We present spatially resolved stellar and/or ionized gas kinematic properties for a sample of 103 interacting galaxies, tracing all merger stages: close companions, pairs with morphological signatures of interaction, and coalesced merger remnants. We compare our sample with 80 non-interacting galaxies. We measure for the stellar and the ionized gas components the major (projected) kinematic position angles (PA$_{\mathrm{kin}}$, approaching and receding) directly from the velocity fields with no assumptions on the internal motions. This method allow us to derive the deviations of the kinematic PAs from a straight line ($\delta$PA$_{\mathrm{kin}}$). Around half of the interacting objects show morpho-kinematic PA misalignments that cannot be found in the control sample. Those misalignments are present mostly in galaxies with morphological signatures of interaction. Alignment between the kinematic sides for both samples is similar, with most of the galaxies displaying small misalignments. Radial deviations of the kinematic PA from a straight line in the stellar component measured by $\delta$PA$_{\mathrm{kin}}$ are large for both samples. However, for a large fraction of interacting galaxies the ionized gas $\delta$PA$_{\mathrm{kin}}$ is larger than typical values derived from isolated galaxies (48%), making this parameter a good indicator to trace the impact of interaction and mergers in the internal motions of galaxies. By comparing the stellar and ionized gas kinematic PA, we find that 42% (28/66) of the interacting galaxies have misalignments larger than 16 degrees, compared to 10% from the control sample. Our results show the impact of interactions in the internal structure of galaxies as well as the wide variety of their velocity distributions. This study also provides a local Universe benchmark for kinematic studies in merging galaxies at high redshift.
We use near ultraviolet and optical photometry to investigate the dust properties in the nearby starburst galaxy M82. By combining imaging from the Swift/UVOT instrument and optical data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, we derive the extinction curve parameterized by the standard Rv factor, and the strength of the NUV 2175 A feature - quantified by a parameter B -- out to projected galactocentric distances of 4 kpc. Our analysis is robust against possible degeneracies from the properties of the underlying stellar populations. Both B and Rv correlate with galactocentric distance, revealing a systematic trend of the dust properties. Our results confirm previous findings that dust in M82 is better fit by a Milky Way standard extinction curve (Hutton et al.), in contrast to a Calzetti law. We find a strong correlation between Rv and B, towards a stronger NUV bump in regions with higher Rv, possibly reflecting a distribution with larger dust grain sizes. The data we use were taken before SN2014J, and therefore can be used to probe the properties of the interstellar medium before the event. Our Rv values around the position of the supernova are significantly higher than recent measurements post-SN2014J (Rv~1.4). This result is consistent with a significant change in the dust properties after the supernova event, either from disruption of large grains or from the contribution by an intrinsic circumstellar component. Intrinsic variations among supernovae not accounted for could also give rise to this mismatch.
Outflows promote the escape of Lyman-$\alpha$ (Ly$\alpha$) photons from dusty interstellar media. The process of radiative transfer through interstellar outflows is often modelled by a spherically symmetric, geometrically thin shell of gas that scatters photons emitted by a central Ly$\alpha$ source. Despite its simplified geometry, this `shell model' has been surprisingly successful at reproducing observed Ly$\alpha$ line shapes. In this paper we perform automated line fitting on a set of noisy simulated shell model spectra, in order to determine whether degeneracies exist between the different shell model parameters. While there are some significant degeneracies, we find that most parameters are accurately recovered, especially the HI column density ($N_{\rm HI}$) and outflow velocity ($v_{\rm exp}$). This work represents an important first step in determining how the shell model parameters relate to the actual physical properties of Ly$\alpha$ sources. To aid further exploration of the parameter space, we have made our simulated model spectra available through an interactive online tool.
A set of diffuse interstellar clouds in the inner Galaxy within a few hundred pc of the Galactic plane has been observed at an angular resolution of ~1 arcmin combining data from the NRAO Green Bank Telescope and the Very Large Array. At the distance of the clouds the linear resolution ranges from ~1.9 pc to ~2.8 pc. These clouds have been selected to be somewhat out of the Galactic plane and are thus not confused with unrelated emission, but in other respects they are a Galactic population. They are located near the tangent points in the inner Galaxy, and thus at a quantifiable distance: $2.3 \leq R \leq 6.0$ kpc from the Galactic Center, and $-1000 \leq z \leq +610$ pc from the Galactic plane. These are the first images of the diffuse neutral HI clouds that may constitute a considerable fraction of the ISM. Peak HI column densities range from $N_{HI} = 0.8-2.9 \times 10^{20}$ cm$^{-2}$. Cloud diameters vary between about 10 and 100 pc, and their HI mass spans the range from less than a hundred to a few thousands Msun. The clouds show no morphological consistency of any kind except that their shapes are highly irregular. One cloud may lie within the hot wind from the nucleus of the Galaxy, and some clouds show evidence of two distinct thermal phases as would be expected from equilibrium models of the interstellar medium.
We present chemical implications arising from spectral models fit to the Herschel/HIFI spectral survey toward the Orion Kleinmann-Low nebula (Orion KL). We focus our discussion on the eight complex organics detected within the HIFI survey utilizing a novel technique to identify those molecules emitting in the hottest gas. In particular, we find the complex nitrogen bearing species CH$_{3}$CN, C$_{2}$H$_{3}$CN, C$_{2}$H$_{5}$CN, and NH$_{2}$CHO systematically trace hotter gas than the oxygen bearing organics CH$_{3}$OH, C$_{2}$H$_{5}$OH, CH$_{3}$OCH$_{3}$, and CH$_{3}$OCHO, which do not contain nitrogen. If these complex species form predominantly on grain surfaces, this may indicate N-bearing organics are more difficult to remove from grain surfaces than O-bearing species. Another possibility is that hot (T$_{\rm kin}$$\sim$300 K) gas phase chemistry naturally produces higher complex cyanide abundances while suppressing the formation of O-bearing complex organics. We compare our derived rotation temperatures and molecular abundances to chemical models, which include gas-phase and grain surface pathways. Abundances for a majority of the detected complex organics can be reproduced over timescales $\gtrsim$ 10$^{5}$ years, with several species being under predicted by less than 3$\sigma$. Derived rotation temperatures for most organics, furthermore, agree reasonably well with the predicted temperatures at peak abundance. We also find that sulfur bearing molecules which also contain oxygen (i.e. SO, SO$_{2}$, and OCS) tend to probe the hottest gas toward Orion KL indicating the formation pathways for these species are most efficient at high temperatures.
We present a detailed clustering analysis of the young stellar population across the star-forming ring galaxy NGC 6503, based on the deep HST photometry obtained with the Legacy ExtraGalactic UV Survey (LEGUS). We apply a contour-based map analysis technique and identify in the stellar surface density map 244 distinct star-forming structures at various levels of significance. These stellar complexes are found to be organized in a hierarchical fashion with 95% being members of three dominant super-structures located along the star-forming ring. The size distribution of the identified structures and the correlation between their radii and numbers of stellar members show power-law behaviors, as expected from scale-free processes. The self-similar distribution of young stars is further quantified from their autocorrelation function, with a fractal dimension of ~1.7 for length-scales between ~20 pc and 2.5 kpc. The young stellar radial distribution sets the extent of the star-forming ring at radial distances between 1 and 2.5 kpc. About 60% of the young stars belong to the detected stellar structures, while the remaining stars are distributed among the complexes, still inside the ring of the galaxy. The analysis of the time-dependent clustering of young populations shows a significant change from a more clustered to a more distributed behavior in a time-scale of ~60 Myr. The observed hierarchy in stellar clustering is consistent with star formation being regulated by turbulence across the ring. The rotational velocity difference between the edges of the ring suggests shear as the driving mechanism for this process. Our findings reveal the interesting case of an inner ring forming stars in a hierarchical fashion.
Remarkable dust extinction features in the deep HST V and I images of the face-on Coma cluster spiral galaxy NGC 4921 show in unprecedented ways how ram pressure strips the ISM from the disk of a spiral galaxy. New VLA HI maps show a truncated and highly asymmetric HI disk with a compressed HI distribution in the NW, providing evidence for ram pressure acting from the NW. Where the HI distribution is truncated in the NW region, HST images show a well-defined, continuous front of dust that extends over 90 degrees and 20 kpc. This dust front separates the dusty from dust-free regions of the galaxy, and we interpret it as galaxy ISM swept up near the leading side of the ICM-ISM interaction. We identify and characterize 100 pc-1 kpc scale substructure within this dust front caused by ram pressure, including head-tail filaments, C-shaped filaments, and long smooth dust fronts. The morphology of these features strongly suggests that dense gas clouds partially decouple from surrounding lower density gas during stripping, but decoupling is inhibited, possibly by magnetic fields which link and bind distant parts of the ISM.
The size and mass of two circum-galactic medium (CGM) clouds in the halo (impact parameter = 65 kpc) of a nearby late-type galaxy, MGC-01-04-005 ($cz = 1865$ km/s), are investigated using a close triplet of QSO sight lines (the "LBQS Triplet"; Crighton et al. 2010). Far ultraviolet spectra obtained with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) aboard the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) find two velocity components in Lyman $\alpha$ at $\sim1830$ and 1900 km/s in two of these sight lines, requiring minimum transverse cloud sizes of $\geq10$ kpc. A plausible, but not conclusive, detection of CIV 1548 \AA\ absorption at the higher velocity in the third sight line suggests an even larger lower limit of $\geq23$ kpc for that cloud. Using various combinations of constraints, including photo-ionization modeling for one absorber, lower limits on masses of these two clouds of $\geq10^6$ M_Sun are obtained. Ground-based imaging and long-slit spectroscopy of MCG -01-04-005 obtained at the Apache Point Observatory (APO) 3.5m telescope find it to be a relatively normal late-type galaxy with a current star formation rate (SFR) of $\sim0.01$ M_Sun per year. Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) photometry finds an SFR only a few times higher over the last $10^8$ yrs. We conclude that the CGM clouds probed by these spectra are typical in being at impact parameters of 0.4-0.5 R_vir from a rather typical, non-starbursting late-type galaxy so that these size and mass results should be generic for this class. Therefore, at least some CGM clouds are exceptionally large and massive.
