Search Publications

Interstellar Hydrides
DOI: 10.1146/annurev-astro-081915-023409 Bibcode: 2016ARA&A..54..181G

Neufeld, David A.; Gerin, Maryvonne; Goicoechea, Javier R.

Interstellar hydrides—that is, molecules containing a single heavy element atom with one or more hydrogen atoms—were among the first molecules detected outside the solar system. They lie at the root of interstellar chemistry, being among the first species to form in initially atomic gas, along with molecular hydrogen and its associated ions. Becau…

2016 Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics
Herschel 119
The Connection Between Reddening, Gas Covering Fraction, and the Escape of Ionizing Radiation at High Redshift
DOI: 10.3847/0004-637X/828/2/108 Bibcode: 2016ApJ...828..108R

Pettini, Max; Shapley, Alice E.; Steidel, Charles C. +2 more

Using a large sample of spectroscopically confirmed z∼ 3 galaxies, we establish an empirical relationship between reddening (E(B-V)), neutral gas covering fraction ({f}{{cov}}({{H}} {{I}})), and the escape of ionizing (Lyman continuum, LyC) photons. Our sample includes 933 galaxies at z∼ 3,121 of which have deep spectroscopic observatio…

2016 The Astrophysical Journal
eHST 119
Detection of the kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect with DES Year 1 and SPT
DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stw1455 Bibcode: 2016MNRAS.461.3172S

Benoit-Lévy, A.; Efstathiou, G.; D'Andrea, C. B. +82 more

We detect the kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (kSZ) effect with a statistical significance of 4.2σ by combining a cluster catalogue derived from the first year data of the Dark Energy Survey with cosmic microwave background temperature maps from the South Pole Telescope Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Survey. This measurement is performed with a differential stat…

2016 Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Planck 119
Eliminating the optical depth nuisance from the CMB with 21 cm cosmology
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.93.043013 Bibcode: 2016PhRvD..93d3013L

Sherwin, Blake D.; Liu, Adrian; Pritchard, Jonathan R. +3 more

Amongst standard model parameters that are constrained by cosmic microwave background (CMB) observations, the optical depth τ stands out as a nuisance parameter. While τ provides some crude limits on reionization, it also degrades constraints on other cosmological parameters. Here we explore how 21 cm cosmology—as a direct probe of reionization—ca…

2016 Physical Review D
Planck 118
A census of dense cores in the Taurus L1495 cloud from the Herschel
DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stw301 Bibcode: 2016MNRAS.459..342M

White, G. J.; André, Ph.; Könyves, V. +17 more

We present a catalogue of dense cores in a ∼4° × 2° field of the Taurus star-forming region, inclusive of the L1495 cloud, derived from Herschel SPIRE and PACS observations in the 70 µm, 160 µm, 250 µm, 350 µm, and 500 µm continuum bands. Estimates of mean dust temperature and total mass are derived using modified bla…

2016 Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Herschel 118
A New Population of Compton-thick AGNs Identified Using the Spectral Curvature above 10 keV
DOI: 10.3847/0004-637X/825/2/85 Bibcode: 2016ApJ...825...85K

Harrison, F. A.; Stern, D.; Alexander, D. M. +19 more

We present a new metric that uses the spectral curvature (SC) above 10 keV to identify Compton-thick active galactic nuclei (AGNs) in low-quality Swift/Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) X-ray data. Using NuSTAR, we observe nine high SC-selected AGNs. We find that high-sensitivity spectra show that the majority are Compton-thick (78% or 7/9) and the rema…

2016 The Astrophysical Journal
XMM-Newton 118
Globular Clusters Indicate That Ultra-diffuse Galaxies Are Dwarfs
DOI: 10.3847/0004-637X/830/1/23 Bibcode: 2016ApJ...830...23B

Beasley, Michael A.; Trujillo, Ignacio

We present an analysis of archival HST/ACS imaging in the F475W (g 475), F606W (V 606), and F814W (I 814) bands of the globular cluster (GC) system of a large (3.4 kpc effective radius) ultra-diffuse galaxy (DF17) believed to be located in the Coma Cluster of galaxies. We detect 11 GCs down to the 5σ completeness l…

2016 The Astrophysical Journal
eHST 118
A Universal Density Structure for Circumgalactic Gas
DOI: 10.3847/0004-637X/830/2/87 Bibcode: 2016ApJ...830...87S

Stern, Jonathan; Hennawi, Joseph F.; Prochaska, J. Xavier +1 more

We develop a new method to constrain the physical conditions in the cool (∼104 K) circumgalactic medium (CGM) from measurements of ionic column densities by assuming that the cool CGM spans a large range of gas densities and that small high-density clouds are hierarchically embedded in large low-density clouds. The new method combines t…

2016 The Astrophysical Journal
eHST 118
Regulation of black-hole accretion by a disk wind during a violent outburst of V404 Cygni
DOI: 10.1038/nature17446 Bibcode: 2016Natur.534...75M

Ponti, G.; Charles, P. A.; Rodriguez, J. +7 more

Accretion of matter onto black holes is universally associated with strong radiative feedback and powerful outflows. In particular, black-hole transients have outflows whose properties are strongly coupled to those of the accretion flow. This includes X-ray winds of ionized material, expelled from the accretion disk encircling the black hole, and …

2016 Nature
INTEGRAL 117
Balloon-Borne Submillimeter Polarimetry of the Vela C Molecular Cloud: Systematic Dependence of Polarization Fraction on Column Density and Local Polarization-Angle Dispersion
DOI: 10.3847/0004-637X/824/2/134 Bibcode: 2016ApJ...824..134F

Ward-Thompson, Derek; Fissel, Laura M.; Nakamura, Fumitaka +27 more

We present results for Vela C obtained during the 2012 flight of the Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope for Polarimetry. We mapped polarized intensity across almost the entire extent of this giant molecular cloud, in bands centered at 250, 350, and 500 µm. In this initial paper, we show our 500 µm data smoothed to a r…

2016 The Astrophysical Journal
Herschel 116