A dense, solar metallicity ISM in the z=4.2 dusty star-forming galaxy SPT0418-47
Carlos De Breuck, Axel Weiss, Matthieu Bethermin, Daniel Cunningham, Yordanka Apostolovski, Manuel Aravena, Melanie Archipley, Scott Chapman, Chian-Chou Chen, J… 展开作者
Carlos De Breuck, Axel Weiss, Matthieu Bethermin, Daniel Cunningham, Yordanka Apostolovski, Manuel Aravena, Melanie Archipley, Scott Chapman, Chian-Chou Chen, Jianyang Fu, Sreevani Jarugula, Matt Malkan, Amelia C. Mangian, Kedar A. Phadke, Cassie A. Reuter, Gordon Stacey, Maria Strandet, Joaquin Vieira, Amit Vishwas
备注：
Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics. Revised to match language-edited version and adding 1 missing citation
We present a study of six far-infrared fine structure lines in the z=4.225 lensed dusty star-forming galaxy SPT0418-47 to probe the physical conditions of its InterStellar Medium (ISM). In particular, we report Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment (APEX) detections of the [OI]145um and [OIII]88um lines and Atacama Compact Array (ACA) detections of the [NII]122 and 205um lines. The [OI]145um / [CII]158um line ratio is ~5x higher compared to the average of local galaxies. We interpret this as evidence that the ISM is dominated by photo-dissociation regions with high gas densities. The line ratios, and in particular those of [OIII]88um and [NII]122um imply that the ISM in SPT0418-47 is already chemically enriched close to solar metallicity. While the strong gravitational amplification was required to detect these lines with APEX, larger samples can be observed with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), and should allow to determine if the observed dense, solar metallicity ISM is common among these highly star-forming galaxies.
The formation of compact dusty clouds in diffuse interstellar medium (ISM) has been recently proposed and studied by Tsytovich et al. (2014). In the present paper, an effect of the clouds on the rate of H$\to$H$_2$ transition in the ISM is examined. We discuss the mechanisms leading to the formation of the clouds and the creation of gaseous clumps around them, analyze the main processes determining the efficiency of the recombination of atomic hydrogen on dust grains, and estimate the expected enhancement of the global H$_2$ formation due to the presence of the clouds. In conclusion, we argue …
We explore the relation between dust and several fundamental properties of simulated galaxies using the Dusty SAGE semi-analytic model. In addition to tracing the standard galaxy properties, Dusty SAGE also tracks cold dust mass in the interstellar medium (ISM), hot dust mass in the halo and dust mass ejected by feedback activity. Based on their ISM dust content, we divide our galaxies into two categories: ISM dust-poor and ISM dust-rich. We split the ISM dust-poor group into two subgroups: halo dust-rich and dust-poor (the latter contains galaxies that lack dust in both the ISM and halo). Hal…
Chemical abundance variations in the ISM provide important information about the galactic evolution, star-formation and enrichment histories. Recent observations of disk galaxies suggest that if large-scale azimuthal metallicity variations appear in the ISM, they are linked to the spiral arms. In this work, using a set of chemodynamical simulations of the Milky Way-like spiral galaxies, we quantify the impact of gas radial motions~(migration) in the presence of a pre-existing radial metallicity gradient and the local ISM enrichment on both global and local variations of the mean ISM metallicit…
We present ALMA [CI]($1-0$) (rest frequency 492 GHz) observations for a sample of 13 strongly-lensed dusty star-forming galaxies originally discovered at 1.4mm in a blank-field survey by the South Pole Telescope. We compare these new data with available [CI] observations from the literature, allowing a study of the ISM properties of $\sim 30$ extreme dusty star-forming galaxies spanning a redshift range $2 < z < 5$. Using the [CI] line as a tracer of the molecular ISM, we find a mean molecular gas mass for SPT-DSFGs of $6.6 \times 10^{10}$ M$_{\odot}$. This is in tension with gas masses derive…
The recent discovery of high redshift dusty galaxies implies a rapid dust enrichment of their interstellar medium (ISM). To interpret these observations, we run a cosmological simulation in a 30$h^{-1}$ cMpc/size volume down to $z \approx 4$. We use the hydrodynamical code dustyGadget, which accounts for the production of dust by stellar populations and its evolution in the ISM. We find that the cosmic dust density parameter ($Ω_{\rm d}$) is mainly driven by stellar dust at $z \gtrsim 10$, so that mass- and metallicity-dependent yields are required to assess the dust content in the first galax…
