The Infrared Continuum Radiation of NGC1808 : A PAH and Polarisation Study

The paper is devoted to the understanding of the infrared emission of nuclear regions in galaxies. a) ISO data of NGC1808 are presented: spectro--photometry from 5.1 to 16.4 mic., a 25"x25" map at 6 mic. and 170mic. photometry. b) The data are complemented by a polarization measurement at 170 mic. (2.5+/-0.4% at position angle 94+/-5deg) and a map at 6 mic. In the map, the degree of polarisation goes up to 20% in the outer regions. We argue that the polarisation is produced by emission of big grains and exclude very small grains and PAHs or scattering and extinction. c) The mid infrared spectrum shows, beside the main emission bands, a so far unknown plateau of PAH features in the >13 mic.region. d) The total spectrum can be fit under the assumption of optically thin emission. However, such a model fails to reproduce the 25mic. point and implies that the mid infrared is due to very small grains and PAHs. These particles would then also have to be responsible for the 6 mic. polarisation, which is unlikely. e) To avoid these difficulties, we successfully turn to a radiative transfer model whose major feature is the existence of (hot spots) produced by the dust clouds around OB stars. We demonstrate the decisive influence on the mid infrared spectrum of both the PAHs and the hot spots.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, accepted by A&

Properties of grains derived from IRAS observations of dust

The authors used the results of Infrared Astronomy Satellite (IRAS) observations of diffuse medium dust to develop a theoretical model of the infrared properties of grains. Recent models based entirely on traditional observations of extinction and polarization include only particles whose equilibrium temperatures do not exceed 20 K in the diffuse interstellar medium. These classical grains, for which the authors have adopted the multipopulation model developed by Hong and Greenberg (1980), can explain only the emission in the IRAS 100 micron band. The measurements at shorter wavelengths (12, 25 and 60 microns) require two new particle populations. Vibrational fluorescence from aromatic molecules provides the most likely explanation for the emission observed at 12 microns, with polycyclic aeromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) containing about 10 percent of cosmic carbon. A simplified model of the emission process shows that PAH molecules can also explain most of the emission measured by IRAS at 25 microns. The authors identified the warm particles responsible for the excess 60 microns emission with small (a approx. equals 0.01 microns) iron grains. A compilation of the available data on the optical properties of iron indicates that the diffuse medium temperature of small iron particles should be close to 50 K and implies that a large, possibly dominant, fraction of cosmic iron must be locked up in metallic particles in order to match the observed 60 microns intensities. The model matches the infrared fluxes typically observed by IRAS in the diffuse medium and can also reproduce the infrared surface brightness distribution in individual clouds. In particular, the combination of iron and classical cool grains can explain the surprising observations of the 60/100 microns flux ratio in clouds, which is either constant or increases slightly towards higher opacities. The presence of metallic grains has significant implications for the physics of the interstellar medium, including catalytic H2 formation, for which iron grains could be the main site; differences in depletion patterns between iron and other refractory elements (Mg, Si); and superparamagnetic behavior of large grains with embedded iron clusters giving rise to the observed high degree of alignment by the galactic magnetic field

Infrared properties of dust grains derived from IRAS observations

The analysis of several diffuse interstellar clouds observed by the Infrared Astronomy Satellite (IRAS) is presented. The 60/100 micron flux ratios appear to be nearly constant in clouds with up to 1 sup m visual extinction at the center. Observations of a highly regular cloud in Chamaeleon show that the 12/100 micron ratio peaks at an intermediate radial distance and declines towards the center of the cloud. These observations indicate that nonequilibrium emission accounts only for the 12 and 25 micron bands; strong emission observed at the 60 micron band is probably due to equilibrium thermal radiation. The correlation of the 12 micron emission with a red excess observed for a high latitude cloud, L1780, is shown to be consistent with the assumption that both features are due to fluorescence by the same molecular species

Dust emission from high latitude cirrus clouds

In order to study dust emission from grains in the interstellar medium, the infrared properties were analyzed in a number of isolated high latitude dust clouds which contain no dominant internal heating sources. The clouds are spatially resolved, have a simple geometry, and are mapped in the IRAS bands at 12, 25, 60, and 100 microns. For a number of these clouds, extinction data (A sub B) were obtained from starcounts. A large part (30 to 50 percent) of the infrared radiation of the clouds in the IRAS wavelength range of 8 to 130 micron is emitted in the short wavelength bands at 12 and 25 micron. The 60/100 micron ratios for the integrated fluxes of the clouds have a typical value of 0.19 + or - 0.05

Far infrared observations of pre-protostellar sources in Lynds 183

Using ISOPHOT maps at 100 and 200um and raster scans at 100, 120, 150 and 200um we have detected four unresolved far-infrared sources in the high latitude molecular cloud L183. Two of the sources are identified with 1.3mm continuum sources found by Ward-Thompson et al. and are located near the temperature minimum and the coincident column density maximum of dust distribution. For these two sources, the ISO observations have enabled us to derive temperatures (about 8.3 K) and masses (about 1.4 and 2.4 solar masses). They are found to have masses greater than or comparable to their virial masses and are thus expected to undergo gravitational collapse. We classify them as pre-protostellar sources. The two new sources are good candidates for pre-protostellar sources or protostars within L183.Comment: 12 pages, 7 Postscript figures, 1 JPEG figure. Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic

Planck Observations of M33

We have performed a comprehensive investigation of the global integrated flux density of M33 from radio to ultraviolet wavelengths, finding that the data between $\sim$100 GHz and 3 THz are accurately described by a single modified blackbody curve with a dust temperature of $T_\mathrm{dust}$ = 21.67$\pm$0.30 K and an effective dust emissivity index of $\beta_\mathrm{eff}$ = 1.35$\pm$0.10, with no indication of an excess of emission at millimeter/sub-millimeter wavelengths. However, sub-dividing M33 into three radial annuli, we found that the global emission curve is highly degenerate with the constituent curves representing the sub-regions of M33. We also found gradients in $T_\mathrm{dust}$ and $\beta_\mathrm{eff}$ across the disk of M33, with both quantities decreasing with increasing radius. Comparing the M33 dust emissivity with that of other Local Group members, we find that M33 resembles the Magellanic Clouds rather than the larger galaxies, i.e., the Milky Way and M31. In the Local Group sample, we find a clear correlation between global dust emissivity and metallicity, with dust emissivity increasing with metallicity. A major aspect of this analysis is the investigation into the impact of fluctuations in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) on the integrated flux density spectrum of M33. We found that failing to account for these CMB fluctuations would result in a significant over-estimate of $T_\mathrm{dust}$ by $\sim$5 K and an under-estimate of $\beta_\mathrm{eff}$ by $\sim$0.4.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA

Far-infrared and molecular line observations of Lynds 183 - studies of cold gas and dust

We have mapped the dark cloud L183 in the far-infrared at 100um and 200um with the ISOPHOT photometer aboard the ISO satellite. The observations make it possible for the first time to study the properties of the large dust grains in L183 without confusion from smaller grains. The observations show clear colour temperature variations which are likely to be caused by changes in the emission properties of the dust particles. In the cloud core the far-infrared colour temperature drops below 12K. The data allow a new determination of the cloud mass and the mass distribution. The mass within a radius of 10 arcmin from the cloud centre is 25 Msun. We have mapped the cloud in several molecular lines including DCO+(2-1) and H13CO+(1-0). These species are believed to be tracers of cold and dense molecular material and we detect a strong anticorrelation between the DCO+ emission and the dust colour temperatures. In particular, the DCO+(2-1) emission is not detected towards the maximum of the 100um emission where the colour temperature rises above 15K. The H13CO+ emission follows the DCO+ distribution but CO isotopes show strong emission even towards the 100um peak. A comparison of the DCO+ and C18O maps shows sharp variations in the relative intensities of the species. Morphologically the 200um dust emission traces the distribution of dense molecular material as seen e.g. in C18O lines. A comparison with dust column density shows that C18O is depleted by a factor of 1.5 in the cloud core. We present results of R- and B-band starcounts. The extinction is much better correlated with the 200um than with the 100um emission. Based on the 200um correlation at low extinction values we deduce a value of ~17mag for the visual extinction towards the cloud centre.Comment: to be published in A&

The Embedded Super Star Cluster of SBS0335-052

We analyze the infrared (6-100 micron) spectral energy distribution of the blue compact dwarf and metal-poor (Z=Z_solar/41) galaxy SBS0335-052. With the help of DUSTY (Ivezic et al. 1999), a program that solves the radiation transfer equations in a spherical environment, we evaluate that the infrared (IR) emission of SBS0335-052 is produced by an embedded super-star cluster (SSC) hidden under 10^5 M_solar of dust, causing 30 mag of visual extinction. This implies that one cannot detect any stellar emission from the 2x10^6 M_solar stellar cluster even at near-infrared (NIR) wavelengths. The derived grain size distribution departs markedly from the widely accepted size distribution inferred for dust in our galaxy (the so-called MRN distribution, Mathis et al. 1977), but resembles what is seen around AGNs, namely an absence of PAH and smaller grains, and grains that grow to larger sizes (around 1 micron). The fact that a significant amount of dust is present in such a low-metallicity galaxy, hiding from UV and optical view most of the star formation activity in the galaxy, and that the dust size distribution cannot be reproduced by a standard galactic law, should be borne in mind when interpreting the spectrum of primeval galaxies.Comment: 32 pages, 3 figures,accepted for publication in A

Morphological analysis of the cm-wave continuum in the dark cloud LDN1622

The spectral energy distribution of the dark cloud LDN1622, as measured by Finkbeiner using WMAP data, drops above 30GHz and is suggestive of a Boltzmann cutoff in grain rotation frequencies, characteristic of spinning dust emission. LDN1622 is conspicuous in the 31 GHz image we obtained with the Cosmic Background Imager, which is the first cm-wave resolved image of a dark cloud. The 31GHz emission follows the emission traced by the four IRAS bands. The normalised cross-correlation of the 31 GHz image with the IRAS images is higher by 6.6sigma for the 12um and 25um bands than for the 60um and 100um bands: C(12+25) = 0.76+/-0.02 and C(60+100) = 0.64+/-0.01. The mid-IR -- cm-wave correlation in LDN 1622 is evidence for very small grain (VSG) or continuum emission at 26-36GHz from a hot molecular phase. In dark clouds and their photon-dominated regions (PDRs) the 12um and 25um emission is attributed to stochastic heating of the VSGs. The mid-IR and cm-wave dust emissions arise in a limb-brightened shell coincident with the PDR of LDN1622, where the incident UV radiation from the Ori OB1b association heats and charges the grains, as required for spinning dust.Comment: accepted for publication in ApJ - the complete article with uncompressed figures may be downloaded from http://www.das.uchile.cl/~simon/ftp/l1622.pd