Statistics – Computation
Scientific paper
May 2007
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007sptz.prop40229m&link_type=abstract
Spitzer Proposal ID #40229
Statistics
Computation
Scientific paper
We request funding to develop a theoretical understanding of the complex and fascinating life cycle of interstellar dust in elliptical galaxies. Our recent Spitzer observations show that many otherwise normal elliptical galaxies have unexpected extended regions of cold dust with masses exceeding that of dust produced by a normally evolving local old stellar population. The dust lifetime is only ten million years in the hot interstellar gas. In one galaxy excess dust is observed in a highly asymmetric, plume-like extension out to five kiloparsecs from the center and coincident with warm gas that emits optical line emission. Since the excess dust is highly transient, it must be internally produced (not by mergers) on a frequent duty cycle of about ten million years. Evidently, the extended dust in these normal ellipticals originates in small dusty nuclear disks a few hundred parsecs in size which are commonly observed and contain enough dust to account for the extended dust we observe. We request funding to study the kinematic and thermal evolution of dust lost by normally evolving stars, and to demonstrate in detail how dust from stars in galactic cores collects into small disks. With gasdynamical computations we will show how disks form in rotating elliptical galaxies and investigate their properties. Then we will disrupt the disks with intermittent energy associated with the active galactic nucleus (central black hole) and compute how heated dusty gas is transported out into the hot gas in buoyant plumes. Preliminary calculations show that dust eventually cools the buoyant gas, explaining the presence of extended plumes of warm gas that emits optical emission lines. The astronomical implications of this unexpected excess dust we observed with Spitzer -- and now wish to study in more detail -- are far-reaching and provide new information about energetic processes in galactic cores.
Brighenti Fabrizio
Mathews William
Temi Pasquale
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