Large and small-scale structures and the dust energy balance problem in spiral galaxies

The interstellar dust content in galaxies can be traced in extinction at optical wavelengths, or in emission in the far-infrared. Several studies have found that radiative transfer models that successfully explain the optical extinction in edge-on spiral galaxies generally underestimate the observed FIR/submm fluxes by a factor of about three. In order to investigate this so-called dust energy balance problem, we use two Milky Way-like galaxies produced by high-resolution hydrodynamical simulations. We create mock optical edge-on views of these simulated galaxies (using the radiative transfer code SKIRT), and we then fit the parameters of a basic spiral galaxy model to these images (using the fitting code FitSKIRT). The basic model includes smooth axisymmetric distributions along a S\'ersic bulge and exponential disc for the stars, and a second exponential disc for the dust. We find that the dust mass recovered by the fitted models is about three times smaller than the known dust mass of the hydrodynamical input models. This factor is in agreement with previous energy balance studies of real edge-on spiral galaxies. On the other hand, fitting the same basic model to less complex input models (e.g. a smooth exponential disc with a spiral perturbation or with random clumps), does recover the dust mass of the input model almost perfectly. Thus it seems that the complex asymmetries and the inhomogeneous structure of real and hydrodynamically simulated galaxies are a lot more efficient at hiding dust than the rather contrived geometries in typical quasi-analytical models. This effect may help explain the discrepancy between the dust emission predicted by radiative transfer models and the observed emission in energy balance studies for edge-on spiral galaxies.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Benthic foraminifera as bio-indicators of drill cutting disposal in tropical east Atlantic outer shelf environments

We present a study of benthic foraminiferal faunas from the outer continental shelf off Congo (tropical West Africa), with the aim to determine the impact of the discharge of oily drill cuttings on the sea floor environment, to judge the regenerating capacity of the benthic ecosystem, and to investigate the possibility to develop an environmental monitoring method for open marine continental shelf environments, based on benthic foraminifera. We studied the spatial distribution and microhabitats of living and dead foraminiferal faunas, sampled in April 2003, 4 years after the end of disposal activities, in the upper 3 cm of the sediment at 9 stations (about 180 m depth) offshore Congo, that were subject to various degrees of pollution by oily cuttings from 1993 until 1999. Our results describe a zonation of foraminiferal faunas in the 750 m around the former disposal sites. At the immediate vicinity of the discharge points (within 70 m), faunas are characterized by low foraminiferal densities. Faunas between 70 m and 250 m of the disposal sites have very high foraminiferal densities, with high percentages (about 80%) of opportunistic taxa such as Bulimina aculeata, Bulimina marginata, Textularia sagittula, Trifarina bradyi and Bolivina spp. Between 250 and 750 m from the disposal site, foraminiferal densities decrease, and the percentages of opportunistic species are lower (40–60% of indicator species). These results show that 4 years after the cessation of oily cutting disposal, strong environmental impact is limited to the 250 m around the disposal sites. We used these data to develop a quantitative pollution index, values of which are strongly correlated to distance to the disposal site. This foraminiferal index offers the possibility to quantify the impact of anthropogenic eutrophication in continental shelf environments, but its validity must be tested in other continental shelf environments

On the Trade-Off Between Enhancement of the Spatial Resolution and Noise Amplification in Conical-Scanning Microwave Radiometers

The ability to enhance the spatial resolution of measurements collected by a conical-scanning microwave radiometer (MWR) is discussed in terms of noise amplification and improvement of the spatial resolution. Simulated (and actual) brightness temperature profiles are analyzed at variance of different intrinsic spatial resolutions and adjacent beams overlapping modeling a simplified 1-D measurement configuration (MC). The actual measurements refer to Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) data collected using the 19.35 and the 37.00 GHz channels that match the simulated configurations. The reconstruction of the brightness profile at enhanced spatial resolution is performed using an iterative gradient method which allows a fine tuning of the level of regularization. Objective metrics are introduced to quantify the enhancement of the spatial resolution and noise amplification. Numerical experiments, performed using the simplified 1-D MC, show that the regularized deconvolution results in negligible advantages when dealing with low-overlapping/fine-spatial-resolution configurations. Regularization is a mandatory step when addressing the high-overlapping/low-spatial-resolution case and the spatial resolution can be enhanced up to 2.34 with a noise amplification equal to 1.56. A more stringent requirement on the noise amplification (up to 0.6) results in an improvement of the spatial resolution up to 1.64

Measuring the physical imprints of gas flows in galaxies I: Accretion rate histories

Galaxies are expected to accrete pristine gas from their surroundings to sustain their star formation over cosmic timescales. Its lower abundance affects the metallicity of the ISM in which stars are born, leaving chemical imprints in the stellar populations. We measure the amount of pristine gas that galaxies accrete during their lifetime, using information on the ages and abundances of their stellar populations and a chemical evolution model. We also aim to determine the efficiency of star formation over time. We derived star formation histories and metallicity histories for a sample of 8523 galaxies from the MaNGA survey. We use the former to predict the evolution of the metallicity in a closed-box scenario, and estimate for each epoch the gas accretion rate required to match these predictions with the measured stellar metallicity. Using only chemical parameters, we find that the history of gas accretion depends on the mass of galaxies. More massive galaxies accrete more gas and at higher redshifts than less massive galaxies, which accrete their gas over longer periods. We also find that galaxies with a higher star formation rate at z = 0 have a more persistent accretion history for a given mass. The star formation efficiency shows similar correlations: early-type galaxies and higher-mass galaxies had a higher efficiency in the past, and it declined such that they are less efficient in the present. Our analysis of individual galaxies shows that compactness affects the peak star formation efficiency that galaxies reach, and that the slope of the efficiency history of galaxies with current star formation is flat. Our results support the hypothesis that a steady and substantial supply of pristine gas is required for persistent star formation in galaxies. Once they lose access to this gas supply, star formation comes to a halt.Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures. Accepted at A&