We analysed the Spitzer maps of Stephan's Quintet in order to investigate the nature of the dust emission associated with the X-ray emitting regions of the large scale intergalactic shock and of the group halo. This emission can in principle be powered by dust-gas particle collisions, thus providing efficient cooling of the hot gas. However the results of our analysis suggest that the dust emission from those regions is mostly powered by photons. Nonetheless dust collisional heating could be important in determining the cooling of the IGM gas and the large scale star formation morphology observed in SQ.

Stephan's Quintet (SQ, HCG92) is a well studied compact group of galaxies with a disturbed intergalactic medium (IGM). An “intruder” galaxy NGC 7318b is currently colliding with the IGM at a relative velocity of 1000 km s−1, causing a large-scale shock front. We observed SQ with the Far-Infrared Surveyor (FIS) aboard AKARI in four far-infrared (far-IR) bands at 65, 90, 140, and 160μm. The 160μm image clearly shows an additional peak of emission overlying structure extending in the North-South direction along the shock ridge seen in the 140μm band, and in H2 and X-ray emission. Whereas most of the far-IR emission in the shocked region is from cold dust (20 K), the [CII]158μm emission - whose luminosity is comparable to that of the warm H2 gas - can significantly contribute to the single peak emission in the 160μm band. We conclude that the [CII] line emission comes from the warm H2 gas in the shock. Our result represents the first detection of shock-excited [CII] line emission.

The LITTLE THINGS project† has compiled multi-wavelength data (including VLA hi-line emission maps, GALEX FUV/NUV imagery, UBV, narrow-band Hα, and Spitzer images) for a representative sample of nearby dwarf irregular (dIrr) galaxies. The broadband data are used to constrain the radial variations of the star formation (SF) rate (SFR) averaged over the past 0.1 Gyr, 1 Gyr and a Hubble time, with a complete library of model SF histories (SFHs). The recent SF of more than ~ 80% of the dIrrs in our sample has been concentrated in the inner disk, and the SF in the outer disk has been markedly suppressed. This outside-in shrinking of the star-forming disk leaves a down-bending (double exponential) stellar mass surface density (Σ*) distribution. Our findings in dIrrs are in contrast to the inside-out disk growth scenario suggested for luminous spiral galaxies.

Stellar bars are important structures for the internal secular evolution of galaxies. They can drive gas into the central region of galaxies, and result in an enhancement of star formation activity there. Previous studies are limited in the comparisons between barred and unbarred galaxies. Here we try to investigate the connection between star formation activities and different bars, based on multi-wavelength data in a sample of barred spirals. We find that there is no clearly trend of the surface star formation rates in different structures along the bar strength. In addition, there is larger scatter for the properties of star formation activity in the galaxies with middle-strength bars, which may indicate that a variety of star formation stages are more likely associated with these bars.

Present and past gas-fuelling of galaxies is expected to depend upon both the properties of the galaxies themselves, as well as their larger-scale environments. In the case of galaxies in groups the environment, i.e the group mass, can be probed by measuring the velocity dispersion of the group members, as done with the GAMA Galaxy Group catalogue (Robotham et al. 2011), probing the halo mass function all the way to small groups. The gas-fuelling rate of normal late-type galaxies can be traced by the SFR under the assumption of a steady state between gas-fuelling and gas-consumption by SF. We present a method to estimate disk opacities from UV/optical photometric characteristics, calibrated using the radiative transfer model of Popescu et al. (2011), applied to UV-Opt-FIR GAMA/H-ATLAS photometry for a subset of GAMA galaxies. We use the method to extract attenuation corrected SFRs for a large sample of late-type GAMA galaxies, which we use in an initial application to constrain the dependency of star formation/gas-fuelling in late-type galaxies on mass of parent DMH, and compactness of galaxy group.

