1,125 research outputs found
The 158 micron (CII) mapping of galaxies: Probing the atomic medium
Using the MPE/UCB Far-infrared Imaging Fabry-Perot Interferometer (FIFI) on the Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO), we have made large scale maps of (CII) in the spiral galaxies NGC 6946, NGC 891, M83 and the peculiar elliptical Cen A, thus allowing for the first time, detailed studies of the spatial distribution of the FIR line emission in external galaxies. We find that the (CII) emission comes from a mixture of components of interstellar gas. The brightest emission is associated with the nuclear regions, a second component traces the spiral arms as seen in the nearly face on spiral galaxies NGC 6946 and M83 and the largest star forming/H2 regions contained within them, and another extended component of low brightness can be detected in all of the galaxies far from the nucleus, beyond the extent of CO emission
Making SPIFFI SPIFFIER: Upgrade of the SPIFFI instrument for use in ERIS and performance analysis from re-commissioning
SPIFFI is an AO-fed integral field spectrograph operating as part of SINFONI
on the VLT, which will be upgraded and reused as SPIFFIER in the new VLT
instrument ERIS. In January 2016, we used new technology developments to
perform an early upgrade to optical subsystems in the SPIFFI instrument so
ongoing scientific programs can make use of enhanced performance before ERIS
arrives in 2020. We report on the upgraded components and the performance of
SPIFFI after the upgrade, including gains in throughput and spatial and
spectral resolution. We show results from re-commissioning, highlighting the
potential for scientific programs to use the capabilities of the upgraded
SPIFFI. Finally, we discuss the additional upgrades for SPIFFIER which will be
implemented before it is integrated into ERIS.Comment: 20 pages, 12 figures. Proceedings from SPIE Astronomical Telescopes
and Instrumentation 201
GCIRS16SW: a massive eclipsing binary in the Galactic Center
We report on the spectroscopic monitoring of GCIRS16SW, an Ofpe/WN9 star and
LBV candidate in the central parsec of the Galaxy. SINFONI observations show
strong daily spectroscopic changes in the K band. Radial velocities are derived
from the HeI 2.112 um line complex and vary regularly with a period of 19.45
days, indicating that the star is most likely an eclipsing binary. Under
various assumptions, we are able to derive a mass of ~ 50 Msun for each
component.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, ApJ Letters accepte
SINFONI in the Galactic Center: young stars and IR flares in the central light month
We report 75 milli-arcsec resolution, near-IR imaging spectroscopy within the
central 30 light days of the Galactic Center [...]. To a limiting magnitude of
K~16, 9 of 10 stars in the central 0.4 arcsec, and 13 of 17 stars out to 0.7
arcsec from the central black hole have spectral properties of B0-B9, main
sequence stars. [...] all brighter early type stars have normal rotation
velocities, similar to solar neighborhood stars. We [...] derive improved 3d
stellar orbits for six of these S-stars in the central 0.5 arcsec. Their
orientations in space appear random. Their orbital planes are not co-aligned
with those of the two disks of massive young stars 1-10 arcsec from SgrA*. We
can thus exclude [...] that the S-stars as a group inhabit the inner regions of
these disks. They also cannot have been located/formed in these disks [...].
[...] we conclude that the S-stars were most likely brought into the central
light month by strong individual scattering events. The updated estimate of
distance to the Galactic center from the S2 orbit fit is Ro = 7.62 +/- 0.32
kpc, resulting in a central mass value of 3.61 +/- 0.32 x 10^6 Msun. We
happened to catch two smaller flaring events from SgrA* [...]. The 1.7-2.45 mum
spectral energy distributions of these flares are fit by a featureless, red
power law [...]. The observed spectral slope is in good agreement with
synchrotron models in which the infrared emission comes from [...] radiative
inefficient accretion flow in the central R~10 Rs region.Comment: 50 pages, 10 figures, 2 tables, submitted to ApJ, February 6th, 2005,
abstract abridge
Infalling Gas Towards the Galactic Center
VLA maps of ammonia emission were made for the Galactic Center region. The
NH3(1,1) and NH3(2,2) transitions were observed in three 2' x 2' fields
covering Sgr A* and the region 3' immediately south of it. In the central 3
parsecs surrounding Sgr A* we find emission which appears to be associated with
the circumnuclear disk (CND), both morphologically and kinematically. This
central emission is connected to a long, narrow 2 pc x 10 pc streamer of clumpy
molecular gas located towards the south, which appears to be carrying gas from
the nearby 20 km/s giant molecular cloud (GMC) to the circumnuclear region. We
find a velocity gradient along the streamer, with progressively higher
velocities as the gas approaches Sgr A*. The streamer stops at the location of
the CND, where the line width of the NH3 emission increases dramatically. This
may be the kinematic signature of accretion onto the CND. The ratio of the
NH3(2,2)/NH3(1,1) emission indicates that the gas is heated at the northern tip
of the streamer, located inside the eastern edge of the CND. The morphology,
kinematics and temperature gradients of the gas all indicate that the southern
streamer is located at the Galactic Center and is interacting with the
circumnuclear region.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures, accepted by The Astrophysical Journal (figure 1
contours have been corrected
The Role of Magnetic Field Dissipation in the Black Hole Candidate Sgr A*
The compact, nonthermal radio source Sgr A* at the Galactic Center appears to
be coincident with a 2.6 million solar mass point-like object. Its energy
source may be the release of gravitational energy as gas from the interstellar
medium descends into its potential well. Simple attempts at calculating the
spectrum and flux based on this picture have come close to the observations,
yet have had difficulty in accounting for the low efficiency in this source.
