CHIMPS: the 13CO/C18O (J = 3 to 2) Heterodyne Inner Milky Way Plane Survey

We present the 13CO/C18O (J = 3 → 2) Heterodyne Inner Milky Way Plane Survey (CHIMPS) which has been carried out using the Heterodyne Array Receiver Program on the 15 m James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) in Hawaii. The high-resolution spectral survey currently covers |b| ≤ 0.5° and 28° ≲ l ≲ 46°, with an angular resolution of 15 arcsec in 0.5 km s-1 velocity channels. The spectra have a median rms of ˜0.6 K at this resolution, and for optically thin gas at an excitation temperature of 10 K, this sensitivity corresponds to column densities of NH2 ˜ 3 × 1020 cm-2 and NH2 ˜ 4 × 1021 cm-2 for 13CO and C18O, respectively. The molecular gas that CHIMPS traces is at higher column densities and is also more optically thin than in other publicly available CO surveys due to its rarer isotopologues, and thus more representative of the three-dimensional structure of the clouds. The critical density of the J = 3 → 2 transition of CO is ≳104 cm-3 at temperatures of ≤20 K, and so the higher density gas associated with star formation is well traced. These data complement other existing Galactic plane surveys, especially the JCMT Galactic Plane Survey which has similar spatial resolution and column density sensitivity, and the Herschel infrared Galactic Plane Survey. In this paper, we discuss the observations, data reduction and characteristics of the survey, presenting integrated-emission maps for the region covered. Position-velocity diagrams allow comparison with Galactic structure models of the Milky Way, and while we find good agreement with a particular four-arm model, there are some significant deviations.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

The SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey: galaxies in the deep 850 μm survey, and the star-forming `main sequence'

Galaxie

The SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey:850um maps, catalogues and number counts

We present a catalogue of nearly 3,000 submillimetre sources detected at 850um over ~5 square degrees surveyed as part of the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey (S2CLS). This is the largest survey of its kind at 850um, probing a meaningful cosmic volume at the peak of star formation activity and increasing the sample size of submillimetre galaxies selected at 850um by an order of magnitude. We describe the wide 850um survey component of S2CLS, which covers the key extragalactic survey fields: UKIDSS-UDS, COSMOS, Akari-NEP, Extended Groth Strip, Lockman Hole North, SSA22 and GOODS-North. The average 1-sigma depth of S2CLS is 1.2 mJy/beam, approaching the SCUBA-2 850um confusion limit, which we determine to be ~0.8 mJy/beam. We measure the single dish 850um number counts to unprecedented accuracy, reducing the Poisson errors on the differential counts to approximately 4% at S_850~3mJy. With several independent fields, we investigate field-to-field variance, finding that the number counts on 0.5-1 degree scales are generally within 50% of the S2CLS mean for S_850>3mJy, with scatter consistent with the Poisson and estimated cosmic variance uncertainties, although there is a marginal (2-sigma) density enhancement in the GOODS-North field. The observed number counts are in reasonable agreement with recent phenomenological and semi-analytic models. Finally, the large solid angle of S2CLS allows us to measure the bright-end counts: at S_850>10mJy there are approximately ten sources per square degree, and we detect the distinctive up-turn in the number counts indicative of the detection of local sources of 850um emission and strongly lensed high-redshift galaxies. Here we describe the data collection and reduction procedures and present calibrated maps and a catalogue of sources; these are made publicly available

POLPACK An Imaging Polarimetry Reduction Package

We present an overview of the facilities provided by POLPACK an imaging polarimetry reduction package written by the UK Starlink project

Cold dust in hot regions

The James Clerk Maxwell Telescope is operated by the Joint Astronomy Centre on behalf of the Science and Technology Facilities Council of the United Kingdom, the National Research Council of Canada, and (until 2013 March 31) the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research. Additional funds for the construction of SCUBA-2 were provided by the Canada Foundation for Innovation.We mapped five massive star-forming regions with the SCUBA-2 camera on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. Temperature and column density maps are obtained from the SCUBA-2 450 and 850 μm images. Most of the dense clumps we find have central temperatures below 20 K, with some as cold as 8 K, suggesting that they have no internal heating due to the presence of embedded protostars. This is surprising, because at the high densities inferred from these images and at these low temperatures such clumps should be unstable, collapsing to form stars and generating internal heating. The column densities at the clump centers exceed 1023 cm-2, and the derived peak visual extinction values are from 25 to 500 mag for β = 1.5-2.5, indicating highly opaque centers. The observed cloud gas masses range from ~10 to 103 M ☉. The outer regions of the clumps follow an r-2.36±0.35 density distribution, and this power-law structure is observed outside of typically 104 AU. All these findings suggest that these clumps are high-mass starless clumps and most likely contain high-mass starless cores.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

A Jetdriven, Extreme High-Velocity Outflow Powered by a Cold, Low-Luminosity Protostar near NGC 2023

Original article can be found at: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/ApJ/--Copyright American Astronomical SocietyPeer reviewe

The SCUBA Half Degree Extragalactic Survey (SHADES). VI : 350 micron mapping of submillimetre galaxies

‘The definitive version is available at www.blackwell-synergy.com.’ Copyright Blackwell PublishingPeer reviewe

Hubble Deep Field and Flanking Fields (Serjeant+, 2003)

We present an extended analysis of the Submillimetre Common User Bolometer Array (SCUBA) observations of the Hubble Deep Field (HDF), expanding the areal coverage of the Hughes et al. (1998Natur.394..241H) study by a factor of ~1.8 and containing at least three further sources in addition to the five in that study. We also announce the public release of the reduced data products. The map is the deepest ever made in the submillimetre (submm), obtained in excellent conditions (median 850-{mu}m optical depth of 0.16). (1 data file)

Cold dust in hot regions

We mapped five massive star-forming regions with the SCUBA-2 camera on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. Temperature and column density maps are obtained from the SCUBA-2 450 and 850 μm images. Most of the dense clumps we find have central temperatures below 20 K, with some as cold as 8 K, suggesting that they have no internal heating due to the presence of embedded protostars. This is surprising, because at the high densities inferred from these images and at these low temperatures such clumps should be unstable, collapsing to form stars and generating internal heating. The column densities at the clump centers exceed 1023 cm-2, and the derived peak visual extinction values are from 25 to 500 mag for β = 1.5-2.5, indicating highly opaque centers. The observed cloud gas masses range from ~10 to 103 M ☉. The outer regions of the clumps follow an r-2.36±0.35 density distribution, and this power-law structure is observed outside of typically 104 AU. All these findings suggest that these clumps are high-mass starless clumps and most likely contain high-mass starless cores.</p