Multi-wavelength Radiative Transfer Research Articles

A Direct Comparison between the Use of Double Gray and Multiwavelength Radiative Transfer in a General Circulation Model with and without Radiatively Active Clouds

Inhomogeneous cloud formation and wavelength-dependent phenomena are expected to shape hot Jupiter atmospheres. We present a general circulation model with multiwavelength “picket fence” radiative transfer and radiatively active, temperature-dependent clouds, and compare the results to those of a double gray routine. The double gray method inherently fails to model polychromatic effects in hot Jupiter atmospheres, while picket fence captures these non-gray aspects and performs well compared to fully wavelength-dependent methods. We compare both methods with radiatively active clouds and cloud-free models, assessing the limitations of the double gray method. Although there are broad similarities, the picket fence models have larger dayside–nightside temperature differences, nonisothermal upper atmospheres, and multiwavelength effects in the presence of radiatively active clouds. We model the well-known hot Jupiters HD 189733 b and HD 209458 b. For the hotter HD 209458 b, the picket fence method prevents clouds from thermostating dayside temperatures, resulting in hotter upper atmospheres and the dissipation of dayside clouds. Differences in the temperature structures are then associated with nuanced differences in the circulation patterns and clouds. Models of the cooler HD 189733 b have global cloud coverage, regardless of the radiative transfer scheme, whereas there are larger differences in the models of HD 209458 b, particularly in the extent of the partial cloud coverage on its dayside. This results in minor changes to the thermal and reflected light phase curves of HD 189733 b, but more significant differences for the picket fence and double gray versions of HD 209458 b.

The THOR + HELIOS general circulation model: multiwavelength radiative transfer with accurate scattering by clouds/hazes

ABSTRACT General circulation models (GCMs) provide context for interpreting multiwavelength, multiphase data of the atmospheres of tidally locked exoplanets. In the current study, the non-hydrostatic THOR GCM is coupled with the HELIOS radiative transfer solver for the first time, supported by an equilibrium chemistry solver (FastChem), opacity calculator (HELIOS-K), and Mie scattering code (LX-MIE). To accurately treat the scattering of radiation by medium-sized to large aerosols/condensates, improved two-stream radiative transfer is implemented within a GCM for the first time. Multiple scattering is implemented using a Thomas algorithm formulation of the two-stream flux solutions, which decreases the computational time by about 2 orders of magnitude compared to the iterative method used in past versions of HELIOS. As a case study, we present four GCMs of the hot Jupiter WASP-43b, where we compare the temperature, velocity, entropy, and streamfunction, as well as the synthetic spectra and phase curves, of runs using regular versus improved two-stream radiative transfer and isothermal versus non-isothermal layers. While the global climate is qualitatively robust, the synthetic spectra and phase curves are sensitive to these details. A THOR + HELIOS WASP-43b GCM (horizontal resolution of about 4 deg on the sphere and with 40 radial points) with multiwavelength radiative transfer (30 k-table bins) running for 3000 Earth days (864 000 time-steps) takes about 19–26 d to complete depending on the type of GPU.

ART2: a 3D parallel multiwavelength radiative transfer code for continuum and atomic and molecular lines

ABSTRACT ART2 is a 3D multiwavelength Monte Carlo radiative transfer (RT) code that couples continuum and emission lines to track the propagation of photons and their interactions with the interstellar medium (ISM). The original ART2 has been extensively applied to hydrodynamics simulations to study panchromatic properties of galaxies and ISM. Here, we describe new implementations of non-local thermodynamic equilibrium RT of molecular and atomic fine structure emission lines, and the parallelization of the code using a number of novel methods. The new ART2 can efficiently and self-consistently produce a full spectrum that includes both continuum and lines such as [C ii], [N ii], [O iii], Ly α, and CO. These essential features, together with the multiphase ISM model and the adaptive grid, make ART2 a multipurpose code to study multiwavelength properties of a wide range of astrophysical systems from planetary discs to large-scale structures. To demonstrate the capability of the new ART2, we applied it to two hydrodynamics simulations: the zoom-in Milky Way Simulation to obtain panchromatic properties of individual galaxies, and the large-scale IllustrisTNG100 Simulation to obtain global properties such as the line intensity mappings. These products are vital for a broad array of studies. By enabling direct comparison between numerical simulations and multiband observations, ART2 provides a crucial theoretical framework for the understanding of existing and future surveys, and the synergy between multiband galaxy surveys and line intensity mappings. Therefore, ART2 is a powerful and versatile tool to bridge the gap between theories and observations of cosmic structures.

