A triaxialidade dos halos das galáxias espirais foi estudada através das funções de distribuição de razões axiais aparentes dos seus discos. Utilizou-se uma amostra de galáxias limitada por magnitude (g<16). Foram selecionadas ~1600 galáxias espirais do SDSS (Sloan Digital Sky Survey), que foram classificadas morfologicamente por inspeção visual. Para evitar contaminações espúrias, removeram-se da amostra galáxias em interação, com companheiras próximas ou aproximadamente alinhadas com estrelas da Galáxia. As razões axiais das galáxias foram medidas individualmente e com critérios uniformes, ajustando-se isofotas elípticas a cada imagem no filtro r. Um algoritmo de Monte Carlo foi empregado para inferir a distribuição de razões axiais intrínsecas. O modelo de disco oblato é incapaz de reproduzir a observada falta de galáxias aparentemente circulares. A fração reduzida de galáxias aparentemente circulares, que se observa sistematicamente nas espirais de todos os sub-tipos morfológicos, é uma forte indicação de que os discos destas galáxias sejam intrinsecamente elípticos. O modelo triaxial mostrou-se mais estatisticamente significativo, além de ser capaz de prever a fração correta de galáxias quase circulares. Concluímos, portanto, que o modelo de disco não-circular descreve melhor as observações e que a razão dos eixos no plano do disco deve ser de p = 0,849 +/- 0,063. Empregando uma abordagem analítica simplificada, nós propusemos uma descrição da formação de halos escuros triaxiais no contexto de colisões de protogaláxias. Aproximando as protogaláxias por elipsóides homogêneos de Jacobi, notamos que a triaxialidade do objeto resultante de uma fusão depende da velocidade de colisão e calculamos a época em que estes encontros devem ter ocorrido, para gerar elipsóides com a triaxialidade em questão. Estimamos que neste cenário os discos das galáxias espirais tenham sido construídos a partir de aproximadamente z = 0,69 +/- 0,32. / The triaxiality of the halos of spiral galaxies was studied through the distribution function of the apparent axial ratios of their disks. We used a magnitude-limited sample of galaxies (g<16). We selected ~1600 spiral galaxies from the SDSS (Sloan Digital Sky Survey), which were morphologically classified by visual inspection. In order to avoid spurious contaminations, interacting galaxies were removed from the sample, as well as those with nearby companions or with foreground stars. The axial ratios of the galaxies were measured individually and with uniform criteria, by fitting elliptical isophotes to each r-filter image. A Monte Carlo algorithm was used to infer the distribution of intrinsic axial ratios. The oblate disk model is unable to account for the observed lack of apparently circular galaxies. The small fraction of apparently circular galaxies, which is systematically observed in spirals of all morphological subtypes, is as strong indication that the disks are indeed intrinsically elliptical. The triaxial model is more statistically significant and also, it is able to predict the correct fraction of nearly circular galaxies. We find, therefore, that the non-circular disk model provides a better description of the observations and that the axes on the plane of the disk should be in the ratio p = 0.849 +/- 0.063. By adopting a simplified analytical approach, we propose a description of the formation of triaxial dark halos in the context of collisions of protogalaxies. Assuming that the protogalaxies might be represented by homogeneous Jacobi ellipsoids, we noted that the triaxiality of the resulting object depends on the collision velocity. We also find the epoch at which such encounters would yield the required triaxiality. We estimate that in this scenario the disks of spiral galaxies would have been assembled at z = 0.69 +/- 0.32.

