803 research outputs found
H_2 Absorption and Fluorescence for Gamma Ray Bursts in Molecular Clouds
If a gamma ray burst with strong UV emission occurs in a molecular cloud,
there will be observable consequences resulting from excitation of the
surrounding H2. The UV pulse from the GRB will pump H2 into
vibrationally-excited levels which produce strong absorption at wavelengths <
1650 A. As a result, both the prompt flash and later afterglow will exhibit
strong absorption shortward of 1650 A, with specific spectroscopic features.
Such a cutoff in the emission from GRB 980329 may already have been observed by
Fruchter et al.; if so, GRB 980329 was at redshift 3.0 < z < 4.4 . BVRI
photometry of GRB 990510 could also be explained by H2 absorption if GRB 990510
is at redshift 1.6 < z < 2.3. The fluorescence accompanying the UV pumping of
the H2 will result in UV emission from the GRB which can extend over days or
months, depending on parameters of the ambient medium and beaming of the GRB
flash. The 7.5-13.6 eV fluorescent luminosity is \sim 10^{41.7} erg/s for
standard estimates of the parameters of the GRB and the ambient medium.
Spectroscopy can distinguish this fluorescent emission from other possible
sources of transient optical emission, such as a supernova.Comment: 13 pages, including 4 figures. submitted to Ap.J.(Letters
The Radiative Feedback of the First Cosmological Objects
In hierarchical models of structure formation, an early cosmic UV background
(UVB) is produced by the small (T_vir < 10^4 K) halos that collapse before
reionization. The UVB at energies below 13.6eV suppresses the formation of
stars or black holes inside small halos, by photo-dissociating their only
cooling agent, molecular H2. We self-consistently compute the buildup of the
early UVB in Press-Schechter models, coupled with H2 photo-dissociation both in
the intergalactic medium (IGM), and inside virialized halos. We find that the
intergalactic H2 has a negligible effect on the UVB, both because its initial
optical depth is small (tau<0.1), and because it is photo-dissociated at an
early stage. If the UV sources in the first collapsed halos are stars, then
their UV flux suppresses further star-formation inside small halos. This
results in a pause in the buildup of the UVB, and reionization is delayed until
larger halos (T_vir> 10^4 K) collapse. If the small halos host mini-quasars
with hard spectra extending to approximately 1 keV, then their X-rays balance
the effects of the UVB, the negative feedback does not occur, and reionization
can be caused by the small halos.Comment: 16 pages, 16 figures included, uses emulateapj.sty. Submitted to Ap
Inferring physical conditions in interstellar clouds of H_2
We have developed a code that models the formation, destruction, radiative
transfer, and vibrational/rotational excitation of H_2 in a detailed fashion.
We discuss how such codes, together with FUSE observations of H_2 in diffuse
and translucent lines of sight, may be used to infer various physical
parameters. We illustrate the effects of changes in the major physical
parameters (UV radiation field, gas density, metallicity), and we point out the
extent to which changes in one parameter may be mirrored by changes in another.
We provide an analytic formula for the molecular fraction, f_H2, as a function
of cloud column density, radiation field, and grain formation rate of H_2. Some
diffuse and translucent lines of sight may be concatenations of multiple
distinct clouds viewed together. Such situations can give rise to observables
that agree with the data, complicating the problem of uniquely identifying one
set of physical parameters with a line of sight. Finally, we illustrate the
application of our code to an ensemble of data, such as the FUSE survey of H_2
in the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC/SMC), in order to constrain the
elevated UV radiation field intensity and reduced grain formation rate of H_2
in those low- metallicity environments.Comment: 33 pages (aastex, manuscript), 9 figures (3 color). accepted to Ap
FUSE Observations of the Magellanic Bridge Gas toward Two Early-Type Stars: Molecules, Physical Conditions, and Relative Abundance
We discuss FUSE observations of two early-type stars, DI1388 and DGIK975, in
the low density and low metallicity gas of Magellanic Bridge (MB). Toward
DI1388, the FUSE observations show molecular hydrogen, O VI, and numerous other
atomic or ionic transitions in absorption, implying the presence of multiple
gas phases in a complex arrangement. The relative abundance pattern in the MB
is attributed to varying degrees of depletion onto dust similar to that of halo
clouds. The N/O ratio is near solar, much higher than N/O in damped Ly-alpha
