To unambiguously diagnose the detailed physical mechanisms and the
evolutionary status of high-mass star-forming regions (HMSFRs), we have
performed 0.4" ($\sim1000$ AU) resolution observations towards NGC7538S and
IRS1, using the Plateau de Bure Interferometer (PdBI). This paper presents a
joint analysis of the 1.37 mm continuum emission and the line intensity of 15
molecular species. Assuming local thermal equilibrium, we derived molecular
column densities and molecular abundances for each internal gas substructure
which is spatially resolved. These derived quantities are compared with a suite
of 1-D gas-grain models.
NGC7538S is resolved into at least three dense gas condensations. Despite the
comparable continuum intensity of these condensations, their differing
molecular line emission is suggestive of an overall chemical evolutionary trend
from the northeast to the southeast. Since these condensations are embedded
within the same parent gas core, their differing chemical properties are the
most likely due to the different warm-up histories, rather than the different
dynamic timescales. Despite remaining spatially unresolved, in IRS1 we detect
abundant complex organic molecules, indicating that IRS1 is the most chemically
evolved hot molecular core presented here. We observe a continuum that is
dominated by absorption features with at least three strong emission lines,
potentially from $\rm CH_3OH$. The $\rm CH_3OH$ lines which are purely in
emission have higher excitation than the ones showing purely absorption.
Potential reasons for that difference are discussed.
This is the first comprehensive comparison of observations of the high-mass
cores NGC7538S and IRS1 and a chemical model. We have found that different
chemical evolutionary stages can coexist in the same natal gas core. Our
achievement illustrates the strength of chemical analysis for understanding
HMSFRs.
We present results of 12CO(J=2-1) observations toward four massive star-forming galaxies at z~1.4 with the Nobeyama 45~m radio telescope. The galaxies are detected with Spitzer/MIPS in 24 um, Herschel/SPIRE in 250 um, and 350 um and they mostly reside in the main sequence. Their gas-phase metallicities derived with N2 method by using the Ha and [NII]6584 emission lines are near the solar value. CO lines are detected toward three galaxies. The molecular gas masses obtained are (9.6-35) x 10^{10} Msun by adopting the Galactic CO-to-H2 conversion factor and the CO(2-1)/CO(1-0) flux ratio of 3. The dust masses derived with the modified blackbody model (assuming the dust temperature of 35 K and the emissivity index of 1.5) are (2.4-5.4) x 10^{8} Msun. The resulting gas-to-dust ratios (not accounting for HI mass) at z~1.4 are 220-1450, which are several times larger than those in local star-forming galaxies. A dependence of the gas-to-dust ratio on the far-infrared luminosity density is not clearly seen.
The Milky Way presents the too-big-to-fail (TBTF) problem that there are two observed satellite galaxies with maximum circular velocity larger than 55km/s, and others have velocity less than 25km/s, but the cold dark matter model predicts there should be more than 10 subhaloes with velocity larger than 25km/s. Those massive subhaloes with $25km/s<V_{max}<55km/s$ should not have failed to form stars. The TBTF problem severely challenges the CDM model. Most efforts are seeking the effects of baryonic feedback, decreasing the mass of the Milky Way, changing the properties of dark matter, so as to assign the observed low-velocity satellites into the massive subhaloes found in simulations. However, the TBTF problem can be avoided if the MW have not accreted subhaloes with velocity between $25km/s<V_{max}<55km/s$ although the probability of such a gap is lower as $\sim 1\%$ and can not be tested against observations. In this work we study the gap in stellar mass of satellite galaxies using the SDSS group catalogue and a semi-analytical model. We find that there are 1-2\% of galaxy groups with a large gap in the stellar mass of their satellites. These 'big gap' groups have accreted less massive subhaloes in their formation history and naturally display a gap between their satellite galaxies. If extrapolating our results to the Milky Way is appropriate, we conclude that it is very likely that our Milky Way has not accreted enough massive subhaloes to host those low-velocity satellites, and the TBTF problem is naturally avoided.
We present a new spectroscopic technique based in part on targeting the upward fluctuations of the surface brightness for studying the internal stellar kinematics and metallicities of low surface brightness galaxies and streams beyond the Local Group. The distance to these systems makes them unsuitable for targeting individual red giant branch (RGB) stars (tip of RGB at $I\gtrsim24$~mag) and their surface brightness is too low ($\mu_r\gtrsim 25$~mag~arcsec$^{-2}$) for integrated light spectroscopic measurements. This technique overcomes these two problems by targeting individual objects that are brighter than the tip of the RGB. We apply this technique to the star-forming dwarf galaxy NGC 4449 and its stellar stream. We use Keck/DEIMOS data to measure the line-of-sight radial velocity out to $\sim7$~kpc in the East side of the galaxy and $\sim8$~kpc along the stream. We find that the two systems are likely gravitationally bound to each other and have heliocentric radial velocities of $227.3\pm10.7$~km/s and $225.8\pm16.0$~km/s, respectively. Neither the stream nor the near half of the galaxy shows a significant velocity gradient. We estimate the stellar metallicity of the stream based on the equivalent width of its Calcium triplet lines and find [Fe/H]~$=-1.37\pm0.41$, which is consistent with the metallicity-luminosity relation for Local Group dwarf galaxies. Whether the stream's progenitor was moderately or severely stripped cannot be constrained with this metallicity uncertainty. We demonstrate that this new technique can be used to measure the kinematics and (possibly) the metallicity of the numerous faint satellites and stellar streams in the halos of nearby ($\sim 4$~Mpc) galaxies.
We present a measurement of the abundance of carbon monoxide in the early Universe, utilizing the final results from the CO Power Spectrum Survey (COPSS). Between 2013 and 2015, we performed observations with the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Array (SZA) to measure the aggregate CO emission from $z\sim3$ galaxies with the intensity mapping technique. Data were collected on 19 fields, covering an area of 0.7 square degrees, over a frequency range of 27 to 35 GHz. With these data, along with data analyzed in COPSS I, we are able to observe the CO(1-0) transition in the redshift range of $z=2.3-3.3$ for spatial frequencies between $k=0.5-10\ h\,\textrm{Mpc}^{-1}$, spanning a comoving volume of $4.9\times10^{6}\ h^{-3}\,\textrm{Mpc}^{3}$. We present estimates of contributions from continuum sources and ground illumination within our measurement. We constrain the amplitude of the CO power spectrum to be $P_{\textrm{CO}}=3.0_{-1.3}^{+1.3}\times10^{3}\ \mu\textrm{K}^{2} (h^{-1}\,\textrm{Mpc})^{3}$, or $\Delta^{2}_{\textrm{CO}}(k\!=\!1\ h\,\textrm{Mpc}^{-1})=1.5^{+0.7}_{-0.7} \times10^{3}\ \mu\textrm{K}^{2}$, at 68% confidence, and $P_{\textrm{CO}}>0$ at 98.9% confidence. These results are a factor of 10 improvement in sensitivity compared to the previous limits set in COPSS I. We use this measurement to place constraints on the CO(1-0) galaxy luminosity function at $z\sim3$. We constrain the ratio of CO(1-0) luminosity to host halo mass to $A_{\textrm{CO}}=6.3_{-2.1}^{+1.4}\times10^{-7}\ L_{\odot}\ M_{\odot}^{-1}$, and estimate a mass fraction of molecular gas of $f_{\textrm{H}_{2}}=5.5^{+3.4}_{-2.2}\times10^{-2}$ for halos with masses of order $10^{12}M_{\odot}$. Using simple theoretical estimates for the scaling of molecular gas mass fraction and halo mass, we estimate the global density of molecular gas to be $\rho_{z\sim3}(\textrm{H}_{2})=1.1_{-0.4}^{+0.7}\times10^{8}\ M_{\odot}\ \textrm{Mpc}^{-3}$.
The search of extragalactic regions with conspicuous presence of Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars outside the Local Group is challenging task due to the difficulties in detecting their faint spectral features. In this exploratory work, we develop a methodology to perform an automated search of WR signatures through a pixel-by-pixel analysis of integral field spectroscopy (IFS) data belonging to the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area survey, CALIFA. This technique allowed us to build the first catalogue of Wolf-Rayet rich regions with spatially-resolved information, allowing to study the properties of these complexes in a 2D context. The detection technique is based on the identification of the blue WR bump (around He II 4686 {\AA}, mainly associated to nitrogen-rich WR stars, WN) and the red WR bump (around C IV 5808 {\AA} and associated to carbon-rich WR stars, WC) using a pixel-by-pixel analysis. We identified 44 WR-rich regions with blue bumps distributed in 25 galaxies of a total of 558. The red WR bump was identified only in 5 of those regions. We found that the majority of the galaxies hosting WR populations in our sample are involved in some kind of interaction process. Half of the host galaxies share some properties with gamma-ray burst (GRB) hosts where WR stars, as potential candidates to being the progenitors of GRBs, are found. We also compared the WR properties derived from the CALIFA data with stellar population synthesis models, and confirm that simple star models are generally not able to reproduce the observations. We conclude that other effects, such as the binary star channel (which could extend the WR phase up to 10 Myr), fast rotation or other physical processes that causes the loss of observed Lyman continuum photons, are very likely affecting the derived WR properties, and hence should be considered when modelling the evolution of massive stars.
We examine a model for the variable free-free and neutral hydrogen absorption inferred towards the cores of some compact radio galaxies in which a spatially fluctuating medium drifts in front of the source. We relate the absorption-induced intensity fluctuations to the statistics of the underlying opacity fluctuations. We investigate models in which the absorbing medium consists of either discrete clouds or a power-law spectrum of opacity fluctuations. We examine the variability characteristics of a medium comprised of Gaussian-shaped clouds in which the neutral and ionized matter are co-located, and in which the clouds comprise spherical constant-density neutral cores enveloped by ionized sheaths. The cross-power spectrum indicates the spatial relationship between neutral and ionized matter, and distinguishes the two models, with power in the Gaussian model declining as a featureless power-law, but that in the ionized sheath model oscillating between positive and negative values. We show how comparison of the HI and free-free power spectra reveals information on the ionization and neutral fractions of the medium. The background source acts as a low-pass filter of the underlying opacity power spectrum, which limits temporal fluctuations to frequencies $\omega < \dot{\theta}_v / \theta_{\rm src}$, where $\dot{\theta}_v$ is the angular drift speed of the matter in front of the source, and it quenches the observability of opacity structures on scales smaller than the source size $\theta_{\rm src}$. For drift speeds of $\sim 10^3\,$km s$^{-1}$ and source brightness temperatures $\sim 10^{12}\,$K, this limitation confines temporal opacity fluctuations to timescales of order several months to decades.
We conducted an extensive CCD search for faint, unresolved dwarf galaxies of very low surface brightness in the whole Centaurus group region encompassing the Cen A and M 83 subgroups lying at a distance of roughly 4 and 5 Mpc, respectively. The aim is to significantly increase the sample of known Centaurus group members down to a fainter level of completeness, serving as a basis for future studies of the 3D structure of the group. Following our previous survey of 60 square degrees covering the M 83 subgroup, we extended and completed our survey of the Centaurus group region by imaging another 500 square degrees area in the g and r bands with the wide-field Dark Energy Survey Camera at the 4m Blanco telescope at CTIO. The limiting central surface brightness reached for suspected Centaurus members is $\mu_r \approx 29$ mag arcsec$^{-2}$, corresponding to an absolute magnitude $M_r \approx -9.5$. The images were enhanced using different filtering techniques. We found 41 new dwarf galaxy candidates, which together with the previously discovered 16 dwarf candidates in the M 83 subgroup amounts to almost a doubling of the number of known galaxies in the Centaurus complex, if the candidates are confirmed. We carried out surface photometry in g and r, and report the photometric parameters derived therefrom, for all new candidates as well as previously known members in the surveyed area. The photometric properties of the candidates, when compared to those of LG dwarfs and previously known Centaurus dwarfs, suggest membership in the Centaurus group. The sky distribution of the new objects is generally following a common envelope around the Cen A and M 83 subgroups. How the new dwarfs are connected to the intriguing double-planar feature recently reported by Tully et al. (2015) must await distance information for the candidates.
The radio pulsar and rotating radio transient populations are only known in and near the Milky Way. Investigating such populations in other galaxies requires deep pulsar and transient searches. We have performed 4-h radio observations of nearby galaxies M33, M81 and M82 with LOFAR. Our main purpose was to characterise the bright end of the pulsar population in other galaxies, and compare it to that of the Milky Way. We searched for extragalactic radio pulsars through a periodic-pulse search, and for sporadic fast radio transients through a single-pulse search. We coherently combined 24 LOFAR Core High-Band Antenna (HBA) stations and covered M33, M81, and M82 in their entirety using multiple tied-array beams. No pulsating sources or single pulses were found. We therefore have established stricter limits on the extragalactic pulsar flux density at lower frequencies than those obtained in previous Arecibo and WSRT searches. We conclude that in nearby galaxies M33, M81, and M82 there are no pulsars shining toward Earth with pseudo luminosities greater than 10 times that of the brightest pulsars in our Milky Way.
We investigate the redshift evolution of the [OIII]/Hb nebular emission line ratio for a sample of galaxies spanning the redshift range 0 < z < 4. We compare the observed evolution to a set of theoretical models which account for the independent evolution of chemical abundance, ionization parameter and interstellar-medium (ISM) pressure in star-forming galaxies with redshift. Accounting for selection effects in the combined datasets, we show that the evolution to higher [OIII]/Hb ratios with redshift is a real physical effect which is best accounted for by a model in which the ionization parameter is elevated from the average values typical of local star-forming galaxies, with a possible simultaneous increase in the ISM pressure. We rule out the possibility that the observed [OIII]/Hb evolution is purely due to metallicity evolution. We discuss the implications of these results for using local empirical metallicity calibrations to measure metallicities at high redshift, and briefly discuss possible theoretical implications of our results.
There are some approaches, either based on General Relativity (GR) or modified gravity, that use galaxy rotation curves to derive the matter density of the corresponding galaxy, and this procedure would either indicate a partial or a complete elimination of dark matter in galaxies. Here we review these approaches, clarify the difficulties on this inverted procedure, present a method for evaluating them, and use it to test two specific approaches that are based on GR: the Cooperstock-Tieu (CT) and the Balasin-Grumiller (BG) approaches. Using this new method, we find that neither of the tested approaches can satisfactorily fit the observational data without dark matter. The CT approach results can be significantly improved if some dark matter is considered, while for the BG approach no usual dark matter halo can improve its results.
