arXiv subjects

Naoteru Gouda

Publications and source records attributed to Naoteru Gouda.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

The JWST Galactic Center Survey -- A White Paper

The inner hundred parsecs of the Milky Way hosts the nearest supermassive black hole, largest reservoir of dense gas, greatest stellar density, hundreds of massive main and post main sequence stars, and the highest volume density of supernovae in the Galaxy. As the nearest environment in which it is possible to simultaneously observe many of the extreme processes shaping the Universe, it is one of the most well-studied regions in astrophysics. Due to its proximity, we can study the center of our Galaxy on scales down to a few hundred AU, a hundred times better than in similar Local Group galaxies and thousands of times better than in the nearest active galaxies. The Galactic Center (GC) is therefore of outstanding astrophysical interest. However, in spite of intense observational work over the past decades, there are still fundamental things unknown about the GC. JWST has the unique capability to provide us with the necessary, game-changing data. In this White Paper, we advocate for a JWST NIRCam survey that aims at solving central questions, that we have identified as a community: i) the 3D structure and kinematics of gas and stars; ii) ancient star formation and its relation with the overall history of the Milky Way, as well as recent star formation and its implications for the overall energetics of our galaxy's nucleus; and iii) the (non-)universality of star formation and the stellar initial mass function. We advocate for a large-area, multi-epoch, multi-wavelength NIRCam survey of the inner 100\,pc of the Galaxy in the form of a Treasury GO JWST Large Program that is open to the community. We describe how this survey will derive the physical and kinematic properties of ~10,000,000 stars, how this will solve the key unknowns and provide a valuable resource for the community with long-lasting legacy value.

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arXiv2024

JASMINE image simulator for high-precision astrometry and photometry

JASMINE is a Japanese planned space mission that aims to reveal the formation history of our Galaxy and discover habitable exoEarths. For these objectives, the JASMINE satellite performs high-precision astrometric observations of the Galactic bulge and high-precision transit monitoring of M-dwarfs in the near-infrared (1.0-1.6 microns in wavelength). For feasibility studies, we develop an image simulation software named JASMINE-imagesim, which produces realistic observation images. This software takes into account various factors such as the optical point spread function (PSF), telescope jitter caused by the satellite's attitude control error (ACE), detector flat patterns, exposure timing differences between detector pixels, and various noise factors. As an example, we report a simulation for the feasibility study of astrometric observations using JASMINE-imagesim. The simulation confirms that the required position measurement accuracy of 4 mas for a single exposure of 12.5-mag objects is achievable if the telescope pointing jitter uniformly dilutes the PSF across all stars in the field of view. On the other hand, the simulation also demonstrates that the combination of realistic pointing jitter and exposure timing differences in the detector can significantly degrade accuracy and prevent achieving the requirement. This means that certain countermeasures against this issue must be developed. This result implies that this kind of simulation is important for mission planning and advanced developments to realize more realistic simulations help us to identify critical issues and also devise effective solutions.

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arXiv2024

JASMINE: Near-Infrared Astrometry and Time Series Photometry Science

Japan Astrometry Satellite Mission for INfrared Exploration (JASMINE) is a planned M-class science space mission by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. JASMINE has two main science goals. One is the Galactic archaeology with Galactic Center Survey, which aims to reveal the Milky Way's central core structure and formation history from Gaia-level (~25 $μ$as) astrometry in the Near-Infrared (NIR) Hw-band (1.0-1.6 $μ$m). The other is the Exoplanet Survey, which aims to discover transiting Earth-like exoplanets in the habitable zone from NIR time-series photometry of M dwarfs when the Galactic center is not accessible. We introduce the mission, review many science objectives, and present the instrument concept. JASMINE will be the first dedicated NIR astrometry space mission and provide precise astrometric information of the stars in the Galactic center, taking advantage of the significantly lower extinction in the NIR. The precise astrometry is obtained by taking many short-exposure images. Hence, the JASMINE Galactic center survey data will be valuable for studies of exoplanet transits, asteroseismology, variable stars and microlensing studies, including discovery of (intermediate mass) black holes. We highlight a swath of such potential science, and also describe synergies with other missions.

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arXiv2023

GREX-PLUS Science Book

GREX-PLUS (Galaxy Reionization EXplorer and PLanetary Universe Spectrometer) is a mission candidate for a JAXA's strategic L-class mission to be launched in the 2030s. Its primary sciences are two-fold: galaxy formation and evolution and planetary system formation and evolution. The GREX-PLUS spacecraft will carry a 1.2 m primary mirror aperture telescope cooled down to 50 K. The two science instruments will be onboard: a wide-field camera in the 2-8 $μ$m wavelength band and a high resolution spectrometer with a wavelength resolution of 30,000 in the 10-18 $μ$m band. The GREX-PLUS wide-field camera aims to detect the first generation of galaxies at redshift $z>15$. The GREX-PLUS high resolution spectrometer aims to identify the location of the water ``snow line'' in proto-planetary disks. Both instruments will provide unique data sets for a broad range of scientific topics including galaxy mass assembly, origin of supermassive blackholes, infrared background radiation, molecular spectroscopy in the interstellar medium, transit spectroscopy for exoplanet atmosphere, planetary atmosphere in the Solar system, and so on.

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arXiv2019

Voyage 2050 White Paper: All-Sky Visible and Near Infrared Space Astrometry

A new all-sky visible and Near-InfraRed (NIR) space astrometry mission with a wavelength cutoff in the K-band is not just focused on a single or small number of key science cases. Instead, it is extremely broad, answering key science questions in nearly every branch of astronomy while also providing a dense and accurate visible-NIR reference frame needed for future astronomy facilities. For almost 2 billion common stars the combination of Gaia and a new all-sky NIR astrometry mission would provide much improved proper motions, answering key science questions -- from the solar system and stellar systems, including exoplanet systems, to compact galaxies, quasars, neutron stars, binaries and dark matter substructures. The addition of NIR will result in up to 8 billion newly measured stars in some of the most obscured parts of our Galaxy, and crucially reveal the very heart of the Galactic bulge region. In this white paper we argue that rather than improving on the accuracy, a greater overall science return can be achieved by going deeper than Gaia and by expanding the wavelength range to the NIR.

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arXiv2019

Metallicity dependence of the Hercules stream in Gaia/RAVE data -- explanation by non-closed orbits

The origin of the Hercules stream, the most prominent velocity substructure in the Solar neighbour disc stars, is still under debate. Recent accurate measurements of position, velocity, and metallicity provided by Tycho Gaia Astrometric Solution (TGAS) and RAdial Velocity Experiments (RAVE) have revealed that the Hercules stream is most clearly seen in the metal-rich region ([Fe/H] > 0), while it is not clearly seen in lower metallicity region ([Fe/H] < -0.25). By using a large number of chemo-dynamical 2D test-particle simulations with a rotating bar and/or spiral arms, we find that the observed [Fe/H] dependence of the Hercules stream is a natural consequence of the inside-out formation of the stellar disc and the existence of highly non-closed orbits in the rotating frame of the bar or spiral arms. Our successful models that reproduce the observed properties of the Hercules stream include not only fast-bar-only and fast-bar+spiral models, but also slow-bar+spiral models. This indicates that it is very difficult to estimate the pattern speed of the bar or spiral arms based only on the observations of the Hercules stream in the Solar neighbourhood. As a by-product of our simulations, we make some predictions about the locations across the Galactic plane where we can observe velocity bimodality that is not associated with the Hercules stream. These predictions can be tested by the Gaia Data Release 2, and such a test will improve our understanding of the evolution of the Milky Way stellar disc.

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arXiv2016

The validation of made-to-measure method for reconstruction of phase space distribution functions

We investigate how accurately phase space distribution functions (DFs) in galactic models can be reconstructed by a made-to-measure (M2M) method, which constructs $N$-particle models of stellar systems from photometric and various kinematic data. The advantage of the M2M method is that this method can be applied to various galactic models without assumption of the spatial symmetries of gravitational potentials adopted in galactic models, and furthermore, numerical calculations of the orbits of the stars cannot be severely constrained by the capacities of computer memories. The M2M method has been applied to various galactic models. However, the degree of accuracy for the recovery of DFs derived by the M2M method in galactic models has never been investigated carefully. Therefore, we show the degree of accuracy for the recovery of the DFs for the anisotropic Plummer model and the axisymmetric Stäckel model, which have analytic solutions of the DFs. Furthermore, this study provides the dependence of the degree of accuracy for the recovery of the DFs on various parameters and a procedure adopted in this paper. As a result, we find that the degree of accuracy for the recovery of the DFs derived by the M2M method for the spherical target model is a few percent, and more than ten percent for the axisymmetric target model.

