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Neutral Hydrogen (neutral + hydrogen)
Selected AbstractsNeutral hydrogen in radio galaxies: Results from nearby, importance for far awayASTRONOMISCHE NACHRICHTEN, Issue 2-3 20062Article first published online: 3 FEB 200, R. Morganti Abstract The study of neutral hydrogen emission and absorption in radio galaxies is giving new and important insights on a variety of phenomena observed in these objects. Such observations are helping to understand the origin of the host galaxy, the effects of the interaction between the radio jet and the ISM, the presence of fast gaseous outflows as well as jet-induced star formation. Recent results obtained on these phenomena are summarized in this review. Although the HI observations concentrate on nearby radio galaxies, the results also have relevance for the high- z objects as all these phenomena are important, and likely even more common, in high-redshift radio sources. (© 2006 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [source] Turbulent Dynamics of Beryllium Seeded Plasmas at the Edge of TokamaksCONTRIBUTIONS TO PLASMA PHYSICS, Issue 3-5 2010R.V. Shurygin Abstract Numerical simulation of turbulent MHD dynamics of beryllium seeded plasmas at the edge of tokamaks is performed. The model is based on the 4-fluid {,, n, pe, pi } reduced nonlinear Braginsky's MHD equations. Neutral hydrogen flow from the wall is described with a diffusion model. Beryllium line radiation is taken into consideration. The Be ion distribution over ionization states is calculated using the reduced model. Electron impact ionization, three body, photo- and dielectronic recombination and charge-exchange with neutral hydrogen are taken into account. Coronal equilibrium is not supposed. Simulations are performed for T-10 parameters. Radial distributions of averaged temperatures and their fluctuation levels, species flows, impurity radiation power, and impurity ions concentrations are obtained as functions of the Be concentration at the wall. The impurity radiation is shown to act on the turbulent oscillation level significantly if the total Be concentration at the wall exceeds 3 · 1011cm,3. The impurity turbulent transversal flow is directed inward and exceeds neoclassical flow significantly. The parallel conductivity and, as a consequence, turbulent transport are increased significantly by impurity radiation. The radiation loss dependence on the neutral Hydrogen concentration at the wall is also examined. The hydrogen concentration increasing the plasma density also rises. The relative beryllium concentration decreases. In total, these two effects are compensated, and the level of radiation losses is changed insignificantly (© 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [source] Modification of the 21-cm power spectrum by X-rays during the epoch of reionizationMONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 2 2009L. Warszawski ABSTRACT We incorporate a contribution to reionization from X-rays within analytic and seminumerical simulations of the 21-cm signal arising from neutral hydrogen during the epoch of reionization. The relatively long X-ray mean free path (MFP) means that ionizations due to X-rays are not subject to the same density bias as UV ionizations, resulting in a substantive modification to the statistics of the 21-cm signal. We explore the impact that X-ray ionizations have on the power spectrum (PS) of 21-cm fluctuations by varying both the average X-ray MFP and the fractional contribution of X-rays to reionization. In general, prior to the epoch when the intergalactic medium (IGM) is dominated by ionized regions (H ii regions), X-ray-induced ionization enhances fluctuations on spatial scales smaller than the X-ray MFP, provided that X-ray heating does not strongly suppress galaxy formation. Conversely, at later times when H ii regions dominate, small-scale fluctuations in the 21-cm signal are suppressed by X-ray ionization. Our modelling also shows that the modification of the 21-cm signal due to the presence of X-rays is sensitive to the relative scales of the X-ray MFP and the characteristic size of H ii regions. We therefore find that X-rays imprint an epoch and scale-dependent signature on the 21-cm PS, whose prominence depends on fractional X-ray contribution. The degree of X-ray heating of the IGM also determines the extent to which these features can be discerned. We further show that the presence of X-rays smoothes out the shoulder-like signature of H ii regions in the 21-cm PS. For example, a 10 per cent contribution to reionization from X-rays translates to a 20,30 per cent modulation in the 21-cm PS across the scale of H ii regions. We show that the Murchison Widefield Array will have sufficient sensitivity to detect this modification of the PS, so long