The carbon-enhanced metal-poor star BD+44 493 ([Fe/H]=-3.9) has been proposed as a candidate second-generation star enriched by metals from a single Pop III star. We report the first detections of P and S and the second detection of Zn in any extremely metal-poor carbon-enhanced star, using new spectra of BD+44 493 collected by the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope. We derive [P/Fe]=-0.34 +/- 0.21, [S/Fe]=+0.07 +/- 0.41, and [Zn/Fe]=-0.10 +/- 0.24. We increase by ten-fold the number of Si I lines detected in BD+44 493, yielding [Si/Fe]=+0.15 +/- 0.22. The solar [S/Fe] and [Zn/Fe] ratios exclude the hypothesis that the abundance pattern in BD+44 493 results from depletion of refractory elements onto dust grains. Comparison with zero-metallicity supernova models suggests that the stellar progenitor that enriched BD+44 493 was massive and ejected much less than 0.07 Msun of Ni-56, characteristic of a faint supernova.
While galaxies at $6 \lesssim z \lesssim 10$ are believed to dominate the epoch of cosmic reionization, the escape fraction of ionizing flux $f_\mathrm{esc}$ and the photon production rate $\dot n_\gamma$ from these galaxies must vary with redshift to simultaneously match CMB and low-redshift observations. We constrain $f_\mathrm{esc}(z)$ and $\dot n_\gamma(z)$ with Planck 2015 measurements of the Thomson optical depth $\tau$, recent low multipole E-mode polarization measurements from Planck 2016, SDSS BAO data, and $3 \lesssim z \lesssim 10$ galaxy observations. We compare different galaxy luminosity functions that are calibrated to HST observations, using both parametric and non-parametric statistical methods that marginalize over the effective clumping factor $C_\mathrm{HII}$, the LyC production efficiency $\xi_\mathrm{ion}$, and the time-evolution of the UV limiting magnitude $dM_\mathrm{SF}/dz$. Using a power-law model, we find $f_\mathrm{esc} \lesssim 0.5$ at $z=8$ with slope $\beta \gtrsim 2.0$ at $68\%$ confidence with little dependence on the galaxy luminosity function or data, although there is non-negligible probability for no redshift evolution $\beta \sim 0$ or small escape fraction $f_\mathrm{esc} \sim 10^{-2}$. A non-parametric form for $f_\mathrm{esc}(z)$ evolves significantly with redshift, yielding $f_\mathrm{esc} \sim 0.2, 0.3, 0.6$ at $z=6,9,12$, respectively. However, a model-independent reconstruction of $\dot n_\gamma(z)$ predicts a suppressed escaped photon production rate at $z=9$ for the latest Planck data compared to the other models, implying a quicker period of reionization. We find evidence for redshift evolution in the limiting magnitude of the galaxy luminosity function for empirical models of the galaxy luminosity function.
We present a new method for interferometric imaging that is ideal for the large fields of view and compact arrays common in 21~cm cosmology. We first demonstrate the method with simulations for two very different low frequency interferometers, the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) and the MIT Epoch of Reionization (MITEoR) Experiment. We then apply the method to the MITEoR data set collected in July 2013 to obtain the first northern sky map from 128 MHz to 175 MHz at about 2 degree resolution, and find an overall spectral index of -2.73+/-0.11. The success of this imaging method bodes well for upcoming compact redundant low-frequency arrays such as HERA. Both the MITEoR interferometric data and the 150 MHz sky map are publicly available at this http URL
We explore the question of the rapid buildup of black hole mass in the early universe employing a growing black hole mass-based determination of both jet and disk powers predicted in recent theoretical work on black hole accretion and jet formation. Despite simplified, even artificial assumptions about accretion and mergers, we identify an interesting low probability channel for the growth of one billion solar mass black holes within hundreds of millions of years of the Big Bang without appealing to super Eddington accretion. This result is made more compelling by the recognition of a connection between this channel and an end product involving active galaxies with FRI radio morphology but weaker jet powers in mildly sub-Eddington accretion regimes. While FRI quasars have already been shown to occupy a small region of the available parameter space for black hole feedback in the paradigm, we further suggest that the observational dearth of FRI quasars is also related to their connection to the most massive black hole growth due to both these FRIs high redshifts and relative weakness. Our results also allow us to construct the AGN luminosity function at high redshift, that agree with recent studies. In short, we produce a connection between the unexplained paucity of a given family of active galactic nuclei and the rapid growth of supermassive black holes, two heretofore seemingly unrelated aspects of the physics of active galactic nuclei.
Stars that pass within the Roche radius of a supermassive black hole will be tidally disrupted, yielding a sudden injection of gas close to the black hole horizon which produces an electromagnetic flare. A few dozen of these flares have been discovered in recent years, but current observations provide poor constraints on the bolometric luminosity and total accreted mass of these events. Using images from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), we have discovered transient 3.4 micron emission from several previously known tidal disruption flares. The observations can be explained by dust heated to its sublimation temperature due to the intense radiation of the tidal flare. From the break in the infrared light curve we infer that this hot dust is located ~0.1 pc from the supermassive black hole. Since the dust has been heated by absorbing UV and (potentially) soft X-ray photons of the flare, the reprocessing light curve yields an estimate of the bolometric flare luminosity. For the flare PTF-09ge, we infer that the most likely value of the luminosity integrated over frequencies at which dust can absorb photons is $8\times 10^{44}$ erg/s, with a factor of 3 uncertainty due to the unknown temperature of the dust. This bolometric luminosity is a factor ~10 larger than the observed black body luminosity. Our work is the first to probe dust in the nuclei of non-active galaxies on sub-parsec scales. The observed infrared luminosity implies a covering factor ~1% for the nuclear dust in the host galaxies.
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We present the results of a new search for galaxy-scale strong lensing systems in CFHTLS Wide. Our lens-finding technique involves a preselection of potential lens galaxies, applying simple cuts in size and magnitude. We then perform a Principal Component Analysis of the galaxy images, ensuring a clean removal of the light profile. Lensed features are searched for in the residual images using the clustering topometric algorithm DBSCAN. We find 1098 lens candidates that we inspect visually, leading to a cleaned sample of 109 new lens candidates. Using realistic image simulations we estimate the completeness of our sample and show that it is independent of source surface brightness, Einstein ring size (image separation) or lens redshift. We compare the properties of our sample to previous lens searches in CFHTLS. Including the present search, the total number of lenses found in CFHTLS amounts to 678, which corresponds to ~4 lenses per square degree down to i=24.8. This is equivalent to ~ 60.000 lenses in total in a survey as wide as Euclid, but at the CFHTLS resolution and depth.
The offset of high redshift star-forming galaxies in the [OIII]/H$\beta$ versus [NII]/H$\alpha$ (O3N2) diagram in comparison with the local star-forming galaxy sequence is now well established. The physical origin of the shift is the subject of some debate, and has important implications for metallicity measurements based on strong lines at all redshifts. To investigate the origin of the O3N2 offset, we use a sample of ~100,000 star-forming galaxies from SDSS DR12 to probe the empirical correlations between emission line diagnostics and measurable galaxy physical properties. In particular, we examine how surface density of star formation, ionization parameter, nitrogen-to-oxygen (N/O) ratio, and stellar mass drive position in two key diagnostic diagrams: O3N2 and [OIII]/H$\beta$ versus [SII]/H$\alpha$ (O3S2). We show that, at fixed [OIII]/H$\beta$, galaxies falling closer to the high-redshift locus in O3N2 have higher star formation density, stellar mass and N/O ratios. We also find a tight correspondence in the distributions of stellar mass and N/O in the diagnostic diagrams. This relation, spanning a range of galaxy evolutionary states, suggests that the N/O-$M_{*}$ relation is more fundamental than the N/O-metallicity relation. We argue that a tight N/O-$M_{*}$ relation is well-motivated physically, and that the observed correlation of N/O with O/H in the local universe is primarily a reflection of the existence of the mass-metallicity relation. Because the mass-metallicity relation evolves much more rapidly with redshift than N/O-$M_{*}$, the N/O ratios of high redshift galaxies are significantly elevated in comparison with local galaxies with the same gas-phase O/H. The O3N2 shift and elevated N/O ratios observed in high redshift galaxies therefore come about as a natural consequence of the N/O-$M_{*}$ relation combined with the evolution of the mass-metallicity relation.
We present high-resolution Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) HI observations and deep Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) optical imaging of two galaxy groups: NGC 4725/47 and NGC 3166/9. These data are part of a multi-wavelength unbiased survey of the gas-rich dwarf galaxy populations in three nearby interacting galaxy groups. The NGC 4725/47 group hosts two tidal knots and one dIrr. Both tidal knots are located within a prominent HI tidal tail, appear to have sufficient mass (M_gas~10^8 M_sol) to evolve into long-lived tidal dwarf galaxies (TDGs) and are fairly young in age. The NGC 3166/9 group contains a TDG candidate, AGC 208457, at least three dIrrs and four HI knots. Deep CFHT imaging confirms that the optical component of AGC 208457 is bluer -- with a 0.28 mag g-r colour -- and a few Gyr younger than its purported parent galaxies. Combining the results for these groups with those from the NGC 871/6/7 group reported earlier, we find that the HI properties, estimated stellar ages and baryonic content of the gas-rich dwarfs clearly distinguish tidal features from their classical counterparts. We optimistically identify four potentially long-lived tidal objects associated to three separate pairs of interacting galaxies, implying that TDGs are not readily produced during interaction events as suggested by some recent simulations. The tidal objects examined in this survey also appear to have a wider variety of properties than TDGs of similar mass formed in current simulations of interacting galaxies, which could be the result of pre- or post-formation environmental influences.
We statistically study the physical properties of a sample of narrow absorption line (NAL) systems looking for empirical evidences to distinguish between intrinsic and intervening NALs without taking into account any a priori definition or velocity cut-off. We analyze the spectra of 100 quasars with 3.5 < z$\rm_{em}$ < 4.5, observed with X-shooter/VLT in the context of the XQ-100 Legacy Survey. We detect a $\sim$ 8 $\sigma$ excess in the number density of absorbers within 10,000 km/s of the quasar emission redshift with respect to the random occurrence of NALs. This excess does not show a dependence on the quasar bolometric luminosity and it is not due to the redshift evolution of NALs. It extends far beyond the standard 5000 km/s cut-off traditionally defined for associated absorption lines. We propose to modify this definition, extending the threshold to 10,000 km/s when also weak absorbers (equivalent width < 0.2 \AA) are considered. We infer NV is the ion that better traces the effects of the quasar ionization field, offering the best statistical tool to identify intrinsic systems. Following this criterion we estimate that the fraction of quasars in our sample hosting an intrinsic NAL system is 33 percent. Lastly, we compare the properties of the material along the quasar line of sight, derived from our sample, with results based on close quasar pairs investigating the transverse direction. We find a deficiency of cool gas (traced by CII) along the line of sight associated with the quasar host galaxy, in contrast with what is observed in the transverse direction.
We have used the AMR hydrodynamic code, MG, to perform 3D magnetohydrodynamic simulations with self-gravity of stellar feedback in a sheet-like molecular cloud formed through the action of the thermal instability. We simulate the interaction of the mechanical energy input from a 15Msun star and a 40Msun star into a 100pc-diameter 17000Msun cloud with a corrugated sheet morphology that in projection appears filamentary. The stellar winds are introduced using appropriate Geneva stellar evolution models. In the 15Msun star case, the wind forms a narrow bipolar cavity with minimal effect on the parent cloud. In the 40Msun star case, the more powerful stellar wind creates a large cylindrical cavity through the centre of the cloud. After 12.5Myrs and 4.97Myrs respectively, the massive stars explode as supernovae (SNe). In the 15Msun star case, the SN material and energy is primarily deposited into the molecular cloud surroundings over 10^5 years before the SN remnant escapes the cloud. In the 40Msun star case, the majority of the SN material and energy rapidly escapes the molecular cloud along the wind cavity in a few tens of kiloyears. Both SN events compress the molecular cloud material around them to higher densities (so may trigger further star formation), and strengthen the magnetic field, typically by factors of 2-3 but up to a factor of 10. Our simulations are relevant to observations of bubbles in flattened ring-like molecular clouds and bipolar HII regions. Comparisons of the 40Msun star case to the Rosette Nebula reveal striking similarities.
With a large sample of bright, low-redshift galaxies with optical$-$near-IR
imaging from the GAMA survey we use bulge-disc decompositions to understand the
wavelength-dependent behavior of single-S\'ersic structural measurements.
We denote the variation in single-S\'ersic index with wavelength as
$\mathcal{N}$, likewise for effective radius we use $\mathcal{R}$. We find that
most galaxies with a substantial disc, even those with no discernable bulge,
display a high value of $\mathcal{N}$. The increase in S\'ersic index to longer
wavelengths is therefore intrinsic to discs, apparently resulting from radial
variations in stellar population and/or dust reddening. Similarly, low values
of $\mathcal{R}$ ($<$ 1) are found to be ubiquitous, implying an element of
universality in galaxy colour gradients.
We also study how bulge and disc colour distributions vary with galaxy type.
We find that, rather than all bulges being red and all discs being blue in
absolute terms, both components become redder for galaxies with redder total
colours. We even observe that bulges in bluer galaxies are typically bluer than
discs in red galaxies, and that bulges and discs are closer in colour for
fainter galaxies. Trends in total colour are therefore not solely due to the
colour or flux dominance of the bulge or disc.
Barnard B1b has revealed as one of the most interesting globules from the chemical and dynamical point of view. It presents a rich molecular chemistry characterized by large abundances of deuterated and complex molecules. Furthermore, it hosts an extremely young Class 0 object and one candidate to First Hydrostatic Core (FHSC). Our aim was to determine the cosmic ray ionization rate and the depletion factors in this extremely young star forming region. We carried out a spectral survey towards Barnard 1b as part of the IRAM Large program ASAI using the IRAM 30-m telescope at Pico Veleta (Spain). This provided a very complete inventory of neutral and ionic C-, N- and S- bearing species with, up to our knowledge, the first secure detections of the deuterated ions DCS+ and DOCO+. We used a state-of-the-art pseudo-time-dependent gas-phase chemical model to determine the value of the cosmic ray ionization rate and the depletion factors. The observational data were well fitted with $\zeta_{H_2}$ between 3E-17 s$^{-1}$ and 1E-16 s$^{-1}$. Elemental depletions were estimated to be ~10 for C and O, ~1 for N and ~25 for S. Barnard B1b presents similar depletions of C and O than those measured in pre-stellar cores. The depletion of sulfur is higher than that of C and O but not as extreme as in cold cores. In fact, it is similar to the values found in some bipolar outflows, hot cores and photon-dominated regions. Several scenarios are discussed to account for these peculiar abundances. We propose that it is the consequence of the initial conditions (important outflows and enhanced UV fields in the surroundings) and a rapid collapse (~0.1 Myr) that permits to maintain most S- and N-bearing species in gas phase to great optical depths. The interaction of the compact outflow associated with B1b-S with the surrounding material could enhance the abundances of S-bearing molecules, as well.
