arXiv subjects

T. G. Bisbas

Publications and source records attributed to T. G. Bisbas.

13 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Warm and cold molecular gas in the cluster center of MACS 1931-26 with JWST and ALMA

We perform one of the first spatially resolved studies of warm ($>$100 K) and cold (10-100 K) molecular gas in the circumgalactic medium (CGM), focusing on the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) of a cool-core galaxy cluster, MACS1931-26 at z=0.35. This galaxy has a massive H$_2$ reservoir and a radio-loud active galactic nucleus (AGN) and is undergoing a starburst event. We present new JWST observations of this system, revealing warm H$_2$ gas that is co-spatial with the cold molecular gas traced by CO, extending over 30 kpc around the BCG in a tail-like structure reaching into the circumgalactic medium of this galaxy. Analysis of the mid-infrared pure H$_2$ rotational lines H$_2$S(1), H$_2$S(5), and H$_2$S(9) indicate warm gas temperatures of $515.6 \pm 0.8$ K and $535.2\pm 1.9$ K in the BCG and tail regions, respectively. We compare cold gas, traced by the CO(3-2) observed with ALMA, to the warm gas traced by JWST. The warm-to-cold molecular gas fraction is comparable in the BCG ($1.4\%\pm0.2\%$) and the CGM tail ($1.9\%\pm0.3\%$). Our analysis suggests that the dissipation of the kinetic energy of the H$_2$-emitting gas is sufficient to lead to the formation of the CO gas. This observation provides new insights into the molecular gas distribution and its potential role in the interplay between the central galaxy and its circumgalactic environment.

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arXiv2024

A case study of gas impacted by black-hole jets with the JWST: outflows, bow shocks, and high excitation of the gas in the galaxy IC5063

We present James Webb Space Telescope MIRI data of the inner 3x2kpc^2 of the galaxy IC5063, in which the jets of a supermassive black hole interact with the gaseous disk they are crossing. Jet-driven outflows were known to be initiated along or near the jet path and to modify the stability of molecular clouds, possibly altering their star formation properties. The MIRI data, of unprecedented resolution and sensitivity in the infrared, now reveal that there are more than ten discrete regions with outflows, nearly doubling the number of such known regions. Outflows exist near the radio lobes, at the nucleus, in a biconical structure perpendicular to the jet, and in a bubble moving against the disk. In some of them, velocities above escape velocity are observed. Stratification is also observed, with higher ionization or excitation gas attaining higher velocities. More outflows and bow shocks, found further away from the nucleus than the radio lobes, in regions without significant radio emission, reveal the existence of past or weak radio jets that interacted with the interstellar medium. The coincidence of the bow shocks with the optical extended emission line region (EELR) suggests that the jets also contributed to the gas ionization. Maps of the H2 gas excitation temperature, T_ex, indicate that the molecular gas is most excited in regions with radio emission. There, T_ex is >100 K higher than in the EELR interior. We argue that a combination of jet-related shocks and cosmic rays is likely responsible for this excess molecular gas excitation.

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arXiv2024

Re-evaluation of the cosmic-ray ionization rate in diffuse clouds

All current estimates of the cosmic-ray (CR) ionization rate rely on assessments of the gas density along the probed sight lines. Until now, these have been based on observations of different tracers, with C$_2$ being the most widely used in diffuse molecular clouds for this purpose. However, three-dimensional dust extinction maps have recently reached sufficient accuracy as to give an independent measurement of the gas density on parsec scales. In addition, they allow us to identify the gas clumps along each sight line, thus localizing the regions where CR ionization is probed. We re-evaluate H$_3^+$ observations, which are often considered as the most reliable method to measure the H$_2$ ionization rate $ζ_{\rm H_2}$ in diffuse clouds. The peak density values derived from the extinction maps for 12 analyzed sight lines turn out to be, on average, an order of magnitude lower than the previous estimates, and agree with the values obtained from revised analysis of C$_2$ data. We use the extinction maps in combination with the 3D-PDR code to self-consistently compute the H$_3^+$ and H$_2$ abundances in the identified clumps for different values of $ζ_{\rm H_2}$. For each sight line, we obtain the optimum value by comparing the simulation results with observations. We show that $ζ_{\rm H_2}$ is systematically reduced with respect to the earlier estimates by a factor of $\approx 9$ on average, to $\approx6\times10^{-17}$ s$^{-1}$, primarily as a result of the density reduction. We emphasize that these results have profound consequences for all available measurements of the ionization rate.

