arXiv subjects

P. Shalima

Publications and source records attributed to P. Shalima.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

A comparative study of occurrence rates and nature of Ultraluminous X-ray sources in spiral and elliptical galaxies

Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are mostly extragalactic non-nuclear point sources having X-ray luminosity exceeding the Eddington luminosity of 10 $M_\odot$ black hole i.e., $L_X \geq $ 10$^{39}$ erg ~s$^{-1}$. They are observed in all types of galaxies; spirals, ellipticals and dwarf irregulars. But the rate of occurrence of ULXs per galaxy varies, some might host a single ULX, whereas some host a large number. In this work we attempt to identify possible differences in ULX properties between two extreme categories in spirals and ellipticals, i.e. ULXs occurring at a rate of one per galaxy ($N=1$) and those occurring at larger rate. We adopt an effective scheme to generate flux limited, credible samples corresponding to the two groups in spirals and ellipticals. From this study, we infer the presence of a separate population of ULXs in the $N=1$ spiral group which contains a reasonable fraction of both soft and hard sources, while the remaining categories contain mostly harder sources. We also find six ULXs in $N=1$ ellipticals with globular cluster association. In addition, we identify few luminous candidates likely hosting massive accretors. This study provides crucial hints of a potential link between ULX types and their occurrence rates and host morphology, a finding that warrants validation via targeted observations and detailed spectral analysis of these sources.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2025

Modelling the scattering by porous aggregate dust grains in the Far-Ultraviolet halos of Spica and Achernar

Far-Ultraviolet (FUV) halos have been detected around six bright stars by Murthy and Henry (2011) using GALEX observations. These halos are thought to be caused by forward scattering of the starlight by dust grains present in thin foreground clouds. The optical constants of grains producing such halos have been constrained earlier by using a single scattering model, that considered the Henyey-Greenstein empirical phase function instead of theoretical phase functions for the scattering grains. In this work, we have modelled the FUV halos for two stars, Spica and Achernar, by considering the realistic porous aggregates of different sizes and compositions. As the Henyey-Greenstein phase function is known to deviate from theoretical predictions, we have utilized theoretical scattering phase functions for modelling. The dust is placed in a double-layered plane-parallel sheet with its distance and optical depth varied to get the best fit. We find that the halo intensities are dominated by scattering due to 0.05 {\mu}m sized porous dust aggregates made of amorphous silicate and carbonaceous aggregates for Spica and Achernar, respectively. We find that the medium in front of Achernar has a lower optical depth ({\tau}) of 0.032 compared to Spica which has a value of {\tau} = 0.1. This low value is close to the optical depth of the local ISM (0.01) within 40 pc of the Sun. This study demonstrates an effective method to constrain the dust grain properties in the local interstellar medium.

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arXiv2024

A sky survey of ultraviolet sources observed through AstroSat's UVIT: A point source catalog

The Ultra Violet Imaging Telescope (UVIT) onboard India's first dedicated multiwavelength satellite \textit{AstroSat} observed a significant fraction of the sky in the ultraviolet with a spatial resolution of 1.4\arcsec. We present a catalog of the point sources observed by UVIT in the far ultraviolet (FUV; 1300-1800 \AA) and near ultraviolet (NUV; 2000-3000 \AA). We carried out astrometry and photometry of 428 field pointings in the FUV and 54 field pointings in the NUV band, observed in 5 filter bands in each channel respectively, covering an area of about 63 square degrees. The final catalog contains about 102,773 sources. The limiting magnitude(AB) of the F148W band filter, that has the largest number of detections is $\sim21.3$. For the NUV channel, we find the limiting magnitude at around $\sim23$. We describe the final catalog and present the results of the statistical analysis.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2024

AstroSat/UVIT Study of the Diffuse Ultraviolet Radiation in the Dwarf Galaxy Holmberg II

