Search

We have used spectra of hot stars from the RAVE Survey in order to investigate the visibility and properties of five diffuse interstellar bands previously reported in the literature. The RAVE spectroscopic survey for Galactic structure and kinematics records CCD spectra covering the 8400-8800 Ang wavelength region at 7500 resolving power. The spectra are obtained with the UK Schmidt at the AAO, equipped with the 6dF multi-fiber positioner. The DIB at 8620.4 Ang is by far the strongest and cleanest of all DIBs occurring within the RAVE wavelength range, with no interference by underlying absorption stellar lines in hot stars. It correlates so tightly with reddening that it turns out to be a reliable tool to measure it, following the relation E(B-V) = 2.72 (+/- 0.03) x E.W.(Ang), valid throughout the general interstellar medium of our Galaxy. The presence of a DIB at 8648 Ang is confirmed. Its intensity appears unrelated to reddening, in agreement with scanty and preliminary reports available in the literature, and its measurability is strongly compromised by severe blending with underlying stellar HeI doublet at 8649 Ang. The two weak DIBS at 8531 and 8572 Ang do not appear real and should actually be blends of underlying stellar lines. The very weak DIB at 8439 Ang cannot be resolved within the profile of the much stronger underlying hydrogen Paschen 18 stellar line., Accepted in press by A&A

Accepted: 2007-12-11, 資料番号: SA1000654000

Aims. We present a comparison between independent computer codes, modeling the physics and chemistry of interstellar photon dominated regions (PDRs). Our goal was to understand the mutual differences in the PDR codes and their effects on the physical and chemical structure of the model clouds, and to converge the output of different codes to a common solution.Methods. A number of benchmark models have been created, covering low and high gas densities n = 10(3), 10(5.5) cm(-3) and far ultraviolet intensities chi = 10, 10(5) in units of the Draine field (FUV: 6 Results. We investigated the impact of PDR geometry and agreed on the comparison of results from spherical and plane-parallel PDR models. We identified a number of key processes governing the chemical network which have been treated differently in the various codes such as the effect of PAHs on the electron density or the temperature dependence of the dissociation of CO by cosmic ray induced secondary photons, and defined a proper common treatment. We established a comprehensive set of reference models for ongoing and future PDR model bench-marking and were able to increase the agreement in model predictions for all benchmark models significantly. Nevertheless, the remaining spread in the computed observables such as the atomic fine-structure line intensities serves as a warning that there is still a considerable uncertainty when interpreting astronomical data with our models.

Pulsar dynamic spectra exhibit high-visibility fringes arising from interference between scattered radiowaves. These fringes may be random or of highly ordered patterns, depending on the nature of the scattering or refraction. Here we consider the possibility of decomposing pulsar dynamic spectra-which are intensity measurements-into their constituent scattered waves, i.e. electric field components. We describe an iterative method of achieving this decomposition and show how the algorithm performs on data from the pulsar B0834+06. The match between model and observations is good, although not formally acceptable as a representation of the data. Scattered wave components derived in this way are immediately useful for qualitative insights into the scattering geometry. With some further development, this approach can be put to a variety of uses, including: imaging the scattering and refracting structures in the interstellar medium; interstellar interferometric imaging of pulsars at a very high angular resolution and mitigating pulse arrival time fluctuations due to interstellar scattering.

We report high spectral resolution Australia Telescope Compact Array HI 21 cm ob-servations resulting in the detection of the warm neutral medium (WNM) of the Galaxy inabsorption against two extragalactic radio sources, PKS 1814−637 and PKS 0407−658.Thetwo lines of sight were selected on the basis of the simplicity of their absorption profilesand the strength of the background sources; the high velocity resolution of the spectra thenenabled us to estimate the kinetic temperatures of the absorbing gas by fitting multiple Gaus-sians to the absorption profiles. Four separate WNM componen ts were detected toward thetwo sources, with peak optical depths τ max = (1.0 ± 0.08) × 10 −2 , (1.4 ± 0.2) × 10 −3 ,(2.2 ± 0.5) × 10 −3 and (3.4 ± 0.5) × 10 −3 and kinetic temperatures T k = 3127± 300 K,3694± 1595 K, 3500± 1354 K and 2165± 608 K respectively. All four components werethus found to have temperatures in the thermally unstable range 500 < T k < 5000 K; thissuggests that thermal equilibrium has not been reached throughout the WNM.Key words: radio lines: ISM – ISM: general – ISM: structure

