arXiv subjects

C. Kramer

Publications and source records attributed to C. Kramer.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2020

Exploiting NIKA2/XMM-Newton imaging synergy for intermediate mass, high-$z$ galaxy clusters within the NIKA2 SZ Large Program

High-resolution mapping of the intra-cluster medium (ICM) up to high redshift and down to low masses is crucial to derive accurate mass estimates of the galaxy cluster and to understand the systematic effects affecting cosmological studies based on galaxy clusters. We present a spatially-resolved Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ)/X-ray analysis of ACT-CL J0215.4+0030, a high redshift ($z=0.865$) galaxy cluster of intermediate mass ($M_{500}\simeq3.5\times10^{14}\;\mathrm{M_\odot}$) observed as part of the ongoing NIKA2 SZ Large Program, a follow up of a representative sample of objects at $0.5 \leqslant z \leqslant 0.9$. In addition to the faintness and small angular size induced by its mass and redshift, the cluster is contaminated by point sources that significantly affect the SZ signal. Therefore, this is an interesting case study for the most challenging sources of the NIKA2 cluster sample. We present the NIKA2 observations of this cluster and the resulting data. We reconstruct the ICM pressure profile by performing a joint analysis of the SZ signal and of the point sources in the NIKA2 150 GHz map. We obtain high-quality estimates of the ICM thermodynamical properties with NIKA2. We compare the pressure profile extracted from the NIKA2 map to the pressure profile obtained from X-ray data only by deprojecting XMM-Newton observations of the cluster. We combine the NIKA2 pressure profile with the X-ray deprojected density to extract detailed information on the ICM. The radial distribution of its thermodynamic properties indicate that the cluster has a disturbed core. The hydrostatic mass of the cluster is to be compatible with estimations from SZ and X-rays scaling relations. We conclude that the NIKA2 SZ large program can deliver quality information on the thermodynamics of the ICM even for one of its faintest clusters, after a careful treatment of the contamination by point sources.

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arXiv2020

Large-scale Map of Millimeter-wavelength Hydrogen Radio Recombination Lines around a Young Massive Star Cluster

We report the first map of large-scale (10 pc in length) emission of millimeter-wavelength hydrogen recombination lines (mm-RRLs) toward the giant H II region around the W43-Main young massive star cluster (YMC). Our mm-RRL data come from the IRAM 30 m telescope and are analyzed together with radio continuum and cm-RRL data from the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array and HCO$^{+}$ 1-0 line emission data from the IRAM 30 m. The mm-RRLs reveal an expanding wind-blown ionized gas shell with an electron density ~70-1500 cm$^{-3}$ driven by the WR/OB cluster, which produces a total Ly$α$ photon flux of 1.5 x 10$^{50}$ s$^{-1}$. This shell is interacting with the dense neutral molecular gas in the W43-Main dense cloud. Combining the high spectral and angular resolution mm-RRL and cm-RRL cubes, we derive the two-dimensional relative distributions of dynamical and pressure broadening of the ionized gas emission and find that the RRL line shapes are dominated by pressure broadening (4-55 km s$^{-1}$) near the YMC and by dynamical broadening (8-36 km s$^{-1}$) near the shell's edge. Ionized gas clumps hosting ultra-compact H II regions found at the edge of the shell suggest that large-scale ionized gas motion triggers the formation of new star generation near the periphery of the shell.

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arXiv2020

LEGO II: A 3 mm molecular line study covering 100 pc of one of the most actively star-forming portions within the Milky Way Disc

