356 research outputs found
El gas molecular en las galaxias luminosas y ultraluminosas en el infrarrojo
Tesis doctoral inédita. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Facultad de Ciencias, Departamento de Física Teórica. Fecha de lectura: 13-03-0
Molecular line probes of activity in galaxies
The use of specific tracers of the dense molecular gas phase can help to
explore the feedback of activity on the interstellar medium (ISM) in galaxies.
This information is a key to any quantitative assessment of the efficiency of
the star formation process in galaxies. We present the results of a survey
devoted to probe the feedback of activity through the study of the excitation
and chemistry of the dense molecular gas in a sample of local universe
starbursts and active galactic nuclei (AGNs). Our sample includes also 17
luminous and ultraluminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs and ULIRGs). From the
analysis of the LIRGs/ULIRGs subsample, published in Gracia-Carpio et al.(2007)
we find the first clear observational evidence that the star formation
efficiency of the dense gas, measured by the L_FIR/L_HCN ratio, is
significantly higher in LIRGs and ULIRGs than in normal galaxies. Mounting
evidence of overabundant HCN in active environments would even reinforce the
reported trend, pointing to a significant turn upward in the Kennicutt-Schmidt
law around L_FIR=10^11 L_sun. This result has major implications for the use of
HCN as a tracer of the dense gas in local and high-redshift luminous infrared
galaxies.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, contributed paper to Far-Infrared Workshop 07
(FIR 2007
Evolution of the ISM in Luminous IR Galaxies
Molecules that trace the high-density regions of the interstellar medium may
be used to evaluate the changing physical and chemical environment during the
ongoing nuclear activity in (Ultra-)Luminous Infrared Galaxies. The changing
ratios of the HCN(1-0), HNC(1-0), HCO+(1-0), CN(1-0) and CN(2-1), and CS(3-2)
transitions were compared with the HCN(1-0)/CO(1-0) ratio, which is proposed to
represent the progression time scale of the starburst. These diagnostic
diagrams were interpreted using the results of theoretical modeling using a
large physical and chemical network to describe the state of the nuclear ISM in
the evolving galaxies. Systematic changes are seen in the line ratios as the
sources evolve from early stage for the nuclear starburst (ULIRGs) to later
stages. These changes result from changing environmental conditions and
particularly from the lowering of the average density of the medium. A
temperature rise due to mechanical heating of the medium by feedback explains
the lowering of the ratios at later evolutionary stages. Infrared pumping may
affect the CN and HNC line ratios during early evolutionary stages. Molecular
transitions display a behavior that relates to changes of the environment
during an evolving nuclear starburst. Molecular properties may be used to
designate the evolutionary stage of the nuclear starburst. The HCN(1-0)/CO(1-0)
and HCO+(1-0)/HCN(1-0) ratios serve as indicators of the time evolution of the
outburst.Comment: To be published in Astronomy and Astrophysics - 11 pages, 9 figures,
1 tabl
Searching for molecular outflows in Hyper-Luminous Infrared Galaxies
We present constraints on the molecular outflows in a sample of five
Hyper-Luminous Infrared Galaxies using Herschel observations of the OH doublet
at 119 {\mu}m. We have detected the OH doublet in three cases: one purely in
emission and two purely in absorption. The observed emission profile has a
significant blueshifted wing suggesting the possibility of tracing an outflow.
Out of the two absorption profiles, one seems to be consistent with the
systemic velocity while the other clearly indicates the presence of a molecular
outflow whose maximum velocity is about ~1500 km/s. Our analysis shows that
this system is in general agreement with previous results on Ultra-luminous
Infrared Galaxies and QSOs, whose outflow velocities do not seem to correlate
with stellar masses or starburst luminosities (star formation rates). Instead
the galaxy outflow likely arises from an embedded AGN.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 13 pages, 11 figures, 4 table
Modelling the Molecular Gas in NGC 6240
We present the first observations of HCN, HCO
and SiO in NGC\,6240, obtained with the IRAM PdBI. Combining a Markov
Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) code with Large Velocity Gradient (LVG) modelling, and
with additional data from the literature, we simultaneously fit three gas
phases and six molecular species to constrain the physical condition of the
molecular gas, including massluminosity conversion factors. We find
of dense molecular gas in cold, dense clouds (\,K, \,cm) with a volume filling factor
, embedded in a shock heated molecular medium (\,K,
\,cm), both surrounded by an extended diffuse
phase (\,K, \,cm). We
derive a global with gas masses
, dominated by the
dense gas. We also find , which traces the
cold, dense gas. The [C]/[C] ratio is only slightly elevated
(), contrary to the very high [CO]/[CO] ratio (300-500)
reported in the literature. However, we find very high [HCN]/[HCN] and
[HCO]/[HCO] abundance ratios which we
attribute to isotope fractionation in the cold, dense clouds.Comment: 27 pages, 17 figures, 9 tables. Accepted in Ap
Sub-arcsecond CO(1-0) and CO(2-1) observations of the ultraluminous infrared galaxy IRAS 10190+1322
We present the results of high resolution mapping of the CO(1-0) and CO(2-1)
emission of the ultraluminous infrared galaxy (ULIRG) IRAS 10190+1322, with the
IRAM interferometer, down to an angular resolution of ~0.3 arcsec. This object
is composed of two interacting galaxies with a projected nuclear separation of
6 kpc, and was selected to analyze the physical and dynamical properties of the
molecular gas in each galaxy in order to study the conditions that lead a
galaxy pair to become ultraluminous in the infrared. With the exception of Arp
