41 research outputs found
Massive stars reveal variations of the stellar initial mass function in the Milky Way stellar clusters
We investigate whether the stellar initial mass function (IMF) is universal,
or whether it varies significantly among young stellar clusters in the Milky
Way. We propose a method to uncover the range of variation of the parameters
that describe the shape of the IMF for the population of young Galactic
clusters. These parameters are the slopes in the low and high stellar mass
regimes, and , respectively, and the characteristic mass,
. The method relies exclusively on the high mass content of the
clusters, but is able to yield information on the distributions of parameters
that describe the IMF over the entire stellar mass range. This is achieved by
comparing the fractions of single and lonely massive O stars in a recent
catalog of the Milky Way clusters with a library of simulated clusters built
with various distribution functions of the IMF parameters. The synthetic
clusters are corrected for the effects of the binary population, stellar
evolution, sample incompleteness, and ejected O stars. Our findings indicate
that broad distributions of the IMF parameters are required in order to
reproduce the fractions of single and lonely O stars in Galactic clusters. They
also do not lend support to the existence of a cluster mass-maximum stellar
mass relation. We propose a probabilistic formulation of the IMF whereby the
parameters of the IMF are described by Gaussian distribution functions centered
around , , and M, and with
dispersions of , , and
M around these values.Comment: Accepted to MNRAS, 17 pages, 13 figures. Larger observational sample.
Conclusions strengthene
Probing the Dust Properties of Galaxies up to Submillimetre Wavelengths I. The Spectral Energy Distribution of dwarf galaxies using LABOCA
We present 870 micron images of four low metallicity galaxies (NGC1705,
Haro11, Mrk1089 and UM311) observed with the Large APEX BOlometer CAmera
(LABOCA). We model their spectral energy distributions combining the submm
observations of LABOCA, 2MASS, IRAS, Spitzer photometric data and the IRS data
for Haro11. We find that a significant mass of dust is revealed when using
submm constraints compared to that measured with only mid-IR to far-IR
observations extending only to 160 microns. For NGC1705 and Haro11, an excess
in submillimeter wavelengths is detected and we rerun our SED procedure adding
a cold dust component (10K) to better describe the high 870 micron flux derived
from LABOCA observations, which significantly improves the fit. We find that at
least 70% of the dust mass of these two galaxies can reside in a cold dust
component. We also show that the subsequent dust-to-gas mass ratios,
considering HI and CO observations, can be strikingly high for Haro11 in
comparison with what is usually expected for these low-metallicity
environments. Furthermore, we derive the SFR of our galaxies and compare them
to the Schmidt law. Haro11 falls anomalously far from the Schmidt relation.
These results may suggest that a reservoir of hidden gas could be present in
molecular form not traced by the current CO observations. We also derive the
total IR luminosities derived from our models and compare them with relations
that derive this luminosity from Spitzer bands. We find that the Draine & Li
(2007) formula compares well to our direct IR determinations.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figures, 10 tables, accepted for publication in A&
The Relationship Between Molecular Gas, HI, and Star Formation in the Low-Mass, Low-Metallicity Magellanic Clouds
The Magellanic Clouds provide the only laboratory to study the effect of
metallicity and galaxy mass on molecular gas and star formation at high (~20
pc) resolution. We use the dust emission from HERITAGE Herschel data to map the
molecular gas in the Magellanic Clouds, avoiding the known biases of CO
emission as a tracer of H. Using our dust-based molecular gas estimates,
we find molecular gas depletion times of ~0.4 Gyr in the LMC and ~0.6 SMC at 1
kpc scales. These depletion times fall within the range found for normal disk
galaxies, but are shorter than the average value, which could be due to recent