The current generation of (sub)mm-telescopes has allowed molecular line emission to become a major tool for studying the physical, kinematic, and chemical properties of extragalactic systems, yet exploiting these observations requires a detailed understanding of where emission lines originate within the Milky Way. In this paper, we present 60$^{\prime\prime}$ ($\sim$3pc) resolution observations of many 3mm-band molecular lines across a large map of the W49 massive star-forming region ($\sim$100$\times$100pc at 11kpc), which were taken as part of the "LEGO" IRAM-30m large project. We find that the spatial extent or brightness of the molecular line transitions are not well correlated with their critical densities, highlighting abundance and optical depth must be considered when estimating line emission characteristics. We explore how the total emission and emission efficiency (i.e. line brightness per H$_{2}$ column density) of the line emission vary as a function of molecular hydrogen column density and dust temperature. We find that there is not a single region of this parameter space responsible for the brightest and most efficiently emitting gas for all species. For example, we find that the HCN transition shows high emission efficiency at high column density ($10^{22}$cm$^{-2}$) and moderate temperatures (35K), whilst e.g. N$_2$H$^+$ emits most efficiently towards lower temperatures ($10^{22}$cm$^{-2}$; <20K). We determine $X_{\mathrm{CO} (1-0)} \sim 0.3 \times 10^{20} \mathrm{cm^{-2}(Kkms^{-1})^{-1}}$, and $α_{\mathrm{HCN} (1-0)} \sim 30\mathrm{M_\odot(Kkms^{-1}pc^2)^{-1}}$, which both differ significantly from the commonly adopted values. In all, these results suggest caution should be taken when interpreting molecular line emission.

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arXiv2020

Molecular globules in the Veil bubble of Orion. IRAM 30m 12CO, 13CO, and C18O 2-1 expanded maps of Orion A

Strong winds and ultraviolet (UV) radiation from O-type stars disrupt and ionize their molecular core birthplaces, sweeping up material into parsec-size shells. Owing to dissociation by starlight, the thinnest shells are expected to host low molecular abundances and therefore little star formation. Here, we expand previous maps taken with the IRAM 30m telescope and present square-degree 12CO and 13CO (J=2-1) maps of the wind-driven "Veil bubble'' that surrounds the Trapezium cluster and its natal Orion molecular core (OMC). Although widespread and extended CO emission is largely absent from the Veil, we show that several CO "globules'' exist and are embedded in the [CII]158um-bright shell that confines the bubble. This includes the first detection of quiescent CO at negative LSR velocities in Orion. Given the harsh UV irradiation conditions in this translucent material, the detection of CO globules is surprising. These globules are small (R=7,100 AU), not massive (M=0.3M_Sun), and are moderately dense: n_ H=4x10^4 cm^-3 (median values). They are confined by the external pressure of the shell, P_ext/k~10^7 cm^-3 K, and are likely magnetically supported. They are either transient objects formed by instabilities or have detached from pre-existing molecular structures, sculpted by the passing shock associated with the expanding shell and by UV radiation from the Trapezium. Some represent the first stages in the formation of small pillars, others of isolated small globules. Although their masses do not suggest they will form stars, one globule matches the position of a known YSO. The lack of extended CO in the "Veil shell'' demonstrates that feedback from massive stars expels, agitates, and reprocesses most of the disrupted molecular cloud gas, thereby limiting the star-formation rate in the region. The presence of globules is a result of this feedback.

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arXiv2020

The XXL Survey XLIV. Sunyaev-Zel'dovich mapping of a low-mass cluster at z~1: a multi-wavelength approach

In this paper, we present resolved observations of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect, obtained with the NIKA2 camera, towards the cluster of galaxies XLSSC102, a relatively low-mass system ($M_{500} \sim 2 \times 10^{14}$ M$_{\odot}$) at $z = 0.97$ detected from the XXL survey. We combine NIKA2 SZ data, XMM-Newton X-ray data, and Megacam optical data to explore, respectively, the spatial distribution of the gas electron pressure, the gas density, and the galaxies themselves. We find significant offsets between the X-ray peak, the SZ peak, the brightest cluster galaxy, and the peak of galaxy density. Additionally, the galaxy distribution and the gas present elongated morphologies. This is interpreted as the sign of a recent major merging event, which induced a local boost of the gas pressure towards the north of XLSSC102 and stripped the gas out of the galaxy group. The NIKA2 data are also combined with XXL data to construct the thermodynamic profiles of XLSSC102, obtaining relatively tight constraints up to about $\sim r_{500}$, and revealing properties that are typical of disturbed systems. We also explore the impact of the cluster centre definition and the implication of local pressure substructure on the recovered profiles. Finally, we derive the global properties of XLSSC102 and compare them to those of high-mass-and-low-redshift systems, finding no strong evidence for non-standard evolution. We also use scaling relations to obtain alternative mass estimates from our profiles. The variation between these different mass estimates reflects the difficulty to accurately measure the mass of low-mass clusters at z$\sim$1, especially with low signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) data and for a disturbed system. However, it also highlights the strength of resolved SZ observations alone and in combination with survey-like X-ray data.

