Astrophysics of Galaxies

New submissions

• New submissions
• Cross-lists
• Replacements

New submissions for Mon, 13 May 24

[1]  arXiv:2405.06010 [pdf, other]

Title: The miniJPAS Survey: The radial distribution of star formation rates in faint X-ray active galactic nuclei

Authors: Nischal Acharya, Silvia Bonoli, Mara Salvato, Ariana Cortesi, M. Rosa González Delgado, Ivan Ezequiel Lopez, Isabel Marquez, Ginés Martínez-Solaeche, Abdurro'uf, David Alexander, Marcella Brusa, Jonás Chaves-Montero, Juan Antonio Fernández Ontiveros, Brivael Laloux, Andrea Lapi, George Mountrichas, Cristina Ramos Almeida, Julio Esteban Rodríguez Martín, Francesco Shankar, Roberto Soria, M. José Vilchez, Raul Abramo, Jailson Alcaniz, Narciso Benitez, Saulo Carneiro, Javier Cenarro, David Cristóbal-Hornillos, Renato Dupke, Alessandro Ederoclite, A. Hernán-Caballero, Carlos López-Sanjuan, Antonio Marín-Franch, Caludia Mendes de Oliveira, Mariano Moles, Laerte Sodré Jr., Keith Taylor, Jesús Varela, Héctor Vázquez Ramió

Comments: 21 pages, 20 figures

Subjects: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA); High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)

We study the impact of black hole nuclear activity on both the global and radial star formation rate (SFR) profiles in X-ray-selected active galactic nuclei (AGN) in the field of miniJPAS, the precursor of the much wider J-PAS project. Our sample includes 32 AGN with $z<0.3$ detected via the \textit{XMM-Newton} and \textit{Chandra} surveys. For comparison, we assembled a control sample of 71 star-forming (SF) galaxies with similar magnitudes, sizes, and redshifts.
To derive the global properties of both the AGN and the control SF sample, we used \texttt{CIGALE} to fit the spectral energy distributions derived from the 56 narrowband and 4 broadband filters from miniJPAS. We find that AGN tend to reside in more massive galaxies than their SF counterparts. After matching samples based on stellar mass and comparing their SFRs and specific SFRs (sSFRs), no significant differences appear. This suggests that the presence of AGN does not strongly influence overall star formation.
However, when we used miniJPAS as an integral field unit (IFU) to dissect galaxies along their position angle, a different picture emerges. We find that AGN tend to be more centrally concentrated in mass with respect to SF galaxies. Moreover, we find a suppression of the sSFR up to 1R$\mathrm{_e}$ and then an enhancement beyond 1R$\mathrm{_e}$, strongly contrasting with the decreasing radial profile of sSFRs in SF galaxies. This could point to an inside-out quenching of AGN host galaxies.
These findings suggest that the reason we do not see differences on a global scale is because star formation is suppressed in the central regions and enhanced in the outer regions of AGN host galaxies. While limited in terms of sample size, this work highlights the potential of the upcoming J-PAS as a wide-field low-resolution IFU for thousands of nearby galaxies and AGN.

[2]  arXiv:2405.06015 [pdf, other]

Title: Fast-moving stars around an intermediate-mass black hole in Omega Centauri

Authors: Maximilian Häberle, Nadine Neumayer, Anil Seth, Andrea Bellini, Mattia Libralato, Holger Baumgardt, Matthew Whitaker, Antoine Dumont, Mayte Alfaro Cuello, Jay Anderson, Callie Clontz, Nikolay Kacharov, Sebastian Kamann, Anja Feldmeier-Krause, Antonino Milone, Maria Selina Nitschai, Renuka Pechetti, Glenn van de Ven

Comments: 33 pages, 11 figures and 2 tables. Accepted for publication in Nature. It is embargoed for discussion in the press until formal publication in Nature. Several press releases are pending

Subjects: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)

Black holes have been found over a wide range of masses, from stellar remnants with masses of 5-150 solar masses (Msun), to those found at the centers of galaxies with $M>10^5$ Msun. However, only a few debated candidate black holes exist between 150 and $10^5$ Msun. Determining the population of these intermediate-mass black holes is an important step towards understanding supermassive black hole formation in the early universe. Several studies have claimed the detection of a central black hole in $\omega$ Centauri, the Milky Way's most massive globular cluster. However, these studies have been questioned due to the possible mass contribution of stellar mass black holes, their sensitivity to the cluster center, and the lack of fast-moving stars above the escape velocity. Here we report observations of seven fast-moving stars in the central 3 arcseconds (0.08 pc) of $\omega$ Centauri. The velocities of the fast-moving stars are significantly higher than the expected central escape velocity of the star cluster, so their presence can only be explained by being bound to a massive black hole. From the velocities alone, we can infer a firm lower limit of the black hole mass of $\sim$8,200 Msun, making this a compelling candidate for an intermediate-mass black hole in the local universe.

