The 3.3 micron emission feature: Map of the galactic disk, 10 deg less than 1 less than 35 deg, - 6 deg less than b less than 6 deg

The 3.3 micron aromatic feature has been detected in the diffuse galactic emission with the AROME balloon-borne instrument. The results are presented in the form of an map of the 3.3 micron feature's intensity. The AROME instrument consists in a Cassegrain telescope with wobbling secondary mirrors and a liquid/solid nitrogen cooled photometer. The instrumental output is modified by the impulse response of the system. So the galactic surface brightness was restored in Fourier space by an inverse optimal filtering. The map of the feature's intensity is presented for a region of galactic coordinates. All the known H II giant molecular cloud complexes are visible in the 3.3 micron feature emission showing a good correlation with the infrared dust emission

Low-energy quantum dynamics of atoms at defects. Interstitial oxygen in silicon

The problem of the low-energy highly-anharmonic quantum dynamics of isolated impurities in solids is addressed by using path-integral Monte Carlo simulations. Interstitial oxygen in silicon is studied as a prototypical example showing such a behavior. The assignment of a "geometry" to the defect is discussed. Depending on the potential (or on the impurity mass), there is a "classical" regime, where the maximum probability-density for the oxygen nucleus is at the potential minimum. There is another regime, associated to highly anharmonic potentials, where this is not the case. Both regimes are separated by a sharp transition. Also, the decoupling of the many-nuclei problem into a one-body Hamiltonian to describe the low-energy dynamics is studied. The adiabatic potential obtained from the relaxation of all the other degrees of freedom at each value of the coordinate associated to the low-energy motion, gives the best approximation to the full many-nuclei problem.Comment: RevTeX, 6 pages plus 4 figures (all the figures were not accesible before

Continuum millimetre observations of high-redshift radio-quiet QSOs. II. Five new detections at z > 4

We have performed a sensitive (σ ~ 1.5mJy) systematic study of the 1.25 mm emission of ~22 radio-quiet QSOs at z ≳ 4, with the IRAM 30m telescope equipped with bolometer arrays. Five radio-quiet QSOs at z > 4 have been detected at a 5-σ level in addition to the initial detection of the z = 4.7 QSO BR1202-0725 reported in McMahon et al. (1994). The detected fluxes range from 2.5 to 10 mJy. All the reported detections were independently confirmed at the 3-σ level on at least three different nights. In addition 10 other QSOs from the Cambridge APM survey sample and 6 others QSOs from the literature were searched for millimetre emission but not detected with 2-σ upper limits of 3-4 mJy. From this systematic study of about half of the known optically selected z > 4 QSOs, some general trends of their millimetre emission can be inferred. All the QSOs we have detected pertain to the APM sample and are among those which have the largest UV rest-frame luminosities. The detection rate within the APM sample is 6 out of 16 observed, compared with zero in the remaining 6. Two of the four APM broad absorption line QSOs observed were detected and four of the seven weak lined APM QSOs were detected, whereas none of the five strong lined APM QSOs were detected. Thus there is evidence for enhanced millimetre emission from luminous QSOs with weak broad emission lines or broad absorption lines. There is one clear case known of strong lensing amongst the six millimetre detected objects with z > 4. In light of the fact that both previously known objects with confirmed strong millimetre emission at z>2 are gravitationally lensed, i.e. H1413+ 117 and IRAS F10214+4724, sensitive high resolution observations of these z > 4 QSOs are required to determine whether gravitational lensing effects need to be taken into account. Assuming that the millimetre wave continuum emission is due to dust emission, the very large amount of dust implied, ~ 10^8 h^(-2) M_⊙ , means that the host galaxies of these QSOs have undergone a substantial phase of star formation. If the gas-to-dust ratio in these galaxies is similar to that in lower redshift objects, the total gas mass would be ~ 10^(11) M_⊙. We have begun to explore the 1.25 mm emission of bright radio-quiet QSOs in the redshift range 1.5 to 3.5, using criteria which seem to favor millimetre detections, established from our z > 4 detections. One source was detected at z = 2.70. We have also observed three QSOs with z > 3 that were previously studied at 1.25mm by Andreani et al. (1993) who reported detections at a level higher than 3σ. We have been unable to confirm any of these reported detections. In particular we have a 3σ upper limit of 3.2 mJy for the z = 3.19 QSO PC2132+0126 for which Andreani et al. reported a flux of 11.5 ± 1. 7 mJy. Either this source has substantially varied during the period between the two sets of observations or the single channel bolometer observations were affected by systematic errors

