No Arabic abstract
We analyze extensive data on NGC1377 from the Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxies Survey (SINGS). Within the category of nascent starbursts, that we previously selected by their infrared to radio continuum ratios in large excess of the average and their hot dust, NGC1377 has the largest infrared excess yet measured. Optical imaging reveals a morphological distortion suggestive of a recent accretion event. Infrared spectroscopy reveals a compact and opaque source dominated by a hot, self-absorbed continuum (tau ~ 20 in the 10 micron silicate band). We provide physical evidence against non-stellar activity being the heating source. HII regions are detected through the single [NeII] line, probing <1% of the ionizing radiation. Not only is the optical depth very high, but >85% of ionizing photons are suppressed by dust. The only other detected emission features are molecular hydrogen lines, arguably excited mainly by shocks, besides photodissociation regions, and weak aromatic bands. The new observations support our interpretation in terms of an extremely young starburst (<1 Myr). More generally, galaxies deficient in radio synchrotron are likely observed within a few Myr of the onset of a starburst and after a long quiescence, prior to the replenishment of the ISM with cosmic rays. The similar infrared-radio properties of NGC1377 and some infrared-luminous galaxies suggest that NGC1377 constitutes an archetype to better understand starburst evolution. Although rare locally because observed in a brief evolutionary stage, nascent starbursts may represent a non-negligible fraction of merger-induced starbursts dominating deep infrared counts. Since they differ dramatically from usual starburst templates, they bear important consequences for the interpretation of deep surveys.
(simplified) Results on the properties of warm H2 in 57 normal galaxies are derived from H2 rotational transitions, obtained as part of SINGS. This study extends previous extragalactic surveys of H2, the most abundant constituent of the molecular ISM, to more common systems (L_FIR = e7 to 6e10 L_sun) of all morphological and nuclear types. The S(1) transition is securely detected in the nuclear regions of 86% of SINGS galaxies with stellar masses above 10^9.5 M_sun. The derived column densities of warm H2 (T > ~100 K), even though averaged over kiloparsec-scale areas, are commensurate with those of resolved PDRs; the median of the sample is 3e20 cm-2. They amount to between 1% and >30% of the total H2. The power emitted in the sum of the S(0) to S(2) transitions is on average 30% of the [SiII] line power, and ~4e-4 of the total infrared power (TIR) within the same area for star-forming galaxies, which is consistent with excitation in PDRs. The fact that H2 emission scales tightly with PAH emission, even though the average radiation field intensity varies by a factor ten, can also be understood if both tracers originate predominantly in PDRs, either dense or diffuse. A large fraction of the 25 LINER/Sy targets, however, strongly depart from the rest of the sample, in having warmer H2 in the excited states, and an excess of H2 emission with respect to PAHs, TIR and [SiII]. We propose a threshold in H2 to PAH power ratios, allowing the identification of low-luminosity AGNs by an excess H2 excitation. A dominant contribution from shock heating is favored in these objects. Finally, we detect, in nearly half the star-forming targets, non-equilibrium ortho to para ratios, consistent with FUV pumping combined with incomplete ortho-para thermalization by collisions, or possibly non-equilibrium PDR fronts advancing into cold gas.
We present XMM-Newton EPIC observations of the two nearby starburst merger galaxies NGC 3256 & NGC 3310. The broad-band (0.3-10 keV) integrated X-ray emission from both galaxies shows evidence of multi-phase thermal plasmas plus an underlying hard non-thermal power-law continuum. NGC 3256 is well-fit with a model comprising two MEKAL components (kT=0.6/0.9 keV) plus a hard power-law (Gamma=2), while NGC 3310 has cooler MEKAL components (kT=0.3/0.6 keV) and a harder power-law tail (Gamma=1.8). Chandra observations of these galaxies both reveal the presence of numerous discrete sources embedded in the diffuse emission, which dominate the emission above ~2 keV and are likely to be the source of the power-law emission. The thermal components show a trend of increasing absorption with higher temperature, suggesting that the hottest plasmas arise from supernova-heated gas within the disks of the galaxies, while the cooler components arise from outflowing galactic winds interacting with the ambient interstellar medium (ISM). We find no strong evidence for an active galactic nucleus (AGN) in either galaxy.
Secure applications implement software protections against side-channel and physical attacks. Such protections are meaningful at machine code or micro-architectural level, but they typically do not carry observable semantics at source level. To prevent optimizing compilers from altering the protection, security engineers embed input/output side-effects into the protection. These side-effects are error-prone and compiler-dependent, and the current practice involves analyzing the generated machine code to make sure security or privacy properties are still enforced. Vu et al. recently demonstrated how to automate the insertion of volatile side-effects in a compiler [52], but these may be too expensive in fined-grained protections such as control-flow integrity. We introduce observations of the program state that are intrinsic to the correct execution of security protections, along with means to specify and preserve observations across the compilation flow. Such observations complement the traditional input/output-preservation contract of compilers. We show how to guarantee their preservation without modifying compilation passes and with as little performance impact as possible. We validate our approach on a range of benchmarks, expressing the secure compilation of these applications in terms of observations to be made at specific program points.
We present the first sub-arcsecond radio observations of the nearby dwarf starburst galaxy NGC 3077 obtained with the MERLIN interferometer. We have detected two resolved sources which are coincident with the positions of two discrete X-ray sources detected by Chandra. One of the radio sources is associated with a supernova remnant and the observed radio flux is consistent with having a non-thermal origin. The age of the SNRs of about 760 years is between the average age of the SNRs detected in M82 and those detected in the Milky Way and the Large Magellanic Cloud. We use this detection to calculate a star formation rate (SFR) of 0.28 M_sun year-1 which is similar to the SFR calculated by using far infrared and millimeter observations but larger than the SFR given by optical recombination lines corrected for extinction. The other compact radio source detected by MERLIN which is coincident with the position of an X-ray binary, has the properties of an HII region with a flux density of about 747 microJy which corresponds to an ionizing flux of 6.8x10^50 s-1. A young massive stellar cluster with a mass of about 2x10^5 M_sun, detected by the Hubble Space Telescope could be the responsible for the production of the ionizing flux.
VLA and Parkes 64 m radiotelescope 21-cm observations of the starburst dwarf galaxy NGC 5253 reveal a multi-component non-axisymmetric HI distribution. The component associated with the stellar body shows evidence for a small amount of rotational support aligned with the major axis, in agreement with optically measured kinematics and consistent with the small galaxian mass. Approximately 20-30% of the HI emission is associated with a second component, an HI plume extending along the optical minor axis to the southeast. We consider outflow, inflow, and tidal origins for this feature. Outflow appears improbable, inflow is a possibility, and tidal debris is most consistent with the observations. These observations also reveal a filamentary third component that includes an 800 pc diameter HI shell or bubble to the west of the nucleus, coinciding with an Halpha shell. The mass of HI in the shell may be as large as ~4x10^6 Msun. This large mass, coupled with the lack of expansion signatures in the neutral and ionized gas (v<30 km/s), suggests that this feature may be an example of a starburst-blown bubble stalled by interaction with a massive neutral envelope. Many other HI kinematic features closely resemble those seen in Halpha emission from the ionized gas, supporting the interpretation of neutral and ionized gas outflow at velocities of ~30 km/s. Comparison between extinction estimates from the Balmer emission-line decrement and the HI column densities suggest a gas-to-dust ratio 2-3 times the Galactic value in this low-metallicity (Z=1/4 Zsun) galaxy.