Search

We develop an infinite mixture model of Ornstein-Uhlenbeck(OU) processes for describing the optical variability of QSOs based on treating the variability as a stochastic process. This enables us to get the parameters of the power spectral densities(PSDs) on their brightness variations by providing more flexible description of PSDs than the models based on single OU process(damped random walk). We apply this model to 67,507 variable objects extracted from SDSS Stripe82 photometric data and succeed in showing very high precision in identifying QSOs (~99% levels in completeness and purity) among variable objects based only on their variability, by investigating on 9,855 spectroscopically confirmed objects(7,714 QSOs and 2,141 stars) in the data of SDSS Data Release 12(DR12), with sufficient and accurate multiple measurements of their brightness. By comparing our results with the values based on other models that are used in previous research, it is revealed that our model can be used as the most effective method for selecting QSOs from variable object catalog, especially regarding completeness and purity. The main reason of improved identification rates are the ability of our model to separate clearly QSOs and stars, especially on the small fraction of QSOs with variabilities which can be described better than simple damped random walk model., Comment: 27 pages, 17 figures, accepted to ApJ

We have measured the clustering of galaxies around active galactic nuclei (AGN) for which single-epoch virial masses of the super-massive black hole (SMBH) are available to investigate the relation between the large scale environment of AGNs and the evolution of SMBHs. The AGN samples used in this work were derived from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) observations and the galaxy samples were from 240~deg$^{2}$ S15b data of the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program (HSC-SSP). The investigated redshift range is 0.6--3.0, and the masses of the SMBHs lie in the range $10^{7.5}$--$10^{10}$~M$_{\odot}$. The absolute magnitude of the galaxy samples reaches to $M_{\lambda 310}$ $\sim$ $-$18 at rest frame wavelength 310~nm for the low-redshift end of the samples. More than 70\% of the galaxies in the analysis are blue. We found a significant dependence of the cross-correlation length on redshift, which primarily reflects the brightness dependence of the galaxy clustering. At the lowest redshifts the cross-correlation length increases from 7~$h^{-1}$~Mpc around $M_{\lambda 310}$$ = $$-19$~mag to $>$10~$h^{-1}$~Mpc beyond $M_{\lambda 310}$$ = $$-20$~mag. No significant dependence of the cross-correlation length on BH mass was found for whole galaxy samples dominated by blue galaxies, while there was an indication of BH mass dependence in the cross-correlation with red galaxies. These results provides a picture of the environment of AGNs studied in this paper being enriched with blue starforming galaxies, and a fraction of the galaxies are being evolved to red galaxies along with the evolution of SMBHs in that system., Comment: 46 pages, 24 figures, accepted for publication in PASJ for the HSC special issue

The JVO ALMA Archive provides users one of the easiest ways to access the ALMA archival data. The users can have a quick look at a 3 or 4-dimensional data cube without downloading multiple huge tarballs from a science portal of ALMA Regional Centers (ARCs). Since we just synchronize all datasets with those of ARCs, the metadata are identical to the upstream, including ``target name'' for each dataset. The name is not necessarily a common one like NGC numbers, but sometimes one of sequential numbers assigned in an observation proposal. Compilation of these artificial names into astronomical ones could provide users more flexible and powerful search interfaces; for instance, with the knowledge of the redshift for each source, the users can easily find the datasets which observed their interested emission/absorption lines at not the observer frame but the rest frame, fitting well with theoretical studies. To implement this functionality, cross-identification of all the sources in our archive with those in some other astronomical databases such as NED and SIMBAD is required. We developed a tiny Java application named ``Blade Runner'' for this purpose. The program works as a crawler for both the JVO ALMA Archive and SIMBAD, storing all information onto a SQLite-based database file; this portable design enables us to communicate results to each other even under different computing environments. In this paper, we introduce its software design and our recent work on the application, and report a preliminary result on the source identification in our archive., Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, proceedings of the Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems Conference XXV