We present flux ratio curves of the fold and cusp (i.e., close multiple) images of six Jodrell Bank VLA Astrometric Survey and Cosmic Lens All-Sky Survey (JVAS/CLASS) gravitational lens systems. The data were obtained over a period of 8.5 months in 2001 with the Multi Element Radio- Linked Interferometer Network ( MERLIN) at 5 GHz with 50 mas resolution, as part of a MERLIN Key Project. Even though the time delays between the fold and cusp images are small (less than or similar to1 day) compared to the timescale of intrinsic source variability, all six lens systems show evidence that suggests the presence of extrinsic variability. In particular, the cusp images of B2045+ 265 - regarded as the strongest case of the violation of the cusp relation (i.e., the sum of the magnifications of the three cusp images add to zero) - show extrinsic variations in their flux ratios up to similar to40% peak to peak on timescales of several months. Its low Galactic latitude of b approximate to - 10degrees and a line of sight toward the Cygnus superbubble region suggest that Galactic scintillation is the most likely cause. The cusp images of B1422+ 231 at b approximate to +69degrees do not show strong extrinsic variability. Galactic scintillation can therefore cause significant scatter in the cusp and fold relations of some radio lens systems ( up to 10% rms), even though these relations remain violated when averaged over a less than or similar to 1 yr time baseline.

Much of the interstellar medium in disk galaxies is in the form of neutral atomic hydrogen, H I. This gas can be in thermal equilibrium at relatively low temperatures, T less than or similar to 300 K (the cold neutral medium [CNM]), or at temperatures somewhat less than 104 K (the warm neutral medium [WNM]). These two phases can coexist over a narrow range of pressures, P(min) less than or equal to P less than or equal to P(max). We determine P(min) and P(max) in the plane of the Galaxy as a function of Galactocentric radius R using recent determinations of the gas heating rate and the gas-phase abundances of interstellar gas. We provide an analytic approximation for P(min) as a function of metallicity, far-ultraviolet radiation field, and the ionization rate of atomic hydrogen. Our analytic results show that the existence of P(min), or the possibility of a two-phase equilibrium, generally requires that H(+) exceed C(+) in abundance at P(min). The abundance of H(+) is set by EUV/soft X-ray photoionization and by recombination with negatively charged polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. In order to assess whether thermal or pressure equilibrium is a realistic assumption, we de. ne a parameter Y = t(cool)/t(shock), where t(cool) is the gas cooling time and t(shock) is the characteristic shock time or "time between shocks in a turbulent medium.'' For Y

International audience; An extreme scattering event (ESE) has been detected in the direction of the millisecond pulsar J1643-1224 at 1.28 and 1.41 GHz. Its duration is 3 years and this makes it the longest ESE ever recorded. We have used the standard model of a purely refractive lens to interpret the observed radio light curves. This lens is a fully ionized cloud crossing the line of sight. We have found that our data imply that its transverse size is 56 AU, which is much larger than similar to1 AU typical of the other ESEs in the direction of the pulsar B1937+21. If the cloud is located at the mid-distance to J1643-1224 (2500 pc), its electron density is 130 e cm(-3). Such a highly pressurized structure has a short lifetime (29 yr), and this requires a replenishment mechanism at work in the interstellar medium that is unidentified at present. Alternative models are filamentary clouds seen through their long axis or a cold molecular hydrogen cloud with an ionized shell, as proposed by Walker Wardle.

