arXiv subjects

M. C. H. Wright

Publications and source records attributed to M. C. H. Wright.

24 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2003

Magnetic Field Morphology of Orion-IRc2 from 86 GHz SiO Maser Polarization Images

In an attempt to probe the magnetic field morphology near the massive young star Orion-IRc2, we mapped the linear polarization of its J=2-1 SiO masers, in both the v=0 and v=1 vibrational levels, with 0.5 arcsec resolution. The intense v=1 masers are confined to a narrow zone 40 AU from the star. Their polarization position angles vary significantly on time scales of years. For the v=1 masers the stimulated emission rate R is likely to exceed the Zeeman splitting gΩdue to any plausible magnetic field; in this case the maser polarization need not correlate with the field direction. The much weaker v=0 masers in the ground vibrational level lie 100-700 AU from IRc2, in what appears to be a flared disk. Their fractional polarizations are as high as 50%. The polarization position angles vary little across the line profile or the emission region, and appear to be stable in time. The position angle, P.A. = 80 degrees, we measure for the J=2-1 masers differs by 70 degrees from that measured for the J=1-0 SiO transition, possibly because of Faraday rotation in the foreground, Orion A, HII region. A rotation measure RM = 3.3 \times 10^4 rad m$^{-2}$ is required to bring the J=2-1 and J=1-0 position angles into concordance. The intrinsic polarization position angle for both transitions is then 57 degrees, parallel to the plane of the putative disk. Probably the magnetic field threads the disk poloidally. There is little evidence for a pinched or twisted field near the star.

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arXiv2002

A detailed study of G35.2-0.7N: collimated outflows in a cluster of high-mass young stellar objects

We present a series of JCMT, BIMA and VLA observations of the massive star-forming region associated with G35.2--0.7N. These new observations shed considerable light on the nature of the outflows in this region. The combination of our CO, SiO and radio data suggest that there are perhaps as many as four outflows emanating from the core containing G35.2--0.7N. The most striking result is that the radio jet is ruled out as the driving source of the large-scale CO flow. The jet drives its own highly-collimated CO outflow. Molecular line emission from H13CN and H13CO+ peaks towards the centre of the large-scale CO outflow, but no radio source is detected within. A third flow may be seen in SiO emission, which appears to be centred on another peak in H13CO+. The fourth flow is not seen in CO or SiO, but is inferred from previous L'-band data and the discovery of a radio source at the proposed centre of this flow.

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arXiv2001

Search for Molecular Gas in the quasar SDSS 1044-0125 at z=5.73

We report upper limits on CO J=2--1 and CO J=5--4 emission from the quasar SDSSp J104433.04-012502.2 at z=5.73 from observations made with the Berkeley-Illinois-Maryland-Association Array. Previously reported limits on CO J=6--5 emission (Iwata et al. 2001) were obtained at z=5.80, which is now thought to be off by 1%, and the observations likely missed the relevant redshifts for molecular gas. The new $3σ$ upper limits on the line luminosities are $L^{'}_{CO}(2-1) < 5.1 \times 10^{10}$ K km s$^{-1}$ pc$^2$ and $L^{'}_{CO}(5-4) < 3.0 \times 10^{10}$ K km s$^{-1}$ pc$^2$, assuming 200 km s$^{-1}$ linewidth. The CO J=5--4 observations place an upper limit on warm, dense molecular gas mass comparable to amounts derived for some other high redshift quasar systems from detections of this line. The limit on CO J=2--1 emission suggests that excitation bias does not affect this conclusion. In addition, no molecular gas rich companion galaxies are found in a $\sim1.4$ Mpc field surrounding the quasar.

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arXiv2001

Structure of Sagittarius A* at 86 GHz using VLBI Closure Quantities

At radio wavelengths, images of the compact radio source Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) in the Galactic Center are scatter broadened with a lambda^2 dependence due to an intervening ionized medium. We present VLBI observations of Sgr A* at 86 GHz using a six station array including the VLBA antennas at Pie Town, Fort Davis and Los Alamos, the 12m antenna at Kitt Peak and the millimeter arrays at Hat Creek and Owens Valley. To avoid systematic errors due to imperfect antenna calibration, the data were modeled using interferometric closure information. The data are best modeled by a circular Gaussian brightness distribution of FWHM 0.18 +- 0.02 mas. The data are also shown to be consistent with an elliptical model corresponding to the scattering of a point source. The source structure in the N-S direction, which is less well determined than in the E-W direction due to the limited N-S (u,v) coverage of the array, is constrained to be less than 0.27 mas by these measurements. These results are consistent with extrapolations of intrinsic structure estimates obtained with VLBI at 7mm wavelength assuming the intrinsic size of Sgr A* has a greater dependence than lambda^0.9 with wavelength.

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arXiv1998

30 years of multi-wavelength observations of 3C 273

We present a wide multi-wavelength database of most observations of the quasar 3C 273 obtained during the last 30 years. This database is the most complete set of observations available for an active galactic nucleus (AGN). It contains nearly 20'000 observations grouped together into 70 light curves covering 16 orders of magnitude in frequency from the radio to the gamma-ray domain. The database is constituted of many previously unpublished observations and of most publicly available data gathered in the literature and on the World Wide Web (WWW). It is complete to the best of our knowledge, except in the optical (UBV) domain where we chose not to add all observations from the literature. In addition to the photometric data, we present the spectra of 3C 273 obtained by the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) satellite. In the X-ray domain, we used the spectral fit parameters from the literature to construct the light curves. Apart from describing the data, we show the most representative light curves and the average spectrum of 3C 273. The database is available on the WWW in a homogeneous and clear form and we wish to update it regularly by adding new observations.

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arXiv1998

High Resolution Millimeter-Wave Mapping of Linearly Polarized Dust Emission: Magnetic Field Structure in Orion

We present 1.3 and 3.3 mm polarization maps of Orion-KL obtained with the BIMA array at approximately 4 arcsec resolution. Thermal emission from magnetically aligned dust grains produces the polarization. Along the Orion ``ridge'' the polarization position angle varies smoothly from about 10 degrees to 40 degrees, in agreement with previous lower resolution maps. In a small region south of the Orion ``hot core,'' however, the position angle changes by 90 degrees. This abrupt change in polarization direction is not necessarily the signpost of a twisted magnetic field. Rather, in this localized region processes other than the usual Davis-Greenstein mechanism might align the dust grains with their long axes parallel with the field, orthogonal to their normal orientation.

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