systems, implying subsequent stellar processing to explain the origin of
nitrogen in the MB. The diffuse molecular cloud in this direction has a low
column density and low molecular fraction. H2 is observed in both the
Magellanic Stream and the MB, yet massive stars form only in the MB, implying
significantly different physical processes between them. In the MB some of the
H2 could have been pulled out from the SMC via tidal interaction, but some also
could have formed in situ in dense clouds where star formation might have taken
place. Toward DGIK975, the presence of neutral, weakly and highly ionized
species suggest that this sight line has also several complex gas phases. The
highly ionized species of O VI, C IV, and Si IV toward both stars have very
broad features, indicating that multiple components of hot gas at different
velocities are present. Several sources (a combination of turbulent mixing
layer, conductive heating, and cooling flows) may be contributing to the
production of the highly ionized gas in the MB. Finally, this study has
confirmed previous results that the high-velocity cloud HVC 291.5-41.2+80 is
mainly ionized composed of weakly and highly ions. The high ion ratios are
consistent with a radiatively cooling gas in a fountain flow model.Comment: Accepted for publication in the ApJ (October 10, 2002). Added
reference (Gibson et al. 2000
Discovery of Enhanced Germanium Abundances in Planetary Nebulae with FUSE
We report the discovery of Ge III 1088.46 in the planetary nebulae
(PNe) SwSt 1, BD+303639, NGC 3132, and IC 4593, observed with the Far
Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer. This is the first astronomical detection of
this line and the first measurement of Ge (Z = 32) in PNe. We estimate Ge
abundances using S and Fe as reference elements, for a range of assumptions
about gas-phase depletions. The results indicate that Ge, which is synthesized
in the initial steps of the s-process and therefore can be self-enriched in
PNe, is enhanced by factors of > 3-10. The strongest evidence for enrichment is
seen for PNe with Wolf-Rayet central stars, which are likely to contain heavily
processed material.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure, accepted for publication in ApJ Letter
Variations in D/H and D/O from New FUSE Observations
We use data obtained with the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE)
to determine the interstellar abundances of DI, NI, OI, FeII, and H2 along the
sigh tlines to WD1034+001, BD+393226, and TD132709. Our main focus is on
determining the D/H, N/H, O/H, and D/O ratios along these sightlines, with log
N(H) > 20.0, that probe gas well outside of the Local Bubble. Hubble Space
Telescope (HST) and International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) archival data are
used to determine the HI column densities along the WD1034+001 and TD132709
sightlines, respectively. For BD+393226, a previously published N(HI) is used.
We find (D/H)x10^5 = 2.14 + 0.53 - 0.45, 1.17 + 0.31 - 0.25, and 1.86 + 0.53 -
0.43, and (D/O)x10^2 = 6.31 + 1.79 - 1.38, 5.62 + 1.61 - 1.31, and 7.59 + 2.17
- 1.76, for the WD1034+001, BD+393226, and TD132709 sightlines, respectively
(all 1 si gma). The scatter in these three D/H ratios exemplifies the scatter
that has been found by other authors for sightlines with column densities in
the range 19.2 < log N(H) < 20.7. The D/H ratio toward WD1034+001 and all the
D/O ratios derived here are inconsistent with the Local Bubble value and are
some of the highest in the literature. We discuss the implications of our
measurements for the determination of the present-epoch abundance of deuterium,
and for the different scenarios that try to explain the D/H variations. We
present a study of D/H as a function of the average sightline gas density,
using the ratios derived in this work as well as ratios from the literature,
which suggests that D/H decreases with increasing gas volume density. Similar
behaviors by other elements such Fe and Si have been interpreted as the result
of depletion into dust grains.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Ap
Dynamical Expansion of Ionization and Dissociation Front around a Massive Star. II. On the Generality of Triggered Star Formation
We analyze the dynamical expansion of the HII region, photodissociation
region, and the swept-up shell, solving the UV- and FUV-radiative transfer, the
thermal and chemical processes in the time-dependent hydrodynamics code.
Following our previous paper, we investigate the time evolutions with various
ambient number densities and central stars. Our calculations show that basic
evolution is qualitatively similar among our models with different parameters.
