In this work we study the large-scale structure around a sample of non-fossil systems and compare the results with earlier findings for a sample of genuine fossil systems selected using their magnitude gap. We compute the distance from each system to the closest filament and intersection as obtained from a catalogue of galaxies in the redshift range $0.05 \le z \le 0.7$. We then estimate the average distances and distributions of cumulative distances to filaments and intersections for different bins of magnitude gap. We find that the average distance to filaments is $(3.0\pm 0.8)$ $R_{200}$ for fossil systems, whereas it is $(1.1\pm 0.1)\,R_{200}$ for non-fossil systems. Similarly, the average distance to intersections is larger in fossil than in non-fossil systems, with values of $(16.3\pm 3.2)$ and $(8.9\pm 1.1) \,R_{200}$, respectively. Moreover, the cumulative distributions of distances to intersections are statistically different between fossil and non-fossil systems. Fossil systems selected using the magnitude gap appear to be, on average, more isolated from the cosmic web than non-fossil systems. No dependence is found on the magnitude gap (i.e. non-fossil systems behave in
I study the dynamic, general equilibrium implications of climate-change-linked transition risk on macroeconomic outcomes and asset prices. Climate-change-linked expectations of fossil fuel restrictions can produce a ``run on fossil fuels'' with accelerated production and decreasing spot prices, or a ``reverse run'' with restrained production and increased spot prices. The response depends on the expected economic consequences of the anticipated transition shock, and existing climate policies. Fossil fuel firm prices decrease in each case. I use a novel empirical measure of innovations in climate-related transition risk likelihood to show that dynamic empirical responses are consistent with a ``run on fossil fuel.''
The search for the progenitors to today's fossil galaxy systems has been restricted to N-body simulations until recently, where 12 fossil progenitors were identified in the CASSOWARY catalog of strong lensing systems. All 12 systems lie in the predicted redshift range for finding fossils in mid brightest group galaxy (BGG) assembly, and all show complex merging environments at their centers. None of these progenitors had archival X-ray data, and many were lacking high resolution optical data making precision photometry extremely difficult. Here, we present Chandra and Hubble Space Telescope (HST) snapshots of eight of these strong lensing fossil progenitors at varying stages of evolution. We find that our lensing progenitors exhibit higher than expected X-ray luminosities and temperatures consistent with previously observed non-lensing fossil systems. More precise galaxy luminosity functions are generated which strengthen past claims that progenitors are the transition phase between non-fossils and fossils. We also find evidence suggesting that the majority of differences between fossils and non-fossils lie in their BGGs and that fossil systems may themselves be a phase of galaxy s
We investigate the evolution of bright and faint galaxies in fossil and non-fossil groups. We used mock galaxies constructed based on the Millennium run simulation II. We identified fossil groups at redshift zero according to two different selection criteria, and then built reliable control samples of non-fossil groups that reproduce the fossil virial mass and assembly time distributions. The faint galaxies were defined as having r-band absolute magnitudes in the range [-16,-11]. We analysed the properties of the bright and faint galaxies in fossil and non-fossil groups during the past 8 Gyr. We observed that the brightest galaxy in fossil groups is typically brighter and more massive than their counterparts in control groups. Fossil groups developed their large magnitude gap between the brightest galaxies around 3.5 Gyr ago. The brightest galaxy stellar masses of all groups show a notorious increment at that time. By analysing the behaviour of the magnitude gap between the first and the second, third, and fourth ranked galaxies, we found that at earlier times, fossil groups comprised two large brightest galaxies with similar magnitudes surrounded by much fainter galaxies, while in
Using Chandra X-ray observations and optical imaging and spectroscopy of a flux-limited sample of 5 fossil groups, supplemented by additional systems from the literature, we provide the first detailed study of the scaling properties of fossils compared to normal groups and clusters. In general, all the fossils we study show regular and symmetric X-ray emission, indicating an absence of recent major group mergers. We confirm that, for a given optical luminosity of the group, fossils are more X-ray luminous than non-fossil groups. Fossils, however, fall comfortably on the conventional L_X-T_X relation of galaxy groups and clusters, suggesting that their X-ray luminosity and their gas temperature are both boosted, arguably, as a result of their early formation. This is supported by other scaling relations including the L_X-sigma and T_X-sigma relations in which fossils show higher X-ray luminosity and temperature for a given group velocity dispersion. We find that mass concentration in fossils is higher than in non-fossil groups and clusters. In addition, the M_X-T_X relation suggests that fossils are hotter, for a given total gravitational mass, both consistent with an early formatio
