The key role that dust plays in the interstellar medium has motivated the development of numerical codes designed to study the coupled evolution of dust and gas in systems such as turbulent molecular clouds and protoplanetary discs. Drift between dust and gas has proven to be important as well as numerically challenging. We provide simple benchmarking problems for dusty gas codes by numerically solving the two-fluid dust-gas equations for steady, plane-parallel shock waves. The two distinct shock solutions to these equations allow a numerical code to test different forms of drag between the two fluids, the strength of that drag and the dust to gas ratio. We also provide an astrophysical application of J-type dust-gas shocks to studying the structure of accretion shocks onto protoplanetary discs. We find that two-fluid effects are most important for grains larger than 1 um, and that the peak dust temperature within an accretion shock provides a signature of the dust-to-gas ratio of the infalling material.
We present and analyze the possibility of using optical ${\it u}$-band luminosities to estimate star-formation rates (SFRs) of galaxies based on the data from the South Galactic Cap ${\it u }$ band Sky Survey (SCUSS), which provides a deep ${\it u}$-band photometric survey covering about 5000 $deg^2$ of the South Galactic Cap. Based on two samples of normal star-forming galaxies selected by the BPT diagram, we explore the correlations between ${\it u}$-band, H$\alpha$, and IR luminosities by combing SCUSS data with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and ${\it Wide}$-${\it field\ Infrared\ Survey\ Explorer}$ (${\it WISE}$). The attenuation-corrected ${\it u}$-band luminosities are tightly correlated with the Balmer decrement-corrected H$\alpha$ luminosities with an rms scatter of $\sim$ 0.17 dex. The IR-corrected ${\it u }$ luminosities are derived based on the correlations between the attenuation of ${\it u}$-band luminosities and ${\it WISE}$ 12 (or 22) $\mu$m luminosities, and then calibrated with the Balmer-corrected H$\alpha$ luminosities. The systematic residuals of these calibrations are tested against the physical properties over the ranges covered by our sample objects. We find that the best-fitting nonlinear relations are better than the linear ones and recommended to be applied in the measurement of SFRs. The systematic deviations mainly come from the pollution of old stellar population and the effect of dust extinction; therefore, a more detailed analysis is needed in the future work.
In this paper we derive three equations of motion for a supernova remnant (SNR) in the framework of the thin layer approximation using the Pad\'e approximant. The circumstellar medium is assumed to follow a density profile of either an exponential type, a Gaussian type, or a Lane--Emden ($n=5$) type. The three equations of motion are applied to four SNRs: Tycho, Cas A, Cygnus loop, and SN~1006. The percentage error of the Pad\'e approximated solution is always less than $10\%$. The theoretical decrease of the velocity over ten years for SNRs is evaluated.
High-mass star formation is one of the top-priority issues in astrophysics. Recent observational studies are revealing that cloud-cloud collisions may play a role in high-mass star formation in several places in the Milky Way and the Large Magellanic Cloud. The Trifid Nebula M20 is a well known galactic HII region ionized by a single O7.5 star. In 2011, based on the CO observations with NANTEN2 we reported that the O star was formed by the collision between two molecular clouds ~0.3,Myr ago. Those observations identified two molecular clouds towards M20, traveling at a relative velocity of 7.5 km/s. This velocity separation implies that the clouds cannot be gravitationally bound to M20, but since the clouds show signs of heating by the stars there they must be spatially coincident with it. A collision is therefore highly possible. In this paper we present the new CO J=1-0 and J=3-2 observations of the colliding clouds in M20 performed with the Mopra and ASTE telescopes. The high resolution observations revealed the two molecular clouds have peculiar spatial and velocity structures, i.e., the spatially complementary distribution between the two clouds and the bridge feature which connects the two clouds in velocity space. Based on a new comparison with numerical models, we find that this complementary distribution is an expected outcome of cloud-cloud collisions, and that the bridge feature can be interpreted as the turbulent gas excited at the interface of the collision. Our results reinforce the cloud-cloud collision scenario in M20.
Using images from the SDSS DR13 library, we examine the structural properties of 374 normal (classed E0 to E6) and dwarf ellipticals (classed dE(nN) to dE(N)). The sample combines a multicolor sample of bright ellipticals (252 galaxies with $M_g < -20$) with a new sample of faint ellipticals (60 galaxies with $M_g > -20$) which overlaps the dwarf elliptical sample (62 galaxies) in luminosity and size. The faint ellipticals extend the linear structural correlations found for bright ellipticals into parameter space not occupied by dwarf ellipticals indicating a dichotomy exists between the two types. In particular, many faint ellipticals have significantly higher effective surface brightnesses compared to dE's which eliminates any connection at a set stellar mass. Template analysis of the three subsets of ellipticals demonstrates that the bright and faint ellipticals follow the same trends of profile shape (weak homology), but that dwarf ellipticals form a separate and distinct structural class with lower central surface brightnesses and extended isophotal radii.
We highlight phenomenological aspects of Verlinde's recent proposal to account for the mass anomalies in galactic systems without dark matter -- in particular in their relation to MOND. Welcome addition to the MOND lore as it is, this approach have reproduced, so far, only a small fraction of MOND phenomenology, and is still rather tentative, both in its theoretical foundations and in its phenomenology. What Verlinde has extracted from this approach, so far, is a formula -- of rather limited applicability, and with no road to generalization in sight -- for the effective gravitational field of a spherical, isolated, static baryonic system. This formula cannot be used to calculate the gravitational field of disk galaxies, with their rich MOND phenomenology. Notably, it cannot predict their rotation curves, except asymptotically. It does not apply to the few-, or many-body problem; so, it cannot give, e.g., the two-body force between two galaxies, or be used to conduct N-body calculations of galaxy formation, evolution, and interactions. The formula cannot be applied to the internal dynamics of a system embedded in an external field, where MOND predicts important consequences. etc. MOND is backed by full-fledged, Lagrangian theories that can be, and are, routinely applied to all the above phenomena, and more. Verlinde's formula, as it now stands, strongly conflicts with solar-system constraints, and cannot fully account for the mass anomalies in the cores of galaxy clusters (a standing conundrum in MOND). The recent weak-lensing test of the formula is, in fact, testing a cornerstone prediction of MOND, one that the formula does reproduce, and which has been tested before in the very same way.
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We revisit the relation between the stellar surface density, the gas surface density, and the gas-phase metallicity of typical disk galaxies in the local Universe with the SDSS-IV/MaNGA survey, using the star formation rate surface density as an indicator for the gas surface density. We show that these three local parameters form a tight relationship, confirming previous works (e.g., by the PINGS and CALIFA surveys), but with a larger sample. We present a new local leaky-box model, assuming star formation history and chemical evolution is localized except for outflowing materials. We show that this model can successfully explain the observed tight stellar surface density-gas surface density-gas phase metallicity relation. In addition, we briefly describe a pathway to improving the current semi-analytic models of galaxy formation by incorporating the local leaky-box model in the cosmological context, which can potentially explain simultaneously multiple properties of Milky Way-type disk galaxies, such as the size growth and the global stellar mass-gas metallicity relation.
A simple, model-independent method to quantify the stochastic variability of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) is the structure function (SF) analysis. If the SF for the timescales shorter than the decorrelation timescale $\tau$ is a single power-law and for the longer ones becomes flat (i.e., the white noise), the auto-correlation function (ACF) of the signal can have the form of the power exponential (PE). We show that the signal decorrelation timescale can be measured directly from the SF as the timescale matching the amplitude 0.795 of the flat SF part (at long timescales), and only then the measurement is independent of the ACF PE power. Typically, the timescale has been measured at an arbitrarily fixed SF amplitude, but as we prove, this approach provides biased results because the AGN SF/PSD slopes, so the ACF shape, are not constant and depend on either the AGN luminosity and/or the black hole mass. In particular, we show that using such a method for the simulated SFs that include a combination of empirically known dependencies between the AGN luminosity $L$ and both the SF amplitude and the PE power, and having no intrinsic $\tau-L$ dependence, produces a fake $\tau \propto L^\kappa$ relation with $0.3\lesssim \kappa \lesssim 0.6$, that otherwise is expected from theoretical works ($\kappa \equiv 0.5$). Our method provides an alternative means for analyzing AGN variability to the standard SF fitting. The caveats, for both methods, are that the light curves must be sufficiently long (several years rest-frame) and the ensemble SF assumes AGNs to have the same underlying variability process.
We report the discovery of a large population of Ultra-diffuse Galaxies (UDGs) in the massive galaxy cluster Abell 2744 (z=0.308) as observed by the Hubble Frontier Fields program. Since this cluster is ~5 times more massive than Coma, our observations allow us to extend 0.7 dex beyond the high-mass end of the relationship between UDG abundance and cluster mass reported by van der Burg et al. 2016. Using the same selection criteria as van der Burg et al. 2016, A2744 hosts an estimated 2133 +/- 613 UDGs, ten times the number in Coma. As noted by Lee & Jang 2016, A2744 contains numerous unresolved compact objects, which those authors identified predominantly as globular clusters. However, these objects have luminosities that are more consistent with ultra-compact dwarf (UCD) galaxies. The abundances of both UCDs and UDGs scale with cluster mass as a power law with a similar exponent, although UDGs and UCDs have very different radial distributions within the cluster. The radial surface density distribution of UCDs rises sharply toward the cluster centre, while the surface density distribution of the UDG population is essentially flat. Together, these observations hint at a picture where some UCDs in A2744 may have once been associated with infalling UDGs. As UDGs fall in and dissolve, they leave behind a residue of unbound ultra-compact dwarfs.
