No Arabic abstract
The 4.62$mu$m (2164.5 cm$^{-1}$) `XCN band has been detected in the $M$-band spectra of 34 deeply embedded young stellar objects (YSOs), observed with high signal-to-noise and high spectral resolution with the VLT-ISAAC spectrometer, providing the first opportunity to study the solid OCN$^-$ abundance toward a large number of low-mass YSOs. It is shown unequivocally that at least two components, centred at 2165.7 cm$^{-1}$ (FWHM = 26 cm$^{-1}$) and 2175.4 cm$^{-1}$ (FWHM = 15 cm$^{-1}$), underlie the XCN band. Only the 2165.7-component can be ascribed to OCN$^-$, embedded in a strongly hydrogen-bonding, and possibly thermally annealed, ice environment based on laboratory OCN$^-$ spectra. In order to correct for the contribution of the 2175.4-component to the XCN band, a phenomenological decomposition into the 2165.7- and the 2175.4-components is used to fit the full band profile and derive the OCN$^-$ abundance for each line-of-sight. The same analysis is performed for 5 high-mass YSOs taken from the ISO-SWS data archive. Inferred OCN$^-$ abundances are $leq$ 0.85 % toward low-mass YSOs and $leq$ 1 % toward high-mass YSOs, except for W33 A. Abundances are found to vary by at least a factor of 10--20 and large source-to-source abundance variations are observed within the same star-forming cloud complex on scales down to 400 AU, indicating that the OCN$^-$ formation mechanism is sensitive to local conditions. The inferred abundances allow quantitatively for photochemical formation of OCN$^-$, but the large abundance variations are not easily explained in this scenario unless local radiation sources or special geometries are invoked. Surface chemistry should therefore be considered as an alternative formation mechanism.
We performed a spectroscopic survey toward five intermediate-mass class I YSOs located in the Southern Vela molecular cloud in the L and M bands at resolving powers 600-800 up to 10,000, using the Infrared Spectrometer and Array Camera mounted on the VLT-ANTU. Lower mass companion objects were observed simultaneously in both bands. Solid H2O at 3 micron is detected in all sources, including the companion objects. CO ice at 4.67 micron is detected in a few main targets and one companion object. One object (LLN 19) shows little CO ice but strong gas-phase CO ro-vibrational lines in absorption. The CO ice profiles are different from source to source. The amount of water ice and CO ice trapped in a water-rich mantle may correlate with the flux ratio at 12 and 25 micron. The abundance of H2O-rich CO likely correlates with that of water ice. A weak feature at 3.54 mu attributed to solid CH3OH and a broad feature near 4.62 mu are observed toward LLN17, but not toward the other sources. The derived abundances of solid CH3OH and OCN- are ~10% and ~1% of the H2O ice abundance respectively. The H2O optical depths do not show an increase with envelope mass, nor do they show lower values for the companion objects compared with the main protostar. The line-of-sight CO ice abundance does not correlate with the source bolometric luminosity. Comparison of the solid CO profile toward LLN17, which shows an extremely broad CO ice feature, and that of its lower mass companion at a few thousand AU, which exhibits a narrow profile, together with the detection of OCN- toward LLN17 provide direct evidences for local thermal processing of the ice.
We have completed a high-resolution (R=60,000) optical spectroscopic survey of 185 nearby M dwarfs identified using ROSAT data to select active, young objects with fractional X-ray luminosities comparable to or greater than Pleiades members. Our targets are drawn from the NStars 20-pc census and the Moving-M sample with distances determined from parallaxes or spectrophotometric relations. Nearly half of the resulting M dwarfs are not present in the Gliese catalog and have no previously published spectral types. We identified 30 spectroscopic binaries (SBs) from the sample, which have strong X-ray emission due to tidal spin-up rather than youth. This is equivalent to a 16% spectroscopic binary fraction, with at most a handful of undiscovered SBs. We estimate upper limits on the age of the remaining M dwarfs using spectroscopic youth indicators such as surface gravity-sensitive indices (CaH and K I). We find that for a sample of field stars with no metallicity measurements, a single CaH gravity index may not be sufficient, as higher metallicities mimic lower gravity. This is demonstrated in a sub-sample of metal-rich RV standards, which appear to have low surface gravity as measured by the CaH index, yet show no other evidence of youth. We also use additional youth diagnostics such as lithium absorption and strong H-alpha emission to set more stringent age limits. Eleven M dwarfs with no H-alpha emission or absorption are likely old (>400 Myr) and were caught during an X-ray flare. We estimate that our final sample of the 144 youngest and nearest low-mass objects in the field is less than 300 Myr old, with 30% of them being younger than 150 Myr and 4 very young (<10 Myr), representing a generally untapped and well-characterized resource of M dwarfs for intensive planet and disk searches.
