We investigate the sensitivity of the colour-based quasar selection algorithm of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to several key physical parameters of supermassive black holes (SMBHs), focusing on BH spin ($a_{\star}$) at the high BH-mass regime ($M_{BH} \geqslant10^9\, M_{\odot}$). We use a large grid of model spectral energy distribution, assuming geometrically-thin, optically-thick accretion discs, and spanning a wide range of five physical parameters: BH mass $M_{BH}$, BH spin $a_{\star}$, Eddington ratio $L / L_{Edd}$ , redshift $z$, and inclination angle $inc$. Based on the expected fluxes in the SDSS imaging ugriz bands, we find that $\sim 99.8\%$ of our models with $M_{BH} \leqslant 10^{9.5}\, M_{\odot}$ are selected as quasar candidates and thus would have been targeted for spectroscopic follow-up. However, in the extremely high-mass regime, $\geqslant 10^{10} M_{\odot}$, we identify a bias against slowly/retrograde spinning SMBHs. The fraction of SEDs that would have been selected as quasar candidates drops below $\sim50\%$ for $a_{\star} <0$ across $0.5<z<2$. For particularly massive BHs, with $M_{BH} \simeq 3\times10^{10}\, M_{\odot}$, this rate drops below $\sim20\%$, and can be yet lower for specific redshifts. We further find that the chances of identifying any hypothetical sources with $M_{BH} = 10^{11}\, M_{\odot}$ by colour selection would be extremely low at the level of $\sim 3\%$. Our findings, along with several recent theoretical arguments and empirical findings, demonstrate that the current understanding of the SMBH population at the high-$M_{BH}$, and particularly the low- or retrograde-spinning regime, is highly incomplete.
We present spatially-resolved HI kinematics of 32 spiral galaxies which have Cepheid or/and Tip of the Red Giant Branch distances, and define a calibrator sample for the Tully-Fisher relation. The interferometric HI data for this sample were collected from available archives and supplemented with new GMRT observations. This paper describes an uniform analysis of the HI kinematics of this inhomogeneous data set. Our main result is an atlas for our calibrator sample that presents global HI profiles, integrated HI column-density maps, HI surface density profiles and, most importantly, detailed kinematic information in the form of high-quality rotation curves derived from highly-resolved, two-dimensional velocity fields and position-velocity diagrams.
The advantages of angular differential imaging (ADI) has been previously untested in imaging the host galaxies of damped Lyman alpha (DLA) systems. In this pilot study, we present the first application of ADI to directly imaging the host galaxy of the DLA seen towards the quasar J1431+3952. K-band imaging of the field surrounding J1431+3952 was obtained on the Gemini North telescope with the adaptive optics system and a laser guide star. We computed a sensitivity curve that demonstrates the sensitivity of our observations as a function of K-band magnitude, impact parameter and DLA angular size. For an impact parameter of 0.5" (3.4 kpc at the redshift of the absorber) our mass sensitivity is log (M_star/M_sun) ~ 9.2 and drops to ~ 9.0 at separations beyond ~ 6 kpc for the smallest size model galaxy. Three candidate galaxies are identified within 5". Stellar masses were computed from the K-band photometry yielding values of log (M_star/M_sun) ~ 9.9, 9.7 and 11.1 respectively. The likely identification of the absorbing galaxy is discussed, and we conclude that the galaxy with the largest impact parameter and highest stellar mass is unlikely to be the host, based on its inconsistency with the N(HI) impact parameter relation and inconsistent photometric redshift. Whilst we cannot distinguish between the remaining two candidates as the DLA host, we note that despite the low spin temperature and relatively high metallicity of the DLA, the host does not appear to be a particularly luminous (high mass) galaxy.
The properties of submillimeter galaxies (SMGs) that are fainter than the confusion limit of blank-field single-dish surveys ($S_{850} \lesssim$ 2 mJy) are poorly constrained. Using a newly developed color selection technique, Optical-Infrared Triple Color (OIRTC), that has been shown to successfully {select} such faint SMGs, we identify a sample of 2938 OIRTC-selected galaxies, dubbed Triple Color Galaxies (TCGs), in the UKIDSS-UDS field. We show that these galaxies have a median 850 $\mu$m flux of S$_{850} = 0.96\pm0.04$ mJy (equivalent to a star-formation rate SFR $\sim60-100$ M$_\odot$ yr$^{-1}$ based on SED fitting), representing the first large sample of faint SMGs that bridges the gap between bright SMGs and normal star-forming galaxies in S$_{850}$ and $L_{\rm IR}$. We assess the basic properties of TCGs and their relationship with other galaxy populations at $z\sim2$. We measure the two-point autocorrelation function for this population and derive a typical halo mass of log$_{10}$(M$_{\rm halo}$) $=12.9^{+0.2}_{-0.3}$, $12.7^{+0.1}_{-0.2}$, and $12.9^{+0.2}_{-0.3}$ $h^{-1}$M$_\odot$ at $z=1-2$, $2-3$, and $3-5$, respectively. Together with the bright SMGs (S$_{850} \gtrsim 2$ mJy) and a comparison sample of less far-infrared luminous star-forming galaxies, we find a lack of dependence between spatial clustering and S$_{850}$ (or SFR), suggesting that the difference between these populations may lie in their local galactic environment. Lastly, on the scale of $\sim8-17$ kpc at $1<z<5$ we find a tentative enhancement of the clustering of TCGs over the comparison star-forming galaxies, suggesting that some faint SMGs are physically associated pairs, perhaps reflecting a merging origin in their triggering.
We present spatially-resolved two-dimensional stellar kinematics for the 41 most massive early-type galaxies (MK <~ -25.7 mag, stellar mass M* >~ 10^11.8 Msun) of the volume-limited (D < 108 Mpc) MASSIVE survey. For each galaxy, we obtain high-quality spectra in the wavelength range of 3650 to 5850 angstroms from the 246-fiber Mitchell integral-field spectrograph (IFS) at McDonald Observatory, covering a 107 x 107 arcsec field of view (often reaching 2 to 3 effective radii). We measure the 2D spatial distribution of each galaxy's angular momentum (lambda and fast or slow rotator status), velocity dispersion (sigma), and higher-order non-Gaussian velocity features (Gauss-Hermite moments h3 to h6). Our sample contains a high fraction (~80%) of slow and non-rotators with lambda <~ 0.2. WHen combined with the lower-mass ETGs in the ATLAS3D survey, we find the fraction of slow rotators to increase dramatically with galaxy mass, reaching ~50% at MK ~ -25.5 mag and ~90% at MK ~ 26 mag. All of our fast rotators show a clear anti-correlation between h3 and V/sigma, and the slope of the anti-correlation is steeper in more round galaxies. The radial profiles of sigma show a clear luminosity and environmental dependence: the 12 most luminous galaxies in our sample (MK <~ -26 mag) are all brightest cluster/group galaxies (except NGC 4874) and all have rising or nearly flat sigma profiles, whereas five of the seven "isolated" galaxies are all fainter than MK ~ -25.8 mag and have falling sigma. All of our galaxies have positive <h4>; the most luminous galaxies have <h4> ~ 0.05 while less luminous galaxies have a range of values between 0 and 0.5. Most of our galaxies show positive radial gradients in h4, and those galaxies also tend to have rising sigma profiles. We discuss the implications for the relationship among dynamical mass, sigma, h4, and velocity anisotropy for these massive galaxies.
Ring-like structures in the ISM are commonly associated with high-mass stars. Kinematic studies of large structures in GMCs toward these ring-like structures may help us to understand how massive stars form. The origin and properties of the ring-like structure G345.45+1.50 is investigated through observations of the 13CO(3-2) line. The aim of the observations is to determine the kinematics in the region and to compare physical characteristics estimated from gas emission with those previously determined using dust continuum emission. The 13CO(3-2) line was mapped toward the whole ring using the APEX telescope. The ring is found to be expanding with a velocity of 1.0 km/s, containing a total mass of 6.9e3 Msun, which agrees well with that determined using 1.2 mm dust continuum emission. An expansion timescale of 3e6 yr and a total energy of 7e46 erg are estimated. The origin of the ring might have been a supernova explosion, since a 35.5 cm source, J165920-400424, is located at the center of the ring without an infrared counterpart. The ring is fragmented, and 104 clumps were identified with diameters of between 0.3 and 1.6 pc, masses of between 2.3 and 7.5e2 Msun, and densities of between 1.0e2 and 1.0e4 cm^-3. At least 18% of the clumps are forming stars, as is shown in infrared images. Assuming that the clumps can be modeled as Bonnor-Ebert spheres, 13 clumps are collapsing, and the rest of them are in hydrostatic equilibrium with an external pressure with a median value of 4e4 K cm^-3. In the region, the molecular outflow IRAS 16562-3959 is identified, with a velocity range of 38.4 km/s, total mass of 13 Msun, and kinematic energy of 7e45 erg. Finally, five filamentary structures were found at the edge of the ring with an average size of 3 pc, a width of 0.6 pc, a mass of 2e2 Msun, and a column density of 6e21 cm^-2.
Based on the LAMOST survey and Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), we use low-resolution spectra of 130,043 F/G-type dwarf stars to study the kinematics and metallicity properties of the Galactic disk. Our study shows that the stars with poorer metallicity and larger vertical distance from Galactic plane tend to have larger eccentricity and velocity dispersion. After separating the sample stars into likely thin-disk and thick-disk sub-sample, we find that there exits a negative gradient of rotation velocity $V_{\phi}$ with metallicity [Fe/H] for the likely thin-disk sub-sample, and the thick-disk sub-sample exhibit a larger positive gradient of rotation velocity with metallicity. By comparing with model prediction, we consider the radial migration of stars appears to have influenced on the thin-disk formation. In addition, our results shows that the observed thick-disk stellar orbital eccentricity distribution peaks at low eccentricity ($e \sim 0.2$) and extends to a high eccentricity ($e \sim 0.8$). We compare this result with four thick-disk formation simulated models, and it imply that our result is consistent with gas-rich merger model.
Radio astronomy has changed. For years it studied relatively rare sources, which emit mostly non-thermal radiation across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, i.e. radio quasars and radio galaxies. Now it is reaching such faint flux densities that it detects mainly star-forming galaxies and the more common radio-quiet active galactic nuclei. These sources make up the bulk of the extragalactic sky, which has been studied for decades in the infrared, optical, and X-ray bands. I follow the transformation of radio astronomy by reviewing the main components of the radio sky at the bright and faint ends, the issue of their proper classification, their number counts, luminosity functions, and evolution. The overall "big picture" astrophysical implications of these results, and their relevance for a number of hot topics in extragalactic astronomy, are also discussed. The future prospects of the faint radio sky are very bright, as we will soon be flooded with survey data. This review should be useful to all extragalactic astronomers, irrespective of their favourite electromagnetic band(s), and even stellar astronomers might find it somewhat gratifying.
The Lockman Hole is a well-studied extragalactic field with extensive
multi-band ancillary data covering a wide range in frequency, essential for
characterising the physical and evolutionary properties of the various source
populations detected in deep radio fields (mainly star-forming galaxies and
AGNs). In this paper we present new 150-MHz observations carried out with the
LOw Frequency ARray (LOFAR), allowing us to explore a new spectral window for
the faint radio source population. This 150-MHz image covers an area of 34.7
square degrees with a resolution of 18.6$\times$14.7 arcsec and reaches an rms
of 160 $\mu$Jy beam$^{-1}$ at the centre of the field.
As expected for a low-frequency selected sample, the vast majority of sources
exhibit steep spectra, with a median spectral index of
$\alpha_{150}^{1400}=-0.78\pm0.015$. The median spectral index becomes slightly
flatter (increasing from $\alpha_{150}^{1400}=-0.84$ to
$\alpha_{150}^{1400}=-0.75$) with decreasing flux density down to $S_{150}
\sim$10 mJy before flattening out and remaining constant below this flux level.
For a bright subset of the 150-MHz selected sample we can trace the spectral
properties down to lower frequencies using 60-MHz LOFAR observations, finding
tentative evidence for sources to become flatter in spectrum between 60 and 150
MHz. Using the deep, multi-frequency data available in the Lockman Hole, we
identify a sample of 100 Ultra-steep spectrum (USS) sources and 13 peaked
spectrum sources. We estimate that up to 21 percent of these could have $z>4$
and are candidate high-$z$ radio galaxies, but further follow-up observations
are required to confirm the physical nature of these objects.
We study the star formation quenching mechanism in cluster galaxies by fitting the SED of the Herschel Reference Survey, a complete volume-limited K-band-selected sample of nearby galaxies including objects in different density regions, from the core of the Virgo cluster to the general field. The SED are fitted using the CIGALE SED modelling code. The truncated activity of cluster galaxies is parametrised using a specific SFH with 2 free parameters, the quenching age QA and the quenching factor QF. These 2 parameters are crucial for the identification of the quenching mechanism which acts on long timescales if starvation while rapid and efficient if ram pressure. To be sensitive to an abrupt and recent variation of the star formation activity, we combine in a new way 20 UV to FIR photometric bands with 3 age-sensitive Balmer line absorption indices extracted from available medium-resolution integrated spectroscopy and with Halpha narrow band imaging data. The use of a truncated SFH significantly increases the quality of the fit in those objects whose atomic gas content has been removed during the interaction with the hostile cluster environment. The typical QA of the perturbed late-type galaxies is QA < 300 Myr whenever the activity of star formation is reduced by 50% < QF <= 80% and QA < 500 Myr for QF > 80%, while that of the quiescent early-types is QA ~ 1-3 Gyr. The fraction of late-types with a star formation activity reduced by QF > 80% and with an HI-deficiency parameter HI-def > 0.4 drops by a factor of ~ 5 from the inner half virial radius of the Virgo cluster, where the hot diffuse X-ray emitting gas of the cluster is located, to the outer regions. The efficient quenching of the star formation activity observed in Virgo suggests that the dominant stripping process is ram pressure. We discuss the implication of this result in the cosmological context of galaxy evolution.
High-redshift radio-loud quasars are used to, among other things, test the predictions of cosmological models, set constraints on black hole growth in the early universe and understand galaxy evolution. Prior to this paper, 20 extragalactic radio sources at redshifts above 4.5 have been imaged with very long baseline interferometry (VLBI). Here we report on observations of an additional ten z>4.5 sources at 1.7 and 5 GHz with the European VLBI Network (EVN), thereby increasing the number of imaged sources by 50%. Combining our newly observed sources with those from the literature, we create a substantial sample of 30 z>4.5 VLBI sources, allowing us to study the nature of these objects. Using spectral indices, variability and brightness temperatures, we conclude that of the 27 sources with sufficient information to classify, the radio emission from one source is from star formation, 13 are flat-spectrum radio quasars and 13 are steep-spectrum sources. We also argue that the steep-spectrum sources are off-axis (unbeamed) radio sources with rest-frame self-absorption peaks at or below GHz frequencies and that these sources can be classified as gigahertz peaked-spectrum (GPS) and megahertz peaked-spectrum (MPS) sources.
We report a detailed analysis of all regions of current star formation in the walls of the supergiant HI shell (SGS) in the galaxy Holmberg II based on observations with a scanning Fabry-Perot interferometer at the 6-m SAO RAS telescope. We compare the structure and kinematics of ionized gas with that of atomic hydrogen and with the stellar population of the SGS. Our deep H$\alpha$ images and archival images taken by the HST demonstrate that current star formation episodes are larger and more complicated than previously thought: they represent unified star-forming complexes with sizes of several hundred pc rather than 'chains' of separate bright nebulae in the walls of the SGS. The fact that we are dealing with unified complexes is evidenced by identified faint shell-like structures of ionized and neutral gas which connect several distinct bright HII regions. Formation of such complexes is due to the feedback of stars with very inhomogeneous ambient gas in the walls of the SGS. The arguments supporting an idea about the triggering of star formation in SGS by the HI supershells collision are presented. We also found a faint ionized supershell inside the HI SGS expanding with a velocity of no greater than 10-15 km/s. Five OB stars located inside the inner supershell are sufficient to account for its radiation, although a possibility of leakage of ionizing photons from bright HII regions is not ruled out as well.
