16776986
The Southern Galactic Plane Survey: the test region
The Southern Galactic Plane Survey (SGPS) is a project to image the H I line emission and 1.4 GHz continuum in the fourth quadrant of the Milky Way at high resolution using the Australia Telescope Compact Array and the Parkes Radio Telescope. This paper describes the survey details and goals, presents 21 cm continuum data, and discusses H I absorption and emission characteristics of the SGPS test region (325.5d<=l<=333.5d -0.5d<=b<=+3.5d). We explore the effects of massive stars on the interstellar medium through a study of H I shells and the H I environments of H II regions and supernova remnants (SNRs). We find an H I shell surrounding the H II region RCW 94, which indicates that the region is embedded in a molecular cloud. We give lower limits for the kinematic distances to SNRs G327.4+0.4 and G330.2+1.0 of 4.3 and 4.9 kpc, respectively. We find evidence of interaction with the surrounding H I for both of these remnants. We also present images of a possible new SNR G328.6-0.0. Additionally, we have discovered two small H I shells with no counterparts in continuum emission.
7431869
Magnetic fields and ionized gas in the inner galaxy: An outer scale for turbulence and the possible role of H II regions
We present an analysis of rotation measure (RM) fluctuations from the test region of the Southern Galactic Plane Survey (SGPS), along with emission measure (EM) fluctuations in the same field taken from the Southern H? Sky Survey Atlas. The structure function of RM fluctuations shows a relatively steep slope at small scales (1'-5'), a break in slope to a flatter structure function at intermediate scales (5'-60'), and a systematic variation of the strength of fluctuations as a function of position angle on the sky at the largest scales (60'-200'). The structure function of EM fluctuations shows similar behavior, although the lower resolution of the data prevents detection of a possible break in the spectrum. We interpret the anisotropy in RM/EM structure on large scales as resulting from a large-scale gradient in electron density (and possibly magnetic field) across the region. The break in the slope of the RM structure function at scales of ~5' can be explained by contributions from two spatially distinct magnetoionized screens, most likely in the Local and Carina spiral arms. The observed structure function then implies that the outer scale of RM fluctuations in these screens is ~2 pc. Such behavior is in striking contrast to the expectation that interstellar turbulence forms an unbroken spectrum from kiloparsec down to AU scales. We conclude that we have identified an additional source of enhanced turbulence, injected on scales of a few pc, possibly seen only in the Galactic plane. The most likely source of such turbulence is individual H II regions from relatively low mass stars, whose characteristic scale size is similar to the outer scale of turbulence inferred here. These sources may be the dominant source of density and velocity fluctuations in warm ionized gas in the Galactic plane.
16815360
H I-bright Galaxies in the Southern Zone of Avoidance
A blind survey for H I–bright galaxies in the southern zone of avoidance (212° ≤ l ≤ 36°, |b| ≤ 5°) has been made with the 21 cm multibeam receiver on the Parkes 64 m radio telescope. The survey, sensitive to normal spiral galaxies to a distance of ~40 Mpc and more nearby dwarfs, detected 110 galaxies. Of these, 67 have no counterparts cataloged in the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database. In general, the uncataloged galaxies lie behind thicker obscuration than do the cataloged objects. All the newly discovered galaxies have H I flux integrals that are more than an order of magnitude lower than those of the Circinus galaxy. The survey recovers the Puppis Cluster and foreground group, and the Local Void remains empty. The H I mass function derived for the sample is satisfactorily fitted by a Schechter function with parameters α = 1.51 ± 0.12, Φ* = 0.006 ± 0.003, and log M* = 9.7 ± 0.10.
17041309
Magnetically Dominated Strands of Cold Hydrogen in the Riegel-Crutcher Cloud
We present new high-resolution (100'') neutral hydrogen (H I) self-absorption images of the Riegel-Crutcher cloud obtained with the Australia Telescope Compact Array and the Parkes Radio Telescope. The Riegel-Crutcher cloud lies in the direction of the Galactic center at a distance of 125 ± 25 pc. Our observations resolve the very large, nearby sheet of cold hydrogen into a spectacular network of dozens of hairlike filaments. Individual filaments are remarkably elongated, being up to 17 pc long with widths of less than ~0.1 pc. The strands are reasonably cold, with spin temperatures of ~40 K and in many places appearing to have optical depths larger than 1. Comparing the H I images with observations of stellar polarization, we show that the filaments are very well aligned with the ambient magnetic field. We argue that the structure of the cloud has been determined by its magnetic field. In order for the cloud to be magnetically dominated the magnetic field strength must be >30 μG.
18300265
Distant Extended Spiral Arm in the Fourth Quadrant of the Milky
Using data from the Southern Galactic Plane Survey we present a possible distant spiral arm in the fourth quadrant of the Milky Way. The very distinct and cohesive feature can be traced for over 70 • as the most extreme positive velocity feature in the longitude-velocity diagram. The feature is at a Galactic radius between 18 and 24 kpc and appears to be the last major structure before the end of the H i disk. We compare the feature with a Galactic spiral model and show that it is well reproduced by a spiral arm of pitch angle, i ∼ 9 •. The arm is quite well confined to the Galactic plane, dropping at most 1 kpc below the Galactic equator. Over most of its length the arm is 1-2 kpc thick.