We create a catalogue of simulated fossil groups and study their properties, in particular the merging histories of their first-ranked galaxies. We compare the simulated fossil group properties with those of both simulated non-fossil and observed fossil groups. Using simulations and a mock galaxy catalogue, we searched for massive ($>$ 5 $\times$ 10$^{13} h^{-1} {\cal M}_\odot$) fossil groups in the Millennium Simulation Galaxy Catalogue. In addition, attempted to identify observed fossil groups in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 6 using identical selection criteria. Our predictions on the basis of the simulation data are:(a) fossil groups comprise about 5.5% of the total population of groups/clusters with masses larger than 5 x 10$^{13} h^{-1} {\cal M}_\odot$. This fraction is consistent with the fraction of fossil groups identified in the SDSS, after all observational biases have been taken into account; (b) about 88% of the dominant central objects in fossil groups are elliptical galaxies that have a median R-band absolute magnitude of $\sim -23.5-5 log h$, which is typical of the observed fossil groups known in the literature; (c)first-ranked galaxies of systems wi
Using the Illustris cosmological simulation, we investigate the origin of fossil groups in the $M_{200}=10^{13}-10^{13.5}M_{\odot}/h$ mass regime. We examine the formation of the two primary features of fossil groups: the large magnitude gap between their two brightest galaxies, and their exceptionally luminous brightest group galaxy (BGG). For fossils and non-fossils identified at $z=0$, we find no difference in their halo mass assembly at early times, departing from previous studies. However, we do find a significant difference in the recent accretion history of fossil and non-fossil halos; in particular, fossil groups show a lack of recent accretion and have in majority assembled 80\% of their $M_{200}(z=0)$ mass before $z\sim 0.4$. For fossils, massive satellite galaxies accreted during this period have enough time to merge with the BGG by the present day, producing a more massive central galaxy; and, the lack of recent group accretion prevents replenishment of the bright satellite population, allowing for a large magnitude gap to develop within the past few Gyr. We thus find that the origin of the magnitude gap and overmassive BGG of fossils in Illustris depends on the recent
Identification of fossil species is crucial to evolutionary studies. Recent advances from deep learning have shown promising prospects in fossil image identification. However, the quantity and quality of labeled fossil images are often limited due to fossil preservation, conditioned sampling, and expensive and inconsistent label annotation by domain experts, which pose great challenges to training deep learning based image classification models. To address these challenges, we follow the idea of the wisdom of crowds and propose a multiview ensemble framework, which collects Original (O), Gray (G), and Skeleton (S) views of each fossil image reflecting its different characteristics to train multiple base models, and then makes the final decision via soft voting. Experiments on the largest fusulinid dataset with 2400 images show that the proposed OGS consistently outperforms baselines (using a single model for each view), and obtains superior or comparable performance compared to OOO (using three base models for three the same Original views). Besides, as the training data decreases, the proposed framework achieves more gains. While considering the identification consistency estimati
This study is part of the FOssil Groups Origin (FOGO) project which aims at carrying out a systematic and multiwavelength study of a large sample of fossil systems. Here we focus on the relation between the optical luminosity (Lopt) and X-ray luminosity (Lx). Out of a sample of 28 candidate fossil systems, we consider a sample of 12 systems whose fossil classification has been confirmed by a companion study. They are compared with the complementary sample of 16 systems whose fossil nature is not confirmed and with a subsample of 102 galaxy systems from the RASS-SDSS galaxy cluster survey. Fossil and normal systems span the same redshift range 0<z<0.5 and have the same Lx distribution. For each fossil system, the Lx in the 0.1-2.4 keV band is computed using data from the ROSAT All Sky Survey. For each fossil and normal system we homogeneously compute Lopt in the r-band within the characteristic cluster radius, using data from the SDSS DR7. We sample the Lx-Lopt relation over two orders of magnitude in Lx. Our analysis shows that fossil systems are not statistically distinguishable from the normal systems both through the 2D KS test and the fit of the Lx-Lopt relation. The opti
Galaxy-wide outflows driven by active galactic nuclei (AGN) are an important ingredient in galaxy evolution. Analytical calculations suggest that such outflows have significant inertia and can persist long after the AGN itself fades away. We use hydrodynamical simulations of outflows in idealised galaxy bulges to investigate the propagation of these `fossil' AGN outflows. We find that fossil outflows should be common in gas-poor galaxies but form only rarely in gas-rich ones; in general, fossil outflows should outnumber driven ones by a factor of a few in the local Universe, and possibly more at high redshift. When they do form, fossil outflows tend to be lopsided and detached from the nucleus, and colder than their driven counterparts, with a more prominent molecular phase. Spatially resolved and/or multiphase observations can help distinguish fossil AGN outflows from star formation-driven ones, which have similar integrated properties. We discuss a number of spatially-resolved observations of outflows, suggesting that most show evidence of fossil outflow existence, sometimes together with driven outflows on smaller scales.
