Search

We measure the angular correlation function, w(theta), from 0.5 to 30 arcminutes of detected sources in two wide fields of the Herschel Multi-tiered Extragalactic Survey (HerMES). Our measurements are consistent with the expected clustering shape from a population of sources that trace the dark matter density field, including non-linear clustering at arcminute angular scales arising from multiple sources that occupy the same dark matter halos. By making use of the halo model to connect the spatial clustering of sources to the dark matter halo distribution, we estimate source bias and halo occupation number for dusty sub-mm galaxies at z ~ 2. We find that sub-mm galaxies with 250 micron flux densities above 30 mJy reside in dark matter halos with mass above (5\pm4) x 10^12 M_sun, while (14\pm8)% of such sources appear as satellites in more massive halos., 5 pages; accepted for publication in A&A Special Issue on Herschel First Science Results (July 2010). HerMES information available at http://hermes.sussex.ac.uk/

Local luminosity functions are fundamental benchmarks for high-redshift galaxy formation and evolution studies as well as for models describing these processes. Determining the local luminosity function in the submillimeter range can help to better constrain in particular the bolometric luminosity density in the local Universe, and Herschel offers the first opportunity to do so in an unbiased way by imaging large sky areas at several submillimeter wavelengths. We present the first Herschel measurement of the submillimeter 0, Comment: Accepted for publication in the A&A Herschel Special Issue

We present colours of sources detected with the Herschel/SPIRE instrument in deep extragalactic surveys of the Lockman Hole, Spitzer-FLS, and GOODS-N fields in three photometric bands at 250, 350 and 500 micrometers. We compare these with expectations from the literature and discuss associated uncertainties and biases in the SPIRE data. We identify a 500 micrometer flux limited selection of sources from the HerMES point source catalogue that appears free from neighbouring/blended sources in all three SPIRE bands. We compare the colours with redshift tracks of various contemporary models. Based on these spectral templates we show that regions corresponding to specific population types and redshifts can be identified better in colour-flux space. The redshift tracks as well as the colour-flux plots imply a majority of detected objects with redshifts at 1, Comment: 5 pages, 8 figures, for special Herschel issue

Nuclear and starburst activity are known to often occur concomitantly. Herschel-SPIRE provides sampling of the FIR SEDs of type 1 and type 2 AGN, allowing for the separation between the hot dust (torus) and cold dust (starburst) emission. We study large samples of spectroscopically confirmed type 1 and type 2 AGN lying within the Herschel Multi-tiered Extragalactic Survey (HerMES) fields observed during the science demonstration phase, aiming to understand their FIR colour distributions and constrain their starburst contributions. We find that one third of the spectroscopically confirmed AGN in the HerMES fields have 5-sigma detections at 250um, in agreement with previous (sub)mm AGN studies. Their combined Spitzer-MIPS and Herschel-SPIRE colours - specifically S(250)/S(70) vs. S(70)/S(24) - quite clearly separate them from the non-AGN, star-forming galaxy population, as their 24-um flux is dominated by the hot torus emission. However, their SPIRE colours alone do not differ from those of non-AGN galaxies. SED fitting shows that all those AGN need a starburst component to fully account for their FIR emission. For objects at z > 2, we find a correlation between the infrared luminosity attributed to the starburst component, L(SB), and the AGN accretion luminosity, L(acc), with L(SB) propto L(acc)^0.35. Type 2 AGN detected at 250um show on average higher L(SB) than type 1 objects but their number is still too low to establish whether this trend indicates stronger star-formation activity., Astronomy and Astrophysics, Herschel Special Issue, in press as a Letter; 5 pages

We report on the sensitivity of SPIRE photometers on the Herschel Space Observatory. Specifically, we measure the confusion noise from observations taken during the Science Demonstration Phase of the Herschel Multi-tiered Extragalactic Survey. Confusion noise is defined to be the spatial variation of the sky intensity in the limit of infinite integration time, and is found to be consistent among the different fields in our survey at the level of 5.8, 6.3 and 6.8 mJy/beam at 250, 350 and 500 microns, respectively. These results, together with the measured instrument noise, may be used to estimate the integration time required for confusion-limited maps, and provide a noise estimate for maps obtained by SPIRE., Astronomy and Astrophysics, Herschel Special Issue, in press as a Letter; 5 pages

We present submillimetre and mid-infrared imaging observations of five fields centred on quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) at 1.7

We present an analysis of a large sample of AGN environments at z~1 using stacked Spitzer data at 3.6um. The sample contains type-1 and type-2 AGN in the form of quasars and radio galaxies, and spans a large range in both optical and radio luminosity. We find, on average, that 2 to 3 massive galaxies containing a substantial evolved stellar population lie within a 200-300 kpc radius of the AGN, constituting a >8-sigma excess relative to the field. Secondly, we find evidence for the environmental source density to increase with the radio luminosity of AGN, but not with black-hole mass. This is shown first by dividing the AGN into their classical AGN types, where we see more significant over-densities in the fields of the radio-loud AGN. If instead we dispense with the classical AGN definitions, we find that the source over-density as a function of radio luminosity for all our AGN exhibits a positive correlation. One interpretation of this result is that the Mpc-scale environment is in some way influencing the radio emission that we observe from AGN. This could be explained by the confinement of radio jets in dense environments leading to enhanced radio emission or, alternatively, may be linked to more rapid black-hole spin brought on by galaxy mergers.

