522 research outputs found
A Universal Neutral Gas Profile for Nearby Disk Galaxies
Based on sensitive CO measurements from HERACLES and HI data from THINGS, we
show that the azimuthally averaged radial distribution of the neutral gas
surface density (Sigma_HI + Sigma_H2) in 33 nearby spiral galaxies exhibits a
well-constrained universal exponential distribution beyond 0.2*r25 (inside of
which the scatter is large) with less than a factor of two scatter out to two
optical radii r25. Scaling the radius to r25 and the total gas surface density
to the surface density at the transition radius, i.e., where Sigma_HI and
Sigma_H2 are equal, as well as removing galaxies that are interacting with
their environment, yields a tightly constrained exponential fit with average
scale length 0.61+-0.06 r25. In this case, the scatter reduces to less than 40%
across the optical disks (and remains below a factor of two at larger radii).
We show that the tight exponential distribution of neutral gas implies that the
total neutral gas mass of nearby disk galaxies depends primarily on the size of
the stellar disk (influenced to some degree by the great variability of
Sigma_H2 inside 0.2*r25). The derived prescription predicts the total gas mass
in our sub-sample of 17 non-interacting disk galaxies to within a factor of
two. Given the short timescale over which star formation depletes the H2
content of these galaxies and the large range of r25 in our sample, there
appears to be some mechanism leading to these largely self-similar radial gas
distributions in nearby disk galaxies.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical
Journa
Modeling the physical properties in the ISM of the low-metallicity galaxy NGC4214
We present a model for the interstellar medium of NGC4214 with the objective
to probe the physical conditions in the two main star-forming regions and their
connection with the star formation activity of the galaxy. We used the spectral
synthesis code Cloudy to model an HII region and the associated
photodissociation region (PDR) to reproduce the emission of mid- and
far-infrared fine-structure cooling lines from the Spitzer and Herschel space
telescopes for these two regions. Input parameters of the model, such as
elemental abundances and star formation history, are guided by earlier studies
of the galaxy, and we investigated the effect of the mode in which star
formation takes place (bursty or continuous) on the line emission. Furthermore,
we tested the effect of adding pressure support with magnetic fields and
turbulence on the line predictions. We find that this model can satisfactorily
predict (within a factor of ~2) all observed lines that originate from the
ionized medium ([SIV] 10.5um, [NeIII] 15.6um, [SIII] 18.7um, [SIII] 33.5um, and
[OIII] 88um), with the exception of [NeII] 12.8um and [NII] 122um, which may
arise from a lower ionization medium. In the PDR, the [OI] 63um, [OI] 145um,
and [CII] 157um lines are matched within a factor of ~5 and work better when
weak pressure support is added to the thermal pressure or when the PDR clouds
are placed farther away from the HII regions and have covering factors lower
than unity. Our models of the HII region agree with different evolutionary
stages found in previous studies, with a more evolved, diffuse central region,
and a younger, more compact southern region. However, the local PDR conditions
are averaged out on the 175 pc scales that we probe and do not reflect
differences observed in the star formation properties of the two regions.Comment: accepted for publication in A&
Tightly Correlated HI and FUV Emission in the Outskirts of M83
We compare sensitive HI data from The HI Nearby Galaxy Survey (THINGS) and
deep far UV (FUV) data from GALEX in the outer disk of M83. The FUV and HI maps
show a stunning spatial correlation out to almost 4 optical radii (r25),
roughly the extent of our maps. This underscores that HI traces the gas
reservoir for outer disk star formation and it implies that massive (at least
low level) star formation proceeds almost everywhere HI is observed. Whereas
the average FUV intensity decreases steadily with increasing radius before
leveling off at ~1.7 r25, the decline in HI surface density is more subtle. Low
HI columns (<2 M_solar/pc^2) contribute most of the mass in the outer disk,
which is not the case within r25. The time for star formation to consume the
available HI, inferred from the ratio of HI to FUV intensity, rises with
increasing radius before leveling off at ~100 Gyr, i.e., many Hubble times,
near ~1.7 r25. Assuming the relatively short H2 depletion times observed in the
inner parts of galaxies hold in outer disks, the conversion of HI into bound,
molecular clouds seems to limit star formation in outer galaxy disks. The long
consumption times suggest that most of the extended HI observed in M83 will not
be consumed by in situ star formation. However, even these low star formation
rates are enough to expect moderate chemical enrichment in a closed outer disk.Comment: Accepted for Publication in ApJ
Extremely Inefficient Star Formation in the Outer Disks of Nearby Galaxies
(Abridged) We combine data from The HI Nearby Galaxy Survey and the GALEX
Nearby Galaxy Survey to study the relationship between atomic hydrogen (HI) and
far-ultraviolet (FUV) emission outside the optical radius (r25) in 17 spiral
and 5 dwarf galaxies. In this regime, HI is likely to represent most of the ISM
