Testing 24 micron and Infrared Luminosity as Star Formation Tracers for Galactic Star Forming Regions

We have tested some relations for star formation rates used in extra-galactic studies for regions within the Galaxy. In nearby molecular clouds, where the IMF is not fully-sampled, the dust emission at 24 micron greatly underestimates star formation rates (by a factor of 100 on average) when compared to star formation rates determined from counting YSOs. The total infrared emission does no better. In contrast, the total far-infrared method agrees within a factor of 2 on average with star formation rates based on radio continuum emission for massive, dense clumps that are forming enough massive stars to have the total infrared luminosity exceed 10^4.5 Lsun. The total infrared and 24 micron also agree well with each other for both nearby, low-mass star forming regions and the massive, dense clumps regions

Infrared emission from tidal disruption events --- probing the pc-scale dust content around galactic nuclei

Recent UV-optical surveys have been successful in finding tidal disruption events (TDEs), in which a star is tidally disrupted by a supermassive black hole (BH). These TDEs release a huge amount of radiation energy ~ 10^51-52 erg into the circum-nuclear medium. If the medium is dusty, most of the radiation energy will be absorbed by dust grains within ~ 1 pc from the BH and re-radiated in the infrared. We calculate the dust emission lightcurve from a 1-D radiative transfer model, taking into account the time-dependent heating, cooling and sublimation of dust grains. We show that the dust emission peaks at 3-10 microns and has typical luminosities ~ 10^42-43 erg/s (with sky covering factor of dusty clouds ranging from 0.1-1). This is detectable by current generation of telescopes. In the near future, James Webb Space Telescope will be able to perform photometric and spectroscopic measurements, in which silicate or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) features may be found. Observations at rest-frame wavelength > 2 microns have only been reported from two TDE candidates, SDSS J0952+2143 and Swift J1644+57. Although consistent with the dust emission from TDEs, the mid-infrared fluxes of the two events may be from other sources. Long-term monitoring is needed to draw a firm conclusion. We also point out two nearby TDE candidates (ASSASN-14ae and -14li) where the dust emission may be currently detectable. The dust infrared emission can give a snapshot of the pc-scale dust content around weakly- or non-active galactic nuclei, which is hard to probe otherwise.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, 1 table. Submitted to MNRAS. Comments welcome!

Observation of Infrared and Radio Lines of Molecules toward GL2591 and Comparison to Physical and Chemical Models

We have observed rovibrational transitions of acetylene and HCN near 13 microns in absorption toward GL2591. We also observed rotational lines of CS, HCN, H2CO, and HCO+. The combined data are analyzed in terms of models with a cloud envelope with density gradients and discrete regions of hot, dense gas, probably near the infrared source. The abundance of HCN is enhanced by a factor of 400 in the gas producing the infrared absorption, in agreement with chemical models which involve depletion of molecules onto grains and subsequent sublimation when temperatures are raised.Comment: 34 pages, postscript with 14 postscript figure files, uuencoded compressed and tar'ed; unpacks self with csh. In case of problems, contact [email protected]