arXiv subjects

Paul Clark

Publications and source records attributed to Paul Clark.

27 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2016

The design and development of a high-resolution visible-to-near-UV telescope for balloon-borne astronomy: SuperBIT

Balloon-borne astronomy is unique in that it allows for a level of image stability, resolution, and optical backgrounds that are comparable to space-borne systems due to greatly reduced atmospheric interference, but at a fraction of the cost and over a significantly reduced development time-scale. Instruments operating within visible-to-near-UV bands ($300$ - $900$ um) can achieve a theoretical diffraction limited resolution of $0.01"$ from the stratosphere ($35$ - $40$ km altitude) without the need for extensive adaptive optical systems required by ground-based systems. The {\it Superpressure Balloon-borne Imaging Telescope} ("SuperBIT") is a wide-field imager designed to achieve 0.02$"$ stability over a 0.5$^\circ$ field-of-view, for deep single exposures of up to 5 minutes. SuperBIT is thus well-suited for many astronomical observations, from solar or extrasolar planetary observations, to resolved stellar populations and distant galaxies (whether to study their morphology, evolution, or gravitational lensing by foreground mass). We report SuperBIT's design and implementation, emphasizing its two-stage real-time stabilization: telescope stability to $1$ - $2"$ at the telescope level (a goal surpassed during a test flight in September 2015) and image stability down to $0.02"$ via an actuated tip-tilt mirror in the optical path (to be tested during a flight in 2016). The project is progressing toward a fully operational, three month flight from New Zealand by 2018

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2016

Distribution and mass of diffuse and dense CO gas in the Milky Way

Emission from carbon monoxide (CO) is ubiquitously used as a tracer of dense star forming molecular clouds. There is, however, growing evidence that a significant fraction of CO emission originates from diffuse molecular gas. Quantifying the contribution of diffuse CO-emitting gas is vital for understanding the relation between molecular gas and star formation. We examine the Galactic distribution of two CO-emitting gas components, a high column density component detected in 13CO and 12CO, and a low column density component detected in 12CO, but not in 13CO. The "diffuse" and "dense" components are identified using a combination of smoothing, masking, and erosion/dilation procedures, making use of three large-scale 12CO and 13CO surveys of the Inner and Outer Milky Way. The diffuse component, which globally represents 25 (1.5x1e8 Mo) of the total molecular gas mass (6.5x1e8 Mo), is more extended perpendicular to the Galactic plane. The fraction of diffuse gas increases from 15% at a galactocentric radius of 3 kpc to 50% at 15 kpc, and increases with decreasing surface density. In the Inner Galaxy, a yet denser component traced by CS emission represents 14% of the total molecular gas mass traced by 12CO emission. Only 14% of the molecular gas mass traced by 12CO emission is identified as part of molecular clouds in 12CO surveys by cloud identification algorithms. This study indicates that CO emission not only traces star forming clouds, but also a significant diffuse molecular ISM component.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2015

The Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA): Design, Technical Overview and Performance

The Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) is the 4-metre wide-field survey telescope at ESO's Paranal Observatory, equipped with the world's largest near-infrared imaging camera (VISTA IR Camera, VIRCAM), with 1.65 degree diameter field of view, and 67 Mpixels giving 0.6 square degrees active pixel area, operating at wavelengths 0.8 - 2.3 microns. We provide a short history of the project, and an overview of the technical details of the full system including the optical design, mirrors, telescope structure, IR camera, active optics, enclosure and software. The system includes several innovative design features such as the f/1 primary mirror, the dichroic cold-baffle camera design and the sophisticated wavefront sensing system delivering closed-loop 5-axis alignment of the secondary mirror. We conclude with a summary of the delivered performance, and a short overview of the six ESO public surveys in progress on VISTA.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2014

Characterization of a commercial, front-illuminated interline transfer CCD camera for use as a guide camera on a balloon-borne telescope

We report results obtained during the characterization of a commercial front-illuminated progressive scan interline transfer CCD camera. We demonstrate that the unmodified camera operates successfully in temperature and pressure conditions (-40C, 4mBar) representative of a high altitude balloon mission. We further demonstrate that the centroid of a well-sampled star can be determined to better than 2% of a pixel, even though the CCD is equipped with a microlens array. This device has been selected for use in a closed-loop star-guiding and tip-tilt correction system in the BIT-STABLE balloon mission.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2013

Substellar Objects in Nearby Young Clusters VII: The substellar mass function revisited

The abundance of brown dwarfs (BDs) in young clusters is a diagnostic of star formation theory. Here we revisit the issue of determining the substellar initial mass function (IMF), based on a comparison between NGC1333 and IC348, two clusters in the Perseus star-forming region. We derive their mass distributions for a range of model isochrones, varying distances, extinction laws and ages, with comprehensive assessments of the uncertainties. We find that the choice of isochrone and other parameters have significant effects on the results, thus we caution against comparing IMFs obtained using different approaches. For NGC1333, we find that the star/BD ratio R is between 1.9 and 2.4, for all plausible scenarios, consistent with our previous work. For IC348, R is between 2.9 and 4.0, suggesting that previous studies have overestimated this value. Thus, the star forming process generates about 2.5-5 substellar objects per 10 stars. The derived star/BD ratios correspond to a slope of the power-law mass function of alpha=0.7-1.0 for the 0.03-1.0Msol mass range. The median mass in these clusters - the typical stellar mass - is between 0.13-0.30Msol. Assuming that NGC1333 is at a shorter distance than IC348, we find a significant difference in the cumulative distribution of masses between the two clusters, resulting from an overabundance of very low mass objects in NGC1333. Gaia astrometry will constrain the cluster distances better and will lead to a more definitive conclusion. Furthermore, ratio R is somewhat larger in IC348 compared with NGC1333, although this difference is still within the margins of error. Our results indicate that environments with higher object density may produce a larger fraction of very low mass objects, in line with predictions for brown dwarf formation through gravitational fragmentation of filaments falling into a cluster potential.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2012

