545 research outputs found
An Imprint of Molecular Cloud Magnetization in the Morphology of the Dust Polarized Emission
We describe a morphological imprint of magnetization found when considering
the relative orientation of the magnetic field direction with respect to the
density structures in simulated turbulent molecular clouds. This imprint was
found using the Histogram of Relative Orientations (HRO): a new technique that
utilizes the gradient to characterize the directionality of density and column
density structures on multiple scales. We present results of the HRO analysis
in three models of molecular clouds in which the initial magnetic field
strength is varied, but an identical initial turbulent velocity field is
introduced, which subsequently decays. The HRO analysis was applied to the
simulated data cubes and mock-observations of the simulations produced by
integrating the data cube along particular lines of sight. In the 3D analysis
we describe the relative orientation of the magnetic field with
respect to the density structures, showing that: 1.The magnetic field shows a
preferential orientation parallel to most of the density structures in the
three simulated cubes. 2.The relative orientation changes from parallel to
perpendicular in regions with density over a critical density in the
highest magnetization case. 3.The change of relative orientation is largest for
the highest magnetization and decreases in lower magnetization cases. This
change in the relative orientation is also present in the projected maps. In
conjunction with simulations HROs can be used to establish a link between the
observed morphology in polarization maps and the physics included in
simulations of molecular clouds.Comment: (16 pages, 11 figures, submitted to ApJ 05MAR2013, accepted
07JUL2013
Direct Estimate of Cirrus Noise in Herschel Hi-GAL Images
In Herschel images of the Galactic plane and many star forming regions, a
major factor limiting our ability to extract faint compact sources is cirrus
confusion noise, operationally defined as the "statistical error to be expected
in photometric measurements due to confusion in a background of fluctuating
surface brightness". The histogram of the flux densities of extracted sources
shows a distinctive faint-end cutoff below which the catalog suffers from
incompleteness and the flux densities become unreliable. This empirical cutoff
should be closely related to the estimated cirrus noise and we show that this
is the case. We compute the cirrus noise directly, both on Herschel images from
which the bright sources have been removed and on simulated images of cirrus
with statistically similar fluctuations. We connect these direct estimates with
those from power spectrum analysis, which has been used extensively to predict
the cirrus noise and provides insight into how it depends on various
statistical properties and photometric operational parameters. We report
multi-wavelength power spectra of diffuse Galactic dust emission from Hi-GAL
observations at 70 to 500 microns within Galactic plane fields at l= 30 degrees
and l= 59 degrees. We find that the exponent of the power spectrum is about -3.
At 250 microns, the amplitude of the power spectrum increases roughly as the
square of the median brightness of the map and so the expected cirrus noise
scales linearly with the median brightness. Generally, the confusion noise will
be a worse problem at longer wavelengths, because of the combination of lower
angular resolution and the rising power spectrum of cirrus toward lower spatial
frequencies, but the photometric signal to noise will also depend on the
relative spectral energy distribution of the source compared to the cirrus.Comment: 4 pages (in journal), 3 figures, Astronomy and Astrophysics, accepted
for publication 13 May 201
Evidence for dust evolution within the Taurus Complex from Spitzer images
We present Spitzer images of the Taurus Complex (TC) and take advantage of
the sensitivity and spatial resolution of the observations to characterize the
diffuse IR emission across the cloud. This work highlights evidence of dust
evolution within the translucent sections of the archetype reference for
studies of quiescent molecular clouds. We combine Spitzer 160 um and IRAS 100
um observations to produce a dust temperature map and a far-IR dust opacity map
at 5' resolution. The average dust temperature is about 14.5K with a dispersion
of +/-1K across the cloud. The far-IR dust opacity is a factor 2 larger than
the average value for the diffuse ISM. This opacity increase and the
attenuation of the radiation field (RF) both contribute to account for the
lower emission temperature of the large grains. The structure of the TC
significantly changes in the mid-IR images that trace emission from PAHs and
VSGs. We focus our analysis of the mid-IR emission to a range of ecliptic
latitudes where the zodiacal light residuals are small. Within this cloud area,
there are no 8 and 24 um counterparts to the brightest 160 um emission
features. Conversely, the 8 and 24 um images reveal filamentary structure that
is strikingly inconspicuous in the 160 um and extinction maps. The IR colors
vary over sub-parsec distances across this filamentary structure. We compare
the observed colors with model calculations quantifying the impact of the RF
intensity and the abundance of stochastically heated particles on the dust SED.