[Aims] Ionized carbon is the main gas-phase reservoir of carbon in the neutral diffuse interstellar medium (ISM) and its 158 μm fine structure transition [C ii] is the most important cooling line of the diffuse ISM. We combine [C ii] absorption and emission spectroscopy to gain an improved understanding of physical conditions in the different phases of the ISM., [Methods] We present high-resolution [C ii] spectra obtained with the Herschel/HIFI instrument towards bright dust continuum regions in the Galactic plane, probing simultaneously the diffuse gas along the line of sight and the background high-mass star forming regions. These data are complemented by single pointings in the 492 and 809 GHz fine structure lines of atomic carbon and by medium spectral resolution spectral maps of the fine structure lines of atomic oxygen at 63 and 145 μm with Herschel/PACS., [Results] We show that the presence of foreground absorption may completely cancel the emission from the background source in medium spectral resolution PACS data and that high spectral resolution spectra are needed to interpret the [C ii] and [O i] emission and the [C ii]/FIR ratio. This phenomenon may explain part of the [C ii]/FIR deficit seen in external luminous infrared galaxies where the bright emission from the nuclear regions may be partially canceled by absorption from diffuse gas in the foreground. The C+ and C excitation in the diffuse gas is consistent with a median pressure of ~5900 K cm-3 for a mean kinetic temperature of ~100 K. A few higher pressure regions are detected along the lines of sight, as emission features in both fine structure lines of atomic carbon. The knowledge of the gas density allows us to determine the filling factor of the absorbing gas along the selected lines of sight. The derived median value of the filling factor is 2.4%, in good agreement with the properties of the Galactic cold neutral medium. The mean excitation temperature is used to derive the average cooling due to C+ in the Galactic plane : 9.5 × 10-26 erg-1H-1. Along the observed lines of sight, the gas phase carbon abundance does not exhibit a strong gradient as a function of Galacto-centric radius and has a weighted average of C/H = 1.5 ± 0.4 × 10-4., M.G., M.R., A.G. and E.F. acknowledge support from the Centre National de Recherche Spatiale (CNES). This work was partly funded by grant ANR-09-BLAN-0231-01 from the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche as part of the SCHISM project. J.R.G. thanks Spanish MINECO for funding support under grants CDS2009-00038, AYA2009-07304 and AYA2012-32032. M.R. is supported by the 3DICE project, funded by an ERC Starting grant (Agreement number 336474). NRAO is operated by Associated Universities, Inc., under contract with the National Science Foundation.

We present spectroscopic data of ionized gas in the disk-halo regions of three edge-on galaxies, NGC 891, NGC 4631, and NGC 3079, covering a wavelength range from [O II] 3727 Angstrom to [S II] 6716.4 Angstrom. The inclusion of the [O II] emission provides new constraints on the properties of the diffuse ionized gas, in particular the origin of the observed spatial variations in the line-intensity ratios. We used three different methods to derive electron temperatures, abundances, and ionization fractions along the slit. The increase in the [O II]/H alpha line ratio toward the halo in all three galaxies requires an increase in either electron temperature or oxygen abundance. Keeping the oxygen abundance constant yields the most reasonable results for temperature, abundances, and ionization fractions. Since a constant oxygen abundance seems to require an increase in temperature toward the halo, we conclude that gradients in the electron temperature play a significant role in the observed variations in the optical line ratios from extraplanar diffuse ionized gas in these three spiral galaxies.

When measuring diameters of partially resolved sources often a technique called gaussian deconvolution is used. This technique yields a gaussian diameter which subsequently has to be multiplied with a conversion factor to obtain the true angular diameter of the source. This conversion factor is a function of the FWHM of the beam or point spread function and also depends on the intrinsic surface brightness distribution of the source. In this paper conversion factors are presented for a number of simple geometries: a circular constant surface brightness disk and a spherical constant emissivity shell, using a range of values for the inner radius. Also more realistic geometries are studied, based on a spherically symmetric photo-ionization model of a planetary nebula. This enables a study of optical depth effects, a comparison between images in various emission lines and the use of power law density distributions. It is found that the conversion factor depends quite critically on the intrinsic surface brightness distribution, which is usually unknown. The uncertainty is particularly large if extended regions of low surface brightness are present in the nebula. In such cases the use of gaussian or second moment deconvolution is not recommended. As an alternative, a new algorithm is presented which allows the determination of the intrinsic FWHM of the source using only the observed surface brightness distribution and the FWHM of the beam. Tests show that this implicit deconvolution method works well in realistic conditions, even when the signal-to-noise is low, provided that the beam size is less than roughly 2/3 of the observed FWHM and the beam profile can be approximated by a gaussian., 11 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

