2,251 research outputs found
QSO hosts and environments at z=0.9 to 4.2: JHK images with adaptive optics
We have observed nine QSOs with redshifts 0.85 to 4.16 at near-IR wavelengths
with the adaptive optics bonnette of the Canada-France-Hawaii telescope.
Exposure times ranged from 1500 to 24000s (mostly near 7000s) in J, H, or K
bands, with pixels 0.035 arcsec on the sky. The FWHM of the co-added images at
the location of the quasars are typically 0.16 arcsec. Including another QSO
published previously, we find associated QSO structure in at least eight of ten
objects, including the QSO at z = 4.16. The structures seen in all cases
include long faint features which appear to be tidal tails. In four cases we
have also resolved the QSO host galaxy, but find them to be smooth and
symmetrical: future PSF removal may expand this result. Including one object
previously reported, of the nine objects with more extended structure, five are
radio-loud, and all but one of these appear to be in a dense small group of
compact galaxy companions. The radio-quiet objects do not occupy the same dense
environments, as seen in the NIR. In this small sample we do not find any
apparent trends of these properties with redshift, over the range 0.8 < z <
2.4. The colors of the host galaxies and companions are consistent with young
stellar populations at the QSO redshift. Our observations suggest that adaptive
optic observations in the visible region will exhibit luminous signatures of
the substantial star-formation activity that must be occurring.Comment: 22 pages including 10 tables, plus 11 figures. To appear in A
Spatially resolved spectra of 3C galaxy nuclei
We present and discuss visible-wavelength long-slit spectra of four low
redshift 3C galaxies obtained with the STIS instrument on the Hubble Space
Telescope. The slit was aligned with near-nuclear jet-like structure seen in
HST images of the galaxies, to give unprecedented spatial resolution of the
galaxy inner regions. In 3C 135 and 3C 171, the spectra reveal clumpy emission
line structures that indicate outward motions of a few hundred km s
within a centrally illuminated and ionised biconical region. There may also be
some low-ionisation high-velocity material associated with 3C 135. In 3C 264
and 3C 78, the jets have blue featureless spectra consistent with their
proposed synchrotron origin. There is weak associated line emission in the
innermost part of the jets with mild outflow velocity. These jets are bright
and highly collimated only within a circumnuclear region of lower galaxy
luminosity, which is not dusty. We discuss the origins of these central regions
and their connection with relativistic jets.Comment: 15 pages incl Tables, 12 diagrams, To appear in A
High Velocity Line Emission in the NLR of NGC 4151
Narrow-band imaging of the nuclear region of NGC 4151 with the Hubble Space
Telescope is presented. The filter bandpasses isolate line emission in various
high velocity ranges in several ions. Slitless and long-slit spectra of the
region with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph also indicate the
locations of high velocity gas. These emission regions are faint and are
interspersed among the bright emission clouds seen in direct images. They have
radial velocities up to 1400 km/s relative to the nucleus, and are found in
both approach and recession on both sides of the nucleus. This contrasts
strongly with the bright emission line clouds which have been discussed
previously as showing bidirectional outflow with velocities within 400 km/s of
the nucleus. We discuss the possible connections of the high velocity material
with the radio jet and the nuclear radiation.Comment: 12 pages plus 6 figures, to be published in A
Tuning Low Temperature Physical Properties of CeNiGe by Magnetic Field
We have studied the thermal, magnetic, and electrical properties of the
ternary intermetallic system CeNiGe by means of specific heat,
magnetization, and resistivity measurements. The specific heat data, together
with the anisotropic magnetic susceptibility, was analyzed on the basis of the
point charge model of crystalline electric field. The \,=\,5/2 multiplet of
the Ce is split by the crystalline electric field (CEF) into three
Kramers doublets, where the second and third doublet are separated from the
first (ground state) doublet by 100\,K and
170\,K, respectively. In zero field CeNiGe exhibits an
antiferromangeic order below = 5.0\,K. For
\textbf{H}\,\,\textbf{a} two metamagnetic transitions are clearly
evidenced between 2\,\,4\,K from the magnetization isotherm and extended
down to 0.4\,K from the magnetoresistance measurements. For
\textbf{H}\,\,\textbf{a}, shifts to lower temperature as
magnetic field increases, and ultimately disappears at
32.5\,kOe. For , the electrical resistivity shows the quadratic
temperature dependence (). For , an
unconventional -dependence of with emerges, the
exponent becomes larger as magnetic field increases. Although the
antiferromagnetic phase transition temperature in CeNiGe can be
continuously suppressed to zero, it provides an example of field tuning that
does not match current simple models of Quantum criticality.Comment: accepted PR
Mapping the Kinematics of the Narrow-Line Region in the Seyfert Galaxy NGC 4151
Using The Hubble Space Telescope's Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph HST's
STIS, observations of the OIII emission from the narrow-line region (NLR) of
NGC 4151 were obtained and radial velocities determined. Five orbits of HST
time were used to obtain spectra at five parallel slit configurations, at a
position angle of 58 degrees, with spatial resolution 0.2 arcseconds across and
0.1 arcseconds along each slit. A spectral resolving power of ~ 9,000 with the
G430M grating gave velocity measurements accurate to ~ 34 km/s. A kinematic
model was generated to match the radial velocities, for comparison to previous
kinematic models of biconical radial outflow developed for low-dispersion
spectra at two slit positions. The new high-resolution spectra permit the
measurement of accurate velocity dispersions for each radial-velocity
