Are spiral galaxies optically thin or thick?

The opacity of spiral galaxies is examined by modelling the dust and stellar content of individual galaxies. The model is applied to five late-type spiral galaxies (NGC 4013, IC 2531, UGC 1082, NGC 5529 and NGC 5907). Having analyzed a total of seven galaxies thus far, the five galaxies mentioned above plus UGC 2048 and NGC 891 presented in (Xilouris et al. 1997, 1998), we are able to draw some general conclusions, the most significant of which are: 1) The face-on central optical depth is less than one in all optical bands indicating that typical spiral galaxies like the ones that we have modelled would be completely transparent if they were to be seen face-on. 2) The dust scaleheight is about half that of the stars, which means that the dust is more concentrated near the plane of the disk. 3) The dust scalelength is about 1.4 times larger than that of the stars and the dust is more radially extended than the stars. 4) The dust mass is found to be about an order of a magnitude more than previously measured using the IRAS fluxes, indicating the existence of a cold dust component. The gas-to-dust mass ratio calculated is close to the value derived for our Galaxy. 5) The derived extinction law matches quite well the Galactic extinction law, indicating a universal dust behaviour.Comment: 13 pages. Accepted for publication in A&

Multi-band optical micro-variability observations of the BL Lac object S4 0954+658

We have observed S4 0954+658 in the BVRI bands in 2001, and in the BI bands in 2002. The observations resulted in almost evenly sampled light curves, 3-8 hours long, with an average sampling interval of ~5-15 min. Because of the dense sampling and the availability of light curves in more than one optical bands we are able to study the intra-night flux and spectral variability of the source in detail. Significant observations were observed in all but one cases. On average, the flux variability amplitude, on time scales of minutes/hours, increases from ~2-3% in the I, to ~3.5-5.5% in the B band light curves. We do not detect any flares within the individual light curves. However, there is a possibility that the April 2001 and late May 2002 observations sample two flares which lasted longer than ~1-3 days. The evidence is only suggestive though, due to the limited length of the present light curves with regard to the duration of the assumed flares. No spectral variations are detected during the April 2001 observations. The source flux rises and decays with the same rate, in all bands. This variability behaviour is typical of S4 0954+658, and is attributed to geometrical effects. However, significant spectral variations are observed in May 2002. We find that the spectrum hardens/softens as the flux increases/decreases, respectively. Furthermore, the "hardening" rate of the energy spectrum is faster than the rate with which the spectrum becomes "redder" as the flux decays. We also find evidence (although of low statistical significance) that the I band variations are delayed with respect to the B band variations. If the May 2002 observations sample a flaring event, these results suggest that the variations are caused by energetic processes which are associated with the particle cooling and the source light travel time scales.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in A&

RoboPol: Connection between optical polarization plane rotations and gamma-ray flares in blazars

We use results of our 3 year polarimetric monitoring program to investigate the previously suggested connection between rotations of the polarization plane in the optical emission of blazars and their gamma-ray flares in the GeV band. The homogeneous set of 40 rotation events in 24 sources detected by {\em RoboPol} is analysed together with the gamma-ray data provided by {\em Fermi}-LAT. We confirm that polarization plane rotations are indeed related to the closest gamma-ray flares in blazars and the time lags between these events are consistent with zero. Amplitudes of the rotations are anticorrelated with amplitudes of the gamma-ray flares. This is presumably caused by higher relativistic boosting (higher Doppler factors) in blazars that exhibit smaller amplitude polarization plane rotations. Moreover, the time scales of rotations and flares are marginally correlated.Comment: 12 pages, 16 figures, accepted to MNRA

RoboPol: First season rotations of optical polarization plane in blazars

We present first results on polarization swings in optical emission of blazars obtained by RoboPol, a monitoring program of an unbiased sample of gamma-ray bright blazars specially designed for effective detection of such events. A possible connection of polarization swing events with periods of high activity in gamma rays is investigated using the dataset obtained during the first season of operation. It was found that the brightest gamma-ray flares tend to be located closer in time to rotation events, which may be an indication of two separate mechanisms responsible for the rotations. Blazars with detected rotations have significantly larger amplitude and faster variations of polarization angle in optical than blazars without rotations. Our simulations show that the full set of observed rotations is not a likely outcome (probability $\le 1.5 \times 10^{-2}$) of a random walk of the polarization vector simulated by a multicell model. Furthermore, it is highly unlikely ($\sim 5 \times 10^{-5}$) that none of our rotations is physically connected with an increase in gamma-ray activity.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figure

B and I-band optical micro-variability observations of the BL Lac objects S5 2007+777 and 3C371

