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L. -Y. Lu

Publications and source records attributed to L. -Y. Lu.

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CHANG-ES XL: Magnetic Field Structures in the Disk and Halo of NGC 891

We present new Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array S-band (2-4 GHz) observations of the edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 891, complemented by C-band data, to investigate the structure of its radio continuum halo. Using rotation measure synthesis we detected an extended polarized halo, with most spatially extended polarized emission confined to Faraday depths within +/- 150 rad m-2. We identified a localized region in the north-east side of the galaxy that shows an enhancement in polarized intensity (not in percentage polarization). By combining the radio data with H-alpha and diffuse X-ray maps, we discuss a possible origin for this structure: a superbubble powered by clustered supernovae. Across the disk and halo, the percentage polarization decreases toward the midplane but shows a mild wavelength dependence, despite the edge-on orientation of NGC 891. This behavior implies that the depolarization cannot be dominated by small-scale Faraday rotation within the disk. Instead, it is possible that most of the observed polarized emission arises on the Earth-facing side of the galaxy. Our peak rotation measure (RM) map shows a smooth transition along the major axis, consistent with a large scale axisymmetric magnetic field. Using H-alpha and UV data, we analyzed the distribution of H II regions and found that they are parts of different spiral arms. We also identified a faint, isolated H II region at a galactocentric radius of 16.9 kpc, with both H-alpha and far-UV counterparts, indicating star formation outside the thin disk.

astro-ph.GA

CHANG-ES XXXVII. Effects of spectral aging on radio scale heights

Context. Cosmic rays and magnetic fields play an important role for the formation and evolution of galaxies. Radio continuum observations allows us to study them in the haloes of edge-on galaxies. Aims. We explore the frequency dependence of the radio scale height which depends on cosmic ray transport and electron cooling. We test the influence of fundamental galaxy properties, such as star-formation rate (SFR), mass and size. Methods. We used radio continuum data of 16 edge-on galaxies from the Continuum HAloes in Nearby Galaxies -- an EVLA Survey (CHANG-ES). We included maps from the LOw Frequency ARray at 144 MHz and from the Jansky Very Large Array at 3 GHz with 7" angular resolution. We extracted vertical intensity profiles within the effective radio radius and fitted beam-convolved double-exponential models to separate thin and thick discs. For the thick radio discs, we computed mean spectral indices and scale-height ratios between 144 MHz and 3 GHz. Results. We find a mean scale-height ratio of 1.26 \pm 0.16. This is much lower than what we would expect for either cosmic ray diffusion or advection if synchrotron and inverse Compton losses dominate for the electrons. There is a moderate positive correlation between the ratio and spectral index of the thick disc: galaxies with high ratios have flat radio spectra. The ratio does not depend on any other galaxy parameter. The radio spectrum of the thick disc, as indicated by the radio spectral index, steepens with total mass (strong correlation) and flattens with SFR-to-mass surface density (moderate correlation). Conclusions. Galaxies with galactic winds have flat radio continuum spectra and large scale heights at low frequencies. This shows effective transport of cosmic rays in such systems.

astro-ph.GA