2,973 research outputs found
Scanamorphos: a map-making software for Herschel and similar scanning bolometer arrays
Scanamorphos is one of the public softwares available to post-process scan
observations performed with the Herschel photometer arrays. This
post-processing mainly consists in subtracting the total low-frequency noise
(both its thermal and non-thermal components), masking high-frequency artefacts
such as cosmic ray hits, and projecting the data onto a map. Although it was
developed for Herschel, it is also applicable with minimal adjustment to scan
observations made with some other imaging arrays subjected to low-frequency
noise, provided they entail sufficient redundancy; it was successfully applied
to P-Artemis, an instrument operating on the APEX telescope. Contrary to
matrix-inversion softwares and high-pass filters, Scanamorphos does not assume
any particular noise model, and does not apply any Fourier-space filtering to
the data, but is an empirical tool using purely the redundancy built in the
observations -- taking advantage of the fact that each portion of the sky is
sampled at multiple times by multiple bolometers. It is an interactive software
in the sense that the user is allowed to optionally visualize and control
results at each intermediate step, but the processing is fully automated. This
paper describes the principles and algorithm of Scanamorphos and presents
several examples of application.Comment: This is the final version as accepted by PASP (on July 27, 2013). A
copy with much better-quality figures is available on
http://www2.iap.fr/users/roussel/herschel
A Multi-Wavelength Study of Sgr A*: The Role of Near-IR Flares in Production of X-ray, Soft -ray and Sub-millimeter Emission
(abridged) We describe highlights of the results of two observing campaigns
in 2004 to investigate the correlation of flare activity in Sgr A* in different
wavelength regimes, using a total of nine ground and space-based telescopes. We
report the detection of several new near-IR flares during the campaign based on
{\it HST} observations. The level of near-IR flare activity can be as low as
mJy at 1.6 m and continuous up to about 40% of the total
observing time. Using the NICMOS instrument on the {\it HST}, the {\it
XMM-Newton} and CSO observatories, we also detect simultaneous bright X-ray and
near-IR flare in which we observe for the first time correlated substructures
as well as simultaneous submillimeter and near-IR flaring. X-ray emission is
arising from the population of near-IR-synchrotron-emitting relativistic
particles which scatter submillimeter seed photons within the inner 10
Schwarzschild radii of Sgr A* up to X-ray energies. In addition, using the
inverse Compton scattering picture, we explain the high energy 20-120 keV
emission from the direction toward Sgr A*, and the lack of one-to-one X-ray
counterparts to near-IR flares, by the variation of the magnetic field and the
spectral index distributions of this population of nonthermal particles. In
this picture, the evidence for the variability of submillimeter emission during
a near-IR flare is produced by the low-energy component of the population of
particles emitting synchrotron near-IR emission. Based on the measurements of
the duration of flares in near-IR and submillimeter wavelengths, we argue that
the cooling could be due to adiabatic expansion with the implication that flare
activity may drive an outflow.Comment: 48 pages, 12 figures, ApJ (in press
Dynamical Structure of the Molecular Interstellar Medium in an Extremely Bright, Multiply Lensed z â 3 Submillimeter Galaxy Discovered with Herschel
We report the detection of CO(J = 5 â 4), CO(J = 3 â 2), and CO(J = 1 â 0) emission in the strongly lensed, Herschel/SPIRE-selected submillimeter galaxy (SMG) HERMES J105751.1+573027 at z = 2.9574 ± 0.0001, using the Plateau de Bure Interferometer, the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy, and the Green Bank Telescope. The observations spatially resolve the molecular gas into four lensed images with a maximum separation of ~9" and reveal the internal gas dynamics in this system. We derive lensing-corrected CO line luminosities of L'_(CO(1-0)) = (4.17 ± 0.41), L'_(CO(3-2)) = (3.96 ± 0.20), and L'_(CO(5-4)) = (3.45 ± 0.20) Ă 10^(10) (ÎŒL/10.9)^(â1) K km s^(â1) pc^2, corresponding to luminosity ratios of r_(31) = 0.95 ± 0.10, r_(53) = 0.87 ± 0.06, and r_(51) = 0.83 ± 0.09. This suggests a total molecular gas mass of M_(gas) = 3.3Ă10^(10) (α_(CO)/0.8) (ÎŒ_L/10.9)^(â1) M_â. The gas mass, gas mass fraction, gas depletion timescale, star formation efficiency, and specific star formation rate are typical for an SMG. The velocity structure of the gas reservoir suggests that the brightest two lensed images are dynamically resolved projections of the same dust-obscured region in the galaxy that are kinematically offset from the unresolved fainter images. The resolved kinematics appear consistent with the complex velocity structure observed in major, "wet" (i.e., gas-rich) mergers. Major mergers are commonly observed in SMGs and are likely to be responsible for fueling their intense starbursts at high gas consumption rates. This study demonstrates the level of detail to which galaxies in the early universe can be studied by utilizing the increase in effective spatial resolution and sensitivity provided by gravitational lensing
