arXiv subjects

Hiroyuki Maezawa

Publications and source records attributed to Hiroyuki Maezawa.

15 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

FINER: development of the wideband millimeter-wave receiver system and preparations for first light on the Large Millimeter Telescope

The recent discovery of an excess of luminous galaxies in the early Universe necessitates sensitive and wideband millimeter spectroscopy to understand their rapid growth. To address this, we present the development of the Far-Infrared Nebular Emission Receiver (FINER) for the Large Millimeter Telescope (LMT). The FINER frontend comprises two receivers covering 120-350 GHz (corresponding to ALMA Bands 4+5 and 6+7). The warm optics are designed to enable simultaneous two-band observations. Combined with the 10.24-GHz-wide digital spectrometer array, the system aims to deliver an instantaneous bandwidth approximately five times wider than current ALMA capabilities. We report that the 210-350 GHz receiver has already achieved commissioning-level performance, with sideband rejection further enhanced by the digital sideband separation technique. With installation expected in 2026, we discuss parallel preparations, including integrated testing and commissioning plans for first-look targets.

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arXiv2025

The LMT 2 millimeter receiver system (B4R). II. Science demonstration observations toward Orion-KL/OMC-1

We present the results of mapping and single-point spectral scans toward Orion-KL/OMC-1 performed as science demonstrations of a 2 mm SIS receiver, the Band 4 Receiver (B4R), installed on the 50 m Large Millimeter Telescope (LMT). To prove the capabilities of mapping and spectral scans with the B4R on the LMT, commissioning observations were conducted employing the on-the-fly mapping technique toward Orion-KL/OMC-1, which covers a map size of 5$'\times$5$'$. These mapping observations were performed with two frequency settings providing 10 GHz in total (131.4-133.9 GHz and 145.1-147.6 GHz; 136.2-138.7 GHz and 149.9-152.4 GHz) with a frequency resolution of 76.293 kHz. We conducted spectral line identification analysis for the hot core and compact ridge regions in the Orion-KL with a beam size of 11-12$''$. We detected nearly 400 emission lines and identified two recombination lines and 29 molecular species, including isotopologues, deuterated molecules, and vibrational excited states, despite the short integration time. These results are consistent with those of previous studies. The 29 molecular species include nitrogen (N)-bearing complex organic molecules (COMs) and oxygen (O)-bearing COMs. To demonstrate the capability of the B4R in astrochemistry, we conducted detailed analyses of column densities, rotational temperatures, and relative abundances with respect to H$_2$ on two representative COMs, N-bearing C$_2$H$_5$CN and O-bearing CH$_3$OCHO in the central 40$''\times$40$''$ area of the map. The wide bandwidth of 10 GHz enabled the use of 8 and 34 emission lines, respectively. The spatial differences in the physical and chemical properties between these molecules were derived at a spatial resolution of $\sim$12$''$. The B4R on the LMT was successfully demonstrated to be powerful for mapping and spectral scans and to have high potential for the study of interstellar chemistry.

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arXiv2025

The LMT 2 Millimeter Receiver System (B4R). I. Overview and Results of Science Demonstration

We report on the results of the on-sky test and science demonstration conducted with the 2 mm receiver system, B4R, on the 50 m Large Millimeter Telescope (LMT), located at an altitude of 4600 m in Mexico. The B4R receiver was developed based on the dual-polarization sideband-separating mixer technology of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, and is equipped with a fast Fourier transform digital spectrometer, XFFTS. The primary science objective is the spectroscopic redshift identification of high-redshift dusty star-forming galaxies, complementing the existing 3 mm Redshift Search Receiver by enabling the detection of multiple carbon monoxide lines. Additionally, the B4R receiver broadens the range of science cases possible with the LMT, including astrochemistry, as the 2 mm band encompasses unique molecular lines such as deuterated molecules and shock tracers. During on-site commissioning in 2018 and 2019, we successfully demonstrated on-the-fly mapping and position-switching observations toward the Orion Molecular Cloud 1 and bright high-redshift dusty star-forming galaxies, respectively. We confirmed that the installed B4R system largely met its basic performance specifications. Furthermore, we measured the LMT's aperture efficiencies across the entire B4R frequency range (130-160 GHz), finding them to be roughly consistent with expectations based on a surface accuracy of 100 $μ$m and the receiver optics design. These results with the B4R will enable the most sensitive single-dish spectroscopic observations at 2 mm using the LMT.

