arXiv subjects

Takuma Kokusho

Publications and source records attributed to Takuma Kokusho.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

A systematic study of CO/SiO absorption features in early-type galaxies using AKARI/IRC near-infrared spectra

The origin of dust in early-type galaxies (ETGs) remains a long-standing question, with proposed sources being mass loss from evolved stars, galaxy mergers, or grain growth in the interstellar medium. To investigate the dominant source of dust in ETGs, we analyzed near-infrared spectra of 30 ETGs obtained with AKARI, focusing on the SiO and CO absorption features tracing the photospheres of old stellar populations. We also derived the dust mass using near- to far-infrared photometric data obtained by 2MASS, WISE, and AKARI. We find that the dust mass correlates with the summed equivalent widths of the SiO and CO absorption features. This trend suggests that a significant fraction of dust in ETGs may originate from mass loss from evolved stars, consistent with an internal production scenario. The dust mass shows no anti-correlation with diffuse X-ray luminosities, suggesting that dust in ETGs is not strongly interacting with X-ray plasma. Moreover, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are detected in the near-infrared spectra. We find that the PAH intensity shows no correlation with the equivalent widths of SiO and CO, but correlates with the luminosity of hot and warm dust components. This suggests that PAHs may be of external origin associated with galaxy merger remnants, heated by the activities of galactic nuclei.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2025

A systematic study on the aromatic and aliphatic hydrocarbon emission features of nearby galaxies using AKARI near-IR spectra

Interstellar hydrocarbon dust containing aromatic and aliphatic hydrocarbons, like polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), is believed to be processed by various factors including UV radiation fields and mechanical shocks in the galactic environments. We systematically investigate the processing of hydrocarbon dust, especially the likely causes for the variations of the luminosity ratio of aliphatic to aromatic hydrocarbon emission features, using the near-infrared (IR) spectral features at wavelengths 3.3 um and 3.4-3.6 um observed with AKARI/IRC. We analyzed 243 near-IR spectra of 240 star-forming (U)LIRGs (the total IR luminosity, $L_\rm{IR}>10^{11}\ L_\odot$), 119 spectra of 105 star-forming IRGs ($10^{10}\ L_\odot<L_\rm{IR}<10^{11}\ L_\odot$), and 94 spectra of 65 sub-IRGs ($L_\rm{IR}<10^{10}\ L_\odot$), in addition to 232 spectra of 36 Galactic HII regions as a reference sample. We performed near-IR spectral model fitting to estimate the luminosities of the aromatic and aliphatic hydrocarbon features and the HI recombination line Br$\rmα$. The result indicates that the luminosity ratios of the aliphatic to the aromatic hydrocarbons ($L_\rm{ali}/L_\rm{aro}$) in the sample galaxies show considerably large variations, compared to those in the Galactic HII regions, $L_\rm{ali}/L_\rm{aro}$ systematically decreasing with $L_\rm{IR}$ and $L_\rm{Brα}$. We find that (sub-)IRGs with continuum colors bluer at 4 um tend to have higher $L_\rm{ali}/L_\rm{aro}$, which is likely to reflect the intrinsic nature of PAHs outside the HII region where the PAHs remain non-processed by strong UV radiation fields. We also find that some ULIRGs with continuum colors redder at 4 um show extremely low $L_\rm{ali}/L_\rm{aro}$, which is likely to be caused by blending aliphatic emission and absorption features due to the presence of an obscured galactic nucleus in merger systems.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2025

Near-infrared [P II] and [Fe II] line mapping of Galactic supernova remnants

Phosphorus (P) is one of the key ingredients for life, yet its origins in galaxies remain poorly understood. In order to investigate the production of P by supernovae, we performed near-infrared (IR) [P II] and [Fe II] line mapping of 26 Galactic supernova remnants (SNRs) with the Infrared Survey Facility and Kanata telescopes, using the narrow-band filters tuned to these lines. By combining our data with archival [Fe II] maps from UKIRT, we detected both the [P II] and [Fe II] emissions in five SNRs, only the [Fe II] emission in 15 SNRs, and no line emissions in the remaining six. Using the observed [P II]/[Fe II] ratios and upper limits for non-detections, we derived the P/Fe abundance ratios, which vary by up to two orders of magnitude among our sample SNRs. This suggests that the production rate of P and/or the degree of dust destruction may differ from remnant to remnant, the latter being due to the fact that P is volatile while Fe is mostly locked in dust grains. We used the mid- and far-IR maps to examine the dust content for the five SNRs where both the line emissions are detected. As a result, we find that high P/Fe abundance ratios in the northern and southeastern regions of Cassiopeia A and the Crab Nebula, respectively, are not likely due to dust destruction but may reflect an asymmetric ejection of P during supernova explosions. In the Crab Nebula, it is also possible that near-IR [Ni II] emission contaminates the observed flux in the southeastern region, suggesting that the Ni/Fe abundance ratio, rather than the P/Fe abundance ratio, is relatively high in this part of the remnant.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2025