We present results of two- and three-dimensional, multi-physics simulations of an AGN jet colliding with an intergalactic cloud. The purpose of these simulations is to assess the degree of "positive feedback," i.e. jet-induced star formation, that results from such a collision. We have specifically tailored our simulation parameters to facilitate comparison with recent observations of Minkowski's Object (M.O.), a stellar nursery located at the termination point of a radio jet coming from galaxy NGC 541. As shown in our simulations, such a collision triggers shocks which propagate around and through the cloud. These shocks condense the gas and trigger cooling instabilities, creating runaway increases in density, to the point that individual clumps can become Jeans unstable. Our simulations provide information about the expected star formation rate, total mass converted to \ion{H}{1}, H$_2$, and stars, and the relative velocity of the stars and gas. Our results confirm the possibility of jet-induced star formation, though fail to match the level observed in M.O. We discuss ways in which the agreement might be improved in future simulations.
We report the result from observations conducted with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to detect [CII] 158 um fine structure line emission from galaxies embedded in one of the most spectacular Lyman-alpha blobs (LABs) at z=3.1, SSA22-LAB1. Of three dusty star-forming galaxies previously discovered by ALMA 860 um dust continuum survey toward SSA22-LAB1, we detected the [CII] line from one, LAB1-ALMA3 at z=3.0993+/-0.0004. No line emission was detected, associated with the other ALMA continuum sources or from three rest-frame UV/optical selected z_spec~3.1 galaxies within the field of view. For LAB1-ALMA3, we find relatively bright [CII] emission compared to the infrared luminosity (L_[CII]/L_[CII]) and an extremely high [CII] 158 um and [NII] 205 um emission line ratio (L_[CII]/L_[NII]>55). The relatively strong [CII] emission may be caused by abundant photodissociation regions and sub-solar metallicity, or by shock heating. The origin of the unusually strong [CII] emission could be causally related to the location within the giant LAB, although the relationship between extended Lyman-alpha emission and ISM conditions of associated galaxies is yet to be understand.
We have determined new relations between $UBV$ colors and mass-to-light ratios ($M/L$) for dwarf irregular (dIrr) galaxies, as well as for transformed $g^\prime - r^\prime$. These $M/L$ to color relations (MLCRs) are based on stellar mass density profiles determined for 34 LITTLE THINGS dwarfs from spectral energy distribution fitting to multi-wavelength surface photometry in passbands from the FUV to the NIR. These relations can be used to determine stellar masses in dIrr galaxies for situations where other determinations of stellar mass are not possible. Our MLCRs are shallower than comparable MLCRs in the literature determined for spiral galaxies. We divided our dwarf data into four metallicity bins and found indications of a steepening of the MLCR with increased oxygen abundance, perhaps due to more line blanketing occurring at higher metallicity.
Aims. We aim to systematically study the properties of the different transitions of the dense molecular gas tracer HC3N in galaxies. Methods. We have conducted single-dish observations of HC3N emission lines towards a sample of nearby gas-rich galaxies. HC3N(J=2-1) was observed in 20 galaxies with Effelsberg 100-m telescope. HC3N(J=24-23) was observed in nine galaxies with the 10-m Submillimeter Telescope (SMT). Results. HC3 N 2-1 is detected in three galaxies: IC 342, M 66 and NGC 660 (> 3 {\sigma}). HC3 N 24-23 is detected in three galaxies: IC 342, NGC 1068 and IC 694. This is the first measurements of HC3N 2-1 in a relatively large sample of external galaxies, although the detection rate is low. For the HC3 N 2-1 non-detections, upper limits (2 {\sigma}) are derived for each galaxy, and stacking the non-detections is attempted to recover the weak signal of HC3N. But the stacked spectrum does not show any significant signs of HC3N 2-1 emission. The results are also compared with other transitions of HC3N observed in galaxies. Conclusions. The low detection rate of both transitions suggests low abundance of HC3N in galaxies, which is consistent with other observational studies. The comparison between HC3N and HCN or HCO+shows a large diversity in the ratios between HC3N and HCN or HCO+. More observations are needed to interpret the behavior of HC3N in different types of galaxies.
Faraday tomography allows astronomers to probe the distribution of magnetic field along the line of sight (LOS), but that can be achieved only after Faraday spectrum is interpreted. However, the interpretation is not straightforward, because the turbulent component of magnetic field ruins the one-to-one relation between the Faraday depth and the physical depth. In this paper, we study how the Faraday spectrum along "multiple LOSs", covering a small region in the sky over which the properties of physical quantities are assumed to be uniform, can be used to overcome the obstacle. Considering face-on spiral galaxies and modeling the turbulent magnetic field as a random field with single coherence length, we calculate the Faraday spectrum along a number of LOSs and its shape-characterizing parameters, that is, the moments of the spectrum. We show that when multiple LOSs cover a region of $\gtrsim (10\ {\rm coherence\ length)^2}$, the shape of the Faraday spectrum becomes smooth and the shape-characterizing parameters are well specified. With the Faraday spectrum constructed as a sum of Gaussian functions with different means and variances, the parameters are expressed in terms of the regular and turbulent components of LOS magnetic field and the coherence length. We also consider the turbulent magnetic field modeled with power-law spectra, and study how the magnetic field is revealed in Faraday spectrum. Although it still needs to be further refined by including observational effects and considering more realistic models, our work suggests a way to extract the magnetic field information using Faraday tomography.
We present an observational study of the effect of bars on the gas component and on the star formation properties of their host galaxies in a statistically significant sample of resolved objects, the $Herschel$ Reference Sample. The analysis of optical and far--infrared images allows us to identify a clear spatial correlation between stellar bars and the cold-gas distribution mapped by the warm dust emission. We find that the infrared counterparts of optically identified bars are either bar--like structures or dead central regions in which star formation is strongly suppressed. Similar morphologies are found in the distribution of star formation directly traced by H$\alpha$ maps. The sizes of such optical and infrared structures correlate remarkably well, hinting at a causal connection. In the light of previous observations and of theoretical investigations in the literature, we interpret our findings as further evidence of the scenario in which bars drive strong inflows toward their host nuclei: young bars are still in the process of perturbing the gas and star formation clearly delineates the shape of the bars; old bars on the contrary already removed any gas within their extents, carving a dead region of negligible star formation.
Intermediate mass black holes (BHs) with masses in the range $M_\bullet \sim 10^2-10^5\,M_\odot$ are the long-sought missing link between stellar mass BHs born of supernovae, and supermassive BHs, which are tied to large-scale galactic evolution, as suggested by the yet unexplained empirical $M/\sigma$ correlation between the central BH's mass and the stellar velocity dispersion of the host galaxy's bulge, $M_\bullet(\sigma) = M_s (\sigma/\sigma_s)^\beta$. We show that low-mass BH seeds that grow by accreting stars in galactic nuclei that follow a universal $M/\sigma$ relation, all converge over the age of the universe to a single present-day mass scale $\cal{M}_0 \sim 2\times 10^5\,{\it M_\odot}$ (5% lower C.L.), independently of the unknown initial seed mass and its formation process. $\cal{M}_0$ depends only weakly on the uncertainties in the BH formation redshift, and provides a universal minimal mass scale for BHs that grow also by gas accretion or mergers. This can explain why no intermediate mass BHs with mass $M_\bullet < \cal{M}_0$ were found to date, and implies that present day galaxies with velocity dispersion $\sigma < \cal{S}_0 = \sigma_s ( \cal{M}_0 / M_s )^{1/\beta} \sim 35\,{\rm km\,s^{-1}}$ (5% lower C.L.) do not have a central BH, or formed their seed BH only recently. A dearth of BHs with mass below $\cal{M}_0$ has observable implications for the nature and rates of tidal disruption of stars by central BHs and for gravitational wave (GW) sources from BH-BH mergers and the inspiral of compact stellar remnants into BHs in galactic nuclei.
Context: Galactic structure studies can be used as a path to constrain the scenario of formation and evolution of our Galaxy. The dependence with the age of stellar population parameters would be linked with the history of star formation and dynamical evolution. Aims: We investigate the structures of the outer Galaxy, such as the scale length, disc truncation, warp and flare of the thin disc and study their dependence with age by using 2MASS data and a population synthesis model (the so-called Besan\c{c}on Galaxy Model). Methods: A Genetic Algorithm is used to adjust the parameters on the observed colour-magnitude diagrams at longitudes 80\deg <= l <= 280\deg for |b| <= 5.5\deg. We explore parameter degeneracies and uncertainties. Results: We identify a clear dependence of the thin disc scale length, warp and flare shapes with age. The scale length is found to vary between 3.8 kpc for the youngest to about 2 kpc for the oldest. The warp shows a complex structure, clearly asymmetrical with a node angle changing with age from approximately 165\deg for old stars to 195\deg for young stars. The outer disc is also flaring with a scale height varying by a factor of two between the solar neighbourhood and a Galactocentric distance of 12 kpc. Conclusions: We conclude that the thin disc scale length is well in agreement with the inside-out formation scenario and that the outer disc is not in dynamical equilibrium. The warp deformation with time may provide some clues to its origin.