We have observed S5 2007+777 and 3C371 in the B and I bands for 13 and 8 nights, respectively, during various observing runs in 2001, 2002 and 2004. The observations resulted in almost evenly sampled light curves, 6-9 hours long. We do not detect any flares within the observed light curves, but we do observe small amplitude, significant variations, in both bands, on time scales of hours and days. The average variability amplitude on time scales of minutes/hours is 2.5% and 1-1.5% in the case of S5 2007+777 and 3C371, respectively. The average amplitudes increase to 5-12% and 4-6%, respectively, on time scales of days. We find that the B and I band variations are highly correlated, on both short and long time scales. During the 2004 observations, which resulted in the longest light curves, we observe two well defined flux-decay and rising trends in the light curves of both objects. When the flux decays, we observe significant delays, with the B band flux decaying faster than the flux in the I band. As a result, we also observe significant, flux related spectral variations as well. The flux-spectral relation is rather complicated, with loop-like structures forming during the flux evolution. The presence of spectral variations imply that the observed variability is not caused by geometric effects. On the other hand, our results are fully consistent with the hypothesis that the observed variations are caused by perturbations which affect different regions in the jet of the sources.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic

Multi-band optical micro-variability observations of BL Lacertae

We have observed BL Lacertae in the B, R and I bands for 2 nights in July, 1999, and 3 nights in July, 2001. The observations resulted in almost evenly sampled light curves, with an average sampling interval of ~5 min. The source is significantly variable in all bands. On average, the variability amplitude increases from ~5% in the I band, to ~5.5% in the R and ~6.5% in the B band light curves. The rising and decaying time scales are comparable within each band, but they increase from the B, to R and I band light curves. The optical power spectrum shows a red noise component with a slope of ~ -2. Cross-correlation analysis shows that in most cases the delay between the variations in the B and I band light curves is less than ~ 0.4 hrs. The cross-correlation functions are asymmetric, implying complex delays of the I band variations with respect to the B band variations. Furthermore, in one case we find that the I band variations are significantly delayed (by ~0.2 hrs) with respect to the B band variations. We also detect significant spectral variations: the spectrum becomes steeper as the flux increases, and the flattest spectral index corresponds to the maximum B band flux. Our results imply that the fast, intra-night variations of the source correspond to perturbations of different regions in the jet which cause localized injections of relativistic particles on time scales much sorter that the average sampling interval of the light curves. The variations are controlled by the cooling and light crossing time scales, which are probably comparable.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&

M31N 2005-09c: a fast FeII nova in the disk of M31

Classical novae are quite frequent in M~31. However, very few spectra of M31 novae have been studied to date, especially during the early decline phase. Our aim is to study the photometric and spectral evolution of a M31 nova event close to outburst. We present photometric and spectroscopic observations of M31N 2005-09c, a classical nova in the disk of M31, using the 1.3m telescope of the Skinakas Observatory in Crete (Greece), starting on the 28th September, i.e. about 5 days after outburst, and ending on the 5th October 2005, i.e. about 12 days after outburst. We also have supplementary photometric observations from the La Sagra Observatory in Northern Andalucia, Spain, on September 29 and 30, October 3, 6 and 9 and November 1, 2005. The wavelength range covered by the spectra is from 3565 A to 8365 A. The spectra are of high S/N allowing the study of the evolution of the equivalent widths of the Balmer lines, as well as the identification of non-Balmer lines. The nova displays a typical early decline spectrum that is characterized by many weak FeII multiplet emissions. It is classified as a P$_{fe}$ nova. From the nova light curve, we have also derived its speed class, t=14+-2.5 days. As the nova evolved the Balmer lines became stronger and narrower. The early decline of the expansion velocity of the nova follows a power law in time with an exponent of \~-0.2

Discovery of a Be/X-ray Binary Consistent with the Position of GRO J2058+42

GRO J2058+42 is a 195 s transient X-ray pulsar discovered in 1995 with BATSE. In 1996, RXTE located GRO J2058+42 to a 90% confidence error circle with a 4' radius. On 20 February 2004, the region including the error circle was observed with Chandra ACIS-I. No X-ray sources were detected within the error circle, however, 2 faint sources were detected in the ACIS-I field-of-view. We obtained optical observations of the brightest object, CXOU J205847.5+414637, that had about 64 X-ray counts and was just 0.3' outside the error circle. The optical spectrum contained a strong H alpha line and corresponds to an infrared object in the 2MASS catalog, indicating a Be/X-ray binary system. Pulsations were not detected in the Chandra observations, but similar flux variations and distance estimates suggest that CXOU J205847.5+414637 and GRO J2058+42 are the same object. We present results from the Chandra observation, optical observations, new and previously unreported RXTE observations, and a reanalysis of a ROSAT observation.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figures, Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa