A search for symbiotic behaviour amongst OH/IR colour mimics

Recent maser surveys have shown that many potential OH/IR stars have no OH masers in their circumstellar envelopes, despite the modest requirements which should be implicitly met by IRAS colour-selected candidates. It has been suggested that these OH/IR colour mimics must have a degenerate companion which dissociates OH molecules and disrupts the masing action, ie. that they are related to symbiotic Miras. Coincidentally, there is a paucity of long-period symbiotic Miras and symbiotic OH/IR stars. Phenomonologically, those that are known seem to cluster in the zone where field Miras transform into OH/IR stars. If it could be proven that OH/IR colour mimics contain a degenerate star, that observable evidence of this star is hidden from view by CS dust whilst it slowly accretes from the wind of its Mira companion, then we have an excellent explanation for not only the existence of OH/IR colour mimics, but also for the low observed frequency of symbiotic OH/IR stars and the common occurrence of very slow novae in long-period symbiotic Miras. Here, we employ radio continuum radiation (which should escape unhindered from within the dust shells) as a simple probe of the postulated hot degenerate companions which would inevitably ionize a region of their surrounding gas. We compare the radio and infrared properties of the colour mimics with those of normal symbiotic Miras, using the strong correlation between radio and mid-IR emission in symbiotic stars. We show that if a hot companion exists then, unlike their symbiotic counterparts, they must produce radiation-bounded nebulae. Our observations provide no support for the above scenario for the lack of observed masers, but neither do they permit a rejection of this scenario.Comment: 6 pages; no figures attached; LaTeX (MN style); postscript figures via anonymous ftp in users/ers/mimic-figs on astro.caltech.edu; University of Toronto pre-print; ERSRJI

Variability of sub-mJy radio sources

We present 1.4 GHz VLA observations of the variability of radio sources in the Lockman Hole region at the level of > 100 uJy on timescales of 17 months and 19 days. These data indicate that the areal density of highly variable sources at this level is < 0.005 arcmin^{-2}. We set an upper limit of 2% to the fraction of 50 to 100uJy sources that are highly variable (> 50%). These results imply a lower limit to the beaming angle for GRBs of 1deg, and give a lower limit of 200 arcmin^2 to the area that can be safely searched for GRB radio afterglows before confusion might become an issue.Comment: aastex 2 postscript figures. to appear in the Astrophysical Journa

First redshift determination of an optically/UV faint submillimeter galaxy using CO emission lines

We report the redshift of a distant, highly obscured submm galaxy (SMG), based entirely on the detection of its CO line emission. We have used the newly commissioned Eight-MIxer Receiver (EMIR) at the IRAM 30m telescope, with its 8 GHz of instantaneous dual-polarization bandwidth, to search the 3-mm atmospheric window for CO emission from SMMJ14009+0252, a bright SMG detected in the SCUBA Lens Survey. A detection of the CO(3--2) line in the 3-mm window was confirmed via observations of CO(5--4) in the 2-mm window. Both lines constrain the redshift of SMMJ14009+0252 to z=2.9344, with high precision (dz=2 10^{-4}). Such observations will become routine in determining redshifts in the era of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA).Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, accepted by ApJ

Wide-field mid-infrared and millimetre imaging of the high-redshift radio galaxy, 4C41.17

We present deep 350- and 1200-micron imaging of the region around 4C41.17 -- one of the most distant (z = 3.792) and luminous known radio galaxies -- obtained with the Submillimeter High Angular Resolution Camera (SHARC-II) and the Max Planck Millimeter Bolometer Array (MAMBO). The radio galaxy is robustly detected at 350- and 1200-micron, as are two nearby 850-micron-selected galaxies; a third 850-micron source is detected at 350-micron and coincides with a ~ 2-sigma feature in the 1200-micron map. Further away from the radio galaxy an additional nine sources are detected at 1200-micron, bringing the total number of detected (sub)millimeter selected galaxies (SMGs) in this field to 14. Using radio images from the Very Large Array (VLA) and Spitzer mid-infrared (mid-IR) data, we find statistically robust radio and/or 24-micron counterparts to eight of the 14 SMGs in the field around 4C41.17. Follow-up spectroscopy with Keck/LRIS has yielded redshifts for three of the eight robustly identified SMGs, placing them in the redshift range 0.5 < z < 2.7, i.e. well below that of 4C41.17. We infer photometric redshifts for a further four sources using their 1.6-micron (rest-frame) stellar feature as probed by the IRAC bands; only one of them is likely to be at the same redshift as 4C41.17. Thus at least four, and as many as seven, of the SMGs within the 4C41.17 field are physically unrelated to the radio galaxy. With the redshift information at hand we are able to constrain the observed over-densities of SMGs within radial bins stretching to R=50 and 100" (~ 0.4 and ~ 0.8Mpc at z ~ 3.8) from the radio galaxy to ~ 5x and ~ 2x that of the field, dropping off to the background value at R=150". [Abridged]Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Evidence for extended, obscured starbursts in submm galaxies

