Suchergebnisse

Observations of the location and kinematics of the atomic gas (HI) and the continuum radio emission from high redshift galaxies would mean a huge step forward in our understanding of galaxy evolution. We now have a secure global picture of the stellar content of massive galaxies and their precursors up to z~4. But we still have to understand why star formation in these systems started early and quenched some time after, a scenario known as downsizing which, at face value, conflicts with the predictions from the current hierarchical galaxy formation paradigm. SKA will provide the missing piece to solve the puzzle: information about the amounts of gas falling into galaxies to form stars, as well as data to measure when and how the star formation turns off as the gas stops cooling due to still to be understood feedback mechanisms, such as (radio mode) obscured nuclear activity. ; PGP-G acknowledges support from Spanish Government MINECO AYA2012-31277 Grant. JIGS acknowledges support from the Spanish Ministry for Economy and Competitiveness AYA2011-29517-C03-02. AFS acknowledges support from the Spanish Ministry for Economy and Competitiveness and FEDER funds through grants AYA2010-22111-C03-02 and AYA2013-48623-C2-2, and Generalitat Valenciana project PROMETEOII/2014/060. ; Peer reviewed

Extragalactic astronomy.-- et al. ; [Context]: Samples of star-forming galaxies at different redshifts have been traditionally selected via color techniques. The ALHAMBRA survey was designed to perform a uniform cosmic tomography of the Universe, and we here exploit it to trace the evolution of these galaxies. [Aims]: Our objective is to use the homogeneous optical coverage of the ALHAMBRA filter system to select samples of star-forming galaxies at different epochs of the Universe and study their properties. [Methods]: We present a new color-selection technique, based on the models of spectral evolution convolved with the ALHAMBRA bands and the redshifted position of the Balmer jump to select star-forming galaxies in the redshift range 0.5

20 pages, 18 figures.-- et al. ; Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAOs) provide a "standard ruler" of known physical length, making it one of the most promising probes of the nature of dark energy (DE). The detection of BAOs as an excess of power in the galaxy distribution at a certain scale requires measuring galaxy positions and redshifts. "Transversal" (or "angular") BAOs measure the angular size of this scale projected in the sky and provide information about the angular distance. "Line-of-sight" (or "radial") BAOs require very precise redshifts, but provide a direct measurement of the Hubble parameter at different redshifts, a more sensitive probe of DE. The main goal of this paper is to show that it is possible to obtain photometric redshifts with enough precision (σz) to measure BAOs along the line of sight. There is a fundamental limitation as to how much one can improve the BAO measurement by reducing σz . We show that σz ~ 0.003(1 + z) is sufficient: a much better precision will produce an oversampling of the BAO peak without a significant improvement on its detection, while a much worse precision will result in the effective loss of the radial information. This precision in redshift can be achieved for bright, red galaxies, featuring a prominent 4000 Å break, by using a filter system comprising about 40 filters, each with a width close to 100 Å, covering the wavelength range from ~4000 to ~8000 Å, supplemented by two broad-band filters similar to the Sloan Digital Sky Survey u and z bands. We describe the practical implementation of this idea, a new galaxy survey project, Physics of the Accelerating Universe (PAU): http://www.ice.cat/pau, to be carried out with a telescope/camera combination with an etendue about 20 m2 deg2, equivalent to a 2 m telescope equipped with a 6 deg2 field of view camera, and covering 8000 deg2 in the sky in four years. We expect to measure positions and redshifts for over 14 million red, early-type galaxies with L > L* and i(AB) ~ 10–3 Mpc–3 h3 galaxies within the 9 Gpc3 h–3 volume to be sampled by our survey, ensuring that the error in the determination of the BAO scale is not limited by shot noise. By itself, such a survey will deliver precisions of order 5% in the dark-energy equation of state parameter w, if assumed constant, and can determine its time derivative when combined with future cosmic microwave background measurements. In addition, PAU will yield high-quality redshift and low-resolution spectroscopy for hundreds of millions of other galaxies, including a very significant high-redshift population. The data set produced by this survey will have a unique legacy value, allowing a wide range of astrophysical studies. ; This work was carried out in the framework of the PAU Consolider Collaboration, supported in part by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (MEC) through the Consolider Ingenio-2010 program, under project CSD2007-00060 "Physics of the Accelerating Universe (PAU)". Additional support comes from the Barcelona Supercomputer Center, as well as from the European Commission, the Spanish High Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), and the regional governments of Andalusia, Aragon, Catalonia, Madrid, and Valencia. ; Peer reviewed

