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

We present spatially resolved stellar and/or ionized gas kinematic properties for a sample of 103 interacting galaxies, tracing all merger stages: close companions, pairs with morphological signatures of interaction, and coalesced merger remnants. In order to distinguish kinematic properties caused by a merger event from those driven by internal

We conduct a comprehensive numerical study of the orbital dependence of harassment on early-type dwarfs consisting of 168 different orbits within a realistic, Virgo-like cluster, varying in eccentricity and pericentre distance. We find harassment is only effective at stripping stars or truncating their stellar discs for orbits that enter deep into

Various different physical processes contribute to the star formation and stellar mass assembly histories of galaxies. One important approach to understanding the significance of these different processes on galaxy evolution is the study of the stellar population content of today's galaxies in a spatially resolved manner. The aim of this paper is

We present the first pointed X-ray observations of 10 candidate fossil galaxy groups and clusters. With these Suzaku observations, we determine global temperatures and bolometric X-ray luminosities of the intracluster medium (ICM) out to r500 for six systems in our sample. The remaining four systems show signs of significant contamination from non

Context. In nature we observe galaxy aggregations that span a wide range of magnitude gaps between the two first-ranked galaxies of a system (Δm12). Thus, there are systems with gaps close to zero (e.g., the Coma cluster), and at the other extreme of the distribution, the largest gaps are found among the so-called fossil systems. The observed

We consistently analyse for the first time the impact of survey depth and spatial resolution on the most used morphological parameters for classifying galaxies through non-parametric methods: Abraham and Conselice-Bershady concentration indices, Gini, M20 moment of light, asymmetry, and smoothness. Three different non-local data sets are used

We present a catalogue of 348 galaxy clusters and groups with 0.2 < z < 1.2 selected in the 2.78 deg2 Advanced Large, Homogeneous Area Medium Band Redshift Astronomical (ALHAMBRA) survey. The high precision of our photometric redshifts, close to 1 per cent, and the wide spread of the seven ALHAMBRA pointings ensure that this catalogue has better

Aims: In the effort to understand the link between the structure of galaxy clusters and their galaxy populations, we focus on MACS J1206.2-0847 at z ~ 0.44 and probe its substructure in the projected phase space through the spectrophotometric properties of a large number of galaxies from the CLASH-VLT survey. Methods: Our analysis is mainly based

The aim of our study is to use dynamical simulations to explore the influence of two important dynamical bar parameters, bar strength and bar pattern speed on the shape of the bar dust lanes. To quantify the shape of the dust lanes we have developed a new systematic method to measure the dust lane curvature. Previous numerical simulations have

This paper describes the Second Public Data Release (DR2) of the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area (CALIFA) survey. The data for 200 objects are made public, including the 100 galaxies of the First Public Data Release (DR1). Data were obtained with the integral-field spectrograph PMAS/PPak mounted on the 3.5 m telescope at the Calar Alto

Context. The bar pattern speed (Ωb) is defined as the rotational frequency of the bar, and it determines the bar dynamics. Several methods have been proposed for measuring Ωb. The non-parametric method proposed by Tremaine & Weinberg (1984, ApJ, 282, L5; TW) and based on stellar kinematics is the most accurate. This method has been applied so far

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)

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

Context. Ionized gas kinematics provide important clues to the dynamical structure of galaxies and hold constraints to the processes driving their evolution. Aims: The motivation of this work is to provide an overall characterization of the kinematic behavior of the ionized gas of the galaxies included in the Calar Alto Legacy Integral field Area

Context. Historically, galaxy bulges were thought to be single-component objects at the center of galaxies. However, this picture is now questioned since different bulge types with different formation paths, namely classical and pseudobulges, have been found coexisting within the same galaxy. Aims: We study the incidence and nature of composite

While studies of gas-phase metallicity gradients in disc galaxies are common, very little has been done towards the acquisition of stellar abundance gradients in the same regions. We present here a comparative study of the stellar metallicity and age distributions in a sample of 62 nearly face-on, spiral galaxies with and without bars, using data

We describe and discuss the selection procedure and statistical properties of the galaxy sample used by the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area (CALIFA) survey, a public legacy survey of 600 galaxies using integral field spectroscopy. The CALIFA "mother sample" was selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) DR7 photometric catalogue to

We present a new deep determination of the spectroscopic luminosity function (LF) within the virial radius of the nearby and massive Abell 85 (A85) cluster down to the dwarf regime (M* + 6) using Very Large Telescope/Visible Multi-Object Spectrograph (VLT/VIMOS) spectra for ˜2000 galaxies with mr ≤ 21 mag and ≤ 24 mag arcsec-2. The resulting LF

We present optical integral field spectroscopy (IFS) observations of the Mice, a major merger between two massive (≳1011 M⊙) gas-rich spirals NGC 4676A and B, observed between first passage and final coalescence. The spectra provide stellar and gas kinematics, ionised gas properties, and stellar population diagnostics, over the full optical extent