Study of the Bipolar Nebula IRAS 19312+1950. I. Mapping Observations

IRAS 19312+1950 is an SiO maser source that exhibits a prominent bipolar nebulosity. Mapping observations of this object were made in the CO J=1--0, 13CO J=1--0, C18O J=1--0, CS J=2--1, and HCN J=1--0 lines and in the 150 GHz continuum band. Near-infrared imaging observations were also made in the J, H, and K-bands. The line profiles of the 12CO and HCN spectra consist of a weak broad component with a line width of about 50 km/s and a strong narrow component of the width of about 3 km/s. The profiles of the 13CO, C18O, and CS lines have only the narrow component. Both of the components have an intensity peak at the IRAS position. The narrow component was clearly resolved with a 15'' telescope beam. The spectral energy distribution of this object exhibits a doubly peaked profile between 1 and 25 micron. The 150 GHz continuum flux density was found to be 0.07 Jy, which is consistent with the flux density predicted by the expanding envelope model with a mass loss rate of ~10^{-4} M_sun/y at a distance of 2.5 kpc. We argue that the broad component originates from the expanding envelope of this object, and that the hot dust cloud, which is the source of the narrow component, is also physically associated with this object. Though the present observations do not preclude the possibility of a young stellar object, we argue that it is less plausible. We conclude that IRAS 19312+1950 is an AGB/post-AGB star that is evolved from a massive progenitor.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures (jpg), high resolution figures available as no598 in http://www.nro.nao.ac.jp/library/report/list.html. PASJ, 56 No. 1 in pres

A New High Resolution CO Map of the inner 2.'5 of M51 I. Streaming Motions and Spiral Structure

[Abridged] The Owens Valley mm-Array has been used to map the CO 1--0 emission in the inner 2'.5 of the grand design spiral galaxy M51 at 2''-3'' resolution. The molecular spiral arms are revealed with unprecedented clarity: supermassive cloud complexes, Giant Molecular Associations, are for the first time resolved both along and perpendicular to the arms. Major complexes occur symmetrically opposite each other in the two major arms. Streaming motions can be studied in detail along the major and minor axes of M51. The streaming velocities are very large, 60-150 km/s. For the first time, sufficient resolution to resolve the structure in the molecular streaming motions is obtained. Our data support the presence of galactic shocks in the arms of M51. In general, velocity gradients across arms are higher by a factor of 2-10 than previously found. They vary in steepness along the spiral arms, becoming particularly steep in between GMAs. The steep gradients cause conditions of strong reverse shear in several regions in the arms, and thus the notion that shear is generally reduced by streaming motions in spiral arms will have to be modified. Of the three GMAs studied on the SW arm, only one shows reduced shear. We find an expansion in the NE molecular arm at 25'' radius SE of the center. This broadening occurs right after the end of the NE arm at the Inner Lindblad Resonance. Bifurcations in the molecular spiral arm structure, at a radius of 73'', may be evidence of a secondary compression of the gas caused by the 4/1 ultraharmonic resonance. Inside the radius of the ILR, we detect narrow (~ 5'') molecular spiral arms possibly related to the K-band arms found in the same region. We find evidence of non-circular motions in the inner 20'' which are consistent with gas on elliptical orbits in a bar.Comment: 29 pages, 15 figures, uses latex macros for ApJ; accepted for publication in Ap

Variation of Molecular Cloud Properties across the Spiral Arm in M 51

We present the results of high-resolution 13CO(1-0) mapping observations with the NRO 45m telescope of the area toward the southern bright arm region of M51, including the galactic center. The obtained map shows the central depression of the the circumnuclear ring and the spiral arm structure.The arm-to-interarm ratio of the 13CO(1-0) integrated intensity is 2-4. We also have found a feature different from that found in the 12CO results. The 12CO/13CO ratio spatially varies, and shows high values (~20) for the interarm and the central region, but low values(~10) for the arm. These indicate that there is a denser gas in the spiral arm than in the interarm. The distribution of the 13CO shows a better correspondence with that of the H\alpha emission than with the 12CO in the disk region, except for the central region. We found that the 13CO emission is located on the downstream side of the 12CO arm, namely there is an offset between the 12CO and the 13CO as well as the H\alpha emission. This suggests that there is a time delay between the accumulation of gas caused by the density wave and dense gas formation, accordingly star formation. This time delay is estimated to be ~10^7 yr based on the assumption of galactic rotation derived by the rotation curve and the pattern speed of M51. It is similar to the growth timescale of a gravitational instability in the spiral arm of M51, suggesting that the gravitational instability plays an important role for dense gas formation.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figures, PASJ Vol.54, No.2 (2002), in pres