Nieves-Seoane, L. et. al. ; The original ALHAMBRA catalogue contained over 400 000 galaxies selected using a synthetic F814W image, to the magnitude limit AB(F814W) ≈ 24.5. Given the photometric redshift depth of the ALHAMBRA multiband data (〈 z〉 = 0.86) and the approximately I-band selection, there is a noticeable bias against red objects at moderate redshift.We avoid this bias by creating a new catalogue selected in the Ks band. This newly obtained catalogue is certainly shallower in terms of apparent magnitude, but deeper in terms of redshift, with a significant population of red objects at z > 1. We select objects using the Ks band images, which reach an approximate AB magnitude limit Ks ≈ 22. We generate masks and derive completeness functions to characterize the sample. We have tested the quality of the photometry and photometric redshifts using both internal and external checks. Our final catalogue includes ≈95 000 sources down to Ks ≈ 22, with a significant tail towards high redshift. We have checked that there is a large sample of objects with spectral energy distributions that correspond to that of massive, passively evolving galaxies at z > 1, reaching as far as z ≈ 2.5. We have tested the possibility of combining our data with deep infrared observations at longer wavelengths, particularly Spitzer IRAC data. © 2016 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. ; This work was mainly supported by the Spanish Ministry for Economy and Competitiveness and FEDER funds through grants AYA2010-22111-C03-02 and AYA2013-48623-C2-2, and by the Generalitat Valenciana through project PrometeoII 2014/060. We also acknowledge support from the Spanish Ministry for Economy and Competitiveness and FEDER funds through grants AYA2012-39620, AYA2013-40611-P, AYA2013-42227-P, AYA2013-43188-P, AYA2013-48623-C2-1, ESP2013-48274, AYA2014-58861-C3-1, Junta de Andalucia grants TIC114, JA2828, P10-FQM-6444, and Generalitat de Catalunya project SGR-1398. BA has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 656354. PTI acknowledges support from CONICYT Chile grant FONDECYT 3140542. ; Peer reviewed

Aims. Our goal is to characterise the dependence of the optical mass-to-light ratio on galaxy colour up to z = 1.5, expanding the redshift range explored in previous work. Methods. From the redshifts, stellar masses, and rest-frame luminosities of the ALHAMBRA multi-filter survey, we derive the mass-to-light ratio versus colour relation for quiescent and for star-forming galaxies. The intrinsic relation and its physical dispersion are derived with a Bayesian inference model. Results. The rest-frame i-band mass-to-light ratio of quiescent and star-forming galaxies presents a tight correlation with the rest-frame (g - i) colour up to z = 1.5. The mass-to-light ratio versus colour relation is linear for quiescent galaxies and quadratic for star-forming galaxies. The intrinsic dispersion in these relations is 0.02 dex for quiescent galaxies and 0.06 dex for star-forming ones. The derived relations do not present a significant redshift evolution and are compatible with previous local results in the literature. Finally, these tight relations also hold for g- and r-band luminosities. Conclusions. The derived mass-to-light ratio versus colour relations in ALHAMBRA can be used to predict the mass-to-light ratio from a rest-frame optical colour up to z = 1.5. These tight correlations do not change with redshift, suggesting that galaxies have evolved along the derived relations during the last 9 Gyr.© ESO 2019. ; This work has been mainly funded by the FITE (Fondos de Inversiones de Teruel) and the Spanish MINECO/FEDER projects AYA2015-66211-C2-1-P, AYA2012-30789, AYA2006-14056, and CSD2007-00060. We also acknowledge the financial support from the Aragón Government Research Groups E96, E103, and E16_17R. We acknowledge support from the Spanish Ministry for Economy and Competitiveness and FEDER funds through grants AYA2010-15081, AYA2010-22111-C03-01, AYA2010-22111-C03-02, AYA2012-39620, AYA2013-40609-P, AYA2013-42227-P, AYA2013-48623-C2-1, AYA2013-48623-C2-2, AYA2016-76682-C3-1-P, AYA2016-76682-C3-3-P, ESP2013-48274, Generalitat Valen-ciana project Prometeo PROMETEOII/2014/060, Junta de Andalucía grants TIC114, JA2828, P10-FQM-6444, and Generalitat de Catalunya project SGR-1398. K.V. acknowledges the Juan de la Cierva incorporación fellowship, IJCI-2014-21960, of the Spanish government. A.M. acknowledges the financial support of the Brazilian funding agency FAPESP (Post-doc fellowship - process number 2014/11806-9). B.A. has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 656354. M.P. acknowledges financial support from the Ethiopian Space Science and Technology Institute (ESSTI) under the Ethiopian Ministry of Science Science and Technology (MoST). ; Peer Reviewed