A case study of early galaxy cluster with the Athena X-IFU

Context: Observations of the hot gas in distant clusters of galaxies, though challenging, are key to understand the role of intense galaxy activity, super-massive black hole feedback and chemical enrichment in the process of massive halos assembly. Aims: We assess the feasibility to retrieve, using X-ray hyperspectral data only, the thermodymamical hot gas properties and chemical abundances of a $z=2$ galaxy cluster of mass M500=7 x $10^{13} M_{\odot}$, extracted from the Hydrangea hydrodynamical simulation. Methods: We create mock X-ray observations of the future X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU) onboard the Athena mission. By forward-modeling the measured 0.4-1 keV surface brightness, the projected gas temperature and abundance profiles, we reconstruct the three-dimensional distribution for the gas density, pressure, temperature and entropy. Results: Thanks to its large field-of-view, high throughput and exquisite spectral resolution, one X-IFU exposure lasting 100ks enables reconstructing density and pressure profiles with 20% precision out to a characteristic radius of R500, accounting for each quantity's intrinsic dispersion in the Hydrangea simulations. Reconstruction of abundance profiles requires both higher signal-to-noise ratios and specific binning schemes. We assess the enhancement brought by longer exposures and by observing the same object at later evolutionary stages ($z=1-1.5$). Conclusions: Our analysis highlights the importance of scatter in the radially binned gas properties, which induces significant effects on the observed projected quantities. The fidelity of the reconstruction of gas profiles is sensitive to the degree of gas components mixing along the line-of-sight. Future analyses should aim at involving dedicated hyper-spectral models and fitting methods that are able to grasp the complexity of such three-dimensional, multi-phase, diffuse gas structures.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures, 3 tables. Accepted for publication in A&

Submillimeter mapping and analysis of cold dust condensations in the Orion M42 star forming complex

We present here the continuum submillimeter maps of the molecular cloud around the M42 Nebula in the Orion region. These have been obtained in four wavelength bands (200, 260, 360 and 580 microns) with the ProNaOS two meter balloon-borne telescope. The area covered is 7 parsecs wide (50 arcmin at a distance of 470 pc) with a spatial resolution of about 0.4 parsec. Thanks to the high sensitivity to faint surface brightness gradients, we have found several cold condensations with temperatures ranging from 12 to 17 K, within 3 parsecs of the dense ridge. The statistical analysis of the temperature and spectral index spatial distribution shows an evidence of an inverse correlation between these two parameters. Being invisible in the IRAS 100 micron survey, some cold clouds are likely to be the seeds for future star formation activity going on in the complex. We estimate their masses and we show that two of them have masses higher than their Jeans masses, and may be gravitationally unstable.Comment: 4 figures, The Astrophysical Journal, Main Journal, in pres

First Astronomical Use of Multiplexed Transition Edge Bolometers

We present performance results based on the first astronomical use of multiplexed superconducting bolometers. The Fabry-Perot Interferometer Bolometer Research Experiment (FIBRE) is a broadband submillimeter spectrometer that achieved first light in June 2001 at the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO). FIBRE'S detectors are superconducting transition edge sensor (TES) bolometers read out by a SQUID multiplexer. The Fabry-Perot uses a low resolution grating to order sort the incoming light. A linear bolometer array consisting of 16 elements detects this dispersed light, capturing 5 orders simultaneously from one position on the sky. With tuning of the Fabry-Perot over one free spectral range, a spectrum covering Δλ/λ= 1/7 at a resolution of δλ/λ ≈ 1/1200 can be acquired. This spectral resolution is sufficient to resolve Doppler-broadened line emission from external galaxies. FIBRE operates in the 350 µm and 450 µm bands. These bands cover line emission from the important star formation tracers neutral carbon [Cl] and carbon monoxide (CO). We have verified that the multiplexed bolometers are photon noise limited even with the low power present in moderate resolution spectrometry

Calibration and First light of the Diabolo photometer at the Millimetre and Infrared Testa Grigia Observatory

We have designed and built a large-throughput dual channel photometer, Diabolo. This photometer is dedicated to the observation of millimetre continuum diffuse sources, and in particular, of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect and of anisotropies of the 3K background. We describe the optical layout and filtering system of the instrument, which uses two bolometric detectors for simultaneous observations in two frequency channels at 1.2 and 2.1 mm. The bolometers are cooled to a working temperature of 0.1 K provided by a compact dilution cryostat. The photometric and angular responses of the instrument are measured in the laboratory. First astronomical light was detected in March 1995 at the focus of the new Millimetre and Infrared Testa Grigia Observatory (MITO) Telescope. The established sensitivity of the system is of 7 mK_RJ s^1/2$. For a typical map of at least 10 beams, with one hour of integration per beam, one can achieve the rms values of y_SZ ~ 7 10^-5 and the 3K background anisotropy Delta T/T ~ 7 10^-5, in winter conditions. We also report on a novel bolometer AC readout circuit which allows for the first time total power measurements on the sky. This technique alleviates (but does not forbid) the use of chopping with a secondary mirror. This technique and the dilution fridge concept will be used in future scan--modulated space instrument like the ESA Planck mission project.Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX, 12 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement Serie