Infrared Spectral Energy Distribution of Galaxies in the AKARI All Sky Survey: Correlations with Galaxy Properties, and Their Physical Origin

We have studied the properties of more than 1600 low-redshift galaxies by utilizing high-quality infrared flux measurements of the AKARI All-Sky Survey and physical quantities based on optical and 21-cm observations. Our goal is to understand the physics determining the infrared spectral energy distribution (SED). The ratio of the total infrared luminosity L_TIR, to the star-formation rate (SFR) is tightly correlated by a power-law to specific SFR (SSFR), and L_TIR is a good SFR indicator only for galaxies with the largest SSFR. We discovered a tight linear correlation for normal galaxies between the radiation field strength of dust heating, estimated by infrared SED fits (U_h), and that of galactic-scale infrared emission (U_TIR ~ L_TIR/R^2), where R is the optical size of a galaxy. The dispersion of U_h along this relation is 0.3 dex, corresponding to 13% dispersion in the dust temperature. This scaling and the U_h/U_TIR ratio can be explained physically by a thin layer of heating sources embedded in a thicker, optically-thick dust screen. The data also indicate that the heated fraction of the total dust mass is anti-correlated to the dust column density, supporting this interpretation. In the large U_TIR limit, the data of circumnuclear starbursts indicate the existence of an upper limit on U_h, corresponding to the maximum SFR per gas mass of ~ 10 Gyr^{-1}. We find that the number of galaxies sharply drops when they become optically thin against dust-heating radiation, suggesting that a feedback process to galaxy formation (likely by the photoelectric heating) is working when dust-heating radiation is not self-shielded on a galactic scale. Implications are discussed for the M_HI-size relation, the Kennicutt-Schmidt relation, and galaxy formation in the cosmological context.Comment: 29 pages including 28 figures. matches the published version (PASJ 2011 Dec. 25 issue). The E-open option was chosen for this article, i.e., the official version available from PASJ site (http://pasj.asj.or.jp/v63/n6/630613/630613-frame.html) without restrictio

SXDF-UDS-CANDELS-ALMA 1.5 arcmin2^2 deep survey

We have conducted 1.1 mm ALMA observations of a contiguous $105'' \times 50''$ or 1.5 arcmin$^2$ window in the SXDF-UDS-CANDELS. We achieved a 5$\sigma$ sensitivity of 0.28 mJy, providing a flat sensus of dusty star-forming galaxies with $L_{\rm IR} \sim6\times10^{11}$ $L_\odot$ (for $T_{\rm dust}$ =40K) up to $z\sim10$ thanks to the negative K-correction at this wavelength. We detected 5 brightest sources (S/N$>$6) and 18 low-significance sources (5$>$S/N$>$4; these may contain spurious detections, though). One of the 5 brightest ALMA sources ($S_{\rm 1.1mm} = 0.84 \pm 0.09$ mJy) is extremely faint in the WFC3 and VLT/HAWK-I images, demonstrating that a contiguous ALMA imaging survey is able to uncover a faint dust-obscured population that is invisible in deep optical/near-infrared surveys. We found a possible [CII]-line emitter at $z=5.955$ or a low-$z$ CO emitting galaxy within the field, which may allow us to constrain the [CII] and/or the CO luminosity functions across the history of the universe.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, 1 table, to appear in the proceedings of IAU Symposium 319 "Galaxies at High Redshift and Their Evolution over Cosmic Time", eds. S. Kaviraj & H. Ferguso

Background model systematics for the Fermi GeV excess

The possible gamma-ray excess in the inner Galaxy and the Galactic center (GC) suggested by Fermi-LAT observations has triggered a large number of studies. It has been interpreted as a variety of different phenomena such as a signal from WIMP dark matter annihilation, gamma-ray emission from a population of millisecond pulsars, or emission from cosmic rays injected in a sequence of burst-like events or continuously at the GC. We present the first comprehensive study of model systematics coming from the Galactic diffuse emission in the inner part of our Galaxy and their impact on the inferred properties of the excess emission at Galactic latitudes $2^\circ<|b|<20^\circ$ and 300 MeV to 500 GeV. We study both theoretical and empirical model systematics, which we deduce from a large range of Galactic diffuse emission models and a principal component analysis of residuals in numerous test regions along the Galactic plane. We show that the hypothesis of an extended spherical excess emission with a uniform energy spectrum is compatible with the Fermi-LAT data in our region of interest at $95\%$ CL. Assuming that this excess is the extended counterpart of the one seen in the inner few degrees of the Galaxy, we derive a lower limit of $10.0^\circ$ ($95\%$ CL) on its extension away from the GC. We show that, in light of the large correlated uncertainties that affect the subtraction of the Galactic diffuse emission in the relevant regions, the energy spectrum of the excess is equally compatible with both a simple broken power-law of break energy $2.1\pm0.2$ GeV, and with spectra predicted by the self-annihilation of dark matter, implying in the case of $\bar{b}b$ final states a dark matter mass of $49^{+6.4}_{-5.4}$ GeV.Comment: 65 pages, 28 figures, 7 table

Tomography of the Fermi-LAT \u3b3-Ray Diffuse Extragalactic Signal via Cross Correlations with Galaxy Catalogs