[3]  arXiv:2405.06016 [pdf, other]

Title: The satellite galaxy plane of NGC 4490 in light of ΛCDM - Sparsity of similarly extreme analogs and a possible role of satellite pairs

Authors: Marcel S. Pawlowski, Oliver Müller, Salvatore Taibi, Mariana P. Júlio, Kosuke Jamie Kanehisa, Nick Heesters

Comments: 9 pages, 6 figures, 1 satellite galaxy plane. Accepted for publication in A&A. Abstract slightly abridged

Subjects: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA); Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO)

The galaxy system around NGC4490 was recently highlighted to display a flattened, kinematically correlated structure reminiscent of satellite galaxy planes around other hosts. Since known satellite planes are in tension with $\Lambda$CDM expectations from cosmological simulations, we quantitatively assess for the first time the tension posed by the NGC4490 system. We measure the on-sky flattening as the major-to-minor axis ratio b/a of the satellite distribution and their line-of-sight kinematic correlation. Analogs are selected in the IllustrisTNG-50 simulation and their flattening and correlation are similarly measured. We confirm the strong kinematic coherence of all 12 observed objects with available line-of-sight velocities (of 14 in total): the northern ones approach and the southern ones recede relative to the host. The spatial distribution of all 14 objects is substantially flattened with b/a=0.38 (0.26 considering only the 12 objects with velocities). Such extreme arrangements are rare in the simulation at 0.21-0.35%. This would drop further if at least one of the two satellite objects without velocities is confirmed to follow the kinematic trend, and would become zero if both are rejected as non-members. We also identify a likely galaxy pair in the observed system, and find a similar pair in the best-matching simulated analog. Our findings establish NGC4490 as another strong example of a satellite plane in the Local Volume. This emphasizes that planes of satellites are a more general issue faced by $\Lambda$CDM also beyond the Local Group. The tension with typical systems in simulations suggests that the observed one requires a specific formation scenario, potentially connected to the larger-scale galaxy alignment in its vicinity. The presence of galaxy pairs in the observed and a simulated system hints at the importance such groupings may have to understand satellite planes.

[4]  arXiv:2405.06017 [pdf, other]

Title: Effect of the Large Magellanic Cloud on the kinematics of Milky Way satellites and virial mass estimate

Authors: Andrey Kravtsov, Sophia Winney

Comments: 9 pages, 11 figures

Subjects: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)

We present a study illustrating the effects of the passage of a Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) mass satellite on the distance and velocity distributions of satellites in $\Lambda+$Cold Dark Matter simulations of Milky Way (MW) sized halos. In agreement with previous studies, we find that during such a passage the velocity distribution develops a high-velocity tail due to the reflex motion of the inner part of the halo, which can bias velocity-based virial halo mass estimates. When the velocity distribution of MW satellites is corrected for effects of the LMC passage, it is consistent with the distributions in halos of masses as low as $M_{\rm 200c}=8\times 10^{11}\, M_\odot$ and as high as $1.5\times 10^{12}\,M_\odot$. We present a new halo mass estimator $M_{\rm 200c}=c\sigma^2_{\rm 3D}r_{\rm med}$, where $c$ is a constant calibrated using satellite systems in the simulated MW-sized halos, $\sigma^2_{\rm 3D}$ is the variance of 3D velocities taken with the sign of the radial velocity of each satellite, and $r_{\rm med}$ is the median halocentric distance of the satellites. We show that the estimator has only $s=8\%$ scatter around the median relation of the estimated and true halo masses and deviates by $<2s$ from the median during the pericentric passage of an LMC-like subhalo. This is because $\sigma^2_{\rm 3D}$ and $r_{\rm med}$ deviate in opposite directions during such passages. We apply the estimator to the MW satellite system and estimate the virial mass of the Milky Way of $M_{\rm 200c}=9.96\pm 1.45\times 10^{11}\, M_\odot$, in good agreement with several recent estimates using other methods.

[5]  arXiv:2405.06018 [pdf, other]

Title: Correcting for the overabundance of low-mass quiescent galaxies in semi-analytic models

Authors: Jimi E. Harrold, Omar Almaini, Frazer R. Pearce, Robert M. Yates

Comments: 7 pages, 2 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

Subjects: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)

We compare the L-Galaxies semi-analytic model to deep observational data from the UKIDSS Ultra Deep Survey (UDS) across the redshift range $0.5 < z < 3$. We find that the over-abundance of low-mass, passive galaxies at high redshifts in the model can be attributed solely to the properties of `orphan' galaxies, i.e. satellite galaxies where the simulation has lost track of the host dark matter subhalo. We implement a simple model that boosts the star-formation rates in orphan galaxies by matching them to non-orphaned satellite galaxies at a similar evolutionary stage. This straightforward change largely addresses the discrepancy in the low-mass passive fraction across all redshifts. We find that the orphan problem is somewhat alleviated by higher resolution simulations, but the preservation of a larger gas reservoir in orphans is still required to produce a better fit to the observed space density of low-mass passive galaxies. Our findings are also robust to the precise definition of the passive galaxy population. In general, considering the vastly different prescriptions used for orphans in semi-analytic models, we recommend that they are analysed separately from the resolved satellite galaxy population, particularly with JWST observations reigniting interest in the low-mass regime in which they dominate.

[6]  arXiv:2405.06025 [pdf, other]

Title: REBELS-25: Discovery of a dynamically cold disc galaxy at z = 7.31

Authors: Lucie E. Rowland, Jacqueline Hodge, Rychard Bouwens, Pavel Mancera Piña, Alexander Hygate, Hiddo Algera, Manuel Aravena, Rebecca Bowler, Elisabete da Cunha, Pratika Dayal, Andrea Ferrara, Thomas Herard-Demanche, Hanae Inami, Ivana van Leeuwen, Ilse de Looze, Pascal Oesch, Andrea Pallottini, Siân Phillips, Matus Rybak, Sander Schouws, Renske Smit, Laura Sommovigo, Mauro Stefanon, Paul van der Werf

Comments: Submitted to MNRAS

Subjects: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)