A systematic study on the properties of aromatic and aliphatic hydrocarbon dust in active galactic nuclei with AKARI near-infrared spectroscopy

Recent near- and mid-infrared (IR) observations reveal the existence of appreciable amounts of aromatic and aliphatic hydrocarbon dust in the harsh environments of active galactic nuclei (AGNs), the origins of which are still under discussion. In this paper, we analyze the near-IR spectra of AGNs obtained with AKARI to systematically study the properties of the aromatic and aliphatic hydrocarbon dust a ected by the AGN activity. We perform the spectral fitting and the spectral energy distribution fitting for our sample of 102 AGNs to obtain the fluxes of the aromatic and aliphatic spectral features, the total IR luminosity (L_IR), and the fractional luminosity of AGN components (L_AGN/L_IR). As a result, we find that L_aromatic/L_IR is systematically lower for the AGN sample, especially much lower for AGNs with the aliphatic feature seen in the absorption, than for star-forming galaxies (SFGs), while L_aliphatic/L_aromatic is systematically higher for the AGN sample than for the SFG sample, increasing with the AGN activity indicated by L_AGN/L_IR. In addition, the profiles of the aliphatic emission features of the AGN sample are significantly di erent from those of the SFG sample in that the AGNs have the feature intensities systematically stronger at longer wavelengths. We conclude that both aromatic and aliphatic hydrocarbon dust are likely of circumnuclear origins, suggesting that a significant amount of the aliphatic hydrocarbon dust may come from a new population created through processes such as shattering of large carbonaceous grains by AGN outflows.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2024

Processing of hydrocarbon dust in star-forming galaxies revealed with AKARI

Hydrocarbon dust is one of the dominant components of interstellar dust, which mainly consists of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and aliphatic hydrocarbons. While hydrocarbon dust is thought to be processed in interstellar radiation fields or shocks, detailed processing mechanisms are not completely understood yet. We investigate the processing of hydrocarbon dust by analyzing the relation between the luminosities emitted by hydrocarbon dust and the total infrared luminosities $(L_{\mathrm{IR}})$ for 138 star-forming galaxies at redshift $z\ <\ 0.3$. Using near-infrared 2.5-5 $\mathrm{μm}$ spectra obtained with AKARI, we derived the luminosities of the aromatic hydrocarbon feature at 3.3 $\mathrm{μm}$ ($L_\mathrm{aromatic}$) and the aliphatic hydrocarbon feature at 3.4-3.6 $\mathrm{μm}$ ($L_\mathrm{aliphatic}$). We also derived $L_\mathrm{IR}$ and the radiation field strength by modeling the spectral energy distributions of the 138 galaxies with AKARI, WISE and IRAS photometry data. We find that galaxies with higher $L_\mathrm{IR}$ tend to exhibit lower $L_\mathrm{aliphatic}/L_\mathrm{aromatic}$ ratios. Furthermore, we find that there is an anti-correlation between $L_\mathrm{aliphatic}/L_\mathrm{aromatic}$ ratios and the radiation field strength, and also that the galaxies with low $L_\mathrm{aliphatic}/L_\mathrm{aromatic}$ ratios are dominated by merger galaxies. These results support that hydrocarbon dust is processed through photodissociation in strong radiation fields and/or shocks during merging processes of galaxies; the $L_\mathrm{aliphatic}/L_\mathrm{aromatic}$ ratio is likely to decrease in such harsh interstellar conditions since the aliphatic bonds are known to be chemically weaker than the aromatic bonds.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2023

Properties of star formation of the Large Magellanic Cloud as probed by young stellar objects

