arXiv subjects

Marc-Antoine Miville-Deschenes

Publications and source records attributed to Marc-Antoine Miville-Deschenes.

16 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

The role of turbulence in setting the phase of the ISM and implications for the star formation rate

In this work, we explore the link between star formation, turbulence and the thermal state of the multi-phase ISM. We analyse a suite of stratified box simulations modelling a realistic ISM that aims to probe environments similar to those found in the Milky Way. Turbulence is injected through stellar feedback and an external large-scale driving force. We find that star formation can be either boosted or reduced when increasing the external driving strength, depending on the environment. When the density is sufficiently high or the UV background weak, warm neutral gas naturally transitions to the cold phase, leading to high CNM fractions of around 30 -- 40\%. Under these conditions, excessive large-scale driving leads to a slight reduction of the CNM fraction and an increase in the amount of gas that is thermally unstable. What limits the star formation in this regime is a reduced fraction of dense gas due to additional turbulent support against collapse. For low density regions subject to significant external UV background, overdensities in which cooling is efficient are much rarer and we find that star formation is regulated by the formation of cold gas. In such cases, turbulence can significantly boost star formation by compressing gas in shocks and increasing the CNM fraction: we see an increase from almost no CNM to up to a fraction of 15 \%. We provide a model to quantify this behaviour and predict the CNM fraction by combining the standard ISM cooling/heating model with the density PDF generated by turbulence. The change in the dominant limiting process for star formation between low-density/externally heated and intermediate-density/feedback heated environments could provides a natural explanation for the observed break in the Kennicutt-Schmidt relation around column densities of 9\,\Msun\, pc$^{-2}$.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2023

PDRs4All II: JWST's NIR and MIR imaging view of the Orion Nebula

The JWST has captured the most detailed and sharpest infrared images ever taken of the inner region of the Orion Nebula, the nearest massive star formation region, and a prototypical highly irradiated dense photo-dissociation region (PDR). We investigate the fundamental interaction of far-ultraviolet photons with molecular clouds. The transitions across the ionization front (IF), dissociation front (DF), and the molecular cloud are studied at high-angular resolution. These transitions are relevant to understanding the effects of radiative feedback from massive stars and the dominant physical and chemical processes that lead to the IR emission that JWST will detect in many Galactic and extragalactic environments. Due to the proximity of the Orion Nebula and the unprecedented angular resolution of JWST, these data reveal that the molecular cloud borders are hyper structured at small angular scales of 0.1-1" (0.0002-0.002 pc or 40-400 au at 414 pc). A diverse set of features are observed such as ridges, waves, globules and photoevaporated protoplanetary disks. At the PDR atomic to molecular transition, several bright features are detected that are associated with the highly irradiated surroundings of the dense molecular condensations and embedded young star. Toward the Orion Bar PDR, a highly sculpted interface is detected with sharp edges and density increases near the IF and DF. This was predicted by previous modeling studies, but the fronts were unresolved in most tracers. A complex, structured, and folded DF surface was traced by the H2 lines. This dataset was used to revisit the commonly adopted 2D PDR structure of the Orion Bar. JWST provides us with a complete view of the PDR, all the way from the PDR edge to the substructured dense region, and this allowed us to determine, in detail, where the emission of the atomic and molecular lines, aromatic bands, and dust originate.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2021

Burton's Curse: The Impact of Bulk Flows on the Galactic Longitude-Velocity Diagram and the Illusion of a Continuous Perseus Arm

In this work we demonstrate that the Perseus Arm is not a continuous structure of molecular gas in the second quadrant. We first show that the observed, distanced-resolved velocity structure of the Galaxy in the outer disk is capable of creating illusory spiral arms, as was first proposed by Burton (1971). Second, we measure the distances to a collection of CO clouds at velocities consistent with the Perseus arm with $135^\circ < l < 160^\circ$. We find these distances using 3D dust maps from Green et al. (2019). We determine that these molecular cloud do not preferentially lie at the distance of a purported Perseus arm, but rather extend over 3 kpc in distance, with some evidence for a closer, high pitch angle structure between 1 and 1.5 kpc away. Finally, we demonstrate that velocity perturbations of the amplitude found near the Perseus arm can wreak havoc on our interpretation of the longitude-velocity diagram for more than half of the Milky Way disk.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2020