We report the discovery and constrain the physical conditions of the interstellar medium of the highest-redshift millimeter-selected dusty star-forming galaxy (DSFG) to date, SPT-S J031132-5823.4 (hereafter SPT0311-58), at $z=6.900 +/- 0.002$. SPT0311-58 was discovered via its 1.4mm thermal dust continuum emission in the South Pole Telescope (SPT)-SZ survey. The spectroscopic redshift was determined through an ALMA 3mm frequency scan that detected CO(6-5), CO(7-6) and [CI](2-1), and subsequently confirmed by detections of CO(3-2) with ATCA and [CII] with APEX. We constrain the properties of th…
The sensitive infrared telescopes, Spitzer and Herschel, have been used to target low-metallicity star-forming galaxies, allowing us to investigate the properties of their interstellar medium (ISM) in unprecedented detail. Interpretation of the observations in physical terms relies on careful modeling of those properties. We have employed a multiphase approach to model the ISM phases (HII region and photodissociation region) with the spectral synthesis code Cloudy. Our goal is to characterize the physical conditions (gas densities, radiation fields, etc.) in the ISM of the galaxies from the He…
The Interstellar Medium (ISM) comprises gases at different temperatures and densities, including ionized, atomic, molecular species, and dust particles. The neutral ISM is dominated by neutral hydrogen and has ionization fractions up to 8%. The concentration of chemical elements heavier than helium (metallicity) spans orders of magnitudes in Galactic stars, because they formed at different times. Instead, the gas in the Solar vicinity is assumed to be well mixed and have Solar metallicity in traditional chemical evolution models. The ISM chemical abundances can be accurately measured with UV a…
Hydrodynamical simulations show that the ram-pressure stripping in galaxy clusters fosters a strong interaction between stripped interstellar medium (ISM) and the surrounding medium, with the possibility of intracluster medium (ICM) cooling into cold gas clouds. Exploiting the MUSE observation of three jellyfish galaxies from the GAs Stripping Phenomena in galaxies with MUSE (GASP) survey, we explore the gas metallicity of star-forming clumps in their gas tails. We find that the oxygen abundance of the stripped gas decreases as a function of the distance from the parent galaxy disk; the observ…
This paper investigate what is the main driver of the dust mass growth in the interstellar medium (ISM) by using a chemical evolution model of galaxy with metals (elements heavier than helium) in dust phase in addition to the total amount of metals. We consider asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars, type II supernovae (SNe II) and the dust mass growth in the ISM as the sources of dust, and SN shocks as the destruction mechanism of dust. Further, to describe the dust evolution precisely, our model takes into account the age and metallicity (the ratio of metal mass to ISM mass) dependence of the s…
The super-Eddington accretion onto intermediate seed BHs is a potential formation mode of supermassive black holes exceeding $10^9~M_\odot$ in the early universe. We here investigate how such rapid accretion may occur with finite amounts of heavy elements contained in the gas and dust. In our 1D radiation-hydrodynamics simulations, the radiative transfer is solved for both the direct UV lights emitted by an accretion disk and the diffuse IR lights thermally emitted by dust grains. Our results show that the radiative force by the IR lights causes a strong feedback to regulate the mass accretion…
In this paper we use observations of molecular tracers in metal rich and alpha-enhanced galaxies to study the effect of abundance changes on molecular chemistry. We selected a sample of metal rich spiral and star bursting objects from the literature, and present here new data for a sample of early-type galaxies (ETGs). We conducted the first survey of CS and methanol emission in ETGs, detecting 7 objects in CS, and 5 in methanol emission. We find evidence to support the hypothesis that CS is a better tracer of dense star-forming gas than HCN. We suggest that the methanol emission in these sour…
We present a semi-empirical, largely model-independent approach for estimating Galactic birth radii, r_birth, for Milky Way disk stars. The technique relies on the justifiable assumption that a negative radial metallicity gradient in the interstellar medium (ISM) existed for most of the disk lifetime. Stars are projected back to their birth positions according to the observationally derived age and [Fe/H] with no kinematical information required. Applying our approach to the AMBRE:HARPS and HARPS-GTO local samples, we show that we can constrain the ISM metallicity evolution with Galactic radiu…