We present Herschel-SPIRE observations at 250-500um of the giant elliptical galaxy M86 and examine the distribution of the resolved cold dust emission and its relation with other galactic tracers. The SPIRE images reveal three dust components: emission from the central region; a dust lane extending north-south; and a bright emission feature 10kpc to the south-east. We estimate that approximately 10^6 solar masses of dust is spatially coincident with atomic and ionized hydrogen, originating from stripped material from the nearby spiral NGC4438 due to recent tidal interactions with M86. The gas-to-dust ratio of the cold gas component ranges from ~20-80. We discuss the different heating mechanisms for the dust features., Comment: 5 pages and 3 figures, accepted for A & A Herschel special issue

We have studied the archetypal Gigahertz Peaked Spectrum radio galaxy, PKS 1934-638, using the Australian Long Baseline Array, augmented with two new telescopes that greatly improve the angular resolution of the array. These VLBI observations represent the first scientific results from a new antenna in NZ and the first antenna of the Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP). A compact double radio source, PKS 1934-638, has been monitored over a period of 40 years, and the observation described here provides the latest datum, eight years after the previous observation, to aid in the study of the long-term evolution of the source structure. We take advantage of these new long baselines to probe PKS 1934-638 at the relatively low frequency of 1.4 GHz, in order to examine the effects of optical depth on the structure of the radio source. Optical depth effects, resulting in the observation of frequency dependent structure, may have previously been interpreted in terms of an expansion of the source as a function of time. Expansion and frequency dependent effects are important to disentangle in order to estimate the age of PKS 1934-638. We show that frequency dependent structure effects are likely to be important in PKS 1934-638 and present a simple two-dimensional synchrotron source model in which opacity effects due to synchrotron self-absorption are taken into account. Evidence for expansion of the radio source over 40 years is therefore weak, with consequences for the estimated age of the radio source., Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in AJ

Emission at far-infrared wavelengths makes up a significant fraction of the total light detected from galaxies over the age of Universe. Herschel provides an opportunity for studying galaxies at the peak wavelength of their emission. Our aim is to provide a benchmark for models of galaxy population evolution and to test pre-existing models of galaxies. With the Herschel Multi-tiered Extra-galactic survey, HerMES, we have observed a number of fields of different areas and sensitivity using the SPIRE instrument on Herschel. We have determined the number counts of galaxies down to ~20 mJy. Our constraints from directly counting galaxies are consistent with, though more precise than, estimates from the BLAST fluctuation analysis. We have found a steep rise in the Euclidean normalised counts at, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Herschel Special Issue, in press as a Letter; 5 pages

The standard method of mapping the interstellar medium in a galaxy, by observing the molecular gas in the CO 1-0 line and the atomic gas in the 21-cm line, is largely limited with current telescopes to galaxies in the nearby universe. In this letter, we use SPIRE observations of the galaxies M99 and M100 to explore the alternative approach of mapping the interstellar medium using the continuum emission from the dust. We have compared the methods by measuring the relationship between the star-formation rate and the surface density of gas in the galaxies. We find the two methods give relationships with a similar dispersion, confirming that observing the continuum emission from the dust is a promising method of mapping the interstellar medium in galaxies., Astronomy and Astrophysics in press

We present the first Herschel PACS and SPIRE images of the low-metallicity galaxy NGC6822 observed from 70 to 500 mu and clearly resolve the HII regions with PACS and SPIRE. We find that the ratio 250/500 is dependent on the 24 mu surface brightness in NGC6822, which would locally link the heating processes of the coldest phases of dust in the ISM to the star formation activity. We model the SEDs of some regions HII regions and less active regions across the galaxy and find that the SEDs of HII regions show warmer ranges of dust temperatures. We derive very high dust masses when graphite is used in our model to describe carbon dust. Using amorphous carbon, instead, requires less dust mass to account for submm emission due to its lower emissivity properties. This indicates that SED models including Herschel constraints may require different dust properties than commonly used., Comment: Accepted for publication in the A&A Herschel first results Special Issue

We present Herschel-SPIRE observations of the perturbed galaxy NGC4438 in the Virgo cluster. These images reveal the presence of extra-planar dust up to ~4-5 kpc away from the galaxy's disk. The dust closely follows the distribution of the stripped atomic and molecular hydrogen, supporting the idea that gas and dust are perturbed in a similar fashion by the cluster environment. Interestingly, the extra-planar dust lacks a warm temperature component when compared to the material still present in the disk, explaining why it was missed by previous far-infrared investigations. Our study provides evidence for dust stripping in clusters of galaxies and illustrates the potential of Herschel data for our understanding of environmental effects on galaxy evolution., Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures. Accepted for publication on the A&A Herschel Special Issue

We present Herschel SPIRE and PACS photometeric observations of the low metallicity (Z ~ 0.35 solar) nearby dwarf galaxy, NGC 1705, in six wavelength bands as part of the Dwarf Galaxy Survey guaranteed time Herschel Key Program. We confirm the presence of two dominant circumnuclear IR-bright regions surrounding the central super star cluster that had been previously noted at mid-IR wavelengths and in the sub-mm by LABOCA. On constructing a global spectral energy distribution using the SPIRE and PACS photometry, in conjunction with archival IR measurements, we note the presence of an excess at sub-mm wavelengths. This excess suggests the presence of a significant cold dust component within NGC 1705 and was modeled as an additional cold component in the SED. Although alternative explanations for the sub-mm excess beyond 350 microns, such as changes to the dust emissivity cannot be ruled out, the most likely explanation for the observed submillimetre excess is that of an additional cold dust component., 5 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in A&A (Herschel special issue)