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arXiv2024

FINER: Far-Infrared Nebular Emission Receiver for the Large Millimeter Telescope

Unveiling the emergence and prevalence of massive/bright galaxies during the epoch of reionization and beyond, within the first 600 million years of the Universe, stands as a pivotal pursuit in astronomy. Remarkable progress has been made by JWST in identifying an immense population of bright galaxies, which hints at exceptionally efficient galaxy assembly processes. However, the underlying physical mechanisms propelling their rapid growth remain unclear. With this in mind, millimeter and submillimeter-wave spectroscopic observations of redshifted far-infrared spectral lines, particularly the [O III] 88 micron and [C II] 158 micron lines, offers a crucial pathway to address this fundamental query. To this end, we develop a dual-polarization sideband-separating superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) mixer receiver, FINER, for the Large Millimeter Telescope (LMT) situated in Mexico. Harnessing advancements from ALMA's wideband sensitivity upgrade (WSU) technology, FINER covers radio frequencies spanning 120-360 GHz, delivering an instantaneous intermediate frequency (IF) of 3-21 GHz per sideband per polarization, which is followed by a set of 10.24 GHz-wide digital spectrometers. At 40% of ALMA's light-collecting area, the LMT's similar atmospheric transmittance and FINER's 5 times wider bandwidth compared to ALMA culminate in an unparalleled spectral scanning capability in the northern hemisphere, paving the way for finer spectral-resolution detection of distant galaxies.

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arXiv2021

Observational demonstration of a low-cost fast Fourier transform spectrometer with a delay-line-based ramp-compare ADC implemented on FPGA

In this study, a novel type of Fourier transform radio spectrometer (termed as all-digital radio spectrometer; ADRS) has been developed in which all functionalities comprising a radio spectrometer including a sampler and Fourier computing unit were implemented as a soft-core on a field-programmable gate array (FPGA). A delay-line-based ramp-compare analog-to-digital converter (ADC), one of completely digital ADC, was used, and two primary elements of the ADC, an analog-to-time converter (ATC) and a time-to-digital converter (TDC), were implemented on the FPGA. The sampling rate of the ADRS $f$ and the quantization bit rate $n$ are limited by the relation, $τ= \frac{1}{2^{n}f}$, where $τ$ is the latency of the delay element of the delay-line. Given that the typical latency of the delay element implemented on FPGAs is $\sim10$ ps, adoption of a low quantization bit rate, which satisfies the requirements for radio astronomy, facilitates the realization of a high sampling rate up to $\sim$100 GSa/s. In addition, as the proposed \ADRS does not require a discrete ADC and can be implemented on mass-produced evaluation boards, its fabrication cost is much lower than that of conventional spectrometers. The ADRS prototype was fabricated with values of $f$ = 600 MSa/s and $n$ = 6.6 using a PYNQ-Z1 evaluation board, with a $τ$ of 16.7 ps. The performance of the prototype, including its linearity and stability, was measured, and a test observation was conducted using the Osaka Prefecture University 1.85-m mm-submm telescope; this confirmed the potential application of the prototype in authentic radio observations. With 10 times better cost performance ($\sim$800 USD GHz$^{-1}$) than conventional radio spectrometers, the prototype facilitates cost-effective coverage of intermediate frequency (IF) bandwidths of $\sim100$ GHz in modern receiver systems.

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arXiv2020

Current status and future plan of Osaka Prefecture University 1.85-m mm-submm telescope project

We report the current status of the 1.85-m mm-submm telescope installed at the Nobeyama Radio Observatory (altitude 1400 m) and the future plan. The scientific goal is to reveal the physical/chemical properties of molecular clouds in the Galaxy by obtaining large-scale distributions of molecular gas with an angular resolution of several arcminutes. A semi-automatic observation system created mainly in Python on Linux-PCs enables effective operations. A large-scale CO $J=$2--1 survey of the molecular clouds (e.g., Orion-A/B, Cygnus-X/OB7, Taurus-California-Perseus complex, and Galactic Plane), and a pilot survey of emission lines from minor molecular species toward Orion clouds have been conducted so far. The telescope also is providing the opportunities for technical demonstrations of new devices and ideas. For example, the practical realizations of PLM (Path Length Modulator) and waveguide-based sideband separating filter, installation of the newly designed waveguide-based circular polarizer and OMT (Orthomode Transducer), and so on. As the next step, we are now planning to relocate the telescope to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile (altitude 2500 m), and are developing very wideband receiver covering 210--375 GHz (corresponding to Bands 6--7 of ALMA) and full-automatic observation system. The new telescope system will provide large-scale data in the spatial and frequency domain of molecular clouds of Galactic plane and Large/Small Magellanic Clouds at the southern hemisphere. The data will be precious for the comparison with those of extra-galactic ones that will be obtained with ALMA as the Bands 6/7 are the most efficient frequency bands for the surveys in extra-galaxies for ALMA.