Aims. Our goal is to characterise the dependence of the optical mass-to-light ratio on galaxy colour up to z = 1.5, expanding the redshift range explored in previous work. Methods. From the redshifts, stellar masses, and rest-frame luminosities of the ALHAMBRA multi-filter survey, we derive the mass-to-light ratio versus colour relation for quiescent and for star-forming galaxies. The intrinsic relation and its physical dispersion are derived with a Bayesian inference model. Results. The rest-frame i-band mass-to-light ratio of quiescent and star-forming galaxies presents a tight correlation with the rest-frame (g - i) colour up to z = 1.5. The mass-to-light ratio versus colour relation is linear for quiescent galaxies and quadratic for star-forming galaxies. The intrinsic dispersion in these relations is 0.02 dex for quiescent galaxies and 0.06 dex for star-forming ones. The derived relations do not present a significant redshift evolution and are compatible with previous local results in the literature. Finally, these tight relations also hold for g- and r-band luminosities. Conclusions. The derived mass-to-light ratio versus colour relations in ALHAMBRA can be used to predict the mass-to-light ratio from a rest-frame optical colour up to z = 1.5. These tight correlations do not change with redshift, suggesting that galaxies have evolved along the derived relations during the last 9 Gyr.© ESO 2019. ; This work has been mainly funded by the FITE (Fondos de Inversiones de Teruel) and the Spanish MINECO/FEDER projects AYA2015-66211-C2-1-P, AYA2012-30789, AYA2006-14056, and CSD2007-00060. We also acknowledge the financial support from the Aragón Government Research Groups E96, E103, and E16_17R. We acknowledge support from the Spanish Ministry for Economy and Competitiveness and FEDER funds through grants AYA2010-15081, AYA2010-22111-C03-01, AYA2010-22111-C03-02, AYA2012-39620, AYA2013-40609-P, AYA2013-42227-P, AYA2013-48623-C2-1, AYA2013-48623-C2-2, AYA2016-76682-C3-1-P, AYA2016-76682-C3-3-P, ESP2013-48274, Generalitat Valen-ciana project Prometeo PROMETEOII/2014/060, Junta de Andalucía grants TIC114, JA2828, P10-FQM-6444, and Generalitat de Catalunya project SGR-1398. K.V. acknowledges the Juan de la Cierva incorporación fellowship, IJCI-2014-21960, of the Spanish government. A.M. acknowledges the financial support of the Brazilian funding agency FAPESP (Post-doc fellowship - process number 2014/11806-9). B.A. has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 656354. M.P. acknowledges financial support from the Ethiopian Space Science and Technology Institute (ESSTI) under the Ethiopian Ministry of Science Science and Technology (MoST). ; Peer Reviewed