We introduce a new methodology for time-domain signal processing, based on deep learning neural networks, which has the potential to revolutionize data analysis in science. To illustrate how this enables real-time multimessenger astrophysics, we designed two deep convolutional neural networks that can analyze time-series data from observatories including advanced LIGO. The first neural network recognizes the presence of gravitational waves from binary black hole mergers, and the second one estimates the mass of each black hole, given weak signals hidden in extremely noisy time-series inputs. We highlight the advantages offered by this novel method, which outperforms matched-filtering or conventional machine learning techniques, and propose strategies to extend our implementation for simultaneously targeting different classes of gravitational wave sources while ignoring anomalous noise transients. Our results strongly indicate that deep neural networks are highly efficient and versatile tools for directly processing raw noisy data streams. Furthermore, we pioneer a new paradigm to accelerate scientific discovery by combining high-performance simulations on traditional supercomputers and artificial intelligence algorithms that exploit innovative hardware architectures such as deep-learning-optimized GPUs. This unique approach immediately provides a natural framework to unify multi-spectrum observations in real-time, thus enabling coincident detection campaigns of gravitational waves sources and their electromagnetic counterparts.
The heated debate on the importance of stellar rotation and age spreads in massive star clusters has just become hotter by throwing stellar variability into the mix.
We present detailed analysis of a young merging galaxy cluster \mac~ (z=0.43) consisting of two pre-defined substructures whose cores are separated by a projected distance of $\sim$245\,kpc. This study has made use of currently available deep 83\,ksec {\it Chandra} X-ray and {\it Hubble Space Telescope} archival data on this source. We detect excess X-ray emission (EE) at $\sim$870\,kpc from the centre of \mac~. The EE coinciding with a third subcluster (SC3) in the ongoing merger system detected in this study. We found that the radio halo whose peak emission coincide with SC1 of \mac~ cluster is responsible for the observed X-ray decrement. We show that being highly disturbed dynamical state and with very hot ICM temperature ($T \sim 13$\,keV) \mac~is very similar to the well-known `Bullet Cluster' (1E 0657-56) with similar properties and also hosts a radio halo. We also report a tail shaped unique feature of excess X-ray emission originating from the centre of SC2 and is directed to the north-east side of \mac~. The X-ray spectral analysis of the subclusters revealed that SC1 is cooler than SC2. We also detect two surface brightness edges at $\sim$40$\arcsec$ ($\sim$ 323\,kpc) and $\sim$80$\arcsec$ ($\sim$ 647\,kpc) from the centre of \mac~. The inner edge E1 is a merger driven cold front while outer edge E2 is a shock front.
Before the publication of the Gaia Catalogue, the contents of the first data release have undergone multiple dedicated validation tests. These tests aim at analysing in-depth the Catalogue content to detect anomalies, individual problems in specific objects or in overall statistical properties, either to filter them before the public release, or to describe the different caveats of the release for an optimal exploitation of the data. Dedicated methods using either Gaia internal data, external catalogues or models have been developed for the validation processes. They are testing normal stars as well as various populations like open or globular clusters, double stars, variable stars, quasars. Properties of coverage, accuracy and precision of the data are provided by the numerous tests presented here and jointly analysed to assess the data release content. This independent validation confirms the quality of the published data, Gaia DR1 being the most precise all-sky astrometric and photometric catalogue to-date. However, several limitations in terms of completeness, astrometric and photometric quality are identified and described. Figures describing the relevant properties of the release are shown and the testing activities carried out validating the user interfaces are also described. A particular emphasis is made on the statistical use of the data in scientific exploitation.
We present the X-ray point source population of NGC 7457 based on 124 ks of Chandra observations. Previous deep Chandra observations of low mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) in early-type galaxies have typically targeted the large populations of massive galaxies. NGC 7457 is a nearby, early-type galaxy with a stellar luminosity of $1.7\times10^{10} L_{K\odot}$, allowing us to investigate the populations in a relatively low mass galaxy. We classify the detected X-ray sources into field LMXBs, globular cluster LMXBs, and background AGN based on identifying optical counterparts in new HST/ACS images. We detect 10 field LMXBs within the $r_{ext}$ ellipse of NGC 7457 (with semi-major axis $\sim$ 9.1 kpc, ellipticity = 0.55). The corresponding number of LMXBs with $L_{x}>2\times10^{37}erg/s$ per stellar luminosity is consistent with that observed in more massive galaxies, $\sim 7$ per $10^{10} L_{K\odot}$. We detect a small globular cluster population in these HST data and show that its colour distribution is likely bimodal and that its specific frequency is similar to that of other early type galaxies. However, no X-ray emission is detected from any of these clusters. Using published data for other galaxies, we show that this non-detection is consistent with the small stellar mass of these clusters. We estimate that 0.11 (and 0.03) LMXBs are expected per $10^{6}M_{\odot}$ in metal-rich (and metal-poor) globular clusters. This corresponds to 1100 (and 330) LMXBs per $10^{10} L_{K\odot}$, highlighting the enhanced formation efficiency of LMXBs in globular clusters. A nuclear X-ray source is detected with $L_{x}$ varying from $2.8-6.8\times10^{38}erg/s$. Combining this $L_{x}$ with a published dynamical mass estimate for the central SMBH in NGC 7457, we find that $L_{x}/L_{Edd}$ varies from $0.5-1.3\times10^{-6}$.
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The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC and SMC) are unique local laboratories for studying the formation and evolution of small galaxies in exquisite detail. The Survey of the MAgellanic Stellar History (SMASH) is an NOAO community DECam survey of the Clouds mapping 480 square degrees (distributed over ~2400 square degrees at ~20% filling factor) to ~24th mag in ugriz with the goal of identifying broadly distributed, low surface brightness stellar populations associated with the stellar halos and tidal debris of the Clouds. SMASH will also derive spatially-resolved star formation histories covering all ages out to large radii from the MCs that will further complement our understanding of their formation. Here, we present a summary of the survey, its data reduction, and a description of the first public Data Release (DR1). The SMASH DECam data have been reduced with a combination of the NOAO Community Pipeline, PHOTRED, an automated PSF photometry pipeline based mainly on the DAOPHOT suite, and custom calibration software. The attained astrometric precision is ~15 mas and the accuracy is ~2 mas with respect to the Gaia DR1 astrometric reference frame. The photometric precision is ~0.5-0.7% in griz and ~1% in u with a calibration accuracy of ~1.3% in all bands. The median 5 sigma point source depths in ugriz bands are 23.9, 24.8, 24.5, 24.2, 23.5 mag. The SMASH data already have been used to discover the Hydra II Milky Way satellite, the SMASH 1 old globular cluster likely associated with the LMC, and very extended stellar populations around the LMC out to R~18.4 kpc. SMASH DR1 contains measurements of ~100 million objects distributed in 61 fields. A prototype version of the NOAO Data Lab provides data access, including a data discovery tool, SMASH database access, an image cutout service, and a Jupyter notebook server with example notebooks for exploratory analysis.
Dynamical friction is thought to be a principal mechanism responsible for orbital evolution of massive black holes (MBHs) in the aftermath of galactic mergers and an important channel for formation of gravitationally bound MBH binaries. We use 2D radiative hydrodynamic simulations to investigate the efficiency of dynamical friction in presence of radiative feedback from an MBH moving through a uniform density gas. We find that ionizing radiation that emerges from the innermost parts of the MBH's accretion flow strongly affects the dynamical friction wake and renders dynamical friction inefficient for a range of physical scenarios. MBHs in this regime tend to experience positive net acceleration, meaning that they speed up, contrary to the expectations for gaseous dynamical friction in absence of radiative feedback. The magnitude of this acceleration is however negligibly small and should not significantly alter the velocity of MBHs over relevant physical timescales. Our results suggest that suppression of dynamical friction is more severe at the lower mass end of the MBH spectrum which, compounded with inefficiency of the gas drag for lower mass objects in general, implies that $< 10^7$ solar mass MBHs have fewer means to reach the centers of merged galaxies. These findings provide formulation for a sub-resolution model of dynamical friction in presence of MBH radiative feedback that can be easily implemented in large scale simulations.
We report the detection of two dwarf galaxies in a projected distance of ~50 kpc from NGC 7331 and suspect the physical nature of dwarfs of this spiral galaxy.
With the start of the Gaia era, the time has come to address the major challenge of deriving the star formation history and evolution of the disk of our MilkyWay. Here we review our present knowledge of the outer regions of the Milky Way disk population. Its stellar content, its structure and its dynamical and chemical evolution are summarized, focussing on our lack of understanding both from an observational and a theoretical viewpoint. We describe the unprecedented data that Gaia and the upcoming ground-based spectroscopic surveys will provide in the next decade. More in detail, we quantify the expect accuracy in position, velocity and astrophysical parameters of some of the key tracers of the stellar populations in the outer Galactic disk. Some insights on the future capability of these surveys to answer crucial and fundamental issues are discussed, such as the mechanisms driving the spiral arms and the warp formation. Our Galaxy, theMilkyWay, is our cosmological laboratory for understanding the process of formation and evolution of disk galaxies. What we learn in the next decades will be naturally transferred to the extragalactic domain.