There now appear to be two reasons for this low conversion rate: (1) the plasma
separates into two temperatures, with the protons attaining a significantly
higher temperature than that of the radiating electrons, and (2) the magnetic
field, B, is sub-equipartition, which reduces the magnetic bremsstrahlung
emissivity, and therefore the overall power of Sgr A*. We investigate the
latter with improvement over what has been attempted before: rather than
calculating B based on a presumed model, we instead infer its distribution with
radius empirically with the requirement that the resulting spectrum matches the
observations. Our ansatz for B(r) is motivated in part by earlier calculations
of the expected magnetic dissipation rate due to reconnection in a compressed
flow. We find reasonable agreement with the observed spectrum of Sgr A* as long
as its distribution consists of 3 primary components: an outer equipartition
field, a roughly constant field at intermediate radii (~1000 Schwarzschild
radii), and an inner dynamo (more or less within the last stable orbit for a
non-rotating black hole) which increases B to about 100 Gauss. The latter
component accounts for the observed sub-millimiter hump in this source.Comment: 33 pages including 2 figures; submitted to Ap
Bipolar-Hyper-Shell Galactic Center Statrburst Model: Further Evidence from ROSAT Data and New Radio and X-ray Simulations
Using the all-sky ROSAT soft X-ray and 408-MHz radio continuum data, we show
that the North Polar Spur and its western and southern counter-spurs draw a
giant dumbbell-shape necked at the galactic plane. We interpret these features
as due to a shock front originating from a starburst 15 million years ago with
a total energy of the order of ergs or type II
supernovae. We simulate all-sky distributions of radio continuum and soft X-ray
intensities based on the bipolar-hyper-shell galactic center starburst model.
The simulations can well reproduce the radio NPS and related spurs, as well as
radio spurs in the tangential directions of spiral arms. Simulated X-ray maps
in 0.25, 0.75 and 1.5 keV bands reproduce the ROSAT X-ray NPS, its western and
southern counter-spurs, and the absorption layer along the galactic plane. We
propose to use the ROSAT all-sky maps to probe the physics of gas in the
halo-intergalactic interface, and to directly date and measure the energy of a
recent Galactic Center starburst.Comment: To appear in ApJ, Latex MS in ApJ macro, 8 figures in jpg (original
quality ps figs available on request
The faint counterparts of MAMBO mm sources near the NTT Deep Field
We discuss identifications for 18 sources from our MAMBO 1.2mm survey of the
region surrounding the NTT Deep Field. We have obtained accurate positions from
Very Large Array 1.4GHz interferometry and in a few cases IRAM mm
interferometry, and have also made deep BVRIzJK imaging at ESO. We find
thirteen 1.2mm sources associated with optical/near-infrared objects in the
magnitude range K=19.0 to 22.5, while five are blank fields at K>22. The median
redshift of the radio-identified mm sources is ~2.6 from the radio/mm
estimator, and the median optical/near-infrared photometric redshifts for the
objects with counterparts ~2.1. This suggests that those radio-identified mm
sources without optical/near-infrared counterparts tend to lie at higher
redshifts than those with optical/near-infrared counterparts. Compared to
published identifications of objects from 850micron surveys of similar depth,
the median K and I magnitudes of our counterparts are roughly two magnitudes
fainter and the dispersion of I-K colors is less. Real differences in the
median redshifts, residual mis-identifications with bright objects, cosmic
variance, and small number statistics are likely to contribute to this
significant difference, which also affects redshift measurement strategies. We
discuss basic properties of the near-infrared/(sub)mm/radio spectral energy
distributions of our galaxies and of interferometrically identified submm
sources from the literature. From a comparison with submm objects with
CO-confirmed spectroscopic redshifts we argue that roughly two thirds of the
