1,309 research outputs found
Ampoule Failure System
An ampoule failure system for use in material processing furnaces comprising a containment cartridge and an ampoule failure sensor. The containment cartridge contains an ampoule of toxic material therein and is positioned within a furnace for processing. An ampoule failure probe is positioned in the containment cartridge adjacent the ampoule for detecting a potential harmful release of toxic material therefrom during processing. The failure probe is spaced a predetermined distance from the ampoule and is chemically chosen so as to undergo a timely chemical reaction with the toxic material upon the harmful release thereof. The ampoule failure system further comprises a data acquisition system which is positioned externally of the furnace and is electrically connected to the ampoule failure probe so as to form a communicating electrical circuit. The data acquisition system includes an automatic shutdown device for shutting down the furnace upon the harmful release of toxic material. It also includes a resistance measuring device for measuring the resistance of the failure probe during processing. The chemical reaction causes a step increase in resistance of the failure probe whereupon the automatic shutdown device will responsively shut down the furnace
The Wyoming Survey for H-alpha. I. Initial Results at z ~ 0.16 and 0.24
The Wyoming Survey for H-alpha, or WySH, is a large-area, ground-based,
narrowband imaging survey for H-alpha-emitting galaxies over the latter half of
the age of the Universe. The survey spans several square degrees in a set of
fields of low Galactic cirrus emission. The observing program focuses on
multiple dz~0.02 epochs from z~0.16 to z~0.81 down to a uniform
(continuum+line) luminosity at each epoch of ~10^33 W uncorrected for
extinction (3sigma for a 3" diameter aperture). First results are presented
here for 98+208 galaxies observed over approximately 2 square degrees at
redshifts z~0.16 and 0.24, including preliminary luminosity functions at these
two epochs. These data clearly show an evolution with lookback time in the
volume-averaged cosmic star formation rate. Integrals of Schechter fits to the
extinction-corrected H-alpha luminosity functions indicate star formation rates
per co-moving volume of 0.009 and 0.014 h_70 M_sun/yr/Mpc^3 at z~0.16 and 0.24,
respectively. The formal uncertainties in the Schechter fits, based on this
initial subset of the survey, correspond to uncertainties in the cosmic star
formation rate density at the >~40% level; the tentative uncertainty due to
cosmic variance is 25%, estimated from separately carrying out the analysis on
data from the first two fields with substantial datasets.Comment: To appear in the Astronomical Journa
Characterizing Ultraviolet and Infrared Observational Properties for Galaxies. I. Influences of Dust Attenuation and Stellar Population Age
The correlation between infrared-to-ultraviolet luminosity ratio and
ultraviolet color, i.e. the IRX-UV relation, was regarded as a prevalent recipe
for correcting extragalactic dust attenuation. Considerable dispersion in this
relation discovered for normal galaxies, however, complicates its usability. In
order to investigate the cause of the dispersion, in this paper, we select five
nearby spiral galaxies, and perform spatially resolved studies on each of the
galaxies, with a combination of ultraviolet and infrared imaging data. We
measure all positions within each galaxy and divide the extracted regions into
young and evolved stellar populations. By means of this approach, we attempt to
discover separate effects of dust attenuation and stellar population age on the
IRX-UV relation for individual galaxies. In this work, in addition to dust
attenuation, stellar population age is interpreted to be another parameter in
the IRX-UV function, and the diversity of star formation histories is suggested
to disperse the age effects. At the same time, strong evidence shows the
necessity of more parameters in the interpretation of observational data, such
as variations in attenuation/extinction law. Fractional contributions of
different components to the integrated luminosities of the galaxies suggest
that the integrated measurements of galaxies which comprise different
populations would weaken the effect of the age parameter on IRX-UV diagrams.
