1,096 research outputs found
Disentangling the excitation conditions of the dense gas in M17 SW
We probe the chemical and energetic conditions in dense gas created by
radiative feedback through observations of multiple CO, HCN and HCO
transitions toward the dense core of M17 SW. We used the dual band receiver
GREAT on board the SOFIA airborne telescope to obtain maps of the ,
, and transitions of CO. We compare these maps with
corresponding APEX and IRAM 30m telescope data for low- and mid- CO, HCN and
HCO emission lines, including maps of the HCN and HCO
transitions. The excitation conditions of CO, HCO and HCN are
estimated with a two-phase non-LTE radiative transfer model of the line
spectral energy distributions (LSEDs) at four selected positions. The energy
balance at these positions is also studied. We obtained extensive LSEDs for the
CO, HCN and HCO molecules toward M17 SW. The LSED shape, particularly the
high- tail of the CO lines observed with SOFIA/GREAT, is distinctive for the
underlying excitation conditions. The critical magnetic field criterion implies
that the cold cloudlets at two positions are partially controlled by processes
that create and dissipate internal motions. Supersonic but sub-Alfv\'enic
velocities in the cold component at most selected positions indicates that
internal motions are likely MHD waves. Magnetic pressure dominates thermal
pressure in both gas components at all selected positions, assuming random
orientation of the magnetic field. The magnetic pressure of a constant magnetic
field throughout all the gas phases can support the total internal pressure of
the cold components, but it cannot support the internal pressure of the warm
components. If the magnetic field scales as , then the
evolution of the cold cloudlets at two selected positions, and the warm
cloudlets at all selected positions, will be determined by ambipolar diffusion.Comment: 26 pages, 13 figures, A&A accepte
Abundant Z-cyanomethanimine in the interstellar medium: paving the way to the synthesis of adenine
We report the first detection in the interstellar medium of the Z-isomer of
cyanomethanimine (HNCHCN), an HCN dimer proposed as precursor of adenine. We
identified six transitions of Z-cyanomethanimine, along with five transitions
of E-cyanomethanimine, using IRAM 30m observations towards the Galactic Center
quiescent molecular cloud G+0.693. The Z-isomer has a column density of
(2.00.6)10 cm and an abundance of
1.510. The relative abundance ratio between the isomers is
[Z/E]6. This value cannot be explained by the two chemical formation
routes previously proposed (gas-phase and grain surface), which predicts
abundances ratios between 0.9 and 1.5. The observed [Z/E] ratio is in good
agreement with thermodynamic equilibrium at the gas kinetic temperature
(130210 K). Since isomerization is not possible in the ISM, the two species
may be formed at high temperature. New chemical models, including surface
chemistry on dust grains and gas-phase reactions, should be explored to explain
our findings. Whatever the formation mechanism, the high abundance of Z-HNCHCN
shows that precursors of adenine are efficiently formed in the ISM.Comment: Accepted in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Letter
The thermal state of molecular clouds in the Galactic Center: evidence for non-photon-driven heating
We used the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) 12 m telescope to observe
the J_KaKc=3_03-2_02, 3_22-2_21, and 3_21-2_20 transitions of para-H_2CO at 218
GHz simultaneously to determine kinetic temperatures of the dense gas in the
central molecular zone (CMZ) of our Galaxy. The map extends over approximately
40 arcmin x 8 arcmin (~100x20 pc^2) along the Galactic plane with a linear
resolution of 1.2 pc. The strongest of the three lines, the H_2CO (3_03-2_02)
transition, is found to be widespread, and its emission shows a spatial
distribution similar to ammonia. The relative abundance of para-H_2CO is
0.5-1.2 10^{-9}, which is consistent with results from lower frequency H_2CO
absorption lines. Derived gas kinetic temperatures for individual molecular
clouds range from 50 K to values in excess of 100 K. While a systematic trend
toward (decreasing) kinetic temperature versus (increasing) angular distance
from the Galactic center (GC) is not found, the clouds with highest temperature
(T_kin > 100 K) are all located near the nucleus. For the molecular gas outside
the dense clouds, the average kinetic temperature is 65+/-10 K. The high
temperatures of molecular clouds on large scales in the GC region may be driven
by turbulent energy dissipation and/or cosmic-rays instead of photons. Such a
non-photon-driven thermal state of the molecular gas provides an excellent
template for the more distant vigorous starbursts found in ultraluminous
infrared galaxies (ULIRGs).Comment: 23 pages, 11 figures, A&A in pres
Complex organic molecules in the Galactic Centre: the N-bearing family
We present an unbiased spectral line survey toward the Galactic Centre (GC)
quiescent giant molecular cloud (QGMC), G+0.693 using the GBT and IRAM 30
telescopes. Our study highlights an extremely rich organic inventory of
abundant amounts of nitrogen (N)-bearing species in a source without signatures
of star formation. We report the detection of 17 N-bearing species in this
source, of which 8 are complex organic molecules (COMs). A comparison of the
derived abundances relative to H is made across various galactic and
extragalactic environments. We conclude that the unique chemistry in this
source is likely to be dominated by low-velocity shocks with X-rays/cosmic rays
also playing an important role in the chemistry. Like previous findings
obtained for O-bearing molecules, our results for N-bearing species suggest a
more efficient hydrogenation of these species on dust grains in G+0.693 than in
hot cores in the Galactic disk, as a consequence of the low dust temperatures
coupled with energetic processing by X-ray/cosmic ray radiation in the GC.Comment: 24 pages, 23 figures, 7 tables, accepted for publication in MNRA
Radiative and mechanical feedback into the molecular gas of NGC 253
Starburst galaxies are undergoing intense periods of star formation.
