Multi-component study of extended sources with a likelihood method

The spectral and morphological analysis for gamma-ray sources with multiple emission components remains a major challenge for Cherenkov telescopes due to background emission from diffuse gamma rays. Current methods of background suppression, usually based on the bin-by-bin subtraction of OFF-source data do not allow an analysis of the various background components. As an alternative, we present an approach based on an event-by-event likelihood fit of ON-source data, using a combined spectral model for the source emission as well as for the gamma-like background obtained from fits of the OFF-source data. Multiple emission components are separated by successive fits in different energy regimes and spectral variations inside the extended source is derived. The performance of this approach is evaluated with toy Monte-Carlo studies. For the application to real data, two well-studied H.E.S.S. sources are re-examined: the extragalactic point-source PKS 2155-304 and the extended pulsar wind nebula HESS J1825-137. For the latter, radial variation of the emission spectral index was evaluated, confirming earlier findings by the H.E.S.S. collaboration.     

A comparison of different imaging techniques in low energy γ-ray astronomy

Three main imaging techniques used in low energy gamma-ray astronomy are briefly described. Their imaging capabilities are first compared from the point of view of image formation, then simulated images of the Galactic Centre are produced using these three techniques. The image qualities are evaluated with respect to their ability to determine the locations and intensities of point sources in the presence of background and diffuse emission.     

Diffuse thermal X-ray emission in the core of the young massive cluster Westerlund 1

We present an analysis of the diffuse hard X-ray emission in the core of the young massive Galactic cluster Westerlund 1 based on a 48 ks XMM-Newton observation. Chandra results for the diffuse X-ray emission have indicated a soft thermal component together with a hard component that could be either thermal or non-thermal. We seek to resolve this ambiguity regarding the hard component exploiting the higher sensitivity of XMM-Newton to diffuse emission. Our new X-ray spectra from the central (2′ radius) diffuse emission are found to exhibit He-like Fe 6.7 keV line emission, demonstrating that the hard emission in the cluster core is predominantly thermal in origin. Potential sources of this hard component are reviewed, namely an unresolved Pre-Main Sequence population, a thermalized cluster wind and Supernova Remnants interacting with stellar winds. We find that the thermalized cluster wind likely contributes the majority of the hard emission with some contribution from the Pre-Main Sequence population. It is unlikely that Supernova Remnants are contributing significantly to the Westerlund 1 diffuse emission at the current epoch.     

The contribution to the Galactic diffuse gamma-ray spectrum from unresolved rotation-powered pulsars

We consider the contribution to the Galactic diffuse γ-ray emission from unresolved γ-ray pulsars. Based on the thick outer gap model, Monte Carlo methods are used to simulate the properties (period, distance, magnetic field, etc.) of the Galactic population of rotation-powered pulsars the gamma-ray flux of which is lower than the threshold sensitivity of the EGRET detector on the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory . Furthermore, the contribution to the Galactic diffuse γ-ray spectrum from the unresolved γ-ray pulsars is calculated. Our results indicate that the unresolved γ-ray pulsars contribute ∼5 to ∼10 per cent to the measured Galactic diffuse γ-ray emission if the birth rate of neutron stars in the Galaxy is 1 to 2 per century, and that these pulsars contribute significantly to the observed Galactic diffuse γ-ray emission above 1 GeV. Comparing the model spectrum with the observed spectrum, we show that the unresolved γ-ray pulsars contribute very little to the diffuse emission at lower energies but can account for ∼50 per cent of the observed spectrum above 1 GeV if the product of the birth rate of neutron stars and the γ-ray beaming fraction is about unity. Such a large pulsar contribution can explain the difference (∼60 per cent) between the intensity of the Galactic diffuse emission as measured by EGRET above 1 GeV and model predictions based on cosmic ray–matter interaction only.     

X-ray observations of PSR B0355+54 and its pulsar wind nebula

We present X-ray data of the middle-aged radio pulsar PSR B0355+54. The XMM-Newton and Chandra observations show not only emission from the pulsar itself, but also compact diffuse emission extending ∼50″ in the opposite direction to the pulsar’s proper motion. Our analysis also indicates the presence of fainter diffuse emission extending ∼5′ from the point source. The morphology of the diffuse component is similar to the ram-pressure confined pulsar wind nebulae detected for other sources. We find that the compact diffuse component is well-fitted with a power-law, with an index that is consistent with the values found for other pulsar wind nebulae. The core emission from the pulsar can be characterized with a thermal plus power-law fit, with the thermal emission most likely originating in a hot polar cap.     