The dependance of the IRX-UV relation on luminosity and radial distance in
galaxies presents weak trends, which offers an implication of selective
effects. The two-dimensional maps of the UV color and the
infrared-to-ultraviolet ratio are displayed and show a disparity in the spatial
distributions between the two parameters in galaxies, which offers a spatial
interpretation of the scatter in the IRX-UV relation.Comment: 23 pages, 27 figures, 4 tables; accepted for publication in The
Astrophysical Journal; re-typesetted in the emulateapj style; minor
corrections in the figure symbols and in the tex
Mid-Infrared Spectral Measures of Star-Formation and AGN Activity in Normal Galaxies
We investigate the use of MIR PAH bands, continuum and emission lines as
probes of star-formation and AGN activity in a sample of 100 'normal' and local
(z~0.1) emission-line galaxies. The MIR spectra were obtained with the Spitzer
Space Telescope Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) as part of the Spitzer-SDSS-GALEX
Spectroscopic Survey (SSGSS) which includes multi-wavelength photometry from
the UV to the FIR and optical spectroscopy. The continuum and features were
extracted using PAHFIT (Smith et al. 2007), a decomposition code which we find
to yield PAH equivalent widths up to ~30 times larger than the commonly used
spline methods. Despite the lack of extreme objects in our sample (such as
strong AGNs, low metallicity galaxies or ULIRGs), we find significant
variations in PAH, continuum and emission line properties and systematic trends
between these MIR properties and optically derived physical properties such as
age, metallicity and radiation field hardness. We revisit the diagnostic
diagram relating PAH equivalent widths and [Ne II]12.8micrometers/[O
IV]25.9micrometers line ratios and find it to be in much better agreement with
the standard optical star-formation/AGN classification than when spline
decompositions are used, while also potentially revealing obscured AGNs. The
luminosity of individual PAH components, of the continuum, and with poorer
statistics, of the neon emission lines and molecular hydrogen lines, are found
to be tightly correlated to the total IR luminosity, making individual MIR
components good gauges of the total dust emission in SF galaxies. Like the
total IR luminosity, these individual components can be used to estimate dust
attenuation in the UV and in Halpha lines based on energy balance arguments. We
also propose average scaling relations between these components and dust
corrected, Halpha derived star-formation rates.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap
Star-Forming or Starbursting? The Ultraviolet Conundrum
Compared to starburst galaxies, normal star forming galaxies have been shown
to display a much larger dispersion of the dust attenuation at fixed reddening
through studies of the IRX-beta diagram (the IR/UV ratio "IRX" versus the UV
color "beta"). To investigate the causes of this larger dispersion and attempt
to isolate second parameters, we have used GALEX UV, ground-based optical, and
Spitzer infrared imaging of 8 nearby galaxies, and examined the properties of
individual UV and 24 micron selected star forming regions. We concentrated on
star-forming regions, in order to isolate simpler star formation histories than
those that characterize whole galaxies. We find that 1) the dispersion is not
correlated with the mean age of the stellar populations, 2) a range of dust
geometries and dust extinction curves are the most likely causes for the
observed dispersion in the IRX-beta diagram 3) together with some potential
dilution of the most recent star-forming population by older unrelated bursts,
at least in the case of star-forming regions within galaxies, 4) we also
recover some general characteristics of the regions, including a tight positive
correlation between the amount of dust attenuation and the metal content.
Although generalizing our results to whole galaxies may not be immediate, the
possibility of a range of dust extinction laws and geometries should be
accounted for in the latter systems as well.Comment: 18 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
Star formation and dust extinction properties of local galaxies from AKARI-GALEX All-Sky Surveys: First results from most secure multiband sample from FUV to FIR
The AKARI All-Sky Survey provided the first bright point source catalog
detected at 90um. Starting from this catalog, we selected galaxies by matching
AKARI sources with those in the IRAS PSCz. Next, we have measured total GALEX
FUV and NUV flux densities. Then, we have matched this sample with SDSS and
2MASS galaxies. By this procedure, we obtained the final sample which consists
of 607 galaxies. If we sort the sample with respect to 90um, their average SED
shows a coherent trend: the more luminous at 90um, the redder the global SED
becomes. The M_r--NUV-r color-magnitude relation of our sample does not show
bimodality, and the distribution is centered on the green valley between the
blue cloud and red sequence seen in optical surveys. We have established
formulae to convert FIR luminosity from AKARI bands to the total infrared (IR)
luminosity L_TIR. With these formulae, we calculated the star formation
directly visible with FUV and hidden by dust. The luminosity related to star
formation activity (L_SF) is dominated by L_TIR even if we take into account
the far-infrared (FIR) emission from dust heated by old stars. At high star
formation rate (SFR) (> 20 Msun yr^-1), the fraction of directly visible SFR,
SFR_FUV, decreases. We also estimated the FUV attenuation A_FUV from
FUV-to-total IR (TIR) luminosity ratio. We also examined the L_TIR/L_FUV-UV
slope (FUV- NUV) relation. The majority of the sample has L_TIR/L_FUV ratios 5
to 10 times lower than expected from the local starburst relation, while some
LIRGs and all the ULIRGs of this sample have higher L_TIR/L_FUV ratios. We
found that the attenuation indicator L_TIR/L_FUV is correlated to the stellar
mass of galaxies, M*, but there is no correlation with specific SFR (SSFR),