Understanding the heating and cooling mechanisms in these galaxies can give us
insight to the driving mechanisms that fuel the starburst. Molecular emission
lines play a crucial role in the cooling of the excited gas. With SPIRE on the
Herschel Space Observatory we have observed the rich molecular spectrum towards
the central region of NGC 253. CO transitions from J=4-3 to 13-12 are observed
and together with low-J line fluxes from ground based observations, these lines
trace the excitation of CO. By studying the CO excitation ladder and comparing
the intensities to models, we investigate whether the gas is excited by UV
radiation, X-rays, cosmic rays, or turbulent heating. Comparing the CO
and CO observations to large velocity gradient models and PDR models we
find three main ISM phases. We estimate the density, temperature,and masses of
these ISM phases. By adding CO, HCN, and HNC line intensities, we are
able to constrain these degeneracies and determine the heating sources. The
first ISM phase responsible for the low-J CO lines is excited by PDRs, but the
second and third phases, responsible for the mid to high-J CO transitions,
require an additional heating source. We find three possible combinations of
models that can reproduce our observed molecular emission. Although we cannot
determine which of these are preferable, we can conclude that mechanical
heating is necessary to reproduce the observed molecular emission and cosmic
ray heating is a negligible heating source. We then estimate the mass of each
ISM phase; M for phase 1 (low-J CO lines), M for phase 2 (mid-J CO lines), and M for
phase 3 (high-J CO lines) for a total system mass of M
The largest oxigen bearing organic molecule repository
We present the first detection of complex aldehydes and isomers in three
typical molecular clouds located within 200pc of the center of our Galaxy.
We find very large abundances of these complex organic molecules (COMs) in
the central molecular zone (CMZ), which we attribute to the ejection of COMs
from grain mantles by shocks. The relative abundances of the different COMs
with respect to that of CH3OH are strikingly similar for the three sources,
located in very different environments in the CMZ. The similar relative
abundances point toward a unique grain mantle composition in the CMZ. Studying
the Galactic center clouds and objects in the Galactic disk having large
abundances of COMs, we find that more saturated molecules are more abundant
than the non-saturated ones. We also find differences between the relative
abundance between COMs in the CMZ and the Galactic disk, suggesting different
chemical histories of the grain mantles between the two regions in the Galaxy
for the complex aldehydes. Different possibilities for the grain chemistry on
the icy mantles in the GC clouds are briefly discussed. Cosmic rays can play an
important role in the grain chemistry. With these new detections, the molecular
clouds in the Galactic center appear to be one of the best laboratories for
studying the formation of COMs in the Galaxy.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures, accepted in Ap
Tracing shocks and photodissociation in the Galactic center region
We present a systematic study of the HNCO, C18O, 13CS, and C34S emission
towards 13 selected molecular clouds in the Galactic center region. The
molecular emission in these positions are used as templates of the different
physical and chemical processes claimed to be dominant in the circumnuclear
molecular gas of galaxies. The relative abundance of HNCO shows a variation of
more than a factor of 20 amo ng the observed sources. The HNCO/13CS abundance
ratio is highly contrasted (up to a factor of 30) between the shielded
molecular clouds mostly affected by shocks, where HNCO is released to gas-phase
from grain mantles, and those pervaded by an intense UV radiation field, where
HNCO is photo-dissociated and CS production favored via ion reactions. We
propose the relative HNCO to CS abundance ratio as a highly contrasted
diagnostic tool to distinguish between the influence of shocks and/or the
radiation field in the nuclear regions of galaxies and their relation to the
evolutionary state of their nuclear star formation bursts.Comment: 25 pages, 5 figures, Accepted for publication in Ap
Chemical Features in the Circumnuclear Disk of the Galactic Center
The circumnuclear disk (CND) of the Galactic Center is exposed to many
energetic phenomena coming from the supermassive black hole Sgr A* and stellar
activities. These energetic activities can affect the chemical composition in
the CND by the interaction with UV-photons, cosmic-rays, X-rays, and shock
waves. We aim to constrain the physical conditions present in the CND by
chemical modeling of observed molecular species detected towards it. We
analyzed a selected set of molecular line data taken toward a position in the
southwest lobe of the CND with the IRAM 30m and APEX 12-meter telescopes and
derived the column density of each molecule using a large velocity gradient
(LVG) analysis. The determined chemical composition is compared with a
time-dependent gas-grain chemical model based on the UCL\_CHEM code that
includes the effects of shock waves with varying physical parameters. Molecules
such as CO, HCN, HCO, HNC, CS, SO, SiO, NO, CN, HCO, HCN,
NH and HO are detected and their column densities are obtained.
