NobleBlocks

Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy

facilityWashington, District of Columbia, United States

Research output, citation impact, and the most-cited recent papers from Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (United States). Aggregated across the NobleBlocks index of 300M+ scholarly works.

Total works
1.8K
Citations
256.7K
h-index
215
i10-index
3.0K
Also known as
Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy

Top-cited papers from Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy

The Global Schmidt Law in Star‐forming Galaxies
Robert C. Kennicutt
1998· The Astrophysical Journal5.2Kdoi:10.1086/305588

Measurements of H-alpha, HI, and CO distributions in 61 normal spiral galaxies are combined with published far-infrared and CO observations of 36 infrared-selected starburst galaxies, in order to study the form of the global star formation law, over the full range of gas densities and star formation rates (SFRs) observed in galaxies. The disk-averaged SFRs and gas densities for the combined sample are well represented by a Schmidt law with index N = 1.4+-0.15. The Schmidt law provides a surprisingly tight parametrization of the global star formation law, extending over several orders of magnitude in SFR and gas density. An alternative formulation of the star formation law, in which the SFR is presumed to scale with the ratio of the gas density to the average orbital timescale, also fits the data very well. Both descriptions provide potentially useful "recipes" for modelling the SFR in numerical simulations of galaxy formation and evolution.

The High‐Z Supernova Search: Measuring Cosmic Deceleration and Global Curvature of the Universe Using Type Ia Supernovae
B. Schmidt, N. B. Suntzeff, M. M. Phillips, R. A. Schommer +4 more
1998· The Astrophysical Journal1.5Kdoi:10.1086/306308

The High-Z Supernova Search is an international collaboration to discover and monitor type Ia supernovae (SN Ia) at $z > 0.2$ with the aim of measuring cosmic deceleration and global curvature. Our collaboration has pursued a basic understanding of supernovae in the nearby Universe, discovering and observing a large sample of objects, and developing methods to measure accurate distances with SN Ia. This paper describes the extension of this program to $z \\geq 0.2$, outlining our search techniques and follow-up program. We have devised high-throughput filters which provide accurate two-color restframe $B$ and $V$ light curves of SN Ia, enabling us to produce precise, extinction-corrected luminosity distances in the range $0.25 < z < 0.55$. Sources of systematic error from K-corrections, extinction, selection effects, and evolution are investigated, and their effects estimated. We present photometric and spectral observations of SN 1995K, our program's first supernova, and use the data to obtain a precise measurement of the luminosity distance to the $z=0.479$ host galaxy. This object, when combined with a nearby sample of SN, yields an estimate for the matter density of the Universe of $\\Omega_M = -0.2^{+1.0}_{-0.8}$ if $\\Omega_\\Lambda = 0$. For a spatially flat universe composed of normal matter and a cosmological constant, we find $\\Omega_M = 0.4^{+0.5}_{-0.4}$, $\\Omega_\\Lambda = 0.6^{+0.4}_{-0.5}$. We demonstrate that with a sample of $\\sim 30$ objects, we should be able to determine relative luminosity distances over the range $0 < z< 0.5$ with sufficient precision to measure $\\Omega_M$ with an uncertainty of $\\pm 0.2$.

The SBF Survey of Galaxy Distances. IV. SBF Magnitudes, Colors, and Distances
John L. Tonry, Alan Dressler, John P. Blakeslee, Edward A. Ajhar +4 more
2001· The Astrophysical Journal1.3Kdoi:10.1086/318301