Thesis advisor: Kevin Bedell / Thesis advisor: Giovanni Fazio / One of the most exciting observational breakthrough in the past decades is the discovery of the tight correlations between supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and the galaxies they reside in the `host galaxies'. This finding is surprising, as the event horizon of a typical SMBH (about 10^8 solar masses) is about 3 times 10^8 km, while the galaxy is usually about 10^17 km across, a billion times larger. How could such a small object affect something so big? SMBHs appear to be at the center of most massive galaxies, and how they interact with the host galaxies has become a fundamental question in astrophysics. To understand how galaxies and SMBHs evolve together, we must first understand the statistical properties of these systems. Quasars, the bright manifestation of the most active SMBHs, serve as good candidate for this study. Using infrared space telescopes--Spitzer and Herschel, we discovered a population of `dust-rich' quasars at intermediate redshift (z about 1.5, about 9 billion years ago) in the Lockman Hole field. We study the statistical properties of these mid-infrared (MIR) and optically-selected quasars via optical and infrared observations. I present the MIR-selected quasar sample (Chapter 2), their addition to the completeness of optically-selected sample (Chapter 3), and their physical properties, i.e., their atomic emission and absorption features, SMBH masses, and Eddington ratios--an indicator of how fast the SMBH is growing (Chapter 4). We find a significant and constant (20%) fraction of extended objects previously missed optical color selection. The SMBH mass shows evidence of downsizing--they are more massive in the early universe, though their Eddington ratios remain constant to between now and about 11 billion years ago (0 lower than z lower than 3). In the past 7 billion years (z lower than 1), quasars with extended morphology show systematically lower Eddington ratios than the point-like quasars, indicating they have less active SMBHs. We also study the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of a subsample of `cold-dust-rich' quasars (Chapter 5) that show evidence of ongoing star formation--an indicator of how fast the host galaxy is growing. These quasars are the younger and fainter counterparts of quasars previously observed in the sub-millimeter band, as both are bright in the far-infrared, where star formation dominates. For the most luminous cold-dust-rich quasars, however, their infrared SED suggests that the dust is heated by quasars, instead of star formation in the host galaxies. Chapter 6 gives a summary of this study and comment on the significance of the dust-rich quasars in bridging the gap between SMBHs with their host galaxies. Finally some avenues for future work are discussed. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Physics.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Physics, 1982. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND SCIENCE / Bibliography: leaves 29-30. / by Rupert LaWendell Seals. / M.S.

Thesis. 1976. Ph.D.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mathematics. / Microfiche copy available in Archives and Science. / Bibliography: leaves 203-204. / Ph.D.

Tidal debris structures are striking evidence of hierarchical assembly -- the premise that the Milky Way and galaxies like it have been built over cosmic time through the coalescence of many smaller objects. In the prevailing Lambda -- Cold Dark Matter cosmology, the vast majority of mergers by number are minor; one dark matter halo, hosting a larger galaxy, dominates the interaction and a smaller object, the satellite, is stripped of mass by tidal forces. When the luminous component of the satellite is disrupted the debris may form structures such as stellar tidal streams or shells, depending on the parameters of the interaction. In this Thesis we examine the properties of this debris left behind by minor mergers theoretically, computationally, and observationally, making strides towards a more complete understanding of what tidal debris can tell us about the history of galaxy formation in the Universe. Around the Milky Way itself we have examined the properties of the Orphan Stream, a stellar tidal stream so named due to uncertainty about the position and current state of its progenitor. Using 3.6 um observations taken as part of the Spitzer Merger History and Shape of the Galactic Halo program, the latest period--luminosity--metallicity relations, and archival data, we compute precise distances to RR Lyrae stream members with state--of--the--art 2.5% relative uncertainties. Fitting an orbit to the data, we measure an enclosed mass for the Milky Way that is in good agreement with other recent results, once the biases in orbit fitting are taken into account. By applying the same technique to N--body simulations we determined that the Orphan progenitor is most likely similar to the classical dwarf spheroidal satellites. We also examined tidal debris more generally, in particular by investigating the source of the morphological dichotomy between shells and streams. We find that the transition from a stream--like to a shell--like morphology occurs when the differential azimuthal precession between the orbits of stars exceeds the position angle subtended by individual petals of the progenitor orbit's rosette. This statement is cast more precisely in terms of scaling relations that control the dispersion of energy and angular momentum in the debris, and we find that the observed morphology can be predicted for a given host, orbit, and mass ratio. This leads us to the idea that the observed occurrence rates of different morphologies can be used to recover, at the population statistics level, the progenitor satellites' orbital infall distribution. This a part of the cosmological accretion history that is otherwise inaccessible. To achieve this in practice requires an unbiased and automated method to detect and classify substructure; we have developed just such a tool and demonstrate its effectiveness. In the upcoming era of LSST and WFIRST the methods and insights developed in this Thesis will be useful in decoding the information about the current state and assembly of galaxies encoded in tidal debris.

Dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs) are highly luminous (LFIR ≳ 10¹² L⊙), very distant (z ≳2.5) and ≳ 10x rarer then 'normal', NIR-selected (BzK), star-forming galaxies. Capable of producing a Mstars ≳ 10¹¹-M⊙ galaxy after a tburst ~ 100-Myr burst of late-stage, merger-induced star formation, DSFGs naturally provide extreme laboratories with which to study the formation and evolution of massive structures within the Universe. Thus far, however, theoretical models have struggled to reconcile the observed abundance and redshift distribution of these massive, dust-enshrouded galaxies that occupy the high-end tail of the galaxy stellar mass function. Therefore, it is of paramount importance, from an observational point of view, to both increase the number of known distant (z ≳ 4) DSFGs and to thoroughly explore their extreme environments in order to provide further constraints on such models. Thus, in Chapter 2 of this thesis, I report on efforts to substantially increase the number of distant DSFGs using the uniquely wide H-ATLAS imaging survey. I analysed a sample of 109, so-called 'ultra-red galaxies' selected via their red Herschel-SPIRE flux densities (σ500 > 3.5 and S500 < 100mJy) and flux-density ratios (S500/S250 > 1.5 and S500/S350 > 0.85). Ground-Based continuum imaging at ~ 850 μm with the JCMT and APEX telescopes allowed me to locate the dust peaks of these S500 ≳ 30-mJy ultra-red galaxies and derive a median photometric redshift of zphot = 3.66 (3.30-4.27, IQR) for them (assuming that they can satisfactorily be represented by a Tdust ~ 30-K template SED). Using 25 spectroscopically confirmed DSFGs with SPIRE flux densities matching this ultra-red criteria, I determined that these FIR photometric redshift estimates have a minimum intrinsic scatter of σ = 0.14(1 + zspec) and systematically under-estimate the spectroscopic redshifts below zspec ≲ 5. With over a third of these ultra-red galaxies lying above z > 4, I derived a space density of at least p ≈ 6 x 10⁻⁷Mpc⁻³ for this sample (assuming a tburst = 100-Myr burst of star formation), which is only a factor of 7x less numerous than that of the most massive (Mstars ≳ 10¹¹M⊙), compact, quiescent galaxies selected in the NIR at z ~ 3. Finally, although the space density of z > 4 ultra-red galaxies aligns very well with that of massive (MBH ≳ 10⁸M⊙) AGN at z > 6, none have yet to be uncovered within this sample to date. In the following chapter, I present wide images obtained with LABOCA of a sub-sample of 22, representative ultra-red galaxies to see if these galaxies are signposting over-dense regions in the early Universe, as might be expected if they were to evolve into the most massive, compact, quiescent galaxies at z ~ 0. This LABOCA ultra-red galaxy survey covers an area of ≈ 0.8 deg² down to an average r.m.s. of 3.9mJy beam⁻¹, with the five deepest images going ≈ 2x deeper still. I catalogue 86 galaxies detected above > 3.5σ870 surrounding these 22 ultra-red galaxies, which implies a δ ≈ 100 ± 30% over-density of S870 > 8.5-mJy (LFIR ≈ (7-30) x 10¹² L⊙) DSFGs when compared against LESS. Thus, I am 99.93% confident that these ultra-red galaxies are pinpointing over-dense regions in the Universe, and ≈ 95% confident that these regions are over-dense by a factor of at least ≥ 1.5x. Using the same template SEDs as in the previous chapter, I derived a consistent median photometric redshift of z = 3.2 ± 0.2 with an IQR of z = 2.8-3.6 for these ultra-red galaxies. I constrained the surrounding galaxies likely responsible for this over-density to within |∆z| ≤ 0.65 of their respective ultra-red galaxies. However, on average, I was only able to associate one surrounding galaxy to within |∆z| ≤ 0.5 of its respective ultra-red galaxy. These 'associated' galaxies are radially distributed within (physical) distances of 1.6 ± 0.5Mpc from their ultra-red galaxies, have median SFRs of vI≈ (1.0±0.2)x10³M⊙ yr⁻¹ (assuming a Salpeter stellar IMF) and median gas reservoirs of Mgas ~ 1.7 x 10¹¹M⊙. These candidate proto-clusters have average total SFRs of at least Ψ ≈ (2.3 ± 0.5) x 10³M⊙ yr⁻¹ and a space density of ~ 9 x 10⁻⁷Mpc⁻³, consistent with the idea that their constituents may occupy the centres of rich galaxy clusters seen today. Finally, in Chapter 4 of this thesis, I extracted Herschel-SPIRE photometry at the 850-μm positions of DSFGs detected within in the S2CLS and S2COSMOS imaging surveys. I then analysed the multi-wavelength environmental properties around a robust sample of 64 ultra-red galaxies selected via their 'ultra-red probability'. Similar to the findings in Chapter 3, I found that these ultra-red galaxies are preferentially located in over-dense regions extending over scales of ~ 5' (or ~ 2Mpc at z ~ 3). Furthermore, I found that these candidate, high-redshift proto-clusters have FIR total dust masses and total SFRs of Mdust ~ 10⁹M⊙ and Ψ ~ 10³M⊙ yr⁻¹, respectively. Ground-Based, optical/NIR imaging around a subset of 42 ultra-red galaxies shows a factor of ~ 5x increase in both the stellar mass and the (MB -MI )-colour of associated LBGs as the radial distance decreases from . 500 kpc - consistent with the emergence of a galaxy red sequence at z ~ 3. Furthermore, these data show a 1-σ increase in the fraction of 'green-valley' galaxies within scales of ~ 5' compared to the field - supporting the concept that red-sequence galaxies are appearing at a faster rate around ultra-red galaxies compared to the field. There is a sizeable contribution of Mstars ~ 10¹²M⊙ from these high-redshift LBGs within the environments of ultra-red galaxies. On average, I was able to associate ≈ 28 LBGs to a given ultra-red galaxy (~ 30x the number of associated DSFGs). Although these systems have average optical/NIR/FIR properties that are consistent with their evolution into present-day galaxy clusters with DM halos of mass Mhalo ~ 10¹⁴-10¹⁵M⊙, I am still likely missing a sizeable contribution from unassociated LBGs and DSFGs due to the large photometric redshift uncertainties for the ultra-red galaxies. Therefore, the results presented in this thesis should be regarded as firm lower limits on these environmental properties around ultra-red galaxies, which can now only be improved upon when spectroscopic data increases the accuracy of the photometric redshift estimates presented here.

During the close approach of two galaxies in a merger, tidally induced gas inflows can trigger simultaneous black hole accretion which are observed as dual active galactic nuclei (dAGNs). Merger simulations predict that the resulting increased nuclear gas reservoirs will obscure the X-ray emissions from the AGNs. We investigate whether dAGNs in mergers are observed to be more obscured than their isolated counterparts by combining the results of previous radio and optical spectroscopy studies with new Chandra X-ray observations for a sample of 4 dAGN systems in the Stripe 82 field. For the 6 detected components, we find the rest-frame X-ray luminosities range between 39.8 < log LX /erg s-1 < 42.0. The sources have redshifts between 0.04 < z < 0.22 and projected separations between 4.3 and 9.2 kpc, as well as multi-wavelength properties most closely resembling low-luminosity AGNs. However, we determine that the X-ray emissions for 2 of the sources likely has strong contributions from hot interstellar medium, and star-formation and X-ray binaries may contribute to the X-ray luminosities of several sources. We do not find evidence of enhanced obscuration through our analysis of X-ray hardness ratios, optical [O III] emission line luminosities, and mid-infrared luminosities. Therefore, we suggest that the unobscured low-level accretion observed for the AGNs in this sample is driven through stochastic processes rather than the massive gas inflows predicted for a merger-driven scenario.

