Probing the origin of the microwave anomalous foreground

The galactic anomalous microwave emission detected between 10 and 90 GHz is a major foreground to CMB fluctuations. Well correlated to dust emission at 100 $\mu$m, the anomalous emission is interstellar but its origin is still debated. Some possible explanations relate it to dust: emission of spinning, small (nanometric) grains carrying a permanent electric dipole or magnetic fluctuations in larger (submicronic) grains. To probe the origin of the anomalous emission, we compare microwave data to dust IR emission and search for specific signatures predicted by models of spinning dust. For the anomalous emission, we use the 23 GHz all-sky map deduced from WMAP data by Miville-Deschenes et al. (2008). The dust emission is traced by IRAS data. Models show that spinning dust emission is little sensitive to the intensity of the radiation field (Go) for 10<nu<30 GHz while the corresponding mid-IR emission is proportional to Go. To test this behaviour in our comparison, we derive Go from the dust temperature maps of Schlegel et al. (1998). From all-sky maps, we show that the anomalous emission is better correlated to the emission of small grains (at 12 $\mu$m) than to that of big grains (at 100 $\mu$m). In addition we show that the former correlation is significantly improved when the 12 $\mu$m flux is divided by Go, as predicted by current models of spinning dust.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, accepted by A&

Turbulence et instabilité thermique du milieu interstellaire atomique neutre (une approche numérique)