We investigate the formation and early evolution of star clusters assuming that they form from a turbulent starless clump of given mass bounded inside a parent self-gravitating molecular cloud characterized by a particular mass surface density. As a first step we assume instantaneous star cluster formation and gas expulsion. We draw our initial conditions from observed properties of starless clumps. We follow the early evolution of the clusters up to 20 Myr, investigating effects of different star formation efficiencies, primordial binary fractions and eccentricities and primordial mass segregation levels. We investigate clumps with initial masses of $M_{\rm cl}=3000\:{\rm M}_\odot$ embedded in ambient cloud environments with mass surface densities, $\Sigma_{\rm cloud}=0.1$ and $1\:{\rm g\:cm^{-2}}$. We show that these models of fast star cluster formation result, in the fiducial case, in clusters that expand rapidly, even considering only the bound members. Clusters formed from higher $\Sigma_{\rm cloud}$ environments tend to expand more quickly, so are soon larger than clusters born from lower $\Sigma_{\rm cloud}$ conditions. To form a young cluster of a given age, stellar mass and mass surface density, these models need to assume a parent molecular clump that is many times denser, which is unrealistic compared to observed systems. We also show that in these models the initial binary properties are only slightly modified by interactions, meaning that binary properties, e.g., at 20 Myr, are very similar to those at birth. With this study we set up the basis of future work where we will investigate more realistic models of star formation compared to this instantaneous, baseline case.
Chemical abundances of eight O- and B-type stars are determined from
high-resolution spectra obtained with the MIKE instrument on the Magellan 6.5m
Clay telescope. The sample is selected from 42 candidates of membership in the
Leading Arm of the Magellanic System. Stellar parameters are measured by two
independent grids of model atmospheres and analysis procedures, confirming the
consistency of the stellar parameter results. Abundances of seven elements (He,
C, N, O, Mg, Si, and S) are determined for the stars, as are their radial
velocities and estimates of distances and ages.
Among the seven B-type stars analyzed, the five that have radial velocities
compatible with membership to the LA have an average [Mg/H] of $-0.42\pm0.16$,
significantly lower than the average of the remaining two [Mg/H] =
$-0.07\pm0.06$ that are kinematical members of the Galactic disk. Among the
five LA members, four have individual [Mg/H] abundance compatible with that in
the LMC. Within errors, we can not exclude the possibility that one of these
stars has a [Mg/H] consistent with the more metal-poor, SMC-like material. The
remaining fifth star has a [Mg/H] close to MW values. Distances to the LA
members indicate that they are at the edge of the Galactic disk, while ages are
of the order of $\sim 50-70$ Myr, lower than the dynamical age of the LA,
suggesting a single star-forming episode in the LA. V$_{\rm LSR}$ the LA
members decreases with decreasing Magellanic longitude, confirming the results
of previous LA gas studies.
Aims: In this paper we focus on the occurrence of glycolaldehyde (HCOCH2OH) in young solar analogs by performing the first homogeneous and unbiased study of this molecule in the Class 0 protostars of the nearby Perseus star forming region. Methods: We obtained sub-arcsec angular resolution maps at 1.3mm and 1.4mm of glycolaldehyde emission lines using the IRAM Plateau de Bure (PdB) interferometer in the framework of the CALYPSO IRAM large program. Results: Glycolaldehyde has been detected towards 3 Class 0 and 1 Class I protostars out of the 13 continuum sources targeted in Perseus: NGC1333-IRAS2A1, NGC1333-IRAS4A2, NGC1333-IRAS4B1, and SVS13-A. The NGC1333 star forming region looks particularly glycolaldehyde rich, with a rate of occurrence up to 60%. The glycolaldehyde spatial distribution overlaps with the continuum one, tracing the inner 100 au around the protostar. A large number of lines (up to 18), with upper-level energies Eu from 37 K up to 375 K has been detected. We derived column densities > 10^15 cm^-2 and rotational temperatures Trot between 115 K and 236 K, imaging for the first time hot-corinos around NGC1333-IRAS4B1 and SVS13-A. Conclusions: In multiple systems glycolaldehyde emission is detected only in one component. The case of the SVS13-A+B and IRAS4-A1+A2 systems support that the detection of glycolaldehyde (at least in the present Perseus sample) indicates older protostars (i.e. SVS13-A and IRAS4-A2), evolved enough to develop the hot-corino region (i.e. 100 K in the inner 100 au). However, only two systems do not allow us to firmly conclude whether the primary factor leading to the detection of glycolaldehyde emission is the environments hosting the protostars, evolution (e.g. low value of Lsubmm/Lint), or accretion luminosity (high Lint).
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We utilize cosmological hydrodynamic simulations to study the formation of Population III (Pop III) stars in dark matter halos exposed to strong ionizing radiation. We simulate the formation of three halos subjected to a wide range of ionizing fluxes, and find that for high flux, ionization and photoheating can delay gas collapse and star formation up to halo masses significantly larger than the atomic cooling threshold. The threshold halo mass at which gas first collapses and cools increases with ionizing flux for intermediate values, and saturates at a value approximately an order of magnitude above the atomic cooling threshold for extremely high flux (e.g. $\approx 5 \times 10^8 ~ M_\odot$ at $z\approx6$). This behavior can be understood in terms of photoheating, ionization/recombination, and Ly$\alpha$ cooling in the pressure-supported, self-shielded gas core at the center of the growing dark matter halo. We examine the spherically-averaged radial velocity profiles of collapsing gas and find that a gas mass of up to $\approx 10^{6}~ M_\odot$ can reach the central regions within $3~{\rm Myr}$, providing an upper limit on the amount of massive Pop III stars that can form. The ionizing radiation increases this limit by a factor of a few compared to strong Lyman-Werner (LW) radiation alone. We conclude that the bright HeII 1640 \AA\ emission recently observed from the high-redshift galaxy CR7 cannot be explained by Pop III stars alone. However, in some halos, a sufficient number of Pop III stars may form to be detectable with future telescopes such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
Super star clusters (SSCs), likely the progenitors of globular clusters, are one of the most extreme forms of star formation. Understanding how SSCs form is an observational challenge. Theoretical studies establish that, to form such clusters, the dynamical timescale of their parent clouds has to be shorter than the timescale of the disruption of their parent clouds by stellar feedback. However, due to insufficient observational support, it is still unclear how feedback from SSCs acts on their surrounding matter. Studying feedback in SSCs is essential to understand how such clusters form. Based on ALMA and VLT observations, we study this process in a SSC in the overlap region of the Antennae galaxies. We analyze a unique massive (~10^7 Msun) and young (1-3.5 Myr) SSC, still associated with compact molecular and ionized gas emission. The cluster has two CO velocity components, a low velocity one spatially associated with the cluster and a high velocity one distributed in a bubble-like shape around the cluster. Our results on the low velocity component suggest that this gas did not participate in the formation of the SSC. We propose that most of the parent cloud has already been blown away, accelerated at the early stages of the SSC evolution by radiation pressure, in a timescale ~1 Myr. The high velocity component may trace outflowing molecular gas from the parent cloud. Supporting evidence is found in shock heated H2 gas. The low velocity component may be gas that was near the SSC when it formed but not part of its parent cloud or clumps that migrated from the SGMC environment. This gas would be dispersed by stellar winds and supernova explosions. Within ~100 pc from the cluster, we estimate SFE>17%, smaller than the theoretical limit of 30% needed to form a bound cluster. Further higher spatial resolution observations are needed to test and quantify our proposed scenario.
We use optical spectra from the inner 2$\times$3kpc$^2$ of the Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC1667, obtained with the GMOS integral field spectrograph on the Gemini South telescope at a spatial resolution of $\approx$ 240pc, to assess the feeding and feedback processes in this nearby AGN. We have identified two gaseous kinematical components in the emission line profiles: a broader component ($\sigma\approx$ 400km s$^{-1}$) which is observed in the inner 1-2arcsec and a narrower component ($\sigma\approx$ 200km s$^{-1}$) which is present over the entire field-of-view. We identify the broader component as due to an unresolved nuclear outflow. The narrower component velocity field shows strong isovelocity twists relative to a rotation pattern, implying the presence of strong non-circular motions. The subtraction of a rotational model reveals that these twists are caused by outflowing gas in the inner $\approx$ 1arcsec, and by inflows associated with two spiral arms at larger radii. We calculate an ionized gas mass outflow rate of $\dot{M}_{out}\approx$ 0.16M$_{\odot}$yr$^{-1}$. We calculate the net gas mass flow rate across a series of concentric rings, obtaining a maximum mass inflow rate in ionized gas of $\approx$ 2.8M$_{\odot}$year$^{-1}$ at 800pc from the nucleus, which is two orders of magnitude larger than the accretion rate necessary to power this AGN. However, as the mass inflow rate decreases at smaller radii, most of the gas probably will not reach the AGN, but accumulate in the inner few hundred parsecs. This will create a reservoir of gas that can trigger the formation of new stars.
We systematically study, in the context of the standard cold dark matter model, star-formation suppression effects of two important known physical processes --- gravitational shock heating due to formation of massive halos and large-scale structure and photoheating due to reionization of the intergalactic medium --- on the global evolution of star formation rate (SFR) density and the so-called cosmic downsizing phenomenon in the redshift range z=0-6. We show that the steep decline of cosmic SFR density from z~2 to z=0 can be entirely explained by gravitational shock heating in two forms: massive halo self-quenching and hot environment. The photoheating effect is found to play a role in suppressing star formation, primarily at z>2, when small halos comprise a significant fraction of collapsed mass. Simultaneously, we show that with gravitational shock heating effects the average SFR of star-forming galaxies decreases by a factor of about ten from z=2 to z=0, reproducing the observed cosmic downsizing at z<2. Nevertheless, the average halo mass of star-forming galaxies is found to continue upsizing from z=2 to z=0, consistent with the hierarchical structure formation picture. In stark contrast to z<2 we find that additional negative feedback effects are required to reconcile with observations at z>2. Stellar evolution and supermassive black hole growth are the natural candidates for this role, which is physically more logical, because galaxies at z>2 are more moderate in mass but stronger in star formation and are thus more vulnerable to the internal negative feedback processes.
