Kazumi Murata

A Tale of Two Feedbacks: Star Formation in the Host Galaxies of Radio AGNs

Several lines of argument support the existence of a link between activity at the nuclei of galaxies, in the form of an accreting supermassive black hole, and star formation activity in these galaxies. Radio jets have long been argued to be an ideal mechanism that allows active galactic nuclei (AGNs) to interact with their host galaxies and affect star formation. We use a sample of radio sources in the North Ecliptic Pole (NEP) field to study the nature of this putative link, by means of spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting. We employ the excellent spectral coverage of the AKARI infrared space telescope and the rich ancillary data available in the NEP to build SEDs extending from UV to far-IR wavelengths. We find a significant AGN component in our sample of relatively faint radio sources (<mJy). A positive correlation is found between the luminosity of the AGN component and that of star formation in the host galaxy, independent of the radio luminosity. In contrast, for narrow redshift and AGN luminosity ranges, we find that increasing radio luminosity leads to a decrease in the specific star formation rate. The most radio-loud AGNs are found to lie on the main sequence of star formation for their respective redshifts. For the first time, we potentially see such a two-sided feedback process in the same sample. We discuss the possible suppression of star formation, but not total quenching, in systems with strong radio jets, that supports the maintenance nature of feedback from radio AGN jets.

AKARI North Ecliptic Pole Deep Survey - Revision of the catalogue via a new image analysis

Context. We present the revised near- to mid-infrared catalogue of the AKARI North Ecliptic Pole deep survey. The survey has the unique advantage of continuous filter coverage from 2 to 24 μm over nine photometric bands, but the initial version of the survey catalogue leaves room for improvement in the image analysis stage; the original images are strongly contaminated by the behaviour of the detector and the optical system. Aims. The purpose of this study is to devise new image analysis methods and to improve the detection limit and reliability of the source extraction. Methods. We removed the scattered light and stray light from the Earth limb, and corrected for artificial patterns in the images by creating appropriate templates. We also removed any artificial sources due to bright sources by using their properties or masked them out visually. In addition, for the mid-infrared source extraction, we created detection images by stacking all six bands. This reduced the sky noise and enabled us to detect fainter sources more reliably. For the near-infrared source catalogue, we considered only objects with counterparts from ground-based catalogues to avoid fake sources. For our ground-based catalogues, we used catalogues based on

Optical - near-infrared catalog for the AKARI north ecliptic pole Deep field

Aims. We present an 8-band (u∗, g′, r′, i′, z′, Y, J, Ks) optical to near-infrared deep photometric catalog based on the observations made with MegaCam and WIRCam at the CFHT, and compute photometric redshifts, zp in the north ecliptic pole (NEP) region. AKARI infrared satellite carried out a deep survey in the NEP region at near- to mid-infrared wavelengths. Our optical to near-infrared catalog allows us to identify the counterparts and zp for the AKARI sources. Methods. We obtained seven-band (g′, r′, i′, z′, Y, J, Ks) imaging data, and we crossmatched them with existing u∗-band data (limiting magnitude = 24.6 mag [5σ; AB]) to design the band-merged catalog. We included all z′-band sources with counterparts in at least one of the other bands in the catalog. We used a template-fitting methods to compute zp for all the cataloged sources. Results. The estimated 4σ detection limits within a 1 arcsec aperture radius are 26.7, 25.9, 25.1, and 24.1 mag [AB] for the optical g′, r′, i′, and z′-bands and 23.4, 23.0, and 22.7 mag for the near-infrared Y, J, and Ks-bands, respectively. There are a total of 85 797 sources in the band-merged catalog. An astrometric accuracy of this catalog determined by examining coordinate offsets with regard to 2MASS is 0.013 arcsec with a root mean square offset of 0.32 arcsec. We distinguish 5441 secure stars from extended sources using the u∗ − J versus g′ − Ks colours, combined with the SExtractor stellarity index of the images. Comparing with galaxy spectroscopic redshifts, we find a photometric redshift dispersion, σΔz/(1 + z), of 0.032 and catastrophic failure rate, Δz/(1 + z) > 0.15, of 5.8% at z 1. We extend the estimate of the zp uncertainty over the full magnitude/redshift space with a redshift probability distribution function and find that our redshifts are highly accurate with z′ < 22 at zp< 2.5 and for fainter sources with z′ < 24 at zp< 1. From the investigation of photometric properties of AKARI infrared sources (23 354 sources) using the g′z′Ks diagram, < 5% of AKARI sources with optical counterparts are classified as high-z (1.4

