42 research outputs found
Properties of the Chandra Sources in M81
The Chandra X-ray Observatory obtained a 50-ks observation of the central
region of M81 using the ACIS-S in imaging mode. The global properties of the 97
x-ray sources detected in the inner 8.3x8.3 arcmin field of M81 are examined.
Roughly half the sources are concentrated within the central bulge. The
remainder are distributed throughout the disk with the brightest disk sources
lying preferentially along spiral arms. The average hardness ratios of both
bulge and disk sources are consistent with power law spectra of index Gamma~1.6
indicative of a population of x-ray binaries. A group of much softer sources
are also present. The background source-subtracted logN-logS distribution of
the disk follows a power law of index ~ -0.5 with no change in slope over three
decades in flux. The logN-logS distribution of the bulge follows a similar
shape but with a steeper slope above ~4.0e+37 ergs/s. There is unresolved x-ray
flux from the bulge with a radial profile similar to that of the bulge sources.
This unresolved flux is softer than the average of the bulge sources and
extrapolating the bulge logN-logS distribution towards weaker sources can only
account for 20% of the unresolved flux. No strong time variability was observed
for any source with the exception of one bright, soft source.Comment: 5 pages, 3 color PS figures, to appear in ApJ
Case Report of Advanced Childhood Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma: Is Radiotherapy Dose Deescalation the Right Way in Good Responders to Induction Chemotherapy
Objectives:. Treatment of childhood NPC similar to adults consists of radiotherapy and chemotherapy, but distant failure is often observed, which led to introducing the induction chemotherapy followed by radiation or chemoradiation. The improved survival rates raised the question of late toxicity. The options for lowering the toxicity rate is the application of advanced radiotherapy techniques like IMRT and VMAT, and deescalation of the radiation dose in good responders and early NPC.Case report: We report a case of13-years old male patient with a high-risk childhood undifferentiated NPC, stage cT4 cN2b M0. He presented with unilateral swallowing at the middle third of left muscle sterenocleidomastoideus, and headache, fever, sore throat and intermittent nasal bleeding for an year. Diagnostic MRI and PET/CT showed good concordance for primary tumor extension and lymph node involvement. Three coursesinduction chemotherapy were applied according to NPC2003-GPOH protocolwith good treatment response. The restaging PET/CT found no distant metastasis. Deescalated protocol of radiotherapy alone was delivered to 50.4 Gy total dose with IGRT, VMAT irradiation technique. At three month PET/CT follow up a solitary bone lesion was detected.Conclusion: The present case proved that in high risk patients more aggressive treatment strategies should be recommended with no omission of concurrent chemotherapy even after full response. Deescalation of radiotherapy dose probably is not appropriate in this group of patients. MRI and PET CT should be used as complementary imaging modalities for early detection of locoregional or distant metastasis
Optical monitoring of the z=4.40 quasar Q 2203+292
We report Cousins R-band monitoring of the high-redshift (z=4.40) radio quiet
quasar Q 2203+292 from May 1999 to October 2007. The quasar shows maximum
peak-to-peak light curve amplitude of ~0.3 mag during the time of our
monitoring, and ~0.9 mag when combined with older literature data. The rms of a
fit to the light curve with a constant is 0.08 mag and 0.2 mag, respectively.
The detected changes are at ~3-sigma level. The quasar was in a stable state
during the recent years and it might have undergone a brightening event in the
past. The structure function analysis concluded that the object shows
variability properties similar to those of the lower redshift quasars. We set a
lower limit to the Q 2203+292 broad line region mass of 0.3-0.4 M_odot.