The evolution of present-day fossil galaxy groups is studied in the Millennium Simulation. Using the corresponding Millennium gas simulation and semi-analytic galaxy catalogues, we select fossil groups at redshift zero according to the conventional observational criteria, and trace the haloes corresponding to these groups backwards in time, extracting the associated dark matter, gas and galaxy properties. The space density of the fossils from this study is remarkably close to the observed estimates and various possibilities for the remaining discrepancy are discussed. The fraction of X-ray bright systems which are fossils appears to be in reasonable agreement with observation, and the simulations predict that fossil systems will be found in significant numbers (3-4% of the population) even in quite rich clusters. We find that fossils assemble a higher fraction of their mass at high redshift, compared to non-fossil groups, with the ratio of the currently assembled halo mass to final mass, at any epoch, being about 10 to 20% higher for fossils. This supports the paradigm whereby fossils represent undisturbed, early-forming systems in which large galaxies have merged to form a single
We investigate the cores of fossil galaxy groups and clusters (`fossil systems') using archival Chandra data for a sample of 17 fossil systems. We determined the cool-core fraction for fossils via three observable diagnostics, the central cooling time, cuspiness, and concentration parameter. We quantified the dynamical state of the fossils by the X-ray peak/brightest cluster galaxy (BCG), and the X-ray peak/emission weighted centre separations. We studied the X-ray emission coincident with the BCG to detect the presence of potential thermal coronae. A deprojection analysis was performed for z < 0.05 fossils to obtain cooling time and entropy profiles, and to resolve subtle temperature structures. We investigated the Lx-T relation for fossils from the 400d catalogue to see if the scaling relation deviates from that of other groups. Most fossils are identified as cool-core objects via at least two cool-core diagnostics. All fossils have their dominant elliptical galaxy within 50 kpc of the X-ray peak, and most also have the emission weighted centre within that distance. We do not see clear indications of a X-ray corona associated with the BCG unlike that has been observed for some
The paper has been suggested by two observations: 1) the atmospheric CO$_2$ growth rate is smaller than that ascribed to the emission of fossil fuels combustion, 2) the fossil fuel reserves are finite. The first observation has lead the way to a simple kinetic mode, based on the balance of 1) land/ocean CO$_2$ absorption and 2) CO$_2$ anthropogenic emission limited solely by depletion of the present day fossil-fuel reserves, in a business-as-usual scenario. The second observation has suggested to extrapolate past CO$_2$ emissions by fossil fuel combustion in the future years up to 2200 CE, by constraining emissions to the physical limits of reserves availability. The Meixner curve (hyperbolic secant distribution) has been used to model the pathway of resource exploitation for the three main classes of fossil fuels, crude oil, natural gas and coal. The kinetic model, driven by the extrapolated emissions, has been employed to project the CO$_2$ atmospheric concentration due to fossil fuel combustion close to the zero-reserve epoch. The result is just the output of simple models tuned on well-known experimental data. Error analysis of literature data provides the method robustness and
If during inflation the inflaton couples to a "fossil" field, some new scalar, vector, or tensor field, it typically induces a scalar-scalar-fossil bispectrum. Even if the fossil field leaves no direct physical trace after inflation, it gives rise to correlations between different Fourier modes of the curvature or, equivalently, a nonzero curvature trispectrum, but without a curvature bispectrum. Here we quantify the effects of a fossil field on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature fluctuations in terms of bipolar spherical harmonics (BiPoSHs). The effects of vector and tensor fossils can be distinguished geometrically from those of scalars through the parity of the BiPoSHs they induce. However, the two-dimensional nature of the CMB sky does not allow vectors to be distinguished geometrically from tensors. We estimate the detectability of a signal in terms of the scalar-scalar-fossil coupling for scalar, vector, and tensor fossils, assuming a local-type coupling. We comment on a divergence that arises in the quadrupolar BiPoSH from the scalar-scalar-tensor correlation in single-field slow-roll inflation.
