arXiv subjects

Robert Braun

Publications and source records attributed to Robert Braun.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2011

The WSRT Virgo Hi filament survey II; Cross Correlation Data

The extended environment of galaxies contains a wealth of information about the formation and life cycle of galaxies which are regulated by accretion and feedback processes. Observations of neutral hydrogen are routinely used to image the high brightness disks of galaxies and to study their kinematics. Deeper observations will give more insight into the distribution of diffuse gas in the extended halo of the galaxies and the IGM, where numerical simulations predict a cosmic web of extended structures and gaseous filaments. To observe the extended environment of galaxies, column density sensitivities have to be achieved that probe the regime of Lyman limit systems. HI observations are typically limited to a brightness sensitivity of NHI~10^19 cm-2, but this must be improved upon by ~2 orders of magnitude. In this paper we present the interferometric data of the Westerbork Virgo HI Filament Survey (WVFS) - the total power product of this survey has been published in an earlier paper. By observing at extreme hour angles, a filled aperture is simulated of 300x25 meters in size, that has the typical collecting power and sensitivity of a single dish telescope, but the well defined bandpass characteristics of an interferometer. With the very good surface brightness sensitivity of the data, we hope to make new HI detections of diffuse systems with moderate angular resolution. The survey maps 135 degrees in Right Ascension between 8 and 17 hours and 11 degrees in Declination between -1 and 10 degrees, including the galaxy filament connecting the Local Group with the Virgo Cluster. Only positive declinations could be completely processed and analysed due to projection effects. A typical flux sensitivity of 6 mJy beam-1 over 16 km s-1 is achieved, that corresponds to a brightness sensitivity of NHI~10^18 cm-2. In total, 199 objects have been detected, of which 17 are new HI detections. (Abridged)

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arXiv2010

The WSRT Virgo HI filament survey I; Total Power Data

Observations of neutral hydrogen can provide a wealth of information about the kinematics of galaxies. To learn more about the large scale structures and accretion processes, the extended environment of galaxies have to be observed. Numerical simulations predict a cosmic web of extended structures and gaseous filaments. To observe the direct vicinity of galaxies, column densities have to be achieved that probe the regime of Lyman limit systems. Typically HI observations are limited to a brightness sensitivity of NHI ~ 10^19 cm-2 but this has to be improved by ~2 orders of magnitude. With the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT) we map the galaxy filament connecting the Virgo Cluster with the Local Group. About 1500 square degrees on the sky is surveyed, with Nyquist sampled pointings. By using the WSRT antennas as single dish telescopes instead of the more conventional interferometer we are very sensitive to extended emission. The survey consists of a total of 22,000 pointings and each pointing has been observed for 2 minutes with 14 antennas. We reach a flux sensitivity of 16 mJy beam-1 over 16 km s-1, corresponding to a brightness sensitivity of NHI ~ 3.5 \times 10^16 cm-2 for sources that fill the beam. At a typical distance of 10 Mpc probed by this survey, the beam extent corresponds to about 145 kpc in linear scale. Although the processed data cubes are affected by confusion due to the very large beam size, we can identify most of the galaxies that have been observed in HIPASS. Furthermore we made 20 new candidate detections of neutral hydrogen. Several of the candidate detections can be linked to an optical counterpart. The majority of the features however do not show any signs of stellar emission. Their origin is investigated further with accompanying HI surveys which will be published in follow up papers.

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arXiv2010

A deep radio survey of the AKARI North Ecliptic Pole Field - WSRT 20 cm Radio survey description, observations and data reduction

The Westerbork Radio Synthesis Telescope, WSRT, has been used to make a deep radio survey of an ~ 1.7 sq degree field coinciding with the AKARI North Ecliptic Pole Deep Field. The observations, data reduction and source count analysis are presented, along with a description of the overall scientific objectives. The survey consisted of 10 pointings, mosaiced with enough overlap to maintain a similar sensitivity across the central region that reached as low as 21 microJy per beam at 1.4 GHz. A catalogue containing 462 sources detected with a resolution of 17"x15" is presented. The differential source counts calculated from the WSRT data have been compared with those from the shallow VLA-NEP survey of Kollgaard et al 1994, and show a pronounced excess for sources fainter than ~ 1 mJy, consistent with the presence of a population of star forming galaxies at sub-mJy flux levels. The AKARI North Ecliptic Pole Deep field is the focus of a major observing campaign conducted across the entire spectral region. The combination of these data sets, along with the deep nature of the radio observations will allow unique studies of a large range of topics including the redshift evolution of the luminosity function of radio sources, the clustering environment of radio galaxies, the nature of obscured radio-loud active galactic nuclei, and the radio/far-infrared correlation for distant galaxies. This catalogue provides the basic data set for a future series of paper dealing with source identifications, morphologies, and the associated properties of the identified radio sources.

