Understanding the interplay between the phenomena of active galactic nuclei (AGN) and starbursts remains an open issue in studies of galaxy evolution. The galaxy NGC 34 is the remnant of the merger of two former gas-rich disc galaxies and it also hosts a strong nuclear starburst. In this work, we map the ionized and molecular gas present in the nuclear regions of the galaxy NGC 34 using adaptive optics (AO) assisted near infrared (NIR) integral field unity (IFU) observations. Our main goals are to better constrain the energy source of this object and to use NGC 34 as a laboratory to probe the AGN-starburst connection in the context of galaxy evolution and AGN feeding and feedback processes.

In this work, we study the optical properties of 58 CSS/GPS radio sources selected from the literature in order to determine the impact of the radio-jet in the circumnuclear environment of these objects. We obtained optical spectra for all sources from SDSS-DR12 and performed a stellar population synthesis using the Starlight code. Our results indicate that the sample is dominated by intermediate to old stellar populations and there is no strong correlation between optical and radio properties of these sources.

We present the Catalogue of High REsolution Spectra of Obscured Sources (CHRESOS) from the XMM-Newton Science Archive. It comprises soft X-ray emission-lines from C to Si and the Fe 3C and Fe 3G L-shell transitions. Here, we concentrate on the oxygen emission-lines O VII(f) and O VIII Lyα to shed light onto the physical processes with which their formation can be related to: active galactic nucleus vs. star-forming regions. We are analysing the relationships between the oxygen lines and the luminosities of: [OIII]λ5007, [OIV]25.89μm, MIR-12μm, FIR-60μm, FIR-100μm, and hard X-rays continuum bands.

We have used near-infrared and optical Integral Field Spectroscopy along with optical images to study the inner 100 pc of NGC 4111 in a project to investigate the stellar and gas kinematics in the surroundings of Supermassive Black Holes in nearby galaxies. We have compared the inner stellar and gas kinematics with data of the outer regions of the galaxy. We found larger scale hot ionized gas and warm molecular gas within the inner 100 pc that is in counter-rotation relative to the stellar kinematics, a sign of inflowing material that is probably triggering an Active Galactic Nucleus. This is supported by the nuclear X-ray emission which is heating the molecular gas and causing it to emit. The presence of large amounts of dust in a polar ring suggests that this is a fairly recent event probably due to the capture of a dwarf galaxy.

Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are objects in which a supermassive black hole is fed by gas and, as this generates energy, can ionise the environment and interact with it by jets and winds. This work is focused on the processes of feeding and feedback in the nucleus of NGC 613. This object is a case in which both phenomena can be studied in some detail. The kinematics and morphology of the molecular gas trace the feeding process while the ionization cone, seen in [O iii]λ5007 and soft X-rays, as well as the radio jet and wind/outflows are associated with feedback processes. In addition, we see 10 HII regions, associated with nuclear and circumnuclear young stellar populations, dominant in the optical, that makes the analysis complicated, though more interesting. For all these phenomena, NGC 613 nucleus is a vibrant example of the interplay between the AGN and the host galaxy.

We used Gemini NIFS integral field spectroscopy to analyse the molecular and ionised gas kinematics of six nearby (z ⩽ 0.015) Seyfert galaxies with a spatial coverage of 0.1 – 0.6 kpc2. By fitting the emission-line profiles using multiple Gaussian components we determined that the ionised and hot molecular gas kinematics are dominated by gas outflows and rotation, respectively, even though three objects also present molecular outflows.

Diffuse ionized gas (DIG) in galaxies can be found in early-type galaxies, in bulges of late-type galaxies, in the interarm regions of galaxy disks, and outside the plane of such disks. The emission-line spectrum of the DIG can be confused with that of a weakly active galactic nucleus. It can also bias the inference of chemical abundances and star formation rates in star forming galaxies. We discuss how one can detect and feasibly correct for the DIG contribution in galaxy spectra.

