We obtain a sample of 87 radio-loud QSOs in the redshift range 3.6<z<4.4 by cross-correlating sources in the FIRST radio survey S{1.4GHz} > 1 mJy with star-like objects having r <20.2 in SDSS Data Release 7. Of these 87 QSOs, 80 are spectroscopically classified in previous work (mainly SDSS), and form the training set for a search for additional such sources. We apply our selection to 2,916 FIRST-DR7 pairs and find 15 likely candidates. Seven of these are confirmed as high-redshift quasars, bringing the total to 87. The candidates were selected using a neural-network, which yields 97% completeness (fraction of actual high-z QSOs selected as such) and an efficiency (fraction of candidates which are high-z QSOs) in the range of 47 to 60%. We use this sample to estimate the binned optical luminosity function of radio-loud QSOs at $z\sim 4$, and also the LF of the total QSO population and its comoving density. Our results suggest that the radio-loud fraction (RLF) at high z is similar to that at low-z and that other authors may be underestimating the fraction at high-z. Finally, we determine the slope of the optical luminosity function and obtain results consistent with previous studies of radio-loud QSOs and of the whole population of QSOs. The evolution of the luminosity function with redshift was for many years interpreted as a flattening of the bright end slope, but has recently been re-interpreted as strong evolution of the break luminosity for high-z QSOs, and our results, for the radio-loud population, are consistent with this.
We present detailed chemical evolution models for the Milky Way and M31 in presence of radial gas flows. These models follow in detail the evolution of several chemical elements (H, He, CNO, $\alpha$ elements, Fe-peak elements) in space and time. The contribution of supernovae of different type to chemical enrichment is taken into account. We find that an inside-out formation of the disks coupled with radial gas inflows of variable speed can reproduce very well the observed abundance gradients in both galaxies. We also discuss the effects of other parameters, such as a threshold in the gas density for star formation and efficiency of star formation varying with galactic radius. Moreover, for the first time we compute the galactic habitable zone in our Galaxy and M31 in presence of radial gas flows. The main effect is to enhance the number of stars hosting a habitable planet with respect to the models without radial flow, in the region of maximum probability for this occurrence. In the Milky Way the maximum number of stars hosting habitable planets is at 8 kpc from the Galactic center, and the model with radial gas flows predicts a number of planets which is 38% larger than that predicted by the classical model.
Luminous distant quasars are unique probes of the high redshift intergalactic medium (IGM) and of the growth of massive galaxies and black holes in the early universe. Absorption due to neutral Hydrogen in the IGM makes quasars beyond a redshift of z~6.5 very faint in the optical $z$-band, thus locating quasars at higher redshifts require large surveys that are sensitive above 1 micron. We report the discovery of three new z>6.5 quasars, corresponding to an age of the universe of <850 Myr, selected as z-band dropouts in the Pan-STARRS1 survey. This increases the number of known z>6.5 quasars from 4 to 7. The quasars have redshifts of z=6.50, 6.52, and 6.66, and include the brightest z-dropout quasar reported to date, PSO J036.5078+03.0498 with M_1450=-27.4. We obtained near-infrared spectroscopy for the quasars and from the MgII line we estimate that the central black holes have masses between 5x10^8 and 4x10^9 M_sun, and are accreting close to the Eddington limit (L_Bol/L_Edd=0.13-1.2). We investigate the ionized regions around the quasars and find near zone radii of R_NZ=1.5-5.2 proper Mpc, confirming the trend of decreasing near zone sizes with increasing redshift found for quasars at 5.7<z<6.4. By combining R_NZ of the PS1 quasars with those of 5.7<z<7.1 quasars in the literature, we derive a luminosity corrected redshift evolution of R_NZ,corrected=(7.2+/-0.2)-(6.1+/-0.7)x(z-6) Mpc. However, the large spread in R_NZ in the new quasars implies a wide range in quasar ages and/or a large variation in the neutral Hydrogen fraction along different lines of sight.
In the present paper, we compare the predictions of two well known mechanisms considered able to solve the cusp/core problem (a. supernova feedback; b. baryonic clumps-DM interaction) by comparing their theoretical predictions to recent observations of the inner slopes of galaxies with masses ranging from dSphs to normal spirals. We compare the $\alpha$-$V_{\rm rot}$ and the $\alpha$-$M_{\ast}$ relationships, predicted by the two models with high resolution data coming from \cite{Adams2014}, \cite{Simon2005}, LITTLE THINGS \citep{Oh2014}, THINGS dwarves \citep{Oh2011a,Oh2011b}, THINGS spirals \citep{Oh2014}, Sculptor, Fornax and the Milky Way. The comparison of the theoretical predictions with the complete set of data shows that the two models perform similarly, while when we restrict the analysis to a smaller subsample of higher quality, we show that the method presented in this paper (baryonic clumps-DM interaction) performs better than the one based on supernova feedback. We also show that, contrarily to the first model prediction, dSphs of small mass could have cored profiles. This means that observations of cored inner profiles in dSphs having a stellar mass $<10^6 M_{\odot}$ not necessarily imply problems for the $\Lambda$CDM model.
We present results from a fifteen-month campaign of high-cadence (~ 3 days) mid-infrared Spitzer and optical (B and V ) monitoring of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 6418, with the objective of determining the characteristic size of the dusty torus in this active galactic nucleus (AGN). We find that the 3.6 $\mu$m and 4.5 $\mu$m flux variations lag behind those of the optical continuum by $37.2^{+2.4}_{-2.2}$ days and $47.1^{+3.1}_{-3.1}$ days, respectively. We report a cross-correlation time lag between the 4.5 $\mu$m and 3.6 $\mu$m flux of $13.9^{+0.5}_{-0.1}$ days. The lags indicate that the dust emitting at 3.6 $\mu$m and 4.5 $\mu$m is located at a distance of approximately 1 light-month (~ 0.03 pc) from the source of the AGN UV-optical continuum. The reverberation radii are consistent with the inferred lower limit to the sublimation radius for pure graphite grains at 1800 K, but smaller by a factor of ~ 2 than the corresponding lower limit for silicate grains; this is similar to what has been found for near-infrared (K-band) lags in other AGN. The 3.6 and 4.5 $\mu$m reverberation radii fall above the K-band $\tau \propto L^{0.5}$ size-luminosity relationship by factors $\lesssim 2.7$ and $\lesssim 3.4$, respectively, while the 4.5 $\mu$m reverberation radius is only 27% larger than the 3.6 $\mu$m radius. This is broadly consistent with clumpy torus models, in which individual optically thick clouds emit strongly over a broad wavelength range.
We present the results from coordinated X-ray observations of the ultraluminous X-ray source NGC 5204 X-1 performed by NuSTAR and XMM-Newton in early 2013. These observations provide the first detection of NGC 5204 X-1 above 10 keV, extending the broadband coverage to 0.3-20 keV. The observations were carried out in two epochs separated by approximately 10 days, and showed little spectral variation, with an observed luminosity of Lx = (4.95+/-0.11)e39 erg/s. The broadband spectrum confirms the presence of a clear spectral downturn above 10 keV, only hinted at by previous observations. This cutoff is inconsistent with the standard low/hard state seen in Galactic black hole binaries, as would be expected from an intermediate mass black hole accreting at significantly sub-Eddington rates given the observed luminosity. The continuum is apparently dominated by two optically thick thermal-like components, potentially accompanied by a faint non-thermal tail at high energies. The broadband spectrum is likely associated with an accretion disk that differs from a standard Shakura & Sunyaev thin disk.
Void induced coronene C23H12++ was suggested to be a possible carrier of the astronomically observed polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH), which shows unique molecular structure with carbon two pentagons connected with five hexagons. Well observed astronomical infrared spectrum from 3-15 micron could be almost reproduced based on density functional theory. However, there remain several discrepancies with observed spectra, especially on 11-15 micron band weaker intensity. Observed 11.2 micron intensity is comparable to 7.6-7.8 micron one. Methyl-modified molecule C24H14++ revealed that calculated peak height of 11.4 micron show fairly large intensity up to 70-90% compared with that of 7.6-7.8 micron band. Also, nitrogen atom was substituted to peripheral C-H site of void coronene to be C22H11N1++. Pentagon site substituted case show 60% peak height. This molecule also reproduced well 12-15 micron peak position and relative intensity. Vibration mode analysis demonstrated that 11.3 micron mode comes from C-H out of plane bending. Heavy nitrogen plays as like an anchor role for molecule vibration.
The Fermi bubbles are gigantic gamma-ray structure in our Galaxy. The physical origin of the bubbles is still under debate. The leading scenarios can be divided into two categories. One is the nuclear star forming activity like extragalactic starburst galaxies and the other is the past active galactic nucleus (AGN) like activity of the Galactic center supermassive black hole. In this letter, we propose that metal abundance measurements will provide an important clue to probe their origin. Based on a simple spherically symmetric bubble model, we find that the generated metallicity and abundance pattern of the bubbles gas strongly depend on assumed star formation or AGN activities. Star formation scenarios predict higher metallicities and abundance ratios of [O/Fe] and [Ne/Fe] than AGN scenarios do because of supernovae ejecta. Furthermore, the resultant abundance depends on the gamma-ray emission process because different mass injection histories are required for different the gamma-ray emission processes due to the acceleration and cooling time scale of non-thermal particles. Future X-ray missions such as Astro-H and Athena will give a clue to probe the origin of the bubbles through the abundance measurements with their high energy resolution instruments.
