The Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey. VII. Dust in cluster dwarf elliptical galaxies

We use the science demonstration phase data of the Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey to search for dust emission of early-type dwarf galaxies in the central regions of the Virgo cluster as an alternative way of identifying the interstellar medium. We present the first possible far-infrared detection of cluster early-type dwarf galaxies: VCC781 and VCC951 are detected at the 10σ level in the SPIRE 250 μm image. Both detected galaxies have dust masses of the order of 10^5 M_⊙ and average dust temperatures ≈20 K. The detection rate (less than 1%) is quite high compared to the 1.7% detection rate for Hi emission, considering that dwarfs in the central regions are more Hi deficient. We conclude that the removal of interstellar dust from dwarf galaxies resulting from ram pressure stripping, harassment, or tidal effects must be as efficient as the removal of interstellar gas

Initial design and evaluation of automatic restructurable flight control system concepts

Results of efforts to develop automatic control design procedures for restructurable aircraft control systems is presented. The restructurable aircraft control problem involves designing a fault tolerance control system which can accommodate a wide variety of unanticipated aircraft failure. Under NASA sponsorship, many of the technologies which make such a system possible were developed and tested. Future work will focus on developing a methodology for integrating these technologies and demonstration of a complete system

The mass, location and heating of the dust in the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant

We model the thermal dust emission from dust grains heated by synchrotron radiation and by particle collisions, under conditions appropriate for four different shocked and unshocked gas components of the Cassiopeia A (Cas A) supernova remnant (SNR). By fitting the resulting spectral energy distributions (SEDs) to the observed SNR dust fluxes, we determine the required mass of dust in each component. We find the observed SED can be reproduced by $\sim 0.6 \, {\rm M_\odot}$ of silicate grains, the majority of which is in the unshocked ejecta and heated by the synchrotron radiation field. Warmer dust, located in the X-ray emitting reverse shock and blastwave regions, contribute to the shorter wavelength infrared emission but make only a small fraction of the total dust mass. Carbon grains can at most make up $\sim 25 \%$ of the total dust mass. Combined with estimates for the gas masses, we obtain dust-to-gas mass ratios for each component, which suggest that the condensation efficiency in the ejecta is high, and that dust in the shocked ejecta clumps is well protected from destruction by sputtering in the reverse shock.Comment: Accepted by MNRAS, 14 pages, 6 figures. Author accepted manuscript. Accepted on 05/02/2019. Deposited on 05/02/201

A decade of ejecta dust formation in the Type IIn SN 2005ip

In order to understand the contribution of core-collapse supernovae to the dust budget of the early universe, it is important to understand not only the mass of dust that can form in core-collapse supernovae but also the location and rate of dust formation. SN 2005ip is of particular interest since dust has been inferred to have formed in both the ejecta and the post-shock region behind the radiative reverse shock. We have collated eight optical archival spectra that span the lifetime of SN 2005ip and we additionally present a new X-shooter optical-near-IR spectrum of SN 2005ip at 4075d post-discovery. Using the Monte Carlo line transfer code DAMOCLES, we have modelled the blueshifted broad and intermediate width H$\alpha$, H$\beta$ and He I lines from 48d to 4075d post-discovery using an ejecta dust model. We find that dust in the ejecta can account for the asymmetries observed in the broad and intermediate width H$\alpha$, H$\beta$ and He I line profiles at all epochs and that it is not necessary to invoke post-shock dust formation to explain the blueshifting observed in the intermediate width post-shock lines. Using a Bayesian approach, we have determined the evolution of the ejecta dust mass in SN 2005ip over 10 years presuming an ejecta dust model, with an increasing dust mass from ~10$^{-8}$ M$_{\odot}$ at 48d to a current dust mass of $\sim$0.1 M$_{\odot}$.Comment: Accepted by MNRAS, 17 pages, 11 figures. Author accepted manuscript. Accepted on 04/03/19. Deposited on 07/03/1

Dust masses and grain size distributions of a sample of Galactic pulsar wind nebulae