En Astrophysique, la compréhension du processus de formation d'étoiles reste l'une des principales questions. Elle est directement reliée à l'évolution du gaz interstellaire dans les galaxies, et en particulier aux processus de refroidissement et de condensation pour lesquels la turbulence et l'instabilité thermique jouent un rôle dominant. Ce travail se concentre sur l'évolution du gaz atomique et diffus qui fournit les conditions initiales à la formation des nuages moléculaires et se base sur une comparaison étroite entre observations à 21 cm et simulations numériques hydrodynamiques. Pour comprendre les rôles de l'instabilité thermique et de la turbulence dans la transition du gaz chaud (WNM, T ~ 8000 K, n = 0.5 cm- ) vers le gaz froid (CNM, T ~ 80 K, n = 50 cm- ), j'ai produit 90 simulations à basse résolution qui ont permis d'étudier l'influence de la densité initiale du WNM et de la compressibilité du forçage de la turbulence sur l'efficacité de la production de CNM. Un résultat important permet de conclure que le gaz chaud, dans les conditions de turbulence caractéristiques de ce qui est observé, ne transite pas vers le gaz froid quelque soit l'amplitude de la turbulence. Ces simulations à basse résolution ont aussi permis de déterminer quelles conditions initiales permettent de reproduire les propriétés déduites des observations telles que le nombre de Mach, la quantité de CNM en masse ou la dispersion de vitesse turbulente. Un processus de compression, que l'on peut reproduire soit en augmentant la densité initiale du WNM (n >= 1.5 cm- ) soit en appliquant un champ de forçage compressif, est nécessaire. Ces conditions initiales ont ensuite été utilisées pour produire deux simulations à haute résolution (1024 ) pour lesquelles j'ai montré que les propriétés de la turbulence et de l'instabilité du milieu atomique neutre sont bien reproduites. Les histogrammes de température portent en effet la trace d'un milieu biphasique et les distributions de pression sont semblables aux observations. D'autre part, les spectres de puissance de la densité sont caractéristiques d'un milieu fortement contrasté alors que ceux de la vitesse restent caractéristiques d'une turbulence subsonique. Finalement, les structures froides de ces deux simulations reproduisent les relations masse-échelle et dispersion de vitesse-échelle observées dans les nuages moléculaires, suggérant que la structure des nuages moléculaires pourrait être héritée de celle des nuages de HI à partir desquels ils se sont formés. Le dernier aspect de mon travail est relié à la difficulté rencontrée lors de l'interprétation des données qui n'est possible qu'à partir de grandeurs projetées en deux dimensions. J'ai donc comparé en détails les deux simulations à haute résolution à des observations de cirrus en créant des observations artificielles à 21 cm. Les spectres d'émission et les cartes de densité de colonne ainsi produits sont semblables aux observations. De plus, les simulations donnant accès à l'information en trois dimensions, j'ai étudié les effets de l'auto-absorption dans la création de cartes de densité de colonne à partir de spectres de température de brillance. J'ai conclu de cette étude que l'auto-absorption ne peut être négligée mais qu'elle ne concerne que les lignes de visée les plus brillantes et les plus denses et que la correction habituellement appliquée sur les observations est efficace. Finalement, j'ai appliqué une méthode de décomposition en gaussiennes sur les spectres synthétiques. Cette méthode a pour objectif d'étudier les propriétés de chacune des deux phases thermiques du HI. Les résultats montrent qu'elle est prometteuse pour l'analyse des données de spectro-imagerie à 21 cm, bien que nécessitant des améliorations. Elle permet en effet de bien séparer les phases chaude et froide du milieu atomique et d'en déduire la distribution massique de chacune d'elles.One of the main current questions in Astrophysics is the understanding of the star formation process, directly related to the processes involved in the cooling and the condensation of the gas yielding to intricate filamentary structures of molecular clouds. Thermal instability and turbulence are playing dominant roles in this complex dynamics. The work presented here is focused on the evolution of the atomic and diffuse interstellar medium that provides the initial conditions to the formation of molecular clouds and is based on the comparison of hydrodynamical numerical simulations and observations. To understand the roles of thermal instability and turbulence in the WNM (warm neutral medium, T ~ 8000 K, n = 0.5 cm- ) to CNM (cold neutral medium, T ~ 80 K, n = 50 cm- ) transition, I produced 90 hydrodynamical numerical simulations of thermally bistable HI and used them to study the impact of the WNM initial density and the compressibility of the turbulent stirring on the efficiency of the CNM production. The main result here is that the warm gas in the observed turbulent conditions do not transit naturally to cold gas whatever the amplitude of turbulent motions. These small resolution simulations also allowed me to determine which initial conditions lead to the reproduction of the observed properties, as the Mach number, the amount of CNM or the amplitude of the turbulent motions. A compression is needed to trigger this transition either by increasing the initial density (n >= 1.5 cm- ) or by stirring with a compressive field. These initial conditions have been used to produce two high resolution simulations (1024 ). I showed that these two simulations reproduce well the properties of the turbulence and the thermal instability. The temperature histograms present the evidences of a bistable gas and the pressure distributions are in agreement with the observations. On the other hand, the power spectra of the density are characteristic of a high contrasted medium while the power spectra of the velocity remain characteristic of subsonic turbulence. Finally the cold structures of these two simulations reproduce well the mass-size and velocity dispersion-size relations observed in molecular clouds. This suggests that the molecular cloud structure could be inherited from the clouds of atomic gas from which they are born. One of the main limitations in the analysis of observations comes from the fact that it can only be done on integrated quantities in two dimensions. In the last part of my work I compared the two high resolution simulations to observations by creating synthetic 21 cm observations. The emission spectra and column density maps produced in that way are similar to the ones observed. Besides, with the three dimensional informations, I was able to study the effect of the self-absorption in the creation of the column density maps from the brightness temperature spectra. I concluded from this study that the self-absorption cannot be neglected but that it only concerns the brightest and densest lines of sight and that the correction usually applied on observations is efficient. Finally I applied a method of gaussian decomposition on the synthetic spectra. This method has been build to study the properties of each thermal phase in the HI. The results show that it is a highly promising method for the analysis of 21 cm spectro-imaging data even if some improvements are needed. Indeed, it allows a good separation of the cold and warm phases of the atomic medium and a reasonable deduction of the massive distribution of each one.PARIS11-SCD-Bib. électronique (914719901) / SudocSudocFranceF

Serendipity observations of far infrared cirrus emission in the Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxies Survey: Analysis of far-infrared correlations