We present ELDAR, a new method that exploits the potential of medium- and narrow-band filter surveys to securely identify active galactic nuclei (AGN) and determine their redshifts. Our methodology improves on traditional approaches by looking for AGN emission lines expected to be identified against the continuum, thanks to the width of the filters. To assess its performance, we apply ELDAR to the data of the ALHAMBRA (Advance Large Homogeneous Area Medium Band Redshift Astronomical) survey, which covered an effective area of 2.38 deg2 with 20 contiguous medium-band optical filters down to F814W ≃ 24.5. Using two different configurations of ELDAR in which we require the detection of at least two and three emission lines, respectively, we extract two catalogues of type-I AGN. The first is composed of 585 sources (79 per cent of them spectroscopically unknown) down to F814W = 22.5 at zphot > 1, which corresponds to a surface density of 209 deg−2. In the second, the 494 selected sources (83 per cent of them spectroscopically unknown) reach F814W = 23 at zphot > 1.5, for a corresponding number density of 176 deg−2. Then, using samples of spectroscopically known AGN in the ALHAMBRA fields, for the two catalogues we estimate a completeness of 73 per cent and 67 per cent, and a redshift precision of 1.01 per cent and 0.86 per cent (with outliers fractions of 8.1 per cent and 5.8 per cent). At z > 2, where our selection performs best, we reach 85 per cent and 77 per cent completeness and we find no contamination from galaxies. ; We acknowledge support from FITE (Fondos de Inversiones de Teruel), Grupos de Aragon E96 and E103, and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) through projects AYA2016-76682C3-1-P, AYA2015-66211-C2-1, AYA2015-66211-C2-2, AYA201342227-P and AYA2012-30789. This work was supported by FCT (ref. UID/FIS/04434/2013) through national funds and by FEDER through COMPETE2020 (ref. POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007672). JC acknowledges support from the Fundacion Bancaria Ibercaja for developing this research. BA has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 656354. MP acknowledges financial supports from the Ethiopian Space Science and Technology Institute (ESSTI) under the Ethiopian Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST). IM acknowledges support from an FCT postdoctoral grant (ref. SFRH/BPD/95578/2013). ; Peer Reviewed

Lopez-Sanjuan, C. et. al. ; Aims. Our goal is to study the evolution of the B-band luminosity function (LF) since z ∼ 1 using ALHAMBRA data. Methods. We used the photometric redshift and the I-band selection magnitude probability distribution functions (PDFs) of those ALHAMBRA galaxies with I ≤ 24 mag to compute the posterior LF. We statistically studied quiescent and star-forming galaxies using the template information encoded in the PDFs. The LF covariance matrix in redshift - magnitude - galaxy type space was computed, including the cosmic variance. That was estimated from the intrinsic dispersion of the LF measurements in the 48 ALHAMBRA sub-fields. The uncertainty due to the photometric redshift prior is also included in our analysis. Results. We modelled the LF with a redshift-dependent Schechter function affected by the same selection effects than the data. The measured ALHAMBRA LF at 0.2 ≤ z < 1 and the evolving Schechter parameters both for quiescent and star-forming galaxies agree with previous results in the literature. The estimated redshift evolution of M∗B ∝ Qz is QSF = -1.03±0.08 and QQ = -0.80±0.08, and of log10φ∗ ∝ Pz is PSF = -0.01±0.03 and PQ = -0.41 ± 0.05. The measured faint-end slopes are αSF = -1.29 ± 0.02 and αQ = -0.53 ± 0.04. We find a significant population of faint quiescent galaxies with MB ≳ -18, modelled by a second Schechter function with slope β = -1.31 ± 0.11. Conclusions. We present a robust methodology to compute LFs using multi-filter photometric data. The application to ALHAMBRA shows a factor 2.55 ± 0.14 decrease in the luminosity density jB of star-forming galaxies, and a factor 1.25 ± 0.16 increase in the jB of quiescent ones since z = 1, confirming the continuous build-up of the quiescent population with cosmic time. The contribution of the faint quiescent population to jB increases from 3% at z = 1 to 6% at z = 0. The developed methodology will be applied to future multi-filter surveys such as J-PAS. © 2017 ESO. ; This work has been mainly funded by the FITE (Fondos de Inversiones de Teruel) and the projects AYA2015-66211-C2-1, AYA2012-30789, AYA200614056, and CSD2007-00060. We also acknowledge support from the Spanish Ministry for Economy and Competitiveness and FEDER funds through grants AYA2010-15081, AYA2010-15169, AYA2010-22111-C03-01, AYA201022111- C03-02, AYA2011-29517-C03-01, AYA2012-39620, AYA2013-40611P, AYA2013-42227-P, AYA2013-43188-P, AYA2013-48623-C2-1, AYA201348623- C2-2, ESP2013-48274, AYA2014-58861-C3-1, Aragon Government Research Group E103, Generalitat Valenciana projects Prometeo 2009/064 and PROMETEOII/2014/060, Junta de Andalucia grants TIC114, JA2828, P10FQM-6444, and Generalitat de Catalunya project SGR-1398. E. T. acknowledges the support by the ETAg grants IUT26-2, IUT40-2, and by the European Regional Development Fund (TK133). A. M. acknowledges the financial support of the Brazilian funding agency FAPESP (Post-doc fellowship - process number 2014/11806-9). B. A. has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 656354. ; Peer reviewed