We present results of the clustering analysis between active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and galaxies at redshift 0.1-1.0 for investigating properties of galaxies associated with the AGNs, revealing the nature of fueling mechanism of supermassive black holes (SMBHs). We used 8059 SDSS AGNs/QSOs for which virial masses of individual SMBHs were measured, and divided them into four mass groups. Cross-correlation analysis was performed and bias for each mass group was derived. The averaged color and luminosity distributions of galaxies around the AGNs/QSOs were also derived for each mass group. The galaxy color was estimated for SED constructed from a merged SDSS and UKIDSS catalog. The distributions of color and luminosity were derived by the subtraction method, which does not require redshift information of galaxies. The main results of this work are: (1) a bias increases by a factor two from the lower mass group to the highest mass group; (2) the environment around AGNs with the most massive SMBH (Mbh > 10^9 Msun) is dominated by red sequence galaxies; (3) marginal indication of decline in luminosity function at dimmer side of M > -19.5 mag is found for galaxies around AGNs with Mbh = 10^8.2 - 10^9 Msun and nearest redshift group (z=0.1-0.3). These results indicate that AGNs with the most massive SMBHs reside in haloes where large fraction of galaxies have been transited to the red sequence. The accretion of hot halo gas as well as recycled gas from evolving stars can be the most plausible mechanism to fuel the SMBHs above ~10^9 Msun., Comment: 23 pages, 20 figures, Accepted for publication in PASJ

We present results of the cross-correlation analysis between active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and galaxies at redshift 0.1-1. We obtain data of ~10,000 SDSS AGNs in which their virial masses with a super-massive black hole (SMBH) were estimated. The UKIDSS galaxy samples around the AGNs were obtained using the virtual observatory. The scale length of AGN-galaxy cross-correlation for all of the samples is measured to be r_0= 5.8+0.8-0.6 h^-1Mpc (for the fixed slope parameter \gamma=1.8). We also derived a dependence of r_0 on the BH mass, M_BH, and found an indication of an increasing trend of r_0 at M_BH > 10^8 Msun. It is suggested that the growth of SMBH is mainly driven by interactions with the surrounding environment for M_BH > 10^8 Msun. On the other hand, at M_BH <~10^8 Msun, we did not find the BH mass dependence. This would imply that, for less massive BHs, the mass growth process can be different from that for massive BHs., Comment: 12 pages, 19 figures

ALMA is estimated to generate TB scale data during only one observation; astronomers manage to identify which part of the data they are really interested in. Now we have been developing new GUI software for this purpose utilizing the VO interface: ALMA Web Quick Look System (ALMAWebQL) and ALMA Desktop Application (Vissage). The former is written in JavaScript and HTML5 generated from Java codes by Google Web Toolkit, and the latter is in pure Java. An essential point of our approach is how to reduce network traffic: we prepare, in advance, "compressed" FITS files of 2x2x1 (horizontal, vertical, and spectral directions, respectively) binning, 2x2x2 binning, 4x4x2 binning data, and so on. These files are hidden from users, and Web QL automatically choose proper one by each user operation. Through this work, we find that network traffic in our system is still a bottleneck towards TB scale data distribution. Hence we have to develop alternative data containers for much faster data processing. In this paper, I introduce our data analysis systems, and describe what we learned through the development., Comment: 4 pages, proceeding for ADASS XXII Conference

We present the result of projected cross correlation analysis of AGNs and galaxies at redshifts from 0.3 to 3.0. The Japanese Virtual Observatory (JVO) was used to obtain the Subaru Suprime-Cam images and UKIDSS catalog data around AGNs. We investigated 1,809 AGNs, which is about ten times larger a sample than that used in previous studies on AGN-galaxy clustering at redshifts larger than 0.6. 90% of the AGN samples are optically-selected AGN from the SDSS and 2dF catalogs. The galaxy samples at low redshift includes many redder objects from UKIDSS survey, while at higher redshift they are mainly blue galaxies from Suprime-Cam. We found significant excess of galaxies around the AGNs at redshifts from 0.3 to 1.8. For the low redshift samples ($z<0.9$), we obtained correlation length of $r_{0} = $5--6 $h^{-1}$Mpc ($\gamma = 1.8$), which indicates that the AGNs at this redshift range reside in a similar environment around typical local galaxies. We also found that AGNs at higher redshift ranges reside in a denser environment than lower redshift AGNs; For $z=1.3 \sim 1.8$ AGNs, the cross correlation length was measured as 11$^{+6}_{-3}$ $h^{-1}$Mpc ($\gamma=1.8$). Considering that our galaxies sample is based on optical observations with Suprime-Cam at the redshift range, it is expected that blue star-forming galaxies comprise the majority of objects that are observed to be clustered around the AGNs. It is successfully demonstrated that the use of the archive through the Virtual Observatory system can provide a powerful tool for investigating the small scale environment of the intermediate redshift AGNs., Comment: accepted to PASJ, 36 pages, 21 figures, this is an accepted version