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The z = 6.6 Lyman-$\alpha$ emitter 'CR7' has been claimed to have a Population III-like stellar population, or alternatively, be a candidate Direct Collapse Black Hole (DCBH). In this paper we investigate the evidence for these exotic scenarios using recently available, deeper, optical, near-infrared and mid-infrared imaging. We find strong Spitzer/IRAC detections for the main component of CR7 at 3.6 and 4.5 microns, and show that it has a blue colour ([3.6] - [4.5] $= -1.2\pm 0.3$). This colour cannot be reproduced by current Pop. III or pristine DCBH models. Instead, the results suggest that the [3.6] band is contaminated by the [OIII]4959,5007 emission line with an implied rest-frame equivalent width of EW_0 (H$\beta$ + [OIII]) $\gtrsim 2000$\AA. Furthermore, we find that new near-infrared data from the UltraVISTA survey supports a weaker He II 1640 emission line than previously measured, with EW_0 $= 40 \pm 30$\AA. For the fainter components of CR7 visible in Hubble Space Telescope imaging, we find no evidence that they are particularly red as previously claimed, and show that the derived masses and ages are considerably uncertain. In light of the likely detection of strong [OIII] emission in CR7 we discuss other more standard interpretations of the system that are consistent with the data. We find that a low-mass, narrow-line AGN can reproduce the observed features of CR7, including the lack of radio and X-ray detections. Alternatively, a young, low-metallicity (~1/2000 solar) starburst, modelled including binary stellar pathways, can reproduce the inferred strength of the He II and [OIII] emission, and simultaneously satisfy the observational upper limits on metal lines.
We review the uncertainties in high-z star-formation rate (SFR) measures and the constraints that one obtains from high-z gamma-ray burst (GRB) rates on them. We show that at the present time, the GRB rates per unit star-formation at z>3 are higher than at lower redshift. We also compare metallicity predictions made using a hierarchical model of cosmic chemical evolution based on two recently proposed SFRs, one based on the observed galaxy luminosity function at high redshift and one based on the GRB rate and find that within the considerable scatter in metal abundance measures, they both are consistent with the data. Analyzing the ensemble of different measurements together, we conclude that despite metallicity biases, GRBs may be a less biased probe of star-formation at z>3 than at z<2. There is likely to be a common origin to the high GRB rate per unit star-formation and the high observed Lyman-continuum production rate in high redshift galaxies and that this may be due to a relative overabundance of stars with mass $>$25Msun which are likely GRB progenitors. We also find that to reconcile these measurements with the Thomson scattering cross section of cosmic microwave background (CMB) photons measured by Planck, the escape fraction of Lyman-continuum photons from galaxies must be low, about 15 percent or less and that the clumping factor of the IGM is likely to be small, about 3. Finally, we demonstrate that GRBs are unique probes of metallicity evolution in low-mass galaxy samples and that GRB hosts likely lost a significant fraction of metals to the intergalactic medium (IGM) due to feedback processes such as stellar winds and supernovae.
We present a measurement of the spatial clustering of massive compact galaxies at $1.2\le z \le 3$ in CANDELS/3D-HST fields. We obtain the correlation length for compact quiescent galaxies (cQGs) at $z\sim1.6$ of $r_{0}=7.1_{-2.6}^{+2.3}\ h^{-1}Mpc$ and compact star forming galaxies (cSFGs) at $z\sim2.5$ of $r_{0}=7.7_{-2.9}^{+2.7}\ h^{-1}Mpc$ assuming a power-law slope $\gamma =1.8$. The characteristic dark matter halo masses $M_H$ of cQGs at $z\sim1.6$ and cSFGs at $z\sim2.5$ are $\sim7.1\times 10^{12}\ h^{-1} M_\odot$ and $\sim4.4\times10^{12}\ h^{-1} M_\odot$, respectively. Our clustering result suggests that cQGs at $z\sim1.6$ are possibly the progenitors of local luminous ETGs and the descendants of cSFGs and SMGs at $z>2$. Thus an evolutionary connection involving SMGs, cSFGs, QSOs, cQGs and local luminous ETGs has been indicated by our clustering result.
We report the detection of OH+ and H2O+ in the z=0.89 absorber toward the lensed quasar PKS1830-211. The abundance ratio of OH+ and H2O+ is used to quantify the molecular hydrogen fraction (fH2) and the cosmic-ray ionization rate of atomic hydrogen (zH) along two lines of sight, located at ~2 kpc and ~4 kpc to either side of the absorber's center. The molecular fraction decreases outwards, from ~0.04 to ~0.02, comparable to values measured in the Milky Way at similar galactocentric radii. For zH, we find values of ~2x10^-14 s^-1 and ~3x10^-15 s^-1, respectively, which are slightly higher than in the Milky Way at comparable galactocentric radii, possibly due to a higher average star formation activity in the z=0.89 absorber. The ALMA observations of OH+, H2O+, and other hydrides toward PKS1830-211 reveal the multi-phase composition of the absorbing gas. Taking the column density ratios along the southwest and northeast lines of sight as a proxy of molecular fraction, we classify the species ArH+, OH+, H2Cl+, H2O+, CH, and HF as tracing gases increasingly more molecular. Incidentally, our data allow us to improve the accuracy of H2O+ rest frequencies and thus refine the spectroscopic parameters.
We present the observations and first results from the FIGGS2 survey. FIGGS2 is an extension of the earlier Faint Irregular Galaxies GMRT survey (FIGGS) towards faint luminosity end. The sample consists of 20 galaxies of which 15 were detected in HI 21cm line using the Giant Meter-wave Radio Telescope (GMRT). The median blue band magnitude of our sample is ~ -11.6, which is more than one magnitude fainter than earlier FIGGS survey. From our GMRT observations we find that, for many of our sample galaxies, the HI disks are offset from their optical disks. The HI diameters of the FIGGS2 galaxies show a tight correlation with their HI mass. The slope of the correlation is 2.08 +/- 0.20 similar to what is found for FIGGS galaxies. We also find that for almost all galaxies, the HI disks are larger than the optical disks which is a common trend for dwarf or spiral galaxies. The mean value of the ratio of HI to optical diameter is ~ 1.54.
We have collected literature data on young Galactic objects such as masers
with VLBI-measured trigonometric parallaxes, OB associations, HII regions and
Cepheids. We have recently established that vertical disk scale height is
strongly influenced by the objects of the Local arm. In the present work we
used samples that do not contain objects in this arm. Based on the model of a
self-gravitating isothermal disk for the density distribution, we have found
the following vertical disk scale heights:
h=46+/-5 pc from 69 masers with trigonometric parallaxes,
h=36+/-3 pc from 59 OB associations,
h=35.6+/-2.7 pc from 147 HII regions,
h=52.1+/-1.9 pc from 195 young Cepheids, and
h=72.0+/-2.3 pc from 192 old Cepheids.
We characterise the physical nature of a 1.1 mm-selected, flux-limited, and interferometrically followed up sample of SMGs in COSMOS. We used the MAGPHYS code to fit the multiwavelength (UV-radio) SEDs of 16 of the target SMGs. We also constructed the pure radio SEDs of our SMGs using three different radio bands (325 MHz, 1.4 GHz, and 3 GHz). Moreover, since two SMGs in our sample, AzTEC1 and AzTEC3, benefit from previous CO line observations, we studied their properties in more detail. We found that 63% of our target SMGs lie above the galaxy main-sequence by more than a factor of 3, and hence are starbursts. The 3 GHz radio sizes we have previously measured for the target SMGs were compared with the present stellar mass estimates, and we found that the z>3 SMGs are fairly consistent with the mass-size relationship of z~2 compact, quiescent galaxies (cQGs). The median IR-radio correlation parameter is found to be q=2.27, which is lower than measured locally (median q=2.64). AzTEC1 is found to have a sub-Eddington SFR surface density (by a factor of 2.6), while AzTEC3 appears to be an Eddington-limited starburster. The gas reservoir in these two high-z SMGs would be exhausted in only ~86 and 19 Myr at the current SFR, respectively. A comparison of the MAGPHYS-based properties of our SMGs with those of equally bright ALESS SMGs suggests that the two populations share fairly similar physical characteristics, including the q parameter. A hint of negative correlation is found between the 3 GHz size and the level of starburstiness, and hence cosmic-ray electrons in more compact starbursts might be more susceptible to free-free absorption. Some of the derived low and high q values (compared to the local median) could be the result of a specific merger/post-starburst phase of galaxy evolution. Overall, our results support the scenario where z>3 SMGs evolve into today's giant ellipticals.
We report on a search for new low-surface-brightness galaxies (LSBGs) using Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) data within the GAMA equatorial fields. The search method consisted of masking objects detected with SDSS photo, combining gri images weighted to maximise the expected signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and smoothing the images. The processed images were then run through a detection algorithm that finds all pixels above a set threshold and groups them based on their proximity to one another. The list of detections was cleaned of contaminants such as diffraction spikes and the faint wings of masked objects. From these, selecting potentially the brightest in terms of total flux, a list of 343 LSBGs was produced having been confirmed using VISTA Kilo-degree Infrared Galaxy Survey (VIKING) imaging. The photometry of this sample was refined using the deeper VIKING Z band as the aperture-defining band. Measuring their $g-i$ and $J-K$ colours shows that most are consistent with being at redshifts less than 0.2. The photometry is carried out using an AUTO aperture for each detection giving surface brightnesses of $\mu_{r} \ge 25 \, \mathrm{mag} \, \mathrm{arcsec}^{-2}$ and magnitudes of $r > 19.8$ mag. None of these galaxies are bright enough to be within the GAMA main survey limit but could be part of future deeper surveys to measure the low-mass end of the galaxy stellar mass function.
In the Milky Way, the thick disk can be defined using individual stellar abundances, kinematics, or age; or geometrically, as stars high above the mid-plane. In nearby galaxies, where only a geometric definition can be used, thick disks appear to have large radial scale-lengths, and their red colors suggest that they are uniformly old. The Milky Way's geometrically thick disk is also radially extended, but it is far from chemically uniform: alpha-enhanced stars are confined within the inner Galaxy. In simulated galaxies, where old stars are centrally concentrated, geometrically thick disks are radially extended, too. Younger stellar populations flare in the simulated disks' outer regions, bringing those stars high above the mid-plane. The resulting geometrically thick disks therefore show a radial age gradient, from old in their central regions to younger in their outskirts. Based on our age estimates for a large sample of giant stars in the APOGEE survey, we can now test this scenario for the Milky Way. We find that the geometrically-defined thick disk in the Milky Way has indeed a strong radial age gradient: the median age for red clump stars goes from ~9 Gyr in the inner disk to 5 Gyr in the outer disk. We propose that at least some nearby galaxies could also have thick disks that are not uniformly old, and that geometrically thick disks might be complex structures resulting from different formation mechanisms in their inner and outer parts.
We present results from Johnson $UBV$, Kron-Cousins $RI$ and Washington $CT_1T_2$ photometries for seven van den Bergh-Hagen (vdBH) open clusters, namely, vdBH\,1, 10, 31, 72, 87, 92, and 118. The high-quality, multi-band photometric data sets were used to trace the cluster stellar density radial profiles and to build colour-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) and colour-colour (CC) diagrams from which we estimated their structural parameters and fundamental astrophysical properties. The clusters in our sample cover a wide age range, from $\sim$ 60 Myr up to 2.8 Gyr, are of relatively small size ($\sim$ 1 $-$ 6 pc) and are placed at distances from the Sun which vary between 1.8 and 6.3 kpc, respectively. We also estimated lower limits for the cluster present-day masses as well as half-mass relaxation times ($t_r$). The resulting values in combination with the structural parameter values suggest that the studied clusters are in advanced stages of their internal dynamical evolution (age/$t_r$ $\sim$ 20 $-$ 320), possibly in the typical phase of those tidally filled with mass segregation in their core regions. Compared to open clusters in the solar neighbourhood, the seven vdBH clusters are within more massive ($\sim$ 80 $-$ 380$M_\odot$), with higher concentration parameter values ($c$ $\sim$ 0.75$-$1.15) and dynamically evolved ones.
Like Hipparcos, Gaia is designed to give absolute parallaxes, independent of any astrophysical reference system. And indeed, Gaia's internal zero-point error for parallaxes is likely to be smaller than any individual parallax error. Nevertheless, due in part to mechanical issues of unknown origin, there are many astrophysical questions for which the parallax zero-point error $\sigma(\pi_0)$ will be the fundamentally limiting constraint. These include the distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Galactic Center. We show that by using the photometric parallax estimates for RR Lyrae stars (RRL) within 8kpc, via the ultra-precise infrared period-luminosity relation, one can independently determine a hyper-precise value for $\pi_{0}$. Despite their paucity relative to bright quasars, we show that RRL are competitive due to their order-of-magnitude improved parallax precision for each individual object relative to bright quasars. We show that this method is mathematically robust and well-approximated by analytic formulae over a wide range of relevant distances.
Constrained realisations of Gaussian random fields are used in cosmology to design special initial conditions for numerical simulations. We review this approach and its application to density peaks providing several worked-out examples. We then critically discuss the recent proposal to use constrained realisations to modify the linear density field within and around the Lagrangian patches that form dark-matter haloes. The ambitious concept is to forge `genetically modified' haloes with some desired properties after the non-linear evolution. We demonstrate that the original implementation of this method is not exact but approximate because it tacitly assumes that protohaloes sample a set of random points with a fixed mean overdensity. We show that carrying out a full genetic modification is a formidable and daunting task requiring a mathematical understanding of what determines the biased locations of protohaloes in the linear density field. We discuss approximate solutions based on educated guesses regarding the nature of protohaloes. We illustrate how the excursion-set method can be adapted to predict the non-linear evolution of the modified patches and thus fine tune the constraints that are necessary to obtain preselected halo properties. This technique allows us to explore the freedom around the original algorithm for genetic modification. We find that the quantity which is most sensitive to changes is the halo mass-accretion rate at the mass scale on which the constraints are set. Finally we discuss constraints based on the protohalo angular momenta.
ARCHES (Astronomical Resource Cross-matching for High Energy Studies) is a FP7-Space funded project whose aim is to provide the international astronomical community with well-characterised multi-wavelength data in the form of spectral energy distributions (SEDs) for large samples of objects extracted from the 3XMM DR5 X-ray catalogue of serendipitous sources. The project has developed new tools implementing fully probabilistic simultaneous cross-correlation of several catalogues for unresolved sources and a multi-wavelength finder for clusters of galaxies for extended sources. These enhanced resources have been tested in the framework of several science cases.
We lay the foundations of a statistical framework for multi-catalogue
cross-correlation and cross-identification based on explicit simplified
catalogue models. A proper identification process should rely on both
astrometric and photometric data. Under some conditions, the astrometric part
and the photometric part can be processed separately and merged a posteriori to
provide a single global probability of identification. The present paper
addresses almost exclusively the astrometrical part and specifies the proper
probabilities to be merged with photometric likelihoods.
To select matching candidates in n catalogues, we used the Chi (or,
indifferently, the Chi-square) test with 2(n-1) degrees of freedom. We thus
call this cross-match a chi-match. In order to use Bayes' formula, we
considered exhaustive sets of hypotheses based on combinatorial analysis. The
volume of the Chi-test domain of acceptance -- a 2(n-1)-dimensional acceptance
ellipsoid -- is used to estimate the expected numbers of spurious associations.
We derived priors for those numbers using a frequentist approach relying on
simple geometrical considerations. Likelihoods are based on standard Rayleigh,
Chi and Poisson distributions that we normalized over the Chi-test acceptance
domain. We validated our theoretical results by generating and cross-matching
synthetic catalogues.