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arXiv2024

Molecular gas excitation in the circumgalactic medium of MACS1931-26

The evolution of galaxies is largely affected by exchanging material with their close environment, the circumgalactic medium (CGM). In this work, we investigate the CGM and the interstellar medium (ISM) of the bright central galaxy (BCG) of the galaxy cluster, MACS1931-26 at z~0.35. We detected [CI](2-1), CO(1-0), and CO(7-6) emission lines with the APEX 12-m and NRO 45-m telescopes. We complemented these single-dish observations with CO(1-0), CO(3-2), and CO(4-3) ALMA interferometric data and inferred the cold molecular hydrogen physical properties. Using a modified large velocity gradient (LVG) model, we modelled the CO and CI emission of the CGM and BCG to extract the gas thermodynamical properties, including the kinetic temperature, the density, and the virialisation factor. Our study shows that the gas in the BCG is highly excited, comparable to the gas in local ultra luminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs), while the CGM is likely less excited, colder, less dense, and less bound compared to the ISM of the BCG. The molecular hydrogen mass of the whole system derived using [CI](2-1) is larger than the mass derived from CO(1-0) in literature, showing that part of the gas in this system is CO-poor. Additional spatially resolved CI observations in both transitions, CO(1-0) and [CI](2-1), and the completion of the CO SLED with higher CO transitions are crucial to trace the different phases of the gas in such systems and constrain their properties.

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arXiv2019

SILCC-Zoom: H$_2$ and CO-dark gas in molecular clouds -- The impact of feedback and magnetic fields

We analyse the CO-dark molecular gas content of simulated molecular clouds from the SILCC-Zoom project. The simulations reach a resolution of 0.1 pc and include H$_2$ and CO formation, radiative stellar feedback and magnetic fields. CO-dark gas is found in regions with local visual extinctions $A_\text{V, 3D} \sim$ 0.2 - 1.5, number densities of 10 - 10$^{3}$ cm$^{-3}$ and gas temperatures of few 10 K - 100 K. CO-bright gas is found at number densities above 300 cm$^{-3}$ and temperatures below 50 K. The CO-dark gas fractions range from 40% to 95% and scale inversely with the amount of well-shielded gas ($A_\text{V, 3D}$ $\gtrsim$ 1.5), which is smaller in magnetised molecular clouds. We show that the density, chemical abundances and $A_\text{V, 3D}$ along a given line-of-sight cannot be properly determined from projected quantities. As an example, pixels with a projected visual extinction of $A_\text{V, 2D} \simeq$ 2.5 - 5 can be both, CO-bright or CO-dark, which can be attributed to the presence or absence of strong density enhancements along the line-of-sight. By producing synthetic CO(1-0) emission maps of the simulations with RADMC-3D, we show that about 15 - 65\% of the H$_2$ is in regions with intensities below the detection limit. Our clouds have $X_\text{CO}$-factors around 1.5 $\times$ 10$^{20}$ cm$^{-2}$ (K km s$^{-1}$)$^{-1}$ with a spread of up to a factor $\sim$ 4, implying a similar uncertainty in the derived total H$_2$ masses and even worse for individual pixels. Based on our results, we suggest a new approach to determine the H$_2$ mass, which relies on the availability of CO(1-0) emission and $A_\text{V, 2D}$ maps. It reduces the uncertainty of the clouds' overall H$_2$ mass to a factor of $\lesssim$ 1.8 and for individual pixels, i.e. on sub-pc scales, to a factor of $\lesssim$ 3.

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arXiv2016

ALMA observations of atomic carbon in z~4 dusty star-forming galaxies

We present ALMA [CI]($1-0$) (rest frequency 492 GHz) observations for a sample of 13 strongly-lensed dusty star-forming galaxies originally discovered at 1.4mm in a blank-field survey by the South Pole Telescope. We compare these new data with available [CI] observations from the literature, allowing a study of the ISM properties of $\sim 30$ extreme dusty star-forming galaxies spanning a redshift range $2 < z < 5$. Using the [CI] line as a tracer of the molecular ISM, we find a mean molecular gas mass for SPT-DSFGs of $6.6 \times 10^{10}$ M$_{\odot}$. This is in tension with gas masses derived via low-$J$ $^{12}$CO and dust masses; bringing the estimates into accordance requires either (a) an elevated CO-to-H$_2$ conversion factor for our sample of $α_{\rm CO} \sim 2.5$ and a gas-to-dust ratio $\sim200$, or (b) an high carbon abundance $X_{\rm CI} \sim 7\times10^{-5}$. Using observations of a range of additional atomic and molecular lines (including [CI], [CII], and multiple transitions of CO), we use a modern Photodissociation Region code (3D-PDR) to assess the physical conditions (including the density, UV radiation field strength, and gas temperature) within the ISM of the DSFGs in our sample. We find that the ISM within our DSFGs is characterised by dense gas permeated by strong UV fields. We note that previous efforts to characterise PDR regions in DSFGs may have significantly underestimated the density of the ISM. Combined, our analysis suggests that the ISM of extreme dusty starbursts at high redshift consists of dense, carbon-rich gas not directly comparable to the ISM of starbursts in the local Universe.