A Hidden Radio Halo in the Galaxy Cluster A 1682?

High sensitivity observations of radio halos in galaxy clusters at frequencies ν ≤ 330 MHz are still relatively rare, and very little is known compared to the classical 1.4 GHz images. The few radio halos imaged down to 150–240 MHz show a considerable spread in size, morphology and spectral properties. All clusters belonging to the GMRT Radio Halo Survey with detected or candidate cluster-scale diffuse emission have been imaged at 325 MHz with the GMRT. Few of them were also observed with the GMRT at 240 MHz and 150 MHz. For A 1682, imaging is particularly challenging due to the presence of strong and extended radio galaxies at the center. Our data analysis suggests that thew radio galaxies are superposed to very low surface brightness radio emission extended on the cluster scale, which we present here.     

ROSAT PSPC observations of nearby spiral galaxies – II. Statistical properties

We present a statistical analysis of the largest X-ray survey of nearby spiral galaxies in which diffuse emission has been separated from discrete source contributions. Regression and rank-order correlation analyses are used to compare X-ray properties, such as total, source and diffuse luminosities and diffuse emission temperature, with a variety of physical and multiwavelength properties, such as galaxy mass, type and activity, and optical and infrared luminosity.
The results are discussed in terms of the way in which hot gas and discrete X-ray sources scale with the mass and activity of galaxies, and with the star formation rate. We find that the X-ray properties of starburst galaxies are dependent primarily on their star-forming activity, whilst for more quiescent galaxies, galaxy mass is the more important parameter. One of the most intriguing results is the tight linear scaling between far-infrared and diffuse X-ray luminosity across the sample, even though the hot gas changes from a hydrostatic corona to a free wind across the activity range sampled here.     

Adaptive optics near-infrared imaging of NGC 2992 – unveiling core structures related to radio figure-of-8 loops

We present near-infrared adaptive optics, Very Large Array (VLA) radio and Hubble Space Telescope ( HST ) optical imaging of the nearby Seyfert galaxy NGC 2992. Spiral structure and an extension to the west are traced down to the core region at the limiting resolution of our near-infrared images. A faint, diffuse loop of near-infrared and radio emission is also observed to the north, embedded within the prominent 2-arcsec radio loop previously observed to the north-west. Near-infrared colour maps and CO narrow-band imaging are then used to identify which regions may not be purely reddened stellar populations. Our new data provide evidence that the VLA radio-loop morphology in the shape of a figure of 8 represents two components superimposed: (1) outflow bubbles out of the plane of the disc, coincident with the extended emission-line region (EELR); (2) star formation along the spiral arm within the galaxy disc and through the dust lane. The near-infrared continuum emission associated with the outflowing radio bubbles suggests that the radio loops are driven by the active nucleus.     

In-Orbit Vignetting Calibrations of XMM-Newton Telescopes

We describe measurements of the mirror vignetting in the XMM-Newton Observatory made in-orbit, using observations of SNR G21.5-09 and SNR 3C58 with the EPIC imaging cameras. The instrument features that complicate these measurements are briefly described. We show the spatial and energy dependences of measured vignetting, outlining assumptions made in deriving the eventual agreement between simulation and measurement. Alternate methods to confirm these are described, including an assessment of source elongation with off-axis angle, the surface brightness distribution of the diffuse X-ray background, and the consistency of Coma cluster emission at different position angles. A synthesis of these measurements leads to a change in the XMM calibration data base, for the optical axis of two of the three telescopes, by in excess of 1 arcmin. This has a small but measureable effect on the assumed spectral responses of the cameras for on-axis targets. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Multifrequency spectra of solar brightness temperature derived from eclipse observations

Changes in solar radio-brightness temperature were derived at 2.8,19.3 and 22.2 GHz from the observations of radio flux during the total eclipse of 1980 February 16. High-resolution MEM spectra of the brightness temperature fluctuations at the three frequencies showed periodicities ranging from 3.5 min to 128 min. Between 3.5 min and 14.6 min there are several periodicities of comparable significance common to the three operating frequencies. If the corresponding variations in brightness temperature are assumed to result from spatial variations in the solar radio emission, the observed periodicities imply scale sizes in the range 76000 km to 320000 km.     

