These are the latest articles published in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series.

• Open/close A High-resolution Atlas of Uranium-Neon in the H Band

  Stephen L. Redman et al. 2012 ApJS 199 2 Tag this article

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  We present a high-resolution ( R 50,000) atlas of a uranium-neon (U/Ne) hollow-cathode spectrum in the H band (1454-1638 nm) for the calibration of near-infrared spectrographs. We obtained this U/Ne spectrum simultaneously with a laser-frequency comb spectrum, which we used to provide a first-order calibration to the U/Ne spectrum. We then calibrated the U/Ne spectrum using the recently published uranium line list of Redman et al., which is derived from high-resolution Fourier transform spectrometer measurements. These two independent calibrations allowed us to easily identify emission lines in the hollow-cathode lamp that do not correspond to known (classified) lines of either uranium or neon, and to compare the achievable precision of each source. Our frequency comb precision was limited by modal noise and detector effects, while the U/Ne precision was limited primarily by the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) of the observed emission lines and our ability to model blended lines. The standard deviation in the dispersion solution residuals from the S/N-limited U/Ne hollow-cathode lamp was 50% larger than the standard deviation of the dispersion solution residuals from the modal-noise-limited laser-frequency comb. We advocate the use of U/Ne lamps for precision calibration of near-infrared spectrographs, and this H-band atlas makes these lamps significantly easier to use for wavelength calibration.

• Open/close A Magellan-IMACS-IFU Search for Dynamical Drivers of Nuclear Activity. I. Reduction Pipeline and Galaxy Catalog

  P. B. Westoby et al. 2012 ApJS 199 1 Tag this article

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  Using the IMACS integral-field unit (IFU) on the 6.5 m Magellan telescope, we have designed the first statistically significant investigation of the two-dimensional distribution and kinematics of ionized gas and stars in the central kiloparsec regions of a well-matched sample of Seyfert and inactive control galaxies selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The goals of the project are to use the fine spatial sampling (0.2 arcsec pixel ^–1) and large wavelength coverage (4000-7000 Å) of the IMACS-IFU to search for dynamical triggers of nuclear activity in the central region where active galactic nucleus (AGN) activity and dynamical timescales become comparable, to identify and assess the impact of AGN-driven outflows on the host galaxy and to provide a definitive sample of local galaxy kinematics for comparison with future three-dimensional kinematic studies of high-redshift systems. In this paper, we provide the first detailed description of the procedure to reduce and calibrate data from the IMACS-IFU in "long mode" to obtain two-dimensional maps of the distribution and kinematics of ionized gas and stars. The sample selection criteria are presented, the observing strategy is described, and resulting maps of the sample galaxies are presented along with a description of the observed properties of each galaxy and the overall observed properties of the sample.

• Open/close Estimation of the Neon/Oxygen Abundance Ratio at the Heliospheric Termination Shock and in the Local Interstellar Medium from IBEX Observations

  P. Bochsler et al. 2012 ApJS 198 13 Tag this article

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  We report the first direct measurement of the Ne/O abundance ratio of the interstellar neutral gas flowing into the inner heliosphere. From the first year of Interstellar Boundary Explorer IBEX data collected in spring 2009, we derive the fluxes of interstellar neutral oxygen and neon. Using the flux ratio at the location of IBEX at 1 AU at the time of the observations, and using the ionization rates of neon and oxygen prevailing in the heliosphere during the period of solar minimum, we estimate the neon/oxygen ratios at the heliospheric termination shock and in the gas phase of the inflowing local interstellar medium. Our estimate is (Ne/O) _{gas, ISM} = 0.27 ± 0.10, which is—within the large given uncertainties—consistent with earlier measurements from pickup ions. Our value is larger than the solar abundance ratio, possibly indicating that a significant fraction of oxygen in the local interstellar medium is hidden in grains and/or ices.

• Open/close Editorial: Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX): Direct Sampling of the Interstellar Medium

  D. J. McComas 2012 ApJS 198 8 Tag this article

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  This special supplement issue of the Astrophysical Journal comprises six coordinated papers that provide the first detailed analyses of the direct sampling of interstellar neutral atoms by the Interstellar Boundary Explorer ( IBEX). Interstellar atoms are the detritus of older stars—their stellar winds, novae, and supernovae—spread across the galaxy, which fill the vast interstellar space between the stars. The very local interstellar medium around the Sun is filled with both ionized and neutral atoms with approximately equal numbers, and occasional ionization, charge exchange, and recombination makes them a single interacting material over large distances.