Optical CCD imaging and spectroscopic observations of three supernova remnants are presented. Optical emission from G 54.4-0.3 and G 59.8+1.2 is detected for the first time, while the first flux calibrated CCD images of the supernova remnant G 126.2+1.6 were performed in the optical emission lines of Halpha+[N II], [O III] and [S II]. A mixture of filamentary and diffuse structures is observed in G 54.4-0.3 and G 59.8+1.2, mainly in Halpha+[N II], while the deep optical images of G 126.2+1.6 reveal several new filamentary and diffuse structures inside the extent of the remnant as defined by its known radio emission. In all cases, the radio emission is found to be well correlated with the optical filaments. [O III] emission was not detected at G 54.4-0.3 and G 59.8+1.2 while in G 126.2+1.6, significant morphological differences between the low and medium ionization images are present suggesting incomplete shock structures. Deep long-slit spectra were taken at different positions of the remnants. Both the flux calibrated images and the long-slit spectra clearly show that the emission originates from shock-heated gas, while some spectra of G 126.2+1.6 are characterized by large [O III]/Hbeta ratios. This remnant's [O III] flux suggests shock velocities into the interstellar "clouds" between 100 and 120 km/s, while the [O III] absence in the other two remnants indicates slower shock velocities. For all remnants, the [S II]6716/6731 ratio indicates electron densities below 600 cm^{-3} with particularly low densities for G 54.4-0.3 (below 50 cm^{-3}). Finally, the Halpha emission has been measured to be between 3.0 to 15.2x10^{-17} erg/s/cm^2/ arcsec^2, 3.2x10^{-17} erg/s/cm^2/ arcsec^2 and between 6.5 to 16.8x10^{-17} erg/s/cm^2/ arcsec^2 for G 54.4-0.3, G 59.8+1.2 and G 126.2+1.6, respectively., Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in A&A

Pulsar dynamic spectra exhibit high-visibility fringes arising from interference between scattered radiowaves. These fringes may be random or of highly ordered patterns, depending on the nature of the scattering or refraction. Here we consider the possibility of decomposing pulsar dynamic spectra-which are intensity measurements-into their constituent scattered waves, i.e. electric field components. We describe an iterative method of achieving this decomposition and show how the algorithm performs on data from the pulsar B0834+06. The match between model and observations is good, although not formally acceptable as a representation of the data. Scattered wave components derived in this way are immediately useful for qualitative insights into the scattering geometry. With some further development, this approach can be put to a variety of uses, including: imaging the scattering and refracting structures in the interstellar medium; interstellar interferometric imaging of pulsars at a very high angular resolution and mitigating pulse arrival time fluctuations due to interstellar scattering.

We present flux-ratio curves of the fold and cusp (i.e. close multiple) images of six JVAS/CLASS gravitational lens systems. The data were obtained over a period of 8.5 months in 2001 with the Multi-Element Radio-Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN) at 5-GHz with 50 mas resolution, as part of a MERLIN Key-Project. Even though the time delays between the fold and cusp images are small (, Comment: 17pag, 2 figs, 2 tables; version as accepted for publication in ApJ