Chandra observations of the luminous infrared galaxy NGC 3256

We present a detailed analysis of high-resolution Chandra observations of the merger system NGC 3256, the most infrared-luminous galaxy in the nearby universe. The X-ray data show that several discrete sources embedded in complex diffuse emission contribute ≳20 per cent of the total emission     in the  0.5–10 keV  energy range). The compact sources are hard and extremely bright and their emission is probably dominated by accretion-driven processes. Both galaxy nuclei are detected with  L_X∼3–10×10⁴⁰ erg s⁻¹  . No evidence is found for the presence of an active nucleus in the southern nucleus, contrary to previous speculation. Once the discrete sources are removed, the diffuse component has a soft spectrum that can be modelled by the superposition of three thermal plasma components with temperatures   kT =0.6  , 0.9 and 3.9 keV. Alternatively, the latter component can be described as a power law with index  Γ∼3  . Some evidence is found for a radial gradient of the amount of absorption and temperature of the diffuse component. We compare the X-ray emission with optical, H α and NICMOS images of NGC 3256 and find a good correlation between the inferred optical/near-infrared and X-ray extinctions. Although inverse Compton scattering could be important in explaining the hard X-rays seen in the compact sources associated with the nuclei, the observed diffuse emission is probably of thermal origin. The observed X-ray characteristics support a scenario in which the powerful X-ray emission is driven solely by the current episode of star formation.     

A new superwind galaxy: XMM–Newton observations of NGC 6810

We present the first imaging X-ray observation of the highly inclined  ( i = 78°)  Sab Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 6810 using XMM–Newton , which reveals soft X-ray emission that extends out to a projected height of ∼7 kpc away from the plane of the galaxy. The soft X-ray emission beyond the optical disc of the galaxy is most plausibly extraplanar, although it could instead come from large galactic radius. This extended X-ray emission is spatially associated with diffuse Hα emission, in particular with a prominent 5-kpc-long Hα filament on the north-west of the disc. A fraction ≲35 per cent of the total soft X-ray emission of the galaxy arises from projected heights  | z | ≥ 2 kpc  . Within the optical disc of the galaxy the soft X-ray emission is associated with the star-forming regions visible in ground-based Hα and XMM–Newton optical monitor near-UV imaging. The temperature, supersolar α-element-to-iron abundance ratio, soft X-ray/Hα correlation, and X-ray to far-infrared (FIR) flux ratio of NGC 6810 are all consistent with local starbursts with winds, although the large base radius of the outflow would make NGC 6810 one of the few 'disc-wide' superwinds currently known. Hard X-ray emission from NGC 6810 is weak, and the total   E = 2–10 keV  luminosity and spectral shape are consistent with the expected level of X-ray binary emission from the old and young stellar populations. The X-ray observations provide no evidence of any active galactic nucleus activity. We find that the optical, IR and radio properties of NGC 6810 are all consistent with a starburst galaxy, and that the old classification of this galaxy as a Seyfert 2 galaxy is probably incorrect.     

A Hubble Space Telescope/NICMOS view of the prototypical giant Hii region NGC604 in M33

We present the first high-spatial-resolution near-infrared (NIR) imaging of NGC604, obtained with the NICMOS camera onboard the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). These NICMOS broad-band images reveal new NIR point sources, clusters, and diffuse structures. We find an excellent spatial correlation between the 8.4 GHz radio continuum and the 2.2 μm nebular emission. Moreover, massive young stellar object candidates appear aligned with these radio peaks, reinforcing the idea that those areas are star-forming regions. Three different scaled OB associations are recognized in the NICMOS images. The brightest NIR sources in our images have properties that suggest that they are red supergiant stars, of which one was previously known. This preliminary analysis of the NICMOS images shows the complexity of the stellar content of the NGC604 nebula.     

Estimating statistics of sky brightness using radio interferometric observations

Radio interferometers are used to construct high resolution images of the sky at radio frequencies and are the key instruments for accessing the statistical properties of the evolution of neutral hydrogen over cosmic time. Here we use simulated observations of the model sky to assess the efficacy of different estimators of the large-scale structure and power spectrum of the sky brightness distribution. We find that while the large-scale distribution can be reasonably estimated using the reconstructed image from interferometric data, estimates of the power spectrum of the intensity fluctuations calculated from the image are generally biased. This bias is found to be more pronounced for diffuse emission. The visibility based power spectrum estimator, however, gives an unbiased estimate of the true power spectrum. This work demonstrates that for an observation with diffuse emission the reconstructed image can be used to estimate the large-scale distribution of the intensity, while to estimate the power spectrum, visibility based methods should be preferred.With the upcoming experiments aimed at measuring the evolution of the power spectrum of the neutral hydrogen distribution, this is a very important result.     