We present a spatially-resolved HII region study of the gas-phase metallicity, ionization parameter, and ISM pressure maps of 6 local star-forming and face-on spiral galaxies from the TYPHOON program. Self-consistent metallicity, ionization parameter, and pressure maps are calculated simultaneously through an iterative process to provide useful measures of the local chemical abundance and its relation to localized ISM properties. We constrain the presence of azimuthal variations in metallicity by measuring the residual metallicity offset $Δ$(O/H) after subtracting the linear fits to the radial…
The radially averaged metallicity distribution of the ISM and the young stellar population of a sample of 20 disk galaxies is investigated by means of an analytical chemical evolution model which assumes constant ratios of galactic wind mass loss and accretion mass gain to star formation rate. Based on this model the observed metallicities and their gradients can be described surprisingly well by the radially averaged distribution of the ratio of stellar mass to ISM gas mass. The comparison between observed and model predicted metallicity is used to constrain the rate of mass loss through gala…
We have observed a sample of 14 nearby ($z \sim 0.03$) star-forming blue compact galaxies in the rest-frame far-UV ($\sim1150-2200 Å$) using the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope. We have also generated a grid of stellar population synthesis models using the Starburst99 evolutionary synthesis code, allowing us to compare observations and theoretical predictions for the SiIV_1400 and CIV_1550 UV indices; both are comprised of a blend of stellar wind and interstellar lines and have been proposed as metallicity diagnostics in the UV. Our models and observations both demons…
We present ISM and CGM metallicities for 25 absorption systems associated with isolated star-forming galaxies (<z>=0.28) with 9.4<log(M*/Msun)<10.9 and with absorption detected within 200kpc. Galaxy ISM metallicities were measured using Ha/[NII] emission lines from Keck/ESI spectra. CGM single-phase low-ionization metallicities were modeled using MCMC and Cloudy analysis of absorption from HST/COS and Keck/HIRES or VLT/UVES quasar spectra. We find that the star-forming galaxy ISM metallicities follow the observed stellar mass metallicity relation (scatter 0.19dex). CGM metallicity shows no dep…
The Herschel-ATLAS unbiased survey of cold dust in the local Universe is dominated by a surprising population of very blue (FUV-K < 3.5), dust-rich galaxies with high gas fractions (f_HI = M_HI/(M*+M_HI)>0.5)). Dubbed `Blue and Dusty Gas Rich Sources' (BADGRS) they have cold diffuse dust temperatures, and the highest dust-to-stellar mass ratios of any galaxies in the local Universe. Here, we explore the molecular ISM in a representative sample of BADGRS, using very deep CO(J_up=1,2,3) observations across the central and outer disk regions. We find very low CO brightnesses (Tp=15-30 mK), despit…
We present CO(J= 1-0; 3-2; 5-4; 10-9) and 1.2-kpc resolution [CII] line observations of the dusty star-forming galaxy (SFG) HXMM05 -- carried out with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array, the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy, the Plateau de Bure Interferometer, and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, measuring an unambiguous redshift of z = 2.9850+/-0.0009. We find that HXMM05 is a hyper-luminous infrared galaxy (LIR=(4+/-1)x10^13 Lsun) with a total molecular gas mass of (2.1+/-0.7)x10^11 (alpha_CO/0.8) Msun. The CO(J=1-0) and [CII] emission are extended o…
Recovering the birth radii of observed stars in the Milky Way is one of the ultimate goals of Galactic Archaeology. One method to infer the birth radius and the evolution of the ISM metallicity assumes a linear relation between the ISM metallicity with radius at any given look-back time. Here we test the reliability of this assumption by using 4 zoom-in cosmological hydrodynamic simulations from the NIHAO-UHD project. We find that one can infer precise birth radii only when the stellar disk starts to form, which for our modeled galaxies happens ~ 10 Gyr ago, in agreement with recent estimates …
The far-infrared (FIR) lines are key tracers of the physical conditions of the interstellar medium (ISM) and are becoming workhorse diagnostics for galaxies throughout the universe. Our goal is to explain the differences and trends observed in the FIR line emission of dwarf galaxies compared to more metal-rich galaxies. We present Herschel PACS spectroscopic observations of the CII157um, OI63 and 145um, OIII88um, NII122 and 205um, and NIII57um fine-structure cooling lines in a sample of 48 low-metallicity star-forming galaxies of the guaranteed time key program Dwarf Galaxy Survey. We correlat…