(sub)mm galaxies are at z>~2.5. This fraction is probably larger when including
sources without radio counterparts. (abridged)Comment: 45 pages, 9 figures. Accepted by ApJ. The resolution of figures 2 and
3 has been degraded. A higher quality pdf version of this paper is available
at http://www.mpe.mpg.de/~dannerb
Molecular Tracers of the Central 12 pc of the Galactic Center
We have used the BIMA array to image the Galactic Center with a 19-pointing
mosaic in HCN(1-0), HCO+(1-0), and H 42-alpha emission with 5 km/s velocity
resolution and 13'' x 4'' angular resolution. The 5' field includes the
circumnuclear ring (CND) and parts of the 20 and 50 km/s clouds. HCN(1-0) and
HCO+ trace the CND and nearby giant molecular clouds while the H 42-alpha
emission traces the ionized gas in Sgr A West. We find that the CND has a
definite outer edge in HCN and HCO+ emission at ~45'' radius and appears to be
composed of two or three distinct streams of molecular gas rotating around the
nucleus. Outside the CND, HCN and HCO+ trace dense clumps of high-velocity gas
in addition to optically thick emission from the 20 and 50 km/s clouds. A
molecular ridge of compressed gas and dust, traced in NH3 emission and
self-absorbed HCN and HCO+, wraps around the eastern edge of Sgr A East. Just
inside this ridge are several arcs of gas which have been accelerated by the
impact of Sgr A East with the 50 km/s cloud. HCN and HCO+ emission trace the
extension of the northern arm of Sgr A West which appears to be an independent
stream of neutral and ionized gas and dust originating outside the CND. Broad
line widths and OH maser emission mark the intersection of the northern arm and
the CND. Comparison to previous NH3 and 1.2mm dust observations shows that HCN
and HCO+ preferentially trace the CND and are weaker tracers of the GMCs than
NH3 and dust. We discuss possible scenarios for the emission mechanisms and
environment at the Galactic center which could explain the differences in these
images.Comment: 24 pages, including 17 figures; to appear in The Astrophysical
Journa
The European Large Area ISO Survey II: mid-infrared extragalactic source counts
We present preliminary source counts at 6.7um and 15um from the Preliminary
Analysis of the European Large Area ISO survey, with limiting flux densities of
\~2mJy at 15um & ~1mJy at 6.7um. We separate the stellar contribution from the
extragalactic using identifications with APM sources made with the likelihood
ratio technique. We quantify the completeness & reliability of our source
extraction using (a) repeated observations over small areas, (b) cross-IDs with
stars of known spectral type, (c) detections of the PSF wings around bright
sources, (d) comparison with independent algorithms. Flux calibration at 15um
was performed using stellar IDs; the calibration does not agree with the
pre-flight estimates, probably due to effects of detector hysteresis and
photometric aperture correction. The 6.7um extragalactic counts are broadly
reproduced in the Pearson & Rowan-Robinson model, but the Franceschini et al.
(1997) model underpredicts the observed source density by ~0.5-1 dex, though
the photometry at 6.7um is still preliminary. At 15um the extragalactic counts
are in excellent agreement with the predictions of the Pearson & Rowan-Robinson
(1996), Franceschini et al. (1994), Guiderdoni et al. (1997) and the evolving
models of Xu et al. (1998), over 7 orders of magnitude in 15um flux density.
The counts agree with other estimates from the ISOCAM instrument at overlapping
flux densities (Elbaz et al. 1999), provided a consistent flux calibration is
used. Luminosity evolution at a rate of (1+z)^3, incorporating mid-IR spectral
features, provides a better fit to the 15um differential counts than (1+z)^4
density evolution. No-evolution models are excluded, and implying that below
around 10mJy at 15um the source counts become dominated by an evolving
cosmological population of dust-shrouded starbursts and/or active galaxies.Comment: MNRAS in press. 14 pages, uses BoxedEPS (included). For more
information on the ELAIS project see http://athena.ph.ic.ac.uk
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