arXiv:1601.03668v1 ; We study the clustering of galaxies as a function of spectral type and redshift in the range 0.35

Based on observations collected at the German-Spanish Astronomical Center, Calar Alto, jointly operated by the Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie (MPIA) at Heidelberg and the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (CSIC).-- et al. ; [Context]: Most observational results on the high redshift restframe UV-bright galaxies are based on samples pinpointed using the so-called dropout technique or Ly-α selection. However, the availability of multifilter data now allows the dropout selections to be replaced by direct methods based on photometric redshifts. In this paper we present the methodology to select and study the population of high redshift galaxies in the ALHAMBRA survey data. [Aims]: Our aim is to develop a less biased methodology than the traditional dropout technique to study the high redshift galaxies in ALHAMBRA and other multifilter data. Thanks to the wide area ALHAMBRA covers, we especially aim at contributing to the study of the brightest, least frequent, high redshift galaxies. [Methods]: The methodology is based on redshift probability distribution functions (zPDFs). It is shown how a clean galaxy sample can be obtained by selecting the galaxies with high integrated probability of being within a given redshift interval. However, reaching both a complete and clean sample with this method is challenging. Hence, a method to derive statistical properties by summing the zPDFs of all the galaxies in the redshift bin of interest is introduced. [Results]: Using this methodology we derive the galaxy rest frame UV number counts in five redshift bins centred at z = 2.5,3.0,3.5,4.0, and 4.5, being complete up to the limiting magnitude at mUV(AB) = 24, where mUV refers to the first ALHAMBRA filter redwards of the Ly-α line. With the wide field ALHAMBRA data we especially contribute to the study of the brightest ends of these counts, accurately sampling the surface densities down to mUV(AB) = 21-22. [Conclusions]: We show that using the zPDFs it is easy to select a very clean sample of high redshift galaxies. We also show that it is better to do statistical analysis of the properties of galaxies using a probabilistic approach, which takes into account both the incompleteness and contamination issues in a natural way. ; K. Viironen acknowledges the Juan de la Cierva fellowship of the Spanish government. We acknowledge funding from the FITE (Fondos de Inversiones de Teruel) and support from the Spanish Ministry for Economy and Competitiveness and FEDER funds through grants AYA2012-30789, AYA2006-14056, AYA 2003-00128, AYA 2006-01325, AYA 2007-62190, AYA2010-15169, AYA2010-22111-C03-02 and AYA2013-48623-C2-2. We also acknowledge Junta de Andalucía through the grant TIC 114 and Generalitat Valenciana projects Prometeo 2009/064 and PROMETEOII/2014/060, and the financial support from the Aragón Government through the Research Group E103. I. Oteo acknowledges support from the European Research Council (ERC) in the form of Advanced Grant, cosmicism. A. J. Cenarro acknowledges the Ramón y Cajal fellowship of the Spanish government. M. Povic acknowledges financial support from JAE-Doc program of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), cofunded by the European Social Fund. ; Peer Reviewed

