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At least 37 records · Page 2

White dwarf pollution by hydrated planetary remnants: hydrogen and metals in WD J204713.76–125908.9

ABSTRACT WD J204713.76–125908.9 is a new addition to the small class of white dwarfs with helium-dominated photospheres that exhibit strong Balmer absorption lines and atmospheric metal pollution. The exceptional abundances of hydrogen observed in these stars may be the result of accretion of water-rich rocky bodies. We obtained far-ultraviolet and optical spectroscopy of WD J204713.76–125908.9 using the Cosmic Origin Spectrograph on-board the Hubble Space Telescope and X-shooter on the Very Large Telescope, and identify photospheric absorption lines of nine metals: C, O, Mg, Si, P, S, Ca, Fe, and Ni. The abundance ratios are consistent with the steady-state accretion of exo-planetesimal debris rich in the volatile elements carbon and oxygen, and the transitional element sulphur, by factors of 17, 2, and 4, respectively, compared to the bulk Earth. The parent body has a composition akin to Solar system carbonaceous chondrites, and the inferred minimum mass, 1.6 × 1020 g, is comparable to an asteroid 23 km in radius. We model the composition of the disrupted parent body, finding from our simulations a median water mass fraction of 8 per cent.

Hoskin, Matthew J.↗

Peeking Between the Pulses: The Far-UV Spectrum of the Previously Unseen White Dwarf in AR Scorpii

The compact object in the interacting binary AR Sco has widely been presumed to be a rapidly rotating, magnetized white dwarf (WD), but it has never been detected directly. Isolating its spectrum has proven difficult because the spin-down of the WD generates pulsed synchrotron radiation that far outshines the WD's photosphere. As a result, a previous study of AR Sco was unable to detect the WD in the averaged far-ultraviolet spectrum from a Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observation. In an effort to unveil the WD's spectrum, we reanalyze these HST observations by calculating the average spectrum in the troughs between synchrotron pulses. We identify weak spectral features from the previously unseen WD and estimate its surface temperature to be 11,500 ± 500 K. Additionally, during the synchrotron pulses, we detect broad Lyα absorption consistent with hot WD spectral models. We infer the presence of a pair of hotspots, with temperatures between 23,000 and 28,000 K, near the magnetic poles of the WD. As the WD is not expected to be accreting from its companion, we describe two possible mechanisms for heating the magnetic poles. Here, the Lyα absorption of the hotspots appears relatively undistorted by Zeeman splitting, constraining the WD's field strength to be ≲100 MG, but the data are insufficient to search for the subtle Zeeman splits expected at lower field strengths.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

The Palomar Transient Factory Core-collapse Supernova Host-galaxy Sample. I. Host-galaxy Distribution Functions and Environment Dependence of Core-collapse Supernovae

Several thousand core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe) of different flavors have been discovered so far. However, identifying their progenitors has remained an outstanding open question in astrophysics. Studies of SN host galaxies have proven to be powerful in providing constraints on the progenitor populations. In this paper, we present all CCSNe detected between 2009 and 2017 by the Palomar Transient Factory. This sample includes 888 SNe of 12 distinct classes out to redshift z ≈ 1. We present the photometric properties of their host galaxies from the far-ultraviolet to the mid-infrared and model the host-galaxy spectral energy distributions to derive physical properties. The galaxy mass function of Type Ic, Ib, IIb, II, and IIn SNe ranges from 105 to 1011.5 M o˙, probing the entire mass range of star-forming galaxies down to the least-massive star-forming galaxies known. Moreover, the galaxy mass distributions are consistent with models of star-formation-weighted mass functions. Regular CCSNe are hence direct tracers of star formation. Small but notable differences exist between some of the SN classes. Type Ib/c SNe prefer galaxies with slightly higher masses (i.e., higher metallicities) and star formation rates than Type IIb and II SNe. These differences are less pronounced than previously thought. H-poor superluminous supernovae (SLSNe) and SNe Ic-BL are scarce in galaxies above 1010 M o˙. Their progenitors require environments with metallicities of < 0.4 and < 1 solar, respectively. In addition, the hosts of H-poor SLSNe are dominated by a younger stellar population than all other classes of CCSNe. Our findings corroborate the notion that low metallicity and young age play an important role in the formation of SLSN progenitors.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Linking Extragalactic Transients and Their Host Galaxy Properties: Transient Sample, Multiwavelength Host Identification, and Database Construction

