@article{WeilbacherMonrealIberoVerhammeetal.2018, author = {Weilbacher, Peter Michael and Monreal-Ibero, Ana and Verhamme, Anne and Sandin, Christer and Steinmetz, Matthias and Kollatschny, Wolfram and Krajnovic, Davor and Kamann, Sebastian and Roth, Martin M. and Erroz-Ferrer, Santiago and Marino, Raffaella Anna and Maseda, Michael V. and Wendt, Martin and Bacon, Roland and Dreizler, Stefan and Richard, Johan and Wisotzki, Lutz}, title = {Lyman-continuum leakage as dominant source of diffuse ionized gas in the Antennae galaxy}, series = {Astronomy and astrophysics : an international weekly journal}, volume = {611}, journal = {Astronomy and astrophysics : an international weekly journal}, publisher = {EDP Sciences}, address = {Les Ulis}, issn = {1432-0746}, doi = {10.1051/0004-6361/201731669}, pages = {17}, year = {2018}, abstract = {The Antennae galaxy (NGC 4038/39) is the closest major interacting galaxy system and is therefore often studied as a merger prototype. We present the first comprehensive integral field spectroscopic dataset of this system, observed with the MUSE instrument at the ESO VLT. We cover the two regions in this system which exhibit recent star formation: the central galaxy interaction and a region near the tip of the southern tidal tail. In these fields, we detect H II regions and diffuse ionized gas to unprecedented depth. About 15\% of the ionized gas was undetected by previous observing campaigns. This newly detected faint ionized gas is visible everywhere around the central merger, and shows filamentary structure. We estimate diffuse gas fractions of about 60\% in the central field and 10\% in the southern region. We are able to show that the southern region contains a significantly different population of H II regions, showing fainter luminosities. By comparing H II region luminosities with the HST catalog of young star clusters in the central field, we estimate that there is enough Lyman-continuum leakage in the merger to explain the amount of diffuse ionized gas that we detect. We compare the Lyman-continuum escape fraction of each H II region against emission line ratios that are sensitive to the ionization parameter. While we find no systematic trend between these properties, the most extreme line ratios seem to be strong indicators of density bounded ionization. Extrapolating the Lyman-continuum escape fractions to the southern region, we conclude that simply from the comparison of the young stellar populations to the ionized gas there is no need to invoke other ionization mechanisms than Lyman-continuum leaking H II regions for the diffuse ionized gas in the Antennae.}, language = {en} } @article{WendtHusserKamannetal.2017, author = {Wendt, Martin and Husser, Tim-Oliver and Kamann, Sebastian and Monreal-Ibero, Ana and Richter, Philipp and Brinchmann, Jarle and Dreizler, Stefan and Weilbacher, Peter Michael and Wisotzki, Lutz}, title = {Mapping diffuse interstellar bands in the local ISM on small scales via MUSE 3D spectroscopy A pilot study based on globular cluster NGC 6397}, series = {Astronomy and astrophysics : an international weekly journal}, volume = {607}, journal = {Astronomy and astrophysics : an international weekly journal}, publisher = {EDP Sciences}, address = {Les Ulis}, issn = {1432-0746}, doi = {10.1051/0004-6361/201629816}, pages = {16}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Context. We map the interstellar medium (ISM) including the diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs) in absorption toward the globular cluster NGC6397 using VLT/MUSE. Assuming the absorbers are located at the rim of the Local Bubble we trace structures on the order of mpc (milliparsec, a few thousand AU). Aims. We aimed to demonstrate the feasibility to map variations of DIBs on small scales with MUSE. The sightlines defined by binned stellar spectra are separated by only a few arcseconds and we probe the absorption within a physically connected region. Methods. This analysis utilized the fitting residuals of individual stellar spectra of NGC6397 member stars and analyzed lines from neutral species and several DIBs in Voronoi-binned composite spectra with high signal-to-noise ratio (S/N). Results. This pilot study demonstrates the power of MUSE for mapping the local ISM on very small scales which provides a new window for ISM observations. We detect small scale variations in Na-I and K-I as well as in several DIBs within few arcseconds, or mpc with regard to the Local Bubble. We verify the suitability of the MUSE 3D spectrograph for such measurements and gain new insights by probing a single physical absorber with multiple sight lines.}, language = {en} }