We present an analysis of far-infrared dust emission from diffuse cirrus clouds. This study is based on serendipitous observations at 160 microns at high galactic latitude with the Multiband Imaging Photometer (MIPS) onboard the Spitzer Space Telescope by the Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxies Survey (SINGS). These observations are complemented with IRIS data at 100 and 60 microns and constitute one of the most sensitive and unbiased samples of far infrared observations at small scale of diffuse interstellar clouds. Outside regions dominated by the cosmic infrared background fluctuations, we observe a substantial scatter in the 160/100 colors from cirrus emission. We compared the 160/100 color variations to 60/100 colors in the same fields and find a trend of decreasing 60/100 with increasing 160/100. This trend can not be accounted for by current dust models by changing solely the interstellar radiation field. It requires a significant change of dust properties such as grain size distribution or emissivity or a mixing of clouds in different physical conditions along the line of sight. These variations are important as a potential confusing foreground for extragalactic studies.Comment: 25 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables, accepted to Ap

IRIS: A new generation of IRAS maps

The Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) had a tremendous impact on many areas of modern astrophysics. In particular it revealed the ubiquity of infrared cirrus that are a spectacular manifestation of the interstellar medium complexity but also an important foreground for observational cosmology. With the forthcoming Planck satellite there is a need for all-sky complementary data sets with arcminute resolution that can bring informations on specific foreground emissions that contaminate the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation. With its 4 arcmin resolution matching perfectly the high-frequency bands of Planck, IRAS is a natural data set to study the variations of dust properties at all scales. But the latest version of the images delivered by the IRAS team (the ISSA plates) suffer from calibration, zero level and striping problems that can preclude its use, especially at 12 and 25 micron. In this paper we present how we proceeded to solve each of these problems and enhance significantly the general quality of the ISSA plates in the four bands (12, 25, 60 and 100 micron). This new generation of IRAS images, called IRIS, benefits from a better zodiacal light subtraction, from a calibration and zero level compatible with DIRBE, and from a better destriping. At 100 micron the IRIS product is also a significant improvement from the Schlegel et al. (1998) maps. IRIS keeps the full ISSA resolution, it includes well calibrated point sources and the diffuse emission calibration at scales smaller than 1 degree was corrected for the variation of the IRAS detector responsivity with scale and brightness. The uncertainty on the IRIS calibration and zero level are dominated by the uncertainty on the DIRBE calibration and on the accuracy of the zodiacal light model.Comment: 16 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ (Suppl). Higher resolution version available at http://www.cita.utoronto.ca/~mamd/IRIS/IrisTechnical.htm

Galactic and Magellanic Evolution with the SKA

As we strive to understand how galaxies evolve it is crucial that we resolve physical processes and test emerging theories in nearby systems that we can observe in great detail. Our own Galaxy, the Milky Way, and the nearby Magellanic Clouds provide unique windows into the evolution of galaxies, each with its own metallicity and star formation rate. These laboratories allow us to study with more detail than anywhere else in the Universe how galaxies acquire fresh gas to fuel their continuing star formation, how they exchange gas with the surrounding intergalactic medium, and turn warm, diffuse gas into molecular clouds and ultimately stars. The $\lambda$21-cm line of atomic hydrogen (HI) is an excellent tracer of these physical processes. With the SKA we will finally have the combination of surface brightness sensitivity, point source sensitivity and angular resolution to transform our understanding of the evolution of gas in the Milky Way, all the way from the halo down to the formation of individual molecular clouds.Comment: 25 pages, from "Advancing Astrophysics with the Square Kilometre Array", to appear in Proceedings of Scienc

PRISM (Polarized Radiation Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission): A White Paper on the Ultimate Polarimetric Spectro-Imaging of the Microwave and Far-Infrared Sky

