767 research outputs found
A Corona Australis cloud filament seen in NIR scattered light II: Comparison with sub-millimeter data
We study a northern part of the Corona Australis molecular cloud that
consists of a filament and a dense sub-millimetre core inside the filament. Our
aim is to measure dust temperature and sub-mm emissivity within the region. We
also look for confirmation that near-infrared (NIR) surface brightness can be
used to study the structure of even very dense clouds. We extend our previous
NIR mapping south of the filament. The dust colour temperatures are estimated
using Spitzer 160um and APEX/Laboca 870um maps. The column densities derived
based on the reddening of background stars, NIR surface brightness, and thermal
sub-mm dust emission are compared. A three dimensional toy model of the
filament is used to study the effect of anisotropic illumination on
near-infrared surface brightness and the reliability of dust temperature
determination. Relative to visual extinction, the estimated emissivity at 870um
is kappa(870) = (1.3 +- 0.4) x 10^{-5} 1/mag. This is similar to the values
found in diffuse medium. A significant increase in the sub-millimetre
emissivity seems to be excluded. In spite of saturation, NIR surface brightness
was able to accurately pinpoint, and better than measurements of the colour
excesses of background stars, the exact location of the column density maximum.
Both near- and far-infrared data show that the intensity of the radiation field
is higher south of the filament.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, accepted to A&
Modelling line emission of deuterated H_3^+ from prestellar cores
Context: The depletion of heavy elements in cold cores of interstellar
molecular clouds can lead to a situation where deuterated forms of H_3^+ are
the most useful spectroscopic probes of the physical conditions.
Aims: The aim is to predict the observability of the rotational lines of
H_2D^+ and D_2H^+ from prestellar cores.
Methods: Recently derived rate coefficients for the H_3^+ + H_2 isotopic
system were applied to the "complete depletion" reaction scheme to calculate
abundance profiles in hydrostatic core models. The ground-state lines of
H_2D^+(o) (372 GHz) and D_2H^+(p) (692 GHz) arising from these cores were
simulated. The excitation of the rotational levels of these molecules was
approximated by using the state-to-state coefficients for collisions with H_2.
We also predicted line profiles from cores with a power-law density
distribution advocated in some previous studies.
Results: The new rate coefficients introduce some changes to the complete
depletion model, but do not alter the general tendencies. One of the
modifications with respect to the previous results is the increase of the D_3^+
abundance at the cost of other isotopologues. Furthermore, the present model
predicts a lower H_2D^+ (o/p) ratio, and a slightly higher D_2H^+ (p/o) ratio
in very cold, dense cores, as compared with previous modelling results. These
nuclear spin ratios affect the detectability of the submm lines of H_2D^+(o)
and D_2H^+(p). The previously detected H_2D^+ and D_2H^+ lines towards the core
I16293E, and the H_2D^+ line observed towards Oph D can be reproduced using the
present excitation model and the physical models suggested in the original
papers.Comment: 10 pages, 11 Figures; ver2: updated some of the Figures, added some
references, added an entry to acknowledgement
Advances in intracerebral hemorrhage management
Peer reviewe
The kinetic temperature of Barnard 68
We have observed the nearby isolated globule Barnard 68 (B68) in the
(J,K)=(1,1) and (2,2) inversion lines of ammonia. The gas kinetic temperature
derived from these is T=10+-1.2 K. The observed line-widths are almost thermal:
DV=0.181+-0.003 km/s (DVtherm=0.164+-0.010 km/s), supporting the earlier
hypothesis that B68 is in hydrostatic equilibrium. The kinetic temperature is
an input parameter to the physical cloud model put forward recently, and we
discuss the impact of the new value in this context.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in A&A (Letters
Synthetic Molecular Clouds from Supersonic MHD and Non-LTE Radiative Transfer Calculations
The dynamics of molecular clouds is characterized by supersonic random
motions in the presence of a magnetic field. We study this situation using
numerical solutions of the three-dimensional compressible magneto-hydrodynamic
(MHD) equations in a regime of highly supersonic random motions. The non-LTE
radiative transfer calculations are performed through the complex density and
velocity fields obtained as solutions of the MHD equations, and more than
5x10^5 synthetic molecular spectra are obtained. We use a numerical flow
without gravity or external forcing. The flow is super-Alfvenic and corresponds
to model A of Padoan and Nordlund (1997). Synthetic data consist of sets of
90x90 synthetic spectra with 60 velocity channels, in five molecular
transitions: J=1-0 and J=2-1 for 12CO and 13CO, and J=1-0 for CS. Though we do
not consider the effects of stellar radiation, gravity, or mechanical energy
input from discrete sources, our models do contain the basic physics of
magneto-fluid dynamics and non-LTE radiation transfer and are therefore more
realistic than previous calculations. As a result, these synthetic maps and
spectra bear a remarkable resemblance to the corresponding observations of real
clouds.Comment: 33 pages, 12 figures included, 5 jpeg figures not included (fig1a,
fig1b, fig3, fig4 fig5), submitted to Ap
Extending the limits of globule detection -- ISOPHOT Serendipity Survey Observations of interstellar clouds
A faint MJysr bipolar globule was discovered with the
ISOPHOT 170 m Serendipity Survey (ISOSS). ISOSS J 20246+6541 is a cold
( K) FIR source without an IRAS pointsource counterpart.
