Are spiral galaxies optically thin or thick?

The opacity of spiral galaxies is examined by modelling the dust and stellar content of individual galaxies. The model is applied to five late-type spiral galaxies (NGC 4013, IC 2531, UGC 1082, NGC 5529 and NGC 5907). Having analyzed a total of seven galaxies thus far, the five galaxies mentioned above plus UGC 2048 and NGC 891 presented in (Xilouris et al. 1997, 1998), we are able to draw some general conclusions, the most significant of which are: 1) The face-on central optical depth is less than one in all optical bands indicating that typical spiral galaxies like the ones that we have modelled would be completely transparent if they were to be seen face-on. 2) The dust scaleheight is about half that of the stars, which means that the dust is more concentrated near the plane of the disk. 3) The dust scalelength is about 1.4 times larger than that of the stars and the dust is more radially extended than the stars. 4) The dust mass is found to be about an order of a magnitude more than previously measured using the IRAS fluxes, indicating the existence of a cold dust component. The gas-to-dust mass ratio calculated is close to the value derived for our Galaxy. 5) The derived extinction law matches quite well the Galactic extinction law, indicating a universal dust behaviour.Comment: 13 pages. Accepted for publication in A&

Scaling laws for the photo-ionisation cross section of two-electron atoms

The cross sections for single-electron photo-ionisation in two-electron atoms show fluctuations which decrease in amplitude when approaching the double-ionisation threshold. Based on semiclassical closed orbit theory, we show that the algebraic decay of the fluctuations can be characterised in terms of a threshold law $\sigma \propto |E|^{\mu}$ as $E \to 0_-$ with exponent $\mu$ obtained as a combination of stability exponents of the triple-collision singularity. It differs from Wannier's exponent dominating double ionisation processes. The details of the fluctuations are linked to a set of infinitely unstable classical orbits starting and ending in the non-regularisable triple collision. The findings are compared with quantum calculations for a model system, namely collinear helium.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

An Atlas of Monte Carlo Models of Dust Extinction in Galaxies for Cosmological Applications

We present an extensive study of the radiative transfer in dusty galaxies based on Monte Carlo simulations. The main output of these simulations are the attenuation curves ${\cal A}_\lambda$ (i.e. the ratio between the observed, dust extinguished, total intensity to the intrinsic unextinguished one of the galaxy as a function of wavelength). We have explored the dependence of ${\cal A}_\lambda$ on a conspicuous set of quantities (Hubble type, inclination, dust optical thickness, dust distribution and extinction properties) for a large wavelength interval, ranging from 1250\AA to the K band, thus finally providing a comprehensive atlas of dust extinction in galaxies, which is electronically available. This study is particularly suitable for inclusion into galaxy formation evolution models and to directly interpret observational data on high redshift galaxies.Comment: 29 pages, aasms4.sty, LaTeX, 5 figures. ApJSS, accepte

Soft X-Ray Sources at the Centers of the Elliptical Galaxies NGC 4472 and NGC 4649

Analysis of recent Chandra observations of the elliptical galaxies NGC 4472 and NGC 4649 has revealed faint soft X-ray sources at their centers. The sources are located to within 1'' of the optical centers of the galaxies. They are most likely associated with the central supermassive black holes. Interest in these and several other similar objects stems from the unusually low luminosity of the supermassive black holes embedded in dense interstellar medium. Our Chandra sources have very soft spectra. They are detectable only below ~0.6 keV and have luminosities in the 0.2-2.5 keV energy band of ~ 6 * 10^{37} erg/s and ~1.7 * 10^{38} erg/s in NGC 4649 and NGC 4472, respectively.Comment: Shortened version of the paper published in Astronomy Letter

The Taiwanese-American Occultation Survey: The Multi-Telescope Robotic Observatory

The Taiwanese-American Occultation Survey (TAOS) operates four fully automatic telescopes to search for occultations of stars by Kuiper Belt Objects. It is a versatile facility that is also useful for the study of initial optical GRB afterglows. This paper provides a detailed description of the TAOS multi-telescope system, control software, and high-speed imaging.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figure

The TAOS Project: Statistical Analysis of Multi-Telescope Time Series Data

The Taiwanese-American Occultation Survey (TAOS) monitors fields of up to ~1000 stars at 5 Hz simultaneously with four small telescopes to detect occultation events from small (~1 km) Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs). The survey presents a number of challenges, in particular the fact that the occultation events we are searching for are extremely rare and are typically manifested as slight flux drops for only one or two consecutive time series measurements. We have developed a statistical analysis technique to search the multi-telescope data set for simultaneous flux drops which provides a robust false positive rejection and calculation of event significance. In this paper, we describe in detail this statistical technique and its application to the TAOS data set.Comment: 15 pages, 14 figures. Submitted to PAS

The Centers of Early-Type Galaxies with HST II: Empirical Models and Structural Parameters

We present a set of structural parameters for the central parts of 57 early-type galaxies observed with the Planetary Camera of the Hubble Space Telescope. These parameters are based on a new empirical law that successfully characterizes the centers of early type galaxies. This empirical law assumes that the surface brightness profile is a combination of two power laws with different slopes gamma and beta for the inner and outer regions. Conventional structural parameters such as core radius and central surface brightness are replaced by break radius r_b, where the transition between power-law slopes takes place, and surface brightness mu_b at that radius. An additional parameter alpha describes the sharpness of the break. The structural parameters are derived using a chi-squared minimization process applied to the mean surface brightness profiles. The resulting model profiles generally give very good agreement to the observed profiles out to the radius of 10 arcseconds imaged by the Planetary Camera. Exceptions include galaxies which depart from pure power-laws at large radius, those with strong nuclear components, and galaxies partly obscured by dust. The uncertainties in the derived parameters are estimated using Monte-Carlo simulations which test the stability of solutions in the face of photon noise and the effects of the deconvolution process. The covariance of the structural parameters is examined by computing contours of constant chi squared in multi-dimensional parameter space.Comment: 14 pages, 1 table, 8 postscript figures, aaspp4.sty included, accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journa