220, the closest ULIRG, this is the first time that the CO emission is
morphologically and kinematically resolved in the two interacting galaxies of a
ULIRG system. In one of the galaxies the molecular gas is highly concentrated,
distributed in a circumnuclear disk of 1.7 kpc in size. The molecular gas in
the presumably less infrared luminous galaxy is distributed in a more extended
disk of 7.4 kpc. The molecular gas mass accounts for ~10% of the dynamical mass
in each galaxy. Both objects are rich enough in molecular gas, Mgas ~ 4 10^9
Msun, as to experience an infrared ultraluminous phase.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. Accepted for publication in A&A Letters Special
Issue for the new extended configuration of the Plateau de Bure
Interferomete
First detections of the [NII] 122 {\mu}m line at high redshift: Demonstrating the utility of the line for studying galaxies in the early universe
We report the first detections of the [NII] 122 {\mu}m line from a high
redshift galaxy. The line was strongly (> 6{\sigma}) detected from
SMMJ02399-0136, and H1413+117 (the Cloverleaf QSO) using the Redshift(z) and
Early Universe Spectrometer (ZEUS) on the CSO. The lines from both sources are
quite bright with line-to-FIR continuum luminosity ratios that are
~7.0\times10^{-4} (Cloverleaf) and 2.1\times10^{-3} (SMMJ02399). With ratios
2-10 times larger than the average value for nearby galaxies, neither source
exhibits the line-to-continuum deficits seen in nearby sources. The line
strengths also indicate large ionized gas fractions, ~8 to 17% of the molecular
gas mass. The [OIII]/[NII] line ratio is very sensitive to the effective
temperature of ionizing stars and the ionization parameter for emission arising
in the narrow-line region (NLR) of an AGN. Using our previous detection of the
[OIII] 88 {\mu}m line, the [OIII]/[NII] line ratio for SMMJ02399-0136 indicates
the dominant source of the line emission is either stellar HII regions ionized
by O9.5 stars, or the NLR of the AGN with ionization parameter log(U) = -3.3 to
-4.0. A composite system, where 30 to 50% of the FIR lines arise in the NLR
also matches the data. The Cloverleaf is best modeled by a superposition of
~200 M82 like starbursts accounting for all of the FIR emission and 43% of the
[NII] line. The remainder may come from the NLR. This work demonstrates the
utility of the [NII] and [OIII] lines in constraining properties of the ionized
medium.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters; 16 pages, 2 tables, 3
figure
Chemically Distinct Nuclei and Outflowing Shocked Molecular Gas in Arp 220
We present the results of interferometric spectral line observations of Arp
220 at 3.5mm and 1.2mm from the Plateau de Bure Interferometer (PdBI), imaging
the two nuclear disks in HCN and , HCO and , and HNC as well as SiO and , HCN, and SO. The gas traced by SiO
has a complex and extended kinematic signature including a prominent P Cygni
profile, almost identical to previous observations of HCO. Spatial
offsets north and south of the continuum centre in the emission and
absorption of the SiO P Cygni profile in the western nucleus (WN)
imply a bipolar outflow, delineating the northern and southern edges of its
disk and suggesting a disk radius of pc, consistent with that found by
ALMA observations of Arp 220. We address the blending of SiO and
HCO by considering two limiting cases with regards to the
HCO emission throughout our analysis. Large velocity gradient (LVG)
modelling is used to constrain the physical conditions of the gas and to infer
abundance ratios in the two nuclei. Our most conservative lower limit on the
[HCN]/[HCO] abundance ratio is 11 in the WN, cf. 0.10 in the
eastern nucleus (EN). Comparing these ratios to the literature we argue on
chemical grounds for an energetically significant AGN in the WN driving either
X-ray or shock chemistry, and a dominant starburst in the EN.Comment: 28 pages, 17 figures, accepted to Ap
Spectroscopic FIR mapping of the disk and galactic wind of M82 with Herschel-PACS
[Abridged] We present maps of the main cooling lines of the neutral atomic
gas ([OI] at 63 and 145 micron and [CII] at 158 micron) and in the [OIII] 88
micron line of the starburst galaxy M82, carried out with the PACS spectrometer
on board the Herschel satellite. By applying PDR modeling we derive maps of the
main ISM physical parameters, including the [CII] optical depth, at
unprecedented spatial resolution (~300 pc). We can clearly kinematically
separate the disk from the outflow in all lines. The [CII] and [OI]
distributions are consistent with PDR emission both in the disk and in the
outflow. Surprisingly, in the outflow, the atomic and the ionized gas traced by
the [OIII] line both have a deprojected velocity of ~75 km/s, very similar to
the average velocity of the outflowing cold molecular gas (~ 100 km/s) and
several times smaller than the outflowing material detected in Halpha (~ 600
km/s). This suggests that the cold molecular and neutral atomic gas and the
ionized gas traced by the [OIII] 88 micron line are dynamically coupled to each
other but decoupled from the Halpha emitting gas. We propose a scenario where
cold clouds from the disk are entrained into the outflow by the winds where
they likely evaporate, surviving as small, fairly dense cloudlets (n_H\sim
500-1000 cm^-3, G_0\sim 500- 1000, T_gas\sim300 K). We show that the UV photons
provided by the starburst are sufficient to excite the PDR shells around the
molecular cores. The mass of the neutral atomic gas in the outflow is \gtrsim
5-12x 10^7 M_sun to be compared with that of the molecular gas (3.3 x 10^8
M_sun) and of the Halpha emitting gas (5.8 x 10^6 M_sun). The mass loading
factor, (dM/dt)/SFR, of the molecular plus neutral atomic gas in the outflow is
~ 2. Energy and momentum driven outflow models can explain the data equally
well, if all the outflowing gas components are taken into account.Comment: 26 pages, 23 figures, 4 Tables, Accepted for publication in Astronomy
& Astrophysic
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