We present Q-U-I JOint TEnerife (QUIJOTE) intensity and polarisation maps at 10-20 GHz covering a region along the Galactic plane 24<l<45 deg, |b|<8 deg. These maps result from 210 h of data, have a sensitivity in polarisation of ~40 muK/beam and an angular resolution of ~1 deg. Our intensity data are crucial to confirm the presence of anomalous microwave emission (AME) towards the two molecular complexes W43 (22-sigma) and W47 (8-sigma). We also detect at high significance (6-sigma) AME associated with W44, the first clear detection of this emission towards a SNR. The new QUIJOTE polarisation data, in combination with WMAP, are essential to: i) Determine the spectral index of the synchrotron emission in W44, beta_sync=-0.62+/-0.03 in good agreement with the value inferred from the intensity spectrum once a free-free component is included in the fit. ii) Trace the change in the polarisation angle associated with Faraday rotation in the direction of W44 with rotation measure -404+/-49 rad/m2. And iii) set upper limits on the polarisation of W43 of Pi_AME <0.39% (95 per cent C.L.) from QUIJOTE 17 GHz, and <0.22% from WMAP 41 GHz data, which are the most stringent constraints ever obtained on the polarisation fraction of the AME. For typical physical conditions (grain temperature and magnetic field strengths), and in the case of perfect alignment between the grains and the magnetic field, the models of electric or magnetic dipole emissions predict higher polarisation fractions.
We exploit the widely-separated images of the lensed quasar SDSS J1029+2623 ($z_{em}$=2.197, $\theta =22^{\prime\prime}\!\!.5$) to observe its outflowing wind through two different sightlines. We present an analysis of three observations, including two with the Subaru telescope in 2010 February (Misawa et al. 2013) and 2014 April (Misawa et al. 2014), separated by 4 years, and one with the Very Large Telescope, separated from the second Subaru observation by $\sim$2 months. We detect 66 narrow absorption lines (NALs), of which 24 are classified as intrinsic NALs that are physically associated with the quasar based on partial coverage analysis. The velocities of intrinsic NALs appear to cluster around values of $v_{ej}$ $\sim$ 59,000, 43,000, and 29,000 km/s, which is reminiscent of filamentary structures obtained by numerical simulations. There are no common intrinsic NALs at the same redshift along the two sightlines, implying that the transverse size of the NAL absorbers should be smaller than the sightline distance between two lensed images. In addition to the NALs with large ejection velocities of $v_{ej}$ > 1,000 km/s, we also detect broader proximity absorption lines (PALs) at $z_{abs}$ $\sim$ $z_{em}$. The PALs are likely to arise in outflowing gas at a distance of r $\leq$ 620 pc from the central black hole with an electron density of $n_e$ $\geq$ 8.7$\times$10$^{3}$ cm$^{-3}$. These limits are based on the assumption that the variability of the lines is due to recombination. We discuss the implications of these results on the three-dimensional structure of the outflow.
We observed the lenticular galaxy NGC 3998 with the Mitchell Integral-Field Spectrograph and extracted line-of-sight velocity distributions out to 3 half-light radii. We constructed collisionless orbit models in order to constrain NGC 3998's dark and visible structure, using kinematics from both the Mitchell and SAURON instruments. We find NGC 3998 to be almost axisymmetric, seen nearly face on with a flattened intrinsic shape - i.e., a face-on fast-rotator. We find an I-band mass-to-light ratio of $4.7_{-0.45}^{+0.32}$ in good agreement with previous spectral fitting results for this galaxy. Our best-fit orbit model shows a both a bulge and a disc component, with a non-negligible counter-rotating component also evident. We find that relatively little dark matter is needed to model this galaxy, with an inferred dark mass fraction of just $(7.1^{+8.1}_{-7.1})\%$ within one half-light radius.
We present an analysis of physical conditions in the Orion Veil, a largely atomic PDR that lies just in front (about 2 pc) of the Trapezium stars. We have obtained 21 cm HI and 18 cm OH VLA Zeeman effect data. These data yield images of the line-of-sight magnetic field strength Blos in atomic and molecular regions of the Veil. We find Blos is typically -50 to -75 microgauss in the atomic gas across much of the Veil (25" resolution); Blos is -350 microgauss at one position in the molecular gas (40" resolution). The Veil has two principal HI velocity components. Magnetic and kinematical data suggest a close connection between these components. They may represent gas on either side of a shock wave preceding a weak-D ionization front. Magnetic fields in the Veil HI components are 3-5 times stronger than they are elsewhere in the ISM where N(H) and n(H) are comparable. The HI components are magnetically subcritical (magnetically dominated), like the CNM, although they are about 1 dex denser. Strong fields in the Veil HI components may have resulted from low turbulence conditions in the diffuse gas that gave rise to OMC-1. Strong fields may also be related to magnetostatic equilibrium that has developed in the Veil since star formation. We consider the location of the Orion-S molecular core, proposing a location behind the main Orion H+ region.
Dwarf spheroidal galaxies are the smallest known stellar systems where under Newtonian interpretations, a significant amount of dark matter is required to explain observed kinematics. In fact, they are in this sense the most heavily dark matter dominated objects known. That, plus the increasingly small sizes of the newly discovered ultra faint dwarfs, puts these systems in the regime where dynamical friction on individual stars starts to become relevant. We calculate the dynamical friction timescales for pressure supported isotropic spherical dark matter dominated stellar systems, yielding $\tau_{DF} =0.93 (r_{h}/10 pc)^{2} (\sigma/ kms^{-1}) Gyr$. For a stellar velocity dispersion value of $3 km/s$, as typical for the smallest of the recently detected ultra faint dwarf spheroidals, dynamical friction timescales becomes smaller than the $10 Gyr$ typical of the stellar ages for these systems, for half-light radii $r_{h}<19 pc$. Thus, this becomes a theoretical lower limit below which dark matter dominated stellar systems become unstable to dynamical friction. We present a comparison with structural parameters of the smallest ultra faint dwarf spheroidals known, showing that these are already close to the stability limit derived, any future detection of yet smaller such systems would be inconsistent with a particle dark matter hypothesis.
We survey the Si K edge structure in various absorbed Galactic low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) to study states of silicon in the inter- and circum-stellar medium. The bulk of these LMXBs lie toward the Galactic bulge region and all have column densities above $10^{22}$ cm$^{-2}$. The observations were performed with the \emph{Chandra} High Energy Transmission Grating Spectrometer. The Si K edge in all sources appears at an energy value of 1844$\pm$0.001 eV. The edge exhibits significant substructure which can be described by a near edge absorption feature at 1849$\pm$0.002 eV and a far edge absorption feature at 1865$\pm$0.002 eV. Both of these absorption features appear variable with equivalent widths up to several m\AA. We can describe the edge structure with several components: multiple edge functions, near edge absorption excesses from silicates in dust form, signatures from X-ray scattering optical depths, and a variable warm absorber from ionized atomic silicon. The measured optical depths of the edges indicate much higher values than expected from atomic silicon cross sections and ISM abundances, and appear consistent with predictions from silicate X-ray absorption and scattering. A comparison with models also indicates a preference for larger dust grain sizes. In many cases we identify \sixiii\ resonance absorption and determine ionization parameters between log $\xi$ = 1.8 and 2.8 and turbulent velocities between 300 and 1000 \kms. This places the warm absorber in close vicinity of the X-ray binaries. In some data we observe a weak edge at 1.840 keV, potentially from a lesser contribution of neutral atomic silicon.
We probe the feasibility of describing the structure of a multi-component axisymmetric galaxy with a dynamical model based on the Jeans equations while taking into account a third integral of motion. We demonstrate that using the third integral in the form derived by G. Kuzmin, it is possible to calculate the stellar kinematics of a galaxy from the Jeans equations by integrating the equations along certain characteristic curves. In cases where the third integral of motion does not describe the system exactly, the derived kinematics would describe the galaxy only approximately. We apply our method to the Andromeda galaxy, for which the mass distribution is relatively firmly known. We are able to reproduce the observed stellar kinematics of the galaxy rather well. The calculated model suggests that the velocity dispersion ratios ${\sigma}_z^2/{\sigma}_R^2$ of M31 decrease with increasing R. Moving away from the galactic plane, ${\sigma}_z^2/{\sigma}_R^2$ remains the same. The velocity dispersions ${\sigma}_{\theta}^2$ and ${\sigma}_R^2$ are roughly equal in the galactic plane.
Within the context of ultralight BEC dark matter, we analyze the head-on encounters of two structures. These structures are made of a BEC component, which is a ground state equilibrium solution of the Gross-Pitaevskii-Poisson system, together with a component of luminous matter. The evolution of the Condensate dark matter is carried out by solving the time dependent GPP equations, whereas the luminous matter is modeled with particles interacting gravitationally on top of the BEC dark matter halos. We track the evolution of frontal encounters for various values of the collision velocity and analyze the regime of high velocity regime showing solitonic behavior of the BEC halos and that of slow velocities producing a single final structure. We measure the relative velocity of the dark matter with respect to the luminous matter after the encounters in the solitonic case and track the evolution of luminous matter in the case of merger.
We analyse a sample of 85 luminous L3um > 10^45.5 erg/s quasars with restframe ~2-11um spectroscopy from AKARI and Spitzer. Their high luminosity allows a direct determination of the near-infrared quasar spectrum free from host galaxy emission. A semi-empirical model consisting of a single template for the accretion disk and two blackbodies for the dust emission successfully reproduces the 0.1-10um spectral energy distributions (SEDs). Excess emission at 1-2um over the best-fitting model suggests that hotter dust is necessary in addition to the ~1200K blackbody and the disk to reproduce the entire near-infrared spectrum. Variation in the extinction affecting the disk and in the relative strength of the disk and dust components accounts for the diversity of individual SEDs. Quasars with higher dust-to-disk luminosity ratios show slightly redder infrared continua and less prominent silicate emission. We find no luminosity dependence in the shape of the average infrared quasar spectrum. The equivalent width of Paschen alpha in our composite spectrum is a factor ~10 higher compared to lower luminosity quasars in the literature, implying that Paschen alpha emission is boosted in high luminosity quasars relative to the continuum emission from both the disk and the dust. We generate a new quasar template that covers the restframe range 0.1-11um, and templates for the disk and dust components. Comparison with other infrared quasar composites suggests that previous ones are less reliable in the 2-4um range. Our template is the first one to provide a detailed view of the infrared emission on both sides of the 4um bump.
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The nature of the metallicity gradient inside the solar circle (R_GC < 8 kpc) is poorly understood, but studies of Cepheids and a small sample of open clusters suggest that it steepens in the inner disk. We investigate the metallicity gradient of the inner disk using a sample of inner disk open clusters that is three times larger than has previously been studied in the literature to better characterize the gradient in this part of the disk. We used the Gaia-ESO Survey (GES) [Fe/H] values and stellar parameters for stars in 12 open clusters in the inner disk from GES-UVES data. Cluster mean [Fe/H] values were determined based on a membership analysis for each cluster. Where necessary, distances and ages to clusters were determined via comparison to theoretical isochrones. The GES open clusters exhibit a radial metallicity gradient of -0.10+-0.02 dex/kpc, consistent with the gradient measured by other literature studies of field red giant stars and open clusters in the range R_GC ~ 6-12 kpc. We also measure a trend of increasing [Fe/H] with increasing cluster age, as has also been found in the literature. We find no evidence for a steepening of the inner disk metallicity gradient inside the solar circle as earlier studies indicated. The age-metallicity relation shown by the clusters is consistent with that predicted by chemical evolution models that include the effects of radial migration, but a more detailed comparison between cluster observations and models would be premature.
We use the fundamental-mode RR Lyr-type variable stars (RRab) from OGLE-IV to draw a 3D picture of the central part of the tidally disrupted Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal (Sgr dSph) galaxy. We estimate the line-of-sight thickness of the Sgr dSph stream to be 6sigma~6.2 kpc. Based on OGLE-IV observations collected in seasons 2011-2014 we conduct a comprehensive study of stellar variability in the field of the globular cluster M54 (NGC 6715) residing in the core of this dwarf galaxy. Among the total number of 270 detected variables we report the identification of 173 RR Lyr stars, 4 Type II Cepheids, 51 semi-regular variable red giants, 3 SX Phe-type stars, 18 eclipsing binary systems. Seventy-three variables are new discoveries. The distance to the cluster determined from RRab stars is d_M54=26.2+/-0.2_stat+/-1.3_sys kpc. From the location of RRab stars in the period-amplitude (Bailey) diagram we confirm the presence of two old populations, both in the cluster and the Sgr dSph stream.
We present Hubble Space Telescope far-UV spectra of 4 QSOs whose sightlines pass through the halo of NGC 1097 at impact parameters of 48 -165 kpc. NGC 1097 is a nearby spiral galaxy that has undergone at least two minor merger events, but no apparent major mergers, and is relatively isolated with respect to other nearby bright galaxies. This makes NGC 1097 a good case study for exploring baryons in a paradigmatic bright-galaxy halo. Lyman-alpha absorption is detected along all sightlines and Si III 1206 is found along the 3 smallest impact parameter sightlines; metal lines of C II, Si II and Si IV are only found with certainty towards the inner-most sightline. The kinematics of the absorption lines are best replicated by a model with a disk-like distribution of gas approximately planar to the observed 21 cm H I disk, that is rotating more slowly than the inner disk, and into which gas is infalling from the intergalactic medium. Some part of the absorption towards the inner-most sightline may arise either from a small-scale outflow, or from tidal debris associated with the minor merger that gives rise to the well known `dog-leg' stellar stream that projects from NGC 1097. When compared to other studies, NGC 1097 appears to be a `typical' absorber, although the large dispersion in absorption line column density and equivalent width in a single halo goes perhaps some way in explaining the wide range of these values seen in higher-redshift studies.
Ly-alpha blobs (LABs) offer insight into the complex interface between galaxies and their circumgalactic medium. Whilst some LABs have been found to contain luminous star-forming galaxies and active galactic nuclei that could potentially power the Ly-alpha emission, others appear not to be associated with obvious luminous galaxy counterparts. It has been speculated that LABs may be powered by cold gas streaming on to a central galaxy, providing an opportunity to directly observe the `cold accretion' mode of galaxy growth. Star-forming galaxies in LABs could be dust obscured and therefore detectable only at longer wavelengths. We stack deep SCUBA-2 observations of the SSA22 field to determine the average 850um flux density of 34 LABs. We measure S_850 = 0.6 +/- 0.2mJy for all LABs, but stacking the LABs by size indicates that only the largest third (area > 1794 kpc^2) have a mean detection, at 4.5 sigma, with S_850 = 1.4 +/- 0.3mJy. Only two LABs (1 and 18) have individual SCUBA-2 > 3.5 sigma detections at a depth of 1.1mJy/beam. We consider two possible mechanisms for powering the LABs and find that central star formation is likely to dominate the emission of Ly-alpha, with cold accretion playing a secondary role.