For any MONDian extended theory of gravity where the rotation curves of spiral galaxies are explained through a change in physics rather than the hypothesis of dark matter, a generic dynamical behaviour is expected for pressure supported systems: an outer flattening of the velocity dispersion profile occurring at a characteristic radius, where both the amplitude of this flat velocity dispersion and the radius at which it appears are predicted to show distinct scalings with the total mass of the system. By carefully analysing dynamics of globular clusters, elliptical galaxies and galaxy clusters, we are able to significantly extend the astronomical scales over which MONDian gravity has been tested, from those of spiral galaxies, to the much larger range covered by pressure supported systems. We show that a universal projected velocity dispersion profile accurately describes various classes of pressure supported systems, and further, that the expectations of extended gravity are met, across twelve orders of magnitude in mass. This observed scalings are not expected under dark matter cosmology, and would require particular explanations tuned at the scales of each distinct astrophysical system.
The continuum-fitting method is one of the two most important methods of determining the black hole spins in the accreting sources. Fits for a sequence of the increasing luminosities in a given source show an apparent decrease in the spin, which indicates a problem in the disk model. We perform simple tests whether the outflow from the disk close to the inner radius can fix this problem. We design four simple parametric models of the outflow from the disk close to the inner radius, and we compare these models with the apparent decrease trend of the spins in LMC X-3 and GRS 1915+105. Models without explicit dependence of parameters on the luminosity do not reproduce the spin measurements, but the simplest model with luminosity-dependent parameter (truncation radius of the disk) properly represents the trend. We perform tests of the sensitivity of the RXTE data to various disk models. The assumption of an outflow removes the artifact of the spin decrease with an increase of the source luminosity, but the solution is not unique due to the too low quality of the RXTE data.
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We study the stellar mass Tully-Fisher relation (TFR, stellar mass versus rotation velocity) for a morphologically blind selection of emission line galaxies in the field at redshifts 0.1 $<$ z $<$ 0.375. Kinematics ($\sigma_g$, V$_{rot}$) are measured from emission lines in Keck/DEIMOS spectra and quantitative morphology is measured from V- and I-band Hubble images. We find a transition stellar mass in the TFR, $\log$ M$_*$ = 9.5 M$_{\odot}$. Above this mass, nearly all galaxies are rotation-dominated, on average more morphologically disk-like according to quantitative morphology, and lie on a relatively tight TFR. Below this mass, the TFR has significant scatter to low rotation velocity and galaxies can either be rotation-dominated disks on the TFR or asymmetric or compact galaxies which scatter off. We refer to this transition mass as the "mass of disk formation", M$_{\mathrm{df}}$ because above it all star-forming galaxies form disks (except for a small number of major mergers and highly star-forming systems), whereas below it a galaxy may or may not form a disk.
The detection of planar structures within the satellite systems of both the Milky Way (MW) and Andromeda (M31) has been reported as being in stark contradiction to the predictions of the standard cosmological model ($\Lambda$CDM). Given the ambiguity in defining a planar configuration, it is unclear how to interpret the low incidence of the MW and M31 planes in $\Lambda$CDM. We investigate the prevalence of satellite planes around galactic mass haloes identified in high resolution cosmological simulations. We find that planar structures are very common, and that ~10% of $\Lambda$CDM haloes have even more prominent planes than those present in the Local Group. While ubiquitous, the planes of satellite galaxies show a large diversity in their properties. This precludes using one or two systems as small scale probes of cosmology, since a large sample of satellite systems is needed to obtain a good measure of the object-to-object variation. This very diversity has been misinterpreted as a discrepancy between the satellite planes observed in the Local Group and $\Lambda$CDM predictions. In fact, ~10% of $\Lambda$CDM galactic haloes have planes of satellites that are as infrequent as the MW and M31 planes. The look-elsewhere effect plays an important role in assessing the detection significance of satellite planes and accounting for it leads to overestimating the significance level by a factor of 30 and 100 for the MW and M31 systems, respectively.
Age, metallicity and spatial distribution of globular clusters (GCs) provide a powerful tool to reconstruct major star-formation episodes in galaxies. IKN is a faint dwarf spheroidal (dSph) in the M81 group of galaxies. It contains five old GCs, which makes it the galaxy with the highest known specific frequency (SN=126). We estimate the photometric age, metallicity and spatial distribution of the poorly studied IKN GCs. We search SDSS for GC candidates beyond the HST field of view, which covers half of IKN. To break the age-metallicity degeneracy in the V-I colour we use WHT/LIRIS Ks-band photometry and derive photometric ages and metallicities by comparison with SSP models in the V,I,Ks colour space. IKN GCs' VIKs colours are consistent with old ages ($\geq\!8$ Gyr) and a metallicity distribution with a higher mean than typical for such a dSph ([Fe/H$]\!\simeq\!-1.4_{-0.2}^{+0.6}$ dex). Their photometric masses range ($0.5 <{\cal M_{\rm GC}}<4\times10^5M_\odot$) implies a high mass ratio between GCs and field stars, of $10.6\%$. Mixture model analysis of the RGB field stars' metallicity suggests that 72\% of the stars may have formed together with the GCs. Using the most massive GC-SFR relation we calculate a SFR of $\sim\!10M_\odot/$yr during its formation epoch. We note that the more massive GCs are closer to the galaxy photometric centre. IKN GCs also appear spatially aligned along a line close to the IKN major-axis and nearly orthogonal to the plane of spatial distribution of galaxies in the M81 group. We identify one new IKN GC candidate based on colour and PSF analysis of the SDSS data. The evidence towards i) broad and high metallicity distribution of the field IKN RGB stars and its GCs, ii) high fraction and iii), spatial alignment of IKN GCs, supports a scenario for tidally triggered complex IKN's SFH in the context of interactions with galaxies in the M81 group.
Gas velocity dispersions provide important diagnostics of the forces counteracting gravity to prevent collapse of the gas. We use the 21 cm line of neutral atomic hydrogen (HI) to study HI velocity dispersion and HI phases as a function of galaxy morphology in 22 galaxies from The HI Nearby Galaxy Survey (THINGS). We stack individual HI velocity profiles and decompose them into broad and narrow Gaussian components. We study the HI velocity dispersion and the HI surface density, as a function of radius. For spirals, the velocity dispersions of the narrow and broad components decline with radius and their radial profiles are well described by an exponential function. For dwarfs, however, the profiles are much flatter. The single Gaussian dispersion profiles are, in general, flatter than those of the narrow and broad components. In most cases, the dispersion profiles in the outer disks do not drop as fast as the star formation profiles, derived in the literature. This indicates the importance of other energy sources in driving HI velocity dispersion in the outer disks. The radial surface density profiles of spirals and dwarfs are similar. The surface density profiles of the narrow component decline more steeply than those of the broad component, but not as steep as what was found previously for the molecular component. As a consequence, the surface density ratio between the narrow and broad components, an estimate of the mass ratio between cold HI and warm HI, tends to decrease with radius. On average, this ratio is lower in dwarfs than in spirals. This lack of a narrow, cold HI component in dwarfs may explain their low star formation activity.
This paper characterizes the radial structure of stellar population properties of galaxies in the nearby universe, based on 300 galaxies from the CALIFA survey. The sample covers a wide range of Hubble types, and galaxy stellar mass. We apply the spectral synthesis techniques to recover the stellar mass surface density, stellar extinction, light and mass-weighted ages, and mass-weighted metallicity, for each spatial resolution element in our target galaxies. To study mean trends with overall galaxy properties, the individual radial profiles are stacked in seven bins of galaxy morphology. We confirm that more massive galaxies are more compact, older, more metal rich, and less reddened by dust. Additionally, we find that these trends are preserved spatially with the radial distance to the nucleus. Deviations from these relations appear correlated with Hubble type: earlier types are more compact, older, and more metal rich for a given mass, which evidences that quenching is related to morphology, but not driven by mass. Negative gradients of ages are consistent with an inside-out growth of galaxies, with the largest ages gradients in Sb-Sbc galaxies. Further, the mean stellar ages of disks and bulges are correlated, with disks covering a wider range of ages, and late type spirals hosting younger disks. The gradients in stellar mass surface density depend mostly on stellar mass, in the sense that more massive galaxies are more centrally concentrated. There is a secondary correlation in the sense that at the same mass early type galaxies have steeper gradients. We find mildly negative metallicity gradients, shallower than predicted from models of galaxy evolution in isolation. The largest gradients occur in Sb galaxies. Overall we conclude that quenching processes act in manners that are independent of mass, while metallicity and galaxy structure are influenced by mass-dependent processes.
Near-field observations may provide tight constraints - i.e. "boundary conditions" - on any model of structure formation in the Universe. Detailed observational data have long been available for the Milky Way (e.g. Freeman $\&$ Bland-Hawthorn 2002) and have provided tight constraints on several Galaxy formation models (e.g. Abadi et al. 2003, Bekki $\&$ Chiba 2001). An implicit assumption still remains unanswered though: is the Milky Way a "normal" spiral? Searching for directions, it feels natural to look at our neighbour: Andromeda. An intriguing piece of the puzzle is provided by contrasting its stellar halo with that of our Galaxy, even more so since Mouhcine et al. (2005) have suggested that a correlation between stellar halo metallicity and galactic luminosity is in place and would leave the Milky Way halo as an outlier with respect to other spirals of comparable luminosities. Further questions hence arise: is there any stellar halo-galaxy formation symbiosis? Our first step has been to contrast the chemical evolution of the Milky Way with that of Andromeda by means of a semi-analytic model. We have then pursued a complementary approach through the analysis of several semi-cosmological late-type galaxy simulations which sample a wide variety of merging histories. We have focused on the stellar halo properties in the simulations at redshift zero and shown that - at any given galaxy luminosity - the metallicities of the stellar halos in the simulations span a range in excess of $\sim$ 1 dex, a result which is strengthened by the robustness tests we have performed. We suggest that the underlying driver of the halo metallicity dispersion can be traced to the diversity of galactic mass assembly histories inherent within the hierarchical clustering paradigm.
We present HI imaging of the galaxy group IC 1459 carried out with six antennas of the Australian SKA Pathfinder equipped with phased-array feeds. We detect and resolve HI in eleven galaxies down to a column density of $\sim10^{20}$ cm$^{-2}$ inside a ~6 deg$^2$ field and with a resolution of ~1 arcmin on the sky and ~8 km/s in velocity. We present HI images, velocity fields and integrated spectra of all detections, and highlight the discovery of three HI clouds -- two in the proximity of the galaxy IC 5270 and one close to NGC 7418. Each cloud has an HI mass of $10^9$ M$_\odot$ and accounts for ~15% of the HI associated with its host galaxy. Available images at ultraviolet, optical and infrared wavelengths do not reveal any clear stellar counterpart of any of the clouds, suggesting that they are not gas-rich dwarf neighbours of IC 5270 and NGC 7418. Using Parkes data we find evidence of additional extended, low-column-density HI emission around IC 5270, indicating that the clouds are the tip of the iceberg of a larger system of gas surrounding this galaxy. This result adds to the body of evidence on the presence of intra-group gas within the IC 1459 group. Altogether, the HI found outside galaxies in this group amounts to several times $10^9$ M$_\odot$, at least 10% of the HI contained inside galaxies. This suggests a substantial flow of gas in and out of galaxies during the several billion years of the group's evolution.