To match the range of observed colors, we have to invoke variations by a factor
of a few of both the interstellar RF and the abundance of PAHs and VSGs. We
conclude that within this filamentary structure a significant fraction of the
dust mass cycles in and out the small size end of the dust size distribution.Comment: 43 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
The E705K Mutation in hPMS2 Exerts Recessive, Not Dominant, Effects on Mismatch Repair
The hPMS2 mutation E705K is associated with Turcot syndrome. To elucidate the pathogenesis of hPMS2-E705K, we modeled this mutation in yeast and characterized its expression and effects on mutation avoidance in mammalian cells. We found that while hPMS2-E705K (pms1-E738K in yeast) did not significantly affect hPMS2 (Pms1p in yeast) stability or interaction with MLH1, it could not complement the mutator phenotype in MMR-deficient mouse or yeast cells. Furthermore, hPMS2-E705K/pms1-E738K inhibited MMR in wild-type (WT) mammalian cell extracts or yeast cells only when present in excess amounts relative to WT PMS2. Our results strongly suggest that hPMS2-E705K is a recessive loss-of-function allele
IR-correlated 31 GHz radio emission from Orion East
Lynds dark cloud LDN1622 represents one of the best examples of anomalous
dust emission, possibly originating from small spinning dust grains. We present
Cosmic Background Imager (CBI) 31 GHz data of LDN1621, a diffuse dark cloud to
the north of LDN1622 in a region known as Orion East. A broken ring with
diameter g\approx 20 arcmin of diffuse emission is detected at 31 GHz, at
\approx 20-30 mJy beam with an angular resolution of \approx 5 arcmin.
The ring-like structure is highly correlated with Far Infra-Red emission at
m with correlation coefficients of r \approx 0.7-0.8, significant
at . Multi-frequency data are used to place constraints on other
components of emission that could be contributing to the 31 GHz flux. An
analysis of the GB6 survey maps at 4.85 GHz yields a upper limit on
free-free emission of 7.2 mJy beam (\la 30 per cent of the observed
flux) at the CBI resolution. The bulk of the 31 GHz flux therefore appears to
be mostly due to dust radiation. Aperture photometry, at an angular resolution
of 13 arcmin and with an aperture of diameter 30 arcmin, allowed the use of
IRAS maps and the {\it WMAP} 5-year W-band map at 93.5 GHz. A single modified
blackbody model was fitted to the data to estimate the contribution from
thermal dust, which amounts to \sim\sim100 \mu18.1\pm4.4 \mu^{-1}$, consistent with the values found for
LDN1622.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, 3 tables, submitted to MNRA
Radio to infrared spectra of late-type galaxies with Planck and WMAP data
We use the Planck Early Release Compact Source Catalogue combined with WMAP
and other archival measurements to construct continuum spectra of three nearby
dusty star-forming galaxies: Messier 82, NGC 253 and NGC 4945. We carry out a
least-squares fit to the spectra using a combination of simple synchrotron,
free-free and thermal dust models, and look for evidence of anomalous microwave
emission (AME). We find that the radio spectra of all three galaxies are
consistent with steep spectrum synchrotron emission, with a significant amount
of free-free emission required to explain the Planck and WMAP data points in
the frequency range 30-150 GHz. This brings the star-formation rate based on
free-free emission into better agreement with that from the non-thermal
emission. We place limits on the presence of AME in these galaxies, finding
that it is lower than expectations based on the ratio of far infrared to AME
from the Galaxy. Nevertheless, the shape of the spectrum of NGC 4945 hints at
the presence of AME with a peak around 30 GHz. Future Planck data will let us
look more closely at these galaxies, as well as to extend the analysis to many
more galaxies.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure (6 panels), 1 table. Submitted to MNRAS letter
Spitzer characterisation of dust in an anomalous emission region: the Perseus cloud
Anomalous microwave emission is known to exist in the Perseus cloud. One of
the most promising candidates to explain this excess of emission is electric
dipole radiation from rapidly rotating very small dust grains, commonly
referred to as spinning dust. Photometric data obtained with the Spitzer Space
Telescope have been reprocessed and used in conjunction with the dust emission
model DUSTEM to characterise the properties of the dust within the cloud. This
analysis has allowed us to constrain spatial variations in the strength of the
interstellar radiation field (), the mass abundances of the
PAHs and VSGs relative to the BGs (Y and Y), the
column density of hydrogen (N) and the equilibrium dust
temperature (T). The parameter maps of Y,
Y and are the first of their kind to be
produced for the Perseus cloud, and we used these maps to investigate the
physical conditions in which anomalous emission is observed. We find that in
regions of anomalous emission the strength of the ISRF, and consequently the
equilibrium temperature of the dust, is enhanced while there is no significant
variation in the abundances of the PAHs and the VSGs or the column density of
hydrogen. We interpret these results as an indication that the enhancement in
might be affecting the properties of the small
stochastically heated dust grains resulting in an increase in the spinning dust
emission observed at 33 GHz. This is the first time that such an investigation
has been performed, and we believe that this type of analysis creates a new
perspective in the field of anomalous emission studies, and represents a
powerful new tool for constraining spinning dust models.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
The Dust-to-Gas Ratio in the Small Magellanic Cloud Tail
The Tail region of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) was imaged using the MIPS
instrument on the Spitzer Space Telescope as part of the SAGE-SMC Spitzer
Legacy. Diffuse infrared emission from dust was detected in all the MIPS bands.
