Cosmic evolution of the H2 mass density and the epoch of molecular gas
T. K. Garratt, K. E. K. Coppin, J. E. Geach, O. Almaini, W. G. Hartley, D. T. Maltby, C. J. Simpson, A. Wilkinson, C. J. Conselice, M. Franco, R. J. Ivison, M. … 展开作者
T. K. Garratt, K. E. K. Coppin, J. E. Geach, O. Almaini, W. G. Hartley, D. T. Maltby, C. J. Simpson, A. Wilkinson, C. J. Conselice, M. Franco, R. J. Ivison, M. P. Koprowski, C. C. Lovell, A. Pope, D. Scott, P. van der Werf
We present new empirical constraints on the evolution of $ρ_{\rm H_2}$, the cosmological mass density of molecular hydrogen, back to $z\approx2.5$. We employ a statistical approach measuring the average observed $850μ{\rm m}$ flux density of near-infrared selected galaxies as a function of redshift. The redshift range considered corresponds to a span where the $850μ{\rm m}$ band probes the Rayleigh-Jeans tail of thermal dust emission in the rest-frame, and can therefore be used as an estimate of the mass of the interstellar medium (ISM). Our sample comprises of ${\approx}150,000$ galaxies in the UKIDSS-UDS field with near-infrared magnitudes $K_{\rm AB}\leq25$ mag and photometric redshifts with corresponding probability distribution functions derived from deep 12-band photometry. With a sample approximately 2 orders of magnitude larger than in previous works we significantly reduce statistical uncertainties on $ρ_{\rm H_2}$ to $z\approx2.5$. Our measurements are in broad agreement with recent direct estimates from blank field molecular gas surveys, finding that the epoch of molecular gas coincides with the peak epoch of star formation with $ρ_{\rm H_2}\approx2\times10^7\,{\rm M_\odot}\,{\rm Mpc^{-3}}$ at $z\approx2$. We demonstrate that $ρ_{\rm H_2}$ can be broadly modelled by inverting the star-formation rate density with a fixed or weakly evolving star-formation efficiency. This 'constant efficiency' model shows a similar evolution to our statistically derived $ρ_{\rm H_2}$, indicating that the dominant factor driving the peak star formation history at $z\approx2$ is a larger supply of molecular gas in galaxies rather than a significant evolution of the star-formation rate efficiency within individual galaxies.
We investigate the contribution of major mergers (mass ratios $>1:5$) to stellar mass growth and morphological transformations around the epoch of peak cosmic star formation ($z\sim2$). We visually classify a complete sample of massive (M $>$ 10$^{10}$M$_{\odot}$) galaxies at this epoch, drawn from the CANDELS survey, into late-type galaxies, major mergers, spheroids and disturbed spheroids which show morphological disturbances. Given recent simulation work, which indicates that recent ($<$0.3-0.4 Gyr) major-merger remnants exhibit clear tidal features in such images, we use the fraction of di…
Next generation telescopes such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (NGRST) will enable us to study the first billion years of our Universe in unprecedented detail. In this work we use the ASTRAEUS (semi-numerical rAdiative tranSfer coupling of galaxy formaTion and Reionization in N-body dArk mattEr simUlationS) framework, that couples galaxy formation and reionization (for a wide range of reionization feedback models), to estimate the cosmic variance expected in the UV Luminosity Function (UV LF) and the Stellar Mass Function (SMF) in JWST survey…
Evolution of AGN Across Cosmic Epochs with the SKAO
University of Durham(达勒姆大学);Durham University(达勒姆大学);Physical Research Laboratory(物理研究实验室);Indian Institute of Technology Indore(印度理工学院印多尔分校);Indian Institute of Astrophysics(印度天体物理学研究所);University of Hertfordshire(赫特福德大学);Leiden University(莱顿大学);University of Oslo(奥斯陆大学);University of Tasmania(塔斯马尼亚大学);University of Southampton(南安普顿大学)
Baryons both increase halo concentration through adiabatic contraction and expel mass through feedback processes. However, it is not well understood how the radiation fields prevalent during the epoch of reionization affect the evolution of concentration in dark matter halos. We investigate how baryonic physics during the epoch of reionization modify the structure of dark matter halos in the Cosmic Reionization On Computers (CROC) simulations. We use two different measures of halo concentration to quantify the effects. We compare concentrations of halos matched between full physics simulations…
We try to constrain the cosmic molecular gas mass density at $z =1-1.5$ and that in the local universe by combining stellar mass functions of star-forming galaxies and their average molecular gas mass fractions against the stellar mass. The average molecular gas mass fractions are taken from recent CO observations of star-forming galaxies at the redshifts. The cosmic molecular gas mass density is obtained to be $ρ_{\rm H_2} = (6.8-8.8)~\times~10^7~M_\odot~{\rm Mpc}^{-3}$ at $z=1-1.5$ and $6.7 \times 10^6~M_\odot~{\rm Mpc}^{-3}$ at $z \sim 0$ by integrating down to $0.03~M^\ast$. Although the v…