The observed mass-to-light ($M/L$) ratios of a large sample of GCs in M31 show an inverse trend with metallicity compared to what is expected from Simple Stellar Population (SSP) models with an invariant canonical stellar IMF, in the sense that the observed $M/L$ ratios decrease with increasing metallicity. We show that incorporating the effect of dynamical evolution the SSP models with a canonical IMF can not explain the decreasing $M/L$ ratios with increasing metallicity for the M31 GCs. The recently derived top-heavy IMF as a function of metallicity and embedded cluster density is proposed to explain the lower than expected $M/L$ ratios of metal-rich GCs. We find that the SSP models with a top-heavy IMF, retaining a metallicity- and cluster mass- dependent fraction of the remnants within the clusters, and taking standard dynamical evolution into account can successfully explain the observed $M/L-[Fe/H]$ relation of M31 GCs. Thus we propose that the kinematical data of GCs can be used to constrain the top-heaviness of the IMF in GCs.
Star-forming galaxies form a sequence in the [OIII]/H-beta vs. [NII]/H-alpha diagnostic diagram, with low metallicity, highly ionized galaxies falling in the upper left corner. Drawing from a large sample of UV-selected star-forming galaxies at z~2 with rest-frame optical nebular emission line measurements from Keck-MOSFIRE, we select the extreme ~5% of the galaxies lying in this upper left corner, requiring log([NII]/H-alpha) <= 1.1 and log([OIII]/H-beta) >= 0.75. These cuts identify galaxies with 12 + log(O/H) <~ 8.0, when oxygen abundances are measured via the O3N2 diagnostic. We study the Ly-alpha properties of the resulting sample of 14 galaxies. The mean (median) rest-frame Ly-alpha equivalent width is 39 (36) A, and 11 of the 14 objects (79%) are Ly-alpha-emitters (LAEs) with W_Lya > 20 A. We compare the equivalent width distribution of a sample of 522 UV-selected galaxies at 2.0<z<2.6 identified without regard to their optical line ratios; this sample has mean (median) Ly-alpha equivalent width -1 (-4) A, and only 9% of these galaxies qualify as LAEs. The extreme galaxies typically have lower attenuation at Ly-alpha than those in the comparison sample, and have ~50% lower median oxygen abundances. Both factors are likely to facilitate the escape of Ly-alpha: in less dusty galaxies Ly-alpha photons are less likely to be absorbed during multiple scatterings, while the harder ionizing spectrum and higher ionization parameter associated with strong, low metallicity star formation may reduce the covering fraction or column density of neutral hydrogen, further easing Ly-alpha escape. The use of nebular emission line ratios may prove useful in the identification of galaxies with low opacity to Ly-alpha photons across a range of redshifts.
Host galaxy properties provide strong constraints on the stellar progenitors of superluminous supernovae. By comparing a sample of 18 low-redshift superluminous supernova hosts to a volume-limited galaxy population in the local Universe, we show that sub-solar metallici- ties seems to be a requirement. All superluminous supernovae in hosts with high measured gas-phase metallicities are found to explode at large galactocentric radii, indicating that the metallicity at the explosion site is likely lower than the integrated host value. We also confirm that high specific star-formation rates are a feature of superluminous supernova host galaxies, but interpret this as simply a consequence of the anti-correlation between gas-phase metallic- ity and specific star-formation rate and the requirement of on-going star formation to produce young, massive stars greater than ~ 10-20 M_sun . Based on our sample, we propose an upper limit of ~ 0.5 Z_sun for forming superluminous supernova progenitors (assuming an N2 metal- licity diagnostic and a solar oxygen abundance of 8.69). Finally, we show that if magnetar powering is the source of the extreme luminosity then the required initial spins appear to be correlated with metallicity of the host galaxy. This correlation needs further work, but if it holds it is a powerful link between the supernova parameters and nature of the progenitor population.
We show that the mass fraction f_atm = 1.35*MHI/M of neutral atomic gas (HI and He) in isolated local disk galaxies of baryonic mass M is well described by a straightforward stability model for flat exponential disks. In the outer disk parts, where gas at the characteristic dispersion of the Warm Neutral Medium is stable in the sense of Toomre (1964), the disk consists of neutral atomic gas; conversely the inner part where this medium would be Toomre-unstable, is dominated by stars and molecules. Within this model, f_atm only depends on a global stability parameter q=j*sigma/(GM), where j is the baryonic specific angular momentum of the disk and sigma the velocity dispersion of the atomic gas. The analytically derived first-order solution f_atm = min{1,2.5q^1.12} provides a good fit to all plausible rotation curves. This model, with no free parameters, agrees remarkably well (+-0.2 dex) with measurements of f_atm in isolated local disk galaxies, even with galaxies that are extremely HI-rich or HI-poor for their mass. The finding that f_atm increases monotonically with q for pure stability reasons offers a powerful intuitive explanation for the mean variation of f_atm with M: in a cold dark matter universe galaxies are expected to follow j~M^(2/3), which implies the average scaling q~M^(-1/3) and hence f_atm~M^(-0.37), in agreement with observations.
The substantial decrease in star formation density from z=1 to the present day is curious given the relatively constant neutral gas density over the same epoch. Future radio astronomy facilities, including the SKA and pathfinder telescopes, will provide pioneering measures of both the gas content of galaxies and star formation activity over cosmological timescales. Here we investigate the commensalities between neutral atomic gas (HI) and radio continuum observations, as well as the complementarity of the data products. We start with the proposed HI and continuum surveys to be undertaken with the SKA precursor telescope MeerKAT, and building on this, explore optimal combinations of survey area coverage and depth of proposed HI and continuum surveys to be undertaken with the SKA1-MID instrument. Intelligent adjustment of these observational parameters results in a tiered strategy that minimises observation time while maximising the value of the dataset, both for HI and continuum science goals. We also find great complementarity between the HI and continuum datasets, with the spectral line HI data providing redshift measurements for gas-rich, star-forming galaxies with stellar masses Mstellar~10^9 Msun to z~0.3, a factor of three lower in stellar mass than would be feasible to reach with large optical spectroscopic campaigns.
Using three-dimensional general relativistic radiation magnetohydrodynamics simulations of accretion flows around stellar mass black holes, we report that the relatively cold disk ($\gtrsim 10^{7}$K) is truncated near the black hole. Hot and less-dense regions, of which the gas temperature is $ \gtrsim 10^9$K and more than ten times higher than the radiation temperature (overheated regions), appear within the truncation radius. The overheated regions also appear above as well as below the disk, and sandwich the cold disk, leading to the effective Compton upscattering. The truncation radius is $\sim 30 r_{\rm g}$ for $\dot{M} \sim L_{\rm Edd}/c^2$, where $r_{\rm g}, \dot M, L_\mathrm{Edd}, c$ are the gravitational radius, mass accretion rate, Eddington luminosity, and light speed. Our results are consistent with observations of very high state, whereby the truncated disk is thought to be embedded in the hot rarefied regions. The truncation radius shifts inward to $\sim 10 r_{\rm g}$ with increasing mass accretion rate $\dot{M} \sim 100 L_{\rm Edd}/c^2$, which is very close to an innermost stable circular orbit. This model corresponds to the slim disk state observed in ultra luminous X-ray sources. Although the overheated regions shrink if the Compton cooling effectively reduces the gas temperature, the sandwich-structure does not disappear at the range of $\dot{M} \lesssim 100L_{\rm Edd}/c^2$. Our simulations also reveal that the gas temperature in the overheated regions depends on black hole spin, which would be due to efficient energy transport from black hole to disks through the Poynting flux, resulting gas heating.
We use the large cosmological hydro-dynamic simulation BlueTides to predict the photometric properties of galaxies during the epoch of reionisation ($z=8-15$). These properties include the rest-frame UV to near-IR broadband spectral energy distributions, the Lyman continuum photon production, the UV star formation rate calibration, and intrinsic UV continuum slope. In particular we focus on exploring the effect of various modelling assumptions, including the assumed choice of stellar population synthesis model, initial mass function, and the escape fraction of Lyman continuum photons, upon these quantities. We find that these modelling assumptions can have a dramatic effect on photometric properties leading to consequences for the accurate determination of physical properties from observations. For example, at $z=8$ we predict that nebular emission can account for up-to $50\%$ of the rest-frame $R$-band luminosity, while the choice of stellar population synthesis model can change the Lyman continuum production rate up to a factor of $\times 2$.
We report exploratory \chandra\ observation of the ultraluminous quasar SDSS J010013.02+280225.8 at redshift 6.30. The quasar is clearly detected by \chandra\ with a possible component of extended emission. The rest-frame 2-10 keV luminosity is 9.0$^{+9.1}_{-4.5}$ $\times$ 10$^{45}$ erg s$^{-1}$ with inferred photon index of $\Gamma$ = 3.03$^{+0.78}_{-0.70}$. This quasar is X-ray bright, with inferred X-ray-to-optical flux ratio \aox\ $=-1.22^{+0.07}_{-0.05}$, higher than the values found in other quasars of comparable ultraviolet luminosity. The properties inferred from this exploratory observation indicate that this ultraluminous quasar might be growing with super-Eddington accretion and probably viewed with small inclination angle. Deep X-ray observation will help to probe the plausible extended emission and better constraint the spectral features for this ultraluminous quasar.
Based on the star formation histories (SFH) of galaxies in halos of different masses, we develop an empirical model to grow galaxies in dark mattet halos. This model has very few ingredients, any of which can be associated to observational data and thus be efficiently assessed. By applying this model to a very high resolution cosmological $N$-body simulation, we predict a number of galaxy properties that are a very good match to relevant observational data. Namely, for both centrals and satellites, the galaxy stellar mass function (SMF) up to redshift $z\simeq4$ and the conditional stellar mass functions (CSMF) in the local universe are in good agreement with observations. In addition, the 2-point correlation is well predicted in the different stellar mass ranges explored by our model. Furthermore, after applying stellar population synthesis models to our stellar composition as a function of redshift, we find that the luminosity functions in $^{0.1}u$, $^{0.1}g$, $^{0.1}r$, $^{0.1}i$ and $^{0.1}z$ bands agree quite well with the SDSS observational results down to an absolute magnitude at about -17.0. The SDSS conditional luminosity functions (CLF) itself is predicted well. Finally, the cold gas is derived from the star formation rate (SFR) to predict the HI gas mass within each mock galaxy. We find a remarkably good match to observed HI-to-stellar mass ratios. These features ensure that such galaxy/gas catalogs can be used to generate reliable mock redshift surveys.
Following our first detection reported in Izotov et al. (2016), we present the detection of Lyman continuum (LyC) radiation of four other compact star-forming galaxies observed with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) onboard the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). These galaxies, at redshifts of z~0.3, are characterized by high emission-line flux ratios [OIII]5007/[OII]3727 > 5. The escape fractions of the LyC radiation fesc(LyC) in these galaxies are in the range of ~6%-13%, the highest values found so far in low-redshift star-forming galaxies. Narrow double-peaked Lyalpha emission lines are detected in the spectra of all four galaxies, compatible with predictions for Lyman continuum leakers. We find escape fractions of Lyalpha, fesc(Lyalpha) ~60%-90%, among the highest known for Lyalpha emitters (LAEs). Surface brightness profiles produced from the COS acquisition images reveal bright star-forming regions in the center and exponential discs in the outskirts with disc scale lengths alpha in the range ~0.6-1.4 kpc. Our galaxies are characterized by low metallicity, ~1/8-1/5 solar, low stellar mass ~(0.2 - 4)e9 Msun, high star formation rates SFR~14-36 Msun/yr, and high SFR densities Sigma~2-35 Msun/yr/kpc^2. These properties are comparable to those of high-redshift star-forming galaxies. Finally, our observations, combined with our first detection reported in Izotov et al. (2016), reveal that a selection for compact star-forming galaxies showing high [OIII]5007/[OII]3727 ratios appears to pick up very efficiently sources with escaping Lyman continuum radiation: all five of our selected galaxies are LyC leakers.
We present results from deep, wide-field surface photometry of three nearby (D=4--7 Mpc) spiral galaxies: M94 (NGC 4736), M64 (NGC 4826), and M106 (NGC 4258). Our imaging reaches limiting surface brightnesses of $\mu_{B} \sim$ 28 -- 30 mag arcsec$^{-2}$ and probes colors down to $\mu_{B} \sim$ 27.5 mag arcsec$^{-2}$. We compare our broadband optical data to available ultraviolet and high column-density HI data to better constrain the star forming history and stellar populations of the outermost parts of each galaxy's disk. Each galaxy has a well-defined radius beyond which little star formation occurs and the disk light appears both azimuthally smooth and red in color, suggestive of old, well-mixed stellar populations. Given the lack of ongoing star formation or blue stellar populations in these galaxies' outer disks, the most likely mechanisms for their formation are dynamical processes such as disk heating or radial migration, rather than inside-out growth of the disks. This is also implied by the similarity in outer disk properties despite each galaxy showing distinct levels of environmental influence, from a purely isolated galaxy (M94) to one experiencing weak tidal perturbations from its satellite galaxies (M106) to a galaxy recovering from a recent merger (M64), suggesting that a variety of evolutionary histories can yield similar outer disk structure. While this suggests a common secular mechanism for outer disk formation, the large extent of these smooth, red stellar populations---which reach several disk scalelengths beyond the galaxies' spiral structure---may challenge models of radial migration given the lack of any non-axisymmetric forcing at such large radii.
We investigate the dependance of galaxy sizes and star-formation rates (SFRs) on environment using a mass-limited sample of quiescent and star-forming galaxies with M>10^9.5 at z=0.92 selected from the NMBS survey. Using the GEEC2 spectroscopic cluster catalog and the accurate photometric redshifts from NMBS, we select quiescent and star-forming cluster (sigma=490 km/s) galaxies within two virial radius, Rvir, intervals of 0.5<Rvir<2 and Rvir<0.5. Galaxies residing outside of 2 Rvir of both the cluster centres and additional candidate over-densities are defined as our field sample. Galaxy structural parameters are measured from the COSMOS legacy HST/ACS F814W image. The sizes and Sersic indices of quiescent field and cluster galaxies have the same distribution regardless of Rvir. However, cluster star-forming galaxies within 0.5 Rvir have lower mass-normalised average sizes, by 16${\pm}7\%$, and a higher fraction of Sersic indices with n>1, than field star-forming galaxies. The average SFRs of star-forming cluster galaxies show a trend of decreasing SFR with clustocentric radius. The mass-normalised average SFR of cluster star-forming galaxies is a factor of 2-2.5 (7-9 sigma) lower than that of star-forming galaxies in the field. While we find no significant dependence on environment for quiescent galaxies, the properties of star-forming galaxies are affected, which could be the result of environment acting on their gas content.
Although dark matter is a central element of modern cosmology, the history of how it became accepted as part of the dominant paradigm is often ignored or condensed into a brief anecdotical account focused around the work of a few pioneering scientists. The aim of this review is to provide the reader with a broader historical perspective on the observational discoveries and the theoretical arguments that led the scientific community to adopt dark matter as an essential part of the standard cosmological model.