Building on our previous cross-correlation analysis (Xia et al. 2011) between the isotropic \u3b3-ray background (IGRB) and different tracers of the large-scale structure of the universe, we update our results using 60 months of data from the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (Fermi). We perform a cross-correlation analysis both in configuration and spherical harmonics space between the IGRB and objects that may trace the astrophysical sources of the IGRB: QSOs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) DR6, the SDSS DR8 Main Galaxy Sample, luminous red galaxies (LRGs) in the SDSS catalog, infrared-selected galaxies in the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS), and radio galaxies in the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS). The benefit of correlating the Fermi-LAT signal with catalogs of objects at various redshifts is to provide tomographic information on the IGRB, which is crucial in separating the various contributions and clarifying its origin. The main result is that, unlike in our previous analysis, we now observe a significant (>3.5\u3c3) cross-correlation signal on angular scales smaller than 1\ub0in the NVSS, 2MASS, and QSO cases and, at lower statistical significance ( 3c3.0\u3c3), with SDSS galaxies. The signal is stronger in two energy bands, E > 0.5 GeV and E > 1 GeV, but it is also seen at E > 10 GeV. No cross-correlation signal is detected between Fermi data and the LRGs. These results are robust against the choice of the statistical estimator, estimate of errors, map cleaning procedure, and instrumental effects. Finally, we test the hypothesis that the IGRB observed by Fermi-LAT originates from the summed contributions of three types of unresolved extragalactic sources: BL Lacertae objects (BL Lacs), flat spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs), and star-forming galaxies (SFGs). We find that a model in which the IGRB is mainly produced by SFGs (% with 2\u3c3 errors), with BL Lacs and FSRQs giving a minor contribution, provides a good fit to the data. We also consider a possible contribution from misaligned active galactic nuclei, and we find that, depending on the details of the model and its uncertainty, they can also provide a substantial contribution, partly degenerate with the SFG one. \ua9 2015. The American Astronomical Society

Mosquito Biodiversity Patterns Around Urban Environments in South-Central Okinawa Island, Japan

Okinawa is the largest, most urbanized, and densely populated island in the Ryukyus Archipelago, where mosquito species diversity has been thoroughly studied. However, the south-central Okinawa mosquito fauna has been relatively poorly studied. Here, we present results from a mosquito faunal survey in urban environments of Nishihara city, south-central Okinawa. Mosquitoes were sampled biweekly, from April 2007 to March 2008, at 3 different environments: a forest preserve, an animal farm, and a water reservoir. We employed 4 mosquito collection methods: 1) oviposition traps; 2) light traps; 3) sweep nets; and 4) larval surveys of tree holes, leaf axils, and artificial water containers. We collected a total of 568 adults and 10,270 larvae belonging to 6 genera and 13 species, including 6 species of medical importance: Aedes albopictus, Armigeres subalbatus, Anopheles Hyrcanus group, Culex bitaeniorhynchus, Cx. quinquefasciatus, and Cx. tritaeniorhynchus. Mosquito species composition was similar to data from previous studies in Okinawa Island. The flattening of the species accumulation curve suggests that our diversity sampling was exhaustive with light and oviposition traps, as well as the coincidence between the species richness we found in the field and estimates from the Chao2 index, a theoretical estimator of species richness based on species abundance. This study highlights the importance of combining several sampling techniques to properly characterize regional mosquito fauna and to monitor changes in the presence of mosquito species

Galaxy luminosity function and its cosmological evolution: testing a new feedback model depending on galaxy-scale dust opacity

We present a new version of a semi-analytic model of cosmological galaxy formation, incorporating a star formation law with a feedback depending on the galaxy-scale mean dust opacity and metallicity, motivated by recent observations of star formation in nearby galaxies and theoretical considerations. This new model is used to investigate the effect of such a feedback on shaping the galaxy luminosity function and its evolution. Star formation activity is significantly suppressed in dwarf galaxies by the new feedback effect, and the faint-end slope of local luminosity functions can be reproduced with a reasonable strength of supernova feedback, which is in contrast to the previous models that require a rather extreme strength of supernova feedback. Our model can also reproduce the early appearance of massive galaxies manifested in the bright-end of high-redshift K-band luminosity functions. Though some of the previous models also succeeded in reproducing this, they assumed a star formation law depending on the galaxy-scale dynamical time, which is not supported by observations. We argue that the feedback depending on dust opacity (or metal column density) is essential, rather than that simply depending on gas column density, to get these results

The Fermi-LAT high-latitude Survey: Source Count Distributions and the Origin of the Extragalactic Diffuse Background

This is the first of a series of papers aimed at characterizing the populations detected in the high-latitude sky of the {\it Fermi}-LAT survey. In this work we focus on the intrinsic spectral and flux properties of the source sample. We show that when selection effects are properly taken into account, {\it Fermi} sources are on average steeper than previously found (e.g. in the bright source list) with an average photon index of 2.40$\pm0.02$ over the entire 0.1--100\,GeV energy band. We confirm that FSRQs have steeper spectra than BL Lac objects with an average index of 2.48$\pm0.02$ versus 2.18$\pm0.02$. Using several methods we build the deepest source count distribution at GeV energies deriving that the intrinsic source (i.e. blazar) surface density at F$_{100}\geq10^{-9}$\,ph cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ is 0.12$^{+0.03}_{-0.02}$\,deg$^{-2}$. The integration of the source count distribution yields that point sources contribute 16$(\pm1.8)$\,\% ($\pm$7\,\% systematic uncertainty) of the GeV isotropic diffuse background. At the fluxes currently reached by LAT we can rule out the hypothesis that point-like sources (i.e. blazars) produce a larger fraction of the diffuse emission.Comment: Version replaced to match the published one. Contact authors: M. Ajello and A. Tramacer