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arXiv2016

OH 18 cm Transition as a Thermometer for Molecular Clouds

We have observed the four hyperfine components of the 18 cm OH transition toward the translucent cloud eastward of Heiles Cloud 2 (HCL2E), the cold dark cloud L134N, and the photodissociation region of the $ρ$-Ophiuchi molecular cloud with the Effelsberg 100 m telescope. We have found intensity anomalies amongst the hyperfine components in all three regions. In particular, an absorption feature of the 1612 MHz satellite line against the cosmic microwave background has been detected toward HCL2E and two positions of the $ρ$-Ophiuchi molecular cloud. On the basis of statistical equilibrium calculations, we find that the hyperfine anomalies originate from the non-LTE population of the hyperfine levels, and can be used to determine the kinetic temperature of the gas over a wide range of H$_2$ density (10$^2$ - 10$^7$ cm$^{-3}$). Toward the center of HCL2E, the gas kinetic temperature is determined to be 53$\pm$1 K, and it increases toward the cloud peripheries ($\sim$ 60 K). The ortho-to-para ratio of H$_2$ is determined to be 3.5 $\pm$ 0.9 from the averaged spectrum for the 8 positions. In L134N, a similar increase of the temperature is also seen toward the periphery. In the $ρ$-Ophiuchi molecular cloud, the gas kinetic temperature decreases as a function of the distance from the exciting star HD147889. These results demonstrate a new aspect of the OH 18 cm line as a good thermometer of molecular cloud envelopes. The OH 18 cm line can be used to trace a new class of warm molecular gas surrounding a molecular cloud, which is not well traced by emission of CO and its isotopologues.

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arXiv2015

Large-scale CO (J=4-3) Mapping toward the Orion-A Giant Molecular Cloud

We have mapped the Orion-A Giant Molecular Cloud in the CO (J=4-3) line with the Tsukuba 30-cm submillimeter telescope.The map covered a 7.125 deg^2 area with a 9' resolution, including main components of the cloud such as Orion Nebula, OMC-2/3, and L1641-N. The most intense emission was detected toward the Orion KL region. The integrated intensity ratio between CO (J=4-3) and CO (J=1-0) was derived using data from the Columbia-Univ. de Chile CO survey, which was carried out with a comparable angular resolution. The ratio was r_{4-3/1-0} ~ 0.2 in the southern region of the cloud and 0.4-0.8 at star forming regions. We found a trend that the ratio shows higher value at edges of the cloud. In particular the ratio at the north-eastern edge of the cloud at (l, b) = (208.375 deg, -19.0 deg) shows the specific highest value of 1.1. The physical condition of the molecular gas in the cloud was estimated by non-LTE calculation. The result indicates that the kinetic temperature has a gradient from north (Tkin=80 K) to south (20 K). The estimation shows that the gas associated with the edge of the cloud is warm (Tkin~60 K), dense (n_{H_2}~10^4 cm^{-3}), and optically thin, which may be explained by heating and sweeping of interstellar materials from OB clusters.

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arXiv2014

Revealing the physical properties of molecular gas in Orion with a large scale survey in J=2-1 lines of 12CO, 13CO and C18O

We present fully sampled ~3' resolution images of the 12CO(J=2-1), 13CO(J=2-1), and C18O(J=2-1) emission taken with the newly developed 1.85-m mm-submm telescope toward the entire area of the Orion A and B giant molecular clouds. The data were compared with the J=1-0 of the 12CO, 13CO, and C18O data taken with the Nagoya 4-m telescope and the NANTEN telescope at the same angular resolution to derive the spatial distributions of the physical properties of the molecular gas. We explore the large velocity gradient formalism to determine the gas density and temperature by using the line combinations of 12CO(J=2-1), 13CO(J=2-1), and 13CO(J=1-0) assuming uniform velocity gradient and abundance ratio of CO. The derived gas density is in the range of 500 to 5000 cm-3, and the derived gas temperature is mostly in the range of 20 to 50 K along the cloud ridge with a temperature gradient depending on the distance from the star forming region. We found the high-temperature region at the cloud edge facing to the HII region, indicating that the molecular gas is interacting with the stellar wind and radiation from the massive stars. In addition, we compared the derived gas properties with the Young Stellar Objects distribution obtained with the Spitzer telescope to investigate the relationship between the gas properties and the star formation activity therein. We found that the gas density and star formation efficiency are well positively correlated, indicating that stars form effectively in the dense gas region.

