112 research outputs found
Hot Stars and Cool Clouds: The Photodissociation Region M16
We present high-resolution spectroscopy and images of a photodissociation
region (PDR) in M16 obtained during commissioning of NIRSPEC on the Keck II
telescope. PDRs play a significant role in regulating star formation, and M16
offers the opportunity to examine the physical processes of a PDR in detail. We
simultaneously observe both the molecular and ionized phases of the PDR and
resolve the spatial and kinematic differences between them. The most prominent
regions of the PDR are viewed edge-on. Fluorescent emission from nearby stars
is the primary excitation source, although collisions also preferentially
populate the lowest vibrational levels of H2. Variations in density-sensitive
emission line ratios demonstrate that the molecular cloud is clumpy, with an
average density n = 3x10^5 cm^(-3). We measure the kinetic temperature of the
molecular region directly and find T_H2 = 930 K. The observed density,
temperature, and UV flux imply a photoelectric heating efficiency of 4%. In the
ionized region, n_i=5x10^3 cm^(-3) and T_HII = 9500 K. In the brightest regions
of the PDR, the recombination line widths include a non-thermal component,
which we attribute to viewing geometry.Comment: 5 pages including 2 Postscript figures. To appear in ApJ Letters,
April 200
Infrared Spectroscopy of a Massive Obscured Star Cluster in the Antennae Galaxies (NGC 4038/4039) with NIRSPEC
We present infrared spectroscopy of the Antennae Galaxies (NGC 4038/4039)
with NIRSPEC at the W. M. Keck Observatory. We imaged the star clusters in the
vicinity of the southern nucleus (NGC 4039) in 0.39" seeing in K-band using
NIRSPEC's slit-viewing camera. The brightest star cluster revealed in the
near-IR (M_K(0) = -17.9) is insignificant optically, but coincident with the
highest surface brightness peak in the mid-IR (12-18 micron) ISO image
presented by Mirabel et al. (1998). We obtained high signal-to-noise 2.03 -
2.45 micron spectra of the nucleus and the obscured star cluster at R ~ 1900.
The cluster is very young (4 Myr old), massive (16e6 M_sun), and compact
(density ~ 115 M_sun pc^(-3) within a 32 pc half-light radius), assuming a
Salpeter IMF (0.1 - 100 M_sun). Its hot stars have a radiation field
characterized by T_eff ~ 39,000 K, and they ionize a compact H II region with
n_e ~ 1e4 cm^(-3). The stars are deeply embedded in gas and dust (A_V ~ 9-10
mag), and their strong FUV field powers a clumpy photodissociation region with
densities n_H >= 1e5 cm^(-3) on scales of up to 200 pc, radiating L[H_2 1-0
S(1)] = 9600 L_sun.Comment: 4 pages, 5 embedded figures. To appear in proceedings of 33d ESLAB
Symposium: Star Formation from the Small to the Large Scale, held in
Noordwijk, The Netherlands, Nov. 1999. Also available at
http://astro.berkeley.edu/~agilber
Impurity correlations in dilute Kondo alloys
The single impurity Kondo model is often used to describe metals with dilute
concentrations (n_i) of magnetic impurities. Here we examine how dilute the
impurities must be for this to be valid by developing a virial expansion in
impurity density. The O(n_i^2) term is determined from results on the
2-impurity Kondo problem by averaging over the RKKY coupling. The non-trivial
fixed point of the 2-impurity problem could produce novel singularities in the
heat capacity of dilute alloys at O(n_i^2).Comment: 6 pages, no figure
J-Band Infrared Spectroscopy of a Sample of Brown Dwarfs Using Nirspec on Keck II
Near-infrared spectroscopic observations of a sample of very cool, low-mass
objects are presented with higher spectral resolution than in any previous
studies. Six of the objects are L-dwarfs, ranging in spectral class from L2 to
L8/9, and the seventh is a methane or T-dwarf. These new observations were
obtained during commissioning of NIRSPEC, the first high-resolution
near-infrared cryogenic spectrograph for the Keck II 10-meter telescope on
Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Spectra with a resolving power of R=2500 from 1.135 to 1.360
microns (approximately J-band) are presented for each source. At this
resolution, a rich spectral structure is revealed, much of which is due to
blending of unresolved molecular transitions. Strong lines due to neutral
potassium (K I), and bands due to iron hydride (FeH) and steam (H2O) change
significantly throughout the L sequence. Iron hydride disappears between L5 and
L8, the steam bands deepen and the K I lines gradually become weaker but wider
due to pressure broadening. An unidentified feature occurs at 1.22 microns
which has a temperature dependence like FeH but has no counterpart in the
available FeH opacity data. Because these objects are 3-6 magnitudes brighter
in the near-infrared compared to the I-band, spectral classification is
efficient. One of the objects studied (2MASSW J1523+3014) is the coolest
L-dwarf discovered so far by the 2-Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS), but its
spectrum is still significantly different from the methane-dominated objects
such as Gl229B or SDSS 1624+0029.Comment: New paper, Latex format, 2 figures, accepted to ApJ Letter
