5,316 research outputs found
Evolution in the Dust Lane Fraction of Edge-on L* Spiral Galaxies since z=0.8
The presence of a well-defined and narrow dust lane in an edge-on spiral
galaxy is the observational signature of a thin and dense molecular disk, in
which gravitational collapse has overcome turbulence. Using a sample of
galaxies out to z~1 extracted from the COSMOS survey, we identify the fraction
of massive disks that display a dust lane. Our goal is to explore the evolution
in the stability of the molecular ISM disks in spiral galaxies over a cosmic
timescale. We check the reliability of our morphological classifications
against changes in restframe wavelength, resolution, and cosmic dimming with
(artificially redshifted) images of local galaxies from SDSS. We find that the
fraction of L* disks with dust lanes in COSMOS is consistent with the local
fraction (~80%) out to z~0.7. At z=0.8, the dust lane fraction is only slightly
lower. A somewhat lower dust lane fraction in starbursting galaxies tentatively
supports the notion that a high specific star formation rate can efficiently
destroy or inhibit a dense molecular disk. A small subsample of higher redshift
COSMOS galaxies display low internal reddening (E[B-V]), as well as a low
incidence of dust lanes. These may be disks in which the growth of the dusty
ISM disk lags behind that of the stellar disk. We note that at z=0.8, the most
massive galaxies display a lower dust lane fraction than lower mass galaxies. A
small contribution of recent mergers or starbursts to this most massive
population may be responsible. The fact that the fraction of galaxies with dust
lanes in COSMOS is consistent with little or no evolution implies that models
to explain the Spectral Energy Distribution or the host galaxy dust extinction
of supernovae based on local galaxies are still applicable to higher redshift
spirals. It also suggests that dust lanes are long lived phenomena or can be
reformed over very short time-scales.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication by Ap
New HErschel Multi-wavelength Extragalactic Survey of Edge-on Spirals (NHEMESES)
Edge-on spiral galaxies offer a unique perspective on the vertical structure
of spiral disks, both stars and the iconic dark dustlanes. The thickness of
these dustlanes can now be resolved for the first time with Herschel in
far-infrared and sub-mm emission. We present NHEMESES, an ongoing project that
targets 12 edge-on spiral galaxies with the PACS and SPIRE instruments on
Herschel. These vertically resolved observations of edge-on spirals will impact
on several current topics.
First and foremost, these Herschel observations will settle whether or not
there is a phase change in the vertical structure of the ISM with disk mass.
Previously, a dramatic change in dustlane morphology was observed as in massive
disks the dust collapses into a thin lane. If this is the case, the vertical
balance between turbulence and gravity dictates the ISM structure and
consequently star-formation and related phenomena (spiral arms, bars etc.). We
specifically target lower mass nearby edge-ons to complement existing Herschel
observations of high-mass edge-on spirals (the HEROES project).
Secondly, the combined data-set, together with existing Spitzer observations,
will drive a new generation of spiral disk Spectral Energy Distribution models.
These model how dust reprocesses starlight to thermal emission but the dust
geometry remains the critical unknown.
And thirdly, the observations will provide an accurate and unbiased census of
the cold dusty structures occasionally seen extending out of the plane of the
disk, when backlit by the stellar disk. To illustrate the NHEMESES project, we
present early results on NGC 4244 and NGC 891, two well studies examples of a
low and high-mass edge-on spiral.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figures, to appear in the proceedings of IAU 284, "The
Spectral Energy Distribution of Galaxies", (SED2011), 5-9 September 2011,
Preston, UK, editors, R.J. Tuffs & C.C.Popescu (v2 updated metadata
Stellar populations across the NGC4244 truncated galactic disk
We use HST/ACS to study the resolved stellar populations of the nearby,
nearly edge-on galaxy NGC4244 across its outer disk surface density break. The
stellar photometry allows us to study the distribution of different stellar
populations and reach very low equivalent surface brightnesses. We find that
the break occurs at the same radius for young, intermediate age, and old stars.
The stellar density beyond the break drops sharply by a factor of at least 600
in 5 kpc. The break occurs at the same radius independent of height above the
disk, but is sharpest in the midplane and nearly disappears at large heights.