Narrow-band imaging search for redshifted Ly_alpha from other emission line
objects at the same redshift shows no emission line objects in the quasar
vicinity.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
The Kinematic State of the Local Volume
The kinematics of galaxies with 10 megaparsecs (10 Mpc) of the Milky Way is
investigated using published distances and radial velocities. With respect to
the average Hubble flow (isotropic or simple anisotropic), there is NO
systematic relation between peculiar velocity dispersion and absolute magnitude
over a range of 10 magnitudes; neither is there any apparent variation with
galaxy type or between field and cluster members. There are several possible
explanations for the lack of variation, though all have difficulties: either
there is no relationship between light and mass on these scales, or the
peculiar velocities are not produced by gravitational interaction, or the
background dynamical picture is wrong in some systematic way. The extremely
cold local flow of 40-60 km/s dispersion reported by some authors is shown to
be an artifact of sparse data, a velocity dispersion of over 100 km/s being
closer to the actual value. Galaxies with a high (positive) radial velocity
have been selected against in studies of this volume, biasing numerical
results.Comment: aastex preprint, 40 figures, accepted by ApJ. Miscalculation of
absolute magnitudes corrected. No significant changes in conclusion
Planetary Nebulae as standard candles XI. Application to Spiral Galaxies
We report the results of an [O III] lambda 5007 survey for planetary nebulae
(PN) in three spiral galaxies: M101 (NGC 5457), M51 (NGC 5194/5195) and M96
(NGC 3368). By comparing on-band/off-band [O III] lambda 5007 images with
images taken in H-alpha and broadband R, we identify 65, 64 and 74 PN
candidates in each galaxy, respectively. From these data, an adopted M31
distance of 770 kpc, and the empirical planetary nebula luminosity function
(PNLF), we derive distances to M101, M51, and M96 of 7.7 +/- 0.5, 8.4 +/- 0.6,
and 9.6 +/- 0.6 Mpc. These observations demonstrate that the PNLF technique can
be successfully applied to late-type galaxies, and provide an important overlap
between the Population I and Population II distance scales. We also discuss
some special problems associated with using the PNLF in spiral galaxies,
including the effects of dust and the possible presence of [O III] bright
supernova remnants.Comment: 38 pages, TeX, with tables included but not figures. Uses epsf.tex
and kpnobasic.tex. To be published in the Astophysical Journal. Full paper is
available at http://www.astro.psu.edu/users/johnf/Text/research.htm
A Near-Infrared Stellar Census of Blue Compact Dwarf Galaxies: NICMOS Detection of Red Giant Stars in the Wolf-Rayet Galaxy Mrk 178
We observed the Blue Compact Dwarf/Wolf-Rayet galaxy Mrk 178 with the NICMOS
camera aboard HST. The galaxy is well resolved into individual stars in the
near-IR; photometry in J and H yields color-magnitude diagrams containing 791
individual point sources. We discuss the stellar content, drawing particular
attention to the intermediate age and/or old stars. Mrk 178 is only the second
Blue Compact Dwarf galaxy in which the red giant branch has been resolved,
indicating stars with ages of at least 1-2Gyr. This allows us to derive a
distance of 4.2(0.5)Mpc. The near-IR color-magnitude diagram also
exhibits an abundance of luminous, asymptotic giant branch stars. We find that
this requires vigorous star formation several hundred Myr ago. Some candidate
carbon stars are identified via their extreme near-IR color. We argue that
Mrk178 is fundamentally an old galaxy, based on the NICMOS detection of red
giants underlying the blue, starburst core, and its extended, faint halo of
redder color.Comment: 27 Pages, 1 Table, 14 Figures, to appear in the October issue of A
Using Quantitative Spectroscopic Analysis to Determine the Properties and Distances of Type II-Plateau Supernovae: SNe 2005cs and 2006bp
We analyze the Type II Plateau supernovae (SN II-P) 2005cs and 2006bp with
the non-LTE model atmosphere code CMFGEN. We fit 13 spectra in the first month
for SN 2005cs and 18 for SN 2006bp. {\sl Swift} ultraviolet photometry and
ground-based optical photometry calibrate each spectrum. Our analysis shows
both objects were discovered less than 3 days after they exploded, making these
the earliest SN II-P spectra ever studied. They reveal broad and very weak
lines from highly-ionized fast ejecta with an extremely steep density profile.