There is increasing evidence that episodic accretion is a common phenomenon in Young Stellar Objects (YSOs). Recently, the source HOPS 383 in Orion was reported to have a $\times 35$ mid-infrared -- and bolometric -- luminosity increase between 2004 and 2008, constituting the first clear example of a class 0 YSO (a protostar) with a large accretion burst. The usual assumption that in YSOs accretion and ejection follow each other in time needs to be tested. Radio jets at centimeter wavelengths are often the only way of tracing the jets from embedded protostars. We searched the Very Large Array archive for the available observations of the radio counterpart of HOPS 383. The data show that the radio flux of HOPS 383 varies only mildly from January 1998 to December 2014, staying at the level of $\sim 200$ to 300 $\mu$Jy in the X band ($\sim 9$ GHz), with a typical uncertainty of 10 to 20 $\mu$Jy in each measurement. We interpret the absence of a radio burst as suggesting that accretion and ejection enhancements do not follow each other in time, at least not within timescales shorter than a few years. Time monitoring of more objects and specific predictions from simulations are needed to clarify the details of the connection betwen accretion and jets/winds in YSOs.
The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) will be a formidable instrument for the detailed study of neutral hydrogen (HI) in external galaxies and in our own Galaxy and Local Group. The sensitivity of the SKA, its wide receiver bands, and the relative freedom from radio frequency interference at the SKA sites will allow the imaging of substantial number of high-redshift galaxies in HI for the first time. It will also allow imaging of galaxies throughout the Local Volume at resolutions of <100 pc and detailed investigations of galaxy disks and the transition between disks, halos and the intergalactic medium (IGM) in the Milky Way and external galaxies. Together with deep optical and millimetre/sub-mm imaging, this will have a profound effect on our understanding of the formation, growth and subsequent evolution of galaxies in different environments. This paper provides an introductory text to a series of nine science papers describing the impact of the SKA in the field of HI and galaxy evolution. We propose a nested set of surveys with phase 1 of the SKA which will help tackle much of the exciting science described. Longer commensal surveys are discussed, including an ultra-deep survey which should permit the detection of galaxies at z=2, when the Universe was a quarter of its current age. The full SKA will allow more detailed imaging of even more distant galaxies, and allow cosmological and evolutionary parameters to be measured with exquisite precision.
Accurately determining the mass of galaxy clusters is fundamental for many studies on cosmology and galaxy evolution. We collect and rescale the cluster masses of 1191 clusters of 0.05<z<0.75 estimated by X-ray or Sunyaev-Zeldovich measurements and use them to calibrate optical mass proxy. The total r-band luminosity (in units of L^{\ast}) of these clusters are obtained by using spectroscopic and photometric data of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). We find that the correlation between the cluster mass M_{500} and total r-band luminosity L_{500} significantly evolves with redshift. After correction of the evolution, we define a new cluster richness R_{L\ast,500}=L_{500}E(z)^{1.40} as the optical mass proxy. By using this newly defined richness and the recently released SDSS DR12 spectroscopic data, we update the WHL12 cluster catalog and complementally identify 25,419 new rich clusters at high redshift. In the SDSS spectroscopic survey region, about 89% of galaxy clusters have spectroscopic redshifts. The mass can be estimated with an uncertainty of ~\sigma_{\log M_{500}}=0.17 for the clusters in the updated catalog.
We positionally match a sample of infrared-selected young stellar objects (YSOs), identified by combining the Spitzer GLIMPSE, WISE and Herschel Space Observatory Hi-GAL surveys, to the dense clumps identified in the millimetre continuum by the Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey in two Galactic lines of sight centred towards l = 30deg and l = 40deg. We calculate the ratio of infrared luminosity, L_IR, to the mass of the clump, M_clump, in a variety of Galactic environments and find it to be somewhat enhanced in spiral arms compared to the interarm regions when averaged over kiloparsec scales. We find no compelling evidence that these changes are due to the mechanical influence of the spiral arm on the star-formation efficiency rather than, e.g., different gradients in the star-formation rate due to patchy or intermittent star formation, or local variations that are not averaged out due to small source samples. The largest variation in L_IR/M_clump is found in individual clump values, which follow a log-normal distribution and have a range of over three orders of magnitude. This spread is intrinsic as no dependence of L_IR/M_clump with M_clump was found. No difference was found in the luminosity distribution of sources in the arm and interarm samples and a strong linear correlation was found between L_IR and M_clump.
The Luminous Convolution Model (LCM) is an empirical formula, based on a
heuristic convolution of Relativistic transformations, which makes it possible
to predict the observed rotation curves of a broad class of spiral galaxies
from luminous matter alone. Since the LCM is independent of distance estimates
or dark matter halo densities, it is the first model of its kind which
constrains luminous matter modeling directly from the observed spectral shifts
of characteristic photon emission/absorption lines. In this paper we present
the LCM solution to a diverse sample of twenty-five (25) galaxies of varying
morphologies and sizes. For the chosen sample, it is shown that the LCM is more
accurate than either Modified Newtonian Dynamics or dark matter models and
returns physically reasonable mass to light ratios and exponential scale
lengths. Unlike either Modified Newtonian Dynamics or dark matter models, the
LCM predicts something which is directly falsifiable through improvements in
our observational capacity, the luminous mass profile. The question, while
interesting, of if the LCM constrains the relation of the baryonic to dark
matter is beyond the scope of the current work.
The focus of this paper is to show that it is possible to describe a broad
and diverse spectrum of galaxies efficiently with the LCM formula. Moreover,
since the LCM free parameter predicts the ratio of the Milky Way galaxy
baryonic mass density to that of the galaxy emitting the photon, if the Milky
Way mass models can be trusted at face values, we then show that the LCM
becomes a zero parameter model.
This paper substantially expands the results in arXiv:1309.7370 and
arXiv:1407:7583.
Punzo et al. (2015) recently reported on the state of the art for visualisation of H I data cubes. I here briefly describe another program, FRELLED, specifically designed for dealing with H I data. Unlike many 3D viewers, FRELLED can handle astronomical world coordinates, easily and interactively mask and label specific volumes within the data, overlay optical data from the SDSS, generate contour plots and renzograms, make basic spectral profile measurements via an interface with MIRIAD, and can switch between viewing the data in 3D and 2D. The code is open source and can potentially be extended to include any astronomical function possible with Python, displaying the result in an interactive 3D environment.
Luminous compact blue galaxies (LCBGs) have enhanced star formation rates and compact morphologies. We combine Sloan Digital Sky Survey data with HI data of 29 LCBGs at redshift z~0 to understand their nature. We find that local LCBGs have high atomic gas fractions (~50%) and star formation rates per stellar mass consistent with some high redshift star forming galaxies. Many local LCBGs also have clumpy morphologies, with clumps distributed across their disks. Although rare, these galaxies appear to be similar to the clumpy star forming galaxies commonly observed at z~1-3. Local LCBGs separate into three groups: 1. Interacting galaxies (~20%); 2. Clumpy spirals (~40%); 3. Non-clumpy, non-spirals with regular shapes and smaller effective radii and stellar masses (~40%). It seems that the method of building up a high gas fraction, which then triggers star formation, is not the same for all local LCBGs. This may lead to a dichotomy in galaxy characteristics. We consider possible gas delivery scenarios and suggest that clumpy spirals, preferentially located in clusters and with companions, are smoothly accreting gas from tidally disrupted companions and/or intracluster gas enriched by stripped satellites. Conversely, as non-clumpy galaxies are preferentially located in the field and tend to be isolated, we suggest clumpy, cold streams, which destroy galaxy disks and prevent clump formation, as a likely gas delivery mechanism for these systems. Other possibilities include smooth cold streams, a series of minor mergers, or major interactions.
We study the quenching of satellite galaxies by gradual depletion of gas due to star formation, by ram-pressure striping and by tidally triggered starburst. Using progenitors constrained by the empirical model of Lu et al., in which outflow loading factor is low, we do not find an over-quenching problem in satellites even if there is no further cold gas supply from the cooling of the halo gas after a galaxy is accreted by its host. Gradual depletion alone predicts a unimodal distribution in specific star formation, in contrast to the bimodal distribution observed, and under-predicts the quenched fraction in low mass halos. Ram-pressure stripping nicely reproduces the bimodal distribution but under-predicts the quenched fraction in low-mass halos. Starbursts in gas-rich satellites triggered by tidal interactions with central galaxies can nicely reproduce the quenched satellite population in low-mass halos, but become unimportant for low-mass satellites in massive halos. The combined processes, together with the constrained progenitors, can reproduce the observed star formation properties of satellites in halos of different masses.
Most low-mass protostars form in clusters, in particular high-mass clusters; however, how low-mass stars form in high-mass clusters and what the mass distribution is, are still open questions both in our own Galaxy and elsewhere. To access the population of forming embedded low-mass protostars observationally, we propose to use molecular outflows as tracers. Because the outflow emission scales with mass, the effective contrast between low-mass protostars and their high-mass cousins is greatly lowered. In particular, maps of methanol emission at 338.4 GHz (J=7_0 - 6_0 A+) in low-mass clusters illustrate that this transition is an excellent probe of the low-mass population. We here present a model of a forming cluster where methanol emission is assigned to every embedded low-mass protostar. The resulting model image of methanol emission is compared to recent ALMA observations toward a high-mass cluster and the similarity is striking: the toy model reproduces observations to better than a factor of two and suggests that approximately 50\% of the total flux originates in low-mass outflows. Future fine-tuning of the model will eventually make it a tool for interpreting the embedded low-mass population of distant regions within our own Galaxy and ultimately higher-redshift starburst galaxies, not just for methanol emission but also water and high-J CO.