We review the evidence for existence of a magnetic field of the galaxy and whatever evidence there is of an intergalactic magnetoionic medium. We then consider the magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) of such a medium. The formation of galaxies through purely gravitational means in an expanding universe is then reviewed. Next the role of magnetohydrodynamics in such a universe is analyzed for their effects on galaxy formation. Finally, the importance of MED behavior in the early universe is emphasized from physical considerations and from present day evidence. Appendices discuss isotropic cosmologies, magnetic fields in such a background, the detailed MHD perturbations, and similar MHD studies.

L'époque de la réionisation, qui s'étend pendant le premier milliard d'années de l'Univers, correspond à la période où les premières étoiles et galaxies apparaissent. Dans ce contexte, l'enjeu majeur de cette thèse est d'étudier la formation de ces premières structures et leur rétroaction radiative sur leur environnement. Pour cela, j'utilise différentes méthodes de simulations numériques permettant de modéliser le transfert radiatif dans les galaxies, dans un cadre cosmologique.En particulier, les plus petites galaxies seraient celles qui apportent la majorité des photons nécessaires à ioniser l'Univers. J'explore cette hypothèse dans une première partie à l'aide de simulations radio-hydrodynamiques avec le code RAMSES-RT, ciblant trois petites galaxies avec une très haute résolution spatiale et temporelle. Je me suis d'abord intéressé aux mécanismes régulant la production et le transfert de photons ionisants dans les galaxies, et j'ai montré que les explosions de supernovae en sont un facteur essentiel. Ensuite, j'ai exploré les propriétés observables dérivées à partir de ces simulations.Dans un second temps, j'ai développé une extension au code Monte Carlo de transfert radiatif MCLya prenant en compte la polarisation du rayonnement et l'émission diffuse dans une simulation. J'ai utilisé ce code pour post-traiter une simulation d'un blob Lyman-alpha, une source étendue d'émission Lyman-alpha, et étudier ses propriétés de polarisation à l'aide de pseudo-observations. Contrairement à ce qui était proposé précédemment, j'ai pu montrer que la polarisation n'était pas un indicateur aussi utile qu'espéré pour tracer l'origine des photons Lyman-alpha / The Epoch of Reionisation, which spans during the first billion year of te Universe, corresponds to the period during which the first stars and galaxy form. In this context, the main topic of this thesis is to study the formation of those early structures and their radiative feedback to their environment. For this purpose, I use various numerical simulations tools designed to model the radiative transfer in galaxies in a cosmological framework.More specifically, I look at very small galaxies, which are believed to contribute the bulk of the photons required to reionise the Universe. I explore this idea using radiative hydrodynamics simulations performed with RAMSES-RT, focusing on three small galaxies with a very high spatial and temporal resolution. I first detail the mechanism that regulate te production and escape of ionising photons in galaxies, and I show that supernovae explosions are a crucial element for this regulation. I then started to investigate the observable properties of those galaxies.In a second part of my thesis, I developped an extension to the Monte Carlo radiative transfer code MCLya to take light polarisation into account and to model the diffuse emission. I applied this code to post-process the simulation of a Lyman-alpha blob (an extended Lyman-alpha source), and to study its polarisation properties with mock observations. Contrary to what was suggested before, I showed that polarisation is not a strong tracer of the origin of Lyman-alpha photons

Includes bibliographical references (8 p.) Examines some of the consequences of the acceleration and production, and propagation, of high energy electrons and positrons in the Galaxy. In particular, predictions are made of the diffuse photon signals arising from the interactions of electrons and positrons with gas, low energy photons, and the galactic magnetic field during their transport in the Galaxy.