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arXiv2020

Gas phase Elemental abundances in Molecular cloudS (GEMS). II. On the quest for the sulphur reservoir in molecular clouds: the $H_{2}S$ case

Sulphur is one of the most abundant elements in the Universe. Surprisingly, sulphuretted molecules are not as abundant as expected in the interstellar medium, and the identity of the main sulphur reservoir is still an open question. Our goal is to investigate the H$_{2}$S chemistry in dark clouds, as this stable molecule is a potential sulphur reservoir. Using millimeter observations of CS, SO, H$_{2}$S, and their isotopologues, we determine the physical conditions and H$_{2}$S abundances along the cores TMC 1-C, TMC 1-CP, and Barnard 1b. The gas-grain model Nautilus is then used to model the sulphur chemistry and explore the impact of photo-desorption and chemical desorption on the H$_2$S abundance. Our model shows that chemical desorption is the main source of gas-phase H$_2$S in dark cores. The measured H$_{2}$S abundance can only be fitted if we assume that the chemical desorption rate decreases by more than a factor of 10 when $n_{\rm H}>2\times10^{4}$. This change in the desorption rate is consistent with the formation of thick H$_2$O and CO ice mantles on grain surfaces. The observed SO and H$_2$S abundances are in good agreement with our predictions adopting an undepleted value of the sulphur abundance. However, the CS abundance is overestimated by a factor of $5-10$. Along the three cores, atomic S is predicted to be the main sulphur reservoir. We conclude that the gaseous H$_2$S abundance is well reproduced, assuming undepleted sulphur abundance and chemical desorption as the main source of H$_2$S. The behavior of the observed H$_{2}$S abundance suggests a changing desorption efficiency, which would probe the snowline in these cores. Our model, however, overestimates the observed gas-phase CS abundance. Given the uncertainty in the sulphur chemistry, our data are consistent with a cosmic elemental S abundance with an uncertainty of a factor of 10.

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arXiv2020

SYMBA: An end-to-end VLBI synthetic data generation pipeline

Realistic synthetic observations of theoretical source models are essential for our understanding of real observational data. In using synthetic data, one can verify the extent to which source parameters can be recovered and evaluate how various data corruption effects can be calibrated. These studies are important when proposing observations of new sources, in the characterization of the capabilities of new or upgraded instruments, and when verifying model-based theoretical predictions in a comparison with observational data. We present the SYnthetic Measurement creator for long Baseline Arrays (SYMBA), a novel synthetic data generation pipeline for Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observations. SYMBA takes into account several realistic atmospheric, instrumental, and calibration effects. We used SYMBA to create synthetic observations for the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), a mm VLBI array, which has recently captured the first image of a black hole shadow. After testing SYMBA with simple source and corruption models, we study the importance of including all corruption and calibration effects. Based on two example general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (GRMHD) model images of M87, we performed case studies to assess the attainable image quality with the current and future EHT array for different weather conditions. The results show that the effects of atmospheric and instrumental corruptions on the measured visibilities are significant. Despite these effects, we demonstrate how the overall structure of the input models can be recovered robustly after performing calibration steps. With the planned addition of new stations to the EHT array, images could be reconstructed with higher angular resolution and dynamic range. In our case study, these improvements allowed for a distinction between a thermal and a non-thermal GRMHD model based on salient features in reconstructed images.