With the goal of constructing Star-Formation Rates (SFR) from AKARI Infrared Camera (IRC) data, we analyzed an IR-selected GALEX-SDSS-2MASS-AKARI(IRC & Far-Infrared Surveyor) sample of 153 nearby galaxies. The far-infrared fluxes were obtained from AKARI diffuse maps to correct the underestimation for extended sources raised by PSF photometry. SFRs of these galaxies were derived using the SED fitting program CIGALE. In spite of complicated features contained in these bands, both the S9W and L18W emissions correlate with the SFR of galaxies. The SFR calibrations using S9W and L18W are presented for the first time. These calibrations agree well with previous work based on Spitzer data within the scatter, and should be applicable to dust-rich galaxies.

Cosmic rays fill up the entire volume of galaxies, providing an important source of heating and ionisation of the interstellar medium, and may play a significant role in the regulation of star formation and galactic evolution. Diffuse emissions from radio to high-energy γ-rays (>100 MeV) arising from various interactions between cosmic rays and the interstellar medium, interstellar radiation field, and magnetic field, are currently the best way to trace the intensities and spectra of cosmic rays in the Milky Way and other galaxies. In this contribution, I describe our recent work to model the full spectral energy distribution of galaxies like the Milky Way from radio to γ-ray energies. The application to other galaxies, in particular the Magellanic Clouds and M31 that are now resolved in high-energy γ-rays by the Fermi-LAT, is also discussed.

Since 2003 the H.E.S.S. collaboration has been operating an array of four imaging Cherenkov telescopes in the Khomas Highlands of Namibia. H.E.S.S. can detect gamma rays in the energy range 100 GeV to 100 TeV, has a large field of view (5 degree), good angular resolution (0.1 degree), energy resolution (15%) and sensitivity (a 1% Crab flux point source is detected at 5 sigma significance in 25 h). About half of the available observing time has been spent on the Milky Way, either in scan mode or on individual sources, resulting in the detection of more than 60 Galactic TeV sources. In this talk the two most numerous source classes will be discussed, pulsar wind nebulae and supernova remnants. For the identification and understanding of the TeV emission seen by H.E.S.S. additional measurements of non-thermal emission, mainly in the radio, X-ray and lower-energy gamma-ray bands, are critical. Since August 2008 the Fermi Large Area Telescope has been scanning the whole sky in the energy range from 20 MeV to more than 300 GeV and has detected about 200 Galactic sources as well as diffuse emission from the Milky Way. This talk will give an overview of Galactic H.E.S.S. observations in the multi-wavelength context, with a focus on Fermi.

The Galactic centre – as the closest galactic nucleus – holds both intrinsic interest and possibly represents a useful analogue to starburst nuclei which we can observe with orders of magnitude finer detail than these external systems. The environmental conditions in the GC – here taken to mean the inner 200 pc in diameter of the Milky Way – are extreme with respect to those typically encountered in the Galactic disk. The energy densities of the various GC ISM components are typically ~two orders of magnitude larger than those found locally and the star-formation rate density ~three orders of magnitude larger. Unusually within the Galaxy, the Galactic centre exhibits hard-spectrum, diffuse TeV (=1012 eV) gamma-ray emission spatially coincident with the region's molecular gas. Recently the nuclei of local starburst galaxies NGC 253 and M82 have also been detected in gamma-rays of such energies. We have embarked on an extended campaign of modelling the broadband (radio continuum to TeV gamma-ray), non- thermal signals received from the inner 200 pc of the Galaxy. On the basis of this modelling we find that star-formation and associated supernova activity is the ultimate driver of the region's non-thermal activity. This activity drives a large-scale wind of hot plasma and cosmic rays out of the GC. The wind advects the locally-accelerated cosmic rays quickly, before they can lose much energy in situ or penetrate into the densest molecular gas cores where star-formation occurs. The cosmic rays can, however, heat/ionize the lower density/warm H2 phase enveloping the cores. On very large scales (~10 kpc) the non-thermal signature of the escaping GC cosmic rays has probably been detected recently as the spectacular ‘Fermi bubbles’ and corresponding ‘YWMAP haze’.

