271 research outputs found
A search for clusters and groups of galaxies on the line of sight towards 8 lensed quasars
In this paper we present new ESO/VLT FORS1 and ISAAC images of the fields
around eight gravitationally lensed quasars: CTQ414, HE0230-2130,
LBQS1009-0252, B1030+074, HE1104-1805, B1359+154, H1413+117 and HE2149-2745.
When available and deep enough, HST/WFPC2 data were also used to infer the
photometric redshifts of the galaxies around the quasars. The search of galaxy
overdensities in space and redshift, as well as a weak-shear analysis and a
mass reconstruction are presented in this paper. We find that there are most
probably galaxy groups towards CTQ414, HE0230-2130, B1359+154, H1413+117 and
HE2149-2745, with a mass ~ 4x10^14 M_sol h^-1. Considering its photometric
redshift, the galaxy group discovered in the field around HE1104-1805 is
associated with the quasar rather than with the lensing potential.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures(.jpg
Detection of CO(3-2) Emission at z=2.64 from the Gravitationally Lensed Quasar MG 0414+0534
We have detected CO(3-2) line emission from the gravitationally lensed quasar
MG 0414+0534 at redshift 2.64, using the IRAM Plateau de Bure Interferometer.
The line is broad, with Delta v_FWHM = 580 km/s. The velocity-integrated CO
flux is comparable to, but somewhat smaller than, that of IRAS F10214+4724 and
the Cloverleaf quasar (H1413+117), both of which are at similar redshifts. The
lensed components A1+A2 and B were resolved, and separate spectra are presented
for each. We also observed the unlensed radio quiet quasar PG 1634+706 at
z=1.33, finding no significant CO emission.Comment: To be published in ApJ Letters. 9 pages of text in Latex, using style
file aaspp4.sty (included), plus two ps figures to be printed separatel
The Near Infrared NaI Doublet Feature in M Stars
The NaI near-infrared doublet has been used to indicate the dwarf/giant
population in composite systems, but its interpretation is still a contentious
issue. In order to understand the behaviour of this controversial feature, we
study the observed and synthetic spectra of cool stars. We conclude that the
NaI infrared feature can be used as a dwarf/giant discriminator. We propose a
modified definition of the NaI index by locating the red continuum at 8234
angstrons and by measuring the equivalent width in the range 8172-8197
angstrons, avoiding the region at lambda > 8197 angstrons, which contains VI,
ZrI, FeI and TiO lines. We also study the dependence of this feature on stellar
atmospheric parameters.Comment: 9 pages, (TeX file) + 7 Figures in Postscript format. Accepted for
publication in The Astrophysical Journa
First Detection of HCO+ Emission at High Redshift
We report the detection of HCO+(1-0) emission towards the Cloverleaf quasar
(z=2.56) through observations with the Very Large Array. This is the first
detection of ionized molecular gas emission at high redshift (z>2). HCO+
emission is a star formation indicator similar to HCN, tracing dense molecular
hydrogen gas (n(H_2) ~= 10^5 cm^{-3}) within star-forming molecular clouds. We
derive a lensing-corrected HCO+ line luminosity of L'(HCO+) = 3.5 x 10^9 K km/s
pc^2. Combining our new results with CO and HCN measurements from the
literature, we find a HCO+/CO luminosity ratio of 0.08 and a HCO+/HCN
luminosity ratio of 0.8. These ratios fall within the scatter of the same
relationships found for low-z star-forming galaxies. However, a HCO+/HCN
luminosity ratio close to unity would not be expected for the Cloverleaf if the
recently suggested relation between this ratio and the far-infrared luminosity
were to hold. We conclude that a ratio between HCO+ and HCN luminosity close to
1 is likely due to the fact that the emission from both lines is optically
thick and thermalized and emerges from dense regions of similar volumes. The
CO, HCN and HCO+ luminosities suggest that the Cloverleaf is a composite
AGN--starburst system, in agreement with the previous finding that about 20% of
the total infrared luminosity in this system results from dust heated by star
formation rather than heating by the AGN. We conclude that HCO+ is potentially
a good tracer for dense molecular gas at high redshift.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, ApJL, in press (accepted May 17, 2006
Recovering star formation histories: Integrated-light analyses vs stellar colour-magnitude diagrams
Accurate star formation histories (SFHs) of galaxies are fundamental for
understanding the build-up of their stellar content. However, the most accurate
SFHs - those obtained from colour-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) of resolved stars
reaching the oldest main sequence turnoffs (oMSTO) - are presently limited to a
few systems in the Local Group. It is therefore crucial to determine the
reliability and range of applicability of SFHs derived from integrated light
spectroscopy, as this affects our understanding of unresolved galaxies from low
to high redshift.
