170 research outputs found
The Radial Extent and Warp of the Ionized Galactic Disk. II. A Likelihood Analysis of Radio-Wave Scattering Toward the Anticenter
We use radio-wave scattering data to constrain the distribution of ionized
gas in the outer Galaxy. Like previous models, our model for the H II disk
includes parameters for the radial scale length and scale height of the H II,
but we allow the H II disk to warp and flare. Our model also includes the
Perseus arm. We use a likelihood analysis on 11 extragalactic sources and 7
pulsars. Scattering in the Perseus arm is no more than 60% of the level
contributed by spiral arms in the inner Galaxy, equivalent to a 1 GHz
scattering diameter of 1.5 mas. Our analysis favors an unwarped, nonflaring
disk with a 1 kpc scale height, though this may reflect the non-uniform and
coarse coverage provided by the available data. The lack of a warp indicates
that VLBI observations near 1 GHz with an orbiting station having baseline
lengths of a few Earth diameters will not be affected by interstellar
scattering at Galactic latitudes |b| ~ 15 degrees. The radial scale length is
15--20 kpc, but the data cannot distinguish between a gradual decrease in the
electron density and a truncated distribution. We favor a truncated one,
because we associate the scattering with massive star formation, which is also
truncated near 20 kpc. The distribution of electron density turbulence
decreases more rapidly with Galactocentric distance than does the hydrogen
distribution. Alternate ionizing and turbulent agents---the intergalactic
ionizing flux and satellite galaxies passing through the disk---do not
contribute significantly to scattering. We cannot exclude the possibility that
a largely ionized, but quiescent disk extends to >~ 100 kpc, similar to that
for some Ly-alpha absorbers.Comment: 34 pages, LaTeX2e with AASTeX aaspp4 macro, 9 figures in 9 PostScript
files, accepted for publication in Ap
Star Formation in the Most Distant Molecular Cloud in the Extreme Outer Galaxy: A Laboratory of Star Formation in an Early Epoch of the Galaxy's Formation
We report the discovery of active star formation in Digel's Cloud 2, which is
one of the most distant giant molecular clouds known in the extreme outer
Galaxy (EOG). At the probable Galactic radius of ~20 kpc, Cloud 2 has a quite
different environment from that in the solar neighborhood, including lower
metallicity, much lower gas density, and small or no perturbation from spiral
arms. With new wide-field near-infrared (NIR) imaging that covers the entire
Cloud 2, we discovered two young embedded star clusters located in the two
dense cores of the cloud. Using our NIR and 12CO data as well as HI, radio
continuum, and IRAS data in the archives, we discuss the detailed star
formation processes in this unique environment. We show clear evidences of a
sequential star formation triggered by the nearby huge supernova remnant, GSH
138-01-94. The two embedded clusters show a distinct morphology difference: the
one in the northern molecular cloud core is a loose association with
isolated-mode star formation, while the other in the southern molecular cloud
core is a dense cluster with cluster-mode star formation. We propose that high
compression by the combination of the SNR shell and an adjacent shell caused
the dense cluster formation in the southern core. Along with the low
metallicity range of the EOG, we suggest that EOG could be an excellent
laboratory for the study of star formation processes, such as those triggered
by supernovae, that occured during an early epoch of the Galaxy's formation. In
particular, the study of the EOG may shed light on the origin and role of the
thick disk, whose metallicity range matches with that of the EOG well.Comment: Accepted by The Astrophysical Journal (18 pages, 9 figures; a version
w/full-resolution color figures is available at
http://www.ioa.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~naoto/papers/apj.cl2_quirc/ms2p_final.pdf
Star Formation in the Extreme Outer Galaxy: Digel Cloud 2 Clusters
As a first step for studying star formation in the extreme outer Galaxy
(EOG), we obtained deep near-infrared images of two embedded clusters at the
northern and southern CO peaks of Cloud 2, which is one of the most distant
star forming regions in the outer Galaxy (galactic radius R_g ~ 19 kpc). With
high spatial resolution (FWHM ~ 0".35) and deep imaging (K ~ 21 mag) with the
IRCS imager at the Subaru telescope, we detected cluster members with a mass
detection limit of < 0.1 M_{sun}, which is well into the substellar regime.
These high quality data enables a comparison of EOG to those in the solar
neighborhood on the same basis for the first time. Before interpreting the
photometric result, we have first constructed the NIR color-color diagram
(dwarf star track, classical T Tauri star (CTTS) locus, reddening law) in the
Mauna Kea Observatory filter system and also for the low metallicity
environment since the metallicity in EOG is much lower than those in the solar
neighborhood. The estimated stellar density suggests that an ``isolated type''
star formation is ongoing in Cloud 2-N, while a ``cluster type'' star formation
is ongoing in Cloud 2-S. Despite the difference of the star formation mode,
other characteristics of the two clusters are found to be almost identical: (1)
K-band luminosity function (KLF) of the two clusters are quite similar, as is
the estimated IMF and ages (~ 0.5--1 Myr) from the KLF fitting, (2) the
estimated star formation efficiencies (SFEs) for both clusters are typical
compared to those of embedded clusters in the solar neighborhood (~ 10 %). The
similarity of two independent clusters with a large separation (~ 25 pc)
strongly suggest that their star formation activities were triggered by the
same mechanism, probably the supernova remnant (GSH 138-01-94).Comment: 14pages, 11 figures; Accepted for publication in Ap
The HII Region KR 140: Spontaneous Formation of a High Mass Star
We have used a multiwavelength data set from the Canadian Galactic Plane
Survey (CGPS) to study the Galactic HII region KR 140, both on the scale of the
nebula itself and in the context of the star forming activity in the nearby
W3/W4/W5 complex of molecular clouds and HII regions. From both radio and
infrared data we have found a covering factor of about 0.5 for KR 140 and we
interpret the nebula as a bowl-shaped region viewed close to face on.