We report data for $I$ band Surface Brightness Fluctuation (SBF) magnitudes, V-I colors, and distance moduli for 300 galaxies. The Survey contains E, S0 and early-type spiral galaxies in the proportions of 49:42:9, and is essentially complete for E galaxies to Hubble velocities of 2000 km/s, with a substantial sampling of E galaxies out to 4000 km/s. The median error in distance modulus is 0.22 mag. We also present two new results from the Survey. (1) We compare the mean peculiar flow velocity (bulk flow) implied by our distances with predictions of typical cold dark matter transfer functions as a function of scale, and find very good agreement with cold, dark matter cosmologies if the transfer function scale parameter $\Gamma$, and the power spectrum normalization $\sigma_8$ are related by $\sigma_8 \Gamma^{-0.5} \approx 2\pm0.5$. Derived directly from velocities, this result is independent of the distribution of galaxies or models for biasing. The modest bulk flow contradicts reports of large-scale, large-amplitude flows in the $\sim200$ Mpc diameter volume surrounding our Survey volume. (2) We present a distance-independent measure of absolute galaxy luminosity, \Nbar, and show how it correlates with galaxy properties such as color and velocity dispersion, demonstrating its utility for measuring galaxy distances through large and unknown extinction.

The SBF Survey of Galaxy Distances. IV. SBF Magnitudes, Colors, and Distances
Alan Dressler, A. Fletcher, M. Metzger, Christopher B. Moore
2000812

We report data for $I$ band Surface Brightness Fluctuation (SBF) magnitudes, V-I colors, and distance moduli for 300 galaxies. The Survey contains E, S0 and early-type spiral galaxies in the proportions of 49:42:9, and is essentially complete for E galaxies to Hubble velocities of 2000 km/s, with a substantial sampling of E galaxies out to 4000 km/s. The median error in distance modulus is 0.22 mag. We also present two new results from the Survey. (1) We compare the mean peculiar flow velocity (bulk flow) implied by our distances with predictions of typical cold dark matter transfer functions as a function of scale, and find very good agreement with cold, dark matter cosmologies if the transfer function scale parameter $\\Gamma$, and the power spectrum normalization $\\sigma_8$ are related by $\\sigma_8 \\Gamma^{-0.5} \\approx 2\\pm0.5$. Derived directly from velocities, this result is independent of the distribution of galaxies or models for biasing. The modest bulk flow contradicts reports of large-scale, large-amplitude flows in the $\\sim200$ Mpc diameter volume surrounding our Survey volume. (2) We present a distance-independent measure of absolute galaxy luminosity, \\Nbar, and show how it correlates with galaxy properties such as color and velocity dispersion, demonstrating its utility for measuring galaxy distances through large and unknown extinction.

<i>Spitzer</i>Survey of the Large Magellanic Cloud: Surveying the Agents of a Galaxy?s Evolution (SAGE). I. Overview and Initial Results
M. Meixner, Karl D. Gordon, R. Indebetouw, Joseph L. Hora +4 more
2006· The Astronomical Journal726doi:10.1086/508185

We are performing a uniform and unbiased imaging survey of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC; ~7° x 7°) using the IRAC (3.6, 4.5, 5.8, and 8 μm) and MIPS (24, 70, and 160 μm) instruments on board the Spitzer Space Telescope in the Surveying the Agents of a Galaxy's Evolution (SAGE) survey, these agents being the interstellar medium (ISM) and stars in the LMC. This paper provides an overview of the SAGE Legacy project, including observing strategy, data processing, and initial results. Three key science goals determined the coverage and depth of the survey. The detection of diffuse ISM with column densities &gt;1.2 x 1021 H cm-2 permits detailed studies of dust processes in the ISM. SAGE's point-source sensitivity enables a complete census of newly formed stars with masses &gt;3 Modot that will determine the current star formation rate in the LMC. SAGE's detection of evolved stars with mass-loss rates &gt;1 x 10-8 Modot yr-1 will quantify the rate at which evolved stars inject mass into the ISM of the LMC. The observing strategy includes two epochs in 2005, separated by 3 months, that both mitigate instrumental artifacts and constrain source variability. The SAGE data are non-proprietary. The data processing includes IRAC and MIPS pipelines and a database for mining the point-source catalogs, which will be released to the community in support of Spitzer proposal cycles 4 and 5. We present initial results on the epoch 1 data for a region near N79 and N83. The MIPS 70 and 160 μm images of the diffuse dust emission of the N79/N83 region reveal a similar distribution to the gas emissions, especially the H I 21 cm emission. The measured point-source sensitivity for the epoch 1 data is consistent with expectations for the survey. The point-source counts are highest for the IRAC 3.6 μm band and decrease dramatically toward longer wavelengths, consistent with the fact that stars dominate the point-source catalogs and the dusty objects detected at the longer wavelengths are rare in comparison. The SAGE epoch 1 point-source catalog has ~4 × 106 sources, and more are anticipated when the epoch 1 and 2 data are combined. Using Milky Way (MW) templates as a guide, we adopt a simplified point-source classification to identify three candidate groups—stars without dust, dusty evolved stars, and young stellar objects—that offer a starting point for this work. We outline a strategy for identifying foreground MW stars, which may comprise as much as 18% of the source list, and background galaxies, which may comprise ~12% of the source list.