Calibrated data for 143 flat-spectrum extragalactic radio sources are presented at a wavelength of 850 microns covering a five-year period from April 2000. The data, obtained at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope using the SCUBA camera in pointing mode, were analysed using an automated pipeline process based on the Observatory Reduction and Acquisition Control - Data Reduction (ORAC-DR) system. This paper describes the techniques used to analyse and calibrate the data, and presents the database of results along with a representative sample of the better-sampled lightcurves. A re-analysis of previously published data from 1997 to 2000 is also presented. The combined catalogue, comprising 10493 flux density measurements, provides a unique and valuable resource for studies of extragalactic radio sources., 16 pages, 9 pages of lightcurves, 1 additional figure, accepted for publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Table 2 available electronically

We present the first results from the largest deep extragalactic millimetre-wavelength survey undertaken to date. These results are derived from maps covering over 0.7 deg^2, made at 1.1mm, using the AzTEC continuum camera mounted on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. The maps were made in the two fields originally targeted at 0.85mm with SCUBA in the SHADES project, namely the Lockman Hole East (mapped to a depth of 0.9-1.3 mJy rms) and the Subaru XMM Deep Field (1.0-1.7 mJy rms). The wealth of existing and forthcoming deep multi-frequency data in these two fields will allow the bright mm source population revealed by these images to be explored in detail in subsequent papers. Here we present the maps themselves, a catalogue of 114 high-significance sub-millimetre galaxy detections, and a thorough statistical analysis leading to the most robust determination to date of the 1.1mm source number counts. Through careful comparison, we find that both the COSMOS and GOODS North fields, also imaged with AzTEC, contain an excess of mm sources over the new 1.1mm source-count baseline established here. In particular, our new AzTEC/SHADES results indicate that very luminous high-redshift dust enshrouded starbursts (S_{1.1} > 3 mJy) are 25-50% less common than would have been inferred from these smaller surveys, thus highlighting the potential roles of cosmic variance and clustering in such measurements. We compare number count predictions from recent models of the evolving mm/sub-mm source population to these SMG surveys, which provide important constraints for the ongoing refinement of semi-analytic and hydrodynamical models of galaxy formation, and find that all recent models over-predict the number of bright sub-millimetre galaxies found in this survey., 19 pages, 10 figures, 7 tables - Very minor revisions; accepted for publication in MNRAS

The Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) is a dipole-based aperture array synthesis telescope designed to operate in the 80-300 MHz frequency range. It is capable of a wide range of science investigations, but is initially focused on three key science projects. These are detection and characterization of 3-dimensional brightness temperature fluctuations in the 21cm line of neutral hydrogen during the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) at redshifts from 6 to 10, solar imaging and remote sensing of the inner heliosphere via propagation effects on signals from distant background sources,and high-sensitivity exploration of the variable radio sky. The array design features 8192 dual-polarization broad-band active dipoles, arranged into 512 tiles comprising 16 dipoles each. The tiles are quasi-randomly distributed over an aperture 1.5km in diameter, with a small number of outliers extending to 3km. All tile-tile baselines are correlated in custom FPGA-based hardware, yielding a Nyquist-sampled instantaneous monochromatic uv coverage and unprecedented point spread function (PSF) quality. The correlated data are calibrated in real time using novel position-dependent self-calibration algorithms. The array is located in the Murchison region of outback Western Australia. This region is characterized by extremely low population density and a superbly radio-quiet environment,allowing full exploitation of the instrumental capabilities., 9 pages, 5 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication in Proceedings of the IEEE

We analyse a 100-ks Chandra observation of the powerful radio galaxy, 4C60.07 at z=3.79. We identify extended X-ray emission with Lx~10^45 erg/s across a ~90-kpc region around the radio galaxy. The energetics of this X-ray halo and its morphological similarity to the radio emission from the galaxy suggest that it arises from inverse Compton (IC) scattering, by relativistic electrons in the radio jets, of Cosmic Microwave Background photons and potentially far-infrared photons from the dusty starbursts around this galaxy. The X-ray emission has a similar extent and morphology to the Ly-alpha halo around the galaxy, suggesting that it may be ionising this halo. Indeed we find that the GHz-radio and X-ray and Ly-alpha luminosities of the halo around 4C60.07 are identical to those of 4C41.17 (also at z=3.8) implying that these three components are linked by a single physical process. This is only the second example of highly-extended IC emission known at z>3, but it underlines the potential importance of IC emission in the formation of the most massive galaxies at high redshifts. In addition, we detect two X-ray luminous active galactic nuclei (AGN) within ~30kpc of the radio galaxy. These two companion AGN imply that the radio and starburst activity in the radio galaxy is triggered through multiple mergers of massive progenitors on a short timescale, ~100Myrs. These discoveries demonstrate the wealth of information which sensitive X-ray observations can yield into the formation of massive galaxies at high redshifts., ApJL, in press

High-resolution submm imaging of the HzRG, 4C60.07, at z=3.8, has revealed two dusty components. Spitzer imaging shows that one of these components (B) is coincident with an extremely red AGN, offset by ~4" (~30 kpc) from the HzRG core. The other submm component (A) - resolved by our beam and devoid of emission at 3.6-8.0um - lies between B and the HzRG core. Since the HzRG was discovered via its young, steep-spectrum lobes and their creation was likely triggered by the interaction, we argue that we are witnessing an early-stage merger, prior to its eventual equilibrium state. The interaction is between the host galaxy of an actively-fueled BH, and a gas-rich starburst/AGN (B) marked by the compact submm component and coincident with broad CO emission. `A' is a plume of cold, dusty gas, associated with a narrow (~150 km/s) CO feature, and may represent a short-lived tidal structure. It has been claimed that HzRGs and SMGs differ only in the activity of their AGNs, but such complex submm morphologies are seen only rarely amongst SMGs. Our study has important implications: where a galaxy's gas is not aligned with its central BH, CO may be an unreliable probe of dynamical mass, affecting work on the co-assembly of BHs and spheroids. Our data support the picture wherein close binary AGN are induced by mergers. They also raise the possibility that some supposedly jet-induced starbursts may have formed co-evally with (yet independently of) the radio jets, both triggered by the same interaction. We note that the HzRG host would have gone unnoticed without its jets/companion, so there may be many other unseen BHs at high redshift, lost in the sea of ~5 x 10^8 similarly bright IRAC sources - sufficiently massive to drive a >10^27-W radio source, yet practically invisible unless actively fueled (abridged)., In press at MNRAS, 10 pages, no colour