We report observations of four sub-damped Lyman-alpha (sub-DLA) quasar absorbers at z<0.5 obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope Cosmic Origins Spectrograph. We measure the available neutrals or ions of C, N, O, Si, P, S, Ar, Mn, Fe, and/or Ni. Our data have doubled the sub-DLA metallicity samples at z<0.5 and improved constraints on sub-DLA chemical evolution. All four of our sub-DLAs are consistent with near-solar or super-solar metallicities and relatively modest ionization corrections; observations of more lines and detailed modeling will help to verify this. Combining our data with measurements from the literature, we confirm previous suggestions that the N(HI)-weighted mean metallicity of sub-DLAs exceeds that of DLAs at all redshifts studied, even after making ionization corrections for sub-DLAs. The absorber toward PHL 1598 shows significant dust depletion. The absorbers toward PHL 1226 and PKS 0439-433 show the S/P ratio consistent with solar, i.e., they lack a profound odd-even effect. The absorber toward Q0439-433 shows super-solar Mn/Fe. For several sub-DLAs at z<0.5, [N/S] is below the level expected for secondary N production, suggesting a delay in the release of the secondary N or a tertiary N production mechanism. We constrain the electron density using Si II* and C II* absorption. We also report different metallicity vs. Delta V_90 relations for sub-DLAs and DLAs. For two sub-DLAs with detections of emission lines from the underlying galaxies, our measurements of the absorption-line metallicities are consistent with the emission-line metallicities, suggesting that metallicity gradients are not significant in these galaxies.
We discuss new constraints on the epoch of cosmic reionization and test the assumption that most of the ionizing photons responsible arose from high redshift star-forming galaxies. Good progress has been made in charting the end of reionization through spectroscopic studies of z~6-8 QSOs, gamma-ray bursts and galaxies expected to host Lyman-alpha emission. However, the most stringent constraints on its duration have come from the integrated optical depth, tau, of Thomson scattering to the cosmic microwave background. Using the latest data on the abundance and luminosity distribution of distant galaxies from Hubble Space Telescope imaging, we simultaneously match the reduced value tau=0.066 +/- 0.012 recently reported by the Planck collaboration and the evolving neutrality of the intergalactic medium with a reionization history within 6 <~ z <~ 10, thereby reducing the requirement for a significant population of very high redshift (z>>10) galaxies. Our analysis strengthens the conclusion that star-forming galaxies dominated the reionization process and has important implications for upcoming 21cm experiments and searches for early galaxies with James Webb Space Telescope.
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Reverberation mapping probes the structure of the broad emission-line region (BLR) in active galactic nuclei (AGN). The radius of the BLR along with the virial velocity of the BLR gas can be used to measure the mass of the supermassive black hole. The main systematic uncertainty affecting reverberation mapping is the unknown structure of the BLR. We develop a new method for analysing reverberation mapping data based on regularized linear inversion (RLI) that includes statistical modelling of the AGN continuum light curves. This method enables fast, flexible, and robust calculation of velocity-resolved response maps to probe BLR structure. Contrary to other methods, RLI allows for negative response in the BLR, such as when some areas of the BLR respond in inverse proportion to a change in ionizing continuum luminosity. We present time delays, integrated response functions, and velocity-delay maps for the H{\beta} broad emission line in five nearby AGN, as well as H{\alpha} and H{\gamma} broad emission lines in Arp 151, using data from the Lick AGN Monitoring Project 2008. We find indications of prompt response in three of the objects (Arp 151, NGC 5548 and SBS 1116+583A) with additional prompt response in the red wing of H{\beta}. In SBS 1116+583A we find evidence for a multimodal broad prompt response followed by a second narrow response at 10 days. All time delays are consistent with results from cross correlation and the velocity-delay maps are consistent with results from maximum entropy and dynamical modelling methods. There is no clear indication of negative response in any of the objects. We conclude that regularized linear inversion with statistical light curve modelling provides a fast, complementary method for velocity-resolved reverberation mapping that makes very few assumptions regarding the shape of the response function and requires minimal user input.
We present a spectroscopic study of 287 Planetary Nebulas (PNs) in a total area of ~0.4 deg^2 around the BCG M87 in Virgo A. With these data we can distinguish the stellar halo from the co-spatial intracluster light (ICL). PNs were identified from their narrow and symmetric redshifted lambda 5007\4959 Angstrom [OIII] emission lines, and the absence of significant continuum. We implement a robust technique to measure the halo velocity dispersion from the projected phase-space to identify PNs associated with the M87 halo and ICL. The velocity distribution of the spectroscopically confirmed PNs is bimodal, containing a narrow component centred on the systemic velocity of the BCG and an off-centred broader component, that we identify as halo and ICL, respectively. Halo and ICPN have different spatial distributions: the halo PNs follow the galaxy's light, whereas the ICPNs are characterised by a shallower power-law profile. The composite PN number density profile shows the superposition of different PN populations associated with the M87 halo and the ICL, characterised by different PN alpha-parameters, the ICL contributing ~3 times more PNs per unit light. Down to m_5007=28.8, the M87 halo PN luminosity function (PNLF) has a steeper slope towards faint magnitudes than the IC PNLF, and both are steeper than the standard PNLF for the M31 bulge. Moreover, the IC PNLF has a dip at ~1-1.5 mag fainter than the bright cutoff, reminiscent of the PNLFs of systems with extended star formation history. The M87 halo and the Virgo ICL are dynamically distinct components with different density profiles and velocity distribution. The different alpha values and PNLF shapes of the halo and ICL indicate distinct parent stellar populations, consistent with the existence of a gradient towards bluer colours at large radii. These results reflect the hierarchical build-up of the Virgo cluster.
We present ultra-high resolution cosmological hydrodynamic simulations of $M_*\simeq10^{4-6}M_{\odot}$ dwarf galaxies that form within $M_{v}=10^{9.5-10}M_{\odot}$ dark matter halos. Our simulations rely on the FIRE implementation of star formation feedback and were run with high enough force and mass resolution to directly resolve stellar and dark matter structure on the ~200 pc scales of interest for classical and ultra-faint dwarfs in the Local Group. The resultant galaxies sit on the $M_*$ vs. $M_{v}$ relation required to match the Local Group stellar mass function. They have bursty star formation histories and also form with half-light radii and metallicities that broadly match those observed for local dwarfs at the same stellar mass. For the first time we demonstrate that it is possible to create a large (~1 kpc) dark matter core in a cosmological simulation of an $M_*\simeq10^6M_{\odot}$ dwarf galaxy that resides within an $M_{v}=10^{10}M_{\odot}$ halo -- precisely the scale of interest for resolving the Too Big to Fail problem. However, these large cores are not ubiquitous and appear to correlate closely with the star formation histories of the dwarfs: dark matter cores are largest in systems that form their stars late ($z\lesssim2$), after the early epoch of cusp building mergers has ended. Our $M_*\simeq10^4M_{\odot}$ dwarf retains a cuspy dark matter halo density profile that matches almost identically that of a dark-matter only run of the same system. Despite forming in a field environment, this very low mass dwarf has observable properties that match closely to those of ultra-faint satellite galaxies of the Milky Way, including a uniformly old stellar population (>10 Gyr). Though ancient, most of the stars in our ultra-faint form after reionization; the UV field acts mainly to suppress fresh gas accretion, not to boil away gas that is already present in the proto-dwarf.
With a substantial nuclear molecular gas reservoir and broad, high-velocity CO molecular line wings previously interpreted as an outflow, NGC 1266 is a rare SB$0$ galaxy. Previous analyses of interferometry, spectrally resolved low-$J$ CO emission lines, and unresolved high-$J$ emission lines have established basic properties of the molecular gas and the likely presence of an AGN. Here, new spectrally resolved CO $J = 5 - 4$ to $J = 8 - 7$ lines from {\it Herschel Space Observatory} HIFI observations are combined with ground-based observations and high-$J$ {\it Herschel} SPIRE observations to decompose the nuclear and putative outflow velocity components and to model the molecular gas to quantify its properties. Details of the modeling and results are described, with comparisons to previous results and exploration of the implications for the gas excitation mechanisms. Among the findings, like for other galaxies, the nuclear and putative outflow molecular gas are well represented by components that are cool ($T_{nuclear} = 6^{+10}_{-2}$ K and $T_{outflow} \sim 30$ K), comprising bulk of the mass (Log $M_{nuclear}/M_{\odot} = 8.3^{+0.5}_{-0.4}$ and Log $M_{outflow}/M_{\odot} = 7.6^{+0.3}_{-0.3}$), and the minority of the luminosity (Log $L_{nuclear}/L_{\odot} = 5.44^{+0.22}_{-0.18}$ and Log $L_{outflow}/L_{\odot} \sim 6.5$) and warm ($T_{nuclear} = 74^{+130}_{-26}$ K and $T_{outflow} > 100$ K), comprising a minority of the mass (Log $M_{nuclear}/M_{\odot} = 7.3^{+0.5}_{-0.5}$ and Log $M_{outflow}/M_{\odot} \sim 6.3$) but the majority of the luminosity (Log $L_{nuclear}/L_{\odot} = 6.90^{+0.16}_{-0.16}$ and Log $L_{outflow}/L_{\odot} \sim 7.2$). The outflow has an anomalously high $L_\mathrm{CO}/L_\mathrm{FIR}$ of $1.7 \times 10^{-3}$ and is almost certainly shock excited.
Small hydrocarbons, such as C2H, C3H and C3H2 are more abundant in photo-dissociation regions (PDRs) than expected based on gas-phase chemical models. To explore the hydrocarbon chemistry further, we observed a key intermediate species, the hydrocarbon ion l-C3H+, in the Horsehead PDR with the Plateau de Bure Interferometer at high-angular resolution (6''). We compare with previous observations of C2H and c-C3H2 at similar angular resolution and new gas-phase chemical model predictions to constrain the dominant formation mechanisms of small hydrocarbons in low-UV flux PDRs. We find that, at the peak of the HCO emission (PDR position), the measured l-C3H+, C2H and c-C3H2 abundances are consistent with current gas-phase model predictions. However, in the first PDR layers, at the 7.7 mum PAH band emission peak, which are more exposed to the radiation field and where the density is lower, the C2H and c-C3H2 abundances are underestimated by an order of magnitude. At this position, the l-C3H+ abundance is also underpredicted by the model but only by a factor of a few. In addition, contrary to the model predictions, l-C3H+ peaks further out in the PDR than the other hydrocarbons, C2H and c-C3H2. This cannot be explained by an excitation effect. Current gas-phase photochemical models thus cannot explain the observed abundances of hydrocarbons, in particular in the first PDR layers. Our observations are consistent with a top-down hydrocarbon chemistry, in which large polyatomic molecules or small carbonaceous grains are photo-destroyed into smaller hydrocarbon molecules/precursors.
