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The spectrum of the quasar PHL 1226 is known to have a strong Mg II and sub-damped Lymanalpha (sub-DLA) absorption line system with N(H I) = (5 +/- 2) x 10(19) cm(-2) at z = 0.1602. Using integral field spectra from the Potsdam Multi Aperture Spectrophotometer (PMAS) we investigate a galaxy at an impact parameter of 6".4 which is most probably responsible for the absorption lines. A fainter galaxy at a similar redshift and a slightly larger distance from the QSO is known to exist, but we assume that the absorption is caused by the more nearby galaxy. From optical Balmer lines we estimate an intrinsic reddening consistent with 0, and a moderate star formation rate of 0.5 M-circle dot yr(-1) is inferred from the Ha luminosity. Using nebular emission line ratios we find a solar oxygen abundance 12 + log (O/H) = 8.7 +/- 0.1 and a solar nitrogen to oxygen abundance ratio log (N/O) = -1.0 +/- 0.2. This abundance is larger than those of all known sub-DLA systems derived from analyses of metal absorption lines in quasar spectra. On the other hand, the properties are compatible with the most metal rich galaxies responsible for strong Mg II absorption systems. These two categories can be reconciled if we assume an abundance gradient similar to local galaxies. Under that assumption we predict abundances 12 + log (O/H) = 7.1 and log (N/O) = -1.9 for the sub-DLA cloud, which is similar to high redshift DLA and sub-DLA systems. We find evidence for a rotational velocity of similar to200 km s(-1) over a length of similar to7 kpc. From the geometry and kinematics of the galaxy we estimate that the absorbing cloud does not belong to a rotating disk, but could originate in a rotating halo
Integral-field spectrophotometry of the quadruple QSO HE 0435-1223 : Evidence for microlensing
(2003)
We present the first spatially resolved spectroscopic observations of the recently discovered quadruple QSO and gravitational lens HE 0435-1223. Using the Potsdam Multi-Aperture Spectrophotometer (PMAS), we show that all four QSO components have very similar but not identical spectra. In particular, the spectral slopes of components A, B, and D are indistinguishable, implying that extinction due to dust plays no major role in the lensing galaxy. While also the emission line profiles are identical within the error bars, as expected from lensing, the equivalent widths show significant differences between components. Most likely, microlensing is responsible for this phenomenon. This is also consistent with the fact that component D, which shows the highest relative continuum level, has brightened by 0.07 mag since Dec. 2001. We find that the emission line flux ratios between the components are in better agreement with simple lens models than broad band or continuum measurements, but that the discrepancies between model and data are still unacceptably large. Finally, we present a detection of the lensing galaxy, although this is close to the limits of the data. Comparing with a model galaxy spectrum, we obtain a redshift estimate of zlens=0.44+/- 0.02.
This paper presents observations of an extended Lyman-alpha emission nebula surrounding the galaxy responsible for the Damped Lyman-alpha Absorption (DLA) line in the spectrum of the quasar Q2233+131. With the Potsdam Multi Aperture Spectrophotometer (PMAS) we measure the properties of the extended Lyalpha emission in an area of 3" x 5" having a total line flux of (2.8 +/- 0.3) x 10(-16) erg cm(-2) s(-1), which at redshift z = 3.15 corresponds to a luminosity of (2.4(-0.2)(+0.3)) x 10(43) erg s(-1) and a size of 23 x 38 kpc. The location of the emission is spatially coincident with the previously detected DLA galaxy, but extends significantly beyond its limb. We argue that the Lya emission is likely to be caused by an outflow from the DLA galaxy, presumably powered by star formation. In the case of negligible dust extinction, the Lya luminosity indicates a star-formation rate of 19 +/- 10 M-. yr(-1) consistent with that derived from the UV continuum flux from the parent galaxy. The wind velocity indicated by the integral field spectra is of the order of several hundred km s(-1). We find no indication of emission originating in a rotating disk
We present spatially resolved spectrophotometric observations of multiply imaged QSOs, using the Potsdam Multi- Aperture Spectrophotometer (PMAS), with the intention to search for spectral differences between components indicative of either microlensing or dust extinction. For the quadruple QSO HE 0435-1223 we find that the continuum shapes are indistinguishable, therefore differential extinction is negligible. The equivalent widths of the broad emission lines are however significantly different, and we argue that this is most likely due to microlensing. Contrariwise, the two components of the well-known object UM 673 have virtually identical emission line properties, but the continuum slopes differ significantly and indicate different dust extinction along both lines of sight