We present an analysis of ISO-SWS observations of the Herbig Ae/Be stars HD 97048 and Elias 1. Besides the well-known family of IR emission bands at 3.3, 6.2, "7.7", 8.6 and 11.2 mum these objects show strong, peculiar emission features at 3.43 and 3.53 mum. The latter two features show pronounced substructure which is very similar in the two sources. Comparison of the spectra of HD 97048 and Elias 1 with laboratory spectra of H-terminated diamond surfaces show excellent and very convincing agreement in peak position and spectral detail (Guillois et al. 1999). The position of the 3.53 mum band indicates a temperature of similar to1000 K. An analysis of the radiative energy budget makes us conclude that the diamond carrier of the 3.53 mum feature has typical sizes of 1-10 nm for HD 97048. A fit of the 3.53 mum feature with a theoretical, calculated profile indicates that the emitting diamonds in HD 97048 see a FUV flux of 5.8 x 10(-3) [W/cm(2)]. The derived diamond mass, 1.5 x 10(-10) M-circle dot, is only a tiny fraction of the total circumstellar dust mass and corresponds to only about 1 parts per billion relative to hydrogen. We discuss the origin of the diamond around these Herbig Ae/Be stars and conclude that most likely they are formed in situ. The implications for the nanodiamonds discovered in meteorites are also discussed.

We present a calibration of the massive star formation rate vs. [CII] luminosity relation based on a sample of nearby, late-type galaxies observed with ISO-LWS and imaged in the Halpha+[NII] line. The relation holds for far-IR luminosities 10^8 < L_{FIR} < 10^{10.5} L (solar units). The derived star formation rates have an uncertainty of about a factor of 10. Part of this uncertainty is due to the different mix of contributions to the [CII] emission from the different components of the interstellar medium in individual galaxies, as discussed in an appendix., Accepted for publication on Astronomy & Astrophysics

We present spectroscopic data of ionized gas in the disk-halo regions of three edge-on galaxies, NGC 891, NGC 4631, and NGC 3079, covering a wavelength range from [O II] 3727 Angstrom to [S II] 6716.4 Angstrom. The inclusion of the [O II] emission provides new constraints on the properties of the diffuse ionized gas, in particular the origin of the observed spatial variations in the line-intensity ratios. We used three different methods to derive electron temperatures, abundances, and ionization fractions along the slit. The increase in the [O II]/H alpha line ratio toward the halo in all three galaxies requires an increase in either electron temperature or oxygen abundance. Keeping the oxygen abundance constant yields the most reasonable results for temperature, abundances, and ionization fractions. Since a constant oxygen abundance seems to require an increase in temperature toward the halo, we conclude that gradients in the electron temperature play a significant role in the observed variations in the optical line ratios from extraplanar diffuse ionized gas in these three spiral galaxies.

We report a deep survey of diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs) between 3906 Angstrom and 6812 Angstrom under consistent observing conditions toward three very reddened and five unreddened stars. BD+63 degrees 1964's line-of-sight was shown to present exceptional DIB enhancement in number as well as in strength. The early spectral type of the star and the use of spectra of an unreddened comparison star of the same spectral type allowed to limit stellar line residuals. Using careful reduction and analysis methods we discovered 60 new DIBs which are confirmed in the reddened targets HD 183143 and BD+40 degrees 4220. We detected 25 possible DIBs which still await further confirmation, but we did not detect or confirm 28 previously reported DIBs. The present survey with 226 confirmed DIBs, measured in three targets allows a detailed and homogeneous statistical analysis on the distribution of DIB widths and intensities.

We report on the discovery of a source which exhibits over 300% amplitude changes in radio flux density on the period of hours. This source, J1819+3845, is the most extremely variable extragalactic source known in the radio sky. We believe these properties are due to interstellar scintillation, and show that the source must emit at least 55% of its flux density within a radius of 5.10^{12} K, and the source may be explained by a relativistically moving source with a Doppler factor ~15. The scattering occurs predominantly in material only a few tens of parsecs from the earth, which explains its unusually rapid variability. If the source PKS 0405-385 (Kedziora-Chudczer et al 1997) is similarly affected by local scattering material, Doppler factors of ~1000 are not required to explain this source. The discovery of a second source whose properties are well modeled by interstellar scintillation strengthens the argument for this as the cause for much of the variations seen in intra-day variables (IDV)., To appear in ApJL