A statistical measurement of the H I spin temperature in DLAs at cosmological distances
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Oxford University Press 503:1 (2021) 985-996
Abstract:
Evolution of the cosmic star formation rate (SFR) and molecular gas mass density is expected to be matched by a similarly strong evolution of the fraction of atomic hydrogen (H I) in the cold neutral medium (CNM). We use results from a recent commissioning survey for intervening 21-cm absorbers with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) to construct a Bayesian statistical model of the NH I-weighted harmonic mean spin temperature (Ts) at redshifts between z = 0.37 and 1.0. We find that Ts ≤ 274 K with 95 per cent probability, suggesting that at these redshifts the typical H I gas in galaxies at equivalent DLA column densities may be colder than the Milky Way interstellar medium (Ts, MW ∼ 300 K). This result is consistent with an evolving CNM fraction that mirrors the molecular gas towards the SFR peak at z ∼ 2. We expect that future surveys for H I 21-cm absorption with the current SKA pathfinder telescopes will provide constraints on the CNM fraction that are an order of magnitude greater than presented here.The distribution and properties of DLAs at z ≤ 2 in the EAGLE simulations
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Oxford University Press 501:3 (2020) 4396-4419
Abstract:
Determining the spatial distribution and intrinsic physical properties of neutral hydrogen on cosmological scales is one of the key goals of next-generation radio surveys. We use the EAGLE galaxy formation simulations to assess the properties of damped Lyman α absorbers (DLAs) that are associated with galaxies and their underlying dark matter haloes between 0 ≤ z ≤ 2. We find that the covering fraction of DLAs increases at higher redshift; a significant fraction of neutral atomic hydrogen (H I) resides in the outskirts of galaxies with stellar mass ≥1010 M⊙; and the covering fraction of DLAs in the circumgalactic medium (CGM) is enhanced relative to that of the interstellar medium (ISM) with increasing halo mass. Moreover, we find that the mean density of the H I in galaxies increases with increasing stellar mass, while the DLAs in high- and low-halo mass systems have higher column densities than those in galaxies with intermediate halo masses (∼1012 M⊙ at z = 0). These high-impact CGM DLAs in high-stellar mass systems tend to be metal poor, likely tracing smooth accretion. Overall, our results point to the CGM playing an important role in DLA studies at high redshift (z ≥ 1). However, their properties are impacted both by numerical resolution and the detailed feedback prescriptions employed in cosmological simulations, particularly that of active galactic nuclei.Measuring the distance to the black hole candidate X-ray binary MAXI J1348–630 using H I absorption
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters Oxford University Press 501:1 (2020) L60-L64
Abstract:
We present neutral hydrogen (H I) absorption spectra of the black hole candidate X-ray binary (XRB) MAXI J1348–630 using the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) and MeerKAT. The ASKAP H I spectrum shows a maximum negative radial velocity (with respect to the local standard of rest) of −31 ± 4 km s−1 for MAXI J1348–630, as compared to −50 ± 4 km s−1 for a stacked spectrum of several nearby extragalactic sources. This implies a most probable distance of 2.2+0.5−0.6 kpc for MAXI J1348–630, and a strong upper limit of the tangent point distance at 5.3 ± 0.1 kpc. Our preferred distance implies that MAXI J1348–630 reached 17 ± 10 per cent of the Eddington luminosity at the peak of its outburst, and that the source transited from the soft to the hard X-ray spectral state at 2.5 ± 1.5 per cent of the Eddington luminosity. The MeerKAT H I spectrum of MAXI J1348–630 (obtained from the older, low-resolution 4k mode) is consistent with the re-binned ASKAP spectrum, highlighting the potential of the eventual capabilities of MeerKAT for XRB spectral line studies.FLASH early science - discovery of an intervening HI 21-cm absorber from an ASKAP survey of the GAMA 23 field
MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY 494:3 (2020) 3627-3641
Radio observations of supernova remnant G1.9+0.3
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Oxford University Press 492:2 (2019) 2606-2621