分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: The Tianlai Dish Pathfinder Array is a radio interferometer designed to test techniques for 21~cm intensity mapping in the post-reionization universe as a means for measuring large-scale cosmic structure. It performs drift scans of the sky at constant declination. We describe the design, calibration, noise level, and stability of this instrument based on the analysis of about $\sim 5 \%$ of 6,200 hours of on-sky observations through October, 2019. Beam pattern determinations using drones and the transit of bright sources are in good agreement, and compatible with electromagnetic simulations. Combining all the baselines, we make maps around bright sources and show that the array behaves as expected. A few hundred hours of observations at different declinations have been used to study the array geometry and pointing imperfections, as well as the instrument noise behaviour. We show that the system temperature is below 80~K for most feed antennas, and that noise fluctuations decrease as expected with integration time, at least up to a few hundred seconds. Analysis of long integrations, from 10 nights of observations of the North Celestial Pole, yielded visibilities with amplitudes of 20-30~mK, consistent with the expected signal from the NCP radio sky with $<10\,$mK precision for $1 ~\mathrm{MHz} \times 1~ \mathrm{min}$ binning. Hi-pass filtering the spectra to remove smooth spectrum signal yields a residual consistent with zero signal at the $0.5\,$mK level.
分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: Based on a large spectroscopic sample of $\sim$ 4,300 RR Lyrae stars with metallicity, systemic radial velocity and distance measurements, we present a detailed analysis of the chemical and kinematic properties of the Galactic halo. Using this sample, the metallicity distribution function (MDF) as a function of $r$ and the velocity anisotropy parameter $\beta$ profiles (for different metallicity populations) are derived for the stellar halo. Both the chemical and kinematic results suggest that the Galactic halo is composed of two distinct parts, the inner halo and outer halo. The cutoff radius ($\sim$ 30 kpc) is similar to the previous break radius found in the density distribution of the stellar halo. We find that the inner part is dominated by a metal-rich population with extremely radial anisotropy ($\beta \sim 0.9$). These features are in accordance with those of ``{\it Gaia}-Enceladus-Sausage'' (GES) and we attribute this inner halo component as being dominantly composed of stars deposited from this ancient merged satellite. We find that GES probably has a slightly negative metallicity gradient. The metal-poor populations in the inner halo are characterized as a long-tail in MDF with an anisotropy of $\beta \sim 0.5$, which is similar to that of the outer part. The MDF for the outer halo is very broad with several weak peaks and the value of $\beta$ is around 0.5 for all metallicities.
分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: Whiting 1 is a faint and young globular cluster in the halo of the Milky Way, and was suggested to have originated in the Sagittarius spherical dwarf galaxy (Sgr dSph). In this paper, we use the deep DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys to explore tentative spatial connection between Whiting 1 and the Sgr dSph. We redetermine the fundamental parameters of Whiting 1 and use the best-fitting isochrone (age $\tau$=6.5 Gyr, metalicity Z=0.005 and $\rm d_{\odot}$=26.9 kpc) to construct a theoretical matched filter for the extra-tidal features searching. Without any smooth technique to the matched filter density map, we detect a round-shape feature with possible leading and trailing tails on either side of the cluster. This raw image is not totally new compared to old discoveries, but confirms that no more large-scale features can be detected under a depth of r<=22.5 mag. In our results, the whole feature stretches 0.1-0.2 degree along the orbit of Whiting 1, which gives a much larger area than the cluster core. The tails on both sides of the cluster align along the orbital direction of the Sgr dSph as well as the cluster itself, which implies that these debris are probably stripped remnants of Whiting 1 by the Milky Way.