Young stellar clusters and star formation throughout the Galaxy
Most stars are born in rich young stellar clusters (YSCs) embedded in giant molecular clouds. The most massive stars live out their short lives there, profoundly influencing their natal environments by ionizing HII regions, inflating wind-blown bubbles, and soon exploding as supernovae. Thousands of lower-mass pre-main sequence stars accompany the massive stars, and the expanding HII regions paradoxically trigger new star formation as they destroy their natal clouds. While this schematic picture is established, our understanding of the complex astrophysical processes involved in clustered star formation have only just begun to be elucidated. The technologies are challenging, requiring both high spatial resolution and wide fields at wavelengths that penetrate obscuring molecular material and remove contaminating Galactic field stars. We outline several important projects for the coming decade: the IMFs and structures of YSCs; triggered star formation around YSC; the fate of OB winds; the stellar populations of Infrared Dark Clouds; the most massive star clusters in the Galaxy; tracing star formation throughout the Galactic Disk; the Galactic Center region and YSCs in the Magellanic Clouds. Programmatic recommendations include: developing a 30m-class adaptive optics infrared telescope; support for high-resolution and wide field X-ray telescopes; large-aperture sub-millimeter and far-infrared telescopes; multi-object infrared spectrographs; and both numerical and analytical theory.

title: The X-ray reflector in NGC 4945: a time- and space-resolved portrait
abstract: We present a time, spectral and imaging analysis of the X-ray reflector in NGC 4945, which reveals its geometrical and physical structure with unprecedented detail. NGC 4945 hosts one of the brightest AGN in the sky above 10 keV, but it is only visible through its reflected/scattered emission below 10 keV, due to absorption by a column density of ∼4 × 10 24 cm −2 .An ew Suzaku campaign of five observations spanning ∼6 months, together with past XMM–Newton and Chandra observations, shows a remarkable constancy (within <10 per cent) of the reflected component. Instead, Swift-BAT reveals strong intrinsic variability on time-scales longer than 1 yr. Modelling the circumnuclear gas as a thin cylinder with the axis on the plane of the sky, we show that the reflector is at a distance ≥30–50 pc, well within the imaging capabilities of Chandra at the distance of NGC 4945 (1 arcsec ∼18 pc). Accordingly, the Chandra imaging reveals a resolved, flattened, ∼150 pc long clumpy structure, whose spectrum is fully due to cold reflection of the primary AGN emission. The clumpiness may explain the small covering factor derived from the spectral and variability properties.

title: A Deep Chandra ACIS Study of NGC 4151. III. The Line Emission and Spectral Analysis of the Ionization Cone
abstract: This paper is the third in a series in which we present deep Chandra ACIS-S imaging spectroscopy of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 4151, devoted to study its complex circumnuclear X-ray emission. Emission features in the soft X-ray spectrum of the bright extended emission (L{sub 0.3-2{sub keV}} {approx} 10{sup 40} erg s{sup -1}) at r > 130 pc (2'') are consistent with blended brighter O VII, O VIII, and Ne IX lines seen in the Chandra HETGS and XMM-Newton RGS spectra below 2 keV. We construct emission line images of these features and find good morphological correlations with the narrow-line region clouds mapped in [O III] {lambda}5007. Self-consistent photoionization models provide good descriptions of the spectra of the large-scale emission, as well as resolved structures, supporting the dominant role of nuclear photoionization, although displacement of optical and X-ray features implies a more complex medium. Collisionally ionized emission is estimated to be {approx}<12% of the extended emission. Presence of both low- and high-ionization spectral components and extended emission in the X-ray image perpendicular to the bicone indicates leakage of nuclear ionization, likely filtered through warm absorbers, instead of being blocked by a continuous obscuring torus. The ratios of [O III]/soft X-raymore » flux are approximately constant ({approx}15) for the 1.5 kpc radius spanned by these measurements, indicating similar relative contributions from the low- and high-ionization gas phases at different radial distances from the nucleus. If the [O III] and X-ray emission arise from a single photoionized medium, this further implies an outflow with a wind-like density profile. Using spatially resolved X-ray features, we estimate that the mass outflow rate in NGC 4151 is {approx}2 M{sub Sun} yr{sup -1} at 130 pc and the kinematic power of the ionized outflow is 1.7 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 41} erg s{sup -1}, approximately 0.3% of the bolometric luminosity of the active nucleus in NGC 4151.« less