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arXiv2010

The Westerbork SINGS survey III. Global magnetic field topology

A sample of large northern Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxies Survey (SINGS) galaxies was recently observed with the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT) at 1300-1760 MHz. In Paper II of this series, we described sensitive observations of the linearly polarized radio continuum emission in this WSRT-SINGS galaxy sample. Here we explore the systematic patterns of azimuthal modulation of both the Faraday depth and the polarized intensity and their variation with galaxy inclination. A self-consistent and fully general model for both the locations of net polarized emissivity at 1-2 GHz frequencies and the global magnetic field topology of nearby galaxies emerges. Net polarized emissivity is concentrated into two zones located above and below the galaxy mid-plane, with the back-side zone suffering substantial depolarization (by a factor of 4-5) relative to the front-side zone in its propagation through the turbulent mid-plane. The field topology, which characterizes the thick-disk emission zone is in all cases an axisymmetric spiral with a quadrupole dependence on height above the mid-plane. The front-side emission is affected by only mild dispersion (10's of rad/m2) from the thermal plasma in the galaxy halo, while the back-side emission is affected by additional strong dispersion (100's of rad/m2) from an axisymmetric spiral field in the galaxy mid-plane. The field topology in the upper halo of galaxies is a mix of two distinct types: a simple extension of the axisymmetric spiral quadrupole field of the thick disk and a radially directed dipole field. The dipole component might be a manifestation of (1) a circumnuclear, bipolar outflow, (2) an in situ generated dipole field, or (3) evidence of a non-stationary global halo.

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arXiv2009

A wide-field HI mosaic of Messier 31. II.The disk warp, rotation and the dark matter halo

We test cosmological models of structure formation using the rotation curve of the nearest spiral galaxy, M31, determined using a recent deep, full-disk 21-cm imaging survey smoothed to 466 pc resolution. We fit a tilted ring model to the HI data from 8 to 37 kpc. The disk of M31 warps from 25 kpc outwards and becomes more inclined with respect to our line of sight. Newtonian dynamics without a dark matter halo provide a very poor fit to the rotation curve derived using the warp model. In the framework of modified Newtonian dynamic however the 21-cm rotation curve is well fitted by the gravitational potential traced by the baryonic matter density alone. The inclusion of a dark matter halo with a density profile as predicted by structure formation in a hierarchical clustering LambdaCDM cosmology makes the mass model in newtonian dynamic compatible with the rotation curve data. The dark halo concentration for the best fit is C=12 and its total mass is 1.2 10^{12} Msun. If a dark halo model with a constant density core is considered, the core radius has to be larger than 20 kpc in order for the model to fit to the data. We extrapolate the best-fit LambdaCDM and constant-density core mass models to very large galactocentric radii, comparable to the size of the dark matter halo. A comparison of the predicted mass with the M31 mass determined at such large radii using other dynamical tracers, confirms the validity of our results. In particular the LambdaCDM dark halo model which best fits the 21-cm data well reproduces the M31 mass traced out to 560 kpc. Our estimated total mass of M31 is 1.3 10^{12} Msun, with 12% baryonic fraction and only 6% of the baryons in neutral gas.

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arXiv2009

The Simulated HI Sky at low redshift

Observations of intergalactic neutral hydrogen can provide a wealth of information about structure and galaxy formation, potentially tracing accretion and feedback processes on Mpc scales. Below a column density of NHI ~ 10^19 cm-2, the "edge" or typical observational limit for HI emission from galaxies, simulations predict a cosmic web of extended emission and filamentary structures. We study the distribution of neutral hydrogen and its 21cm emission properties in a cosmological hydrodynamic simulation, to gain more insights into the distribution of HI below NHI ~ 10^19 cm-2. Such Lyman Limit systems are expected to trace out the cosmic web, and are relatively unexplored. Beginning with a 32 h^-1 Mpc simulation, we extract the neutral hydrogen component by determining the neutral fraction, including a post-processed correction for self-shielding based on the thermal pressure. We take into account molecular hydrogen, assuming an average density ratio Omega_H2 / Omega_HI = 0.3 at z = 0. The statistical properties of the HI emission are compared with observations, to assess the reliability of the simulation. The simulated HI distribution robustly describes the full column density range between NHI ~ 10^14 and NHI ~ 10^21 cm-2 and agrees very well with available measurements from observations. Furthermore there is good correspondence in the statistics when looking at the two-point correlation function and the HI mass function. The reconstructed maps are used to simulate observations of existing and future telescopes by adding noise and taking account of the sensitivity of the telescopes. The general agreement in statistical properties of HI suggests that neutral hydrogen as modeled in this hydrodynamic simulation is a fair representation of that in the Universe. (abridged)