We present our activity on making the Subaru Data Archive accessible through the Japanese Virtual Observatory (JVO) system. There are a lot of demand to use the archived Subaru data from various fields of astronomers. To be used by those who are not familiar with the way to reduce the Subaru data, the data reduction should be made before providing for them, or at least it should be easily done without precise knowledge about instrument's characteristic and environment where data are taken. For those purposes, data quality assessment system NAQATA is developed, which is presented in this meeting by Nakata et al. (2006), and the science-ready image data are provided for some of the SuprimeCam data at SMOKA data service which is presented by Enoki et al (2006). JVO portal will provide the way to access the reduce data, and also provides the way to reduce from raw data with very few efforts through the user-friendly web browser I/F. To provide such a CPU-intensive service, we have developed a GRID computing system. The architecture of this Subaru Data and Analysis system are discussed., Comment: 10 pages, 8 figure, Invited talk, to appear in ADASS XVI Proceedings

Currently two query languages are defined as standards for the Virtual Observatory (VO). Astronomical Data Query Language (ADQL) is used for catalog data query and Simple Image Access Protocol (SIAP) is for image data query. As a result, when we query each data service, we need to know in advance which language is supported and then construct a query language accordingly. The construct of SIAP is simple, but they have a limited capability. For example, there is no way to specify multiple regions in one query, and it is difficult to specify complex query conditions. In this paper, we propose a unified query language for any kind of astronomical database on the basis of SQL99. SQL is a query language optimized for a table data, so to apply the SQL to the image and spectrum data set, the data structure need to be mapped to a table like structure. We present specification of this query language and an example of the architecture for the database system., Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure, ADASS XIV Pasadena (2004)

It has been suggested that cosmic strings produced at a phase transition in the early universe can be the origin of the extremely high energy cosmic rays (EHCR) observed by AGASA above 10^20 eV. Superheavy cosmic strings with linear mass density of 10^22 g/cm can be indirectly observed through the gravitational lensing effect the distant galaxies. The lensing effect by a long straight object can be characterized by a line of double galaxies or quasars with angular separation of about 5 arcsec. We have searched for aligned double objects from the archived data taken by the Subaru Prime Focus Camera (Suprime-Cam). The Suprime-Cam has a great advantage in observing the wide field of view (30x30 arcmin^2) with high sensitivity (R<26 400s exposure), so it is suitable for this research. In this paper, we describe the result of simulation study for developing the method of searching the objects lensed by cosmic strings, and present the observational result obtained by this method., Comment: Submitted to 28th ICRC (Tsukuba, Japan), 4 pages, 3 figures

We have performed a long-slit K band spectroscopic observation of the luminous infrared galaxy NGC 6240. The peak position of the H_2 v=1-0 S(1) emission in the slit is located ~0.3" - 0.4" north of the southern nucleus. It is almost the midpoint between the southern nucleus and the peak position of the ^12CO J=1-0 emission. Based on the line-ratio analyses, we suggest the excitation mechanism of H_2 is pure thermal at most positions. In the southern region we find the following three velocity components in the H_2 emission: the blueshifted shell component (~-250 km s^-1 with respect to V_sys) which is recognized as a distinct C-shape distortion in the velocity field around the southern nucleus, the high-velocity blueshifted ``wing'' component (~-1000 km s^-1 with respect to V_sys), and the component indicating possible line splitting of ~500 km s^-1. The latter two components are extended to the south from the southern nucleus. We show that the kinematic properties of these three components can be reproduced by expanding motion of a shell-like structure around the southern nucleus. The offset peak position of the H_2 emission can be understood if we assume that the shell expanding to the north interacts with the extragalactic molecular gas. At the interface between the shell and the molecular gas concentration the cloud-crushing mechanism proposed by Cowie et al. (1981) may work efficiently, and the intense H_2 emission is thus expected there. All these findings lead us to propose a model that the most H_2 emission is attributed to the shock excitation driven by the superwind activity of the southern nucleus., Comment: 33 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in PASJ