Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are relativistic explosions which originate at cosmological distances, and are among the most luminous transients in the universe. Following the prompt gamma-ray emission, a fading synchrotron "afterglow" is detectable at lower energies. While long-duration GRBs (duration > 2 sec) are linked to the deaths of massive stars, the progenitors of short-duration GRBs (duration < 2 sec) have remained elusive. Theoretical predictions formulated over the past two decades have suggested that they are the mergers of two compact objects, involving either two neutron stars (NS-NS) or a neutron star and a black hole (NS-BH). Such merging systems are also important to understand because they are premier candidates for gravitational wave detections with upcoming facilities and are considered likely sites of heavy element nucleosynthesis. The launch of the Swift satellite in 2004, with its rapid multi-wavelength monitoring and localization capabilities, led to the first discoveries of short GRB afterglows and therefore robust associations to host galaxies. At a Swift detection rate of ~8 events per year, the growing number of well-localized short GRBs enables comprehensive population studies of their afterglows and environments for the first time. In this thesis, I undertake a multi-wavelength observational campaign to address testable predictions for the progenitors of short GRBs. From their local environments, I show that short GRBs explode in diffuse regions of their host galaxies and are weakly correlated with the distribution of stellar mass and star formation in their host galaxies. I study the host galaxy demographics for the entire population and find that ~20-40% of short GRBs originate from elliptical galaxies, implying an older stellar progenitor. From their afterglows, I present evidence that some short GRBs are collimated in narrow jets of ~5-10 degrees, directly affecting the true energy scale and event rate. Finally, taking advantage of a decade of broad-band afterglow observations at radio through X-ray wavelengths, I find that short GRBs have median isotropic-equivalent energies of ~10^51 erg and that their local environments have low densities, ~10^-3-10^-2 cm^-3. Taken together, this thesis comprises several lines of independent evidence to demonstrate that short GRBs originate from the mergers of two compact objects, and also provides the first constraints on the explosion properties for a large sample of events. With the direct detection of gravitational waves from compact object mergers on the horizon, these studies provide necessary inputs to inform the next decade of joint electromagnetic-gravitational wave search strategies. / Astronomy

abstract: Quasars, the visible phenomena associated with the active accretion phase of super- massive black holes found in the centers of galaxies, represent one of the most energetic processes in the Universe. As matter falls into the central black hole, it is accelerated and collisionally heated, and the radiation emitted can outshine the combined light of all the stars in the host galaxy. Studies of quasar host galaxies at ultraviolet to near-infrared wavelengths are fundamentally limited by the precision with which the light from the central quasar accretion can be disentangled from the light of stars in the surrounding host galaxy. In this Dissertation, I discuss direct imaging of quasar host galaxies at redshifts z &#8771; 2 and z &#8771; 6 using new data obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope. I describe a new method for removing the point source flux using Markov Chain Monte Carlo parameter estimation and simultaneous modeling of the point source and host galaxy. I then discuss applications of this method to understanding the physical properties of high-redshift quasar host galaxies including their structures, luminosities, sizes, and colors, and inferred stellar population properties such as age, mass, and dust content. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Astrophysics 2014

This thesis rests on two large Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) surveys. The first survey deals with galaxies that host low-level AGNs (LLAGN) and aims at identifying such galaxies by quantifying their variability. While numerous studies have shown that AGNs can be variable at all wavelengths, the nature of the variability is still not well understood. Studying the properties of LLAGNs may help to understand better galaxy evolution, and how AGNs transit between active and inactive states. In this thesis, we develop a method to extract variability properties of AGNs. Using multi-epoch deep photometric observations, we subtract the contribution of the host galaxy at each epoch to extract variability and estimate AGN accretion rates. This pipeline will be a powerful tool in connection with future deep