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arXiv2009

A Wide-field High Resolution HI Mosaic of Messier 31: I. Opaque Atomic Gas and Star Formation Rate Density

We have undertaken a deep, wide-field HI imaging survey of M31, reaching a maximum resolution of about 50 pc and 2 km/s across a 95x48 kpc region. The HI mass and brightness sensitivity at 100 pc resolution for a 25 km/s wide spectral feature is 1500 M_Sun and 0.28 K. Our study reveals ubiquitous HI self-opacity features, discernible in the first instance as filamentary local minima in images of the peak HI brightness temperature. Local minima are organized into complexes of more than kpc length and are particularly associated with the leading edge of spiral arm features. Just as in the Galaxy, there is only patchy correspondence of self-opaque features with CO(1-0) emission. Localized opacity corrections to the column density exceed an order of magnitude in many cases and add globally to a 30% increase in the atomic gas mass over that inferred from the integrated brightness under the usual assumption of negligible self-opacity. Opaque atomic gas first increases from 20 to 60 K in spin temperature with radius to 12 kpc but then declines again to 20 K beyond 25 kpc. We have extended the resolved star formation law down to physical scales more than an order of magnitude smaller in area and mass than has been possible previously. The relation between total-gas-mass- and star-formation-rate-density is significantly tighter than that with molecular-mass and is fully consistent in both slope and normalization with the power law index of 1.56 found in the molecule-dominated disk of M51 at 500 pc resolution. Below a gas-mass-density of about 5 M_Sun/pc^2, there is a down-turn in star-formation-rate-density which may represent a real local threshold for massive star formation at a cloud mass of about 5x10^4 M_Sun.

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arXiv2007

The Standing Wave Phenomenon in Radio Telescopes; Frequency Modulation of the WSRT Primary Beam

Inadequacies in the knowledge of the primary beam response of current interferometric arrays often form a limitation to the image fidelity. We hope to overcome these limitations by constructing a frequency-resolved, full-polarization empirical model for the primary beam of the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT). Holographic observations, sampling angular scales between about 5 arcmin and 11 degrees, were obtained of a bright compact source (3C147). These permitted measurement of voltage response patterns for seven of the fourteen telescopes in the array and allowed calculation of the mean cross-correlated power beam. Good sampling of the main-lobe, near-in, and far-side-lobes out to a radius of more than 5 degrees was obtained. A robust empirical beam model was detemined in all polarization products and at frequencies between 1322 and 1457 MHz with 1 MHz resolution. Substantial departures from axi-symmetry are apparent in the main-lobe as well as systematic differences between the polarization properties. Surprisingly, many beam properties are modulated at the 5 to 10% level with changing frequency. These include: (1) the main beam area, (2) the side-lobe to main-lobe power ratio, and (3) the effective telescope aperture. These semi-sinusoidsal modulations have a basic period of about 17 MHz, consistent with the natural 'standing wave' period of a 8.75 m focal distance. The deduced frequency modulations of the beam pattern were verified in an independent long duration observation using compact continuum sources at very large off-axis distances. Application of our frequency-resolved beam model should enable higher dynamic range and improved image fidelity for interferometric observations in complex fields. (abridged)

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arXiv2007

Future HI Surveys on the road to the SKA

In this short contribution we consider what types of surveys might be optimally pursued with path-finding instruments of 1%, 10% and finally 100% of the projected SKA sensitivity from the perspective of scientific applications that utilize the red-shifted 21 cm emission line. Achieving interesting HI galaxy sample sizes with 1% SKA surveys requires very substantial survey durations, of about 1000 days. Good sampling (log(N)~5) down to below M_HI* can then be achieved out to z=0.2 over 8000 deg^2 of survey area or even to z=0.5 over 800 deg^2. The same surveys will permit the resolved imaging of order 1000 galaxies in each of several red-shift bins as well as detection of faint neutral filaments in the vicinity of galaxies with a column density of about 10^18 cm^-2. Once 10% SKA sensitivities are achieved, then ground-breaking surveys are possible with only 100 day duration. Sample sizes of log(N)~6 extending below M_HI* are possible over 800 deg^2 out to z=0.5 and over 80 deg^2 out to z=1. Such surveys will permit very competitive measurement of acoustic oscillations in the galaxy power spectrum. One can then envision a series of 10% SKA surveys probing different depths. With the 100% SKA sensitivity the capabilities are truly phenomenal. Survey sample sizes in the range log(N)=7-8 are feasible over the red-shift range of 0.2 to about 5. Precise tracking of potential time evolution of dark energy (via the baryonic acoustic oscillation signature) should be possible out to z~3. The local cosmic web will be imaged down to N_HI=10^16 cm^-2. What exactly will be seen at z > 3 ? This will depend crucially on the SKA sensitivity in the critical frequency window of 350 to 200 MHz.

