High-resolution imaging of the molecular outflows in two mergers: IRAS17208-0014 and NGC1614

Galaxy evolution scenarios predict that the feedback of star formation and nuclear activity (AGN) can drive the transformation of gas-rich spiral mergers into ULIRGs, and, eventually, lead to the build-up of QSO/elliptical hosts. We study the role that star formation and AGN feedback have in launching and maintaining the molecular outflows in two starburst-dominated advanced mergers, NGC1614 and IRAS17208-0014, by analyzing the distribution and kinematics of their molecular gas reservoirs. We have used the PdBI array to image with high spatial resolution (0.5"-1.2") the CO(1-0) and CO(2-1) line emissions in NGC1614 and IRAS17208-0014, respectively. The velocity fields of the gas are analyzed and modeled to find the evidence of molecular outflows in these sources and characterize the mass, momentum and energy of these components. While most (>95%) of the CO emission stems from spatially-resolved (~2-3kpc-diameter) rotating disks, we also detect in both mergers the emission from high-velocity line wings that extend up to +-500-700km/s, well beyond the estimated virial range associated with rotation and turbulence. The kinematic major axis of the line wing emission is tilted by ~90deg in NGC1614 and by ~180deg in IRAS17208-0014 relative to their respective rotating disk major axes. These results can be explained by the existence of non-coplanar molecular outflows in both systems. In stark contrast with NGC1614, where star formation alone can drive its molecular outflow, the mass, energy and momentum budget requirements of the molecular outflow in IRAS17208-0014 can be best accounted for by the existence of a so far undetected (hidden) AGN of L_AGN~7x10^11 L_sun. The geometry of the molecular outflow in IRAS17208-0014 suggests that the outflow is launched by a non-coplanar disk that may be associated with a buried AGN in the western nucleus.Comment: Final version in press, accepted by A&A. Reference list updated. Minor typos correcte

Toward the Control of the Smoldering Front in the Reaction-Trailing Mode in Oil Shale Semicoke Porous Media

Results of an experimental investigation on the feasibility of propagating a smoldering front in reaction-trailing mode throughout an oil shale semicoke porous medium are reported. For oil recovery applications, this mode is particularly interesting to avoid low-temperature oxidation reactions, which appear simultaneously with organic matter devolatilization in the reaction-leading mode and are responsible for oxidation of part of the heavy oil. The particularity of this mode is that, contrary to the reaction-leading mode largely studied in the literature, the heat-transfer layer precedes the combustion layer. This leads to two separated high-temperature zones: (i) a devolatilization zone (free of oxygen), where the organic matter is thermally decomposed to incondensable gases, heavy oil, andfixed carbon, also called coke in the literature, without any oxidation, followed by (ii) an oxidation zone, where thefixed carbon left by devolatilization is oxidized. The transition from reaction-leading to reaction-trailing mode was obtained using low oxygen contents in the fed air. It is shown that two distinct layers, the heat-transfer layer and the combustion layer, propagate in a stable and repeatable way. The decrease of the oxygen fraction leads to a decrease of the smoldering temperature and to strongly limit the decarbonation of the mineral matrix. The CO2 emissions are limited. Regardless of the front temperature, all of the fed oxygen is consumed and all of thefixed carbon is oxidized at the passage of the smoldering front

Radio properties of Compact Steep Spectrum and GHz-Peaked Spectrum radio sources

Compact steep spectrum (CSS) and GHz-peaked spectrum (GPS) radio sources represent a large fraction of the extragalactic objects in flux density-limited samples. They are compact, powerful radio sources whose synchrotron peak frequency ranges between a few hundred MHz to several GHz. CSS and GPS radio sources are currently interpreted as objects in which the radio emission is in an early evolutionary stage. In this contribution I review the radio properties and the physical characteristics of this class of radio sources, and the interplay between their radio emission and the ambient medium of the host galaxy.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomische Nachrichten. Review presented at the 5th Workshop on CSS and GPS radio sources, held in Rimini (Italy) in May 201

Syngas production in a 1.5 kWth biomass chemical looping gasification unit using Fe and Mn ores as the oxygen carrier

Biomass chemical looping gasification (BCLG) uses lattice oxygen from an oxygen carrier instead of gaseous oxygen for high-quality syngas production without CO2 emissions. In this work, the effect of the main operating variables, such as oxygen/biomass ratio (¿), gasification temperature, and steam/biomass ratio (S/B), was investigated using two low-cost materials: a Fe ore and a Mn ore. Oxygen fed to the air reactor for oxidation was used as an effective method for controlling the amount of lattice oxygen used for syngas production. The main variable that affected the process performance and the syngas quality was ¿, while the fuel reactor temperature and the S/B ratio had a minor effect. Small performance differences found between the ores can be attributed to different degrees of CH4 and light hydrocarbons reforming in the process. The CO2 content in the syngas was high (40 -43%) under autothermal conditions because the gasification reactions required the heat to be generated by combustion. CH4 contents of around 10% were found in syngas, coming from the unburned or unreformed volatiles. Syngas yields around 0.60 Nm3/kg of dry biomass were found for both ores. Additionally, high biomass conversions (Xb > 94%) and carbon conversion efficiencies (¿cc > 95%) were obtained in all cases, showing the capability of the process of avoiding CO2 emissions to the atmosphere. No agglomeration was found in the bed during the BCLG process, although attrition rates were high, leading to lifetimes of 160 and 300 h for the manganese and iron ores, respectively. Migration of Fe or Mn to the external part of the particle, generating a metal concentrated shell, was observed. Its detachment was responsible for the decrease in the oxygen transport capacity (ROC) of the material with the operating time and the reduced lifetime. The results obtained here allowed the iron ore to be considered as an oxygen carrier suitable for the BCLG process