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arXiv2015

TORUS-3DPDR: A self-consistent code treating three-dimensional photoionization and photodissociation regions

The interaction of ionizing and far-ultraviolet radiation with the interstellar medium is of great importance. It results in the formation of regions in which the gas is ionized, beyond which are photodissociation regions (PDRs) in which the gas transitions to its atomic and molecular form. Several numerical codes have been implemented to study these two main phases of the interstellar medium either dynamically or chemically. In this paper we present TORUS-3DPDR, a new self-consistent code for treating the chemistry of three-dimensional photoionization and photodissociation regions. It is an integrated code coupling the two codes TORUS, a hydrodynamics and Monte Carlo radiation transport code, and 3D-PDR, a photodissociation regions code. The new code uses a Monte Carlo radiative transfer scheme to account for the propagation of the ionizing radiation including the diffusive component as well as a ray-tracing scheme based on the HEALPix package in order to account for the escape probability and column density calculations. Here, we present the numerical techniques we followed and we show the capabilities of the new code in modelling three-dimensional objects including single or multiple sources. We discuss the effects introduced by the diffusive component of the UV field in determining the thermal balance of PDRs as well as the effects introduced by a multiple sources treatment of the radiation field. We find that diffuse radiation can positively contribute to the formation of CO. With this new code, three-dimensional synthetic observations for the major cooling lines are possible, for making feasible a detailed comparison between hydrodynamical simulations and observations.

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arXiv2015

StarBench: The D-type expansion of an HII region

StarBench is a project focused on benchmarking and validating different star-formation and stellar feedback codes. In this first StarBench paper we perform a comparison study of the D-type expansion of an HII region. The aim of this work is to understand the differences observed between the twelve participating numerical codes against the various analytical expressions examining the D-type phase of HII region expansion. To do this, we propose two well-defined tests which are tackled by 1D and 3D grid- and SPH- based codes. The first test examines the `early phase' D-type scenario during which the mechanical pressure driving the expansion is significantly larger than the thermal pressure of the neutral medium. The second test examines the `late phase' D-type scenario during which the system relaxes to pressure equilibrium with the external medium. Although they are mutually in excellent agreement, all twelve participating codes follow a modified expansion law that deviates significantly from the classical Spitzer solution in both scenarios. We present a semi-empirical formula combining the two different solutions appropriate to both early and late phases that agrees with high-resolution simulations to $\lesssim2\%$. This formula provides a much better benchmark solution for code validation than the Spitzer solution. The present comparison has validated the participating codes and through this project we provide a dataset for calibrating the treatment of ionizing radiation hydrodynamics codes.

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arXiv2014

A Photodissociation Region study of NGC 4038

We present a model of the photodissociation regions of NGC 4038, which is part of the Antennae galaxies. We have considered one-dimensional slabs of uniform density all having a maximum $A_V=10\,{\rm mag}$, interacting with plane-parallel radiation. The density range in our simulations spans four orders of magnitude ($100\le n\le 10^6\,{\rm cm}^{-3}$) and the UV field strength spans more than three orders of magnitude ($10\leχ\le10^{4.5}$ multiples of the ${\rm Draine}$ field), from which we generated a grid of about 1400 simulations. We compare our results with Herschel SPIRE-FTS, CSO and ISO-LWS observations of eight CO transition lines ($J=1-0$ to $8-7$) and the [CI] 609μm and [OI] 146μm fine structure lines. We find that the molecular and atomic emission lines trace different gas components of NGC 4038, thus single emission models are insufficient to reproduce the observed values. In general, low-$J$ CO transition lines correspond to either low density regions interacting with low UV field strengths, or high density regions interacting with high UV field strengths. Higher $J$ CO transition lines are less dependent on the UV field strength and are fitted by gas with density $n\sim10^{4.5}-10^{5.2}\,{\rm cm}^{-3}$. We find that the observed fine structure line ratio of [CI] 609μm/[OI] 146μm is reproduced by clouds subject to weaker UV fields compared to the CO lines. We make estimates of the $X_{\rm CO}$ factor which relates the CO emission with the column density of molecular hydrogen, and find that it is less than the canonical Milky Way value.

