The Interstellar Medium in High-redshift Submillimeter Galaxies as Probed by Infrared Spectroscopy

Astrophysical Journal 837:1 (2017)

Authors:

JL Wardlow, A Cooray, W Osage, N Bourne, D Clements, H Dannerbauer, L Dunne, S Dye, S Eales, D Farrah, C Furlanetto, E Ibar, R Ivison, S Maddox, MM Michałowski, D Riechers, D Rigopoulou, D Scott, MWL Smith, L Wang, PVD Werf, E Valiante, I Valtchanov, A Verma

Abstract:

© 2017. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.Submillimeter galaxies (SMGs) at z ≳ 1 are luminous in the far-infrared, and have star formation rates, SFR, of hundreds to thousands of solar masses per year. However, it is unclear whether they are true analogs of local ULIRGs or whether the mode of their star formation is more similar to that in local disk galaxies.We target these questions by using Herschel-PACS to examine the conditions in the interstellar medium (ISM) in far-infrared luminous SMGs at z ∼ 1-4. We present 70-160 μm photometry and spectroscopy of the [O IV]26 μm, [Fe II]26 μm, [S III]33 μm, [Si II]34 μm, [O III]52 μm, [N III]57 μm, and [O I]63 μm fine-structure lines and the S(0) and S(1) hydrogen rotational lines in 13 lensed SMGs identified by their brightness in early Herschel data. Most of the 13 targets are not individually spectroscopically detected; we instead focus on stacking these spectra with observations of an additional 32 SMGs from the Herschel archive-representing a complete compilation of PACS spectroscopy of SMGs. We detect [O I]63 μm, [Si II]34 μm, and [N III]57 μm at ≥3σ in the stacked spectra, determining that the average strengths of these lines relative to the far-IR continuum are (0.36 ± 0.12) × 10-3, (0.84 ± 0.17) × 10-3, and (0.27 ± 0.10) × 10-3, respectively. Using the [O III]52 μm/[N III]57 μm emission line ratio, we show that SMGs have average gas-phase metallicities ≳Zo. By using PDR modeling and combining the new spectral measurements with integrated far-infrared fluxes and existing [C II]158 μm data, we show that SMGs have average gas densities, n, of ∼101-3 cm-3 and FUV field strengths, G0 ∼ 102.2-4.5 (in Habing units: 1.6 × 10-3 erg cm-2 s-1), consistent with both local ULIRGs and lower luminosity star-forming galaxies.

Fading AGN Candidates: AGN Histories and Outflow Signatures

Astrophysical Journal 835:2 (2017)

Authors:

WC Keel, CJ Lintott, WP Maksym, VN Bennert, SD Chojnowski, A Moiseev, A Smirnova, K Schawinski, LF Sartori, CM Urry, A Pancoast, M Schirmer, B Scott, C Showley, K Flatland

Abstract:

� 2017. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. We consider the energy budgets and radiative history of eight fading active galactic nuclei (AGNs), identified from an energy shortfall between the requirements to ionize very extended (radius > 10 kpc) ionized clouds and the luminosity of the nucleus as we view it directly. All show evidence of significant fading on timescales of ≈50,000 yr. We explore the use of minimum ionizing luminosity Q ion derived from photoionization balance in the brightest pixels in Hα at each projected radius. Tests using presumably constant Palomar-Green QSOs, and one of our targets with detailed photoionization modeling, suggest that we can derive useful histories of individual AGNs, with the caveat that the minimum ionizing luminosity is always an underestimate and subject to uncertainties about fine structure in the ionized material. These consistency tests suggest that the degree of underestimation from the upper envelope of reconstructed Q ion values is roughly constant for a given object and therefore does not prevent such derivation. The AGNs in our sample show a range of behaviors, with rapid drops and standstills; the common feature is a rapid drop in the last ≈2 � 10 4 yr before the direct view of the nucleus. The e-folding timescales for ionizing luminosity are mostly in the thousands of years, with a few episodes as short as 400 yr. In the limit of largely obscured AGNs, we find additional evidence for fading from the shortfall between even the lower limits from recombination balance and the maximum luminosities derived from far-infrared fluxes. We compare these long-term light curves, and the occurrence of these fading objects among all optically identified AGNs, to simulations of AGN accretion; the strongest variations over these timespans are seen in models with strong and local (parsec-scale) feedback. We present Gemini integral-field optical spectroscopy, which shows a very limited role for outflows in these ionized structures. While rings and loops of emission, morphologically suggestive of outflow, are common, their kinematic structure shows some to be in regular rotation. UGC 7342 exhibits local signatures of outflows < 300 km s -1 , largely associated with very diffuse emission, and possibly entraining gas in one of the clouds seen in Hubble Space Telescope images. Only in the Teacup AGN do we see outflow signatures of the order of 1000 km s -1 . In contrast to the extended emission regions around many radio-loud AGNs, the clouds around these fading AGNs consist largely of tidal debris being externally illuminated but not displaced by AGN outflows.

Galaxy Zoo: morphological classifications for 120 000 galaxies in HST legacy imaging

MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY 464:4 (2017) 4176-4203

Authors:

KW Willett, MA Galloway, SP Bamford, CJ Lintott, KL Masters, C Scarlata, BD Simmons, M Beck, CN Cardamone, E Cheung, EM Edmondson, LF Fortson, RL Griffith, B Haussler, A Han, R Hart, T Melvin, M Parrish, K Schawinski, RJ Smethurst, AM Smith

Galaxy Zoo: quantitative visual morphological classifications for 48 000 galaxies from CANDELS

MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY 464:4 (2017) 4420-4447

Authors:

BD Simmons, C Lintott, KW Willett, KL Masters, JS Kartaltepe, B Haussler, S Kaviraj, C Krawczyk, SJ Kruk, DH McIntosh, RJ Smethurst, RC Nichol, C Scarlata, K Schawinski, CJ Conselice, O Almaini, HC Ferguson, L Fortson, W Hartley, D Kocevski, AM Koekemoer, A Mortlock, JA Newman, SP Bamford, NA Grogin, RA Lucas, NP Hathi, E McGrath, M Peth, J Pforr, Z Rizer, S Wuyts, G Barro, EF Bell, M Castellano, T Dahlen, A Dekel, J Ownsworth, SM Faber, SL Finkelstein, A Fontana, A Galametz, R Grutzbauch, D Koo, J Lotz, B Mobasher, M Mozena, M Salvato, T Wiklind

The interstellar medium in high-redshift submillimeter galaxies as probed by infrared spectroscopy

(2017)

Authors:

Julie L Wardlow, Asantha Cooray, Willow Osage, Nathan Bourne, David Clements, Helmut Dannerbauer, Loretta Dunne, Simon Dye, Steve Eales, Duncan Farrah, Cristina Furlanetto, Edo Ibar, Rob Ivison, Steve Maddox, Michał M Michałowski, Dominik Riechers, Dimitra Rigopoulou, Douglas Scott, Matthew WL Smith, Lingyu Wang, Paul van der Werf, Elisabetta Valiante, Ivan Valtchanov, Aprajita Verma