Outflows of hot molecular gas in ultra-luminous infrared galaxies mapped with VLT-SINFONI

We present the detection and morphological characterization of hot molecular gas outflows in nearby ultra-luminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs), using the Spectrograph for Integral Field Observations in the Near Infrared (SINFONI) on the Very Large Telescope (VLT). We detect outflows observed in the 2.12 μm H2 1-0 S(1) line for three out of four ULIRGs that we analyzed, namely IRAS 12112+0305, IRAS 14348-1447, and IRAS 22491-1808. The outflows are mapped on scales of 0.7-1.6 kpc, show typical outflow velocities of 300-500 km s-1, and appear to originate from the nuclear region. The outflows comprise hot molecular gas masses of MH2 (hot) 6-8 ×103 M . Assuming a hot-to-cold molecular gas mass ratio of 6 × 10-5, as found in nearby luminous infrared galaxies, the total (hot + cold) molecular gas mass in these outflows is expected to be MH2 (to t) 1 × 108 M . This translates into molecular mass outflow rates of H2 (tot) 30-85 M yr-1, which is a factor of a few lower than the star formation rate in these ULIRGs. In addition, most of the outflowing molecular gas does not reach the escape velocity of these merger systems, which implies that the bulk of the outflowing molecular gas is re-distributed within the system and thus remains available for future star formation. The fastest H2 outflow is seen in the Compton-thick AGN of IRAS 14348-1447, reaching a maximum outflow velocity of 900 km s-1. Another ULIRG, IRAS 17208-0014, shows asymmetric H2 line profiles different from the outflows seen in the other three ULIRGs. We discuss several alternative explanations for the line asymmetries in this system, including a very gentle galactic wind, internal gas dynamics, low-velocity gas outside the disk, or two superposed gas disks. We do not detect the hot molecular counterpart to the outflow previously detected in CO(2-1) in IRAS 17208-0014, but we note that our SINFONI data are not sensitive enough to detect this outflow if it has a small hot-to-cold molecular gas mass ratio of × 10-6

Spatially resolved cold molecular outflows in ULIRGs

We present new CO(2–1) observations of three low-z (d ∼350 Mpc) ultra-luminous infrared galaxy (ULIRG) systems (six nuclei) observed with the Atacama large millimeter/submillimeter array (ALMA) at high spatial resolution (∼500 pc). We detect massive cold molecular gas outflows in five out of six nuclei (Mout ∼ (0.3 − 5) × 108 Mo). These outflows are spatially resolved with deprojected effective radii between 250 pc and 1 kpc although high-velocity molecular gas is detected up to Rmax ∼ 0.5 − 1.8 kpc (1 − 6 kpc deprojected). The mass outflow rates are 12 − 400 Mo yr−1 and the inclination corrected average velocity of the outflowing gas is 350 − 550 km s−1 (vmax = 500 − 900 km s−1 ). The origin of these outflows can be explained by the strong nuclear starbursts although the contribution of an obscured active galactic nucleus cannot be completely ruled out. The position angle (PA) of the outflowing gas along the kinematic minor axis of the nuclear molecular disk suggests that the outflow axis is perpendicular to the disk for three of these outflows. Only in one case is the outflow PA clearly not along the kinematic minor axis, which might indicate a different outflow geometry. The outflow depletion times are 15 − 80 Myr. These are comparable to, although slightly shorter than, the starformation (SF) depletion times (30 − 80 Myr). However, we estimate that only 15 − 30% of the outflowing molecular gas will escape the gravitational potential of the nucleus. The majority of the outflowing gas will return to the disk after 5 − 10 Myr and become available to form new stars. Therefore, these outflows will not likely completely quench the nuclear starbursts. These star-forming powered molecular outflows would be consistent with being driven by radiation pressure from young stars (i.e., momentum-driven) only if the coupling between radiation and dust increases with increasing SF rates. This can be achieved if the dust optical depth is higher in objects with higher SF. This is the case in at least one of the studied objects. Alternatively, if the outflows are mainly driven by supernovae (SNe), the coupling efficiency between the interstellar medium and SNe must increase with increasing SF levels. The relatively small sizes (<1 kpc) and dynamical times (<3 Myr) of the cold molecular outflows suggests that molecular gas cannot survive longer in the outflow environment or that it cannot form efficiently beyond these distances or times. In addition, the ionized and hot molecular phases have been detected for several of these outflows, so this suggests that outflowing gas can experience phase changes and indicates that the outflowing gas is intrinsically multiphase, likely sharing similar kinematics, but different mass and, therefore, different energy and momentum contributions