With the goal to study the physical and chemical evolution of ices in solar-mass systems, a spectral survey is conducted of a sample of 41 low luminosity YSOs using 3-38 um Spitzer and ground-based spectra. The long-known 6.0 and 6.85 um bands are detected toward all sources, with the Class 0-type YSOs showing the deepest bands ever observed. In almost all sources the 6.0 um band is deeper than expected from the bending mode of pure solid H2O. The depth and shape variations of the remaining 5-7 um absorption indicate that it consists of 5 independent components, which, by comparison to laboratory studies, must be from at least 8 different carriers. Simple species are responsible for much of the absorption in the 5-7 um region, at abundances of 1-30% for CH3OH, 3-8% for NH3, 1-5% for HCOOH, ~6% for H2CO, and ~0.3% for HCOO- with respect to solid H2O. The 6.85 um band likely consists of one or two carriers, of which one is less volatile than H2O because its abundance relative to H2O is enhanced at lower H2O/tau_9.7 ratios. It does not survive in the diffuse interstellar medium (ISM), however. The similarity of the 6.85 um bands for YSOs and background stars indicates that its carrier(s) must be formed early in the molecular cloud evolution. If an NH4+ salt is the carrier its abundance with respect to solid H2O is typically 7%, and low temperature acid-base chemistry or cosmic ray induced reactions must have been involved in its formation. Possible origins are discussed for the carrier of an enigmatic, very broad absorption between 5 and 8 um. Finally, all the phenomena observed for ices toward massive YSOs are also observed toward low mass YSOs, indicating that processing of the ices by internal ultraviolet radiation fields is a minor factor in the early chemical evolution of the ices. [abridged]
We present results of the 2.5-5 {mu}m spectroscopy of a sample of hard X-ray selected active galactic nuclei (AGNs) using the grism mode of the InfraRed Camera (IRC) on board the infrared astronomical satellite AKARI. The sample is selected from the 9-month Swift/BAT survey in the 14-195 keV band, which provides a fair sample of AGNs including highly absorbed ones. The 2.5-5 {mu}m spectroscopy provide a strong diagnostic tool for the circumnuclear environment of AGNs through the continuum shapes and emission/absorption features such as the 3.3 {mu}m polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission and the broad 3.1 {mu}m H2O ice, 3.4 {mu}m bare carbonaceous dust, 4.26 {mu}m CO2 and 4.67 {mu}m CO absorptions. As our first step, we use the 3.3 {mu}m PAH emission as a proxy for the star-formation activity and searched for possible difference of star-formation activity between type 1 (unabsorbed) and type 2 (absorbed) AGNs. We found no significant dependence of the 3.3 {mu}m PAH line luminosity, normalized by the black hole mass, on optical AGNs types or the X-ray measured column densities.
K-band spectra of young stellar candidates in four southern hemisphere clusters have been obtained with the near-infrared spectrograph GNIRS in Gemini South. The clusters are associated with IRAS sources that have colours characteristic of ultracompact HII regions. Spectral types were obtained by comparison of the observed spectra with those of a NIR library; the results include the spectral classification of nine massive stars and seven objects confirmed as background late-type stars. Two of the studied sources have K-band spectra compatible with those characteristic of very hot stars, as inferred from the presence of Civ, Niii, and Nv emission lines at 2.078 micron, 2.116 micron, and 2.100 micron respectively. One of them, I16177 IRS1, has a K-band spectrum similar to that of Cyg OB2 7, an O3If* supergiant star. The nebular K-band spectrum of the associated UC Hii region shows the s-process [Kriii] and [Seiv] high excitation emission lines, previously identified only in planetary nebula. One young stellar object (YSO) was found in each cluster, associated with either the main IRAS source or a nearby resolved MSX component, confirming the results obtained from previous NIR photometric surveys. The distances to the stars were derived from their spectral types and previously determined JHK magnitudes; they agree well with the values obtained from the kinematic method, except in the case of IRAS15408-5356, for which the spectroscopic distance is about a factor two smaller than the kinematic value.