119142577
Rotation Measures of Extragalactic Sources Behind the Southern Galactic Plane: New Insights into the Large-scale Magnetic Field of the Inner Milky Way
We present new Faraday rotation measures (RMs) for 148 extragalactic radio sources behind the southern Galactic plane (253° ≤ l ≤ 356°, |b| ≤ 1.5°), and use these data in combination with published data to probe the large-scale structure of the Milky Way's magnetic field. We show that the magnitudes of these RMs oscillate with longitude in a manner that correlates with the locations of the Galactic spiral arms. The observed pattern in RMs requires the presence of at least one large-scale magnetic reversal in the fourth Galactic quadrant, located between the Sagittarius-Carina and Scutum-Crux spiral arms. To quantitatively compare our measurements to other recent studies, we consider all available extragalactic and pulsar RMs in the region we have surveyed, and jointly fit these data to simple models in which the large-scale field follows the spiral arms. In the best-fitting model, the magnetic field in the fourth Galactic quadrant is directed clockwise in the Sagittarius-Carina spiral arm (as viewed from the north Galactic pole), but is oriented counterclockwise in the Scutum-Crux arm. This contrasts with recent analyses of pulsar RMs alone, in which the fourth-quadrant field was presumed to be directed counterclockwise in the Sagittarius-Carina arm. Also in contrast to recent pulsar RM studies, our joint modeling of pulsar and extragalactic RMs demonstrates that large numbers of large-scale magnetic field reversals are not required to account for observations.
118984034
The Molonglo Galactic Plane Survey. I. Overview and Images
The first-epoch Molonglo Galactic Plane Survey is a radio continuum survey made using the Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope at 843 MHz with a resolution of 43''×43'' csc|δ|. The region surveyed is 245°≤l≤355°, |b|≤1.5°. The 13 9°×3° mosaic images presented here are the superposition of over 450 complete synthesis observations, each taking 12 h and covering a field of 70'×70' csc|δ|. The root-mean-square sensitivity over much of the mosaicked survey is 1-2 mJy beam-1 (1 σ), and the positional accuracy is ≈ 1''×1'' csc|δ| for sources brighter than 20 mJy. The dynamic range is no better than 250:1, and this also constrains the sensitivity in some parts of the images. The survey area of 330 deg2 contains well over 1.2×104 unresolved or barely resolved objects, almost all of which are extragalactic sources lying in the zone of avoidance. In addition, a significant fraction of this area is covered by extended, diffuse emission associated with thermal complexes, discrete H II regions, supernova remnants, and other structures in the Galactic interstellar medium.
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.
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.
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.
117355245
Radio Observations of Masers in Post-AGB Stars
We present observations of 86 post-Asymptotic Giant Branch (post-AGB) stars of OH maser transitions, taken with the Parkes Telescope between September 2002 and August 2003. Post-AGB stars are the precursors of planetary nebulae, which have a wide range of morphologies that are not well explained. By studying the circumstellar envelopes of post-AGB stars through the masers produced in them, we hope to shed light on the origin of planetary nebula morphologies.
53576835
Primordial black holes as a tool for constraining non-Gaussianity
Primordial Black Holes (PBH's) can form in the early Universe from thecollapse of large density fluctuations. Tight observational limits on theirabundance constrain the amplitude of the primordial fluctuations on very smallscales which can not otherwise be constrained, with PBH's only forming from theextremely rare large fluctuations. The number of PBH's formed is thereforesensitive to small changes in the shape of the tail of the fluctuationdistribution, which itself depends on the amount of non-Gaussianity present. Westudy, for the first time, how quadratic and cubic local non-Gaussianity ofarbitrary size (parameterised by f_nl and g_nl respectively) affects the PBHabundance and the resulting constraints on the amplitude of the fluctuations onvery small scales. Intriguingly we find that even non-linearity parameters oforder unity have a significant impact on the PBH abundance. The sign of thenon-Gaussianity is particularly important, with the constraint on the allowedfluctuation amplitude tightening by an order of magnitude as f_nl changes fromjust -0.5 to 0.5. We find that if PBH's are observed in the future, thenregardless of the amplitude of the fluctuations, non-negligible negative f_nlwould be ruled out. Finally we show that g_nl can have an even larger effect onthe number of PBH's formed than f_nl.
