Observability of intermittent radio sources in galaxy groups and clusters

22 pages, 24 figures. This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.We have carried out numerical hydrodynamic simulations of radio jets from active galactic nuclei using the PLUTO simulation code, with the aim of investigating the effect of different environments and intermittency of energy injection on the resulting dynamics and observable properties of the jet-inflated lobes. Initially conical jets are simulated in poor group and cluster environments. We show that the environment into which a radio jet is propagating plays a large role in the resulting morphology, dynamics and observable properties of the radio source. The same jet collimates much later in a poor group compared to a cluster, which leads to pronounced differences in radio morphology. The intermittency of the jet also affects the observable properties of the radio source, and multiple hotspots are present for multiple outburst jets in the cluster environment. We quantify the detectability of active and quiescent phases, and find this to be strongly environment-dependent. We conclude that the dynamics and observational properties of jets depend strongly on the details of energy injection and environment.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Evolution of HII regions in hierarchically structured molecular clouds

We present observations of the H91$\alpha$ recombination line emission towards a sample of nine HII regions associated with 6.7-GHz methanol masers, and report arcsecond-scale emission around compact cores. We derive physical parameters for our sources, and find that although simple hydrostatic models of region evolution reproduce the observed region sizes, they significantly underestimate emission measures. We argue that these findings are consistent with young source ages in our sample, and can be explained by existence of density gradients in the ionised gas.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures; accepted for publication in MNRA

Probing gaseous halos of galaxies with radio jets

Reproduced with permission from Astronomy & Astrophysics. © 2019 ESOContext. Gaseous halos play a key role in understanding inflow, feedback, and the overall baryon budget in galaxies. Literature models predict transitions of the state of the gaseous halo between cold and hot accretion, winds, fountains, and hydrostatic halos at certain galaxy masses. Since luminosities of radio AGN are sensitive to halo densities, any significant transition would be expected to show up in the radio luminosities of large samples of galaxies. The LOw Frequency ARray (LOFAR) Two-Metre Sky Survey (LoTSS) has identified a galaxy stellar mass scale, 10 11 M ⊙, above which the radio luminosities increase disproportionately. Aims. We investigate if radio luminosities of galaxies, especially the marked rise at galaxy masses around 10 11 M ⊙, can be explained with standard assumptions regarding jet powers, scaling between black hole mass and galaxy mass, and gaseous halos. Methods. Based on observational data and theoretical constraints, we developed models for the radio luminosity of radio AGN in halos under infall, galactic wind, and hydrostatic conditions. We compared these models to LoTSS data for a large sample of galaxies in the mass range between 10 8.5 M ⊙ and 10 12 M ⊙. Results. Under the assumption that the same characteristic upper limit to jet powers known from high galaxy masses holds at all masses, we find the maximum radio luminosities for the hydrostatic gas halos to lie close to the upper envelope of the distribution of the LOFAR data. The marked rise in radio luminosity at 10 11 M ⊙ is matched in our model and is related to a significant change in halo gas density around this galaxy mass, which is a consequence of lower cooling rates at a higher virial temperature. Wind and infall models overpredict the radio luminosities for small galaxy masses and have no particular steepening of the run of the radio luminosities predicted at any galaxy mass. Conclusions. Radio AGN could have the same characteristic Eddington-scaled upper limit to jet powers in galaxies of all masses in the sample if the galaxies have hydrostatic gas halos in phases when radio AGN are active. We find no evidence of a change of the type of galaxy halo with the galaxy mass. Galactic winds and quasi-spherical cosmological inflow phases cannot frequently occur at the same time as powerful jet episodes unless the jet properties in these phases are significantly different from what we assumed in our model.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Calcium efflux systems in stress signaling and adaptation in plants

