Massive Accretion Disks

Recent high resolution near infrared (HST-NICMOS) and mm-interferometric imaging have revealed dense gas and dust accretion disks in nearby ultra-luminous galactic nuclei. In the best studied ultraluminous IR galaxy, Arp 220, the 2 micron imaging shows dust disks in both of the merging galactic nuclei and mm-CO line imaging indicates molecular gas masses approx. 10^9 M_sun for each disk. The two gas disks in Arp 220 are counterrotating and their dynamical masses are approx. 2x10^9 M_sun, that is, only slightly larger than the gas masses. These disks have radii approx 100 pc and thickness 10-50 pc. The high brightness temperatures of the CO lines indicate that the gas in the disks has area filling factors of approx. 25-50% and mean densities of >~ 10^4 cm^(-3). Within these nuclear disks, the rate of massive star formation is undoubtedly prodigious and, given the high viscosity of the gas, there will also be high radial accretion rates, perhaps >~ 10 M_sun/yr. If this inflow persists to very small radii, it is enough to feed even the highest luminosity AGNs.Comment: LaTex, 6 pages with 1 postscript and 1 jpg figure, and 1 postscript table, To appear in the proc. of the Ringberg workshop on "Ultraluminous Galaxies: Monsters or Babies" (Ringberg castle, Sept. 1998), Ap&SS, in pres

The Extreme Nuclear Environments of Sgr A* and Arp 220

The dense ISM which is the fuel for both nuclear starbursts is believed to be accreted to the nucleus by stellar bars and galactic interactions. In this contribution, I summarize the observational results for two galactic nuclei at the extreme ends of starburst/AGN activity − our own Galactic nucleus with SgrA* and the ULIRG Arp 220. I discuss theoretical considerations for the properties of the ISM − its density and scale height, whether it is likely to clump into gravitational bound GMCs − and the self-regulation of SB and AGN fueling due to radiation pressure support of the ISM. The latter yields an Eddington-like limit on the activity for both SB and AGN, corresponding to approximately 500 L_ʘ/M_ʘ for optically thick regions in which the radiation has been degraded to the NIR

The 10k zCOSMOS: Morphological Transformation of Galaxies in the Group Environment Since z ~1

We study the evolution of galaxies inside and outside of the group environment since z = 1 using a large well-defined set of groups and galaxies from the zCOSMOS-bright redshift survey in the COSMOS field. The fraction of galaxies with early-type morphologies increases monotonically with M_B luminosity and stellar mass and with cosmic epoch. It is higher in the groups than elsewhere, especially at later epochs. The emerging environmental effect is superposed on a strong global mass-driven evolution, and at z ~ 0.5 and log(M _*/M_⊙) ~ 10.2, the "effect" of the group environment is equivalent to (only) about 0.2 dex in stellar mass or 2 Gyr in time. The stellar mass function of galaxies in groups is enriched in massive galaxies. We directly determine the transformation rates from late to early morphologies, and for transformations involving color and star formation indicators. The transformation rates are systematically about twice as high in the groups as outside, or up to three to four times higher correcting for infall and the appearance of new groups. The rates reach values as high as 0.3-0.7 Gyr^(–1) in the groups (for masses around the crossing mass 10^(10.5) M_⊙), implying transformation timescales of 1.4-3 Gyr, compared with less than 0.2 Gyr^(–1), i.e., timescales >5 Gyr, outside of groups. All three transformation rates decrease at higher stellar masses, and must also decrease at lower masses below 10^(10) M _⊙ which we cannot probe well. The rates involving color and star formation are consistently higher than those for morphology, by a factor of about 50%. Our conclusion is that the transformations that drive the evolution of the overall galaxy population since z ~ 1 must occur at a rate two to four times higher in groups than outside of them

Kinematics of Molecular Clouds Near the Galactic Center

A model is proposed in which most of the molecular clouds near the galactic center are situated in a radially moving ring of radius 250 pc

Spectroscopy of the Orion Molecular Cloud Core

Recent infrared and radio spectroscopic data pertaining to the Orion BN-KL infrared cluster are reviewed. A new, high resolution CO map shows that the thermal structure over the central 10′(1.5 pc) in the Orion molecular cloud is dominated by energy sources in the infrared cluster and M42. Peak CO brightness temperatures of 90 K occur on KL and near the bar at the southern edge of M42. Within the central 45″ of the infrared cluster, both radio and IR data reveal a highly energetic environment. Millimeter lines of several molecules (e.g. CO, HCN, and SiO) show emission over a full velocity range of 100 km s^(−1). These supersonic flows can be modeled as a differentially expanding envelope containing a total of ~5 M⊙ of gas within an outer radius of r ≃ 1.3 × 10^(17) cm. Over the same area emission is seen from vibrationally excited molecular hydrogen at an excitation temperature of 2000 K. The high velocity mm-line emission and the NIR H_2 lines are clearly related since they exhibit similar spatial extents and line widths. Comparison of the total cooling rate for all the H_2 lines with the estimated kinetic energy and expansion time for the mm-emission region indicates that the H_2 emission probably arises from shock fronts where the expanding envelope impinges on the outer cloud. Near IR spectroscopy also probes ionized and neutral gas closely associated with BN. Br α and Br γ emission is detected from an ultracompact HII region of mass M_(HII) ≲ 10^(−4) M⊙. Full widths for the HII lines are ~400 km s^(−1). CO bandhead emission detected in BN at λ ≃ 2.3 μm is probably collisionally pumped in a high excitation zone (n_(H+H2) > 10^(10) cm^(−3) and T_K ≃ 3000 K) at only a few AU from the star. The velocity of both the HII and CO emission is V_(LSR) ≃ + 20 km s^(−1); thus BN appears to be redshifted by 11 km s^(−1) with respect to OMC-1

