152 research outputs found
Simulations of the flocculent spiral M33: what drives the spiral structure?
We perform simulations of isolated galaxies in order to investigate the
likely origin of the spiral structure in M33. In our models, we find that
gravitational instabilities in the stars and gas are able to reproduce the
observed spiral pattern and velocity field of M33, as seen in HI, and no
interaction is required. We also find that the optimum models have high levels
of stellar feedback which create large holes similar to those observed in M33,
whilst lower levels of feedback tend to produce a large amount of small scale
structure, and undisturbed long filaments of high surface density gas, hardly
detected in the M33 disc. The gas component appears to have a significant role
in producing the structure, so if there is little feedback, both the gas and
stars organise into clear spiral arms, likely due to a lower combined
(using gas and stars), and the ready ability of cold gas to undergo spiral
shocks. By contrast models with higher feedback have weaker spiral structure,
especially in the stellar component, compared to grand design galaxies. We did
not see a large difference in the behaviour of with most of these
models, however, because stayed relatively constant unless the disc
was more strongly unstable. Our models suggest that although the stars produce
some underlying spiral structure, this is relatively weak, and the gas physics
has a considerable role in producing the large scale structure of the ISM in
flocculent spirals.Comment: 17 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
A warped disk model for M33 and the 21-cm line width in spiral galaxies
To determine the actual HI distribution and the velocity field in the
outermost disk of the spiral galaxy M33, a tilted-ring model is fitted to 21-cm
line data taken with the Arecibo Telescope. Since M33 is one of the main
calibrators for the extragalactic distance scale derived through the
Tully-Fisher relation, the outer disk warping is of interest for a correct
determination and deprojection of the galaxy's line width. Even though our best
model predicts small effects on the observed line width of M33, we show that
similar outer disk warping in galaxies oriented differently along our line of
sight could affect the widths considerably. Therefore there may be systematic
effects in the determination of the rotation velocities and dynamic masses of
spiral galaxies, whose exact value depends also on which method is used for
measuring the galaxy's total line width.Comment: 27 pages, ps files only, ApJ in pres
A Comprehensive Statistical Analysis of the Gas Distribution in Lyman-limit and Damped Lyman-alpha Absorption Systems
In this paper we show how to use data on Lyman-limit and Damped Lyman-alpha
absorption systems to derive the hydrogen ionization fractions and the
distribution of the face-on total gas column density. We consider axially
symmetric, randomly oriented absorbers, ionized by an external background
radiation field in order to relate the face-on total gas distribution to that
of the neutral hydrogen observed along the line of sight. We devise a
statistical procedure based on the Maximum Likelihood criterion, that is able
to treat simultaneously data coming from different surveys and statistically
recovers the "true" column densities in the presence of large uncertainties:
this is especially important for Lyman-limit systems which leave an
unmeasurable residual flux at wavelengths shorter than the Lyman break. We make
use of simulated data to look for possible observational biases and extensively
test our procedure. For a large statistical sample of real data in the redshift
range [1.75,3.25] (collected from all published surveys) our Maximum Likelihood
procedure gives a power-law slope for the total hydrogen distribution of -2.7.
All together Lyman-limit systems therefore contain more gas than Damped
Lyman-alpha systems. Analysis of data at other redshifts shows that more
observations are needed to reach a compelling evidence for a cosmological
evolution of the slope of the gas distribution.Comment: 30 pages with 7 eps figures, LaTeX accepted for publication in ApJ
main journa
Sharp HI edges at high z: the gas distribution from Damped Lyman-alpha to Lyman-limit absorption systems
We derive the distribution of neutral and ionized gas in high redshift clouds
which are optically thick to hydrogen ionizing radiation, using published data
on Lyman-limit and Damped Lyman-alpha absorption systems in the redshift range
1.75 < z < 3.25. We assume that the distribution of the hydrogen total (HI+HII)
column density in the absorbers follows a power law K N_H^{-alpha}, whereas the
observed HI column density distribution deviates from a pure power law as a
result of ionization from a background radiation field. Comparison of the
models and observations give Maximum Likelihood solutions for the exponent
alpha and for X, the value of log(N_H/N_HI) when the Lyman-limit optical depth
is unity: alpha=2.7^{+1.0}_{-0.7} and X=2.75\pm0.35. X is much lower than what
would be obtained for a gaseous distribution in equilibrium under its own
gravity but the ratio of dark matter to gas density is not well constrained
being log(eta_0)=1.1\pm 0.8. An extrapolation of our derived power law
distribution towards systems of lower column density, the Lyman-alpha forest,
favours models with log(eta_0) < 1.1 and alpha=2.7-3.3. With alpha appreciably
larger than 2, Lyman-limit systems contain more gas than Damped Lyman-alpha
systems and Lyman-alpha forest clouds even more. Estimates of the cosmological
gas and dark matter density due to absorbers of different column density around
z=2.5 are also given.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap
Radial HI Profiles at the Periphery of Galactic Disks: The Role of Ionizing Background Radiation
Observations of neutral hydrogen in spiral galaxies reveal a sharp cutoff in
the radial density profile at some distance from the center. Using 22 galaxies
with known HI distributions as an example, we discuss the question of whether
this effect can be associated exclusively with external ionizing radiation, as
is commonly assumed. We show that before the surface density reaches
(the same for