C18O, 13CO, and 12CO abundances and excitation temperatures in the Orion B molecular cloud: An analysis of the precision achievable when modeling spectral line within the Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium approximation

CO isotopologue transitions are routinely observed in molecular clouds to probe the column density of the gas, the elemental ratios of carbon and oxygen, and to trace the kinematics of the environment. We aim at estimating the abundances, excitation temperatures, velocity field and velocity dispersions of the three main CO isotopologues towards a subset of the Orion B molecular cloud. We use the Cramer Rao Bound (CRB) technique to analyze and estimate the precision of the physical parameters in the framework of local-thermodynamic-equilibrium excitation and radiative transfer with an additive white Gaussian noise. We propose a maximum likelihood estimator to infer the physical conditions from the 1-0 and 2-1 transitions of CO isotopologues. Simulations show that this estimator is unbiased and efficient for a common range of excitation temperatures and column densities (Tex > 6 K, N > 1e14 - 1e15 cm-2). Contrary to the general assumptions, the different CO isotopologues have distinct excitation temperatures, and the line intensity ratios between different isotopologues do not accurately reflect the column density ratios. We find mean fractional abundances that are consistent with previous determinations towards other molecular clouds. However, significant local deviations are inferred, not only in regions exposed to UV radiation field but also in shielded regions. These deviations result from the competition between selective photodissociation, chemical fractionation, and depletion on grain surfaces. We observe that the velocity dispersion of the C18O emission is 10% smaller than that of 13CO. The substantial gain resulting from the simultaneous analysis of two different rotational transitions of the same species is rigorously quantified. The CRB technique is a promising avenue for analyzing the estimation of physical parameters from the fit of spectral lines.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2019

ROHSA: Regularized Optimization for Hyper-Spectral Analysis - Application to phase separation of 21 cm data

Extracting the multiphase structure of the neutral interstellar medium (ISM) is key to understand the star formation in galaxies. The radiative condensation of the diffuse warm neutral medium producing a thermally unstable lukewarm medium and a dense cold medium is closely related to the initial step which leads the HI-to-H2 transition and the formation of molecular clouds. Up to now the mapping of these phases out of 21 cm emission hyper-spectral cubes has remained elusive mostly due to the velocity blending of individual cold structures present on a given line of sight. To address this problem, we developed a new Gaussian decomposition algorithm named ROHSA (Regularized Optimization for Hyper-Spectral Analysis) based on a multi-resolution process from coarse to fine grid. ROHSA uses a regularized non-linear least-square criterion to take into account simultaneously the spatial coherence of the emission and the multiphase nature of the gas. In order to obtain a solution with spatially smooth parameters, the optimization is performed on the whole data cube at once. The performances of ROHSA were tested on a synthetic observation computed from numerical simulations of thermally bi-stable turbulence. An application on a 21 cm observation of a high Galactic latitude region from the GHIGLS survey is presented. The evaluation of ROHSA on synthetic 21 cm observations shows that it is able to recover the multiphase nature of the HI and physically meaningful information about the underlying three-dimensional fields (density, velocity and temperature). The application on a real 21 cm observation of a high Galactic latitude field produces a picture of the multiphase HI, with isolated, filamentary and narrow structures and wider, diffuse and space filling components. The test-case field used here contains significant intermediate-velocity clouds that were well mapped out by the algorithm.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2016

Observational Evidence of Dynamic Star Formation Rate in Milky Way Giant Molecular Clouds

