HI Observations of the Supermassive Binary Black Hole System in 0402+379

We have recently discovered a supermassive binary black hole system with a projected separation between the two black holes of 7.3 parsecs in the radio galaxy 0402+379. This is the most compact supermassive binary black hole pair yet imaged by more than two orders of magnitude. We present Global VLBI observations at 1.3464 GHz of this radio galaxy, taken to improve the quality of the HI data. Two absorption lines are found toward the southern jet of the source, one redshifted by 370 +/- 10 km/s and the other blueshifted by 700 +/- 10 km/s with respect to the systemic velocity of the source, which, along with the results obtained for the opacity distribution over the source, suggests the presence of two mass clumps rotating around the central region of the source. We propose a model consisting of a geometrically thick disk, of which we only see a couple of clumps, that reproduces the velocities measured from the HI absorption profiles. These clumps rotate in circular Keplerian orbits around an axis that crosses one of the supermassive black holes of the binary system in 0402+379. We find an upper limit for the inclination angle of the twin jets of the source to the line of sight of 66 degrees, which, according to the proposed model, implies a lower limit on the central mass of ~7 x 10^8 Msun and a lower limit for the scale height of the thick disk of ~12 pc .Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures. Accepted on the Astrophysical Journa

Probing the Dust Properties of Galaxies at Submillimetre Wavelengths II. Dust-to-gas mass ratio trends with metallicity and the submm excess in dwarf galaxies

We are studying the effects of submm observations on the total dust mass and thus dust-to-gas mass ratio measurements. We gather a wide sample of galaxies that have been observed at submm wavelengths to model their Spectral Energy Distributions using submm observations and then without submm observational constraints in order to quantify the error on the dust mass when submm data are not available. Our model does not make strong assumptions on the dust temperature distribution to precisely avoid submm biaises in the study. Our sample includes 52 galaxies observed at submm wavelengths. Out of these, 9 galaxies show an excess in submm which is not accounted for in our fiducial model, most of these galaxies being low- metallicity dwarfs. We chose to add an independant very cold dust component (T=10K) to account for this excess. We find that metal-rich galaxies modelled with submm data often show lower dust masses than when modelled without submm data. Indeed, these galaxies usually have dust SEDs that peaks at longer wavelengths and require constraints above 160 um to correctly position the peak and sample the submillimeter slope of their SEDs and thus correctly cover the dust temperature distribution. On the other hand, some metal-poor dwarf galaxies modelled with submm data show higher dust masses than when modelled without submm data. Using submm constraints for the dust mass estimates, we find a tightened correlation of the dust-to-gas mass ratio with the metallicity of the galaxies. We also often find that when there is a submm excess present, it occurs preferentially in low-metallicity galaxies. We analyse the conditions for the presence of this excess and find a relation between the 160/850 um ratio and the submm excess.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in A&

A Molecular Spiral Arm in the Far Outer Galaxy

We have identified a spiral arm lying beyond the Outer Arm in the first Galactic quadrant ~15 kpc from the Galactic center. After tracing the arm in existing 21 cm surveys, we searched for molecular gas using the CfA 1.2 meter telescope and detected CO at 10 of 220 positions. The detections are distributed along the arm from l = 13 deg, v = -21 km/s to l = 55 deg, v = -84 km/s and coincide with most of the main H I concentrations. One of the detections was fully mapped to reveal a large molecular cloud with a radius of 47 pc and a molecular mass of ~50,000 Mo. At a mean distance of 21 kpc, the molecular gas in this arm is the most distant yet detected in the Milky Way. The new arm appears to be the continuation of the Scutum-Centaurus Arm in the outer Galaxy, as a symmetric counterpart of the nearby Perseus Arm.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, 1 Table, ApJ Letters, in pres

SCUBA Observations of NGC 1275

Deep SCUBA observations of NGC 1275 at 450 micron and 850 micron along with the application of deconvolution algorithms have permitted us to separate the strong core emission in this galaxy from the fainter extended emission around it. The core has a steep spectral index and is likely due primarily to the AGN. The faint emission has a positive spectral index and is clearly due to extended dust in a patchy distribution out to a radius of $\sim$ 20 kpc from the nucleus. These observations have now revealed that a large quantity of dust, $\sim$ 6 $\times$ 10$^7$ $M_\odot$, 2 orders of magnitude larger than that inferred from previous optical absorption measurements, exists in this galaxy. We estimate the temperature of this dust to be $\sim$ 20 K (using an emissivity index of $\beta$ = 1.3) and the gas/dust ratio to be 360. These values are typical of spiral galaxies. The dust emission correlates spatially with the hot X-ray emitting gas which may be due to collisional heating of broadly distributed dust by electrons. Since the destruction timescale is short, the dust cannot be replenished by stellar mass loss and must be externally supplied, either via the infalling galaxy or the cooling flow itself.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures. Figure 4 is colou

HST/ACS Photometry of Old Stars in NGC 1569: The Star Formation History of a Nearby Starburst