We present measurements of diffuse ultraviolet emission in the dwarf irregular galaxy Holmberg II obtained with the UltraViolet Imaging Telescope (UVIT) onboard AstroSat. With a spatial resolution of 1.2 to 1.6 arcsec, these are the highest resolution UV observations of the galaxy to date. We find that diffuse emission accounts for 70.6 % (58.1 %) of the total FUV(NUV) emission, respectively. We perform a UV-IR correlation study of the diffuse emission in this galaxy using infrared observations from Spitzer Space Telescope and Herschel Space Observatory for selected locations, free of detectable bright point sources. The strongest positive correlation between FUV and IR is observed at 70 micron for high HI density locations, indicating that warm dust grains dominate the IR emission, in agreement with earlier studies, while NUV is better correlated with 160 micron emission associated with cold dust grains. Low HI density regions or cavities, do not show any significant UV-IR correlation except at 160 micron, implying either the presence of colder dust grains in cavities, being irradiated by the general radiation field, or insufficient amount of dust. The dust scattering contribution in high HI density regions, estimated using a single scattering model with foreground dust clouds with LMC reddening, gives best-fit albedo and asymmetry factor values of 0.2 and 0.5, respectively, in reasonable agreement with the theoretical predictions for LMC dust. Our model derived scattering optical depths in the FUV range from 0.02 to 0.12, implying the medium is optically thin. Therefore, in high HI density regions, dust scattering can be one the sources of the observed diffuse UV emission, apart from possible contributions from molecular hydrogen fluorescence, However, the diffuse UV component in HI cavities can only be explained via other mechanisms, such as two photon emission.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2023

Unravelling the Nuclear Dust Morphology of NGC 1365: A Two Phase Polar - RAT Model for the Ultraviolet to Infrared Spectral Energy Distribution

We present a 3D radiative transfer model for the Spectral Energy Distribution (SED) of NGC 1365, which is a "changing look" Seyfert 1.8 type AGN. The SED from the ultraviolet (UV) to the infrared (IR) is constructed using archival data from the UVIT on-board $AstroSat$, along with IR data from the literature. The SKIRT radiative transfer code is used to model the SED and derive the geometry and composition of dust in this AGN. Similar to our earlier SED model of NGC 4151, the nuclear region of NGC 1365 is assumed to contain a ring or disk-like structure concentric to the accretion disk, composed of large (0.1$μ$m - 1$μ$m) graphite grains in addition to the two-phase dusty torus made up of ISM-type grains (Ring And Torus or RAT model). We also include, for the first time, an additional component of dusty wind in the form of a bipolar cone. We carry out a detailed analysis and derive the best-fit parameters from a $χ^2 $ test to be $R_{\rm in,r}$ = 0.03 pc, $σ$ = 26$^\circ$ and $τ$ = 20 for the assumed ring-torus-polar wind geometry. Our results suggest the presence of hot dust at a temperature T $\sim$ 1216 K at the location of the ring which absorbs and scatters the incident UV radiation and emits in the near-IR (NIR). In the mid-IR (MIR) the major contributors are the polar cone and warm dust with T $\sim$ 916 K at $R_{\rm in,t}$ = 0.1 pc. Not only are our model radii in agreement with IR interferometric observations, our study also reiterates the role of high resolution UV observations in constraining the dust grain size distribution in the nuclear regions of AGN.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2023

Unravelling multi-temperature dust populations in the dwarf galaxy Holmberg II

Holmberg II - a dwarf galaxy in the nearby M81 group - is a very informative source of distribution of gas and dust in the interstellar discs. High-resolution observations in the infrared (IR) allows us to distinguish isolated star-forming regions, photodissociation (PDR) and HII regions, remnants of supernovae (SNe) explosions and, as such, can provide information about more relevant physical processes. In this paper we analyse dust emission in the wavelength range 4.5 to 160 micron using the data from IR space observatories at 27 different locations across the galaxy. We observe that the derived spectra can be represented by multiple dust populations with different temperatures, which are found to be independent of their locations in the galaxy. By comparing the dust temperatures with the far ultraviolet (FUV) intensities observed by the UVIT instrument onboard AstroSat, we find that for locations showing a 100 micron peak, the temperature of cold (20 to 30 K) dust grains show a dependence on the FUV intensities, while such dependence is not observed for the other locations. We believe that the approach described here can be a good tool in revealing different dust populations in other nearby galaxies with available high spatial resolution data.

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arXiv2023

Multi-wavelength study of NGC 1365: The obscured active nucleus and off-nuclear compact X-ray sources

We present a multi-wavelength study of the active nucleus and the off-nuclear X-ray sources in the nearby spiral galaxy, NGC 1365 using three simultaneous UV/X-ray observations by AstroSat over a two months period and archival IR observations performed with Spitzer and Herschel. Utilising the data from the Soft X-ray Telescope (SXT) on-board AstroSat, we find spectral variability mainly caused by the variation in the X-ray column density, (N$_H$ $\sim$ 10$^{22}$ - 10$^{23}$ cm$^{-2}$). With the accurate spatial resolution of the UVIT onboard AstroSat, we separate the intrinsic AGN flux from the host galaxy emission and then correct for the Galactic and the internal reddening. We detect no significant variation in the NUV emission over the observation period. The AGN in FUV band is undetectable due to heavy intrinsic extinction. Further, the multi-wavelength IR/UV/X-ray AGN SED reveals that the AGN is in a low luminosity phase with accretion rate $\sim$ 0.01 L$_{Edd}$. The steady UV emission and strong X-ray absorption variability suggest that the obscuring clouds are likely compact and affect the compact X-ray source only and do not possibly cover the extended UV emitting region. In addition, the UVIT is able to resolve two bright spots at a radius of 7" ($\sim$ 6.3 Kpc) from the central nucleus in the South-West (SW) direction. In the UVIT image of the entire galaxy, we identify UV counterparts to four Chandra identified bright X-ray sources. One well-known ultra-luminous X-ray source (ULX) NGC 1365 X2 is identified with its UV counterpart at 86" from the nucleus in the north-east (NE) direction from the active nucleus.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2021

