Mathematics – Logic
Scientific paper
Dec 2006
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006aas...20919807m&link_type=abstract
2007 AAS/AAPT Joint Meeting, American Astronomical Society Meeting 209, #198.07; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society,
Mathematics
Logic
Scientific paper
Using Spitzer far-infrared (FIR) and Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT) imaging as part of the Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxies Survey, we study how the FIR-radio correlation behaves within a sample of spirals. Specifically, we test a phenomenological model which describes the FIR-correlation as the result of massive star formation; massive stars both dust and end their lives as supernovae whose remnants accelerate cosmic-ray (CR) electrons responsible for the observed synchrotron emission within star-forming galaxies. Since the mean-free-path of dust-heating photons is significantly shorter than the diffusion length of CR-electrons, the radio image of a galaxy should appear as a smoother version of its infrared image. We find that this description works well as smoothing the infrared maps improves the spatial correlation between the FIR and radio maps by a factor of 3. We also find that the size of the scale-length which yields the best correlation between the FIR and radio spatial distributions is related to the amount of ongoing star formation activity. We demonstrate that this trend is not the result of increased Inverse Compton losses nor a decrease in the mean-free-path traveled by CR-electrons due to varying ISM parameters, but rather due to the predominant youth of the CR-electron population within galaxies having high star-formation activity. We conclude that these galaxies have likely undergone a recent episode of enhanced star formation.
Armus Lee
Braun Robert
Helou George
Kenney Jeffrey D.
Murphy Eric J.
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