Understanding the preferences of transient types for host galaxies with certain characteristics is key to studies of transient physics and galaxy evolution, as well as to transient identification and classification in the LSST era. Here we describe a value-added database of extragalactic transients—supernovae, tidal disruption events, gamma-ray bursts, and other rare events—and their host galaxy properties. Based on reported coordinates, redshifts, and host galaxies (if known) of events, we cross-identify their host galaxies or most likely host candidates in various value-added or survey catalogs, and compile the existing photometric, spectroscopic, and derived physical properties of the host galaxies in these catalogs. This new database covers photometric measurements from the far-ultraviolet to mid-infrared. Spectroscopic measurements and derived physical properties are also available for a smaller subset of hosts. For our 36,333 unique events, we have cross-identified 13,753 host galaxies using host names, plus 4480 using host coordinates. Besides those with known hosts, there are 18,100 transients with newly identified host candidates. This large database will allow explorations of the connections of transients to their hosts, including a path toward transient alert filtering and probabilistic classification based on host properties.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

The COS Legacy Archive Spectroscopy Survey (CLASSY) Treasury Atlas

Far-ultraviolet (FUV; ~1200–2000 Å) spectra are fundamental to our understanding of star-forming galaxies, providing a unique window on massive stellar populations, chemical evolution, feedback processes, and reionization. The launch of the James Webb Space Telescope will soon usher in a new era, pushing the UV spectroscopic frontier to higher redshifts than ever before; however, its success hinges on a comprehensive understanding of the massive star populations and gas conditions that power the observed UV spectral features. This requires a level of detail that is only possible with a combination of ample wavelength coverage, signal-to-noise, spectral-resolution, and sample diversity that has not yet been achieved by any FUV spectral database. We present the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph Legacy Spectroscopic Survey (CLASSY) treasury and its first high-level science product, the CLASSY atlas. CLASSY builds on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) archive to construct the first high-quality (S/N 1500 Å ≳ 5/resel), high-resolution (R ~ 15,000) FUV spectral database of 45 nearby (0.002 < z < 0.182) star-forming galaxies. The CLASSY atlas, available to the public via the CLASSY website, is the result of optimally extracting and coadding 170 archival+new spectra from 312 orbits of HST observations. The CLASSY sample covers a broad range of properties including stellar mass (6.2 < log M * (M ⊙ ) < 10.1), star formation rate (–2.0 < log SFR (M ⊙ yr –1 ) < +1.6), direct gas-phase metallicity (7.0 < 12+log(O/H) < 8.8), ionization (0.5 < O 32 < 38.0), reddening (0.02 < E(B – V) < 0.67), and nebular density (10 < n e (cm –3 ) < 1120). CLASSY is biased to UV-bright star-forming galaxies, resulting in a sample that is consistent with the z ~ 0 mass–metallicity relationship, but is offset to higher star formation rates by roughly 2 dex, similar to z ≳ 2 galaxies. This unique set of properties makes the CLASSY atlas the benchmark training set for star-forming galaxies across cosmic time.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

exoALMA. V. Gaseous Emission Surfaces and Temperature Structures

An analysis of the gaseous component in protoplanetary disks can inform us about their thermal and physical structure, chemical composition, and kinematic properties, all of which are crucial for understanding various processes within the disks. By exploiting the asymmetry of the line emission, or via line profile analysis, we can locate the emitting surfaces. Here, we present the emission surfaces of the exoALMA sources in 12 CO J = 3–2, 13 CO J = 3–2, and CS J = 7–6. We find that 12 CO traces the upper disk atmosphere, with mean $\langle$ z/r $\rangle$ values of ≈0.28, while 13 CO and CS trace lower regions of the disk with mean $\langle$ z/r $\rangle$ values of ≈0.16 and ≈0.18, respectively. We find that 12 CO $\langle$ z/r $\rangle$ and the disk mass are positively correlated with each other; this relationship offers a straightforward way to infer the disk mass. We derive 2D r – z temperature distributions of the disks. Additionally, we search for substructure in the surfaces and radial intensity profiles; we find evidence of localized substructure in the emission surfaces and peak intensity profiles of nearly every disk, with this substructure often being coincident between molecular tracers, intensity profiles, and kinematic perturbations. Four disks display evidence of potential photodesorption, implying that this effect may be common even in low far-ultraviolet star-forming regions. For most disks, we find that the physical and thermal structure is more complex than analytical models can account for, highlighting a need for more theoretical work and a better understanding of the role of projection effects on our observations.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Ultraviolet to far-infrared dielectric function of n -doped cadmium oxide thin films