bursts in star formation. We find no evidence for a strong intrinsic dependence
of the molecular gas depletion time on metallicity. We study the relationship
between gas and star formation rate across a range in size scales from 20 pc to
~1 kpc, including how the scatter in molecular gas depletion time changes with
size scale, and discuss the physical mechanisms driving the relationships. We
compare the metallicity-dependent star formation models of Ostriker, McKee, and
Leroy (2010) and Krumholz (2013) to our observations and find that they both
predict the trend in the data, suggesting that the inclusion of a diffuse
neutral medium is important at lower metallicity.Comment: 24 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ. FITS files of
the dust-based estimates of the H2 column densities for the LMC and SMC
(shown in Figures 2 and 3) will be available online through Ap
Molecular hydrogen emission in the interstellar medium of the Large Magellanic Cloud
We present the detection and analysis of molecular hydrogen emission toward
ten interstellar regions in the Large Magellanic Cloud. We examined
low-resolution infrared spectral maps of twelve regions obtained with the
Spitzer infrared spectrograph (IRS). The pure rotational 0--0 transitions of
H at 28.2 and 17.1 are detected in the IRS spectra for ten
regions. The higher level transitions are mostly upper limit measurements
except for three regions, where a 3 detection threshold is achieved for
lines at 12.2 and 8.6. The excitation diagrams of the detected
H transitions are used to determine the warm H gas column density and
temperature. The single-temperature fits through the lower transition lines
give temperatures in the range . The bulk of the excited H
gas is found at these temperatures and contributes 5-17% to the total gas
mass. We find a tight correlation of the H surface brightness with
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon and total infrared emission, which is a clear
indication of photo-electric heating in photodissociation regions. We find the
excitation of H by this process is equally efficient in both atomic and
molecular dominated regions. We also present the correlation of the warm H
physical conditions with dust properties. The warm H mass fraction and
excitation temperature show positive correlations with the average starlight
intensity, again supporting H excitation in photodissociation regions.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA
The Spatial Distribution of Dust and Stellar Emission of the Magellanic Clouds
We study the emission by dust and stars in the Large and Small Magellanic
Clouds, a pair of low-metallicity nearby galaxies, as traced by their spatially
resolved spectral energy distributions (SEDs). This project combines Herschel
Space Observatory PACS and SPIRE far-infrared photometry with other data at
infrared and optical wavelengths. We build maps of dust and stellar luminosity
and mass of both Magellanic Clouds, and analyze the spatial distribution of
dust/stellar luminosity and mass ratios. These ratios vary considerably
throughout the galaxies, generally between the range and .
We observe that the dust/stellar ratios depend on the interstellar medium (ISM)
environment, such as the distance from currently or previously star-forming
regions, and on the intensity of the interstellar radiation field (ISRF). In
addition, we construct star formation rate (SFR) maps, and find that the SFR is
correlated with the dust/stellar luminosity and dust temperature in both
galaxies, demonstrating the relation between star formation, dust emission and
heating, though these correlations exhibit substantial scatter.Comment: 15 pages, 18 figures; ApJ, in press; version published in the journal
will have higher-resolution figure
Radiative and mechanical feedback into the molecular gas in the Large Magellanic Cloud. I. N159W
We present Herschel SPIRE Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS) observations
of N159W, an active star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). In
our observations, a number of far-infrared cooling lines including CO(4-3) to
CO(12-11), [CI] 609 and 370 micron, and [NII] 205 micron are clearly detected.
With an aim of investigating the physical conditions and excitation processes
of molecular gas, we first construct CO spectral line energy distributions
(SLEDs) on 10 pc scales by combining the FTS CO transitions with ground-based
low-J CO data and analyze the observed CO SLEDs using non-LTE radiative
transfer models. We find that the CO-traced molecular gas in N159W is warm
(kinetic temperature of 153-754 K) and moderately dense (H2 number density of
(1.1-4.5)e3 cm-3). To assess the impact of the energetic processes in the
interstellar medium on the physical conditions of the CO-emitting gas, we then
compare the observed CO line intensities with the models of photodissociation
regions (PDRs) and shocks. We first constrain the properties of PDRs by
modelling Herschel observations of [OI] 145, [CII] 158, and [CI] 370 micron
fine-structure lines and find that the constrained PDR components emit very
weak CO emission. X-rays and cosmic-rays are also found to provide a negligible
contribution to the CO emission, essentially ruling out ionizing sources
(ultraviolet photons, X-rays, and cosmic-rays) as the dominant heating source
for CO in N159W. On the other hand, mechanical heating by low-velocity C-type
shocks with ~10 km/s appears sufficient enough to reproduce the observed warm
CO.Comment: accepted for publication in A&
The elusive ISM of dwarf galaxies: excess submillimetre emission & CO-dark molecular gas
The Herschel Dwarf Galaxy Survey investigates the interplay of star formation activity and the the metal-poor gas and dust of dwarf galaxies using FIR and submillimetre imaging spectroscopic and photometric observations in the 50 to 550mu window of the Herschel Space Observatory. The dust SEDs are well constrained with the new Herschel and MIR Spitzer data. A submillimetre excess is often found in low metallicity galaxies, which,if tracing very cold dust, would highlight large dust masses not easily reconciled in some cases, given the low metallicities and expected gas-to-dust mass ratios. The galaxies are also mapped in the FIR fine-structure lines (63 and 145mu OI, 158mu CII, 122 and 205mu NII, 88mu OIII) probing the low density ionised gas, the HII regions and photodissociation regions. While still early in the Herschel mission we can already see, along with earlier studies, that line ratios in the metal-poor ISM differ remarkably from those in the metal-rich starburst environments. In dwarf galaxies, L[CII]/L(CO) (>10^4) is at least an order of magnitude greater than in the most metal-rich starburst galaxies. The enhanced [CII] arises from the larger photodissociation region where H2, not traced by the CO, can exist. The 88mu [OIII] line usually dominates the FIR line emission over galaxy-wide scales in dwarf galaxies, not the 158mu [CII] line which is the dominant FIR cooling line in metal-rich galaxies. All of the FIR lines together can contribute 1% to 2% of the L(TIR). The Herschel Dwarf Galaxy survey will provide statistical information on the nature of the dust and gas in low metallicity galaxies, elucidating the origin of the submm excess in dwarf galaxies, and help determine a ([CII] +CO) to H2 conversion factor, thus providing observational constraints on chemical evolution models of galaxies
Dust and Gas in the Magellanic Clouds from the HERITAGE Herschel Key Project. II. Gas-to-Dust Ratio Variations across ISM Phases
The spatial variations of the gas-to-dust ratio (GDR) provide constraints on
the chemical evolution and lifecycle of dust in galaxies. We examine the
relation between dust and gas at 10-50 pc resolution in the Large and Small
Magellanic Clouds (LMC and SMC) based on Herschel far-infrared (FIR), H I 21
cm, CO, and Halpha observations. In the diffuse atomic ISM, we derive the
gas-to-dust ratio as the slope of the dust-gas relation and find gas-to-dust
ratios of 380+250-130 in the LMC, and 1200+1600-420 in the SMC, not including
helium. The atomic-to-molecular transition is located at dust surface densities
of 0.05 Mo pc-2 in the LMC and 0.03 Mo pc-2 in the SMC, corresponding to AV ~
0.4 and 0.2, respectively. We investigate the range of CO-to-H2 conversion
factor to best account for all the molecular gas in the beam of the
observations, and find upper limits on XCO to be 6x1020 cm-2 K-1 km-1 s in the
LMC (Z=0.5Zo) at 15 pc resolution, and 4x 1021 cm-2 K-1 km-1 s in the SMC
(Z=0.2Zo) at 45 pc resolution. In the LMC, the slope of the dust-gas relation
in the dense ISM is lower than in the diffuse ISM by a factor ~2, even after
accounting for the effects of CO-dark H2 in the translucent envelopes of
molecular clouds. Coagulation of dust grains and the subsequent dust emissivity
increase in molecular clouds, and/or accretion of gas-phase metals onto dust
grains, and the subsequent dust abundance (dust-to-gas ratio) increase in
molecular clouds could explain the observations. In the SMC, variations in the
dust-gas slope caused by coagulation or accretion are degenerate with the
effects of CO-dark H2. Within the expected 5--20 times Galactic XCO range, the
dust-gas slope can be either constant or decrease by a factor of several across
ISM phases. Further modeling and observations are required to break the
degeneracy between dust grain coagulation, accretion, and CO-dark H2