as the X-ray photon MFP falls within the range of scales over which the array is most sensitive (,0.1 Mpc,1). In cases in which this MFP takes a much smaller value, an array with larger collecting area would be required. As a result, an X-ray contribution to reionization has the potential to substantially complicate analysis of the 21-cm PS. On the other hand, a combination of precision measurements and modelling of the 21-cm PS promises to provide an avenue for investigating the role and contribution of X-rays during reionization. [source] Ly, leaks and reionizationMONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 4 2008Longlong Feng ABSTRACT Ly, absorption spectra of QSOs at redshifts z, 6 show complete Gunn,Peterson absorption troughs (dark gaps) separated by tiny leaks. The dark gaps are from the intergalactic medium (IGM) where the density of neutral hydrogen are high enough to produce almost saturated absorptions, however, where the transmitted leaks come from is still unclear so far. We demonstrate that leaking can originate from the lowest density voids in the IGM as well as the ionized apatches around ionizing sources using semi-analytical simulations. If leaks are produced in lowest density voids, the IGM must already be highly ionized, and the ionizing background should be almost uniform; in contrast, if leaks come from ionized patches, the neutral fraction of IGM should be still high, and the ionizing background is significantly inhomogeneous. Therefore, the origin of leaking is crucial to determining the epoch of inhomogeneous-to-uniform transition of the ionizing photon background. We show that the origin could be studied with the statistical features of leaks. Actually, Ly, leaks can be well defined and described by the equivalent width W and the full width of half-area WH, both of which are less contaminated by instrumental resolution and noise. It is found that the distributions of W and WH of Ly, leaks are sensitive to the modelling of the ionizing background. We consider four representative models: uniform ionizing background (model 0), the photoionization rate of neutral hydrogen ,H i and the density of IGM are either linearly correlated (model I), or anticorrelated (model II), and ,H i is correlated with high-density peaks containing ionizing sources (model III). Although all of these models can match to the mean of the observed effective optical depth of the IGM at z, 6, the distributions of W and WH are very different from each other. Consequently, the leak statistics provides an effective tool to probe the evolutionary history of reionization at z, 5,6.5. Similar statistics will also be applicable to the reionization of He ii at z, 3 [source] Reionization bias in high-redshift quasar near-zonesMONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 2 2008J. Stuart B. Wyithe ABSTRACT Absorption spectra of high-redshift quasars exhibit an increasingly thick Ly, forest, suggesting that the fraction of neutral hydrogen in the intergalactic medium (IGM) is increasing towards z, 6. However, the interpretation of these spectra is complicated by the fact that the Ly, optical depth is already large for neutral hydrogen fractions in excess of 10,4, and also because quasars are expected to reside in dense regions of the IGM. We present a model for the evolution of the ionization state of the IGM which is applicable to the dense, biased regions around high-redshift quasars as well as more typical regions in the IGM. We employ a cold dark matter based model in which the ionizing photons for reionization are produced by star formation in dark matter haloes spanning a wide range of masses, combined with numerical radiative transfer simulations which model the resulting opacity distribution in quasar absorption spectra. With an appropriate choice for the parameter which controls the star formation efficiency, our model is able to simultaneously reproduce the observed Ly, forest opacity at 4 < z < 6, the ionizing photon mean-free-path at z, 4 and the rapid evolution of highly ionized near-zone sizes around high-redshift quasars at 5.8 < z < 6.4. In our model, reionization extends over a wide redshift range, starting at z, 10 and completing as H ii regions overlap at z, 6,7. We find that within 5 physical Mpc of a high-redshift quasar, the evolution of the ionization state of the IGM precedes that in more typical regions by around 0.3 redshift units. More importantly, when combined with the rapid increase in the ionizing photon mean-free-path expected shortly after overlap, this offset results in an ionizing background near the quasar which exceeds the value in the rest of the IGM by a factor of ,2,3. We further find that in the post-overlap phase of reionization the size of the observed quasar near-zones is not directly sensitive to the neutral