Absorption‐Line Probes of Gas and Dust in Galactic Superwinds
Timothy M. Heckman, Matthew D. Lehnert, David K. Strickland, Lee Armus
2000· The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series643doi:10.1086/313421

We have obtained moderate resolution (R \ few thousand) spectra of the Na I jj5890, 5896 (Na D) absorption line in a sample of 32 far-IRbright starburst galaxies.In 18 cases, the Na D line in the nucleus is produced primarily by interstellar gas, while cool stars contribute signicantly in the others.In 12 of the 18 "" interstellar-dominated cases the Na D line is blueshifted by over 100 km s~1 relative to the galaxy systemic velocity (the "" outow sources ), while no case shows a net redshift of more than 100 km s~1.The absorption-line proles in these outow sources span the range from near the galaxy systemic velocity to a maximum blueshift of D400600 km s~1.The outow sources are galaxies systematically viewed more nearly face-on than the others.We therefore argue that the absorbing material consists of ambient interstellar material that has been entrained and accelerated along the minor axis of the galaxy by a hot starburst-driven superwind.The Na D lines are optically thick, but indirect arguments imply total hydrogen column densities of cm~2.This implies that the superwind N H D few ] 1021 is expelling matter at a rate comparable to the star formation rate.This outowing material is evidently very dusty : we nd a strong correlation between the depth of the Na D prole and the line-of-sight reddening.Typical implied values are E(B[V ) \ 0.31 over regions several-to-10 kpc in size.We briey consider some of the potential implications of these observations.The estimated terminal velocities of superwinds inferred from the present data and extant X-ray data are typically 400800 km~1, are independent of the galaxy rotation speed, and are comparable to (substantially exceed) the escape velocities for (dwarf) galaxies.The resulting selective loss of metals from shallower potential wells can establish L * the mass-metallicity relation in spheroids, produce the observed metallicity in the intracluster medium, and enrich a general IGM to of order 10~1 solar metallicity.If the outowing dust grains can survive their journey into the IGM, their e ect on observations of cosmologically distant objects would be sig-nicant.

Astrometry and Photometry for Cool Dwarfs and Brown Dwarfs
C. C. Dahn, Hugh C. Harris, F. J. Vrba, H. H. Guetter +4 more
2002· The Astronomical Journal630doi:10.1086/341646