Spectroscopic ellipsometry and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy were applied to extract the ultraviolet to far-infrared (150 – 33333 cm -1 ) complex dielectric functions of high-quality, sputtered indium-doped cadmium oxide (In:CdO) thin crystalline films on MgO substrates possessing carrier densities (N d ) ranging from 1.1 x 10 19 cm -1 to 4.1 x 10 20 cm -1 . A multiple oscillator fit model was used to identify and analyze the three major contributors to the dielectric function and their dependence on doping density: interband transitions in the visible, free-carrier excitations (Drude response) in the near- to far-infrared, and IR-active optic phonons in the far-infrared. More specifically, values pertinent to the complex dielectric function such as the optical band gap (E g ), are shown here to be dependent upon carrier density, increasing from approximately 2.5–3 eV, while the high-frequency permittivity (ε ∞ ) decreases from 5.6 to 5.1 with increasing carrier density. The plasma frequency (ω p ) scales as $\sqrt{N_d}$, resulting in ω p values occurring within the mid- to near-IR, and the effective mass (m *) was also observed to exhibit doping density-dependent changes, reaching a minimum of 0.11 m o in unintentionally doped films (1.1 x 10 19 cm -1 ). Good quantitative agreement with prior work on polycrystalline, higher-doped CdO films is also demonstrated, illustrating the generality of the results. The analysis presented here in this paper will aid in predictive calculations for CdO-based next-generation nanophotonic and optoelectronic devices, while also providing an underlying physical description of the key properties dictating the dielectric response in this atypical semiconductor system.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

The Cosmic Ultraviolet Baryon Survey (CUBS) – III. Physical properties and elemental abundances of Lyman-limit systems at z < 1

ABSTRACT We present a systematic investigation of physical conditions and elemental abundances in four optically thick Lyman-limit systems (LLSs) at z = 0.36–0.6 discovered within the Cosmic Ultraviolet Baryon Survey (CUBS). Because intervening LLSs at z < 1 suppress far-UV (ultraviolet) light from background QSOs, an unbiased search of these absorbers requires a near-UV-selected QSO sample, as achieved by CUBS. CUBS LLSs exhibit multicomponent kinematic structure and a complex mix of multiphase gas, with associated metal transitions from multiple ionization states such as C ii, C iii, N iii, Mg ii, Si ii, Si iii, O ii, O iii, O vi, and Fe ii absorption that span several hundred km s−1 in line-of-sight velocity. Specifically, higher column density components (log N(H i)/cm−2≳ 16) in all four absorbers comprise dynamically cool gas with $\langle T \rangle =(2\pm 1) \times 10^4\,$K and modest non-thermal broadening of $\langle b_\mathrm{nt} \rangle =5\pm 3\,$km s−1. The high quality of the QSO absorption spectra allows us to infer the physical conditions of the gas, using a detailed ionization modelling that takes into account the resolved component structures of H i and metal transitions. The range of inferred gas densities indicates that these absorbers consist of spatially compact clouds with a median line-of-sight thickness of $160^{+140}_{-50}$ pc. While obtaining robust metallicity constraints for the low density, highly ionized phase remains challenging due to the uncertain $N\mathrm{(H\, {\small I})}$, we demonstrate that the cool-phase gas in LLSs has a median metallicity of $\mathrm{[\alpha /H]_{1/2}}=-0.7^{+0.1}_{-0.2}$, with a 16–84 percentile range of [α/H] = (−1.3, −0.1). Furthermore, the wide range of inferred elemental abundance ratios ([C/α], [N/α], and [Fe/α]) indicate a diversity of chemical enrichment histories. Combining the absorption data with deep galaxy survey data characterizing the galaxy environment of these absorbers, we discuss the physical connection between star-forming regions in galaxies and diffuse gas associated with optically thick absorption systems in the z < 1 circumgalactic medium.