We study the density profile and shape of the Galactic halo using deep multicolour images from the MENeaCS and CCCP projects, over 33 fields selected to avoid overlap with the Galactic plane. Using multicolour selection and PSF homogenization techniques we obtain catalogues of F stars (near-main sequence turnoff stars) out to Galactocentric distances up to 60kpc. Grouping nearby lines of sight, we construct the stellar density profiles through the halo in eight different directions by means of photometric parallaxes. Smooth halo models are then fitted to these profiles. We find clear evidence for a steepening of the density profile power law index around R=20 kpc, from -2.50 +- 0.04 to -4.85 +- 0.04, and for a flattening of the halo towards the poles with best-fit axis ratio 0.63 +- 0.02. Furthermore, we cannot rule out a mild triaxiality (w>=0.8). We recover the signatures of well-known substructure and streams that intersect our lines of sight. These results are consistent with those derived from wider but shallower surveys, and augur well for upcoming, wide-field surveys of comparable depth to our pencil beam surveys.
In order to derive the AGN contribution to the cosmological ionizing emissivity we have selected faint AGN candidates at $z>4$ in the CANDELS GOODS-South field which is one of the deepest fields with extensive multiwavelength coverage from Chandra, HST, Spitzer and various groundbased telescopes. We have adopted a relatively novel criterion. As a first step high redshift galaxies are selected in the NIR $H$ band down to very faint levels ($H\leq27$) using reliable photometric redshifts. This corresponds at $z>4$ to a selection criterion based on the galaxy rest-frame UV flux. AGN candidates are then picked up from this parent sample if they show X-ray fluxes above a threshold of $F_X\sim 1.5\times 10^{-17}$ cgs (0.5-2 keV). We have found 22 AGN candidates at $z>4$ and we have derived the first estimate of the UV luminosity function in the redshift interval $4<z<6.5$ and absolute magnitude interval $-22.5\lesssim M_{1450} \lesssim -18.5$ typical of local Seyfert galaxies. The faint end of the derived luminosity function is about two/four magnitudes fainter at $z\sim 4-6$ than that derived from previous UV surveys. We have then estimated ionizing emissivities and hydrogen photoionization rates in the same redshift interval under reasonable assumptions and after discussion of possible caveats, the most important being the large uncertainties involved in the estimate of photometric redshift for sources with featureless, almost power-law SEDs and/or low average escape fraction of ionizing photons from the AGN host galaxies. We argue that, under reasonable evaluations of possible biases, the probed AGN population can produce at $z=4-6.5$ photoionization rates consistent with that required to keep highly ionized the intergalactic medium observed in the Lyman-$\alpha$ forest of high redshift QSO spectra, providing an important contribution to the cosmic reionization.
Infrared spectroscopic observations have established the presence of hydrocarbon ices on Pluto and other TNOs, but the abundances of such molecules cannot be deduced without accurate optical constants (n, k) and reference spectra. In this paper we present our recent measurements of near- and mid-infrared optical constants for ethane (C$_2$H$_6$) and ethylene (C$_2$H$_4$) in multiple ice phases and at multiple temperatures. As in our recent work on acetylene (C$_2$H$_2$), we also report new measurements of the index of refraction of each ice at 670 nm. Comparisons are made to earlier work where possible, and electronic versions of our new results are made available.
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Using the example of the tidal stream of the Milky Way globular cluster Palomar 5 (Pal 5), we demonstrate how observational data on streams can be efficiently reduced in dimensionality and modeled in a Bayesian framework. Our approach combines detection of stream overdensities by a Difference-of-Gaussians process with fast streakline models, a continuous likelihood function built from these models, and inference with MCMC. By generating $\approx10^7$ model streams, we show that the geometry of the Pal 5 debris yields powerful constraints on the solar position and motion, the Milky Way and Pal 5 itself. All 10 model parameters were allowed to vary over large ranges without additional prior information. Using only SDSS data and a few radial velocities from the literature, we find that the distance of the Sun from the Galactic Center is $8.30\pm0.25$ kpc, and the transverse velocity is $253\pm16$ km/s. Both estimates are in excellent agreement with independent measurements of these quantities. Assuming a standard disk and bulge model, we determine the Galactic mass within Pal 5's apogalactic radius of 19 kpc to be $(2.1\pm0.4)\times10^{11}$ M$_\odot$. Moreover, we find the potential of the dark halo with a flattening of $q_z = 0.95^{+0.16}_{-0.12}$ to be essentially spherical within the radial range that is effectively probed by Pal 5. We also determine Pal 5's mass, distance and proper motion independently from other methods, which enables us to perform vital cross-checks. We conclude that with more observational data and by using additional prior information, the precision of this method can be significantly increased.
We combine HST/WFC3 imaging and G141 grism observations from the CANDELS and 3D-HST surveys to produce a catalog of grism spectroscopic redshifts for galaxies in the CANDELS/GOODS-South field. The WFC3/G141 grism spectra cover a wavelength range of 1.1<lambda<1.7 microns with a resolving power of R~130 for point sources, thus providing rest-frame optical spectra for galaxies out to z~3.5. The catalog is selected in the H-band (F160W) and includes both galaxies with and without previously published spectroscopic redshifts. Grism spectra are extracted for all H-band detected galaxies with H<24 and a CANDELS photometric redshift z_phot > 0.6. The resulting spectra are visually inspected to identify emission lines and redshifts are determined using cross-correlation with empirical spectral templates. To establish the accuracy of our redshifts, we compare our results against high-quality spectroscopic redshifts from the literature. Using a sample of 411 control galaxies, this analysis yields a precision of sigma_NMAD=0.0028 for the grism-derived redshifts, which is consistent with the accuracy reported by the 3D-HST team. Our final catalog covers an area of 153 square arcmin and contains 1019 redshifts for galaxies in GOODS-S. Roughly 60% (608/1019) of these redshifts are for galaxies with no previously published spectroscopic redshift. These new redshifts span a range of 0.677 < z < 3.456 and have a median redshift of z=1.282. The catalog contains a total of 234 new redshifts for galaxies at z>1.5. In addition, we present 20 galaxy pair candidates identified for the first time using the grism redshifts in our catalog, including four new galaxy pairs at z~2, nearly doubling the number of such pairs previously identified.
We investigate the dynamical evolution of a star cluster in an external tidal field by using N-body simulations, with focus on the effects of the presence or absence of neutron star natal velocity kicks.We show that, even if neutron stars typically represent less than 2% of the total bound mass of a star cluster, their primordial kinematic properties may affect the lifetime of the system by up to almost a factor of four. We interpret this result in the light of two known modes of star cluster dissolution, dominated by either early stellar evolution mass loss or two-body relaxation. The competition between these effects shapes the mass loss profile of star clusters, which may either dissolve abruptly ("jumping"), in the pre-core-collapse phase, or gradually ("skiing"), after having reached core collapse.
We propose a novel scenario for the formation of Globular Clusters (GCs) based on the merger of two or more atomic cooling halos at high-redshift (z>6). The model naturally fulfills several key observational constraints on GCs that have emerged in the last decade. Specifically, absolute and relative ages, widespread presence of multiple stellar populations, spatial distribution around host galaxies, and correlations between galactocentric radius and metallicity. In our framework, the oldest globular clusters form the first generation stars as an intense burst in the center of a minihalo that grows above the threshold for hydrogen cooling (halo mass M_h~1e8 Msun) and undergoes a major merger within the cooling timescale (~150 Myr). Subsequent minor mergers and sustained gas infall bring new supply of pristine gas at the halo center, diluting AGB ejecta, and triggering additional bursts of star formation which form multiple generation of stars in the majority of the clusters. The DM halo around the GC is then stripped during assembly of the host galaxy halo. Our modeling is based on the merging history of dark-matter halos, and thus has no free adjustable parameters within the concordance LCDM cosmology. As a first application, based on a high-resolution cosmological simulation, we make quantitative predictions for the age distribution of the old GC population (Age=13.0+/-0.2 Gyr). We suggest that a similar merging mechanism is responsible for forming the sequence of younger and progressively metal richer clusters, through subhalo-subhalo merging in the later stages of massive halo assembly.
The Lick-index spectrophotometric system is investigated in its inherent statistical and operational properties to ease a more appropriate use for astrophysical studies. Non-Gaussian effects in the index standardization procedure suggest that a minimum S/N ratio has to be reached by spectral data, such as S/N >= 5 px^{-1} for a spectral resolution R~2000. In addition, index (re-)definition in terms of narrow-band "color" should be preferred over the classical pseudo-equivalent width scheme. The overlapping wavelength range among different indices is also an issue, as it may lead the latter ones to correlate, beyond any strictly physical relationship. The nested configuration of the Fe5335, Fe5270 indices, and the so-called "Mg complex" (including Mg1, Mg2 and Mgb) is analysed, in this context, by assessing the implied bias when joining entangled features into "global" diagnostic meta-indices, like the perused [MgFe] metallicity tracer. The perturbing effect of [OIII](5007) and [NI](5199) forbidden gas emission on Fe5015 and Mgb absorption features is considered, and an updated correction scheme is proposed when using [OIII](5007) as a proxy to appraise Hbeta residual emission. When applied to present-day elliptical galaxy population, the revised Hbeta scale leads, on average, to 20-30% younger age estimates. Finally, the misleading role of the christening element in Lick-based chemical analyses is illustrated for the striking case of Fe4531. In fact, while Iron is nominally the main contributor to the observed feature in high-resolution spectra, we have shown that the Fe4531 index actually maximizes its responsiveness to Titanium abundance.