Hot graphite dust in the inner regime of NGC 4151

We model the near infrared SED of NGC 4151 with a 3-D radiative transfer SKIRT code, using which torus only (TO) and Ring And Torus (RAT) scenarios are studied. In the RAT models, a graphite ring-like structure (clumpy or smooth), is incorporated between the torus and the accretion disk. We vary the inclination angle $(i)$, inner radius (of the torus and the ring, $R_{\rm in, t}$ and $R_{\rm in, r}$ respectively), torus half-opening angle ($σ$), optical depth ($τ_{9.7, \rm t} $ of the torus and $τ_{9.7, \rm r} $ of the ring ) and the dust clump size ($R_{\rm clump}$). We perform a statistical analysis of the parameter space and find that all the models are able to explain the flat NIR SED of NGC 4151 with minor differences in the derived parameters. For the TO model, we get, $R_{\rm in, t}=0.1$ pc, $σ= 30^\circ $, $i = 53^\circ $, $τ_{9.7, \rm t}=10$ and the clumpsize, $R_{\rm clump}$ =0.4 pc. For the smooth RAT model, $R_{\rm in, \rm r}=0.04$ pc, $τ_{9.7, \rm total}$ = 11 and for the clumpy RAT model, $R_{\rm in, r} = 0.04$ pc/0.06 pc and $τ_{9.7, \rm total}=20$. The $R_{\rm in, t}$ from the TO model does not agree with the NIR observations ($\sim 0.04$ pc). Hence, the most likely scenario is that a hot graphite ring is located at a distance 0.04 pc from the centre, composed of a smooth distribution of dust followed by a dusty torus at 0.1 pc with ISM type of grains.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2018

Modelling the diffuse dust emission around Orion

We have studied the diffuse radiation in the surroundings of M42 using photometric data from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) in the far-ultraviolet (FUV) and infrared observations of the AKARI space telescope. The main source of the FUV diffuse emission is the starlight from the Trapezium stars scattered by dust in front of the nebula. We initially compare the diffuse FUV with the far-infrared (FIR) observations at the same locations. The FUV-IR correlations enable us to determine the type of dust contributing to this emission. We then use an existing model for studying the FUV dust scattering in Orion to check if it can be extended to regions away from the centre in a 10 deg radius. We obtain an albedo, α = 0.7 and scattering phase function asymmetry factor, g = 0.6 as the median values for our dust locations on different sides of the central Orion region. We find a uniform value of optical parameters across our sample of locations with the dust properties varying significantly from those at the centre of the nebula.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2017

Probing the Physics of Narrow Line Regions in Active Galaxies IV: Full data release of The Siding Spring Southern Seyfert Spectroscopic Snapshot Survey (S7)

We present the second and final data release of the Siding Spring Southern Seyfert Spectroscopic Snapshot Survey (S7). Data are presented for 63 new galaxies not included in the first data release, and we provide 2D emission-line fitting products for the full S7 sample of 131 galaxies. The S7 uses the WiFeS instrument on the ANU 2.3m telescope to obtain spectra with a spectral resolution of R = 7000 in the red (540 - 700 nm) and R = 3000 in the blue (350 - 570 nm), over an integral field of 25x38 arcsec^2 with 1x1 arcsec^2 spatial pixels. The S7 contains both the largest sample of active galaxies and the highest spectral resolution of any comparable integral field survey to date. The emission-line fitting products include line fluxes, velocities and velocity dispersions across the WiFeS field of view, and an artificial neural network has been used to determine the optimal number of Gaussian kinematic components for emission-lines in each spaxel. Broad Balmer lines are subtracted from the spectra of nuclear spatial pixels in Seyfert 1 galaxies before fitting the narrow lines. We bin nuclear spectra and measure reddening-corrected nuclear fluxes of strong narrow lines for each galaxy. The nuclear spectra are classified on optical diagnostic diagrams, where the strength of the coronal line [FeVII]6087 is shown to be correlated with [OIII]/Hbeta. Maps revealing gas excitation and kinematics are included for the entire sample, and we provide notes on the newly observed objects.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2017