hydrogen fraction of the IGM. Instead, these sizes probe the level of the background ionization rate and the temperature of the surrounding IGM. The observed rapid evolution of the quasar near-zone sizes at 5.8 < z < 6.4 can thus be explained by the rapid evolution of the ionizing background, which in our model is caused by the completion of overlap at the end of reionization by 6 ,z, 7. [source] Galaxy redshift surveys selected by neutral hydrogen using the Five-hundred metre Aperture Spherical TelescopeMONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 1 2008Alan R. Duffy ABSTRACT We discuss the possibility of performing a substantial spectroscopic galaxy redshift survey selected via the 21-cm emission from neutral hydrogen using the Five-hundred metre Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) to be built in China. We consider issues related to the estimation of the source counts and optimizations of the survey, and discuss the constraints on cosmological models that such a survey could provide. We find that a survey taking around two years could detect ,107 galaxies with an average redshift of ,0.15 making the survey complementary to those already carried out at optical wavelengths. These conservative estimates have used the z= 0 H i mass function and have ignored the possibility of evolution. The results could be used to constrain ,=,mh to 5 per cent and the spectral index, ns, to 7 per cent independent of cosmic microwave background data. If we also use simulated power spectra from the Planck satellite, we can constrain w to be within 5 per cent of ,1. [source] Reionization history from coupled cosmic microwave background/21-cm line dataMONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 3 2005R. Salvaterra ABSTRACT We study cosmic microwave background (CMB) secondary anisotropies produced by inhomogeneous reionization by means of cosmological simulations coupled with the radiative transfer code crash. The reionization history is consistent with the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe Thomson optical depth determination. We find that the signal arising from this process dominates over the primary CMB component for l, 4000 and reaches a maximum amplitude of l(l+ 1)Cl/2,, 1.6 × 10,13 on arcmin scales (i.e. l as large as several thousands). We then cross-correlate secondary CMB anisotropy maps with neutral hydrogen 21-cm line emission fluctuations obtained from the same simulations. The two signals are highly anticorrelated on angular scales corresponding to the typical size of H ii regions (including overlapping) at the 21-cm map redshift. We show how the CMB/21-cm cross-correlation can be used: (i) to study the nature of the reionization sources; (ii) to reconstruct the cosmic reionization history; (iii) to infer the mean cosmic ionization level at any redshift. We discuss the feasibility of the proposed experiment with forthcoming facilities. [source] A high-resolution radio study of neutral gas in the starburst galaxy NGC 520MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 2 2003R. J. Beswick ABSTRACT We present subarcsec angular resolution observations of the neutral gas in the nearby starburst galaxy NGC 520. The central kpc region of NGC 520 contains an area of significantly enhanced star formation. The radio continuum structure of this region resolves into ,10 continuum components. By comparing the flux densities of the brightest of these components at 1.4 GHz with published 15-GHz data we infer that these components detected at 1.4 and 1.6 GHz are related to the starburst and are most likely to be collections of several supernova remnants within the beam. None of these components is consistent with emission from an active galactic nuclei. Both neutral hydrogen (H i) and hydroxyl (OH) absorption lines are observed against the continuum emission, along with a weak OH maser feature probably related to the star formation activity in this galaxy. Strong H i absorption (NH, 1022 atoms cm,2) traces a velocity gradient of 0.5 km s,1 pc,1 across the central kpc of NGC 520. The H i absorption velocity structure is consistent with the velocity gradients observed in both the OH absorption and in CO emission observations. The neutral gas velocity structure observed within the central kpc of NGC 520 is attributed to a kpc-scale ring or disc. It is also noted that the velocity gradients observed for these neutral gas components appear to differ with the velocity gradients observed from optical ionized emission lines. This apparent disagreement is discussed and attributed to the extinction of the optical emission from the actual centre of this source hence implying that optical ionized emission lines are only detected from regions with significantly different radii to those sampled by the observations presented