Trigonometric parallax determinations are presented for 28 late type dwarfs and brown dwarfs, including eight M dwarfs with spectral types between M7 and M9.5, 17 L dwarfs with spectral types between L0 and L8, and three T dwarfs. Broadband photometry at CCD wavelengths (VRIz) and/or near-IR wavelengths (JHK) are presented for these objects and for 24 additional late-type dwarfs. Supplemented with astrometry and photometry from the literature, including ten L and two T dwarfs with parallaxes established by association with bright, usually HIPPARCOS primaries, this material forms the basis for studying various color-color and color-absolute magnitude relations. The I-J color is a good predictor of absolute magnitude for late-M and L dwarfs. M_J becomes monotonically fainter with I-J color and with spectral type through late-L dwarfs, then brightens for early-T dwarfs. The combination of zJK colors alone can be used to classify late-M, early-L, and T dwarfs accurately, and to predict their absolute magnitudes, but is less effective at untangling the scatter among mid- and late-L dwarfs. The mean tangential velocity of these objects is found to be slightly less than that for dM stars in the solar neighborhood, consistent with a sample with a mean age of several Gyr. Using colors to estimate bolometric corrections, and models to estimate stellar radii, effective temperatures are derived. The latest L dwarfs are found to have T_eff ~ 1360 K.

ICCD Speckle Observations of Binary Stars. XIX. An Astrometric/Spectroscopic Survey of O Stars
Brian D. Mason, Douglas R. Gies, William I. Hartkopf, W. G. Bagnuolo +2 more
1998· The Astronomical Journal607doi:10.1086/300234

We present the results of a speckle interferometric survey made with the CHARA speckle camera and 4 m–class telescopes of Galactic O-type stars with V < 8. We can detect with the speckle camera binaries in the angular separation range 0035 < ρ < 15 with Δm < 3, and we have discovered 15 binaries among 227 O-type systems. We combined our results on visual binaries with measurements of wider pairs from the Washington Double Star Catalog and fainter pairs from the Hipparcos Catalogue, and we made a literature survey of the spectroscopic binaries among the sample. We then investigated the overall binary frequency of the sample and the orbital characteristics of the known binaries. Binaries are common among O stars in clusters and associations (>59% have a visual or spectroscopic companion) but less so among field and especially runaway stars. There are many triple systems among the speckle binaries, and we discuss their possible role in the ejection of stars from clusters. The period distribution of the binaries is bimodal in log P, but we suggest that binaries with periods of years and decades may eventually be found to fill the gap. The mass ratio distribution of the visual binaries increases toward lower mass ratios, but low mass ratio companions are rare among close, spectroscopic binaries (probably because of the difficulty of spectroscopic detection rather than a real deficit). We present distributions of the eccentricity and longitude of periastron for spectroscopic binaries with elliptical orbits, and we find strong evidence of a bias in the longitude of periastron distribution (the "Barr effect"), which is probably caused by line distortions introduced by circumstellar gas.

The Stellar Populations and Evolution of Lyman Break Galaxies
Casey Papovich, Mark Dickinson, Henry C. Ferguson
2001· The Astrophysical Journal601doi:10.1086/322412

Using deep near-IR and optical observations of the HDF-N from the HST NICMOS and WFPC2 and from the ground, we examine the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) at 2.0 < z < 3.5. The UV-to-optical rest-frame SEDs of the galaxies are much bluer than those of present-day spiral and elliptical galaxies, and are generally similar to those of local starburst galaxies with modest amounts of reddening. We use stellar population synthesis models to study the properties of the stars that dominate the light from LBGs. Under the assumption that the star-formation rate is continuous or decreasing with time, the best-fitting models provide a lower bound on the LBG mass estimates. LBGs with ``L*'' UV luminosities are estimated to have minimum stellar masses ~ 10^10 solar masses, or roughly 1/10th that of a present-day L* galaxy. By considering the effects of a second component of maximally-old stars, we set an upper bound on the stellar masses that is ~ 3-8 times the minimum estimate. We find only loose constraints on the individual galaxy ages, extinction, metallicities, initial mass functions, and prior star-formation histories. We find no galaxies whose SEDs are consistent with young (< 10^8 yr), dust-free objects, which suggests that LBGs are not dominated by ``first generation'' stars, and that such objects are rare at these redshifts. We also find that the typical ages for the observed star-formation events are significantly younger than the time interval covered by this redshift range (~ 1.5 Gyr). From this, and from the relative absence of candidates for quiescent, non-star-forming galaxies at these redshifts in the NICMOS data, we suggest that star formation in LBGs may be recurrent, with short duty cycles and a timescale between star-formation events of < 1 Gyr. [Abridged]