We report preliminary results from a targeted investigation on quasars containing damped Lyman-alpha absorption (DLA) lines as well strong metal absorption lines, carried out with the Potsdam Multi Aperture Spectrophotometer (PMAS). We search for line-emitting objects at the same redshift as the absorption lines and close to the line of sight of the QSOs. We have observed and detected the already confirmed absorbing galaxies in Q2233+131 (Z(abs) = 3.15) and Q0151+045 (Z(abs),= 0.168), while failing to find spectral signatures for the z = 0.091 absorber in Q0738+313. From the Q2233+131 DLA galaxy, we have detected extended Lyalpha emission from an area of 3" x 5"
We describe a project to study the state of the ISM in similar to20 low redshift (z < 0.3) QSO host galaxies observed with the PMAS integral field spectrograph. We describe the development of the method to access the stellar and gas components of the spectrum without the strong nuclear emission, in order to access the host galaxy properties in the central region. It shows that integral field spectroscopy promises to be very efficient in studying the gas distribution and its velocity field, and also the spatially resolved stellar population in the host galaxies of luminous AGN
sent observations of the Type Ia supernova SN 2002er during the brightening phase. The observations were performed with the Potsdam Multi Aperture Spectrophotometer (PMAS) integral field instrument. Due to the 8arcsecx8 arcsec field of view of the spectrograph an accurate background subtraction was possible. Results from analyses of the evolution of absorption features in comparisons with other SNe show that SN 2002er is a fairly bright Type Ia supernova with a peak brightness of MB=-19.6+/-0.1.
The near-infrared is an important part of the spectrum in astronomy, especially in cosmology because the light from objects in the early universe is redshifted to these wavelengths. However, deep near-infrared observations are extremely difficult to make from ground-based telescopes due to the bright background from the atmosphere. Nearly all of this background comes from the bright and narrow emission lines of atmospheric hydroxyl (OH) molecules. The atmospheric background cannot be easily removed from data because the brightness fluctuates unpredictably on short timescales. The sensitivity of ground-based optical astronomy far exceeds that of near-infrared astronomy because of this long-standing problem. GNOSIS is a prototype astrophotonic instrument that utilizes "OH suppression fibers" consisting of fiber Bragg gratings and photonic lanterns to suppress the 103 brightest atmospheric emission doublets between 1.47 and 1.7 mu m. GNOSIS was commissioned at the 3.9 m Anglo-Australian Telescope with the IRIS2 spectrograph to demonstrate the potential of OH suppression fibers, but may be potentially used with any telescope and spectrograph combination. Unlike previous atmospheric suppression techniques GNOSIS suppresses the lines before dispersion and in a manner that depends purely on wavelength. We present the instrument design and report the results of laboratory and on-sky tests from commissioning. While these tests demonstrated high throughput (approximate to 60%) and excellent suppression of the skylines by the OH suppression fibers, surprisingly GNOSIS produced no significant reduction in the interline background and the sensitivity of GNOSIS+IRIS2 is about the same as IRIS2. It is unclear whether the lack of reduction in the interline background is due to physical sources or systematic errors as the observations are detector noise dominated. OH suppression fibers could potentially impact ground-based astronomy at the level of adaptive optics or greater. However, until a clear reduction in the interline background and the corresponding increasing in sensitivity is demonstrated optimized OH suppression fibers paired with a fiber-fed spectrograph will at least provide a real benefit at low resolving powers.
A nova is a cataclysmic event on the surface of a white dwarf in a binary system that increases the overall brightness by several orders of magnitude. Although binary systems with a white dwarf are expected to be overabundant in globular clusters compared with in the Galaxy, only two novae from Galactic globular clusters have been observed. We present the discovery of an emission nebula in the Galactic globular cluster M 22 (NGC 6656) in observations made with the integral-field spectrograph MUSE. We extracted the spectrum of the nebula and used the radial velocity determined from the emission lines to confirm that the nebula is part of NGC 6656. Emission-line ratios were used to determine the electron temperature and density. It is estimated to have a mass of 1-17 x 10(-5) M-circle dot. This mass and the emission-line ratios indicate that the nebula is a nova remnant. Its position coincides with the reported location of a "guest star", an ancient Chinese term for transients, observed in May 48 BCE. With this discovery, this nova may be one of the oldest confirmed extra-solar events recorded in human history.