Probing the infrared counterparts of diffuse far-ultraviolet sources in the Galaxy

Recent availability of high quality infrared (IR) data for diffuse regions in the Galaxy and external galaxies have added to our understanding of interstellar dust. A comparison of ultraviolet (UV) and IR observations may be used to estimate absorption, scattering and thermal emission from interstellar dust. In this paper, we report IR and UV observations for selective diffuse sources in the Galaxy. Using archival mid-infrared (MIR) and far-infrared (FIR) observations from Spitzer Space Telescope, we look for counterparts of diffuse far-ultraviolet (FUV) sources observed by the Voyager, Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) and Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) telescopes in the Galaxy. IR emission features at 8micron are generally attributed to Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (PAH) molecules, while emission at 24micron are attributed to Very Small Grains (VSGs). The data presented here is unique and our study tries to establish a relation between various dust populations. By studying the FUV-IR correlations separately at low and high latitude locations, we have identified the grain component responsible for the diffuse FUV emission.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2016

Comparison of Diffuse Infrared and Far-Ultraviolet emission in the Large Magellanic Cloud: The Data

Dust scattering is the main source of diffuse emission in the far-ultraviolet (FUV). For several locations in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) satellite has observed diffuse radiation in the FUV with intensities ranging from 1000 - 3 X 10^5 photon units and diffuse fraction between 5% - 20% at 1100 °A. Here, we compare the FUV diffuse emission with the mid-infrared (MIR) and far-infrared (FIR) diffuse emission observed by the Spitzer Space Telescope and the AKARI satellite for the same locations. The intensity ratios in the different MIR and FIR bands for each of the locations will enable us to determine the type of dust contributing to the diffuse emission as well as to derive a more accurate 3D distribution of stars and dust in the region, which in turn may be used to model the observed scattering in the FUV. In this work we present the infrared (IR) data for two different regions in LMC, namely N11 and 30 Doradus. We also present the FUV~IR correlation for different infrared bands.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2015

The Dust Content and Radiation Fields of Sample of Galaxies in the ELAIS-N1 Field

The Mid-IR colors ($F_{8}/F_{24}$) of galaxies together with their IR-UV luminosity correlations can be used to get some insight into the relative abundance of the different dust grain populations present in them. The ELAIS-N1 field contains thousands of galaxies which do not have optical spectra but have been observed in the Mid-IR by {\it Spitzer} and UV by {\it GALEX} making it ideal for these studies. As part of this work we have selected a sample of galaxies from the ELAIS-N1 field which have photometric observations in the MIR and UV as well as photometric redshifts from the SDSS database. We put the constraint that the redshifts are $\le$ 0.1, thereby giving us a total of 309 galaxies. We find that the majority of the galaxies in the sample are PAH dominated due to their high MIR flux ratio. We also find a reasonable correlation between the Mid-IR and the UV luminosities out of which the Mid-IR emission from PAHs at 8 $μ$m is marginally better correlated than the 24 $μ$m VSG emission with the UV luminosities. However, if we divide the sample based on their $F_{8}/F_{24}$ ratios which is also an indicator of metallicity, the MIR-UV correlation seems to increase with the $F_{8}/F_{24}$ ratio. But the MIR-UV correlations are not very different for the PAHs and the VSG population within the individual metallicity groups.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2014

Long term optical variability of bright X-ray point sources in elliptical galaxies

We present long term optical variability studies of bright X-ray sources in four nearby elliptical galaxies with {\it Chandra} Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer array (ACIS-S) and {\it Hubble Space Telescope (HST)} Advanced Camera for Surveys observations. Out of the 46 bright (X-ray counts $> 60$) sources that are in the common field of view of the {\it Chandra} and {\it HST} observations, 34 of them have potential optical counterparts, while the rest of them are optically dark. After taking into account of systematic errors, estimated using the field optical sources as reference, we find that four of the X-ray sources (three in NGC1399 and one in NGC1427) have variable optical counterparts at a high significance level. The X-ray luminosities of these source are $\sim 10^{38}$ $\rm ergs~s^{-1}$ and are also variable on similar time-scales. The optical variability implies that the optical emission is associated with the X-ray source itself rather than being the integrated light from a host globular cluster. For one source the change in optical magnitude is $> 0.3$, which is one of the highest reported for this class of X-ray sources and this suggests that the optical variability is induced by the X-ray activity. However, the optically variable sources in NGC1399 have been reported to have blue colours ($g - z > 1$). All four sources have been detected in the infra-red (IR) by {\it Spitzer} as point sources, and their ratio of $5.8$ to $3.6 μm$ flux are $> 0.63$ indicating that their IR spectra are like those of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). While spectroscopic confirmation is required, it is likely that all four sources are background AGNs. We find none of the X-ray sources having optical/IR colours different from AGNs, to be optically variable.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2013