and FUV emission to trace recent star formation with little bias due to
extinction, so that the two quantities closely trace the underlying
relationship between gas and star formation rate (SFR). The azimuthally
averaged HI and FUV intensities both decline with increasing radius in this
regime, with the scale length of the FUV profile typically half that of the HI
profile. Despite the mismatch in profiles, there is a significant spatial
correlation (at 15" resolution) between local FUV and HI intensities; near r25
this correlation is quite strong, in fact stronger than anywhere inside r25,
and shows a decline towards larger radii. The star formation efficiency (SFE) -
defined as the ratio of FUV/HI and thus the inverse of the gas depletion time -
decreases with galactocentric radius across the outer disks, though much
shallower than across the optical disks. On average, we find the gas depletion
times to be well above a Hubble time (~10^11 yr). We observe a clear
relationship between FUV/HI and HI column in the outer disks, with the SFE
increasing with increasing HI column. Despite observing systematic variations
in FUV/HI, we find no clear evidence for step-function type star formation
thresholds. When compared with results from inside r25, we find outer disk star
formation to be distinct in several ways: it is extremely inefficient
(depletion times of many Hubble times) with column densities and SFRs lower
than found anywhere inside the optical disks. It appears that the HI column is
one of, perhaps even the key environmental factor in setting the SFR in outer
galaxy disks.Comment: Accepted for Publication in The Astronomical Journa
Star Formation Rates in Molecular Clouds and the Nature of the Extragalactic Scaling Relations
In this paper we investigate scaling relations between star formation rates
and molecular gas masses for both local Galactic clouds and a sample of
external galaxies. We specifically consider relations between the star
formation rates and measurements of dense, as well as total, molecular gas
masses. We argue that there is a fundamental empirical scaling relation that
directly connects the local star formation process with that operating globally
within galaxies. Specifically, the total star formation rate in a molecular
cloud or galaxy is linearly proportional to the mass of dense gas within the
cloud or galaxy. This simple relation, first documented in previous studies,
holds over a span of mass covering nearly nine orders of magnitude and
indicates that the rate of star formation is directly controlled by the amount
of dense molecular gas that can be assembled within a star formation complex.
We further show that the star formation rates and total molecular masses,
characterizing both local clouds and galaxies, are correlated over similarly
large scales of mass and can be described by a family of linear star formation
scaling laws, parameterized by , the fraction of dense gas contained
within the clouds or galaxies. That is, the underlying star formation scaling
law is always linear for clouds and galaxies with the same dense gas fraction.
These considerations provide a single unified framework for understanding the
relation between the standard (non-linear) extragalactic Schmidt-Kennicutt
scaling law, that is typically derived from CO observations of the gas, and the
linear star formation scaling law derived from HCN observations of the dense
gas.Comment: 14 pages + 2 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ 16 December
201
Physical Properties of Molecular Clouds at 2 parsec Resolution in the Low-Metallicity Dwarf Galaxy NGC 6822 and the Milky Way
We present the ALMA survey of CO(2-1) emission from the 1/5 solar
metallicity, Local Group dwarf galaxy NGC 6822. We achieve high (0.9 arcsec ~ 2
pc) spatial resolution while covering large area: four 250 pc x 250 pc regions
that encompass ~2/3 of NGC 6822's star formation. In these regions, we resolve
~150 compact CO clumps that have small radii (~2-3 pc), narrow line width (~1
km/s), and low filling factor across the galaxy. This is consistent with other
recent studies of low metallicity galaxies, but here shown with a 15 times
larger sample. At parsec scales, CO emission correlates with 8 micron emission
better than with 24 micron emission and anti-correlates with Halpha, so that
PAH emission may be an effective tracer of molecular gas at low metallicity.
The properties of the CO clumps resemble those of similar-size structures in
Galactic clouds except of slightly lower surface brightness and CO-to-H2 ratio
~1-2 times the Galactic value. The clumps exist inside larger atomic-molecular
complexes with masses typical for giant molecular cloud. Using dust to trace H2
for the entire complex, we find CO-to-H2 to be ~20-25 times the Galactic value,
but with strong dependence on spatial scale and variations between complexes
that may track their evolutionary state. The H2-to-HI ratio is low globally and
only mildly above unity within the complexes. The SFR-to-H2 ratio is ~3-5 times
higher in the complexes than in massive disk galaxies, but after accounting for
the bias from targeting star-forming regions, we conclude that the global
molecular gas depletion time may be as long as in massive disk galaxies.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal; 22 pages, 10
figures, 7 table
Which feedback mechanisms dominate in the high-pressure environment of the Central Molecular Zone?