We perform a systematic study of evolutionary stages and stellar masses of young stellar objects (YSOs) in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) to investigate properties of star formation of the galaxy. There are 4825 sources in our YSO sample, which are constructed by combining the previous studies identifying YSOs in the LMC. Spectral energy distributions of the YSOs from optical to infrared wavelengths were fitted with a model consisting of stellar, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon and dust emissions. We utilize the stellar-to-dust luminosity ratios thus derived to study the evolutionary stages of the sources; younger YSOs are expected to show lower stellar-to-dust luminosity ratios. We find that most of the YSOs are associated with the interstellar gas across the galaxy, which are younger with more gases, suggesting that more recent star formation is associated with larger amounts of the interstellar medium (ISM). N157 shows a hint of higher stellar-to-dust luminosity ratios between active star-forming regions in the LMC, suggesting that recent star formation in N157 is possibly in later evolutionary stages. We also find that the stellar mass function tends to be bottom-heavy in supergiant shells (SGSs), indicating that gas compression by SGSs may be ineffective in compressing the ISM enough to trigger massive star formation. There is no significant difference in the stellar mass function between YSOs likely associated with the interface between colliding SGSs and those with a single SGS, suggesting that gas compression by collisions between SGSs may also be ineffective for massive star formation.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2022

Three-dimensional geometry and dust/gas ratios in massive star forming regions over the entire LMC as revealed by IRSF/SIRIUS survey

We derive the entire dust extinction (Av) map for the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) estimated from the color excess at near-infrared wavelengths. Using the percentile method we recently adopted to evaluate Av distribution along the line of sight, we derive the three-dimensional(3D)Av maps of the three massive star forming regions of N44, N79 and N11 based on the IRSF/SIRIUS point source catalog. The 3D AV maps are compared with the hydrogen column densities N(H) of three different velocity components where one is of the LMC disk velocity and the other two are of velocities lower than the disk velocity. As a result, we obtain 3D dust geometry suggesting that gas collision is on-going between the different velocity components. We also find difference in the timing of the gas collision between the massive star forming regions, which indicates that the gas collision in N44, N79 and N11 occurred later than that in 30 Doradus. In addition, difference by a factor of two in Av/N(H) is found between the velocity components for N44, while significant difference is not found for N79 and N11. From the 3D geometry and Av/N(H) in each star forming region, we suggest that the massive star formation in N44 was induced by an external trigger of tidal interaction between the LMC and the SMC, while that in N79 and N11 is likely to have been induced by internal triggers such as gas converging from the galactic spiral arm and expansion of a supershell although the possibility of tidal interaction cannot be ruled out.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2021

Infrared Absorption and its Sources of CdZnTe at Cryogenic Temperature

To reveal the infrared absorption causes in the wavelength region between electronic and lattice absorptions, we measured the temperature dependence of the absorption coefficient of $p$-type low-resistivity ($\sim 10^2~{\rm Ωcm}$) CdZnTe crystals. We measured the absorption coefficients of CdZnTe crystals in four-wavelength bands ($λ=6.45$, 10.6, 11.6, 15.1$~μ$m) over the temperature range of $T=8.6-300$ K with an originally developed system. The CdZnTe absorption coefficient was measured to be $α=0.3-0.5$ ${\rm cm^{-1}}$ at $T=300$ K and $α=0.4-0.9$ ${\rm cm^{-1}}$ at $T=8.6$ K in the investigated wavelength range. With an absorption model based on transitions of free holes and holes trapped at an acceptor level, we conclude that the absorption due to free holes at $T=150-300$ K and that due to trapped-holes at $T<50$ K are dominant absorption causes in CdZnTe. We also discuss a method to predict the CdZnTe absorption coefficient at cryogenic temperature based on the room-temperature resistivity.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2021

Investigation of the Physical Origin of Overionized Recombining Plasma in the Supernova Remnant IC 443 with XMM-Newton

The physical origin of the overionized recombining plasmas (RPs) in supernova remnants (SNRs) has been attracting attention because its understanding provides new insight into SNR evolution. However, the process of the overionization, although it has been discussed in some RP-SNRs, is not yet fully understood. Here we report on spatially resolved spectroscopy of X-ray emission from IC~443 with {\it XMM-Newton}. We find that RPs in regions interacting with dense molecular clouds tend to have lower electron temperature and lower recombination timescale. These tendencies indicate that RPs in these regions are cooler and more strongly overionized, which is naturally interpreted as a result of rapid cooling by the molecular clouds via thermal conduction. Our result on IC~443 is similar to that on W44 showing evidence for thermal conduction as the origin of RPs at least in older remnants. We suggest that evaporation of clumpy gas embedded in a hot plasma rapidly cools the plasma as was also found in the W44 case. We also discuss if ionization by protons accelerated in IC~443 is responsible for RPs. Based on the energetics of particle acceleration, we conclude that the proton bombardment is unlikely to explain the observed properties of RPs.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2021

