Extended Star Formation and Molecular Gas in the Tidal Arms near NGC3077

We report the detection of ongoing star formation in the prominent tidal arms near NGC 3077 (member of the M 81 triplet). In total, 36 faint compact HII regions were identified, covering an area of ~4x6 kpc^2. Most of the HII regions are found at HI column densities above 1x10^21 cm^-2 (on scales of 200 pc), well within the range of threshold columns measured in normal galaxies. The HII luminosity function resembles the ones derived for other low-mass dwarf galaxies in the same group; we derive a total star formation rate of 2.6x10^-3 M_sun/yr in the tidal feature. We also present new high-resolution imaging of the molecular gas distribution in the tidal arm using CO observations obtained with the OVRO interferometer. We recover about one sixth of the CO flux (or M_H2~2x10^6 M_sun, assuming a Galactic conversion factor) originally detected in the IRAM 30m single dish observations, indicating the presence of a diffuse molecular gas component in the tidal arm. The brightest CO peak in the interferometer map (comprising half of the detected CO flux) is coincident with one of the brightest HII regions in the feature. Assuming a constant star formation rate since the creation of the tidal feature (presumably ~3x10^8 years ago), a total mass of ~7x10^5 M_sun has been transformed from gas into stars. Over this period, the star formation in the tidal arm has resulted in an additional enrichment of Delta(Z)>0.002. The reservoir of atomic and molecular gas in the tidal arm is ~3x10^8 M_sun, allowing star formation to continue at its present rate for a Hubble time. Such wide-spread, low-level star formation would be difficult to image around more distant galaxies but may be detectable through intervening absorption in quasar spectra.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journa

Star formation around the H II region Sh2-235

We present a picture of star formation around the H ii region Sh2-235 (S235) based upon data on the spatial distribution of young stellar clusters and the distribution and kinematics of molecular gas around S235. We observed 13CO (1-0) and CS (2-1) emission toward S235 with the Onsala Space Observatory 20-m telescope and analysed the star density distribution with archival data from the Two Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS). Dense molecular gas forms a shell-like structure at the southeastern part of S235. The young clusters found with 2MASS data are embedded in this shell. The positional relationship of the clusters, the molecular shell and the H ii region indicates that expansion of S235 is responsible for the formation of the clusters. The gas distribution in the S235 molecular complex is clumpy, which hampers interpretation exclusively on the basis of the morphology of the star-forming region. We use data on kinematics of molecular gas to support the hypothesis of induced star formation, and distinguish three basic types of molecular gas components. The first type is primordial undisturbed gas of the giant molecular cloud, the second type is gas entrained in motion by expansion of the H ii region (this is where the embedded clusters were formed) and the third type is a fast-moving gas, which might have been accelerated by winds from the newly formed clusters. The clumpy distribution of molecular gas and its kinematics around the H ii region implies that the picture of triggered star formation around S235 can be a mixture of at least two possibilities: the 'collect-and-collapse' scenario and the compression of pre-existing dense clumps by the shock wave. Journal compilation © 2008 RAS

Extended Recurrence Plot Analysis and its Application to ERP Data

We present new measures of complexity and their application to event related potential data. The new measures base on structures of recurrence plots and makes the identification of chaos-chaos transitions possible. The application of these measures to data from single-trials of the Oddball experiment can identify laminar states therein. This offers a new way of analyzing event-related activity on a single-trial basis.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figures; article for the workshop ''Analyzing and Modelling Event-Related Brain Potentials: Cognitive and Neural Approaches`` at November 29 - December 01, 2001 in Potsdam, German