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 $r_{500}$ for six systems in our sample. The remaining four systems show signs of significant contamination from non-ICM sources. For the six objects with successfully determined $r_{500}$ properties, we measure global temperatures in the range $2.8 \leq T_{\mathrm{X}} \leq 5.3 \ \mathrm{keV}$, bolometric X-ray luminosities of $0.8 \times 10^{44} \ \leq L_{\mathrm{X,bol}} \leq 7.7\times 10^{44} \ \mathrm{erg} \ \mathrm{s}^{-1}$, and estimate masses, as derived from $T_{\mathrm{X}}$, of $M_{500} > 10^{14} \ \mathrm{M}_{\odot}$. Fossil cluster scaling relations are constructed for a sample that combines our Suzaku observed fossils with fossils in the literature. Using measurements of global X-ray luminosity, temperature, optical luminosity, and velocity dispersion, scaling relations for the fossil sample are then compared with a control sample of non-fossil systems. We find the fits of our fossil cluster scaling relations are consistent with the r
One of the most dramatic signatures of the reionization era may be the enormous ionized bubbles around luminous quasars (with radii reaching ~40 comoving Mpc), which may survive as "fossil'' ionized regions long after their source shuts off. Here we study how the inhomogeneous intergalactic medium (IGM) evolves inside such fossils. The average recombination rate declines rapidly with time, and the brief quasar episode significantly increases the mean free path inside the fossil bubbles. As a result, even a weak ionizing background generated by galaxies inside the fossil can maintain it in a relatively highly and uniformly ionized state. For example, galaxies that would ionize 20-30% of hydrogen in a random patch of the IGM can maintain 80-90% ionization inside the fossil, for a duration much longer than the average recombination time in the IGM. Quasar fossils at z<10 thus retain their identity for nearly a Hubble time, and will appear "gray,'' distinct from both the average IGM (which has a "swiss-cheese" ionization topology and a lower mean ionized fraction), and from fully-ionized bubbles around active quasars. More distant fossils, at z>10 have a weaker galaxy-generated i
We study the dominant central giant elliptical galaxies in ``Fossil groups'' using deep optical (R-band) and near infrared (Ks-band) photometry. These galaxies are as luminous as the brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs), raising immediate interest in their link to the formation of BCGs and galaxy clusters. However, despite apparent similarities, the dominant fossil galaxies show non-boxy isophotes, in contrast to the most luminous BCGs. This study suggests that the structure of the brightest group galaxies produced in fossil groups are systematically different to the majority of BCGs. If the fossils do indeed form from the merger of major galaxies including late-types within a group, then their disky nature is consistent with the results of recent numerical simulations of semi-analytical models which suggest that gas rich mergers result in disky isophote ellipticals. We show that fossils form a homogeneous population in which the velocity dispersion of the fossil group is tightly correlated with the luminosity of the dominant elliptical galaxy. This supports the scenario in which the giant elliptical galaxies in fossils can grow to the size and luminosity of BCGs in a group environmen
Fossil galaxy systems are classically thought to be the end result of galaxy group/cluster evolution, as galaxies experiencing dynamical friction sink to the center of the group potential and merge into a single, giant elliptical that dominates the rest of the members in both mass and luminosity. Most fossil systems discovered lie within $z < 0.2$, which leads to the question: what were these systems' progenitors? Such progenitors are expected to have imminent or ongoing major merging near the brightest group galaxy (BGG) that, when concluded, will meet the fossil criteria within the look back time. Since strong gravitational lensing preferentially selects groups merging along the line of sight, or systems with a high mass concentration like fossil systems, we searched the CASSOWARY survey of strong lensing events with the goal of determining if lensing systems have any predisposition to being fossil systems or progenitors. We find that $\sim$13% of lensing groups are identified as traditional fossils while only $\sim$3% of non-lensing control groups are. We also find that $\sim$23% of lensing systems are traditional fossil progenitors compared to $\sim$17% for the control sampl
Recent advances have allowed for both morphological fossil evidence and molecular sequences to be integrated into a single combined inference of divergence dates under the rule of Bayesian probability. In particular the fossilized birth-death tree prior and the Lewis-Mk model of discrete morphological evolution allow for the estimation of both divergence times and phylogenetic relationships between fossil and extant taxa. We exploit this statistical framework to investigate the internal consistency of these models by producing phylogenetic estimates of the age of each fossil in turn, within two rich and well-characterized data sets of fossil and extant species (penguins and canids). We find that the estimation accuracy of fossil ages is generally high with credible intervals seldom excluding the true age and median relative error in the two data sets of 5.7% and 13.2% respectively. The median relative standard error (RSD) was 9.2% and 7.2% respectively, suggesting good precision, although with some outliers. In fact in the two data sets we analyze the phylogenetic estimates of fossil age is on average < 2 My from the midpoint age of the geological strata from which it was excava
We investigate the origin and evolution of fossil groups in a concordance LCDM cosmological simulation. We consider haloes with masses between $(1-5)\times10^{13} \hMsun$ and study the physical mechanisms that lead to the formation of the large gap in magnitude between the brightest and the second most bright group member, which is typical for these fossil systems. Fossil groups are found to have high dark matter concentrations, which we can relate to their early formation time. The large magnitude-gaps arise after the groups have build up half of their final mass, due to merging of massive group members. We show that the existence of fossil systems is primarily driven by the relatively early infall of massive satellites, and that we do not find a strong environmental dependence for these systems. In addition, we find tentative evidence for fossil group satellites falling in on orbits with typically lower angular momentum, which might lead to a more efficient merger onto the host. We find a population of groups at higher redshifts that go through a ``fossil phase'': a stage where they show a large magnitude-gap, which is terminated by renewed infall from their environment.