A unique X-ray unabsorbed Seyfert 2 galaxy IRAS F01475-0740

X-ray unabsorbed Seyfert 2 galaxies appear to have X-ray absorption column densities that are too low (NH < 10^22 cm-2) to explain the absence of broad emission lines in their optical spectra, challenging the standard AGN unification model. In this paper we report Suzaku exposure on the X-ray unabsorbed Seyfert 2 galaxy IRAS F01475-0740, in which a hidden broad line region was detected through spectropolarimetric observation. The X-ray data show rapid and significant variations on time scales down to 5 ks, indicating that we are viewing its central engine directly. A newly obtained optical spectrum and previous optical/X-ray data suggest that state transition is unlikely in this source. These make IRAS F01475-0740 a very peculiar X-ray unabsorbed Seyfert 2 galaxy which can only be explained by absorption from materials with abnormally high dust-to-gas ratio (by a factor of > 4 larger than Galactic). This is in contrast to most AGNs, which typically show dust-to-gas ratios 3 - 100 times lower than the Galactic.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, accepted to the Astrophysical Journal Letter

Evaporation and Condensation of HI clouds in thermally bistable interstellar media: semi-analytic description of isobaric dynamics of curved interfaces

We analyze the evaporation and condensation of spherical and cylindrical HI clouds of the cold neutral medium surrounded by the warm neutral medium. Because the interstellar medium including those two phases is well described as a thermally bistable fluid, it is useful to apply pattern formation theories to the dynamics of the interface between the two phases. Assuming isobaric evolution of fluids and a simple cubic form of the heat-loss function, we show the curvature effects of the interface. We find that approximate solutions for spherical clouds are in good agreement with numerically obtained solutions. We extend our analysis to general curved fronts taking into account the curvature effects explicitly. We find that the curvature effects always stabilise curved interfaces under assumptions such as isobaric evolution we adopt in this Letter.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, to appear in MNRAS Letter

Two-Fluid MHD Simulations of Converging Hi Flows in the Interstellar Medium. II: Are Molecular Clouds Generated Directly from Warm Neutral Medium?

Formation of interstellar clouds as a consequence of thermal instability is studied using two-dimensional two-fluid magnetohydrodynamic simulations. We consider the situation of converging, supersonic flows of warm neutral medium in the interstellar medium that generate a shocked slab of thermally unstable gas in which clouds form. We found, as speculated in paper I, that in the shocked slab magnetic pressure dominates thermal pressure and the thermal instability grows in the isochorically cooling, thermally unstable slab that leads formation of HI clouds whose number density is typically n < 100 cm^-3, even if the angle between magnetic field and converging flows is small. We also found that even if there is a large dispersion of magnetic field, evolution of the shocked slab is essentially determined by the angle between the mean magnetic field and converging flows. Thus, the direct formation of molecular clouds by piling up warm neutral medium does not seem a typical molecular cloud formation process, unless the direction of supersonic converging flows is biased to the orientation of mean magnetic field by some mechanism. However, when the angle is small, the HI shell generated as a result of converging flows is massive and possibly evolves into molecular clouds, provided gas in the massive HI shell is piled up again along the magnetic field line. We expect that another subsequent shock wave can pile up again the gas of the massive shell and produce a larger cloud. We thus emphasize the importance of multiple episodes of converging flows, as a typical formation process of molecular clouds.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures, accepted by Ap

An Origin of Supersonic Motions in Interstellar Clouds

The propagation of a shock wave into an interstellar medium is investigated by two-dimensional numerical hydrodynamic calculation with cooling, heating and thermal conduction. We present results of the high-resolution two-dimensional calculations to follow the fragmentation due to the thermal instability in a shock-compressed layer. We find that geometrically thin cooling layer behind the shock front fragments into small cloudlets. The cloudlets have supersonic velocity dispersion in the warm neutral medium in which the fragments are embedded as cold condensations. The fragments tend to coalesce and become larger clouds.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. ApJL accepte

Self-similar solutions for the dynamical condensation of a radiative gas layer

A new self-similar solution describing the dynamical condensation of a radiative gas is investigated under a plane-parallel geometry. The dynamical condensation is caused by thermal instability. The solution is applicable to generic flow with a net cooling rate per unit volume and time $\propto \rho^2 T^\alpha$, where $\rho$, $T$ and $\alpha$ are density, temperature and a free parameter, respectively. Given $\alpha$, a family of self-similar solutions with one parameter $\eta$ is found in which the central density and pressure evolve as follows: $\rho(x=0,t)\propto (t_\mathrm{c}-t)^{-\eta/(2-\alpha)}$ and $P(x=0,t)\propto (t_\mathrm{c}-t)^{(1-\eta)/(1-\alpha)}$, where $t_\mathrm{c}$ is an epoch when the central density becomes infinite. For $\eta\sim 0$, the solution describes the isochoric mode, whereas for $\eta\sim1$, the solution describes the isobaric mode. The self-similar solutions exist in the range between the two limits; that is, for $0<\eta<1$. No self-similar solution is found for $\alpha>1$. We compare the obtained self-similar solutions with the results of one-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations. In a converging flow, the results of the numerical simulations agree well with the self-similar solutions in the high-density limit. Our self-similar solutions are applicable to the formation of interstellar clouds (HI cloud and molecular cloud) by thermal instability.Comment: Accepted for Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: 9 pages, 7 figure

Toward Understanding the Origin of Turbulence in Molecular Clouds: Small Scale Structures as Units of Dynamical Multi-Phase Interstellar Medium

In order to investigate the origin of the interstellar turbulence, detailed observations in the CO J=1--0 and 3--2 lines have been carried out in an interacting region of a molecular cloud with an HII region. As a result, several 1,000 to 10,000 AU scale cloudlets with small velocity dispersion are detected, whose systemic velocities have a relatively large scatter of a few km/s. It is suggested that the cloud is composed of small-scale dense and cold structures and their overlapping effect makes it appear to be a turbulent entity as a whole. This picture strongly supports the two-phase model of turbulent medium driven by thermal instability proposed previously. On the surface of the present cloud, the turbulence is likely to be driven by thermal instability following ionization shock compression and UV irradiation. Those small scale structures with line width of ~ 0.6 km/s have a relatively high CO line ratio of J=3--2 to 1--0, 1 < R(3-2/1-0) < 2. The large velocity gradient analysis implies that the 0.6 km/s width component cloudlets have an average density of 10^{3-4} cm^{-3}, which is relatively high at cloud edges, but their masses are only < 0.05 M_{sun}.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures. To be published in the Astrophysical Journa