The apparent correlation between the specific star formation rate (sSFR) and total stellar mass (M_star) of galaxies is a fundamental relationship indicating how they formed their stellar populations. To attempt to understand this relation, we hypothesize that the relation and its evolution is regulated by the increase in the stellar and gas mass surface density in galaxies with redshift, which is itself governed by the angular momentum of the accreted gas, the amount of available gas, and by self-regulation of star formation. With our model, we can reproduce the specific SFR-M_star relations at z~1-2 by assuming gas fractions and gas mass surface densities similar to those observed for z=1-2 galaxies. We further argue that it is the increasing angular momentum with cosmic time that causes a decrease in the surface density of accreted gas. The gas mass surface densities in galaxies are controlled by the centrifugal support (i.e., angular momentum), and the sSFR is predicted to increase as, sSFR(z)=(1+z)^3/t_H0, as observed (where t_H0 is the Hubble time and no free parameters are necessary). At z>~2, we argue that star formation is self-regulated by high pressures generated by the intense star formation itself. The star formation intensity must be high enough to either balance the hydrostatic pressure (a rather extreme assumption) or to generate high turbulent pressure in the molecular medium which maintains galaxies near the line of instability (i.e. Toomre Q~1). The most important factor is the increase in stellar and gas mass surface density with redshift, which allows distant galaxies to maintain high levels of sSFR. Without a strong feedback from massive stars, such galaxies would likely reach very high sSFR levels, have high star formation efficiencies, and because strong feedback drives outflows, ultimately have an excess of stellar baryons (abridged).
We use a Cartesian grid to simulate the flow of gas in a barred Galactic potential and investigate the effects of varying the sound speed in the gas and the resolution of the grid. For all sound speeds and resolutions, streamlines closely follow closed orbits at large and small radii. At intermediate radii shocks arise and the streamlines shift between two families of closed orbits. The point at which the shocks appear and the streamlines shift between orbit families depends strongly on sound speed and resolution. For sufficiently large values of these two parameters, the transfer happens at the cusped orbit as hypothesised by Binney et al. over two decades ago. For sufficiently high resolutions the flow downstream of the shocks becomes unsteady. If this unsteadiness is physical, as appears to be the case, it provides a promising explanation for the asymmetry in the observed distribution of CO.
We investigate properties of Galactic microlensing events in which a stellar object is lensed by a neutron star. For an all-sky photometric microlensing survey, we determine the number of lensing events caused by $\sim10^{5}$ potentially-observable radio pulsars to be $\sim0.2\ \rm{yr^{-1}}$ for $10^{10}$ background stellar sources. We expect a few detectable events per year for the same number of background sources from an astrometric microlensing survey. We show that such a study could lead to precise measurements of radio pulsar masses. For instance, if a pulsar distance could be constrained through radio observations, then its mass would be determined with a precision of $\sim10\%$. We also investigate the time-scale distributions for neutron star events, finding that they are much shorter than had been previously thought. For photometric events towards the Galactic centre that last $\sim15$ days, around $7\%$ will have a neutron star lens. This fraction drops rapidly for longer time-scales. Away from the bulge region we find that neutron stars will contribute $\sim40\%$ of the events that last less than $\sim10$ days. These results are in contrast to earlier work which found that the maximum fraction of neutron star events would occur on time-scales of hundreds of days.
We present a new method to construct fully self-consistent equilibrium models of multi-component disc galaxies similar to the Milky Way. We define distribution functions for the stellar disc and dark halo that depend on phase space position only through action coordinates. We then use an iterative approach to find the corresponding gravitational potential. We study the adiabatic response of the initially spherical dark halo to the introduction of the baryonic component and find that the halo flattens in its inner regions with final minor-major axis ratios $q$ = 0.75 - 0.95. The extent of the flattening depends on the velocity structure of the halo particles with radially biased models exhibiting a stronger response. In this latter case, which is according to cosmological simulations the most likely one, the new density structure resembles a "dark disc" superimposed on a spherical halo. We discuss the implications of these results for our recent estimate of the local dark matter density. The velocity distribution of the dark-matter particles near the Sun is very non-Gaussian. All three principal velocity dispersions are boosted as the halo contracts, and at low velocities a plateau develops in the distribution of $v_z$. For models similar to a state-of-the-art Galaxy model we find velocity dispersions around 155 km s$^{-1}$ for $v_z$ and the tangential velocity, $v_\varphi$, and 140 - 175 km s$^{-1}$ for the in-plane radial velocity, $v_R$, depending on the anisotropy of the model.
The log-normal distribution represents the probability of finding randomly distributed particles in a micro canonical ensemble with high entropy. To a first approximation, a modified form of this distribution with a truncated termination may represent an isolated galactic disk, and this disk density distribution model was therefore run to give the best fit to the observational rotation curves for 37 representative galaxies. The resultant curves closely matched the observational data for a wide range of velocity profiles and galaxy types with rising, flat or descending curves in agreement with Verheijen's classification of 'R', 'F' and 'D' type curves, and the corresponding theoretical total disk masses could be fitted to a baryonic Tully Fisher relation (bTFR). Nine of the galaxies were matched to galaxies with previously published masses, suggesting a mean excess dynamic disk mass of dex0.61+/-0.26 over the baryonic masses. Although questionable with regard to other measurements of the shape of disk galaxy gravitational potentials, this model can accommodate a scenario in which the gravitational mass distribution, as measured via the rotation curve, is confined to a thin plane without requiring a dark-matter halo or the use of MOND.
In the solar neighbourhood, there are moving groups of stars with similar ages and others of stars with heterogeneous ages as the field stars. To explain these facts, we have constructed a simple model of three phases. Phase A: a giant interstellar cloud is uniformly accelerated (or decelerated) with respect to the field stars during a relatively short period of time (10 Myr) and the cloud's mass is uniformly increased; phase B: the acceleration (or deceleration) and mass accretion of the cloud cease. The star formation spreads throughout the cloud, giving origin to stellar groups of similar ages; and phase C: the cloud loses all its gaseous component at a constant rate and in parallel is uniformly decelerated (or accelerated) until reaching the initial velocity of phase A (case 1) or the velocity of the gas cloud remains constant (case 2). Both cases give equivalent results. The system equations for the star motions governed by a time-dependent gravitational potential of the giant cloud and referred to a coordinate system co-moving with the cloud have been solved analytically. We have assumed a homogeneous spheroidal cloud of fixed semi-major axis a=300 pc and of an initial density of 7 at cm^{-3}, with a density increment of 100 per cent and a cloud's velocity variation of 30 km s^{-1}, from the beginning to the end of Phase A. The result is that about 4 per cent of the field stars that are passing within the volume of the cloud at the beginning of phase A is captured. The Sun itself could have been captured by the same cloud that originated the moving groups of the solar neighbourhood.
The cores of clusters at 0 $\lesssim$ z $\lesssim$ 1 are dominated by quiescent early-type galaxies, whereas the field is dominated by star-forming late-type ones. Galaxy properties, notably the star formation (SF) ability, are altered as they fall into overdense regions. The critical issues to understand this evolution are how the truncation of SF is connected to the morphological transformation and the responsible physical mechanism. The GaLAxy Cluster Evolution Survey (GLACE) is conducting a study on the variation of galaxy properties (SF, AGN, morphology) as a function of environment in a representative sample of clusters. A deep survey of emission line galaxies (ELG) is being performed, mapping a set of optical lines ([OII], [OIII], H$\beta$ and H$\alpha$/[NII]) in several clusters at z $\sim$ 0.40, 0.63 and 0.86. Using the Tunable Filters (TF) of OSIRIS/GTC, GLACE applies the technique of TF tomography: for each line, a set of images at different wavelengths are taken through the TF, to cover a rest frame velocity range of several thousands km/s. The first GLACE results target the H$\alpha$/[NII] lines in the cluster ZwCl 0024.0+1652 at z = 0.395 covering $\sim$ 2 $\times$ r$_{vir}$. We discuss the techniques devised to process the TF tomography observations to generate the catalogue of H$\alpha$ emitters of 174 unique cluster sources down to a SFR below 1 M$_{\odot}$/yr. The AGN population is discriminated using different diagnostics and found to be $\sim$ 37% of the ELG population. The median SFR is 1.4 M$_{\odot}$/yr. We have studied the spatial distribution of ELG, confirming the existence of two components in the redshift space. Finally, we have exploited the outstanding spectral resolution of the TF to estimate the cluster mass from ELG dynamics, finding M$_{200}$ = 4.1 $\times$ 10$^{14}$ M$_{\odot} h^{-1}$, in agreement with previous weak-lensing estimates.
The Fe Kalpha emission line is the most ubiquitous feature in the X-ray spectra of active galactic nuclei (AGN), but the origin of its narrow core remains uncertain. Here, we investigate the connection between the sizes of the Fe Kalpha core emission regions and the measured sizes of the dusty tori in 13 local Type 1 AGN. The observed Fe Kalpha emission radii (R_fe) are determined from spectrally resolved line widths in X-ray grating spectra, and the dust sublimation radii (R_dust) are measured either from optical/near-infrared reverberation time lags or from resolved near-infrared interferometric data. This direct comparison shows that the dust sublimation radius forms an outer envelope to the bulk of the Fe Kalpha emission. R_fe matches R_dust well in the AGN with the best constrained line widths currently. In a significant fraction of objects without a clear narrow line core, R_fe is similar to, or smaller than the radius of the optical broad line region. These facts place important constraints on the torus geometries for our sample. Extended tori in which the solid angle of fluorescing gas peaks at well beyond the dust sublimation radius can be ruled out. We also test for luminosity scalings of R_fe, finding that Eddington ratio is not a prime driver in determining the line location in our sample. Large uncertainties on the line core widths preclude more detailed investigations at present, a limitation which Astro-H will help to overcome.
