Seeing the forest and the trees: a radio investigation of the ULIRG Mrk 273

Galaxy mergers have been observed to trigger nuclear activity by feeding gas to the central supermassive black hole. One such class of objects are Ultra Luminous InfraRed Galaxies (ULIRGs), which are mostly late stage major mergers of gas-rich galaxies. Recently, large-scale (∼100 kpc) radio continuum emission has been detected in a select number of ULIRGs, all of which also harbour powerful Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). This hints at the presence of large-scale radio emission being evidence for nuclear activity. Exploring the origin of this radio emission and its link to nuclear activity requires high sensitivity multi-frequency data. We present such an analysis of the ULIRG Mrk 273. Using the International LOFAR telescope (ILT), we detected spectacular large-scale arcs in this system. This detection includes, for the first time, a giant ∼190 kpc arc in the north. We propose these arcs are fuelled by a low power radio AGN triggered by the merger. We also identified a bright ∼45 kpc radio ridge, which is likely related to the ionised gas nebula in that region. We combined this with high sensitivity data from APERture Tile In Focus (Apertif) and archival data from the Very Large Array (VLA) to explore the spectral properties. The ILT simultaneously allowed us to probe the nucleus at a resolution of ∼0.3″, where we detected three components, and, for the first time, diffuse emission around these components. Combining this with archival high frequency VLA images of the nucleus allowed us to detect absorption in one component, and a steep spectrum radio AGN in another. We then extrapolate from this case study to the importance of investigating the presence of radio emission in more ULIRGs and what it can tell us about the link between mergers and the presence of radio activity

Sub-arcsecond imaging with the International LOFAR Telescope I. Foundational calibration strategy and pipeline

The International LOFAR Telescope is an interferometer with stations spread across Europe. With baselines of up to ~2000 km, LOFAR has the unique capability of achieving sub-arcsecond resolution at frequencies below 200 MHz. However, it is technically and logistically challenging to process LOFAR data at this resolution. To date only a handful of publications have exploited this capability. Here we present a calibration strategy that builds on previous high-resolution work with LOFAR. It is implemented in a pipeline using mostly dedicated LOFAR software tools and the same processing framework as the LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey (LoTSS). We give an overview of the calibration strategy and discuss the special challenges inherent to enacting high-resolution imaging with LOFAR, and describe the pipeline, which is publicly available, in detail. We demonstrate the calibration strategy by using the pipeline on P205+55, a typical LoTSS pointing with an 8 h observation and 13 international stations. We perform in-field delay calibration, solution referencing to other calibrators in the field, self-calibration of these calibrators, and imaging of example directions of interest in the field. We find that for this specific field and these ionospheric conditions, dispersive delay solutions can be transferred between calibrators up to ~1.5° away, while phase solution transferral works well over ~1°. We also demonstrate a check of the astrometry and flux density scale with the in-field delay calibrator source. Imaging in 17 directions, we find the restoring beam is typically ~0.3′′ ×0.2′′ although this varies slightly over the entire 5 deg2 field of view. We find we can achieve ~80–300 μJy bm−1 image rms noise, which is dependent on the distance from the phase centre; typical values are ~90 μJy bm−1 for the 8 h observation with 48 MHz of bandwidth. Seventy percent of processed sources are detected, and from this we estimate that we should be able to image roughly 900 sources per LoTSS pointing. This equates to ~ 3 million sources in the northern sky, which LoTSS will entirely cover in the next several years. Future optimisation of the calibration strategy for efficient post-processing of LoTSS at high resolution makes this estimate a lower limit

Cardiovascular development: towards biomedical applicability: Epicardium-derived cells in cardiogenesis and cardiac regeneration

During cardiogenesis, the epicardium grows from the proepicardial organ to form the outermost layer of the early heart. Part of the epicardium undergoes epithelial-mesenchymal transformation, and migrates into the myocardium. These epicardium- derived cells differentiate into interstitial fibroblasts, coronary smooth muscle cells, and perivascular fibroblasts. Moreover, epicardium-derived cells are important regulators of formation of the compact myocardium, the coronary vasculature, and the Purkinje fiber network, thus being essential for proper cardiac development. The fibrous structures of the heart such as the fibrous heart skeleton and the semilunar and atrioventricular valves also depend on a contribution of these cells during development. We hypothesise that the essential properties of epicardium-derived cells can be recapitulated in adult diseased myocardium. These cells can therefore be considered as a novel source of adult stem cells useful in clinical cardiac regeneration therapy

Sub-arcsecond imaging with the International LOFAR Telescope. I.: Foundational calibration strategy and pipeline

InstrumentationGalaxie

Ising-Bloch transition in a nematic liquid crystal

We consider a nematic slab with homeotropic anchoring and investigate the effect of a magnetic field, $H$, parallel to the plates and an electric field, $E$, perpendicular to them $(\epsilon_{\rm a} 0)$. The magnetic field is either fixed, or rotating at a frequency $\omega$ around an axis perpendicular to the plate. The main effect consists in an Ising-Bloch transition of the walls observed either in the ($H^2,~E^2$) or ($H^2,~\omega$) parameter space. The latter case corresponds to the experimental observation recently made at Brandeis University [1]. Some of these results are understood within the framework of a Ginzburg-Landau model, directly derived from the Oseen-Zocher-Frank expression for nematic elasticity, which accounts for the main static and dynamic experimental phenomena observed. The spiral shaped textures obtained in the dynamic case probably represent one of the first simple physical analogs of the chemical and biological phenomena observed in excitable media.Nous avons étudié, sur une lamelle nématique, avec un ancrage homéotrope, l'effet d'un champ magnétique, $H$, parallèle aux lames, associé à un champ électrique, $E$, parallèle à ces dernières $(\epsilon_{\rm a} 0)$. Le champ magnétique peut être fixe ou tournant à une vitesse $\omega$ autour d'un axe perpendiculaire aux lames. Le principal effet étudié ici concerne une transition Ising-Bloch des parois, observée dans les espaces de paramètres ($H^2,~E^2$) ou ($H^2,~\omega$). Ce dernier cas correspond à l'observation expérimentale récemment réalisée à l'Université de Brandeis [1]. Certains de ces résultats sont interprétés à l'aide d'un modèle à la Ginzburg-Landau directement déduit de l'expression de Oseen-Zocher-Frank de l'élasticité des nématiques. Les textures constituées de spirales obtenues dans le cas dynamique sont probablement l'un des premiers analogues physiques simples des spirales chimiques et biologiques étudiées dans le domaine des milieux excitables