We present high resolution ($\sim0.14$" = 710 pc) ALMA [CII] 158$\mu$m and dust continuum follow-up observations of REBELS-25, a [CII]-luminous ($L_{\mathrm{[CII]}}=(1.7\pm0.2)\times 10^9 \mathrm{L_{\odot}}$) galaxy at redshift $z=7.3065\pm0.0001$. These high resolution, high signal-to-noise observations allow us to study the sub-kpc morphology and kinematics of this massive ($M_* = 8^{+4}_{-2} \times 10^9 \mathrm{M_{\odot}}$) star-forming (SFR$_{\mathrm{UV+IR}} = 199^{+101}_{-63} \mathrm{M_{\odot}} \mathrm{yr}^{-1}$) galaxy in the Epoch of Reionisation. By modelling the kinematics with $^{\mathrm{3D}}$BAROLO, we find it has a low velocity dispersion ($\bar{\sigma} = 33 \pm 9$ km s$^{-1}$) and a high ratio of ordered-to-random motion ($V_{\mathrm{rot, ~max}}/\bar{\sigma} = 11 ^{+8}_{-4}$), indicating that REBELS-25 is a dynamically cold disc. Additionally, we find that the [CII] distribution is well fit by a near-exponential disc model, with a S\'ersic index, $n$, of $1.3 \pm 0.2$, and we see tentative evidence of more complex non-axisymmetric structures suggestive of a bar in the [CII] and dust continuum emission. By comparing to other high spatial resolution cold gas kinematic studies, we find that dynamically cold discs seem to be more common in the high redshift Universe than expected based on prevailing galaxy formation theories, which typically predict more turbulent and dispersion-dominated galaxies in the early Universe as an outcome of merger activity, gas accretion and more intense feedback. This higher degree of rotational support seems instead to be consistent with recent cosmological simulations that have highlighted the contrast between cold and warm ionised gas tracers, particularly for massive galaxies. We therefore show that dynamically settled disc galaxies can form as early as 700 Myr after the Big Bang.

[7]  arXiv:2405.06027 [pdf, other]

Title: Investigating the {Origin} of the Absorption-Line Variability in Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 Galaxy WPVS 007

Authors: Kaylie S. Green (University of Western Ontario), Sarah C. Gallagher (University of Western Ontario), Karen M. Leighly (University of Oklahoma), Hyunseop Choi (University of Oklahoma), Dirk Grupe (Northern Kentucky University), Donald M. Terndrup (Ohio State University), Gordon T. Richards (Drexel University), S. Komossa (MPI fuer Radioastronomie)

Comments: 26 pages, 3 tables, 11 figures

Journal-ref: 2023, ApJ, 953, 186

Subjects: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)

Broad Absorption Line Quasars (BALQs) are actively accreting supermassive black holes that have strong outflows characterized by broad absorption lines in their rest-UV spectra. Variability in these absorption lines occurs over months to years depending on the source. WPVS 007, a low-redshift, low-luminosity Narrow-line Seyfert 1 (NLS1) shows strong variability over shorter timescales, providing a unique opportunity to study the driving mechanism behind this variability that may mimic longer scale variability in much more massive quasars. We present the first variability study using {the} spectral synthesis code SimBAL, which provides velocity-resolved changes in physical conditions of the gas using constraints from multiple absorption lines. Overall, we find WPVS 007 to have a highly ionized outflow with a large mass-loss rate and kinetic luminosity. We determine the primary cause of the absorption-line variability in WPVS 007 to be a change in covering fraction of the continuum by the outflow. This study is the first SimBAL analysis where multiple epochs of observation were fit simultaneously, demonstrating the ability of SimBAL to use the time-domain as an additional constraint in spectral models.

[8]  arXiv:2405.06037 [pdf, other]

Title: Binary black hole mergers from Population III star clusters

Authors: Benedetta Mestichelli, Michela Mapelli, Stefano Torniamenti, Manuel Arca Sedda, Marica Branchesi, Guglielmo Costa, Giuliano Iorio, Filippo Santoliquido

Comments: 17 pages, 12 figures, 4 tables. Comments welcome

Subjects: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA); High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)

Binary black holes (BBHs) born from the evolution of Population III (Pop. III) stars are one of the main high-redshift targets for next-generation ground-based gravitational-wave (GW) detectors. Their predicted initial mass function and lack of metals make them the ideal progenitors of black holes above the upper edge of the pair-instability mass gap, i.e. with a mass higher than $\approx{}134$ (241) M$_\odot$ for stars that become (do not become) chemically homogeneous during their evolution. Here, we investigate the effects of cluster dynamics on the mass function of BBHs born from Pop. III stars, by considering the main uncertainties on Pop. III star mass function, orbital properties of binary systems, star cluster's mass and disruption time. In our dynamical models, at least $\sim$5% and up to 100% BBH mergers in Pop. III star clusters have primary mass $m_1$ above the upper edge of the pair-instability mass gap. In contrast, only $\lesssim {} 3$% isolated BBH mergers have primary mass above the gap, unless their progenitors evolved as chemically homogeneous stars. The lack of systems with primary and/or secondary mass inside the gap defines a zone of avoidance with sharp boundaries in the primary mass - mass ratio plane. Finally, we estimate the merger rate density of BBHs and, in the most optimistic case, we find a maximum of $\mathcal{R}\approx200\,{\rm Gpc^{-3}\,yr^{-1}}$ at $z\sim15$ for BBHs formed via dynamical capture. For comparison, the merger rate density of isolated Pop. III BBHs is $\mathcal{R}\leq{}10\,{\rm Gpc^{-3}\,yr^{-1}}$, for the same model of Pop. III star formation history.