Dust properties from GALEX observations of a UV halo around Spica

GALEX has detected ultraviolet halos extending as far as 5$^{\circ}$ around four bright stars (Murthy et al. (2011)). These halos are produced by scattering of starlight by dust grains in thin foreground clouds that are not physically associated with the star. Assuming a simple model consisting of a single layer of dust in front of the star, Murthy et al.(2011) have been able to model these halo intensities and constrain the value of the phase function asymmetry factor $g$ of the scattering grains in the FUV and NUV. However due to the uncertainty in the dust geometry they could not constrain the albedo. In this work we have tried to constrain the optical constants and dust geometry by modeling the UV halo of Spica. Since the halo emission is not symmetric, we have modeled the Northern and Southern parts of the halo separately. To the North of Spica, the best-fit albedo is 0.26$\pm$0.1 and $g$ is 0.58$\pm$0.11 in the FUV at the 90% confidence level. The corresponding limits on the distance and optical depth ($τ$) of the dust sheet is 3.65$\pm$1.05 pc and 0.047$\pm$0.006 respectively. However, owing to a complicated dust distribution to the South of Spica, we were unable to uniquely constrain the dust parameters in that region. Nevertheless, by assuming the optical constants of the Northern region and assuming a denser medium, we were able to constrain the distance of the dust to 9.5$\pm$1.5 pc and the corresponding $τ$ to 0.04$\pm$0.01.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2013

Mid-Infrared and X-ray luminosity correlations of X-ray point sources in NGC 1399

It is known that the IR and X-ray luminosities of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are correlated with L_{IR} ~ L_{X}. Moreover, the IR flux ratio between the 5.8 and 3.6 μm bands is a good distinguishing characteristic of AGN or AGN-like behaviour. On the other hand, Galactic X-ray binaries (GXB) are under-luminous in the IR with L_{IR} << L_{X}. Since Ultra-luminous X-ray sources in nearby galaxies may be an intermediate class between AGN and GXB, it is interesting to study if their IR properties indicate which kind of objects they resemble. We use Spitzer IRAC images to identify mid-IR counterparts of bright X-ray sources, detected by Chandra in the elliptical galaxy NGC 1399. We find that for sources with AGN-like IR flux ratios, the IR luminosity strongly correlates with that in X-rays, L_{IR} ~ L_{X}, while for the others, there is no correlation between the two. Some of the former objects may be background AGN. If they are not strongly contaminated by background AGN, this result extends the IR-X-ray luminosity correlation down to L_{X} ~ 10^{39} ergs/s. We calculate their g-z colours and find that the bright X-ray sources with IR counterparts are typically blue in optical color. This is in contrast to typical X-ray sources, without IR counterparts which have predominantly red optical counterparts. We highlight the need for IR or optical spectra of these sources to distinguish background AGN and unveil the effect of the X-ray emission on the different environments of these systems.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2007

Measurement of Dust Optical Properties in Coalsack

We have used FUSE and Voyager observations of dust scattered starlight in the neighborhood of the Coalsack Nebula to derive the optical constants of the dust grains. The albedo is consistent with a value of $0.28 \pm 0.04$ and the phase function asymmetry factor with a value of $0.61 \pm 0.07$ throughout the spectral range from 900 -- 1200 Å, in agreement with previous determinations as well as theoretical predictions. We have now observed two regions (Ophiuchus and Coalsack) with intense diffuse background radiation and in both cases have found that the emission is due to light from nearby hot stars scattered by a relatively thin foreground cloud, with negligible contribution from the background molecular cloud.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2006

FUV Scattering by Dust in Orion

We have modelled diffuse far-ultraviolet spectrum observed by FUSE near M42 as scattering of starlight from the Trapezium stars by dust in front of the nebula. The dust grains are known to be anomalous in Orion with Rv = 5.5 and these are the first measurements of the FUV optical properties of the grains outside of ``normal'' Milky Way dust. We find an albedo varying from 0.3 $\pm$ 0.1 at 912 Åto 0.5 $\pm$ 0.2 at 1020 Åwhich is consistent with theoretical predictions.

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