We present an improved analysis of the final data set from the QUaD experiment. Using an improved technique to remove ground contamination, we double the effective sky area and hence increase the ...precision of our cosmic microwave background (CMB) power spectrum measurements by ~30% versus that previously reported. In addition, we have improved our modeling of the instrument beams and have reduced our absolute calibration uncertainty from 5% to 3.5% in temperature. The robustness of our results is confirmed through extensive jackknife tests, and by way of the agreement that we find between our two fully independent analysis pipelines. For the standard six-parameter Delta *LCDM model, the addition of QUaD data marginally improves the constraints on a number of cosmological parameters over those obtained from the WMAP experiment alone. The impact of QUaD data is significantly greater for a model extended to include either a running in the scalar spectral index, or a possible tensor component, or both. Adding both the QUaD data and the results from the Arcminute Cosmology Bolometer Array Receiver experiment, the uncertainty in the spectral index running is reduced by ~25% compared to WMAP alone, while the upper limit on the tensor-to-scalar ratio is reduced from r < 0.48 to r < 0.33 (95% c.l.). This is the strongest limit on tensors to date from the CMB alone. We also use our polarization measurements to place constraints on parity-violating interactions to the surface of last scattering, constraining the energy scale of Lorentz violating interactions to <1.5 X 10-43 GeV (68% c.l.). Finally, we place a robust upper limit on the strength of the lensing B-mode signal. Assuming a single flat band power between = 200 and = 2000, we constrain the amplitude of B-modes to be <0.57 Delta *mK2 (95% c.l.).
We report results from the second and third seasons of observation with the QUaD experiment. Angular power spectra of the cosmic microwave background are derived for both temperature and polarization ...at both 100 GHz and 150 GHz, and as cross-frequency spectra. All spectra are subjected to an extensive set of jackknife tests to probe for possible systematic contamination. For the implemented data cuts and processing technique such contamination is undetectable. We analyze the difference map formed between the 100 and 150 GHz bands and find no evidence of foreground contamination in polarization. The spectra are then combined to form a single set of results which are shown to be consistent with the prevailing LCDM model. The sensitivity of the polarization results is considerably better than that of any previous experiment-for the first time multiple acoustic peaks are detected in the E-mode power spectrum at high significance.
Context. Fomalhaut is a young (2 +/- 1 x 10(8) years), nearby (7.7 pc), 2 M-circle dot star that is suspected to harbor an infant planetary system, interspersed with one or more belts of dusty ...debris. Aims. We present far-infrared images obtained with the Herschel Space Observatory with an angular resolution between 5.7 '' and 36.7 '' at wavelengths between 70 mu m and 500 mu m. The images show the main debris belt in great detail. Even at high spatial resolution, the belt appears smooth. The region in between the belt and the central star is not devoid of material; thermal emission is observed here as well. Also at the location of the star, excess emission is detected. We aim to construct a consistent image of the Fomalhaut system. Methods. We use a dynamical model together with radiative-transfer tools to derive the parameters of the debris disk. We include detailed models of the interaction of the dust grains with radiation, for both the radiation pressure and the temperature determination. Comparing these models to the spatially resolved temperature information contained in the images allows us to place strong constraints on the presence of grains that will be blown out of the system by radiation pressure. We use this to derive the dynamical parameters of the system. Results. The appearance of the belt points toward a remarkably active system in which dust grains are produced at a very high rate by a collisional cascade in a narrow region filled with dynamically excited planetesimals. Dust particles with sizes below the blow-out size are abundantly present. The equivalent of 2000 one-km-sized comets are destroyed every day, out of a cometary reservoir amounting to 110 Earth masses. From comparison of their scattering and thermal properties, we find evidence that the dust grains are fluffy aggregates, which indicates a cometary origin. The excess emission at the location of the star may be produced by hot dust with a range of temperatures, but may also be due to gaseous free-free emission from a stellar wind.