Transient cytosolic calcium ([Ca(2+)](cyt)) elevation is an ubiquitous denominator of the signaling network when plants are exposed to literally every known abiotic and biotic stress. These stress-induced [Ca(2+)](cyt) elevations vary in magnitude, frequency, and shape, depending on the severity of the stress as well the type of stress experienced. This creates a unique stress-specific calcium “signature” that is then decoded by signal transduction networks. While most published papers have been focused predominantly on the role of Ca(2+) influx mechanisms to shaping [Ca(2+)](cyt) signatures, restoration of the basal [Ca(2+)](cyt) levels is impossible without both cytosolic Ca(2+) buffering and efficient Ca(2+) efflux mechanisms removing excess Ca(2+) from cytosol, to reload Ca(2+) stores and to terminate Ca(2+) signaling. This is the topic of the current review. The molecular identity of two major types of Ca(2+) efflux systems, Ca(2+)-ATPase pumps and Ca(2+)/H(+) exchangers, is described, and their regulatory modes are analyzed in detail. The spatial and temporal organization of calcium signaling networks is described, and the importance of existence of intracellular calcium microdomains is discussed. Experimental evidence for the role of Ca(2+) efflux systems in plant responses to a range of abiotic and biotic factors is summarized. Contribution of Ca(2+)-ATPase pumps and Ca(2+)/H(+) exchangers in shaping [Ca(2+)](cyt) signatures is then modeled by using a four-component model (plasma- and endo-membrane-based Ca(2+)-permeable channels and efflux systems) taking into account the cytosolic Ca(2+) buffering. It is concluded that physiologically relevant variations in the activity of Ca(2+)-ATPase pumps and Ca(2+)/H(+) exchangers are sufficient to fully describe all the reported experimental evidence and determine the shape of [Ca(2+)](cyt) signatures in response to environmental stimuli, emphasizing the crucial role these active efflux systems play in plant adaptive responses to environment

RAiSE III : 3C radio AGN energetics and composition

This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. © 2017 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.Kinetic jet power estimates based exclusively on observed monochromatic radio luminosities are highly uncertain due to confounding variables and a lack of knowledge about some aspects of the physics of active galactic nuclei (AGNs). We propose a new methodology to calculate the jet powers of the largest, most powerful radio sources based on combinations of their size, lobe luminosity, and shape of their radio spectrum; this approach avoids the uncertainties encountered by previous relationships. The outputs of our model are calibrated using hydrodynamical simulations and tested against independent X-ray inverse-Compton measurements. The jet powers and lobe magnetic field strengths of radio sources are found to be recovered using solely the lobe luminosity and spectral curvature, enabling the intrinsic properties of unresolved high-redshift sources to be inferred. By contrast, the radio source ages cannot be estimated without knowledge of the lobe volumes. The monochromatic lobe luminosity alone is incapable of accurately estimating the jet power or source age without knowledge of the lobe magnetic field strength and size, respectively. We find that, on average, the lobes of the Third Cambridge Catalogue of Radio Sources (3C) have magnetic field strengths approximately a factor three lower than the equipartition value, inconsistent with equal energy in the particles and the fields at the 5σ level. The particle content of 3C radio lobes is discussed in the context of complementary observations; we do not find evidence favouring an energetically dominant proton population.Peer reviewe

The triggering of local AGN and their role in regulating star formation

This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. © 2015 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.We explore the processes that trigger local AGN and the role of these AGN in regulating star formation, using ~350 nearby galaxies observed by the mJy Imaging VLBA Exploration at 20cm (mJIVE) survey. The >10^7 K brightness temperature required for an mJIVE detection cannot be achieved via star formation alone, allowing us to unambiguously detect nearby radio AGN and study their role in galaxy evolution. Radio AGN are an order of magnitude more common in early-type galaxies (ETGs) than in their late-type counterparts. The VLBI-detected ETGs in this study have a similar stellar mass distribution to their undetected counterparts, are typically not the central galaxies of clusters and exhibit merger fractions that are significantly higher than in the average ETG. This suggests that these radio AGN (which have VLBI luminosities >10^22 W Hz^-1) are primarily fuelled by mergers, and not by internal stellar mass loss or cooling flows. Our radio AGN are a factor of ~3 times more likely to reside in the UV-optical red sequence than the average ETG. Furthermore, typical AGN lifetimes (a few 10^7 yr) are much shorter than the transit times from blue cloud to red sequence (~1.5 Gyr). This indicates that the AGN are not triggered promptly and appear several dynamical timescales into the associated star formation episode, implying that they typically couple only to residual gas, at a point where star formation has already declined significantly. While evidence for AGN feedback is strong in systems where the black hole is fed by the cooling of hot gas, AGN triggered by mergers appear not to strongly regulate the associated star formation. The inability of the AGN to rapidly quench merger-driven star formation is likely to make merging the dominant mode of star formation in nearby ETGs, in line with evidence for minor mergers being the primary driver of stellar mass growth in these systems.Peer reviewe