Star formation around the H II region Sh2-235

We present a picture of star formation around the H ii region Sh2-235 (S235) based upon data on the spatial distribution of young stellar clusters and the distribution and kinematics of molecular gas around S235. We observed 13CO (1-0) and CS (2-1) emission toward S235 with the Onsala Space Observatory 20-m telescope and analysed the star density distribution with archival data from the Two Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS). Dense molecular gas forms a shell-like structure at the southeastern part of S235. The young clusters found with 2MASS data are embedded in this shell. The positional relationship of the clusters, the molecular shell and the H ii region indicates that expansion of S235 is responsible for the formation of the clusters. The gas distribution in the S235 molecular complex is clumpy, which hampers interpretation exclusively on the basis of the morphology of the star-forming region. We use data on kinematics of molecular gas to support the hypothesis of induced star formation, and distinguish three basic types of molecular gas components. The first type is primordial undisturbed gas of the giant molecular cloud, the second type is gas entrained in motion by expansion of the H ii region (this is where the embedded clusters were formed) and the third type is a fast-moving gas, which might have been accelerated by winds from the newly formed clusters. The clumpy distribution of molecular gas and its kinematics around the H ii region implies that the picture of triggered star formation around S235 can be a mixture of at least two possibilities: the 'collect-and-collapse' scenario and the compression of pre-existing dense clumps by the shock wave. Journal compilation © 2008 RAS

Anomalous radio emission from dust in the Helix

A byproduct of experiments designed to map the CMB is the recent detection of a new component of foreground Galactic emission. The anomalous foreground at ~ 10--30 GHz, unexplained by traditional emission mechanisms, correlates with 100um dust emission. We report that in the Helix the emission at 31 GHz and 100um are well correlated, and exhibit similar features on sky images, which are absent in H\beta. Upper limits on the 250 GHz continuum emission in the Helix rule out cold grains as candidates for the 31 GHz emission, and provide spectroscopic evidence for an excess at 31 GHz over bremsstrahlung. We estimate that the 100um-correlated radio emission, presumably due to dust, accounts for at least 20% of the 31 GHz emission in the Helix. This result strengthens previous tentative interpretations of diffuse ISM spectra involving a new dust emission mechanism at radio frequencies. Very small grains have not been detected in the Helix, which hampers interpreting the new component in terms of spinning dust. The observed iron depletion in the Helix favors considering the identity of this new component to be magnetic dipole emission from hot ferromagnetic grains. The reduced level of free-free continuum we report also implies an electronic temperature of Te=4600\pm1200K for the free-free emitting material, which is significantly lower than the temperature of 9500\pm500K inferred from collisionally-excited lines (abridged).Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap

Correction: Identification of specific calcitonin-like receptor residues important for calcitonin gene-related peptide high affinity binding

This is a correction article. After publication of this work [1], we became aware of the fact that Robert C. Speth was not included as an author. Dr. Speth put a considerable amount of time and effort into developing and preparing the radiopeptide used to carry out the radioligand binding studies reported in this manuscript and therefore should have originally been included as an author. We apologize to Dr. Speth for any inconvenience that this oversight might have caused and thank him for his invaluable contribution to this project

The Eastern Arm of M83 Revisited: High-Resolution Mapping of 12CO 1-0 Emission

We have used the Owens Valley Millimeter Array to map 12CO (J=1-0) along a 3.5 kpc segment of M83's eastern spiral arm at resolutions of 6.5"x3.5", 10", and 16". The CO emission in most of this segment lies along the sharp dust lane demarking the inner edge of the spiral arm, but beyond a certain point along the arm the emission shifts downstream from the dust lane to become better aligned with the young stars seen in blue and H-beta images. This morphology resembles that of the western arm of M100. Three possibilities, none of which is wholly satisfactory, are considered to explain the deviation of the CO arm from the dust lane: heating of the CO by UV radiation from young stars, heating by low-energy cosmic rays, and a molecular medium consisting of two (diffuse and dense) components which react differently to the density wave. Regardless, the question of what CO emission traces along this spiral arm is a complicated one. Strong tangential streaming is observed where the arm crosses the kinematic major axis of the galaxy, implying that the shear becomes locally prograde in the arms. Inferred from the streaming is a very high gas surface density of about 230 solar masses/pc**2 and an arm-interarm contrast greater than 2.3 in the part of the arm near the major axis. Using two different criteria, we find that the gas at this location is well above the threshold for gravitational instability -- much more clearly so than in either M51 or M100.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. 25 pages, 5 figures. Manuscript in LaTeX, figures in pdf. Fig 3 in colo

High pressure phase diagrams of CeRhIn5_5 and CeCoIn5_5 studied by ac calorimetry