Space-quality data from balloon-borne telescopes: the High Altitude Lensing Observatory (HALO)

We present a method for attaining sub-arcsecond pointing stability during sub- orbital balloon flights, as designed for in the High Altitude Lensing Observatory (HALO) concept. The pointing method presented here has the potential to perform near-space quality optical astronomical imaging at 1-2% of the cost of space-based missions. We also discuss an architecture that can achieve sufficient thermomechanical stability to match the pointing stability. This concept is motivated by advances in the development and testing of Ultra Long Duration Balloon (ULDB) flights which promise to allow observation campaigns lasting more than three months. The design incorporates a multi-stage pointing architecture comprising: a gondola coarse azimuth control system, a multi-axis nested gimbal frame structure with arcsecond stability, a telescope de-rotator to eliminate field rotation, and a fine guidance stage consisting of both a telescope mounted angular rate sensor and guide CCDs in the focal plane to drive a fast-steering mirror. We discuss the results of pointing tests together with a preliminary thermo-mechanical analysis required for sub-arcsecond pointing at high altitude. Possible future applications in the areas of wide-field surveys and exoplanet searches are also discussed.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2011

Simulations on a Moving Mesh: The Clustered Formation of Population III Protostars

The cosmic dark ages ended a few hundred million years after the Big Bang, when the first stars began to fill the universe with new light. It has generally been argued that these stars formed in isolation and were extremely massive - perhaps 100 times as massive as the Sun. In a recent study, Clark and collaborators showed that this picture requires revision. They demonstrated that the accretion disks that build up around Population III stars are strongly susceptible to fragmentation and that the first stars should therefore form in clusters rather than in isolation. We here use a series of high-resolution hydrodynamical simulations performed with the moving mesh code AREPO to follow up on this proposal and to study the influence of environmental parameters on the level of fragmentation. We model the collapse of five independent minihalos from cosmological initial conditions, through the runaway condensation of their central gas clouds, to the formation of the first protostar, and beyond for a further 1000 years. During this latter accretion phase, we represent the optically thick regions of protostars by sink particles. Gas accumulates rapidly in the circumstellar disk around the first protostar, fragmenting vigorously to produce a small group of protostars. After an initial burst, gravitational instability recurs periodically, forming additional protostars with masses ranging from ~ 0.1 to 10 M_sun. Although the shape, multiplicity, and normalization of the protostellar mass function depend on the details of the sink-particle algorithm, fragmentation into protostars with diverse masses occurs in all cases, confirming earlier reports of Population III stars forming in clusters. Depending on the efficiency of later accretion and merging, Population III stars may enter the main sequence in clusters and with much more diverse masses than are commonly assumed.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2010

Effects of Varying the Three-Body Molecular Hydrogen Formation Rate in Primordial Star Formation

The transformation of atomic hydrogen to molecular hydrogen through three-body reactions is a crucial stage in the collapse of primordial, metal-free halos, where the first generation of stars (Population III stars) in the Universe are formed. However, in the published literature, the rate coefficient for this reaction is uncertain by nearly an order of magnitude. We report on the results of both adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) and smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations of the collapse of metal-free halos as a function of the value of this rate coefficient. For each simulation method, we have simulated a single halo three times, using three different values of the rate coefficient. We find that while variation between halo realizations may be greater than that caused by the three-body rate coefficient being used, both the accretion physics onto Population III protostars as well as the long-term stability of the disk and any potential fragmentation may depend strongly on this rate coefficient.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2008

The ISM in spiral galaxies: can cooling in spiral shocks produce molecular clouds?

We investigate the thermodynamics of the ISM and the formation of molecular hydrogen through numerical simulations of spiral galaxies. The model follows the chemical, thermal and dynamical response of the disc to an external spiral potential. Self-gravity and magnetic fields are not included. The calculations demonstrate that gas can cool rapidly when subject to a spiral shock. Molecular clouds in the spiral arms arise through a combination of compression of the ISM by the spiral shock and orbit crowding. These results highlight that local self-gravity is not required to form molecular clouds. Self-shielding provides a sharp transition density, below which gas is essentially atomic, and above which the molecular gas fraction is >0.001. The timescale for gas to move between these regimes is very rapid (<~1 Myr). From this stage, the majority of gas generally takes between 10 to 20 Myr to obtain high H$_{2}$ fractions (>50 %). Although our calculations are unable to resolve turbulent motions on scales smaller than the spiral arm and do not include self-gravity. True cloud formation timescales are therefore expected to be even shorter. The mass budget of the disc is dominated by cold gas residing in the spiral arms. Between 50 and 75 % of this gas is in the atomic phase. When this gas leaves the spiral arm and drops below the self-shielding limit it is heated by the galactic radiation field. Consequently, most of the volume in the interarm regions is filled with warm atomic gas. However, some cold spurs and clumps can survive in interarm regions for periods comparable to the interarm passage timescale. Altogether between 7 and 40% of the gas in our disc is molecular, depending on the surface density of the calculation, with approximately 20% molecular for a surface density comparable to the solar neighbourhood.

astro-ph↗