The molecular gas is finally accumulated in the shell, and the gravitational
fragmentation of the shell is generally expected. The quantitative differences
among models are well understood with analytic scaling relations. The detailed
physical and chemical structure of the shell is mainly determined by the
incident FUV flux and the column density of the shell, which also follow the
scaling relations. The time of shell-fragmentation, and the mass of the
gathered molecular gas are sensitive tothe ambient number density. In the case
of the lower number density, the shell-fragmentation occurs over a longer
timescale, and the accumulated molecular gas is more massive. The variations
with different central stars are more moderate. The time of the
shell-fragmentation differs by a factor of several with the various stars of
M_* = 12-101 M_sun. According to our numerical results, we conclude that the
expanding HII region should be an efficient trigger for star formation in
molecular clouds if the mass of the ambient molecular material is large enough.Comment: 49 pages, including 17 figures ; Accepted for publication in Ap
Molecular Hydrogen Emission Lines in Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer Observations of Mira B
We present new Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) observations of
Mira A's wind-accreting companion star, Mira B. We find that the strongest
lines in the FUSE spectrum are H2 lines fluoresced by H I Lyman-alpha. A
previously analyzed Hubble Space Telescope (HST) spectrum also shows numerous
Lyman-alpha fluoresced H2 lines. The HST lines are all Lyman band lines, while
the FUSE H2 lines are mostly Werner band lines, many of them never before
identified in an astrophysical spectrum. We combine the FUSE and HST data to
refine estimates of the physical properties of the emitting H2 gas. We find
that the emission can be reproduced by an H2 layer with a temperature and
column density of T=3900 K and log N(H2)=17.1, respectively. Another similarity
between the HST and FUSE data, besides the prevalence of H2 emission, is the
surprising weakness of the continuum and high temperature emission lines,
suggesting that accretion onto Mira B has weakened dramatically. The UV fluxes
observed by HST on 1999 August 2 were previously reported to be over an order
of magnitude lower than those observed by HST and the International Ultraviolet
Explorer (IUE) from 1979--1995. Analysis of the FUSE data reveals that Mira B
was still in a similarly low state on 2001 November 22.Comment: 23 pages, 6 figures; AASTEX v5.0 plus EPSF extensions in mkfig.sty;
accepted by Ap
Spatial Variability in the Ratio of Interstellar Atomic Deuterium to Hydrogen. I. Observations toward delta Orionis by the Interstellar Medium Absorption Profile Spectrograph
Studies of the abundances of deuterium in different astrophysical sites are
of fundamental importance to answering the question about how much deuterium
was produced during big bang nucleosynthesis and what fraction of it was
destroyed later. With this in mind, we used the Interstellar Medium Absorption
Profile Spectrograph (IMAPS) on the ORFEUS-SPAS II mission to observe at a
wavelength resolution of 4 km/s (FWHM) the L-delta and L-epsilon absorption
features produced by interstellar atomic deuterium in the spectrum of delta Ori
A. A chi-square analysis indicated that 0.96 < N(D I)< 1.45e15 cm^{-2} at a 90%
level of confidence, and the gas is at a temperature of about 6000K. To obtain
an accurate value of N(H I) needed for a determination of the atomic ratio of D
to H, we measured the L-alpha absorption features in 57 spectra of delta Ori in
the IUE archive. From our measurement of N(H I)= 1.56e20 cm^{-2}, we found that
N(D I)/N(H I)= 7.4(+1.9,-1.3)e-6 (90% confidence). Our result for D/H contrasts
with the more general finding along other lines of sight that D/H is
approximately 1.5e-5. The underabundance of D toward delta Ori A is not
accompanied by an overabundance of N or O relative to H, as one might expect if
the gas were subjected to more stellar processing than usual.Comment: 37 pages, 6 figures. Submitted to the Astrophysical Journa
Suppression of HD-cooling in protogalactic gas clouds by Lyman-Werner radiation
It has been shown that HD molecules can form efficiently in metal-free gas
collapsing into massive protogalactic halos at high redshift. The resulting
radiative cooling by HD can lower the gas temperature to that of the cosmic
microwave background, T_CMB=2.7(1+z)K, significantly below the temperature of a
few 100 K achievable via H_2-cooling alone, and thus reduce the masses of the
first generation of stars. Here we consider the suppression of HD-cooling by UV
irradiation in the Lyman-Werner (LW) bands. We include photo-dissociation of
both H_2 and HD, and explicitly compute the self-shielding and shielding of
both molecules by neutral hydrogen as well as the shielding of HD by H_2. We
use a simplified dynamical collapse model, and follow the chemical and thermal
evolution of the gas, in the presence of a UV background. We find that a LW
flux of J_crit = 1e-22 erg/cm^2/sr/s/Hz is able to suppress HD cooling and thus
prevent collapsing primordial gas from reaching temperatures below 100 K. The
main reason for the lack of HD cooling for J>J_crit is the partial
photo-dissociation of H_2, which prevents the gas from reaching sufficiently
low temperatures (T<150K) for HD to become the dominant coolant; direct HD
photo-dissociation is unimportant except for a narrow range of fluxes and
column densities. Since the prevention of HD-cooling requires only partial H_2
photo-dissociation, the critical flux J_crit is modest, and is below the UV
background required to reionize the universe at redshift z=10-20. We conclude
that HD-cooling can reduce the masses of typical stars only in rare halos
forming well before the epoch of reionization.Comment: 14 pages with 9 figures, submitted to MNRA
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