We present Herschel observations of 62 early-type galaxies (ETGs), including 39 galaxies morphologically classified as S0+S0a and 23 galaxies classified as ellipticals using SPIRE at 250, 350, and ...500 mu m as part of the volume-limited Herschel Reference Survey (HRS). We detect dust emission in 24% of the ellipticals and 62% of the S0s. The mean temperature of the dust is left angle bracketT sub(d)right angle bracket = 23.9 + or - 0.8 K, warmer than that found for late-type galaxies in the Virgo Cluster. The mean dust mass for the entire detected early-type sample is logM sub(d) = 6.1 + or - 0.1 M with a mean dust-to-stellar-mass ratio of log(M sub(d)/Ml ow *) = -4.3 + or - 0.1. Including the non-detections, these parameters are logM sub(d) = 5.6 + or - 0.1 and log(M sub(d)/Ml ow *) = -5.1 + or - 0.1, respectively. The average dust-to-stellar-mass ratio for the early-type sample is fifty times lower, with larger dispersion, than the spiral galaxies observed as part of the HRS, and there is an order-of-magnitude decline in M sub(d)/Mlow * between the S0s and ellipticals. We use UV and optical photometry to show that virtually all the galaxies lie close to the red sequence yet the large number of detections of cool dust, the gas-to-dust ratios, and the ratios of far-infrared to radio emission all suggest that many ETGs contain a cool interstellar medium similar to that in late-type galaxies. We show that the sizes of the dust sources in S0s are much smaller than those in early-type spirals and the decrease in the dust-to-stellar-mass ratio from early-type spirals to S0s cannot simply be explained by an increase in the bulge-to-disk ratio. These results suggest that the disks in S0s contain much less dust (and presumably gas) than the disks of early-type spirals and this cannot be explained simply by current environmental effects, such as ram-pressure stripping. The wide range in the dust-to-stellar-mass ratio for ETGs and the lack of a correlation between dust mass and optical luminosity suggest that much of the dust in the ETGs detected by Herschel has been acquired as the result of interactions, although we show these are unlikely to have had a major effect on the stellar masses of the ETGs. The Herschel observations tentatively suggest that in the most massive systems, the mass of interstellar medium is unconnected to the evolution of the stellar populations in these galaxies.
We constrain parity-violating interactions to the surface of last scattering using spectra from the QUaD experiment's second and third seasons of observations by searching for a possible systematic ...rotation of the polarization directions of cosmic microwave background photons. We measure the rotation angle due to such a possible "cosmological birefringence" to be 0.55 degrees +/-0.82 degrees (random) +/-0.5 degrees (systematic) using QUaD's 100 and 150 GHz temperature-curl and gradient-curl spectra over the spectra over the multipole range 200<l<2000, consistent with null, and constrain Lorentz-violating interactions to <2 x 10;{-43} GeV (68% confidence limit). This is the best constraint to date on electrodynamic parity violation on cosmological scales.
Whether supernovae are major sources of dust in galaxies is a long-standing debate. We present infrared and submillimeter photometry and spectroscopy from the Herschel Space Observatory of the Crab ...Nebula between 51 and 670 mu m as part of the Mass Loss from Evolved StarS program. We compare the emission detected with Herschel with multiwavelength data including millimeter, radio, mid-infrared, and archive optical images. We carefully remove the synchrotron component using the Herschel and Planck fluxes measured in the same epoch. The contribution from line emission is removed using Herschel spectroscopy combined with Infrared Space Observatory archive data. Several forbidden lines of carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen are detected where multiple velocity components are resolved, deduced to be from the nitrogen-depleted, carbon-rich ejecta. No spectral lines are detected in the SPIRE wavebands; in the PACS bands, the line contribution is 5% and 10% at 70 and 100 mu m and negligible at 160 mu m. After subtracting the synchrotron and line emission, the remaining far-infrared continuum can be fit with two dust components. Assuming standard interstellar silicates, the mass of the cooler component is 0.24 super(+0.32) sub(-0.08) M sub(middot in circle) for T = 28.1 super(+5.5) sub(-3.2) K. Amorphous carbon grains require 0.11 + or - 0.01 M sub(middot in circle) of dust with T = 33.8 super(+2.3) sub(-1.8) K. A single temperature modified blackbody with 0.14 M sub(middot in circle) and 0.08 M sub(middot in circle) for silicate and carbon dust, respectively, provides an adequate fit to the far-infrared region of the spectral energy distribution but is a poor fit at 24-500 mu m. The Crab Nebula has condensed most of the relevant refractory elements into dust, suggesting the formation of dust in core-collapse supernova ejecta is efficient.