High-resolution radio observations of Seyfert galaxies in the extended 12-μm sample – I. The observations

We present 8.4-GHz VLA A-configuration observations of 87 sources from the mid-infrared-selected AGN sample of Rush et al. These 0.25-arcsec-resolution observations allow elongated radio structures tens of pc in size to be resolved, and enable radio components smaller than 3.5 arcsec to be isolated from diffuse galactic disc emission. When combined with previous data, matched radio observations covering 90 per cent of the sample have been collected, and these represent the largest subarcsecond–resolution radio imaging survey of a homogeneously selected sample of Seyfert galaxies to date.
We use our observations to identify five radio-loud AGN in the sample. The nature of the radio emission from Seyfert nuclei will be discussed in subsequent papers.     

GMRT Low Radio Frequency Study of the Wolf Rayet Galaxy NGC 4214 and Detection of a Distant Galaxy

In this paper, we present the first low frequency (< 1.4 GHz) radio continuum study of a Wolf Rayet galaxy NGC 4214 using the Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope (GMRT). We detect diffuse extended emission from the galaxy disk at 325 MHz and find that the radio emission closely follows the ultraviolet emission mapped by GALEX. The galaxy is undergoing continuous star formation which can explain the diffuse emission. We suggest that the diffuse radio continuum emission and X-ray emission detected in the northern part of NGC 4214 is associated with a background galaxy, 2MASX J12153795+3622218.     

H i content in galaxies in loose groups

Gas deficiency in cluster spirals is well known and ram-pressure stripping is considered the main gas removal mechanism. In some compact groups too gas deficiency is reported. However, gas deficiency in loose groups is not yet well established. Lower dispersion of the member velocities and the lower density of the intragroup medium in small loose groups favour tidal stripping as the main gas removal process in them. Recent releases of data from the H  i Parkes All-Sky Survey (HIPASS) and catalogues of nearby loose groups with associated diffuse X-ray emission have allowed us to test this notion. In this paper, we address the following questions: (i) do galaxies in groups with diffuse X-ray emission statistically have lower gas content compared to the ones in groups without diffuse X-ray emission? (ii) does H  i deficiency vary with the X-ray luminosity, L _X, of the loose group in a systematic way? We find that (i) galaxies in groups with diffuse X-ray emission, on average, are H  i deficient, and have lost more gas compared to those in groups without X-ray emission; the latter are found not to have significant H  i deficiency; (ii) no systematic dependence of the H  i deficiency with L _X is found. Ram-pressure-assisted tidal stripping and evaporation by thermal conduction are the two possible mechanisms to account for this excess gas loss.     

恒星形成区CMaOB1/R1复合体的红外发射

使用IRAS的红外观测资料,对恒星形成区CMaOB1/R1复合体的红外发射特性进行了详细的研究,并与光学观测,射电连续观测及CO观测进行了比较,结果表明,这个复合体的发射是由一个弥散发射背景和若干分离源所组成。红外弥散发射可由两个O星的加热来解释,但扩展的HII区可能是由一个老的HII区的遗迹与仍处于主序阶段的两个O型星共同作用的结果,分离源大多与已知的发射或反射星云相对应,但存在几个没有已知光学对应体的源,它们可能是刚进入主序的早型星激发的。     

Gamma-ray source stacking analysis at low galactic latitudes

We studied the problematic of uncertainties in the diffuse gamma radiation apparent in stacking analysis of EGRET data at low Galactic latitudes. Subsequently, we co-added maps of counts, exposure and diffuse background, and residuals, in varying numbers for different sub-categories of putatively and known source populations (like PSRs). Finally we tested for gamma-ray excess emission in those maps and attempt to quantify the systematic biases in such approach. Such kind of an analysis will help the classification processes of sources and source populations in the GLAST era.     

Compton γ射线望远镜的直接解调成像

Ｃｏｍｐｔｏｎγ射线望远镜ＣＯＭＰＴＥＬ／ＣＧＲＯ工作于０．７５－３０ＭｅＶ能区，本文应用直接解调方法分析ＣＧＲＯ＃１观测的ＣＯＭＰＴＥＬ数据，准确定出Ｃｒａｂγ射线源的位置，在１０－３０ＭｅＶ能区，分辨开最大似然法所不能完全分辨的Ｃｒａｂγ射线源和类星体ＰＫＳ０５２８＋１３４，得出优于传统成像方法所得的成像结果．应用直接成像方法处理γ射线脉冲星Ｇｅｍｉｎｇａ分位相数据，发现Ｇｅｍｉｎｇａ在１０－３０ＭｅＶ能区仍存在辐射，辐射集中在Ｇｅｍｉｎｇａ第一个峰的位相区域．结果表明，应用直接解调方法对Ｃｏｍｐｔｏｎ望远镜数据作成像分析是完全可行的