The star formation rate (SFR) is still a poorly known characteristic of the Milky Way, especially concerning the possibility of an irregular SFR, compared to a constant rate. Some recent results based on the distribution of dwarf stars with chromospheric ages suggest at least two major bursts in the past 10 Gyr, while other investigations are consistent with an approximately constant SFR. The SFR also shows important spatial variations, particularly concerning the radial variations along the galactic disc. In this work, we investigate two different problems relative to the galactic SFR: (i) We estimate the star formation rate in the galactic disc based on the age distribution of the planetary nebula central stars (CSPN), and compare these results with previous investigations based on dwarf stars. The CSPN ages were derived on the basis of five different methods, involving the observed nebular metallicities and kinematical properties; (ii) We derive radial abundance gradients from several elements in planetary nebulae, and compare these results with recent determinations based on younger objects, such as HII regions and cepheid variables. Since the gradients are linked to the formation process of the galactic disc, we can estimate the spatial variation of the SFR. Preliminary results indicate that at least one major star formation burst is obtained, as well as a relatively smooth variation of the SFR along the galactocentric radius.

The impact of non-thermal processes on the spectral energy distributions of galaxies can be dramatic, but such processes are often neglected in considerations of their structure and evolution. Particle acceleration associated with high mass star formation and AGN activity not only leads to very broad band (radio-γ-ray) emission, but may also produce very significant feedback effects on galaxies and their environment. The recent detections of starburst galaxies at GeV and TeV energies suggest that γ-ray instruments have now reached the critical level of sensitivity to probe the connection between particle acceleration and star-formation in galaxies. In this paper we will try to summarise this recent progress, put it into a multi-wavelength context and also discuss the prospects for more precise and sensitive γ-ray measurements with the upcoming CTA observatory.

Galactic-scale studies of γ-rays and sub-mm radiation suggest that a significant amount of neutral interstellar medium is not detectable either in CO or HI (Grenier et al. 2005; Ade et al. 2011). This component is called “dark gas”. Here we argue that cool and dense atomic gas without molecules is responsible for the dark gas. This interpretation is supported by a recent finding of cool HI gas corresponding to the TeV γ-ray shell in the SNR RX J1713.7-3946 (Fukui et al. 2011). Such HI gas is not recognized under a usual assumption of optically thin HI emission but is identified by a careful analysis considering optically thick HI. The typical column density of such HI gas is a few times 1021 cm−2 and is also identified as visual extinction.

The nearby starburst galaxies M82 and NGC 253 are now detected in GeV and TeV γ-rays, allowing us to directly study cosmic rays (CRs) in starburst galaxies. Combined with radio observations, the detections constrain the propagation and density of CRs in these starbursts. We discuss the implications for “proton calorimetry”, whether CR protons cool through pion losses before escaping these galaxies. The ratio of γ-ray and radio luminosities constrains how much of the CR electron cooling is due to synchrotron losses. As for leptonic emission, we predict that synchrotron and Inverse Compton emission make up ~1–10% of the unresolved hard X-ray emission from M82, and a few percent or less of the total X-ray emission from starbursts. A detection of these components would inform us of the magnetic field strength and 10 – 100 TeV electron spectrum. We conclude by discussing the prospects for detecting leptonic MeV γ-rays from starbursts and the cosmic γ-ray background.

Starting from first principles, we construct a simple model for the evolution of energetic particles produced by supernovae in the starburst galaxy M82. The supernova rate, geometry, and properties of the interstellar medium are all well observed in this nearby galaxy. Assuming a uniform interstellar medium and constant cosmic-ray injection rate, we estimate the cosmic-ray proton and primary & secondary electron/positron populations. From these particle spectra, we predict the gamma ray flux and the radio synchrotron spectrum. The model is then compared to the observed radio and gamma-ray spectra of M82 as well as previous models by Torres (2004), Persic et al. (2008), and de Cea del Pozo et al. (2009). Through this project, we aim to build a better understanding of the calorimeter model, in which energetic particle fluxes reflect supernova rates, and a better understanding of the radio-FIR correlation in galaxies.

