Welcome to the European ALMA Regional Centre Newsletter!
This Newsletter, which appears on a monthly basis, is a compilation of recent European ALMA Regional Centre announcements. In addition to these, the Newsletter provides an inside look into ALMA operations, showcases some of the exciting science carried out with ALMA by our European colleagues, and informs you about ALMA or ALMA-related meetings.
To commemorate its first decade of science operations, the ALMA partnership is organizing a conference that will take a look back at the observatory accomplishments, highlight its latest results and look forward to future technical developments. The conference will be held in Puerto Varas, Chile on 4-8 December 2023. More information will be posted on the conference web page as it becomes available. Registration for the conference will open in early 2023.
From the start of Cycle 9, PIs and Data Delegees will be able to request the release of raw data via a convenient new interface, rather than via the Helpdesk. Note that this has no effect on the policies applying to raw data release, especially regarding the start of the proprietary period with the release of the first QA0 PASS or SEMI-PASS observation. The new interface can be accessed via the Data tab on the ALMA Science Portal, or directly at asa.alma.cl/account-editor.
A detailed report on the results of the ACA Standalone Cycle 8 2021 Supplemental Call is now available. The report details the proposal statistics and regional distributions, as well as the proposal distribution across science categories and receiver bands.
The ALMA Science Portal now has a dedicated page for the Atacama Compact Array (ACA) Observatory Filler Programs conducted in Cycles 5 and 6 at https://almascience.org/alma-data/observatory-programs. Nine filler programs were executed to fill specific gaps in the ACA observing schedule. The data were released through the ALMA Science Archive with no proprietary period. The programs have resulted in publication of multiple papers. We hope that ALMA users will continue to utilize those data (and all data in the Archive!) for their scientific research.
An issue has been identified in ALMA data taken since the start of Cycle 8 (1 October 2021). The orientation angle of the linearly polarized receiver elements is recorded incorrectly in the raw data (ASDMs). Full polarization and VLBI data are critically impacted. These data are currently being reprocessed and, when necessary, re-delivered under the observatory's QA3 policy. Any data taken in Cycle 8 other than polarization or VLBI data are not impacted, but they will still have their ASDMs updated in the archive for consistency purposes, but without reprocessing. For the remainder of Cycle 8, all data will be fixed before processing and ingestion. The issue has already been corrected in the Cycle 9 data acquisition software.
The UK ARC Node is organising a workshop that will provide an introduction to ALMA and instructions on how to work with data from the observatory, including sessions on preparing proposals, downloading data from the ALMA archive, calibrating and imaging ALMA data, and using advanced ALMA-related tools. Any individuals interested in attending this workshop should fill in this expression of interest poll by 15 November. After that, the dates and the schedule of the workshop will be finalized.
The nodes in the European ARC network offer continuous support to their communities through virtual and real-life activities. These include, among others, face-to-face user support, computational support, proposal preparation training, data reduction workshops, science days and workshops. The easiest way to stay fully up-to-date with the activities and support provided by every node, as well as other ALMA updates relevant to your local community, is to sign up to the newsletter or mailing list of your local node. For more information on how to sign up click on "Read more".
Daniel joined the UK ARC Node in April 2022 as a support scientist. He previously worked as an ALMA/NAOJ postdoctoral fellow at the Joint ALMA Observatory in Chile, supporting the science operations of ALMA. At the UK ARC node, Daniel is involved in activities such as user support, quality assurance, providing enhanced archival products, and maintenance of the ALMA Observation Support Tool (OST).
Daniel's primary research interest is star formation in the Milky Way's Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) and the extent to which galactic environment regulates the process of star formation. He is leading several ALMA projects to study protostellar populations in the CMZ, and is a member of the ALMA CMZ Exploration Survey (ACES) Large Program, for which he is involved in the data reduction workflow.