In a universe where, according to the standard cosmological models, some 97% of the total mass-energy is still "missing in action" it behooves us to spend at least a little effort critically assessing and exploring radical alternatives. Among possible, (dare we say plausible), nonstandard but superficially viable models, those spacetimes conformal to the standard Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker class of cosmological models play a very special role --- these models have the unique and important property of permitting large non-perturbative geometric deviations from Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker cosmology without unacceptably distorting the cosmic microwave background. Performing a "cosmographic" analysis, (that is, temporarily setting aside the Einstein equations, since the question of whether or not the Einstein equations are valid on galactic and cosmological scales is essentially the same question as whether or not dark matter/dark energy actually exist), and using both supernova data and information about galactic structure, one can nevertheless place some quite significant observational constraints on any possible conformal mode --- however there is still an extremely rich range of phenomenological possibilities for both cosmologists and astrophysicists to explore.
We present a numerical code for multi-component simulation of the galactic evolution. Our code includes the following parts: $N$-body is used to evolve dark matter, stellar dynamics and dust grains, gas dynamics is based on TVD-MUSCL scheme with the extra modules for thermal processes, star formation, magnetic fields, chemical kinetics and multi-species advection. We describe our code in brief, but we give more details for the magneto-gas dynamics. We present several tests for our code and show that our code have passed the tests with a reasonable accuracy. Our code is parallelized using the MPI library. We apply our code to study the large scale dynamics of galactic discs.
The rapidly declining population of bright quasars at z~3 appears to make an increasingly small contribution to the ionising background at the HI Lyman limit. It is then generally though that massive stars in (pre-)galactic systems may provide the additional ionising flux needed to complete HI reionisation by z>6. A galaxy dominated background, however, may require that the escape fraction of Lyman continuum radiation from high redshift galaxies is as high as 10%, a value somewhat at odds with (admittedly scarce) observational constraints. High escape fractions from dwarf galaxies have been advocated, or, alternatively, a so-far undetected (or barely detected) population of unobscured, high-redshift faint AGNs. Here we question the latter hypothesis, and show that such sources, to be consistent with the measured level of the unresolved X-ray background at z=0, can provide a fraction of the HII filling factor not larger than 13% by z=6. The fraction rises to <27% in the somewhat extreme case of a constant comoving redshift evolution of the AGN emissivity. This still calls for a mean escape fraction of ionising photons from high-z galaxies >10%.
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We present Orion A giant molecular cloud core catalogs, which are based on 1.1 mm map with an angular resolution of 36 arcsec (sim 0.07 pc) and C18O (1-0) data with an angular resolution of 26.4 arcsec (sim 0.05 pc). We have cataloged 619 dust cores in the 1.1 mm map using the Clumpfind method. The ranges of the radius, mass, and density of these cores are estimated to be 0.01 - 0.20 pc, 0.6 - 1.2 times 10^2 Msun, and 0.3 times 10^4 - 9.2 times 10^6 cm^{-3}, respectively. We have identified 235 cores from the C18O data. The ranges of the radius, velocity width, LTE mass, and density are 0.13 -- 0.34 pc, 0.31 - 1.31 km s^{-1}, 1.0 - 61.8 Msun, and (0.8 - 17.5) times 10^3 cm^{-3}, respectively. From the comparison of the spatial distributions between the dust and C18O cores, four types of spatial relations were revealed: (1) the peak positions of the dust and C18O cores agree with each other (32.4% of the C18O cores), (2) two or more C18O cores are distributed around the peak position of one dust core (10.8% of the C18O cores), (3) 56.8% of the C18O cores are not associated with any dust cores, and (4) 69.3% of the dust cores are not associated with any C18O cores. The data sets and analysis are public.
We present radio images within 30$''$ of Sgr A* based on recent VLA observations at 34 GHz with 7.8 microJy sensitivity and resolution $\sim88\times46$ milliarcseconds (mas). We report 44 partially resolved compact sources clustered in two regions in the E arm of ionized gas that orbits Sgr A*. These sources have size scales ranging between ~50 and 200 mas (400 to 1600 AUs), and a bow-shock appearance facing the direction of Sgr A*. Unlike the bow-shock sources previously identified in the near-IR but associated with massive stars, these 34 GHz sources do not appear to have near-IR counterparts at 3.8 $\mu$m. We interpret these sources as a candidate population of photoevaporative protoplanetary disks (proplyds) that are associated with newly formed low mass stars with mass loss rates ~10^{-7} - 10^{-6} solar mass per year and are located at the edge of a molecular cloud outlined by ionized gas. The disks are externally illuminated by strong Lyman continuum radiation from the ~100 OB and WR massive stars distributed within 10'' of Sgr A*. The presence of proplyds implies current in-situ star formation activity near Sgr A* and opens a window for the first time to study low mass star, planetary and brown dwarf formations near a supermassive black hole.
The far-infrared (FIR) lines are key tracers of the physical conditions of the interstellar medium (ISM) and are becoming workhorse diagnostics for galaxies throughout the universe. Our goal is to explain the differences and trends observed in the FIR line emission of dwarf galaxies compared to more metal-rich galaxies. We present Herschel PACS spectroscopic observations of the CII157um, OI63 and 145um, OIII88um, NII122 and 205um, and NIII57um fine-structure cooling lines in a sample of 48 low-metallicity star-forming galaxies of the guaranteed time key program Dwarf Galaxy Survey. We correlate PACS line ratios and line-to-LTIR ratios with LTIR, LTIR/LB, metallicity, and FIR color, and interpret the observed trends in terms of ISM conditions and phase filling factors with Cloudy radiative transfer models. We find that the FIR lines together account for up to 3 percent of LTIR and that star-forming regions dominate the overall emission in dwarf galaxies. Compared to metal-rich galaxies, the ratios of OIII/NII122 and NIII/NII122 are high, indicative of hard radiation fields. In the photodissociation region (PDR), the CII/OI63 ratio is slightly higher than in metal-rich galaxies, with a small increase with metallicity, and the OI145/OI63 ratio is generally lower than 0.1, demonstrating that optical depth effects should be small on the scales probed. The OIII/OI63 ratio can be used as an indicator of the ionized gas/PDR filling factor, and is found ~4 times higher in the dwarfs than in metal-rich galaxies. The high CII/LTIR, OI/LTIR, and OIII/LTIR ratios, which decrease with increasing LTIR and LTIR/LB, are interpreted as a combination of moderate FUV fields and low PDR covering factor. Harboring compact phases of low filling factor and a large volume filling factor of diffuse gas, the ISM of low-metallicity dwarf galaxies has a more porous structure than that in metal-rich galaxies.
This review summarises the invited presentation I gave on the Milky Way disc. The idea underneath was to touch those topics that can be considered hot nowadays in the Galactic disk research: the reality of the thick disk, the spiral structure of the Milky Way, and the properties of the outer Galactic disk. A lot of work has been done in recent years on these topics, but a coherent and clear picture is still missing. Detailed studies with high quality spectroscopic data seem to support a dual Galactic disk, with a clear separation into a thin and a thick component. Much confusion and very discrepant ideas still exist concerning the spiral structure of the Milky Way. Our location in the disk makes it impossible to observe it, and we can only infer it. This process of inference is still far from being mature, and depends a lot on the selected tracers, the adopted models and their limitations, which in many cases are neither properly accounted for, nor pondered enough. Finally, there are very different opinions on the size (scale length, truncation radius) of the Galactic disk, and on the interpretation of the observed outer disk stellar populations in terms either of external entities (Monoceros, Triangulus-Andromeda, Canis Major), or as manifestations of genuine disk properties (e.g., warp and flare).
The massive and luminous star-forming region W49A is a well known Galactic candidate to probe the physical conditions and chemistry similar to those expected in external starburst galaxies. We aim to probe the physical and chemical structure of W49A on a spatial scale of ~0.8 pc based on the JCMT Spectral Legacy Survey, which covers the frequency range between 330 and 373 GHz. The wide 2x2 arcminutes field and the high spectral resolution of the HARP instrument on JCMT provides information on the spatial structure and kinematics of the cloud. For species where multiple transitions are available, we estimate excitation temperatures and column densities. We detected 255 transitions corresponding to 60 species in the 330-373 GHz range at the center position of W49A. Excitation conditions can be probed for 16 molecules. The chemical composition suggests the importance of shock-, PDR-, and hot core chemistry. Many molecular lines show a significant spatial extent across the maps including high density tracers (e.g. HCN, HNC, CS, HCO+) and tracers of UV-irradiation (e.g. CN and C2H). Large variations are seen between the sub-regions with mostly blue-shifted emission toward the Eastern tail, mostly red-shifted emission toward the Northern clump, and emission peaking around the expected source velocity toward the South-west clump. A comparison of column density ratios of characteristic species observed toward W49A to Galactic PDRs suggests that while the chemistry toward the W49A center is driven by a combination of UV-irradiation and shocks, UV-irradiation dominates for the Northern Clump, Eastern tail, and South-west clump regions. A comparison to a starburst galaxy and an AGN suggests similar C2H, CN, and H2CO abundances (with respect to the dense gas tracer 34CS) between the ~0.8 pc scale probed for W49A and the >1 kpc regions in external galaxies with global star-formation.