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arXiv2016

Mergers of accreting stellar-mass black holes

We present post-Newtonian $N$-body simulations on mergers of accreting stellar-mass black holes (BHs), where such general relativistic effects as the pericenter shift and gravitational wave (GW) emission are taken into consideration. The attention is concentrated on the effects of the dynamical friction and the Hoyle-Lyttleton mass accretion by ambient gas. We consider a system composed of ten BHs with initial mass of $30~M_\odot$. As a result, we show that mergers of accreting stellar-mass BHs are classified into four types: a gas drag-driven, an interplay-driven, a three body-driven, or an accretion-driven merger. We find that BH mergers proceed before significant mass accretion, even if the accretion rate is $\sim10$ Eddington accretion rate, and then all BHs can merge into one heavy BH. Using the simulation results for a wide range of parameters, we derive a critical accretion rate ($\dot{m}_{\rm c}$), below which the BH growth is promoted faster by mergers. Also, it is found that the effect of the recoil by the GW emission can reduce $\dot{m}_{\rm c}$ especially in gas number density higher than $10^8~{\rm cm}^{-3}$, and enhance the escape probability of merged BHs. Very recently, a gravitational wave event, GW150914, as a result of the merger of a $\sim 30~M_\odot$ BH binary has been detected (Abbott et al. 2016). Based on the present simulations, the BH merger in GW150914 is likely to be driven by three-body encounters accompanied by a few $M_\odot$ of gas accretion, in high-density environments like dense interstellar clouds or galactic nuclei.

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arXiv2015

Early Cosmic Merger of Multiple Black Holes

We perform numerical simulations on the merger of multiple black holes (BHs) in primordial gas at early cosmic epochs. We consider two cases of BH mass: $M_{BH} = 30 M_{\odot}$ and $M_{BH} = 10^4 M_{\odot}$. Attention is concentrated on the effect of the dynamical friction by gas in a host object. The simulations incorporate such general relativistic effects as the pericentre shift and gravitational wave emission. As a result, we find that multiple BHs are able to merge into one BH within 100 Myr in a wide range of BH density. The merger mechanism is revealed to be categorized into three types: gas-drag-driven merger (type A), interplay-driven merger (type B), and three-body-driven merger (type C). We find the relation between the merger mechanism and the ratio of the gas mass within the initial BH orbit ($M_{gas}$) to the total BH mass ($ΣM_{BH}$). Type A merger occurs if $M_{gas} \gtrsim 10^5 ΣM_{BH}$, type B if $M_{gas} \lesssim 10^5 ΣM_{BH}$, and type C if $M_{gas} \ll 10^5 ΣM_{BH}$. Supposing the gas and BH density based on the recent numerical simulations on first stars, all the BH remnants from first stars are likely to merge into one BH through the type B or C mechanism. Also, we find that multiple massive BHs ($M_{BH} = 10^4 M_{\odot}$) distributed over several parsec can merge into one BH through the type B mechanism, if the gas density is higher than $5\times 10^6$ cm$^{-3}$. The present results imply that the BH merger may contribute significantly to the formation of supermassive BHs at high redshift epochs.

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arXiv2014

Improving the Moment Approach for Astrometric Binaries: Possible Application to Cygnus X-1

A moment approach for orbit determinations of astrometric binaries from astrometric observations alone has been recently studied for a low signal-to-noise ratio (Iwama et al. 2013, PASJ, 65, 2). With avoiding a direct use of the time-consuming Kepler equation, temporal information is taken into account to increase the accuracy of statistical moments. As numerical tests, 100 realizations are done and the mean and the standard deviation are also evaluated. For a semi-major axis, the difference between the mean of the recovered values and the true value decreases to less than a tenth in the case of $10000$ observed points. Therefore, the present moment approach works better than the previous one for the orbit determinations when one has a number of the observed points. The present approach is thus applicable to Cyg X-1.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2014

Torus-fitting method for obtaining action variables in two-dimensional Galactic potentials

A phase-space distribution function of the steady state in galaxy models that admits regular orbits overall in the phase-space can be represented by a function of three action variables. This type of distribution function in Galactic models is often constructed theoretically for comparison of the Galactic models with observational data as a test of the models. On the other hand, observations give Cartesian phase-space coordinates of stars. Therefore it is necessary to relate action variables and Cartesian coordinates in investigating whether the distribution function constructed in galaxy models can explain observational data. Generating functions are very useful in practice for this purpose, because calculations of relations between action variables and Cartesian coordinates by generating functions do not require a lot of computational time or computer memory in comparison with direct numerical integration calculations of stellar orbits. Here, we propose a new method called a torus-fitting method, by which a generating function is derived numerically for models of the Galactic potential in which almost all orbits are regular. We confirmed the torus-fitting method can be applied to major orbit families (box and loop orbits) in some two-dimensional potentials. Furthermore, the torus-fitting method is still applicable to resonant orbit families, besides major orbit families. Hence the torus-fitting method is useful for analyzing real Galactic systems in which a lot of resonant orbit families might exist.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2013