We study the properties of molecular-forming gas clumps (MGCs) at the epoch of reionization using cosmological zoom-in simulations. We identify MGCs in a z=6 prototypical galaxy ("Althaea") using an H2 density-based clump finder. We compare their mass, size, velocity dispersion, gas surface density, and virial parameter (alpha_vir) to observations. In Althaea, the typical MGC mass and size are Mgas=10^6.5 Msun and R=45-100 pc, which are comparable to those found in nearby spirals and starburst galaxies. MGCs are highly supersonic and supported by turbulence, with rms velocity dispersions of si…
Emission-line Variable Active Galactic Nuclei at Cosmic Noon from HETDEX
Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin(德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校天文学系);McDonald Observatory, The University of Texas at Austin(德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校麦克唐纳天文台);Key Laboratory of Optical Astronomy, National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences(中国科学院国家天文台光学天文重点实验室);Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, The Pennsylvania State University(宾夕法尼亚州立大学天文学与天体物理学系);Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos, The Pennsylvania State University(宾夕法尼亚州立大学引力与宇宙学研究所);Yunnan Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences(中国科学院云南天文台);Key Laboratory for the Structure and Evolution of Celestial Objects, Chinese Academy of Sciences(中国科学院天体结构与演化重点实验室)
Dissociation of molecular hydrogen by secondary electrons produced by cosmic ray or X-ray ionization plays a crucial role in the chemistry of the densest part of molecular clouds. Here we study the effect of the mean kinetic energy of secondary electrons on this process. We compare predictions using a range of secondary electron energies and predictions of the cross-sections with the values in the UMIST database. We find that the predicted column densities change by nearly one dex.
Cosmic Dawn ("CoDa") II yields the first statistically-meaningful determination of the relative contribution to reionization by galaxies of different halo mass, from a fully-coupled radiation-hydrodynamics simulation of the epoch of reionization large enough ($\sim$ 100 Mpc) to model global reionization while resolving the formation of all galactic halos above $\sim 10^8 M_\odot$. Cell transmission inside high-mass haloes is bi-modal -- ionized cells are transparent, while neutral cells absorb the photons their stars produce - and the halo escape fraction $f_{esc}$ reflects the balance of star…
Cosmic rays are the main agents in controlling the chemical evolution and setting the ambipolar diffusion time of a molecular cloud. We summarise the processes causing the energy degradation of cosmic rays due to their interaction with molecular hydrogen, focusing on the magnetic effects that influence their propagation. Making use of magnetic field configurations generated by numerical simulations, we show that the increase of the field line density in the collapse region results in a reduction of the cosmic-ray ionisation rate. As a consequence the ionisation fraction decreases, facilitating…
Cosmic-rays constitute the main ionising and heating agent in dense, starless, molecular cloud cores. We reexamine the physical quantities necessary to determine the cosmic-ray ionisation rate (especially the cosmic ray spectrum at E < 1 GeV and the ionisation cross sections), and calculate the ionisation rate as a function of the column density of molecular hydrogen. Available data support the existence of a low-energy component (below about 100 MeV) of cosmic-ray electrons or protons responsible for the ionisation of diffuse and dense clouds. We also compute the attenuation of the cosmic-ray…
Using the First Light And Reionisation Epoch Simulations (\textsc{Flares}) we explore the dust driven properties of massive high-redshift galaxies at $z\in[5,10]$. By post-processing the galaxy sample using the radiative transfer code \textsc{skirt} we obtain the full spectral energy distribution. We explore the resultant luminosity functions, IRX-$β$ relations as well as the luminosity-weighted dust temperatures in the Epoch of Reionisation (EoR). We find that most of our results are in agreement with the current set of observations, but under-predict the number densities of bright IR galaxie…
Cosmic reionization is known to be a major phase transition of the gas in the Universe. Since astronomical objects formed in the early Universe, such as the first stars, galaxies and black holes, are expected to have caused cosmic reionization, the formation history and properties of such objects are closely related to the reionization process. In spite of the importance of exploring reionization, our understandings regarding reionization is not sufficient yet. Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is a next-generation large telescope that will be operated in the next decade. Although several programs …
The rate of ionization by cosmic rays in interstellar gas directly associated with gamma-ray emitting supernova remnants is for the first time calculated to be several orders of magnitude larger than the Galactic average. Analysis of ionization-induced chemistry yields the first quantitative prediction of the astrophysical H_{2}^{+} emission line spectrum, which should be detectable together with H_3^+ lines. The predicted coincident observation of those emission lines and gamma-rays will help prove that supernova remnants are sources of cosmic rays.
