31 research outputs found
High Excitation Molecular Gas in the Galactic Center Loops; 12CO(J =2-1 and J =3-2) Observations
We have carried out 12CO(J =2-1) and 12CO(J =3-2) observations at spatial
resolutions of 1.0-3.8 pc toward the entirety of loops 1 and 2 and part of loop
3 in the Galactic center with NANTEN2 and ASTE. These new results revealed
detailed distributions of the molecular gas and the line intensity ratio of the
two transitions, R3-2/2-1. In the three loops, R3-2/2-1 is in a range from 0.1
to 2.5 with a peak at ~ 0.7 while that in the disk molecular gas is in a range
from 0.1 to 1.2 with a peak at 0.4. This supports that the loops are more
highly excited than the disk molecular gas. An LVG analysis of three
transitions, 12CO J =3-2 and 2-1 and 13CO J =2-1, toward six positions in loops
1 and 2 shows density and temperature are in a range 102.2 - 104.7 cm-3 and
15-100 K or higher, respectively. Three regions extended by 50-100 pc in the
loops tend to have higher excitation conditions as characterized by R3-2/2-1
greater than 1.2. The highest ratio of 2.5 is found in the most developed foot
points between loops 1 and 2. This is interpreted that the foot points indicate
strongly shocked conditions as inferred from their large linewidths of 50-100
km s-1, confirming the suggestion by Torii et al. (2010b). The other two
regions outside the foot points suggest that the molecular gas is heated up by
some additional heating mechanisms possibly including magnetic reconnection. A
detailed analysis of four foot points have shown a U shape, an L shape or a
mirrored-L shape in the b-v distribution. It is shown that a simple kinematical
model which incorporates global rotation and expansion of the loops is able to
explain these characteristic shapes.Comment: 59 pages, accepted to PAS
Temperature and Density in the Foot Points of the Molecular Loops in the Galactic Center; Analysis of Multi-J Transitions of 12CO(J=1-0, 3-2, 4-3, 7-6), 13CO(J=1-0) and C18O(J=1-0)
Fukui et al. (2006) discovered two molecular loops in the Galactic center and
argued that the foot points of the molecular loops, two bright spots at both
loops ends, represent the gas accumulated by the falling motion along the
loops, subsequent to magnetic flotation by the Parker instability. We have
carried out sensitive CO observations of the foot points toward l=356 deg at a
few pc resolution in the six rotational transitions of CO; 12CO(J=1-0, 3-2,
4-3, 7-6), 13CO(J=1-0) and C18O(J=1-0). The high resolution image of 12CO
(J=3-2) has revealed the detailed distribution of the high excitation gas
including U shapes, the outer boundary of which shows sharp intensity jumps
accompanying strong velocity gradients. An analysis of the multi-J CO
transitions shows that the temperature is in a range from 30-100 K and density
is around 10^3-10^4 cm^-3, confirming that the foot points have high
temperature and density although there is no prominent radiative heating source
such as high mass stars in or around the loops. We argue that the high
temperature is likely due to the shock heating under C-shock condition caused
by the magnetic flotation. We made a comparison of the gas distribution with
theoretical numerical simulations and note that the U shape is consistent with
numerical simulations. We also find that the region of highest temperature of
~100 K or higher inside the U shape corresponds to the spur having an upward
flow, additionally heated up either by magnetic reconnection or bouncing in the
interaction with the narrow neck at the bottom of the U shape. We note these
new findings further reinforce the magnetic floatation interpretation.Comment: 40 pages, 23 figures, accepted by PASJ on Vol.62 No.