SFR/M*, and dust attenuation L_TIR/L_FUV. (abridged)Comment: 13 pages, 18 figures, accepted for publication in A&
Integral field spectroscopy in the near infrared of NGC 3125-A and SBS 0335-052
We present integral field spectroscopy in the near infrared of the nearby
dwarf starburst galaxies NGC 3125-A and of the low metallicity dwarf galaxy SBS
0335-052. The use of adaptive optics in the observations produces sub-arcsecond
angular resolution. We pinpoint the star forming cores of both galaxies,
identify relevant ISM components such as dust, photo ionized gas, shock excited
gas and molecular gas. We relate these components to the large scale star
formation process of the galaxies. In particular we find the emission of the
near infrared lines of H2 and especially [FeII] does not coincide with the HII
region in NGC 3125. We have the first clear detection of [FeII] in SBS
0335-052
The Wyoming Survey for H-alpha. III. A Multi-wavelength Look at Attenuation by Dust in Galaxies out to z~0.4
We report results from the Wyoming Survey for H-alpha (WySH), a comprehensive
four-square degree survey to probe the evolution of star-forming galaxies over
the latter half of the age of the Universe. We have supplemented the H-alpha
data from WySH with infrared data from the Spitzer Wide-area Infrared
Extragalactic (SWIRE) Survey and ultraviolet data from the Galaxy Evolution
Explorer (GALEX) Deep Imaging Survey. This dataset provides a multi-wavelength
look at the evolution of the attenuation by dust, and here we compare a
traditional measure of dust attenuation (L(TIR)/L(FUV)) to a diagnostic based
on a recently-developed robust star formation rate (SFR) indicator,
[H-alpha_obs+24-micron]/H-alpha_obs. With such data over multiple epochs, the
evolution in the attenuation by dust with redshift can be assessed. We present
results from the ELAIS-N1 and Lockman Hole regions at z~0.16, 0.24, 0.32 and
0.40. While the ensemble averages of both diagnostics are relatively constant
from epoch to epoch, each epoch individually exhibits a larger attenuation by
dust for higher star formation rates. Hence, an epoch to epoch comparison at a
fixed star formation rate suggests a mild decrease in dust attenuation with
redshift.Comment: 30 pages, 9 figure
The Calibration of Monochromatic Far-Infrared Star Formation Rate Indicators
(Abridged) Spitzer data at 24, 70, and 160 micron and ground-based H-alpha
images are analyzed for a sample of 189 nearby star-forming and starburst
galaxies to investigate whether reliable star formation rate (SFR) indicators
can be defined using the monochromatic infrared dust emission centered at 70
and 160 micron. We compare recently published recipes for SFR measures using
combinations of the 24 micron and observed H-alpha luminosities with those
using 24 micron luminosity alone. From these comparisons, we derive a reference
SFR indicator for use in our analysis. Linear correlations between SFR and the
70 and 160 micron luminosity are found for L(70)>=1.4x10^{42} erg/s and
L(160)>=2x10^{42} erg/s, corresponding to SFR>=0.1-0.3 M_sun/yr. Below those
two luminosity limits, the relation between SFR and 70 micron (160 micron)
luminosity is non-linear and SFR calibrations become problematic. The
dispersion of the data around the mean trend increases for increasing
wavelength, becoming about 25% (factor ~2) larger at 70 (160) micron than at 24
micron. The increasing dispersion is likely an effect of the increasing
contribution to the infrared emission of dust heated by stellar populations not
associated with the current star formation. The non-linear relation between SFR
and the 70 and 160 micron emission at faint galaxy luminosities suggests that
the increasing transparency of the interstellar medium, decreasing effective
dust temperature, and decreasing filling factor of star forming regions across
the galaxy become important factors for decreasing luminosity. The SFR
calibrations are provided for galaxies with oxygen abundance 12+Log(O/H)>8.1.
At lower metallicity the infrared luminosity no longer reliably traces the SFR
because galaxies are less dusty and more transparent.Comment: 69 pages, 19 figures, 2 tables; accepted for publication on Ap
An Aromatic Inventory of the Local Volume
Using infrared photometry from the Spitzer Space Telescope, we perform the
first inventory of aromatic feature emission (AFE, but also commonly referred
to as PAH emission) for a statistically complete sample of star-forming
galaxies in the local volume. The photometric methodology involved is
calibrated and demonstrated to recover the aromatic fraction of the IRAC 8
micron flux with a standard deviation of 6% for a training set of 40 SINGS
galaxies (ranging from stellar to dust dominated) with both suitable
mid-infrared Spitzer IRS spectra and equivalent photometry. A potential factor
of two improvement could be realized with suitable 5.5 and 10 micron
photometry, such as what may be provided in the future by JWST. The resulting
technique is then applied to mid-infrared photometry for the 258 galaxies from
the Local Volume Legacy (LVL) survey, a large sample dominated in number by
low-luminosity dwarf galaxies for which obtaining comparable mid-infrared
spectroscopy is not feasible. We find the total LVL luminosity due to five
strong aromatic features in the 8 micron complex to be 2.47E10 solar
luminosities with a mean volume density of 8.8E6 solar luminosities per cubic
Megaparsec. Twenty-four of the LVL galaxies, corresponding to a luminosity cut
at M = -18.22 in the B band, account for 90% of the aromatic luminosity. Using
oxygen abundances compiled from the literature for 129 of the 258 LVL galaxies,
we find a correlation between metallicity and the aromatic to total infrared
emission ratio but not the aromatic to total 8 micron dust emission ratio. A
possible explanation is that metallicity plays a role in the abundance of
aromatic molecules relative to the total dust content, but other factors such
as star formation and/or the local radiation field affect the excitation of
those molecules.Comment: ApJ in press; 29 pages, 14 figures, 3 tables; emulateapj forma
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