Astrometric mock observations for determining the local dark matter density

To determine the local dark matter density (LDMD) of the solar system is a classical problem in astronomy. Recently, a novel method of determining the LDMD from stellar distribution and vertical velocity dispersion profiles perpendicular to the Galactic plane was devised. This method has the advantage of abolishing conventional approximations and using only a few assumptions. Our aims are to carefully scrutinize this method and to examine influences by uncertainties of astrometric observations. We discuss how the determinations of the LDMD vary with observational precisions on parallax, proper motion, and line-of-sight velocity measurements. To examine the influences by the observational imprecision, we created mock observation data for stars that are dynamical tracers based on an analytical galaxy model and applied parametrized observational errors to the mock data. We evaluated the accuracy of determining the LDMD by applying the method to the mock data. In addition, we estimated a sample size and observational precision required to determine the LDMD with accuracy. We find that the method is capable of determining the LDMD with accuracy if the sample size and observational precisions are satisfactory. The random errors of parallaxes and proper motions can cause systematic overestimation of the LDMD. We estimate the required precisions of the parallax measurements to be approximately 0.1-0.3 milliarcseconds at 1 kpc away from the Sun; the proper motion precisions do not seem to be as important as the parallaxes. From these results, we expect that using the Hipparcos catalog would overestimate the LDMD because of the imprecise parallax measurements if this method is applied; however, we emphasize the capability of the method. We expect that Gaia will provide data precise enough to determine the LDMD.

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arXiv2010

HI-selected Galaxies as a probe of Quasar Absorption Systems

We investigate the properties of HI-rich galaxies detected in blind radio surveys within the hierarchical structure formation scenario using a semi-analytic model of galaxy formation. By drawing a detailed comparison between the properties of HI-selected galaxies and HI absorption systems, we argue a link between the local galaxy population and quasar absorption systems, particularly for Damped Ly-alpha absorption (DLA) systems and sub-DLA systems. First, we evaluate how many HI-selected galaxies exhibit HI column densities as high as those of DLA systems. We find that HI-selected galaxies with HI masses M(HI) > 10^8 solar masses have gaseous disks that produce HI column densities comparable to those of DLA systems. We conclude that DLA galaxies where the HI column densities are as high as those of DLA systems, contribute significantly to the population of HI-selected galaxies at M(HI) > 10^8 solar masses. Second, we find that star formation rates (SFRs) correlate tightly with HI masses rather than B- (and J-) band luminosities. In the low-mass range M(HI) < 10^8 solar masses, sub-DLA galaxies replace DLA galaxies as the dominant population. The number fraction of sub-DLA galaxies relative to galaxies reaches 40%-60% at HI masses 10^8 solar masses and 30%-80% at 10^7 solar masses. The HI-selected galaxies at 10^7 solar masses are a strong probe of sub-DLA systems that place stringent constraints on galaxy formation and evolution.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2005

Numerical Galaxy Catalog -I. A Semi-analytic Model of Galaxy Formation with N-body simulations

We construct the Numerical Galaxy Catalog ($ν$GC), based on a semi-analytic model of galaxy formation combined with high-resolution N-body simulations in a $Λ$-dominated flat cold dark matter ($Λ$CDM) cosmological model. The model includes several essential ingredients for galaxy formation, such as merging histories of dark halos directly taken from N-body simulations, radiative gas cooling, star formation, heating by supernova explosions (supernova feedback), mergers of galaxies, population synthesis, and extinction by internal dust and intervening HI clouds. As the first paper in a series using this model, we focus on basic photometric, structural and kinematical properties of galaxies at present and high redshifts. Two sets of model parameters are examined, strong and weak supernova feedback models, which are in good agreement with observational luminosity functions of local galaxies in a range of observational uncertainty. Both models agree well with many observations such as cold gas mass-to-stellar luminosity ratios of spiral galaxies, HI mass functions, galaxy sizes, faint galaxy number counts and photometric redshift distributions in optical pass-bands, isophotal angular sizes, and cosmic star formation rates. In particular, the strong supernova feedback model is in much better agreement with near-infrared (K'-band) faint galaxy number counts and redshift distribution than the weak feedback model and our previous semi-analytic models based on the extended Press-Schechter formalism. (Abridged)