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arXiv2007

The WSRT virgo filament survey

In the last few years the realization has emerged that the universal baryons are almost equally distributed by mass in three components: (1) galactic concentrations, (2) a warm-hot intergalactic medium (WHIM) and (3) a diffuse intergalactic medium. These three components are predicted by hydrodynamical simulations and are probed by QSO absorption lines. To observe the WHIM in neutral hydrogen, observations are needed which are deeper than log(N$_{HI}$)=18. The WHIM should appear as a Cosmic Web, underlying the galaxies with higher column densities. We have used the WSRT, to simulate a filled aperture by observing at very high hour angles, to reach very high column density sensitivity. To achieve even higher image fidelity, an accurate model of the WSRT primary beam was developed. This will be used in the joint deconvolution of the observations. To get a good overview of the distribution and kinematics of the Cosmic Web, a deep survey of 1500 square degrees of sky was undertaken, containing the galaxy filament extending between the Local Group and the Virgo Cluster. The auto-correlation data has been reduced and has an RMS of $ΔN_{HI} = 4.2\times10^{16}$ cm$^{-2}$ over 20 kms$^{-1}$. Several sources have been tentatively detected, which were previously unknown, as well as an indication for diffuse intergalactic filaments.

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arXiv2006

The LOFAR Transients Key Project

LOFAR, the Low Frequency Array, is a new radio telescope under construction in the Netherlands, designed to operate between 30 and 240 MHz. The Transients Key Project is one of the four Key Science Projects which comprise the core LOFAR science case. The remit of the Transients Key Project is to study variable and transient radio sources detected by LOFAR, on timescales from milliseconds to years. This will be achieved via both regular snapshot monitoring of historical and newly-discovered radio variables and, most radically, the development of a `Radio Sky Monitor' which will survey a large fraction of the northern sky on a daily basis.

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arXiv2006

Aperture Arrays for the SKA: Dense or Sparse?

We briefly consider some design aspects of aperture arrays for use in radio astronomy, particularly contrasting the performance of dense and sparse aperture arrays. Recent insights have emerged in the final design phase of LOFAR which suggest that sparse aperture arrays have the best prospects for cost-effective performance at radio frequencies below about 500 MHz; exceeding those of both dense aperture arrays and parabolic reflectors by an order of magnitude. Very attractive performance, of 10,000 - 20,000 m2/K, can be achieved with a sparse design that covers the 70 - 700 MHz range with two antenna systems that share receiver resources. Cost-effective systems of this type represent only a modest increment in system complexity over that being deployed in LOFAR and are achievable with today's technology.

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arXiv2006

The Westerbork SINGS Survey: I. Overview and Image Atlas

We have obtained moderately deep radio continuum imaging at 18 and 22cm with the Westerbork array of 34 nearby galaxies drawn from the Spitzer SINGS and Starburst samples to enable complimentary analysis. The sub-sample have an optical major axis diameter in excess of 5 arcmin and are North of Declination 12.5 deg. Sub-sample galaxies span a very wide range of morphological types and star formation rates. Resolved detection was possible for every galaxy. This constitutes a first time detection at GHz radio frequencies for about half of the sample. Analysis of both total intensity and polarization properties of the sample will be published in companion papers. Both the HI and OH main-lines of the target galaxies were within the observed band-pass, albeit with only coarse velocity resolution. Only two low mass elliptical galaxies were undetected in HI. Four of the sub-sample galaxies were detected in OH main-line absorption, including two new detections. The results are presented in the form of an image atlas for which a standard transfer function and image size are used throughout and whereby the radio continuum, DSS optical and integrated HI are displayed side-by-side. Continuum and HI line photometry are tabulated for all targets.