We present the optical-to-submm spectral energy distributions for 33 radio & mid-IR identified submillimetre galaxies discovered via the SHADES 850 micron SCUBA imaging in the Subaru-XMM Deep Field (SXDF). Optical data for the sources comes from the Subaru-XMM Deep Field (SXDF) and mid- and far-IR fluxes from SWIRE. We obtain photometric redshift estimates for our sources using optical and IRAC 3.6 and 4.5 micron fluxes. We then fit spectral energy distribution (SED) templates to the longer wavelength data to determine the nature of the far-IR emission that dominates the bolometric luminosity of these sources. The infrared template fits are also used to resolve ambiguous identifications and cases of redshift aliasing. The redshift distribution obtained broadly matches previous results for submm sources and on the SHADES SXDF field. Our template fitting finds that AGN, present in about 10% of sources, do not contribute significantly to their bolometric luminosity. Dust heating by starbursts, with either Arp220 or M82 type SEDs, appears to be responsible for the luminosity in most sources (23/33 are fitted by Arp220 templates, 2/33 by the warmer M82 templates). 8/33 sources, in contrast, are fit by a cooler cirrus dust template, suggesting that cold dust has a role in some of these highly luminous objects. Three of our sources appear to have multiple identifications or components at the same redshift, but we find no statistical evidence that close associations are common among our SHADES sources. Examination of rest-frame K -band luminosity suggests that 'downsizing' is underway in the submm galaxy population, with lower redshift systems lying in lower mass host galaxies. Of our 33 identifications six are found to be of lower reliability but their exclusion would not significantly alter our conclusions., MNRAS in press

We have used the IRAM Plateau de Bure mm interferometer and the UKIRT 1-5 um Imager Spectrometer to test the connection between the major phases of spheroid growth and nuclear accretion by mapping CO emission in nine submm-detected QSOs at z=1.7-2.6 with black hole (BH) masses derived from near-infrared spectroscopy. With a previously published QSO, we present sensitive CO(3-2) observations of 10 submm-detected QSOs selected at the epoch of peak activity in both QSOs and submm galaxies (SMGs). CO is detected in 5/6 very optically luminous (M_B~-28) submm-detected QSOs with BH masses M_BH~10^9-10^10 Msun, confirming the presence of large gas reservoirs of M_gas~3.4x10^10 Msun. However, we find that their BH masses are ~30 times too large and their surface density is ~300 times too small to be related to typical SMGs in an evolutionary sequence. Conversely, we measure weaker CO emission in four fainter (M_B~-25) submm-detected QSOs with properties, BH masses (M_BH~5x10^8 Msun), and surface densities similar to SMGs. These QSOs appear to lie near the local M_BH/M_sph relation, making them plausible `transition objects' in the proposed evolutionary sequence linking QSOs to the formation of massive young galaxies and BHs at high-redshift. We show that SMGs have a higher incidence of bimodal CO line profiles than seen in our QSO sample, which we interpret as an effect of their relative inclinations, with the QSOs seen more face-on. Finally, we find that the gas masses of the four fainter submm-detected QSOs imply that their star formation episodes could be sustained for ~10 Myr, and are consistent with representing a phase in the formation of massive galaxies which overlaps a preceding SMG starburst phase, before subsequently evolving into a population of present-day massive ellipticals. [abridged], Comment: 20 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS; updated references, improved upper limits given in section 3

Determining an accurate position for a submillimetre (submm) galaxy (SMG) is the crucial step that enables us to move from the basic properties of an SMG sample - source counts and 2D clustering - to an assessment of their detailed, multiwavelength properties, their contribution to the history of cosmic star formation and their links with present-day galaxy populations. In this paper, we identify robust radio and/or infrared (IR) counterparts, and hence accurate positions, for over two-thirds of the SCUBA HAlf-Degree Extragalactic Survey (SHADES) Source Catalogue, presenting optical, 24-μm and radio images of each SMG. Observed trends in identification rate have given no strong rationale for pruning the sample. Uncertainties in submm position are found to be consistent with theoretical expectations, with no evidence for significant additional sources of error. Employing the submm/radio redshift indicator, via a parametrization appropriate for radio-identified SMGs with spectroscopic redshifts, yields a median redshift of 2.8 for the radio-identified subset of SHADES, somewhat higher than the median spectroscopic redshift. We present a diagnostic colour-colour plot, exploiting Spitzer photometry, in which we identify regions commensurate with SMGs at very high redshift. Finally, we find that significantly more SMGs have multiple robust counterparts than would be expected by chance, indicative of physical associations. These multiple systems are most common amongst the brightest SMGs and are typically separated by 2-6 arcsec, similar to 15-20/sin i kpc at z~ 2, consistent with early bursts seen in merger simulations.