PRISM (Polarized Radiation Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) was proposed to ESA in response to the Call for White Papers for the definition of the L2 and L3 Missions in the ESA Science Programme. PRISM would have two instruments: (1) an imager with a 3.5m mirror (cooled to 4K for high performance in the far-infrared---that is, in the Wien part of the CMB blackbody spectrum), and (2) an Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS) somewhat like the COBE FIRAS instrument but over three orders of magnitude more sensitive. Highlights of the new science (beyond the obvious target of B-modes from gravity waves generated during inflation) made possible by these two instruments working in tandem include: (1) the ultimate galaxy cluster survey gathering 10e6 clusters extending to large redshift and measuring their peculiar velocities and temperatures (through the kSZ effect and relativistic corrections to the classic y-distortion spectrum, respectively) (2) a detailed investigation into the nature of the cosmic infrared background (CIB) consisting of at present unresolved dusty high-z galaxies, where most of the star formation in the universe took place, (3) searching for distortions from the perfect CMB blackbody spectrum, which will probe a large number of otherwise inaccessible effects (e.g., energy release through decaying dark matter, the primordial power spectrum on very small scales where measurements today are impossible due to erasure from Silk damping and contamination from non-linear cascading of power from larger length scales). These are but a few of the highlights of the new science that will be made possible with PRISM.Comment: 20 pages Late

PDRs4All II: JWST's NIR and MIR imaging view of the Orion Nebula

The JWST has captured the most detailed and sharpest infrared images ever taken of the inner region of the Orion Nebula, the nearest massive star formation region, and a prototypical highly irradiated dense photo-dissociation region (PDR). We investigate the fundamental interaction of far-ultraviolet photons with molecular clouds. The transitions across the ionization front (IF), dissociation front (DF), and the molecular cloud are studied at high-angular resolution. These transitions are relevant to understanding the effects of radiative feedback from massive stars and the dominant physical and chemical processes that lead to the IR emission that JWST will detect in many Galactic and extragalactic environments. Due to the proximity of the Orion Nebula and the unprecedented angular resolution of JWST, these data reveal that the molecular cloud borders are hyper structured at small angular scales of 0.1-1" (0.0002-0.002 pc or 40-400 au at 414 pc). A diverse set of features are observed such as ridges, waves, globules and photoevaporated protoplanetary disks. At the PDR atomic to molecular transition, several bright features are detected that are associated with the highly irradiated surroundings of the dense molecular condensations and embedded young star. Toward the Orion Bar PDR, a highly sculpted interface is detected with sharp edges and density increases near the IF and DF. This was predicted by previous modeling studies, but the fronts were unresolved in most tracers. A complex, structured, and folded DF surface was traced by the H2 lines. This dataset was used to revisit the commonly adopted 2D PDR structure of the Orion Bar. JWST provides us with a complete view of the PDR, all the way from the PDR edge to the substructured dense region, and this allowed us to determine, in detail, where the emission of the atomic and molecular lines, aromatic bands, and dust originate

Thermal and turbulent properties of the Warm Neutral Medium in the solar neighborhood

20 pages, 14 figures, 3 tables. Accepted for publication in ApJInternational audienceThe transition from the diffuse warm neutral medium (WNM) to the dense cold neutral medium (CNM) is what set the initial conditions to the formation of molecular clouds. The properties of the turbulent cascade in the WNM, essential to describe this radiative condensation process, have remained elusive in part due to the difficulty to map out the structure and kinematics of each H I thermal phases. Here we present an analysis of a 21 cm hyper-spectral data cube from the GHIGLS HI survey where the contribution of the WNM is extracted using ROHSA, a Gaussian decomposition tool that includes spatial regularization. The distance and volume of the WNM emission is estimated using 3D dust extinction map information. The thermal and turbulent contributions to the Doppler line width of the WNM were disentangled using two techniques, one based on the statistical properties of the column density and centroid velocity fields, and another on the relative motions of CNM structures as a probe of turbulent motions. We found that the volume of WNM sampled here, located at the outer edge of the Local Bubble, shows thermal properties in accordance with expected values for heating and cooling processes typical of the Solar neighbourhood. The WNM has the properties of sub/trans-sonic turbulence, with a turbulent Mach number at the largest scale probed here (l = 130 pc) of Ms = 0.87 +- 0.15, a density contrast of 0.6 +- 0.2, and velocity and density power spectra compatible with k-11/3. The low Mach number of the WNM provides dynamical conditions that allows the condensation mode of thermal instability (TI) to grow freely and form CNM structures, as predicted by theory