The results we obtain do not depend on the order used to cross-correlate the
catalogues. We applied the formalism described in the present paper to build
the multi-wavelength catalogues used for the science cases of the ARCHES
(Astronomical Resource Cross-matching for High Energy Studies) project. Our
cross-matching engine is publicly available through a multi-purpose web
interface. In a longer term, we plan to integrate this tool into the CDS XMatch
Service.
Stellar populations contain the most important information about star clus- ter formation and evolution. Until several decades ago, star clusters were believed to be ideal laboratories for studies of simple stellar populations (SSPs). However, discoveries of multiple stellar populations in Galactic globular clusters have expanded our view on stellar populations in star clusters. They have simultaneously generated a number of controversies, particularly as to whether young star clusters may have the same origin as old globular clusters. In addition, extensive studies have revealed that the SSP scenario does not seem to hold for some intermediate-age and young star clusters either, thus making the origin of multiple stellar populations in star clusters even more complicated. Stellar population anomalies in numerous star clusters are well-documented, implying that the notion of star clusters as true SSPs faces serious challenges. In this review, we focus on stellar populations in massive clusters with different ages. We present the history and progress of research in this active field, as well as some of the most recent improvements, including observational results and scenar- ios that have been proposed to explain the observations. Although our current ability to determine the origin of multiple stellar populations in star clusters is unsatisfactory, we propose a number of promising projects that may contribute to a significantly improved understanding of this subject.
We present an analysis of the IRAS 08589-4714 star-forming region. This region harbors candidate young stellar objects identified in the WISE and Herschel images using color index criteria and spectral energy distributions (SEDs). The SEDs of some of the infrared sources and the 70 microns radial intensity profile of the brightest source (IRS 1) are modeled from Herschel fluxes using the one-dimensional radiative transfer DUSTY code. For these objects, we estimate the envelope masses, sizes, densities, and luminosities which suggest that they are very young, massive and luminous objects at early stages of the formation process. Color-color diagrams in the bands of WISE and 2MASS are used to identify potential young objects in the region. Those identified in the bands of WISE would be contaminated by the emission of PAHs. We use the emission distribution in the infrared at 70 and 160 microns, to estimate the dust temperature gradient. This suggests that the nearby massive star-forming region RCW 38, located ~ 10 pc of the IRAS source position may be contributing to the photodissociation of the molecular gas and to the heating of the interstellar dust in the environs of the IRAS source.
The recent discovery of gravitational waves from mergers of $\sim 10 \, M_{\odot}$ black hole binaries has stimulated interested in Primordial Black Hole dark matter in this mass range. Microlensing and dynamical constraints exclude all of the dark matter being in compact objects with a delta function mass function in the range $10^{-7} \lesssim M/ M_{\odot} \lesssim 10^{5}$. However it has been argued that all of the dark matter could be composed of compact objects in this range with an extended mass function. We explicitly recalculate the microlensing and dynamical constraints for compact objects with an extended mass function which replicates the PBH mass function produced by inflation models. We find that the microlensing and dynamical constraints place conflicting constraints on the width of the mass function, and do not find a mass function which satisfies both constraints.
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We present an analysis of the region IRAS 08589-4714 with the aim of characterizing the molecular environment. We observed the CO(3-2), ^{13}CO(3-2), C^{18}O(3-2), HCO+(3-2), and HCN(3-2) molecular lines in a region of 150" x 150", centered on the IRAS source, to analyze the distribution and characteristics of the molecular gas linked to the IRAS source. The molecular gas distribution reveals a molecular clump that is coincident with IRAS 08589-4714 and with a dust clump detected at 1.2 mm. The molecular clump is 0.45 pc in radius and its mass and H_2 volume density are 310 Mo and 1.2 x 10^4 cm^{-3}, respectively. Two overdensities were identified within the clump in HCN and HCO lines. A comparison of the LTE and virial masses suggests that the clump is collapsing in regions that harbor young stellar objects. An analysis of the molecular lines suggests that they are driving molecular outflows.
Only in the Milky Way is it possible to conduct an experiment which uses stellar streams to detect low-mass dark matter subhaloes. In smooth and static host potentials, tidal tails of disrupting satellites appear highly symmetric. However, dark perturbers induce density fluctuations that destroy this symmetry. Motivated by the recent release of unprecedentedly deep and wide imaging data around the Pal 5 stellar stream, we develop a new probabilistic, adaptive and non-parametric technique which allows us to bring the cluster's tidal tails into clear focus. Strikingly, we uncover a stream whose density exhibits visible changes on a variety of angular scales. We detect significant bumps and dips, both narrow and broad: two peaks on either side of the progenitor, each only a fraction of a degree across, and two gaps, $\sim2^{\circ}$ and $\sim9^{\circ}$ wide, the latter accompanied by a gargantuan lump of debris. This largest density feature results in a pronounced inter-tail asymmetry which cannot be made consistent with an unperturbed stream according to a suite of simulations we have produced. We conjecture that the sharp peaks around Pal 5 are epicyclic overdensities, while the two dips are consistent with impacts by subhaloes. Assuming an age of 3.4 Gyr for Pal 5, these two gaps would correspond to the characteristic size of gaps created by subhaloes in the mass range of $10^6-10^7 M_\odot$ and $10^7-10^8 M_\odot$ respectively. In addition to dark substructure, we find that the bar of the Milky Way can plausibly produce the asymmetric density seen in Pal 5 and that GMCs could cause the smaller gap.
We present the results of our ALMA observations of three AGN-dominated nuclei in optical Seyfert 1 galaxies (NGC 7469, I Zw 1, and IC 4329 A) and eleven luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs) with various levels of infrared estimated energetic contributions by AGNs at the HCN and HCO+ J=3-2 emission lines. The HCN and HCO+ J=3-2 emission lines are clearly detected at the main nuclei of all sources, except for IC 4329 A. The vibrationally excited (v2=1f) HCN J=3-2 and HCO+ J=3-2 emission lines are simultaneously covered, and HCN v2=1f J=3-2 emission line signatures are seen in the main nuclei of two LIRGs, IRAS 12112+0305 and IRAS 22491-1808, neither of which show clear buried AGN signatures in the infrared. If the vibrational excitation is dominated by infrared radiative pumping, through the absorption of infrared 14 um photons, primarily originating from AGN-heated hot dust emission, then these two LIRGs may contain infrared-elusive, but (sub)millimeter-detectable, extremely deeply buried AGNs. These vibrationally excited emission lines are not detected in the three AGN-dominated optical Seyfert 1 nuclei. However, the observed HCN v2=1f to v=0 flux ratios in these optical Seyferts are still consistent with the intrinsic flux ratios in LIRGs with detectable HCN v2=1f emission lines. The observed HCN-to-HCO+ J=3-2 flux ratios tend to be higher in galactic nuclei with luminous AGN signatures compared with starburst-dominated regions, as previously seen at J=1-0 and J=4-3.
The double red clump (RC) observed in the Milky Way bulge is widely interpreted as evidence for an X-shaped structure. We have recently suggested, however, an alternative interpretation based on the multiple population phenomenon, where the bright RC is from helium enhanced second-generation stars (G2), while the faint RC is representing first-generation stars (G1) with normal helium abundance. Here our RC models are constructed in a large parameter space to see the effects of metallicity, age, and helium abundance on the double RC feature. Our models show that the luminosity of RC stars is mainly affected by helium abundance, while the RC color is primarily affected by metallicity. The effect of age is relatively small, unless it is older than 12 Gyr or much younger than 6 Gyr. The observed double RC feature can therefore be reproduced in a relatively large parameter space, once {\Delta}Y between G2 and G1 is assumed to be greater than $\sim$0.10. We further show that the longitude dependence of the double RC feature at $b \approx -8.5 \deg$, which was pointed out by Gonzalez et al. (2015) as a potential problem of our model, is well explained in our scenario by a classical bulge embedded in a tilted bar.
We compare 5 sub-grid models for supernova (SN) feedback in adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) simulations of isolated dwarf and L-star disk galaxies with 20-40 pc resolution. The models are thermal dump, stochastic thermal, 'mechanical' (injecting energy or momentum depending on the resolution), kinetic, and delayed cooling feedback. We focus on the ability of each model to suppress star formation and generate outflows. Our highest-resolution runs marginally resolve the adiabatic phase of the feedback events, which correspond to 40 SN explosions, and the first three models yield nearly identical results, possibly indicating that kinetic and delayed cooling feedback converge to wrong results. At lower resolution all models differ, with thermal dump feedback becoming inefficient. Thermal dump, stochastic, and mechanical feedback generate multiphase outflows with mass loading factors $\beta \ll 1$, which is much lower than observed. For the case of stochastic feedback we compare to published SPH simulations, and find much lower outflow rates. Kinetic feedback yields fast, hot outflows with $\beta\sim 1$, but only if the wind is in effect hydrodynamically decoupled from the disk by using a large bubble radius. Delayed cooling generates cold, dense and slow winds with $\beta> 1$, but large amounts of gas occupy regions of temperature-density space with short cooling times. We conclude that either our resolution is too low to warrant physically motivated models for SN feedback, that feedback mechanisms other than SNe are important, or that other aspects of galaxy evolution, such as star formation, require better treatment.
We constrain the shape of the Milky Way's halo by dynamical modeling of the observed phase-space tracks of the Pal 5 and GD-1 tidal streams. We find that the only information about the potential gleaned from the tracks of these streams are precise measurements of the shape of the gravitational potential---the ratio of vertical to radial acceleration---at the location of the streams, with weaker constraints on the radial and vertical accelerations separately. The latter will improve significantly with precise proper-motion measurements from Gaia. We measure that the overall potential flattening is 0.95 +/- 0.04 at the location of GD-1 ([R,z] ~ [12.5,6.7] kpc) and 0.94 +/- 0.05 at the position of Pal 5 ([R,z] ~ [8.4,16.8] kpc). Combined with constraints on the force field near the Galactic disk, we determine that the axis ratio of the dark-matter halo's density distribution is 1.05 +/- 0.14 within the inner 20 kpc, with a hint that the halo becomes more flattened near the edge of this volume. The halo mass within 20 kpc is 1.1 +/- 0.1 x 10^{11} M_sun. A dark-matter halo this close to spherical is in tension with the predictions from numerical simulations of the formation of dark-matter halos.
Using kinematic maps from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) survey, we reveal that the majority of low-mass quenched galaxies exhibit coherent rotation in their stellar kinematics. Our sample includes all 39 quenched low-mass galaxies observed in the first year of MaNGA. The galaxies are selected with $M_{r} > -19.1$, stellar masses $10^{9}$ M$_{\odot} < M_{\star} < 5\times10^{9}$ M$_{\odot}$, EW$_{H\alpha} <2$ \AA, and all have red colours $(u-r)>1.9$. They lie on the size-magnitude and $\sigma$-luminosity relations for previously studied dwarf galaxies. Just six ($15\pm5.7$ per cent) are found to have rotation speeds $v_{e,rot} < 15$ km s$^{-1}$ at $\sim1$ $R_{e}$, and may be dominated by pressure support at all radii. Two galaxies in our sample have kinematically distinct cores in their stellar component, likely the result of accretion. Six contain ionised gas despite not hosting ongoing star formation, and this gas is typically kinematically misaligned from their stellar component. This is the first large-scale Integral Field Unit (IFU) study of low mass galaxies selected without bias against low-density environments. Nevertheless, we find the majority of these galaxies are within $\sim1.5$ Mpc of a bright neighbour ($M_{K} < -23$; or M$_{\star} > 5\times10^{10}$ M$_{\odot}$), supporting the hypothesis that galaxy-galaxy or galaxy-group interactions quench star formation in low-mass galaxies. The local bright galaxy density for our sample is $\rho_{proj} = 8.2\pm2.0$ Mpc$^{-2}$, compared to $\rho_{proj} = 2.1\pm0.4$ Mpc$^{-2}$ for a star forming comparison sample, confirming that the quenched low mass galaxies are preferentially found in higher density environments.
We examine the baryon content of low-mass {\Lambda}CDM halos $(10^8<M_{200}/{\rm M_\odot}<5\times 10^{9})$ using the APOSTLE cosmological hydrodynamical simulations. Most of these systems are free of stars and have a gaseous content set by the combined effects of cosmic reionization, which imposes a mass-dependent upper limit, and of ram pressure stripping, which reduces it further in high-density regions. Halos mainly affected by reionization RELHICs; REionization-Limited HI Clouds) inhabit preferentially low-density regions and make up a population where the gas is in hydrostatic equilibrium with the dark matter potential and in thermal equilibrium with the ionizing UV background. Their thermodynamic properties are well specified, and their gas density and temperature profiles may be predicted in detail. Gas in RELHICs is nearly fully ionized but with neutral cores that span a large range of HI masses and column densities and have negligible non-thermal broadening. We present predictions for their characteristic sizes and central column densities: the massive tail of the distribution should be within reach of future blind HI surveys. Local Group RELHICs (LGRs) have some properties consistent with observed Ultra Compact High Velocity Clouds (UCHVCs) but the sheer number of the latter suggests that most UCHVCs are not RELHICs. Our results suggest that LGRs (i) should typically be beyond 500 kpc from the Milky Way or M31; (ii) have positive Galactocentric radial velocities; (iii) HI sizes not exceeding 1 kpc, and (iv) should be nearly round. The detection and characterization of RELHICs would offer a unique probe of the small-scale clustering of cold dark matter.
Lindsay 1 is an intermediate age (approx 8 Gyr) massive cluster in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). Using VLT FORS2 spectra of 16 probable cluster members on the lower RGB of the cluster, we measure CN and CH band strengths (at 3883 and 4300 Angstroms respectively), along with carbon and nitrogen abundances and find that a sub-population of stars has significant nitrogen enrichment. A lack of spread in carbon abundances excludes evolutionary mixing as the source of this enrichment, so we conclude that this is evidence of multiple populations. Therefore, L1 is the youngest cluster to show such variations, implying that the process triggering the onset of multiple populations must operate until at least redshift ~1.
By means of the fossil record method implemented through Pipe3D, we reconstruct the global and radial stellar mass growth histories (MGHs) of an unprecedentedly large sample of galaxies, ranging from dwarf to giant objects, from the "Mapping Nearby Galaxies at the Apache Point Observatory" survey. We confirm that the main driver of the global MGHs is mass, with more massive galaxies assembling their masses earlier (downsizing), though for a given mass, the global MGHs segregate by color, specific star formation rate (sSFR), and morphological type. From the inferred radial mean MGHs, we find that at the late evolutionary stages (or for fractions of assembled mass larger than ~ 80%), the innermost regions formed stars on average earlier than the outermost ones (inside-out). At earlier epochs, when the age resolution of the method becomes poor, the mass assembly seems to be spatially homogeneous or even in the outside-in mode, specially for the red/quiescent/early-type galaxies. The innermost MGHs are in general more regular (less scatter around the mean) than the outermost ones. For dwarf and low-mass galaxies, we do not find evidence of an outside-in formation mode; instead their radial MGHs are very diverse most of the time, with periods of outside- in and inside-out modes (or strong radial migration), suggesting this an episodic SF history. Blue/star-forming/late-type galaxies present on average a significantly more pronounced inside-out formation mode than red/quiescent/early-type galaxies, independently of mass. We discuss our results in the light of the processes of galaxy formation, quenching, and radial migration. We discuss also on the uncertainties and biases of the fossil record method and how they could affect our results.