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arXiv2014

Cluster Formation Triggered by Filament Collisions in Serpens South

The Serpens South infrared dark cloud consists of several filamentary ridges, some of which fragment into dense clumps. On the basis of CCS ($J_N=4_3-3_2$), HC$_3$N ($J=5-4$), N$_2$H$^+$ ($J=1-0$), and SiO ($J=2-1, v=0$) observations, we investigated the kinematics and chemical evolution of these filamentary ridges. We find that CCS is extremely abundant along the main filament in the protocluster clump. We emphasize that Serpens South is the first cluster-forming region where extremely-strong CCS emission is detected. The CCS-to-N$_2$H$^+$ abundance ratio is estimated to be about 0.5 toward the protocluster clump, whereas it is about 3 in the other parts of the main filament. We identify six dense ridges with different $V_{\rm LSR}$. These ridges appear to converge toward the protocluster clump, suggesting that the collisions of these ridges may have triggered cluster formation. The collisions presumably happened within a few $\times \ 10^5$ yr because CCS is abundant only in such a short time. The short lifetime agrees with the fact that the number fraction of Class I objects, whose typical lifetime is $0.4 \times \ 10^5$ yr, is extremely high as about 70 percent in the protocluster clump. In the northern part, two ridges appear to have partially collided, forming a V-shape clump. In addition, we detected strong bipolar SiO emission that is due to the molecular outflow blowing out of the protostellar clump, as well as extended weak SiO emission that may originate from the filament collisions.

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arXiv2013

Molecular Clouds Toward the Super Star Cluster NGC3603; Possible Evidence for a Cloud-Cloud Collision in Triggering the Cluster Formation

We present new large field observations of molecular clouds with NANTEN2 toward the super star cluster NGC3603 in the transitions 12CO(J=2-1, J=1-0) and 13CO(J=2-1, J=1-0). We suggest that two molecular clouds at 13 km s-1 and 28 km s-1 are associated with NGC3603 as evidenced by higher temperatures toward the H II region as well as morphological correspondence. The mass of the clouds is too small to gravitationally bind them, given their relative motion of ~20 km s-1. We suggest that the two clouds collided with each other a Myr ago to trigger the formation of the super star cluster. This scenario is able to explain the origin of the highest mass stellar population in the cluster which is as young as a Myr and is segregated within the central sub-pc of the cluster. This is the second super star cluster along side Westerlund2 where formation may have been triggered by a cloud-cloud collision.

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arXiv2010

High Excitation Molecular Gas in the Galactic Center Loops; 12CO(J =2-1 and J =3-2) Observations

We have carried out 12CO(J =2-1) and 12CO(J =3-2) observations at spatial resolutions of 1.0-3.8 pc toward the entirety of loops 1 and 2 and part of loop 3 in the Galactic center with NANTEN2 and ASTE. These new results revealed detailed distributions of the molecular gas and the line intensity ratio of the two transitions, R3-2/2-1. In the three loops, R3-2/2-1 is in a range from 0.1 to 2.5 with a peak at ~ 0.7 while that in the disk molecular gas is in a range from 0.1 to 1.2 with a peak at 0.4. This supports that the loops are more highly excited than the disk molecular gas. An LVG analysis of three transitions, 12CO J =3-2 and 2-1 and 13CO J =2-1, toward six positions in loops 1 and 2 shows density and temperature are in a range 102.2 - 104.7 cm-3 and 15-100 K or higher, respectively. Three regions extended by 50-100 pc in the loops tend to have higher excitation conditions as characterized by R3-2/2-1 greater than 1.2. The highest ratio of 2.5 is found in the most developed foot points between loops 1 and 2. This is interpreted that the foot points indicate strongly shocked conditions as inferred from their large linewidths of 50-100 km s-1, confirming the suggestion by Torii et al. (2010b). The other two regions outside the foot points suggest that the molecular gas is heated up by some additional heating mechanisms possibly including magnetic reconnection. A detailed analysis of four foot points have shown a U shape, an L shape or a mirrored-L shape in the b-v distribution. It is shown that a simple kinematical model which incorporates global rotation and expansion of the loops is able to explain these characteristic shapes.

