2010/06/07 by D. Stamatellos, M. J. Griffin, M. Griffin +9 · 12 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Atmospheric radiative transfer codes #Galactic plane #Infrared #Monte Carlo method #Photometer #Radiation #Radiative transfer #Stars #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #Wavelength #astro-ph.GA
paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2010.17093.x
published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 409(1), 12-21 (Oxford University Press) · MNRAS accepted, High resolution paper available at http://www.astro.cardiff.ac.uk/pub/Dimitrios.Stamatellos/Publications.html
arxiv created 2010/06/07 · openalex publication_date 2010/08/18 · arxiv updated 2015/05/19 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We demonstrate the use of the 3D Monte Carlo radiative transfer code phaethon to model infrared-dark clouds (IRDCs) that are externally illuminated by the interstellar radiation field (ISRF). These clouds are believed to be the earliest observed phase of high-mass star formation, and may be the high-mass equivalent of lower mass pre-stellar cores. We model three different cases as examples of the use of the code, in which we vary the mass, density, radius, morphology and internal velocity field of the IRDC. We show the predicted output of the models at different wavelengths chosen to match the observing wavebands of Herschel and Spitzer. For the wavebands of the long-wavelength Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE) photometer on Herschel, we also pass the model output through the SPIRE simulator to generate output images that are as close as possible to the ones that would be seen using SPIRE. We then analyse the images as if they were real observations, and compare the results of this analysis with the results of the radiative transfer models. We find that detailed radiative transfer modelling is necessary to accurately determine the physical parameters of IRDCs (e.g. dust temperature, density profile). This method is applied to study G29.55+00.18, an IRDC observed by the Herschel Infrared Galactic Plane Survey (Hi-GAL), and in the future it will be used to model a larger sample of IRDCs from the same survey.