17676935
ENHANCED SMALL-SCALE FARADAY ROTATION IN THE GALACTIC SPIRAL ARMS
We present an analysis of the rotation measures (RMs) of polarized extragalactic point sources in the Southern Galactic Plane Survey. This work demonstrates that the statistics of fluctuations in RM differ for the spiral arms and the interarm regions. Structure functions of RM are flat in the spiral arms, while they increase in the interarms. This indicates that there are no correlated RM fluctuations in the magnetoionized interstellar medium in the spiral arms on scales larger than ~05, corresponding to ~17 pc in the nearest spiral arm probed. The nonzero slopes in interarm regions imply a much larger scale of RM fluctuations. We conclude that fluctuations in the magnetoionic medium in the Milky Way spiral arms are not dominated by the mainly supernova-driven turbulent cascade in the global ISM but are probably due to a different source, most likely H II regions.
29726646
Constraints on the density perturbation spectrum from primordial black holes
We reexamine the constraints on the density perturbation spectrum, including its spectral index $n,$ from the production of primordial black holes. The standard cosmology, where the Universe is radiation dominated from the end of inflation up until the recent past, was studied by Carr, Gilbert, and Lidsey; we correct two errors in their derivation and find a significantly stronger constraint than they did: $n\ensuremath{\lesssim}1.25$ rather than their 1.5. We then consider an alternative cosmology in which a second period of inflation, known as thermal inflation and designed to solve additional relic overdensity problems, occurs at a lower-energy scale than the main inflationary period. In that case, the constraint weakens to $n\ensuremath{\lesssim}1.3,$ and thermal inflation also leads to a ``missing mass'' range ${10}^{18}\mathrm{g}\ensuremath{\lesssim}M\ensuremath{\lesssim}{10}^{26}\mathrm{g}$ in which primordial black holes cannot form. Finally, we discuss the effect of allowing for the expected non-Gaussianity in the density perturbations predicted by Bullock and Primack, which can weaken the constraints further by up to 0.05.
34673991
Primordial black hole constraints in cosmologies with early matter domination
Moduli fields, a natural prediction of any supergravity and superstring-inspired supersymmetry theory, may lead to a prolonged period of matter domination in the early Universe. This can be observationally viable provided the moduli decay early enough to avoid harming nucleosynthesis. If primordial black holes form, they would be expected to do so before or during this matter dominated era. We examine the extent to which the standard primordial black hole constraints are weakened in such a cosmology. Permitted mass fractions of black holes at formation are of order $10^{-8}$, rather than the usual $10^{-20}$ or so. If the black holes form from density perturbations with a power-law spectrum, its spectral index is limited to $n \lesssim 1.3$, rather than the $n \lesssim 1.25$ obtained in the standard cosmology.
118948395
Interpreting data from WIMP direct detection experiments
Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) direct detection experiments are closing in on the region of parameter space where relic neutralinos may constitute the galactic halo dark matter. We discuss two issues in the interpretation of data, in particular the calculation of exclusion limits, from these experiments. Firstly we show that the technique that has been used for calculating exclusion limits from binned data without background subtraction produces erroneously tight limits, and discuss alternative methods which avoid this problem. We then argue that the standard maxwellian halo model is likely to be a poor approximation to the dark matter distribution and examine how halo models with triaxiality, velocity anisotropy and small scale clumping affect exclusion limits.
117822403
The first WIMPy halos
The dark matter distribution on small scales may depend on the properties of the first generation of dark matter halos to form, which is in turn determined by the microphysics of the dark matter particles. We overview the microphysics of WIMPs and the calculation of the collisional damping and free streaming scales. We then present the resulting density perturbation power spectrum and the red‐shift at which typical halos form, taking into account the effect of uncertainties in the WIMP properties (mass and interaction channel) and the primordial power spectrum. Finally we review simulations of the formation of the first WIMPy halos and discuss their subsequent evolution, in particular disruption due to encounters with stars.
14076551
On mini‐halo encounters with stars
We study, analytically and numerically, the energy input into dark matter mini-haloes by interactions with stars. We find that the fractional energy input in simulations of Plummer spheres agrees well with the impulse approximation for small and large impact parameters, with a rapid transition between these two regimes. Using the impulse approximation, the fractional energy input at large impact parameters is fairly independent of the mass and density profiles of the mini-halo; however, low-mass mini-haloes experience a greater fractional energy input in close encounters. We formulate a fitting function which encodes these results and use it to estimate the disruption time-scales of mini-haloes, taking into account the stellar velocity dispersion and mass distribution. For mini-haloes with mass formula on typical orbits which pass through the disc, we find that the estimated disruption time-scales are independent of mini-halo mass, and are of the order of the age of the Milky Way. For more massive mini-haloes, the estimated disruption time-scales increase rapidly with increasing mass.