Christopher K. Walker

The edges of molecular clouds - Fractal boundaries and density structure

This paper continues a discussion of the manifestations of the highly nonlinear physical equations underlying the dynamics of the dense interstellar medium. Previously, Falgarone and Phillips confirmed that the velocity field in non-star-forming regions could be explained as a turbulent phenomenon, showing the Kolmogorov scaling of velocity dispersion with spatial extent, and proposed that the excess of large velocity deviations (line wings stronger than predicted by a Gaussian distribution) corresponds to the fundamental property of turbulent flows called intermittency. In the present work we inspect the spatial structure of the dense medium. The observations of clouds at two different distances were carried out at high angular resolution using several transitions of the carbon monoxide molecule. Cloud edge regions were selected for the study to avoid the spatial crowding of emitting components, which obscures the structure of cloud cores

Silicon micromachined waveguides for millimeter-wave and submillimeter-wave frequencies

The development of micromachining techniques to create silicon-based waveguide circuits, which can operate up to high submillimeter-wave frequencies, is reported. As a first step, a WR-10 waveguide has been fabricated from

Molecular Star Formation Rate Indicators in Galaxies

We derive a physical model for the observed relations between star formation rate (SFR) and molecular line (CO and HCN) emission in galaxies and show how these observed relations are reflective of the underlying star formation law. We do this by combining 3D non-LTE radiative transfer calculations with hydrodynamic simulations of isolated disk galaxies and galaxy mergers. We demonstrate that the observed SFR-molecular line relations are driven by the relationship between molecular line emission and gas density and anchored by the index of the underlying Schmidt law controlling the SFR in the galaxy. Lines with low critical densities (e.g., CO -->J = 1–0) are typically thermalized and trace the gas density faithfully. In these cases, the SFR will be related to line luminosity with an index similar to the Schmidt law index. Lines with high critical densities greater than the mean density of most of the emitting clouds in a galaxy (e.g., CO -->J = 3–2, HCN -->J = 1–0) will have only a small amount of thermalized gas and consequently a superlinear relationship between molecular line luminosity ( -->Lmol) and mean gas density (

High-Q Ring Resonators in Thin Silicon-on-Insulator

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Spectroscopic evidence for infall around an extraordinary IRAS source in Ophiuchus

-->). This results in an SFR-line luminosity index less than the Schmidt index for high critical density tracers. One observational consequence of this is a significant redistribution of light from the small pockets of dense, thermalized gas to diffuse gas along the line of sight, and prodigious emission from subthermally excited gas. At the highest star formation rates, the SFR- -->Lmol slope tends to the Schmidt index, regardless of the molecular transition. The fundamental relation is the Kennicutt-Schmidt law, rather than the relation between SFR and molecular line luminosity. Our model for SFR-molecular line relations quantitatively reproduces the slopes of the observed SFR-CO ( -->J = 1–0), CO ( -->J = 3–2), and HCN ( -->J = 1–0) relations when a Schmidt law with index of ~1.5 describes the SFR. We use these results to make imminently testable predictions for the SFR-molecular line relations of unobserved transitions.

The Role of Galactic Winds on Molecular Gas Emission from Galaxy Mergers

We have fabricated high-Q microrings from thin silicon-on-insulater SOI layers and measured Q values of 45 000 in these rings, which were then improved to 57 000 by adding a PMMA cladding. The optimal waveguide designs were calculated, and the waveguide losses were analyzed. These high-Q resonators are expected to lead to interesting devices for telecommunication filters and sources as well as optical refractive index sensing.

The AST/RO Survey of the Galactic Center Region. I. The Inner 3 Degrees

Millimeter-wave continuum observations and spectral line observations of the J = 5-4 and J = 2-1 transitions of CS toward IRAS 16293-2422, an extremely cold infrared source associated with a high-velocity molecular outflow in the Rho Ophiuchi molecular cloud, are reported. The observations indicate that this source is a dust-enshrouded object embedded in a dense, elongated configuration of molecular gas whose major axis is roughly orthogonal to the direction of the double bipolar outflow observed in it. The observations appear to provide spectroscopic evidence for significant mass infall motions associated with a young stellar object, and suggest that IRAS 16293-2422 is a true protostar. 13 references.

A FULL-HEIGHT WAVEGUIDE TO THIN-FILM MICROSTRIP TRANSITION WITH EXCEPTIONAL RF BANDWIDTH AND COUPLING EFFICIENCY

Galactic winds from starbursts and active galactic nuclei (AGNs) are thought to play an important role in driving galaxies along the starburst-AGN sequence. Here, we assess the impact of these winds on the CO emission from galaxy mergers and, in particular, search for signatures of starburst and AGN-feedback-driven winds in the simulated CO morphologies and emission-line profiles. We do so by combining a three-dimensional non-LTE molecular line radiative transfer code with smoothed particle hydrodynamic (SPH) simulations of galaxy mergers that include prescriptions for star formation, black hole growth, a multiphase interstellar medium (ISM), and the winds associated with star formation and black hole growth. Our main results are (1) Galactic winds can drive outflows of masses ~108-109 M☉ which may be imaged via CO emission-line mapping. (2) AGN-feedback-driven winds are able to drive detectable CO outflows for longer periods of time than starburst-driven winds owing to the greater amount of energy imparted to the ISM by AGN feedback compared to star formation. (3) Galactic winds can control the spatial extent of the CO emission in postmerger galaxies, and may serve as a physical motivation for the subkiloparsec scale CO emission radii observed in local advanced mergers. (4) Secondary emission peaks at velocities greater than the circular velocity are seen in the CO emission lines in all models, regardless of the associated wind model. In models with winds, however, these high-velocity peaks are seen to preferentially correspond to outflowing gas entrained in winds, which is not the case in the model without winds. The high-velocity peaks seen in models without winds are typically confined to velocity offsets (from the systemic) 1.7 times the circular velocity, whereas the models with AGN-feedback-driven winds can drive high-velocity peaks to ~2.5 times the circular velocity.

A low-noise 492 GHz SIS waveguide receiver

We present fully-sampled maps of 461 GHz CO (4-3), 807 GHz CO (7-6), and 492 GHz [CI] (3P1-3P0) emission from the inner 3 degrees of the Galactic Center region taken with the Antarctic Submillimeter Telescope and Remote Observatory (AST/RO) in 2001--2002. The data cover -1.3 70K) at cloud edges to low values (<50K) in the interiors. Typical gas pressures in the Galactic Center gas are n(H_2) T_kin approx 10^5.2 K cm^-3. We also present an (l,b) map of molecular hydrogen column density derived from our LVG results.

1.3 millimeter continuum observations of cold molecular cloud cores

We describe a waveguide to thin-film microstrip transition for high-performance submillimetre wave and teraherz applications. The proposed constant-radius probe couples thin-film microstrip line, to full-height rectangular waveguide with better than 99% efficiency (VSWR ≤ 1.20) and 45% fractional bandwidth. Extensive HFSS simulations, backed by scale-model measurements, are presented in the paper. By selecting the substrate material and probe radius, any real impedance between ≈ 15-60 Ω can be achieved. The radial probe gives significantly improved performance over other designs discussed in the literature. Although our primary application is submillimetre wave superconducting mixers, we show that membrane techniques should allow broad-band waveguide components to be constructed for the THz frequency range.