The origin of interstellar dust in galaxies is poorly understood, particularly the relative contributions from supernovae and the cool stellar winds of low-intermediate-mass stars. Recently, large ...masses of newly formed dust have been discovered in the ejecta of core-collapse supernovae. Here, we present Herschel Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS) and Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE) photometry at 70-500
m of the historical, young supernova remnants: Kepler and Tycho, both thought to be the remnants of Type Ia explosion events. We detect a warm dust component in Kepler's remnant with
and mass
; this is spatially coincident with thermal X-ray emission and optical knots and filaments, consistent with the warm dust originating in the circumstellar material swept up by the primary blast wave of the remnant. Similarly for Tycho's remnant, we detect warm dust at
with mass
. Comparing the spatial distribution of the warm dust with X-rays from the ejecta and swept-up medium, and Hα emission arising from the post-shock edge, we show that the warm dust is swept up interstellar material. We find no evidence of a cool (25-50 K) component of dust with mass ≥0.07 M⊙ as observed in core-collapse remnants of massive stars. Neither the warm or cold dust components detected here are spatially coincident with supernova ejecta material. We compare the lack of observed supernova dust with a theoretical model of dust formation in Type Ia remnants which predicts dust masses of 88(17) × 10−3 M⊙ for ejecta expanding into ambient surrounding densities of 1(5) cm−3. The model predicts that silicon- and carbon-rich dust grains will encounter, at most, the interior edge of the observed dust emission at ∼400 years, confirming that the majority of the warm dust originates from swept-up circumstellar or interstellar grains (for Kepler and Tycho, respectively). The lack of cold dust grains in the ejecta suggests that Type Ia remnants do not produce substantial quantities of iron-rich dust grains and has important consequences for the 'missing' iron mass observed in ejecta. Finally, although, we cannot completely rule out a small mass of freshly formed supernova dust, the Herschel observations confirm that significantly less dust forms in the ejecta of Type Ia supernovae than in the remnants of core-collapse explosions.
The detection of circumstellar water vapour around the ageing carbon star IRC +10216 challenged the current understanding of chemistry in old stars, because water was predicted to be almost absent in ...carbon-rich stars. Several explanations for the water were postulated, including the vaporization of icy bodies (comets or dwarf planets) in orbit around the star, grain surface reactions, and photochemistry in the outer circumstellar envelope. With a single water line detected so far from this one carbon-rich evolved star, it is difficult to discriminate between the different mechanisms proposed. Here we report the detection of dozens of water vapour lines in the far-infrared and sub-millimetre spectrum of IRC +10216 using the Herschel satellite. This includes some high-excitation lines with energies corresponding to ∼1,000 K, which can be explained only if water is present in the warm inner sooty region of the envelope. A plausible explanation for the warm water appears to be the penetration of ultraviolet photons deep into a clumpy circumstellar envelope. This mechanism also triggers the formation of other molecules, such as ammonia, whose observed abundances are much higher than hitherto predicted.
In this paper we present a catalog of giant molecular clouds (GMCs) in the Andromeda (M31) galaxy extracted from the Herschel Exploitation of Local Galaxy Andromeda (HELGA) data set. GMCs are ...identified from the Herschel maps using a hierarchical source extraction algorithm. We present the results of this new catalog and characterize the spatial distribution and spectral energy properties of its clouds based on the radial dust/gas properties found by Smith et al. A total of 326 GMCs in the mass range 10 super(4)-10 super(7) M sub(middot in circle) are identified; their cumulative mass distribution is found to be proportional to M super(-2.34), in agreement with earlier studies. The GMCs appear to follow the same correlation of cloud mass to L sub(CO) observed in the Milky Way. However, comparison between this catalog and interferometry studies also shows that the GMCs are substructured below the Herschel resolution limit, suggesting that we are observing associations of GMCs. Following Gordon et al., we study the spatial structure of M31 by splitting the observed structure into a set of spiral arms and offset rings. We fit radii of 10.3 and 15.5 kpc to the two most prominent rings. We then fit a logarithmic spiral with a pitch angle of 8.degrees9 to the GMCs not associated with either ring. Last, we comment on the effects of deprojection on our results and investigate the effect different models for M31's inclination will have on the projection of an unperturbed spiral arm system.
SCUBA, the Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array, built by the Royal Observatory Edinburgh for the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, is the most versatile and powerful of a new generation of ...submillimetre cameras. It combines a sensitive dual-waveband imaging array with a three-band photometer, and is sky-background-limited by the emission from the Mauna Kea atmosphere at all observing wavelengths from 350 μμto 2 mm. The increased sensitivity and array size mean that SCUBA maps close to 10 000 times faster than its single-pixel predecessor (UKT14). SCUBA is a facility instrument, open to the world community of users, and is provided with a high level of user support. We give an overview of the instrument, describe the observing modes, user interface and performance figures on the telescope, and present a sample of the exciting new results that have revolutionized submillimetre astronomy.