[9]  arXiv:2405.06100 [pdf, other]

Title: OzDES Reverberation Mapping Program: Stacking analysis with H$β$, Mg II and C IV

Authors: Umang Malik, Rob Sharp, A. Penton, Z. Yu, P. Martini, B. E. Tucker, T. M. Davis, G. F. Lewis, C. Lidman, M. Aguena, O. Alves, J. Annis, J. Asorey, D. Bacon, D. Brooks, A. Carnero Rosell, J. Carretero, T.-Y. Cheng, L. N. da Costa, M. E. S. Pereira, J. De Vicente, P. Doel, I. Ferrero, J. Frieman, G. Giannini, D. Gruen, R. A. Gruendl, S. R. Hinton, D. L. Hollowood, D. J. James, K. Kuehn, J. L. Marshall, J. Mena-Fernández, F. Menanteau, R. Miquel, R. L. C. Ogando, A. Palmese, A. Pieres, A. A. Plazas Malagón, K. Reil, A. K. Romer, E. Sanchez, M. Schubnell, M. Smith, E. Suchyta, M. E. C. Swanson, G. Tarle, C. To, N. Weaverdyck, P. Wiseman

Comments: 20 pages, 15 figures. Accepted by MNRAS

Subjects: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)

Reverberation mapping is the leading technique used to measure direct black hole masses outside of the local Universe. Additionally, reverberation measurements calibrate secondary mass-scaling relations used to estimate single-epoch virial black hole masses. The Australian Dark Energy Survey (OzDES) conducted one of the first multi-object reverberation mapping surveys, monitoring 735 AGN up to $z\sim4$, over 6 years. The limited temporal coverage of the OzDES data has hindered recovery of individual measurements for some classes of sources, particularly those with shorter reverberation lags or lags that fall within campaign season gaps. To alleviate this limitation, we perform a stacking analysis of the cross-correlation functions of sources with similar intrinsic properties to recover average composite reverberation lags. This analysis leads to the recovery of average lags in each redshift-luminosity bin across our sample. We present the average lags recovered for the H$\beta$, Mg II and C IV samples, as well as multi-line measurements for redshift bins where two lines are accessible. The stacking analysis is consistent with the Radius-Luminosity relations for each line. Our results for the H$\beta$ sample demonstrate that stacking has the potential to improve upon constraints on the $R-L$ relation, which have been derived only from individual source measurements until now.

[10]  arXiv:2405.06245 [pdf, other]

Title: New observational recipes for measuring dynamical state of galaxy clusters

Authors: Hyowon Kim, Rory Smith, Jongwan Ko, Jong-Ho Shinn, Kyungwon Chun, Jihye Shin, Jaewon Yoo

Comments: 17pages, 9 figures, 3 tables, ApJ Accepted

Subjects: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)

During cluster assembly, a cluster's virialization process leaves behind signatures that can provide information on its dynamical state. However, no clear consensus yet exists on the best way to achieve this. Therefore, we attempt to derive improved recipes for classifying the dynamical state of clusters in observations using cosmological simulations. Cluster halo mass and their subhalos' mass are used to $ 10^{14}M_{\odot} h^{-1}$ and $10^{10}M_{\odot} h^{-1}$ to calculate five independent dynamical state indicators. We experiment with recipes by combining two to four indicators for detecting specific merger stages like recent and ancient mergers. These recipes are made by plotting merging clusters and a control sample of relaxed clusters in multiple indicators parameter space, and then applying a rotation matrix method to derive the best way to separate mergers from the control sample. The success of the recipe is quantified using the success rate and the overlap percentage of the merger and control histograms along the newly rotated $x$-axis. This provides us with recipes using different numbers of combined indicators and for different merger stage. Among the recipes, the stellar mass gap and center offset are the first and second most dominant of the indicators, and using more indicators improves the effectiveness of the recipe. When applied to observations, our results show good agreement with literature values of cluster dynamical state.

[11]  arXiv:2405.06325 [pdf, ps, other]

Title: Phosphorus enrichment by ONe novae in the Galaxy

Authors: Kenji Bekki, Takuji Tsujimoto

Comments: 5 pages, 5 figures, published in ApJL

Subjects: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA); Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)

Recent observations have shown that [P/Fe] in the Galactic stars decreases with increasing [Fe/H] for [Fe/H] > -1 whereas it is almost subsolar for [Fe/H]< -2. These [P/Fe] trends with [Fe/H] have not been well reproduced by previous theoretical models incorporating phosphorus (P) enrichment only by core collapse supernoave. We here show, for the first time, that the trends can be naturally explained by our new models incorporating P enrichment by oxygen-neon (ONe) novae which occur at the surface of massive white dwarfs whose masses are larger than 1.25 M_sun with a metallicity-dependence rate. We also show that the observations can be better reproduced by the models by assuming that (i) the total mass of gaseous ejecta per ONe nov (M_ej) is as high as 4 * 10^{-5} M_sun and (ii) the number of such novae per unit mass (N_ONe) is as large as 0.01 at [Fe/H]~-3. The assumed M_ej is consistent with observations, and the high N_ONe is expected from recent theoretical models for ONe nova fractions. We predict that (i) [P/Fe] increases with increasing [Fe/H] for -2 < [Fe/H] < -1 and (ii) [P/Fe] and [Cl/Fe] trends with [Fe/H] are very similar with each other due to very large yields of P and Cl from ONe nova. It is thus worthwhile for future observations to assess the validity of the proposed P enrichment by ONe novae by confirming or ruling out these two predictions.

