Shigeru Takahashi

Abstract We present observations of the 3P1–3P0 fine-structure line of atomic carbon using the ASTE 10m sub-mm telescope towards RCW 38, the youngest super star cluster in the Milky Way. The detected [C i] emission is compared with the CO J = 1–0 image cube presented in Fukui et al. (2016, ApJ, 820, 26) which has an angular resolution of 40″ (∼0.33 pc). The overall distribution of the [C i] emission in this cluster is similar to that of the 13CO emission. The optical depth of the [C i] emission was found to be τ = 0.1–0.6, suggesting mostly optically thin emission. An empirical conversion factor from the [C i] integrated intensity to the H2 column density was estimated as X[C i]$= 6.3 \times 10 ^{20}\:$cm−2 K−1 km−1 s (for visual extinction: AV ≤ 10 mag) and 1.4 × 1021 cm−2 K−1 km−1 s (for AV of 10–100 mag). The column density ratio of the [C i] to CO (N[C i]$/N_{\rm CO}$) was derived as ∼0.1 for AV of 10–100 mag, which is consistent with that of the Orion cloud presented in Ikeda et al. (2002, ApJ, 571, 560). However, our results cover an AV regime of up to 100 mag, which is wider than the coverage found in Orion, which reaches up to ∼60 mag. Such a high [C i]$/$CO ratio in a high-AV region is difficult to explain via the plane-parallel photodissociation region model, which predicts that this ratio is close to 0 due to the heavy shielding of the ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Our results suggest that the molecular gas in this cluster is highly clumpy, allowing deep penetration of UV radiation even at averaged AV values of 100 mag. Recent theoretical works have presented models consistent with such clumped gas distribution with a sub-pc clump size (e.g., Tachihara et al. 2018, arXiv:1811.02224).

Abstract We propose a new observing method for single-dish millimeter and submillimeter spectroscopy using a heterodyne receiver equipped with a frequency-modulating local oscillator (FMLO). Unlike conventional switching methods, which extract astronomical signals by subtracting the reference spectra of off-sources from those of on-sources, the FMLO method does not need to obtain any off-source spectra; rather, it estimates them from the on-source spectra themselves. The principle uses high-dump-rate (10 Hz) spectroscopy with radio frequency modulation achieved by fast sweeping of a local oscillator of a heterodyne receiver. Because sky emission (i.e., off-source) fluctuates as $1/f$ and is spectrally correlated, it can be estimated and subtracted from time series spectra (a timestream) by principal component analysis. Meanwhile, astronomical signals remain in the timestream since they are modulated to a higher time-frequency domain. The FMLO method therefore achieves (1) a remarkably high observation efficiency, (2) reduced spectral baseline wiggles, and (3) software-based sideband separation. We developed an FMLO system for the Nobeyama $45\:$m telescope and a data reduction procedure for it. Frequency modulation was realized by a tunable and programmable first local oscillator. With observations of Galactic sources, we demonstrate that the observation efficiency of the FMLO method is dramatically improved compared to conventional switching methods. Specifically, we find that the time to achieve the same noise level is reduced by a factor of 3.0 in single-pointed observations and by a factor of 1.2 in mapping observations. The FMLO method can be applied to observations of fainter ($\sim$mK) spectral lines and larger ($\sim$deg$^{2}$) mapping. It offers much more efficient and baseline-stable observations compared to conventional switching methods.

Abstract We present mid-infrared (8–13$\ \mu$m) spectra of 11 main-belt asteroids: 1 Ceres, 3 Juno, 7 Iris, 11 Parthenope, 20 Massalia, 24 Themis, 41 Daphne, 42 Isis, 44 Nysa, 67 Asia, and 88 Thisbe. This paper makes the first report on the mid-infrared spectrum for 5 asteroids. Our observation was conducted with Michelle on UKIRT. The modified Standard Thermal Model (STM) has provided a slightly better fit to the observed spectra than the model without any modification. For 1 Ceres, we detected an emission feature that surpasses the thermal continuum by 6.2$\ \pm\ $1.1%. For the other 10 asteroids, no feature has been detected above their observational errors. However, their $S/N$ ratios are sufficient to only detect 6% emission excess. As the causes of the observed spectral distinction, we examine possible (1) chemical and (2) physical differences on the surfaces of the asteroids: (1) 1 Ceres has silicates with a lower degree of polymerization than do the other asteroids; (2a) the dominant grain size on 1 Ceres is nearer to 200$\ \mu$m, and probably smaller than that on the other asteroids; (2b) In addition, 1 Ceres has very small ($\lt\ $5$\ \mu$m) grains on its surface, while the other asteroids have grains that are moderately small, but larger than on 1 Ceres. In either case, the observed spectral distinctiveness of 1 Ceres, the largest asteroid, suggests that the properties of an asteroid surface may be correlated with the asteroid size.

Abstract Recent observations of the Edgeworth-Kuiper belt object (EKBO) 2001 $\mathrm{QG}_{298}$ (Sheppard, Jewitt 2004) have shown that the lightcurve of this object has a very large amplitude ($1.14 \pm 0.04 \,\mathrm{mag}$), indicating that it is either of an elongated shape or of a binary structure with two components of similar sizes nearly in contact with each other. On the basis of these interesting published data, we employed Roche binary lightcurve simulations to construct a shape model of EKBO 2001 $\mathrm{QG}_{298}$. The shape parameters of the best-fitted model were $260\ (164) \times 205 (130) \times 185\ (116) \,\mathrm{km}$ for the primary, and $265 (168)\times 160\ (102) \times 150\ (94) \,\mathrm{km}$ for the secondary in the case of an albedo of 0.04 (0.10). An additional result of this calculation is that the average bulk density of the contact binary system could be estimated to be $630 \,\mathrm{kg} \,\mathrm{m}^{-3}$. This value is similar to that of several icy moons of Saturn with a diameter of less than 200 km. We have also used the Jacobi ellipsoidal approximation to compute the shape of one of the largest EKBOs, Varuna. The corresponding shape parameters are $a : b : c = 1.00 : 0.76 : 0.50$. The lower limit of the bulk density is $\rho \ge 1000 \,\mathrm{kg} \,\mathrm{m}^{-3}$. These results are in good agreement with the published values of Jewitt and Sheppard (2002), and are consistent with their suggestion that larger icy bodies have higher densities (Sheppard, Jewitt 2002).