It is generally recognized that massive galaxies form through a combination of in-situ collapse and ex-situ accretion. The in-situ component forms early, where gas collapse and compaction leads to the formation of massive compact systems (blue and red “nuggets”) seen at z > 1. The subsequent accretion of satellites brings in ex-situ material, growing these nuggets in size and mass to appear as the massive early-type galaxies (ETGs) we see locally. Due to stochasticity in the accretion process, in a few rare cases a red nugget will evolve to the present day having undergone little ex-situ mass accretion. The resulting massive, compact and ancient objects have been termed “relic galaxies”. Detailed stellar population and kinematic analyses are required to characterise these systems. However, an additional crucial aspect lies in determining the fraction of ex-situ mass they have accreted since their formation. Globular cluster systems can be used to constrain this fraction, since the oldest and most metal-poor globular clusters in massive galaxies are primarily an accreted, ex-situ population. Models for the formation of relic galaxies and their globular cluster systems suggest that, due to their early compaction and limited accretion of dark-matter dominated satellites, relic galaxies should have characteristically low dark-matter mass fractions compared to ETGs of the same stellar mass.

With the exception of some nearby galaxies, we cannot resolve stars individually. To recover the galaxies star formation history (SFH), the challenge is to extract information from their integrated spectrum. A widely used tool is the full spectral fitting technique. This consists of combining simple stellar populations (SSPs) of different ages and metallicities to match the integrated spectrum. This technique works well for optical spectra, for metallicities near solar and chemical histories not much different from our Galaxy. For everything else there is room for improvement. With telescopes being able to explore further and further away, and beyond the optical, the improvement of this type of tool is crucial. SSPs use as ingredients isochrones, an initial mass function, and a library of stellar spectra. My focus are the stellar libraries, key ingredient for SSPs. Here I talk about the latest developments of stellar libraries, how they influence the SSPs and how to improve them.

We summarize here some of the results reviewed recently by Sanchez (2020) comprising the advances in the comprehension of galaxies in the nearby universe based on integral field spectroscopic galaxy surveys. In particular we explore the bimodal distribution of galaxies in terms of the properties of their ionized gas, showing the connection between the star-formation (quenching) process with the presence (absence) of molecular gas and the star-formation efficiency. We show two galaxy examples that illustrates the well known fact that ionization in galaxies (and the processes that produce it), does not happen monolitically at galactic scales. This highlight the importance to explore the spectroscopic properties of galaxies and the evolutionary processes unveiled by them at different spatial scales, from sub-kpc to galaxy wide.

Using the recent ROGUE I catalogue of galaxies with radio cores (Kozie_l-Wierzbowska et al. 2020) and after selecting the objects which are truly radio active galactic nuclei, AGNs, (which more than doubles the samples available so far), we perform a thorough comparison of the properties of radio galaxies with and without optical emission lines (galaxies where the equivalent width of Hα is smaller than 3Å are placed in the last category). We do not find any strong dichotomy between the two classes as regards the radio luminosities or black hole masses. The same is true when using the common classification into high- and low-excitation radio galaxies (HERGs and LERGs respectively).

The DIVING3D Survey (Deep Integral Field Spectrograph View of Nuclei of Galaxies) aims to observe, with high signal/noise and high spatial resolution, a statistically complete sample of southern galaxies brighter than B = 12.0 The main objectives of this survey are to study: 1) the nuclear emission line properties; 2) the circumnuclear emission line properties; 3) the central stellar kinematics and 4) the central stellar archaeology. Preliminary results of individual or small groups of galaxies have been published in 18 papers.

Based on very deep photometry, Surface Brightness Fluctuations (SBF) have been traditionally used to determine galaxy distances. We have recently computed SBF spectra of stellar populations at moderately high resolution, which are fully based on empirical stars. We show that the SBF spectra provide an unprecedented potential for stellar population studies that, so far, have been tackled on the basis of the mean fluxes. We find that the SBFs are able to unveil metal-poor stellar components at the one percent level, which are not possible to disentangle with the standard analysis. As these metal-poor components correspond to the first stages of the chemical enrichment, the SBF analysis provides stringent constrains on the quenching epoch.