Neutron‐Capture Elements in the Early Galaxy: Insights from a Large Sample of Metal‐poor Giants
Debra L. Burris, C. A. Pilachowski, T. E. Armandroff, C. Sneden +2 more
2000· The Astrophysical Journal575doi:10.1086/317172

New abundances for neutron-capture (n-capture) elements in a large sample of metal-poor giants from the Bond survey are presented. The spectra were acquired with the KPNO 4-m echelle and coude feed spectrographs, and have been analyzed using LTE fine-analysis techniques with both line analysis and spectral synthesis. Abundances of eight n-capture elements (Sr, Y, Zr, Ba, La, Nd, Eu, Dy) in 43 stars have been derived from blue (lambda = 4070--4710, R~20,000, S/N ratio~100-200) echelle spectra and red (lambda = 6100--6180, R~22,000, S/N ratio~100-200) coude spectra, and the abundance of Ba only has been derived from the red spectra for an additional 27 stars. Overall, the abundances show clear evidence for a large star-to-star dispersion in the heavy element-to-iron ratios. The new data also confirm that at metallicities [Fe/H] &lt;~ --2.4, the abundance pattern of the heavy (Z &gt;= 56) n-capture elements in most giants is well-matched to a scaled Solar System r-process nucleosynthesis pattern. The onset of the main r-process can be seen at [Fe/H] ~ --2.9. Contributions from the s-process can first be seen in some stars with metallicities as low as [Fe/H] ~ --2.75, and are present in most stars with metallicities [Fe/H] &gt; --2.3. The lighter n-capture elements (Sr-Y-Zr) are enhanced relative to the heavier r-process element abundances. Their production cannot be attributed solely to any combination of the Solar System r- and main s-processes, but requires a mixture of material from the r-process and from an additional n-capture process which can operate at early Galactic time.

Star Formation in NGC 5194 (M51a). II. The Spatially Resolved Star Formation Law
Robert C. Kennicutt, Daniela Calzetti, Fabian Walter, G. Hélou +4 more
2007· The Astrophysical Journal574doi:10.1086/522300

We have studied the relationship between the star formation rate (SFR), surface density, and gas surface density in the spiral galaxy M51a (NGC 5194), using multiwavelength data obtained as part of the Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxies Survey (SINGS). We introduce a new SFR index based on a linear combination of Halpha emission-line and 24 mum continuum luminosities, which provides reliable extinction-corrected ionizing fluxes and SFR densities over a wide range of dust attenuations. The combination of these extinction-corrected SFR densities with aperture synthesis H I and CO maps has allowed us to probe the form of the spatially resolved star formation law on scales of 0.5-2 kpc. We find that the resolved SFR versus gas surface density relation is well represented by a Schmidt power law, which is similar in form and dispersion to the disk-averaged Schmidt law. We observe a comparably strong correlation of the SFR surface density with the molecular gas surface density, but no significant correlation with the surface density of atomic gas. The best-fitting slope of the Schmidt law varies from N=1.37 to 1.56, with zero point and slope that change systematically with the spatial sampling scale. We tentatively attribute these variations to the effects of areal sampling and averaging of a nonlinear intrinsic star formation law. Our data can also be fitted by an alternative parameterization of the SFR surface density in terms of the ratio of gas surface density to local dynamical time, but with a considerable dispersion.