surveys such as PANSTARS. The second study in this thesis describes a survey of X-ray selected AGN hosts at redshifts z>1.5 and compares them to quiescent galaxies. This survey aims at studying environments, sizes and morphologies of star-forming high-redshift AGN hosts in the COSMOS Survey at the epoch of peak AGN activity. Between redshifts 1.5<z<3.8, the COSMOS HST/ACS imaging probes the UV regime, where separating the AGN flux from its host galaxy is very challenging. Nevertheless, we successfully derived the structural properties of 249 AGN hosts using two-dimensional surface-brightness profile fitting with the GALFIT package. This is the largest sample of AGN hosts at redshift z>1.5 to date. We analyzed the evolution of structural parameters of AGN and non-AGN host galaxies with redshift, and compared their disturbance rates to identify the more probable AGN triggering mechanism in the 43.5<log_10 L_X<45 luminosity range. We also conducted mock AGN and quiescent galaxies observations to determine errors and corrections for the derived parameters. We find that the size-absolute magnitude relations of AGN hosts and non-AGN galaxies are very similar, with estimated mean sizes in both samples decreasing by ~50% between redshifts z=1.5 and z=3.5. Morphological classification of both active and quiescent galaxies shows that the majority of the AGN host galaxies are disc-dominated, with disturbance rates that are significantly lower than among the non-AGN galaxies. Such a finding suggests that Major Mergers are probably not responsible for triggering AGN accretion in most of these galaxies. Other secular mechanisms should therefore be responsible. / Diese Arbeit basiert auf zwei grossen Durchmusterungen aktiver Galaxienkerne (engl., active galactic nuclei, AGN). Die erste Durchmusterungen hat zum Ziel, Muttergalaxien leuchtschwacher AGNs (sog. low-level AGN oder LLAGN) zu identifizieren und die Variabilität der AGN zu quantifizieren. Während zahlreiche Studien gezeigt haben, dass AGN bei allen Wellenlängen variabel sein können, ist die Natur der Varibilität noch immer nicht verstanden. Das Studium der Eigenschaften von LLAGN trägt zum Verständnis bei, wie sich Galaxien entwickeln und wie AGN zwischen aktiven und inaktiven Zuständen wechseln. In dieser Arbeit entwickeln wir eine Methode, um die Eigenschaften der AGN-Variabilität zu messen. Mittels tiefer, photometrischer Beobachtungen zu mehreren Zeitpunkten subtrahieren wir den Beitrag einer Muttergalaxie, um die AGN-Variabilität zu bestimmen und Akkretionsraten des AGN abzuschätzen. Diese Methode wird im Zusammenhang mit zukünftigen, tiefen Durchmusterungen wie z.B. PANSTARRS ein mächtiges Werkzeug darstellen. Die zweite grosse Durchmusterung behandelt nach ihrer Roentgen-Helligkeit ausgewählte AGN-Muttergalaxien mit einer Rotverschiebung von z > 1.5, um sie mit inaktiven Galaxien zu vergleichen. Ziel ist, bei sternbildenden, hochrotverschobenen AGN-Muttergalaxien aus der COSMOS-Durchmusterung die Umgebung, Grösse und Morphologie zum Zeitpunkt der stärksten AGN Aktivität zu studieren. Die COSMOS-HST/ACS-Photometrie untersucht den ultravioletten Spektralbereich von Muttergalaxien bei einer Rotverschiebung von 1.5 < z < 3.8, wo es sehr schwierig ist, den Flussbeitrag des AGN von dem der Muttergalaxie zu trennen. Dennoch gelang es uns, mittels zweidimensionaler Modellierung der Flächenhelligkeitprofile Struktureigenschaften für 249 AGN-Muttergalaxien aus der COSMOS-Durchmusterung abzuleiten. Dies ist für AGN-Muttergalaxien mit einer Rotverschiebung z > 1.5 die bislang grösste Stichprobe. Wir haben die Entwicklung der Strukturparameter mit der Rotverschiebung von AGN-Muttergalaxien und Galaxien ohne aktiven Kern analysiert und die Häufigkeit morphologischer Besonderheiten bei diesen beiden Gruppen miteinander verglichen, um die wahrscheinlichste Ursache für AGN-Aktivität für Galaxien im Roentgen-Leuchtkraft-Bereich von 43.5<log_10 L_X<45 zu bestimmen. Um Fehler und Korrekturfaktoren für die bestimmten Parameter zu erhalten, wurden simulierte AGN-Muttergalaxien und inaktive Galaxien untersucht. Als Ergebnis finden wir, dass AGN-Muttergalaxien und Galaxien ohne aktiven Kern eine sehr ähnliche Relation von Galaxiengrösse zu absoluter Helligkeit aufweisen, wobei die abgeschätzte, mittlere Grösse zwischen Rotverschiebungen von z=1.5 und z=3.5 in beiden untersuchten Gruppen um ~50% abnimmt. Die morphologische Klassifikation sowohl aktiver als auch inaktiver Galaxien zeigt, dass die Mehrheit der AGN-Muttergalaxien scheibendominiert ist und signifikant weniger morphologische Anomalien aufweist als inaktive Galaxien. Dieses Resultat weist darauf hin, dass in den meisten AGN-Muttergalaxien sog., Major Mergers, also die Verschmelzung zweier etwa gleich grosser Galaxien, wahrscheinlich nicht Akkretion auf den AGN auslösen, sondern stattdessen andere, sekuläre Mechanismen dafür verantwortlich sind.