We present an analysis of the blank sky spectra observed with the Faint Object Spectrograph on board the Hubble Space Telescope. We study the diffuse sky emission from ultraviolet to optical wavelengths, which is composed of the zodiacal light (ZL), diffuse Galactic light (DGL), and residual emission. The observations were performed toward 54 fields distributed widely over the sky, with the spectral coverage from 0.2 to 0.7 um. In order to avoid contaminating light from the earthshine, we use the data collected only in orbital nighttime. The observed intensity is decomposed into the ZL, DGL, and residual emission, in eight photometric bands spanning our spectral coverage. We found that the derived ZL reflectance spectrum is flat in the optical, which indicates major contribution of C-type asteroids to the interplanetary dust (IPD). In addition, the ZL reflectance spectrum has an absorption feature at ~0.3 um. The shape of the DGL spectrum is consistent with those found in earlier measurements and model predictions. While the residual emission contains a contribution from the extragalactic background light, we found that the spectral shape of the residual looks similar to the ZL spectrum. Moreover, its optical intensity is much higher than that measured from beyond the IPD cloud by Pioneer10/11, and also than that of the integrated galaxy light. These findings may indicate the presence of an isotropic ZL component, which is missed in the conventional ZL models.
We present new SINFONI near-infrared integral field unit (IFU) spectroscopy and SALT optical long-slit spectroscopy characterising the history of a nearby merging luminous infrared galaxy, dubbed the Bird (IRAS19115-2114). The NIR line-ratio maps of the IFU data-cubes and stellar population fitting of the SALT spectra now allow dating of the star formation (SF) over the triple system uncovered from our previous adaptive optics data. The distinct components separate very clearly in a line-ratio diagnostic diagram. An off-nuclear pure starburst dominates the current SF of the Bird with 60-70% of the total, with a 4-7 Myr age, and signs of a fairly constant long-term star formation of the underlying stellar population. The most massive nucleus, in contrast, is quenched with a starburst age of >40 Myr and shows hints of budding AGN activity. The secondary massive nucleus is at an intermediate stage. The two major components have a population of older stars, consistent with a starburst triggered 1 Gyr ago in a first encounter. The simplest explanation of the history is that of a triple merger, where the strongly star forming component has joined later. We detect multiple gas flows in different phases. The Bird offers an opportunity to witness multiple stages of galaxy evolution in the same system; triggering as well as quenching of SF, and the early appearance of AGN activity. It also serves as a cautionary note on interpretations of observations with lower spatial resolution and/or without infrared data. At high-redshift the system would look like a clumpy starburst with crucial pieces of its puzzle hidden, in danger of misinterpretations.
We present near--infrared (NIR) imaging of FBQS J164442.5+261913, one of the few $\gamma$--ray emitting Narrow Line Seyfert 1 ($\gamma-$NLSy1) galaxies detected at high significance level by $Fermi$--LAT. This study is the first morphological analysis performed of this source and the third performed of this class of objects. Conducting a detailed two--dimensional modeling of its surface brightness distribution and analysing its $J-K_s$ colour gradients, we find that FBQS J164442.5+261913 is statistically most likely hosted by a barred lenticular galaxy (SB0). We find evidence that the bulge in the host galaxy of FBQS J164442.5+261913 is not classical but pseudo, against the paradigm of powerful relativistic jets exclusively launched by giant ellipticals. Our analysis, also reveal the presence of a ring with diameter equalling the bar length ($r_{bar} = 8.13\ \textrm{kpc}\pm 0.25$), whose origin might be a combination of bar--driven gas rearrangement and minor mergers, as revealed by the apparent merger remnant in the $J$--band image. In general, our results suggest that the prominent bar in the host galaxy of FBQS J164442.5+261913 has mostly contributed to its overall morphology driving a strong secular evolution, which plays a crucial role in the onset of the nuclear activity and the growth of the massive bulge. Minor mergers, in conjunction, are likely to provide the necessary fresh supply of gas to the central regions of the host galaxy.
Cold Dark Matter (CDM) has shown to be an excellent candidate for the dark matter of the universe at large scales, however it presents several difficulties with observations at the galactic level. On the other side, the Scalar Field Dark Matter (SFDM), also called Fuzzy, Wave, Bose-Einstein Condensate or Ultra-light Axion DM, is identical to CDM at cosmological scales but different at the galactic ones. Because of its quantum nature, the SFDM forms haloes with core density profiles; it has a natural cut-off in its matter power spectrum, thus it fits well the amount of satellite galaxies in the Milky Way neighbourhood, and predicts well-formed galaxies at high redshifts. In the recent years astronomers have measured the rotation curves and the amount of luminous matter and gas in galaxies with great accuracy. In this work we reproduce the rotation curves of high-resolution LSB and SPARC galaxies with two different SFDM profiles: (1) The soliton+NFW profile in the Wave DM ($\psi$DM) model, arising empirically from cosmological simulations of real, non-interacting SF at zero temperature, and (2) the multistate SFDM profile, an exact solution to the Einstein-Klein-Gordon evolution eqs. for a SF perturbation, taking into account the self-interaction and temperature of the real SF, introducing several quantum states as a realistic model for a SFDM halo. From the fits with the soliton+NFW profile, without assuming any cosmological restriction on the boson mass $m_\psi$, we obtained $0.264<m_\psi/(10^{-23}\mathrm{eV}/c^2)<30.0$ and for the core radius $0.311< r_c/\mathrm{kpc}<4.90$. Additionally we show the multistate SFDM model fits the observations better than the empirical soliton+NFW profile in a very simple way, even at the centres of the galaxies, and it reproduces naturally the wiggles present in some galaxies, being a theoretically motivated framework alternative to the $\psi$DM profile.
Powerful radio galaxies exist as either compact or extended sources, with the extended sources traditionally classified by their radio morphologies as Fanaroff--Riley (FR) type I and II sources. FRI/II and compact radio galaxies have also been classified by their optical spectra into two different types: high excitation (HERG; quasar-mode) and low excitation (LERG; jet-mode). We present a catalogue of visual morphologies for a complete sample of $>$1000 1.4-GHz-selected extended radio sources from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We study the environment and host galaxy properties of FRI/II and compact sources, classified into HERG/LERG types, in order to separate and distinguish the factors that drive the radio morphological variations from those responsible for the spectral properties. Comparing FRI LERGs with FRII LERGs at fixed stellar mass and radio luminosity, we show that FRIs typically reside in richer environments and are hosted by smaller galaxies with higher mass surface density; this is consistent with extrinsic effects of jet disruption driving the FR dichotomy. Using matched samples of HERGs and LERGs, we show that HERG host galaxies are more frequently star-forming, with more evidence for disk-like structure than LERGs, in accordance with currently-favoured models of fundamentally different fuelling mechanisms. Comparing FRI/II LERGs with compact LERGs, we find the primary difference is that compact objects typically harbour less massive black holes. This suggests that lower-mass black holes may be less efficient at launching stable radio jets, or do so for shorter times. Finally, we investigate rarer sub-classes: wide-angle tail, head-tail, FR-hybrid and double-double sources.
The nature of turbulence in molecular clouds is one of the key parameters that control star formation efficiency: compressive motions, as opposed to solenoidal motions, can trigger the collapse of cores, or mark the expansion of Hii regions. We try to observationally derive the fractions of momentum density ($\rho v$) contained in the solenoidal and compressive modes of turbulence in the Orion B molecular cloud and relate these fractions to the star formation efficiency in the cloud. The implementation of a statistical method developed by Brunt & Federrath (2014), applied to a $^{13}$CO(J=1-0) datacube obtained with the IRAM-30m telescope, allows us to retrieve 3-dimensional quantities from the projected quantities provided by the observations, yielding an estimate of the compressive versus solenoidal ratio in various regions of the cloud. Despite the Orion B molecular cloud being highly supersonic (mean Mach number $\sim$ 6), the fractions of motion in each mode diverge significantly from equipartition. The cloud's motions are on average mostly solenoidal (excess > 8 % with respect to equipartition), which is consistent with its low star formation rate. On the other hand, the motions around the main star-forming regions (NGC 2023 and NGC 2024) prove to be strongly compressive. We have successfully applied to observational data a method that was so far only tested on simulations, and have shown that there can be a strong intra-cloud variability of the compressive and solenoidal fractions, these fractions being in turn related to the star formation efficiency. This opens a new possibility for star-formation diagnostics in galactic molecular clouds.
We present a sample of 48 metal-poor galaxies at $ z < 0.14$ selected from 92,510 galaxies in the LAMOST survey. These galaxies are identified for their detection of the auroral emission line \oiii$\lambda$4363 above $3\sigma$ level, which allows a direct measurement of the electron temperature and the oxygen abundance. The emission line fluxes are corrected for internal dust extinction using Balmer decrement method. With electron temperature derived from \oiii$\lambda\lambda4959,5007/\oiii\lambda4363$ and electron density from $\sii\lambda6731/\sii\lambda6717$, we obtain the oxygen abundances in our sample which range from $\zoh= 7.63$ (0.09 $\Zsun$) to $8.46$ (0.6 $\Zsun$). We find an extremely metal-poor galaxy with $\zoh=7.63 \pm 0.01$. With multiband photometric data from FUV to NIR and $\ha$ measurements, we also determine the stellar masses and star formation rates, based on the spectral energy distribution fitting and $\ha$ luminosity, respectively. We find that our galaxies have low and intermediate stellar masses with $\rm 6.39 \le log(M/M_{\sun})\le 9.27$, and high star formation rates (SFRs) with $\rm -2.18 \le log(SFR/M_{\sun} yr^{-1}) \le 1.95$. We also find that the metallicities of our galaxies are consistent with the local $T_e$-based mass-metallicity relation, while the scatter is about 0.28 dex. Additionally, assuming the coefficient of $\rm \alpha =0.66$, we find most of our galaxies follow the local mass-metallicity-SFR relation, while a scatter about 0.24 dex exists, suggesting the mass-metallicity relation is weakly dependent on SFR for those metal-poor galaxies.
