does not change with redshift. We also present a new statistical technique for measuring a cluster's deviations from a perfect axisymmetric shape, which is especially useful in the case of low photon count observations of distant clusters. / Physics

In this thesis, I explore how the environments of both galaxy and cluster-scale strong gravitational lenses affect studies of cosmology and the properties of the earliest galaxies. Galaxy-scale lenses with measured time delays can be used to determine the Hubble constant, given an accurate lens model. However, perturbations from structures along the line of sight can introduce errors into the measurement. I use data from a survey towards known lenses in group environments to calculate the external shear in these systems, which is typically marginalized over in standard lens analyses. In three of six systems where I compare the independently-calculated environment shear to lens model shears, the quantities disagree at greater than 95% confidence. We explore possible sources of this disagreement. Using these data, I generate fiducial lines of sight and insert mock lenses with assumed input physical and cosmological parameters and find that those parameters can be recovered with ∼ 5-10% scatter when uncertainties in my characterization of the environment are applied. The lenses in groups have larger bias and scatter. I predict how well new time delay lenses from LSST will constrain H₀ and find that an ensemble of 500 quad lenses will recover H₀ with ∼ 2% bias with ∼ 0.3% precision. On larger scales, galaxy cluster lenses can magnify the earliest galaxies into detectability. While past studies have focused on single massive clusters, I investigate the properties of lines of sight, or "beams", containing multiple cluster-scale halos in projection. Even for beams of similar total mass, those with multiple halos have higher lensing cross sections on average. The optimal configurations for maximizing the cross section are also those that maximize faint z ∼ 10 detections. I present a new selection technique to identify beams in wide-area photometric surveys that contain high total masses and often multiple clusters in projection as traced by luminous red galaxies. I apply this technique to the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and present the 200 most promising beams. Several are confirmed spectroscopically to be among the highest mass beams known with some containing multiple clusters. These are among the best fields to search for faint high-redshift galaxies.

Galaxy clusters are powerful tools for studying various astrophysical principles. Gas accreting onto the cluster is heated to 10^7-10^8 K through adiabatic compression and shocks, making clusters highly luminous in X-ray imaging. Measurements of the gas density and temperature profiles can be used to calculate the gas mass fraction f_gas, which is expected to closely match the cosmic baryon fraction Ω_b/Ω_m. Recent observations have found entropy profiles in cluster outskirts that are shallower than predicted and values of f_gas that are higher than the Universal baryon fraction inferred from the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). Abell 133 was an ideal candidate for studying this phenomenon, since it had recently been observed in a wide (R≈30') Chandra mosaic with an exposure time of ∼2 Ms. The X-ray imaging was combined with existing optical imaging from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) and spectroscopy obtained from the Magellan telescope, to search for any possible gas clumps and to study their properties. The photometric analysis yielded over 3200 red sequence galaxies to a depth of r'=22.5, which were used to create a Gaussian smoothed intensity map and a significance map of the cluster (compared to CFHT Legacy Survey data). About 6 significant overdensities were detected in the significance map, although these did not fully correspond to contours obtained from the X-ray image. Spectroscopy obtained on the cluster yielded ∼700 secure redshifts, of which about 180 were cluster members. This included data from the NOAO Fundamental Plane Survey (NFPS) and the 6 Degree Field Galaxy Survey (6dFGS). We found a cluster redshift of z=0.0561±0.0002 and a velocity dispersion of σ=743±43 km/s. The dynamical analysis gave a virial radius of r_v=1.44±0.03 Mpc and a virial mass of M_v=(5.9±0.8)×10^14 M_sun. We also found values of R_500=1.21±0.07 Mpc and M_500=(5.3±0.9)×10^14 M_sun for γ=1/3 and R_500=0.99±0.05 Mpc and M_500=(2.9±0.5)×10^14 M_sun for γ=1/2, where γ is a parameter related to the assumed density profile and the velocity anisotropy. About 30 overdensities with a radius R_c≥30" were detected as gas clumps on the X-ray image. The galaxy distribution in these clumps was analyzed, both for the stacked signal as well as the individual clumps, in ten parallel colour-magnitude bands to find any significant red sequences associated with them. Most of these clumps appeared to be background systems, some consisting of 1-2 galaxies, others being small groups or clusters. Only 2-3 clumps appeared to be associated with the cluster itself. This suggests that the cluster density profile is actually quite smooth, which may not agree with recent numerical simulations. Further studies are required to determine if the cluster density distribution is consistent with what is predicted and the nature of the background systems.