Star formation on galactic scales is known to be a slow process, but whether it is slow on smaller scales is uncertain. We cross-correlate 5469 giant molecular clouds (GMCs) from a new all-sky catalog with 256 star forming complexes (SFCs) to build a sample of 191 SFC-GMC complexes---collections of multiple clouds each matched to 191 SFCs. The total mass in stars harbored by these clouds is inferred from WMAP free-free fluxes. We measure the GMC mass, the virial parameter, the star formation efficiency $ε$ and the star formation rate per free-fall time $ε_{\rm ff}$. Both $ε$ and $ε_{\rm ff}$ range over 3--4 orders of magnitude. We find that 68.3% of the clouds fall within $σ_{\logε}=0.79\pm0.22\,{\rm dex}$ and $σ_{\logε_{\rm ff}}=0.91\pm0.22\,{\rm dex}$ about the median. Compared to these observed scatters, a simple model with a time independent $ε_{\rm ff}$ that depends on the host GMC properties predicts $σ_{\logε_{\rm ff}}=$0.12-0.24. Allowing for a time-variable $ε_{\rm ff}$, we can recover the large dispersion in the rate of star formation. This strongly suggests that star formation in the Milky Way is a dynamic process on GMC scales. We also show that the surface star formation rate profile of the Milky Way correlates well with the molecular gas surface density profile.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2015

Galactic and Magellanic Evolution with the SKA

As we strive to understand how galaxies evolve it is crucial that we resolve physical processes and test emerging theories in nearby systems that we can observe in great detail. Our own Galaxy, the Milky Way, and the nearby Magellanic Clouds provide unique windows into the evolution of galaxies, each with its own metallicity and star formation rate. These laboratories allow us to study with more detail than anywhere else in the Universe how galaxies acquire fresh gas to fuel their continuing star formation, how they exchange gas with the surrounding intergalactic medium, and turn warm, diffuse gas into molecular clouds and ultimately stars. The $λ$21-cm line of atomic hydrogen (HI) is an excellent tracer of these physical processes. With the SKA we will finally have the combination of surface brightness sensitivity, point source sensitivity and angular resolution to transform our understanding of the evolution of gas in the Milky Way, all the way from the halo down to the formation of individual molecular clouds.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2013

PRISM (Polarized Radiation Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission): A White Paper on the Ultimate Polarimetric Spectro-Imaging of the Microwave and Far-Infrared Sky

PRISM (Polarized Radiation Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) was proposed to ESA in response to the Call for White Papers for the definition of the L2 and L3 Missions in the ESA Science Programme. PRISM would have two instruments: (1) an imager with a 3.5m mirror (cooled to 4K for high performance in the far-infrared---that is, in the Wien part of the CMB blackbody spectrum), and (2) an Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS) somewhat like the COBE FIRAS instrument but over three orders of magnitude more sensitive. Highlights of the new science (beyond the obvious target of B-modes from gravity waves generated during inflation) made possible by these two instruments working in tandem include: (1) the ultimate galaxy cluster survey gathering 10e6 clusters extending to large redshift and measuring their peculiar velocities and temperatures (through the kSZ effect and relativistic corrections to the classic y-distortion spectrum, respectively) (2) a detailed investigation into the nature of the cosmic infrared background (CIB) consisting of at present unresolved dusty high-z galaxies, where most of the star formation in the universe took place, (3) searching for distortions from the perfect CMB blackbody spectrum, which will probe a large number of otherwise inaccessible effects (e.g., energy release through decaying dark matter, the primordial power spectrum on very small scales where measurements today are impossible due to erasure from Silk damping and contamination from non-linear cascading of power from larger length scales). These are but a few of the highlights of the new science that will be made possible with PRISM.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2009