We report on the detection of giant pulses from the Crab Nebula pulsar at a frequency of 200 MHz using the field deployment system designed for the Mileura Widefield Array's Low Frequency Demonstrator (MWA-LFD). Our observations are among the first high-quality detections at such low frequencies. The measured pulse shapes are deconvolved for interstellar pulse broadening, yielding a pulse-broadening time of 670$\pm$100 $\mu$s, and the implied strength of scattering (scattering measure) is the lowest that is estimated towards the Crab nebula from observations made so far. The sensitivity of the system is largely dictated by the sky background, and our simple equipment is capable of detecting pulses that are brighter than $\sim$9 kJy in amplitude. The brightest giant pulse detected in our data has a peak amplitude of $\sim$50 kJy, and the implied brightness temperature is $10^{31.6}$ K. We discuss the giant pulse detection prospects with the full MWA-LFD system. With a sensitivity over two orders of magnitude larger than the prototype equipment, the full system will be capable of detecting such bright giant pulses out to a wide range of Galactic distances; from $\sim$8 to $\sim$30 kpc depending on the frequency. The MWA-LFD will thus be a highly promising instrument for the studies of giant pulses and other fast radio transients at low frequencies., Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal

Using the MPIfR Max Planck Millimeter Bolometer array (MAMBO) on the IRAM 30m Telescope we have mapped the ELAIS N2 and Lockman Hole East Fields at 1200 μm to a rms noise level of 0.8–1.0 mJy per 11″ beam. The areas surveyed are 326 arcmin² in the ELAIS N2 field and 212 arcmin² in the Lockman Hole1, and cover the 260 arcmin2 previously observed by SCUBA [5].

We present the maps, source catalogue and number counts of the largest, most complete and unbiased extragalactic submillimetre survey ever undertaken: the 850-micron SCUBA HAlf Degree Extragalactic Survey (SHADES). Using the Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array (SCUBA) on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT), SHADES mapped two separate regions of sky: the Subaru/XMM-Newton Deep Field (SXDF) and the Lockman Hole East (LH). These SCUBA maps cover 720 square arcmin with an RMS noise level of about 2 mJy and have uncovered >100 submillimetre galaxies. In order to ensure the utmost robustness of the resulting source catalogue, data reduction was independently carried out by four sub-groups drawn within the SHADES team, providing an unprecedented degree of reliability with respect to other SCUBA catalogues available from the literature. Individual source lists from the four groups were combined to produce a robust 120-object SHADES catalogue; an invaluable resource for follow-up campaigns aiming to study the properties of a complete and consistent sample of submillimetre galaxies. We present differential and integral source number counts of submillimetre galaxies and find that the differential counts are better fit with a broken power-law or a Schechter function than with a single power-law; the SHADES data alone significantly show that a break is required at several mJy, although the precise position of the break is not well constrained. We also find that an 850-micron survey complete down to 2 mJy would resolve 20-30 per cent of the Far-IR background into point sources. [abridged], 36 pages including 21 figures and 8 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRAS. Plain-text source catalogue available on the SHADES website http://www.roe.ac.uk/ifa/shades

The modest significance of most sources detected in current submm surveys can potentially compromise some analyses due to the inclusion of spurious sources in catalogues typically selected at >3.0-3.5sigma. Here, we develop and apply a dual-survey extraction technique to SCUBA and MAMBO images of the Lockman Hole. Cut above 5sigma, our catalogue of SMGs is more robust than previous samples, with a reduced likelihood of real, but faint SMGs (beneath and around the confusion limit) entering via superposition with noise. The effective flux limit of the survey is well matched to our deep 1.4-GHz image. The former is sensitive to luminous, dusty galaxies at extreme redshifts whilst the latter probes the z>3) are unlikely to make up more than ~10% of the bright SMG population. This implies that almost all of the bright SMG population is amenable to study via the deepest current radio imaging. We use these radio counterparts to provide an empirical calibration of the positional uncertainty in SMG catalogues. We then go on to outline the acquisition of redshifts for radio-identified SMGs, from sample selection in the submm, to counterpart selection in the radio and optical/IR, to slit placement on spectrograph masks. We determine a median of z=2.05 +/- 0.41 from a sample of six secure redshifts for unambigious radio-identified submm sources and z=2.14 +/- 0.27 when we include submm sources with multiple radio counterparts and/or less reliable redshifts. These figures are consistent with previous estimates, suggesting that our knowledge of the median redshift of bright SMGs population has not been biased by the low significance of the source catalogues employed., In press at MNRAS

We have investigated the rest-frame optical and far-infrared properties of a sample of extremely bright candidate Lyman-break galaxies (LBG) identified in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Their high ultraviolet luminosities and lack of strong ultraviolet emission lines are suggestive of massive starbursts, although it is possible that they are more typical luminosity LBGs which have been highly magnified by strong gravitational lensing. Alternatively, they may be an unusual class of weak-lined quasars. If the ultraviolet and submillimetre properties of these objects mirror those of less luminous, starburst LBGs, then they should have detectable rest-frame far-infrared emission. However, our submm photometry fails to detect such emission, indicating that these systems are not merely scaled-up (either intrinsically or as a result of lensing) examples of typical LBGs. In addition we have searched for the morphological signatures of strong lensing, using high-resolution, near-infrared imaging, but we find none. Instead, near-infrared spectroscopy reveals that these systems are, in fact, a rare class of broad absorption-line (BAL) quasars., In press at MNRAS. Fixed line flux units (thanks to Christian Tapken)