  IBEX (McComas et al. 2009a) is a NASA Small Explorer mission with the sole, focused science objective to discover the global interaction between the solar wind and the interstellar medium; this objective has primarily been achieved by taking the first global energetic neutral atom (ENA) images, which provide detailed ENA fluxes and energy spectra over all look directions in space. IBEX was launched 2008 October 19 and subsequently maneuvered into a high-altitude, highly elliptical (~15,000 × 300,000 km), roughly week-long orbit. The payload comprises two very high sensitivity, single-pixel ENA cameras: IBEX-Hi (Funsten et al. 2009a), which measures ENAs from ~300 eV to 6 keV, and IBEX-Lo (Fuselier et al. 2009a), which measures ENAs from ~10 eV to 2 keV. The initial IBEX ENA results were published together in a special issue of Science magazine (McComas et al. 2009b; Funsten et al. 2009b; Fuselier et al. 2009b; Schwadron et al. 2009). Since then there have been numerous additional studies of the IBEX ENA observations of the heliosphere, as well as ENAs from the Moon and Earth's magnetosphere (see recent review by McComas et al. 2011 and references therein).

  Prior to IBEX, the only interstellar neutral atoms to be directly sampled were He, observed by the Ulysses spacecraft a decade ago (Witte et al. 1996; Witte 2004). The first paper published on IBEX observations of interstellar neutral atoms (Möbius et al. 2009) used observations from the spring of 2009, shortly after IBEX achieved its first long-term orbit; that study showed that IBEX is able to directly observe interstellar H and O in addition to He, but provided only limited analysis of these measurements. IBEX has now completed a second full annual season of neutral observations in 2010, which together with the independent 2009 observations provide data adequate to carry out the first round of detailed, quantitative analyses of the IBEX interstellar neutral observations. In this special supplement issue, the IBEX Science Team presents a coordinated series of six articles that focus on various synergistic aspects of these observations, their analyses, and their implications.

  A critical foundational paper in this volume, Hlond et al. (2012), analyzes the angular pointing knowledge of IBEX observations and demonstrates that the arrival direction knowledge of neutral atoms can be determined to ~0.1° in both spin angle and elevation. This is no mean feat for a Small Explorer mission designed to measure ENAs in 7° × 7° pixels, and largely at much higher energies than the direct interstellar neutrals. In addition, these authors demonstrate that the in-space (post-launch) bore sight of the IBEX-Lo instrument can achieve this accuracy with either the spacecraft's on board attitude control system or an independent Star Sensor that was designed and built directly into the IBEX-Lo instrument.

  Lee et al. (2012) derive the analytical solution for the hyperbolic trajectories of individual neutral atoms by using Liouville's theorem, including solar gravity and radiation pressure, photoionization and charge exchange, to produce interstellar neutral atom phase-space distributions. These distributions are then transformed into the IBEX reference frame and integrated over the IBEX-Lo instrumental acceptance to provide an analytic solution for the predicted fluid moments of the interstellar neutral atom distributions. This analytic solution for the interstellar neutral parameters provides the basis for a companion paper by Möbius et al. (2012), who analyze the IBEX He (and Ne+O) measurements using the Lee et al. analytic solutions. This approach allows for physical insights into the dominant physical processes, while in another related paper Bzowski et al. (2012) describe a detailed forward model of the interstellar helium from the edge of the heliosphere all the way through the IBEX instrument geometry. Together, these papers show that the prior values for the interstellar flow speed and direction from Ulysses are inconsistent with our new IBEX observations.