We calculate dust spectral energy distributions (SEDs) for a range of grain sizes and compositions, using physical properties appropriate for five pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe) from which dust emission associated with the ejecta has been detected. By fitting the observed dust SED with our models, with the number of grains of different sizes as the free parameters, we are able to determine the grain size distribution and total dust mass in each PWN. We find that all five PWNe require large (⁠≥0.1μm⁠) grains to make up the majority of the dust mass, with strong evidence for the presence of micron-sized or larger grains. Only two PWNe contain non-negligible quantities of small (⁠<0.01μm⁠) grains. The size distributions are generally well-represented by broken power laws, although our uncertainties are too large to rule out alternative shapes. We find a total dust mass of 0.02−0.28M⊙ for the Crab Nebula, depending on the composition and distance from the synchrotron source, in agreement with recent estimates. For three objects in our sample, the PWN synchrotron luminosity is insufficient to power the observed dust emission, and additional collisional heating is required, either from warm, dense gas as found in the Crab Nebula, or higher temperature shocked material. For G54.1+0.3, the dust is heated by nearby OB stars rather than the PWN. Inferred dust masses vary significantly depending on the details of the assumed heating mechanism, but in all cases large mass fractions of micron-sized grains are required

Constraining early-time dust formation in core-collapse supernovae

There is currently a severe discrepancy between theoretical models of dust formation in core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe), which predict $\gtrsim 0.01$ M$_\odot$ of ejecta dust forming within $\sim 1000$ days, and observations at these epochs, which infer much lower masses. We demonstrate that, in the optically thin case, these low dust masses are robust despite significant observational and model uncertainties. For a sample of 11 well-observed CCSNe, no plausible model reaches carbon dust masses above $10^{-4}$ M$_\odot$, or silicate masses above $\sim 10^{-3}$ M$_\odot$. Optically thick models can accommodate larger dust masses, but the dust must be clumped and have a low ($<0.1$) covering fraction to avoid conflict with data at optical wavelengths. These values are insufficient to reproduce the observed infrared fluxes, and the required covering fraction varies not only between SNe but between epochs for the same object. The difficulty in reconciling large dust masses with early-time observations of CCSNe, combined with well-established detections of comparably large dust masses in supernova remnants, suggests that a mechanism for late-time dust formation is necessary.Comment: 14 pages, 13 figures. MNRAS accepted 10/07/2

Dust survival rates in clumps passing through the Cas A reverse shock -- II. The impact of magnetic fields

Dust grains form in the clumpy ejecta of core-collapse supernovae where they are subject to the reverse shock, which is able to disrupt the clumps and destroy the grains. Important dust destruction processes include thermal and kinetic sputtering as well as fragmentation and grain vaporization. In the present study, we focus on the effect of magnetic fields on the destruction processes. We have performed magneto-hydrodynamical simulations using AstroBEAR to model a shock wave interacting with an ejecta clump. The dust transport and destruction fractions are computed using our post-processing code Paperboats in which the acceleration of grains due to the magnetic field and a procedure that allows partial grain vaporization have been newly implemented. For the oxygen-rich supernova remnant Cassiopeia A we found a significantly lower dust survival rate when magnetic fields are aligned perpendicular to the shock direction compared to the non-magnetic case. For a parallel field alignment, the destruction is also enhanced but at a lower level. The survival fractions depend sensitively on the gas density contrast between the clump and the ambient medium and on the grain sizes. For a low-density contrast of $100$, e.g., $5\,$nm silicate grains are completely destroyed while the survival fraction of $1\,\mu$m grains is $86\,$per cent. For a high-density contrast of $1000$, $95\,$per cent of the $5\,$nm grains survive while the survival fraction of $1\,\mu$m grains is $26\,$per cent. Alternative clump sizes or dust materials (carbon) have non-negligible effects on the survival rate but have a lower impact compared to density contrast, magnetic field strength, and grain size.Comment: Accepted by MNRAS. Author accepted manuscript. Accepted on 23/01/2023. 24 pages, 21 Figure

HERschel Observations of Edge-on Spirals (HEROES). I: Far-infrared morphology and dust mass determination