These results make it unlikely that truncations are caused by a star formation
threshold alone: the threshold would have to keep the same radial position from
less than 100 Myr to 10 Gyr ago, in spite of potential disturbances such as
infall and redistribution of gas by internal processes. A dynamical
interpretation of truncation formation is more likely such as due to angular
momentum redistribution by bars or density waves, or heating and stripping of
stars caused by the bombardment of dark matter sub-halos. The latter
explanation is also in quantitative agreement with the small diffuse component
we see around the galaxy.Comment: ApJ Letters, in press. Five pages, 2 figure
GHOSTS: The Resolved Stellar Outskirts of Massive Disk Galaxies
We show initial results from our ongoing HST GHOSTS survey of the resolved
stellar envelopes of 14 nearby, massive disk galaxies. In hierarchical galaxy
formation the stellar halos and thick disks of galaxies are formed by accretion
of minor satellites and therefore contain valuable information about the
(early) assembly process of galaxies. We detect for the first time the very
small halo of NGC4244, a low mass edge-on galaxy. We find that massive galaxies
have very extended halos, with equivalent surface brightnesses of 28-29
V-mag/arcsec^2 at 20-30 kpc from the disk. The old RGB stars of the thick disk
in the NGC891 and NGC4244 edge-on galaxies truncate at the same radius as the
young thin disk stars, providing insights into the formation of both disk
truncations and thick disks. We furthermore present the stellar populations of
a very low surface brightness stream around M83, the first such a stream
resolved into stars beyond those of the Milky Way and M31.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of IAUS 241: Stellar Populations as
Building Blocks of Galaxie
A Comparison of Local SNIa with the IRAS PSCz Gravity Field
We compare the measured peculiar velocities of 98 local (<150/h Mpc) type Ia
supernovae with predictions derived from the PSCz survey. There is excellent
agreement between the two datasets with a best fit beta_I (=Omega_m^0.6/b_I) of
0.55+-0.06. Subsets of the supernovae dataset are further analysed and the
above result is found to be robust with respect to culls by distance,
host-galaxy extinction and to the choice of reference frame in which the
analysis is carried out. Alternative methods of determining beta_I including
density-density comparisons, dipole measurements and WMAP-based results are
also discussed. We conclude that most recent determinations are consistent with
a value of beta_I=0.5.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA
The Australia Telescope 20 GHz Survey: The Source Catalogue
We present the full source catalogue from the Australia Telescope 20 GHz
(AT20G) Survey. The AT20G is a blind radio survey carried out at 20 GHz with
the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) from 2004 to 2008, and covers the
whole sky south of declination 0 deg. The AT20G source catalogue presented here
is an order of magnitude larger than any previous catalogue of high-frequency
radio sources, and includes 5890 sources above a 20 GHz flux-density limit of
40 mJy. All AT20G sources have total intensity and polarisation measured at 20
GHz, and most sources south of declination -15 deg also have near-simultaneous
flux-density measurements at 5 and 8 GHz. A total of 1559 sources were detected
in polarised total intensity at one or more of the three frequencies. We detect
a small but significant population of non-thermal sources that are either
undetected or have only weak detections in low-frequency catalogues. We
introduce the term Ultra-Inverted Spectrum (UIS) to describe these radio
sources, which have a spectral index alpha(5, 20) > +0.7 and which constitute
roughly 1.2 per cent of the AT20G sample. The 20 GHz flux densities measured
for the strongest AT20G sources are in excellent agreement with the WMAP 5-year
source catalogue of Wright et al. (2009), and we find that the WMAP source
catalogue is close to complete for sources stronger than 1.5 Jy at 23 GHz.Comment: 21 pages, accepted for publication in MNRA
Search for the standard model Higgs boson in the H to ZZ to 2l 2nu channel in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV
A search for the standard model Higgs boson in the H to ZZ to 2l 2nu decay
channel, where l = e or mu, in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7
TeV is presented. The data were collected at the LHC, with the CMS detector,
and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 4.6 inverse femtobarns. No
significant excess is observed above the background expectation, and upper
limits are set on the Higgs boson production cross section. The presence of the
standard model Higgs boson with a mass in the 270-440 GeV range is excluded at
95% confidence level.Comment: Submitted to JHE
Search for New Physics with Jets and Missing Transverse Momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV
A search for new physics is presented based on an event signature of at least
three jets accompanied by large missing transverse momentum, using a data
sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36 inverse picobarns
collected in proton--proton collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV with the CMS detector
at the LHC. No excess of events is observed above the expected standard model
backgrounds, which are all estimated from the data. Exclusion limits are
presented for the constrained minimal supersymmetric extension of the standard
model. Cross section limits are also presented using simplified models with new
particles decaying to an undetected particle and one or two jets
Combined search for the quarks of a sequential fourth generation
Results are presented from a search for a fourth generation of quarks
produced singly or in pairs in a data set corresponding to an integrated
luminosity of 5 inverse femtobarns recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC in
2011. A novel strategy has been developed for a combined search for quarks of
the up and down type in decay channels with at least one isolated muon or
electron. Limits on the mass of the fourth-generation quarks and the relevant
Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix elements are derived in the context of a
simple extension of the standard model with a sequential fourth generation of
fermions. The existence of mass-degenerate fourth-generation quarks with masses
below 685 GeV is excluded at 95% confidence level for minimal off-diagonal
mixing between the third- and the fourth-generation quarks. With a mass
difference of 25 GeV between the quark masses, the obtained limit on the masses
of the fourth-generation quarks shifts by about +/- 20 GeV. These results
significantly reduce the allowed parameter space for a fourth generation of
fermions.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO
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