The self-enrichment of massive star clusters by p-processed elements is shown to increase significantly with increasing gas density as a result of enhanced star formation rates and stellar scatterings compared to the lifetime of a massive star. Considering the type of cloud core where a globular cluster might have formed, we follow the evolution and enrichment of the gas and the time dependence of stellar mass. A key assumption is that interactions between massive stars are important at high density, including interactions between massive stars and massive star binaries that can shred stellar envelopes. Massive-star interactions should also scatter low-mass stars out of the cluster. Reasonable agreement with the observations is obtained for a cloud core mass of ~4x10^6 M_sun and a density of ~2x10^6 cm^{-3}. The results depend primarily on a few dimensionless parameters, including, most importantly, the ratio of the gas consumption time to the lifetime of a massive star, which has to be low, ~10%, and the efficiency of scattering low-mass stars per unit dynamical time, which has to be relatively large, such as a few percent. Also for these conditions, the velocity dispersions of embedded globular clusters should be comparable to the high gas dispersions of galaxies at that time, so that stellar ejection by multi-star interactions could cause low-mass stars to leave a dwarf galaxy host altogether. This could solve the problem of missing first-generation stars in the halos of Fornax and WLM.
Various heuristic approaches to model unresolved supernova (SN) feedback in galaxy formation simulations exist to reproduce the formation of spiral galaxies and the overall inefficient conversion of gas into stars. Some models, however, require resolution dependent scalings. We present a sub-resolution model representing the three major phases of supernova blast wave evolution $-$free expansion, energy conserving Sedov-Taylor, and momentum conserving snowplow$-$ with energy scalings adopted from high-resolution interstellar-medium simulations in both uniform and multiphase media. We allow for the effects of significantly enhanced SN remnant propagation in a multiphase medium with the cooling radius scaling with the hot volume fraction, $f_{\mathrm{hot}}$, as $(1 - f_{\mathrm{hot}})^{-4/5}$. We also include winds from young massive stars and AGB stars, Str\"omgren sphere gas heating by massive stars, and a gas cooling limiting mechanism driven by radiative recombination of dense HII regions. We present initial tests for isolated Milky-Way like systems simulated with the GADGET based code SPHgal with improved SPH prescription. Compared to pure thermal SN input, the model significantly suppresses star formation at early epochs, with star formation extended both in time and space in better accord with observations. Compared to models with pure thermal SN feedback, the age at which half the stellar mass is assembled increases by a factor of 2.4, and the mass loading parameter and gas outflow rate from the galactic disk increase by a factor of 2. Simulation results are converged for a two order of magnitude variation in particle mass in the range (1.3$-$130)$\times 10^4$ solar masses.
We study the mid-infrared (MIR) properties of galaxies in compact groups and their environmental dependence using the \textit{Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE)} data. We use a volume-limited sample of 670 compact groups and their 2175 member galaxies with $M_r< -19.77$ and $0.01<z<0.0741$, drawn from \citet{sohn+16}, which were identified using a friends-of-friends algorithm. Among the 2175 galaxies, 1541 galaxies are detected at \textit{WISE} 12 $\micron$ with a signal-to-noise ratio greater than 3. Among the 1541 galaxies, 433 AGN-host galaxies are identified by using both optical and MIR classification scheme. Using the remaining 1108 non-AGN galaxies, we find that the MIR $[3.4]-[12]$ colors of compact group early-type galaxies are on average bluer than those of cluster early-type galaxies. When compact groups have both early- and late-type member galaxies, the MIR colors of the late-type members in those compact groups are bluer than the MIR colors of cluster late-type galaxies. As compact groups are located in denser regions, they tend to have larger early-type galaxy fractions and bluer MIR color galaxies. These trends are also seen for neighboring galaxies around compact groups. However, compact group member galaxies always have larger early-type galaxy fractions and bluer MIR colors than their neighboring galaxies. Our findings suggest that the properties of compact group galaxies depend on both internal and external environments of compact groups, and that galaxy evolution is faster in compact groups than in the central regions of clusters.
Previous studies show that the physical structures and kinematics of a region depend significantly on the ionisation fraction. In this paper, we extend our previous studies of the effect of ionisation fractions on star formation to clouds that include both non-ideal magnetohydrodynamics and turbulence. We aim to quantify the importance of a treatment of the ionisation fraction in turbulent magnetised media and investigate the effect of turbulence on shaping the clouds and filaments before star formation sets in. In particular, we investigate how the structure, mass and width of filamentary structures depend on the amount of turbulence in ionised media and the initial mass-to-flux ratio. We compare the resulting density and mass-to-flux ratio structures both qualitatively and quantitatively via filament and core masses and filament fitting techniques (Gaussian and Plummer profiles.) We find that even with almost no turbulence, filamentary structure still exists. Comparison of simulations show that for turbulent Mach numbers above 2, there is little structural difference between the Step-Like (SL) and Cosmic Ray only (CR-only) ionisation models, while below this threshold the ionisation structure significantly affects the formation of filaments. Analysis of the mass within cores and filaments show decrease in mass as the degree of turbulence increases. Finally, observed filaments within the Taurus L1495/B213 complex are best reproduced by models with supercritical mass-to-flux ratios and/or at least mildly supersonic turbulence, however, our models show that sterile fibres observed within Taurus may occur in highly ionised, subcritical environments. Based on this, we suggest that regions with fertile fibres likely indicate a trans- or supercritical mass-to-flux ratio within the region while sterile fibres are likely subcritical and transient.
We use Herschel spectrophotometry of BHR71, an embedded Class 0 protostar, to provide new constraints on its physical properties. We detect 645 (non-unique) spectral lines amongst all spatial pixels. At least 61 different spectral lines originate from the central region. A CO rotational diagram analysis shows four excitation temperature components, 43 K, 197 K, 397 K, and 1057 K. Low-J CO lines trace the outflow while the high-J CO lines are centered on the infrared source. The low-excitation emission lines of H2O trace the large-scale outflow, while the high-excitation emission lines trace a small-scale distribution around the equatorial plane. We model the envelope structure using the dust radiative transfer code, Hyperion, incorporating rotational collapse, an outer static envelope, outflow cavity, and disk. The evolution of a rotating collapsing envelope can be constrained by the far-infrared/millimeter SED along with the azimuthally-averaged radial intensity profile, and the structure of the outflow cavity plays a critical role at shorter wavelengths. Emission at 20-40 um requires a cavity with a constant-density inner region and a power-law density outer region. The best fit model has an envelope mass of 19 solar mass inside a radius of 0.315 pc and a central luminosity of 18.8 solar luminosity. The time since collapse began is 24630-44000 yr, most likely around 36000 yr. The corresponding mass infall rate in the envelope (1.2x10$^{-5}$ solar mass per year) is comparable to the stellar mass accretion rate, while the mass loss rate estimated from the CO outflow is 20% of the stellar mass accretion rate. We find no evidence for episodic accretion.
Deep optical photometric data on the NGC 7538 region were collected and combined with archival data sets from $Chandra$, 2MASS and {\it Spitzer} surveys in order to generate a new catalog of young stellar objects (YSOs) including those not showing IR excess emission. This new catalog is complete down to 0.8 M$_\odot$. The nature of the YSOs associated with the NGC 7538 region and their spatial distribution are used to study the star formation process and the resultant mass function (MF) in the region. Out of the 419 YSOs, $\sim$91\% have ages between 0.1 to 2.5 Myr and $\sim$86\% have masses between 0.5 to 3.5 M$_\odot$, as derived by spectral energy distribution fitting analysis. Around 24\%, 62\% and 2\% of these YSOs are classified to be the Class I, Class II and Class III sources, respectively. The X-ray activity in the Class I, Class II and Class III objects is not significantly different from each other. This result implies that the enhanced X-ray surface flux due to the increase in the rotation rate may be compensated by the decrease in the stellar surface area during the pre-main sequence evolution. Our analysis shows that the O3V type high mass star `IRS 6' might have triggered the formation of young low mass stars up to a radial distance of 3 pc. The MF shows a turn-off at around 1.5 M$_\odot$ and the value of its slope `$\Gamma$' in the mass range $1.5 <$M/M$_\odot < 6$ comes out to be $-1.76\pm0.24$, which is steeper than the Salpeter value.