(abridged) We used HST/ACS to obtain deep V- and I-band images of NGC 1569, one of the closest and strongest starburst galaxies in the Universe. These data allowed us to study the underlying old stellar population, aimed at understanding NGC 1569's evolution over a full Hubble time. We focus on the less-crowded outer region of the galaxy, for which the color-magnitude diagram (CMD) shows predominantly a red giant branch (RGB) that reaches down to the red clump/horizontal branch feature (RC/HB). A simple stellar population analysis gives clear evidence for a more complicated star formation history (SFH) in the outer region. We derive the full SFH using a newly developed code, SFHMATRIX, which fits the CMD Hess diagram by solving a non-negative least squares problem. Our analysis shows that the relative brightnesses of the RGB tip and RC/HB, along with the curvature and color of the RGB, provide enough information to ameliorate the age-metallicity-extinction degeneracy. The distance/reddening combination that best fits the data is E(B-V) = 0.58 +/- 0.03 and D = 3.06 +/- 0.18 Mpc. Star formation began ~ 13 Gyr ago, and this accounts for the majority of the mass in the outer region. However, the initial burst was followed by a relatively low, but constant, rate of star formation until ~ 0.5-0.7 Gyr ago when there may have been a short, low intensity burst of star formation.Comment: 50 pages, including 17 figures. Accepted for publication in A

Re-identification of G35.6-0.4 as a supernova remnant

G35.6-0.4 is an extended radio source in the Galactic plane which has previously been identified as either a supernova remnant or an HII region. Observations from the VLA Galactic Plane Survey at 1.4 GHz with a resolution of 1 arcmin allow the extent of G35.6-0.4 to be defined for the first time. Comparison with other radio survey observations show that this source has a non-thermal spectral index, with alpha -0.47 +/- 0.07. G35.6-0.4 does not have obvious associated infra-red emission, so it is identified as a Galactic supernova remnant, not an HII region. It is approximately 15 x 11 arcmin**2 in extent, showing partial limb brightening.Comment: 4 pages, accepted by MNRA

The Arecibo Methanol Maser Galactic Plane Survey - III: Distances and Luminosities

We derive kinematic distances to the 86 6.7 GHz methanol masers discovered in the Arecibo Methanol Maser Galactic Plane Survey. The systemic velocities of the sources were derived from 13CO (J=2-1), CS (J=5-4), and NH3 observations made with the ARO Submillimeter Telescope, the APEX telescope, and the Effelsberg 100 m telescope, respectively. Kinematic distance ambiguities were resolved using HI self-absorption with HI data from the VLA Galactic Plane Survey. We observe roughly three times as many sources at the far distance compared to the near distance. The vertical distribution of the sources has a scale height of ~ 30 pc, and is much lower than that of the Galactic thin disk. We use the distances derived in this work to determine the luminosity function of 6.7 GHz maser emission. The luminosity function has a peak at approximately 10^{-6} L_sun. Assuming that this luminosity function applies, the methanol maser population in the Large Magellanic Cloud and M33 is at least 4 and 14 times smaller, respectively, than in our Galaxy.Comment: Accepted by Ap

C+^+ detection of warm dark gas in diffuse clouds

We present the first results of the Herschel open time key program, Galactic Observations of Terahertz C$^+$ (GOT C+) survey of the [CII] fine-structure line at 1.9 THz (158 microns) using the HIFI instrument on Herschel. We detected 146 interstellar clouds along sixteen lines-of-sight towards the inner Galaxy. We also acquired HI and CO isotopologue data along each line-of-sight for analysis of the physical conditions in these clouds. Here we analyze 29 diffuse clouds (A$_{V}$ < 1.3 mag.) in this sample characterized by having [CII] and HI emission, but no detectable CO. We find that [CII] emission is generally stronger than expected for diffuse atomic clouds, and in a number of sources is much stronger than anticipated based on their HI column density. We show that excess [CII] emission in these clouds is best explained by the presence of a significant diffuse warm H$_2$, dark gas, component. This first [CII] 158 micron detection of warm dark gas demonstrates the value of this tracer for mapping this gas throughout the Milky Way and in galaxies.Comment: To be published in A&A HIFI Special Editio

High-resolution 21-cm observations of low-column density gas clumps in the Milky Way halo

We study the properties of low-column density gas clumps in the halo of the Milky Way based on high-resolution 21-cm observations. Using interferometric data from the WSRT and the VLA we study HI emission at low-, intermediate- and high radial velocities along four lines of sight towards quasars. Along these sightlines we previously detected weak CaII and NaI absorbers in their optical spectra. The analysis of the high-resolution HI data reveals the presence of several compact and cold clumps of neutral gas at velocities similar to the optical absorption. The clumps have narrow HI line widths in the range of 1.8 to 13 km/s, yielding upper limits for the kinetic temperature of the gas of 70 to 3700 K. The neutral gas has low HI column densities in the range of 5E18 to 3E19 1/cm^2. All clumps have angular sizes of only a few arcminutes. Our high-resolution 21-cm observations indicate that many of the CaII and NaI absorbers seen in our optical quasar spectra are associated with low-column density HI clumps at small angular scales. This suggests that next to the massive, high-column density neutral gas clouds in the halo (the common 21-cm LVCs, IVCs, and HVCs) there exists a population of low-mass, neutral gas structures in the halo that remain mostly unseen in the existing 21-cm all-sky surveys of IVCs and HVCs. The estimated thermal gas pressures of the detected HI clumps are consistent with what is expected from theoretical models of gas in the inner and outer Milky Way halo.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figure