Jan Zieten

Field of Interests

My interests lie in the galaxy formation and evolution, with a primary focus on the properties of cluster galaxies in their respective host’s outskirts at intermediate redshift of z~0.3. These galaxies are still influenced by their infall into the more (number-) dense environments and interaction processes with established cluster members may possibly occur. The study of kinematical and structural attributes such as rotational velocity, velocity dispersion, stellar mass , star formation rates (SFRs), metallicities (Z) and others deliver the important insights into the galaxies. They are best observed in emission-line galaxies (ELGs) as their strong emission of spectral lines like Hα , Hβ, [OIII] doublet, [OII] and [NII] yield direct relations to the aforementioned properties. Additionally, they are primary targets of galactic evolution, as morphology density relations show that they must undergo processes that lead to drastic changes in their appearance and characteristics, e.g. their SFRs.

In the progress of my Master’s thesis, I am researching the outskirts of Abell S1063 at z~0.348, since this cluster has been photometrically and spectroscopically observed. The so-called Hubble Frontier Fields survey (HFF) established the parallel field of this cluster, which has been covered via HST’s photometric filters; whereas the MUSe Cosmic Assembly survey Targeting Extragalactic Legacy fields (MUSCATEL) utilized the VLT’s MUSE instrument, which allows for the spatially resolved spectroscopic investigations. The selection and use of a predefined sample of ~30 emission line galaxies, all of which are confirmed cluster members, granted me MUSCATEL team membership. Via the MPDAF python package it is possible for me to create cut-outs of the galaxies from the full MUSE data cube and also a pixel by pixel emission line flux determination, resulting in the plotting of velocity and flux maps. Furthermore, the fluxes can be converted into SFRs, Z and allow to be plotted in diagnostic diagrams or other scaling relations, serving as indicators of peculiarities. Finally, by also investigating the photometric imaging, tracers of interaction processes in their environment are established. This research can be seen as one of the few studies that investigate the affects of intermediate number-dense environment on the galactic evolution.