We identify He{\sc ii} 4686\AA emission in the SN 2006bp ejecta. Days later,
the spectra resemble the prototypical Type II-P SN 1999em, which had a
supergiant-like photospheric composition. Despite the association of SN 2005cs
with possible X-ray emission, the emergent UV and optical light comes from the
photosphere, not from circumstellar emission.
We surmise that the very steep density fall-off we infer at early times may
be a fossil of the combined actions of the shock wave passage and radiation
driving at shock breakout. Based on tailored CMFGEN models, the direct-fitting
technique and the Expanding Photosphere Method both yield distances and
explosion times that agree within a few percent. We derive a distance to NGC
5194, the host of SN 2005cs, of 8.90.5 Mpc and 17.50.8 Mpc for SN
2006bp in NGC 3953. The luminosity of SN 2006bp is 1.5 times that of SN 1999em,
and 6 times that of SN 2005cs. Reliable distances to Type II-P supernovae that
do not depend on a small range in luminosity provide an independent route to
the Hubble Constant and improved constraints on other cosmological parameters.Comment: 27 pages, 16 figures, 11 tables, accepted to ApJ, high-resolution of
the paper available at
http://hermes.as.arizona.edu/~luc/snIIP/sn05cs_06bp.ps.g
The Ultra-luminous M81 X-9 source: 20 years variability and spectral states
The source X-9 was discovered with the {\it Einstein Observatory} in the
field of M81, and is located in the dwarf galaxy Holmberg IX. X-9 has a 0.2-4.0
keV luminosity of ergs~s, if it is at the same
distance as Holmberg IX (3.4 Mpc). This luminosity is above the Eddington
luminosity of a 1~ compact accreting object. Past hypotheses on the
nature of this Super-Eddington source included a SNR or supershell, an
accreting compact object and a background QSO. To shed light on the nature of
this source, we have obtained and analyzed archival data, including the {\it
Einstein} data, 23 ROSAT observations, Beppo-SAX and ASCA pointings. Our
analysis reveals that most of the emission of X-9 arises from a point-like
highly-variable source, and that lower luminosity extended emission may be
associated with it. The spectrum of this source changes between low and high
intensity states, in a way reminiscent of the spectra of galactic Black Hole
candidates. Our result strongly suggest that X-9 is not a background QSO, but a
bonafide `Super-Eddington' source in Ho IX, a dwarf companion of M81.Comment: 31 pages, 10 figures, ApJ - accepted for publicatio
The Dwarf Irregular/Wolf-Rayet Galaxy NGC4214: I. A New Distance, Stellar Content, and Global Parameters
We present the results of a detailed optical and near-IR study of the nearby
star-forming dwarf galaxy NGC4214. We discuss the stellar content, drawing
particular attention to the intermediate-age and/or old field stars, which are
used as a distance indicator. On images obtained with the Hubble Space
Telescope WFPC2 and NICMOS instruments in the equivalents of the V, R, I, J and
H bands, the galaxy is well resolved into stars. We achieve limiting magnitudes
of F814W ~27 in the WF chips and F110W ~25 in the NIC2. The optical and
near-infrared color-magnitude diagrams confirm a core-halo galaxy morphology:
an inner high surface-brightness young population within ~1.5' (~1 kpc) from
the center of the galaxy, where the stars are concentrated in bright complexes
along a bar-like structure; and a relatively low-surface-brightness, field-star
population extending out to at least 8' (7 kpc). The color-magnitude diagrams
of the core region show evidence of blue and red supergiants, main-sequence
stars, asymptotic giant branch stars and blue loop stars. We identify some
candidate carbon stars from their extreme near-IR color. The field-star
population is dominated by the "red tangle", which contains the red giant
branch. We use the I-band luminosity function to determine the distance based
on the tip-of-the-red-giant-branch method: 2.7\pm0.3 Mpc. This is much closer
than the values usually assumed in the literature, and we provide revised
distance dependent parameters such as physical size, luminosity, HI mass and
star-formation rate.Comment: 24 pages, 19 figures, accepted for publication in the July 2002 issue
of AJ. Version with high resolution figures is available at
http://www.astro.spbu.ru/staff/dio/preprints.htm