Subjects: Astronomy >> Astrophysical processes submitted time 2023-02-19
Abstract: We use the single-dish radio telescope FAST to map the HI in the tidally interacting NGC 4631 group with a resolution of 3.24$'$ (7 kpc), reaching a 5-$\sigma$ column density limit of $10^{17.9}$ cm$^{-2}$ assuming a line width of 20 km s$^{-1}$. Taking the existing interferometric HI image from the HALOGAS project of WSRT as reference, we are able to identify and characterize a significant excess of large-scale, low-density, and diffuse HI in the group. This diffuse HI extends for more than 120 kpc across, and accounts for more than one fourth of the total HI detected by FAST in and around the galaxy NGC 4631. In the region of the tidal tails, the diffuse HI has a typical column density above $10^{19.5}$ cm$^{-2}$, and is highly turbulent with a velocity dispersion around 50 km s$^{-1}$. It increases in column density with the dense HI, and tends to be associated with the kinematically ``hotter'' part of the dense HI. Through simple modeling, we find that the majority of the diffuse HI in the tail region is likely to induce cooling out of the hot IGM instead of evaporating or being radiatively ionized. Given these relations of gas in different phases, the diffuse HI may represent a condensing phase of the IGM. Active tidal interactions on-going and in the past may have produced the wide-spreading HI distribution, and triggered the gas accretion to NGC 4631 through the phase of the diffuse HI.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Astronomy >> Astrophysical processes submitted time 2023-02-19
Abstract: This study uses HI image data from the WALLABY pilot survey with the ASKAP telescope, covering the Hydra cluster out to 2.5$r_{200}$. We present the projected phase-space distribution of HI-detected galaxies in Hydra, and identify that nearly two thirds of the galaxies within $1.25r_{200}$ may be in the early stages of ram pressure stripping. More than half of these may be only weakly stripped, with the ratio of strippable HI (i.e., where the galactic restoring force is lower than the ram pressure in the disk) mass fraction (over total HI mass) distributed uniformly below 90%. Consequently, the HI mass is expected to decrease by only a few 0.1 dex after the currently strippable portion of HI in these systems has been stripped. A more detailed look at the subset of galaxies that are spatially resolved by WALLABY observations shows that, while it typically takes less than 200 Myr for ram pressure stripping to remove the currently strippable portion of HI, it may take more than 600 Myr to significantly change the total HI mass. Our results provide new clues to understanding the different rates of HI depletion and star formation quenching in cluster galaxies.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Astronomy >> Astrophysical processes submitted time 2023-02-19
Abstract: WEAVE, the new wide-field, massively multiplexed spectroscopic survey facility for the William Herschel Telescope, will see first light in late 2022. WEAVE comprises a new 2-degree field-of-view prime-focus corrector system, a nearly 1000-multiplex fibre positioner, 20 individually deployable 'mini' integral field units (IFUs), and a single large IFU. These fibre systems feed a dual-beam spectrograph covering the wavelength range 366$-$959\,nm at $R\sim5000$, or two shorter ranges at $R\sim20\,000$. After summarising the design and implementation of WEAVE and its data systems, we present the organisation, science drivers and design of a five- to seven-year programme of eight individual surveys to: (i) study our Galaxy's origins by completing Gaia's phase-space information, providing metallicities to its limiting magnitude for $\sim$3 million stars and detailed abundances for $\sim1.5$ million brighter field and open-cluster stars; (ii) survey $\sim0.4$ million Galactic-plane OBA stars, young stellar objects and nearby gas to understand the evolution of young stars and their environments; (iii) perform an extensive spectral survey of white dwarfs; (iv) survey $\sim400$ neutral-hydrogen-selected galaxies with the IFUs; (v) study properties and kinematics of stellar populations and ionised gas in $z<0.5$ cluster galaxies; (vi) survey stellar populations and kinematics in $\sim25\,000$ field galaxies at $0.3\lesssim z \lesssim 0.7$; (vii) study the cosmic evolution of accretion and star formation using $>1$ million spectra of LOFAR-selected radio sources; (viii) trace structures using intergalactic/circumgalactic gas at $z>2$. Finally, we describe the WEAVE Operational Rehearsals using the WEAVE Simulator.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Astronomy >> Astrophysical processes submitted time 2023-02-19
Abstract: Fast Radio Bursts must be powered by uniquely energetic emission mechanisms. This requirement has eliminated a number of possible source types, but several remain. Identifying the physical nature of Fast Radio Burst (FRB) emitters arguably requires good localisation of more detections, and broadband studies enabled by real-time alerting. We here present the Apertif Radio Transient System (ARTS), a supercomputing radio-telescope instrument that performs real-time FRB detection and localisation on the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT) interferometer. It reaches coherent-addition sensitivity over the entire field of the view of the primary dish beam. After commissioning results verified the system performed as planned, we initiated the Apertif FRB survey (ALERT). Over the first 5 weeks we observed at design sensitivity in 2019, we detected 5 new FRBs, and interferometrically localised each of these to 0.4--10 sq. arcmin. All detections are broad band and very narrow, of order 1 ms duration, and unscattered. Dispersion measures are generally high. Only through the very high time and frequency resolution of ARTS are these hard-to-find FRBs detected, producing an unbiased view of the intrinsic population properties. Most localisation regions are small enough to rule out the presence of associated persistent radio sources. Three FRBs cut through the halos of M31 and M33. We demonstrate that Apertif can localise one-off FRBs with an accuracy that maps magneto-ionic material along well-defined lines of sight. The rate of 1 every ~7 days next ensures a considerable number of new sources are detected for such study. The combination of detection rate and localisation accuracy exemplified by the 5 first ARTS FRBs thus marks a new phase in which a growing number of bursts can be used to probe our Universe.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Astronomy >> Astrophysical processes submitted time 2023-02-19
Abstract: We use the single-dish radio telescope FAST to map the HI in the tidally interacting NGC 4631 group with a resolution of 3.24$'$ (7 kpc), reaching a 5-$\sigma$ column density limit of $10^{17.9}$ cm$^{-2}$ assuming a line width of 20 km s$^{-1}$. Taking the existing interferometric HI image from the HALOGAS project of WSRT as reference, we are able to identify and characterize a significant excess of large-scale, low-density, and diffuse HI in the group. This diffuse HI extends for more than 120 kpc across, and accounts for more than one fourth of the total HI detected by FAST in and around the galaxy NGC 4631. In the region of the tidal tails, the diffuse HI has a typical column density above $10^{19.5}$ cm$^{-2}$, and is highly turbulent with a velocity dispersion around 50 km s$^{-1}$. It increases in column density with the dense HI, and tends to be associated with the kinematically ``hotter'' part of the dense HI. Through simple modeling, we find that the majority of the diffuse HI in the tail region is likely to induce cooling out of the hot IGM instead of evaporating or being radiatively ionized. Given these relations of gas in different phases, the diffuse HI may represent a condensing phase of the IGM. Active tidal interactions on-going and in the past may have produced the wide-spreading HI distribution, and triggered the gas accretion to NGC 4631 through the phase of the diffuse HI.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review