Inner disk clearing around the Herbig Ae star HD 139614: Evidence for a planet-induced gap?

Spatially resolving the inner dust cavity of the transitional disks is a key to understanding the connection between planetary formation and disk dispersal. The disk around the Herbig star HD 139614 is of particular interest since it presents a pretransitional nature with an au-sized gap, in the dust, that was spatially resolved by mid-IR interferometry. Using new NIR interferometric observations, we aim to characterize the 0.1-10~au region of the HD~139614 disk further and identify viable mechanisms for the inner disk clearing. We report the first multiwavelength radiative transfer modeling of the interferometric data acquired on HD~139614 with PIONIER, AMBER, and MIDI, complemented by Herschel/PACS photometries. We confirm a gap structure in the um-sized dust, extending from about 2.5 au to 6 au, and constrained the properties of the inner dust component: e.g., a radially increasing surface density profile, and a depletion of 10^3 relative to the outer disk. Since self-shadowing and photoevaporation appears unlikely to be responsible for the au-sized gap of HD~139614, we thus tested if dynamical clearing could be a viable mechanism using hydrodynamical simulations to predict the gaseous disk structure. Indeed, a narrow au-sized gap is expected when a single giant planet interacts with the disk. Assuming that small dust grains are well coupled to the gas, we found that a ~ 3~Mjup planet located at 4.5 au from the star could, in less than 1 Myr, reproduce most of the aspects of the dust surface density profile, while no significant depletion in gas occurred in the inner disk, in contrast to the dust. However, the dust-depleted inner disk could be explained by the expected dust filtration by the gap and the efficient dust growth/fragmentation in the inner disk regions. Our results support the hypothesis of a giant planet opening a gap and shaping the inner region of the HD~139614 disk.

Escape of Lyα and continuum photons from star-forming galaxies

A large number of high-redshift galaxies have been discovered via their narrow-band Lya line or broad-band continuum colors in recent years. The nature of the escaping process of photons from these early galaxies is crucial to understanding galaxy evolution and the cosmic reionization. Here, we investigate the escape of Lya, non-ionizing UV-continuum (l = 1300 - 1600 angstrom in rest frame), and ionizing photons (l < 912 angstrom) from galaxies by combining a cosmological hydrodynamic simulation with three-dimensional multi-wavelength radiative transfer calculations. The galaxies are simulated in a box of 5^3 h^-3 Mpc^3 with high resolutions using the Aquila initial condition which reproduces a Milky Way-like galaxy at redshift z=0. We find that the escape fraction (fesc) of these different photons shows a complex dependence on redshift and galaxy properties: fesc(Lya) and fesc(UV) appear to evolve with redshift, and they show similar, weak correlations with galaxy properties such as mass, star formation, metallicity, and dust content, while fesc(Ion) remains roughly constant at ~ 0.2 from z ~ 0 - 10, and it does not show clear dependence on galaxy properties. fesc(Lya) correlates more strongly with fesc(UV) than with fesc(Ion). In addition, we find a relation between the emergent Lya luminosity and the ionizing photon emissivity of Lyman Alpha Emitters (LAEs). By combining this relation with the observed luminosity functions of LAEs at different redshift, we estimate the contribution from LAEs to the reionization of intergalactic medium (IGM). Our result suggests that ionizing photons from LAEs alone are not sufficient to ionize IGM at z > 6, but they can maintain the ionization of IGM at z ~ 0 - 5.