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arXiv2020

Cluster cosmology with the NIKA2 SZ Large Program

The main limiting factor of cosmological analyses based on thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) cluster statistics comes from the bias and systematic uncertainties that affect the estimates of the mass of galaxy clusters. High-angular resolution SZ observations at high redshift are needed to study a potential redshift or morphology dependence of both the mean pressure profile and of the mass-observable scaling relation used in SZ cosmological analyses. The NIKA2 camera is a new generation continuum instrument installed at the IRAM 30-m telescope. With a large field of view, a high angular resolution and a high-sensitivity, the NIKA2 camera has unique SZ mapping capabilities. In this paper, we present the NIKA2 SZ large program, aiming at observing a large sample of clusters at redshifts between 0.5 and 0.9, and the characterization of the first cluster oberved with NIKA2.

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arXiv2020

Calibration and Performance of the NIKA2 camera at the IRAM 30-meter Telescope

NIKA2 is a dual-band millimetric continuum camera of 2900 Kinetic Inductance Detectors (KID), operating at $150$ and $260\,\rm{GHz}$, installed at the IRAM 30-meter telescope. We present the performance assessment of NIKA2 after one year of observation using a dedicated point-source calibration method, referred to as the \emph{baseline} method. Using a large data set acquired between January 2017 and February 2018 that span the whole range of observing elevations and atmospheric conditions encountered at the IRAM 30-m telescope, we test the stability of the performance parameters. We report an instantaneous field of view (FOV) of 6.5' in diameter, filled with an average fraction of $84\%$ and $90\%$ of valid detectors at $150$ and $260\,\rm{GHz}$, respectively. The beam pattern is characterized by a FWHM of $17.6'' \pm 0.1''$ and $11.1''\pm 0.2''$, and a beam efficiency of $77\% \pm 2\%$ and $55\% \pm 3\%$ at $150$ and $260\,\rm{GHz}$, respectively. The rms calibration uncertainties are about $3\%$ at $150\,\rm{GHz}$ and $6\%$ at $260\,\rm{GHz}$. The absolute calibration uncertainties are of $5\%$ and the systematic calibration uncertainties evaluated at the IRAM 30-m reference Winter observing conditions are below $1\%$ in both channels. The noise equivalent flux density (NEFD) at $150$ and $260\,\rm{GHz}$ are of $9 \pm 1\, \rm{mJy}\cdot s^{1/2}$ and $30 \pm 3\, \rm{mJy}\cdot s^{1/2}$. This state-of-the-art performance confers NIKA2 with mapping speeds of $1388 \pm 174$ and $111 \pm 11 \,\rm{arcmin}^2\cdot \rm{mJy}^{-2}\cdot \rm{h}^{-1}$ at $150$ and $260\,\rm{GHz}$. With these unique capabilities of fast dual-band mapping at high (better that 18'') angular resolution, NIKA2 is providing an unprecedented view of the millimetre Universe.

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arXiv2019

Observing with NIKA2Pol from the IRAM 30m telescope. Early results on the commissioning phase

The NIKA2 polarization channel at 260 GHz (1.15 mm) has been proposed primarily to observe galactic star-forming regions and probe the critical scales between 0.01-0.05 pc at which magnetic field lines may channel the matter of interstellar filaments into growing dense cores. The NIKA2 polarimeter consists of a room temperature continuously rotating multi-mesh HWP and a cold polarizer that separates the two orthogonal polarizations onto two 260 GHz KIDs arrays. We describe in this paper the preliminary results obtained during the most recent commissioning campaign performed in December 2018. We concentrate here on the analysis of the extended sources, while the observation of compact sources is presented in a companion paper [12]. We present preliminary NIKA2 polarization maps of the Crab nebula. We find that the integrated polarization intensity flux measured by NIKA2 is consistent with expectations.In terms of polarization angle, we are still limited by systematic uncertainties that will be further investigated in the forthcoming commissioning campaigns.

