Supersonic Expansion of the Bipolar H ii Region Sh2-106: A 3500 Year Old Explosion?

Multi-epoch narrowband Hubble Space Telescope images of the bipolar H ii region Sh2-106 reveal highly supersonic nebular proper motions that increase with projected distance from the massive young stellar object S106 IR, reaching over ∼30 mas yr−1 (∼150 km s−1 at D = 1.09 kpc) at a projected separation of ∼1.′4 (0.44 pc) from S106 IR. We propose that S106 IR experienced a ∼1047 erg explosion ∼3500 yr ago. The explosion may be the result of a major accretion burst or a recent encounter with another star, or a consequence of the interaction of a companion with the bloated photosphere of S106 IR as it grew from ∼10 through ∼15 M ⊙ at a high accretion rate. Near-IR images reveal fingers of H2 emission pointing away from S106 IR and an asymmetric photon-dominated region surrounding the ionized nebula. Radio continuum and Brγ emission reveal a C-shaped bend in the plasma, indicating either the motion of S106 IR toward the east, or the deflection of plasma toward the west by the surrounding cloud. The H ii region bends around a ∼1′ diameter dark bay west of S106 IR that may be shielded from direct illumination by a dense molecular clump. Herbig–Haro and Molecular Hydrogen Objects tracing outflows powered by stars in the Sh2-106 protocluster such as the Class 0 source S106 FIR are discussed.

A 12.2 GHz Methanol Maser Survey toward the 6.7 GHz Counterparts Associated with/without UC H ii Regions

We report a new survey of the 12.2 GHz Class II methanol masers toward a sample of 367 sources with the 6.7 GHz methanol masers conducted with the Shanghai 65 m Tianma Radio Telescope. This sample has been previously made with observations of the radio continuum emission of UC H ii regions by the VLA. A total of 176 sources were detected with the 12.2 GHz methanol maser, with a detection rate of 48%, including 8 new detections. A lower detection rate (<10%) was determined toward the sources in the Galactic longitude ranges of 60°–180°, revealing that the physical environments from those sources in the Local arm or the tails of Galactic arms do not easily excite the 12.2 GHz masers. In addition, two detections of highly excited-state OH masers at the 13.4 GHz transition were made, one of which is a new detection. Compared to previous surveys, one-third of the detected 12.2 GHz masers show considerable flux variations, implying the possible changes of their physical environments associated with variable radiation fields from their host high-mass young stellar objects. A positive log–log correlation is found between the luminosities of the 6.7 and 12.2 GHz masers in our observed sample, suggesting that both the transition masers have similar excitation conditions. The statistical analysis for the relationships between the methanol maser luminosity and UC H ii region spatial size indicates that the maser luminosities of both the 6.7 and 12.2 GHz transitions have a decreasing trend with the spatial sizes of the associated UC H ii regions, indicating that the Class II methanol masers might fade away with the H ii region evolution.

Radio continuum properties of OH megamaser galaxies

We present a study of the radio continuum properties of two luminous/ultraluminous infrared galaxy samples: the OH megamaser (OHM) sample (74 objects) and the control sample (128 objects) without detected maser emission. We carried out pilot observations for 140 objects with the radio telescope RATAN-600 at 1.2, 2.3, 4.7, 8.2, 11.2, and 22.3 GHz in 2019–2021. The OHM sample has two times more flat-spectrum sources (32 per cent) than the control sample. Steep radio spectra prevail in both samples. The median spectral index at 4.7 GHz α4.7 = −0.59 for the OHM sample, and α4.7 = −0.71 for the non-OHM galaxies. We confirm a tight correlation of the far-infrared (FIR) and radio luminosities for the OHM sample. We found correlations between isotropic OH line luminosity LOH and the spectral index α4.7 (ρ=0.26, p-val.=0.04) and between LOH and radio luminosity P1.4 (ρ=0.35, p-val.=0.005). Reviewing subsamples of masers powered by active galactic nuclei and star formation revealed insignificant differences for their FIR and radio properties. Nonetheless, AGN-powered galaxies exhibit larger scatter in a range of parameters and their standard deviations. The similarities in the radio and FIR properties in the two samples are presumably caused by the presence of a significant amount of AGN sources in both samples (47 and 30 per cent in the OHM and control samples) and/or possibly by the presence of undetected OH emission sources in the control sample.

