Hintze Centre for Astrophysical Surveys

Abstract:

We present the results of our investigation into the stellar populations of 24 radio galaxies at z ≃ 0.5 drawn from four complete, low-frequency-selected radio surveys. We use the strength of the 4000-Å break as an indicator of recent star formation and compare this with radio luminosity, optical spectral classification and morphological classification. We find evidence of different star formation histories for high- and low-luminosity radio sources; our group of low radio luminosity sources (typically Fanaroff-Riley type I sources) has systematically older stellar populations than the higher radio luminosity group. Our sample is also fairly well divided by optical spectral classification. We find that galaxies classified as having low excitation spectra (LEGs) possess older stellar populations than high excitation line objects (HEGs), with the HEGs showing evidence for recent star formation. We also investigate the link between radio morphology, as used by Owen and Laing, and the stellar populations. We find that there is a preference for the 'fat-double' sources to have older stellar populations than the 'classical double' sources, although this is also linked to these sources lying predominantly in the LEG and HEG categories, respectively. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that HEGs are powered by accretion of cold gas, which could be supplied, for example, by recent mergers, secular instabilities or filamentary cold flows. These processes could also trigger star formation in the host galaxy. The host galaxies of the LEGs do not show evidence for recent star formation and an influx of cold gas and are consistent with being powered by the accretion of the hot phase of the interstellar medium. © 2010 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2010 RAS.

Abstract:

The 2009 November outburst of the neutron star X-ray binary Aquila X-1 (Aql X-1) was observed with unprecedented radio coverage and simultaneous pointed X-ray observations, tracing the radio emission around the full X-ray hysteresis loop of the outburst for the first time. We use these data to discuss the disk-jet coupling, finding the radio emission to be consistent with being triggered at state transitions, both from the hard to the soft spectral state and vice versa. Our data appear to confirm previous suggestions of radio quenching in the soft state above a threshold X-ray luminosity of ∼10% of the Eddington luminosity. We also present the first detections of Aql X-1 with very long baseline interferometry, showing that any extended emission is relatively diffuse and consistent with steady jets rather than arising from discrete, compact knots. In all cases where multi-frequency data were available, the source radio spectrum is consistent with being flat or slightly inverted, suggesting that the internal shock mechanism that is believed to produce optically thin transient radio ejecta in black hole X-ray binaries is not active in Aql X-1. © 2010. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved..

Abstract:

The radio sky is not steady on timescales below one second. Pulsars (including the rotating radio transients RRATs) and solar-system objects (e.g. solar flares, jupiter bursts, saturn lightning) give rise to sub-second pulses. Also in many known radiation processes coherent radiation can more easily occur at longer wavelengths, for which the size of the emitting region is comparable to the wavelength. This makes low frequency surveys ideally suited for the detection of new emission mechanisms caused by compact objects, such as white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes. To detect as many of these Fast Radio Transients (FRATs) as possible, we are setting up a technique to detect and identify short single pulses with LOFAR in real-time, with unprecedented sensitivity in this frequency range, and excellent discrimination against terrestrial signals.

Abstract:

In this paper, we report on radio (Very Large Array and Austrialian Telescope Compact Array) and X-ray (RXTE, Chandra and Swift) observations of the outburst decay of the transient black hole candidate H 1743-322 in early 2008. We find that the X-ray light curve followed an exponential decay, levelling off towards its quiescent level. The exponential decay time-scale is ≈4 days and the quiescent flux corresponds to a luminosity of erg s-1. This together with the relation between quiescent X-ray luminosity and orbital period reported in the literature suggests that H 1743-322 has an orbital period longer than ≈10 h. Both the radio and X-ray light curve show evidence for flares. The radio-X-ray correlation can be well described by a power-law with index ≈0.18. This is much lower than the index of ≈0.6-0.7 found for the decay of several black hole transients before. The radio spectral index measured during one of the radio flares while the source is in the low-hard state is -0.5 ± 0.15, which indicates that the radio emission is optically thin. This is unlike what has been found before in black hole sources in the low-hard state. We attribute the radio flares and the low index for the radio-X-ray correlation to the presence of shocks downstream the jet flow, triggered by ejection events earlier in the outburst. We find no evidence for a change in X-ray power-law spectral index during the decay, although the relatively high extinction of NH ≈ 2.3 × 1022 cm-2 limits the detected number of soft photons and thus the accuracy of the spectral fits. © 2009 RAS.

Abstract:

We study resolution effects in numerical simulations of gas-rich and gas-poor major mergers, and show that the formation of slowly rotating elliptical galaxies often requires a resolution that is beyond the present-day standards to be properly modelled. Our sample of equal-mass merger models encompasses various masses and spatial resolutions, ranging from about 200 pc and 105 particles per component (stars, gas and dark matter), i.e. a gas mass resolution of ∼105 M⊙, typical of some recently published major merger simulations, to up to 32 pc and ∼103 M⊙ in simulations using 2.4 × 107 collisionless particles and 1.2 × 107 gas particles, among the highest resolutions reached so far for gas-rich major merger of massive disc galaxies. We find that the formation of fast-rotating early-type galaxies, that are flattened by a significant residual rotation, is overall correctly reproduced at all such resolutions. However, the formation of slow-rotating early-type galaxies, which have a low-residual angular momentum and are supported mostly by anisotropic velocity dispersions, is strongly resolution-dependent. The evacuation of angular momentum from the main stellar body is largely missed at standard resolution, and systems that should be slow rotators are then found to be fast rotators. The effect is most important for gas-rich mergers, but is also witnessed in mergers with an absent or modest gas component (0-10 per cent in mass). The effect is robust with respect to our initial conditions and interaction orbits, and originates in the physical treatment of the relaxation process during the coalescence of the galaxies. Our findings show that a high-enough resolution is required to accurately model the global properties of merger remnants and the evolution of their angular momentum. The role of gas-rich mergers of spiral galaxies in the formation of slow-rotating ellipticals may therefore have been underestimated. Moreover, the effect of gas in a galaxy merger is not limited to helping the survival/rebuilding of rotating disc components: at high resolution, gas actively participates in the relaxation process and the formation of slowly rotating stellar systems. © 2010 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2010 RAS.