4,125 research outputs found
Far-Infrared Spectral Energy Distributions and Photometric Redshifts of Dusty Galaxies
We infer the large-scale source parameters of dusty galaxies from their
observed spectral energy distributions (SEDs) using the analytic radiative
transfer methodology presented in Chakrabarti & McKee (2005). For local
ultra-luminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs), we show that the millimeter to
far-infrared (FIR) SEDs can be well fit using the standard dust opacity index
of 2 when self-consistent radiative transfer solutions are employed, indicating
that the cold dust in local ULIRGs can be described by a single grain model. We
develop a method for determining photometric redshifts of ULIRGs and sub-mm
galaxies from the millimeter-FIR SED; the resulting value of is typically
accurate to about 10%. As such, it is comparable to the accuracy of near-IR
photometric redshifts and provides a complementary means of deriving redshifts
from far-IR data, such as that from the upcoming . Since our analytic radiative transfer solution is developed for
homogeneous, spherically symmetric, centrally heated, dusty sources, it is
relevant for infrared bright galaxies that are primarily powered by compact
sources of luminosity that are embedded in a dusty envelope. We discuss how
deviations from spherical symmetry may affect the applicability of our
solution, and we contrast our self-consistent analytic solution with standard
approximations to demonstrate the main differences.Comment: 37 pages, 14 Figures, 3 Tables, submitted to ApJ. submitted to Ap
High-spatial-resolution CN and CS observation of two regions of massive star formation
Molecular line CN, CS and mm continuum observations of two intermediate- to
high-mass star-forming regions - IRAS20293+3952 and IRAS19410+2336 - obtained
with the Plateau de Bure Interferometer at high spatial resolution reveal
interesting characteristics of the gas and dust emission. In spite of the
expectation that the CN and CS morphology might closely follow the dense gas
traced by the dust continuum, both molecules avoid the most central cores.
Comparing the relative line strengths of various CN hyperfine components, this
appears not to be an opacity effect but to be due to chemical and physical
effects. The CN data also indicate enhanced emission toward the different
molecular outflows in the region. Regarding CS, avoiding the central cores can
be due to high optical depth, but the data also show that the CS emission is
nearly always associated with the outflows of the region. Therefore, neither CS
nor CN appear well suited for dense gas and disk studies in these two sources,
and we recommend the use of different molecules for future massive disk
studies. An analysis of the 1 and 3mm continuum fluxes toward IRAS20293+3952
reveals that the dust opacity index beta is lower than the canonical value of
2. Tentatively, we identify a decreasing gradient of beta from the edge of the
core to the core center. This could be due to increasing optical depth toward
the core center and/or grain growth within the densest cores and potential
central disks. We detect 3mm continuum emission toward the collimated outflow
emanating from IRAS20293+3952. The spectral index of alpha ~ 0.8 in this region
is consistent with standard models for collimated ionized winds.Comment: 5 pages, 2 tables, 9 figures, accepted for Ap
Extended dust emission and atomic hydrogen, a reservoir of diffuse H_2 in NGC 1068
We report on sensitive sub-mm imaging observations of the prototype
Seyfert~2/starburst galaxy NGC 1068 at 850 m and 450 m using the
Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array (SCUBA) on the James Clerk Maxwell
Telescope (JCMT). We find clear evidence of dust emission associated with the
extended HI component which together with the very faint CO J=1--0
emission give a gas-to-dust ratio of . This contrasts with the larger ratio estimated within a galactocentric radius of kpc, where the
gas is mostly molecular and starburst activity occurs. The large gas-to-dust
ratio found for the starburst region is attributed to a systematic overestimate
of the molecular gas mass in starburst environments when the luminosity of the
CO J=1--0 line and a standard galactic conversion factor is used. On
the other hand sub-mm imaging proves to be a more powerful tool than
conventional CO imaging for revealing the properties of the diffuse
that coexists with HI. This molecular gas phase is characterized by low
densities ( cm), very faint emission from
sub-thermally excited CO, and contains more mass than HI, namely .Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letter
An Origin of the Huge Far-Infrared Luminosity of Starburst Mergers