We present an improved Global Sky Model (GSM) of diffuse galactic radio emission from 10 MHz to 5 THz, whose uses include foreground modeling for CMB and 21 cm cosmology. Our model improves on past work both algorithmically and by adding new data sets such as the Planck maps and the enhanced Haslam map. Our method generalizes the Principal Component Analysis approach to handle non-overlapping regions, enabling the inclusion of 29 sky maps with no region of the sky common to all. We also perform a blind separation of our GSM into physical components with a method that makes no assumptions about physical emission mechanisms (synchrotron, free-free, dust, etc). Remarkably, this blind method automatically finds five components that have previously only been found "by hand", which we identify with synchrotron, free-free, cold dust, warm dust, and the CMB anisotropy, with maps and spectra agreeing with previous work but in many cases with smaller error bars. The improved GSM is available online at github.com/jeffzhen/gsm2016.
The short-lived $^{26}$Al and $^{60}$Fe radionuclides are synthesized and expelled in the interstellar medium by core-collapse supernova events. The solar system's first solids, calcium-aluminium refractory inclusions (CAIs), contain evidence for the former presence of the $^{26}$ Al nuclide defining the canonical $^{26}$Al/$^{27}$ Al ratio of $\sim5 \times10^{-5}$. A different class of objects temporally related to canonical CAIs are CAIs with fractionation and unidentified nuclear effects (FUN CAIs), which record a low initial $^{26}$Al/$^{27}$Al of $10^{-6}$. The contrasting level of $^{26}$Al between these objects is often interpreted as reflecting the admixing of the $^{26}$Al nuclide during the early formative phase of the Sun. We use giant molecular cloud (GMC) scale adaptive mesh-refinement numerical simulations to trace the abundance of $^{26}$Al and $^{60}$Fe in star-forming gas during the early stages of accretion of individual low mass protostars. We find that the $^{26}$Al/$^{27}$Al and $^{60}$Fe/$^{56}$Fe ratios of accreting gas within a vicinity of 1000 AU of the stars follow the predicted decay curves of the initial abundances at time of star formation without evidence of spatial or temporal heterogeneities for the first 100 kyr of star formation. Therefore, the observed differences in $^{26}$Al/$^{27}$Al ratios between FUN and canonical CAIs are likely not caused by admixing of supernova material during the early evolution of the proto-Sun. Selective thermal processing of dust grains is a more viable scenario to account for the heterogeneity in $^{26}$Al/$^{27}$Al ratios at the time of solar system formation.
NASA is currently carrying out science and technical studies to identify its next astronomy flagship mission, slated to begin development in the 2020s. It has become clear that a Large Ultraviolet/Optical/IR (LUVOIR) Surveyor mission (primary diameter 12 m, 1000 Ang - 2 micron spectroscopic bandpass) can carry out the largest number of NASA's exoplanet and astrophysics science goals over the coming decades. There are technical challenges for several aspects of the LUVOIR Surveyor concept, including component level technology readiness maturation and science instrument concepts for a broadly capable ultraviolet spectrograph. We present the scientific motivation for, and a preliminary design of, a multiplexed ultraviolet spectrograph to support both the exoplanet and astrophysics goals of the LUVOIR Surveyor mission concept, the Combined High-resolution and Imaging Spectrograph for the LUVOIR Surveyor (CHISL). CHISL includes a high-resolution (R 120,000; 1000 - 1700 Ang) point-source spectroscopy channel and a medium resolution (R > 14,000 from 1000 - 2000 Ang in a single observation and R 24,000 - 35,000 in multiple grating settings) imaging spectroscopy channel. We present the CHISL concept, a small sample of representative science cases, and the primary technological hurdles. We are actively engaged in laboratory and flight characterization efforts for CHISL-enabling technologies as components on sounding rocket payloads under development at the University of Colorado. We describe two payloads that are designed to be pathfinder instruments for the high-resolution (CHESS) and imaging spectroscopy (SISTINE) arms of CHISL. We are carrying out this instrument design, characterization, and flight-testing today to support the new start of a LUVOIR Surveyor mission in the next decade.
The problem of consistency of smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) has demanded considerable attention in the past few years due to the ever increasing number of applications of the method in many areas of science and engineering. A loss of consistency leads to an inevitable loss of approximation accuracy. In this paper, we revisit the issue of SPH kernel and particle consistency and demonstrate that SPH has a limiting second-order convergence rate. Numerical experiments with suitably chosen test functions validate this conclusion. In particular, we find that when using the root mean square error as a model evaluation statistics, well-known corrective SPH schemes, which were thought to converge to second, or even higher order, are actually first-order accurate, or at best close to second order. We also find that observing the joint limit when $N\to\infty$, $h\to 0$, and $n\to\infty$, as was recently proposed by Zhu et al., where $N$ is the total number of particles, $h$ is the smoothing length, and $n$ is the number of neighbor particles, standard SPH restores full $C^{0}$ particle consistency for both the estimates of the function and its derivatives and becomes insensitive to particle disorder.
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We use ~100 cosmological galaxy formation zoom-in simulations using the smoothed particle hydrodynamics code {\sc gasoline} to study the effect of baryonic processes on the mass profiles of cold dark matter haloes. The haloes in our study range from dwarf (M_{200}~10^{10}Msun) to Milky Way (M_{200}~10^{12}Msun) masses. Our simulations exhibit a wide range of halo responses, primarily varying with mass, from expansion to contraction, with up to factor ~10 changes in the enclosed dark matter mass at one percent of the virial radius. Confirming previous studies, the halo response is correlated with the integrated efficiency of star formation: e_SF=(M_{star}/M_{200})/(\Omega_b/\Omega_m). In addition we report a new correlation with the compactness of the stellar system: e_R=r_{1/2}/R_{200}. We provide an analytic formula depending on e_SF and e_R for the response of cold dark matter haloes to baryonic processes. An observationally testable prediction is that, at fixed mass, larger galaxies experience more halo expansion, while the smaller galaxies more halo contraction. This diversity of dark halo response is captured by a toy model consisting of cycles of adiabatic inflow (causing contraction) and impulsive gas outflow (causing expansion). For net outflow, or equal inflow and outflow fractions, f, the overall effect is expansion, with more expansion with larger f. For net inflow, contraction occurs for small f (i.e., large radii), while expansion occurs for large f (i.e., small radii), recovering the phenomenology seen in our simulations. These regularities in the galaxy formation process provide a step towards a fully predictive model for the structure of cold dark matter haloes.
We present new Hubble Space Telescope/Wide Field Camera 3 imaging of 25 extremely luminous (-23.2 < M_ UV < -21.2) Lyman-break galaxies (LBGs) at z ~ 7. The sample was initially selected from 1.65 deg^2 of ground-based imaging in the UltraVISTA/COSMOS and UDS/SXDS fields, and includes the extreme Lyman-alpha emitters, `Himiko' and `CR7'. A deconfusion analysis of the deep Spitzer photometry available suggests that these galaxies exhibit strong rest-frame optical nebular emission lines (EW_0(H_beta + [OIII]) > 600A). We find that irregular, multiple-component morphologies suggestive of clumpy or merging systems are common (f_multi > 0.4) in bright z ~ 7 galaxies, and ubiquitous at the very bright end (M_UV < -22.5). The galaxies have half-light radii in the range r_1/2 ~ 0.5-3 kpc. The size measurements provide the first robust determination of the size-luminosity relation at z ~ 7 extending to M_UV ~ -23, which we find to be steep with r_1/2 ~ L^1/2. Excluding clumpy, multi-component galaxies however, we find a shallower relation that implies an increased star-formation rate surface density in bright LBGs. Using the new, independent, HST/WFC3 data we confirm that the rest-frame UV luminosity function at z ~ 7 favours a power-law decline at the bright-end, compared to an exponential Schechter function drop-off. Finally, these results have important implications for the Euclid mission, which we predict will detect > 1000 similarly bright galaxies at z ~ 7. Our new HST imaging suggests that the vast majority of these galaxies will be spatially resolved by Euclid, mitigating concerns over dwarf star contamination.
The formation of the disk and feedback from supernova winds impacts the distribution of dark matter in galaxies. Recently, Di Cintio et al. (2014b) characterized the halo response from baryonic processes in hydrodynamical simulations via a dependence on the ratio of stellar-to-halo mass ($M_{\star}/M_{{\rm halo}}$). The (stellar) mass dependent halo profile links together the local and global properties of the halo (e.g. inner slope and $M_{{\rm halo}}$) which allows for measurements of $M_{{\rm halo}}$ without virial tracers. We compile a large sample of rotation curves from the literature to test this halo profile. We find that this halo profile can explain rotation curve observations over a wide range of $M_{\star}$. However, the global results from our sample are inconsistent with a $\Lambda$ cold dark matter universe. We do not find the expected correlation between the halo concentration and $M_{{\rm halo}}$ and there is significantly larger scatter than expected. Furthermore, a large portion of galaxies below $M_{\star} \sim 10^{9}\,M_{\odot}$ are found to be hosted by smaller halos than expectations from the abundance matching technique. We find our results are robust to statistical priors and systematic effects such as inclination angle, asymmetric drift correction, data source, and uncertainties in stellar mass-to-light ratios. This suggests either a mischaracterization of the halo response due to baryonic processes or additional non-standard dark matter physics.
We announce the discovery of the Aquarius~2 dwarf galaxy, a new distant satellite of the Milky Way, detected on the fringes of the VST ATLAS and the SDSS surveys. The object was originally identified as an overdensity of Red Giant Branch stars, but chosen for subsequent follow-up based on the presence of a strong Blue Horizontal Branch, which was also used to measure its distance of $\sim 110$ kpc. Using deeper imaging from the IMACS camera on the 6.5m Baade and spectroscopy with DEIMOS on Keck, we measured the satellite's half-light radius $5.1\pm 0.8$ arcmin, or $\sim 160$ pc at this distance, and its stellar velocity dispersion of $5.4^{+3.4}_{-0.9}$ km s$^{-1}$. With $\mu=30.4$ mag arcsec$^{-2}$ and $M_V=-4.2$, the new satellite lies close to two important detection limits: one in surface brightness; and one in luminosity at a given distance, thereby making Aquarius~2 one of the hardest dwarfs to find.
The power mechanism and accretion geometry for low-power FR1 radio galaxies is poorly understood in comparison to Seyfert galaxies and QSOs. In this paper, we use the diagnostic power of the Lya recombination line observed using the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph aboard HST to investigate the accretion flows in three well-known, nearby FR1s: M87, NGC4696, and HydraA. The Lya emission line's luminosity, velocity structure, variability and the limited knowledge of its spatial extent provided by COS are used to assess conditions within a few parsecs of the SMBH in these radio-mode AGN. We observe strong Lya emission in all three objects with similar total luminosity to that seen in BL Lacertae objects. M87 shows a complicated emission line profile in Lya which varies spatially across the COS aperture as well as temporally over several epochs of observation. Over the same observing epochs the UV continuum was seen to not vary, making it unlikely that the observed UV continuum is the ionizing source for Lya. In both NGC4696 and M87, the Lya luminosities ~10^{40} erg/s are closely consistent with the observed strength of the ionizing continuum in Case B recombination theory and with the assumption of unity covering factor, in apparent contradiction with the M87 variability data. It is possible that the Lya emitting clouds are ionized largely by beamed radiation associated with the jets. HydraA and the several BLLac Objects studied in this and previous papers have Lya luminosities larger than M87 but their extrapolated, non-thermal continua are so luminous that they over-predict the observed strength of Lya, a clear indicator of relativistic beaming in our direction. Given their substantial space density the unbeamed Lyman continuum radiation of FR1s can make a substantial minority contribution (~10%) to the local ionizing background if all FR1s are similar to M87.
We present constraints on the molecular outflows in a sample of five Hyper-Luminous Infrared Galaxies using Herschel observations of the OH doublet at 119 {\mu}m. We have detected the OH doublet in three cases: one purely in emission and two purely in absorption. The observed emission profile has a significant blueshifted wing suggesting the possibility of tracing an outflow. Out of the two absorption profiles, one seems to be consistent with the systemic velocity while the other clearly indicates the presence of a molecular outflow whose maximum velocity is about ~1500 km/s. Our analysis shows that this system is in general agreement with previous results on Ultra-luminous Infrared Galaxies and QSOs, whose outflow velocities do not seem to correlate with stellar masses or starburst luminosities (star formation rates). Instead the galaxy outflow likely arises from an embedded AGN.
We present a new, detailed analysis of the morphologies and molecular gas fractions for a complete sample of 65 local luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs) from the Great Observatories All-Sky LIRG Survey (GOALS) using high resolution $I$-band images from The Hubble Space Telescope, the University of Hawaii 2.2m Telescope and the Pan-STARRS1 Survey. Our classification scheme includes single undisturbed galaxies, minor mergers, and major mergers, with the latter divided into five distinct stages from pre-first pericenter passage to final nuclear coalescence. We find that major mergers of molecular gas-rich spirals clearly play a major role for all sources with $L_{\rm IR} > 10^{11.5} L_\odot $; however, below this luminosity threshold, minor mergers and secular processes dominate. Additionally, galaxies do not reach $L_{\rm IR} > 10^{12.0} L_\odot $ until late in the merger process when both disks are near final coalescence. The mean molecular gas fraction (MGF $= M_{\rm H_2} / (M_* + M_{\rm H_2})$) for non-interacting and early-stage major merger LIRGs is 18$\pm 2$%, which increases to 33$\pm 3$%, for intermediate stage major merger LIRGs, consistent with the hypothesis that, during the early-mid stages of major mergers, most of the initial large reservoir of atomic gas (HI) at large galactocentric radii is swept inward where it is converted into molecular gas (H$_2$).
We explore the evolution of the statistical distribution of galaxy morphological properties and colours over the redshift range $0.5<z<1$, combining high-quality imaging data from the CFHT Legacy Survey with the large number of redshifts and extended photometry from the VIPERS survey. Galaxy structural parameters are measured by fitting S\'ersic profiles to $i$-band images and then combined with absolute magnitudes, colours and redshifts, to trace the evolution in a multi-parameter space. We analyse, using a new method, the combination of colours and structural parameters of early- and late-type galaxies in luminosity--redshift space. We found that both the rest-frame colour distributions in the (U-B) vs. (B-V) plane and the S\'ersic index distributions are well fitted by a sum of two Gaussians, with a remarkable consistency of red-spheroidal and blue-disky galaxy populations, over the explored redshift ($0.5<z<1$) and luminosity ($-1.5<B-B_*<1.0$) ranges. The combination of the UBV rest-frame colour and S\'ersic index $n$ as a function of redshift and luminosity allows us to present the structure of early- and late-type galaxies and their evolution. We found that early type galaxies display only a slow change of their concentrations since $z\sim1$; it is already established by $z\sim1$ and depends much more strongly on their luminosities. In contrast, late-type galaxies get clearly more concentrated with cosmic time since $z\sim1$, with only little evolution in colour, which remains dependent mainly on their luminosity. This flipped luminosity (mass) and redshift dependence likely reflects different evolutionary tracks of early- and late-type galaxies before and after $z\sim1$. The combination of rest-frame colours and S\'ersic index $n$ as a function of redshift and luminosity leads to a precise statistical description of the structure of galaxies and their evolution.