In this work, we provide 2189 photometric- and kinematic-selected member candidates of 24 star clusters from the LAMOST DR2 catalog. We perform two-step membership identification: selection along the stellar track in the color-magnitude diagram, i.e., photometric identification, and the selection from the distribution of radial velocities, i.e. the kinematic identification. We find that the radial velocity from the LAMOST data are very helpful in the membership identification. The mean probability of membership is 40\% for the radial velocity selected sample. With these 24 star clusters, we investigate the performance of the radial velocity and metallicity estimated in the LAMOST pipeline. We find that the systematic offset in radial velocity and metallicity are $0.85\pm1.26$\,\kms\ and $-0.08\pm0.04$\,dex, with dispersions of $5.47_{-0.71}^{+1.16}$\,\kms\ and $0.13_{-0.02}^{+0.04}$\,dex, respectively. Finally, we propose that the photometric member candidates of the clusters covered by the LAMOST footprints should be assigned higher priority so that more member stars can be observed.
We describe the implementation and performance of the ${\rm P^3T}$ (Particle-Particle Particle-Tree) scheme for simulating dense stellar systems. In ${\rm P^3T}$, the force experienced by a particle is split into short-range and long-range contributions. Short-range forces are evaluated by direct summation and integrated with the fourth order Hermite predictor-corrector method with the block timesteps. For long-range forces, we use a combination of the Barnes-Hut tree code and the leapfrog integrator. The tree part of our simulation environment is accelerated using graphical processing units (GPU), whereas the direct summation is carried out on the host CPU. Our code gives excellent performance and accuracy for star cluster simulations with a large number of particles even when the core size of the star cluster is small.
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We present Early Science observations with the Large Millimeter Telescope, AzTEC 1.1 mm continuum images and wide bandwidth spectra (73-111 GHz) acquired with the Redshift Search Receiver (RSR), towards four bright lensed submillimetre galaxies identified through the Herschel Lensing Survey-snapshot and the SCUBA-2 Cluster Snapshot Survey. This pilot project studies the star formation history and the physical properties of the molecular gas and dust content of the highest redshift galaxies identified through the benefits of gravitational magnification. We robustly detect dust continuum emission for the full sample and CO emission lines for three of the targets. We find that one source shows spectroscopic multiplicity and is a blend of three galaxies at different redshifts (z=2.040, 3.252 and 4.680), reminiscent of previous high-resolution imaging follow-up of unlensed submillimetre galaxies, but with a completely different search method, that confirm recent theoretical predictions of physically unassociated blended galaxies. Identifying the detected lines as 12CO (J_up=2-5) we derive spectroscopic redshifts, molecular gas masses, and dust masses from the continuum emission. The mean H_2 gas mass of the full sample is (2.0 +- 0.2) x 10^11 M_sun/\mu, and the mean dust mass is (2.0+-0.2) x 10^9 M_sun/\mu, where \mu=2-5 is the expected lens amplification. Using these independent estimations we infer a gas-to-dust ratio of \delta_GDR=55-75, in agreement with other measurements of submillimetre galaxies. Our magnified high-luminosity galaxies fall on the same locus as other high-redshift submillimetre galaxies, extending the L'_CO - L_FIR correlation observed for local luminous and ultraluminous infrared galaxies to higher FIR and CO luminosities.
The observational evidence that Super-Massive Black Holes ($M_{\bullet} \sim 10^{9-10} \, \mathrm{M_{\odot}}$) are already in place less than $1 \, \mathrm{Gyr}$ after the Big Bang poses stringent time constraints on the growth efficiency of their seeds. Among proposed possibilities, the formation of massive ($\sim 10^{3-6} \, \mathrm{M_{\odot}}$) seeds and/or the occurrence of super-Eddington ($\dot{M}>\dot{M}_{Edd}$) accretion episodes may contribute to the solution of this problem. In this work, using realistic initial conditions, we analytically and numerically investigate the accretion flow onto high-redshift ($z \sim 10$) black holes to understand the physical requirements favoring rapid and efficient growth. Our model identifies a "feeding-dominated" accretion regime and a "feedback-limited" one, the latter being characterized by intermittent (duty cycles ${\cal D} \lesssim 0.5$) and inefficient growth, with recurring outflow episodes. We find that low-mass seeds ($\lesssim 10^{3-4} \, \mathrm{M_{\odot}}$) evolve in the feedback-limited regime, while more massive seeds ($\gtrsim 10^{5-6} \, \mathrm{M_{\odot}}$) grow very rapidly as they are found in the feeding-dominated regime. In addition to the standard accretion model with a fixed matter-energy conversion factor ($\epsilon = 0.1$), we have also explored slim disk models ($\epsilon \lesssim 0.04$), which may ensure a continuous growth with $\dot{M} \gg \dot{M}_{Edd}$ (up to $\sim 300\dot{M}_{Edd}$ in our simulations). Under these conditions, outflows play a negligible role and a black hole can accrete $80\%-100\%$ of the gas mass of the host halo ($\sim 10^7 \, \mathrm{M_{\odot}}$) in $\sim 10 \, \mathrm{Myr}$, while in feedback-limited systems we predict that black holes can accrete only up to $\sim 15\%$ of the available mass.
Population III stars can regulate star formation in the primordial Universe in several ways. They can ionize nearby halos, and even if their ionizing photons are trapped by their own halos, their Lyman-Werner (LW) photons can still escape and destroy H$_2$ in other halos, preventing them from cooling and forming stars. LW escape fractions are thus a key parameter in cosmological simulations of early reionization and star formation but have not yet been parametrized for realistic halos by halo or stellar mass. To do so, we perform radiation hydrodynamical simulations of LW UV escape from 9--120 M$_{\odot}$ Pop III stars in $10^5$ to $10^7$ M$_{\odot}$ halos with ZEUS-MP. We find that photons in the LW lines (i.e. those responsible for destroying H$_{2}$ in nearby systems) have escape fractions ranging from 0% to 85%. No LW photons escape the most massive halo in our sample, even from the most massive star. Escape fractions for photons elsewhere in the 11.18--13.6~eV energy range, which can be redshifted into the LW lines at cosmological distances, are generally much higher, being above 60% for all but the least massive stars in the most massive halos. We find that shielding of H$_2$ by neutral hydrogen, which has been neglected in most studies to date, produces escape fractions that are up to a factor of three smaller than those predicted by H$_2$ self-shielding alone.
The masses of supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei (AGN) can be derived spectroscopically via virial mass estimators based on selected broad optical/ultraviolet emission lines. These estimates commonly use the line width as a proxy for the gas speed and the monochromatic continuum luminosity as a proxy for the radius of the broad line region. However, if the size of the broad line region scales with bolometric rather than monochromatic AGN luminosity, mass estimates based on different emission lines will show a systematic discrepancy which is a function of the color of the AGN continuum. This has actually been observed in mass estimates based on H-alpha / H-beta and C IV lines, indicating that AGN broad line regions indeed scale with bolometric luminosity. Given that this effect seems to have been overlooked as yet, currently used single-epoch mass estimates are likely to be biased.
We infer stellar metallicity and abundance ratio gradients for a sample of red galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Main galaxy sample. Because this sample does not have multiple spectra at various radii in a single galaxy, we measure these gradients statistically. We separate galaxies into stellar mass bins, stack their spectra in redshift bins, and calculate the measured absorption line indices in projected annuli by differencing spectra in neighboring redshift bins. After determining the line indices, we use stellar population modeling from the EZ\_Ages software to calculate ages, metallicities, and abundance ratios within each annulus. Our data covers the central regions of these galaxies, out to slightly higher than $1 R_{e}$. We find detectable gradients in metallicity and relatively shallow gradients in abundance ratios, similar to results found for direct measurements of individual galaxies. The gradients are only weakly dependent on stellar mass, and this dependence is well-correlated with the change of $R_e$ with mass. Based on this data, we report mean equivalent widths, metallicities, and abundance ratios as a function of mass and velocity dispersion for SDSS early-type galaxies, for fixed apertures of 2.5 kpc and of 0.5 $R_e$.
HI in galaxies traces the fuel for future star formation and reveals the effects of feedback on neutral gas. Using a statistically uniform, HI-selected sample of 565 galaxies from the ALFALFA H-alpha survey, we explore HI properties as a function of star formation activity. ALFALFA H-alpha provides R-band and H-alpha imaging for a volume-limited subset of the 21-cm ALFALFA survey. We identify eight starbursts based on H-alpha equivalent width and six with enhanced star formation relative to the main sequence. Both starbursts and non-starbursts have similar HI to stellar mass ratios (MHI/M*), which suggests that feedback is not depleting the starbursts' HI. Consequently, the starbursts do have shorter HI depletion times (t_dep), implying more efficient HI-to-H2 conversion. While major mergers likely drive this enhanced efficiency in some starbursts, the lowest mass starbursts may experience periodic bursts, consistent with enhanced scatter in t_dep at low M*. Two starbursts appear to be pre-coalescence mergers; their elevated MHI/M* suggest that HI-to-H2 conversion is still ongoing at this stage. By comparing with the GASS sample, we find that t_dep anti-correlates with stellar surface density for disks, while spheroids show no such trend. Among early-type galaxies, t_dep does not correlate with bulge-to-disk ratio; instead, the gas distribution may determine the star formation efficiency. Finally, the weak connection between galaxies' specific star formation rates and MHI/M* contrasts with the well-known correlation between MHI/M* and color. We show that dust extinction can explain the HI-color trend, which may arise from the relationship between M*, MHI, and metallicity.
We study the spin dynamics of individual black holes in a binary system. In particular we focus on the polar precession of spins and the possibility of a complete flip of spins with respect to the orbital plane. We perform a full numerical simulation that displays these characteristics. We evolve equal mass binary spinning black holes for $t=20,000M$ from an initial proper separation of $d=25M$ down to merger after 48.5 orbits. We compute the gravitational radiation from this system and compare it to 3.5 post-Newtonian generated waveforms finding close agreement. We then further use 3.5 post-Newtonian evolutions to show the extension of this spin {flip-flop} phenomenon to unequal mass binaries. We also provide analytic expressions to approximate the maximum {flip-flop} angle and frequency in terms of the binary spins and mass ratio parameters at a given orbital radius. Finally we discuss the effect this spin {flip-flop} would have on accreting matter and other potential observational effects.