High mass star formation in the galaxy

The Galactic distributions of HI, H2, and HII regions are reviewed in order to elucidate the high mass star formation occurring in galactic spiral arms and in active galactic nuclei. Comparison of the large scale distributions of H2 gas and radio HII regions reveals that the rate of formation of OB stars depends on (n sub H2) sup 1.9 where (n sub H2) is the local mean density of H2 averaged over 300 pc scale lengths. In addition the efficiency of high mass star formation is a decreasing function of cloud mass in the range 200,000 to 3,000,000 solar mass. These results suggest that high mass star formation in the galactic disk is initiated by cloud-cloud collisions which are more frequent in the spiral arms due to orbit crowding. Cloud-cloud collisions may also be responsible for high rates of OB star formation in interacting galaxies and galactic nuclei. Based on analysis of the Infrared Astronomy Satellite (IRAS) and CO data for selected GMCs in the Galaxy, the ratio L sub IR/M sub H2 can be as high as 30 solar luminosity/solar mass for GMCs associated with HII regions. The L sub IR/M sub H2 ratios and dust temperature obtained in many of the high luminosity IRAS galaxies are similar to those encountered in galactic GMCs with OB star formation. High mass star formation is therefore a viable explanation for the high infrared luminosity of these galaxies

Molecular outflow and feedback in the obscured quasar XID2028 revealed by ALMA

We imaged, with ALMA and ARGOS/LUCI, the molecular gas and dust and stellar continuum in XID2028, which is an obscured quasi-stellar object (QSO) at z = 1.593, where the presence of a massive outflow in the ionised gas component traced by the [OIII]5007 emission has been resolved up to 10 kpc. This target represents a unique test case to study QSO feedback in action at the peak epoch of AGN-galaxy co-evolution. The QSO was detected in the CO(5 − 4) transition and in the 1.3 mm continuum at ~30 and ~20σ significance, respectively; both emissions are confined in the central (<2 kpc) radius area. Our analysis suggests the presence of a fast rotating molecular disc (v ~ 400 km s^(−1)) on very compact scales well inside the galaxy extent seen in the rest-frame optical light (~10 kpc, as inferred from the LUCI data). Adding available measurements in additional two CO transitions, CO(2 − 1) and CO(3 − 2), we could derive a total gas mass of ~10^(10) M⊙, thanks to a critical assessment of CO excitation and the comparison with the Rayleigh–Jeans continuum estimate. This translates into a very low gas fraction (<5%) and depletion timescales of 40–75 Myr, reinforcing the result of atypical gas consumption conditions in XID2028, possibly because of feedback effects on the host galaxy. Finally, we also detect the presence of high velocity CO gas at ~5σ, which we interpret as a signature of galaxy-scale molecular outflow that is spatially coincident with the ionised gas outflow. XID2028 therefore represents a unique case in which the measurement of total outflowing mass, of ~500–800 M⊙ yr^(−1) including the molecular and atomic components in both the ionised and neutral phases, was attempted for a high-z QSO

NICMOS Observations of Interaction Triggered Star Formation in the Luminous Infrared Galaxy NGC 6090

High resolution, 1.1, 1.6, and 2.2 micron imaging of the luminous infrared galaxy NGC 6090 obtained with NICMOS of the Hubble Space Telescope are presented. These new observations are centered on the two nuclei of the merger, and reveal the spiral structure of the eastern galaxy and the amorphous nature of the western galaxy. The nuclear separation of 3.2 kpc (H_0 = 75 km/s/Mpc) indicates that NGC 6090 is at an intermediate stage of merging. Bright knots/clusters are also visible in the region overlapping the merging galaxies; four of these knots appear bluer than the underlying galaxies and have colors consistent with young (<~ 10^7 yr) star clusters. The spatial coincidence of the knots with the molecular gas in NGC 6090 indicates that much of the present star formation is occuring outside of the nuclear region of merging galaxies, consistent with recent studies of other double nuclei luminous infrared galaxies.Comment: LaTex, 18 pages with 4 jpg figures, ApJ, in pres