52 research outputs found
CO Tully–Fisher relation of star-forming galaxies at = 0.05–0.3
The Tully–Fisher relation (TFR) is an empirical relation between galaxy luminosity and rotation velocity. We present here the first TFR of galaxies beyond the local Universe that uses carbon monoxide (CO) as the kinematic tracer. Our final sample includes 25 isolated, non-interacting star-forming galaxies with double-horned or boxy CO integrated line profiles located at redshifts z ≤ 0.3, drawn from a larger ensemble of 67 detected objects. The best reverse Ks-band, stellar mass and baryonic mass CO TFRs are, respectively, MKs = (−8.4 ± 2.9)[log ( W50/km s−1 sin i ) − 2.5] + (−23.5 ± 0.5), log (M/M) = (5.2 ± 3.0)[log ( W50/km s−1 sin i ) − 2.5] + (10.1 ± 0.5) and log (Mb/M) = (4.9 ± 2.8)[log ( W50/km s−1 sin i ) − 2.5] + (10.2 ± 0.5), where MKs is the total absolute Ks-band magnitude of the objects, M and Mb their total stellar and baryonic masses, and W50 the width of their line profile at 50 per cent of the maximum. Dividing the sample into different redshift bins and comparing to the TFRs of a sample of local (z = 0) star-forming galaxies from the literature, we find no significant evolution in the slopes and zero-points of the TFRs since z ≈ 0.3, this in either luminosity or mass. In agreement with a growing number of CO TFR studies of nearby galaxies, we more generally find that CO is a suitable and attractive alternative to neutral hydrogen (HI). Our work thus provides an important benchmark for future higher redshift CO TFR studies
Down but not out: properties of the molecular gas in the stripped Virgo Cluster early-type galaxy NGC4526
We present ALMA data on the 3mm continuum emission, CO isotopologues (12CO,
13CO, C18O), and high-density molecular tracers (HCN, HCO+, HNC, HNCO, CS, CN,
and CH3OH) in NGC4526. These data enable a detailed study of the physical
properties of the molecular gas in a longtime resident of the Virgo Cluster;
comparisons to more commonly-studied spiral galaxies offer intriguing hints
into the processing of molecular gas in the cluster environment. Many molecular
line ratios in NGC4526, along with our inferred abundances and CO/H2 conversion
factors, are similar to those found in nearby spirals. One striking exception
is the very low observed 12CO/13CO(1-0) line ratio, , which is
unusually low for spirals though not for Virgo Cluster early-type galaxies. We
carry out radiative transfer modeling of the CO isotopologues with some
archival (2-1) data, and we use Bayesian analysis with Markov chain Monte Carlo
techniques to infer the physical properties of the CO-emitting gas. We find
surprisingly low [12CO/13CO] abundance ratios of and
at radii of 0.4 kpc and 1 kpc. The emission from the
high-density tracers HCN, HCO+, HNC, CS and CN is also relatively bright, and
CN is unusually optically thick in the inner parts of NGC4526. These features
hint that processing in the cluster environment may have removed much of the
galaxy's relatively diffuse, optically thinner molecular gas along with its
atomic gas. Angular momentum transfer to the surrounding intracluster medium
may also have caused contraction of the disk, magnifying radial gradients such
as we find in [13CO/C18O]. More detailed chemical evolution modeling would be
interesting in order to explore whether the unusual [12CO/13CO] abundance ratio
is entirely an environmental effect or whether it also reflects the relatively
old stellar population in this early-type galaxy.Comment: Submitted to ApJ. Comments are welcome
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