The pressure-temperature phase diagrams of the heavy fermion antiferromagnet CeRhIn$_5$ and the heavy fermion superconductor CeCoIn$_5$ have been studied under hydrostatic pressure by ac calorimetry and ac susceptibility measurements using diamond anvil cells with argon as pressure medium. In CeRhIn$_5$, the use of a highly hydrostatic pressure transmitting medium allows for a clean simultaneous determination by a bulk probe of the antiferromagnetic and superconducting transitions. We compare our new phase diagram with the previous ones, discuss the nature (first or second order) of the various lines, and the coexistence of antiferromagnetic order and superconductivity. The link between the collaps of the superconducting heat anomaly and the broadening of the antiferromagnetic transition points to an inhomogeneous appearence of superconductivity below $P_c \approx 1.95$ GPa. Homogeneous bulk superconductivity is only observed above this critical pressure. We present a detailed analysis of the influence of pressure inomogeneities on the specific heat anomalies which emphasizes that the observed broadening of the transitions near $P_c$ is connected with the first order transition. For CeCoIn$_5$ we show that the large specific heat anomaly observed at $T_c$ at ambient pressure is suppressed linearly at least up to 3 GPa

A Turbulent Origin for Flocculent Spiral Structure in Galaxies

The flocculent structure of star formation in 7 galaxies has a Fourier transform power spectrum for azimuthal intensity scans with a power law slope that increases systematically from -1 at large scales to -1.7 at small scales. This is the same pattern as in the power spectra for azimuthal scans of HI emission in the Large Magellanic Clouds and for flocculent dust clouds in galactic nuclei. The steep part also corresponds to the slope of -3 for two-dimensional power spectra that have been observed in atomic and molecular gas surveys of the Milky Way and the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. The same power law structure for star formation arises in both flocculent and grand design galaxies, which implies that the star formation process is the same in each. Fractal Brownian motion models that include discrete stars and an underlying continuum of starlight match the observations if all of the emission is organized into a global fractal pattern with an intrinsic 1D power spectrum having a slope between 1.3 and 1.8. We suggest that the power spectrum of optical light in galaxies is the result of turbulence, and that large-scale turbulent motions are generated by sheared gravitational instabilities which make flocculent spiral arms first and then cascade to form clouds and clusters on smaller scales.Comment: accepted for ApJ, 31 pg, 9 figure

Mapping IR Enhancements in Closely Interacting Spiral-Spiral Pairs. I. ISO~CAM and ISO~SWS Observations

Mid-infrared (MIR) imaging and spectroscopic observations are presented for a well defined sample of eight closely interacting (CLO) pairs of spiral galaxies that have overlapping disks and show enhanced far-infrared (FIR) emission. The goal is to study the star formation distribution in CLO pairs, with special emphasis on the role of 'overlap starbursts'. Observations were made with the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) using the CAM and SWS instruments. The ISO~CAM maps, tracing the MIR emission of warm dust heated by young massive stars, are compared to new ground based H$\alpha$ and R-band images. We identify three possible subgroups in the sample, classified according to the star formation morphology: (1) advanced mergers (Arp~157, Arp~244 and Arp~299), (2) severely disturbed systems (Arp~81 and Arp~278), and (3) less disturbed systems (Arp~276, KPG 347 and KPG 426). Localized starbursts are detected in the overlap regions in all five pairs of subgroups (1) and (2), suggesting that they are a common property in colliding systems. Except for Arp~244, the 'overlap starburst' is usually fainter than the major nuclear starburst in CLO pairs. Star formation in 'less disturbed systems' is often distributed throughout the disks of both galaxies with no 'overlap starburst' detected in any of them. These systems also show less enhanced FIR emission, suggesting that they are in an earlier interaction stage than pairs of the other two subgroups where the direct disk collisions have probably not yet occurred.Comment: 27 pages text, 4 JPEG figures, 3 PS figures. To be accepted by ApJ. High quality figures (included in a PS file of the paper) can be found in http://spider.ipac.caltech.edu/staff/cxu/papers/ss_iso.ps.g