We propose a fibre-based approach for generation of optical frequency combs (OFCs) with the aim of calibration of astronomical spectrographs in the low and medium-resolution range. This approach includes two steps: in the first step, an appropriate state of optical pulses is generated and subsequently moulded in the second step delivering the desired OFC. More precisely, the first step is realised by injection of two continuous-wave (CW) lasers into a conventional single-mode fibre, whereas the second step generates a broad OFC by using the optical solitons generated in step one as initial condition. We investigate the conversion of a bichromatic input wave produced by two initial CW lasers into a train of optical solitons, which happens in the fibre used as step one. Especially, we are interested in the soliton content of the pulses created in this fibre. For that, we study different initial conditions (a single cosine-hump, an Akhmediev breather, and a deeply modulated bichromatic wave) by means of soliton radiation beat analysis and compare the results to draw conclusion about the soliton content of the state generated in the first step. In case of a deeply modulated bichromatic wave, we observed the formation of a collective soliton crystal for low input powers and the appearance of separated solitons for high input powers. An intermediate state showing the features of both, the soliton crystal and the separated solitons, turned out to be most suitable for the generation of OFC for the purpose of calibration of astronomical spectrographs.
Until now, spatially resolved Raman Spectroscopy has required to scan a sample under investigation in a time-consuming step-by-step procedure. Here, we present a technique that allows the capture of an entire Raman image with only one single exposure. The Raman scattering arising from the sample was collected with a fiber-coupled high-performance astronomy spectrograph. The probe head consisting of an array of 20 x 20 multimode fibers was linked to the camera port of a microscope. To demonstrate the high potential of this new concept, Raman images of reference samples were recorded. Entire chemical maps were received without the need for a scanning procedure.
A stellar census in globular clusters with MUSE: A spectral catalogue of emission-line sources
(2019)
Aims. Globular clusters produce many exotic stars due to a much higher frequency of dynamical interactions in their dense stellar environments. Some of these objects were observed together with several hundred thousand other stars in our MUSE survey of 26 Galactic globular clusters. Assuming that at least a few exotic stars have exotic spectra (i.e. spectra that contain emission lines), we can use this large spectroscopic data set of over a million stellar spectra as a blind survey to detect stellar exotica in globular clusters. Methods. To detect emission lines in each spectrum, we modelled the expected shape of an emission line as a Gaussian curve. This template was used for matched filtering on the di fferences between each observed 1D spectrum and its fitted spectral model. The spectra with the most significant detections of H alpha emission are checked visually and cross-matched with published catalogues. Results. We find 156 stars with H alpha emission, including several known cataclysmic variables (CV) and two new CVs, pulsating variable stars, eclipsing binary stars, the optical counterpart of a known black hole, several probable sub-subgiants and red stragglers, and 21 background emission-line galaxies. We find possible optical counterparts to 39 X-ray sources, as we detected H alpha emission in several spectra of stars that are close to known positions of Chandra X-ray sources. This spectral catalogue can be used to supplement existing or future X-ray or radio observations with spectra of potential optical counterparts to classify the sources.
The problem of atmospheric emission from OH molecules is a long standing problem for near-infrared astronomy. PRAXIS is a unique spectrograph which is fed by fibres that remove the OH background and is optimised specifically to benefit from OH-Suppression. The OH suppression is achieved with fibre Bragg gratings, which were tested successfully on the GNOSIS instrument. PRAXIS uses the same fibre Bragg gratings as GNOSIS in its first implementation, and will exploit new, cheaper and more efficient, multicore fibre Bragg gratings in the second implementation. The OH lines are suppressed by a factor of similar to 1000, and the expected increase in the signal-to-noise in the interline regions compared to GNOSIS is a factor of similar to 9 with the GNOSIS gratings and a factor of similar to 17 with the new gratings. PRAXIS will enable the full exploitation of OH suppression for the first time, which was not achieved by GNOSIS (a retrofit to an existing instrument that was not OH-Suppression optimised) due to high thermal emission, low spectrograph transmission and detector noise. PRAXIS has extremely low thermal emission, through the cooling of all significantly emitting parts, including the fore-optics, the fibre Bragg gratings, a long length of fibre, and the fibre slit, and an optical design that minimises leaks of thermal emission from outside the spectrograph. PRAXIS has low detector noise through the use of a Hawaii-2RG detector, and a high throughput through a efficient VPH based spectrograph. PRAXIS will determine the absolute level of the interline continuum and enable observations of individual objects via an IFU. In this paper we give a status update and report on acceptance tests.