Tracing the Milky Way’s Vestigial Nuclear Jet

MeerKAT radio continuum and XMM-Newton X-ray images have recently revealed a spectacular bipolar channel at the Galactic Center that spans several degrees (∼0.5 kpc). An intermittent jet likely formed this channel and is consistent with earlier evidence of a sustained, Seyfert-level outburst fueled by black hole accretion onto Sgr A* several Myr ago. Therefore, to trace a now weak jet that perhaps penetrated, deflected, and percolated along multiple paths through the interstellar medium, relevant interactions are identified and quantified in archival X-ray images, Hubble Space Telescope Paschen α images and Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array millimeter-wave spectra, and new SOAR telescope IR spectra. Hydrodynamical simulations are used to show how a nuclear jet can explain these structures and inflate the ROSAT/eROSITA X-ray and Fermi γ-ray bubbles that extend ± 75° from the Galactic plane. Thus, our Galactic outflow has features in common with energetic, jet-driven structures in the prototypical Seyfert galaxy NGC 1068.

Quasi-simultaneous Radio/X-Ray Observations of the Candidate Transitional Millisecond Pulsar 3FGL J1544.6−1125 during its Low-luminosity Accretion-disk State

3FGL J1544.6−1125 is a candidate transitional millisecond pulsar (tMSP). Similar to the well-established tMSPs—PSR J1023+0038, IGR J18245−2452, and XSS J12270−4859—3FGL J1544.6−1125 shows γ-ray emission and discrete X-ray “low” and “high” modes during its low-luminosity accretion-disk state. Coordinated radio/X-ray observations of PSR J1023+0038 in its current low-luminosity accretion-disk state showed rapidly variable radio continuum emission—possibly originating from a compact, self-absorbed jet, the “propellering” of accretion material, and/or pulsar moding. 3FGL J1544.6−1125 is currently the only other (candidate) tMSP system in this state, and can be studied to see whether tMSPs are typically radio-loud compared to other neutron star binaries. In this work, we present a quasi-simultaneous Very Large Array and Swift radio/X-ray campaign on 3FGL J1544.6−1125. We detect 10 GHz radio emission varying in flux density from 47.7 ± 6.0 μJy down to ≲15 μJy (3σ upper limit) at four epochs spanning three weeks. At the brightest epoch, the radio luminosity is L 5 GHz = (2.17 ± 0.17) × 1027 erg s−1 for a quasi-simultaneous X-ray luminosity L 2–10 keV = (4.32 ± 0.23) × 1033 erg s−1 (for an assumed distance of 3.8 kpc). These luminosities are close to those of PSR J1023+0038, and the results strengthen the case that 3FGL J1544.6−1125 is a tMSP showing similar phenomenology to PSR J1023+0038.

The radio continuum perspective on cosmic-ray transport in external galaxies

Radio continuum observations of external galaxies provide us with an excellent outside view on the distribution of cosmic-ray electrons in the disc and halo. In this review, we summarise the current state of what we have learned from modelling such observations with cosmic-ray transport, paying particular attention to the question to what extent we can exploit radio haloes when studying galactic winds. We have developed the user-friendly framework spinnaker to model radio haloes with either pure advection or diffusion, allowing us to study both diffusion coefficients and advection speeds in nearby galaxies. Using these models, we show that we can identify galaxies with winds using both morphology and radio spectral indices of radio haloes. Advective radio haloes are ubiquitous, indicating that already fairly low values of the star formation rate (SFR) surface density ($\Sigma_{ \mathrm{SFR}}$ Σ SFR ) can trigger galactic winds. The advection speeds scale with SFR, $\Sigma_{\mathrm{SFR}}$ Σ SFR , and rotation speed as expected for stellar feedback-driven winds. Accelerating winds are in agreement with our radio spectral index data, but this is sensitive to the magnetic field parametrisation, so that constant wind speeds cannot be ruled out either. The question to what extent cosmic rays can be a driving force behind winds is still an open issue and we discuss only in passing how a simple iso-thermal wind model could fit our data. Nevertheless, the comparison with inferences from observations and theory looks promising with radio continuum offering a complementary view on galactic winds. We finish with a perspective on future observations and challenges lying ahead.

The MAVERIC Survey: Variable Jet-accretion Coupling in Luminous Accreting Neutron Stars in Galactic Globular Clusters

Accreting neutron stars in low-mass X-ray binaries show outflows—and sometimes jets—in the general manner of accreting black holes. However, the quantitative link between the accretion flow (traced by X-rays) and outflows and/or jets (traced by radio emission) is much less well understood for neutron stars than for black holes, other than the general observation that neutron stars are fainter in the radio at a given X-ray luminosity. We use data from the deep MAVERIC radio continuum survey of Galactic globular clusters for a systematic radio and X-ray study of six luminous (L X > 1034 erg s−1) persistent neutron star X-ray binaries in our survey, as well as two other transient systems also captured by our data. We find that these neutron star X-ray binaries show an even larger range in radio luminosity than previously observed. In particular, in quiescence at L X ∼ 3 × 1034 erg s−1, the confirmed neutron star binary GRS 1747–312 in Terzan 6 sits near the upper envelope of the black hole radio/X-ray correlation, and the persistently accreting neutron star systems AC 211 (in M15) and X1850–087 (in NGC 6712) show unusual radio variability and luminous radio emission. We interpret AC 211 as an obscured “Z source” that is accreting at close to the Eddington limit, while the properties of X1850–087 are difficult to explain, and motivate future coordinated radio and X-ray observations. Overall, our results show that neutron stars do not follow a single relation between inflow and outflow, and confirm that their accretion dynamics are more complex than for black holes.

