Extra-nuclear starbursts: Young luminous hinge clumps in interacting galaxies

Hinge clumps are luminous knots of star formation near the base of tidal features in some interacting galaxies. We use archival Hubble Space Telescope (HST) UV/optical/IR images and Chandra X-ray maps along with Galaxy Evolution Explorer UV, Spitzer IR, and ground-based optical/near-IR images to investigate the star forming properties in a sample of 12 hinge clumps in five interacting galaxies. The most extreme of these hinge clumps have star formation rates of 1-9 M ☉ yr–1, comparable to or larger than the "overlap" region of intense star formation between the two disks of the colliding galaxy system the Antennae. In the HST images, we have found remarkably large and luminous sources at the centers of these hinge clumps. These objects are much larger and more luminous than typical "super star clusters" in interacting galaxies, and are sometimes embedded in a linear ridge of fainter star clusters, consistent with star formation along a narrow caustic. These central sources have FWHM diameters of ~70 pc, compared to ~3 pc in "ordinary" super star clusters. Their absolute I magnitudes range from MI ~ – 12.2 to –16.5; thus, if they are individual star clusters they would lie near the top of the "super star cluster" luminosity function of star clusters. These sources may not be individual star clusters, but instead may be tightly packed groups of clusters that are blended together in the HST images.Comparison to population synthesis modeling indicates that the hinge clumps contain a range of stellar ages. This is consistent with expectations based on models of galaxy interactions, which suggest that star formation may be prolonged in these regions.In the Chandra images, we have found strong X-ray emission from several of these hinge clumps. In most cases, this emission is well-resolved with Chandra and has a thermal X-ray spectrum, thus it is likely due to hot gas associated with the star formation. The ratio of the extinction-corrected diffuse X-ray luminosity to the mechanical energy rate (the X-ray production efficiency) for the hinge clumps is similar to that in the Antennae galaxies, but higher than those for regions in the normal spiral galaxy NGC 2403. Two of the hinge clumps have point-like X-ray emission much brighter than expected for hot gas; these sources are likely "ultra-luminous X-ray sources" due to accretion disks around black holes. The most extreme of these sources, in Arp 240, has a hard X-ray spectrum and an absorbed X-ray luminosity of ~2 × 1041 erg s–1; this is above the luminosity expected by single high mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs), thus it may be either a collection of HMXBs or an intermediate mass black hole (≥80 M ☉)

870 micron observations of nearby 3CRR radio galaxies

We present submillimeter continuum observations at 870 microns of the cores of low redshift 3CRR radio galaxies, observed at the Heinrich Hertz Submillimeter Telescope. The cores are nearly flat spectrum between the radio and submillimeter which implies that the submillimeter continuum is likely to be synchrotron emission and not thermal emission from dust. The emitted power from nuclei detected at optical wavelengths and in the X-rays is similar in the submillimeter, optical and X-rays. The submillimeter to optical and X-ray power ratios suggest that most of these sources resemble misdirected BL Lac type objects with synchrotron emission peaking at low energies. However we find three exceptions, the FR I galaxy 3C264 and the FR II galaxies 3C390.3 and 3C338 with high X-ray to submillimeter luminosity ratios. These three objects are candidate high or intermediate energy peaked BL Lac type objects. With additional infrared observations and from archival data, we compile spectral energy distributions (SEDs) for a subset of these objects. The steep dips observed near the optical wavelengths in many of these objects suggest that extinction inhibits the detection and reduces the flux of optical continuum core counterparts. High resolution near or mid-infrared imaging may provide better measurements of the underlying synchrotron emission peak.Comment: accepted for publication in A

A comparison between Pa alpha and H alpha emission: The relation between HII region mean reddening, local gas density and metallicity

