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Accurate predictions of the physics of interstellar medium (ISM) are vital for understanding galaxy formation and evolution. Modelling photoionized regions with complex geometry produces realistic ionization structures within the nebulae, providing the necessary physical predictions to interpret observational data. 3D photoionization codes built with Monte Carlo techniques provide powerful tools to produce the ionizing radiation field with fractal geometry. We present a high-resolution Monte Carlo modelling of a nebula with fractal geometry, and will further show how nebular geometry influences the emission-line behaviours. Our research has important implications for studies of emission-line ratios in high redshift galaxies.
The hot Jupiter HD189733b is expected to be a source of strong radio emission, due to its close proximity to its magnetically active host star. Here, we model the stellar wind of its host star, based on reconstructed surface stellar magnetic field maps. We use the local stellar wind properties at the planetary orbit obtained from our models to compute the expected radio emission from the planet. Our findings show that the planet emits with a peak flux density within the detection capabilities of LOFAR. However, due to absorption by the stellar wind itself, this emission may be attenuated significantly. We show that the best time to observe the system is when the planet is near primary transit of the host star, as the attenuation from the stellar wind is lowest in this region.
Magnetic flux rope (MFR) is closely connected with solar eruptions, such as flares and coronal mass ejections. The classical scenario assumes a single MFR for each eruption, but it is reasonable to expect multiple MFRs in a complex active region (AR). Statistically investigating AR 11897, we verify the existence of multiple MFR proxies during the AR evolution. Recently, AR 12673 in 2017 September produced the two largest flares in Solar Cycle 24. The evolutions of the AR magnetic fields and the two large flares reveal that significant flux emergence and successive interactions between different emerging dipoles resulted in the formations of multiple MFRs and twisted loop bundles, which successively erupted like a chain reaction within several minutes before the peaks of the two flares. We propose that the eruptions of a multi-flux-rope system can rapidly release enormous magnetic energy and result in large flares in solar AR.
Cosmological hydrodynamical simulations have become an important theoretical tool for understanding the formation and evolution of the first galaxies during cosmic dawn, between redshifts 5 and 15. I will introduce the FirstLight database of about 300 zoom-in simulations with a resolution of 10 parsecs. This database agrees well with observed UV luminosity functions and stellar mass functions. I will discuss the origin and evolution of the star-forming main sequence of galaxies and the main drivers of the star formation histories at these early epochs. I will show simulated SEDs from UV to IR, including stellar and nebular emission. The rest-frame UV spectra show steep slopes and a high production efficiency of Lyman continuum photons. These properties are consistent with young stellar populations with low metallicities. Simulated recombination lines allow us to link the physical conditions of the gas around these stellar populations with observables, like equivalent widths in OIII or Hα or BPT diagrams at high-z. These simulations are making predictions that will be tested for the first time in future deep fields with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). I will finally discuss preliminary results involving JWST mock fields and predictions for ALMA observations by post-processing FirstLight snapshots with Powderday radiative transfer code.
A filament eruption may lead to a coronal mass ejection (CME), which is one of the main driving mechanisms of space weather. This work analyses a slow and flareless CME event associated with an erupting quiescent filament. By using the extreme ultraviolet images of the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory, we trace the evolution of the filament in detail, and present the manifestations of the role of magnetic fields in the low corona. The results suggest the existence of a magnetic flux rope in the pre-eruption structures. Our study of this complex magnetic system may lead to a better understanding of CMEs and their impact on the space weather.
Starburst galaxies at z ∼ 2 – 4 are among the most intensely star-forming galaxies in the universe. The way they accrete their gas to form stars at such high rates is still a controversial issue. ALMA has detected the CH+ (J = 1-0) line in emission and/or absorption in all the gravitationally lensed starburst galaxies targeted so far at z ∼ 3. Its unique spectroscopic and chemical properties enable CH+ to highlight the sites of most intense dissipation of mechanical energy. The absorption lines reveal highly turbulent, massive reservoirs of low-density molecular gas. The broad emission lines, arising in myriad UV-irradiated molecular shocks, reveal powerful galactic winds. The CH+ lines therefore probe the fate of prodigious energy releases, due to infall and/or outflows, and primarily stored in turbulence before being radiated by cool molecular gas. The turbulent reservoirs act as mass and energy buffers over the duration of the starburst phase.
We have studied turbulent plasma as a complex system applying the method known as Horizontal Visibility Graph (HVG) to obtain the Kullback-Leibler Divergence (KLD) as a first approach to characterize the reversibility of the time series of the magnetic fluctuations. For this, we have developed the method on Particle In Cell (PIC) simulations for a magnetized plasma and on solar wind magnetic time series, considering slow and fast wind. Our numerical results show that low irreversibility values are verified for magnetic field time series associated with Maxwellian distributions. In addition, considering the solar wind plasma, our preliminary results seem to indicate that greater irreversibility degrees are reached by the magnetic field associated with slow solar wind.
