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Full-Text Articles in Physics
Nitrogen-To-Oxygen Abundance Ratio Variation In Quiescent Galaxies, Renbin Yan
Nitrogen-To-Oxygen Abundance Ratio Variation In Quiescent Galaxies, Renbin Yan
Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications
For the first time, we establish a gas-phase abundance pattern calibration for quiescent galaxies using optical emission lines. Quiescent galaxies have warm ionized gas showing line ratios similar to low-ionization nuclear emission line regions. The ionization mechanism for the gas is still an unsettled puzzle. Despite the uncertainty in the ionization mechanism, we argue that we can still infer certain gas-phase abundance pattern from first principles. We show that the relative trend in N/O abundance can still be reliably measured based on [N II] λλ6548,6583/[O II] λλ3726,3729 and a direct measurement of the electron temperature. We construct a composite direct …
Shocks Or Photoionization: Direct Temperature Measurements Of The Low-Ionization Gas In Quiescent Galaxies, Renbin Yan
Shocks Or Photoionization: Direct Temperature Measurements Of The Low-Ionization Gas In Quiescent Galaxies, Renbin Yan
Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications
The ionization mechanism of the low-ionization gas in quiescent red-sequence galaxies has been a long-standing puzzle. Direct temperature measurements would put strong constraints on this issue. We carefully selected a sample of quiescent red-sequence galaxies from Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We bin them into three bins with different [N II]/H α and [N II]/[O II] ratios, and we measure the temperature-sensitive [O III] λ4363, [N II] λ5755, [S II] λλ4068, 4076, and [O II] λλ7320, 7330 lines in the stacked spectra. The [S II] doublet ratios indicate the line-emitting gas is in the low-density regime (∼10–200 cm−3). We …
Biases In Metallicity Measurements From Global Galaxy Spectra: The Effects Of Flux Weighting And Diffuse Ionized Gas Contamination, Ryan L. L. Sanders, Alice E. Shapley, Kai Zhang, Renbin Yan
Biases In Metallicity Measurements From Global Galaxy Spectra: The Effects Of Flux Weighting And Diffuse Ionized Gas Contamination, Ryan L. L. Sanders, Alice E. Shapley, Kai Zhang, Renbin Yan
Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications
Galaxy metallicity scaling relations provide a powerful tool for understanding galaxy evolution, but obtaining unbiased global galaxy gas-phase oxygen abundances requires proper treatment of the various line-emitting sources within spectroscopic apertures. We present a model framework that treats galaxies as ensembles of H II and diffuse ionized gas (DIG) regions of varying metallicities. These models are based upon empirical relations between line ratios and electron temperature for H II regions, and DIG strong-line ratio relations from SDSS-IV MaNGA IFU data. Flux-weighting effects and DIG contamination can significantly affect properties inferred from global galaxy spectra, biasing metallicity estimates by more than …
The Carbon And Nitrogen Abundance Ratio In The Broad Line Region Of Tidal Disruption Events, Chenwei Yang, Tinggui Wang, Gary J. Ferland, Liming Dou, Hongyan Zhou, Ning Jiang, Zhenfeng Sheng
The Carbon And Nitrogen Abundance Ratio In The Broad Line Region Of Tidal Disruption Events, Chenwei Yang, Tinggui Wang, Gary J. Ferland, Liming Dou, Hongyan Zhou, Ning Jiang, Zhenfeng Sheng
Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications
The rest-frame UV spectra of three recent tidal disruption events (TDEs), ASASSN-14li, PTF15af, and iPTF16fnl, display strong nitrogen emission lines but weak or undetectable carbon lines. In these three objects, the upper limits of the C III] λ1908/N III] λ1750 ratio are about two orders of magnitude lower than those of quasars, suggesting a high abundance ratio of [N/C]. With detailed photoionization simulations, we demonstrate that C2+ and N2+ are formed in the same zone, so the CIII]/N III] ratio depends only moderately on the physical conditions in the gas and weakly on the shape of …
Atomic Data Revisions For Transitions Relevant To Observations Of Interstellar, Circumgalactic, And Intergalactic Matter, Frances H. Cashman, Varsha P. Kulkarni, Romas Kisielius, Gary J. Ferland, Pavel Bogdanovich
Atomic Data Revisions For Transitions Relevant To Observations Of Interstellar, Circumgalactic, And Intergalactic Matter, Frances H. Cashman, Varsha P. Kulkarni, Romas Kisielius, Gary J. Ferland, Pavel Bogdanovich
Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications
Measurements of element abundances in galaxies from astrophysical spectroscopy depend sensitively on the atomic data used. With the goal of making the latest atomic data accessible to the community, we present a compilation of selected atomic data for resonant absorption lines at wavelengths longward of 911.753 Å (the H I Lyman limit), for key heavy elements (heavier than atomic number 5) of astrophysical interest. In particular, we focus on the transitions of those ions that have been observed in the Milky Way interstellar medium (ISM), the circumgalactic medium (CGM) of the Milky Way and/or other galaxies, and the intergalactic medium …
Sdss-Iv Manga: A Serendipitous Observation Of A Potential Gas Accretion Event, Edmond Cheung, David V. Stark, Song Huang, Kate H. R. Rubin, Lihwai Lin, Christy Tremonti, Kai Zhang, Renbin Yan, Dmitry Bizyaev, Médéric Boquien
Sdss-Iv Manga: A Serendipitous Observation Of A Potential Gas Accretion Event, Edmond Cheung, David V. Stark, Song Huang, Kate H. R. Rubin, Lihwai Lin, Christy Tremonti, Kai Zhang, Renbin Yan, Dmitry Bizyaev, Médéric Boquien
Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications
The nature of warm, ionized gas outside of galaxies may illuminate several key galaxy evolutionary processes. A serendipitous observation by the MaNGA survey has revealed a large, asymmetric Hα complex with no optical counterpart that extends ≈8'' (≈6.3 kpc) beyond the effective radius of a dusty, starbursting galaxy. This Hα extension is approximately three times the effective radius of the host galaxy and displays a tail-like morphology. We analyze its gas-phase metallicities, gaseous kinematics, and emission-line ratios and discuss whether this Hα extension could be diffuse ionized gas, a gas accretion event, or something else. We find …
Sdss-Iv Manga: Properties Of Galaxies With Kinematically Decoupled Stellar And Gaseous Components, Yifei Jin, Yanmei Chen, Yong Shi, C. A. Tremonti, M. A. Bershady, M. Merrifield, E. Emsellem, Hai Fu, D. Wake, K. Bundy, Lihwai Lin, M. Argudo-Fernandez, Song Huang, D. V. Stark, T. Storchi-Bergmann, D. Bizyaev, J. Brownstein, J. Chisholm, Qi Guo, Lei Hao, Jian Hu, Cheng Li, Ran Li, K. L. Masters, E. Malanushenko, Kaike Pan, R. A. Riffel, A. Roman-Lopes, A. Simmons, D. Thomas, Renbin Yan
Sdss-Iv Manga: Properties Of Galaxies With Kinematically Decoupled Stellar And Gaseous Components, Yifei Jin, Yanmei Chen, Yong Shi, C. A. Tremonti, M. A. Bershady, M. Merrifield, E. Emsellem, Hai Fu, D. Wake, K. Bundy, Lihwai Lin, M. Argudo-Fernandez, Song Huang, D. V. Stark, T. Storchi-Bergmann, D. Bizyaev, J. Brownstein, J. Chisholm, Qi Guo, Lei Hao, Jian Hu, Cheng Li, Ran Li, K. L. Masters, E. Malanushenko, Kaike Pan, R. A. Riffel, A. Roman-Lopes, A. Simmons, D. Thomas, Renbin Yan
Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications
We study the properties of 66 galaxies with kinematically misaligned gas and stars from MaNGA survey. The fraction of kinematically misaligned galaxies varies with galaxy physical parameters, i.e. M*, SFR and sSFR. According to their sSFR, we further classify these 66 galaxies into three categories, 10 star-forming, 26 ‘Green Valley’ and 30 quiescent ones. The properties of different types of kinematically misaligned galaxies are different in that the star-forming ones have positive gradient in Dn4000 and higher gas-phase metallicity, while the green valley/quiescent ones have negative Dn4000 gradients and lower gas-phase metallicity on average. …
Atomic Data For S Ii—Toward Better Diagnostics Of Chemical Evolution In High-Redshift Galaxies, Romas Kisielius, Varsha P. Kulkarni, Gary J. Ferland, Pavel Bogdanovich, Matt L. Lykins
Atomic Data For S Ii—Toward Better Diagnostics Of Chemical Evolution In High-Redshift Galaxies, Romas Kisielius, Varsha P. Kulkarni, Gary J. Ferland, Pavel Bogdanovich, Matt L. Lykins
Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications
Absorption-line spectroscopy is a powerful tool used to estimate element abundances in both the nearby and distant universe. The accuracy of the abundances thus derived is naturally limited by the accuracy of the atomic data assumed for the spectral lines. We have recently started a project to perform new extensive atomic data calculations used for optical/UV spectral lines in the plasma modeling code Cloudy using state of the art quantal calculations. Here, we demonstrate our approach by focussing on S II, an ion used to estimate metallicities for Milky Way interstellar clouds as well as distant damped Lyman-alpha (DLA) and …