We present the largest catalogue to date of optical counterparts for HI radio-selected galaxies, Hopcat. Of the 4315 HI radio-detected sources from the HI Parkes All Sky Survey (Hipass) catalogue, we find optical counterparts for 3618 (84%) galaxies. Of these, 1798 (42%) have confirmed optical velocities and 848 (20%) are single matches without confirmed velocities. Some galaxy matches are members of galaxy groups. From these multiple galaxy matches, 714 (16%) have confirmed optical velocities and a further 258 (6%) galaxies are without confirmed velocities. For 481 (11%), multiple galaxies are present but no single optical counterpart can be chosen and 216 (5%) have no obvious optical galaxy present. Most of these 'blank fields' are in crowded fields along the Galactic plane or have high extinctions. Isolated 'Dark galaxy' candidates are investigated using an extinction cut of ABj < 1 mag and the blank fields category. Of the 3692 galaxies with an ABj extinction < 1 mag, only 13 are also blank fields. Of these, 12 are eliminated either with follow-up Parkes observations or are in crowded fields. The remaining one has a low surface brightness optical counterpart. Hence, no isolated optically dark galaxies have been found within the limits of the Hipass survey., 10 pages, 15 figures, MNRAS (in press)

Inspired by a paper by Hyde (1999) (H99) we propose a 30-m diffractive Fresnel lens of ultra-high molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMW-PE) as the Primary Lens (L1) of a large cold far-IR and submillimetre space telescope. The design comprises Lens (L1) and Instrument (ISC) spacecraft 3 km apart, orbiting the Sun-Earth second Lagrangian point L2. In the Instrument S/C an off-axis Ritchey-Chretien Field Optical system (FO) re-images L1 onto a Fresnel corrector (FC). Achromatic over a bandpass λ/Δλ ~7.5 at a basic wavelength of 1.2mm and its harmonics, the design offers diffraction-limited performance from ~20 to ~700μm and a 1'x4' FOV. Positional tolerances appear to allow deployment of the lens by very simple means (we suggest using Shape Memory Alloys and pneumatic pressure). The most serious technical challenge may be material homogeneity. Behind an effective sunshade L1 should cool to ~10K by radiation to space in ~1y: its dominant heat source will be the zodiacal emission. GISMO resolves the FIR background at λ ~ 200μm: an all-sky survey to ~100μJy could in principle take

arXiv:astro-ph/0407171v1, Today, almost every galaxy spheroid contains a massive black hole: a remnant of, and testament to, a period in its evolution when it contained an active galactic nucleus (AGN). However, the sequence and timescales of the formation of the black hole and surrounding spheroid of stars are completely unknown, leaving a large gap in our knowledge of how the Universe attained its present appearance. Here we present submillimeter observations of matched samples of X-ray absorbed and unabsorbed AGN which have luminosities and redshifts characteristic of the sources responsible for most of the mass in present day black holes. Strong submillimeter emission, an isotropic signature of copious star formation, is found only in the X-ray absorbed sample, ruling out orientation effects as the cause of the absorption. The space density and luminosity range of the X-ray absorbed AGN indicate that they are undergoing the transition between a hidden growth phase and an unabsorbed AGN phase, and implies that the X-ray absorbed period in the AGN's evolution coincides with the formation of the galaxy spheroid., The James Clerk Maxwell Telescope is operated on behalf of the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research and the National Research Council of Canada. FJC acknowledges financial support by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología, under grant ESP2003-00812.

We present a deep, new 1200 micron survey of the ELAIS N2 and Lockman Hole fields using the Max Planck Millimeter Bolometer array (MAMBO). The areas surveyed are 160 arcmin^2 in ELAIS N2 and 197 arcmin^2 in the Lockman Hole, covering the entire SCUBA `8 mJy Survey'. In total, 27 (44) sources have been detected at a significance >=4.0sigma (>=3.5sigma). We present the 1200 micron number counts and find evidence of a fall at bright flux levels. Employing parametric models for the evolution of the local 60 micron IRAS luminosity function (LF), we are able to account simultaneously for the 1200 and 850 micron counts, suggesting that the MAMBO and SCUBA sources trace the same underlying population of high-redshift, dust-enshrouded galaxies. From a nearest-neighbour clustering analysis we find tentative evidence that the most significant MAMBO sources come in pairs, typically separated by ~23". Our MAMBO observations unambiguously confirm around half of the SCUBA sources. In a robust sub-sample of 13 SMGs detected by both MAMBO and SCUBA at a significance >=3.5sigma, only one has no radio counterpart. Furthermore, the distribution of 850/1200 micron flux density ratios for this sub-sample is consistent with the spectroscopic redshift distribution of radio-detected SMGs (Chapman et al. 2003). Finally, we have searched for evidence of a high-redshift tail of SMGs amongst the 18 MAMBO sources which are not detected by SCUBA. While we cannot rule out that some of them are SCUBA drop-outs at z >> 3, their overall 850-to-1200 micron flux distribution is statistically indistinguishable from that of the 13 SMGS which were robustly identified by both MAMBO and SCUBA., 19 pages, 13 figures; submitted to MNRAS

The HI content of Hickson Compact Groups in the southern hemisphere is measured using data from the HI Parkes All Sky Survey (HIPASS), and dedicated observations using the narrowband filter on the Multibeam instrument on the Parkes telescope. The expected HI mass of these groups was estimated using the luminosity, diameter and morphological types of the member galaxies, calibrated from published data. Taking careful account of non-detection limits, the results show that the compact group population that has been detected by these observations has an HI content similar to that of galaxies in the reference field sample. The upper limits for the undetected groups lie within the normal range; improvement of these limits will require a large increase in sensitivity., Comment: 27 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in PASA

This catalogue forms the largest uniform catalogue of local HI sources compiled to date, giving a new perspective on the local universe. Using the data of the HI Parkes All-Sky Survey (HIPASS), covering the entire sky δ < +25° with a velocity range -1280 → 12,700 km s-1, the southern region of the survey (δ < +2°) has now been searched to full survey depth yielding ∼4500 sources. Issues presently under examination include the HI structure and dynamics of the local universe, the HI mass function, galaxy groups and clusters, the 2-point correlation function and the Tully-Fisher relation.