Three-dimensional dust geometry of the LMC HI ridge region as revealed by the IRSF/SIRIUS survey

We present a new method to evaluate the dust extinction (AV) along the line of sight using the InfraRed Survey Facility (IRSF) near-infrared (NIR) data of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) HI ridge region. In our method, we estimate an AV value for each star from the NIR color excess and sort them from bluer to redder in each line of sight. Using the percentile values of the sorted AV, we newly construct the three-dimensional AV map. We compare the resultant AV map with the total hydrogen column density N(H) traced by velocity-resolved HI and CO observations. In the LMC HI ridge region, Fukui et al. (2017, PASJ, 69, L5) find two velocity components and an intermediate velocity one bridging them. Comparing our three-dimensional AV maps with N(H) maps at the different velocities, we find that the dust geometry is consistent with the scenario of the on-going gas collision between the two velocities as suggested in the previous study. In addition, we find difference by a factor of 2 in AV/N(H) between the two velocity components, which suggests that inflow gas from the Small Magellanic Clouds (SMC) is mixed in this region. As a whole, our results support the triggered star formation in 30 Doradus due to the large-scale gas collision caused by tidal interaction between the LMC and the SMC.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2020

Near-infrared [FeII] and H2 line mapping of the supernova remnant IC443 with the IRSF/SIRIUS

We investigate properties of the interstellar medium (ISM) interacting with shocks around the Galactic supernova remnant IC443, using the results of near-infrared [FeII] and H2 line mapping with the IRSF/SIRIUS. In the present study, we newly performed H2 1-0 S(1) and 2-1 S(1) line mapping with the narrow-band filters tuned for these lines, covering the entire remnant (30'x35'). Combined with an [FeII] line map, our result shows that the H2 line emission is significantly detected in the southern region, while the [FeII] line emission is detected all over the remnant, suggesting that slow and fast shocks propagate through the southern region and the entire remnant, respectively. In particular, the H2 line emission is relatively strong compared to the [FeII] line emission in the southwestern region, where TeV gamma-ray emission is detected. As the strong H2 line emission indicates the dominance of the dense ISM, this result supports the scenario that the gamma-ray emission is likely to be produced through a heavy interaction between cosmic-ray protons and the dense ISM in the southwestern shell. We also find that the H2 and [FeII] line emissions show an anti-correlated spatial distribution in the same region, suggesting the presence of the clumpy ISM. Such a clumpy morphology of the ISM around IC443 may assist cosmic-ray protons to efficiently interact with large amounts of the ISM protons.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2020

Pixel-based spectral characterization of mid-infrared Si array detectors for astronomical observations in space

Mid-infrared (IR) array detectors have been used for astronomical observations in space. However, the uniformities of their spectral response curves have not been investigated in detail, the understanding of which is important for spectroscopic observations using large array formats. We characterize the spectral responses of all the pixels in IR array detectors using a Fourier transform infrared spectrometer and cryogenic optics for measurements at high signal-to-noise ratios. We measured the spectral responses of the Si:As impurity band conduction (IBC) array, a flight back-up detector for AKARI/IRC. As a result, we find that the Si:As array has intrinsic variations in the spectral response along the row and column directions of the array. We also find that the cutoff wavelength of the Si:As IBC array depends on the intensity of the incident light.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2019

A systematic study of Galactic infrared bubbles along the Galactic plane with AKARI and Herschel. II. Spatial distributions of dust components around the bubbles

Galactic infrared (IR) bubbles, which can be seen as shell-like structures at mid-IR wavelengths, are known to possess massive stars within their shell boundaries. In our previous study, Hanaoka et al. (2019) expanded the research area to the whole Galactic plane ($0^{\circ} \leq l \leq 360^{\circ}$, $|b| \leq 5^{\circ}$) and studied systematic differences in the shell morphology and the IR luminosity of the IR bubbles between inner and outer Galactic regions. In this study, utilizing high spatial-resolution data of AKARI and WISE in the mid-IR and Herschel in the far-IR, we investigate the spatial distributions of dust components around each IR bubble to discuss the relation between the star-formation activity and the dust properties of the IR bubbles. For the 247 IR bubbles studied in Hanaoka et al. (2019), 165 IR bubbles are investigated in this study, which have the Herschel data ($|b| \leq 1^{\circ}$) and known distances. We created their spectral energy distributions on a pixel-by-pixel basis around each IR bubble, and decomposed them with a dust model consisting of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), hot dust, warm dust and cold dust. As a result, we find that the offsets of dust heating sources from the shell centers in inner Galactic regions are systematically larger than those in outer Galactic regions. Many of the broken bubbles in inner Galactic regions show large angles between the offset and the broken shell directions from the center. Moreover, the spatial variations of the PAH intensity and cold dust emissivity around the IR bubbles in inner Galactic regions are larger than those in outer Galactic regions. We discuss these results in light of the interstellar environments and the formation mechanism of the massive stars associated with the IR bubbles.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2018