Context. Knowing the exact shape of the ultraviolet (UV) luminosity function (LF) of high-redshift galaxies is important to understand the star formation history of the early Universe. However, the uncertainties, especially at the faint and bright ends of the LFs, remain significant. Aims. In this paper, we study the UV LF of redshift z = 2:5 4.5 galaxies in 2.38 deg of ALHAMBRA data with I ≤ 24. Thanks to the large area covered by ALHAMBRA, we particularly constrain the bright end of the LF. We also calculate the cosmic variance and the corresponding bias values for our sample and derive their host dark matter halo masses. Methods.We have used a novel methodology based on redshift and magnitude probability distribution functions (PDFs). This methodology robustly takes into account the uncertainties due to redshift and magnitude errors, shot noise, and cosmic variance, and models the LF in two dimensions (z; M). Results. We find an excess of bright ∼M∗ galaxies as compared to the studies based on broad-band photometric data. However, our results agree well with the LF of the magnitude-selected spectroscopic VVDS data. We measure high bias values, b ∼ 8 10, that are compatible with the previous measurements considering the redshifts and magnitudes of our galaxies and further reinforce the real high-redshift nature of our bright galaxies. Conclusions. We call into question the shape of the LF at its bright end; is it a double power-law as suggested by the recent broadband photometric studies or rather a brighter Schechter function, as suggested by our multi-filter analysis and the spectroscopic VVDS data.© ESO 2018. ; K. Viironen acknowledges the >Juan de la Cierva incorporacion> fellowship, IJCI-2014-21960, of the Spanish government. This work has mainly been funded by the FITE (Fondos de Inversiones de Teruel) and the projects AYA2015-66211-C2-1 and AYA2012-30789. We also acknowledge support from the Aragon Government Research Group E103 and support from the Spanish Ministry for Economy and Competitiveness and FEDER funds through grants AYA2010-15081, AYA2010-15169, AYA2010-22111-C03-01, AYA2010-22111-C03-02, AYA2011-29517-C03-01, AYA2012-39620, AYA2013-40611-P, AYA2013-42227-P, AYA2013-43188-P, AYA2013-48623-C2-1, AYA2013-48623-C2-2, ESP2013-48274, AYA2014-58861-C3-1, AYA2016-76682-C3-1-P, Generalitat Valenciana projects Prometeo 2009/064 and PROMETEOII/2014/060, Junta de Andalucia grants TIC114, JA2828, P10-FQM-6444, and Generalitat de Catalunya project SGR-1398. BA has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 656354. MP acknowledges financial supports from the Ethiopian Space Science and Technology Institute (ESSTI) under the Ethiopian Ministry of Science Science and Technology (MoST) ; Peer Reviewed

We present a technique that permits the analysis of stellar population gradients in a relatively low-cost way compared to integral field unit (IFU) surveys. We developed a technique to analyze unresolved stellar populations of spatially resolved galaxies based on photometric multi-filter surveys. This technique allows the analysis of vastly larger samples and out to larger galactic radii. We derived spatially resolved stellar population properties and radial gradients by applying a centroidal Voronoi tessellation and performing a multicolor photometry spectral energy distribution fitting. This technique has been successfully applied to a sample of 29 massive (M > 10M) early-type galaxies at z < 0.3 from the ALHAMBRA survey. We produced detailed 2D maps of stellar population properties (age, metallicity, and extinction), which allow us to identify galactic features. Radial structures were studied, and luminosity-weighted and mass-weighted gradients were derived out to 2-3.5 R. We find that the spatially resolved stellar population mass, age, and metallicity are well represented by their integrated values. We find the gradients of early-type galaxies to be on average flat in age (⇠log Age = 0.02 ± 0.06 dex/R) and negative in metallicity (⇠[Fe/H] = -0.09 ± 0.06 dex/R). Overall,the extinction gradients are flat (⇠A = -0.03 ± 0.09 mag/R) with a wide spread. These results are in agreement with previous studies that used standard long-slit spectroscopy, and with the most recent IFU studies. According to recent simulations, these results are consistent with a scenario where early-type galaxies were formed through major mergers and where their final gradients are driven by the older ages and higher metallicity of the accreted systems. We demonstrate the scientific potential of multi-filter photometry to explore the spatially resolved stellar populations of local galaxies and confirm previous spectroscopic trends from a complementary technique. ; This work has been mainly funded by the FITE (Fondos de Inversiones de Teruel) and the Spanish Ministry for Economy and Competitiveness and FEDER funds through grants AYA2012-30789 and AYA2015-66211-C2-1-P. We also acknowledge financial support from the projects AYA2014-57490-P and AYA2016-77846-P, and from the Aragón Government through the Research Group E103. B.A. has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 656354. M.P. acknowledges financial supports from the Ethiopian Space Science and Technology Institute (ESSTI) under the Ethiopian Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST), and from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) through research projects AYA2013-42227-P and AYA2016-76682-C3-1-P (AEI/FEDER, UE). ; Peer Reviewed

