6,171 research outputs found
The Distances of SNR W41 and overlapping HII regions
New HI images from the VLA Galactic Plane Survey show prominent absorption
features associated with the supernovae remnant G23.3-0.3 (SNR W41). We
highlight the HI absorption spectra and the CO emission spectra of eight
small regions on the face of W41, including four HII regions, three non-thermal
emission regions and one unclassified region. The maximum velocity of
absorption for W41 is 782 km/s and the CO cloud at radial velocity
955 km/s is behind W41. Because an extended TeV source, a diffuse X-ray
enhancement and a large molecular cloud at radial velocity 775 km/s are
also projected at the center of W41, these yield the kinematic distance of 3.9
to 4.5 kpc for W41. For HII regions, our analyses reveal that both G23.42-0.21
and G23.07+0.25 are at the far kinematic distances (9.9 kpc and
10.6 kpc respectively) of their recombination-line velocities (1030.5 km/s
and 89.62.1 km/s respectively), G23.07-0.37 is at the near kinematic
distance (4.40.3 kpc) of its recombination-line velocity (82.72.0
km/s), and G23.27-0.27 is probably at the near kinematic distance (4.10.3
kpc) of its recombination-line velocity (76.10.6 km/s).Comment: 11 pages, 3 figs., 2 tables, accepted by A
High resolution sub-millimetre mapping of starburst galaxies: Comparison with CO emission
Researchers present first results from a program of submillimeter continuum mapping of starburst galaxies, and comparison of their dust and CO emission. This project was prompted by surprising results from the first target, the nearby starburst M82, which shows in the dust continuum a morphology quite unlike that of its CO emission, in contrast to what might be expected if both CO and dust are accurately tracing the molecular hydrogen. Possible explanations for this striking difference are discussed. In the light of these results, the program has been extended to include sub-mm mapping of the nearby, vigorously star forming spirals, M83 and Maffei 2. The latter were also observed extensively in CO, in order to study excitation conditions in its central regions. The James Clerk Maxwell Telescope was used in these studies
Generating ring currents, solitons, and svortices by stirring a Bose-Einstein condensate in a toroidal trap
We propose a simple stirring experiment to generate quantized ring currents
and solitary excitations in Bose-Einstein condensates in a toroidal trap
geometry. Simulations of the 3D Gross-Pitaevskii equation show that pure ring
current states can be generated efficiently by adiabatic manipulation of the
condensate, which can be realized on experimental time scales. This is
illustrated by simulated generation of a ring current with winding number two.
While solitons can be generated in quasi-1D tori, we show the even more robust
generation of hybrid, solitonic vortices (svortices) in a regime of wider
confinement. Svortices are vortices confined to essentially one-dimensional
dynamics, which obey a similar phase-offset--velocity relationship as solitons.
Marking the transition between solitons and vortices, svortices are a distinct
class of symmetry-breaking stationary and uniformly rotating excited solutions
of the 2D and 3D Gross-Pitaevskii equation in a toroidal trapping potential.
Svortices should be observable in dilute-gas experiments.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures; accepted for publication in J. Phys. B (Letters
The Arecibo Methanol Maser Galactic Plane Survey - II: Statistical and Multi-wavelength Counterpart Analysis
We present an analysis of the properties of the 6.7 GHz methanol maser sample
detected in the Arecibo Methanol Maser Galactic Plane Survey. The distribution
of the masers in the Galaxy, and statistics of their multi-wavelength
counterparts is consistent with the hypothesis of 6.7 GHz maser emission being
associated with massive young stellar objects. Using the detection statistics
of our survey, we estimate the minimum number of methanol masers in the Galaxy
to be 1275. The l-v diagram of the sample shows the tangent point of the
Carina-Sagittarius spiral arm to be around 49.6 degrees, and suggests
occurrence of massive star formation along the extension of the Crux-Scutum
arm. A Gaussian component analysis of the maser spectra shows the mean
line-width to be 0.38 km/s which is more than a factor of two larger than what
has been reported in the literature. We also find no evidence that faint
methanol masers have different properties than those of their bright
counterparts.Comment: Accepted by ApJ; Revised footnote number 3 on page 8 based on private
communicatio
Radiative feedback from an early X-ray background
The first generation of stars (commonly known as population III) are expected
to form in low-mass protogalaxies in which molecular hydrogen is the dominant
coolant. Radiation from these stars will rapidly build up an extragalactic
ultraviolet background capable of photodissociating H2, and it is widely
believed that this background will suppress further star formation in low-mass
systems.