A systematic study of Galactic infrared bubbles along the Galactic plane with AKARI and Herschel

Galactic infrared (IR) bubbles, which have shell-like structures in the mid-IR wavelengths, are known to contain massive stars near their centers. IR bubbles in inner Galactic regions ($|$l$|\leq$ 65$^{\circ}$, $|$b$|\leq$ 1$^{\circ}$) have so far been studied well to understand the massive star formation mechanisms. In this study, we expand the research area to the whole Galactic plane (0$^{\circ}\leq$ l $<$360$^{\circ}$, $|$b$|\leq$ 5$^{\circ}$), using the AKARI all-sky survey data. We limit our study on large bubbles with angular radii of $>1'$ to reliably identify and characterize them. For the 247 IR bubbles in total, we derived the radii and the covering fractions of the shells, based on the method developed in \citet{Hattori2016}. We also created their spectral energy distributions, using the AKARI and Herschel photometric data, and decomposed them with a dust model, to obtain the total IR luminosity and the luminosity of each dust component, i.e., polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), warm dust and cold dust. As a result, we find that there are systematic differences in the IR properties of the bubbles between inner and outer Galactic regions. The total IR luminosities are lower in outer Galactic regions, while there is no systematic difference in the range of the shell radii between inner and outer Galactic regions. More IR bubbles tend to be observed as broken bubbles rather than closed ones and the fractional luminosities of the PAH emission are significantly higher in outer Galactic regions. We discuss the implications of these results for the massive stars and the interstellar environments associated with the Galactic IR bubbles.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2018

Enhanced dust emissivity power-law index along the western H$α$ filament of NGC 1569

We used a data set from AKARI and Herschel images at wavelengths from 7 $μ$m to 500 $μ$m to catch the evidence of dust processing in galactic winds in NGC 1569. Images show a diffuse infrared (IR) emission extending from the galactic disk into the halo region. The most prominent filamentary structure seen in the diffuse IR emission is spatially in good agreement with the western H$α$ filament (western arm). The spatial distribution of the $F_\mathrm{350}/F_\mathrm{500}$ map shows high values in regions around the super-star clusters (SSCs) and towards the western arm, which are not found in the $F_\mathrm{250}/F_\mathrm{350}$ map. The color-color diagram of $F_\mathrm{250}/F_\mathrm{350}$-$F_\mathrm{350}/F_\mathrm{500}$ indicates high values of the emissivity power-law index ($β_\mathrm{c}$) of the cold dust component in those regions. From a spectral decomposition analysis on a pixel-by-pixel basis, a $β_\mathrm{c}$ map shows values ranging from $\sim1$ to $\sim2$ over the whole galaxy. In particular, high $β_\mathrm{c}$ values of $\sim2$ are only observed in the regions indicated by the color-color diagram. Since the average cold dust temperature in NGC 1569 is $\sim30$ K, $β_\mathrm{c}<2.0$ in the far-IR and sub-mm region theoretically suggests emission from amorphous grains, while $β_\mathrm{c}=2.0$ suggests that from crystal grains. Given that the enhanced $β_\mathrm{c}$ regions are spatially confined by the HI ridge that is considered to be a birthplace of the SSCs, the spatial coincidences may indicate that dust grains around the SSCs are grains of relatively high crystallinity injected by massive stars originating from starburst activities and that those grains are blown away along the HI ridge and thus the western arm.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2017

A Relationship of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Features with Galaxy Merger in Star-forming Galaxies at $z<0.2$

