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Register a new userSPLASH: The Southern Parkes Large-Area Survey in Hydroxyl - First Science from the Pilot Region
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SPLASH (the Southern Parkes Large-Area Survey in Hydroxyl) is a sensitive, unbiased and fully-sampled survey of the Southern Galactic Plane and Galactic Centre in all four ground-state transitions of the hydroxyl (OH) radical. The survey provides a deep census of 1612-, 1665-, 1667- and 1720-MHz OH absorption and emission from the Galactic ISM, and is also an unbiased search for maser sources in these transitions. We present here first results from the SPLASH pilot region, which covers Galactic longitudes 334 to 344 degrees and latitudes of -2 to +2 degrees. Diffuse OH is widely detected in all four transitions, with optical depths that are always small (averaged over the Parkes beam), and with departures from LTE common even in the 1665- and 1667-MHz main lines. To a 3$sigma$ sensitivity of 30 mK, we find no evidence of OH envelopes extending beyond the CO-bright regions of molecular cloud complexes, and conclude that the similarity of the OH excitation temperature and the level of the continuum background is at least partly responsible for this. We detect masers and maser candidates in all four transitions, approximately 50 per cent of which are new detections. This implies that SPLASH will produce a substantial increase in the known population of ground-state OH masers in the Southern Galactic Plane.
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We report on high spatial resolution observations, using the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA), of ground-state OH masers. These observations were carried out toward 196 pointing centres previously identified in the Southern Parkes Large-Area Survey in Hydroxyl (SPLASH) pilot region, between Galactic longitudes of $334^{circ}$ and $344^{circ}$ and Galactic latitudes of $-2^{circ}$ and $+2^{circ}$. Supplementing our data with data from the MAGMO (Mapping the Galactic Magnetic field through OH masers) survey, we find maser emission towards 175 of the 196 target fields. We conclude that about half of the 21 non-detections were due to intrinsic variability. Due to the superior sensitivity of the follow-up ATCA observations, and the ability to resolve nearby sources into separate sites, we have identified 215 OH maser sites towards the 175 fields with detections. Among these 215 OH maser sites, 111 are new detections. After comparing the positions of these 215 maser sites to the literature, we identify 122 (57 per cent) sites associated with evolved stars (one of which is a planetary nebula), 64 (30 per cent) with star formation, two sites with supernova remnants and 27 (13 per cent) of unknown origin. The infrared colors of evolved star sites with symmetric maser profiles tend to be redder than those of evolved star sites with asymmetric maser profiles, which may indicate that symmetric sources are generally at an earlier evolutionary stage.
We report on observations of the hydroxyl radical (OH) within The H{sc I}, OH Recombination line survey (THOR) pilot region. The region is bounded approximately between Galactic coordinates l=29.2 to 31.5$^circ$ and b=-1.0 to +1.0$^circ$ and includes the high-mass star forming region W43. We identify 103 maser sites, including 72 with 1612,MHz masers, 42 showing masers in either of the main line transitions at 1665 and 1667,MHz and four showing 1720,MHz masers. Most maser sites with either main-line or 1720,MHz emission are associated with star formation, whereas most of the 1612,MHz masers are associated with evolved stars. We find that nearly all of the main-line maser sites are co-spatial with an infrared source, detected by GLIMPSE. We also find diffuse OH emission, as well as OH in absorption towards selected unresolved or partially resolved sites. Extended OH absorption is found towards the well known star forming complex W43 Main.
Using the first 50% of data collected for the Spitzer Large Area Survey with Hyper-Suprime-Cam (SPLASH) observations on the 1.8 deg$^2$ Cosmological Evolution Survey (COSMOS) we estimate the masses and star formation rates of 3398 $M_*>10^{10}M_odot $ star-forming galaxies at $4 < z < 6$ with a substantial population up to $M_* gtrsim 10^{11.5} M_odot$. We find that the strong correlation between stellar mass and star formation rate seen at lower redshift (the main sequence of star-forming galaxies) extends to $zsim6$. The observed relation and scatter is consistent with a continued increase in star formation rate at fixed mass in line with extrapolations from lower-redshift observations. It is difficult to explain this continued correlation, especially for the most massive systems, unless the most massive galaxies are forming stars near their Eddington-limited rate from their first collapse. Furthermore, we find no evidence for moderate quenching at higher masses, indicating quenching either has not occurred prior to $z sim 6$ or else occurs rapidly, so that few galaxies are visible in transition between star-forming and quenched.
The census of Galactic HII regions is vastly incomplete in the Southern sky. We use the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) to observe 4-10 GHz radio continuum and hydrogen radio recombination line (RRL) emission from candidate HII regions in the Galactic zone 259 deg < l < 344 deg, |b| < 4 deg. In this first data release, we target the brightest HII region candidates and observe 282 fields in the direction of at least one previously-known or candidate HII region. We detect radio continuum emission and RRL emission in 275 (97.5%) and 258 (91.5%) of these fields, respectively. We catalog the ~7 GHz radio continuum peak flux densities and positions of 80 previously-known and 298 candidate HII regions. After averaging ~18 RRL transitions, we detect 77 RRL velocity components towards 76 previously-known HII regions and 267 RRL velocity components towards 256 HII region candidates. The discovery of RRL emission from these nebulae increases the number of known Galactic HII regions in the surveyed zone by 82%, to 568 nebulae. In the fourth quadrant we discover 50 RRLs with positive velocities, placing those sources outside the Solar circle. Including the pilot survey, the SHRDS has now discovered 295 Galactic HII regions. In the next data release we expect to add ~200 fainter and more distant nebulae.
The Southern HII Region Discovery Survey (SHRDS) is a 900 hour Australia Telescope Compact Array 4-10 GHz radio continuum and radio recombination line (RRL) survey of Galactic HII regions and infrared-identified HII region candidates in the southern sky. For this data release, we reprocess all previously published SHRDS data and include an additional ~450 hours of observations. The search for new HII regions is now complete over the range 259 deg < Galactic longitude < 346 deg, |Galactic latitude| < 4 deg for HII region candidates with predicted 6 GHz continuum peak brightnesses >30 mJy/beam. We detect radio continuum emission toward 730 targets altogether including previously known nebulae and HII region candidates. By averaging ~18 RRL transitions, we detect RRL emission toward 206 previously known HII regions and 436 HII region candidates. Including the northern sky surveys, over the last decade the HII Region Discovery Surveys have more than doubled the number of known Galactic HII regions. The census of HII regions in the WISE Catalog of Galactic HII Regions is now complete for nebulae with 9 GHz continuum flux densities > 250 mJy. We compare the RRL properties of the newly discovered SHRDS nebulae with those of all previously known HII regions. The median RRL full-width at half-maximum line width of the entire WISE Catalog HII region population is 23.9 km/s and is consistent between Galactic quadrants. The observed Galactic longitude-velocity asymmetry in the population of HII regions probably reflects underlying spiral structure in the Milky Way.
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