[12]  arXiv:2405.06421 [pdf, other]

Title: QSOFEED: The relationship between star formation and AGN Feedback

Authors: Patricia S. Bessiere, Cristina Ramos Almeida, Luke R. Holden, Clive N. Tadhunter, Gabriela Canalizo

Comments: 15 pages including 12 Figures. Three additional appendices including 2 long Figures and 4 Tables. Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics (A&A)

Subjects: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)

Large-scale cosmological simulations suggest that feedback from active galactic nuclei (AGN) plays a crucial role in galaxy evolution. In this study, we directly test this hypothesis utilising SDSS spectra of a sample of 48 low redshift (z<0.14) type 2 quasars (QSO2s). We characterised the kinematics of the warm ionised gas by performing a non-parametric analysis of the [OIII]$\lambda 5007$ emission line, as well as constrain the properties of the young stellar populations (YSP) of their host galaxies through spectral synthesis modelling. These analyses revealed that 85% of the QSO2s display gas velocity dispersions larger than that of the stellar component of their host galaxies, indicating the presence of AGN-driven outflows. Comparing the gas kinematics to the AGN properties, we found a positive correlation between gas velocity dispersion and 1.4 GHz radio luminosity but not with AGN bolometric luminosity or Eddington ratio, suggesting that, either the radio luminosity is the key factor in driving outflows or that the outflows themselves are shocking the ISM and producing synchrotron emission. We found that 98% of the sample host YSPs to varying degrees, with star formation rates (SFR) $0 \le SFR \le 92 \mbox{ M}_{\odot} \mbox{yr}^{-1}$, averaged over 100 Myr. We compared the gas kinematics and outflow properties to the SFRs to establish possible correlations which may suggest that the presence of the outflowing gas is impacting SF and find that none exists, leading to the conclusion that, on the scales probed by the SDSS fibre, AGN-driven outflows do not impact SF on the timescales probed in this study. However, we found a positive correlation between the light-weighted stellar ages of the QSO2s and the black hole mass, which may indicate that successive AGN episodes lead to the suppression of SF over the course of galaxy evolution.

[13]  arXiv:2405.06436 [pdf, other]

Title: Deceleration of kicked objects due to the Galactic potential

Authors: Paul Disberg, Nicola Gaspari, Andrew J. Levan

Comments: 15 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication by A&A

Subjects: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA); High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE); Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)

Various stellar objects experience a velocity kick at some point in their evolution. These include neutron stars and black holes at their birth or binary systems when one of the two components goes supernova. For most of these objects, the magnitude of the kick and its impact on the object dynamics remains a topic of debate. We investigate how kicks alter the velocity distribution of objects born in the Milky Way disc, both immediately after the kick and at later times, and whether these kicks are encoded in the observed population of Galactic neutron stars. We simulate the Galactic trajectories of point masses on circular orbits in the disc after being perturbed by an isotropic kick, with a Maxwellian distribution of magnitudes with $\sigma=265$ km/s. Then, we simulate the motion of these point masses for $200$ Myr. These trajectories are then evaluated, either for the Milky Way population as a whole or for those passing within two kiloparsecs of the Sun, to get the time evolution of the velocities. During the first $20$ Myr, the bulk velocity of kicked objects becomes temporarily aligned to the cylindrical radius, implying an anisotropy in the velocity orientations. Beyond this age, the velocity distribution shifts toward lower values and settles to a median of $\sim200$ km/s. Around the Sun, the distribution also loses its upper tail, primarily due to unbound objects escaping the Galaxy. We compare this to the velocities of Galactic pulsars and find that pulsars show a similar evolution with characteristic age. The shift of the velocity distribution is due to bound objects spending most of their orbits at larger radii after the kick. They are, therefore, decelerated by the Galactic potential. We find the same deceleration to be predicted for nearby objects and the total population and conclude it is also observed in Galactic pulsars.

[14]  arXiv:2405.06631 [pdf, other]

Title: The Sunburst Arc with JWST: III. An Abundance of Direct Chemical Abundances

Authors: Brian Welch, T. Emil Rivera-Thorsen, Jane Rigby, Taylor Hutchison, Grace M. Olivier, Danielle A. Berg, Keren Sharon, Hakon Dahle, M. Riley Owens, Matthew B. Bayliss, Gourav Khullar, John Chisholm, Matthew Hayes, Keunho J. Kim

Comments: 15 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables. Submitted to ApJ

Subjects: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)

We measure the gas-phase abundances of the elements He, N, O, Ne, S, Ar, and Fe in the Lyman-continuum emitting region of the Sunburst Arc, a highly magnified galaxy at redshift $z=2.37$. We detect the temperature-sensitive auroral lines [SII]$\lambda\lambda4069,4076$, [OII]$\lambda\lambda7320,7330$, [SIII]$\lambda6312$, [OIII]$\lambda4363$, and [NeIII]$\lambda3343$ in a stacked spectrum of 5 multiple images of the Lyman-continuum emitter (LCE), from which we directly measure the electron temperature in the low, intermediate, and high ionization zones. We also detect the density-sensitive doublets of [OII]$\lambda\lambda3727,3729$, [SII]$\lambda\lambda6717,6731, and [ArIV]$\lambda\lambda4713,4741$, which constrain the density in both the low- and high-ionization gas. With these temperature and density measurements, we measure gas-phase abundances with similar rigor as studies of local galaxies. We measure a gas-phase metallicity for the LCE of $12+\log(\textrm{O}/\textrm{H}) = 7.97 \pm 0.05$, and find an enhanced nitrogen abundance $\log(\textrm{N}/\textrm{O}) = -0.65^{+0.16}_{-0.25}$. This nitrogen abundance is consistent with enrichment from a population of Wolf-Rayet stars, additional signatures of which are reported in a companion paper. Abundances of sulfur, argon, neon, and iron are consistent with local low-metallicity HII regions and low-redshift galaxies. This study represents the most complete chemical abundance analysis of a galaxy at Cosmic Noon to date, which enables direct comparisons between local HII regions and those in the distant universe.