Using the AKARI, Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS), Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and Hubble Space Telescope (HST) data, we investigated the relation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) mass ($M_{\rm PAH}$), very small grain mass ($M_{\rm VSG}$), big grain mass ($M_{\rm BG}$) and stellar mass ($M_{\rm star}$) with galaxy merger for 55 star-forming galaxies at redshift $z<0.2$. Using the SDSS image at $z<0.1$ and the HST image at $z>0.1$, we divided the galaxies into merger galaxies and non-merger galaxies with the morphological parameter asymmetry $A$, and quantified merging stages of galaxies based on the morphological indicators, the second-order momentum of the brightest 20$\%$ region $M_{20}$ and the Gini coefficient. We find that $M_{\rm PAH}/M_{\rm BG}$ of merger galaxies tend to be lower than that of non-merger galaxies and there are no systematic differences of $M_{\rm VSG}/M_{\rm BG}$ and $M_{\rm BG}/M_{\rm star}$ between merger galaxies and non-merger galaxies. We find that galaxies with very low $M_{\rm PAH}/M_{\rm BG}$ seem to be merger galaxies at late stages. These results suggest that PAHs are partly destroyed at late stages of merging processes. Furthermore, we investigated $M_{\rm PAH}/M_{\rm BG}$ variations in radiation field intensity strength $G_0$ and the emission line ratio of $[{\rm O\,{\scriptsize I}}]λ6300/{\rm H}α$ which is a shock tracer for merger galaxies and find that $M_{\rm PAH}/M_{\rm BG}$ decreases with increasing both $G_0$ and $[{\rm O\,{\scriptsize I}}]/{\rm H}α$. PAH destruction is likely to be caused by two processes; strong radiation fields and large-scale shocks during merging processes of galaxies.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2017

A star formation study of the ATLAS3D early-type galaxies with the AKARI all-sky survey

The star formation properties of early-type galaxies (ETGs) are currently the subject of considerable interest, particularly whether they differ from those of gas-rich spirals. We perform a systematic study of star formation in a large sample of local ETGs using polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) and dust emission, focusing on the galaxies' star formation rates (SFRs) and star formation efficiencies (SFEs). Our sample is composed of the 260 ETGs from the ATLAS3D survey, from which we use the cold gas measurements (HI and CO). The SFRs are estimated from stellar, PAH and dust fits to spectral energy distributions created from new AKARI measurements and literature data from WISE and 2MASS. The mid-infrared luminosities of non-CO-detected galaxies are well correlated with their stellar luminosities, showing that they trace (circum)stellar dust emission. CO-detected galaxies show an excess above these correlations, uncorrelated with their stellar luminosities, indicating that they likely contain PAHs and dust of interstellar origin. PAH and dust luminosities of CO-detected galaxies show tight correlations with their molecular gas masses, and the derived current SFRs are typically 0.01-1 Msun/yr. These SFRs systematically decrease with stellar age at fixed stellar mass, while they correlate nearly linearly with stellar mass at fixed age. The majority of local ETGs follow the same star-formation law as local star-forming galaxies, and their current SFEs do not depend on either stellar mass or age. Our results clearly indicate that molecular gas is fueling current star formation in local ETGs, that appear to acquire this gas via mechanisms regulated primarily by stellar mass. The current SFEs of local ETGs are similar to those of local star-forming galaxies, indicating that their low SFRs are likely due to smaller cold gas fractions rather than a suppression of star formation.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2016

Mid- and far-infrared properties of Spitzer Galactic bubbles revealed by the AKARI all-sky surveys

We have carried out a statistical study on the mid- and far-infrared (IR) properties of Galactic IR bubbles observed by Spitzer. Using the Spitzer 8 $μ{\rm m}$ images, we estimated the radii and covering fractions of their shells, and categorized them into closed, broken and unclassified bubbles with our data analysis method. Then, using the AKARI all-sky images at wavelengths of 9, 18, 65, 90, 140 and 160 $μ{\rm m}$, we obtained the spatial distributions and the luminosities of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH), warm and cold dust components by decomposing 6-band spectral energy distributions with model fitting. As a result, 180 sample bubbles show a wide range of the total IR luminosities corresponding to the bolometric luminosities of a single B-type star to many O-type stars. For all the bubbles, we investigated relationships between the radius, luminosities and luminosity ratios, and found that there are overall similarities in the IR properties among the bubbles regardless of their morphological types. In particular, they follow a power-law relation with an index of $\sim$3 between the total IR luminosity and radius, as expected from the conventional picture of the Str$\rm{\ddot{o}}$mgren sphere. The exceptions are large broken bubbles; they indicate higher total IR luminosities, lower fractional luminosities of the PAH emission, and dust heating sources located nearer to the shells. We discuss the implications of those differences for a massive star-formation scenario.

astro-ph.GA↗