Absorption lines from the molecules OH+, H2O+, and H3+ have been observed in a diffuse molecular cloud along a line of sight near W51 IRS2. We present the first chemical analysis that combines the information provided by all three of these species. Together, OH+ and H2O+ are used to determine the molecular hydrogen fraction in the outskirts of the observed cloud, as well as the cosmic-ray ionization rate of atomic hydrogen. H3+ is used to infer the cosmic-ray ionization rate of H2 in the molecular interior of the cloud, which we find to be zeta_2=(4.8+-3.4)x10^-16 per second. Combining the res…
We conduct a comprehensive study on dropout galaxy candidates at $z\sim9-16$ using the first 90 arcmin$^2$ JWST/NIRCam images taken by the early release observations (ERO) and early release science (ERS) programs. With the JWST simulation images, we find that a number of foreground interlopers are selected with a weak photo-$z$ determination ($Δχ^2>4$). We thus carefully apply a secure photo-$z$ selection criterion ($Δχ^2>9$) and conventional color criteria with confirmations of the ERO NIRSpec spectroscopic redshifts, and obtain a total of 23 dropout galaxies at $z\sim9-16$, including two can…
Line Intensity Mapping Prediction from the Cosmic Dawn (CoDa) III Simulation for H$α$ from Galaxies and the Intergalactic Medium during the Epoch of Reionization
Observations of the emission of the carbon cycle species (C, C+ CO) are commonly used to diagnose gas properties in the interstellar medium but are significantly sensitive to the cosmic-ray ionization rate. The carbon-cycle chemistry is known to be quite sensitive to the cosmic-ray ionization rate, $ζ$, controlled by the flux of low-energy cosmic rays which get attenuated through molecular clouds. However, astrochemical models commonly assume a constant cosmic-ray ionization rate in the clouds. We investigate the effect of cosmic-ray attenuation on the emission of carbon cycle species from mol…
The effect of AGN wind feedback on the accretion rate and mass evolution of supermassive black holes (SMBH) is considered. It is shown, under reasonable assumptions, that the rate at which gas can be supplied to a SMBH at the center of a young galaxy, is limited to $\sim 20 (σ/350~ {\rm km ~s^{-1}})^4~M_\odot/yr$ (where $σ$ is the velocity dispersion of the host bulge) by interaction of winds expelled from the innermost regions of the accretion flow with the gas in the bulge. This rate is independent of the black hole mass but is sensitive to the properties of the host bulge. It is further arg…
The evolution of the content of heavy elements in galaxies, the relative chemical abundances, their spatial distribution, and how these scale with various galactic properties, provide unique information on the galactic evolutionary processes across the cosmic epochs. In recent years major progress has been made in constraining the chemical evolution of galaxies and inferring key information relevant to our understanding of the main mechanisms involved in galaxy evolution. In this review we provide an overview of these various areas. After an overview of the methods used to constrain the chemic…
The most luminous galaxies at high-redshift are generally considered to be hosted in massive dark-matter halos of comparable number density, hence residing at the center of overdensities/protoclusters. We assess the validity of this assumption by investigating the clustering around the brightest galaxies populating the cosmic web at redshift $z\sim8-9$ through a combination of semi-analytic modeling and Monte Carlo simulations of mock Hubble Space Telescope WFC3 observations. The innovative aspect of our approach is the inclusion of a log-normal scatter parameter $Σ$ in the galaxy luminosity v…
Cosmic rays are an essential ingredient in the evolution of the interstellar medium, as they dominate the ionisation of the dense molecular gas, where stars and planets form. However, since they are efficiently scattered by the galactic magnetic fields, many questions remain open, such as where exactly they are accelerated, what is their original energy spectrum, and how they propagate into molecular clouds. In this work we present new observations and discuss in detail a method that allows us to measure the cosmic ray ionisation rate towards the molecular clouds close to the W28 supernova rem…
