A high-resolution radio study of neutral gas in the starburst galaxy NGC 520

We present subarcsec angular resolution observations of the neutral gas in the nearby starburst galaxy NGC 520. The central kpc region of NGC 520 contains an area of significantly enhanced star formation. The radio continuum structure of this region resolves into ∼10 continuum components. By comparing the flux densities of the brightest of these components at 1.4 GHz with published 15-GHz data we infer that these components detected at 1.4 and 1.6 GHz are related to the starburst and are most likely to be collections of several supernova remnants within the beam. None of these components is consistent with emission from an active galactic nuclei. Both neutral hydrogen (H  i ) and hydroxyl (OH) absorption lines are observed against the continuum emission, along with a weak OH maser feature probably related to the star formation activity in this galaxy. Strong H  i absorption  ( N _H∼ 10²² atoms cm⁻²)  traces a velocity gradient of 0.5 km s⁻¹ pc⁻¹ across the central kpc of NGC 520. The H  i absorption velocity structure is consistent with the velocity gradients observed in both the OH absorption and in CO emission observations. The neutral gas velocity structure observed within the central kpc of NGC 520 is attributed to a kpc-scale ring or disc. It is also noted that the velocity gradients observed for these neutral gas components appear to differ with the velocity gradients observed from optical ionized emission lines. This apparent disagreement is discussed and attributed to the extinction of the optical emission from the actual centre of this source hence implying that optical ionized emission lines are only detected from regions with significantly different radii to those sampled by the observations presented here.     

The gigantic interacting galaxy NGC 6872

The luminous barred galaxy NGC 6872 is one of the largest spiral galaxies known. Star formation is traced all along the arms, which extend over more than 100 kpc. The galaxy is likely to be affected by tidal perturbations from the nearby companion IC 4970 passing by on a low-inclination, prograde orbit. We have mapped the large-scale distribution and kinematics of the atomic gas in the NGC 6872/IC 4970 system and carried out N-body simulations. Our aim is to investigate the evolution of gas and stars in such close encounters, examine the influence of a dark matter halo on the length of the tidal tails, and test models of collisionally induced star formation. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Transient‐state groundwater flow in various geometries with wells at arbitrary positions: analytical methods

We have developed a method for analytically solving the porous medium flow equation in many different geometries for horizontal (two‐dimensional), homogeneous and isotropic aquifers containing impermeable boundaries and any number of pumping or injection wells located at arbitrary positions within the system. Solutions and results are presented for rectangular and circular aquifers but the method presented here is easily extendible to many geometries. Results are also presented for systems where constant head boundary conditions can be emulated internal to the aquifer boundary. Recommendations for extensions of the present work are briefly discussed. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Quantitative Method to Optimise Magnetic Field Line Fitting of Observed Coronal Loops

Many authors use magnetic-field models to extrapolate the field in the solar corona from magnetic data in the photosphere. The accuracy of such extrapolations is usually judged qualitatively by eye, where a less judgemental quantitative approach would be more desirable. In this paper, a robust method for obtaining the best fit between a theoretical magnetic field and intensity observations of coronal loops on the solar disk will be presented. The method will be applied to Yohkoh data using a linear force-free field as an illustration. Any other theoretical model for the magnetic field can be used, provided there is enough freedom in the model to optimize the fit.     

Correcting systematic effects in a large set of photometric light curves

We suggest a new algorithm to remove systematic effects in a large set of light curves obtained by a photometric survey. The algorithm can remove systematic effects, such as those associated with atmospheric extinction, detector efficiency, or point spread function changes over the detector. The algorithm works without any prior knowledge of the effects, as long as they linearly appear in many stars of the sample. The approach, which was originally developed to remove atmospheric extinction effects, is based on a lower rank approximation of matrices, an approach which has already been suggested and used in chemometrics, for example. The proposed algorithm is especially useful in cases where the uncertainties of the measurements are unequal. For equal uncertainties, the algorithm reduces to the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) algorithm. We present a simulation to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm and we point out its potential, in the search for transit candidates in particular.     

The depolarization properties of powerful extragalactic radio sources as a function of cosmic epoch

We use the observed polarization properties of a sample of 26 powerful radio galaxies and radio-loud quasars to constrain the conditions in the Faraday screens local to the sources. We adopt the cosmological redshift, low-frequency radio luminosity and physical size of the large-scale radio structures as our 'fundamental' parameters. We find no correlation of the radio spectral index with any of the fundamental parameters. The observed rotation measure is also independent of these parameters, suggesting that most of the Faraday rotation occurs in the Galactic foreground. The difference between the rotation measures of the two lobes of an individual source, as well as the dispersion of the rotation measure, shows significant correlations with the source redshift, but not with the radio luminosity or source size. This is evidence that the small-scale structure observed in the rotation measure is caused by a Faraday screen local to the sources. The observed asymmetries between the lobes of our sources show no significant trends with each other or other source properties. Finally, we show that the commonly used model for the depolarization of synchrotron radio emission by foreground Faraday screens is inconsistent with our observations. We apply alternative models to our data and show that they require a strong increase of the dispersion of the rotation measure inside the Faraday screens with cosmological redshift. Correcting our observations with these models for redshift effects, we find a strong correlation of the depolarization measure with redshift and a significantly weaker correlation with radio luminosity. We do not find any (anti-)correlation of depolarization measure with source size. All our results are consistent with a decrease in the order of the magnetic field structure of the Faraday screen local to the sources for increasing cosmological redshift.     

Richtmyer-Meshkov Experiments on the Omega Laser

Observations of the interstellar medium reveal a dynamic realm permeated by shocks. These shocks are generated on a large range of scales by galactic rotation, supernovae, stellar winds, and other processes. Whenever a shock encounters a density interface, Richtmyer-Meshkov instabilities may develop. Perturbations along the interface grow, leading to structure formation and material mixing. An understanding of the evolution of Richtmyer-Meshkov instabilities is essential for understanding galactic structure, molecular cloud morphology, and the early stages of star formation. An ongoing experimental campaign studies Richtmyer-Meshkov mixing in a convergent, compressible, miscible plasma at the Omega laser facility. Cylindrical targets, consisting of a low density foam core and an aluminum shell covered by an epoxy ablator, are directly driven by fifty laser beams. The aluminum shell is machined to produce different perturbation spectra. Surface types include unperturbed (smooth), single-mode sinusoids, multi-mode (rough), and multi-mode with particular modes accentuated (specified-rough). Experimental results are compared to theory and numerical simulations.