We extract the radio spectral index, $\alpha$, from the 541,195 common sources observed in 150 MHz TIFR GMRT Sky Survey (TGSS) and 1.4 GHz NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS). These catalogs cover about $80\%$ of the sky and represent the largest radio population. We confirm the steepening of $\alpha$ with increasing flux density. Further, we observe an increase in $\alpha$ with source size (TGSS measured) saturating araound size 50 arcsec to $0.83\pm0.01$. From this saturated value, we constrain the electron energy injection spectral index, $\gamma$, and the fractional contribution of supernova remnants to the total radio flux. Our results indicate relatively low $\gamma \sim 1.8-1.9$ and a large supernova remnants contribution ($\sim 15-25\%$). For very compact sources the convection and the thermal radio emission are likely to be important.
We investigate the nature of the compact, and possibly variable nuclear radio source in the centre of WISE J0716-19, the proposed host galaxy of fast radio burst, FRB 150418. We observed WISE J0716-19 at 5.0 GHz with the European VLBI Network four times between 2016 March 16 and June 2. At three epochs, we simultaneously observed the source with e-MERLIN at the same frequency. We detected a compact source in the EVN data in each epoch with a significance up to ~8sigma. The four epochs yielded consistent results within their uncertainties, for both peak surface intensity and positions. The mean values for these quantities are I_peak = (115+-9) {\mu}Jy/beam and r.a. = 07:16:34.55496(7), dec. = -19:00:39.4754(8), respectively. The e-MERLIN data provided ~3-5sigma detections, at a position consistent with those of the EVN data. The presence of emission on angular scales intermediate between the EVN and e-MERLIN is consistent with being null. The brightness temperature of the EVN core is Tb~10^8.5K, close to the value required by Akiyama & Johnson (2016) to explain the radio properties of WISE J0716-19 in terms of interstellar induced short-term variability. Our observations provide direct, independent evidence of the existence of a nuclear compact source in WISE J0716-19, a physical scenario with no evident connection with FRB 150418. However, the EVN data do not show indication of the variability observed with the VLA.
We present the discovery of a molecular cloud at zabs=2.5255 along the line of sight to the quasar J0000+0048. We perform a detailed analysis of the absorption lines from ionic, neutral atomic and molecular species in different excitation levels, as well as the broad-band dust extinction. We find that the absorber classifies as a Damped Lyman-alpha system (DLA) with logN(HI)(cm^-2)=20.8+/-0.1. The DLA has super-Solar metallicity with a depletion pattern typical of cold gas and an overall molecular fraction ~50%. This is the highest f-value observed to date in a high-z intervening system. Most of the molecular hydrogen arises from a clearly identified narrow (b~0.7 km/s), cold component in which CO molecules are also found, with logN(CO)~15. We study the chemical and physical conditions in the cold gas. We find that the line of sight probes the gas deep after the HI-to-H2 transition in a ~4-5 pc-size cloud with volumic density nH~80 cm^-3 and temperature of only 50 K. Our model suggests that the presence of small dust grains (down to about 0.001 {\mu}m) and high cosmic ray ionisation rate (zeta_H a few times 10^-15 s^-1) are needed to explain the observed atomic and molecular abundances. The presence of small grains is also in agreement with the observed steep extinction curve that also features a 2175 A bump. The properties of this cloud are very similar to what is seen in diffuse molecular regions of the nearby Perseus complex. The high excitation temperature of CO rotational levels towards J0000+0048 betrays however the higher temperature of the cosmic microwave background. Using the derived physical conditions, we correct for a small contribution (0.3 K) of collisional excitation and obtain TCMB(z = 2.53)~9.6 K, in perfect agreement with the predicted adiabatic cooling of the Universe. [abridged]
Protoplanetary disks are the target of many chemical studies (both
observational and theoretical) as they contain the building material for
planets. Their large vertical and radial gradients in density and temperature
make them challenging objects for chemical models. In the outer part of these
disks, the large densities and low temperatures provide a particular
environment where the binding of species onto the dust grains can be very
efficient and can affect the gas-phase chemical composition.
We attempt to quantify to what extent the vertical abundance profiles and the
integrated column densities of molecules predicted by a detailed gas-grain code
are affected by the treatment of the molecular hydrogen physisorption at the
surface of the grains. We performed three different models using the Nautilus
gas-grain code. One model uses a H2 binding energy on the surface of water (440
K) and produces strong sticking of H2. Another model uses a small binding
energy of 23 K (as if there were already a monolayer of H2), and the sticking
of H$_2$ is almost negligible. Finally, the remaining model is an intermediate
solution known as the encounter desorption mechanism. We show that the
efficiency of molecular hydrogen binding (and thus its abundance at the surface
of the grains) can have a quantitative effect on the predicted column densities
in the gas phase of major species such as CO, CS, CN, and HCN.
We present interferometric observations of CO lines (12CO(1-0, 2-1) and 13CO(1-0, 2-1)) and dense gas tracers (HCN(1-0), HCO+(1-0), HNC(1-0) and HNCO(4-3)) in two nearby edge-on barred lenticular galaxies, NGC 4710 and NGC 5866, with most of the gas concentrated in a nuclear disc and an inner ring in each galaxy. We probe the physical conditions of a two-component molecular interstellar medium in each galaxy and each kinematic component by using molecular line ratio diagnostics in three complementary ways. First, we measure the ratios of the position-velocity diagrams of different lines, second we measure the ratios of each kinematic component's integrated line intensities as a function of projected position, and third we model these line ratios using a non-local thermodynamic equilibrium radiative transfer code. Overall, the nuclear discs appear to have a tenuous molecular gas component that is hotter, optically thinner and with a larger dense gas fraction than that in the inner rings, suggesting more dense clumps immersed in a hotter more diffuse molecular medium. This is consistent with evidence that the physical conditions in the nuclear discs are similar to those in photo-dissociation regions. A similar picture emerges when comparing the observed molecular line ratios with those of other galaxy types. The physical conditions of the molecular gas in the nuclear discs of NGC4710 and NGC5866 thus appear intermediate between those of spiral galaxies and starbursts, while the star formation in their inner rings is even milder.
The Galactic bulge is dominated by an old, metal rich stellar population. The possible presence and the amount of a young (a few Gyr old) minor component is one of the major issues debated in the literature. Recently, the bulge stellar system Terzan 5 was found to harbor three sub-populations with iron content varying by more than one order of magnitude (from 0.2 up to 2 times the solar value), with chemical abundance patterns strikingly similar to those observed in bulge field stars. Here we report on the detection of two distinct main sequence turn-off points in Terzan 5, providing the age of the two main stellar populations: 12 Gyr for the (dominant) sub-solar component and 4.5 Gyr for the component at super-solar metallicity. This discovery classifies Terzan 5 as a site in the Galactic bulge where multiple bursts of star formation occurred, thus suggesting a quite massive progenitor possibly resembling the giant clumps observed in star forming galaxies at high redshifts. This connection opens a new route of investigation into the formation process and evolution of spheroids and their stellar content.
We enhance the Syer & Tremaine made-to-measure (M2M) particle method of stellar dynamical modelling to model simultaneously both kinematic data and absorption line strength data thus creating a `chemo-M2M' modelling scheme. We apply the enhanced method to four galaxies (NGC 1248, NGC 3838, NGC 4452, NGC 4551) observed using the SAURON integral-field spectrograph as part of the ATLAS3D programme. We are able to reproduce successfully the 2D line strength data achieving mean chi^2 per bin values of ~1 with >95\% of particles having converged weights. Because M2M uses a 3D particle system, we are also able to examine the underlying 3D line strength distributions. The extent to which these distributions are plausible representations of real galaxies requires further consideration. Overall we consider the modelling exercise to be a promising first step in developing a `chemo-M2M' modelling system and in understanding some of the issues to be addressed. Whilst the made-to-measure techniques developed have been applied to absorption line strength data, they are in fact general and may be of value in modelling other aspects of galaxies.
Further investigation of data on quasars, especially in the ultraviolet band,
yields an amazingly coherent narrative which we present in this paper. Quasars
are characterised by strong continuum emission and redshifted emission and
absorption lines which includes the famous Lyman $\alpha$ forest. We present
irrefutable evidence in support of (1) the entire line spectrum arising in
matter located inside the quasar system, (2) the range of redshifts shown by
the lines being due to the variable contribution of the gravitational redshift
in the observed line velocity, (3) existence of rotating black holes and of
matter inside its ergosphere, (4) quasars located within cosmological redshifts
$\sim 3$, (5) $\gamma$ ray bursts being explosive events in a quasar. These
results are significant and a game-changer when we realise that the absorbing
gas has been postulated to exist along the line-of-sight to the quasar and
observations have accordingly been interpreted.
In light of these definitive results which uniquely constrain the quasar
structure, we need to drastically revise our understanding of the universe
built on the faulty assumptions of observed redshifts of quasars having an
entirely cosmological origin and the absorption lines arising in the
intervening medium.
Protogalactic environments are typically identified using quasar absorption lines, and these galactic building blocks can manifest as Damped Lyman-Alpha Absorbers (DLAs) and Lyman Limit Systems (LLSs). We use radio observations of Faraday effects to test whether DLAs and LLSs host a magnetised medium, by combining DLA and LLS detections throughout the literature with 1.4 GHz polarization data from the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS). We obtain a control, a DLA, and a LLS sample consisting of 114, 19, and 27 lines-of-sight respectively - all of which are polarized at $\ge8\sigma$ to ensure Rician bias is negligible. Using a Bayesian framework, we are unable to detect either coherent or random magnetic fields in DLAs: the regular coherent magnetic fields within the DLAs must be $\le2.8$ $\mu$G, and the lack of depolarization is consistent with the weakly magnetised gas in DLAs being non-turbulent and quiescent. However, we find mild suggestive evidence that LLSs have coherent magnetic fields: after controlling for the redshift-distribution of our data, we find a 71.5% probability that LLSs have a higher RM than a control sample. We also find strong evidence that LLSs host random magnetic fields, with a 95.5% probability that LLS lines-of-sight have lower polarized fractions than a control sample. The regular coherent magnetic fields within the LLSs must be $\le2.4$ $\mu$G, and the magnetised gas must be highly turbulent with a typical scale on the order of $\approx5$-20 pc, which is similar to that of the Milky Way. This is consistent with the standard dynamo pedagogy, whereby magnetic fields in protogalaxies increase in coherence and strength as a function of cosmic time. Our results are consistent with a hierarchical galaxy formation scenario, with the DLAs, LLSs, and strong magnesium II (MgII) systems exploring three different stages of magnetic field evolution in galaxies.
Stellar streams result from the tidal disruption of satellites and star clusters as they orbit a host galaxy, and can be very sensitive probes of the gravitational potential of the host system. We select and study narrow stellar streams formed in a Milky-Way-like dark matter halo of the Aquarius suite of cosmological simulations, to determine if these streams can be used to constrain the present day characteristic parameters of the halo's gravitational potential. We find that orbits integrated in static spherical and triaxial NFW potentials both reproduce the locations and kinematics of the various streams reasonably well. To quantify this further, we determine the best-fit potential parameters by maximizing the amount of clustering of the stream stars in the space of their actions. We show that using our set of Aquarius streams, we recover a mass profile that is consistent with the spherically-averaged dark matter profile of the host halo, although we ignored both triaxiality and time evolution in the fit. This gives us confidence that such methods can be applied to the many streams that will be discovered by the Gaia mission to determine the gravitational potential of our Galaxy.
We present Hubble Space Telescope imaging confirming the optical disappearance of the failed supernova candidate identified by Gerke et al. (2015). This $\sim 25~M_{\odot}$ red supergiant experienced a weak $\sim 10^{6}~L_{\odot}$ optical outburst in 2009 and is now at least 5 magnitudes fainter than the progenitor in the optical. The mid-IR flux has slowly decreased to the lowest levels since the first measurements in 2004. There is faint ($2000-3000~L_{\odot}$) near-IR emission likely associated with the source. We find the late-time evolution of the source to be inconsistent with obscuration from an ejected, dusty shell. Models of the spectral energy distribution indicate that the remaining bolometric luminosity is $>6$ times fainter than that of the progenitor and is decreasing as $\sim t^{-4/3}$. We conclude that the transient is unlikely to be a SN impostor or stellar merger. The event is consistent with the ejection of the envelope of a red supergiant in a failed supernova and the late-time emission could be powered by fallback accretion onto a newly-formed black hole. Future IR and X-ray observations are needed to confirm this interpretation of the fate for the star.
We investigate the early Universe production of sterile neutrino Dark Matter by the decays of singlet scalars. All previous studies applied simplifying assumptions and/or studied the process only on the level of number densities, which makes it impossible to give statements about cosmic structure formation. We overcome these issues by dropping all simplifying assumptions (except for one we showed earlier to work perfectly) and by computing the full course of Dark Matter production on the level of non-thermal momentum distribution functions. We are thus in the position to study all aspects of the resulting settings and apply all relevant bounds in a reliable manner. We have a particular focus on how to incorporate bounds from structure formation on the level of the linear power spectrum, since the simplistic estimate using the free-streaming horizon clearly fails for highly non-thermal distributions. Our work comprises the most detailed and comprehensive study of sterile neutrino Dark Matter production by scalar decays presented so far.
Over a handful of rotation periods, dynamical processes in barred galaxies induce non-axisymmetric structure in dark matter halos. Using n-body simulations of a Milky Way-like barred galaxy, we identify both a trapped dark-matter component, a shadow bar, and a strong response wake in the dark-matter distribution that affects the predicted dark-matter detection rates for current experiments. The presence of a baryonic disk together with well-known dynamical processes (e.g. spiral structure and bar instabilities) increase the dark matter density in the disk plane. We find that the magnitude of the combined stellar and shadow bar evolution, when isolated from the effect of the axisymmetric gravitational potential of the disk, accounts for >30% of this overall increase in disk-plane density. This is significantly larger that of previously claimed deviations from the standard halo model. The dark-matter density and kinematic wakes driven by the Milky Way bar increase the detectability of dark matter overall, especially for the experiments with higher $v_{min}$. These astrophysical features increase the detection rate by more than a factor of two when compared to the standard halo model and by a factor of ten for experiments with high minimum recoil energy thresholds. These same features increase (decrease) the annual modulation for low (high) minimum recoil energy experiments. We present physical arguments for why these dynamics are generic for barred galaxies such as the Milky Way rather than contingent on a specific galaxy model.
We use Cycle 21 Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations and HST archival ACS Treasury observations of 30 Galactic Globular Clusters to characterize two distinct stellar populations. A sophisticated Bayesian technique is employed to simultaneously sample the joint posterior distribution of age, distance, and extinction for each cluster, as well as unique helium values for two populations within each cluster and the relative proportion of those populations. We find the helium differences among the two populations in the clusters fall in the range of ~0.04 to 0.11. Because adequate models varying in CNO are not presently available, we view these spreads as upper limits and present them with statistical rather than observational uncertainties. Evidence supports previous studies suggesting an increase in helium content concurrent with increasing mass of the cluster and also find that the proportion of the first population of stars increases with mass as well. Our results are examined in the context of proposed globular cluster formation scenarios. Additionally, we leverage our Bayesian technique to shed light on inconsistencies between the theoretical models and the observed data.
We started a photometric survey using the WFC3/UVIS instrument onboard the Hubble Space Telescope to search for multiple populations within Magellanic Cloud star clusters at various ages. In this paper, we introduce this survey. As first results of this programme, we also present multi-band photometric observations of NGC 121 in different filters taken with the WFC3/UVIS and ACS/WFC instruments. We analyze the colour-magnitude diagram (CMD) of NGC 121, which is the only "classical" globular cluster within the Small Magellanic Cloud. Thereby, we use the pseudo-colour C_(F336W,F438W,F343N)=(F336W-F438W)-(F438W-F343N) to separate populations with different C and N abundances. We show that the red giant branch splits up in two distinct populations when using this colour combination. NGC 121 thus appears to be similar to Galactic globular clusters in hosting multiple populations. The fraction of enriched stars (N rich, C poor) in NGC 121 is about 32% +/- 3%, which is lower than the median fraction found in Milky Way globular clusters. The enriched population seems to be more centrally concentrated compared to the primordial one. These results are consistent with the recent results by Dalessandro et al. (2016). The morphology of the Horizontal Branch in a CMD using the optical filters F555W and F814W is best produced by a population with a spread in Helium of Delta(Y) =0.025+/-0.005.