Cross-lists for Mon, 13 May 24

[15]  arXiv:2405.06009 (cross-list from astro-ph.CO) [pdf, other]

Title: The impact of stellar population synthesis choices on forward-modelling-based redshift distribution estimates

Authors: Luca Tortorelli, Jamie McCullough, Daniel Gruen

Comments: Submitted to A&A, comments and suggestions are very welcome. 29 pages, 12 figures

Subjects: Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO); Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)

The forward-modelling of galaxy surveys has recently gathered interest as one of the primary methods to achieve the precision on the estimate of the redshift distributions required by stage IV surveys. One of the key aspects of forward-modelling is the connection between the physical properties of galaxies and their intrinsic spectral energy distributions (SEDs), achieved through stellar population synthesis (SPS) codes, e.g. FSPS. However, SPS requires many detailed assumptions about the galaxy constituents, for which the model choice or parameters are currently uncertain. In this work, we perform a sensitivity study of the impact that the SED modelling choices variations have on the mean and scatter of the tomographic galaxy redshift distributions. We use the Prospector-$\beta$ model and its SPS parameters to build observed magnitudes of a fiducial sample of galaxies. We then build new samples by varying one SED modelling choice at a time. We model the colour-redshift relation of these galaxy samples using the KiDS-VIKING remapped version (McCullough et al. 2023) of the Masters et al. (2015) SOM. We place galaxies in the SOM cells according to the simulated galaxy colours. We then build color-selected tomographic bins and compare each variant's binned redshift distributions against the estimates obtained for the fiducial model. We find that the SED components related to the IMF, AGN, gas physics, and attenuation law substantially bias the mean and the scatter of the tomographic redshift distributions with respect to those estimated with the fiducial model. For the uncertainty of these choices currently present in the literature, and regardless of any stellar mass function based reweighting strategy applied, the bias in the mean and the scatter of the tomographic redshift distributions is larger than the precision requirements set by Stage IV galaxy surveys, e.g. LSST and Euclid.

[16]  arXiv:2405.06026 (cross-list from astro-ph.EP) [pdf, other]

Title: Microphysical Regulation of Non-Ideal MHD in Weakly-Ionized Systems: Does the Hall Effect Matter?

Authors: Philip F. Hopkins, Jonathan Squire, Raphael Skalidis, Nadine H. Soliman

Comments: 16 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to the Open Journal of Astrophysics. Comments welcome

Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP); Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA); Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR); Plasma Physics (physics.plasm-ph); Space Physics (physics.space-ph)

The magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) equations plus 'non-ideal' (Ohmic, Hall, ambipolar) resistivities are widely used to model weakly-ionized astrophysical systems. We show that if gradients in the magnetic field become too steep, the implied charge drift speeds become much faster than microphysical signal speeds, invalidating the assumptions used to derive both the resistivities and MHD equations themselves. Generically this situation will excite microscale instabilities that suppress the drift and current. We show this could be relevant at low ionization fractions especially if Hall terms appear significant, external forces induce supersonic motions, or dust grains become a dominant charge carrier. Considering well-established treatments of super-thermal drifts in laboratory, terrestrial, and Solar plasmas as well as conduction and viscosity models, we generalize a simple prescription to rectify these issues, where the resistivities are multiplied by a correction factor that depends only on already-known macroscopic quantities. This is generalized for multi-species and weakly-ionized systems, and leaves the equations unchanged in the drift limits for which they are derived, but restores physical behavior (driving the system back towards slow drift by diffusing away small-scale gradients in the magnetic field) if the limits are violated. This has important consequences: restoring intuitive behaviors such as the system becoming hydrodynamic in the limit of zero ionization; suppressing magnetic structure on scales below a critical length which can comparable to circumstellar disk sizes; limiting the maximum magnetic amplification; and suppressing the effects of the Hall term in particular. This likely implies that the Hall term does not become dynamically important under most conditions of interest in these systems.

[17]  arXiv:2405.06153 (cross-list from astro-ph.SR) [pdf, other]

Title: Abundances in eight bulge stars from the optical and near-infrared

Authors: Patrícia da Silva, B. Barbuy, H. Ernandes, S. O. Souza, J. G. Fernández-Trincado, D. González-Díaz

Comments: 12 pages, 6 figures, 9 tables

Subjects: Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR); Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)

Context: The abundances of the $\alpha$-elements are key for understanding the early chemical enrichment of the Galactic bulge. The elements of interest present lines in different wavelength regions, and some of them show lines only in part of the spectra. In the present work, the CNO trio, the alpha-elements Mg, Si, Ca, and Ti, and odd-Z Na and Al are examined as measured from optical and H-band lines.
Aims: The aim of this work is to carry out a detailed comparison of stellar parameters and abundances derived in the optical and near-infrared (H-band). We also inspect the best available lines for a list of bulge stars previously analyzed by the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) team in the H-band and by our group in the optical. This work is mainly of interest to spectroscopists.
Methods: In the present work, we compared the stellar parameters and abundance results derived from APOGEE H-band spectra with optical analyses based on Ultraviolet and Visual Echelle Spectrograph at the Very Large Telescope (VLT/UVES) data for eight bulge stars.
Results:We point out the most suitable wavelength region for each of the studied elements, and highlight difficulties in the derivation of stellar parameters both in the optical and H-band. The near-infrared will allow observations of a large number of stars in the near future given new instruments soon to be available. The identification of spectral lines in this spectral region and the investigation of their reliability are ongoing efforts worldwide. New instruments will also allow simultaneous observation of H-band and optical.