Large spectroscopic surveys have enabled in the recent years the computation of three-dimensional interstellar extinction maps thanks to accurate stellar atmospheric parameters and line-of-sight distances. Such maps are complementary to 3D maps extracted from photometry, allowing a more thorough study of the dust properties. Our goal is to use the high-resolution spectroscopic survey Gaia-ESO in order to obtain with a good distance resolution the interstellar extinction and its dependency as a function of the environment and the Galactocentric position. We use the stellar atmospheric parameters of more than 5000 stars, obtained from the Gaia-ESO survey second internal data release, and combine them with optical (SDSS) and near-infrared (VISTA) photometry as well as different sets of theoretical stellar isochrones, in order to calculate line-of-sight extinction and distances. The extinction coefficients are then compared with the literature to discuss their dependancy on the stellar parameters and position in the Galaxy. Within the errors of our method, our work does not show that there is any dependence of the interstellar extinction coefficient on the atmospheric parameters of the stars. We do not find any evidence of the variation of E(J-H)/E(J-K) with the angle from the Galactic centre nor with Galactocentric distance. This suggests that we are dealing with a uniform extinction law in the SDSS ugriz bands and the near-IR JHKs bands. Therefore, extinction maps using mean colour-excesses and assuming a constant extinction coefficient can be used without introducing any systematic errors.
The Local Group compact elliptical galaxy M32 hosts one of the nearest super-massive black holes (SMBHs), which has manifested itself only in X-rays to date. Based on sensitive observations taken with the {\it Karl G. Jansky} Very Large Array (VLA), we detect for the first time a compact radio source coincident with the nucleus of M32, which exhibits a flux density of $\sim$$47.3 \pm 5.9$ $\mu$Jy at 6.6 GHz. We discuss several possibilities for the nature of this source, favoring an origin of the long-sought radio emission from the central SMBH, for which we also revisit the X-ray properties based on recently acquired {\sl Chandra} and {\sl XMM-Newton} data. Our VLA observations also discover radio emission from three previously know optical planetary nebulae in the inner region of M32.
Among the many intriguing aspects of optically discovered tidal disruption events is that their temperatures are lower than expected and that the temperature does not evolve as rapidly with decreasing fallback rate as would be expected in standard disk theory. We show that this can be explained qualitatively using an idea proposed by Laor & Davis in the context of normal active galactic nuclei: that larger accretion rates imply stronger winds and thus that the accretion rate through the inner disk only depends weakly on the inflow rate at the outer edge of the disk. We also show that reasonable quantitative agreement with data requires that, as has been suggested in recent papers, the circularization radius of the tidal stream is approximately equal to the semimajor axis of the most bound orbit of the debris rather than twice the pericenter distance as would be expected without rapid angular momentum redistribution. If this explanation is correct, it suggests that the evolution of tidal disruption events may test both non-standard disk theory and the details of the interactions of the tidal stream.
We use magnetohydrodynamical simulations of converging flows to investigate the process of molecular cloud formation and evolution out of the magnetised ISM. Here, we investigate whether the observed subcritical HI clouds can become supercritical and hence allow the formation of stars within them. To do so, we vary the turbulent Mach number of the flows, as well as the initial magnetic field strength. We show that dense cores are able to build up under all conditions, but that star formation in these cores is either heavily delayed or completely suppressed if the initial field strength is B>3 microGauss. To probe the effect of magnetic diffusion, we introduce a tilting angle between the flows and the uniform background magnetic field, which mimics non--ideal MHD effects. Even with highly inclined flows, the formed cores are devoid of star formation, because no magnetically supercritical regions are build up. Hence we conclude, that the problem of how supercritical cloud cores are generated still persists.
We describe the calculation of the stochastically heated dust emission using the 3D ray-tracing dust radiative transfer code DART-Ray, which is designed to solve the dust radiative transfer problem for galaxies with arbitrary geometries. In order to reduce the time required to derive the non-equilibrium dust emission spectra from each volume element within a model, we implemented an adaptive SED library approach, which we tested for the case of axisymmetric galaxy geometries. To show the capabilities of the code, we applied DART-Ray to a high-resolution N-body+SPH galaxy simulation to predict the appearance of the simulated galaxy at a set of wavelengths from the UV to the sub-mm. We analyse the results to determine the effect of dust on the observed radial and vertical profiles of the stellar emission as well as on the attenuation and scattering of light from the constituent stellar populations. We also quantify the proportion of dust re-radiated stellar light powered by young and old stellar populations, both bolometrically and as a function of infrared wavelength.
We draw attention to a problem with the alpha-Omega dynamo when it is applied to the origin of the galactic magnetic field under the assumption of perfect flux freezing. The standard theory involves the expulsion of undesirable flux and, because of flux freezing, the mass anchored on this flux also must be expelled. The strong galactic gravitational field makes this impossible on energetic grounds. It is shown that if only short pieces of the undesirable field lines are expelled, then mass can flow down along these field lines without requiring much energy. This expulsion of only short lines of force can be accomplished by a spike instability associated with gigantic astrophysical superbubbles. The physics of this instability is discussed and the results enable an estimate to be made of the number of spikes in the galaxy. It appears that there are probably enough spikes to cut all the undesirable lines into pieces as short as a couple of kiloparsecs during a dynamo time of a billion years. These cut pieces then may be randomly rotated in a dynamo time by alpha-Omega diffusion and there is enough rotation to get rid of the undesirable flux without expelling the fields themselves. The spike process seems strong enough to allows the alpha-Omega dynamo to create the galactic field without any trouble from the boundary condition problem.
Strong gravitational lenses provide an important tool to measure masses in the distant Universe, thus testing models for galaxy formation and dark matter; to investigate structure at the Epoch of Reionization; and to measure the Hubble constant and possibly w as a function of redshift. However, the limiting factor in all of these studies has been the currently small samples of known gravitational lenses (~10^2). The era of the SKA will transform our understanding of the Universe with gravitational lensing, particularly at radio wavelengths where the number of known gravitational lenses will increase to ~10^5. Here we discuss the technical requirements, expected outcomes and main scientific goals of a survey for strong gravitational lensing with the SKA. We find that an all-sky (3pi sr) survey carried out with the SKA1-MID array at an angular resolution of 0.25-0.5 arcsec and to a depth of 3 microJy / beam is required for studies of galaxy formation and cosmology with gravitational lensing. In addition, the capability to carryout VLBI with the SKA1 is required for tests of dark matter and studies of supermassive black holes at high redshift to be made using gravitational lensing.
We report the discovery of 6.7 GHz methanol maser periodic flares in four massive star forming regions and the updated light curve for the known periodic source G22.357+0.066. The observations were carried out with the Torun 32 m radio telescope between June 2009 and April 2014. Flux density variations with period of 120 to 245 d were detected for some or all spectral features. A variability pattern with a fast rise and relatively slow fall on time-scale of 30-60 d dominated. A reverse pattern was observed for some features of G22.357+0.066, while sinusoidal-like variations were detected in G25.411+0.105. A weak burst lasting ~520 d with the velocity drift of 0.24 km/s/yr occurred in G22.357+0.066. For three sources for which high resolution maps are available, we found that the features with periodic behaviour are separated by more than 500 au from those without any periodicity. This suggests that the maser flares are not triggered by large-scale homogeneous variations in either the background seed photon flux or the luminosity of the exciting source and a mechanism which is able to produce local changes in the pumping conditions is required.
Because of its nearness to Earth, the centre of the Milky Way is the only galaxy nucleus in which we can study the characteristics, distribution, kinematics, and dynamics of the stars on milli-parsec scales. We have accurate and precise measurements of the Galactic centre's central black hole, Sagittarius A*, and can study its interaction with the surrounding nuclear star cluster in detail. This contribution aims at providing a concise overview of our current knowledge about the Milky Way's central black hole and nuclear star cluster, at highlighting the observational challenges and limitations, and at discussing some of the current key areas of investigation.
Radio and mm-wavelength observations of Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), the radio
source associated with the supermassive black hole at the center of our Galaxy,
show that it behaves as a partially self-absorbed synchrotron-emitting source.
The measured size of Sgr A* shows that the mm-wavelength emission comes from a
small region and consists of the inner accretion flow and a possible collimated
outflow. Existing observations of Sgr A* have revealed a time lag between light
curves at 43 GHz and 22 GHz, which is consistent with a rapidly expanding
plasma flow and supports the presence of a collimated outflow from the
environment of an accreting black hole.
Here we wish to measure simultaneous frequency-dependent time lags in the
light curves of Sgr A* across a broad frequency range to constrain direction
and speed of the radio-emitting plasma in the vicinity of the black hole. Light
curves of Sgr A* were taken in May 2012 using ALMA at 100 GHz using the VLA at
48, 39, 37, 27, 25.5, and 19 GHz. As a result of elevation limits and the
longitude difference between the stations, the usable overlap in the light
curves is approximately four hours. Although Sgr A* was in a relatively quiet
phase, the high sensitivity of ALMA and the VLA allowed us to detect and fit
maxima of an observed minor flare where flux density varied by ~10%.
The fitted times of flux density maxima at frequencies from 100 GHz to 19
GHz, as well as a cross-correlation analysis, reveal a simple
frequency-dependent time lag relation where maxima at higher frequencies lead
those at lower frequencies. Taking the observed size-frequency relation of Sgr
A* into account, these time lags suggest a moderately relativistic (lower
estimates: 0.5c for two-sided, 0.77c for one-sided) collimated outflow.
Large surveys have shown that red galaxies are preferentially aligned with their halos while blue galaxies have a more isotropic distribution. Since halos generally align with their filaments this introduces a bias in the measurement of the cosmic shear from weak lensing. It is therefore vitally important to understand why this difference arises. We explore the stability of different disc orientations within triaxial halos. We show that, in the absence of gas, the disc orientation is most stable when its spin is along the minor axis of the halo. Instead when gas cools onto a disc it is able to form in almost arbitrary orientation, including off the main planes of the halo (but avoiding an orientation perpendicular to the halo's intermediate axis). Substructure helps gasless galaxies reach alignment with the halo faster, but have less effect on galaxies when gas is cooling onto the disc. Our results provide a novel and natural interpretation for why red, gas poor galaxies are preferentially aligned with their halo, while blue, star-forming, galaxies have nearly random orientations, without requiring a connection between galaxies' current star formation rate and their merger history.