Recent works have shown how the [C/N] ratio in stars after the first dredge-up (FDU) can be used as an age estimator in virtue of its dependence on stellar mass. For this purpose, precise predictions of the surface chemical composition before and after the mixing takes place in the convective envelope of subgiant stars are necessary. Stellar evolution models can provide us with such predictions, although a comparision with objects of known age is needed for calibration. Open clusters are excellent test cases, as they represent a single stellar population for which the age can be derived through, e.g., isochrone fitting. In this study, we present a detailed analysis of stars belonging to the well-known open cluster M67 observed by the APOGEE survey in the twelfth data release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and whose chemical properties were derived with the ASPCAP pipeline. We find that the [C/N] abundance of subgiant branch stars is overestimated by $\sim0.2$ dex due to an offset in the determination of the [N/Fe] abundance. Stars on the red giant branch and red clump are shown not to be affected by this offset. We derive $\text{[C/N]}_{FDU}=-0.46\pm 0.03$ dex, which poses a strong constraint on calibrations of $\text{[C/N]}_{FDU}$ as age indicator. We also do not find any clear signature of additional chemical mixing processes that set in after the red giant branch bump. The results obtained for M67 indicate the importance of conducting high-resolution spectroscopic studies of open clusters of different ages in order to establish an accurate age-dating method for field stars.
The precise localization of the repeating fast radio burst (FRB 121102) has provided the first unambiguous association (chance coincidence probability $p\lesssim3\times10^{-4}$) of an FRB with an optical and persistent radio counterpart. We report on optical imaging and spectroscopy of the counterpart and find that it is an extended ($0.6^{\prime\prime}-0.8^{\prime\prime}$) object displaying prominent Balmer and [OIII] emission lines. Based on the spectrum and emission line ratios, we classify the counterpart as a low-metallicity, star-forming, $m_{r^\prime} = 25.1$ AB mag dwarf galaxy at a redshift of $z=0.19273(8)$, corresponding to a luminosity distance of 972 Mpc. From the angular size, the redshift, and luminosity, we estimate the host galaxy to have a diameter $\lesssim4$ kpc and a stellar mass of $M_*\sim4-7\times 10^{7}\,M_\odot$, assuming a mass-to-light ratio between 2 to 3$\,M_\odot\,L_\odot^{-1}$. Based on the H$\alpha$ flux, we estimate the star formation rate of the host to be $0.4\,M_\odot\,\mathrm{yr^{-1}}$ and a substantial host dispersion measure depth $\lesssim 324\,\mathrm{pc\,cm^{-3}}$. The net dispersion measure contribution of the host galaxy to FRB 121102 is likely to be lower than this value depending on geometrical factors. We show that the persistent radio source at FRB 121102's location reported by Marcote et al (2017) is offset from the galaxy's center of light by $\sim$200 mas and the host galaxy does not show optical signatures for AGN activity. If FRB 121102 is typical of the wider FRB population and if future interferometric localizations preferentially find them in dwarf galaxies with low metallicities and prominent emission lines, they would share such a preference with long gamma ray bursts and superluminous supernovae.
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In the standard picture of structure formation, the first massive galaxies are expected to form at the highest peaks of the density field, which constitute the cores of massive proto-clusters. Luminous quasars (QSOs) at z~4 are the most strongly clustered population known, and should thus reside in massive dark matter halos surrounded by large overdensities of galaxies, implying a strong QSO-galaxy cross-correlation function. We observed six z~4 QSO fields with VLT/FORS exploiting a novel set of narrow band filters custom designed to select Lyman Break Galaxies (LBGs) in a thin redshift slice of Delta_z~0.3, mitigating the projection effects that have limited the sensitivity of previous searches for galaxies around z>~4 QSOs. We find that LBGs are strongly clustered around QSOs, and present the first measurement of the QSO-LBG cross-correlation function at z~4, on scales of 0.1<~R<~9 Mpc/h (comoving). Assuming a power law form for the cross-correlation function xi=(r/r0_QG)^gamma, we measure r0_QG=8.83^{+1.39}_{-1.51} Mpc/h for a fixed slope of gamma=2.0. This result is in agreement with the expected cross-correlation length deduced from measurements of the QSO and LBG auto-correlation function, and assuming a linear bias model. We also measure a strong auto-correlation of LBGs in our QSO fields finding r0_GG=21.59^{+1.72}_{-1.69} Mpc/h for a fixed slope of gamma=1.5, which is ~4 times larger than the LBG auto-correlation length in random fields, providing further evidence that QSOs reside in overdensities of LBGs. Our results qualitatively support a picture where luminous QSOs inhabit exceptionally massive (M_halo>10^12 M_sun) dark matter halos at z~4.
While theoretical dust condensation models predict that most refractory elements produced in core-collapse supernovae (SNe) efficiently condense into dust, a large quantity of dust has so far only been observed in SN 1987A. We present the analysis of Spitzer Space Telescope, Herschel Space Observatory, Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), and AKARI observations of the infrared (IR) shell surrounding the pulsar wind nebula in the supernova remnant G54.1+0.3. We attribute a distinctive spectral feature at 21 $\mu$m to a magnesium silicate grain species that has been invoked in modeling the ejecta-condensed dust in Cas A, which exhibits the same spectral signature. If this species is responsible for producing the observed spectral feature and accounts for a significant fraction of the observed IR continuum, we find that it would be the dominant constituent of the dust in G54.1+0.3, with possible secondary contributions from other compositions, such as carbon, silicate, or alumina grains. The smallest mass of SN-formed dust required by our models is 1.1 $\pm$ 0.8 $\rm M_{\odot}$. We discuss how these results may be affected by varying dust grain properties and self-consistent grain heating models. The spatial distribution of the dust mass and temperature in G54.1+0.3 confirms the scenario in which the SN-formed dust has not yet been processed by the SN reverse shock and is being heated by stars belonging to a cluster in which the SN progenitor exploded. The dust mass and composition suggest a progenitor mass of 16$-$27 $\rm M_{\odot}$ and imply a high dust condensation efficiency, similar to that found for Cas A and SN 1987A. The study provides another example of significant dust formation in a Type IIP SN and sheds light on the properties of pristine SN-condensed dust.
We present the results of combined deep Keck/NIRC2, HST/WFC3 near-infrared and Herschel far infrared observations of an extremely star forming dusty lensed galaxy identified from the Herschel Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey (H-ATLAS J133542.9+300401). The galaxy is gravitationally lensed by a massive WISE identified galaxy cluster at $z\sim1$. The lensed galaxy is spectroscopically confirmed at $z=2.685$ from detection of $\rm {CO (1 \rightarrow 0)}$ by GBT and from detection of $\rm {CO (3 \rightarrow 2)}$ obtained with CARMA. We use the combined spectroscopic and imaging observations to construct a detailed lens model of the background dusty star-forming galaxy (DSFG) which allows us to study the source plane properties of the target. Multi-band data yields a magnification corrected star formation rate of $1900(\pm200)\,M_{\odot}{\rm yr^{-1}}$ and stellar mass of $6.8_{-2.7}^{+0.9}\times10^{11}\,M_{\odot}$ consistent with a main sequence of star formation at $z\sim2.6$. The CO observations yield a molecular gas mass of $8.3(\pm1.0)\times10^{10}\,M_{\odot}$, similar to the most massive star-forming galaxies, which together with the high star-formation efficiency are responsible for the intense observed star formation rates. The lensed DSFG has a very short gas depletion time scale of $\sim40$ Myr. The high stellar mass and small gas fractions observed indicate that the lensed DSFG likely has already formed most of its stellar mass and could be a progenitor of the most massive elliptical galaxies found in the local Universe.
We investigate the connection between the star formation rate (SFR) of galaxies and their central black hole accretion rate (BHAR) using the EAGLE cosmological hydrodynamical simulation. We find, in striking concurrence with recent observational studies, that the <SFR>--BHAR relation for an AGN selected sample produces a relatively flat trend, whilst the <BHAR>--SFR relation for a SFR selected sample yields an approximately linear trend. These trends remain consistent with their instantaneous equivalents even when both SFR and BHAR are time-averaged over a period of 100~Myr. There is no universal relationship between the two growth rates. Instead, SFR and BHAR evolve through distinct paths that depend strongly on the mass of the host dark matter halo. The galaxies hosted by haloes of mass M200 < 10^11.5 Msol grow steadily, yet black holes (BHs) in these systems hardly grow, yielding a lack of correlation between SFR and BHAR. As haloes grow through the mass range 10^11.5 < M200 < 10^12.5 Msol BHs undergo a rapid phase of non-linear growth. These systems yield a highly non-linear correlation between the SFR and BHAR, which are non-causally connected via the mass of the host halo. In massive haloes (M200 > 10^12.5 Msol) both SFR and BHAR decline on average with a roughly constant scaling of SFR/BHAR ~ 10^3. Given the complexity of the full SFR--BHAR plane built from multiple behaviours, and from the large dynamic range of BHARs, we find the primary driver of the different observed trends in the <SFR>--BHAR and <BHAR>--SFR relationships are due to sampling considerably different regions of this plane.
The decrease in star formation (SF) and the morphological change necessary to produce the $z=0$ elliptical galaxy population are commonly ascribed to a sudden quenching event, which is able to rid the central galaxy of its cold gas reservoir in a short time. Following this event, the galaxy is able to prevent further SF and stay quiescent via a maintenance mode. We test whether such a quenching event is truly necessary using a simple model of quiescence. In this model, hot gas (all gas above a temperature threshold) in a $\sim10^{12} M_{\odot}$ halo mass galaxy at redshift $z\sim3$ is prevented from cooling. The cool gas continues to form stars at a decreasing rate and the galaxy stellar mass, morphology, velocity dispersion and position on the color magnitude diagram (CMD) proceed to evolve. By $z=0$, the halo mass has grown to $10^{13} M_{\odot}$ and the galaxy has attained characteristics typical of an observed $z=0$ elliptical galaxy. Our model is run in the framework of a cosmological, smooth particle hydrodynamic code which includes SF, early stellar feedback, supernova feedback, metal cooling and metal diffusion. Additionally, we post-process our simulations with a radiative transfer code to create a mock CMD. In contrast to previous assumptions that a pure "fade away" model evolves too slowly to account for the sparsity of galaxies in the "green valley", we demonstrate crossing times of $<$1 Gyr. We conclude that no sudden quenching event is necessary to produce such rapid colour transitions.