  Möbius et al. (2012) compare the He and O+Ne flow distributions for both 2009 and 2010 and find interstellar flow parameters of ecliptic longitude at ∞ = 79.0° + 3.0°/–3.5°, ecliptic latitude at ∞ = –4.9° ± 0.2°, ISM speed at ∞ = 23.5 + 3.0/–2.0 km s ^–1, and neutral He temperature = 5000-8200 K. They also find a combined O+Ne temperature of 5300-9000 K, consistent with an isothermal medium for He, O, and Ne. Bzowski et al. (2012) develop and extensively test a detailed forward model simulation of the interstellar He propagation, losses, and measurement in the IBEX-Lo instrument. These simulations start particles at 150 AU and include more detailed physics than the analytic solutions; they therefore complement the analytic method by allowing detailed mapping of the multi-dimensional space of possible solutions. These authors show that the IBEX results are not in statistical agreement with the Ulysses values and provide new best-fit values of ecliptic longitude 79.2°, ecliptic latitude of –5.1°, speed of ~22.8 km s ^–1, and He temperature is 6200 K. The values obtained with both complementary methods agree with each other and are in agreement with the flow vector of the local interstellar cloud obtained from studies of interstellar absorption (Redfield & Linsky 2008). Bzowski et al. also show evidence for a previously unknown and unanticipated secondary population of helium.

  Together, the Möbius et al. (2012) and Bzowski et al. (2012) results provide a new interstellar flow direction and a significantly lower velocity of the incoming gas and therefore significantly lower dynamic pressure on the heliosphere, which translates into a heliospheric interaction that is even less dominated by the external dynamic pressure and clearly lies squarely in the middle ground of astrospheres dominated by the external magnetic and dynamic pressures (McComas et al. 2009b).

  On another topic, Bochsler et al. (2012) report the first direct measurements of interstellar Ne and estimate the interstellar Ne/O abundance ratio, showing a gas-phase Ne/O ratio for the LISM of 0.27 ± 0.10. This value agrees with results obtained from pickup ion observations (Gloeckler & Geiss 2004; Gloeckler & Fisk 2007) and is significantly larger than the solar abundance ratio, indicating that the LISM is different than the Sun's formation region and/or that a substantial portion of the O in the LISM is tied up (and thus "hidden") in grains and/or ices.

  Finally, Saul et al. (2012) provide the first detailed analysis of the new interstellar H measurements from IBEX. These authors confirm that the arrival direction of interstellar H is offset from that of He. They further show a variation in the strength of the radiation pressure and thus a change in the apparent arrival direction of H penetrating to 1 AU between the first two years of IBEX observations; these results are consistent with solar cycle variations in the radiation pressure, which works opposite to the Sun's gravitational force to effect the penetration of H into the inner heliosphere.

  Together, these six studies provide the first detailed analyses of the multi-component local interstellar medium—a medium that both effects us by bounding and interacting with our heliosphere, and a medium that gives us a first direct glimpse of non-solar material from the rest of the galaxy.

• Open/close An Analytical Model of Interstellar Gas in the Heliosphere Tailored to Interstellar Boundary Explorer Observations

  Martin A. Lee et al. 2012 ApJS 198 10 Tag this article

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  The stationary distribution of interstellar neutral gas in the heliosphere subject to solar gravity, solar radiation pressure, photoionization, and charge exchange is investigated analytically assuming ionization rates and radiation pressure that are proportional to R ^–2, where R is the heliocentric radius. The collisionless hyperbolic trajectories of the individual atoms including ionization losses are combined with Liouville's Theorem to construct the heliospheric phase-space distribution function of an interstellar gas species in the solar reference frame under the assumption that the distribution is a drifting Maxwellian at large distances from the Sun. The distribution is transformed to the Earth (essentially Interstellar Boundary Explorer ( IBEX)) frame as a function of solar longitude. The expression is then tailored to the latitudinal scan of IBEX as a function of longitude using the fact that IBEX detects each atom close to perihelion in its hyperbolic orbit. The distribution is further adapted to IBEX by integrating the differential intensity over the entrance aperture solid angle of the IBEX-Lo collimator, and over energy to predict the IBEX count rate of helium. The major features of the predicted count rate are described, including a peak in longitude, a peak in latitude at each longitude, and the widths of the major peak in both latitude and longitude. Analytical formulae for these features are derived for comparison with IBEX observations in order to determine the temperature and bulk velocity of the gas in interstellar space. Based in part on these formulae, the results for helium are presented in the companion paper by Möbius et al.