116 research outputs found
SCORPIO-II: Spectral indices of weak Galactic radio sources
In the next few years the classification of radio sources observed by the
large surveys will be a challenging problem, and spectral index is a powerful
tool for addressing it. Here we present an algorithm to estimate the spectral
index of sources from multiwavelength radio images. We have applied our
algorithm to SCORPIO (Umana et al. 2015), a Galactic Plane survey centred
around 2.1 GHz carried out with ATCA, and found we can measure reliable
spectral indices only for sources stronger than 40 times the rms noise. Above a
threshold of 1 mJy, the source density in SCORPIO is 20 percent greater than in
a typical extra-galactic field, like ATLAS (Norris et al. 2006), because of the
presence of Galactic sources. Among this excess population, 16 sources per
square degree have a spectral index of about zero, suggesting optically thin
thermal emission such as Hii regions and planetary nebulae, while 12 per square
degree present a rising spectrum, suggesting optically thick thermal emission
such as stars and UCHii regions.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures, accepted by MNRA
High-velocity OH megamasers in IRAS 20100-4156: Evidence for a Supermassive Black Hole
We report the discovery of new, high-velocity narrow-line components of the
OH megamaser in IRAS 20100-4156. Results from the Australian Square Kilometre
Array Pathfinder (ASKAP)'s Boolardy Engineering Test Array (BETA) and the
Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) provide two independent measurements
of the OH megamaser spectrum. We found evidence for OH megamaser clumps at
409 and 562 km/s (blue-shifted) from the systemic velocity of the galaxy,
in addition to the lines previously known. The presence of such high velocities
in the molecular emission from IRAS 201004156 could be explained by a ~50 pc
molecular ring enclosing an approximately 3.8 billion solar mass black hole. We
also discuss two alternatives, i.e. that the narrow-line masers are dynamically
coupled to the wind driven by the active galactic nucleus or they are
associated with two separate galactic nuclei. The comparison between the BETA
and ATCA spectra provides another scientific verification of ASKAP's BETA. Our
data, combined with previous measurements of the source enabled us to study the
variability of the source over a twenty-six year period. The flux density of
the brightest OH maser components has reduced by more than a factor of two
between 1988 and 2015, whereas a secondary narrow-line component has more than
doubled in the same time. Plans for high-resolution VLBI follow-up of this
source are discussed, as are prospects for discovering new OH megamasers during
the ASKAP early science program.Comment: Accepted to MNRAS. Seven pages, three figure
Characterizing the radio continuum emission from intense starburst galaxies
© 2016 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.The intrinsic thermal (free-free) and non-thermal (synchrotron) emission components that comprise the radio continuum of galaxies represent unique, dust-free measures of star formation rates (SFR). Such high SFR galaxies will dominate the deepest current and future radio surveys. We disentangle the thermal and non-thermal emission components of the radio continuum of six ultraluminous infrared galaxies (LFIR > 1012.5 L?) at redshifts of 0.2 = z = 0.5 and 22 IR selected galaxies. Radio data over a wide frequency range (0.8 < ? <10 GHz) are fitted with a star-forming galaxy model comprising of thermal and non-thermal components. The luminosities of both radio continuum components are strongly correlated to the 60 µm luminosity across many orders of magnitude (consistent with the far-IR to radio correlation). We demonstrate that the spectral index of the radio continuum spectral energy distribution is a useful proxy for the thermal fraction. We also find that there is an increase in mean and scatter of the thermal fraction with FIR to radio luminosity ratio which could be influenced by different time-scales of the thermal and non-thermal emission mechanisms
The SOMA Radio Survey. I. Comprehensive SEDs Of High-Mass Protostars From Infrared To Radio And The Emergence Of Ionization Feedback
We study centimeter continuum emission of eight high- and intermediate-mass
protostars that are part of the SOFIA Massive (SOMA) Star Formation Survey,
thus building extended spectral energy distributions (SEDs) from the radio to
the infrared. We discuss the morphology seen in the centimeter continuum
images, which are mostly derived from archival VLA data, and the relation to
infrared morphology. We use the SEDs to test new models of high-mass star
formation including radiative and disk-wind feedback and associated free-free
and dust continuum emission (Tanaka, Tan, & Zhang 2016). We show that
interferometric data of the centimeter continuum flux densities provide
additional, stringent tests of the models by constraining the ionizing
luminosity of the source and help to break degeneracies encountered when
modeling the infrared-only SEDs, especially for the protostellar mass. Our
derived parameters are consistent with physical parameters estimated by other
methods such as dynamical protostellar masses. We find a few examples of
additional stellar sources in the vicinity of the high-mass protostars, which
may be low-mass young stellar objects. However, the stellar multiplicity of the
regions, at least as traced by radio continuum emission, appears to be
relatively low.Comment: Accepted for publication in the ApJ. Figure 1 has been improved.