To evaluate the reliability of current full spectral fitting techniques in
deriving SFHs from integrated light spectroscopy by comparing SFHs from
integrated spectra to those obtained from deep CMDs of resolved stars.
We have obtained a high signal--to--noise (S/N 36.3 per \AA)
integrated spectrum of a field in the bar of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC)
using EFOSC2 at the 3.6 meter telescope at La Silla Observatory. For this same
field, resolved stellar data reaching the oMSTO are available. We have compared
the star formation rate (SFR) as a function of time and the age-metallicity
relation (AMR) obtained from the integrated spectrum using {\tt STECKMAP}, and
the CMD using the IAC-star/MinnIAC/IAC-pop set of routines. For the sake of
completeness we also use and discuss other synthesis codes ({\tt STARLIGHT} and
{\tt ULySS}) to derive the SFR and AMR from the integrated LMC spectrum.
We find very good agreement (average differences 4.1 ) between the
SFR(t) and the AMR obtained using {\tt STECKMAP} on the integrated light
spectrum, and the CMD analysis. {\tt STECKMAP} minimizes the impact of the
age-metallicity degeneracy and has the advantage of preferring smooth solutions
to recover complex SFHs by means of a penalized . [abridged]Comment: 23 pages, 24 figures. Accepted for publication in A&A (6 Sep 2015
Red and Blue Shifted Broad Lines in Luminous Quasars
We have observed a sample of 22 luminous quasars, in the range 2.0<z<2.5, at
1.6 microns with the near-infrared (NIR) spectrograph FSPEC on the Multiple
Mirror Telescope. Our sample contains 13 radio-loud and 9 radio-quiet objects.
We have measured the systemic redshifts z_(sys) directly from the strong [O
III]5007 line emitted from the narrow-line-region. From the same spectra, we
have found that the non-resonance broad H lines have a systematic mean
redward shift of 520+/-80 km/s with respect to systemic. Such a shift was not
found in our identical analysis of the low-redshift sample of Boroson & Green.
The amplitude of this redshift is comparable to half the expected gravitational
redshift and transverse Doppler effects, and is consistent with a correlation
between redshift differences and quasar luminosity. From data in the
literature, we confirm that the high-ionization rest-frame ultraviolet broad
lines are blueshifted ~550-1050 km/s from systemic, and that these velocity
shifts systematically increase with ionization potential. Our results allow us
to quantify the known bias in estimating the ionizing flux from the
inter-galactic-medium J_(IGM) via the Proximity Effect. Using redshift
measurements commonly determined from strong broad line species, like Ly\alpha
or CIV1549, results in an over-estimation of J_(IGM) by factors of ~1.9-2.3.
Similarly, corresponding lower limits on the density of baryon Omega_b will be
over-estimated by factors of ~1.4-1.5. However, the low-ionization MgII2798
broad line is within ~50 km/s of systemic, and thus would be the line of choice
for determining the true redshift of 1.0<z<2.2 quasars without NIR
spectroscopy, and z>3.1 objects using NIR spectroscopy.Comment: 12 pages, Latex, 2 figures, 2 tables, Accepted for publication in ApJ
Letter
Detection of Emission from the CN Radical in the Cloverleaf Quasar at z=2.56
We report the detection of CN(N=3-2) emission towards the Cloverleaf quasar
(z=2.56) based on observations with the IRAM Plateau de Bure Interferometer.