Renormalization group and 1/N expansion for 3-dimensional Ginzburg-Landau-Wilson models
A renormalization-group scheme is developed for the 3-dimensional
O()-symmetric Ginzburg-Landau-Wilson model, which is consistent with the
use of a 1/N expansion as a systematic method of approximation. It is motivated
by an application to the critical properties of superconductors, reported in a
separate paper. Within this scheme, the infrared stable fixed point controlling
critical behaviour appears at , where is the inverse of
the quartic coupling constant, and an efficient renormalization procedure
consists in the minimal subtraction of ultraviolet divergences at . This
scheme is implemented at next-to-leading order, and the standard results for
critical exponents calculated by other means are recovered. An apparently novel
result of this non-perturbative method of approximation is that corrections to
scaling (or confluent singularities) do not, as in perturbative analyses,
appear as simple power series in the variable . At least in
three dimensions, the power series are modified by powers of .Comment: 20 pages; 5 figure
The Rest-Frame Optical Spectrum of MS 1512-cB58
Moderate resolution, near-IR spectroscopy of MS1512-cB58 is presented,
obtained during commissioning of the the Near IR Spectrometer (NIRSPEC) on the
Keck II telescope. The strong lensing of this z=2.72 galaxy by the foreground
cluster MS1512+36 makes it the best candidate for detailed study of the
rest-frame optical properties of Lyman Break Galaxies.
A redshift of z=2.7290+/-0.0007 is inferred from the emission lines, in
contrast to the z=2.7233 calculated from UV observations of interstellar
absorption lines. Using the Balmer line ratios, we find an extinction of
E(B-V)=0.27. Using the line strengths, we infer an SFR=620+/-18 Msun/yr
(H_0=75, q_0=0.1, Lambda =0), a factor of 2 higher than that measured from
narrow-band imaging observations of the galaxy, but a factor of almost 4 lower
than the SFR inferred from the UV continuum luminosity. The width of the Balmer
lines yields a mass of M_vir=1.2x10^10 Msun. We find that the oxygen abundance
is 1/3 solar, in good agreement with other estimates of the metallicity.
However, we infer a high nitrogen abundance, which may argue for the presence
of an older stellar population.Comment: 14 pages, including 3 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ
Letter
High Spectral Resolution Observations of the Massive Stars in the Galactic Center
We present high-resolution near-infrared spectra, obtained with the NIRSPEC
spectrograph on the W. M. Keck II Telescope, of a collection of hot, massive
stars within the central 25 arcseconds of the Galactic center. We have
identified a total of twenty-one emission-line stars, seven of which are new
radial velocity detections with five of those being classified as He I
emission-line stars for the first time. These stars fall into two categories
based on their spectral properties: 1) those with narrow 2.112, 2.113 micron He
I doublet absorption lines, and 2) those with broad 2.058 micron He I emission
lines. These data have the highest spectral resolution ever obtained for these
sources and, as a result, both components of the absorption doublet are
separately resolved for the first time. We use these spectral features to
measure radial velocities. The majority of the measured radial velocities have
relative errors of 20 kms, smaller than those previously obtained with
proper-motion or radial velocity measurements for similar stellar samples in
the Galactic center. The radial velocities estimated from the He I absorption
doublet are more robust than those previously estimated from the 2.058 micron
emission line, since they do not suffer from confusion due to emission from the
surrounding ISM. Using this velocity information, we agree that the stars are
orbiting in a somewhat coherent manner but are not as defined into a disk or
disks as previously thought. Finally, multi-epoch radial velocity measurements
for IRS 16NE show a change in its velocity presumably due to an unseen stellar
companion.Comment: ApJ accepted, 42 pages, 16 figure
Measurement of [OIII] Emission in Lyman Break Galaxies
Measurements of [OIII] emission in Lyman Break galaxies (LBGs) at z>3 are
presented. Four galaxies were observed with narrow-band filters using the
Near-IR Camera on the Keck I 10-m telescope. A fifth galaxy was observed
spectroscopically during the commissioning of NIRSPEC, the new infrared
spectrometer on Keck II. The emission-line spectrum is used to place limits on
the metallicity. Comparing these new measurements with others available from
the literature, we find that strong oxygen emission in LBGs may suggest
sub-solar metallicity for these objects. The [OIII]5007 line is also used to
estimate the star formation rate (SFR) of the LBGs. The inferred SFRs are
higher than those estimated from the UV continuum, and may be evidence for dust
extinction.Comment: 25 pages, including 6 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap
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