In this paper, the third in a series illustrating the power of generalized linear models (GLMs) for the astronomical community, we elucidate the potential of the class of GLMs which handles count data. The size of a galaxy's globular cluster population $N_{\rm GC}$ is a prolonged puzzle in the astronomical literature. It falls in the category of count data analysis, yet it is usually modelled as if it were a continuous response variable. We have developed a Bayesian negative binomial regression model to study the connection between $N_{\rm GC}$ and the following galaxy properties: central black hole mass, dynamical bulge mass, bulge velocity dispersion, and absolute visual magnitude. The methodology introduced herein naturally accounts for heteroscedasticity, intrinsic scatter, errors in measurements in both axes (either discrete or continuous), and allows modelling the population of globular clusters on their natural scale as a non-negative integer variable. Prediction intervals of 99% around the trend for expected $N_{\rm GC}$comfortably envelope the data, notably including the Milky Way, which has hitherto been considered a problematic outlier. Finally, we demonstrate how random intercept models can incorporate information of each particular galaxy morphological type. Bayesian variable selection methodology allows for automatically identifying galaxy types with different productions of GCs, suggesting that on average S0 galaxies have a GC population 35% smaller than other types with similar brightness.
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The separation distribution for M-dwarf binaries in the ASTRALUX survey is narrower and peaking at smaller separations than the distribution for solar-type binaries. This is often interpreted to mean that M-dwarfs constitute a continuous transition from brown dwarfs (BDs) to stars. Here a prediction for the M-dwarf separation distribution is presented, using a dynamical population synthesis (DPS) model in which "star-like" binaries with late-type primaries ($\lesssim1.5 M_{\rm sun}$) follow universal initial distribution functions and are dynamically processed in their birth embedded clusters. A separate "BD-like" population has both its own distribution functions for binaries and initial mass function (IMF), which overlaps in mass with the IMF for stars. Combining these two formation modes results in a peak on top of a wider separation distribution for late M-dwarfs consistent with the late ASTRALUX sample. The DPS separation distribution for early M-dwarfs shows no such peak and is in agreement with the M-dwarfs in Multiples (MinMS) data. We note that the latter survey is potentially in tension with the early ASTRALUX data. Concluding, the ASTRALUX and MinMS data are unable to unambiguously distinguish whether or not BDs are a continuous extension of the stellar IMF. Future observational efforts are needed to fully answer this interesting question. The DPS model predicts that binaries outside the sensitivity range of the ASTRALUX survey remain to be detected. For application to future data, we present a means to observationally measure the overlap of the putative BD-like branch and the stellar branch. We discuss the meaning of universal star formation and distribution functions.
The over-dense environments of protoclusters of galaxies in the early Universe z>2 are expected to accelerate the evolution of galaxies, with an increased rate of stellar mass assembly and black hole accretion compared to co-eval galaxies in the average density `field'. These galaxies are destined to form the passive population of massive systems that dominate the cores of rich clusters today. While signatures of accelerated growth of galaxies in the SSA22 protocluster z=3.1 have been observed, the mechanism driving this remain unclear. In this work we show an enhanced rate of galaxy-galaxy mergers could be responsible. We morphologically classify Lyman-break Galaxies (LBGs) in the SSA22 protocluster and compare these to those of galaxies in a typical density field at z=3.1 as either active mergers or non-merging using Hubble Space Telescope F814W imaging, probing the rest frame ultraviolet stellar emission. We measure a merger fraction of 48+/-10% for LBGs in the protocluster compared to 30+/-6% for the field. Although the excess is marginal the enhanced rate of mergers in SSA22 hints that galaxy-galaxy mergers are one of the key channels driving accelerated star formation and AGN growth in protocluster environments.
Radiation pressure can be dynamically important in certain star-forming environments such as ultra-luminous infrared and submillimeter galaxies. Whether and how radiation drives turbulence and bulk outflows in star formation sites is still unclear. The uncertainty stems from the limitations of direct numerical schemes used to simulate radiation transfer and radiation-gas coupling. The idealized setup in which radiation is introduced at the base of a dusty atmosphere in a gravitational field has recently become a standard for the testing of radiation hydrodynamics methods in the context of star formation. To a series of treatments enlisting the flux-limited-diffusion approximation as well as a short-characteristics tracing and M1 closure for the variable Eddington tensor approximation, we here add another, very different treatment based on the Implicit Monte Carlo radiation transfer scheme. Consistent with all previous treatment, we observe Rayleigh-Taylor instability and a readjustment to a near-Eddington state. We detect late-time net acceleration with velocity dispersion matching that reported for the short characteristics, the most accurate of the three preceding treatments. This technical result highlights the importance of proper radiation transfer in simulating radiation feedback.
NGC 4013 is a distinctly warped galaxy with evidence of disk-halo activity. Through deep HI observations and modeling we confirm that the HI disk is thin (central exponential scale height of with an upper limit of 4" or 280 pc), but flaring. We detect a vertical gradient in rotation velocity (lag), which shallows radially from a value of -35 +7/-28 km/s/kpc at 1.4' (5.8 kpc), to a value of zero near R_25 (11.2 kpc). Over much of this radial range, the lag is relatively steep. Both the steepness and the radial shallowing are consistent with recent determinations for a number of edge-ons, which have been difficult to explain. We briefly consider the lag measured in NGC 4013 in the context of this larger sample and theoretical models, further illuminating disk-halo flows.
Making use of a set of detailed potential models for normal spiral galaxies, we analyze the disk stellar orbital dynamics as the structural and dynamical parameters of the spiral arms (mass, pattern speed and pitch angle) are gradually modified. With this comprehensive study of ordered and chaotic behavior, we constructed an assemblage of orbitally supported galactic models and plausible parameters for orbitally self-consistent spiral arms models. We find that, to maintain orbital support for the spiral arms, the spiral arm mass, M$_{sp}$, must decrease with the increase of the pitch angle, $i$; if $i$ is smaller than $\sim10\deg$, M$_{sp}$ can be as large as $\sim7\%$, $\sim6\%$, $\sim5\%$ of the disk mass, for Sa, Sb, and Sc galaxies, respectively. If $i$ increases up to $\sim25\deg$, the maximum M$_{sp}$ is $\sim1\%$ of the disk mass independently in this case of morphological type. For values larger than these limits, spiral arms would likely act as transient features. Regarding the limits posed by extreme chaotic behavior, we find a strong restriction on the maximum plausible values of spiral arms parameters on disk galaxies beyond which, chaotic behavior becomes pervasive. We find that for $i$ smaller than $\sim20\deg$, $\sim25\deg$, $\sim30\deg$, for Sa, Sb, and Sc galaxies, respectively, M$_{sp}$ can go up to $\sim10\%$, of the mass of the disk. If the corresponding $i$ is around $\sim40\deg$, $\sim45\deg$, $\sim50\deg$, M$_{sp}$ is $\sim1\%$, $\sim2\%$, $\sim3\%$ of the mass of the disk. Beyond these values, chaos dominates phase space, destroying the main periodic and the neighboring quasi-periodic orbits.
Located in the Perseus cluster, NGC 1271 is an early-type galaxy with a small effective radius of 2.2 kpc and a large stellar velocity dispersion of 276 km/s for its K-band luminosity of 8.9x10^{10} L_sun. We present a mass measurement for the black hole in this compact, high-dispersion galaxy using observations from the integral field spectrograph NIFS on the Gemini North telescope assisted by laser guide star adaptive optics, large-scale integral field unit observations with PPAK at the Calar Alto Observatory, and Hubble Space Telescope WFC3 imaging observations. We are able to map out the stellar kinematics on small spatial scales, within the black hole sphere of influence, and on large scales that extend out to four times the galaxy's effective radius. We find that the galaxy is rapidly rotating and exhibits a sharp rise in the velocity dispersion. Through the use of orbit-based stellar dynamical models, we determine that the black hole has a mass of (3.0^{+1.0}_{-1.1}) x 10^9 M_sun and the H-band stellar mass-to-light ratio is 1.40^{+0.13}_{-0.11} M_sun/L_sun (1-sigma uncertainties). NGC 1271 occupies the sparsely-populated upper end of the black hole mass distribution, but is very different from the Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCGs) and giant elliptical galaxies that are expected to host the most massive black holes. Interestingly, the black hole mass is an order of magnitude larger than expectations based on the galaxy's bulge luminosity, but is consistent with the mass predicted using the galaxy's bulge stellar velocity dispersion. More compact, high-dispersion galaxies need to be studied using high spatial resolution observations to securely determine black hole masses, as there could be systematic differences in the black hole scaling relations between these types of galaxies and the BCGs/giant ellipticals, thereby implying different pathways for black hole and galaxy growth.
We have conducted a sensitive search down to the hydrogen burning limit for unextincted stars over $\sim$200 square degrees around Lambda Orionis and 20 square degrees around Sigma Orionis using the methodology of Koenig & Leisawitz (2014). From WISE and 2MASS data we identify 544 and 418 candidate YSOs in the vicinity of Lambda and Sigma respectively. Based on our followup spectroscopy for some candidates and the existing literature for others, we found that $\sim$80% of the K14-selected candidates are probable or likely members of the Orion star forming region. The yield from the photometric selection criteria shows that WISE sources with $K_S -w3 > 1.5$ mag and $K_S $ between 10--12 mag are most likely to show spectroscopic signs of youth, while WISE sources with $K_S -w3 > 4$ mag and $K_S > 12$ were often AGNs when followed up spectroscopically. The population of candidate YSOs traces known areas of active star formation, with a few new `hot spots' of activity near Lynds 1588 and 1589 and a more dispersed population of YSOs in the northern half of the HII region bubble around $\sigma$ and $\epsilon$ Ori. A minimal spanning tree analysis of the two regions to identify stellar groupings finds that roughly two-thirds of the YSO candidates in each region belong to groups of 5 or more members. The population of stars selected by WISE outside the MST groupings also contains spectroscopically verified YSOs, with a local stellar density as low as 0.5 stars per square degree.
We present the results of an imaging observation campaign conducted with the Subaru Telescope adaptive optics system (IRCS+AO188) on 26 gravitationally lensed quasars (24 doubles, 1 quad, and 1 possible triple) from the SDSS Quasar Lens Search. We develop a novel modelling technique that fits analytical and hybrid point spread functions (PSFs), while simultaneously measuring the relative astrometry, photometry, as well as the lens galaxy morphology. We account for systematics by simulating the observed systems using separately observed PSF stars. The measured relative astrometry is comparable with that typically achieved with the Hubble Space Telescope, even after marginalizing over the PSF uncertainty. We model for the first time the quasar host galaxies in 5 systems, without a-priory knowledge of the PSF, and show that their luminosities follow the known correlation with the mass of the supermassive black hole. For each system, we obtain mass models far more accurate than those previously published from low-resolution data, and we show that in our sample of lensing galaxies the observed light profile is more elliptical than the mass, for ellipticity > 0.25. We also identify eight doubles for which the sources of external and internal shear are more reliably separated, and should therefore be prioritized in monitoring campaigns aimed at measuring time-delays in order to infer the Hubble constant.