This is the first clear detection of emission from this radical at high
redshift. CN emission is a tracer of dense molecular hydrogen gas (n(H2) > 10^4
cm^{-3}) within star-forming molecular clouds, in particular in regions where
the clouds are affected by UV radiation. The HCN/CN intensity ratio can be used
as a diagnostic for the relative importance of photodissociation regions (PDRs)
in a source, and as a sensitive probe of optical depth, the radiation field,
and photochemical processes. We derive a lensing-corrected CN(N=3-2) line
luminosity of L'(CN(3-2) = (4.5 +/- 0.5) x 10^9 K km/s pc^2. The ratio between
CN luminosity and far-infrared luminosity falls within the scatter of the same
relationship found for low-z (ultra-) luminous infrared galaxies. Combining our
new results with CO(J=3-2) and HCN(J=1-0) measurements from the literature and
assuming thermal excitation for all transitions, we find a CO/CN luminosity
ratio of 9.3 +/- 1.9 and a HCN/CN luminosity ratio of 0.95 +/- 0.15. However,
we find that the CN(N=3-2) line is likely only subthermally excited, implying
that those ratios may only provide upper limits for the intrinsic 1-0 line
luminosity ratios. We conclude that, in combination with other molecular gas
tracers like CO, HCN, and HCO+, CN is an important probe of the physical
conditions and chemical composition of dense molecular environments at high
redshift.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, 1 table, to appear in ApJ (accepted May 23, 2007
Reverberation Mapping and the Physics of Active Galactic Nuclei
Reverberation-mapping campaigns have revolutionized our understanding of AGN.
They have allowed the direct determination of the broad-line region size,
enabled mapping of the gas distribution around the central black hole, and are
starting to resolve the continuum source structure. This review describes the
recent and successful campaigns of the International AGN Watch consortium,
outlines the theoretical background of reverberation mapping and the
calculation of transfer functions, and addresses the fundamental difficulties
of such experiments. It shows that such large-scale experiments have resulted
in a ``new BLR'' which is considerably different from the one we knew just ten
years ago. We discuss in some detail the more important new results, including
the luminosity-size-mass relationship for AGN, and suggest ways to proceed in
the near future.Comment: Review article to appear in Astronomical Time Series, Proceedings of
the Wise Observatory 25th Ann. Symposium. 24 pages including 7 figure
Gas Metallicity of Narrow-Line Regions in Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 Galaxies and Broad-Line Seyfert 1 Galaxies
We investigate gas metallicity of narrow-line regions in narrow-line Seyfert
1 galaxies (NLS1s) and broad-line ones (BLS1s) in order to examine whether or
not there is a difference in the gas metallicity between the two populations of
Seyfert 1 galaxies. We apply two methods to study this issue. One is to use the
emission-line flux ratio of [N II]6583/H_alpha in combination with some other
optical emission-line flux ratios. This method, which has been often applied to
Seyfert 2 galaxies, suggests that the gas metallicity of narrow-line regions is
indistinguishable or possibly higher in BLS1s than in NLS1s. On the contrary,
the other method in which only forbidden emission-line fluxes are used results
in that NLS1s tend to possess metal-richer gas in the narrow-line regions than
BLS1s. We point out that this inconsistency may be owing to the contamination
of the broad component of permitted lines into the narrow component of ones in
the first method. Since the results derived by using only forbidden
emission-line fluxes do not suffer from any uncertainty of the fitting function
for the broad component of Balmer lines, the results from this method are more
reliable than those derived by using permitted lines. We thus conclude that the
gas metallicity of narrow-line regions tends to be higher in NLS1s than in
BLS1s.Comment: 12 pages including 10 figures, to appear in The Astrophysical Journa
Gas and Dust in the Cloverleaf Quasar at Redshift 2.5
We observed the upper fine structure line of neutral carbon, CI(2-1), the
CO(3-2) line and the 1.2mm continuum emission from H1413+117 (Cloverleaf
quasar, z=2.5) using the IRAM interferometer. Together with the detection of
the lower fine structure line (Barvainis etal. 1997), the Cloverleaf quasar is
now only the second extragalactic system, besides M82, where both carbon lines
have convincingly been detected. Our analysis shows that the carbon lines are
optically thin and have an excitation temperature of ~30 K. CO is subthermally
excited and the observed line luminosity ratios are consistent with
n(H2)=10^(3-4) cm^(-3) at Tkin=30-50 K. Using three independent methods (CI,
dust, CO) we derive a total molecular gas mass (corrected for magnification) of
M(H2)=1.2+/-0.3*10^(10) SM. Our observations suggest that the molecular disk
extends beyond the region seen in CO(7-6) to a zone of more moderately excited
molecular gas that dominates the global emission in CI and the low J CO lines.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures; accepted by A&
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