Zahedy, Fakhri S. (ORCID:0000000178692551)↗

Study of nanodiamond photocathodes for MPGD-based detectors of single photons

The proposed new Electron–Ion Collider poses a technical and intellectual challenge for the detector design to accommodate the long-term diverse physics goals envisaged by the program. This requires a 4π detector system capable of reconstructing the energy and momentum of final state particles with high precision. The Electron-Ion Collider also requires identification of particles of different masses over a wide momentum range. A diverse spectrum of Particle IDentification detectors has been proposed. Of the four types of detectors for hadron identification, three are based on Ring Imaging Cherenkov Counter technologies, and one is realized by the Time of Flight method. The quest for a novel photocathode, sensitive in the far vacuum ultraviolet wavelength range and more robust than cesium iodide, motivated an R&D programme to explore nano-diamond (ND) based photocathodes, started by a collaboration between INFN and CNR Bari and INFN Trieste. Systematic measurements of the photoemission in different Ar:CH 4 and Ar:CO 2 gas mixtures with various types of ND powders and Hydrogenated ND (H-ND) powders are reported. A first study of the response of THGEMs coated with different photocathode materials is presented. Additionally, the progress of this R&D programme and the results obtained so far by these exploratory studies are described.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Late-time Hubble Space Telescope Ultraviolet Spectra of SN 2023ixf and SN 2024ggi Show Ongoing Interaction with Circumstellar Material

We present far- and near-ultraviolet (UV) spectra of the type II supernovae (SNe) SN 2023ixf from days 199 to 722 and SN 2024ggi at days 41 and 232. Both SNe show broad, blueshifted, and asymmetric UV emission lines with an initial maximum velocity of ∼9000 km s −1 and narrow unresolved emission in C ivλλ1548.9, 1550.8. We compare the optical and UV emission-line profiles, showing that they evolve from two distinct velocity profiles to a single profile tracing the UV emission. We interpret this as shock power from interaction with circumstellar material coming to dominate over the radioactive-decay power from the inner ejecta. Comparing our observations to radiative transfer models with injected shock power, we find SN 2024ggi is best matched by P shock,abs = 1 × 10 41 erg s −1 at day 40; SN 2023ixf at day 300 and SN 2024ggi at day 200 are best matched by P shock,abs = 1 × 10 40 erg s −1 ; and SN 2023ixf at day 600 is best matched by Pshock,abs = 5 × 10 39 erg s −1 . From these models, we find that the mass-loss rate of both SNe increased just before the explosion. For SN 2023ixf, our mass-loss rates go from 4 × 10 −5 M ⊙ yr −1 at 600 yr before explosion to 2 × 10 −2 M ⊙ yr − 1 at 15 yr prior to explosion. For SN 2024ggi, we find a mass-loss rate of 9 × 10 −5 M ⊙ yr −1 at 150 yr before explosion and 1 × 10 −3 M ⊙ yr −1 at 30 yr before explosion.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Deep Learning and Natural Language Processing for Accelerated Inverse Design of Optical Metamaterials

Optical metamaterial device design has enjoyed a long track of success over the past 50 years leading to the manipulation of light over a wide range of wavelengths spanning the ultraviolet to the far infrared. The manipulation of light over such wavelengths has already led to many technological advancements such as the design of selective radiative absorbers for solar energy, daytime passive cooling using deep space, and optical invisibility cloaks for defense applications. Further disruptive advancements in energy, defense, computing, and biomedical fields could be enabled or enhanced by future optical metamaterial devices. These technologies could lead to increased energy efficiency and hence reduced national primary energy consumption, cheap long duration energy storage, and next generation solid-state heat engines. But historically the methods to invent and develop all of these devices have been time- consuming and based mostly on intuition and iteration. Finding an optimal design can take years.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Deep Learning and Natural Language Processing for Accelerated Inverse Design of Optical Metamaterials