BLAST05: Power Spectra of Bright Galactic Cirrus at Submillimeter Wavelengths

We report multi-wavelength power spectra of diffuse Galactic dust emission from BLAST observations at 250, 350, and 500 microns in Galactic Plane fields in Cygnus X and Aquila. These submillimeter power spectra statistically quantify the self-similar structure observable over a broad range of scales and can be used to assess the cirrus noise which limits the detection of faint point sources. The advent of submillimeter surveys with the Herschel Space Observatory makes the wavelength dependence a matter of interest. We show that the observed relative amplitudes of the power spectra can be related through a spectral energy distribution (SED). Fitting a simple modified black body to this SED, we find the dust temperature in Cygnus X to be 19.9 +/- 1.3 K and in the Aquila region 16.9 +/- 0.7 K. Our empirical estimates provide important new insight into the substantial cirrus noise that will be encountered in forthcoming observations.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2009

Probing the origin of the microwave anomalous foreground

The galactic anomalous microwave emission detected between 10 and 90 GHz is a major foreground to CMB fluctuations. Well correlated to dust emission at 100 $μ$m, the anomalous emission is interstellar but its origin is still debated. Some possible explanations relate it to dust: emission of spinning, small (nanometric) grains carrying a permanent electric dipole or magnetic fluctuations in larger (submicronic) grains. To probe the origin of the anomalous emission, we compare microwave data to dust IR emission and search for specific signatures predicted by models of spinning dust. For the anomalous emission, we use the 23 GHz all-sky map deduced from WMAP data by Miville-Deschenes et al. (2008). The dust emission is traced by IRAS data. Models show that spinning dust emission is little sensitive to the intensity of the radiation field (Go) for 10<nu<30 GHz while the corresponding mid-IR emission is proportional to Go. To test this behaviour in our comparison, we derive Go from the dust temperature maps of Schlegel et al. (1998). From all-sky maps, we show that the anomalous emission is better correlated to the emission of small grains (at 12 $μ$m) than to that of big grains (at 100 $μ$m). In addition we show that the former correlation is significantly improved when the 12 $μ$m flux is divided by Go, as predicted by current models of spinning dust.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2009

Diffuse microwave emission of the interstellar medium : intensity and polarization

With the increasing number of experiments dedicated to the observation of the Cosmic Microwave Background, interest on the detailed properties of the foreground Galactic emission has risen. In particular the focus is shifting towards polarized microwave emission with the goal of detecting signature from primordial gravitational waves and inflation. This review describes the Galactic polarized and unpolarized emissions in the microwave range : free-free, synchrotron, thermal dust and anomalous emission.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2009

Serendipity observations of far infrared cirrus emission in the Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxies Survey: Analysis of far-infrared correlations

We present an analysis of far-infrared dust emission from diffuse cirrus clouds. This study is based on serendipitous observations at 160 microns at high galactic latitude with the Multiband Imaging Photometer (MIPS) onboard the Spitzer Space Telescope by the Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxies Survey (SINGS). These observations are complemented with IRIS data at 100 and 60 microns and constitute one of the most sensitive and unbiased samples of far infrared observations at small scale of diffuse interstellar clouds. Outside regions dominated by the cosmic infrared background fluctuations, we observe a substantial scatter in the 160/100 colors from cirrus emission. We compared the 160/100 color variations to 60/100 colors in the same fields and find a trend of decreasing 60/100 with increasing 160/100. This trend can not be accounted for by current dust models by changing solely the interstellar radiation field. It requires a significant change of dust properties such as grain size distribution or emissivity or a mixing of clouds in different physical conditions along the line of sight. These variations are important as a potential confusing foreground for extragalactic studies.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2007