here. [source] Stationary models for fast and slow logarithmic spiral patterns in disc galaxiesMONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 4 2002Yu-Qing Lou A recent wavelet analysis on multiwavelength image data of the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 6946 revealed a multi-arm spiral structure that persists well into the outer differentially rotating disc region. The extended spiral arms in polarized radio-continuum emission and in red light appear interlaced with each other, while the spiral arms in emissions of total radio continuum, of H, from H ii regions, and of neutral hydrogen all trace the red-light spiral arms, although to a somewhat lesser extent. The key issue now becomes how to sustain extended slow magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) density wave features in a thin magnetized disc with a flat rotation curve. We describe here a theoretical model to examine stationary non-axisymmetric logarithmic spiral configurations constructed from a background equilibrium of a magnetized singular isothermal disc (MSID) with a flat rotation curve and with a non-force-free azimuthal magnetic field. It is found analytically that two types of stationary spiral MSID configurations may exist, physically corresponding to the two possibilities of fast and slow spiral MHD density waves. Such stationary MHD density waves are possible only at proper MSID rotation speeds. For the fast MSID configuration, logarithmic spiral enhancements of magnetic field and gas density are either in phase in the tight-winding regime or shifted with a spatial phase difference ,,/2 for open spiral structures. For the slow MSID configuration, logarithmic spiral enhancements of magnetic field and gas density are either out of phase in the tight-winding regime or shifted with a spatial phase difference for open spiral structures and persist in a flat rotation curve. For NGC 6946, several pertinent aspects of the slow MSID scenario with stationary logarithmic spiral arms are discussed. The two exact solutions can be also utilized to test relevant numerical MHD codes. [source] H i kinematics in a massive spiral galaxy at z= 0.89MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY: LETTERS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 1 2005L. V. E. Koopmans ABSTRACT We present a kinematic model of the neutral hydrogen in the spiral galaxy of the lens system PKS 1830,211, based on a Multi-Element Radio-Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN) 1.4-GHz radio map and the integrated and redshifted 21-cm hydrogen absorption-line profile as measured with the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT). Degeneracies in the models do not allow a unique determination of the kinematic centre, and forthcoming deeper Hubble Space Telescope observations with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) are required to break this degeneracy. Even so, we measure the inclination of the hydrogen disc: i= 17°,32°, indicating a close to face-on spiral galaxy. The optical depth increases with radius over the extent of the Einstein ring, suggesting H i depletion towards the lens centre. The latter could be due to star formation or conversion of H i into molecular hydrogen because of a higher metalicity/dust content in the galaxy centre. The neutral hydrogen optical depth gives NH I= 2 × 1021 cm,2 at r= 5.0 h,170 kpc in the disc (Ts= 100 K), comparable to local spiral galaxies. [source] Transport of cosmic rays in the nearby starburst galaxy NGC 253,ASTRONOMISCHE NACHRICHTEN, Issue 9-10 2009V. Heesen Abstract Radio halos require the coexistence of extra-planar cosmic rays and magnetic fields. Because cosmic rays are injected and accelerated by processes related to star formation in the disk, they have to be transported from the disk into the halo. A vertical large-scale magnetic field can significantly enhance this transport. We observed NGC 253 using radio continuum polarimetry with the Effelsberg and VLA telescopes. The radio halo of NGC 253 has a dumbbell shape with the smallest vertical extension near the center. With an estimate for the electron lifetime, we measured the cosmic-ray bulk speed as 300 ± 30 km s,1 which is constant over the extent of the disk. This shows the presence of a "disk wind" in NGC 253. We propose that the large-scale magnetic field is the superposition of a disk (r, ,) and halo (r, z) component. The disk field is an inward-pointing spiral with even parity. The conical (even) halo field appears in projection as an X-shaped structure, as observed in other edge-on galaxies. Interaction by compression in the walls of the superbubbles may explain the observed alignment between the halo field and the lobes of hot H, and soft X-ray emitting gas. The disk wind is a good candidate for the transport of small-scale