We trace the evolution and the star formation history of passive galaxies, using a subset of the VIMOS Public Extragalactic Redshift Survey (VIPERS). We extracted from the VIPERS survey a sample of passive galaxies in the redshift range 0.4<z<1.0 and stellar mass range 10<$log(M_{star}/M_{\odot})$<12. The sample was selected using an evolving cut in the rest-frame U-V color distribution and additional quality-ensuring cuts. We use the stacked spectra to measure the 4000$\AA$ break (D4000) and the $H\delta$ Lick index ($H\delta_{A}$) with high precision. We compare the results with a grid of synthetic spectra to constrain the star formation epochs of these galaxies. We characterize the formation redshift-stellar mass relation for intermediate-redshift passive galaxies. We find that at $z\sim1$ stellar populations in low-mass passive galaxies are younger than in high-mass passive galaxies, similarly to what is observed at the present epoch. Over the full analyzed redshift and stellar mass range, the $D4000$ index increases with redshift, while $H\delta_{A}$ gets lower. This implies that the stellar populations are getting older with increasing stellar mass. Comparison to the spectra of passive galaxies in the SDSS survey shows that the shape of the relations of $D4000$, and $H\delta_{A}$ with stellar mass has not changed significantly with redshift. Assuming a single burst formation, this implies that high-mass passive galaxies formed their stars at $z_{form}\sim2$, while low-mass galaxies formed their main stellar population more recently, at $z_{form}\sim1$. The consistency of these results, obtained using two independent estimator of the formation redshift ($D4000$ and $H\delta_{A}$), further strengthens a scenario in which star formation proceeds from higher- to lower-mass systems as time passes, i.e. what has become known as the 'downsizing' picture.
We present an analysis of the presence of substructures in the stellar stream of the Palomar 5 globular cluster, as derived from Sloan Digital Sky Survey data. Using a matched filter technique, we recover the positions and sizes of overdensities reported in previous studies. To explore the reality of these structures, we also create an artificial model of the stream, in which we construct a realistic background on top of which we add a perfectly smooth stream structure, taking into account the effects of photometric completeness and interstellar extinction. We find that the smooth artificial stream then shows similarly-pronounced substructures as the real structure. Interestingly, our best-fit N-body simulation does display real projected density variations linked to stellar epicyclic motions, but these become less significant when taking into account the SDSS star-count constraints. The substructures found when applying our matched filter technique to the N-body particles converted into observable stars are thus mostly unrelated to these epicyclic motions. This analysis suggests that the majority of the previously-detected substructures along the tidal tail of Palomar 5 are artefacts of observational inhomogeneities.
We present deep Near-infrared (NIR) images of a sample of 19 intermediate-redshift ($0.3<z<1.0$) radio-loud active galactic nuclei (AGN) with powerful relativistic jets ($L_{1.4GHz} >10^{27}$ WHz$^{-1}$), previously classified as flat-spectrum radio quasars. We also compile host galaxy and nuclear magnitudes for blazars from literature. The combined sample (this work and compilation) contains 100 radio-loud AGN with host galaxy detections and a broad range of radio luminosities $L_{1.4GHz} \sim 10^{23.7} - 10^{28.3}$~WHz$^{-1}$, allowing us to divide our sample into high-luminosity blazars (HLBs) and low-luminosity blazars (LLBs). The host galaxies of our sample are bright and seem to follow the $\mu_{e}$-$R_{eff}$ relation for ellipticals and bulges. The two populations of blazars show different behaviours in the \mnuc - \mbulge plane, where a statistically significant correlation is observed for HLBs. Although it may be affected by selection effects, this correlation suggests a close coupling between the accretion mode of the central supermassive black hole and its host galaxy, that could be interpreted in terms of AGN feedback. Our findings are consistent with semi--analytical models where low--luminosity AGN emit the bulk of their energy in the form of radio jets, producing a strong feedback mechanism, and high--luminosity AGN are affected by galaxy mergers and interactions, which provide a common supply of cold gas to feed both nuclear activity and star formation episodes.
Using spectra taken with the AAOmega spectrograph, we measure the radial velocities of over 100 stars, many of which are intermediate age carbon stars, in the direction of the dwarf irregular galaxy NGC 6822. Kinematic analysis suggests that the carbon stars in the sample are associated with NGC 6822, and estimates of its radial velocity and galactic rotation are made from a star-by-star analysis of its carbon star population. We calculate a heliocentric radial velocity for NGC 6822 of $-51\pm3$ \kms\ and show that the population rotates with a mean rotation speed of $11.2\pm2.1$ \kms\ at a mean distance of 1.1 kpc from the galactic centre, about a rotation axis with a position angle of $26^\circ\pm13^\circ$, as projected on the sky. This is close to the rotation axis of the HI gas disk and suggests that NGC 6822 is not a polar ring galaxy, but is dynamically closer to a late type galaxy. However, the rotation axis is not aligned with the minor axis of the AGB isodensity profiles and this remains a mystery.
Analytical models of chemical evolution, including inflow and outflow of gas, are important tools to study how the metal content in galaxies evolves as a function of time. In this work, we present new analytical solutions for the evolution of the gas mass, total mass and metallicity of a galactic system, when a decaying exponential infall rate of gas and galactic winds are assumed. We apply our model to characterize a sample of local star-forming and passive galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey data, with the aim of reproducing their observed mass-metallicity relation; in this way, we can derive how the two populations of star-forming and passive galaxies differ in their particular distribution of ages, formation time scales, infall masses and mass loading factors. We find that the local passive galaxies are on average older and assembled on shorter typical time-scales than the local star-forming ones; on the other hand, the larger mass star-forming galaxies show generally older ages and longer typical formation time-scales compared with the smaller mass star-forming galaxies. Finally, we conclude that the local star-forming galaxies experience stronger galactic winds than the passive galaxy population. We explore the effect of assuming different initial mass functions in our model, showing that to reproduce the observed mass-metallicity relation stronger winds are requested if the initial mass function is top-heavy. Finally, our analytical models predict the assumed sample of local galaxies to lie on a tight surface in the 3D space defined by stellar metallicity, star formation rate and stellar mass, thus mimicking the well-known "fundamental relation".
We present the results from a detailed analysis of the 2007 Swift monitoring campaign of the quasar PG1211+143. We constructed broad-band, optical/UV/X-ray spectral energy distributions over three X-ray flux intervals. We fitted them with a model which accounts for the disc and the X-ray coronal emission and the warm absorber (well established in this source). The three flux spectra are well fitted by the model we considered. The disc inner temperature remains constant at ~2 eV, while X-rays are variable both in spectral slope and normalization. The absorber covers almost 90% of the central source. It is outflowing with a velocity less than 2.3*10^4 km/s (3sigma upper limit), and has a column density of ~10^23.2. Its ionization parameter varies by a factor of 1.6, and it is in photo-ionizing equilibrium with the ionizing flux. It is located at a distance of less than 0.35 pc from the central source and its relative thickness, DR/R is less than 0.1. The absorber' s ionization parameter variations can explain the larger than average amplitude of the X-ray variations. The absence of optical/UV variations (consistent with the high black hole mass estimate) argues against the presence of inward propagating disc fluctuations and strong X-ray illumination of the disc (in agreement with the low ratio of X-ray over the bolometric luminosity of ~20-35). We estimate an upper limit for the mass outflow of ~5 solar masses per year (~2.3 times the Eddington mass accretion rate). If the outflow rate is indeed that high, then it must be a short-lived episode in the quasar's life time. Finally, we estimate an upper limit for the kinetic power of the outflow of ~1.4*10^43 ergs/s. This outflow cannot deploy significant mechanical energy to the surrounding ISM of the quasar's host galaxy, but is sufficient to heat the ISM to 10^7 K and to produce a fast decline to the star formation rate of the galaxy.
Active galactic nuclei (AGN) is one of the main drivers for transition from star-forming disk to passive spheroidal galaxies. However, the role of large-scale environment versus one-on-one interactions in triggering different types of AGN is still uncertain. We present a statistical study of the prevalence of the nuclear activity in isolated galaxies and physically bound isolated pairs. For the purpose of this study we considered optically and radio selected nuclear activity types. We aim to assess the effect of one-on-one interaction on the fraction of AGN and the role of their large-scale environment. To study the effect of one-on-one interaction on the fraction of AGN in isolated galaxy pairs, we compare with a sample of isolated galaxies homogeneously selected under the same isolation criterion. We examine the effect of the large-scale environment by comparing with control samples of single galaxies and galaxy pairs. In general we found no difference in the prevalence of optical AGN for the considered samples. For massive galaxies, the fraction of optical AGN in isolated galaxies is slightly higher than that in control samples. Also the fraction of passives in high mass isolated galaxies is smaller than in any other sample. Generally, there is no dependence on optical nuclear activity with local environment. On the other hand, we found evidence that radio AGN are strongly affected by the local environment. Optical AGN phenomenon is related to cold gas accretion, while radio AGN is related to hot gas accretion. In this context, there is more cold gas, fueling the central optical AGN, in isolated systems. Our results are in agreement with a scenario where cold gas accretion by secular evolution is the main driver of optical AGN, while hot gas accretion and one-on-one interactions are the main drivers of radio AGN activity.
We use the BlueTides simulation to predict the properties of the high-$z$ galaxy and active galactic nuclei (AGN) populations for the planned 2200deg$^2$ Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope's (WFIRST)-AFTA High Latitude Survey (HLS). BlueTides is a cosmological hydrodynamic simulation, which incorporates a variety of baryon physics in a $(400h^{-1} \mathrm{Mpc})^3$ volume evolved to $z=8$ with 0.7 trillion particles. The galaxy luminosity functions in the simulation show good agreement with all the current observational constraints (up to $z=11$) and predicts an enhanced number of UV bright galaxies. At the proposed depth of the HLS ($m < 26.75$), BlueTides predicts $10^6$ galaxies at $z=8$ with a few up to $z\sim 15$ due to the enhanced bright end of the galaxy luminosity function. At $z=8$, galaxies in the mock HLS have specific star formation rates of $\sim 10 {\rm Gyr}^{-1}$ and ages of $\sim 80 {\rm Myr}$ (both evolving linearly with redshift) and a non-evolving mass-metallicity relation. BlueTides also predicts $\sim 10^4$ AGN in WFIRST HLS from $z=8$ out to $z\sim 14$. These AGN host black holes of $M\sim 10^6-10^8 M_\odot$ accreting close to their Eddington luminosity. Galaxies and AGN have host halo masses of $M_{halo}\sim 10^{11-12} M_\odot$ and a linear bias $b\approx 13-20$. Given the expected galaxy space densities, their high bias and large volume probed we speculate that it may be feasible for WFIRST HLS detect the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation peak in the galaxy power spectrum out to $z=8-9$.
On 2015 June 16, Fermi-LAT observed a giant outburst from the flat spectrum radio quasar 3C 279 with a peak $>100$ MeV flux of $\sim3.6\times10^{-5}\;{\rm photons}\;{\rm cm}^{-2}\;{\rm s}^{-1}$ averaged over orbital period intervals. It is the historically highest $\gamma$-ray flux observed from the source including past EGRET observations, with the $\gamma$-ray isotropic luminosity reaching $\sim10^{49}\;{\rm erg}\;{\rm s}^{-1}$. During the outburst, the Fermi spacecraft, which has an orbital period of 95.4 min, was operated in a special pointing mode to optimize the exposure for 3C 279. For the first time, significant flux variability at sub-orbital timescales was found in blazar observations by Fermi-LAT. The source flux variability was resolved down to 2-min binned timescales, with flux doubling times less than 5 min. The observed minute-scale variability suggests a very compact emission region at hundreds of Schwarzschild radii from the central engine in conical jet models. A minimum bulk jet Lorentz factor ($\Gamma$) of 35 is necessary to avoid both internal $\gamma$-ray absorption and super-Eddington jet power. In the standard external-radiation-Comptonization scenario, $\Gamma$ should be at least 50 to avoid overproducing the synchrotron-self-Compton component. However, this predicts extremely low magnetization ($\sim5\times10^{-4}$). Equipartition requires $\Gamma$ as high as 120, unless the emitting region is a small fraction of the dissipation region. Alternatively, we consider $\gamma$ rays originating as synchrotron radiation of $\gamma_{\rm e}\sim1.6\times10^6$ electrons, in magnetic field $B\sim1.3$ kG, accelerated by strong electric fields $E\sim B$ in the process of magnetoluminescence. At such short distance scales, one cannot immediately exclude production of $\gamma$ rays in hadronic processes.
Astronomers have access to precious few nearby, middle-aged benchmark star clusters. Within 500 pc, there are only NGC 752 and Ruprecht 147 (R147), at 1.5 and 3 Gyr respectively. The Database for Galactic Open Clusters (WEBDA) also lists Lod\'{e}n 1 as a 2 Gyr cluster at a distance of 360 pc. If this is true, Lod\'{e}n 1 could become a useful benchmark cluster. This work details our investigation of Lod\'{e}n 1. We assembled archival astrometry (PPMXL) and photometry (2MASS, Tycho-2, APASS), and acquired medium resolution spectra for radial velocity measurements with the Robert Stobie Spectrograph (RSS) at the Southern African Large Telescope. We observed no sign of a cluster main-sequence turnoff or red giant branch amongst all stars in the field brighter than $J < 11$. Considering the 29 stars identified by L.O. Lod\'{e}n and listed on SIMBAD as the members of Lod\'{e}n 1, we found no compelling evidence of kinematic clustering in proper motion or radial velocity. Most of these candidates are A stars and red giants, and their observed properties are consistent with distant field stars in the direction of Lod\'{e}n 1 in the Galactic plane. We conclude that the old nearby cluster Lod\'{e}n 1 is neither old, nor nearby, nor a cluster.
We analyzed deep $Chandra$ ACIS-I exposures of the cluster-scale X-ray halo surrounding the radio source 4C+37.11. This remarkable system hosts the closest resolved pair of super-massive black hole and an exceptionally luminous elliptical galaxy, the likely product of a series of past mergers. We characterize the halo with $r_{500} = 0.95$ Mpc, $M_{500} = (2.5 \pm 0.2) \times 10^{14} \ M_{\rm{\odot}}$, $ kT = 4.6\pm 0.2$ keV, and a gas mass of $M_{\rm g,500} = (2.2 \pm 0.1) \times 10^{13} M_\odot$. The gas mass fraction within $r_{500}$ is $f_{\rm g} = 0.09 \pm 0.01$. The entropy profile shows large non-gravitational heating in the central regions. We see several surface brightness jumps, associated with substantial temperature and density changes, but approximate pressure equilibrium, implying that these are sloshing structures driven by a recent merger. A residual intensity image shows core spiral structure closely matching that seen for the Perseus cluster, although at $z=0.055$ the spiral pattern is less distinct. We infer the most recent merger occurred $1-2$ Gyr ago and that the event that brought the two observed super-massive black holes to the system core is even older. Under that interpretation, this black hole binary pair has, unusually, remained at pc-scale separation for more than 2 Gyr.