We compare high-resolution optical and radio imaging of 12 luminous submm galaxies at z=2.2+/-0.2 observed with HST and the MERLIN and VLA at comparable spatial resolution, 0.3" (2kpc). The radio emission traces the likely far-infrared morphology of these dusty, luminous galaxies. In ~30% of the sample the radio appears unresolved, suggesting that the emission is compact: either an obscured AGN or nuclear starburst. However, in the majority, ~70% (8/12), the radio emission is resolved by MERLIN/VLA on scales of ~1" (10 kpc). For these galaxies the radio morphologies are broadly similar to their restframe UV emission seen by HST. We discuss the probable mechanisms for the extended emission and conclude that their luminous radio and submm emission arises from a large, spatially-extended starburst. The median SFRs are 1700Mo/yr occuring within a ~40kpc^2 region, giving a star formation density of 45Mo/yr/kpc^2. Such vigorous and extended starbursts appear to be uniquely associated with the submm population. A more detailed comparison of the distribution of UV and radio emission shows that the broad similarities on large scales are not carried through to smaller scales, where there is rarely a one-to-one correspondance. We interpret this as resulting from highly structured internal obscuration, suggesting that the vigorous activity is producing wind-blown channels through the obscuration in these galaxies. If correct this underlines the difficulty of using UV morphologies to understand structural properties of this population and also may explain the surprising frequency of Ly-alpha emission in their spectra. [Abridged]Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

Discovery of hydroxyl and water masers in R Aquarii and H1-36 Arae

We present the first results from an all-sky maser-line survey of symbiotic Miras. Interferometric spectral-line observations of R Aqr and H1-36 Arae have revealed a 22-GHz water maser in the former and 1612-MHz hydroxyl and weak 22-GHz water maser emission from the latter. H1-36 has thus become the first known symbiotic OH/IR star. We have also detected weak OH line emission from the vicinity of R Aqr, but we note that there are small discrepencies between the OH- and H2O-line velocities and positions. These detections demonstrate unequivocally that dust can shield some circumstellar hydroxyl and water molecules from dissociation, even in systems which possess intense local sources of UV. Finally, we discuss some of the implications of these observations. The narrow profile of the water maser in R Aqr means that there may finally be an opportunity to determine the system's orbital parameters. We also point out that high resolution synthesis observations may trace the distribution of dust in H1-36 and R Aqr, possibly throwing light on the mass-loss process in symbiotic Miras and placing constraints on the amount of collimation experienced by UV radiation from their hot, compact companions.Comment: 7 pages; no figures attached; LaTex (MN style); postscript figures via anonymous ftp in /users/ers on astro.caltech.edu; University of Toronto pre-print; ERSRJI

Herschel and SCUBA-2 imaging and spectroscopy of a bright, lensed submillimetre galaxy at z = 2.3

We present a detailed analysis of the far-infrared (-IR) properties of the bright, lensed, z = 2.3, submillimetre-selected galaxy (SMG), SMM J2135-0102 (hereafter SMM J2135), using new observations with Herschel, SCUBA-2 and the Very Large Array (VLA). These data allow us to constrain the galaxy's spectral energy distribution (SED) and show that it has an intrinsic rest-frame 8-1000-μm luminosity, L_(bol), of (2.3±0.2) × 10^(12) L_☉ and a likely star-formation rate (SFR) of ~400 yr-1. The galaxy sits on the far-IR/radio correlation for far-IR-selected galaxies. At ≳70 μm, the SED can be described adequately by dust components with dust temperatures, T_d ~ 30 and 60 k. Using SPIRE's Fourier- transform spectrometer (FTS) we report a detection of the [C ii] 158 μm cooling line. If the [C ii], CO and far-IR continuum arise in photo-dissociation regions (PDRs), we derive a characteristic gas density, n ~ 10^3 cm^(-3), and a far-ultraviolet (-UV) radiation field, G_0, 10^(3)× stronger than the Milky Way. L_[CII]/L_(bol) is significantly higher than in local ultra-luminous IR galaxies (ULIRGs) but similar to the values found in local star-forming galaxies and starburst nuclei. This is consistent with SMM J2135 being powered by starburst clumps distributed across ~2 kpc, evidence that SMGs are not simply scaled-up ULIRGs. Our results show that SPIRE's FTS has the ability to measure the redshifts of distant, obscured galaxies via the blind detection of atomic cooling lines, but it will not be competitive with ground-based CO-line searches. It will, however, allow detailed study of the integrated properties of high-redshift galaxies, as well as the chemistry of their interstellar medium (ISM), once more suitably bright candidates have been found