Arctic lowlands are characterized by large numbers of small waterbodies, which are known to affect surface energy budgets and the global carbon cycle. Statistical analysis of their size distributions has been hindered by the shortage of observations at sufficiently high spatial resolutions. This situation has now changed with the high-resolution (<5 m) circum-Arctic Permafrost Region Pond and Lake (PeRL) database recently becoming available. We have used this database to make the first consistent, high-resolution estimation of Arctic waterbody size distributions, with surface areas ranging from 0.0001 km(2) (100 m(2)) to 1 km(2). We found that the size distributions varied greatly across the thirty study regions investigated and that there was no single universal size distribution function (including power-law distribution functions) appropriate across all of the study regions. We did, however, find close relationships between the statistical moments (mean, variance, and skewness) of the waterbody size distributions from different study regions. Specifically, we found that the spatial variance increased linearly with mean waterbody size (R-2 = 0.97, p < 2.2e-16) and that the skewness decreased approximately hyperbolically. We have demonstrated that these relationships (1) hold across the 30 Arctic study regions covering a variety of (bio)climatic and permafrost zones, (2) hold over time in two of these study regions for which multi-decadal satellite imagery is available, and (3) can be reproduced by simulating rising water levels in a high-resolution digital elevation model. The consistent spatial and temporal relationships between the statistical moments of the waterbody size distributions underscore the dominance of topographic controls in lowland permafrost areas. These results provide motivation for further analyses of the factors involved in waterbody development and spatial distribution and for investigations into the possibility of using statistical moments to predict future hydrologic dynamics in the Arctic.
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.
Swelling and switching kinetics of gold coated end-capped poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) thin films
(2010)
Thin thermoresponsive hydrogel films of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) end-capped with n-butyltrithiocarbonate(nbc- PNIPAM) oil si I icon supports with a gold layer on top, causing an asymmetric confinement, are investigated. For two different gold layer thicknesses (nominally 0.4 and 5 rim), the swelling and switching kinetics are probed with in situ neutron reflectivity. With a temperature jump from 23 to 40 degrees C the film is switched from a swollen into a collapsed state. For the thin gold layer this switching is faster as compared to the thick gold layer. The switching is a two-step process of water release and a subsequent structural relaxation. fit swelling and deswelling cycles, aging of the films is probed. After five cycles, the film exhibits enhanced water storage capacity. Grazing-incidence small-angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS) shows that these gold coated nbc-PNIPAM films do not age with respect to the inner structure but slightly roughen at the gold surface. As revealed by atomic force microscopy, the morphology of the gold layer is changed by the water uptake and release.
A long-standing and profound problem in astronomy is the difficulty in obtaining deep near-infrared observations due to the extreme brightness and variability of the night sky at these wavelengths. A solution to this problem is crucial if we are to obtain the deepest possible observations of the early Universe, as redshifted starlight from distant galaxies appears at these wavelengths. The atmospheric emission between 1,000 and 1,800 nm arises almost entirely from a forest of extremely bright, very narrow hydroxyl emission lines that varies on timescales of minutes. The astronomical community has long envisaged the prospect of selectively removing these lines, while retaining high throughput between them. Here we demonstrate such a filter for the first time, presenting results from the first on-sky tests. Its use on current 8 m telescopes and future 30 m telescopes will open up many new research avenues in the years to come.
Besides their function as one of the main contact points, websites of hospitals serve as medical information portals. All patients should be able to understand medical information texts; regardless of their literacy skills and educational level. Online texts should thus have an appropriate structure to ease their comprehension.