[abridged] This work aims to observationally investigate the history of size growth of early-type galaxies and how the growth depends on cosmic epoch and the mass of the halo in which they are embedded. We carried out a photometric and structural analysis in the rest-frame $V$ band of a mass-selected ($\log M/M_\odot >10.7$) sample of red-sequence early-type galaxies with spectroscopic/grism redshift in the general field up to $z=2$ to complement a previous work presenting an identical analysis but in halos 100 times more massive and 1000 times denser. We homogeneously derived sizes (effective…
Low-energy cosmic rays, in particular protons with energies below 1 GeV, are significant drivers of the thermochemistry of molecular clouds. However, these cosmic rays are also greatly impacted by energy losses and magnetic field transport effects in molecular gas. Explaining cosmic ray ionization rates of $10^{-16}$ s$^{-1}$ or greater in dense gas requires either a high external cosmic ray flux, or local sources of MeV-GeV cosmic ray protons. We present a new local source of low-energy cosmic rays in molecular clouds: first order Fermi-acceleration of protons in regions undergoing turbulent …
We investigate the abundance and distribution of metals in the high-redshift intergalactic medium and circum-galactic medium through the analysis of a sample of almost 600 SiIV absorption lines detected in high and intermediate resolution spectra of 147 quasars. The evolution of the number density of SiIV lines, the column density distribution function and the cosmic mass density are studied in the redshift interval 1.7 <= z <= 6.2 and for log N(SiIV) >= 12.5. All quantities show a rapid increase between z~6 and z< 5 and then an almost constant behaviour to z~2 in very good agreement with what…
We will here discuss how the gamma-ray emission from molecular clouds can be used to probe the cosmic ray flux in distant regions of the Galaxy and to constrain the highly unknown cosmic ray diffusion coefficient. In particular we will discuss the GeV to TeV emission from runaway cosmic rays penetrating molecular clouds close to young and old supernova remnants and in molecular clouds illuminated by the background cosmic ray flux.
Large-scale reionization simulations are described which combine the results of cosmological N-body simulations that model the evolving density and velocity fields and identify the galactic halo sources, with ray-tracing radiative transfer calculations which model the nonequilibrium ionization of the intergalactic medium. These simulations have been used to predict some of the signature effects of reionization on cosmic radiation backgrounds, including the CMB, near-IR, and redshifted 21cm backgrounds. We summarize some of our recent progress in this work, and address the question of whether o…
Square Kilometer Array Synergies for the Epoch of Reionization and Cosmic Dawn
National Centre for Radio Astrophysics, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research(塔塔基础研究院射电天体物理国家中心);Jadavpur University(贾达普大学);University of Toronto(多伦多大学);University of Cambridge(剑桥大学);Kavli Institute for Cosmology(卡弗里宇宙学研究所);Stockholm University(斯德哥尔摩大学);University of Groningen(格罗宁根大学);Université Paris-Saclay(巴黎萨克雷大学);CNRS, Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale(法国国家科学研究中心空间天体物理研究所);University of Vienna(维也纳大学);Indian Institute of Technology Indore(印度理工学院印多尔分校);University of Catania(卡塔尼亚大学);The University of Tokyo(东京大学);The Open University of Israel(以色列开放大学);Australian National University(澳大利亚国立大学);National Astronomical Observatory of Japan(日本国立天文台);Uppsala University(乌普萨拉大学)
We derive empirical models for galaxy mass assembly histories, and convolve these with theoretical delay time distribution (DTD) models for Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) to derive the distribution of progenitor ages for all SNe Ia occurring at a given epoch of cosmic time. In actively star-forming galaxies, the progression of the star formation rate is shallower than a $t^{-1}$ SN Ia DTD, so mean SN Ia ages peak at the DTD peak in all star-forming galaxies at all epochs of cosmic history. In passive galaxies which have ceased star formation through some quenching process, the SN Ia age distribut…