Extinction measurements place the region on the near side of its parent
molecular cloud. The nebula is kept ionized by one O8.5 V(e) star, VES 735,
which is less than a few million years old. CO data show that VES 735 has
disrupted much of the original molecular cloud for which the estimated mass and
density are about 5000 and 100 cm, respectively. KR 140 is
isolated from the nearest star forming activity, in W3. Our data suggest that
KR 140 is an example of spontaneous (i.e., non-triggered) formation of,
unusually, a high mass star.Comment: 46 pages; includes 15 figures; accepted by the Ap
Molecular Hydrogen Outflows in W51
We present the results of a deep search for the molecular hydrogen shock
fronts associated with young stellar outflows in the giant molecular cloud and
massive star forming region W51. A total of 14 outflows were identified, and a
few of these were studied in detail with high-resolution imaging and
spectroscopy.Comment: 21 pages + 14 figure
A large atomic hydrogen shell in the outer Galaxy: SNR or stellar wind bubble?
We report the detection of a ring like HI structure toward l=90.0, b=2.8 with
a velocity of v_LSR=-99 km/s. This velocity implies a distance of d=13 kpc,
corresponding to a Galactocentric radius of R_gal=15 kpc. The l-v_LSR diagram
implies an expansion velocity of v_exp ~ 15 km/s for the shell. The structure
has an oblate, irregular shell-like appearance which surrounds weak infrared
emission as seen in the 60 micrometer IRAS data. At a distance of 13 kpc the
size of the object is about 110 x 220 pc and placed 500 pc above the Galactic
plane with a mass of 1e5 solar mass. An expanding shell with such a high mass
and diameter cannot be explained by a single supernova explosion or by a single
stellar wind bubble. We interpret the structure as a relic of a distant stellar
activity region powered by the joint action of strong stellar winds from early
type stars and supernova explosions.Comment: Accepted for publication by The Astrophysical Journal, 5 Pages, 4
Figure
NetKet: A machine learning toolkit for many-body quantum systems
We introduce NetKet, a comprehensive open source framework for the study of many-body quantum systems using machine learning techniques. The framework is built around a general and flexible implementation of neural-network quantum states, which are used as a variational ansatz for quantum wavefunctions. NetKet provides algorithms for several key tasks in quantum many-body physics and quantum technology, namely quantum state tomography, supervised learning from wavefunction data, and ground state searches for a wide range of customizable lattice models. Our aim is to provide a common platform for open research and to stimulate the collaborative development of computational methods at the interface of machine learning and many-body physics
The USNO-B Catalog
USNO-B is an all-sky catalog that presents positions, proper motions,
magnitudes in various optical passbands, and star/galaxy estimators for
1,042,618,261 objects derived from 3,643,201,733 separate observations. The
data were obtained from scans of 7,435 Schmidt plates taken for the various sky
surveys during the last 50 years. USNO-B1.0 is believed to provide all-sky
coverage, completeness down to V = 21, 0.2 arcsecond astrometric accuracy at
J2000, 0.3 magnitude photometric accuracy in up to five colors, and 85%
accuracy for distinguishing stars from non-stellar objects. A brief discussion
of various issues is given here, but the actual data are available from
http://www.nofs.navy.mil and other sites.Comment: Accepted by Astronomical Journa
Milestones in the Observations of Cosmic Magnetic Fields
Magnetic fields are observed everywhere in the universe. In this review, we
concentrate on the observational aspects of the magnetic fields of Galactic and
extragalactic objects. Readers can follow the milestones in the observations of
cosmic magnetic fields obtained from the most important tracers of magnetic
fields, namely, the star-light polarization, the Zeeman effect, the rotation
measures (RMs, hereafter) of extragalactic radio sources, the pulsar RMs, radio
polarization observations, as well as the newly implemented sub-mm and mm
polarization capabilities.
(Another long paragraph is omitted due to the limited space here)Comment: Invited Review (ChJA&A); 32 pages. Sorry if your significant
contributions in this area were not mentioned. Published pdf & ps files (with
high quality figures) now availble at http://www.chjaa.org/2002_2_4.ht
Extinction with 2MASS: star counts and reddening toward the North America and the Pelican Nebulae
We propose a general method for mapping the extinction in dense molecular
clouds using 2MASS near-infrared data. The technique is based on the
simultaneous utilization of star counts and colors. These two techniques
provide independent estimations of the extinction and each method reacts
differently to foreground star contamination and to star clustering. We take
advantage of both methods to build a large scale extinction map (2.5 x 2.5
degrees) of the North America-Pelican nebulae complex. With Ks star counts and
H-Ks color analysis the visual extinction is mapped up to 35 mag. Regions with
visual extinction greater than 20 mag account for less than 3% of the total
mass of the cloud. Color is generally a better estimator for the extinction
than star counts. Nine star clusters are identified in the area, seven of which
were previously unknown.Comment: 33 pages, 14 figures, accepted in A
- …