Patient information texts on every German nonuniversity ENT hospital website (n = 125) were systematically analysed. For ten different ENT topics a representative medical information text was extracted from each website. Using objective text parameters and five established readability indices, the texts were analysed in terms of their readability and structure. Furthermore, we stratified the analysis in relation to the hospital organisation system and geographical region in Germany.
Texts from 142 internet sites could be used for the definite analysis. On average, texts consisted of 15 sentences and 237 words. Readability indices congruously showed that the analysed texts could generally only be understood by a well-educated or even academic reader.
The majority of patient information texts on German hospital websites are difficult to understand for most patients. In order to fulfil their goal of adequately informing the general population about disease, therapeutic options and the particular focal points of the clinic, a revision of most medical texts on the websites of German ENT hospitals is recommended.
Aims. We demonstrate the high multiplex advantage of crowded field 3D spectroscopy with the new integral field spectrograph MUSE by means of a spectroscopic analysis of more than 12 000 individual stars in the globular cluster NGC 6397. Methods. The stars are deblended with a point spread function fitting technique, using a photometric reference catalogue from HST as prior, including relative positions and brightnesses. This catalogue is also used for a first analysis of the extracted spectra, followed by an automatic in-depth analysis via a full-spectrum fitting method based on a large grid of PHOENIX spectra. Results. We analysed the largest sample so far available for a single globular cluster of 18 932 spectra from 12 307 stars in NGC 6397. We derived a mean radial velocity of v(rad) = 17.84 +/- 0.07 km s(-1) and a mean metallicity of [Fe/H] = -2.120 +/- 0.002, with the latter seemingly varying with temperature for stars on the red giant branch (RGB). We determine Teff and [Fe/H] from the spectra, and log g from HST photometry. This is the first very comprehensive Hertzsprung-Russell diagram (HRD) for a globular cluster based on the analysis of several thousands of stellar spectra, ranging from the main sequence to the tip of the RGB. Furthermore, two interesting objects were identified; one is a post-AGB star and the other is a possible millisecond-pulsar companion.
Most image restoration methods in astronomy rely upon probabilistic tools that infer the best solution for a deconvolution problem. They achieve good performances when the point spread function (PSF) is spatially invariant in the image plane.
However, this condition is not always satisfied in real optical systems. We propose a new method for the restoration of images affected by static and anisotropic aberrations using Deep Neural Networks that can be directly applied to sky images.
The network is trained using simulated sky images corresponding to the T80-S Telescope optical model, a 80-cm survey imager at Cerro Tololo (Chile), which are synthesized using a Zernike polynomial representation of the optical system.
Once trained, the network can be used directly on sky images, outputting a corrected version of the image that has a constant and known PSF across its field of view. The method is to be tested on the T80-S Telescope.
We present the method and results on synthetic data.
The effect of chain architecture on the swelling and thermal response of thin films obtained from an amphiphilic three-arm star-shaped thermo-responsive block copolymer poly(methoxy diethylene glycol acrylate)-block-polystyrene ((PMDEGA-b-PS)(3)) is investigated by in situ neutron reflectivity (NR) measurements. The PMDEGA and PS blocks are micro-phase separated with randomly distributed PS nanodomains. The (PMDEGA-b-PS)(3) films show a transition temperature (TT) at 33 degrees C in white light interferometry. The swelling capability of the (PMDEGA-b-PS)(3) films in a D2O vapor atmosphere is better than that of films from linear PS-b-PMDEGA-b-PS triblock copolymers, which can be attributed to the hydrophilic end groups and limited size of the PS blocks in (PMDEGA-b-PS)(3). However, the swelling kinetics of the as-prepared (PMDEGA-b-PS)(3) films and the response of the swollen film to a temperature change above the TT are significantly slower than that in the PS-b-PMDEGA-b-PS films, which may be related to the conformation restriction by the star-shape. Unlike in the PS-b-PMDEGA-b-PS films, the amount of residual D2O in the collapsed (PMDEGA-b-PS)(3) films depends on the final temperature. It decreases from (9.7 +/- 0.3)% to (7.0 +/- 0.3)% or (6.0 +/- 0.3)% when the final temperatures are set to 35 degrees C, 45 degrees C and 50 degrees C, respectively. This temperature-dependent reduction of embedded D2O originates from the hindrance of chain conformation from the star-shaped chain architecture.