We present the first observation of cluster-scale radial metallicity gradients from star-forming galaxies. We use the DEIMOS spectrograph on the Keck II telescope to observe two CLASH clusters at z~0.35: MACS1115+0129 and RXJ1532+3021. Based on our measured interstellar medium (ISM) properties of star-forming galaxies out to a radius of 2.5 Mpc from the cluster centre, we find that the galaxy metallicity decreases as a function of projected cluster-centric distance (-0.15+/-0.08 dex/Mpc) in MACS1115+01. On the mass-metallicity relation (MZR), star-forming galaxies in MACS1115+01 are offset to …
We present the first Bayesian method for tomographic decomposition of the plane-of-sky orientation of the magnetic field with the use of stellar polarimetry and distance. This standalone tomographic inversion method presents an important step forward in reconstructing the magnetized interstellar medium (ISM) in 3D within dusty regions. We develop a model in which the polarization signal from the magnetized and dusty ISM is described by thin layers at various distances. Our modeling makes it possible to infer the mean polarization (amplitude and orientation) induced by individual dusty clouds a…
The presence of charged dust grains is known to have a profound impact on the physical evolution of the multiphase interstellar medium (ISM). Despite its importance, this process is still poorly explored in numerical simulations due to its complex physics and the tight dependence on the environment. Here we introduce a novel implementation of grain charging in the cosmological radiative transfer code CRASH. We first benchmark the code predictions on a series of idealized dusty HII regions created by a single star, in order to assess the impact of grain properties on the resulting spatial distr…
Inside-out versus Upside-down: The Origin and Evolution of Metallicity Radial Gradients in FIRE Simulations of Milky Way-mass Galaxies and the Essential Role of Gas Mixing
We study the relationship between stellar mass, star formation rate (SFR),ionization state, and gas-phase metallicity for a sample of 41 normal star-forming galaxies at $3 \lesssim z \lesssim 3.7$. The gas-phase oxygen abundance, ionization parameter, and electron density of ionized gas are derived from rest-frame optical strong emission lines measured on near-infrared spectra obtained with Keck/MOSFIRE. We remove the effect of these strong emission lines in the broad-band fluxes to compute stellar masses via spectral energy distribution fitting, while the SFR is derived from the dust-correcte…
We study metal depletion due to dust in the interstellar medium (ISM) to infer the properties of dust grains and characterize the metal and dust content of galaxies, down to low metallicity and intermediate redshift z. We provide metal column densities and abundances of a sample of 70 damped Lyman-α absorbers (DLAs) towards quasars, observed at high spectral resolution with the Very Large Telescope (VLT) Ultraviolet and Visual Echelle Spectrograph (UVES). This is the largest sample of phosphorus abundances measured in DLAs so far. We use literature measurements for Galactic clouds to cover the…
Comparison of the ISM properties of a wide range of metal-poor galaxies with normal metal-rich galaxies reveals striking differences. We find that the combination of the low dust abundance and the active star formation results in a very porous ISM filled with hard photons, heating the dust in dwarf galaxies to overall higher temperatures than their metal-rich counterparts. This results in photodissociation of molecular clouds to greater depths, leaving relatively large PDR envelopes and difficult-to-detect CO cores. From detailed modeling of the low-metallicity ISM, we find significant fractio…
We present 3-D hydrodynamical models of the evolution of superbubbles powered by stellar winds and supernovae from young coeval massive star clusters within low metallicity ($Z = 0.02$Z$_{\odot}$), clumpy molecular clouds. We explore the initial stages of the superbubble evolution, including the occurrence of pair-instability and core-collapse supernovae. Our aim is to study the occurrence of dust grain growth within orbiting dusty clumps, and in the superbubble's swept-up supershell. We also aim to address the survival of dust grains produced by sequential supernovae. The model accounts for t…