Massive black hole binaries are naturally predicted in the context of the hierarchical model of structure formation. The binaries that manage to lose most of their angular momentum can coalesce to form a single remnant. In the last stages of this process, the holes undergo an extremely loud phase of gravitational wave emission, possibly detectable by current and future probes. The theoretical effort towards obtaining a coherent physical picture of the binary path down to coalescence is still underway. In this paper, for the first time, we take advantage of observational studies of active galactic nuclei evolution to constrain the efficiency of gas-driven binary decay. Under conservative assumptions we find that gas accretion toward the nuclear black holes can efficiently lead binaries of any mass forming at high redshift (> 2) to coalescence within the current time. The observed "downsizing" trend of the accreting black hole luminosity function further implies that the gas inflow is sufficient to drive light black holes down to coalescence, even if they bind in binaries at lower redshifts, down to z~0.5 for binaries of ~10 million solar masses, and z~0.2 for binaries of ~1 million solar masses. This has strong implications for the detection rates of coalescing black hole binaries of future space-based gravitational wave experiments.
Cosmic rays are an important source of heating in the interstellar medium, in particular in dense molecular cloud cores shielded from the external ultraviolet radiation field. The limits placed on the cosmic-ray ionization rate from measurements of the gas temperature in dense clouds are unaffected by the uncertainties associated to the traditional methods based on the analysis of molecular abundances. However, high-resolution data are required to determine with sufficient accuracy the spatial temperature distribution within prestellar cores. In this contribution we illustrate in detail the case of the well-studied prestellar core L1544, showing that both its thermal structure and chemical composition are consistent with a cosmic ray ionization rate of $\sim 10^{-17}$~s$^{-1}$, significantly smaller than the value measured in the diffuse interstellar medium. We also briefly discuss possible applications of this method to molecular clouds of other galaxies
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We measure the stellar mass-star formation rate relation in star-forming disk galaxies at z<0.085, using Galaxy~Zoo morphologies to examine different populations of spirals as classified by their kiloparsec-scale structure. We examine the number of spiral arms, their relative pitch angle, and the presence of a galactic bar in the disk, and show that both the slope and dispersion of the M-SFR relation is constant when varying all the above parameters. We also show that mergers (both major and minor), which represent the strongest conditions for increases in star formation at a constant mass, only boost the SFR above the main relation by ~0.3 dex; this is significantly smaller than the increase seen in merging systems at z>1. Of the galaxies lying significantly above the M-SFR relation in the local Universe, more than 50% are mergers. We interpret this as evidence that the spiral arms, which are imperfect reflections of the galaxy's current gravitational potential, are either fully independent of the various quenching mechanisms or are completely overwhelmed by the combination of outflows and feedback. The arrangement of the star formation can be changed, but the system as a whole regulates itself even in the presence of strong dynamical forcing.
Black holes are believed to be one of the key ingredients of galaxy formation models, but it has been notoriously challenging to simulate them due to the very complex physics and large dynamical range of spatial scales involved. Here we address significant shortcomings of a Bondi-Hoyle-like prescription commonly invoked to estimate black hole accretion in cosmological hydrodynamic simulations of galaxy formation. We describe and implement a novel super-Lagrangian refinement scheme to increase, adaptively and 'on the fly', the mass and spatial resolution in targeted regions around the accreting black holes at limited computational cost. While our refinement scheme is generically applicable and flexible, for the purpose of this paper we select the smallest resolvable scales to match black holes' instantaneous Bondi radii, thus effectively resolving Bondi-Hoyle-like accretion in full galaxy formation simulations. This permits us to not only estimate gas properties close to the Bondi radius much more accurately, but also allows us to improve black hole accretion and feedback implementations. We thus devise a more generic feedback model where accretion and feedback depend on the geometry of the local gas distribution and where mass, energy and momentum loading are followed simultaneously. We present a series of tests of our refinement and feedback methods and apply them to models of isolated disc galaxies. Our simulations demonstrate that resolving gas properties in the vicinity of black holes is necessary to follow black hole accretion and feedback with a higher level of realism and that doing so allows us to incorporate important physical processes so far neglected in cosmological simulations.
We study how runaway stellar collisions in high redshift, metal poor star clusters form very massive stars (VMSs) that can directly collapse to intermediate mass black holes (IMBHs). We follow the evolution of a pair of two neighboring high-redshift mini-halos which are expected to host central nuclear star clusters (NSCs) with very high resolution, cosmological hydrodynamical zoom-in simulations with the adaptive mesh refinement code RAMSES. One of the two mini-halos enriches the central NSC of the other mini-halo to a critical metallicity, sufficient for Pop. II star formation at redshift z~27. We then use the spatial configuration of the flattened, asymmetrical gas cloud forming in the RAMSES simulations at the core of the metal enriched halo to set the initial conditions for simulations of an initially non-spherical star cluster with the direct summation code NBODY6 which are compared to about 2000 NBODY6 simulations of spherical star clusters for a wide range of star cluster parameters. In this way we establish that the results of our modeling are robust to changes in the assumptions for stellar initial mass function, binary fraction, and degree of initial mass mass segregation. Most of our simulations result in the formation of VMSs. The final mass of the VMS that forms depends thereby strongly on the initial mass of the NSC as well as the initial central density. For the initial central densities suggested by our RAMSES simulations, VMSs with M_VMS>400 M_sun can form in clusters with stellar masses of ~10^4 M_sun and this can increase to well over 1000 M_sun for more massive and denser clusters. The high probability we find for forming a VMS in these halos at such an early cosmic time makes collisional runaway of Pop. II star clusters a promising channel for producing large numbers of high-redshift IMBHs that may act as the seeds of super-massive black holes.
The Initial Mass Function (IMF) of early-type galaxies (ETGs) has been found to feature systematic variations by both dynamical and spectroscopic studies. In particular, spectral line strengths, based on gravity-sensitive features, suggest an excess of low-mass stars in massive ETGs, i.e. a bottom-heavy IMF. The physical drivers of IMF variations are currently unknown. The abundance ratio of alpha elements, such as [Mg/Fe], has been suggested as a possible driver of the IMF changes, although dynamical constraints do not support this claim. In this letter, we take advantage of the large SDSS database. Our sample comprises 24,781 high-quality spectra, covering a large range in velocity dispersion (100<sigma0<320 km/s) and abundance ratio (-0.1<[Mg/Fe]<+0.4). The large volume of data allows us to stack the spectra at fixed values of sigma0 and [Mg/Fe]. Our analysis -- based on gravity-sensitive line strengths -- gives a strong correlation with central velocity dispersion and a negligible variation with [Mg/Fe] at fixed sigma0. This result is robust against individual elemental abundance variations, and seems not to raise any apparent inconsistency with the alternative method based on galaxy dynamics.
The mass of the dark matter halo of the Milky Way can be estimated by fitting analytical models to the phase space distribution of dynamical tracers. We test this approach using realistic mock stellar halos constructed from the Aquarius N-body simulations of dark matter halos in the $\Lambda$CDM cosmology. We extend the standard treatment to include a Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW) potential and use a maximum likelihood method to recover the parameters describing the simulated halos from the positions and velocities of their mock halo stars. We find that the estimate of halo mass is degenerate with the estimate of halo concentration. The best-fit halo masses within the virial radius, $R_{200}$, are biased, ranging from a 40% underestimate to a 5% overestimate in the best case (when the tangential velocities of the tracers are included). There are several sources of bias. Deviations from dynamical equilibrium can potentially cause significant bias; deviations from spherical symmetry are relatively less important. Fits to stars at different galactocentric radii can give different mass estimates. By contrast, the model gives good constraints on the mass inside $0.2R_{200}$.
The morphological types of 5840 galaxies were classified by a visual inspection of color images using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 7 (DR7) to produce a morphology catalog of a representative sample of local galaxies with $z<0.01$. The sample galaxies are almost complete for galaxies brighter than $r_{pet}=17.77$. Our classification system is basically the same as that of the Third Reference Catalog of Bright Galaxies with some simplification for giant galaxies. On the other hand, we distinguish fine features of dwarf elliptical-like galaxies to classify 5 subtypes: dwarf ellipticals (dE), blue-cored dwarf ellipticals (dE$_{bc}$), dwarf spheroidals (dSph), blue dwarf ellipticals (dE$_{blue}$), and dwarf lenticulars (dS0). In addition, we denote the presence of nucleation in dE, dSph, and dS0. Elliptical galaxies and lenticular galaxies contribute only $\sim1.5\%$ and $\sim4.9\%$ of the local galaxies, respectively, whereas spirals and irregulars contribute $\sim32.1\%$ and $\sim42.8\%$, respectively. The dE$_{blue}$ galaxies, which are recently found populations of galaxies, contribute a significant fraction to the dwarf galaxies. There seems to be structural difference between dSph and dE galaxies. The dSph galaxies are fainter and bluer with shallower surface brightness gradient than dE galaxies. They also have lower fraction of galaxies with small axis ratios ($b/a \lesssim 0.4$) than dE galaxies. The mean projected distance to the nearest neighbor galaxy is $\sim260$kpc. About $1\%$ of local galaxies have no neighbors with comparable luminosity within a projected distance of 2Mpc.
We compare the stellar motion around a spiral arm created in two different scenarios, transient/co-rotating spiral arms and density-wave-like spiral arms. We generate Gaia mock data from snapshots of the simulations following these two scenarios using our stellar population code, SNAPDRAGONS, which takes into account dust extinction and the expected Gaia errors. We compare the observed rotation velocity around a spiral arm similar in position to the Perseus arm, and find that there is a clear difference in the velocity features around the spiral arm between the co-rotating spiral arm and the density-wave-like spiral arm. Our result demonstrates that the volume and accuracy of the Gaia data are sufficient to clearly distinguish these two scenarios of the spiral arms.