Total hydrogen densities obtained from LVG analysis range between and cm and most species indicate values around
several cm, which are lower than values corresponding to
the Roche limit, which shows that the CND is tidally unstable. The chemical
models show good agreement with the observations in cases where the density is
cm, the cosmic-ray ionization rate is high, s, or shocks with velocities km s have occurred.
Comparison of models and observations favors a scenario where the cosmic-ray
ionization rate in the CND is high, but precise effects of other factors such
as shocks, density structures, UV-photons and X-rays from the Sgr A* must be
examined with higher spatial resolution data.Comment: 17 Pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in A&
HIFI Spectroscopy of submm Lines in Nuclei of Actively Star Forming Galaxies
We present a systematic survey of multiple velocity-resolved HO spectra
using Herschel/HIFI towards nine nearby actively star forming galaxies. The
ground-state and low-excitation lines (E) show
profiles with emission and absorption blended together, while absorption-free
medium-excitation lines ()
typically display line shapes similar to CO. We analyze the HIFI observation
together with archival SPIRE/PACS HO data using a state-of-the-art 3D
radiative transfer code which includes the interaction between continuum and
line emission. The water excitation models are combined with information on the
dust- and CO spectral line energy distribution to determine the physical
structure of the interstellar medium (ISM). We identify two ISM components that
are common to all galaxies: A warm (),
dense () phase which dominates the
emission of medium-excitation HO lines. This gas phase also dominates the
FIR emission and the CO intensities for . In addition a cold
(), dense () more extended phase is present. It outputs the emission
in the low-excitation HO lines and typically also produces the prominent
line absorption features. For the two ULIRGs in our sample (Arp 220 and Mrk
231) an even hotter and more compact (R pc) region is present
which is possibly linked to AGN activity. We find that collisions dominate the
water excitation in the cold gas and for lines with
and in the warm and hot component, respectively.
Higher energy levels are mainly excited by IR pumping.Comment: Accepted by ApJ, in pres
The Advanced Glycation End Product, N\u3csup\u3eE\u3c/sup\u3e-(Carboxymethyl)lysine, Is a Product of Both Lipid Peroxidation and Glycoxidation Reactions
Nepsilon-(Carboxymethyl)lysine (CML) is an advanced glycation end product formed on protein by combined nonenzymatic glycation and oxidation (glycoxidation) reactions. We now report that CML is also formed during metal-catalyzed oxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acids in the presence of protein. During copper-catalyzed oxidation in vitro, the CML content of low density lipoprotein increased in concert with conjugated dienes but was independent of the presence of the Amadori compound, fructoselysine, on the protein. CML was also formed in a time-dependent manner in RNase incubated under aerobic conditions in phosphate buffer containing arachidonate or linoleate; only trace amounts of CML were formed from oleate. After 6 days of incubation the yield of CML in RNase from arachidonate was approximately 0.7 mmol/mol lysine compared with only 0.03 mmol/mol lysine for protein incubated under the same conditions with glucose. Glyoxal, a known precursor of CML, was also formed during incubation of RNase with arachidonate. These results suggest that lipid peroxidation, as well as glycoxidation, may be an important source of CML in tissue proteins in vivo and that CML may be a general marker of oxidative stress and long term damage to protein in aging, atherosclerosis, and diabetes
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