However, star formation will also produce an extragalactic X-ray background.
This X-ray background, by increasing the fractional ionization of protogalactic
gas, promotes H2 formation and reduces the effectiveness of ultraviolet
feedback.
In this paper, we examine which of these backgrounds has the dominant effect.
Using a simple model for the growth of the UV and X-ray backgrounds, together
with a detailed one-dimensional model of protogalactic chemical evolution, we
examine the effects of the X-ray backgrounds produced by a number of likely
source models. We show that in several cases, the resulting X-ray background is
strong enough to offset UV photodissociation in large H2-cooled protogalaxies.
On the other hand, small protogalaxies (those with virial temperatures T_vir <
2000K) remain dominated by the UV background in all of the models we examine.
We also briefly investigate the effects of the X-ray background upon the
thermal and chemical evolution of the diffuse IGM.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures. Presentation improved, thanks to helpful
comments by the referee. Accepted by MNRA
Infrared images of reflection nebulae and Orion's bar: Fluorescent molecular hydrogen and the 3.3 micron feature
Images were obtained of the (fluorescent) molecular hydrogen 1-0 S(1) line, and of the 3.3 micron emission feature, in Orion's Bar and three reflection nebulae. The emission from these species appears to come from the same spatial locations in all sources observed. This suggests that the 3.3 micron feature is excited by the same energetic UV-photons which cause the molecular hydrogen to fluoresce
The Fragmenting Superbubble Associated with the HII Region W4
New observations at high latitudes above the HII region W4 show that the
structure formerly identified as a chimney candidate, an opening to the
Galactic halo, is instead a superbubble in the process of fragmenting and
possibly evolving into a chimney. Data at high Galactic latitudes (b > 5
degrees) above the W3/W4 star forming region at 1420 and 408 MHz Stokes I
(total power) and 1420 MHz Stokes Q and U (linear polarization) reveal an
egg-shaped structure with morphological correlations between our data and the
H-alpha data of Dennison, Topasna, & Simonetti. Polarized intensity images show
depolarization extending from W4 up the walls of the superbubble, providing
strong evidence that the radio continuum is generated by thermal emission
coincident with the H-alpha emission regions. We conclude that the parts of the
HII region hitherto known as W4 and the newly revealed thermal emission are all
ionized by the open cluster OCl 352. Assuming a distance of 2.35 kpc, the ovoid
structure is 164 pc wide and extends 246 pc above the mid-plane of the Galaxy.
The shell's emission decreases in total-intensity and polarized intensity in
various locations, appearing to have a break at its top and another on one
side. Using a geometric analysis of the depolarization in the shell's walls, we
estimate that a magnetic field line-of-sight component of 3 to 5 uG exists in
the shell. We explore the connection between W4 and the Galactic halo,
considering whether sufficient radiation can escape from the fragmenting
superbubble to ionize the kpc-scale H-alpha loop discovered by Reynolds,
Sterling & Haffner.Comment: 42 pages, 14 figures; Accepted for publication in Ap
Star Formation in the Extreme Outer Galaxy: Digel Cloud 2 Clusters
As a first step for studying star formation in the extreme outer Galaxy
(EOG), we obtained deep near-infrared images of two embedded clusters at the
northern and southern CO peaks of Cloud 2, which is one of the most distant
star forming regions in the outer Galaxy (galactic radius R_g ~ 19 kpc). With
high spatial resolution (FWHM ~ 0".35) and deep imaging (K ~ 21 mag) with the
IRCS imager at the Subaru telescope, we detected cluster members with a mass
detection limit of < 0.1 M_{sun}, which is well into the substellar regime.