The Tail gas-to-dust ratio was measured to be 1200 +/- 350 using the MIPS
observations combined with existing IRAS and HI observations. This gas-to-dust
ratio is higher than the expected 500-800 from the known Tail metallicity
indicating possible destruction of dust grains. Two cluster regions in the Tail
were resolved into multiple sources in the MIPS observations and local
gas-to-dust ratios were measured to be ~440 and ~250 suggests dust formation
and/or significant amounts of ionized gas in these regions. These results
support the interpretation that the SMC Tail is a tidal tail recently stripped
from the SMC that includes gas, dust, and young stars.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, ApJ Letters, in press, (version with full
resolution figures at
http://www.stsci.edu/~kgordon/papers/PS_files/sage-smc_taildust_v1.62.pdf
Maximum likelihood, parametric component separation and CMB B-mode detection in suborbital experiments
We investigate the performance of the parametric Maximum Likelihood component
separation method in the context of the CMB B-mode signal detection and its
characterization by small-scale CMB suborbital experiments. We consider
high-resolution (FWHM=8') balloon-borne and ground-based observatories mapping
low dust-contrast sky areas of 400 and 1000 square degrees, in three frequency
channels, 150, 250, 410 GHz, and 90, 150, 220 GHz, with sensitivity of order 1
to 10 micro-K per beam-size pixel. These are chosen to be representative of
some of the proposed, next-generation, bolometric experiments. We study the
residual foreground contributions left in the recovered CMB maps in the pixel
and harmonic domain and discuss their impact on a determination of the
tensor-to-scalar ratio, r. In particular, we find that the residuals derived
from the simulated data of the considered balloon-borne observatories are
sufficiently low not to be relevant for the B-mode science. However, the
ground-based observatories are in need of some external information to permit
satisfactory cleaning. We find that if such information is indeed available in
the latter case, both the ground-based and balloon-borne experiments can detect
the values of r as low as ~0.04 at 95% confidence level. The contribution of
the foreground residuals to these limits is found to be then subdominant and
these are driven by the statistical uncertainty due to CMB, including E-to-B
leakage, and noise. We emphasize that reaching such levels will require a
sufficient control of the level of systematic effects present in the data.Comment: 18 pages, 12 figures, 6 table
Component separation methods for the Planck mission
The Planck satellite will map the full sky at nine frequencies from 30 to 857
GHz. The CMB intensity and polarization that are its prime targets are
contaminated by foreground emission. The goal of this paper is to compare
proposed methods for separating CMB from foregrounds based on their different
spectral and spatial characteristics, and to separate the foregrounds into
components of different physical origin. A component separation challenge has
been organized, based on a set of realistically complex simulations of sky
emission. Several methods including those based on internal template
subtraction, maximum entropy method, parametric method, spatial and harmonic
cross correlation methods, and independent component analysis have been tested.
Different methods proved to be effective in cleaning the CMB maps from
foreground contamination, in reconstructing maps of diffuse Galactic emissions,
and in detecting point sources and thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich signals. The power
spectrum of the residuals is, on the largest scales, four orders of magnitude
lower than that of the input Galaxy power spectrum at the foreground minimum.
The CMB power spectrum was accurately recovered up to the sixth acoustic peak.
The point source detection limit reaches 100 mJy, and about 2300 clusters are
detected via the thermal SZ effect on two thirds of the sky. We have found that
no single method performs best for all scientific objectives. We foresee that
the final component separation pipeline for Planck will involve a combination
of methods and iterations between processing steps targeted at different
objectives such as diffuse component separation, spectral estimation and
compact source extraction.Comment: Matches version accepted by A&A. A version with high resolution
figures is available at http://people.sissa.it/~leach/compsepcomp.pd
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