119363323
Effect of halo modelling on WIMP exclusion limits
WIMP direct detection experiments are just reaching the sensitivity required to detect galactic dark matter in the form of neutralinos. Data from these experiments are usually analysed under the simplifying assumption that the Milky Way halo is an isothermal sphere with maxwellian velocity distribution. Observations and numerical simulations indicate that galaxy halos are in fact triaxial and anisotropic. Furthermore, in the cold dark matter paradigm galactic halos form via the merger of smaller subhalos, and at least some residual substructure survives. We examine the effect of halo modelling on WIMP exclusion limits, taking into account the detector response. Triaxial and anisotropic halo models, with parameters motivated by observations and numerical simulations, lead to significant changes which are different for different experiments, while if the local WIMP distribution is dominated by small scale clumps then the exclusion limits are changed dramatically.
1364874
The First wimpy halos
Dark matter direct and indirect detection signals depend crucially on the dark matter distribution. While the formation of large scale structure is independent of the nature of the cold dark matter (CDM), the fate of inhomogeneities on subgalactic scales, and hence the present day CDM distribution on these scales, depends on the microphysics of the CDM particles. We study the density contrast of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) on subgalactic scales. We calculate the damping of the primordial power spectrum due to collisional damping and free streaming of WIMPy CDM and show that free streaming leads to a CDM power spectrum with a sharp cut-off at about 10(-6) M-circle dot. We also calculate the transfer function for the growth of the inhomogeneities in the linear regime, taking into account the suppression in the growth of the CDM density contrast after matter-radiation equality due to baryons and show that our analytic results are in good agreement with numerical calculations. Combining the transfer function with the damping of the primordial fluctuations we produce a WMAP normalized primordial CDM power spectrum, which can serve as an input for high resolution CDM simulations. We find that the smallest inhomogeneities typically have comoving radius of about 1 pc and enter the nonlinear regime at a red-shift of 60 +/- 20. We study the effect of scale dependence of the primordial power spectrum on these numbers and also use the spherical collapse model to make simple estimates of the properties of the first generation of WIMP halos to form. We find that the very first WIMPy halos may have a significant impact on indirect dark matter searches.
2841328
Model independent determination of the dark matter mass from direct detection experiments.
Determining the dark matter (DM) mass is of paramount importance for understanding dark matter. We present a novel parametrization of the DM speed distribution which will allow the DM mass to be accurately measured using data from weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) direct detection experiments. Specifically, we parametrize the natural logarithm of the speed distribution as a polynomial in the speed v. We demonstrate, using mock data from upcoming experiments, that by fitting the WIMP mass and interaction cross section, along with the polynomial coefficients, we can accurately reconstruct both the WIMP mass and speed distribution. This new method is the first demonstration that an accurate, unbiased reconstruction of the WIMP mass is possible without prior assumptions about the distribution function. We anticipate that this technique will be invaluable in the analysis of future experimental data.
119473273
Viability of primordial black holes as short period gamma-ray bursts
It has been proposed that the short period gamma-ray bursts, which occur at a rate of $\ensuremath{\sim}10 {\mathrm{yr}}^{\ensuremath{-}1},$ may be evaporating primordial black holes (PBHs). Calculations of the present PBH evaporation rate have traditionally assumed that the PBH mass function varies as ${M}_{\mathrm{BH}}^{\ensuremath{-}5/2}.$ This mass function only arises if the density perturbations from which the PBHs form have a scale invariant power spectrum. It is now known that for a scale invariant power spectrum, normalized to COBE on large scales, the PBH density is completely negligible, so that this mass function is cosmologically irrelevant. For non-scale-invariant power spectra, if all PBHs which form at a given epoch have a fixed mass then the PBH mass function is sharply peaked around that mass, while if the PBH mass depends on the size of the density perturbation from which it forms, as is expected when critical phenomena are taken into account, then the PBH mass function will be far broader than ${M}_{\mathrm{BH}}^{\ensuremath{-}5/2}.$ In this paper we calculate the present day PBH evaporation rate, using constraints from the diffuse gamma-ray background, for both of these mass functions. If the PBH mass function has a significant finite width, as recent numerical simulations suggest, then it is not possible to produce a present day PBH evaporation rate comparable with the observed short period gamma-ray burst rate. This could also have implications for other attempts to detect evaporating PBHs.