Dense Molecular Clumps associated with the LMC Supergiant Shells LMC 4 \& LMC 5
We investigate the effects of Supergiant Shells (SGSs) and their interaction
on dense molecular clumps by observing the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) star
forming regions N48 and N49, which are located between two SGSs, LMC 4 and LMC
5. CO (=3-2, 1-0) and CO (=1-0) observations with the ASTE
and Mopra telescopes have been carried out towards these regions. A clumpy
distribution of dense molecular clumps is revealed with 7 pc spatial
resolution. Large velocity gradient analysis shows that the molecular hydrogen
densities () of the clumps are distributed from low to high
density (- cm) and their kinetic temperatures () are typically high (greater than K). These clumps seem to be in the
early stages of star formation, as also indicated from the distribution of
H, young stellar object candidates, and IR emission. We found that the
N48 region is located in the high column density HI envelope at the interface
of the two SGSs and the star formation is relatively evolved, whereas the N49
region is associated with LMC 5 alone and the star formation is quiet. The
clumps in the N48 region typically show high and ,
which are as dense and warm as the clumps in LMC massive cluster-forming areas
(30 Dor, N159). These results suggest that the large-scale structure of the
SGSs, especially the interaction of two SGSs, works efficiently on the
formation of dense molecular clumps and stars.Comment: 26 pages, 7 tables, 16 figure
Dense Clumps in Giant Molecular Clouds in the Large Magellanic Cloud: Density and Temperature Derived from CO() Observations
In order to precisely determine temperature and density of molecular gas in
the Large Magellanic Cloud, we made observations of optically thin
CO() transition by using the ASTE 10m telescope toward 9 peaks
where CO() clumps were previously detected with the same
telescope. The molecular clumps include those in giant molecular cloud (GMC)
Types I (with no signs of massive star formation), II (with HII regions only),
and III (with HII regions and young star clusters). We detected
CO() emission toward all the peaks and found that their
intensities are 3 -- 12 times lower than those of CO(). We
determined the intensity ratios of CO() to CO(),
, and CO() to CO(),
, at 45\arcsec resolution. These ratios were used for
radiative transfer calculations in order to estimate temperature and density of
the clumps. The parameters of these clumps range kinetic temperature
= 15 -- 200 K, and molecular hydrogen gas density
= 8 -- 7 cm. We confirmed
that the higher density clumps show higher kinetic temperature and that the
lower density clumps lower kinetic temperature at a better accuracy than in the
previous work. The kinetic temperature and density increase generally from a
Type I GMC to a Type III GMC. We interpret that this difference reflects an
evolutionary trend of star formation in molecular clumps. The
and kinetic temperature of the clumps are well correlated
with H flux, suggesting that the heating of molecular gas
= -- cm can be explained by stellar FUV
photons.Comment: 39 pages, 7 figures, 4 tables. Accepted for publication in The
Astronomical Journa
Visualization of the radiofrequency lesion after pulmonary vein isolation using delayed enhancement magnetic resonance imaging fused with magnetic resonance angiography
AbstractBackgroundThe radiofrequency (RF) lesions for atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation can be visualized by delayed enhancement magnetic resonance imaging (DE-MRI). However, the quality of anatomical information provided by DE-MRI is not adequate due to its spatial resolution. In contrast, magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) provides similar information regarding the left atrium (LA) and pulmonary veins (PVs) as computed tomography angiography. We hypothesized that DE-MRI fused with MRA will compensate for the inadequate image quality provided by DE-MRI.MethodsDE-MRI and MRA were performed in 18 patients who underwent AF ablation (age, 60±9 years; LA diameter, 42±6mm). Two observers independently assessed the DE-MRI and DE-MRI fused with MRA for visualization of the RF lesion (score 0–2; where 0: not visualized and 2: excellent in all 14 segments of the circular RF lesion).ResultsDE-MRI fused with MRA was successfully performed in all patients. The image quality score was significantly higher in DE-MRI fused with MRA compared to DE-MRI alone (observer 1: 22 (18, 25) vs 28 (28, 28), p<0.001; observer 2: 24 (23, 25) vs 28 (28, 28), p<0.001).ConclusionsDE-MRI fused with MRA was superior to DE-MRI for visualization of the RF lesion owing to the precise information on LA and PV anatomy provided by DE-MRI