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arXiv2019

Debris disks around stars in the NIKA2 era

The new NIKA2 camera at the IRAM 30m radiotelescope was used to observe three known debris disks in order to constrain the SED of their dust emission in the millimeter wavelength domain. We have found that the spectral index between the two NIKA2 bands (1mm and 2mm) is consistent with the Rayleigh-Jeans regime (lambda^{-2}), unlike the steeper spectra (lambda^{-3}) measured in the submillimeter-wavelength domain for two of the three disks $-$ around the stars Vega and HD107146. We provide a succesful proof of concept to model this spectral inversion in using two populations of dust grains, those smaller and those larger than a grain radius a0 of 0.5mm. This is obtained in breaking the slope of the size distribution and the functional form of the absorption coefficient of the standard model at a0. The third disk - around the star HR8799 - does not exhibit this spectral inversion but is also the youngest.

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arXiv2019

The NIKA polarimeter on science targets. Crab nebula observations at 150 GHz and dual-band polarization images of Orion Molecular Cloud OMC-1

We present here the polarization system of the NIKA camera and give a summary of the main results obtained and performed studies on Orion and the Crab nebula. The polarization system was equipped with a room temperature continuously rotating multi-mesh half wave plate and a grid polarizer facing the NIKA cryostat window. NIKA even though less sensitive than NIKA2 had polarization capability in both 1 and 2 millimiter bands. NIKA polarization observations demonstrated the ability of such a technology in detecting the polarization of different targets, compact and extended sources like the Crab nebula and Orion Molecular Cloud region OMC-1. These measurements together with the developed techniques to deal with systematics, opened the way to the current observations of NIKA2 in polarization that will provide important advances in the studies of galactic and extra-galactic emission and magnetic fields.

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arXiv2019

NIKA2 mapping and cross-instrument SED extraction of extended sources with Scanamorphos

The steps taken to tailor to NIKA2 observations the Scanamorphos algorithm (initially developed to subtract low-frequency noise from Herschel on-the-fly observations) are described, focussing on the consequences of the different instrument architecture and observation strategy. The method, making the most extensive use of the redundancy built in the multi-scan coverage with large arrays of a given region of the sky, is applicable to extended sources, while the pipeline is so far optimized for compact sources. An example of application is given. A related tool to build consistent broadband SEDs from 60 microns to 2 mm, combining Herschel and NIKA2 data, has also been developed. Its main task is to process the data least affected by low-frequency noise and coverage limitations (i.e. the Herschel data) through the same transfer function as the NIKA2 data, simulating the same scan geometry and applying the same noise and atmospheric signal as extracted from the 1 mm and 2 mm data.

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arXiv2019

A low-mass galaxy cluster as a test-case study for the NIKA2 SZ Large Program

High-resolution mapping of the hot gas in galaxy clusters is a key tool for cluster-based cosmological analyses. Taking advantage of the NIKA2 millimeter camera operated at the IRAM 30-m telescope, the NIKA2 SZ Large Program seeks to get a high-resolution follow-up of 45 galaxy clusters covering a wide mass range at high redshift in order to re-calibrate some of the tools needed for the cosmological exploitation of SZ surveys. We present the second cluster analysis of this program, targeting one of the faintest sources of the sample in order to tackle the difficulties in data reduction for such faint, low-SNR clusters. In this study, the main challenge is the precise estimation of the contamination by sub-millimetric point sources, which greatly affects the tSZ map of the cluster. We account for this contamination by performing a joint fit of the SZ signal and of the flux density of the compact sources. A prior knowledge of these fluxes is given by the adjustment of the SED of each source using data from both NIKA2 and the \textit{Herschel} satellite. The first results are very promising and demonstrate the possibility to estimate thermodynamic properties with NIKA2, even in a compact cluster heavily contaminated by point sources.

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arXiv2019

NIKA: a mm camera for Sunyaev-Zel'dovich science in clusters of galaxies

Clusters of galaxies, the largest bound objects in the Universe, constitute a cosmological probe of choice, which is sensitive to both dark matter and dark energy. Within this framework, the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect has opened a new window for the detection of clusters of galaxies and for the characterization of their physical properties such as mass, pressure and temperature. NIKA, a KID-based dual band camera installed at the IRAM 30-m telescope, was particularly well adapted in terms of frequency, angular resolution, field-of-view and sensitivity, for the mapping of the thermal and kinetic SZ effect in high-redshift clusters. In this paper, we present the NIKA cluster sample and a review of the main results obtained via the measurement of the SZ effect on those clusters: reconstruction of the cluster radial pressure profile, mass, temperature and velocity.