title: IMAGING THE CIRCUMNUCLEAR REGION OF NGC 1365 WITH CHANDRA
abstract: We present the first Chandra/ACIS imaging study of the circumnuclear region of the nearby Seyfert galaxy NGC 1365. The X-ray emission is resolved into pointlike sources and complex, extended emission. The X-ray morphology of the extended emission shows a biconical soft X-ray-emission region extending ~5 kpc in projection from the nucleus, coincident with the high-excitation outflow cones seen in optical emission lines particularly to the northwest. Harder X-ray emission is detected from a kpc-diameter circumnuclear ring, coincident with the star-forming ring prominent in the Spitzer mid-infrared (IR) images; this X-ray emission is partially obscured by the central dust lane of NGC 1365. Spectral fitting of spatially separated components indicates a thermal plasma origin for the soft extended X-ray emission (kT = 0.57 keV). Only a small amount of this emission can be due to photoionization by the nuclear source. Detailed comparison with [O III]λ5007 observations shows that the hot interstellar medium (ISM) is spatially anticorrelated with the [O III]-emitting clouds and has thermal pressures comparable to those of the [O III] media, suggesting that the hot ISM acts as a confining medium for the cooler photoionized clouds. The abundance ratios of the hot ISM are fully consistent with the theoretical values for enrichment from Type II supernovae, suggesting that the hot ISM is a wind from the starburst circumnuclear ring. X-ray emission from a ~450 pc long nuclear radio jet is also detected to the southeast.

title: A DEEP CHANDRA ACIS STUDY OF NGC 4151. II. THE INNERMOST EMISSION LINE REGION AND STRONG EVIDENCE FOR RADIO JET–NLR CLOUD COLLISION
abstract: We have studied the X-ray emission within the inner {approx}150 pc radius of NGC 4151 by constructing high spatial resolution emission line images of blended O VII, O VIII, and Ne IX. These maps show extended structures that are spatially correlated with the radio outflow and optical [O III] emission. We find strong evidence for jet-gas cloud interaction, including morphological correspondences with regions of X-ray enhancement, peaks of near-infrared [Fe II] emission, and optical clouds. In these regions, moreover, we find evidence of elevated Ne IX/O VII ratios; the X-ray emission of these regions also exceeds that expected from nuclear photoionization. Spectral fitting reveals the presence of a collisionally ionized component. The thermal energy of the hot gas suggests that {approx}> 0.1% of the estimated jet power is deposited into the host interstellar medium through interaction between the radio jet and the dense medium of the circumnuclear region. We find possible pressure equilibrium between the collisionally ionized hot gas and the photoionized line-emitting cool clouds. We also obtain constraints on the extended iron and silicon fluorescent emission. Both lines are spatially unresolved. The upper limit on the contribution of an extended emission region to the Fe K{alpha} emission is {approx}<more » 5% of the total, in disagreement with a previous claim that 65% of the Fe K{alpha} emission originates in the extended narrow line region.« less

title: A DEEP CHANDRA ACIS STUDY OF NGC 4151. I. THE X-RAY MORPHOLOGY OF THE 3 kpc DIAMETER CIRCUM-NUCLEAR REGION AND RELATION TO THE COLD INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM
abstract: We report on the imaging analysis of ~200 ks sub-arcsecond resolution Chandra Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS-S) observations of the nearby Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 4151. Bright, structured soft X-ray emission is observed to extend from 30 pc to 1.3 kpc in the southwest from the nucleus, much farther than seen in earlier X-ray studies. The terminus of the northeastern X-ray emission is spatially coincident with a CO gas lane, where the outflow likely encounters dense gas in the host galactic disk. X-ray emission is also detected outside the boundaries of the ionization cone, which indicates that the gas there is not completely shielded from the nuclear continuum, as would be the case for a molecular torus collimating the bicone. In the central r < 200 pc region, the subpixel processing of the ACIS data recovers the morphological details on scales of <30 pc (<05) first discovered in Chandra High Resolution Camera images. The X-ray emission is more absorbed toward the boundaries of the ionization cone, as well as perpendicular to the bicone along the direction of a putative torus in NGC 4151. The innermost region where X-ray emission shows the highest hardness ratio is spatially coincident with the near-infrared-resolved H2 emission and dusty spirals we find in an Hubble Space Telescope V – H color image. The agreement between the observed H2 line flux and the value predicted from X-ray-irradiated molecular cloud models supports photo-excitation by X-rays from the active nucleus as the origin of the H2 line, although contribution from UV fluorescence or collisional excitation cannot be ruled out with current data. The discrepancy between the mass of cold molecular gas inferred from recent CO and near-infrared H2 observations may be explained by the anomalous CO abundance in this X-ray-dominated region. The total H2 mass derived from the X-ray observation agrees with the recent measurement by Storchi-Bergmann et al.

title: The haloes of bright satellite galaxies in a warm dark matter universe
abstract: High-resolution N-body simulations of galactic cold dark matter haloes indicate that we should expect to find a few satellite galaxies around the Milky Way whose haloes have a maximum circular velocity in excess of 40 km s-1. Yet, with the exception of the Magellanic Clouds and the Sagittarius dwarf, which likely reside in subhaloes with significantly larger velocities than this, the bright satellites of the Milky Way all appear to reside in subhaloes with maximum circular velocities below 40 km s-1. As recently highlighted by Boylan-Kolchin et al., this discrepancy implies that the majority of the most massive subhaloes within a cold dark matter galactic halo are too concentrated to be consistent with the kinematic data for the bright Milky Way satellites. Here we show that no such discrepancy exists if haloes are made of warm rather than cold dark matter because these haloes are less concentrated on account of their typically later formation epochs. Warm dark matter is one of several possible explanations for the observed kinematics of the satellites.