component. The full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) reaches a maximum of 1000 km/s
near the nucleus, and generally decreases with increasing distance to about 100
km/s in the extended narrow-line region (ENLR), starting at about 6 arcseconds
from the nucleus. In addition to the bright emission knots, which generally fit
our model, there are faint high velocity clouds which do not fit the biconical
outflow pattern of our kinematic model. These faint clouds occur at the
turnover points of the outflowing bright clouds. We suggest possible scenarios
that could explain these rogue clouds: (1) backflow resulting from shocks and
(2) outflow outside of the bicones, although the latter does not explain how
the knots are ionized and accelerated. A comparison of our observations with a
high-resolution radio map shows that there is no evidence that the kinematics
of the NLR clouds are affected by the radio lobes that comprise the inner jet.Comment: 30 pages, 15 figures (some color), accepted for publication in the
Astronomical Journal. Downloadable versions of the paper with high resolution
figures/images are available here:
http://www.chara.gsu.edu/~crenshaw/NGC4151_kinematics.pdf <--PDF Version
http://www.chara.gsu.edu/~crenshaw/NGC4151_kinematics.ps <--PS Versio
The Distance and Morphology of V723 Cassiopeiae (NOVA CASSIOPEIA 1995)
We present spatially resolved infrared spectra of V723 Cas (Nova Cassiopeia
1995) obtained over four years with the integral field spectrograph OSIRIS on
Keck II. Also presented are one epoch of spatially unresolved spectra from the
long slit spectrograph NIRSPEC on Keck II. The OSIRIS observations made use of
the laser guide star adaptive optics facility that produced diffraction-limited
spatial resolution of the strong coronal emission features in the nova ejecta.
We remove the point-like continuum from V723 Cas data cubes to reveal details
of the extended nebula and find that emission due to [Si VI] and [Ca VIII] has
an equatorial ring structure with polar nodules-a strikingly different
morphology than emission due to [Al IX], which appears as a prolate spheroid.
The contrast in structure may indicate separate ejection events. Using the
angular expansion and Doppler velocities observed over four epochs spaced at
one year intervals, we determine the distance to V723 Cas to be 3.85+0.23-0.21
kpc. We present the OSIRIS three-dimensional data here in many ways: as
narrowband images, one- and two-dimensional spectra, and a volume rendering
that reveals the true shape of the ejecta.Comment: 37 pages, 8 figure
Probing the Kinematics of the Narrow-Line Region in Seyfert Galaxies with Slitless Spectroscopy: Observational Results
We present slitless spectra of 10 Seyfert galaxies observed with the Space
Telescope Imaging Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope. The spectra cover
the [OIII] 4959, 5007 emission lines at a spectral resolving power of ~9000 and
a spatial resolution of 0.1". We compare the slitless spectra with previous HST
narrow-band images to determine the velocity shifts and dispersions of the
bright emission-line knots in the narrow-line regions (NLRs) of these Seyferts.
Many knots are spatially resolved with sizes of tenths of arcsecs,
corresponding to tens of pcs, and yet they appear to move coherently with
radial velocities between zero and +/- 1200 km/s with respect to the systemic
velocities of their hostgalaxies. The knots also show a broad range in velocity
dispersion, ranging from ~30 km/s (the velocity resolution) to ~1000 km/s FWHM.
Most of the Seyfert galaxies in this sample show an organized flow pattern,
with radial velocities near zero at the nucleus (defined by the optical
continuum peak) and increasing to maximum blueshifts and redshifts within ~1''
of the nucleus, followed by a decline to the systemic velocity. The
emission-line knots also follow a general trend of decreasing velocity
dispersion with increasing distance. In the Seyfert 2 galaxies, the presence of
blueshifts and redshifts on either side of the nucleus indicates that rotation
alone cannot explain the observed radial velocities, and that radial outflow
plays an important role. Each of the Seyfert galaxies in this sample (with the
exception of Mrk 3) shows a bright, compact (FWHM < 0.5") [O III] knot at the
position of its optical nucleus. These nuclear emission-line knots have
radial-velocity centroids near zero, but they typically have the highest
velocity dispersions.Comment: 28 pages, 5 figures (on 9 pages), accepted for A
A Kinematic Model for the Narrow-Line Region in NGC 4151
We present a simple kinematic model for the narrow-line region (NLR) of the
Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 4151, based on our previous observations of extended [O
III] emission with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS). The model
is similar to a biconical radial outflow model developed for the Seyfert 2
galaxy NGC 1068, except that the bicone axis is tilted much more into our line
of sight (40 degrees out of the plane of the sky instead of 5 degrees), and the
maximum space velocities are lower (750 km/s instead of 1300 km/s. We find
evidence for radial acceleration of the emission-line knots to a distance of
160 pc, followed by deceleration that approaches the systemic velocity at a
distance of 290 pc (for a distance to NGC 4151 of 13.3 Mpc). Other similarities
to the kinematics of NGC 1068 are: 1) there are a number of high-velocity
clouds that are not decelerated, suggesting that the medium responsible for the
deceleration is patchy, and 2) the bicone in NGC 4151 is at least partially
evacuated along its axis. Together, these two Seyfert galaxies provide strong
evidence for radial outflow (e.g., due to radiation and/or wind pressure) and
against gravitational motion or expansion away from the radio jets as the
principal kinematic component in the NLR.Comment: 31 pages, Latex, includes 11 figures in postscript, Figures
5a,5b,6a,6b in color, to appear in the Astronomical Journa
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