Variable emission from Sgr~A*, the luminous counterpart to the super-massive black hole at the center of our Galaxy, arises from the innermost portions of the accretion flow. Better characterization of the variability is important for constraining models of the low-luminosity accretion mode powering Sgr~A*, and could further our ability to use variable emission as a probe of the strong gravitational potential in the vicinity of the $4\times10^{6}\mathrm{M}_{\odot}$ black hole. We use the \textit{Herschel} Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE) to monitor Sgr~A* at wavelengths that are difficult or impossible to observe from the ground. We find highly significant variations at 0.25, 0.35, and 0.5 mm, with temporal structure that is highly correlated across these wavelengths. While the variations correspond to $<$1% changes in the total intensity in the \textit{Herschel} beam containing Sgr~A*, comparison to independent, simultaneous observations at 0.85 mm strongly supports the reality of the variations. The lowest point in the light curves, $\sim$0.5 Jy below the time-averaged flux density, places a lower bound on the emission of Sgr~A* at 0.25 mm, the first such constraint on the THz portion of the SED. The variability on few hour timescales in the SPIRE light curves is similar to that seen in historical 1.3 mm data, where the longest time series is available, but the distribution of variations in the sub-mm do not show a tail of large-amplitude variations seen at 1.3 mm. Simultaneous X-ray photometry from XMM-Newton shows no significant variation within our observing period, which may explain the lack of very large variations if X-ray and submillimeter flares are correlated.
We explore the accuracy of the clustering-based redshift estimation proposed by M\'enard et al. (2013) when applied to VIPERS and CFHTLS real data. This method enables us to reconstruct redshift distributions from measurement of the angular clus- tering of objects using a set of secure spectroscopic redshifts. We use state of the art spectroscopic measurements with iAB < 22.5 from the VIMOS Public Extragalactic Redshift Survey (VIPERS) as reference population to infer the redshift distribution of galaxies from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey (CFHTLS) T0007 release. VIPERS provides a nearly representative sample to the flux limit iAB < 22.5 at redshift > 0.5 which allows us to test the accuracy of the clustering-based red- shift distributions. We show that this method enables us to reproduce the true mean color-redshift relation when both populations have the same magnitude limit. We also show that this technique allows the inference of redshift distributions for a population fainter than the one of reference and we give an estimate of the color-redshift mapping in this case. This last point is of great interest for future large redshift surveys which suffer from the need of a complete faint spectroscopic sample.
Our aim is to characterize the polarized continuum emission properties including intensity, polarization position angle, and polarization percentage of Sgr A* at $\sim$100 (3.0 mm), $\sim$230 (1.3 mm), $\sim$345 (0.87 mm), $\sim$500 (0.6 mm), and $\sim$700 GHz (0.43 mm). We report continuum emission properties of Sgr A* at the above frequency bands, based on the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) observations. We measured flux densities of Sgr A* from ALMA single pointing and mosaic observations. We performed sinusoidal fittings to the observed (XX-YY)/I intensity ratios, to derive the polarization position angles and polarization percentages. We successfully detect polarized continuum emission from all observed frequency bands. We observed lower Stokes I intensity at $\sim$700 GHz than that at $\sim$500 GHz, which suggests that emission at $\gtrsim$500 GHz is from optically thin part of a synchrotron emission spectrum. Both the Stokes I intensity and the polarization position angle at our highest observing frequency of $\sim$700 GHz, may be varying with time. However, we do not yet detect variation in the polarization percentage at $>$500 GHz. The polarization percentage at $\sim$700 GHz is likely lower than that at $\sim$500 GHz. By comparing the $\sim$500 GHz and $\sim$700 GHz observations with the observations at lower frequency bands, we suggest that the intrinsic polarization position angle of Sgr A* is varying with time. This paper also reports the measurable polarization properties from the observed calibration quasars. The future simultaneous multi-frequency polarization observations are required for clarifying the time and frequency variation of polarization position angle and polarization percentage.
We describe a new open source package for calculating properties of galaxy clusters, including NFW halo profiles with and without the effects of cluster miscentering. This pure-Python package, cluster-lensing, provides well-documented and easy-to-use classes and functions for calculating cluster scaling relations, including mass-richness and mass-concentration relations from the literature, as well as the surface mass density $\Sigma(R)$ and differential surface mass density $\Delta\Sigma(R)$ profiles, probed by weak lensing magnification and shear. Galaxy cluster miscentering is especially a concern for stacked weak lensing shear studies of galaxy clusters, where offsets between the assumed and the true underlying matter distribution can lead to a significant bias in the mass estimates if not accounted for. This software has been developed and released in a public GitHub repository, and is licensed under the permissive MIT license. The cluster-lensing package is archived on Zenodo (Ford 2016). Full documentation, source code, and installation instructions are available at this http URL
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In turbulent fragmentation, star formation occurs in condensations created by converging flows. The condensations must be sufficiently massive, dense and cool to be gravitationally unstable, so that they start to contract; {\it and} they must then radiate away thermal energy fast enough for self-gravity to remain dominant, so that they continue to contract. For the metallicities and temperatures in local star forming clouds, this second requirement is only met robustly when the gas couples thermally to the dust, because this delivers the capacity to radiate across the full bandwidth of the continuum, rather than just in a few discrete spectral lines. This translates into a threshold for vigorous star formation, which can be written as a minimum ram-pressure Pcrit ~ 4 10^-11 dyne. Pcrit is independent of temperature, and corresponds to flows with molecular hydrogen number-density nH2 and velocity v satisfying nH2 v^2 > 800 cm^-3 (km/s)^2. This in turn corresponds to a minimum molecular hydrogen column-density for vigorous star formation, NH2crit ~ 4 10^21 cm^-2 (SIGMAcrit ~ 100 MSun pc^-2), and a minimum visual extinction AVcrit ~ 9. The characteristic diameter and line-density for a star-forming filament when this threshold is just exceeded -- a sweet spot for local star formation regions -- are 2Rfil ~ 0.1 pc and mufil ~ 13 MSun pc^-2. The characteristic diameter and mass for a prestellar core condensing out of such a filament are 2Rcore ~ 0.1 pc, and Mcore ~ MSun. We also show that fragmentation of a shock-compressed layer is likely to commence while the convergent flows creating the layer are still ongoing, and we stress that, under this circumstance, the phenomenology and characteristic scales for fragmentation of the layer are fundamentally different from those derived traditionally for pre-existing layers.
We use time-domain optical spectroscopy to distinguish between broad emission lines powered by accreting black holes (BHs) or stellar processes (i.e., supernovae) for 16 galaxies identified as AGN candidates by Reines et al. (2013). 14 of these have star-formation--dominated narrow-line emission ratios, one is a narrow-line AGN, and the last is a star-forming--AGN composite. We find that broad H$\alpha$ emission has faded for 11/16 targets, based on spectra taken with the Magellan Echellette Spectrograph (MagE), the Dual Imaging Spectrograph, and the Ohio State Multi-Object Spectrograph with baselines ranging from 5 to 14 years. The 11 faded systems all have narrow-line ratios consistent with recent star formation, suggesting the broad emission for those targets was produced by a transient stellar process. The two objects with narrow-line AGN signatures (RGG 9 and RGG 119) have persistent broad H$\alpha$ emission consistent with previous SDSS observations. The final three star-forming objects are classified as ambiguous with regards to the presence of broad emission in the follow-up spectrum. Additionally, we use our MagE observations to measure stellar velocity dispersions for 15 AGN candidates, four of which overlap with our broad H$\alpha$ follow-up sample. Stellar masses range from $\sim5\times10^{8}$ to $3\times10^{9} M_{\odot}$, and we measure $\sigma_{\ast}$ ranging from $28-71$ km/s. These $\sigma_{\ast}$ correspond to some of the lowest-mass galaxies with optical signatures of AGN activity. We show that RGG 119, the one object which has both a measured $\sigma_{\ast}$ and persistent broad H$\alpha$ emission, falls near the extrapolation of the $\rm M_{BH}-\sigma_{\star}$ relation to the low-mass end.
We present chemical abundance measurements of two metal-poor red giant stars in the ultra-faint dwarf galaxy Bootes I, based on Magellan/MIKE high-resolution spectra. For Boo I-980, with [Fe/H]=-3.1, we present the first elemental abundance measurements while Boo I-127, with [Fe/H]=-2.0, shows abundances in good agreement with previous measurements. Light and iron-peak element abundance ratios in the two Bootes I stars, as well as those of most other Boootes I members, collected from the literature, closely resemble those of regular metal-poor halo stars. Neutron-capture element abundances Sr and Ba are systematically lower than the main halo trend, and also show a significant abundance spread. Overall, this is similar to what has been found for other ultra-faint dwarf galaxies. We apply corrections to the carbon abundances (commensurate with stellar evolutionary status) of the entire sample and find 21% of stars to be carbon-enhanced metal-poor (CEMP) stars, compared to 13% without using the carbon correction. We reassess the metallicity distribution functions (MDF) for the CEMP stars and non-CEMP stars, and confirm earlier claims that CEMP stars might belong to a different, earlier population. Applying a set of abundance criteria to test to what extent Bootes I could be a surviving first galaxy suggests that it is one of the earliest assembled systems that perhaps received gas from accretion from other clouds in the system, or from swallowing a first galaxy or building block type object. This resulted in the two stellar populations observable today.
Due to significant galaxy contamination and impurity in stellar mass selected samples (up to 95% from z=0-3), we examine the star formation history, quenching time-scales, and structural evolution of galaxies using a constant number density selection with data from the UKIDSS Ultra-Deep Survey field. Using this methodology we investigate the evolution of galaxies at a variety of number densities from $z=0-3$. We find that samples chosen at number densities ranging from $3\times10^{-4}$ to 10$^{-5}$ galaxies Mpc$^{-3}$ (corresponding to $z\sim0.5$ stellar masses of M$_{*}= 10^{10.95-11.6}$ M$_{0}$) have a star forming blue fraction of $\sim50$\% at $z\sim2.5$, which evolves to a nearly $100$\% quenched red and dead population by $z\sim 1$. We also see evidence for number density downsizing, such that the galaxies selected at the lowest densities (highest masses) become a homogeneous red population before those at higher number densities. Examining the evolution of the colours for these systems furthermore shows that the formation redshift of galaxies selected at these number densities is $z_{\rm form}>3$. The structural evolution through size and Sersic index fits reveal that while there remains evolution in terms of galaxies becoming larger and more concentrated in stellar mass at lower redshifts, the magnitude of the change is significantly smaller than for a mass selected sample. We also find that changes in size and structure continues at $z < 1$, and is coupled strongly to passivity evolution. We conclude that galaxy structure is driving the quenching of galaxies, such that galaxies become concentrated before they become passive.
We present a pilot study on the nearby massive galaxy NGC 1291, in which we aim to constrain the dark matter in the inner regions, by obtaining a dynamical determination of the disc mass-to-light ratio (M/L). To this aim, we model the bar-induced dust lanes in the galaxy, using hydrodynamic gas response simulations. The models have three free parameters, the M/L of the disc, the bar pattern speed and the disc height function. We explore the parameter space to find the best fit models, i.e. those in which the morphology of the shocks in the gas simulations matches the observed dust lanes. The best-fit models suggest that the M/L of NGC 1291 agrees with that predicted by stellar population synthesis models in the near-infrared ($\approx$0.6\,$M_{\odot}/L_{\odot}$), which leads to a borderline maximum disc for this galaxy. The bar rotates fast, with corotation radius $\leq$ 1.4 times the bar length. Additionally, we find that the height function has a significant effect on the results, and can bias them towards lower or higher M/L.
To evaluate the impact of stellar feedback, it is critical to estimate the mass outflow rates of galaxies. Past estimates have been plagued by uncertain assumptions about the outflow geometry, metallicity, and ionization fraction. Here we use Hubble Space Telescope ultraviolet spectroscopic observations of the nearby starburst NGC 6090 to demonstrate that many of these quantities can be constrained by the data. We use the Si~{\sc IV} absorption lines to calculate the scaling of velocity (v), covering fraction (C$_f$), and density with distance from the starburst (r), assuming the Sobolev optical depth and a velocity law of the form: $v \propto(1 -R_i/r )^\beta$ (were R$_i$ is the inner outflow radius). We find that the velocity ($\beta$=0.43) is consistent with an outflow driven by an r$^{-2}$ force, while the scaling of the covering fraction ($C_f \propto r^{-0.82}$) suggests that cool clouds in the outflow are in pressure equilibrium with an adiabatically expanding medium. We use the column densities of four weak metal lines and CLOUDY photoionization models to determine the outflow metallicity, the ionization correction, and the initial density of the outflow. Combining these values with the profile fitting, we find R$_i$ = 63 pc, with all of the mass within 300~pc of the starburst. Finally, we find that the maximum mass outflow rate is 2.3~M$_\odot$ yr$^{-1}$ and the mass loading factor (outflow divided by star formation rate) is 0.09, a factor of 10 lower than value calculated using common assumptions for the geometry, metallicity and ionization structure of the outflow.
We report the detection of Ly$\alpha$ emission at $\sim9538$\AA{} in the Keck/DEIMOS and \HST WFC3 G102 grism data from a triply-imaged galaxy at $z=6.846\pm0.001$ behind galaxy cluster MACS J2129.4$-$0741. Combining the emission line wavelength with broadband photometry, line ratio upper limits, and lens modeling, we rule out the scenario that this emission line is \oii at $z=1.57$. After accounting for magnification, we calculate the weighted average of the intrinsic Ly$\alpha$ luminosity to be $\sim1.3\times10^{42}~\mathrm{erg}~\mathrm{s}^{-1}$ and Ly$\alpha$ equivalent width to be $74\pm15$\AA{}. Its intrinsic UV absolute magnitude at 1600\AA{} is $-18.6\pm0.2$ mag and stellar mass $(1.5\pm0.3)\times10^{7}~M_{\odot}$, making it one of the faintest (intrinsic $L_{UV}\sim0.14~L_{UV}^*$) galaxies with Ly$\alpha$ detection at $z\sim7$ to date. Its stellar mass is in the typical range for the galaxies thought to dominate the reionization photon budget at $z\gtrsim7$; the inferred Ly$\alpha$ escape fraction is high ($\gtrsim 10$\%), which could be common for sub-$L^*$ $z\gtrsim7$ galaxies with Ly$\alpha$ emission. This galaxy offers a glimpse of the galaxy population that is thought to drive reionization, and it shows that gravitational lensing is an important avenue to probe the sub-$L^*$ galaxy population.