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Here we utilise recent measures of galaxy total dynamical mass and X-ray gas luminosities (L$_{X,Gas}$) for a sample of 29 massive early-type galaxies from the SLUGGS survey to probe L$_{X,Gas}$--mass scaling relations. In particular, we investigate scalings with stellar mass, dynamical mass within 5 effective radii (R$_e$) and total virial mass. We also compare these relations with predictions from $\Lambda$CDM simulations. We find a strong linear relationship between L$_{X,Gas}$ and galaxy dynamical mass within 5 R$_e$, which is consistent with the recent cosmological simulations of Choi et al. that incorporate mechanical heating from AGN. We conclude that the gas surrounding massive early-type galaxies was shock heated as it fell into collapsing dark matter halos so that L$_{X,Gas}$ is primarily driven by the depth of a galaxy's potential well. Heating by an AGN plays an important secondary role in determining L$_{X,Gas}$.
Compact stellar objects inspiralling into massive black holes (MBHs) in galactic nuclei are some of the most promising gravitational wave (GWs) sources for next generation GW-detectors. The rates of such extreme mass ratio inspirals (EMRIs) depend on the dynamics and distribution of compact objects around the MBH. Here we study the impact of mass-segregation processes on EMRI rates. In particular, we provide the expected mass function of EMRIs, given an initial mass function of stellar BHs (SBHs), and relate it to the mass-dependent detection rate of EMRIs. We then consider the role of star formation on the distribution of compact objects and its implication on EMRI rates. We find that the existence of a wide spectrum of SBH masses lead to the overall increase of EMRI rates, and to high rates of the EMRIs from the most-massive SBHs. However, it also leads to a relative quenching of EMRI rates from lower-mass SBHs, and together produces a steep dependence of the EMRI mass function on the highest-mass SBHs. Star-formation history plays a relatively small role in determining the EMRI rates of SBHs, since most of them migrate close to the MBH through mass-segregation rather than forming in-situ. However, the EMRI rate of neutron stars can be significantly increased when they form in-situ close to the MBH, as they can inspiral before relaxation processes significantly segregates them outwards. A reverse but weaker effect of decreasing the EMRI rates from neutron stars and white dwarfs occurs when star-formation proceeds far from the MBH.
We investigate the accuracy of an approximate radiative transfer technique that was first proposed by Kylafis & Bahcall (hereafter the KB approximation) and has been popular in modelling dusty late-type galaxies. We compare realistic galaxy models calculated with the KB approximation with those of a three-dimensional Monte Carlo radiative transfer code SKIRT. The SKIRT code fully takes into account of the contribution of multiple scattering whereas the KB approximation calculates only single scattered intensity and multiple scattering components are approximated. We find that the KB approximation gives fairly accurate results if optically thin, face-on galaxies are considered. However, for highly inclined ($i \gtrsim 85^{\circ}$) and/or optically thick (central face-on optical depth $\gtrsim1$) galaxy models, the approximation can give rise to substantial errors, sometimes, up to $\gtrsim 40\%$. Moreover, it is also found that the KB approximation is not always physical, sometimes producing infinite intensities at lines of sight with high optical depth in edge-on galaxy models. There is no "simple recipe" to correct the errors of the KB approximation that is universally applicable to any galaxy models. Therefore, it is recommended that the full radiative transfer calculation be used, even though it's slower than the KB approximation.
The predicted abundance and properties of the low-mass substructures embedded inside larger dark matter haloes differ sharply among alternative dark matter models. Too small to host galaxies themselves, these subhaloes may still be detected via gravitational lensing, or via perturbations of the Milky Way's globular cluster streams and its stellar disk. Here we use the Apostle cosmological simulations to predict the abundance and the spatial and velocity distributions of subhaloes in the range 10^6.5-10^8.5 solar masses inside haloes of mass ~ 10^12 solar masses in LCDM. Although these subhaloes are themselves devoid of baryons, we find that baryonic effects are important. Compared to corresponding dark matter only simulations, the loss of baryons from subhaloes and stronger tidal disruption due to the presence of baryons near the centre of the main halo, reduce the number of subhaloes by ~ 1/4 to 1/2, independently of subhalo mass, but increasingly towards the host halo centre. We also find that subhaloes have non-Maxwellian orbital velocity distributions, with centrally rising velocity anisotropy and positive velocity bias which reduces the number of low-velocity subhaloes, particularly near the halo centre. We parameterise the predicted population of subhaloes in terms of mass, galactocentric distance, and velocities. We discuss implications of our results for the prospects of detecting dark matter substructures and for possible inferences about the nature of dark matter.
We present zoom-in, AMR, high-resolution ($\simeq 30$ pc) simulations of high-redshift ($z \simeq 6$) galaxies with the aim of characterizing their internal properties and interstellar medium. Among other features, we adopt a star formation model based on a physically-sound molecular hydrogen prescription, and introduce a novel scheme for supernova feedback, stellar winds and dust-mediated radiation pressure. In the zoom-in simulation the target halo hosts "Dahlia", a galaxy with a stellar mass $M_*=1.6\times 10^{10}$M$_\odot$, representative of a typical $z\sim 6$ Lyman Break Galaxy. Dahlia has a total H2 mass of $10^{8.5}$M$_\odot$, that is mainly concentrated in a disk-like structure of effective radius $\simeq 0.6$ kpc and scale height $\simeq 200$ pc. Frequent mergers drive fresh gas towards the center of the disk, sustaining a star formation rate per unit area of $\simeq 15 $M$_\odot$ yr$^{-1}$ kpc$^{-2}$. The disk is composed by dense ($n \gtrsim 25$ cm$^{-3}$), metal-rich ($Z \simeq 0.5 $ Z$_\odot$) gas, that is pressure-supported by radiation. We compute the $158\mu$m [CII] emission arising from {Dahlia}, and find that $\simeq 95\%$ of the total [CII] luminosity ($L_{[CII]}\simeq10^{7.5}$ L$_\odot$) arises from the H2 disk. Although $30\%$ of the CII mass is transported out of the disk by outflows, such gas negligibly contributes to [CII] emission, due to its low density ($n \lesssim 10$ cm$^{-3}$) and metallicity ($Z\lesssim 10^{-1}$Z$_\odot$). Dahlia is under-luminous with respect to the local [CII]-SFR relation; however, its luminosity is consistent with upper limits derived for most $z\sim6$ galaxies.
Dalessandro et al. observed a similar distribution for blue straggler stars and main-sequence turn-off stars in the Galactic globular cluster NGC 6101, and interpreted this feature as an indication that this cluster is not mass-segregated. Using direct N-body simulations, we find that a significant amount of mass segregation is expected for a cluster with the mass, radius and age of NGC 6101. Therefore, the absence of mass segregation cannot be explained by the argument that the cluster is not yet dynamically evolved. By varying the retention fraction of stellar-mass black holes, we show that segregation is not observable in clusters with a high black hole retention fraction (>50% after supernova kicks and >50% after dynamical evolution). Yet all model clusters have the same amount of mass segregation in terms of the decline of the mean mass of stars and remnants with distance to the centre. We also discuss how kinematics can be used to further constrain the presence of a stellar-mass black hole population and distinguish it from the effect of an intermediate-mass black hole. Our results imply that the kick velocities of black holes are lower than those of neutron stars. The large retention fraction during its dynamical evolution can be explained if NGC 6101 formed with a large initial radius in a Milky Way satellite.
Star formation within the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) may be intimately linked to the orbital dynamics of the gas. Recent models suggest that star formation within the dust ridge molecular clouds (from G0.253+0.016 to Sgr B2) follows an evolutionary time sequence, triggered by tidal compression during their preceding pericentre passage. Given that these clouds are the most likely precursors to a generation of massive stars and extreme star clusters, this scenario would have profound implications for constraining the time-evolution of star formation. In this Letter, we search for the initial conditions of the protocluster clouds, focusing on the kinematics of gas situated upstream from pericentre. We observe a highly-regular corrugated velocity field in $\{l,\,v_{\rm LSR}\}$ space, with amplitude and wavelength $A=3.7\,\pm\,0.1$ kms$^{-1}$ and $\lambda_{\rm vel, i}=22.5\,\pm\,0.1$ pc, respectively. The extremes in velocity correlate with a series of massive ($\sim10^{4}$M$_{\odot}$) and compact ($R_{\rm eq}\sim2$ pc), quasi-regularly spaced ($\sim8$ pc), molecular clouds. The corrugation wavelength and cloud separation closely agree with the predicted Toomre ($\sim17$ pc) and Jeans ($\sim6$ pc) lengths, respectively. We conclude that gravitational instabilities are driving the condensation of molecular clouds within the Galactic Centre gas stream. Furthermore, we speculate these seeds are the historical analogue of the dust-ridge molecular clouds, representing the initial conditions of star and cluster formation in the CMZ.
Using spatially resolved spectroscopy from SDSS-IV MaNGA we have demonstrated that low ionisation emission line regions (LIERs) in local galaxies result from photoionisation by hot evolved stars, not active galactic nuclei. LIERs are ubiquitous in both quiescent galaxies and in the central regions of galaxies where star formation takes place at larger radii. We refer to these two classes of galaxies as extended LIER (eLIER) and central LIER (cLIER) galaxies respectively. cLIERs are late type galaxies located around the green valley, in the transition region between the star formation main sequence and quiescent galaxies. These galaxies display regular disc rotation in both stars and gas, although featuring a higher central stellar velocity dispersion than star forming galaxies of the same mass. cLIERs are consistent with being slowly quenched inside-out; the transformation is associated with massive bulges, pointing towards the importance of bulge growth via secular evolution. eLIERs are morphologically early types and are indistinguishable from passive galaxies devoid of line emission in terms of their stellar populations, morphology and central stellar velocity dispersion. Ionised gas in eLIERs shows both disturbed and disc-like kinematics. When a large-scale flow/rotation is observed in the gas, it is often misaligned relative to the stellar component. These features indicate that eLIERs are passive galaxies harbouring a residual cold gas component, acquired mostly via external accretion. Importantly, quiescent galaxies devoid of line emission reside in denser environments and have significantly higher satellite fraction than eLIERs. Environmental effects thus represent the likely cause for the existence of line-less galaxies on the red sequence.
We use EAGLE to study the specific angular momentum of galaxies, j, at z<3. Our aims are (i) to investigate the physical causes behind the wide range of j in galaxies at fixed mass at z=0 and (ii) examine whether simple, theoretical models can explain the seemingly complex and non-linear nature of the evolution of j in EAGLE. We find that j of the stars, jstars, and baryons, jbar, are strongly correlated with stellar and baryon mass, respectively, and that the dispersion of the relation is highly correlated with gas fraction, stellar concentration, (u-r) colour, stellar age and the ratio of circular velocity to velocity dispersion. We compare with available observations at z=0 and find excellent agreement. Our findings suggest that in the case of all baryons and stars, j follows the theoretical expectation of an isothermal collapsing halo under conservation of j to within 50%. In rotation-supported galaxies, the strong dependence of jstars and jbar on the neutral gas fraction is well described by a model in which the disk angular momentum is just enough to maintain marginally stable disks. We also identify average tracks for the evolution of the spin parameter of the stars, lstars =j/M^2/3, (with j measured within a half-stellar mass radius), depending on whether most of the stars formed before or after turnaround (z~1.2 for our galaxies). In the absence of mergers, galaxies older than 9Gyr (i.e. most stars formed before turnaround) show little evolution in their lstars, while younger ones show a constant lstars at z>1.2, and then increase as lstars~a. Galaxy mergers reduce lstars by a factor of 2-3. These tracks are driven by both the evolution of the total jstars but also its radial distribution. Regardless of the aperture used to measure j, two distinct channels leading to low jstars in galaxies at z=0 are identified: (i) galaxy mergers, and (ii) early formation of most of the stars.
We present the stellar surface mass density {\it vs.} gas metallicity ($\Sigma_*-Z$) relation for more than 500,000 spatially-resolved star-forming resolution elements (spaxels) from a sample of 653 disk galaxies included in the SDSS IV MaNGA survey. We find a tight relation between these local properties, with higher metallicities as the surface density increases. This relation extends over three orders of magnitude in the surface mass density and a factor of four in metallicity. We show that this local relationship can simultaneously reproduce two well-known properties of disk galaxies: their global mass-metallicity relationship {\it and} their radial metallicity gradients. We also find that the $\Sigma_* - Z$ relation is largely independent of the galaxy's total stellar mass and specific star-formation rate (sSFR), except at low stellar mass and high sSFR. These results suggest that in the present-day universe local properties play a key role in determining the gas-phase metallicity in typical disk galaxies.
We have recently suggested that gas accretion can be studied using host galaxies of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). We obtained the first ever far-infrared (FIR) line observations of a GRB host, namely Herschel/PACS resolved [CII] 158 um and [OI] 63 um spectroscopy, as well as APEX CO(2-1) and ALMA CO(1-0) observations of the GRB 980425 host. It has elevated [CII]/FIR and [OI]/FIR ratios and higher values of star formation rate (SFR) derived from line ([CII], [OI], Ha) than from continuum (UV, IR, radio) indicators. [CII] emission exhibits a normal morphology, peaking at the galaxy center, whereas [OI] is concentrated close to the GRB position and the nearby Wolf-Rayet region. The high [OI] flux indicates high radiation field and gas density. The [CII]/CO luminosity ratio of the GRB 980425 host is close to the highest values found for local star-forming galaxies. Its CO-derived molecular gas mass is low given its SFR and metallicity, but the [CII]-derived molecular gas mass is close to the expected value. The [OI] and HI concentrations, and the high radiation field and density are consistent with the hypothesis of a very recent (at most a few tens of Myr ago) inflow of atomic gas triggering star formation. Dust has not had time to build up (explaining high line-to-continuum ratios). Such a recent enhancement of star-formation would indeed manifest itself in high SFR_line/SFR_continuum ratios, because the line indicators are sensitive only to recent (<10 Myr) activity, whereas the continuum indicators measure the SFR averaged over much longer periods (~100 Myr). Other GRB hosts exhibit a mean SFR_line/SFR_continuum of 1.74+-0.32. This is consistent with a very recent enhancement of star formation being common among GRB hosts, so galaxies which have recently experienced inflow of gas may preferentially host stars exploding as GRBs. Hence GRB hosts may be used to investigate recent gas accretion.
We observed the supernova remnant (SNR) Puppis A in the 21 cm line with the Australia Telescope Compact Array with the aim of determining the systemic velocity and, hence, the corresponding kinematic distance. For the compact, background sources in the field, we obtain absorption spectra by applying two methods: (a) subtracting profiles on- and off-source towards continuum emission, and (b) filtering short spacial frequencies in the Fourier plane to remove large scale emission. One of the brightest features to the East of the shell of Puppis A was found to be a background source, probably extragalactic. Removing the contribution from this and the previously known unrelated sources, the systemic velocity of Puppis A turns out to be limited between 8 and 12 km s$^{-1}$, which places this source at a distance of 1.3 $\pm$ 0.3 kpc. From the combined images that include both single dish and interferometric data, we analyze the distribution of the interstellar hydrogen. We suggest that an ellipsoidal ring at $v \sim $+8 km s$^{-1}$ could be the relic of a bubble blown by the progenitor of Puppis A, provided the distance is $\lesssim$ 1.2 kpc. The main consequences of the new systemic velocity and distance as compared with previous publications ($v =$ +16 km s$^{-1}$ and $d = $2.2 kpc) are the absence of a dense interacting cloud to the East to explain the morphology, and the decrease of the shell size and the neutron star velocity, which are now in better agreement with statistical values.