This work is focused on the characterization of the Seyfert-2 galaxies hosting very large, ultra-luminous narrow-line regions (NLRs) at redshifts z = 0.2−0.34. With a space density of 4.4 Gcp−3 at z ∼ 0.3, these “Low Redshift Lyman-α Blob” (LAB) host galaxies are amongst the rarest objects in the universe, and represent an exceptional and short-lived phenomenon in the life cycle of active galactic nuclei (AGNs). We present the study of GMOS spectra for 13 LAB galaxies covering the rest frame spectral range 3700–6700 Å. Predominantly, the [OIII]λ5007 emission line radial distribution is as widespread as that of the continuum one. The emission line profiles exhibit FWHM between 300–700 Km s−1. In 7 of 13 cases a broad kinematical component is detected with FWHM within the range 600–1100 Km s−1. The exceptionally high [OIII]λ5007 luminosity is responsible for very high equivalent width reaching 1500 Å at the nucleus.

The aim of diagnostic diagrams is to classify galactic nuclei according to their photoionizing source using emission-line ratios, differentiating starburst regions from active galactic nuclei (AGN). However, the three traditional diagnostic diagrams can sometimes be ambiguous with regard to a single object. The main goal of the present work is to propose alternative diagnostic diagrams by using distinct combinations of emission lines ratios. We present these diagrams using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. With these new diagrams, it is possible to better distinguish the ionizing source in nuclei of galaxies and also to study the parameters that are relevant when considering both kinds of objects, starbursts and AGN.

We mapped the stellar population and emission gas properties in the nuclear region of NGC 6868 using datacubes extracted with Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) in the Integral Field Unit (IFU) mode. To obtain the star-formation history of this galaxy we used the starlight code together with the new generation of MILES simple stellar population models. The stellar population dominating (95% in light fraction) the central region of NGC 6868 is old and metal rich (~10 Gyr, 2.2 Z⊙). We also derived the kinematics and emission line fluxes of ionized gas with the IFSCube package. A rotation disk is clearly detected in the nuclear region of the galaxy and no broad components were detected. Also, there is a region where the emission lines disappear almost completely, probably due to diffuse ionized gas component. Channel maps, diagnostic diagrams and stellar kinematics are still under analysis.

We perform simultaneous multi-band fitting, using the routine GALFITM, of the galaxy NGC3115, in order to recover the stellar populations of its main components (a bulge, a thin disc and a thick disc). We model 11 bands, from ultraviolet to infrared, in order to take into account the galaxy younger stellar population and the presence of the Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). We find that the majority of the galaxy baryonic mass belongs to the thick disc, which is also the oldest galaxy component, consistent with results from the literature. Differently from previous works, we find that the bulge has the bluest colour and it is younger than the thick disc, either as a result of recent star formation activity, or AGN feedback, or white dwarf emission in an old stellar population. Finally, we propose that NGC3115 was formed either through a two-phase formation scenario, or via an outside-in quenching of an isolated spiral galaxy, whose thick disc had been heated-up via minor mergers with dwarf satellites.

The stellar mass–star formation rate–metallicity relation provides clues on the chemical evolution of galaxies. We revisit this relation by measuring the gas-phase metallicity using the direct method. For metal-rich galaxies this is not straightforward, because auroral emission lines sensitive the electron temperature are lost in spectral noise. In order to increase the spectral signal-to-noise ratio and detect faint auroral lines, we stack the spectra of similar galaxies. This allows us to use the direct method to obtain consistent metallicity measurements.

We analyzed the inner 320 × 535 pc2 of the elliptical galaxy NGC 1052 with integral field spectroscopy, both in the optical and in the near-infrared (NIR). The stellar population analysis revealed a dominance of old stellar populations from the optical data, and an intermediate-age ring from NIR data. When combining optical+NIR data, optical results were favoured. The emission-line analysis revealed five kinematic components, where two of them are unresolved and probably associated with the active galactic nucleus (AGN), one is associated with large-scale shocks, one with the radio jets, and the last could be explained by either a bipolar outflow, rotation in an eccentric disc or a combination of a disc and large-scale gas bubbles. Our results also indicate that the emission within the galaxy is caused by a combination of shocks and photoionization by the AGN.

We imaged the galaxy NGC 7020 with Gemini and GMOS-S interference filters centered on the Hα emission line and nearby continuum in order to detect and quantify the HII regions. Among about 200 HII regions, we detected two Hα emitting plumes or arms emerging from the galactic nucleus which, together with the nuclear emission, might indicate a process of feedback from the central region.