We present new identifications of five red giant stars in the Galactic halo with chemical abundance patterns that indicate they originally formed in globular clusters. Using data from the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) Survey available through Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 12 (DR12), we first identify likely halo giants, and then search those for the well-known chemical tags associated with globular clusters, specifically enrichment in nitrogen and aluminum. We find that 2% of the halo giants in our sample have this chemical signature, in agreement with previous results. Following the interpretation in our previous work on this topic, this would imply that at least 13% of halo stars originally formed in globular clusters. Recent developments in the theoretical understanding of globular cluster formation raise questions about that interpretation, and we concede the possibility that these migrants represent a small fraction of the halo field. There are roughly as many stars with the chemical tags of globular clusters in the halo field as there are in globular clusters, whether or not they are accompanied by a much larger chemically untaggable population of former globular cluster stars.
We report the discovery of a `Triple-Double Radio Galaxy (TDRG)' J1216+0709 detected in deep low-frequency Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) observations. J1216+0709 is only the third radio galaxy, after B0925+420 and Speca, with three pairs of lobes resulting from three different episodes of AGN jet activity. The 610 MHz GMRT image clearly displays an inner pair of lobes, a nearly co-axial middle pair of lobes and a pair of outer lobes that is bent w.r.t. the axis of inner pair of lobes. The total end-to-end projected sizes of the inner, middle, and outer lobes are 40$^{{\prime}{\prime}}$ ($\sim$ 95 kpc), 1$^{\prime}$.65 ($\sim$ 235 kpc) and 5$^{\prime}$.7 ($\sim$ 814 kpc), respectively. Unlike the outer pair of lobes both the inner and middle pairs of lobes exhibit asymmetries in arm-lengths and flux densities, but in opposite sense, i.e., the eastern sides are farther and also brighter that the western sides, thus suggesting the possibility of jet being intrinsically asymmetric rather than due to relativistic beaming effect. The host galaxy is a bright elliptical (m$_{\rm r}$ $\sim$ 16.56) with M$_{\rm SMBH}$ $\sim$ 3.9 $\times$ 10$^{9}$ M$\odot$ and star-formation rate of $\sim$ 4.66$_{\rm -1.61}^{\rm +4.65}$ M$_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$. The host galaxy resides is a small group of three galaxies (m$_{\rm r}$ $\leq$ 17.77) and is possibly going through the interaction with faint, dwarf galaxies in the neighbourhood, which may have triggered the recent episodes of AGN activity.
The radii of young (< 100 Myr) star clusters correlate only weakly with their masses. This shallow relation has been used to argue that impulsive tidal perturbations, or `shocks', by passing giant molecular clouds (GMCs) preferentially disrupt low-mass clusters. We show that this mass-radius relation is in fact the result of the combined effect of two-body relaxation and repeated tidal shocks. Clusters evolve towards a typical radius of a few parsecs, as observed, independent of the initial radius and this radius is set by a competition between expansion by relaxation and shrinking due to shocks. The equilibrium cluster density is higher for stronger tidal shocks, such that disruption rates in gas-rich galaxies in the early Universe are only a factor of a few higher than in the solar neighbourhood. We conclude that interactions with GMCs are not a viable explanation for the near universality of the globular cluster mass function, as was suggested by Elmegreen and Kruijssen.
Cosmological N-body simulations predict dark matter (DM) haloes with steep central cusps (e.g. NFW), which contradicts observations of gas kinematics in low mass galaxies that imply the existence of shallow DM cores. Baryonic processes such as adiabatic contraction and gas outflows can, in principle, alter the initial DM density profile, yet their relative contributions to the halo transformation remain uncertain. Recent high resolution, cosmological hydrodynamic simulations (Di Cintio et al. 2014, DC14) predict that inner density profiles depend systematically on the ratio of stellar to DM mass (M$_*$/M$_{\rm halo}$). Using a Markov Chain Monte Carlo approach, we test the NFW and the M$_*$/M$_{\rm halo}$-dependent DC14 halo models against a sample of 147 galaxy rotation curves from the new SPARC data set. These galaxies all have extended HI rotation curves from radio interferometry as well as accurate stellar mass density profiles from near-infrared photometry. The DC14 halo profile provides markedly better fits to the data than does the NFW profile. Unlike NFW, the DC14 halo parameters found in our rotation curve fits naturally recover both the mass-concentration relation predicted by $\Lambda$CDM and the stellar mass-halo mass relation inferred from abundance matching. Halo profiles modified by baryonic processes are therefore more consistent with expectations from $\Lambda$CDM cosmology and provide better fits to galaxy rotation curves across a wide range of galaxy properties than do halo models which neglect baryonic physics. Our results reconcile observations of galaxies with $\Lambda$CDM expectations, offering a solution to the decade long cusp-core discrepancy.
NGC 5128 (Centaurus A) is one of the best example to study AGN-feedback in the local Universe. At 13.5 kpc from the galaxy, optical filaments with recent star formation are lying along the radio-jet direction. We used the Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment (APEX) to map the CO(2-1) emission all along the filament structure. Molecular gas mass of 8.2x10^7 Msun was found over the 4.2 kpc-structure which represents about 3% of the total gas mass of the NGC 5128 cold gas content. Two dusty mostly molecular structure are identified, following the optical filaments. The region corresponds to the crossing of the radio jet with the Northern HI shell, coming from a past galaxy merger. One filament is located at the border of the HI shell, while the other is entirely molecular, and devoid of HI gas. The molecular mass is comparable to the HI mass in the shell, suggesting a scenario where the atomic gas was shocked and transformed in molecular clouds by the radio jet. Comparison with combined FIR Herschel and UV GALEX estimation of star formation rates in the same regions leads to depletion times of more than 10 Gyr. The filaments are thus less efficient than discs in converting molecular gas into stars. Kinetic energy injection triggered by shocks all along the jet/gas interface is a possible process that appears to be consistent with MUSE line ratio diagnostics derived in a smaller region of the northern filament. Whether the AGN is the sole origin of this energy input and what is the dominant (mechanical vs radiative) mode for this process is however still to be investigated.
Aims. We investigate the spatial distribution of a collection of absorbing
gas clouds, some associated with the dense, massive star-forming core NGC6334
I, and others with diffuse foreground clouds. For the former category, we aim
to study the dynamical properties of the clouds in order to assess their
potential to feed the accreting protostellar cores.
Methods. We use spectral imaging from the Herschel SPIRE iFTS to construct a
map of HF absorption at 243 micron in a 6x3.5 arcmin region surrounding NGC6334
I and I(N).
Results. The combination of new, spatially fully sampled, but spectrally
unresolved mapping with a previous, single-pointing, spectrally resolved HF
signature yields a 3D picture of absorbing gas clouds in the direction of
NGC6334. Toward core I, the HF equivalent width matches that of the spectrally
resolved observation. The distribution of HF absorption is consistent with
three of the seven components being associated with this dense star-forming
envelope. For two of the remaining four components, our data suggest that these
clouds are spatially associated with the larger scale filamentary star-forming
complex. Our data also implies a lack of gas phase HF in the envelope of core
I(N). Using a simple description of adsorption onto and desorption from dust
grain surfaces, we show that the overall lower temperature of the envelope of
source I(N) is consistent with freeze-out of HF, while it remains in the gas
phase in source I.
Conclusions. We use the HF molecule as a tracer of column density in diffuse
gas (n(H) ~ 10^2 - 10^3 cm^-3), and find that it may uniquely trace a
relatively low density portion of the gas reservoir available for star
formation that otherwise escapes detection. At higher densities prevailing in
protostellar envelopes (>10^4 cm^-3), we find evidence of HF depletion from the
gas phase under sufficiently cold conditions.
We study mass distributions within and beyond 5~effective radii ($R_{\rm e}$)
in 23 early-type galaxies from the SLUGGS survey, using their globular cluster
(GC) kinematic data. The data are obtained with Keck/DEIMOS spectrograph, and
consist of line-of-sight velocities for ~$3500$ GCs, measured with a high
precision of ~15 $\rm km\ s^{-1}$ per GC and extending out to $~13 R_{\rm e}$.
We obtain the mass distribution in each galaxy using the tracer mass estimator
of Watkins et al. and account for kinematic substructures, rotation of the GC
systems and galaxy flattening in our mass estimates.
The observed scatter between our mass estimates and results from the
literature is less than 0.2 dex. The dark matter fraction within $5R_{\rm e}$
($f_{\rm DM}$) increases from ~$0.6$ to ~$0.8$ for low- and high-mass galaxies,
respectively, with some intermediate-mass galaxies ($M_*{\sim}10^{11}M_\odot$)
having low $f_{\rm DM}\sim0.3$, which appears at odds with predictions from
simple galaxy models. We show that these results are independent of the adopted
orbital anisotropy, stellar mass-to-light ratio, and the assumed slope of the
gravitational potential. However, the low $f_{\rm DM}$ in the ~$10^{11}M_\odot$
galaxies agrees with the cosmological simulations of Wu et al. where the
pristine dark matter distribution has been modified by baryons during the
galaxy assembly process. We find hints that these $M_*\sim10^{11}M_\odot$
galaxies with low $f_{\rm DM}$ have very diffuse dark matter haloes, implying
that they assembled late. Beyond $5R_{\rm e}$, the $M/L$ gradients are steeper
in the more massive galaxies and shallower in both low and intermediate mass
galaxies.
Intensity mapping (IM) is sensitive to the cumulative line emission of galaxies. As such it represents a promising technique for statistical studies of galaxies fainter than the limiting magnitude of traditional galaxy surveys. The strong hydrogen Ly-alpha line is the primary target for such an experiment, as its intensity is linked to star formation activity and the physical state of the interstellar (ISM) and intergalactic (IGM) medium. However, to extract the meaningful information one has to solve the confusion problems caused by interloping lines from foreground galaxies. We discuss here the challenges for a Ly-alpha IM experiment targeting z > 4 sources. We find that the Ly-alpha power spectrum can be in principle easily (marginally) obtained with a 40 cm space telescope in a few days of observing time up to z < 8 (z = 10) assuming that the interloping lines (e.g. H-alpha, [O II], [O III] lines) can be efficiently removed. We show that interlopers can be removed by using an ancillary photometric galaxy survey with limiting AB mag 26 in the NIR bands (Y, J, H, or K). This would enable detection of the Ly-alpha signal from 5 < z < 9 faint sources. However, if a [C II] IM experiment is feasible, by cross-correlating the Ly-alpha with the [C II] signal the required depth of the galaxy survey can be decreased to AB mag 24. This would bring the detection at reach of future facilities working in close synergy.
We use the effects of mass segregation on the radial distribution of different stellar populations in the core of 47 Tucanae to find estimates for the masses of stars at different post main sequence evolutionary stages. We take samples of main sequence (MS) stars from the core of 47 Tucanae, at different magnitudes (i.e. different masses), and use the effects of this dynamical process to develop a relation between the radial distance (RD) at which the cumulative distribution reaches the 20th and 50th percentile, and stellar mass. From these relations we estimate the masses of different post MS populations. We find that mass remains constant for stars going through the evolutionary stages between the upper MS up to the horizontal branch (HB). By comparing RDs of the HB stars with stars of lower masses, we can exclude a mass loss greater than 0.09M during the red giant branch (RGB) stage at nearly the 3{\sigma} level. The slightly higher mass estimates for the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) are consistent with the AGB having evolved from somewhat more massive stars. The AGB also exhibits evidence of contamination by more massive stars, possibly blue stragglers (BSS), going through the RGB phase. We do not include the BSS in this paper due to the complexity of these objects, instead, the complete analysis of this population is left for a companion paper. The process to estimate the masses described in this paper are exclusive to the core of 47 Tuc.
Cold dark matter (CDM) is a well established paradigm to describe cosmological structure formation, and works extraordinarily well on large, linear, scales. Progressing further in dark matter physics requires being able to understand structure formation in the non-linear regime, both for CDM and its alternatives. This short note describes a calculation, and accompanying code, WarmAndFuzzy, incorporating the popular models of warm and fuzzy dark matter (WDM and FDM) into the standard halo model to compute the non-linear matter power spectrum. The FDM halo model power spectrum has not been computed before. The FDM implementation models ultralight axions and other scalar fields with $m_a\approx 10^{-22}\text{ eV}$. The WDM implementation models thermal WDM with mass $m_X\approx 1\text{ keV}$. The halo model shows that differences between WDM, FDM, and CDM survive at low redshifts in the quasi-linear and fully non-linear regimes. The code uses analytic transfer functions for the linear power spectrum, modified collapse barriers in the halo mass function, and a modified concentration-mass relationship for the halo density profiles. Modified halo density profiles (for example, cores) are not included, but are under development. Cores are expected to have very minor effects on the power spectrum on observable scales. Applications of this code to the Lyman-$\alpha$ forest flux power spectrum and the cosmic microwave background lensing power spectrum will be discussed in companion papers. \textsc{WarmAndFuzzy} is available online at \url{https://github.com/DoddyPhysics/HMcode}, where collaboration in development is welcomed.
We present new accretion solutions of a polytropic perfect fluid onto an f(R)-gravity de Sitter-like black hole. We consider two f(R)-gravity models and obtain finite-period cyclic flows oscillating between the event and cosmological horizons as well as semi-cyclic critical flows executing a two-way motion from and back to the same horizon.
We present a new method for probing the thermal electron content of the
Galaxy by spectral analysis of background point sources in the absorption-only
limit to the radiative transfer equation. In this limit, calculating the
spectral index, $\alpha$, of these sources using a natural logarithm results in
an additive factor, which we denote $\alpha_\mathrm{EM}$, resulting from the
absorption of radiation due to the Galactic thermal electron population. We
find that this effect is important at very low frequencies ($\nu\lesssim200$
MHz), and that the frequency spacing is critical.
We model this effect by calculating the emission measure across the sky. A
(smooth) thermal electron model for the Galaxy does not fit the observed
emission measure distribution, but a simple, cloud-based model to represent the
clumpy nature of the warm interstellar medium does. This model statistically
reproduces the Galactic emission measure distribution as obtained independently
from $H_\alpha$ data well.
We find that at the lowest frequencies ($\sim10-50$ MHz), the observed
spectral index for a large segment of the Galaxy below Galactic latitudes of
$\lesssim15^\circ$ could be changed significantly (i.e.,
$\alpha_\mathrm{EM}\gtrsim0.1$).
This method therefore provides a correction to low-frequency spectral index
measurements of extragalactic sources, and provides a sensitive probe of the
thermal electron distribution of the Galaxy using current and next-generation
low-frequency radio telescopes.
We show that this effect should be robustly detectable individually in the
strongest sources, and statistically in source samples at a level of
$\alpha_\mathrm{EM}\gtrsim0.18,0.06$, and 0.02 for source densities of 10, 100
and 1,000 sources per square degree.
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