Numerical methods and codes.-- et al. ; [Aims]: We present MUFFIT, a new generic code optimized to retrieve the main stellar population parameters of galaxies in photometric multi-filter surveys, and check its reliability and feasibility with real galaxy data from the ALHAMBRA survey. [Methods]: Making use of an error-weighted X2-test, we compare the multi-filter fluxes of galaxies with the synthetic photometry of mixtures of two single stellar populations at different redshifts and extinctions, to provide the most likely range of stellar population parameters (mainly ages and metallicities), extinctions, redshifts, and stellar masses. To improve the diagnostic reliability, MUFFIT identifies and removes from the analysis those bands that are significantly affected by emission lines. The final parameters and their uncertainties are derived by a Monte Carlo method, using the individual photometric uncertainties in each band. Finally, we discuss the accuracies, degeneracies, and reliability of MUFFIT using both simulated and real galaxies from ALHAMBRA, comparing with results from the literature. [Results]: MUFFIT is a precise and reliable code to derive stellar population parameters of galaxies in ALHAMBRA. Using the results from photometric-redshift codes as input, MUFFIT improves the photometric-redshift accuracy by ∼10-20%. MUFFIT also detects nebular emissions in galaxies, providing physical information about their strengths. The stellar masses derived from MUFFIT show excellent agreement with the COSMOS and SDSS values. In addition, the retrieved age-metallicity locus for a sample of z ≤ 0.22 early-type galaxies in ALHAMBRA at different stellar mass bins are in very good agreement with the ones from SDSS spectroscopic diagnostics. Moreover, a one-to-one comparison between the redshifts, ages, metallicities, and stellar masses derived spectroscopically for SDSS and by MUFFIT for ALHAMBRA reveals good qualitative agreements in all the parameters, hence reinforcing the strengths of multi-filter galaxy data and optimized analysis techniques, like MUFFIT, to conduct reliable stellar population studies. ; L.A.D.G. acknowledges support from the "Caja Rural de Teruel" for developing this research. A.J.C. is a Ramon y Cajal Fellow of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. This work has been supported by the "Programa Nacional de Astronomia y Astrofisica" of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) under grant AYA2012-30789, as well as by FEDER funds and the Government of Aragon, through the Research Group E103. L.A.D.G. also thanks the Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL) and Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) for offering the opportunity to support and develop part of this research in collaboration with I.F. MINECO grants AYA2010-15081, AYA2010-15169, AYA2010-22111-C03-01, AYA2010-22111-C03-02, AYA2011-29517-C03-01, AYA2013-40611-P, AYA2013-42227-P, AYA2013-43188-P, AYA2013-48623-C2-1, AYA2013-48623-C2-2, and AYA2014-58861-C3-1 are also acknowledged, together with Generalitat Valenciana projects Prometeo 2009/064 and PROMETEOII/2014/060, and Junta de Andalucia grants TIC114, JA2828, and P10-FQM-6444. MP acknowledges financial support from the JAE-Doc programme of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), co-funded by the European Social Fund. ; Peer Reviewed

