arXiv subjects

Naseem Rangwala

Publications and source records attributed to Naseem Rangwala.

22 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2011

Observations of Arp 220 using Herschel-SPIRE: An Unprecedented View of the Molecular Gas in an Extreme Star Formation Environment

We present Herschel SPIRE-FTS observations of Arp~220, a nearby ULIRG. The FTS continuously covers 190 -- 670 microns, providing a good measurement of the continuum and detection of several molecular and atomic species. We detect luminous CO (J = 4-3 to 13-12) and water ladders with comparable total luminosity; very high-J HCN absorption; OH+, H2O+, and HF in absorption; and CI and NII. Modeling of the continuum yields warm dust, with T = 66 K, and an unusually large optical depth of ~5 at 100 microns. Non-LTE modeling of the CO shows two temperature components: cold molecular gas at T ~ 50 K and warm molecular gas at T ~1350 K. The mass of the warm gas is 10% of the cold gas, but dominates the luminosity of the CO ladder. The temperature of the warm gas is in excellent agreement with H2 rotational lines. At 1350 K, H2 dominates the cooling (~20 L_sun/M_sun) in the ISM compared to CO (~0.4 L_sun/M_sun). We found that only a non-ionizing source such as the mechanical energy from supernovae and stellar winds can excite the warm gas and satisfy the energy budget of ~20 L_sun/M_sun. We detect a massive molecular outflow in Arp 220 from the analysis of strong P-Cygni line profiles observed in OH+, H2O+, and H2O. The outflow has a mass > 10^{7} M_sun and is bound to the nuclei with velocity < 250 km/s. The large column densities observed for these molecular ions strongly favor the existence of an X-ray luminous AGN (10^{44} ergs/s) in Arp 220.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2009

Fabry-Perot Absorption Line Spectroscopy of the Galactic Bar. II. Stellar Metallicities

We measure the Ca II 8542 line strength in 3360 stars along three lines-of-sight in the Galactic bar: (l,b) ~ (+/-5.0,-3.5) and Baade's Window, using Fabry-Perot (FP) absorption line spectroscopy. This is the first attempt to show that reliable absorption line strengths can be measured using FP spectroscopy. The Ca II 8542 line is a good indicator of metallicity and its calibration to [Fe/H] is determined for globular cluster red giants in previous investigations. We derive such a calibration for the bulge giants and use it to infer metallicities for our full red clump sample (2488 stars) at all three lines-of-sight. We present the stellar metallicity distributions along the major axis of the bar. We find the mean [Fe/H] = -0.09 +/- 0.04 dex in Baade's Window, and find the distribution in this field to agree well with previous works. We find gradients in the mean metallicity and its dispersion w.r.t Baade's WIndow of -0.45 and -0.20 dex respectively at l = +5.5, and of -0.10 dex and -0.20 dex at l = -5.0. We detect a signature of a possible tidal stream at l = +5.5, in both our velocity and metallicity distributions. Its radial velocity indicates that it is not associated with the Sagittarius stream. We also measure the metallicity of a bulge globular cluster NGC 6522 in our Baade's Window field to be -0.90 +/- 0.10 dex, in agreement with recent measurements of Zoccali et al. (2008). This agreement demonstrates the reliability of our metallicity measurements.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2008

Fabry-Perot Absorption Line Spectroscopy of the Galactic Bar. I. Kinematics

We use Fabry-Perot absorption line imaging spectroscopy to measure radial velocities using the Ca II 8542 line in 3360 stars towards three lines of sight in the Milky Way's bar: Baade's Window and offset position at (l,b) ~ (+-5.0, -3.5). This sample includes 2488 bar red clump giants, 339 bar M/K-giants, and 318 disk main sequence stars. We measure the first four moments of the stellar velocity distribution of the red clump giants, and find it to be symmetric and flat-topped. We also measure the line-of-sight average velocity and dispersion of the red clump giants as a function of distance in the bar. We detect stellar streams at the near and far side of the bar with velocity difference > 30 km/s at l = +-5, but we do not detect two separate streams in Baade's Window. Our M-giants kinematics agree well with previous studies, but have dispersions systematically lower than those of the red clump giants by ~ 10 km/s. For the disk main sequence stars we measure a velocity dispersion of ~ 45 km/s for all three lines-of-sight, placing a majority of them in the thin disk within 3.5 kpc of the Sun, associated with the Sagittarius spiral arm. We measure the equivalent widths of the Ca II 8542 line that can be used to infer metallicities. We find indications of a metallicity gradient with Galactic longitude, with greater metallicity in Baade's Window. We find the bulge to be metal-rich, consistent with some previous studies.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2008

An Imaging Fabry-Perot System for the Robert Stobie Spectrograph on the Southern African Large Telescope

We present the design of the Fabry-Perot system of the Robert Stobie Spectrograph on the 10-meter class Southern African Large Telescope and its characterization as measured in the laboratory. This system provides spectroscopic imaging at any desired wavelength spanning a bandpass 430 - 860 nm, at four different spectral resolving powers ranging from 300 to 9000. Our laboratory tests revealed a wavelength dependence of the etalon gap and parallelism with a maximum variation between 600 - 720 nm that arises because of the complex structure of the broadband multi-layer dielectric coatings. We also report an unanticipated optical effect of this multi-layer coating structure that produces a significant, and wavelength dependent, change in the apparent shape of the etalon plates. This change is caused by two effects: the physical non-uniformities or thickness variations in the coating layers, and the wavelength dependence of the phase change upon refection that can amplify these non-uniformities. We discuss the impact of these coating effects on the resolving power, finesse, and throughput of the system. This Fabry-Perot system will provide a powerful tool for imaging spectroscopy on one of the world's largest telescopes.

astro-ph↗