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arXiv2019

GASTON: Galactic Star Formation with NIKA2: A new population of cold massive sources discovered

Understanding where and when the mass of stars is determined is one of the fundamental, mostly unsolved, questions in astronomy. Here, we present the first results of GASTON, the Galactic Star Formation with NIKA2 large programme on the IRAM 30m telescope, that aims to identify new populations of low-brightness sources to tackle the question of stellar mass determination across all masses. In this paper, we focus on the high-mass star formation part of the project, for which we map a $\sim2$ deg$^2$ region of the Galactic plane around $l=24^\circ$ in both 1.2 mm and 2.0 mm continuum. Half-way through the project, we reach a sensitivity of 3.7 mJy/beam at 1.2mm. Even though larger than our target sensitivity of 2 mJy, the current sensitivity already allows the identification of a new population of cold, compact sources that remained undetected in any (sub-)mm Galactic plane survey so far. In fact, about 25% of the $\sim 1600$ compact sources identified in the 1.2 mm GASTON image are new detections. We present a preliminary analysis of the physical properties of the GASTON sources as a function of their evolutionary stage, arguing for a potential evolution of the mass distribution of these sources with time.

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arXiv2019

Mapping the gas thermodynamic properties of the massive cluster merger MOO J1142$+$1527 at z = 1.2

We present the results of the analysis of the very massive cluster MOO J1142$+$1527 at a redshift $z = 1.2$ based on high angular resolution NIKA2 Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) and $Chandra$ X-ray data. This multi-wavelength analysis enables us to estimate the shape of the temperature profile with unprecedented precision at this redshift and to obtain a map of the gas entropy distribution averaged along the line of sight. The comparison between the cluster morphological properties observed in the NIKA2 and $Chandra$ maps together with the analysis of the entropy map allows us to conclude that MOO J1142$+$1527 is an on-going merger hosting a cool-core at the position of the X-ray peak. This work demonstrates how the addition of spatially-resolved SZ observations to low signal-to-noise X-ray data can bring valuable insights on the intracluster medium thermodynamic properties at $z>1$.

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arXiv2019

Unveiling the merger dynamics of the most massive MaDCoWS cluster at $z = 1.2$ from a multi-wavelength mapping of its intracluster medium properties

The characterization of the Intra-Cluster Medium (ICM) properties of high-redshift galaxy clusters is fundamental to our understanding of large-scale structure formation processes. We present the results of a multi-wavelength analysis of the very massive cluster MOO J1142$+$1527 at a redshift $z = 1.2$ discovered as part of the Massive and Distant Clusters of WISE Survey (MaDCoWS). This analysis is based on high angular resolution $Chandra$ X-ray and NIKA2 Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) data. Although the X-ray data have only about 1700 counts, we are able to determine the ICM thermodynamic radial profiles, namely temperature, entropy, and hydrostatic mass. These have been obtained with unprecedented precision at this redshift and up to $0.7R_{500}$, thanks to the combination of high-resolution X-ray and SZ data. The comparison between the galaxy distribution mapped in infrared by $Spitzer$ and the morphological properties of the ICM derived from the combined analysis of the $Chandra$ and NIKA2 data leads us to the conclusion that the cluster is an on-going merger. We measure the hydrostatic mass profile of the cluster in four angular sectors centered on the large-scale X-ray centroid. This allows us to estimate a systematic uncertainty on the cluster total mass that characterizes both the impact of the observed deviations from spherical symmetry and of the core dynamics on the mass profile. We further combine the X-ray and SZ data at the pixel level to obtain maps of the temperature and entropy distributions averaged along the line of sight. We find a relatively low entropy core at the position of the X-ray peak and high temperature regions located on its south and west sides. The increase in ICM temperature at the location of the SZ peak is expected given the merger dynamics. (abridged)

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