[Aims]: Our goal is to develop and test a novel methodology to compute accurate close-pair fractions with photometric redshifts. [Methods]: We improved the currently used methodologies to estimate the merger fraction fm from photometric redshifts by (i) using the full probability distribution functions (PDFs) of the sources in redshift space; (ii) including the variation in the luminosity of the sources with z in both the sample selection and the luminosity ratio constrain; and (iii) splitting individual PDFs into red and blue spectral templates to reliably work with colour selections.We tested the performance of our new methodology with the PDFs provided by the ALHAMBRA photometric survey. [Results]: The merger fractions and rates from the ALHAMBRA survey agree excellently well with those from spectroscopic work for both the general population and red and blue galaxies. With the merger rate of bright (MB ≤ -20 - 1:1z) galaxies evolving as (1 + z)n, the power-law index n is higher for blue galaxies (n = 2:7 0:5) than for red galaxies (n = 1:3 0:4), confirming previous results. Integrating the merger rate over cosmic time, we find that the average number of mergers per galaxy since z = 1 is Nm red = 0:57 0:05 for red galaxies and Nm blue = 0:26 0:02 for blue galaxies. [Conclusions]: Our new methodology statistically exploits all the available information provided by photometric redshift codes and yields accurate measurements of the merger fraction by close pairs from using photometric redshifts alone. Current and future photometric surveys will benefit from this new methodology. ; This work has been mainly funded by the FITE (Fondos de Inversiones de Teruel) and the projects AYA2012-30789, AYA2006-14056, and CSD2007-00060. We also acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Government grants AYA2010-15169, AYA2010-22111-C03-01, AYA2010-22111-C03-02, and AYA2013-48623-C2-2, from the Aragón Government through the Research Group E103, from the Junta de Andalucía through TIC-114 and the Excellence Project P08-TIC-03531, and from the Generalitat Valenciana through the projects Prometeo/2009/064 and PrometeoII/2014/060. A.J.C. is Ramón y Cajal fellow of the Spanish government. M.P. acknowledges the financial support from JAE-Doc program of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), co-funded by the European Social Fund. ; Peer Reviewed

[Aims]: The relative cosmic variance (σv) is a fundamental source of uncertainty in pencil-beam surveys and, as a particular case of count-in-cell statistics, can be used to estimate the bias between galaxies and their underlying dark-matter distribution. Our goal is to test the significance of the clustering information encoded in the σv measured in the ALHAMBRA survey. [Methods]: We measure the cosmic variance of several galaxy populations selected with B-band luminosity at 0.35 ≤ z< 1.05 as the intrinsic dispersion in the number density distribution derived from the 48 ALHAMBRA subfields. We compare the observational σv with the cosmic variance of the dark matter expected from the theory, σv,dm. This provides an estimation of the galaxy bias b. [Results]: The galaxy bias from the cosmic variance is in excellent agreement with the bias estimated by two-point correlation function analysis in ALHAMBRA. This holds for different redshift bins, for red and blue subsamples, and for several B-band luminosity selections. We find that b increases with the B-band luminosity and the redshift, as expected from previous work. Moreover, red galaxies have a larger bias than blue galaxies, with a relative bias of brel = 1.4 ± 0.2. [Conclusions]: Our results demonstrate that the cosmic variance measured in ALHAMBRA is due to the clustering of galaxies and can be used to characterise the σv affecting pencil-beam surveys. In addition, it can also be used to estimate the galaxy bias b from a method independent of correlation functions. ; This work has been mainly funded by the FITE (Fondos de Inversiones de Teruel) and the projects AYA2012-30789, AYA2006-14056, and CSD2007-00060. We also acknowledge support from the Spanish Ministry for Economy and Competitiveness and FEDER funds through grants AYA2010-15081, AYA2010-15169, AYA2010-22111-C03-01, AYA2010-22111-C03-02, AYA2011-29517-C03-01, AYA2012-39620, AYA2013-40611-P, AYA2013-42227-P, AYA2013-43188-P, AYA2013-48623-C2-1, AYA2013-48623-C2-2, ESP2013-48274, AYA2014-58861-C3-1, Aragon Government Research Group E103, Generalitat Valenciana projects Prometeo 2009/064 and PROMETEOII/2014/060, Junta de Andalucia grants TIC114, JA2828, P10-FQM-6444, and Generalitat de Catalunya project SGR-1398. A.J.C. and C.H.-M. are Ramon y Cajal fellows of the Spanish government. A. M. acknowledges the financial support of the Brazilian funding agency FAPESP (Post-doc fellowship - process number 2014/11806-9). M.P. acknowledges financial support from JAE-Doc program of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), co-funded by the European Social Fund. ; Peer Reviewed