Supernovae (SNe) dominate the energy and momentum budget of stellar feedback, but the efficiency with which they couple to the interstellar medium (ISM) depends strongly on how effectively early, pre-SN feedback clears dense gas from star-forming regions. There are observational constraints on the magnitudes and timescales of early stellar feedback in low ISM pressure environments, yet no such constraints exist for more cosmologically typical high ISM pressure environments. In this paper, we determine the mechanisms dominating the expansion of HII regions as a function of size-scale and evolutionary time within the high-pressure (P/k_\rm{B}~K cm) environment in the inner 100pc of the Milky Way. We calculate the thermal pressure from the warm ionised (P_\rm{HII}; 10K) gas, direct radiation pressure (P_\rm{dir}), and dust processed radiation pressure (P_\rm{IR}). We find that (1) P_\rm{dir} dominates the expansion on small scales and at early times (0.01-0.1pc; pc; Myr); (3) during the first ~1Myr of growth, but not thereafter, either or stellar wind pressure likely make a comparable contribution. Despite the high confining pressure of the environment, natal star-forming gas is efficiently cleared to radii of several pc within ~2Myr, i.e. before the first SNe explode. This `pre-processing' means that subsequent SNe will explode into low density gas, so their energy and momentum will efficiently couple to the ISM. We find the HII regions expand to a radius of 3pc, at which point they have internal pressures equal with the surrounding external pressure. A comparison with HII regions in lower pressure environments shows that the maximum size of all HII regions is set by pressure equilibrium with the ambient ISM
The evolution of HCO in molecular clouds using a novel chemical post-processing algorithm
Modeling the internal chemistry of molecular clouds is critical to accurately
simulating their evolution. To reduce computational expense, 3D simulations
generally restrict their chemical modeling to species with strong heating and
cooling effects. We address this by post-processing tracer particles in the
SILCC-Zoom molecular cloud simulations. Using a chemical network of 39 species
and 299 reactions (including freeze-out of CO and HO), and a novel
iterative algorithm to reconstruct a filled density grid from sparse tracer
particle data, we produce time-dependent density distributions for various
species. We focus upon the evolution of HCO, which is a critical formation
reactant of CO but is not typically modeled on-the-fly. We analyse the
evolution of the tracer particles to assess the regime in which HCO
production preferentially takes place. We find that the HCO content of the
cold molecular gas forms in situ around n_\textrm{HCO^+}\simeq10^3-
cm, over a time-scale of approximately 1 Myr, rather than being
distributed to this density regime via turbulent mixing from deeper in the
cloud. We further show that the dominant HCO formation pathway is dependent
on the visual extinction, with the reaction H + CO contributing 90% of
the total HCO production flux above . Using our novel
grid reconstruction algorithm, we produce the very first maps of the HCO
column density, (HCO), and show that it reaches values as high as
cm. We find that 50% of the HCO mass is located in an
-range of 10-30, and in a density range of
- cm. Finally, we compare our (HCO) maps to
recent observations of W49A and find good agreement.Comment: 23 pages including appendix, 20 figures, submitted to MNRAS, comments
are welcom
Physical Properties of Molecular Clouds at 2 pc Resolution in the Low-metallicity Dwarf Galaxy NGC 6822 and the Milky Way
We present the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array survey of CO(2-1) emission from the 1/5 solar metallicity, Local Group dwarf galaxy NGC 6822. We achieve high (0buildrel{primeprime}over{.} 9≈ 2 pc) spatial resolution while covering a large area: four 250 pc × 250 pc regions that encompass ˜ 2/3 of NGC 6822's star formation. In these regions, we resolve ˜ 150 compact CO clumps that have small radii (˜2-3 pc), narrow line width (˜ 1 km s-1), and low filling factor across the galaxy. This is consistent with other recent studies of low-metallicity galaxies, but here shown with a 15× larger sample. At parsec scales, CO emission correlates with 8 μ {{m}} emission better than with 24 μ {{m}} emission and anticorrelates with Hα, so that polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon emission may be an effective tracer of molecular gas at low metallicity. The properties of the CO clumps resemble those of similar-size structures in Galactic clouds except of slightly lower surface brightness and with CO-to-H2 ratio ˜1-2× the Galactic value. The clumps exist inside larger atomic-molecular complexes with masses typical for giant molecular clouds. Using dust to trace H2 for the entire complex, we find the CO-to-H2 ratio to be ˜ 20{--}25× the Galactic value, but with strong dependence on spatial scale and variations between complexes that may track their evolutionary state. The H2-to-H I ratio is low globally and only mildly above unity within the complexes. The ratio of star formation rate to H2 is ˜ 3{--}5× higher in the complexes than in massive disk galaxies, but after accounting for the bias from targeting star-forming regions, we conclude that the global molecular gas depletion time may be as long as in massive disk galaxies
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