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arXiv2013

Clumps and triggered star formation in ionised molecular clouds

Infrared shells and bubbles are ubiquitous in the Galaxy and can generally be associated with HII regions formed around young, massive stars. In this paper, we use high-resolution 3D SPH simulations to explore the effect of a single O7 star emitting photons at 10^49 1/s and located at the centre of a molecular cloud with mass 10^4 M_sun and radius 6.4 pc; the internal structure of the cloud is characterised by its fractal dimension, D (with 2.0 <= D <= 2.8), and the variance of its (log-normal) density distribution, sigma_0^2 (with 0.36 <= sigma_0^2 <= 1.42). Our study focuses on the morphology of the swept-up cold gas and the distribution and statistics of the resulting star formation. If the fractal dimension is low, the border of the HII region is dominated by extended shell-like structures, and these break up into a small number of massive high-density clumps which then spawn star clusters; star formation occurs relatively quickly, and delivers somewhat higher stellar masses. Conversely, if the fractal dimension is high, the border of the HII region is dominated by a large number of pillars and cometary globules, which contain compact dense clumps and tend to spawn single stars or individual multiple systems; star formation occurs later, the stellar masses are somewhat lower, and the stars are more widely distributed.

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arXiv2012

3D-PDR: A new three-dimensional astrochemistry code for treating Photodissociation Regions

Photodissociation regions (PDRs) define the transition zone between an ionized and a dark molecular region. They consist of neutral gas which interacts with far-ultraviolet radiation and are characterized by strong infrared line emission. Various numerical codes treating one-dimensional PDRs have been developed in the past, simulating the complexity of chemical reactions occurring and providing a better understanding of the structure of a PDR. In this paper we present the three-dimensional code, 3D-PDR, which can treat PDRs of arbitrary density distribution. The code solves the chemistry and the thermal balance self-consistently within a given three-dimensional cloud. It calculates the total heating and cooling functions at any point in a given PDR by adopting an escape probability method. It uses a HEALPix-based ray-tracing scheme to evaluate the attenuation of the far-ultraviolet radiation in the PDR and the propagation of the far-infrared/submm line emission out of the PDR. We present benchmarking results and apply 3D-PDR to i) a uniform-density spherical cloud interacting with a plane-parallel external radiation field, ii) a uniform-density spherical cloud interacting with a two-component external radiation field, and iii) a cometary globule interacting with a plane-parallel external radiation field. We find that the code is able to reproduce the benchmarking results of various other one-dimensional numerical codes treating PDRs. We also find that the accurate treatment of the radiation field in the fully three-dimensional treatment of PDRs can in some cases leads to different results when compared to a standard one-dimensional treatment.

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arXiv2010

Radiation Driven Implosion and Triggered Star Formation

We present simulations of initially stable isothermal clouds exposed to ionizing radiation from a discrete external source, and identify the conditions that lead to radiatively driven implosion and star formation. We use the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics code SEREN (Hubber et al. 2010) and the HEALPix-based photoionization algorithm described in Bisbas et al. (2009). We find that the incident ionizing flux is the critical parameter determining the evolution: high fluxes simply disperse the cloud, whereas low fluxes trigger star formation. We find a clear connection between the intensity of the incident flux and the parameters of star formation.

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arXiv2009

Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics simulations of expanding HII regions. I. Numerical methods and tests

We describe a new algorithm for including the dynamical effects of ionizing radiation in SPH simulations, and we present several examples of how the algorithm can be applied to problems in star formation. We use the HEALPix software to tessellate the sky and to solve the equation of ionization equilibrium along a ray towards each of the resulting tesserae. We exploit the hierarchical nature of HEALPix to make the algorithm adaptive, so that fine angular resolution is invoked only where it is needed, and the computational cost is kept low. We present simulations of (i) the spherically symmetric expansion of an HII region inside a uniform-density, non--self-gravitating cloud; (ii) the spherically symmetric expansion of an HII region inside a uniform-density, self-gravitating cloud; (iii) the expansion of an off-centre HII region inside a uniform-density, non--self-gravitating cloud, resulting in rocket acceleration and dispersal of the cloud; and (iv) radiatively driven compression and ablation of a core overrun by an HII region. The new algorithm provides the means to explore and evaluate the role of ionizing radiation in regulating the efficiency and statistics of star formation.

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