Recently Taniguchi and Ohyama found that the higher CO to CO
integrated intensity ratios at a transition =1--0, CO)CO) , in a sample of starburst merging
galaxies such as Arp 220 are mainly attributed to the depression of CO
emission with respect to CO. Investigating the same sample of galaxies
analyzed by Taniguchi & Ohyama, we find that there is a tight, almost linear
correlation between the dust mass and CO luminosity. This implies that
dust grains are also depressed in the high- starburst mergers, leading to
the higher dust temperature () in them because of the relative
increase in the radiation density. Nevertheless, the average dust mass () of the high- starburst mergers is higher significantly than that of
non-high galaxies. This is naturally understood because the galaxy mergers
could accumulate a lot of dust grains from their progenitor galaxies together
with supply of dust grains formed newly in the star forming regions. Since
(FIR) given the dust emissivity law, , the increases in both and
explain well why the starburst mergers are so bright in the FIR. We discuss
that the superwind activity plays an important role in destroying dust grains
as well as dense gas clouds in the central region of mergers.Comment: 10 pages (aaspp4.sty), 3 postscript figures (embedded). Accepted for
publication in Astrophysical Journal Letter
High Mass Starless Cores
We report the identification of a sample of potential High-Mass Starless
Cores (HMSCs). The cores were discovered by comparing images of the fields
containing candidate High-Mass Protostellar Objects (HMPOs) at 1.2mm and
mid-infrared (8.3um; MIR) wavelengths. While the HMPOs are detected at both
wavelengths, several cores emitting at 1.2mm in the same fields show absorption
or no emission at the MIR wavelength. We argue that the absorption is caused by
cold dust. The estimated masses of a few 10^2Msun - 10^3 Msun and the lack of
IR emission suggests that they may be massive cold cores in a pre-stellar
phase, which could presumably form massive stars eventually. Ammonia (1,1) and
(2,2) observations of the cores indicate smaller velocity dispersions and lower
rotation temperatures compared to HMPOs and UCHII regions suggesting a
quiescent pre-stellar stage. We propose that these newly discovered cores are
good candidates for the HMSC stage in high-mass star-formation. This sample of
cores will allow us to study the high-mass star and cluster formation processes
at the earliest evolutionary stages.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, to be published in ApJL, author names
replaced with comma separatio
Far infrared and submillimeter brightness temperatures of the giant planets
The brightness temperatures of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune in the range 35 to 1000 micron. The effective temperatures derived from the measurements, supplemented by shorter wavelength Voyager data for Jupiter and Saturn, are 126.8 + or - 4.5 K, 93.4 + or - 3.3 K, 58.3 + or - 2.0 K, and 60.3 + or - 2.0 K, respectively. The implications of the measurements for bolometric output and for atmospheric structure and composition are discussed. The temperature spectrum of Jupiter shows a strong peak at approx. 350 microns followed by a deep valley at approx. 450 to 500 microns. Spectra derived from model atmospheres qualitatively reproduced these features but do not fit the data closely
Massive Protoplanetary Disks in the Trapezium Region
(abridged) We determine the disk mass distribution around 336 stars in the
young Orion Nebula cluster by imaging a 2.5' x 2.5' region in 3 mm continuum
emission with the Owens Valley Millimeter Array. For this sample of 336 stars,
we observe 3 mm emission above the 3-sigma noise level toward ten sources, six
of which have also been detected optically in silhouette against the bright
nebular background. In addition, we detect 20 objects that do not correspond to
known near-IR cluster members. Comparisons of our measured fluxes with longer
wavelength observations enable rough separation of dust emission from thermal
free-free emission, and we find substantial dust emission toward most objects.
For the ten objects detected at both 3 mm and near-IR wavelengths, eight
exhibit substantial dust emission. Excluding the high-mass stars and assuming a
gas-to-dust ratio of 100, we estimate circumstellar masses ranging from 0.13 to
0.39 Msun. For the cluster members not detected at 3 mm, images of individual
objects are stacked to constrain the mean 3 mm flux of the ensemble. The
average flux is detected at the 3-sigma confidence level, and implies an
average disk mass of 0.005 Msun, comparable to the minimum mass solar nebula.