The cosmic infrared background experiment (CIBER): The low resolution spectrometer

Absolute spectrophotometric measurements of diffuse radiation at 1 μm to 2 μm are crucial to our understanding of the radiative content of the universe from nucleosynthesis since the epoch of reionization, the composition and structure of the zodiacal dust cloud in our solar system, and the diffuse galactic light arising from starlight scattered by interstellar dust. The Low Resolution Spectrometer (LRS) on the rocket-borne Cosmic Infrared Background Experiment is a λ/Δλ ~ 15-30 absolute spectrophotometer designed to make precision measurements of the absolute near-infrared sky brightness between 0.75 μm <λ < 2.1 μm. This paper presents the optical, mechanical, and electronic design of the LRS, as well as the ground testing, characterization, and calibration measurements undertaken before flight to verify its performance. The LRS is shown to work to specifications, achieving the necessary optical and sensitivity performance. We describe our understanding and control of sources of systematic error for absolute photometry of the near-infrared extragalactic background light.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon feature deficit of starburst galaxies in the AKARI North Ecliptic Pole Deep field

We study the behaviour of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission in galaxies at z = 0.3–1.4 using 1868 samples from the revised catalogue of AKARI North Ecliptic Pole Deep survey. The continuous filter coverage at 2–24 μm makes it possible to measure 8 μm luminosity, which is dominated by PAH emission, for galaxies at up to z = 2. We compare the IR8 (≡L_(IR)/L(8)) and 8 μm to 4.5 μm luminosity ratio (νL(8) /νL(4.5)) with the starburstiness, R_(SB), defined as excess of specific star-formation rate over that of main-sequence galaxy. All AGN candidates were excluded from our sample using a spectral energy distribution fitting. We find νL(8) /νL(4.5) increases with starburstiness at log R_(SB) 0. This behaviour is seen in all redshift range of our study. These results indicate that starburst galaxies have deficient PAH emission compared with main-sequence galaxies. We also find that galaxies with extremely high νL(8) /νL(4.5) ratio have only moderate starburstiness. These results suggest that starburst galaxies have compact star-forming regions with intense radiation, which destroys PAHs, and/or have dusty HII regions resulting in a lack of ionising photons.

The synergy of large area surveys with AKARI and HERSCHEL

The Herschel Space Observatory is the European Space Agency’s state of the art infrared space telescope launched into space on 14 May 2009, covering the wavelength range from 70-700 microns with 3 instruments SPIRE, PACS and HIFI. Large area surveys are being carried out by Herschel in the AKARI legacy fields at the North and South Ecliptic Poles and the AKARI All-Sky Survey provides additional synergy with the largest survey with Herschel, H-ATLAS, covering more than 500 square degrees. This paper reports on some of the early results of these synergies between Herschel and AKARI including the first comparison of the AKARI All-Sky Survey number counts with the deeper Herschel surveys.