We use mid-infrared 3.6 and 4.5microns imaging of NGC 3906 from the Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in Galaxies (S4G) to understand the nature of an unusual offset between its stellar bar and the photometric center of an otherwise regular, circular outer stellar disk. We measure an offset of ~720 pc between the center of the stellar bar and photometric center of the stellar disk; the bar center coincides with the kinematic center of the disk determined from previous HI observations. Although the undisturbed shape of the disk suggests that NGC 3906 has not undergone a significant merger event in its recent history, the most plausible explanation for the observed offset is an interaction. Given the relatively isolated nature of NGC 3906 this interaction could be with dark matter sub structure in the galaxy's halo or from a recent interaction with a fast moving neighbor which remains to be identified. Simulations aimed at reproducing the observed offset between the stellar bar / kinematic center of the system and the photometric center of the disk are necessary to confirm this hypothesis and constrain the interaction history of the galaxy.
We discuss a new scenario for the formation of intermediate mass black holes in dense star clusters. In this scenario, intermediate mass black holes are formed as a result of dynamical interactions of hard binaries containing a stellar mass black hole, with other stars and binaries. We discuss the necessary conditions to initiate the process of intermediate mass black hole formation and the influence of an intermediate mass black hole on the host global globular cluster properties. We discuss two scenarios for intermediate mass black hole formation. The SLOW scenario occurs in the presence of modest central densities, with the intermediate mass black hole forming later on in the cluster evolution (usually following the post collapse phase) due to a low mass accretion rate. The FAST scenario requires extremely large central densities, with the intermediate mass black hole forming early on in the cluster evolution (after the formation of a dense, self-gravitating BH sub-system) due to a very high mass accretion rate. In our simulations, the formation of intermediate mass black holes is highly stochastic. In general, higher formation probabilities follow from larger cluster concentrations (i.e. central densities). We further discuss possible observational signatures of the presence of intermediate mass black holes in globular clusters that follow from our simulations. These include the spatial and kinematic structure of the host cluster, possible radio, X-ray and gravitational wave emissions due to dynamical collisions or mass-transfer and the creation of hypervelocity main sequence escapers during strong dynamical interactions between binaries and an intermediate mass black hole.
We have carried out a large grid of N-body simulations in order to investigate if mass-loss as a result of primordial gas expulsion can be responsible for the large fraction of second generation stars in globular clusters (GCs) with multiple stellar populations (MSPs). Our clusters start with two stellar populations in which $10\%$ of all stars are second generation stars. We simulate clusters with different initial masses, different ratios of the half-mass radius of first to second generation stars, different primordial gas fractions and Galactic tidal fields with varying strength. We then let our clusters undergo primordial gas-loss and obtain their final properties such as mass, half-mass radius and the fraction of second generation stars. Using our N-body grid we then perform a Monte Carlo analysis to constrain the initial masses, radii and required gas expulsion time-scales of GCs with MSPs. Our results can explain the present-day properties of GCs only if (1) a substantial amount of gas was present in the clusters after the formation of second generation stars and (2) gas expulsion time-scales were extremely short ($\lesssim 10^5$ yr). Such short gas expulsion time-scales are in agreement with recent predictions that dark remnants have ejected the primordial gas from globular clusters, and pose a potential problem for the AGB scenario. In addition, our results predict a strong anti-correlation between the number ratio of second-generation stars in GCs and the present-day mass of GCs. So far, the observational data show only a significantly weaker anti-correlation, if any at all.
We investigated the properties of the stellar populations in the discs of a sample of ten spiral galaxies. Our analysis focused on the galaxy region where the disc contributes more than 95 per cent of total surface brightness in order to minimise the contamination of the bulge and bar. The luminosity-weighted age and metallicity were obtained by fitting the galaxy spectra with a linear combination of stellar population synthesis models, while the total overabundance of {\alpha}-elements over iron was derived by measuring the line-strength indices. Most of the sample discs display a bimodal age distribution and they are characterised by a total [{\alpha}/Fe] enhancement ranging from solar and supersolar. We interpreted the age bimodality as due to the simultaneous presence of both a young (Age$\,\leq\,4$ Gyr) and an old (Age$\,>\,$4 Gyr) stellar population. The old stellar component usually dominates the disc surface brightness and its light contribution is almost constant within the observed radial range. For this reason, no age gradient is observed in half of the sample galaxies. The old component is slightly more metal poor than the young one. The metallicity gradient is negative and slightly positive in the old and young components, respectively. These results are in agreement with an inside-out scenario of disc formation and suggest a reduced impact of the radial migration on the stellar populations of the disc. The young component could be the result of a second burst of star formation in gas captured from the environment.
We measure the three components of velocity dispersion, $\sigma_{R},\sigma_{\theta},\sigma_{\phi}$, for stars within 6 < R < 30 kpc of the Milky Way using a new radial velocity sample from the MMT telescope. We combine our measurements with previously published data so that we can more finely sample the stellar halo. We use a maximum likelihood statistical method for estimating mean velocities, dispersions, and covariances assuming only that velocities are normally distributed. The alignment of the velocity ellipsoid is consistent with a spherically symmetric gravitational potential. From the spherical Jeans equation, the mass of the Milky Way is M(<14 kpc) = $2.6\times10^{11}$ M$_{\odot}$. We also find a region of discontinuity, 15 < R < 25 kpc, where the estimated velocity dispersions and anisotropies diverge from their anticipated values, confirming at high significance the break observed by others. We argue that this break in anisotropy is physically explained by coherent stellar velocity structure in the halo, such as the Sgr stream. To significantly improve our understanding of halo kinematics will require combining radial velocities with future Gaia proper motions.
The intrinsic column density (NH) distribution of quasars is poorly known. At the high obscuration end of the quasar population and for redshifts z<1, the X-ray spectra can only be reliably characterized using broad-band measurements which extend to energies above 10 keV. Using the hard X-ray observatory NuSTAR, along with archival Chandra and XMM-Newton data, we study the broad-band X-ray spectra of nine optically selected (from the SDSS), candidate Compton-thick (NH > 1.5e24 cm^-2) type 2 quasars (CTQSO2s); five new NuSTAR observations are reported herein, and four have been previously published. The candidate CTQSO2s lie at z<0.5, have observed [OIII] luminosities in the range 8.4 < log (L_[OIII]/L_solar) < 9.6, and show evidence for extreme, Compton-thick absorption when indirect absorption diagnostics are considered. Amongst the nine candidate CTQSO2s, five are detected by NuSTAR in the high energy (8-24 keV) band: two are weakly detected at the ~ 3 sigma confidence level and three are strongly detected with sufficient counts for spectral modeling (>~ 90 net source counts at 8-24 keV). For these NuSTAR-detected sources direct (i.e., X-ray spectral) constraints on the intrinsic AGN properties are feasible, and we measure column densities ~2.5-1600 times higher and intrinsic (unabsorbed) X-ray luminosities ~10-70 times higher than pre-NuSTAR constraints from Chandra and XMM-Newton. Assuming the NuSTAR-detected type 2 quasars are representative of other Compton-thick candidates, we make a correction to the NH distribution for optically selected type 2 quasars as measured by Chandra and XMM-Newton for 39 objects. With this approach, we predict a Compton-thick fraction of f_CT = 36^{+14}_{-12} %, although higher fractions (up to 76%) are possible if indirect absorption diagnostics are assumed to be reliable.
We are motivated by the recently reported dynamical evidence of stars with
short orbital periods moving around the center of the Milky Way and the
corresponding hypothesis about the existence of a supermassive black hole
hosted at its center. In this paper we show how the mass and rotation
parameters of a Kerr black hole (assuming that the putative supermassive black
hole is of this type), as well as the distance that separates the black hole
from the Earth, can be estimated in a relativistic way in terms of i) the red
and blue shifts of photons that are emitted by geodesic massive particles
(stars and galactic gas) and travel along null geodesics towards a distant
observer, and ii) the radius of these star/gas orbits.
As a concrete example and as a first step towards a full relativistic
analysis of the above mentioned star orbits around the center of our galaxy, we
consider stable equatorial circular orbits of stars and express their
corresponding red/blue shifts in terms of the metric parameters (mass and
angular momentum per unit mass) and the orbital radii of both the emitter star
(and/or galactic gas) and the distant observer.
In principle, these expressions allow one to statistically estimate the mass
and rotation parameters of the Kerr black hole, and the radius of our orbit,
through a Bayesian fitting, i.e., with the aid of observational data: the
red/blue shifts measured at certain points of stars' orbits and their radii,
with their respective errors, a task that we hope to perform in the near
future. We also point to several astrophysical phenomena, like accretion discs
of rotating black holes, binary systems and active galactic nuclei, among
others, to which this formalism can be applied.
Massive Black Hole (MBH) seeds at redshift $z \gtrsim 10$ are now thought to be key ingredients to explain the presence of the super-massive ($10^{9-10} \, \mathrm{M_{\odot}}$) black holes in place $ < 1 \, \mathrm{Gyr}$ after the Big Bang. Once formed, massive seeds grow and emit copious amounts of radiation by accreting the left-over halo gas; their spectrum can then provide crucial information on their evolution. By combining radiation-hydrodynamic and spectral synthesis codes, we simulate the time-evolving spectrum emerging from the host halo of a MBH seed with initial mass $10^5 \, \mathrm{M_{\odot}}$, assuming both standard Eddington-limited accretion, or slim accretion disks, appropriate for super-Eddington flows. The emission occurs predominantly in the observed infrared-submm ($1-1000 \, \mathrm{\mu m}$) and X-ray ($0.1 - 100 \, \mathrm{keV}$) bands. Such signal should be easily detectable by JWST around $\sim 1 \, \mathrm{\mu m}$ up to $z \sim 25$, and by ATHENA (between $0.1$ and $10 \, \mathrm{keV}$, up to $z \sim 15$). Ultra-deep X-ray surveys like the Chandra Deep Field South could have already detected these systems up to $z \sim 15$. Based on this, we provide an upper limit for the $z \gtrsim 6$ MBH mass density of $\rho_{\bullet} \lesssim 2 \times 10^{2} \, \mathrm{M_{\odot} \, Mpc^{-3}}$ assuming standard Eddington-limited accretion. If accretion occurs in the slim disk mode the limits are much weaker, $\rho_{\bullet} \lesssim 7.6 \times 10^{3} \, \mathrm{M_{\odot} \, Mpc^{-3}}$ in the most constraining case.