We investigate the contentious issue of the presence, or lack thereof, of satellites mass segregation in galaxy groups using the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey, the GALFORM semi-analytic and the EAGLE cosmological hydrodynamical simulation catalogues of galaxy groups. We select groups with halo mass $12 \leqslant \log(M_{\text{halo}}/h^{-1}M_\odot) <14.5$ and redshift $z \leqslant 0.32$ and probe the radial distribution of stellar mass out to twice the group virial radius. All the samples are carefully constructed to be complete in stellar mass at each redshift range and efforts are made to regularise the analysis for all the data. Our study shows negligible mass segregation in galaxy group environments with absolute gradients of $\lesssim0.08$ dex and also shows a lack of any redshift evolution. Moreover, we find that our results at least for the GAMA data are robust to different halo mass and group centre estimates. Furthermore, the EAGLE data allows us to probe much fainter luminosities ($r$-band magnitude of 22) as well as investigate the three-dimensional spatial distribution with intrinsic halo properties, beyond what the current observational data can offer. In both cases we find that the fainter EAGLE data show a very mild spatial mass segregation at $z \leqslant 0.22$, which is again not apparent at higher redshift. Interestingly, our results are in contrast to some earlier findings using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We investigate the source of the disagreement and suggest that subtle differences between the group finding algorithms could be the root cause.
We have analyzed the temperature, velocity and density of H_2 gas in NGC 7023 with a high-resolution near-infrared spectrum of the northwestern filament of the reflection nebula. By observing NGC 7023 in the H and K bands at R ~ 45,000 with the Immersion GRating INfrared Spectrograph (IGRINS), we detected 70 H_2 emission lines within the 1" x 15" slit. The diagnostic ratios of 2-1 S(1)/1-0 S(1) are 0.39-0.54. In addition, the estimated ortho-to-para ratios (OPR) are 1.57-1.62, indicating that the H_2 transitions in the observed regions are mostly from UV fluorescence. Gradients in the temperature, velocity, and OPR of the observed areas imply motion of the photodissociation region (PDR) relative to the molecular cloud. In addition, we derive the column density of H_2 from the observed emission lines and compare these results with PDR models in the literature covering a range of densities and incident UV field intensities. The notable difference between PDR model predictions and the observed data, in high rotational J levels of v = 1, is that the predicted formation temperature for newly-formed H_2 should be lower than that of the model predictions. To investigate the density distribution, we combine pixels in 1" x 1" areas and derive the density distribution at the 0.002 pc scale. The derived gradient of density suggests that NGC 7023 has a clumpy structure, including a high clump density of ~10^5 cm^-3 with a size smaller than ~0.005 pc embedded in lower density regions of 10^3-10^4 cm^-3.
Morphological characteristics of the vertically thick inner bar components are studied. At high galaxy inclinations they manifest as Boxy/Peanut/X-shape features, and near to face-on view as barlenses. Using the Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in Galaxies (S4G) and the Near-IR S0 galaxy Survey (NIRS0S), we compared the properties of 88 X-shape features, 85 barlenses, and the photometric bulges of 41 non-barred galaxies. Sizes and minor-to-major axis ratios (b/a) of these structures are compared, and interpreted by means of synthetic images using N-body simulation models. Barlenses and their parent galaxies are also divided into different sub-groups. The synthetic images are analyzed in a similar manner as the observations. This is the first time that the observed properties of barlenses and X-shape features are compared, over a large range of galaxy inclinations. Our analysis are consistent with the idea that barlenses and X-shape features are physically the same phenomenon. However, which of the two features is observed depends, not only on galaxy inclination, but also on its central flux concentration. The observed nearly round face-on barlens morphology is expected when at least a few percents of the disk mass is in a central component, within a region much smaller than the size of the barlens itself. We also discuss that the large range of stellar population ages obtained for the photometric bulges in the literature, are consistent with our interpretation.
SiO(3-2) and HNCO(6-5) emission has been imaged in NGC 1068 with the Plateau de Bure Interferometer (PdBI). We perform an LTE and RADEX analysis to determine the column densities and physical characteristics of the gas emitting these two lines. We then use a chemical model to determine the origin of the emission. There is a strong SiO peak to the East of the AGN, with weak detections to the West. This distribution contrasts that of HNCO, which is detected more strongly to the West. The SiO emission peak in the East is similar to the peak of the molecular gas mass traced by CO. HNCO emission is offset from this peak by as much as 80 pc ( 1"). We compare velocity integrated line ratios in the East and West. We confirm that SiO emission strongly dominates in the East, while the reverse is true in the West. We use RADEX to analyse the possible gas conditions that could produce such emission. We find that, in both East and West, we cannot constrain a single temperature for the gas. We run a grid of chemical models of potential shock processes in the CND and find that SiO is significantly enhanced during a fast (60 km/s) shock but not during a slow (20 km/s) shock, nor in a gas not subjected to shocks at all. We find the inverse for HNCO, whose abundance increases during slow shocks and in warm non-shocked gas. High SiO and low HNCO indicated a fast shock, while high HNCO and low SiO indicates either a slow shock or warm, dense, non-shocked gas. The East Knot is therefore likely to contain gas that is heavily shocked. From chemical modelling, gas in the West Knot may be non-shocked, or maybe undergoing a much milder shock event. When taking into account RADEX results, the milder shock event is the more likely of the two scenarios.
A peculiar source in the Galactic center known as the Dusty S-cluster Object (DSO/G2) moves on a highly eccentric orbit around the supermassive black hole with the pericenter passage in the spring of 2014. Its nature has been uncertain mainly because of the lack of any information about its intrinsic geometry. For the first time, we use near-infrared polarimetric imaging data to obtain constraints about the geometrical properties of the DSO. We find out that DSO is an intrinsically polarized source, based on the significance analysis of polarization parameters, with the degree of the polarization of $\sim 30\%$ and an alternating polarization angle as it approaches the position of Sgr A*. Since the DSO exhibits a near-infrared excess of $K_{\rm s}-L'>3$ and remains rather compact in emission-line maps, its main characteristics may be explained with the model of a pre-main-sequence star embedded in a non-spherical dusty envelope.
The recent star formation history (SFH) in the outer disk of NGC 300 is presented through the analysis of color magnitude diagrams (CMDs). We analyze resolved stellar photometry by creating CMDs from four Hubble Space Telescope fields containing a combination of images from the Advanced Camera for Surveys and the UVIS imager aboard the Wide Field Camera 3. From the best models of these CMDs, we derive the SFH in order to extract the young stellar component for the past 200 Myrs. We find that the young stellar disk of NGC 300 is unbroken out to at least ${\sim}$8 scale lengths (including an upper limit out to ${\sim}$10 scale lengths) with $r{_s}$ = 1.4 ${\pm}$ 0.1 kpc, which is similar to the total stellar surface brightness profile. This unbroken profile suggests that NGC 300 is undisturbed, similar to the isolated disk galaxy NGC 2403. We compare the environments of NGC 300, NGC 2403, and M33 along with the properties of the gas and stellar disks. We find that the disturbed HI outer disk morphology is not accompanied by a break in the young stellar disk. This may indicate that processes which affect the outer HI morphology may not leave an imprint on the young stellar disk.
In the next few years, intensity-mapping surveys that target lines such as CO, Ly$\alpha$, and CII stand to provide powerful probes of high-redshift astrophysics. However, these line emissions are highly non-Gaussian, and so the typical power-spectrum methods used to study these maps will leave out a significant amount of information. We propose a new statistic, the probability distribution of voxel intensities, which can access this extra information. Using a model of a CO intensity map at $z\sim3$ as an example, we demonstrate that this voxel intensity distribution (VID) provides substantial constraining power beyond what is obtainable from the power spectrum alone. We find that a future survey similar to the planned COMAP Full experiment could constrain the CO luminosity function to order $\sim10\%$. We also explore the effects of contamination from continuum emission, interloper lines, and gravitational lensing on our constraints and find that the VID statistic retains significant constraining power even in pessimistic scenarios.
We carried out a millimeter wavelength line survey between 79 and 356 GHz with the IRAM-30m telescope to investigate the physical and chemical properties of the molecular envelope of the oxygen-rich AGB star IK Tau. We analysed the molecular lines detected using the population diagram technique to derive rotational temperatures and column densities. Additionally, we conducted a radiative transfer analysis of the SO$_2$ lines detected. For the first time in this source we detected rotational lines in the ground vibrational state of HCO$^+$, NS, NO, and H$_2$CO, as well as several isotopologues of molecules previously identified. We also detected several rotational lines in vibrationally excited states of SiS and SiO isotopologues, and rotational lines of H$_2$O ($\nu_{\mathrm{2}}$=2). We have also increased the number of rotational lines detected of molecules that were previously identified, enabling a detailed study of the molecular abundances and excitation temperatures. IK Tau displays a rich chemistry for an oxygen-rich circumstellar envelope. We highlight the detection of NS and H$_2$CO with fractional abundances of f(NS)$\sim$10$^{-8}$ and f(H$_2$CO)$\sim$[10$^{-7}$--10$^{-8}$]. Most of the molecules display rotational temperatures between 15 and 40 K. NaCl and SiS isotopologues display rotational temperatures higher than the average (~65 K). In the case of SO$_2$ a warm component with $T_{\mathrm{rot}}$$\sim$290 K is also detected. This SO$_2$ warm component is probably arising from the inner regions of the envelope (at $\sim$8$R_{*}$) where SO$_2$ has a fractional abundance of f(SO$_2$)$\sim$10$^{-6}$. This result should be considered for future investigation of the main formation channels of this, and other, parent species in the inner winds of O-rich AGB stars, which at present are not well reproduced by current chemistry models.
Transitional disks show a lack of excess emission at infrared wavelengths due to a large dust cavity, that is often corroborated by spatially-resolved observations at ~ mm wavelengths. We present the first spatially-resolved ~ mm-wavelength images of the disk around the Herbig Ae/Be star, HD 97048. Scattered light images show that the disk extends to ~ 640 au. The ALMA data reveal a circular-symmetric dusty disk extending to ~ 350 au, and a molecular disk traced in CO J=3-2 emission, extending to ~ 750 au. The CO emission arises from a flared layer with an opening angle ~ 30 deg - 40 deg. HD 97048 is another source for which the large (~ mm-sized) dust grains are more centrally concentrated than the small (~ {\mu}m-sized) grains and molecular gas, likely due to radial drift. The images and visibility data modelling suggests a decrement in continuum emission within ~ 50 au, consistent with the cavity size determined from mid-infrared imaging (34 +/- 4 au). The extracted continuum intensity profiles show ring-like structures with peaks at ~ 50, 150, and 300 au, with associated gaps at ~ 100 and 250 au. This structure should be confirmed in higher-resolution images (FWHM ~ 10 - 20 au). These data confirm the classification of HD 97048 as a transitional disk that also possesses multiple ring-like structures in the dust continuum emission. Additional data are required at multiple and well-separated frequencies to fully characterise the disk structure, and thereby constrain the mechanism(s) responsible for sculpting the HD 97048 disk.
Blue stragglers (BSS) are stars whose position in the Color-Magnitude Diagram (CMD) places them above the main sequence turn-off (TO) point of a star cluster. Using data from the core of 47 Tuc in the ultraviolet (UV), we have identified various stellar populations in the CMD, and used their radial distributions to study the evolution and origin of BSS, and obtain a dynamical estimate of the mass of BSS systems. When we separate the BSS into two samples by their magnitude, we find that the bright BSS show a much more centrally concentrated radial distribution and thus higher mass estimate (over twice the TO mass for these BSS systems), suggesting an origin involving triple or multiple stellar systems. In contrast, the faint BSS are less concentrated, with a radial distribution similar to the main sequence (MS) binaries, pointing to the MS binaries as the likely progenitors of these BSS. Putting our data together with available photometric data in the visible and using MESA evolutionary models, we calculate the expected number of stars in each evolutionary stage for the normal evolution of stars and the number of stars coming from the evolution of BSS. The results indicate that BSS have a post-MS evolution comparable to that of a normal star of the same mass and a MS BSS lifetime of about 200-300 Myr. We also find that the excess population of asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars in 47 Tuc is due to evolved BSS.
We report on the first high-resolution spectroscopic analysis of HE0020-1741, a bright (V=12.9), ultra metal-poor ([Fe/H] = -4.1), carbon-enhanced ([C/Fe] = +1.7) star selected from the Hamburg/ESO Survey. This star exhibits low abundances of neutron-capture elements ([Ba/Fe] = -1.1), and an absolute carbon abundance A(C) = 6.1; based on either criterion, HE0020-1741 is sub-classified as a CEMP-no star. We show that the light-element abundance pattern of HE0020-1741 is consistent with predicted yields from a massive (M = 21.5 Mo), primordial composition, supernova (SN) progenitor. We also compare the abundance patterns of other ultra metal-poor stars from the literature with available measures of C, N, Na, Mg, and Fe abundances with an extensive grid of SN models (covering the mass range 10 Mo - 100 Mo), in order to probe the nature of their likely stellar progenitors. Our results suggest that at least two classes of progenitors are required at [Fe/H] < -4.0, as the abundance patterns for more than half of the sample studied in this work (7 out of 12 stars) cannot be easily reproduced by the predicted yields.
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Suppression of H2-cooling in early protogalaxies has important implications for the formation of supermassive black holes seeds, the first generation of stars, and the epoch of reionization. This suppression can occur via photodissociation of H2 (by ultraviolet Lyman-Werner [LW] photons) or by photodetachment of H, a precursor in H2 formation (by infrared [IR] photons). Previous studies have typically adopted idealised spectra, with a blackbody or a power-law shape, in modeling the chemistry of metal-free protogalaxies, and utilised a single parameter, the critical UV flux, or Jcrit, to determine whether H2-cooling is prevented. Here we point out that this can be misleading, and that independent of the spectral shape, there is a critical curve in the (kLW,kH) plane, where kLW and kH are the H2-dissociation rates by LW and IR photons, which determines whether a protogalaxy can cool below ~1000 Kelvin. We use a one-zone model to follow the chemical and thermal evolution of gravitationally collapsing protogalactic gas, to compute this critical curve, and provide an accurate analytical fit for it. We then consider a variety of more realistic Pop III or Pop II-type spectra from population synthesis models, and perform fully frequency-dependent calculations of the H2-photodissociation rates for each spectrum. We compute the ratio kLW/kH for each spectrum, as well as the minimum stellar mass M*, for various IMFs and metallicities, required to prevent cooling in a neighboring halo a distance d away. We provide critical M*/d2 values for suppression of H2-cooling, with analytic fits, which can be used in future studies.
We present a 1.4 GHz Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) study of a sample of early-type galaxies (ETGs) from the volume- and magnitude-limited ATLAS-3D survey. The radio morphologies of these ETGs at a resolution of 5" are diverse and include sources that are compact on sub-kpc scales, resolved structures similar to those seen in star-forming spiral galaxies, and kpc-scale radio jets/lobes associated with active nuclei. We compare the 1.4 GHz, molecular gas, and infrared (IR) properties of these ETGs. The most CO-rich ATLAS-3D ETGs have radio luminosities consistent with extrapolations from H_2-mass-derived star formation rates from studies of late-type galaxies. These ETGs also follow the radio-IR correlation. However, ETGs with lower molecular gas masses tend to have less radio emission relative to their CO and IR emission compared to spirals. The fraction of galaxies in our sample with high IR-radio ratios is much higher than in previous studies, and cannot be explained by a systematic underestimation of the radio luminosity due to the presence extended, low-surface-brightness emission that was resolved-out in our VLA observations. In addition, we find that the high IR-radio ratios tend to occur at low IR luminosities, but are not associated with low dynamical mass or metallicity. Thus, we have identified a population of ETGs that have a genuine shortfall of radio emission relative to both their IR and molecular gas emission. A number of mechanisms may conspire to cause this radio deficiency, including a bottom-heavy stellar initial mass function, weak magnetic fields, a higher prevalence of environmental effects compared to spirals and enhanced cosmic ray losses.