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arXiv2003

Chemical Enrichment in Damped Lyman Alpha Systems From Hierarchical Galaxy Formation Models

We investigate chemical enrichment in Damped Lyman alpha (DLA) systems in the hierarchical structure formation scenario using a semi-analytic model of galaxy formation. The model developed by Nagashima, Totani, Gouda and Yoshii takes into account various selection effects on high-redshift galaxies and can show fundamental observational properties of galaxies, such as luminosity functions and number-magnitude/redshift relations. DLA systems offer the possibilities of measuring metal abundance more accurately than faint galaxies. For example, recent measurements of zinc abundance can provide good evidence for understanding the processes of metal pollution and star formation in DLA systems because zinc is virtually unaffected by dust depletion. Here we focus on this advantage for observation in order to explore the metallicity evolution in DLA systems at high redshifts. We can consistently show the metallicity evolution for reasonable models which also reproduce fundamental properties of local galaxy population. This result suggests that the chemical evolution of DLA systems can be consistently reconciled with the observational features of typical galaxies. We also investigate other properties of DLA systems (column density distribution and mass density of cold gas), and find that star formation in massive galaxies should be more active than that in low-mass ones. This is consistent with the results by Nagashima et al. and Cole et al. in which the star formation timescale is set by reproducing cold gas mass fraction in local spiral galaxies. Finally we discuss host galaxies associated with DLA systems. We conclude that they primarily consist of sub-L* and/or dwarf galaxies from the observations.

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arXiv2003

Universality in the distribution of caustics in the expanding Universe

We numerically investigate the long--time evolution of density perturbations after the first appearance of caustics in an expanding cosmological model with one--dimensional `single--wave' initial conditions. Focussing on the time--intervals of caustic appearances and the spatial distribution of caustics at subsequent times, we find that the time--intervals of caustic appearances approach a constant, i.e., their time--subsequent ratio converges to 1; it is also found that the spatial distribution of caustics at a given time features some universality rules, e.g., the ratio between the position of the nearest caustic from the center and that of the second nearest caustic from the center approaches a constant. Furthermore we find some rules for the mass distribution for each caustic. Using these universality constants we are in the position to predict the spatial distribution of caustics at an arbitrary time in order to give an estimate for the power spectral index in the fully--developed non--dissipative turbulent (`virialized') regime.

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arXiv2002

Relations Between Environments of Quasars and Galaxy Formation

We investigate the environments of quasars such as number distribution of galaxies using a semi-analytic model which includes both galaxy and quasar formations based on the hierarchical clustering scenario. We assume that a supermassive black hole is fueled by accretion of cold gas and that it is a source of quasar activity during a major merger of the quasar host galaxy with another galaxy. This major merger causes spheroid formation of the host galaxy. Our model can reproduce not only general form of the galaxy luminosity functions in the local Universe but also the observed relation between a supermassive black hole mass and a spheroid luminosity, the present black hole mass function and the quasar luminosity functions at different redshifts. Using this model, we predict the mean number of quasars per halo, bias parameter of quasars and the probability distribution of the number of galaxies around quasars. In our model, analysis of the mean number of quasars per halo shows that the spatial distribution of galaxies is different from that of quasars. Furthermore, we found from calculation of the probability distribution of galaxy numbers that at $0.2 \lesssim z \lesssim 0.5$, most quasars are likely to reside in galaxy groups. On the other hand, at $1 \lesssim z \lesssim 2$ most quasars seem to reside in more varied environments than at a lower redshift; quasars reside in environments ranging from small groups of galaxies to clusters of galaxies. Comparing these predictions with observations in future will enable us to constrain our quasar formation model.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2000

Stellar Kinematics of the Spiral Structure in the Solar Neighborhood

We present a method, based on the kinematic analysis of the Galactic disk stars, to clarify whether the internal motions of the stellar system in spiral arms follow those expected in the density wave theory. The method relies on the comparison with the linear relation between the phases of spatial positions and epicyclic motions of stars, as drawn from the theory. The application of the method to the 78 Galactic Cepheids near the Sun, for which accurate proper motions are available from the {\it Hipparcos} Catalogue, has revealed that these Cepheids hold no correlation between both phases, thereby implying that their motions are in contradiction with the theoretical predictions. Possible reasons for this discrepancy are discussed and future prospects are outlined.

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