These high quality data enables a comparison of EOG to those in the solar
neighborhood on the same basis for the first time. Before interpreting the
photometric result, we have first constructed the NIR color-color diagram
(dwarf star track, classical T Tauri star (CTTS) locus, reddening law) in the
Mauna Kea Observatory filter system and also for the low metallicity
environment since the metallicity in EOG is much lower than those in the solar
neighborhood. The estimated stellar density suggests that an ``isolated type''
star formation is ongoing in Cloud 2-N, while a ``cluster type'' star formation
is ongoing in Cloud 2-S. Despite the difference of the star formation mode,
other characteristics of the two clusters are found to be almost identical: (1)
K-band luminosity function (KLF) of the two clusters are quite similar, as is
the estimated IMF and ages (~ 0.5--1 Myr) from the KLF fitting, (2) the
estimated star formation efficiencies (SFEs) for both clusters are typical
compared to those of embedded clusters in the solar neighborhood (~ 10 %). The
similarity of two independent clusters with a large separation (~ 25 pc)
strongly suggest that their star formation activities were triggered by the
same mechanism, probably the supernova remnant (GSH 138-01-94).Comment: 14pages, 11 figures; Accepted for publication in Ap
Grey solitons in a strongly interacting superfluid Fermi Gas
The Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer to Bose-Einstein condensate (BCS to BEC)
crossover problem is solved for stationary grey solitons via the Boguliubov-de
Gennes equations at zero temperature. These \emph{crossover solitons} exhibit a
localized notch in the gap and a characteristic phase difference across the
notch for all interaction strengths, from BEC to BCS regimes. However, they do
not follow the well-known Josephson-like sinusoidal relationship between
velocity and phase difference except in the far BEC limit: at unitary the
velocity has a nearly linear dependence on phase difference over an extended
range. For fixed phase difference the soliton is of nearly constant depth from
the BEC limit to unitarity and then grows progressively shallower into the BCS
limit, and on the BCS side Friedel oscillations are apparent in both gap
amplitude and phase. The crossover soliton appears fundamentally in the gap; we
show, however, that the density closely follows the gap, and the soliton is
therefore observable. We develop an approximate power law relationship to
express this fact: the density of grey crossover solitons varies as the square
of the gap amplitude in the BEC limit and a power of about 1.5 at unitarity.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, part of New Journal of Physics focus issue
"Strongly Correlated Quantum Fluids: From Ultracold Quantum Gases to QCD
Plasmas," in pres
Fine Scale Temperature Fluctuations in the the Orion Nebula and the t^2 Problem
We present a high spatial resolution map of the columnar electron temperature
(Tc) of a region to the south west of the Trapezium in the Orion Nebula. This
map was derived from Hubble Space Telescope images that isolated the primary
lines of HI for determination of the local extinction and of the OIII lines for
determination of Tc. Although there is no statistically significant variation
of Tc with distance from the dominant ionizing star theta1-Ori-C, we find small
scale variations in the plane of the sky down to a few arcseconds that are
compatible with the variations inferred from comparing the value of Te derived
from forbidden and recombination lines, commonly known as the t^2 problem. We
present other evidence for fine scale variations in conditions in the nebula,
these being variations in the surface brightness of the the nebula,
fluctuations in radial velocities, and ionization changes. From our Tc map and
other considerations we estimate that t^2=0.028 +-0.006 for the Orion nebula.
Shadowed regions behind clumps close to the ionization front can make a
significant contribution to the observed temperature fluctuations, but they
cannot account for the t^2 values inferred from several methods of temperature
determination. It is shown that an anomalous broadening of nebular emission
lines appears to have the same sense of correlation as the temperature
anomalies, although a causal link is not obvious.Comment: 53 pages, 13 images, many of the images have been downgraded to be
able to fit within the astro-ph file size limit
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