We investigate the correlation between the far-infrared (FIR) and radio continuum emission from NGC6946 on spatial scales between 0.9 and 17 kpc. We use the Herschel PACS (70, 100, 160μm) and SPIRE (250μm) data from the KINGFISH project. Separating the free-free and synchrotron components of the radio continuum emission, we find that FIR is better correlated with the free-free than the synchrotron emission. Compared to a similar study in M33 and M31, we find that the scale dependence of the synchrotron–FIR correlation in NGC6946 is more similar to M31 than M33. The scale dependence of the synchrotron–FIR correlation can be explained by the turbulent-to-ordered magnetic field ratio or, equivalently, the diffusion length of the cosmic ray electrons in these galaxies.

The Far-Infrared Radio Correlation (FRC) is the tightest and most universal correlation known among global parameters of galaxies. Here we present the results of our investigation of the 70 μm FRC of starforming galaxies in the Extended Chandra Deep Field South (ECDFS) out to z > 2. In order to quantify the evolution of the FRC we used both survival analysis and stacking techniques, which gave similar results. We also calculated the FRC using total infrared luminosity and rest-frame radio luminosity, qTIR, and find that qTIR is constant (within 0.22) over the redshift range 0 - 2. We see no evidence for evolution in the FRC at 70 μm, which is surprising given the many factors that are expected to change this ratio at high redshifts.

I present a model for the non-thermal production of electromagnetic radiation in the jets of radio galaxies. The model goes far beyond the simple one-zone models usually applied to these sources. The transport equation is solved in the co-moving frame of the jet, taken into account the inhomogeneous structure of the outflow. Energy distributions for all types of particles are then obtained in a self-consistent way, including protons, electrons, and secondaries. The spectral energy distribution resulting from all relevant radiative processes is computed, including synchrotron radiation, relativistic Bremsstrahlung, proton-proton collisions and subsequent decays, photo-meson production, radiation from pairs formed by photon absorption and injection from decays, as well as direct pair production. Absorbing fields in the host galaxy are considered when computing the final SED. The model is applied to Centaurus A and compared with the available multi-wavelength data.

Matching the broad-band emission of active galaxies with the predictions of theoretical models can be used to derive constraints on the properties of the emitting region and to probe the physical processes involved. AP Librae is the third low frequency peaked BL Lac (LBL) detected at very high energy (VHE, E>100GeV) by an Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescope; most VHE BL Lacs (34 out of 39) belong to the high-frequency and intermediate-frequency BL Lac classes (HBL and IBL). LBL objects tend to have a higher luminosity with lower peak frequencies than HBLs or IBLs. The characterization of their time-averaged spectral energy distribution is challenging for emission models such as synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) models.

A very high energy (VHE) γ-radiation was detected from a flat spectrum radio quasar (FSRQ) 4C 21.35 (PKS1222+21) by MAGIC (Major Atmospheric Gamma Imaging Cherenkov) telescopes on June 17th 2010. 4C 21.35 is only the 3rd FSRQ detected in VHE γ-rays. With its hard spectrum (Γ = 2.72±0.34) with no apparent cut-off at energies below 130 GeV and an extremely fast variation of flux (doubling in 8.6+1.1−0.9 minutes), this detection poses a challenge to existing models of VHE γ-radiation from FSRQs. The most important results of observations performed by MAGIC telescopes are presented here, as well as some possible explanations of those results.

A giant e± pair halo is formed by electromagnetic cascades developing around an AGN under the intergalactic magnetic field (1nG - 1μG). Many studies have been focussed on the pair halos in the gamma band because it has been predicted that the e±s in the pair halos up-scatter the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) to be gamma-rays. However, the pair halos do not emit only gamma photons but also X-ray photons via synchrotron radiation. In this paper, the Spectral Energy Distributions (SEDs) and the angular distributions of the synchrotron radiation of the pair halos from the Monte Carlo simulations will be discussed.