Discovery of a Wind-blown Bubble Associated with the Supernova Remnant G346.6-0.2: A Hint for the Origin of Recombining Plasma

We report on CO and H i studies of the mixed-morphology supernova remnant (SNR) G346.6−0.2. We find a wind-blown bubble along the radio continuum shell with an expansion velocity of ∼10 km s−1, which was likely formed by strong stellar winds from the high-mass progenitor of the SNR. The radial velocities of the CO/H i bubbles at V LSR = −82 to −59 km s−1 are also consistent with those of shock-excited 1720 MHz OH masers. The molecular cloud in the northeastern shell shows a high kinetic temperature of ∼60 K, suggesting that shock heating occurred. The H i absorption studies imply that G346.6−0.2 is located on the farside of the Galactic center from us, and the kinematic distance of the SNR is derived to be 11.1 − 0.3 + 0.5 kpc. We find that the CO line intensity has no specific correlation with the electron temperature of recombining plasma, implying that the recombining plasma in G346.6−0.2 was likely produced by adiabatic cooling. With our estimates of the interstellar proton density of 280 cm−3 and gamma-ray luminosity <5.8 × 1034 erg s−1, the total energy of accelerated cosmic rays of W p < 9.3 × 1047 erg is obtained. A comparison of the age–W p relation to other SNRs suggests that most of the accelerated cosmic rays in G346.6−0.2 have escaped from the SNR shell.

VLT/MUSE and ATCA Observations of the Host Galaxy of the Short GRB 080905A at z = 0.122

Short-GRB progenitors could come in various flavors, depending on the nature of the merging compact stellar objects (including a stellar-mass black hole or not) or depending on their ages (millions or billions of years). At a redshift of z = 0.122, the nearly face-on spiral host of the short GRB 080905A is one of the closest short-GRB host galaxies identified so far. This made it a preferred target to explore spatially resolved star formation and to investigate the afterglow position in the context of its star formation structures. We used VLT/MUSE integral-field unit observations, supplemented by ATCA 5.5/9.0 GHz radio-continuum measurements and publicly available HST data, to study the star formation activity in the GRB 080905A host galaxy. The MUSE observations reveal that the entire host is characterized by strong line emission. Using the Hα line flux, we measure for the entire galaxy an SFR of about 1.6 M ⊙ yr−1, consistent with its non-detection by ATCA. Several individual star-forming regions are scattered across the host. The most luminous region has a Hα luminosity that is nearly four times as high as the luminosity of the Tarantula nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Even though star-forming activity can be traced as close to about 3 kpc (in projection) distance to the GRB explosion site, stellar population synthesis calculations show that none of the Hα-bright star-forming regions is a likely birthplace of the short-GRB progenitor.

A Novel Method for Estimating the Ambient Medium Density Around Distant Radio Sources from Their Observed Radio Spectra

The dynamical evolution and radiative properties of luminous radio galaxies and quasars of the FR II type, are well understood. As a result, through the use of detailed modeling of the observed radio emission of such sources, one can estimate various physical parameters of the systems, including the density of the ambient medium into which the radio structure evolves. This, however, requires rather comprehensive observational information, i.e., sampling the broadband radio continua of the targets at several frequencies, and imaging their radio structures with high resolution. Such observations are, on the other hand, not always available, especially for high-redshift objects. Here, we analyze the best-fit values of the source physical parameters, derived from extensive modeling of the largest currently available sample of FR II radio sources, for which good-quality multiwavelength radio flux measurements could be collected. In the analyzed data set, we notice a significant and nonobvious correlation between the spectral index of the nonthermal radio emission continuum, and density of the ambient medium. We derive the corresponding correlation parameters, and quantify the intrinsic scatter by means of Bayesian analysis. We propose that the discovered correlation could be used as a cosmological tool to estimate the density of ambient medium for large samples of distant radio galaxies. Our method does not require any detailed modeling of individual sources, and relies on limited observational information, namely, the slope of the radio continuum between the rest-frame frequencies 0.4 and 5 GHz, possibly combined with the total linear size of the radio structure.