[18]  arXiv:2405.06338 (cross-list from astro-ph.SR) [pdf, other]

Title: M3DIS - A grid of 3D radiation-hydrodynamics stellar atmosphere models for stellar surveys

Authors: Philipp Eitner, Maria Bergemann, Richard Hoppe, Åke Nordlund, Bertrand Plez, Jonas Klevas

Comments: Accepted by A&A. 20 pages, 16 figures

Subjects: Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR); Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA); Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)

Large-scale stellar surveys, such as SDSS-V, 4MOST, WEAVE, and PLATO, require accurate atmospheric models and synthetic spectra of stars for accurate analyses of fundamental stellar parameters and chemical abundances. The primary goal of our work is to develop a new approach to solve radiation-hydrodynamics (RHD) and generate model stellar spectra in a self-consistent and highly efficient framework. We build upon the Copenhagen legacy RHD code, the MULTI3D non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (NLTE) code, and the DISPATCH high-performance framework. The new approach allows us to calculate 3D RHD models of stellar atmospheres on timescales of a few thousand CPU hours and to perform subsequent spectrum synthesis in local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) or NLTE for the desired physical conditions within the parameter space of FGK-type stars. We compare the 3D RHD solar model with other available models and validate its performance against solar observations, including the centre-to-limb variation of intensities and key solar diagnostic lines of H and Fe. We show that the performance of the new code allows to overcome the main bottleneck in 3D NLTE spectroscopy and enables calculations of multi-dimensional grids of synthetic stellar observables for comparison with modern astronomical observations.

[19]  arXiv:2405.06501 (cross-list from gr-qc) [pdf, ps, other]

Title: Testing Strong Gravitational Lensing Effects of Supermassive Black Holes with String-Inspired Metric, EHT Constraints and Parameter Estimation

Authors: Amnish Vachher, Shafqat Ul Islam, Sushant G. Ghosh

Comments: 14 Pages, 11 Figures and 6 Tables

Subjects: General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc); Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)

We examine and compare the gravitational lensing, in the strong field limit, for the spherically symmetric string-inspired Euler-Heisenberg black holes, characterized by additional parameters $Q^2$ and $\alpha-\beta$, representing magnetic charge and coupling constant, respectively. Our analysis reveals a reduction in the photon sphere radius $x_{ps}$, critical impact parameter $u_{ps}$ and angular position $\theta_\infty$ with increasing magnitude of $Q^2$ and $\alpha-\beta$. Consequently, the value of these quantities is consistently lower than that of its GR equivalents. Further, the ratio $r_{mag}$ of the flux of the first image to all others decreases with $Q^2$ and $\alpha-\beta$. Unlike Schwarzschild black holes, string-inspired Euler-Heisenberg black holes have a smaller deflection angle $\alpha_D$, which decreases even more as $Q^2$ increases. Moreover, the time delay for Sgr A* and M87* can reach up to $~11.302$ and $~17085.1$ minutes, respectively, at $Q^2=0.1$ and $\alpha-\beta=-1$, deviating from Schwarzschild black holes by $~0.194$ and $~293.6$ minutes which are not very significant. For Sgr A* and M87*, we determine $\theta_\infty$ to range within $(23.81, 26.28)~\mu as$ and $(17.89, 19.78)~\mu as$ respectively, with angular separations $s$ ranging from $(3.33-5.67)~nas$ for Sgr A* and $(2.51-4.26)~nas$ for M87*. EHT bounds on the $\theta_{sh}$ of Sgr A* and M87* within the $1\sigma$ region, bound the parameters $Q^2$ and $\alpha-\beta$ as: for Sgr A* $0.29278 \le Q^2 \le 0.60778$ and for M87* $0 < Q^2 \le 0.08473$, but in both the cases we found no bound on the parameter $\alpha-\beta$. We also estimate the parameters $\alpha-\beta$ and $Q^2$ associated with string-inspired Euler-Heisenberg black holes using the EHT observation results of Sgr A* and M87*.

[20]  arXiv:2405.06520 (cross-list from astro-ph.SR) [pdf, other]

Title: Origin and Evolution of Angular Momentum of Class II Disks

Authors: Veli-Matti Pelkonen, Paolo Padoan, Mika Juvela, Troels Haugbølle, Åke Nordlund

Comments: 12 pages, 16 figures, submitted to A&A

Subjects: Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR); Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP); Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)

Context. While Class II stars have already accreted most of their mass, the continued inflow of fresh material via Bondi-Hoyle accretion acts as an additional mass reservoir for their circumstellar disks. This may explain the observed accretion rates of pre-main- sequence (PMS) stars, as well as observational inconsistencies in the mass and angular momentum balance of their disks. Aims. Using a new simulation that reproduces the stellar IMF, we want to quantify the role of Bondi-Hoyle accretion in the formation of Class II disks, as well address the prospect of its observational detection with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Methods. We study the mass and angular momentum of the accreting gas using passively-advected tracer particles in the simulation, and we carry out radiative transfer calculations of near-infrared scattering to generate synthetic JWST observations of Bondi-Hoyle trails of PMS stars. Results. Gas accreting on Class II PMS stars approximately 1 Myr after their formation has enough mass and angular momentum to strongly affect the evolution of the preexisting disks. The accreted angular momentum is large enough to also explain the observed size of Class II disks. The orientation of the angular momentum vector can differ significantly from that of the previously accreted gas, which may result in a significant disk warping or misalignment. We also predict that JWST observations of Class II stars will be able to detect Bondi-Hoyle trails with a 90% success rate with only 2 min exposure time, if stars with accretion rates \dot{M} > 5e-10 Msol/yr and luminosity of L > 0.5 Lsol are selected.