We have investigated the thermally induced proton/deuteron exchange in mixed amorphous H$_2$O:D$_2$O ices by monitoring the change in intensity of characteristic vibrational bending modes of H$_2$O, HDO, and D$_2$O with time and as function of temperature. The experiments have been performed using an ultra-high vacuum setup equipped with an infrared spectrometer that is used to investigate the spectral evolution of homogeneously mixed ice upon co-deposition in thin films, for temperatures in the 90 to 140 K domain. With this non-energetic detection method we find a significantly lower activation energy for H/D exchange -- $3840 \pm 125$ K -- than previously reported. Very likely this is due to the amorphous nature of the interstellar ice analogues involved. This provides reactive timescales ($\tau<10^4$ years at $T$ $>70$ K) fast enough for the process to be important in interstellar environments. Consequently, an astronomical detection of D$_2$O will be even more challenging because of its potential to react with H$_2$O to form HDO. Furthermore, additional experiments, along with previous studies, show that proton/deuteron swapping also occurs in ice mixtures of water with other hydrogen bonded molecules, in particular on the OH and NH moieties. We conclude that H/D exchange in ices is a more general process that should be incorporated into ice models that are applied to protoplanetary disks or to simulate the warming up of cometary ices in their passage of the perihelion, to examine the extent of its influence on the final deuteron over hydrogen ratio.
The dissipation of kinetic and magnetic energy in the interstellar medium (ISM) can proceed through viscous, Ohmic or ambipolar diffusion (AD). It occurs at very small scales compared to the scales at which energy is presumed to be injected. This localized heating may impact the ISM evolution but also its chemistry, thus providing observable features. Here, we perform 3D spectral simulations of decaying magnetohydrodynamic turbulence including the effects of AD. We find that the AD heating power spectrum peaks at scales in the inertial range, due to a strong alignment of the magnetic and current vectors in the dissipative range. AD affects much greater scales than the AD scale predicted by dimensional analysis. We find that energy dissipation is highly concentrated on thin sheets. Its probability density function follows a lognormal law with a power-law tail which hints at intermittency, a property which we quantify by use of structure function exponents. Finally, we extract structures of high dissipation, defined as connected sets of points where the total dissipation is most intense and we measure the scaling exponents of their geometric and dynamical characteristics: the inclusion of AD favours small sizes in the dissipative range.
We report the results of the spectroscopic observations carried out at the SAO RAS 6-m telescope for the optical components of nine new extended radio sources found in the NVSS catalog. The measured redshifts of the host galaxies are in the range of z=0.1-0.4. The physical sizes of radio sources were calculated within the standard cosmological model. The two most extended objects, 0003+1512 and 0422+0351 reach the sizes of 2.1 Mpc and 4.0 Mpc, respectively. This is close to the maximum size of known radio sources.
We present a backward approach for the interpretation of the evolution of the near-infrared and the far-infrared luminosity functions across the redshift range 0<z<3. In our method, late-type galaxies are treated by means of a parametric phenomenological method based on PEP/HerMES data up to z~4, whereas spheroids are described by means of a physically motivated backward model. The spectral evolution of spheroids is modelled by means of a single-mass model, associated to a present-day elliptical with K-band luminosity comparable to the break of the local early-type luminosity function. The formation of proto-spheroids is assumed to occurr across the redshift range 1< z < 5. The key parameter is represented by the redshift z_0.5 at which half proto-spheroids are already formed. A statistical study indicates for this parameter values between z_0.5=1.5 and z_0.5=3. We assume as fiducial value z_0.5~2, and show that this assumption allows us to describe accourately the redshift distributions and the source counts. By assuming z_0.5 ~ 2 at the far-IR flux limit of the PEP-COSMOS survey, the PEP-selected sources observed at z>2 can be explained as progenitors of local spheroids caught during their formation. We also test the effects of mass downsizing by dividing the spheroids into three populations of different present-day stellar masses. The results obtained in this case confirm the validity of our approach, i.e. that the bulk of proto-spheroids can be modelled by means of a single model which describes the evolution of galaxies at the break of the present-day early type K-band LF.
For over a century, light echoes have been observed around variable stars and transients. The discovery of centuries-old light echoes from supernovae in the Large Magellanic Cloud has allowed the spectroscopic characterization of these events using modern instrumentation, even in the complete absence of any visual record of those events. Here we review the pivotal role the Blanco 4m telescope played in these discoveries.
Self-gravitating bosonic fields can support stable and localised field configurations. For real fields, these solutions oscillate in time and are known as oscillatons. The density profile is static, and is soliton. Such solitons should be ubiquitous in models of axion dark matter, with the soliton characteristic mass and size depending on some inverse power of the axion mass. Stable configurations of non-relativistic axions are studied numerically using the Schr\"{o}dinger-Poisson system. This method, and the resulting soliton density profiles, are reviewed. Using a scaling symmetry and the uncertainty principle, the core size of the soliton can be related to the central density and axion mass, $m_a$, in a universal way. Solitons have a constant central density due to pressure-support, unlike the cuspy profile of cold dark matter (CDM). One consequence of this fact is that solitons composed of ultra-light axions (ULAs) may resolve the `cusp-core' problem of CDM. In DM halos, thermodynamics will lead to a CDM-like Navarro-Frenk-White profile at large radii, with a central soliton core at small radii. Using Monte-Carlo techniques to explore the possible density profiles of this form, a fit to stellar-kinematical data of dwarf spheroidal galaxies is performed. In order for ULAs to resolve the cusp-core problem (without recourse to baryon feedback or other astrophysical effects) the axion mass must satisfy $m_a<1.1\times 10^{-22}\text{ eV}$ at 95\% C.L. On the other hand, ULAs with $m_a\lesssim 1\times 10^{-22}\text{ eV}$ are in some tension with cosmological structure formation. An axion solution to the cusp-core problem thus makes novel predictions for future measurements of the epoch of reionisation. On the other hand, this can be seen as evidence that structure formation could soon impose a \emph{Catch 22} on axion/scalar field DM, similar to the case of warm DM.
The universe may contain several decoupled matter sectors which primarily couple through gravity to the Standard Model degrees of freedom. We focus here on the description of astrophysical environments that allow for comparable densities and spatial distributions of visible matter and decoupled dark matter. We discuss four Wolf-Rayet galaxies (NGC 1614, NGC 3367, NGC 4216 and NGC 5430) which should contain comparable amounts of decoupled dark and visible matter in the star forming regions. This could lead to the observation of Gamma Ray Burst events with physics modified by jets of dark matter radiation.
We use a volume-limited sample of quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) DR7 quasar catalog to identify quasar groups and address their statistical significance. This quasar sample has a uniform selection function on the sky and nearly a maximum possible contiguous volume that can be drawn from the DR7 catalog. Quasar groups are identified by using the Friend-of-Friend algorithm with a set of fixed comoving linking lengths. We find that the richness distribution of the richest 100 quasar groups or the size distribution of the largest 100 groups are statistically equivalent with those of randomly-distributed points with the same number density and sky coverage when groups are identified with the linking length of 70 h-1Mpc. It is shown that the large-scale structures like the huge Large Quasar Group (U1.27) reported by Clowes et al. (2013) can be found with high probability even if quasars have no physical clustering, and does not challenge the initially homogeneous cosmological models. Our results are statistically more reliable than those of Nadathur (2013), where the test was made only for the largest quasar group. It is shown that the linking length should be smaller than 50 h-1Mpc in order for the quasar groups identified in the DR7 catalog not to be dominated by associations of quasars grouped by chance. We present 20 richest quasar groups identified with the linking length of 70 h-1Mpc for further analyses.
Obscured AGNs provide an opportunity to study the material surrounding the central engine. Geometric and physical constraints on the absorber can be deduced from the reprocessed AGN emission. In particular, the obscuring gas may reprocess the nuclear X-ray emission producing a narrow Fe K$\alpha$ line and a Compton reflection hump. In recent years, models of the X-ray reflection from an obscuring torus have been computed; however, although the reflecting gas may be dusty, the models do not yet take into account the effects of dust on the predicted spectrum. We study this problem by analyzing two sets of models, with and without the presence of dust, using the one dimensional photo-ionization code Cloudy. The calculations are performed for a range of column densities ($22 <{\rm log}[N_H(\rm cm^{-2})]< 24.5$ ) and hydrogen densities ( $6 <{\rm log}[n_H(\rm cm^{-3})]< 8$). The calculations show the presence of dust can enhance the Fe K$\alpha$ equivalent width (EW) in the reflected spectrum by factors up to $\approx$ 8 for Compton thick (CT) gas and a typical ISM grain size distribution. The enhancement in EW with respect to the reflection continuum is due to the reduction in the reflected continuum intensity caused by the anisotropic scattering behaviour of dust grains. This effect will be most relevant for reflection from distant, predominately neutral gas, and is a possible explanation for AGNs which show a strong Fe K$\alpha$ EW and a relatively weak reflection continuum. Our results show it is an important to take into account dust while modeling the X-ray reflection spectrum, and that inferring a CT column density from an observed Fe K$\alpha$ EW may not always be valid. Multi-dimensional models are needed to fully explore the magnitude of the effect.
We present the results of the pulse phase- and luminosity-resolved spectroscopy of the transient X-ray pulsar V0332+53, performed for the first time in a wide luminosity range (1-40)x10^{37} erg/s during a giant outburst observed by the RXTE observatory in Dec 2004 - Feb 2005. We characterize the spectra quantitatively and built the detailed "three-dimensional" picture of spectral variations with pulse phase and throughout the outburst. We show that all spectral parameters are strongly variable with the pulse phase, and the pattern of this variability significantly changes with luminosity directly reflecting the associated changes in the structure of emission regions and their beam patterns. Obtained results are qualitatively discussed in terms of the recently developed reflection model for the formation of cyclotron lines in the spectra of X-ray pulsars.
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