The far-infrared/submillimeter properties of galaxies located behind the Bullet cluster
The Herschel Lensing Survey (HLS) takes advantage of gravitational lensing by massive galaxy clusters to sample a population of high-redshift galaxies which are too faint to be detected above the confusion limit of current far-infrared/submillimeter telescopes. Measurements from 100â500 ÎŒm bracket the peaks of the far-infrared spectral energy distributions of these galaxies, characterizing their infrared luminosities and star formation rates. We introduce initial results from our science demonstration phase observations, directed toward the Bullet cluster (1E0657-56). By combining our observations with LABOCA 870 ÎŒm and AzTEC 1.1 mm data we fully constrain the spectral energy distributions of 19 MIPS 24 ÎŒm-selected galaxies which are located behind the cluster. We find that their colors are best fit using templates based on local galaxies with systematically lower infrared luminosities. This suggests that our sources are not like local ultra-luminous infrared galaxies in which vigorous star formation is contained in a compact highly dust-obscured region. Instead, they appear to be scaled up versions of lower luminosity local galaxies with star formation occurring on larger physical scales
The Herschel Lensing Survey (HLS): Overview
The Herschel Lensing Survey (HLS) will conduct deep PACS and SPIRE imaging of âŒ40 massive clusters of galaxies. The strong gravitational lensing power of these clusters will enable us to penetrate through the confusion noise, which sets the ultimate limit on our ability to probe the
Universe with Herschel. Here we present an overview of our survey and a summary of the major results from our science demonstration phase (SDP) observations of the Bullet cluster (z = 0.297). The SDP data are rich and allow us to study not only the background high-redshift galaxies
(e.g., strongly lensed and distorted galaxies at z = 2.8 and 3.2) but also the properties of cluster-member galaxies. Our preliminary analysis shows a great diversity of far-infrared/submillimeter spectral energy distributions (SEDs), indicating that we have much to learn with Herschel about the properties of galaxy SEDs. We have also detected the Sunyaev-Zelâdovich (SZ) effect increment with the SPIRE data. The success of this SDP program demonstrates the great potential of the Herschel Lensing Survey to produce exciting results in a variety of science areas
Flaring Activity of Sgr A*: Expanding Hot Blobs
Sgr A* is considered to be a massive black hole at the Galactic center and is
known to be variable in radio, millimeter, near-IR and X-rays. Recent
multi-wavelength observing campaigns show a simultaneous X-ray and near-IR
flare, as well as sub-millimeter and near-IR flares from Sgr A*. The flare
activity is thought to be arising from the innermost region of Sgr A*. We have
recently argued that the duration of flares in near-IR and submillimeter
wavelengths implies that the burst of emission expands and cools on a dynamical
time scale before the flares leave Sgr A*. The detection of radio flares with a
time delay in the range of 20 and 40 minutes between 7 and 12mm peak emission
implies adiabatic expansion of a uniform, spherical hot blob due to flare
activity. We suspect that this simple outflow picture shows some of the
characteristics that are known to take place in microquasars, thus we may learn
much from comparative study of Sgr A* and its environment vs. microquasars.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, to be published in IV Microquasar Workshop:
Microquasars and Beyond, September 18-22 2006, Como, Ital
Deep Herschel view of obscured star formation in the Bullet cluster
We use deep, five band (100â500 ÎŒm) data from the Herschel Lensing Survey (HLS) to fully constrain the obscured star formation rate, SFR_(FIR), of galaxies in the Bullet cluster (z = 0.296), and a smaller background system (z = 0.35) in the same field. Herschel detects 23 Bullet cluster members with a total SFRFIR = 144±14 M_â yr^(-1). On average, the background system contains brighter far-infrared (FIR) galaxies, with ~50% higher SFRFIR (21 galaxies; 207 ± 9 M_â yr^(-1)). SFRs extrapolated from 24 ÎŒm flux via recent templates (SFR_(24 ”m)) agree well with SFRFIR for ~60% of the cluster galaxies. In the remaining ~40%, SFR24 ”m underestimates SFR_(FIR) due to a significant excess in observed S_(100)/S_(24) (rest frame S_(75)/S_(18)) compared to templates of the same FIR luminosity
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