We report a new ultra-faint stellar system found in Dark Energy Camera data from the first observing run of the Magellanic Satellites Survey (MagLiteS). MagLiteS J0664-5953 (Pictor II or Pic II) is a low surface brightness ({\mu} = 28.5 mag arcsec$^{-2}$ within its half-light radius) resolved overdensity of old and metal-poor stars located at a heliocentric distance of 45 kpc. The physical size (r$_{1/2}$ = 46 pc) and low luminosity (Mv = -3.2 mag) of this satellite are consistent with the locus of spectroscopically confirmed ultra-faint galaxies. MagLiteS J0664-5953 (Pic II) is located 11.3 kpc from the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), and comparisons with simulation results in the literature suggest that this satellite was likely accreted with the LMC. The close proximity of MagLiteS J0664-5953 (Pic II) to the LMC also makes it the most likely ultra-faint galaxy candidate to still be gravitationally bound to the LMC.
We revisit calculations of nebular hydrogen Lya and HeII 1640A line strengths for population III galaxies, undergoing continuous and bursts of star formation. We focus on initial mass functions (IMFs) motivated by recent theoretical studies, which generally span a lower range of stellar masses than earlier works. We also account for case-B departures and the stochastic sampling of the IMF. In agreement with previous works, we find that departures from case-B can enhance the Lya flux by a factor of a few, but we argue that this enhancement is driven mainly by collisional excitation and ionization, and not due to photoionization from the n = 2 state of atomic hydrogen. The increased sensitivity of the Lya flux to the high-energy end of the galaxy spectrum makes it more subject to stochastic sampling of the IMF. The latter introduces a dispersion in the predicted nebular line fluxes around the deterministic value by as much as a factor of ~4. In contrast, the stochastic sampling of the IMF has less impact on the emerging Lyman Werner (LW) photon flux. When case-B departures and stochasticity effects are combined, nebular line emission from population III galaxies can be up to one order of magnitude brighter than predicted by 'standard' calculations that do not include these effects. This enhances the prospects for detection with future facilities such as JWST and large, groundbased telescopes.
The nature of warm, ionized gas outside of galaxies may illuminate several key galaxy evolutionary processes. A serendipitous observation by the MaNGA survey has revealed a large, asymmetric H$\alpha$ complex with no optical counterpart that extends $\approx8"$ ($\approx6.3$ kpc) beyond the effective radius of a dusty, starbursting galaxy. This H$\alpha$ extension is approximately three times the effective radius of the host galaxy and displays a tail-like morphology. We analyze its gas-phase metallicities, gaseous kinematics, and emission-line ratios, and discuss whether this H$\alpha$ extension could be diffuse ionized gas, a gas accretion event, or something else. We find that this warm, ionized gas structure is most consistent with gas accretion through recycled wind material, which could be an important process that regulates the low-mass end of the galaxy stellar mass function.
This work studies the correlation among environmental density and radio AGN presence up to $z = 2$. Using data from the photometric COSMOS survey and its radio 1.4 GHz follow-up (VLA-COSMOS), a sample of radio AGNs has been defined. The environment was studied using the richness distributions inside a parallelepiped with base side of 1 Mpc and height proportional to the photometric redshift precision. Radio AGNs are found to be always located in environments significantly richer than those around galaxies with no radio emission. Moreover, a distinction based on radio AGN power shows that the significance of the environmental effect is only maintained for low-power radio sources. The results of this work show that denser environments play a significant role in enhancing the probability that a galaxy hosts a radio AGN and, in particular, low-power ones.
I analyze statistics of the stellar population properties for stellar nuclei and bulges of nearby lenticular galaxies in different environments by using panoramic spectral data of the integral-field spectrograph SAURON retrieved from the open archive of Isaac Newton Group. I estimate also the fraction of nearby lenticular galaxies having inner polar gaseous disks by exploring the volume-limited sample of early-type galaxies of the ATLAS-3D survey. By inspecting the two-dimensional velocity fields of the stellar and gaseous components with running tilted-ring technique, I have found 7 new cases of the inner polar disks. Together with those, the frequency of inner polar disks in nearby S0 galaxies reaches 10% that is much higher than the frequency of large-scale polar rings. Interestingly, the properties of the nuclear stellar populations in the inner polar ring hosts are statistically the same as those in the whole S0 sample implying similar histories of multiple gas accretion events from various directions.
By performing a global magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) simulation for the Milky Way with an axisymmetric gravitational potential, we propose that spatially dependent amplification of magnetic fields possibly explains the observed noncircular motion of the gas in the Galactic centre (GC) region. The radial distribution of the rotation frequency in the bulge region is not monotonic in general. The amplification of the magnetic field is enhanced in regions with stronger differential rotation, because magnetorotational instability and field-line stretching are more effective. The strength of the amplified magnetic field reaches >~ 0.5 mG, and radial flows of the gas are excited by the inhomogeneous transport of angular momentum through turbulent magnetic field that is amplified in a spatially dependent manner. As a result, the simulated position-velocity diagram exhibits a time-dependent asymmetric parallelogram-shape owing to the intermittency of the magnetic turbulence; the present model provides a viable alternative to the bar-potential-driven model for the parallelogram shape of the central molecular zone. In addition, Parker instability (magnetic buoyancy) creates vertical magnetic structure, which would correspond to observed molecular loops, and frequently excited vertical flows. Furthermore, the time-averaged net gas flow is directed outward, whereas the flows are highly time dependent, which would contribute to the outflow from the bulge.
Based on the largest catalogs currently available, comprising 6090 contact binaries (CBs) and 2167 open clusters, we determine the near-infrared $JHK_{\rm s}$ CB period--luminosity (PL) relations, for the first time achieving the low levels of intrinsic scatter that make these relations viable as competitive distance calibrators. To firmly establish our distance calibration on the basis of open cluster CBs, we require that (i) the CB of interest must be located inside the core radius of its host cluster; (ii) the CB's proper motion must be located within the $2\sigma$ distribution of that of its host open cluster; and (iii) the CB's age, $t$, must be comparable to that of its host cluster, i.e., $\Delta \log (t\mbox{ yr}^{-1}) <0.3$. We thus select a calibration sample of 66 CBs with either open cluster distances or accurate space-based parallaxes. The resulting near-infrared PL relations, for both late-type (i.e., W Ursae Majoris-type) and---for the first time---early-type CBs, are as accurate as the well-established $JHK_{\rm s}$ Cepheid PL relations, (characterized by single-band statistical uncertainties of $\sigma < 0.10$ mag). We show that CBs can be used as viable distance tracers, yielding distances with uncertainties of better than 5\% for 90\% of the 6090 CBs in our full sample. By combining the full $JHK_{\rm s}$ photometric data set, CBs can trace distances with an accuracy, $\sigma=0.05 \mbox{ (statistical)} \pm0.03 \mbox{ (systematic)}$ mag. The 102 CBs in the Large Magellanic Cloud are used to determine a distance modulus to the galaxy of $(m-M_V)_0^{\rm LMC}=18.41\pm0.20$ mag.
Infrared-Faint Radio Sources (IFRS) represent an unexpected class of objects relatively bright at radio wavelength, but unusually faint at infrared (IR) and optical wavelengths. A recent and extensive campaign on the radio-brightest IFRSs (S_{1.4GHz} >= 10 mJy) has provided evidence that most of them (if not all) contain an AGN. Still uncertain is the nature of the radio-faintest ones (S_{1.4GHz} <= 1 mJy). The scope of this paper is to assess the nature of the radio-faintest IFRSs, testing their classification and improving the knowledge of their IR properties making use of the most sensitive IR survey available so far: the Spitzer Extragalactic Representative Volume Survey (SERVS). We also explore how the criteria of IFRSs can be fine-tuned to pinpoint radio-loud AGNs at very high redshift (z > 4). We analysed a number of IFRS samples identified in SERVS fields, including a new sample (21 sources) extracted from the Lockman Hole. 3.6 and 4.5 mum IR counterparts of the 64 sources located in the SERVS fields were searched for, and, when detected, their IR properties were studied. We compared the radio/IR properties of the IR-detected IFRSs with those expected for a number of known classes of objects. We found that they are mostly consistent with a mixture of high-redshift (z >= 3) radio-loud AGNs. The faintest ones (S_{1.4GHz} ~ 100 muJy), however, could be also associated with nearer (z ~ 2) dust-enshrouded star-burst galaxies. We also argue that, while IFRSs with radio-to-IR ratios > 500 can very efficiently pinpoint radio-loud AGNs at redshift 2 < z < 4, lower radio-to-IR ratios (~ 100--200) are expected for higher redshift radio-loud AGNs.
The mean alpha-to-iron abundance ratio ([$\alpha$/Fe]) of galaxies is sensitive to the chemical evolution processes at early time, and it is an indicator of star formation timescale ($\tau_{{\rm SF}}$). Although the physical reason remains ambiguous, there is a tight relation between [$\alpha$/Fe] and stellar velocity dispersion ($\sigma$) among massive early-type galaxies (ETGs). However, no work has shown convincing results as to how this relation behaves at low masses. We assemble 15 data sets from the literature and build a large sample that includes 192 nearby low-mass ($18<\sigma<80$~\kms) ETGs. We find that the [$\alpha$/Fe]-$\sigma$ relation generally holds for low-mass ETGs, except in extreme environments. Specifically, in normal galaxy cluster environments, the [$\alpha$/Fe]-$\sigma$ relation and its intrinsic scatter are, within uncertainties, similar for low-mass and high-mass ETGs. However, in the most massive relaxed galaxy cluster in our sample, the zero point of the relation is higher and the intrinsic scatter is significantly larger. By contrast, in galaxy groups the zero point of the relation offsets in the opposite direction, again with substantial intrinsic scatter. The elevated [$\alpha$/Fe] of low-mass ETGs in the densest environments suggests that their star formation was quenched earlier than in high-mass ETGs. For the low-mass ETGs in the lowest density environments, we suggest that their more extended star formation histories suppressed their average [$\alpha$/Fe]. The large scatter in [$\alpha$/Fe] may reflect stochasticity in the chemical evolution of low-mass galaxies.
We have investigated the effect of group environment on residual star formation in galaxies, using Galex NUV galaxy photometry with the SDSS group catalogue of Yang et al. (2007). We compared the (NUV $- r$) colours of grouped and non-grouped galaxies, and find a significant increase in the fraction of red sequence galaxies with blue (NUV $- r$) colours outside of groups. When comparing galaxies in mass matched samples of satellite (non-central), and non-grouped galaxies, we found a > 4{\sigma} difference in the distribution of (NUV $- r$) colours, and an (NUV $- r$) blue fraction $> 3{\sigma}$ higher outside groups. A comparison of satellite and non-grouped samples has found the NUV fraction is a factor of $\sim2$ lower for satellite galaxies between $10^{10.5}M_{\bigodot}$ and $10^{10.7}M_{\bigodot}$, showing that higher mass galaxies are more able to form stars when not influenced by a group potential. There was a higher (NUV $- r$) blue fraction of galaxies with lower Sersic indices (n < 3) outside of groups, not seen in the satellite sample. We have used stellar population models of Bruzual & Charlot (2003) with multiple burst, or exponentially declining star formation histories to find that many of the (NUV $- r$) blue non-grouped galaxies can be explained by a slow ($\sim 2$ Gyr) decay of star formation, compared to the satellite galaxies. We suggest that taken together, the difference in (NUV $- r$) colours between samples can be explained by a population of secularly evolving, non-grouped galaxies, where star formation declines slowly. This slow channel is less prevalent in group environments where more rapid quenching can occur.
We have obtained new HI observations with the 100m Green Bank Telescope (GBT) for a sample of 29 extremely metal-deficient star-forming Blue Compact Dwarf (BCD) galaxies, selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey spectral data base to be extremely metal-deficient (12+logO/H<7.6). Neutral hydrogen was detected in 28 galaxies, a 97% detection rate. Combining the HI data with SDSS optical spectra for the BCD sample and adding complementary galaxy samples from the literature to extend the metallicity and mass ranges, we have studied how the HI content of a galaxy varies with various global galaxian properties. There is a clear trend of increasing gas mass fraction with decreasing metallicity, mass and luminosity. We obtain the relation M(HI)/L(g)~L(g)^{-0.3}, in agreement with previous studies based on samples with a smaller luminosity range. The median gas mass fraction f(gas) for the GBT sample is equal to 0.94 while the mean gas mass fraction is 0.90+/-0.15, with a lower limit of ~0.65. The HI depletion time is independent of metallicity, with a large scatter around the median value of 3.4 Gyr. The ratio of the baryonic mass to the dynamical mass of the metal-deficient BCDs varies from 0.05 to 0.80, with a median value of ~0.2. About 65% of the BCDs in our sample have an effective yield larger than the true yield, implying that the neutral gas envelope in BCDs is more metal-deficient by a factor of 1.5-20, as compared to the ionized gas.
The central structure in three of the brightest unlensed z=3-4 submillimeter galaxies are investigated through 0.015" - 0.05" (120 -- 360~pc) 860 micron continuum images obtained using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). The distribution in the central kpc in AzTEC1 and AzTEC8 are extremely complex, and they are composed of multiple ~200 pc clumps. AzTEC4 consists of two sources that are separated by ~1.5 kpc, indicating a mid-stage merger. The peak star formation rate densities in the central clumps are ~300 - 3000 Msun/yr/kpc^2, suggesting regions with extreme star formation near the Eddington Limit. By comparing the flux obtained by ALMA and Submillimeter Array (SMA), we find that 68-90% of the emission is extended (> 1 kpc) in AzTEC 4 and 8. For AzTEC1, we identify at least 11 additional compact (~200 pc) clumps in the extended 3 - 4 kpc region. Overall, the data presented here suggest that the luminosity surface densities observed at < 150 pc scales are roughly similar to that observed in local ULIRGs, as in the eastern nucleus of Arp 220. Between 10 to 30% of the 860 micron continuum is concentrated in clumpy structures in the central kpc while the remaining flux is distributed over > 1 kpc regions, some of which could also be clumpy. These sources can be explained by a rapid inflow of gas such as a merger of gas-rich galaxies, surrounded by extended and clumpy starbursts. However, the cold mode accretion model is not ruled out.
We explore the possibility of the formation of globular clusters under ultraviolet (UV) background radiation. One-dimensional spherical symmetric radiation hydrodynamics (RHD) simulations by Hasegawa et al. have demonstrated that the collapse of low-mass (10^6-10^7 solar masses) gas clouds exposed to intense UV radiation can lead to the formation of compact star clusters like globular clusters (GCs) if gas clouds contract with supersonic infall velocities. However, three-dimensional effects, such as the anisotropy of background radiation and the inhomogeneity in gas clouds, have not been studied so far. In this paper, we perform three-dimensional RHD simulations in a semi-cosmological context, and reconsider the formation of compact star clusters in strong UV radiation fields. As a result, we find that although anisotropic radiation fields bring an elongated shadow of neutral gas, almost spherical compact star clusters can be procreated from a "supersonic infall" cloud, since photo-dissociating radiation suppresses the formation of hydrogen molecules in the shadowed regions and the regions are compressed by UV heated ambient gas. The properties of resultant star clusters match those of GCs. On the other hand, in weak UV radiation fields, dark matter-dominated star clusters with low stellar density form due to the self-shielding effect as well as the positive feedback by ionizing photons. Thus, we conclude that the "supersonic infall" under a strong UV background is a potential mechanism to form GCs.