Optical metamaterial device design has enjoyed a long track of success over the past 50 years leading to the manipulation of light over a wide range of wavelengths spanning the ultraviolet to the far infrared. The manipulation of light over such wavelengths has already led to many technological advancements such as the design of selective radiative absorbers for solar energy, daytime passive cooling using deep space, and optical invisibility cloaks for defense applications. Further disruptive advancements in energy, defense, computing, and biomedical fields could be enabled or enhanced by future optical metamaterial devices. These technologies could lead to increased energy efficiency and hence reduced national primary energy consumption, cheap long duration energy storage, and next generation solid-state heat engines. But historically the methods to invent and develop all of these devices have been time- consuming and based mostly on intuition and iteration. Finding an optimal design can take years. In this project we developed a machine learning-based algorithm capable of automatically generating device designs to produce desired optical properties, reducing the design cycle life in certain situations to be almost instantaneous.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Roadmap for Photonics with 2D Materials

Triggered by advances in atomic-layer exfoliation and growth techniques, along with the identification of a wide range of extraordinary physical properties in self-standing films consisting of one or a few atomic layers, two-dimensional (2D) materials such as graphene, transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), and other van der Waals (vdW) crystals now constitute a broad research field expanding in multiple directions through the combination of layer stacking and twisting, nanofabrication, surface-science methods, and integration into nanostructured environments. Photonics encompasses a multidisciplinary subset of those directions, where 2D materials contribute remarkable nonlinearities, long-lived and ultraconfined polaritons, strong excitons, topological and chiral effects, susceptibility to external stimuli, accessibility, robustness, and a completely new range of photonic materials based on layer stacking, gating, and the formation of moiré patterns. These properties are being leveraged to develop applications in electro-optical modulation, light emission and detection, imaging and metasurfaces, integrated optics, sensing, and quantum physics across a broad spectral range extending from the far-infrared to the ultraviolet, as well as enabling hybridization with spin and momentum textures of electronic band structures and magnetic degrees of freedom. The rapid expansion of photonics with 2D materials as a dynamic research arena is yielding breakthroughs, which this Roadmap summarizes while identifying challenges and opportunities for future goals and how to meet them through a wide collection of topical sections prepared by leading practitioners.

2D materials↗

The haloes and environments of nearby galaxies ( HERON ) – III. A 45-kpc spiral structure in the GLSB galaxy UGC 4599

ABSTRACT We use a 0.7-m telescope in the framework of the Halos and Environments of Nearby Galaxies (HERON) survey to probe low surface brightness (LSB) structures in nearby galaxies. One of our targets, UGC 4599, is usually classified as an early-type galaxy surrounded by a blue ring making it a potential Hoag’s Object analogue. Prior photometric studies of UGC 4599 were focused on its bright core and the blue ring. However, the HERON survey allows us to study its faint extended regions. With an 8-h integration, we detect an extremely faint outer disc with an extrapolated central surface brightness of μ0, d(r) = 25.5 mag arcsec−2 down to 31 mag arcsec−2 and a scale length of 15 kpc. We identify two distinct spiral arms of pitch angle ∼6○ surrounding the ring. The spiral arms are detected out to ∼45 kpc in radius and the faint disc continues to ∼70 kpc. These features are also seen in the GALEX far- and near-ultraviolet bands, in a deep u-band image from the 4.3-m Lowell Discovery Telescope (which reveals inner spiral structure emerging from the core), and in H i. We compare this galaxy to ordinary spiral and elliptical galaxies, giant low surface brightness (GLSB) galaxies, and Hoag’s Object itself using several standard galaxy scaling relations. We conclude that the pseudo-bulge and disc properties of UGC 4599 significantly differ from those of Hoag’s Object and of normal galaxies, pointing toward a GLSB galaxy nature and filamentary accretion of gas to generate its outer disc.

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗

Modeling Dust Production, Growth, and Destruction in Reionization-era Galaxies with the CROC Simulations. II. Predicting the Dust Content of High-redshift Galaxies

Abstract We model the interstellar dust content of the reionization era with a suite of cosmological, fluid-dynamical simulations of galaxies with stellar masses ranging from ∼10 5 to 10 9 M ⊙ in the first 1.2 Gyr of the Universe. We use a post-processing method that accounts for dust creation and destruction processes, allowing us to systematically vary the parameters of these processes to test whether dust-dependent observable quantities of galaxies at these epochs could be useful for placing constraints on dust physics. We then forward model observable properties of these galaxies to compare to existing data. We find that we are unable to simultaneously match existing observational constraints with any one set of model parameters. Specifically, the models that predict the largest dust masses D / Z ≳ 0.1 at z = 5—because of high assumed production yields and/or efficient growth via accretion in the interstellar medium—are preferred by constraints on total dust mass and infrared (IR) luminosities, but these models produce far too much attenuation in the ultraviolet (UV), preventing them from matching observations of β UV . To investigate this discrepancy, we analyze the relative spatial distribution of stars and dust as probed by IR and UV emission, which appear to exhibit overly symmetric morphologies compared to existing data, likely due to the limitations of the stellar feedback model used in the simulations. Our results indicate that the observable properties of the dust distribution in high redshift galaxies are a particularly strong test of stellar feedback.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Infrared Galaxies Detected by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope

We report on 167 infrared (IR) galaxies selected by AKARI and IRAS and detected in the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) Data Release 5 (DR5) sky maps at the 98, 150, and 220 GHz frequency bands. Of these detections, 134 (80%) of the millimeter counterparts are first-time identifications with ACT. We expand the previous ACT extragalactic source catalogs, by including new 98 GHz detections and measurements from ACT DR5. We also report flux density measurements at the 98, 150, and 220 GHz frequency bands. We compute α 98-150 , α 98-220 , and α 150-220 millimeter-wave spectral indices and far-IR to millimeter-wave spectral indices between 90 μm and 98, 150, and 220 GHz. We specify the galaxy type, based on α 150-220 . We combine publicly available multiwavelength data—including ultraviolet, optical, near-IR, mid-IR, far-IR, and the millimeter measurements obtained in this work—and perform spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting with CIGALE. With the radio emission decomposition advantage of CIGALE V2022.0, we identify the origins of the millimeter emissions for 69 galaxies in our sample. Our analysis also shows that millimeter data alone indicates the need for a radio synchrotron component in the SEDs that are produced by active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and/or star formation. We present SEDs and measured physical properties of these galaxies, such as the dust luminosity, AGN luminosity, the total IR luminosity, and the ratio of the IR and radio luminosity. We quantify the relationships between the total IR luminosity and the millimeter-band luminosities, which can be used in the absence of SED analysis.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Increased phase precision of spatial light modulators using irrational slopes: application to attosecond metrology

The ability of spatial light modulators (SLMs) to modify the amplitude and phase of light has proved them invaluable to the optics and photonics community. In many applications, the bit-depth of SLMs is a major limiting factor dictated by a digital processor. As a result, there is usually a compromise between refresh speed and bit-depth. Here, we present a method to increase the effective bit-depth of SLMs, which utilizes a linear slope, as is commonly applied to deal with the zeroth-order effect. This technique was tested using two interferometric transient absorption spectroscopy setups. Through the high harmonic generation in gases producing a train of attosecond pulses and harmonics from solids in the ultraviolet, two pulses are generated that interfere in the far field providing a measurement of the optical phase. An increase in the precision far beyond the limit dictated by the digital processor in the bit-depth was found.

Harrison, Geoffrey R. (ORCID:0000000152141866)↗

Environmental Effects in Herschel Observations of the Ionized Carbon Content of Star-forming Dwarf Galaxies in the Virgo Cluster

We use archival Herschel data to examine the singly ionized carbon ([C II]) content of 14 star-forming dwarf galaxies in the Virgo cluster. We use spectral energy distribution fits to far-infrared, mid-infrared, near-infrared, optical, and ultraviolet data to derive the total infrared continuum (TIR) for these galaxies. We compare the [C II]/TIR ratio for dwarf galaxies in the central part of Virgo to those in the southern part of the cluster and to galaxies with similar TIR luminosities and metallicities in the Herschel Dwarf Galaxy Survey (DGS) sample of field dwarf galaxies to look for signs of [C II] formation independent of star formation. Our analysis indicates that the sample of Virgo dwarfs in the central part of the cluster has significantly higher values of [C II]/TIR than the sample from the southern part of the cluster and the sample from the DGS, while the southern sample is consistent with the DGS. This [C II]/TIR excess implies that a significant fraction of the [C II] in the dwarf galaxies in the cluster center has an origin other than star formation and is likely to be due to environmental processes in the central part of the cluster. We also find a surprisingly strong correlation between [C II]/TIR and the local ram pressure felt by the dwarf galaxies in the cluster. In this respect, we claim that the excess [C II] we see in these galaxies is likely to be due to formation in ram-pressure shocks.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