IIIZw2 was observed with XMM-Newton in July 2000. Its X-ray spectrum can be described by a powerlaw of photon index Gamma = 1.7 with a Gaussian line at 6.7 keV. There is no significant evidence of intrinsic absorption within the source or of a soft X-ray excess. Multi-wavelength light curves over a period of 25 years show related variations from the radio to the X-rays. We interpret the radio to optical emission as synchrotron radiation, self-absorbed in the radio/millimeter region, and the X-rays as mainly due to Compton up-scattering of low-energy photons by the population of high-energy electrons that give rise to the synchrotron radiation., 5 pages, 3 figures. Accepted for publication in PASA

The correlation, found in nearby galaxies, between black hole mass and stellar bulge mass implies that the formation of these two components must be related. Here we report submillimeter photometry of eight x--ray absorbed active galactic nuclei which have luminosities and redshifts characteristic of the sources that produce the bulk of the accretion luminosity in the universe. The four sources with the highest redshifts are detected at 850 microns, with flux densities between 5.9 and 10.1 milliJanskies, and hence are ultraluminous infrared galaxies. Interpreting the submillimeter flux as emission from dust heated by starbursts, these results suggest that the majority of stars in spheroids were formed at the same time as their central black holes built up most of their mass by accretion, accounting for the observed demography of massive black holes in the local universe. The skewed rate of submillimeter detection with redshift is consistent with a high redshift epoch of star formation in radio quiet active galactic nuclei, similar to that seen in radio galaxies., Comment: Originally published in Science Express as 10.1126/science.1065880 on November 1, 2001. Published in Science, 294, 2516. Also in Science Online: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/294/5551/2516

The SCUBA 8-mJy survey is the largest submm extragalactic mapping survey undertaken to date, centred on the Lockman Hole and ELAIS N2 regions. Here, we present new 1.4-GHz imaging of the depth and resolution necessary to reliably identify radio counterparts for 18 of 30 submm sources. Armed with this greatly improved positional information, we present and analyse new optical, near-IR and XMM-Newton X-ray imaging to identify optical/IR host galaxies to half of the submm-selected sources in those fields. As many as 15% of the submm sources detected at 1.4 GHz are resolved by the 1.4'' beam and a further 25% have more than one radio counterpart, suggesting that radio and submm emission arise from extended starbursts and that interactions are common. We note that less than a quarter of the submm-selected sample would have been recovered by targeting optically faint radio sources, underlining the selective nature of such surveys. At least 60% of the radio-confirmed optical/IR host galaxies appear to be morphologically distorted; many are composite systems - red galaxies with relatively blue companions; just over half are found to be very red or extremely red; contrary to popular belief, most are sufficiently bright to be tackled with spectrographs on 8-m telescopes. We estimate the median redshift of the S(850um) ~ 8 mJy submm galaxy population: if the radio/far-IR correlation holds at high redshift, and our sample is unbiased, we derive a conservative median z >= 2.0, or >= 2.4 using spectral templates more representative of known submm galaxies [abridged]., In press at MNRAS. Extra IR imaging now included. 27 pages; 14 figures, mostly colour. The resolution of Figs 1 and 2 has been degraded. Higher quality versions of paper available at http://www.roe.ac.uk/~rji/8mjy.ps.gz (a4) and http://www.roe.ac.uk/~rji/8mjy_letter.ps.gz (letter)

During a search for gamma-ray emission from NGC 3628 (Arp 317), two new unidentified gamma-ray sources, Fermi J1049.7+0435 and J1103.2+1145 have been discovered \cite{ATel}. The detections are made in data from the Large Area Telescope (LAT), on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, in the 100\,MeV to 300\,GeV band during the period between 2008 August 5 and 2012 October 27. Neither is coincident with any source listed in the 2FGL catalogue \cite{Nolan2012}. Fermi J1049.7+0435 is at Galactic coordinates $(l,b) = (245.34^\circ, 53.27^\circ)$, $(\alpha_{J2000}, \delta_{J2000}) = (162.43^\circ, 4.60^\circ)$. Fermi J1103.2+1145 is at Galactic coordinates $(l,b) = (238.85^\circ, 60.33^\circ)$, $(\alpha_{J2000},\delta_{J2000})= (165.81^\circ, 11.75^\circ)$. Possible radio counterparts are found for both sources, which show flat radio spectra similar to other Fermi LAT detected AGN, and their identifications are discussed. These identification have been supoorted by snap-shot observations with the Australia Telescope Compact Array at several epochs in 2013 and 2014, Comment: 2014 Fermi Symposium proceedings - eConf C14102.1 (4 pages, 3 figures)

SCUBA, the Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array, built by the Royal Observatory Edinburgh for the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, is the most versatile and powerful of a new generation of submillimetre cameras. It combines a sensitive dual-waveband imaging array with a three-band photometer, and is sky-background limited by the emission from the Mauna Kea atmosphere at all observing wavelengths from 350 microns to 2 mm. The increased sensitivity and array size mean that SCUBA maps close to 10,000 times faster than its single-pixel predecessor (UKT14). SCUBA is a facility instrument, open to the world community of users, and is provided with a high level of user support. We give an overview of the instrument, describe the observing modes and user interface, performance figures on the telescope, and present a sample of the exciting new results that have revolutionised submillimetre astronomy., 15 pages, 15 figures, accepted for Monthly Notices of RAS