Replacements for Mon, 13 May 24

[21]  arXiv:2304.11784 (replaced) [pdf, other]

Title: MeerKAT discovery of a double radio relic and odd radio circle: connecting cluster and galaxy merger shocks

Authors: Bärbel S. Koribalski, Angie Veronica, Klaus Dolag, Thomas H. Reiprich, Marcus Brüggen, Ian Heywood, Heinz Andernach, Ralf-Jürgen Dettmar, Matthias Hoeft, Xiaoyuan Zhang, Esra Bulbul, Christian Garrel, Gyula I.G. Józsa, Jayanne English

Comments: 16 pages, 11 figures, MNRAS, in press

Subjects: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)

[22]  arXiv:2311.14809 (replaced) [pdf, other]

Title: JWST and ALMA discern the assembly of structural and obscured components in a high-redshift starburst galaxy

Authors: Zhaoxuan Liu, John D. Silverman, Emanuele Daddi, Annagrazia Puglisi, Alvio Renzini, Boris S. Kalita, Jeyhan S. Kartaltepe, Daichi Kashino, Giulia Rodighiero, Wiphu Rujopakarn, Tomoko L. Suzuki, Takumi S. Tanaka, Francesco Valentino, Irham Taufik Andika, Caitlin M. Casey, Andreas Faisst, Maximilien Franco, Ghassem Gozaliasl, Steven Gillman, Christopher C. Hayward, Anton M. Koekemoer, Vasily Kokorev, Erini Lambrides, Minju M. Lee, Georgios E. Magdis, Santosh Harish, Henry Joy McCracken, Jason Rhodes, Marko Shuntov, Xuheng Ding

Comments: 21 pages(including appendix), 13 figures, accepted by ApJ

Subjects: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)

[23]  arXiv:2402.12497 (replaced) [pdf, ps, other]

Title: Pre-supernova stellar feedback in nearby starburst dwarf galaxies

Authors: Lucie E. Rowland, Anna F. McLeod, Azadeh Fattahi, Francesco Belfiore, Giovanni Cresci, Leslie Hunt, Mark Krumholz, Nimisha Kumari, Antonino Marasco, Giacomo Venturi

Comments: The paper has been published in A&A

Journal-ref: A&A, 685 (2024) A46

Subjects: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)

[24]  arXiv:2403.08856 (replaced) [pdf, other]

Title: Does the Fundamental Metallicity Relation Evolve with Redshift? I: The Correlation Between Offsets from the Mass-Metallicity Relation and Star Formation Rate

Authors: Alex M. Garcia, Paul Torrey, Sara Ellison, Kathryn Grasha, Lars Hernquist, Henry R.M. Zovaro, Qian-Hui Chen, Z.S. Hemler, Lisa J. Kewley, Erica J. Nelson, Ruby J. Wright

Comments: 10 pages, 5 figures (Figure 5 is summary). Accepted to MNRAS

Subjects: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)

[25]  arXiv:2404.04084 (replaced) [pdf, other]

Title: The CO-to-H$_2$ Conversion Factor in the Central Molecular Zone of the Milky Way using CO isotopologues

Authors: Mikito Kohno, Yoshiaki Sofue

Comments: 15 pages, 14 figures, 3 tables, accepted for Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan (PASJ)

Subjects: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)

[26]  arXiv:2405.00795 (replaced) [pdf, other]

Title: HI Ly$α$ Emission from a Metal-Poor Cool Stream Fueling an Early Dusty Starburst

Authors: Kevin Hall, Hai Fu

Comments: ApJ accepted. For Python notebooks and data files, see this https URL

Subjects: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)

[27]  arXiv:2310.15234 (replaced) [pdf, other]

Title: Field-level simulation-based inference with galaxy catalogs: the impact of systematic effects

Authors: Natalí S. M. de Santi, Francisco Villaescusa-Navarro, L. Raul Abramo, Helen Shao, Lucia A. Perez, Tiago Castro, Yueying Ni, Christopher C. Lovell, Elena Hernandez-Martinez, Federico Marinacci, David N. Spergel, Klaus Dolag, Lars Hernquist, Mark Vogelsberger

Comments: 39 pages, 25 figures. For the reference in the abstract (de Santi et al. 2023) see arXiv:2302.14101

Subjects: Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO); Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA); Machine Learning (cs.LG)

[28]  arXiv:2404.01731 (replaced) [pdf, other]

Title: Compact Binary Formation in Open Star Clusters II: Difficulty of Gaia NS formation in low-mass star clusters

Authors: Ataru Tanikawa, Long Wang, Michiko S. Fujii

Comments: 11 pages, 8 figures, submitted to The Open Journal of Astrophysics

Subjects: Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR); Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA); High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)

• New submissions
• Cross-lists
• Replacements