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arXiv2005

van der Kruit to Spitzer: A New Look at the FIR-Radio Correlation

We present an initial look at the far infrared-radio correlation within the star-forming disks of four nearby, nearly face-on galaxies (NGC~2403, NGC~3031, NGC~5194, and NGC~6946). Using {\it Spitzer} MIPS imaging and WSRT radio continuum data, we are able to probe variations in the logarithmic 70~$μ$m/22~cm ($q_{70}$) flux density ratios across each disk at sub-kpc scales. We find general trends of decreasing $q_{70}$ with declining surface brightness and with increasing radius. We also find that the dispersion in $q_{70}$ within galaxies is comparable to what is measured {\it globally} among galaxies at around 0.2 dex. We have also performed preliminary phenomenological modeling of cosmic ray electron (CR$e^{-}$) diffusion using an image-smearing technique, and find that smoothing the infrared maps improves their correlation with the radio maps. The best fit smoothing kernels for the two less active star-forming galaxies (NGC~2403 and NGC~3031) have much larger scale-lengths than that of the more active star-forming galaxies (NGC~5194 and NGC~6946). This difference may be due to the relative deficit of recent CR$e^{-}$ injection into the interstellar medium (ISM) for the galaxies having largely quiescent disks.

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arXiv2005

Tiny HI Clouds in the Local ISM

We report deep, high spectral resolution WSRT HI 21cm observations of four high latitude compact radio sources, that have revealed a new population of tiny, discrete clouds in the diffuse ISM, with peak optical depths tau ~ 0.1-2%, HI column densities of 0.4-8 * 10^{18} cm^{-2} and core temperatures of 20-80 K. Imaging detections confirm these low column densities and imply linear core dimensions of a few thousand AU, assuming a distance of 100 pc. The physical origin of these tiny HI structures and their distribution in the ISM is at present unknown. Further observations will be required to determine whether they are a ubiquitous component of the ISM.

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arXiv2005

An Initial Look at the FIR-Radio Correlation within M51a using Spitzer

We present an initial look at the FIR-radio correlation within the star-forming disk of M51a using {\it Spitzer} MIPS imaging, observed as part of the {\it Spitzer} Infrared Nearby Galaxies Survey (SINGS), and WSRT radio continuum data. At an estimated distance of 8.2 Mpc, we are able to probe the variations in the 70$\micron$/22cm ratios across the disk of M51a at a linearly projected scale of 0.75 kpc. We measure a dispersion of 0.191 dex, comparable to the measured dispersion of the global FIR-radio correlation. Such little scatter in the IR/radio ratios across the disk suggests that we have yet to probe physical scales small enough to observe a breakdown in the correlation. We also find that the global 70$\micron$/22cm ratio of M51a is 25% larger than the median value of the disk, suggesting that the brighter disk regions drive the globally measured ratio.

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arXiv2005

The Neutral Medium

We consider the physical conditions of the neutral medium within, and in the environments of, galaxies. The basic physical and morphological properties of the neutral medium within galaxy disks are now quite well-constrained. Systematic variations in temperature and phase-balance (of cool versus warm neutral gas) are indicated as a function of both radius and z-height. Interestingly, the cool medium line-widths are observed to be dominated by turbulent energy injection within cells of 10 pc to 1 kpc size. Deep new observations reveal that 5-10% of the neutral medium is associated within an extended halo which rotates more slowly and experiences radial inflow. Much of this component is likely to be associated with a ``galactic fountain'' type of phenomenon. However, compelling evidence is also accumulating for the importance of tidal disruption of satellites as well as continuous accretion (of both diffuse and discrete components) in fueling galaxy halos and disks. Continued fueling is even observed on scales of 100's of kpc in galaxy environments, where the neutral component is likely to be merely a trace constituent of a highly ionized plasma.

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arXiv2005

Imaging the Low Red-shift Cosmic Web

The first image of a Cosmic Web, Lyman Limit System has just been made in HI emission within the Local Group filament connecting M31 and M33. The corresponding HI distribution function is in very good agreement with that of the QSO absorption lines, confirming the 30-fold increase in surface area expected between 10^19 cm^-2 and 10^17 cm^-2. The critical observational challenge is crossing the ``HI desert'', the range of log(N_HI) from about 19.5 down to 18, over which photo-ionization by the intergalactic radiation field produces an exponential decline in the neutral fraction from essentially unity down to a few percent. Nature is kinder again to the HI observer below log(N_HI) = 18, where the neutral fraction decreases only very slowly with log(N_HI). Average spectra of the M31/M33 filament suggest a kinetic temperature of 2x10^5 K for the parent ion population, consistent with significant shock-heating. The brightest knot within the filament, with only a 2x10^4 K apparent temperature, is suggestive of localized cooling and condensation. We have initiated two complimentary surveys that should lay the groundwork for a comprehensive study of the Cosmic Web phenomenon in HI emission. When combined with targeted optical and UV absorption line observations, the total baryonic masses and enrichment histories of the Cosmic Web could be determined over the complete range of environmental over-densities.

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