Using the ALMA archival data of both CO(6--5) line and 689 GHz continuum emission towards the archetypical Seyfert galaxy, NGC 1068, we identified a distinct continuum peak separated by 14 pc from the nuclear radio component S1 in projection. The continuum flux gives a gas mass of ~2x10^5 Msun and bolometric luminosity of ~10^8 Lsun, leading to a star formation rate of ~0.1 Msun/yr. Subsequent analysis on the line data suggest that the gas has a size of ~10 pc, yielding to mean H2 number density of ~10^5 cm^{-3}. We therefore refer to the gas as "massive dense gas cloud": the gas density is high enough to form a "proto starcluster" whose stellar mass of ~10^4 Msun. We found that the gas stands a unique position between galactic and extraglactic clouds in the diagrams of start formation rate (SFR) vs. gas mass proposed by Lada et al. and surface density of gas vs. SFR density by Krumholz and McKee. All the gaseous and star-formation properties may be understood in terms of the turbulence-regulated star formation scenario. Since there are two stellar populations with the ages of 300 Myr and 30 Myr in the 100 pc-scale circumnulear region, we discuss that NGC1068 has experienced at least three episodic star formation events with a tendency that the inner star-forming region is the younger. Together with several lines of evidence that the dynamics of the nuclear region is decoupled from that of the entire galactic disk, we discuss that the gas inflow towards the nuclear region of NGC 1068 may be driven by a past minor merger.
Supermassive black holes launching plasma jets at close to speed of light, producing gamma-rays, have ubiquitously been found to be hosted by massive elliptical galaxies. Since elliptical galaxies are generally believed to be built through galaxy mergers, active galactic nuclei (AGN) launching relativistic jets are associated to the latest stages of galaxy evolution. We have discovered a pseudo-bulge morphology in the host galaxy of the gamma-ray AGN PKS 2004-447. This is the first gamma-ray emitter radio loud AGN found to be launched from a system where both black hole and host galaxy have been actively growing via secular processes. This is evidence for an alternative black hole-galaxy co-evolutionary path to develop powerful relativistic jets that is not merger-driven.
This is the second in a series of papers associated with cataclysmic variables (CVs) and related objects, formed in a suite of simulations for globular cluster evolution performed with the MOCCA Monte Carlo code. We study the properties of our simulated CV populations throughout the entire cluster evolution. We find that dynamics extends the range of binary CV progenitor properties, causing CV formation from binary progenitors that would otherwise not become CVs. The CV formation rate in our simulations can be separated into two regimes: an initial burst ($\lesssim$ 1 Gyr) connected with the formation of the most massive WDs, followed by a nearly constant formation rate. This result holds for all models regardless of the adopted initial conditions, even when most CVs form dynamically. Given the cluster age-dependence of CV properties, we argue that direct comparisons to observed Galactic field CVs could be misleading, since cluster CVs can be up to 4 times older than their field counterparts. Our results also illustrate that, due mainly to unstable mass transfer, some CVs that form in our simulations are destroyed before the present-day. Finally, some field CVs might have originated from GCs, as found in our simulations, although the fraction of such escapers should be small relative to the entire Galactic field CV population.
Based on recent $Herschel$ results, the ortho-to-para ratio (OPR) of NH$_2$ has been measured towards the following high-mass star-forming regions: W31C (G10.6-0.4), W49N (G43.2-0.1), W51 (G49.5-0.4), and G34.3+0.1. The OPR at thermal equilibrium ranges from the statistical limit of three at high temperatures to infinity as the temperature tends toward zero, unlike the case of H$_{2}$. Depending on the position observed along the lines-of-sight, the OPR was found to lie either slightly below the high temperature limit of three (in the range $2.2-2.9$) or above this limit ($\sim3.5$, $\gtrsim 4.2$, and $\gtrsim 5.0$). In low temperature interstellar gas, where the H$_{2}$ is para-enriched, our nearly pure gas-phase astrochemical models with nuclear-spin chemistry can account for anomalously low observed NH$_2$-OPR values. We have tentatively explained OPR values larger than three by assuming that spin thermalization of NH$_2$ can proceed at least partially by H-atom exchange collisions with atomic hydrogen, thus increasing the OPR with decreasing temperature. In this paper, we present quasi-classical trajectory calculations of the H-exchange reaction NH$_2$ + H, which show the reaction to proceed without a barrier, confirming that the H-exchange will be efficient in the temperature range of interest. With the inclusion of this process, our models suggest both that OPR values below three arise in regions with temperatures $\gtrsim20-25$~K, depending on time, and values above three but lower than the thermal limit arise at still lower temperatures.
We analyze interstellar absorption features in the full UV spectrum of the nearby (d = 24 pc) B8 IVn star alpha Leo (Regulus) obtained at high resolution and high S/N by the HST ASTRAL Treasury program. We derive column densities for many key atomic species and interpret their partial ionizations. The gas in front of alpha Leo exhibits two absorption components, one of which coincides in velocity with the local interstellar cloud (LIC) that surrounds the Sun. The second, smaller, component is shifted by +5.6 km/s relative to the main component, in agreement with results for other lines of sight in this region of the sky. The excitation of the C II fine-structure levels and the ratio of Mg I to Mg II reveal a temperature T = 6500 (+750,-600)K and electron density n(e) = 0.11 (+0.025,-0.03) cm^-3. Our investigation of the ionization balance of all the available species indicates that about 1/3 of the hydrogen atoms are ionized and that metals are significantly depleted onto grains. We infer that N(H I) = 1.9 (+0.9,-0.6) X 10^{18} cm^-2, which indicates that this partly neutral gas occupies only 2 to 8 pc (about 13%) of the space toward the star, with the remaining volume presumably being filled with a hot gas that emits soft X-rays. We do not detect any absorption features from the highly ionized species that could be produced in an interface between the warm medium and the surrounding hot gas. Finally, the radial velocity of the LIC agrees with that of the Local Leo Cold Cloud, indicating that they may be physically related.
We present the measurement of the projected and redshift space 2-point correlation function (2pcf) of the new catalog of Chandra COSMOS-Legacy AGN at 2.9$\leq$z$\leq$5.5 ($\langle L_{bol} \rangle \sim$10$^{46}$ erg/s) using the generalized clustering estimator based on phot-z probability distribution functions (Pdfs) in addition to any available spec-z. We model the projected 2pcf estimated using $\pi_{max}$ = 200 h$^{-1}$ Mpc with the 2-halo term and we derive a bias at z$\sim$3.4 equal to b = 6.6$^{+0.60}_{-0.55}$, which corresponds to a typical mass of the hosting halos of log M$_h$ = 12.83$^{+0.12}_{-0.11}$ h$^{-1}$ M$_{\odot}$. A similar bias is derived using the redshift-space 2pcf, modelled including the typical phot-z error $\sigma_z$ = 0.052 of our sample at z$\geq$2.9. Once we integrate the projected 2pcf up to $\pi_{max}$ = 200 h$^{-1}$ Mpc, the bias of XMM and \textit{Chandra} COSMOS at z=2.8 used in Allevato et al. (2014) is consistent with our results at higher redshift. The results suggest only a slight increase of the bias factor of COSMOS AGN at z$\gtrsim$3 with the typical hosting halo mass of moderate luminosity AGN almost constant with redshift and equal to logM$_h$ = 12.92$^{+0.13}_{-0.18}$ at z=2.8 and log M$_h$ = 12.83$^{+0.12}_{-0.11}$ at z$\sim$3.4, respectively. The observed redshift evolution of the bias of COSMOS AGN implies that moderate luminosity AGN still inhabit group-sized halos at z$\gtrsim$3, but slightly less massive than observed in different independent studies using X-ray AGN at z$\leq2$.
We used ultra-deep $J$ and $K_s$ images secured with the near-infrared GSAOI camera assisted by the multi-conjugate adaptive optics system GeMS at the GEMINI South Telescope in Chile, to obtain a ($K_s$, $J-K_s$) color-magnitude diagram (CMD) for the bulge globular cluster NGC 6624. We obtained the deepest and most accurate near-infrared CMD from the ground for this cluster, by reaching $K_s$ $\sim$ 21.5, approximately 8 magnitudes below the horizontal branch level. The entire extension of the Main Sequence (MS) is nicely sampled and at $K_s$ $\sim$ 20 we detected the so-called MS "knee" in a purely near-infrared CMD. By taking advantage of the exquisite quality of the data, we estimated the absolute age of NGC 6624 ($t_{age}$ = 12.0 $\pm$ 0.5 Gyr), which turns out to be in good agreement with previous studies in the literature. We also analyzed the luminosity and mass functions of MS stars down to M $\sim$ 0.45 M$_{\odot}$ finding evidence of a significant increase of low-mass stars at increasing distances from the cluster center. This is a clear signature of mass segregation, confirming that NGC 6624 is in an advanced stage of dynamical evolution.
There is growing theoretical and observational evidence that protoplanetary disc evolution may be significantly affected by the canonical levels of far ultraviolet (FUV) radiation found in a star forming environment, leading to substantial stripping of material from the disc outer edge even in the absence of nearby massive stars. In this paper we perform the first full radiation hydrodynamic simulations of the flow from the outer rim of protoplanetary discs externally irradiated by such intermediate strength FUV fields, including direct modelling of the photon dominated region (PDR) which is required to accurately compute the thermal properties. We find excellent agreement between our models and the semi-analytic models of Facchini et al. (2016) for the profile of the flow itself, as well as the mass loss rate and location of their "critical radius". This both validates their results (which differed significantly from prior semi-analytic estimates) and our new numerical method, the latter of which can now be applied to elements of the problem that the semi--analytic approaches are incapable of modelling. We also obtain the composition of the flow, but given the simple geometry of our models we can only hint at some diagnostics for future observations of externally irradiated discs at this stage. We also discuss the potential for these models as benchmarks for future photochemical-dynamical codes.
We identify 709 arc-shaped mid-infrared nebula in 24 micron Spitzer Space Telescope or 22 micron Wide Field Infrared Explorer surveys of the Galactic Plane as probable dusty interstellar bowshocks powered by early-type stars. About 20% are visible at 8 microns or shorter mid-infrared wavelengths as well. The vast majority (660) have no previous identification in the literature. These extended infrared sources are strongly concentrated near Galactic mid-Plane with an angular scale height of ~0.6 degrees. All host a symmetrically placed star implicated as the source of a stellar wind sweeping up interstellar material. These are candidate "runaway" stars potentially having high velocities in the reference frame of the local medium. Among the 286 objects with measured proper motions, we find an unambiguous excess having velocity vectors aligned with the infrared morphology --- kinematic evidence that many of these are "runaway" stars with large peculiar motions responsible for the bowshock signature. We discuss a population of "in-situ" bowshocks (103 objects) that face giant HII regions where the relative motions between the star and ISM may be caused by bulk outflows from an overpressured bubble. We also identify 58 objects that face 8 micron bright-rimmed clouds and apparently constitute a sub-class of in-situ bowshocks where the stellar wind interacts with a photo-evaporative flow from an eroding molecular cloud interface (i.e., "PEF bowshocks"). Orientations of the arcuate nebulae exhibit a correlation over small angular scales, indicating that external influences such as HII regions are responsible for producing some bowshock nebulae. However, the vast majority of this sample appear to be isolated (499 objects) from obvious external influences.
For the first time, we explore the dynamics of the central region of a galaxy cluster within $r_{500}\sim 600h^{-1}$~kpc from its center by combining optical and X-ray spectroscopy. We use (1) the caustic technique that identifies the cluster substructures and their galaxy members with optical spectroscopic data, and (2) the X-ray redshift fitting procedure that estimates the redshift distribution of the intracluster medium (ICM). We use the spatial and redshift distributions of the galaxies and of the X-ray emitting gas to associate the optical substructures to the X-ray regions. When we apply this approach to Abell 85 (A85), a complex dynamical structure of A85 emerges from our analysis: a galaxy group, with redshift $z=0.0509 \pm 0.0021$ is passing through the cluster center along the line of sight dragging part of the ICM present in the cluster core; two additional groups, at redshift $z=0.0547 \pm 0.0022$ and $z=0.0570 \pm 0.0020$, are going through the cluster in opposite directions, almost perpendicularly to the line of sight, and have substantially perturbed the dynamics of the ICM. An additional group in the outskirts of A85, at redshift $z=0.0561 \pm 0.0023$, is associated to a secondary peak of the X-ray emission, at redshift $z=0.0583^{+0.0039}_{-0.0047}$. Although our analysis and results on A85 need to be confirmed by high-resolution spectroscopy, they demonstrate how our new approach can be a powerful tool to constrain the formation history of galaxy clusters by unveiling their central and surrounding structures.
Dust grains are classically thought to form in the winds of asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars. However, there is increasing evidence today for dust formation in supernovae (SNe). To establish the relative importance of these two classes of stellar sources of dust, it is important to know the fraction of freshly formed dust in SN ejecta that is able to survive the passage of the reverse shock and be injected in the interstellar medium. We have developed a new code (GRASH\_Rev) which follows the newly-formed dust evolution throughout the supernova explosion until the merging of the forward shock with the circumstellar ISM. We have considered four well studied SNe in the Milky Way and Large Magellanic Cloud: SN1987A, CasA, the Crab Nebula, and N49. For all the simulated models, we find good agreement with observations and estimate that between 1 and 8$\%$ of the observed mass will survive, leading to a SN dust production rate of $(3.9 \pm 3.7) \times 10^{-4}$ M$_{\odot}$yr$^{-1}$ in the Milky Way. This value is one order of magnitude larger than the dust production rate by AGB stars but insufficient to counterbalance the dust destruction by SNe, therefore requiring dust accretion in the gas phase.
We performed the photometric analysis of M2 and M92 globular clusters in g and r bands of SLOAN photometric system. We transformed these g and r bands into BV bands of Johnson-Cousins photometric system and built the color magnitude diagram (CMD). We estimated the age, and metallicity of both the clusters, by fitting Padova isochrones of different age and metallicities onto the CMD. We studied Einstein and de Sitter model, bench mark model, the cosmological parameters by WMAP and Planck surveys. Finally, we compared estimated age of globular clusters to the ages from the cosmological models and cosmological parameters values of WMAP and Planck surveys.
Context: Gaps, cavities and rings in circumstellar disks are signposts of
disk evolution and planet-disk interactions. We follow the recent suggestion
that Herbig Ae/Be disks with a flared disk harbour a cavity, and investigate
the disk around HD~97048.
Aims: We aim to resolve the 34$\pm$ 4 au central cavity predicted by Maaskant
et al. (2013) and to investigate the structure of the disk.
Methods: We image the disk around HD~97048 using ALMA at 0.85~mm and 2.94~mm,
and ATCA (multiple frequencies) observations. Our observations also include the
12CO J=1-0, 12CO J=3-2 and HCO+ J=4-3 emission lines.
Results: A central cavity in the disk around HD~97048 is resolved with a
40-46 au radius. Additional radial structure present in the surface brightness
profile can be accounted for either by an opacity gap at ~90 au or by an extra
emitting ring at ~150 au. The continuum emission tracing the dust in the disk
is detected out to 355 au. The 12CO J=3-2 disk is detected 2.4 times farther
out. The 12CO emission can be traced down to $\approx$ 10 au scales.
Non-Keplerian kinematics are detected inside the cavity via the HCO+ J=4-3
velocity map. The mm spectral index measured from ATCA observations suggests
that grain growth has occurred in the HD~97048 disk. Finally, we resolve a
highly inclined disk out to 150 au around the nearby 0.5~$M_{\odot}$ binary
ISO-ChaI 126.
Conclusions: The data presented here reveal a cavity in the disk of HD 97048,
and prominent radial structure in the surface brightness. The cavity size
varies for different continuum frequencies and gas tracers. The gas inside the
cavity follows non-Keplerian kinematics seen in HCO+ emission. The variable
cavity size along with the kinematical signature suggests the presence of a
substellar companion or massive planet inside the cavity.
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