Many extensions of the Standard Model include axions or axion-like particles (ALPs). Here we study ALP to photon conversion in the magnetic field of the Milky Way and starburst galaxies. By modelling the effects of the coherent and random magnetic fields, the warm ionized medium and the warm neutral medium on the conversion process, we simulate maps of the conversion probability across the sky for a range of ALP energies. In particular, we consider a diffuse cosmic ALP background (CAB) analogous to the CMB, whose existence is suggested by string models of inflation. ALP-photon conversion of a CAB in the magnetic fields of galaxy clusters has been proposed as an explanation of the cluster soft X-ray excess. We therefore study the phenomenology and expected photon signal of CAB propagation in the Milky Way. We find that, for the CAB parameters required to explain the cluster soft X-ray excess, the photon flux from ALP-photon conversion in the Milky Way would be unobservably small. The ALP-photon conversion probability in galaxy clusters is 3 orders of magnitude higher than that in the Milky Way. Furthermore, the morphology of the unresolved cosmic X-ray background is incompatible with a significant component from ALP-photon conversion. We also consider ALP-photon conversion in starburst galaxies, which host much higher magnetic fields. By considering the clumpy structure of the galactic plasma, we find that conversion probabilities comparable to those in clusters may be possible in starburst galaxies.
We have studied the X-ray luminosity function (XLF) of low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) in the nearby lenticular galaxy NGC 3115, using the Megasecond Chandra X-Ray Visionary Project Observation. With a total exposure time of ~1.1 Ms, we constructed the XLF down to a limiting luminosity of ~10^36 erg/s, much deeper than typically reached for other early-type galaxies. We found significant flattening of the overall LMXB XLF from dN/dL \propto L^{-2.2\pm0.4} above 5.5x10^37 erg/s to dN/dL \propto L^{-1.0\pm0.1} below it, though we could not rule out a fit with a higher break at ~1.6x10^38 erg/s. We also found evidence that the XLF of LMXBs in globular clusters (GCs) is overall flatter than that of field LMXBs. Thus our results for this galaxy do not support the idea that all LMXBs are formed in GCs. The XLF of field LMXBs seems to show spatial variation, with the XLF in the inner region of the galaxy being flatter than that in the outer region, probably due to contamination of LMXBs from undetected and/or disrupted GCs in the inner region. The XLF in the outer region is probably the XLF of primordial field LMXBs, exhibiting dN/dL \propto L^{-1.2\pm0.1} up to a break close to the Eddington limit of neutron star LMXBs (~1.7x10^38 erg/s). The break of the GC LMXB XLF is lower, at ~1.1x10^37 erg/s. We also confirm previous findings that the metal-rich/red GCs are more likely to host LMXBs than the metal-poor/blue GCs, which is more significant for more luminous LMXBs, and that more massive GCs are more likely to host LMXBs.
We have carried out an in-depth study of low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) detected in the nearby lenticular galaxy NGC 3115, using the Megasecond Chandra X-Ray Visionary Project observation (total exposure time 1.1 Ms). In total we found 136 candidate LMXBs in the field and 49 in globular clusters (GCs) above 2\sigma\ detection, with 0.3--8 keV luminosity L_X ~10^36-10^39 erg/s. Other than 13 transient candidates, the sources overall have less long-term variability at higher luminosity, at least at L_X > 2x10^37 erg/s. In order to identify the nature and spectral state of our sources, we compared their collective spectral properties based on single-component models (a simple power law or a multicolor disk) with the spectral evolution seen in representative Galactic LMXBs. We found that in the L_X versus photon index \Gamma_PL and L_X versus disk temperature kT_MCD plots, most of our sources fall on a narrow track in which the spectral shape hardens with increasing luminosity below L_X~7x10^37 erg/s but is relatively constant (\Gamma_PL~1.5 or kT_MCD~1.5 keV) above this luminosity, similar to the spectral evolution of Galactic neutron star (NS) LMXBs in the soft state in the Chandra bandpass. Therefore we identified the track as the NS LMXB soft-state track and suggested sources with L_X<7x10^37 erg/s as atolls in the soft state and those with L_X>7x10^37 erg/s as Z sources. Ten other sources (five are transients) displayed significantly softer spectra and are probably black hole X-ray binaries in the thermal state. One of them (persistent) is in a metal-poor GC.
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Using deep Herschel and ALMA observations, we investigate the star formation rate (SFR) distributions of X-ray AGN host galaxies at 0.5<z<1.5 and 1.5<z<4, comparing them to that of normal, star-forming (i.e., "main-sequence", or MS) galaxies. We find 34-55 per cent of AGNs have SFRs at least a factor of two below that of the average MS galaxy, compared to ~15 per cent of all MS galaxies, suggesting significantly different SFR distributions. Indeed, when both are modelled as log-normal distributions, the mass and redshift-normalised SFR distributions of AGNs are roughly twice as broad, and peak ~0.4 dex lower, than that of MS galaxies. However, like MS galaxies, the normalised SFR distribution of AGNs appears not to evolve with redshift. Despite AGNs and MS galaxies having different SFR distributions, the linear-mean SFR of AGNs derived from our distributions is remarkably consistent with that of MS galaxies, and thus with previous results derived from stacked Herschel data. This apparent contradiction is due to the linear-mean SFR being biased by bright outliers, and thus does not necessarily represent a true characterisation of the typical SFR of AGNs.
Using results from the Herschel Astrophysical Terrahertz Large-Area Survey and the Galaxy and Mass Assembly project, we show that, for galaxy masses above approximately 1.0e8 solar masses, 51% of the stellar mass-density in the local Universe is in early-type galaxies (ETGs: Sersic n > 2.5) while 89% of the rate of production of stellar mass-density is occurring in late-type galaxies (LTGs: Sersic n < 2.5). From this zero-redshift benchmark, we have used a calorimetric technique to quantify the importance of the morphological transformation of galaxies over the history of the Universe. The extragalactic background radiation contains all the energy generated by nuclear fusion in stars since the Big Bang. By resolving this background radiation into individual galaxies using the deepest far-infrared survey with the Herschel Space Observatory and a deep near-infrared/optical survey with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), and using measurements of the Sersic index of these galaxies derived from the HST images, we estimate that approximately 83% of the stellar mass-density formed over the history of the Universe occurred in LTGs. The difference between this and the fraction of the stellar mass-density that is in LTGs today implies there must have been a major transformation of LTGs into ETGs after the formation of most of the stars.
Feedback from outflows driven by active galactic nuclei (AGN) can affect the distribution and properties of the gaseous halos of galaxies. We study the hydrodynamics and non-thermal emission from the forward outflow shock produced by an AGN-driven outflow. We consider a few possible profiles for the halo gas density, self-consistently constrained by the halo mass, redshift and the disk baryonic concentration of the galaxy. We show that the outflow velocity levels off at $\sim 10^3\,\rm km\, s^{-1}$ within the scale of the galaxy disk. Typically, the outflow can reach the virial radius around the time when the AGN shuts off. We show that the outflows are energy-driven, consistently with observations. The outflow shock lights up the halos of massive galaxies across a broad wavelength range. For Milky Way (MW) mass halos, radio observations by The Jansky Very Large Array (JVLA) and The Square Kilometer Array (SKA) and infrared/optical observations by The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and Hubble Space Telescope (HST) can detect the emission signal of angular size $\sim 8"$ from galaxies out to redshift $z\sim5$. Millimeter observations by The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) are sensitive to non-thermal emission of angular size $\sim 18"$ from galaxies at redshift $z\lesssim1$, while X-ray observations by Chandra, XMM-Newton and The Advanced Telescope for High Energy Astrophysics (ATHENA) is limited to local galaxies ($z\lesssim 0.1$) with an emission angular size of $\sim2'$. Overall, the extended non-thermal emission provides a new way of probing the gaseous halos of galaxies at high redshifts.
Using a simple analytic formalism, we demonstrate that significant dark matter self-interactions produce halo cores that obey scaling relations nearly independent of the underlying particle physics parameters such as the annihilation cross section and the mass of the dark matter particle. For dwarf galaxies, we predict that the core density $\rho_c$ and the core radius $r_c$ should obey $\rho_c r_c \sim 75\,\text{M}_\odot \text{pc}^{-2}$. Remarkably, such a scaling relation has recently been empirically inferred. Scaling relations involving core mass, core radius, and core velocity dispersion are predicted and agree well with observational data. By calibrating against numerical simulations, we predict the scatter in such relations and find them to be in excellent agreement with existing data. Future observations can test our predictions for different halo masses and redshifts.
Dust-Obscured galaxies (DOGs) are bright 24 um-selected sources with extreme obscuration at optical wavelengths. They are typically characterized by a rising power-law continuum of hot dust (T_D ~ 200-1000K) in the near-IR indicating that their mid-IR luminosity is dominated by an an active galactic nucleus (AGN). DOGs with a fainter 24 um flux display a stellar bump in the near-IR and their mid-IR luminosity appears to be mainly powered by dusty star formation. Alternatively, it may be that the mid-IR emission arising from AGN activity is dominant but the torus is sufficiently opaque to make the near-IR emission from the AGN negligible with respect to the emission from the host component. In an effort to characterize the astrophysical nature of the processes responsible for the IR emission in DOGs, this paper exploits Herschel data (PACS + SPIRE) on a sample of 95 DOGs within the COSMOS field. We derive a wealth of far-IR properties (e.g., total IR luminosities; mid-to-far IR colors; dust temperatures and masses) based on SED fitting. Of particular interest are the 24 um-bright DOGs (F_24um > 1mJy). They present bluer far-IR/mid-IR colors than the rest of the sample, unveiling the potential presence of an AGN. The AGN contribution to the total 8-1000 um flux increases as a function of the rest-frame 8 um-luminosity irrespective of the redshift. This confirms that faint DOGs (L_8 um< 10^12 L_sun) are dominated by star-formation while brighter DOGs show a larger contribution from an AGN.