The percentage of stars in Orion surrounded by disks more massive than ~0.1
Msun is consistent with the disk mass distribution in Taurus, and we argue that
massive disks in Orion do not appear to be truncated through close encounters
with high-mass stars. Comparison of the average disk mass and number of massive
dusty structures in Orion with similar surveys of the NGC 2024 and IC 348
clusters constrains the evolutionary timescales of massive circumstellar disks
in clustered environments.Comment: 27 pages, including 7 figures. Accepted by Ap
Extrapolation of Galactic Dust Emission at 100 Microns to CMBR Frequencies Using FIRAS
We present predicted full-sky maps of submillimeter and microwave emission
from the diffuse interstellar dust in the Galaxy. These maps are extrapolated
from the 100 micron emission and 100/240 micron flux ratio maps that Schlegel,
Finkbeiner, & Davis (1998; SFD98) generated from IRAS and COBE/DIRBE data.
Results are presented for a number of physically plausible emissivity models.
We find that no power law emissivity function fits the FIRAS data from 200 -
2100 GHz. In this paper we provide a formalism for a multi-component model for
the dust emission. A two-component model with a mixture of silicate and
carbon-dominated grains (motivated by Pollack et al., 1994}) provides a fit to
an accuracy of about 15% to all the FIRAS data over the entire high-latitude
sky. Small systematic differences are found between the atomic and molecular
phases of the ISM.
Our predictions for the thermal (vibrational) emission from Galactic dust at
\nu < 3000 GHz are available for general use. These full-sky predictions can be
made at the DIRBE resolution of 40' or at the higher resolution of 6.1 arcmin
from the SFD98 DIRBE-corrected IRAS maps.Comment: 48 pages, AAS LaTeX, 6 figures, ApJ (accepted). Data described in the
text, as well as 4 additional figures, are available at
http://astro.berkeley.edu/dus
Massive Quiescent Cores in Orion. -- II. Core Mass Function
We have surveyed submillimeter continuum emission from relatively quiescent
regions in the Orion molecular cloud to determine how the core mass function in
a high mass star forming region compares to the stellar initial mass function.
Such studies are important for understanding the evolution of cores to stars,
and for comparison to formation processes in high and low mass star forming
regions. We used the SHARC II camera on the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory
telescope to obtain 350 \micron data having angular resolution of about 9
arcsec, which corresponds to 0.02 pc at the distance of Orion. Our analysis
combining dust continuum and spectral line data defines a sample of 51 Orion
molecular cores with masses ranging from 0.1 \Ms to 46 \Ms and a mean mass of
9.8 \Ms, which is one order of magnitude higher than the value found in typical
low mass star forming regions, such as Taurus. The majority of these cores
cannot be supported by thermal pressure or turbulence, and are probably
supercritical.They are thus likely precursors of protostars. The core mass
function for the Orion quiescent cores can be fitted by a power law with an
index equal to -0.850.21. This is significantly flatter than the Salpeter
initial mass function and is also flatter than the core mass function found in
low and intermediate star forming regions. Thus, it is likely that
environmental processes play a role in shaping the stellar IMF later in the
evolution of dense cores and the formation of stars in such regions.Comment: 30 pages, 10 figures, accepted by Ap
Star Formation in the Northern Cloud Complex of NGC 2264
We have made continuum and spectral line observations of several outflow
sources in the Mon OB1 dark cloud (NGC 2264) using the Heinrich Hertz Telescope
(HHT) and ARO 12m millimeter-wave telescope. This study explores the kinematics
and outflow energetics of the young stellar systems observed and assesses the
impact star formation is having on the surrounding cloud environment. Our data
set incorporates 12CO(3-2), 13CO(3-2), and 12CO(1-0) observations of outflows
associated with the sources IRAS 06382+1017 and IRAS 06381+1039, known as IRAS
25 and 27, respectively, in the northern cloud complex. Complementary 870
micron continuum maps were made with the HHT 19 channel bolometer array. Our
results indicate that there is a weak (approximately less than 0.5%) coupling
between outflow kinetic energy and turbulent energy of the cloud. An analysis
of the energy balance in the IRAS 25 and 27 cores suggests they are maintaining
their dynamical integrity except where outflowing material directly interacts
with the core, such as along the outflow axes.Comment: 28 pages including 6 figures, to be published in ApJ 01 July 2006,
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