Water Maser Emission from the Active Nucleus in M51

22 GHz water vapor `kilomaser' emission is reported from the central region of the Whirlpool galaxy M 51 (NGC 5194). The red-shifted spectral features (Vlsr ~ 560 km/s), flaring during most of the year 2000, originate from a spatially unresolved maser spot of size < 30 mas (< 1.5 pc), displaced by < 250 mas from the nucleus. The data provide the first direct evidence for the association of an H2O kilomaser with an active galactic nucleus (AGN). In early 2001, blue-shifted maser emission (Vlsr ~ 435 km/s) was also detected. Red- and blue-shifted features bracket the systemic velocity asymmetrically. Within the standard model of a rotating Keplerian torus, this may either suggest the presence of a highly eccentric circumnuclear cloud or red- and blue-shifted `high velocity' emission from a radially extended torus. Most consistent with the measured H2O position is, however, an association of the red-shifted H2O emission with the northern part of the bipolar radio jet. In this scenario, the (weaker) northern jet is receding while the blue-shifted H2O emission is associated with the approaching southern jet.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figur

A comparison between Pa alpha and H alpha emission: The relation between HII region mean reddening, local gas density and metallicity

We measure reddenings to HII regions in NGC 2903, NGC 1512, M51, NGC 4449 and NGC 6946 from Hubble Space Telescope Pa alpha and H alpha images. Extinctions range from A_V ~ 5 - 0 depending upon the galaxy. For the galaxies with HST images in both lines, NGC 2903, NGC 1512 and M51, the Pa alpha and H alpha emission are almost identical in morphology which implies that little emission from bright HII regions is hidden from view by regions of comparatively high extinction. The scatter in the measured extinctions is only +- 0.5 mag. We compare the reddenings we measure in five galaxies using the Pa alpha to H alpha ratios to those measured previously from the Balmer decrement in the LMC and as a function of radius in M101 and M51. We find that luminosity weighted mean extinctions of these ensembles of HI regions are correlated with gas surface density and metallicity. The correlation is consistent with the mean extinction depending on dust density where the dust to gas mass ratio scales with the metallicity. This trend is expected if HII regions tend to be located near the mid-plane of a gas disk and emerge from their parent molecular clouds soon after birth. In environments with gas densities below a few hundred Msol/pc^2 star formation rates estimated from integrated line fluxes and mean extinctions are likely to be fairly accurate.Comment: accepted for publication in A

Dense Molecular Gas in Lenticular Galaxies

We made CO and HCN simultaneous observations of lenticular galaxies, NGC 404, NGC 3593 and NGC 4293, and detected HCN emission in NGC 3593 and NGC 4293 as well as CO in all the galaxies. The I(HCN)/I(CO) ratios were 0.025+-0.006 and 0.066+-0.005 in NGC 3593 and NGC 4293, respectively, which are comparable to the late-type spiral galaxies. The average of the I(HCN)/I(CO) ratios at the center of 12 nearby spiral galaxies including late-type was 0.055+-0.028. The line profiles of CO and HCN emission showed different shape in both galaxies. The HCN peaks were not at the systemic velocity of these galaxies, while the CO peaks were near the systemic velocity. These results suggest that the fraction of the dense molecular gas is high around the center in these galaxies.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, to be published in PASJ (Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan) Vol.54, No.

The mapping class group and the Meyer function for plane curves

For each d>=2, the mapping class group for plane curves of degree d will be defined and it is proved that there exists uniquely the Meyer function on this group. In the case of d=4, using our Meyer function, we can define the local signature for 4-dimensional fiber spaces whose general fibers are non-hyperelliptic compact Riemann surfaces of genus 3. Some computations of our local signature will be given.Comment: 24 pages, typo adde