351 research outputs found
Evidence for Correlated Titanium and Deuterium Depletion in the Galactic ISM
Current measurements indicate that the deuterium abundance in diffuse
interstellar gas varies spatially by a factor of ~4 among sightlines extending
beyond the Local Bubble. One plausible explanation for the scatter is the
variable depletion of D onto dust grains. To test this scenario, we have
obtained high signal-to-noise, high resolution profiles of the refractory ion
TiII along seven Galactic sightlines with D/H ranging from 0.65 to 2.1x10^-5.
These measurements, acquired with the recently upgraded Keck/HIRES
spectrometer, indicate a correlation between Ti/H and D/H at the >95% c.l.
Therefore, our observations support the interpretation that D/H scatter is
associated with differential depletion. We note, however, that Ti/H values
taken from the literature do not uniformly show the correlation. Finally, we
identify significant component-to-component variations in the depletion levels
among individual sightlines and discuss complications arising from this
behavior.Comment: 4 pages; Accepted to Astrophysical Journal Letter
On the Perils of Curve-of-Growth Analysis: Systematic Abundance Underestimates for the Gas in Gamma-Ray Burst Host Galaxies
We examine the practice of deriving interstellar medium (ISM) abundances from
low-resolution spectroscopy of GRB afterglows. We argue that the multi-ion
single-component curve-of-growth analysis technique systematically
underestimates the column densities of the metal-line profiles commonly
observed for GRB. This systematic underestimate is accentuated by the fact that
many GRB line-profiles (e.g. GRB 050730, GRB 050820, GRB 051111) are comprised
of `clouds' with a bi-modal distribution of column density. Such line-profiles
may be characteristic of a sightline which penetrates both a high density
star-forming region and more distant, ambient ISM material. Our analysis
suggests that the majority of abundances reported in the literature are
systematically underestimates and that the reported errors are frequently
over-optimistic. Further, we demonstrate that one cannot even report precise
relative abundances with confidence. The implications are profound for our
current understanding on the metallicity, dust-to-gas ratio, and chemical
abundances of the ISM in GRB host galaxies. For example, we argue that all but
a few sightlines allow for the gas to have at least solar metallicity. Finally,
we suggests new approaches for constraining the abundances.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures. Accepted to Ap
- …