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arXiv2009

Temperature and Density Distribution in the Molecular Gas Toward Westerlund 2: Further Evidence for Physical Association

Furukawa et al. 2009 reported the existence of a large mass of molecular gas associated with the super star cluster Westerlund 2 and the surrounding HII region RCW49, based on a strong morphological correspondence between NANTEN2 12CO(J=2-1) emission and Spitzer IRAC images of the HII region. We here present temperature and density distributions in the associated molecular gas at 3.5 pc resolution, as derived from an LVG analysis of the 12CO(J=2-1), 12CO(J=1-0) and 13CO(J=2-1) transitions. The kinetic temperature is as high as 60-150 K within a projected distance of 5-10 pc from Westerlund 2 and decreases to as low as 10 K away from the cluster. The high temperature provides robust verification that the molecular gas is indeed physically associated with the HII region, supporting Furukawa et al.'s conclusion. The derived temperature is also roughly consistent with theoretical calculations of photo dissociation regions (PDRs), while the low spatial resolution of the present study does not warrant a more detailed comparison with PDR models. We suggest that the molecular clouds presented here will serve as an ideal laboratory to test theories on PDRs in future higher resolution studies.

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arXiv2004

Molecular Line Observations of Carbon-Chain-Producing Regions L1495B and L1521B

We present the first comprehensive study on physical and chemical properties of quiescent starless cores L1495B and L1521B, which are known to be rich in carbon-chain molecules like the cyanopolyyne peak of TMC-1 and L1521E. We have detected radio spectral lines of various carbon-chain molecules such as CCS, C$_{3}$S, C$_{4}$H, HC$_{3}$N, and HC$_{5}$N. On the other hand, the NH$_{3}$ lines are weak and the N$_{2}$H$^{+}$ lines are not detected. According to our mapping observations of the HC$_{3}$N, CCS, and C$_{3}$S lines, the dense cores in L1495B and L1521B are compact with the radius of 0.063 and 0.044 pc, respectively, and have a simple elliptical structure. The distributions of CCS seem to be different from those of well-studied starless cores, L1498 and L1544, where the distribution of CCS shows a shell-like structure. Since the H$^{13}$CO$^{+}$, HN$^{13}$C, and C$^{34}$S lines are detected in L1495B and L1521B, the densities of these cores are high enough to excite the NH$_{3}$ and N$_{2}$H$^{+}$ lines. Therefore, the abundances of NH$_{3}$ and N$_{2}$H$^{+}$ relative to carbon-chain molecules are apparently deficient, as observed in L1521E. We found that longer carbon-chain molecules such as HC$_{5}$N and C$_{4}$H are more abundant in TMC-1 than L1495B and L1521B, while those of sulfur-bearing molecules such as C$^{34}$S, CCS, and C$_{3}$S are comparable. Both distributions and abundances of the observed molecules of L1495B and L1521B are quite similar to those of L1521E, strongly suggesting that L1495B and L1521B is in a very early stage of physical and chemical evolution.

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arXiv1999

Large-scale mapping observations of the CI(3P1-3P0) and CO(J=3-2) lines toward the Orion A molecular cloud

Large scale mapping observations of the 3P1-3P0 fine structure transition of atomic carbon (CI, 492 GHz) and the J=3-2 transition of CO (346 GHz) toward the Orion A molecular cloud have been carried out with the Mt. Fuji submillimeter-wave telescope. The observations cover 9 square degrees, and include the Orion nebula M42 and the L1641 dark cloud complex. The CI emission extends over almost the entire region of the Orion A cloud and is surprisingly similar to that of 13CO(J=1-0).The CO(J=3-2) emission shows a more featureless and extended distribution than CI.The CI/CO(J=3-2) integrated intensity ratio shows a spatial gradient running from the north (0.10) to the south (1.2) of the Orion A cloud, which we interpret as a consequence of the temperature gradient. On the other hand, the CI/13CO(J=1-0) intensity ratio shows no systematic gradient. We have found a good correlation between the CI and 13CO(J=1-0) intensities over the Orion A cloud. This result is discussed on the basis of photodissociation region models.

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