Multi-frequency, multi-epoch ATCA observations of a sample of AGN resulted in the identification of 9 new candidate Giga-hertz Peaked Spectrum (GPS) sources. Here we present Long Baseline Array observations at 4.8 GHz of the four candidates with no previously published VLBI image, and consider these together with previously published VLBI images of the other five sources. We find core-jet or compact double morphologies dominate, with further observations required to distinguish between these two possibilities for some sources. One of the nine candidates, PKS 1831-711, displays appreciable variability, suggesting its GPS spectrum is more ephemeral in nature. We focus in particular on the apparent relationship between a narrow spectral width and "compact double" parsec-scale morphology, finding further examples, but also exceptions to this trend. An examination of the VLBI morphologies high-redshift (z>3) sub-class of GPS sources suggests that core-jet morphologies predominate in this class.
Extremely high velocity emission likely related to jets is known to occur in some proto-Planetary Nebulae. However, the molecular complexity of this kinematic component is largely unknown. We observed the known extreme outflow from the proto-Planetary Nebula IRAS 16342-3814, a prototype water fountain, in the full frequency range from 73 to 111 GHz with the RSR receiver on the Large Millimetre Telescope. We detected the molecules SiO, HCN, SO, and $^{13}$CO. All molecular transitions, with the exception of the latter are detected for the first time in this source, and all present emission with velocities up to a few hundred km s$^{-1}$. IRAS 16342-3814 is therefore the only source of this kind presenting extreme outflow activity simultaneously in all these molecules, with SO and SiO emission showing the highest velocities found of these species in proto-Planetary Nebulae. To be confirmed is a tentative weak SO component with a FWHM $\sim$ 700 km s$^{-1}$. The extreme outflow gas consists of dense gas (n$_{\rm H_2} >$ 10$^{4.8}$--10$^{5.7}$ cm$^{-3}$), with a mass larger than $\sim$ 0.02--0.15 M$_{\odot}$. The relatively high abundances of SiO and SO may be an indication of an oxygen-rich extreme high velocity gas.
We examine the relation between stellar mass, velocity dispersion, size, Sersic index and Dn4000 for a volume limited sample of 40,000 quiescent galaxies in the SDSS. At a fixed stellar mass, galaxies with higher Dn4000 have larger velocity dispersions and smaller sizes. Dn4000 is a proxy for stellar population age, thus these trends suggest that older galaxies typically have larger velocity dispersions and smaller sizes. We combine velocity dispersion and size into a dynamical mass estimator, $\sigma^2 R$. At a fixed stellar mass, $\sigma^2 R$ depends on Dn4000. The Sersic index is also correlated with Dn4000. The dependence of $\sigma^2 R$ and Sersic index on Dn4000 suggests that quiescent galaxies are not structurally homologous systems. We derive an empirical correction for non-homology which is consistent with the analytical correction derived from the virial theorem. After accounting for non-homologous galactic structure, we measure M* ~ M_d^(0.997 +/- 0.004) where M* is the stellar mass and M_d is the dynamical mass derived from the velocity dispersion and size; stellar mass is directly proportional to dynamical mass. Quiescent galaxies appear to be in approximate virial equilibrium and deviations of the fundamental plane parameters from the expected virial relation may result from mass-to-light ratio variations, selection effects and the non-homology of quiescent galaxies. We infer the redshift evolution of velocity dispersion and size for galaxies in our sample assuming purely passive evolution. The inferred evolution is inconsistent with direct measurements at higher redshifts. Thus quiescent galaxies do not passively evolve. Quiescent galaxies have properties that are consistent with standard galaxy formation in LambdaCDM. They form at different epochs and evolve modestly increasing their size, velocity dispersion and Sersic index after they cease star formation.
We study the detailed phase-space structure of collisionless self-gravitating spherical systems with initial power-law density profiles $\rho(r) \propto r^n$, $n$ ranging from 0 to $-1.5$, and Gaussian velocity dispersions. Two sub-classes of models are considered, with initial virial ratios $\eta=0.5$ ("warm") and $\eta=0.1$ ("cold"). To perform the analyses and control all sources of numerical artefacts, we use three kinds of codes: a Vlasov and a shell code preserving spherical symmetry, and the public $N$-body treecode Gadget-2. In all the simulations, the system first experiences a quiescent mixing phase during which it displays, in phase-space, a smooth spiral structure whose properties agree well with predictions from self-similar collapse when either inertial or gravitational force dominates. At some point, all the simulations display some level of radial instability, particularly in the cold case, where some macroscopic resonant modes destroy the spiral, but preserve the coarse-grained structure of the system, particularly the projected density profile $\rho(r)$, except for the Gadget-2 simulations with $n \le -1$. The latter are subject to radial orbit instability and thus have a slightly less contrasted central density profile than Vlasov or shells simulations. Yet, the early, quiescent evolution dominated by a folding spiral are quite representative of the system at later time at the coarse-grained level. The non-random nature of this spiral probably prevents the success of entropy maximisation in finding the quasi-stationary state. However, the good agreement with self-similar predictions might be promising for the study of the fine-grained structure of such systems.
Double Field Theory may suggest to view the whole massless NS-NS sector as the gravitational unity. The doubled diffeomorphisms and the $\mathbf{O}(D,D)$ covariance determine unambiguously how the Standard Model as well as a relativistic point particle should couple to the NS-NS sector. The theory also refines the notion of singularity. We consider the most general, spherically symmetric, asymptotically flat, static vacuum solution to ${D=4}$ Double Field Theory, which contains three free parameters and consequently generalizes the Schwarzschild geometry. Analyzing the circular geodesic of a point particle, we obtain the orbital velocity as a function of radius. The rotation curve generically features a maximum and thus non-Keplerian over a finite range, while becoming asymptotically Keplerian at infinity. The gravitational force can be even repulsive very close to the origin. By tuning the free parameters, we attempt to simulate quantitatively the observed rotation curve of galaxy. Though both the dark matter and the dark energy problems arise from far-distance observations (large physical radius, $R\rightarrow\infty$), it may allude to the short-distance nature of gravity, or Double Field Theory (small dimensionless radial variable, $R/{\cal M}_{\infty}G\rightarrow 0$).
We show that the measured abundance of ultra-faint lensed galaxies at $z\approx 6$ in the Hubble Frontier Fields (HFF) provides stringent constraints on the parameter space of i)~Dark Matter models based on~keV sterile neutrinos; ii)~the "fuzzy" wavelike Dark Matter models, based on Bose-Einstein condensate of ultra-light particles. For the case of the sterile neutrinos, we consider two production mechanisms: resonant production through the mixing with active neutrinos and the decay of scalar particles. For the former model, we derive constraints for the combination of sterile neutrino mass $m_{\nu}$ and mixing parameter $\sin^2(2\theta)$ which provide the tightest lower bounds on the mixing angle (and hence on the lepton asymmetry) derived so far by methods independent of baryonic physics. For the latter we compute the allowed combinations of the scalar mass, its coupling to the Higgs field, and the Yukawa coupling of the scalar to the sterile neutrinos. We compare our results to independent, existing astrophysical bounds on sterile neutrinos in the same mass range. For the case of "fuzzy" Dark Matter, we show that the observed number density $\approx 1/{\rm Mpc}^3$ of high-redshift galaxies in the HFF sets a lower limit $m_\psi\geq 8\cdot 10^{-22}$ eV (at 3-$\sigma$ confidence level) on the particle mass, a result that strongly disfavors wavelike bosonic Dark Matter as a viable model for structure formation. We discuss the impact on our results of uncertainties due to systematics in the selection of highly magnified, faint galaxies at high redshifts.
Correction of Type Ia Supernova brightnesses for extinction by dust has proven to be a vexing problem. Here we study the dust foreground to the highly reddened SN 2012cu, which is projected onto a dust lane in the galaxy NGC 4772. The analysis is based on multi-epoch, spectrophotometric observations spanning 3,300 - 9,200 {\AA}, obtained by the Nearby Supernova Factory. Phase-matched comparison of the spectroscopically twinned SN 2012cu and SN 2011fe across 10 epochs results in the best-fit color excess of (E(B-V), RMS) = (1.00, 0.03) and total-to-selective extinction ratio of (RV , RMS) = (2.95, 0.08) toward SN 2012cu within its host galaxy. We further identify several diffuse interstellar bands, and compare the 5780 {\AA} band with the dust-to-band ratio for the Milky Way. Overall, we find the foreground dust-extinction properties for SN 2012cu to be consistent with those of the Milky Way. Furthermore we find no evidence for significant time variation in any of these extinction tracers. We also compare the dust extinction curve models of Cardelli et al. (1989), O'Donnell (1994), and Fitzpatrick (1999), and find the predictions of Fitzpatrick (1999) fit SN 2012cu the best. Finally, the distance to NGC4772, the host of SN 2012cu, at a redshift of z = 0.0035, often assigned to the Virgo Southern Extension, is determined to be 16.6$\pm$1.1 Mpc. We compare this result with distance measurements in the literature.
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