The Evolution of Early‐Type Galaxies in Distant Clusters
S. A. Stanford, Peter Eisenhardt, Mark Dickinson
1998· The Astrophysical Journal569doi:10.1086/305050

Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal. We present results from an optical–infrared photometric study of early–type (E+S0) galaxies in 19 galaxy clusters out to z = 0.9. The galaxy sample is selected on the basis of morphologies determined from HST WFPC2 images, and is photometrically defined in the K–band in order to minimize redshift–dependent selection biases. Using new ground–based photometry in five optical and infrared bands for each cluster, we examine the evolution of the color–magnitude relation for early–type cluster galaxies, considering its slope, intercept, and color scatter around the mean relation. New multiwavelength photometry of galaxies in the Coma cluster is used to provide a baseline sample at z ≈ 0 with which to compare the distant clusters. The optical–IR colors 1 Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the data archive and at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities

New Neighbors from 2MASS: Activity and Kinematics at the Bottom of the Main Sequence
John E. Gizis, D. G. Monet, I. Neill Reid, J. Davy Kirkpatrick +2 more
2000· The Astronomical Journal504doi:10.1086/301456

We have combined 2MASS and POSS II data in a search for nearby ultracool (later than M6.5) dwarfs with K_s&lt;12. Spectroscopic follow-up observations identify 53 M7 to M9.5 dwarfs and seven L dwarfs. The observed space density is 0.0045 +- 0.0008 M8-M9.5 dwarfs per cubic parsec, without accounting for biases, consistent with a mass function that is smooth across the stellar/substellar limit. We show the observed frequency of H alpha emission peaks at ~100% for M7 dwarfs and then decreases for cooler dwarfs. In absolute terms, however, as measured by the ratio of H alpha to bolometric luminosity, none of the ultracool M dwarfs can be considered very active compared to earlier M dwarfs, and we show that the decrease that begins at spectral type M6 continues to the latest L dwarfs. We find that flaring is common among the coolest M dwarfs and estimate the frequency of flares at 7% or higher. We show that the kinematics of relatively active (EW_{H alpha}&gt;6 Angstroms) ultracool M dwarfs are consistent with an ordinary old disk stellar population, while the kinematics of inactive ultracool M dwarfs are more typical of a 0.5 Gyr old population. The early L dwarfs in the sample have kinematics consistent with old ages, suggesting that the hydrogen burning limit is near spectral types L2-L4. We use the available data on M and L dwarfs to show that chromospheric activity drops with decreasing mass and temperature, and that at a given (M8 or later) spectral type, the younger field (brown) dwarfs are less active than many of the older, more massive field stellar dwarfs. Thus, contrary to the well-known stellar age-activity relationship, low activity in field ultracool dwarfs can be an indication of comparative youth and substellar mass.

The Effective Temperature Scale of Galactic Red Supergiants: Cool, but Not as Cool as We Thought
Emily M. Levesque, Philip Massey, Knut Olsen, B. Plez +3 more
2005· The Astrophysical Journal503doi:10.1086/430901

International audience

The Solar Neighborhood. XVII. Parallax Results from the CTIOPI 0.9 m Program: 20 New Members of the RECONS 10 Parsec Sample
Todd J. Henry, Wei‐Chun Jao, John P. Subasavage, Thomas D. Beaulieu +3 more
2006· The Astronomical Journal494doi:10.1086/508233

Astrometric measurements for 25 red dwarf systems are presented, including the first definitive trigonometric parallaxes for 20 systems within 10 pc of the Sun, the horizon of the RECONS sample. The three nearest systems that had no previous trigonometric parallaxes (other than perhaps rough preliminary efforts) are SO 0253+1652 (3.84 +/- 0.04 pc, the 23rd nearest system), SCR 1845-6357 AB (3.85 +/- 0.02 pc, 24th), and LHS 1723 (5.32 +/- 0.04 pc, 56th). In total, seven of the systems reported here rank among the nearest 100 stellar systems. Supporting photometric and spectroscopic observations have been made to provide full characterization of the systems, including complete VRIJHK photometry and spectral types. A study of the variability of 27 targets reveals six obvious variable stars, including GJ 1207, for which we observed a flare event in the V band that caused it to brighten by 1.7 mag. Improved parallaxes for GJ 54 AB and GJ 1061, both important members of the 10 pc sample, are also reported. Definitive parallaxes for GJ 1001 A, GJ 633, and GJ 2130 ABC, all of which have been reported to be within 10 pc, indicate that they are beyond 10 pc. From the analysis of systems with (previously) high trigonometric parallax errors, we conclude that parallaxes with errors in excess of 10 mas are insufficiently reliable for inclusion in the RECONS sample. The cumulative total of new additions to the 10 pc sample since 2000 is now 34 systems -- 28 by the RECONS team and six by other groups. This total represents a net increase of 16% in the number of stellar systems reliably known to be nearer than 10 pc.