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<p>Quasars form one of the most energetic phenomena in the universe, and can be traced out to very large redshifts. By studying the galaxies which host the active nuclei, important insights can be gained into the processes that trigger and maintain the quasar powerhouse. The evolution rate of the quasar population is furthermore similar to that of ordinary galaxies, which implies a connection between black hole accretion and star formation in the host galaxies. While the properties of quasar host galaxies at low redshift have become better constrained in recent years, less is known about hosts at earlier cosmic epochs. In addition, though radio-quiet quasars are by far more common than their radio-loud counterparts their host galaxies have not been studied to the same extent, in particular not at higher redshifts.</p><p>An imaging campaign of a large sample of quasars at intermediate redshift (0.4 < z < 0.8) was carried out at optical wavelengths using the Nordic Optical Telescope, and is studied in this thesis together with two smaller samples. The joint material forms more than half of the total number of observed sources in this redshift interval and increases the number of resolved radio-quiet hosts at z>0.4 considerably. The morphology and mean magnitudes are found to be similar for radio-loud and radio-quiet host galaxies. Both types of host are shown to have optical colours as blue as those of present-day late-type spirals and starburst galaxies, which is likely the result of ongoing star formation.</p><p>With increasing redshift, observations of host galaxies become more difficult. High spatial resolution can be achieved with adaptive optics, but the variation of the point spread function in the near-infrared wavelength band which is most suited for detection is large and rapid. A statistical approach to the problem of characterizing the point spread function has been developed, making use of simulated objects which are matched to the different atmospheric conditions. Bright, compact host galaxies showing signs of merging and interaction were detected in this way for three quasars at z~2.2, which were observed with the ESO 3.6 m telescope. The method is not restricted to host galaxy analysis but can be utilized in other applications as well, provided that the underlying extended source can be described by an analytical model. </p>

Quasars form one of the most energetic phenomena in the universe, and can be traced out to very large redshifts. By studying the galaxies which host the active nuclei, important insights can be gained into the processes that trigger and maintain the quasar powerhouse. The evolution rate of the quasar population is furthermore similar to that of ordinary galaxies, which implies a connection between black hole accretion and star formation in the host galaxies. While the properties of quasar host galaxies at low redshift have become better constrained in recent years, less is known about hosts at earlier cosmic epochs. In addition, though radio-quiet quasars are by far more common than their radio-loud counterparts their host galaxies have not been studied to the same extent, in particular not at higher redshifts. An imaging campaign of a large sample of quasars at intermediate redshift (0.4 &lt; z &lt; 0.8) was carried out at optical wavelengths using the Nordic Optical Telescope, and is studied in this thesis together with two smaller samples. The joint material forms more than half of the total number of observed sources in this redshift interval and increases the number of resolved radio-quiet hosts at z&gt;0.4 considerably. The morphology and mean magnitudes are found to be similar for radio-loud and radio-quiet host galaxies. Both types of host are shown to have optical colours as blue as those of present-day late-type spirals and starburst galaxies, which is likely the result of ongoing star formation. With increasing redshift, observations of host galaxies become more difficult. High spatial resolution can be achieved with adaptive optics, but the variation of the point spread function in the near-infrared wavelength band which is most suited for detection is large and rapid. A statistical approach to the problem of characterizing the point spread function has been developed, making use of simulated objects which are matched to the different atmospheric conditions. Bright, compact host galaxies showing signs of merging and interaction were detected in this way for three quasars at z~2.2, which were observed with the ESO 3.6 m telescope. The method is not restricted to host galaxy analysis but can be utilized in other applications as well, provided that the underlying extended source can be described by an analytical model.