We use a pressure-based model for splitting cold hydrogen into its atomic (HI) and molecular (H2)components to tackle the co-evolution of HI, H2, and star formation rates (SFR) in ~3e7 simulated galaxies in the Millennium simulation. The main prediction is that galaxies contained similar amounts of HI at redshift z=1-5 than today, but substantially more H2, in quantitative agreement with the strong molecular line emission already detected in a few high redshift galaxies and approximately consistent with inferences from studies of the damped Lyman-alpha absorbers seen in the spectra of quasars.…
The cosmic 21 cm signal is set to revolutionise our understanding of the early Universe, allowing us to probe the 3D temperature and ionisation structure of the intergalactic medium (IGM). It will open a window onto the unseen first galaxies, showing us how their UV and X-ray photons drove the cosmic milestones of the epoch of reionisation (EoR) and epoch of heating (EoH). To facilitate parameter inference from the 21 cm signal, we previously developed 21CMMC: a Monte Carlo Markov Chain sampler of 3D EoR simulations. Here we extend 21CMMC to include simultaneous modelling of the EoH, resulting…
Cosmic rays are an important source of heating in the interstellar medium, in particular in dense molecular cloud cores shielded from the external ultraviolet radiation field. The limits placed on the cosmic-ray ionization rate from measurements of the gas temperature in dense clouds are unaffected by the uncertainties associated to the traditional methods based on the analysis of molecular abundances. However, high-resolution data are required to determine with sufficient accuracy the spatial temperature distribution within prestellar cores. In this contribution we illustrate in detail the ca…
Cosmic gas makes up about 90% of baryonic matter in the Universe and H$_2$ is the closest molecule to star formation. In this work we study cold neutral gas and its H$_2$ component at different epochs, exploiting state-of-the-art hydrodynamic simulations that include time-dependent atomic and molecular non-equilibrium chemistry coupled to star formation, feedback effects, different UV backgrounds presented in the recent literature and a number of additional processes - such as gas self-shielding, H$_2$ dust grain catalysis, photoelectric and cosmic-ray heating - occurring during structure form…
The advent of high sensitivity, high resolution gamma-ray detectors, together with a knowledge of the distribution of the atomic hydrogen and especially of the molecular hydrogen in the Galaxy on sub-degree scales creates a unique opportunity to explore the flux of cosmic rays in the Galaxy. We here present the new data on the distribution of the molecular hydrogen from a large region of the inner Galaxy obtained by the NANTEN Collaboration. We then introduce a methodology which aims to provide a test bed for current and future gamma-ray observatories to explore the cosmic ray flux at various …
The shape of the faint-end of the high-z galaxy luminosity function (LF) informs early star formation and reionization physics during the Cosmic Dawn and Epoch of Reionization. Until recently, based on the strong gravitational lensing cluster deep surveys, the Hubble Frontier Fields (HFF) has found a potential turnover in the ultraviolet (UV) LF at z$\sim$6. In this paper, we analyze the contribution of extremely faint galaxies with the magnitude larger than the turnover magnitude in LF to cosmic reionization. We apply the measurement from HFF to our suppressed star formation efficiency model,…
Supernova remnant Kes 17 (SNR G304.6+0.1) is one of a few but growing number of remnants detected across the electromagnetic spectrum. In this paper, we analyze recent radio, X-ray, and gamma-ray observations of this object, determining that efficient cosmic ray acceleration is required to explain its broadband non-thermal spectrum. These observations also suggest that Kes 17 is expanding inside a molecular cloud, though our determination of its age depends on whether thermal conduction or clump evaporation is primarily responsible for its center-filled thermal X-ray morphology. Evidence for e…
Current and upcoming radio interferometric experiments are aiming to make a statistical characterization of the high-redshift 21cm fluctuation signal spanning the hydrogen reionization and X-ray heating epochs of the universe. However, connecting 21cm statistics to underlying physical parameters is complicated by the theoretical challenge of modeling the relevant physics at computational speeds quick enough to enable exploration of the high dimensional and weakly constrained parameter space. In this work, we use machine learning algorithms to build a fast emulator that mimics expensive simulat…