Spectroscopy of Outlying H [CSC]ii[/CSC] Regions in Spiral Galaxies: Abundances and Radial Gradients
Liese van Zee, John J. Salzer, Martha P. Haynes, Aileen A. O’Donoghue +1 more
1998· The Astronomical Journal483doi:10.1086/300647

We present the results of low dispersion optical spectroscopy of 186 H II regions spanning a range of radius in 13 spiral galaxies. Abundances for several elements (oxygen, nitrogen, neon, sulfur, and argon) were determined for 185 of the H II regions. As expected, low metallicities were found for the outlying H II regions of these spiral galaxies. Radial abundance gradients were derived for the 11 primary galaxies; similar to results for other spiral galaxies, the derived abundance gradients are typically -0.04 to -0.07 dex/kpc.

Multilevel Radiative Transfer with Partial Frequency Redistribution
H. Uitenbroek
2001· The Astrophysical Journal482doi:10.1086/321659

A multilevel accelerated lambda iteration (MALI) method for radiative transfer calculations with partial frequency redistribution (PRD) is presented. The method, which is based on Rybicki & Hummer's complete frequency redistribution (CRD) formalism with full preconditioning, consistently accounts for overlapping radiative transitions. Its extension to PRD is implemented in a very natural way through the use of the Ψ operator operating on the emissivity rather than the commonly used Λ operator, which operates on the source function. Apart from requiring an additional inner computational loop to evaluate the PRD emission-line profiles with fixed population numbers, implementation of the presented method requires only a trivial addition of computer code. Since the presented method employs a diagonal operator, it is easily extended to different geometries. Currently, it has been implemented for one-, two-, and three-dimensional Cartesian grids and spherical symmetry. In all cases, the speed of convergence with PRD is very similar to that in CRD, with the former sometimes even surpassing the latter. Sample calculations exhibiting the favorable convergence behavior of the PRD code are presented in the case of the Ca II H and K lines, the Mg II h and k lines, and the hydrogen Lyα and Lyβ lines in a one-dimensional solar model and the Ca II resonance lines in a two-dimensional flux-sheet model.

The Evolution of the Global Stellar Mass Density at 0 &lt; <i>z</i> &lt; 3
Mark Dickinson, Casey Papovich, Henry C. Ferguson, Tamás Budavári
2003· The Astrophysical Journal467doi:10.1086/368111

The build-up of stellar mass in galaxies is the consequence of their past star formation and merging histories. Here we report measurements of rest-frame optical light and calculations of stellar mass at high redshift based on an infrared-selected sample of galaxies from the Hubble Deep Field North. The bright envelope of rest-frame B-band galaxy luminosities is similar from 0<z<3, and the co-moving luminosity density is constant to within a factor of 3 over that redshift range. However, galaxies at higher redshifts are bluer, and stellar population modeling indicates that they had significantly lower mass-to-light ratios than those of present-day L* galaxies. This leads to a global stellar mass density, Omega_*(z), which rises with time from z=3 to the present. This measurement essentially traces the integral of the cosmic star formation history that has been the subject of previous investigations. 50-75% of the present-day stellar mass density had formed by z ~ 1, but at z ~= 2.7 we find only 3-14% of today's stars were present. This increase in Omega_* with time is broadly consistent with observations of the evolving global star formation rate once dust extinction is taken into account, but is steeper at 1<z<3 than predicted by some recent semi-analytic models of galaxy formation. The observations appear to be inconsistent with scenarios in which the bulk of stars in present-day galactic spheroids formed at z>>2.