We measure reddenings to HII regions in NGC 2903, NGC 1512, M51, NGC 4449 and NGC 6946 from Hubble Space Telescope Pa alpha and H alpha images. Extinctions range from A_V ~ 5 - 0 depending upon the galaxy. For the galaxies with HST images in both lines, NGC 2903, NGC 1512 and M51, the Pa alpha and H alpha emission are almost identical in morphology which implies that little emission from bright HII regions is hidden from view by regions of comparatively high extinction. The scatter in the measured extinctions is only +- 0.5 mag. We compare the reddenings we measure in five galaxies using the Pa alpha to H alpha ratios to those measured previously from the Balmer decrement in the LMC and as a function of radius in M101 and M51. We find that luminosity weighted mean extinctions of these ensembles of HI regions are correlated with gas surface density and metallicity. The correlation is consistent with the mean extinction depending on dust density where the dust to gas mass ratio scales with the metallicity. This trend is expected if HII regions tend to be located near the mid-plane of a gas disk and emerge from their parent molecular clouds soon after birth. In environments with gas densities below a few hundred Msol/pc^2 star formation rates estimated from integrated line fluxes and mean extinctions are likely to be fairly accurate.Comment: accepted for publication in A

Astro 2020 Science White Paper: Time Domain Studies of Neutron Star and Black Hole Populations: X-ray Identification of Compact Object Types

What are the most important conditions and processes governing the growth of stellar-origin compact objects? The identification of compact object type as either black hole (BH) or neutron star (NS) is fundamental to understanding their formation and evolution. To date, time-domain determination of compact object type remains a relatively untapped tool. Measurement of orbital periods, pulsations, and bursts will lead to a revolution in the study of the demographics of NS and BH populations, linking source phenomena to accretion and galaxy parameters (e.g., star formation, metallicity). To perform these measurements over sufficient parameter space, a combination of a wide-field (>5000 deg^2) transient X-ray monitor over a dynamic energy range (~1-100 keV) and an X-ray telescope for deep surveys with <5 arcsec PSF half-energy width (HEW) angular resolution are required. Synergy with multiwavelength data for characterizing the underlying stellar population will transform our understanding of the time domain properties of transient sources, helping to explain details of supernova explosions and gravitational wave event rates.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures. Submitted to the Astro2020 Decadal Surve

A Hard X-ray Study of the Normal Star-Forming Galaxy M83 with NuSTAR

We present results from sensitive, multi-epoch NuSTAR observations of the late-type star-forming galaxy M83 (d=4.6 Mpc), which is the first investigation to spatially resolve the hard (E>10 keV) X-ray emission of this galaxy. The nuclear region and ~ 20 off-nuclear point sources, including a previously discovered ultraluminous X-ray (ULX) source, are detected in our NuSTAR observations. The X-ray hardnesses and luminosities of the majority of the point sources are consistent with hard X-ray sources resolved in the starburst galaxy NGC 253. We infer that the hard X-ray emission is most likely dominated by intermediate accretion state black hole binaries and neutron star low-mass X-ray binaries (Z-sources). We construct the X-ray binary luminosity function (XLF) in the NuSTAR band for an extragalactic environment for the first time. The M83 XLF has a steeper XLF than the X-ray binary XLF in NGC 253, consistent with previous measurements by Chandra at softer X-ray energies. The NuSTAR integrated galaxy spectrum of M83 drops quickly above 10 keV, which is also seen in the starburst galaxies NGC253, NGC 3310 and NGC 3256. The NuSTAR observations constrain any AGN to be either highly obscured or to have an extremely low luminosity of $_{\sim}^<$10$^{38}$ erg/s (10-30 keV), implying it is emitting at a very low Eddington ratio. An X-ray point source consistent with the location of the nuclear star cluster with an X-ray luminosity of a few times 10$^{38}$ erg/s may be a low-luminosity AGN but is more consistent with being an X-ray binary.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ (25 pages, 17 figures

Spatially-resolved Spectroscopy of the IC443 Pulsar Wind Nebula and Environs

Deep Chandra ACIS observations of the region around the putative pulsar, CXOU J061705.3+222117, in the supernova remnant IC443 reveal, for the first time, a ring-like morphology surrounding the pulsar and a jet-like structure oriented roughly north-south across the ring and through the pulsar location. The observations further confirm that (1) the spectrum and flux of the central object are consistent with a rotation-powered pulsar interpretation, (2) the non-thermal surrounding nebula is likely powered by the pulsar wind, and (3) the thermal-dominated spectrum at greater distances is consistent with emission from the supernova remnant. The cometary shape of the nebula, suggesting motion towards the southwest (or, equivalently, flow of ambient medium to the northeast), appears to be subsonic; there is no evidence for a strong bow shock, and the circular ring is not distorted by motion through the ambient medium