The gravitationally-lensed galaxy A1689-zD1 is one of the most distant spectroscopically confirmed sources ($z=7.5$). It is the earliest known galaxy where the interstellar medium (ISM) has been detected; dust emission was detected with the Atacama Large Millimetre Array (ALMA). A1689-zD1 is also unusual among high-redshift dust emitters as it is a sub-L* galaxy and is therefore a good prospect for the detection of gaseous ISM in a more typical galaxy at this redshift. We observed A1689-zD1 with ALMA in bands 6 and 7 and with the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in band $Q$. To study the structure o…
We study the dust content of galaxies from $z=0$ to $z=9$ in semi-analytic models of galaxy formation that include new recipes to track the production and destruction of dust. We include condensation of dust in stellar ejecta, the growth of dust in the interstellar medium (ISM), the destruction of dust by supernovae and in the hot halo, and dusty winds and inflows. The rate of dust growth in the ISM depends on the metallicity and density of molecular clouds. Our fiducial model reproduces the relation between dust mass and stellar mass from $z=0$ to $z=7$, the number density of galaxies with du…
Cold molecular gas distribution and kinematics in the low-metallicity dusty starburst of Mrk 996 resolved with ALMA
Universidad de Talca（塔尔卡大学）；Universidad de La Serena（拉塞雷纳大学）；Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, CSIC（安达卢西亚天体物理学研究所，西班牙国家研究委员会）；Centro de Estudios de Física del Cosmos de Aragón (CEFCA)（阿拉贡宇宙物理研究中心）；University of Michigan（密歇根大学）；Space Telescope Science Institute（太空望远镜科学研究所）；INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma（意大利国家天体物理研究所罗马天文台）
Context. Spatially resolved observations of the ionized and molecular gas are critical for understanding the physical processes that govern the interstellar medium (ISM) in galaxies. Aims. To study the morpho-kinematic properties of the ionized and molecular gas in three dusty starburst galaxies at $z = 0.12-0.17$ to explore the relation between molecular ISM gas phase dynamics and the star-formation activity. Methods. We analyse $\sim$kpc-scale ALMA CO(1--0) and seeing limited SINFONI Paschen-$α$ observations. We use a dynamical mass model, which accounts for beam-smearing effects, to constra…
The early stages of a galaxy's evolution leave an imprint on its metallicity distribution. We discuss the origins and evolution of radial metallicity gradients in discs of spiral galaxies using an analytical chemical evolution model. We explain how radial metallicity gradients in stellar populations are determined by three factors: the radial metallicity profile of the star-forming ISM, radial changes in the star-formation history (in particular inside-out formation), and radial mixing of stars. Under reasonable assumptions, inside-out formation steepens the negative ISM metallicity gradient, …
We present an HST Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) spectrum of the QSO SDSS J095109.12+330745.8 ($z_{em} = 0.645$) whose sightline passes through the SMC-like dwarf galaxy UGC 5282 ($M_B = -16.0$, $cz = 1577$ km s$^{-1}$ ), 1.2 kpc in projection from the central HII region of the galaxy. Damped Ly$α$ (DLA) absorption is detected at the redshift of UGC 5282 with $\log$[$N$(HI) cm$^{-2}\:$] = 20.89$^{+0.12}_{-0.21}\:\:$. Analysis of the accompanying SII, PII and OI metal lines yields a neutral gas metallicity, $Z_{HI}$, of [S/H] $\simeq$ [P/H] $= -0.80\pm0.24$. The metallicity of ionized gas fr…
Properties of the cold interstellar medium of low-metallicity galaxies are not well-known due to the faintness and extremely small scale on which emission is expected. We present deep ALMA band 6 (230GHz) observations of the nearby, low-metallicity (12 + log(O/H) = 7.25) blue compact dwarf galaxy SBS0335-052 at an unprecedented resolution of 0.2 arcsec (52 pc). The 12CO J=2-1 line is not detected and we report a 3-sigma upper limit of LCO(2-1) = 3.6x10^4 K km/s pc^2. Assuming that molecular gas is converted into stars with a given depletion time, ranging from 0.02 to 2 Gyr, we find lower limit…
Aims: We aim to study the effects of an inhomogeneous interstellar medium (ISM) on the strength and the shape of the Lyman alpha (Lya) line in starburst galaxies. Methods: Using our 3D Monte Carlo Lya radiation transfer code, we study the radiative transfer of Lya, UV and optical continuum photons in homogeneous and clumpy shells of neutral hydrogen and dust surrounding a central source. Our simulations predict the Lya and continuum escape fraction, the Lya equivalent width EW(Lya), the Lya line profile and their dependence on the gas geometry and the main input physical parameters. Results: T…