helical fields, required for efficient dynamo action, and as a source for the neutral hydrogen observed in the halo (© 2009 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [source] Signals from the epoch of cosmological recombination , Karl Schwarzschild Award Lecture 2008ASTRONOMISCHE NACHRICHTEN, Issue 7 2009R. A. Sunyaev Abstract The physical ingredients to describe the epoch of cosmological recombination are amazingly simple and well-understood. This fact allows us to take into account a very large variety of physical processes, still finding potentially measurable consequences for the energy spectrum and temperature anisotropies of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). In this contribution we provide a short historical overview in connection with the cosmological recombination epoch and its connection to the CMB. Also we highlight some of the detailed physics that were studied over the past few years in the context of the cosmological recombination of hydrogen and helium. The impact of these considerations is two-fold: (i) The associated release of photons during this epoch leads to interesting and unique deviations of the CosmicMicrowave Background (CMB) energy spectrum from a perfect blackbody, which, in particular at decimeter wavelength and the Wien part of the CMB spectrum, may become observable in the near future. Despite the fact that the abundance of helium is rather small, it still contributes a sizeable amount of photons to the full recombination spectrum, leading to additional distinct spectral features. Observing the spectral distortions from the epochs of hydrogen and helium recombination, in principle would provide an additional way to determine some of the key parameters of the Universe (e.g. the specific entropy, the CMB monopole temperature and the pre-stellar abundance of helium). Also it permits us to confront our detailed understanding of the recombination process with direct observational evidence. In this contribution we illustrate how the theoretical spectral template of the cosmological recombination spectrum may be utilized for this purpose. We also show that because hydrogen and helium recombine at very different epochs it is possible to address questions related to the thermal history of our Universe. In particular the cosmological recombination radiation may allow us to distinguish between Compton y -distortions that were created by energy release before or after the recombination of the Universe finished. (ii) With the advent of high precision CMB data, e.g. as will be available using the PLANCK Surveyor or CMBPOL, a very accurate theoretical understanding of the ionization history of the Universe becomes necessary for the interpretation of the CMB temperature and polarization anisotropies. Here we show that the uncertainty in the ionization history due to several processes, which until now were not taken in to account in the standard recombination code RECFAST, reaches the percent level. In particular He II , He I recombination occurs significantly faster because of the presence of a tiny fraction of neutral hydrogen at z , 2400. Also recently it was demonstrated that in the case of H I Lyman , photons the timedependence of the emission process and the asymmetry between the emission and absorption profile cannot be ignored. However, it is indeed surprising how inert the cosmological recombination history is even at percent-level accuracy. Observing the cosmological recombination spectrum should in principle allow us to directly check this conclusion, which until now is purely theoretical. Also it may allow to reconstruct the ionization history using observational data (© 2009 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [source] Gas and stars in compact (young) radio sourcesASTRONOMISCHE NACHRICHTEN, Issue 2-3 2009R. Morganti Abstract Gas can be used to trace the formation and evolution of galaxies as well as the impact that the nuclear activity has on the surrounding medium. For nearby compact radio sources, we have used observations of neutral hydrogen , that we detected in emission distributed over very large scales , combined with the study of the stellar population and deep optical images to investigate the history of the formation of their host galaxy and the triggering of the activity. For more distant and more powerful compact radio sources, we have used optical spectra and H I , in absorption , to investigate the presence of fast outflows that support the idea that compact radio sources are young radio loud AGN observed during the early stages of their evolution and currently shredding their natal cocoons through extreme circumnuclear outflows. We will review the most recent results obtained from these projects (© 2009 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [source] | ||||||||||