title: An X-Ray Census of Young Stars in the Massive Southern Star-forming Complex NGC 6357
abstract: We present the first high spatial resolution X-ray study of the massive star-forming region NGC 6357, obtained in a 38 ks Chandra/ACIS observation. Inside the brightest constituent of this large H II region complex is the massive open cluster Pismis 24. It contains two of the brightest and bluest stars known, yet remains poorly studied; only a handful of optically bright stellar members have been identified. We investigate the cluster extent and initial mass function and detect ~800 X-ray sources with a limiting sensitivity of ~1030 ergs s-1; this provides the first reliable probe of the rich intermediate-mass and low-mass population of this massive cluster, increasing the number of known members from optical study by a factor of ~50. The high-luminosity end (log Lh[2-8 keV] ≥ 30.3 ergs s-1) of the observed X-ray luminosity function in NGC 6357 is clearly consistent with a power-law relation as seen in the Orion Nebula Cluster and Cepheus B, yielding the first estimate of NGC 6357's total cluster population, a few times the known Orion population. We investigate the structure of the cluster, finding small-scale substructures superposed on a spherical cluster with 6 pc extent, and discuss its relationship to the nebular morphology. The long-standing LX - 10-7Lbol correlation for O stars is confirmed. Twenty-four candidate O stars and one possible new obscured massive YSO or Wolf-Rayet star are presented. Many cluster members are estimated to be intermediate-mass stars from available infrared photometry (assuming an age of ~1 Myr), but only a few exhibit K-band excess. We report the first detection of X-ray emission from an evaporating gaseous globule at the tip of a molecular pillar; this source is likely a B0-B2 protostar.

title: Search for very light CP-odd Higgs Boson in radiative decays of Upsilon(1S).
abstract: We search for a non-SM-like CP-odd Higgs boson (a(1)(0)) decaying to tau(+)tau(-) or mu(+)mu(-) in radiative decays of the Upsilon(1S). No significant signal is found, and upper limits on the product branching ratios are set. ) results are almost 2 orders of magnitude more stringent than previous upper limits. Our data provide no evidence for a Higgs state with a mass of 214 MeV decaying to mu(+)mu(-), previously proposed as an explanation for 3 Sigma(+)-->pmu(+)mu(-) events observed by the HyperCP experiment. Our results constrain NMSSM models.

title: UNVEILING THE PHYSICAL PROPERTIES AND KINEMATICS OF MOLECULAR GAS IN THE ANTENNAE GALAXIES (NGC 4038/9) THROUGH HIGH-RESOLUTION CO (J=3-2) OBSERVATIONS
abstract: We present a similar to 1 '' (100 pc) resolution (CO)-C-12 (3-2) map of the nearby intermediate-stage interacting galaxy pair NGC 4038/9 (the Antennae galaxies) obtained with the Submillimeter Array. We find that half the CO (3-2) emission originates in the overlap region where most of the tidally induced star formation had been previously found in shorter wavelength images, with the rest being centered on each of the nuclei. The gross distribution is consistent with lower resolution single-dish images, but we show for the first time the detailed distribution of the warm and dense molecular gas across this galaxy pair at resolutions comparable to the size of a typical giant molecular complex. While we find that 58% (33/57) of the spatially resolved Giant Molecular Associations (a few x 100 pc) are located in the overlap region, only <= 30% spatially coincides with the optically detected star clusters, suggesting that the bulk of the CO (3-2) emission traces the regions with very recent or near future star formation activity. The spatial distribution of the CO (3-2)/CO (1-0) integrated brightness temperature ratios mainly ranges between 0.3 and 0.6, which suggests that on average the CO (3-2) line in the Antennae is not completely thermalized and similar to the average values of nearby spirals. A higher ratio is seen in both nuclei and the southern complexes in the overlap region. A higher radiation field associated with intense star formation can account for the nucleus of NGC 4038 and the overlap region, but the nuclear region of NGC 4039 shows relatively little star formation or active galactic nucleus activity and cannot be easily explained. We show kinematical evidence that the high line ratio in NGC 4039 is possibly caused by gas inflow into the counter-rotating central disk.

title: Analysis and application of microwave radiation from the damping manifolds of the SLAC damped detuned structures (DDS)
abstract: The power spectrum emerging from the damping manifolds of a DDS provides valuable quasi-local information on the displacement of a drive beam from the axis of individual cells, where the displacement may be due to beam offset, small cell misalignment, or a combination of the two. The degree of localization and the indexing of frequency to cell number is determined directly from the spectral function theory. Examples for specific DDS designs are presented. These relations can be used to determine geometrical misalignment patterns.