A. Mercurio - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by A. Mercurio

The Astrophysical Journal, 2013

Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 2013

Astronomy & Astrophysics, 2012

ABSTRACT Galaxy clusters play a key role in testing cosmological models and in constraining the p... more ABSTRACT Galaxy clusters play a key role in testing cosmological models and in constraining the properties of dark matter. One of these key tests is the mass density profile of clusters - the concentration-mass relation. There is a reported tension between the observed concentration-mass relation and the one theoretically expected using simulated galaxy clusters, where the observed clusters appear to have higher concentration than simulated clusters of similar total mass. In The Cluster Lensing And Supernova survey with Hubble (CLASH), we use different and independent techniques to estimate the mass distribution in clusters. The comparison between different techniques offers an observational test of the techniques and understanding of the systematics. In this work, we estimate the concentration-mass relation for about 8 (at the 0.2< z &;lt; 0.6 redshift range) of the 20 X-ray selected CLASH clusters using galaxy dynamics. We use a unique spectroscopic data set with more than about 300 cluster members per cluster. Finally, we compare our results to the theoretical expected ones and to the estimations derived using the lensing technique.

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2015

This paper has been withdrawn by the author(s), since it has been merged with paper I (astro-ph/0... more This paper has been withdrawn by the author(s), since it has been merged with paper I (astro-ph/0307482).

Astronomy & Astrophysics, 2015

Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, 2014

ABSTRACT We investigate the environmental dependence of the mass-metallicty (MZ) relation and it&... more ABSTRACT We investigate the environmental dependence of the mass-metallicty (MZ) relation and it's connection to galaxy stellar structures and morphologies. In our studies, we analyze galaxies in massive clusters at z~0.4 from the CLASH (HST) and CLASH-VLT surveys and measure their gas metallicities, star-formation rates, stellar structures and morphologies. We establish the MZ relation for 90 cluster and 40 field galaxies finding a shift of ~-0.3 dex in comparison to the local trends seen in SDSS for the majority of galaxies with logM<10.5. We do not find significant differences of the distribution of 4 distinct morphological types that we introduce by our classification scheme (smooth, disc-like, peculiar, compact). Some variations between cluster and field galaxies in the MZ relation are visible at the high mass end. However, obvious trends for cluster specific interactions (enhancements or quenching of SFRs) are missing. In particular, galaxies with peculiar stellar structures that hold signs for galaxy interactions, are distributed in a similar way as disc-like galaxies - in SFRs, masses and O/H abundances. We further show that our sample falls around an extrapolation of the star-forming main sequence (the SFR-M* relation) at this redshift, indicating that emission-line selected samples do not have preferentially high star-formation rates (SFRs). However, we find that half of the high mass cluster members (M*>10^10Msun) lie below the main sequence which corresponds to the higher mass objects that reach solar abundances in the MZ diagram.

We study the internal dynamics of the rich galaxy cluster ABGC 209 on the basis of new spectrosco... more We study the internal dynamics of the rich galaxy cluster ABGC 209 on the basis of new spectroscopic and photometric data. The distribution in redshift shows that ABCG 209 is a well isolated peak of 112 detected member galaxies at z=0.209, characterised by a high value of the line-of-sight velocity dispersion, {sigma}v=1250-1400km/s, on the whole observed area (1h-1Mpc from the

The Astrophysical Journal, 2015

ABSTRACT Spectroscopic observations were carried out at the ESO New Technology Telescope (NTT) wi... more ABSTRACT Spectroscopic observations were carried out at the ESO New Technology Telescope (NTT) with the ESO Multi-Mode Instrument (EMMI) and at the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG) with the Device Optimized for the LOw RESolution (DOLORES), while NIR photometric data were collected with the Son OF ISAAC (SOFI) at NTT. (3 data files).

We analyse the properties of galaxy populations in the rich Abell cluster ABCG 209 at redshift z˜... more We analyse the properties of galaxy populations in the rich Abell cluster ABCG 209 at redshift z˜0.21, on the basis of spectral classification of 102 member galaxies. We take advantage of available structural parameters to study separately the properties of bulge-dominated and disk-dominated galaxies. The star formation histories of the cluster galaxy populations are investigated by using line strengths and the 4000 Å break, through a comparison to stellar population synthesis models. The dynamical properties of different spectral classes are examined in order to infer the past merging history of ABCG 209.

Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, 2006

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2014

Thinking, Observing and Mining the Universe - Proceedings of the International Conference, 2004

ABSTRACT