Leo P is a low-luminosity dwarf galaxy discovered through the blind HI Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA (ALFALFA) survey. The HI and follow-up optical observations have shown that Leo P is a gas-rich dwarf galaxy with active star formation, an underlying older population, and an extremely low oxygen abundance. We have obtained optical imaging from the Hubble Space Telescope to study the evolution of Leo P. We refine the distance measurement to Leo~P to be 1.62+/-0.15 Mpc, based on the luminosity of the horizontal branch stars and 10 newly identified RR Lyrae candidates. This places the galaxy at the edge of the Local Group, ~0.4 Mpc from the loose association of dwarfs that includes Sextans A, Sextans B, Antlia, and NGC 3109. The star responsible for ionizing the HII region is most likely an O7V or O8V spectral type, with a stellar mass >25 Msun. The presence of this star provides observational evidence that massive stars at the upper-end of the initial mass function are capable of being formed at star formation rates as low as ~10^-5 Msun/yr. The best-fitting star formation history derived from the resolved stellar populations of Leo P using the latest PARSEC models shows a relatively constant star formation rate over the lifetime of the galaxy. The modeled luminosity characteristics of Leo P at early times are consistent with low-luminosity dSph Milky Way satellites, suggesting that Leo P is what a low-mass dSph would look like if it evolved in isolation and retained its gas. Despite the very low mass of Leo P, the imprint of reionization on its star formation history is subtle at best, and consistent with being totally negligible. The isolation of Leo P, and the total quenching of star formation of Milky Way satellites of similar mass, implies that local environment dominates the quenching of the Milky Way satellites.
We report high spatial resolution observations of Giant Molecular Clouds (GMCs) in the nearby spiral galaxies NGC 6946, M101 and NGC 628 obtained with the CARMA telescope. We observed CO(1-0) over regions with active star formation, and higher resolution observations of CO(2-1) have allowed us to resolve some of the largest GMCs. Using a Bayesian fitting approach, we generate scaling relations for the sizes, line widths, and virial masses of the structures identified in this work. We do not find evidence for a tight power law relation between size and line width, although the limited dynamic range in cloud size remains a clear issue in our analysis. Additionally, we use a Bayesian approach to analyze the Kennicutt-Schmidt (K-S) relation for the identified structures. We find that the distribution of slopes are broadly distributed, mainly due to the limited dynamic range of our measured H2 mass surface density, and being most consistent with super-linear relations. On the other hand, when we use the Bayesian approach to analyze the K-S relation for a uniform grid, the distributions of slopes is consistent with sub-linear relations. On-arm regions tend to have higher star formation rates than inter-arm regions. As in NGC 6946, in M101 we find regions where the star formation efficiency shows marked peaks at specific galoctocentric radii. On the other hand, the distribution of SFE in NGC 628 is more contiguous. We hypothesize that differences in the distribution of SFE may be indicative of different processes driving the spiral structure.
Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCGs) show exceptional properties over the whole electromagnetic spectrum. Their special location at the centres of galaxy clusters raises the question of the role of the environment on their radio properties. To decouple the effect of the galaxy mass and of the environment in their statistical radio properties, we investigate the possible dependence of the occurrence of radio loudness and of the fractional radio luminosity function on the dynamical state of the hosting cluster. We studied the radio properties of the BCGs in the Extended GMRT Radio Halo Survey (EGRHS). We obtained a statistical sample of 59 BCGs, which was divided into two classes, depending on the dynamical state of the host cluster, i.e. merging (M) and relaxed (R). Among the 59 BCGs, 28 are radio-loud, and 31 are radio--quiet. The radio-loud sources are located favourably located in relaxed clusters (71\%), while the reverse is true for the radio-quiet BCGs, mostly located in merging systems (81\%). The fractional radio luminosity function (RLF) for the BCGs is considerably higher for BCGs in relaxed clusters, where the total fraction of radio loudness reaches almost 90\%, to be compared to the $\sim$30\% in merging clusters. For relaxed clusters, we found a positive correlation between the radio power of the BCGs and the strength of the cool core, consistent with previous studies on local samples. Our study suggests that the radio loudness of the BCGs strongly depends on the cluster dynamics, their fraction being considerably higher in relaxed clusters. We compared our results with similar investigations, and briefly discussed them in the framework of AGN feedback.
We determine the radial abundance gradient of Cl in the Milky Way from HII regions spectra. For the first time, the Cl/H ratios are computed by simply adding ionic abundances and not using an ionization correction factor (ICF). We use a collection of published very deep spectra of Galactic HII regions. We have re-calculated the physical conditions, ionic and total abundances of Cl and O using the same methodology and updated atomic data for all the objects. We find that the slopes of the radial gradients of Cl and O are identical within the uncertainties: -0.043 dex/kpc. This is consistent with a lockstep evolution of both elements. We obtain that the mean value of the Cl/O ratio across the Galactic disc is log(Cl/O) = -3.42 +/- 0.06. We compare our Cl/H ratios with those determined from Cl++ abundances and using some available ICF schemes of the literature. We find that our total Cl abundances are always lower than the values determined using ICFs, indicating that those correction schemes systematically overestimate the contribution of Cl+ and Cl+++ species to the total Cl abundance. Finally, we propose an empirical ICF(Cl++) to estimate the Cl/H ratio in HII regions.
Since radio continuum observations are not affected by dust obscuration, they are of immense potential diagnostic power as cosmological probes and for studying galaxy formation and evolution out to high redshifts. However, the power-law nature of radio frequency spectra ensures that ancillary spectroscopic information remains critical for studying the properties of the faint radio sources being detected in rapidly-increasing numbers on the pathway to the Square Kilometre Array. In this contribution, I present some of the key scientific motivations for exploiting the immense synergies between radio continuum observations and multi-object spectroscopic surveys. I review some of the ongoing efforts to obtain the spectra necessary to harness the huge numbers of star-forming galaxies and AGN that current and future radio surveys will detect. I also touch on the WEAVE-LOFAR survey, which will use the WEAVE spectrograph currently being built for the William Herschel Telescope to target hundreds of thousands of low frequency sources selected from the LOFAR continuum surveys.
Radiatively inefficient accretion flows (RIAFs) in low-luminosity active galactic nuclei (LLAGNs) have been suggested as cosmic-ray and neutrino sources, which may largely contribute to the observed diffuse neutrino intensity. We show that this scenario naturally predicts hadronic multi-TeV gamma-ray excesses around galactic centers. The protons accelerated in the RIAF in Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) escape and interact with dense molecular gas surrounding Sgr A*, which is known as the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ), and produce gamma rays as well as neutrinos. Based on a theoretical model that is compatible with the IceCube data, we calculate gamma-ray spectra of the CMZ and find that the gamma rays with $\gtrsim 1$~TeV may have already been detected with the High Energy Stereoscopic System (HESS), if Sgr A* was more active in the past than it is today as indicated by various observations. Our model predicts that neutrinos should come from the CMZ with a spectrum similar to the gamma-ray spectrum. We also show that such a gamma-ray excess is expected for some nearby galaxies hosting LLAGNs.
We present a catalogue of starless and protostellar clumps associated with infrared dark clouds (IRDCs) in a 40 degrees wide region of the inner Galactic Plane (b<1). We have extracted the far-infrared (FIR) counterparts of 3493 IRDCs with known distance in the Galactic longitude range 15<l<55 and searched for the young clumps using Hi-GAL, the survey of the Galactic Plane carried out with the Herschel satellite. Each clump is identified as a compact source detected at 160, 250 and 350 mum. The clumps have been classified as protostellar or starless, based on their emission (or lack of emission) at 70 mum. We identify 1723 clumps, 1056 (61%) of which are protostellar and 667 (39%) starless. These clumps are found within 764 different IRDCs, 375 (49%) of which are only associated with protostellar clumps, 178 (23%) only with starless clumps, and 211 (28%) with both categories of clumps. The clumps have a median mass of 250 M_sun and range up to >10^4$ M_sun in mass and up to 10^5 L_sun in luminosity. The mass-radius distribution shows that almost 30% of the starless clumps identified in this survey could form high-mass stars, however these massive clumps are confined in only ~4% of the IRDCs. Assuming a minimum mass surface density threshold for the formation of high-mass stars, the comparison of the numbers of massive starless clumps and those already containing embedded sources suggests an upper limit lifetime for the starless phase of 10^5 years for clumps with a mass M>500 M_sun.
Modeling a promising carrier of the astronomically observed polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH), infrared (IR) spectra of ionized molecules (C9H7) n+ were calculated based on density functional theory (DFT). In a previous study, it was found that void induced coronene C23H12++ could reproduce observed spectra from 3 to 15 micron, which has carbon two pentagons connected with five hexagons. In this paper, we tried to test the simplest model, that is, one pentagon connected with one hexagon, which is indene like molecule (C9H7) n+ (n=0 to 4). DFT based harmonic frequency analysis resulted that observed spectrum could be almost reproduced by a suitable sum of ionized C9H7n+ molecules. Typical example is C9H7++. Calculated peaks were 3.2, 7.4, 7.6, 8.4, and 12.7 micron, whereas observed one 3.3, 7.6, 7.8, 8.6 and 12.7 micron. By a combination of different degree of ionized molecules, we can expect to reproduce total spectrum. For a comparison, hexagon-hexagon molecule naphthalene (C10H8) n+ was studied. Unfortunately, ionized naphthalene shows little coincidence with observed one. Carbon pentagon- hexagon molecules may play an important role as interstellar molecular dust.
We study the impact of baryons on the distribution of dark matter in a Milky Way-size halo by comparing a high-resolution, moving-mesh cosmological simulation with its dark matter-only counterpart. We identify three main processes related to baryons -- adiabatic contraction, tidal disruption and reionization -- which jointly shape the dark matter distribution in both the main halo and its subhalos. The relative effect of each baryonic process depends strongly on the subhalo mass. For massive subhalos with maximum circular velocity $v_{\rm max} > 35 km/s$, adiabatic contraction increases the dark matter concentration, making these halos less susceptible to tidal disruption. For low-mass subhalos with $v_{\rm max} < 20 km/s$, reionization effectively reduces their mass on average by $\approx$ 30% and $v_{\rm max}$ by $\approx$ 20%. For intermediate subhalos with $20 km/s < v_{\rm max} < 35 km/s$, which share a similar mass range as the classical dwarf spheroidals, strong tidal truncation induced by the main galaxy reduces their $v_{\rm max}$. Moreover, the stellar disk of the main galaxy effectively depletes subhalos near the central region. As a combined result of reionization and increased tidal disruption, the total number of low-mass subhalos in the hydrodynamic simulation is nearly halved compared to that of the $\textit{N-}$body simulation. We do not find dark matter cores in dwarf galaxies, unlike previous studies that employed bursty feedback-driven outflows. The substantial impact of baryons on the abundance and internal structure of subhalos suggests that galaxy formation and evolution models based on $\textit{N}$-body simulations should include these physical processes as major components.
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