The first source counts at 18 μm from the AKARI NEP Survey

We present the first galaxy counts at 18 μm using the Japanese AKARI satellites survey at the North Ecliptic Pole (NEP), produced from the images from the NEP-Deep and NEP-Wide surveys covering 0.6 and 5.8 deg 2 , respectively. We describe a procedure using a point source filtering algorithm to remove background structure and a minimum variance method for our source extraction and photometry that delivers the optimum signal to noise for our extracted sources, confirming this by comparison with standard photometry methods. The final source counts are complete and reliable over three orders of magnitude in flux density, resulting in sensitivities (80 per cent completeness) of 0.15 and 0.3 mJy for the NEP-Deep and NEP-Wide surveys, respectively, a factor of 1.3 deeper than previous catalogues constructed from this field. The differential source counts exhibit a characteristic upturn from Euclidean expectations at around a milliJansky and a corresponding evolutionary bump between 0.2–0.4 mJy consistent with previous mid-infrared surveys with ISO and Spitzer at 15 and 24 μm. We compare our results with galaxy evolution models confirming the striking divergence from the non-evolving scenario. The models and observations are in broad agreement implying that the source counts are consistent with a strongly evolving population of luminous infrared galaxies at redshifts higher than unity. Integrating our source counts down to the limit of the NEP survey at the 150 μJy level we calculate that AKARI has resolved approximately 55 per cent of the 18 μm cosmic infrared background relative to the predictions of contemporary source count models.

The 2–24 μm source counts from the AKARI North Ecliptic Pole survey

We present herein galaxy number counts of the nine bands in the 2-24 micron range on the basis of the AKARI North Ecliptic Pole (NEP) surveys. The number counts are derived from NEP-deep and NEP-wide surveys, which cover areas of 0.5 and 5.8 deg2, respectively. To produce reliable number counts, the sources were extracted from recently updated images. Completeness and difference between observed and intrinsic magnitudes were corrected by Monte Carlo simulation. Stellar counts were subtracted by using the stellar fraction estimated from optical data. The resultant source counts are given down to the 80% completeness limit; 0.18, 0.16, 0.10, 0.05, 0.06, 0.10, 0.15, 0.16, and 0.44 mJy in the 2.4, 3.2, 4.1, 7, 9, 11, 15, 18 and 24 um bands, respectively. On the bright side of all bands, the count distribution is flat, consistent with the Euclidean Universe, while on the faint side, the counts deviate, suggesting that the galaxy population of the distant universe is evolving. These results are generally consistent with previous galaxy counts in similar wavebands. We also compare our counts with evolutionary models and find them in good agreements. By integrating the models down to the 80% completeness limits, we calculate that the AKARI NEP-survey revolves 20%-50% of the cosmic infrared background, depending on the wavebands.

NEP-AKARI: Evolution with redshift of dust attenuation in 8µm selected galaxies

We built a 8 µm selected sample of galaxies in the NEP-AKARI field by defining 4 redshift bins with the four AKARI bands at 11, 15, 18 and 24 microns (0.15 < z < 0.49, 0.75 < z < 1.34, 1.34 < z < 1.7 and 1.7 < z < 2.05). Our sample contains 4079 sources, 599 are securely detected with Herschel/PACS. Also adding ultraviolet (UV) data from GALEX, we fit the spectral energy distributions using the physically motivated code CIGALE to extract the star formation rate, stellar mass, dust attenuation and the AGN contribution to the total infrared luminosity (LIR). We discuss the impact of the adopted attenuation curve and that of the wavelength coverage to estimate these physical parameters. We focus on galaxies with a luminosity close the characteristic L ∗IR in the different redshift bins to study the evolution with redshift of the dust attenuation in these galaxies.

AKARI-NEP : effects of AGN presence on SFR estimates of galaxies

How does the presence of an AGN influence the total SFR estimates of galaxies and change their distribution with respect to the Galaxy Main Sequence? To contribute to solving this question, we study a sample of 1133 sources detected in the North Ecliptic Pole field (NEP) by AKARI and Herschel. We create a multi-wavelength dataset for these galaxies and we fit their multi-wavelength Spectral Energy Distribution (SED) using the whole spectral regime (from 0.1 to 500 µm). We perform the fit using three procedures: LePhare and two optimised codes for identifying AGN tracers from the SED analysis. In this work we present an overview of the comparison between the estimates of the Infrared bolometric luminosities (between 8 and 1000 µm) and the AGN fractions obtained exploiting these different procedures. In particular, by estimating the AGN contribution in four different wavelength ranges (5-40 µm, 10-20 µm, 20-40 µm and 8-1000 µm) we show how the presence of an AGN affects the PAH emission by suppressing the ratio L8 µm/ L4.5 µm as a function of the considered wavelength range.