Physical properties of a very diffuse HI structure at high Galactic latitude

The main goal of this analysis is to present a new method to estimate the physical properties of diffuse cloud of atomic hydrogen observed at high Galactic latitude. This method, based on a comparison of the observations with fractional Brownian motion simulations, uses the statistical properties of the integrated emission, centroid velocity and line width to constrain the physical properties of the 3D density and velocity fields, as well as the average temperature of HI. We applied this method to interpret 21 cm observations obtained with the Green Bank Telescope of a very diffuse HI cloud at high Galactic latitude located in Firback North 1. We first show that the observations cannot be reproduced solely by highly-turbulent CNM type gas and that there is a significant contribution of thermal broadening to the line width observed. To reproduce the profiles one needs to invoke two components with different average temperature and filling factor. We established that, in this very diffuse part of the ISM, 2/3 of the column density is made of WNM and 1/3 of thermally unstable gas (T ~2600 K). The WNM gas is mildly supersonic ( ~1) and the unstable phase is definitely sub-sonic ( ~0.3). The density contrast (i.e., the standard deviation relative to the mean of density distribution) of both components is close to 0.8. The filling factor of the WNM is 10 times higher that of the unstable gas, which has a density structure closer to what would be expected for CNM gas. This field contains a signature of CNM type gas at a very low level (N_H ~ 3 x 10^19) which could have been formed by a convergent flow of WNM gas.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2004

IRIS: A new generation of IRAS maps

The Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) had a tremendous impact on many areas of modern astrophysics. In particular it revealed the ubiquity of infrared cirrus that are a spectacular manifestation of the interstellar medium complexity but also an important foreground for observational cosmology. With the forthcoming Planck satellite there is a need for all-sky complementary data sets with arcminute resolution that can bring informations on specific foreground emissions that contaminate the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation. With its 4 arcmin resolution matching perfectly the high-frequency bands of Planck, IRAS is a natural data set to study the variations of dust properties at all scales. But the latest version of the images delivered by the IRAS team (the ISSA plates) suffer from calibration, zero level and striping problems that can preclude its use, especially at 12 and 25 micron. In this paper we present how we proceeded to solve each of these problems and enhance significantly the general quality of the ISSA plates in the four bands (12, 25, 60 and 100 micron). This new generation of IRAS images, called IRIS, benefits from a better zodiacal light subtraction, from a calibration and zero level compatible with DIRBE, and from a better destriping. At 100 micron the IRIS product is also a significant improvement from the Schlegel et al. (1998) maps. IRIS keeps the full ISSA resolution, it includes well calibrated point sources and the diffuse emission calibration at scales smaller than 1 degree was corrected for the variation of the IRAS detector responsivity with scale and brightness. The uncertainty on the IRIS calibration and zero level are dominated by the uncertainty on the DIRBE calibration and on the accuracy of the zodiacal light model.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2003

Automatic Detection of Expanding HI Shells Using Artificial Neural Networks

The identification of expanding HI shells is difficult because of their variable morphological characteristics. The detection of HI bubbles on a global scale therefore never has been attempted. In this paper, an automatic detector for expanding HI shells is presented. The detection is based on the more stable dynamical characteristics of expanding shells and is performed in two stages. The first one is the recognition of the dynamical signature of an expanding bubble in the velocity spectra, based on the classification of an artificial neural network. The pixels associated with these recognized spectra are identified on each velocity channel. The second stage consists in looking for concentrations of those pixels that were firstly pointed out, and to decide if they are potential detections by morphological and 21-cm emission variation considerations. Two test bubbles are correctly detected and a potentially new case of shell that is visually very convincing is discovered. About 0.6% of the surveyed pixels are identified as part of a bubble. These may be false detections, but still constitute regions of space with high probability of finding an expanding shell. The subsequent search field is thus significantly reduced. We intend to conduct in the near future a large scale HI shells detection over the Perseus Arm using our detector.

astro-ph↗

arXiv1998

Turbulence in the Ursa Major cirrus cloud

High resolution 21 cm observations of the Ursa Major cirrus revealed highly filamentary structures down to the 0.03 pc resolution. These filaments, still present in the line centroid map, show multi-Gaussian components and seem to be associated with high vorticity regions. Probability density functions of line centroid increments and structure functions were computed on the line centroid field, providing strong evidences for the presence of turbulence in the atomic gas.

astro-ph↗