The stellar magnetic field completely dominates the environment around late-type stars. It is responsible for driving the coronal high-energy radiation (e.g. EUV/X-rays), the development of stellar winds, and the generation transient events such as flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). While progress has been made for the first two processes, our understanding of the eruptive behavior in late-type stars is still very limited. One example of this is the fact that despite the frequent and highly energetic flaring observed in active stars, direct evidence for stellar CMEs is almost non-existent. Here we discuss realistic 3D simulations of stellar CMEs, analyzing their resulting properties in contrast with solar eruptions, and use them to provide a common framework to interpret the available stellar observations. Additionally, we present results from the first 3D CME simulations in M-dwarf stars, with emphasis on possible observable signatures imprinted in the stellar corona.
Young solar analogs reaching the main sequence experience very strong magnetic activity, directly linked to their angular momentum loss through wind and mass ejections. We investigate here the surface and chromospheric activity of the ultra-rapid rotator AP 149 in the young open cluster alpha Persei. With a time-series of spectropolarimetric observations gathered over two nights with ESPaDOnS, we are able to reconstruct the surface distribution of brightness and magnetic field using the Zeeman-Doppler-Imaging (ZDI) method. Using the same data set, we also map the spatial distribution of prominences through tomography of H-alpha emission. We find that AP 149 shows a strong cool spot and magnetic field closed to the polar cap. This star is the first example of a solar-type star to have its magnetic field and prominences mapped together, which will help to explore the respective role of wind and prominences in the angular momentum evolution of the most active stars.
Today's massive elliptical galaxies are primarily red-and-dead, dispersion supported ellipticals. The physical process(es) driving the shutdown or ‘quenching’ of star formation in these galaxies remains one of the least understood aspects of galaxy formation and evolution. Although today's spiral and elliptical galaxies exhibit a clear bimodality in their structures, kinematics, and stellar populations, it may be that the quenching and structural transformation do no occur simultaneously. In this talk I will present evidence that early quiescent galaxies, observed much closer to their quenching epoch at z ∼ 1, retain significant rotational support (∼ twice as much as local ellipticals). This suggests that the mechanisms responsible for shutting down star formation do not also have to destroy ordered motion in massive galaxies; the increased dispersion support could occur subsequently via hierarchical growth and minor merging. I will discuss this evidence in conjunction with recent ALMA studies of the dramatic range in molecular gas reservoirs of recently quenched high redshift galaxies to constrain quenching models. Finally, I will discuss prospects for extending spatially resolved spectroscopic studies of galaxies immediately following quenching with JWST and eventually 30-m class telescopes.
The growth of spectroscopic observations of exoplanetary systems allows the possibility of testing theoretical models and studying the interaction that exoplanetary atmospheres have with the wind and the energetic photons from the star. In this work, we present a set of numerical 3D simulations of HD 209458b for which spectral lines observations of their evaporative atmosphere are available. The different simulations aim to reproduce different scenarios for the star-planet interaction. With our models, we reconstruct the Lyα line during transit and compare with observations. The results allows us to analyse the shape of the line profile under these different scenarios and the comparison with the observations suggest that HD209458b may have a magnetic field off less than 1 G. We also explore the behaviour of the magnesium lines for models with and without magnetic fields.
Measurement of magnetic field in this layer is challenging both from point of view of observations and interpretation of the data. We present in this work about spectropolarimetric observations of a pore, simultaneously in Ca ii (CaIR) at 854.2 nm (CaIR) and H α (656.28 nm). The observed region includes a small scale energetic event (SSEE) taking place in the region between the pore and the region which show opposite polarity to that of pore at the photosphere. The energetic event appears to be a progressive reconnection event as shown by the time evolution of the intensity profiles. Closer examination of the intensity profiles from the downflow regions suggest that the height of formation of CaIR is higher than that of Hi α, contrary to the current understanding about their height of formation. Preliminary results on the inversion of Stokes-I and V profiles of CaIR are also presented.
One of the major and widely known small scale problem with the Lambda CDM model of cosmology is the “core-cusp” problem. In this study we investigate whether this problem can be resolved using bar instabilities. We see that all the initial bars are thin (b/a < 0.3) in our simulations and the bar becomes thick ( b /a > 0.3) faster in the high resolution simulations. By increasing the resolution, we mean a larger number of disk particles. The thicker bars in the high resolution simulations transfer less angular momentum to the halo. Hence, we find that in the high resolution simulations it takes around 7 Gyr for the bar to remove inner dark matter cusp which is too long to be meaningful in galaxy evolution timescales. Physically, the reason is that as the resolution increases, the bar buckles faster and becomes thicker much earlier on.