High-energy emission associated with star formation has been proposed as a significant source of interstellar medium (ISM) ionization in low-metallicity starbursts and an important contributor to the heating of the intergalactic medium (IGM) in the high-redshift ($z > 8$) Universe. Using Chandra observations of a sample of 30 galaxies at $D \approx$~200--450 Mpc that have high specific star-formation rates of 3--9 Gyr$^{-1}$ and metallicities near $Z \approx 0.3 Z_\odot$, we provide new measurements of the average 0.5--8 keV spectral shape and normalization per unit star-formation rate (SFR). …
We measure the integrated contributions of dusty AGB stars and other luminous red mid-IR sources to the mid-IR luminosities of 6 galaxies (M81, NGC 2403, NGC 300, M33 and the Magellanic Clouds). We find the dusty AGB stars whose mid-IR fluxes are dominated by dust rather than photospheric emission contribute from 0.6% (M81) to 5.6% (SMC) of the 3.6 micron flux and 1.0% (M81) to 10.1% (SMC) of the 4.5 micron flux. We find a trend of decreasing AGB contribution with increasing galaxy metallicity, luminosity and mass and decreasing SSFR. However, these galaxy properties are strongly correlated in…
Spatially resolved metallicity and ionization in the merging system Gz9p3 at z=9.3
Stockholm University（斯德哥尔摩大学）；Centro de Astrobiología (CAB), CSIC-INTA（天体生物学中心（CAB），西班牙国家研究委员会-国家航空技术研究所）；Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)（太空望远镜科学研究所）；University of Copenhagen（哥本哈根大学）；UK Astronomy Technology Centre, Royal Observatory Edinburgh（英国天文学技术中心，爱丁堡皇家天文台）
Resolving dust and Lyα emission in a lensed galaxy at the epoch of reionization with JWST/CANUCS
University of Ljubljana（卢布尔雅那大学）；University of California Davis（加州大学戴维斯分校）；Arizona State University（亚利桑那州立大学）；University of Groningen（格罗宁根大学）；INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma（意大利国家天体物理研究所罗马天文台）；Saint Mary’s University（圣玛丽大学）；Space Telescope Science Institute（太空望远镜科学研究所）
Supernova (SN) feedback plays a vital role in the evolution of galaxies. While modern cosmological simulations capture the leading structures within galaxies, they struggle to provide sufficient resolution to study small-scale stellar feedback, such as the detailed evolution of SN remnants. It is thus common practice to assume subgrid models that are rarely extended to low metallicities, and which routinely use the standard solar abundance pattern. With the aid of 1-d hydrodynamical simulations, we extend these models to consider low metallicities and non-solar abundance patterns as derived fr…
We present maps tracing the fraction of dust in the form of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in IC 5332, NGC 628, NGC 1365, and NGC 7496 from JWST/MIRI observations. We trace the PAH fraction by combining the F770W ($7.7~μ$m) and F1130W ($11.3~μ$m) filters to track ionized and neutral PAH emission, respectively, and comparing the PAH emission to F2100W which traces small, hot dust grains. We find average $R{\rm_{PAH} = (F770W+F1130W)/F2100W}$ values of 3.3, 4.7, 5.1, and 3.6 in IC 5332, NGC 628, NGC 1365, and NGC 7496, respectively. We find that H II regions traced by MUSE H$α$ show a s…
Star formation in galaxies is regulated by the heating and cooling in the interstellar medium. In particular, the processing of molecular gas into stars will depend strongly on the ratio of gas heating to gas cooling in the neutral gas around sites of recent star-formation. In this work, we combine mid-infrared (mid-IR) observations of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs), the dominant heating mechanism of gas in the interstellar medium (ISM), with [C II], [O I], and [Si II] fine-structure emission, the strongest cooling channels in dense, neutral gas. The ratio of IR cooling line emission …
The survey for DUST In Nearby Galaxies with Spitzer (DUSTiNGS) has identified hundreds of candidate dust-producing Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars in several nearby metal-poor galaxies. We have obtained multi-epoch follow-up observations for these candidates with the Spitzer Space Telescope and measured their infrared (IR) lightcurves. This has allowed us to confirm their AGB nature and investigate pulsation behavior at very low metallicity. We have obtained high-confidence pulsation periods for 88 sources in seven galaxies. We have confirmed DUSTiNGS variable star candidates with a 20% su…
We present the first observations from a large-scale survey of nearby (z < 1) long-duration gamma-ray burst (LGRB) host galaxies, which consist of eight rest-frame optical spectra obtained at Keck and Magellan. Along with two host galaxy observations from the literature, we use optical emission line diagnostics to determine metallicities, ionization parameters, young stellar population ages, and star formation rates. We compare the LGRB host environments to a variety of local and intermediate-redshift galaxy populations, as well as the newest grid of stellar population synthesis and photoioniz…