DOUBLE-DETONATION SUB-CHANDRASEKHAR SUPERNOVAE: SYNTHETIC OBSERVABLES FOR MINIMUM HELIUM SHELL MASS MODELS

Abridged. In the double detonation scenario for Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) a detonation initiates in a shell of He-rich material accreted from a companion star by a sub-Chandrasekhar-mass White Dwarf (WD). This shell detonation drives a shock front into the carbon-oxygen (C/O) WD that triggers a secondary detonation in the core. The core detonation results in a complete disruption of the WD. Earlier studies concluded that this scenario has difficulties in accounting for the observed properties of SNe Ia since the explosion ejecta are surrounded by the products of explosive He burning in the shell. Recently, it was proposed that detonations might be possible for much less massive He shells than previously assumed. Moreover, it was shown that even detonations of these minimum He shell masses robustly trigger detonations of the C/O core. Here we present time-dependent multi-wavelength radiative transfer calculations for models with minimum He shell mass and derive synthetic observables for both the optical and {\gamma}-ray spectral regions. These differ strongly from those found in earlier simulations of sub-Chandrasekhar-mass explosions in which more massive He shells were considered. Our models predict light curves which cover both the range of brightnesses and the rise and decline times of observed SNe Ia. However, their colours and spectra do not match the observations. In particular, their B-V colours are generally too red. We show that this discrepancy is mainly due to the composition of the burning products of the He shell of our models which contain significant amounts of Ti and Cr. Using a toy model, we also show that the burning products of the He shell depend crucially on its initial composition. This leads us to conclude that good agreement between sub-Chandrasekhar-mass explosions and observed SNe Ia may still be feasible but further study of the shell properties is required.

Discrete-ordinates solution for uncoupled multi-wavelength radiative transfer problems

The discrete-ordinates method is used to solve uncoupled multi-wavelength radiative transfer problems in multi-region plane-parallel media. We present a generalized analytical discrete-ordinates formulation that includes internal sources, as well as reflecting and emitting boundaries, incident distribution of radiation on each surface and a beam incident on one surface, as boundary conditions. Four problems were selected to show the results that can be generated through this formulation.

Absorption-Line Signatures of Gas in Dark Matter Minihalos

Recent observations and theoretical calculations suggest that some QSO absorption-line systems may be due to gas in small dark matter halos with circular velocities on the order of 30 km s-1. Kepner, Babul & Spergel have shown that gas in these can readily be in a multiphase state. Additional observational evidence suggests that, in general, many absorption-line systems may also be multiphase in nature. Thus, computing the absorption lines of minihalos, in addition to providing signatures of small halos, is a natural way to explore multiphase behavior. The state of gas in minihalos is strongly affected by the background UV radiation field. To address this issue, a code was developed that includes many of the chemical and radiative processes found in CLOUDY and also incorporates spherically symmetric multiwavelength radiative transfer of an isotropic field, nonequilibrium chemistry, heating, cooling and self-consistent quasi-hydrostatic equilibrium gasdynamics. With this code detailed simulations were conducted of gas in minihalos using different types of background spectra: power-law, power-law + He II break, Haardt & Madau, and O-star. From these simulations, the absorption-line signatures of the gas were computed and compared with a variety of observations: high-redshift metal lines, He lines, and low-redshift metal-line systems. Based on these results, the minihalo model absorption-line signatures appear to be consistent with many current observations, given a sufficiently soft spectrum. Thus, in any given instance it is difficult to either rule in or rule out a minihalo, and in most cases additional data (e.g., optical counterparts or the lack thereof) or contextual information (e.g., evidence of significant star formation, which would disrupt gas in a minihalo) are necessary to break this degeneracy. Finally, the minihalo model is a useful tool for analyzing absorption-line data in a multiphase context and should become even more applicable as new space-based observations become available.