The near-infrared spectrograph NIRSpec is one of four instruments aboard the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). It offers seven dispersers covering the wavelength range from 0.6 to 5.3 micron with resolutions from R ∼ 100 to R ∼ 2700. Using an array of micro-shutters for target selection, the multi-object spectroscopy mode of NIRSpec will be capable of obtaining spectra from a few tens to more than 200 objects simultaneously. It also features an integral field unit with a 3 by 3 arcseconds field of view, and various slits for high contrast spectroscopy of individual objects. We will provide an overview of the capabilities and performances of these three observing modes highlighting how NIRSpec will contribute to the quest to further understand the assembly and evolution of galaxies from the end of re-ionisation epoch to the present day.
The spatial distribution of the dust and stars contains crucial information about the evolutionary pathways of galaxies. We present results of our study combing high-resolution ALMA and HST observations of z ∼ 2 bright sub-millimeter galaxies (SMGs). We have developed a two-dimensional extinction and age correction technique to obtain accurate stellar mass distributions from HST/CANDELS. For the first time, we can directly compare the spatial distribution of assembled stellar mass and ongoing star formation on kpc scales for distant SMGs, shedding light on their highly debated formation mechanisms. We find that the dust distribution is more compact than the stellar component, regardless if the SMG lies on the main sequence or at the starburst regime. Taking the dust emission as a proxy for dust-obscured star formation, our results imply that high-redshift SMGs are experiencing centrally enhanced star formation. These findings suggests that major galaxy interactions are not necessarily the main formation channel for SMGs with secular disk formation remaining a viable option as suggested by state-of-the-art cosmological simulations. The sizes and stellar densities of our z ∼ 2 SMGs agree well with the most compact early-type galaxies in the local Universe, strongly supporting the idea that the latter systems are indeed the descendants of massive SMGs at z ∼ 2.
The stellar magnetic field is the driver of activity in the star and can trigger energetic flares, CMEs and ionized wind. These phenomena, specially CMEs, may have an important impact on the magnetosphere and atmosphere of the orbiting planets. To predict whether a CME will impact a planet, the effects of the background on the CME's trajectory must be taken into account. We used the MHD code ForeCAT – a model for CME deflection due to magnetic forces – to perform numerical simulations of CMEs being launched from both the Sun and Kepler-63, which is a young, solar-like star with high activity. Comparing results from Kepler-63 and the Sun gives us a panorama of the distinct activity level and star-planet interactions of these systems due to the difference of stellar ages and star-planet distances.
While the high-redshift component of the CANDELS survey was designed with the z ∼ 6–8 era in mind, these data do probe the far-UV of galaxies at even higher redshift. A few studies have ventured this far out, and have published conflicting results - some continue to find significant star-formation, while others conclude there is a steep decline in this quantity. Here I report on a new search for z = 9–10 galaxies, making significant use of the Spitzer/IRAC data in the CANDELS fields. We have discovered a larger number of galaxies in this epoch than previous works, implying the UV luminosity function, and thus the SFR density, may not evolve as steeply as previously thought. This implies that star-formation begins early in the universe. I will also report on a new study searching for the earliest quenched galaxies at 3 < z < 5, which are not predicted by models, yet may exist if galaxies form very early, and thus can approach their quenching phase quicker.
The Bulge Asymmetries and Dynamical Evolution (BAaDE) survey aims to explore the complex structure of the inner Galaxy and Galactic Bulge, by using the 43 GHz receivers at the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) and the 86 GHz receivers at the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to observe SiO maser lines in red giant stars. The goal is to construct a sample of stellar point-mass probes that can be used to test models of the gravitational potential, and the final sample is expected to provide at least 20,000 line-of-sight velocities and positions. A possible bias between the VLA and the ALMA SiO maser lines is explored, and the 86 GHz SiO line-peak velocities agree using either of the four sampled lines. Additionally, the SiO maser velocities agree with the OH maser derived velocities.
Distant luminous Lyman-α emitters are excellent targets for detailed observations of galaxies in the epoch of reionisation. Spatially resolved observations of these galaxies allow us to simultaneously probe the emission from young stars, partially ionised gas in the interstellar medium and to constrain the properties of the surrounding hydrogen in the circumgalactic medium. We review recent results from (spectroscopic) follow-up studies of the rest-frame UV, Lyman-α and [CII] emission in luminous galaxies observed ∼500 Myr after the Big Bang with ALMA, HST/WFC3 and VLT/X-SHOOTER. These galaxies likely reside in early ionised bubbles and are complex systems, consisting of multiple well separated and resolved components where traces of metals are already present.