A Survey of<i>z</i> &gt; 5.7 Quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. IV. Discovery of Seven Additional Quasars
Xiaohui Fan, Michael A. Strauss, Gordon T. Richards, Joseph F. Hennawi +4 more
2006· The Astronomical Journal460doi:10.1086/500296

The authors present the discovery of seven quasars at z &gt; 5.7, selected from {approx} 2000 deg{sup 2} of multicolor imaging data of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The new quasars have redshifts z from 5.79 to 6.13. Five are selected as part of a complete flux-limited sample in the SDSS Northern Galactic Cap; two have larger photometric errors and are not part of the complete sample. One of the new quasars, SDSS J1335+3533 (z = 5.93), exhibits no emission lines; the 3-{sigma} limit on the rest-frame equivalent width of Ly{alpha}+NV line is 5 {angstrom}. It is the highest redshift lineless quasar known, and could be a gravitational lensed galaxy, a BL Lac object or a new type of quasar. Two new z &gt; 6 quasars, SDSS 1250+3130 (z = 6.13) and SDSS J1137+3549 (z = 6.01), show deep Gunn-Peterson troughs in Ly{alpha}. These troughs are narrower than those observed among quasars at z &gt; 6.2 and do not have complete Ly{beta} absorption.

The Mass Accretion Rates of Intermediate-Mass T Tauri Stars
Nuria Calvet, James Muzerolle, César Briceño, Jesús Hernández +3 more
2004· The Astronomical Journal459doi:10.1086/422733

We present Hubble Space Telescope ultraviolet spectra and supporting ground-based data for a sample of nine intermediate-mass T Tauri stars (IMTTSs; 1.5–4 M⊙). The targets belong to three star-forming regions: T Tau, SU Aur, and RY Tau in the Taurus clouds; EZ Ori, P2441, and V1044 Ori in the Ori OB1c association surrounding the Orion Nebula cluster; and CO Ori, GW Ori, and GX Ori in the ring around λ Ori. The supporting ground-based observations include nearly simultaneous UBV(R I)C photometry, 6 Å resolution spectra covering the range 3900–7000 Å, optical echelle observations in the range 5800–8600 Å, and K-band near-infrared spectra. We use these data to determine improved spectral types and reddening corrections and to obtain physical parameters of the targets. We find that an extinction law with a weak 2175 Å feature but high values of AUV/AV is required to explain the simultaneous optical-UV data; the reddening laws for two B-type stars located behind the Taurus clouds, HD 29647 and HD 283809, meet these properties. We argue that reddening laws with these characteristics may well be representative of cold, dense molecular clouds. Spectral energy distributions and emission-line profiles of the IMTTSs are consistent with expectations from magnetospheric accretion models. We compare our simultaneous optical-UV data with predictions from accretion shock models to get accretion luminosities and mass accretion rates () for the targets. We find that the average mass accretion rate for IMTTSs is ∼3 × 10-8 M⊙ yr-1, a factor of ∼5 higher than that for their low-mass counterparts. The new data extend the correlation between and stellar mass to the intermediate-mass range. Since the IMTTSs are evolutionary descendants of the Herbig Ae/Be stars, our results put limits to the mass accretion rates of their disks. We present luminosities of the UV lines of highly ionized metals and show that they are well above the saturation limit for magnetically active cool stars but correlate strongly with accretion luminosity, indicating that they are powered by accretion, in agreement with previous claims but using a sample in which reddening and accretion luminosities have been determined self-consistently. Finally, we find that the relation between accretion luminosity and Brγ luminosity found for low-mass T Tauri stars extends to the intermediate-mass regime.