Classification of Radiologically Isolated Syndrome and Clinically Isolated Syndrome with Machine-Learning Techniques

Background and purpose: The unanticipated detection by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the brain of asymptomatic subjects of white matter lesions suggestive of multiple sclerosis (MS) has been named radiologically isolated syndrome (RIS). As the difference between early MS [i.e. clinically isolated syndrome (CIS)] and RIS is the occurrence of a clinical event, it is logical to improve detection of the subclinical form without interfering with MRI as there are radiological diagnostic criteria for that. Our objective was to use machine-learning classification methods to identify morphometric measures that help to discriminate patients with RIS from those with CIS. Methods: We used a multimodal 3-T MRI approach by combining MRI biomarkers (cortical thickness, cortical and subcortical grey matter volume, and white matter integrity) of a cohort of 17 patients with RIS and 17 patients with CIS for single-subject level classification. Results: The best proposed models to predict the diagnosis of CIS and RIS were based on the Naive Bayes, Bagging and Multilayer Perceptron classifiers using only three features: the left rostral middle frontal gyrus volume and the fractional anisotropy values in the right amygdala and right lingual gyrus. The Naive Bayes obtained the highest accuracy [overall classification, 0.765; area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUROC), 0.782]. Conclusions: A machine-learning approach applied to multimodal MRI data may differentiate between the earliest clinical expressions of MS (CIS and RIS) with an accuracy of 78%. Keywords: Bagging; Multilayer Perceptron; Naive Bayes classifier; clinically isolated syndrome; diffusion tensor imaging; machine-learning; magnetic resonance imaging; multiple sclerosis; radiologically isolated syndrome.Comment: 24 pages, 2 table

The Galaxy Activity, Torus, and Outflow Survey (GATOS). VII. The 20-214 <em>μ</em>m Imaging Atlas of Active Galactic Nuclei Using SOFIA

\ua9 2025. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society. We present a 19.7-214 μm imaging atlas of local (4-181 Mpc; median 43 Mpc) active galactic nuclei (AGN) observed with FORCAST and HAWC+ on board the SOFIA telescope with angular resolutions ~3″-20″. This atlas comprises 22 Seyferts (17 Type 2 and five Type 1) with a total of 69 images, 41 of which have not been previously published. The AGN span a range of luminosities of log10(Lbol [erg s-1])=[42,46] with a median of log10(Lbol [erg s-1]) = 44.1 \ub1 1.0 . We provide the total fluxes of our sample using aperture photometry for point-source objects and a 2D Gaussian fitting for objects with extended host galaxy emission, which was used to estimate the unresolved nuclear component. Most galaxies in our sample are pointlike sources; however, four sources (Centaurus A, Circinus, NGC 1068, and NGC 4388) show extended emission in all wavelengths. The 30-40 μm extended emission in NGC 4388 is coincident with the narrow-line region at PA ~ 50\ub0, while the dusty extension at longer wavelengths arises from the host galaxy at PA ~ 90\ub0. Our new observations allow us to construct the best-sampled parsec-scales (spectral energy distributions, SEDs) available between 30 and 500 μm for a sample of nearby AGN. We estimate that the average peak wavelength of the nuclear SEDs is ~40 μm in νFν, which we associate with an unresolved extended dusty region heated by the AGN

Molecular gas stratification and disturbed kinematics in the Seyfert galaxy MCG-05-23-16 revealed by JWST and ALMA

\ua9 The Authors 2025.Understanding the processes that drive the morphology and kinematics of molecular gas in galaxies is crucial for comprehending star formation and, ultimately, galaxy evolution. Using data from the Galactic Activity, Torus and Outflow Survey (GATOS) obtained with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the archival data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), we study the behavior of the warm molecular gas at temperatures of hundreds of Kelvin and the cold molecular gas at tens of Kelvin in the galaxy MCG-05-23-16, which hosts an active galactic nucleus (AGN). Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images of this spheroidal galaxy, classified in the optical as S0, show a dust lane resembling a nuclear spiral and a surrounding ring. These features are also detected in CO(2-1) and H2, and their morphologies and kinematics are consistent with rotation plus local inward gas motions along the kinematic minor axis in the presence of a nuclear bar. The H2 transitions 0-0 S(3), 0-0 S(4), and 0-0 S(5), which trace warmer and more excited gas, show more disrupted kinematics than 0-0 S(1) and 0-0 S(2), including clumps of high velocity dispersion (of up to ∼160 km s-1), in regions devoid of CO(2-1). The kinematics of one of these clumps, located ∼350 pc westward of the nucleus, are consistent with outflowing gas, possibly driven by localized star formation traced by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon emission at 11.3 μm. Overall, we observe a stratification of the molecular gas, with the colder gas located in the nuclear spiral, ring, and connecting arms, and most of the warmer gas with a higher velocity dispersion filling the inter-arm space. The compact jet, approximately 200 pc in size, detected with Very Large Array (VLA) observations, does not appear to significantly affect the distribution and kinematics of the molecular gas, possibly due to its limited intersection with the molecular gas disk