We present millimetre photometry and submillimetre imaging of the central core and two hotspots in the radio lobes of the galaxy Cygnus-A. For both hotspots and the central core the synchrotron spectrum continues smoothly from the radio to a frequency of 677 GHz. The spectral index of the hotspots is constant over our frequ ency range, with a spectral index of about -1.0, which is steeper than at lower frequencies and represents the emission from an aged population of electrons. The core is significantly flatter, with a spectral index of -0.6 +/- 0.1, suggestive of an injected spectrum with no ageing, but some evidence for steepening exists at our highest observing frequency. Although IRAS data suggest t he presence of dust in Cygnus-A, our 450 um data show no evidence of cold dust, therefore the dust component must have a temperature lying between 85 K and 37 K, respectively., Comment: 7 pages, 3 figues, accepted for publication in MNRAS 1998

We present a wide multi-wavelength database of most observations of the quasar 3C 273 obtained during the last 30 years. This database is the most complete set of observations available for an active galactic nucleus (AGN). It contains nearly 20'000 observations grouped together into 70 light curves covering 16 orders of magnitude in frequency from the radio to the gamma-ray domain. The database is constituted of many previously unpublished observations and of most publicly available data gathered in the literature and on the World Wide Web (WWW). It is complete to the best of our knowledge, except in the optical (UBV) domain where we chose not to add all observations from the literature. In addition to the photometric data, we present the spectra of 3C 273 obtained by the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) satellite. In the X-ray domain, we used the spectral fit parameters from the literature to construct the light curves. Apart from describing the data, we show the most representative light curves and the average spectrum of 3C 273. The database is available on the WWW in a homogeneous and clear form and we wish to update it regularly by adding new observations., Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, to be published in A&AS, data available at: http://obswww.unige.ch/3c273/

We report CGRO, RXTE, ASCA, ROSAT, IUE, HST and ground-based observations of a large flare in 3C 279 in February 1996. X-rays and γ-rays peaked simultaneously (within one day). We show simultaneous spectral energy distributions prior to and near the flare peak. The γ-ray flare was the brightest ever observed in this source.

Results from a multiwaveband study of the γ-ray-bright compact radio source 3C 454.3 are presented.

We present the results of new rest-frame far-IR observations of the z = 4.25 radio galaxy, 8C1435+635, which not only confirm that it contains an enormous quantity of dust (as first inferred from its mm-wave detection by Ivison 1995) but also allow the first meaningful constraints to be placed on the mass of this dust and associated gas. The new measurements consist of: (i) clear detections of sub-mm continuum emission at 450 and 850um obtained with the new sub-mm bolometer array, SCUBA, on the JCMT, (ii) continuum upper limits at 350, 750 and 175um obtained with SCUBA and the PHT far-IR camera aboard ISO, and (iii) a sensitive upper limit on the CO(4-3) line flux obtained with the IRAM 30-m MRT. The resulting rest-frame 33- to 238-um continuum coverage allows us to deduce that 2E8 Msun of dust at a temperature of 40 +/- 5 K is responsible for the observed mm/sub-mm emission. Using our CO upper limit, which constrains M(H2)/M(dust) to, 7 pages, 3 figures, LaTeX, uses emulateapj.sty (included), accepted for ApJ

In this paper, we explore for the first time the relative magnitudes of three fundamental sources of uncertainty, namely, foreground contamination, thermal noise, and sample variance, in detecting the H I power spectrum from the epoch of reionization (EoR). We derive limits on the sensitivity of a Fourier synthesis telescope to detect EoR based on its array configuration and a statistical representation of images made by the instrument. We use the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) configuration for our studies. Using a unified framework for estimating signal and noise components in the H I power spectrum, we derive an expression for and estimate the contamination from extragalactic point-like sources in three-dimensional k-space. Sensitivity for EoR H I power spectrum detection is estimated for different observing modes with MWA. With 1000 hr of observing on a single field using the 128 tile MWA, EoR detection is feasible (S/N >1 for k [< over ~] 0.8 Mpc[superscript –1]). Bandpass shaping and refinements to the EoR window are found to be effective in containing foreground contamination, which makes the instrument tolerant to imaging errors. We find that for a given observing time, observing many independent fields of view does not offer an advantage over a single field observation when thermal noise dominates over other uncertainties in the derived power spectrum., National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant AST-0457585), National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant PHY-0835713), National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant CAREER-0847753), National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant AST-0908884), United States. Air Force Office of Scientific Research (Grant FA9550-0510247), Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, MIT School of Science

We present a Stokes I, Q and U survey at 189 MHz with the Murchison Widefield Array 32-element prototype covering 2400 square degrees. The survey has a 15.6 arcmin angular resolution and achieves a noise level of 15 mJy/beam. We demonstrate a novel interferometric data analysis that involves calibration of drift scan data, integration through the co-addition of warped snapshot images and deconvolution of the point spread function through forward modeling. We present a point source catalogue down to a flux limit of 4 Jy. We detect polarization from only one of the sources, PMN J0351-2744, at a level of 1.8 \pm 0.4%, whereas the remaining sources have a polarization fraction below 2%. Compared to a reported average value of 7% at 1.4 GHz, the polarization fraction of compact sources significantly decreases at low frequencies. We find a wealth of diffuse polarized emission across a large area of the survey with a maximum peak of ~13 K, primarily with positive rotation measure values smaller than +10 rad/m^2. The small values observed indicate that the emission is likely to have a local origin (closer than a few hundred parsecs). There is a large sky area at 2^h30^m where the diffuse polarized emission rms is fainter than 1 K. Within this area of low Galactic polarization we characterize the foreground properties in a cold sky patch at $(\alpha,\delta) = (4^h,-27^\circ.6)$ in terms of three dimensional power spectra