Cosmic rays pervade the Galaxy and are thought to be accelerated in supernova shocks. The interaction of cosmic rays with dense interstellar matter has two important effects: 1) high energy (>1 GeV) protons produce γ-rays by π0-meson decay; 2) low energy (< 1 GeV) cosmic rays (protons and electrons) ionize the gas. We present here new observations towards a molecular cloud close to the W51C supernova remnant and associated with a recently discovered TeV γ-ray source. Our observations show that the cloud ionization degree is highly enhanced, implying a cosmic ray ionization rate ~ 10-15 s-1, i.…
We present astrochemical photo-dissociation region models in which cosmic ray attenuation has been fully coupled to the chemical evolution of the gas. We model the astrochemical impact of cosmic rays, including those accelerated by protostellar accretion shocks, on molecular clouds hosting protoclusters. Our models with embedded protostars reproduce observed ionization rates. We study the imprint of cosmic ray attenuation on ions for models with different surface cosmic ray spectra and different star formation efficiencies. We find that abundances, particularly ions, are sensitive to the treat…
Intensity mapping, which images a single spectral line from unresolved galaxies across cosmological volumes, is a promising technique for probing the early universe. Here we present predictions for the intensity map and power spectrum of the CO(1-0) line from galaxies at z ~ 2.4 -2.8, based on a parameterized model for the galaxy-halo connection, and demonstrate the extent to which properties of high-redshift galaxies can be directly inferred from such observations. We find that our fiducial prediction should be detectable by a realistic experiment. Motivated by significant modeling uncertaint…
High-Redshift Signatures from the Cosmic Dawn and the Epoch of Reionization
Tel Aviv University(特拉维夫大学);University of Maryland, College Park(马里兰大学帕克分校);New York University(纽约大学);Jadavpur University(贾达普大学);Stockholm University(斯德哥尔摩大学);University of Groningen(格罗宁根大学);University of Sussex(萨塞克斯大学);Guangxi University(广西大学);Tsinghua University(清华大学);University of Cambridge(剑桥大学);The University of Texas at Austin(德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校);University of Zurich(苏黎世大学);Chinese Academy of Sciences(中国科学院);Northeastern University(东北大学);Tata Institute of Fundamental Research(塔塔基础研究所);Oberlin College(欧柏林学院);University of Toronto(多伦多大学)
We surveyed the circumnuclear disk of the Seyfert galaxy NGC1068 between the frequencies 86.2 GHz and 115.6 GHz, and identified 17 different molecules. Using a time and depth dependent chemical model we reproduced the observational results, and show that the column densities of most of the species are better reproduced if the molecular gas is heavily pervaded by a high cosmic ray ionization rate of about 1000 times that of the Milky Way. We discuss how molecules in the NGC1068 nucleus may be influenced by this external radiation, as well as by UV radiation fields.
We are just starting to understand the physical processes driving the dramatic change in cosmic star-formation rate between $z\sim 2$ and the present day. A quantity directly linked to star formation is the molecular gas density, which should be measured through independent methods to explore variations due to cosmic variance and systematic uncertainties. We use intervening CO absorption lines in the spectra of mm-bright background sources to provide a census of the molecular gas mass density of the Universe. The data used in this work are taken from ALMACAL, a wide and deep survey utilizing t…
We combine observational data on a dozen independent cosmic properties at high-$z$ with the information on reionization drawn from the spectra of distant luminous sources and the cosmic microwave background (CMB) to constrain the interconnected evolution of galaxies and the intergalactic medium since the dark ages. The only acceptable solutions are concentrated in two narrow sets. In one of them reionization proceeds in two phases: a first one driven by Population III stars, completed at $z\sim 10$, and after a short recombination period a second one driven by normal galaxies, completed at $z\…