ALMA science highlight
Cosmic dust temperature evolution after REBELS
Figure 1. Dust temperature Td as a function of redshift for star-forming galaxies in the range z=0-9. Purple triangles represent the UV-to-IR low-z star forming galaxies detected in the HRS and CANDELS fields. Stars and green hatched rectangles show individual UV-selected galaxies at z>5 for which Td estimates are available, and the Td values obtained with the method by Sommovigo et al. (2022) for REBELS and ALPINE continuum detected galaxies. REBELS galaxies are colour-coded according to their continuum flux F1900. The post-stamps show the dust continuum and [CII] emission contours on top of the HST images for two REBELS (adapted from Inami et al. 2022) and ALPINE sources (adapted from Fujimoto et al. 2020). The coloured region showsthe Td-redshift evolution predicted by the physical model presented in Sommovigo et al. (2022).
ALMA observations have unveiled the presence of large dust masses in galaxies at the Epoch of Reionization (EoR). Such large dust masses at these early epochs are in tension with theoretical dust production constraints, resulting in the so called ”dust budget crisis”. However, these inferred dust masses are heavily dependent on the cold dust temperatures (Td ≤ 35 K) assumed in high-z galaxies Far-Infrared (FIR) SED-fitting procedure. An assumption on Td is required due to the few - or single - FIR continuum data points available for galaxies at z > 5. Sommovigo et al. (2021) proposed a novel method to derive the dust temperature in galaxies relying on a single ALMA measurement, by combining the [CII] line emission with the underlying continuum flux at rest-frame 1900 GHz, F1900. This new method can be exploited in the context of recent ALMA large programs star-forming galaxies at z > 5, such as the ”Reionization Era Bright Emission Line Survey” (REBELS; PI: Bouwens, see Bouwens et al., 2022). The 13 REBELS targets detected both in continuum (3σ) and in [CII] (5σ) at z = 6.5 − 8.5 represent the first statistical sample of continuum detections at such early times, featuring a four-fold increase of the size of the previously available galaxy sample. REBELS galaxies Td vary in the range 39 K < Td < 58 K, with an average value ∼ 47 K at z = 7.
These results for the first time allowed investigation of the cosmic dust temperature evolution into the EoR, without the need to rely on stacked data as in previous works. Sommovigo et al. (2022) produced a new physical model to motivate the cosmic Td evolution. They find that the dust temperature raises with redshift as a result of the decreasing gas depletion time tdep = Mgas/SFR towards high-z and can also explain the scatter of the observed Td at a given redshift. In UV-transparent galaxies ( τUV < 1, blue shaded region in Fig. 1) the scatter in Td depends solely on the effective gas column density NH, with larger NH corresponding to hotter dust. Instead, in UV-obscured galaxies (τUV > 1, red shaded region in Fig. 1) the scatter in Td depends only on the metallicity Z, with lower Z implying hotter dust. This follows from the fact that metal-poor systems have a lower dust content, which for fixed FIR luminosity, results in warmer temperatures.
The 11th IRAM millimeter interferometry school will be held November 21-25, 2022 at the IRAM
headquarters (Grenoble, France). It is intended for students, post-docs and scientists who want
to acquire a good knowledge of interferometry and data reduction techniques at millimeter wavelengths, with a special emphasis on the NOEMA interferometer and its new capabilities.
In addition to presentations on the basics of millimeter interferometry, data calibration and imaging, the program will also include practical tutorials on data reduction and imaging techniques.
Pre-registrations are open:School pre-registration form. The maximum number of participants is limited to 60. Applications will be accepted until September 1st. For any inquiry, please write to school2022@iram.fr
The workshop will take place at the ESO Headquarters in Garching (Germany) from November 28 to 2 December, 2022
The formation and evolution of exoplanets can now be explored with instrumentation and observational techniques covering multiple physical scales and wavelengths. ESO facilities provide access to a large part of the electromagnetic spectrum to probe cold and hot phases, dynamics and interactions, close and distant environments, and the relations with the host star. This workshop aims to provide an overview of the state of the field, to explore the synergies provided by ESO's current and future facilities (ALMA/ELT/VLT/VLTI/La Silla telescopes/CTA), and synergies with other space and ground-based observatories (GAIA, JWST, PLATO, Roman observatory, LRIOUV, GMT, TMT). The main goal is to identify future scientific opportunities to consolidate key questions in planetary formation and characterization, contrasting and comparing how planned and potential instruments can answer them.