galaxies of different types), it is hard to expect the gas to be fully ionized
by background radiation. For two of 13 galaxies with a sharp drop in the HI
profile, the "steepening" can actually be caused by ionization. At the same
time, for the remaining galaxies, the observed cutoff in the radial HI profile
is closer to the center than if it was a consequence of ionization by
background radiation and, therefore, it should be caused by other factors.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figure
The Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey: IV. Resolved dust analysis of spiral galaxies
We present a resolved dust analysis of three of the largest angular size
spiral galaxies, NGC 4501 and NGC 4567/8, in the Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey
(HeViCS) Science Demonstration field. Herschel has unprecedented spatial
resolution at far-infrared wavelengths and with the PACS and SPIRE instruments
samples both sides of the peak in the far infrared spectral energy distribution
(SED).We present maps of dust temperature, dust mass, and gas-to-dust ratio,
produced by fitting modified black bodies to the SED for each pixel. We find
that the distribution of dust temperature in both systems is in the range ~19 -
22 K and peaks away from the centres of the galaxies. The distribution of dust
mass in both systems is symmetrical and exhibits a single peak coincident with
the galaxy centres. This Letter provides a first insight into the future
analysis possible with a large sample of resolved galaxies to be observed by
Herschel.Comment: Letter accepted for publication in A&A (Herschel special issue
The far-infrared view of M87 as seen by the Herschel Space Observatory
The origin of the far-infrared emission from the nearby radio galaxy M87
remains a matter of debate. Some studies find evidence of a far-infrared excess
due to thermal dust emission, whereas others propose that the far-infrared
emission can be explained by synchrotron emission without the need for an
additional dust emission component. We observed M87 with PACS and SPIRE as part
of the Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey (HeViCS). We compare the new Herschel data
with a synchrotron model based on infrared, submm and radio data to investigate
the origin of the far-infrared emission. We find that both the integrated SED
and the Herschel surface brightness maps are adequately explained by
synchrotron emission. At odds with previous claims, we find no evidence of a
diffuse dust component in M87.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, proceedings IAU Symposium 275 (Jets at all
scales
The Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey: I. Luminosity functions
We describe the Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey (HeViCS) and the first data
obtained as part of the Science Demonstration Phase (SDP). The data cover a
central 4x4 sq deg region of the cluster. We use SPIRE and PACS photometry data
to produce 100, 160, 250, 350 and 500 micron luminosity functions (LFs) for
optically bright galaxies that are selected at 500 micron and detected in all
bands. We compare these LFs with those previously derived using IRAS, BLAST and
Herschel-ATLAS data. The Virgo Cluster LFs do not have the large numbers of
faint galaxies or examples of very luminous galaxies seen previously in surveys
covering less dense environments.Comment: Letter accepted for publication in A&A (Herschel special issue
The Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey: II. Truncated dust disks in HI-deficient spirals
By combining Herschel-SPIRE observations obtained as part of the Herschel
Virgo Cluster Survey with 21 cm HI data from the literature, we investigate the
role of the cluster environment on the dust content of Virgo spiral galaxies.We
show for the first time that the extent of the dust disk is significantly
reduced in HI-deficient galaxies, following remarkably well the observed
'truncation' of the HI disk. The ratio of the submillimetre-to- optical
diameter correlates with the HI-deficiency, suggesting that the cluster
environment is able to strip dust as well as gas. These results provide
important insights not only into the evolution of cluster galaxies but also
into the metal enrichment of the intra-cluster medium.Comment: Letter accepted for publication in A&A (Herschel special issue
The Herschel Exploitation of Local Galaxy Andromeda (HELGA). I: Global far-infrared and sub-mm morphology
We have obtained Herschel images at five wavelengths from 100 to 500 micron
of a ~5.5x2.5 degree area centred on the local galaxy M31 (Andromeda), our
nearest neighbour spiral galaxy, as part of the Herschel guaranteed time
project "HELGA". The main goals of HELGA are to study the characteristics of
the extended dust emission, focusing on larger scales than studied in previous
observations of Andromeda at an increased spatial resolution, and the obscured
star formation. In this paper we present data reduction and Herschel maps, and
provide a description of the far-infrared morphology, comparing it with
features seen at other wavelengths. We use high--resolution maps of the atomic
hydrogen, fully covering our fields, to identify dust emission features that
can be associated to M31 with confidence, distinguishing them from emission
coming from the foreground Galactic cirrus. Thanks to the very large extension
of our maps we detect, for the first time at far-infrared wavelengths, three
arc-like structures extending out to ~21, ~26 and ~31 kpc respectively, in the
south-western part of M31. The presence of these features, hosting ~2.2e6 Msol
of dust, is safely confirmed by their detection in HI maps. Overall, we
estimate a total dust mass of ~5.8e7 Msol, about 78% of which is contained in
the two main ring-like structures at 10 and 15 kpc, at an average temperature
of 16.5 K. We find that the gas-to-dust ratio declines exponentially as a
function of the galacto-centric distance, in agreement with the known
metallicity gradient, with values ranging from 66 in the nucleus to ~275 in the
outermost region. [Abridged]Comment: 15 Pages, 9 Figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysics. A high resolution version of the paper can be found at
http://wazn.ugent.be/jfritz/HelgaI_final.pd
- …