In the Digitized Sky Survey B band it is seen as a 3\arcmin size bipolar
nebulosity with an average excess surface brightness of
mag/\arcsec . The CO column density distribution determined by
multi-isotopic, multi-level CO measurements with the IRAM-30m telescope agrees
well with the optical appearance. An average hydrogen column density of
cm was derived from both the FIR and CO data. Using a
kinematic distance estimate of 400 pc the NLTE modelling of the CO, HCO,
and CS measurements gives a peak density of cm. The
multiwavelength data characterise ISOSS 20246+6541 as a representative of a
class of globules which has not been discovered so far due to their small
angular size and low 100m brightness. A significant overabundance of
CO is found . This is likely due to
isotope selective chemical processes.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Luminous Infrared Galaxies With the Submillimeter Array. III. The Dense Kiloparsec Molecular Concentrations of Arp 299
We have used high resolution (~2.3") observations of the local (D = 46 Mpc)
luminous infrared galaxy Arp 299 to map out the physical properties of the
molecular gas which provides the fuel for its extreme star formation activity.
The 12CO J=3-2, 12CO J=2-1 and 13CO J=2-1 lines were observed with the
Submillimeter Array and the short spacings of the 12CO J=2-1 and J=3-2
observations have been recovered using James Clerk Maxwell Telescope single
dish observations. We use the radiative transfer code RADEX to estimate the
physical properties (density, column density and temperature) of the different
regions in this system. The RADEX solutions of the two galaxy nuclei, IC 694
and NGC 3690, are consistent with a wide range of gas components, from warm
moderately dense gas with T_{kin} > 30 K and n(H_{2}) ~ 0.3 - 3 x 10^{3}
cm^{-3} to cold dense gas with T_{kin} ~ 10-30 K and n(H_{2}) > 3 x 10^{3}
cm^{-3}. The overlap region is shown to have a better constrained solution with
T_{\rm{kin}}$ ~ 10-50 K and n(H_{2}) ~ 1-30 x 10^{3} cm^{-3}. We estimate the
gas masses and star formation rates of each region in order to derive molecular
gas depletion times. The depletion times of all regions (20-60 Myr) are found
to be about 2 orders of magnitude lower than those of normal spiral galaxies.
This rapid depletion time can probably be explained by a high fraction of dense
gas on kiloparsec scales in Arp 299. We estimate the CO-to-H_{2} factor,
\alpha_{co} to be 0.4 \pm 0.3 (3 x 10^{-4}/ x_{CO}) M_{sol} (K km s^{-1}
pc^{2})^{-1} for the overlap region. This value agrees well with values
determined previously for more advanced merger systems.Comment: 24 pages, 4 figures, ApJ accepte
Direct evidence of dust growth in L183 from MIR light scattering
Theoretical arguments suggest that dust grains should grow in the dense cold
parts of molecular clouds. Evidence of larger grains has so far been gathered
in near/mid infrared extinction and millimeter observations. Interpreting the
data is, however, aggravated by the complex interplay of density and dust
properties (as well as temperature for thermal emission). We present new
Spitzer data of L183 in bands that are sensitive and insensitive to PAHs. The
visual extinction AV map derived in a former paper was fitted by a series of 3D
Gaussian distributions. For different dust models, we calculate the scattered
MIR radiation images of structures that agree agree with the AV map and compare
them to the Spitzer data. The Spitzer data of L183 show emission in the 3.6 and
4.5 micron bands, while the 5.8 micron band shows slight absorption. The
emission layer of stochastically heated particles should coincide with the
layer of strongest scattering of optical interstellar radiation, which is seen
as an outer surface on I band images different from the emission region seen in
the Spitzer images. Moreover, PAH emission is expected to strongly increase
from 4.5 to 5.8 micron, which is not seen. Hence, we interpret this emission to
be MIR cloudshine. Scattered light modeling when assuming interstellar medium
dust grains without growth does not reproduce flux measurable by Spitzer. In
contrast, models with grains growing with density yield images with a flux and
pattern comparable to the Spitzer images in the bands 3.6, 4.5, and 8.0 micron.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysic
Numerical methods for non-LTE line radiative transfer: Performance and convergence characteristics
Comparison is made between a number of independent computer programs for
radiative transfer in molecular rotational lines. The test models are
spherically symmetric circumstellar envelopes with a given density and
temperature profile. The first two test models have a simple power law density
distribution, constant temperature and a fictive 2-level molecule, while the
other two test models consist of an inside-out collapsing envelope observed in
rotational transitions of HCO+. For the 2-level molecule test problems all
codes agree well to within 0.2%, comparable to the accuracy of the individual
codes, for low optical depth and up to 2% for high optical depths (tau=4800).
The problem of the collapsing cloud in HCO+ has a larger spread in results,
ranging up to 12% for the J=4 population. The spread is largest at the radius
where the transition from collisional to radiative excitation occurs. The
resulting line profiles for the HCO+ J=4-3 transition agree to within 10%,
i.e., within the calibration accuracy of most current telescopes. The
comparison project and the results described in this paper provide a benchmark
for future code development, and give an indication of the typical accuracy of
present day calculations of molecular line transfer.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&
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