References added in the introduction and paragraph added at the end of
Section
The Spectral Energy Distribution of Powerful Starburst Galaxies I : Modelling the Radio Continuum
This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.We have acquired radio-continuum data between 70MHz and 48 GHz for a sample of 19 southern starburst galaxies at moderate redshifts (0.067 < z < 0.227) with the aim of separating synchrotron and free-free emission components. Using a Bayesian framework, we find the radio continuum is rarely characterized well by a single power law, instead often exhibiting lowfrequency turnovers below 500 MHz, steepening at mid to high frequencies, and a flattening at high frequencies where free-free emission begins to dominate over the synchrotron emission. These higher order curvature components may be attributed to free-free absorption across multiple regions of star formation with varying optical depths. The decomposed synchrotron and free-free emission components in our sample of galaxies form strong correlations with the total-infrared bolometric luminosities. Finally, we find that without accounting for free-free absorption with turnovers between 90 and 500MHz the radio continuum at low frequency (v < 200 MHz) could be overestimated by upwards of a factor of 12 if a simple power-law extrapolation is used from higher frequencies. The mean synchrotron spectral index of our sample is constrained to be α = -1.06, which is steeper than the canonical value of -0.8 for normal galaxies. We suggest this may be caused by an intrinsically steeper cosmic ray distribution.Peer reviewe
The Spectral Energy Distribution of Powerful Starburst Galaxies I: Modelling the Radio Continuum
We have acquired radio continuum data between 70\,MHz and 48\,GHz for a
sample of 19 southern starburst galaxies at moderate redshifts () with the aim of separating synchrotron and free-free emission
components. Using a Bayesian framework we find the radio continuum is rarely
characterised well by a single power law, instead often exhibiting low
frequency turnovers below 500\,MHz, steepening at mid-to-high frequencies, and
a flattening at high frequencies where free-free emission begins to dominate
over the synchrotron emission. These higher order curvature components may be
attributed to free-free absorption across multiple regions of star formation
with varying optical depths. The decomposed synchrotron and free-free emission
components in our sample of galaxies form strong correlations with the
total-infrared bolometric luminosities. Finally, we find that without
accounting for free-free absorption with turnovers between 90 to 500\,MHz the
radio-continuum at low frequency (\,MHz) could be overestimated by
upwards of a factor of twelve if a simple power law extrapolation is used from
higher frequencies. The mean synchrotron spectral index of our sample is
constrained to be , which is steeper then the canonical value of
for normal galaxies. We suggest this may be caused by an intrinsically
steeper cosmic ray distribution
The White Mountain Polarimeter Telescope and an Upper Limit on CMB Polarization
The White Mountain Polarimeter (WMPol) is a dedicated ground-based microwave
telescope and receiver system for observing polarization of the Cosmic
Microwave Background. WMPol is located at an altitude of 3880 meters on a
plateau in the White Mountains of Eastern California, USA, at the Barcroft
Facility of the University of California White Mountain Research Station.
Presented here is a description of the instrument and the data collected during
April through October 2004. We set an upper limit on -mode polarization of
14 (95% confidence limit) in the multipole range
. This result was obtained with 422 hours of observations of a 3
sky area about the North Celestial Pole, using a 42 GHz
polarimeter. This upper limit is consistent with polarization predicted
from a standard -CDM concordance model.Comment: 35 pages. 12 figures. To appear in ApJ
Field sources near the southern-sky calibrator PKS B1934-638: effect on spectral line observations with SKA-MID and its precursors
Accurate instrumental bandpass corrections are essential for the reliable
interpretation of spectral lines from targeted and survey-mode observations
with radio interferometers. Bandpass correction is typically performed by
comparing measurements of a strong calibrator source to an assumed model,
typically an isolated point source. The wide field-of-view and high sensitivity
of modern interferometers means that additional sources are often detected in
observations of calibrators. This can introduce errors into bandpass
corrections and subsequently the target data if not properly accounted for.
Focusing on the standard calibrator PKS B1934-638, we perform simulations to
asses this effect by constructing a wide-field sky model. The cases of ASKAP
(0.7-1.9 GHz), MeerKAT (UHF: 0.58-1.05 GHz; L-band: 0.87-1.67 GHz) and Band 2
(0.95-1.76 GHz) of SKA-MID are examined. The use of a central point source
model during bandpass calibration is found to impart amplitude errors into
spectra measured by the precursor instruments at the ~0.2-0.5% level dropping
to ~0.01% in the case of SKA-MID. This manifests itself as ripples in the
source spectrum, the behaviour of which is coupled to the distribution of the
array baselines, the solution interval, the primary beam size, the hour-angle
of the calibration scan, as well as the weights used when imaging the target.
Calibration pipelines should routinely employ complete field models for
standard calibrators to remove this potentially destructive contaminant from
the data, a recommendation we validate by comparing our simulation results to a
MeerKAT scan of PKS B1934-638, calibrated with and without our expanded sky
model.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
A pilot survey for transients and variables with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder
We present a pilot search for variable and transient sources at 1.4 GHz with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP). The search was performed in a 30 deg2 area centred on the NGC 7232 galaxy group over eight epochs and observed with a near-daily cadence. The search yielded nine potential variable sources, rejecting the null hypothesis that the flux densities of these sources do not change with 99.9 per cent confidence. These nine sources displayed flux density variations with modulation indices m = 0.1 above our flux density limit of ~1.5mJy. They are identified to be compact active galactic nucleus (AGN)/quasars or galaxies hosting an AGN, whose variability is consistent with refractive interstellar scintillation.We also detect a highly variable source with modulation index m > 0.5 over a time interval of a decade between the SydneyUniversity Molonglo Sky Survey (SUMSS) and our latest ASKAP observations. We find the source to be consistent with the properties of long-term variability of a quasar. No transients were detected on time-scales of days and we place an upper limit ?t < 0.01 deg-2 with 95 per cent confidence for non-detections on near-daily time-scales. The future VAST-Wide survey with 36-ASKAP dishes will probe the transient phase space with similar cadence to our pilot survey, but better sensitivity, and will detect and monitor rarer brighter events
- …