PAHs in the halo of NGC 5529

et al. 2013

A&A

Context. Edge-on spiral galaxies with prominent dust lanes provide us with an excellent opportunity to study the distribution and properties of the dust within them. The HEROES project was set up to observe a sample of seven large edge-on galaxies across various wavelengths for this investigation. Aims. Within this first paper, we present the Herschel observations and perform a qualitative and quantitative analysis on them, and we derive some global properties of the far infrared and submillimetre emission. Methods. We determine horizontal and vertical profiles from the Herschel observations of the galaxies in the sample and describe the morphology. Modified black-body fits to the global fluxes, measured using aperture photometry, result in dust temperatures and dust masses. The latter values are compared to those that are derived from radiative transfer models taken from the literature. Results. On the whole, our Herschel flux measurements agree well with archival values. We find that the exponential horizontal dust distribution model often used in the literature generally provides a good description of the observed horizontal profiles. Three out of the seven galaxies show signatures of extended vertical emission at 100 and 160 μm at the 5σ level, but in two of these it is probably due to deviations from an exactly edge-on orientation. Only for NGC 4013, a galaxy in which vertically extended dust has already been detected in optical images, we can detect vertically extended dust, and the derived scaleheight agrees with the value estimated through radiative transfer modelling. Our analysis hints at a correlation between the dust scaleheight and its degree of clumpiness, which we infer from the difference between the dust masses as calculated from modelling of optical data and from fitting the spectral energy distribution of Herschel datapoints.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 83%

“…Small dust grains and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), both relatively warm, have been traced in direct emission up to several kpc above the disc plane of some edge-on spirals (e.g. Irwin & Madden 2006;Irwin et al 2007;Kamphuis et al 2007;Whaley et al 2009). As already explained in Sect.…”

Section: Vertical Dust Distributionmentioning

confidence: 99%

HERschelObservations of Edge-on Spirals (HEROES)

Verstappen

Fritz

et al. 2013

A&A

“…The scale height of dust in galaxies is, however, still debated with several galaxies showing evidence of extra-planar dust (e.g., Howk & Savage 1999;Alton et al 2000;Thompson et al 2004). While this extra-planar dust component is interpreted as infalling or outflowing material, the presence of small dust grains and PAHs traced up to several kpc above the plane of several edge-on spiral galaxies suggests that a diffuse dust component with scale heights exceeding the vertical scale height of more commonly observed stellar and dust disks might be present in galaxies, and, thus, not of external origin (Irwin & Madden 2006;Irwin et al 2007;Kamphuis et al 2007;Whaley et al 2009). The divergent angular resolution of observations at various IR/submm wavebands furthermore complicates the determination of dust scale heights.…”

Section: Skirt Model Distribution: 3d Stellar and Dust Geometriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

High-resolution, 3D radiative transfer modeling

Looze

Fritz

et al. 2014

A&A

113

Context. Dust reprocesses about half of the stellar radiation in galaxies. The thermal re-emission by dust of absorbed energy is considered to be driven merely by young stars so is often applied to tracing the star formation rate in galaxies. Recent studies have argued that the old stellar population might be responsible for a non-negligible fraction of the radiative dust heating. Aims. In this work, we aim to analyze the contribution of young ( < ∼ 100 Myr) and old (∼10 Gyr) stellar populations to radiative dust heating processes in the nearby grand-design spiral galaxy M 51 using radiative transfer modeling. High-resolution 3D radiative transfer (RT) models are required to describe the complex morphologies of asymmetric spiral arms and clumpy star-forming regions and to model the propagation of light through a dusty medium. Methods. In this paper, we present a new technique developed to model the radiative transfer effects in nearby face-on galaxies. We construct a high-resolution 3D radiative transfer model with the Monte-Carlo code SKIRT to account for the absorption, scattering, and non-local thermal equilibrium (NLTE) emission of dust in M 51. The 3D distribution of stars is derived from the 2D morphology observed in the IRAC 3.6 µm, GALEX FUV, Hα, and MIPS 24 µm wavebands, assuming an exponential vertical distribution with an appropriate scale height. The dust geometry is constrained through the far-ultraviolet (FUV) attenuation, which is derived from the observed total-infrared-to-far-ultraviolet luminosity ratio. The stellar luminosity, star formation rate, and dust mass have been scaled to reproduce the observed stellar spectral energy distribution (SED), FUV attenuation, and infrared SED. Results. The dust emission derived from RT calculations is consistent with far-infrared and submillimeter observations of M 51, implying that the absorbed stellar energy is balanced by the thermal re-emission of dust. The young stars provide 63% of the energy for heating the dust responsible for the total infrared emission (8−1000 µm), while 37% of the dust emission is governed through heating by the evolved stellar population. In individual wavebands, the contribution from young stars to the dust heating dominates at all infrared wavebands but gradually decreases towards longer infrared and submillimeter wavebands for which the old stellar population becomes a non-negligible source of heating. Upon extrapolation of the results for M 51, we present prescriptions for estimating the contribution of young stars to the global dust heating based on a tight correlation between the dust heating fraction and specific star formation rate.

“…In the outer regions of the galaxy, the optical emission line profiles are again double peaked. NGC 5529 is part of a rich galaxy group with at least 16 other members (Irwin et al 2007). Its stellar disk shows a clear warp and extends out to larger (projected) radii on the NW side.…”

Section: Ngc 5529mentioning

confidence: 99%

HERschelObservations of Edge-on Spirals (HEROES)

Allaert

Gentile

et al. 2015

A&A

Context. Edge-on galaxies can offer important insight into galaxy evolution because they are the only systems where the distribution of the different components can be studied both radially and vertically. The HEROES project was designed to investigate the interplay between the gas, dust, stars, and dark matter (DM) in a sample of 7 massive edge-on spiral galaxies. Aims. In this second HEROES paper, we present an analysis of the atomic gas content of 6 out of 7 galaxies in our sample. The remaining galaxy was recently analysed according to the same strategy. The primary aim of this work is to constrain the surface density distribution, the rotation curve, and the geometry of the gas disks in a homogeneous way. In addition we identify peculiar features and signs of recent interactions. Methods. We have constructed detailed tilted-ring models of the atomic gas disks based on new GMRT 21-cm observations of NGC 973 and UGC 4277 and re-reduced archival H  data of NGC 5907, NGC 5529, IC 2531, and NGC 4217. Potential degeneracies between different models were resolved by requiring good agreement with the data in various representations of the data cubes. Results. From our modelling we find that all but one galaxy are warped along the major axis. In addition, we identify warps along the line of sight in three galaxies. A flaring gas layer is required to reproduce the data for only one galaxy, but (moderate) flares cannot be ruled out for the other galaxies either. A coplanar ring-like structure is detected outside the main disk of NGC 4217, which we suggest could be the remnant of a recent minor merger event. We also find evidence of a radial inflow of 15 ± 5 km s −1 in the disk of NGC 5529, which might be related to the ongoing interaction with two nearby companions. For NGC 5907, the extended, asymmetric, and strongly warped outer regions of the H  disk also suggest a recent interaction. In contrast, the inner disks of these three galaxies (NGC 4217, NGC 5529, and NGC 5907) show regular behaviour and seem largely unaffected by the interactions. Our models further support earlier claims of prominent spiral arms in the disks of IC 2531 and NGC 5529. Finally, we detect a dwarf companion galaxy at a projected distance of 36 kpc from the centre of NGC 973.