Context. Edge-on spiral galaxies with prominent dust lanes provide us with an excellent opportunity to study the distribution and properties of the dust within them. The HEROES project was set up to observe a sample of seven large edge-on galaxies across various wavelengths for this investigation. Aims. Within this first paper, we present the Herschel observations and perform a qualitative and quantitative analysis on them, and we derive some global properties of the far infrared and submillimetre emission. Methods. We determine horizontal and vertical profiles from the Herschel observations of the galaxies in the sample and describe the morphology. Modified black-body fits to the global fluxes, measured using aperture photometry, result in dust temperatures and dust masses. The latter values are compared to those that are derived from radiative transfer models taken from the literature. Results. On the whole, our Herschel flux measurements agree well with archival values. We find that the exponential horizontal dust distribution model often used in the literature generally provides a good description of the observed horizontal profiles. Three out of the seven galaxies show signatures of extended vertical emission at 100 and 160 {\mu}m at the 5{\sigma} level, but in two of these it is probably due to deviations from an exactly edge-on orientation. Only for NGC 4013, a galaxy in which vertically extended dust has already been detected in optical images, we can detect vertically extended dust, and the derived scaleheight agrees with the value estimated through radiative transfer modelling. Our analysis hints at a correlation between the dust scaleheight and its degree of clumpiness, which we infer from the difference between the dust masses as calculated from modelling of optical data and from fitting the spectral energy distribution of Herschel datapoints.Comment: 21 pages, 12 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic

Star-forming dwarf galaxies in the Virgo cluster: the link between molecular gas, atomic gas, and dust

We present $^{12}$CO(1-0) and $^{12}$CO(2-1) observations of a sample of 20 star-forming dwarfs selected from the Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey, with oxygen abundances ranging from 12 + log(O/H) ~ 8.1 to 8.8. CO emission is observed in ten galaxies and marginally detected in another one. CO fluxes correlate with the FIR 250 $\mu$m emission, and the dwarfs follow the same linear relation that holds for more massive spiral galaxies extended to a wider dynamical range. We compare different methods to estimate H2 molecular masses, namely a metallicity-dependent CO-to-H2 conversion factor and one dependent on H-band luminosity. The molecular-to-stellar mass ratio remains nearly constant at stellar masses <~ 10$^9$ M$_{\odot}$, contrary to the atomic hydrogen fraction, M$_{HI}$/M$_*$, which increases inversely with M$_*$. The flattening of the M$_{H_2}$/M$_*$ ratio at low stellar masses does not seem to be related to the effects of the cluster environment because it occurs for both HI-deficient and HI-normal dwarfs. The molecular-to-atomic ratio is more tightly correlated with stellar surface density than metallicity, confirming that the interstellar gas pressure plays a key role in determining the balance between the two gaseous components of the interstellar medium. Virgo dwarfs follow the same linear trend between molecular gas mass and star formation rate as more massive spirals, but gas depletion timescales, $\tau_{dep}$, are not constant and range between 100 Myr and 6 Gyr. The interaction with the Virgo cluster environment is removing the atomic gas and dust components of the dwarfs, but the molecular gas appears to be less affected at the current stage of evolution within the cluster. However, the correlation between HI deficiency and the molecular gas depletion time suggests that the lack of gas replenishment from the outer regions of the disc is lowering the star formation activity.Comment: 19 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic

The origin of [C II] 157 μm emission in a five-component interstellar medium : the case of NGC 3184 and NGC 628

With its relatively low ionization potential, C+ can be found throughout the interstellar medium (ISM) and provides one of the main cooling channels of the ISM via the [C II] 157 mu m emission. While the strength of the [C II] line correlates with the star formation rate, the contributions of the various gas phases to the [C II] emission on galactic scales are not well established. In this study we establish an empirical multi-component model of the ISM, including dense H II regions, dense photon dissociation regions (PDRs), the warm ionized medium (WIM), low density and G(0). surfaces of molecular clouds (SfMCs), and the cold neutral medium (CNM). We test our model on ten luminous regions within the two nearby galaxies NGC 3184 and NGC 628. on angular scales of 500-600 pc. Both galaxies are part of the Herschel. key program. KINGFISH,. and are complemented by a large set of ancillary ground-and space-based data. The five modeled phases together reproduce the observed [C II] emission quite well, overpredicting the total flux slightly (about 45%) averaged over all regions. We find that dense PDRs are the dominating component, contributing 68% of the [C II] flux on average, followed by the WIM and the SfMCs, with mean contributions of about half of the contribution from dense PDRs, each. CNM and dense H II regions are only minor contributors with less than 5% each. These estimates are averaged over the selected regions, but the relative contributions of the various phases to the [C II] flux vary significantly between these regions