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Register a new userSub-millimeter Observations of Giant Molecular Clouds in the Large Magellanic Cloud: Temperature and Density as Determined from J=3-2 and J=1-0 transitions of CO
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Tetsuhiro Minamidani
Publication date
2007
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
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We have carried out sub-mm 12CO(J=3-2) observations of 6 giant molecular clouds (GMCs) in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) with the ASTE 10m sub-mm telescope at a spatial resolution of 5 pc and very high sensitivity. We have identified 32 molecular clumps in the GMCs and revealed significant details of the warm and dense molecular gas with n(H2) $sim$ 10$^{3-5}$ cm$^{-3}$ and Tkin $sim$ 60 K. These data are combined with 12CO(J=1-0) and 13CO(J=1-0) results and compared with LVG calculations. We found that the ratio of 12CO(J=3-2) to 12CO(J=1-0) emission is sensitive to and is well correlated with the local Halpha flux. We interpret that differences of clump propeties represent an evolutionary sequence of GMCs in terms of density increase leading to star formation.Type I and II GMCs (starless GMCs and GMCs with HII regions only, respectively) are at the young phase of star formation where density does not yet become high enough to show active star formation and Type III GMCs (GMCs with HII regions and young star clusters) represents the later phase where the average density is increased and the GMCs are forming massive stars. The high kinetic temperature correlated with Halpha flux suggests that FUV heating is dominant in the molecular gas of the LMC.
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In order to precisely determine temperature and density of molecular gas in the Large Magellanic Cloud, we made observations of optically thin $^{13}$CO($J=3-2$) transition by using the ASTE 10m telescope toward 9 peaks where $^{12}$CO($J=3-2$) 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 $^{13}$CO($J=3-2$) emission toward all the peaks and found that their intensities are 3 -- 12 times lower than those of $^{12}$CO($J=3-2$). We determined the intensity ratios of $^{12}$CO($J=3-2$) to $^{13}$CO($J=3-2$), $R^{12/13}_{3-2}$, and $^{13}$CO($J=3-2$) to $^{13}$CO($J=1-0$), $R^{13}_{3-2/1-0}$, 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 $Tmathrm{_{kin}}$ = 15 -- 200 K, and molecular hydrogen gas density $n(mathrm{H_2})$ = 8$times 10^2$ -- 7$times 10^3$ cm$^{-3}$. 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 $R^{13}_{3-2/1-0}$ and kinetic temperature of the clumps are well correlated with H$alpha$ flux, suggesting that the heating of molecular gas $n(mathrm{H_2})$ = $10^3$ -- $10^4$ cm$^{-3}$ can be explained by stellar FUV photons.
We present 12CO J=1-0 observations from the Caltech Millimeter Array of a field in the nearby spiral galaxy M81. We detect emission from three features that are the size of large giant molecular clouds (GMCs) in the Milky Way Galaxy and M31, but are larger than any known in M33 or the SMC. The M81 clouds have diameters approximately 100 pc and molecular masses 3 * 10^5 solar masses. These are the first GMCs to be detected in such an early type galaxy (Sab) or in a normal galaxy outside the Local Group. The clouds we have detected do not obey the size-linewidth relation obeyed by GMCs in our Galaxy and in M33, and some of them may be GMC complexes that contain several small GMCs. One of these does show signs of sub-structure, and is shaped like a ring section with three separate peaks. At the center of this ring section lies a giant HII region, which may be associated with the molecular clouds.
We observed a 10x20 pc region of the molecular cloud M17 in the 12CO and 13CO J=3-2 and J=2-1 transitions to determine their global behavior and to assess the reliability of using ratios of CO line intensities integrated over an entire cloud to determine the physical conditions within the cloud. Both the 12CO/13CO J=2-1 and J=3-2 line ratios correlate with the 13CO integrated intensity, with smaller line ratios observed at locations with large integrated intensities. This correlation is likely due to variations in the column density from one position to another within M17. The 12CO and 13CO (J=3-2/J=2-1) line ratios show no significant variation from place to place within M17, even on the peak of the photon-dominated region. A Large Velocity Gradient analysis of globally averaged line ratios gives results in reasonable agreement with the results obtained for individual lines-of-sight through the cloud, which suggests that the typical physical conditions in a molecular cloud can be determined using CO line ratios integrated over the entire cloud. There appears to be a clear trend of increasing 12CO/13CO J=2-1 and J=3-2 line ratios as one moves from Galactic molecular cloud cores to entire Galactic molecular clouds to normal galaxies. The most likely explanation of the high line ratios for normal galaxies is a significant contribution to the CO emission by low column density material, such as diffuse molecular clouds or the outer envelopes of giant molecular clouds.
After 30 Doradus, N11 is the second largest and brightest nebula in the LMC. This large nebula has several OB associations with bright nebulae at its surroundings. N11 was previously mapped at the lowest rotational transitions of $^{12}$CO (J=1--0 and 2--1), and in some particular regions pointings of the $^{13}$CO J=1--0 and 2--1 lines were also performed. Using ASTE we mapped the whole extension of the N11 nebula in the $^{12}$CO J=3--2 line, and three sub-regions in the $^{13}$CO J=3--2 line. The regions mapped in the $^{13}$CO J=3--2 were selected based on that they may be exposed to the radiation at different ways: a region lying over the nebula related to the OB association LH10 (N11B), another one that it is associated with the southern part of the nebula related to the OB association LH13 (N11D), and finally a farther area at the southwest without any embedded OB association (N11I). We found that the morphology of the molecular clouds lying in each region shows some signatures that could be explained by the expansion of the nebulae and the action of the radiation. Fragmentation generated in a molecular shell due to the expansion of the N11 nebula is suggested. The integrated line ratios $^{12}$CO/$^{13}$CO show evidences of selective photodissociation of the $^{13}$CO, and probably other mechanisms such as chemical fractionation. The CO contribution to the continuum at 870 $mu$m was directly derived. The distribution of the integrated line ratios $^{12}$CO J=3--2/2--1 show hints of stellar feedback in N11B and N11D. The ratio between the virial and LTE mass (M$_{rm vir}$/M$_{rm LTE}$) is higher than unity in all analyzed molecular clumps, which suggests that the clumps are not gravitationally bounded and may be supported by external pressure. A non-LTE analysis suggests that we are mapping gas with densities about a few 10$^{3}$ cm$^{-3}$.
We present results of wide-field $^{12}$CO ($J = 2 - 1$) and $^{13}$CO ($J = 2 - 1$) observations toward the Aquila Rift and Serpens molecular cloud complexes (25$^circ < l < 33^circ$ and $1^circ < b < 6^circ$) at an angular resolution of 3$$.4 ($approx$ 0.25 pc) and at a velocity resolution of 0.079 km s$^{-1}$ with the velocity coverage of $-5$ km s$^{-1} < V_{rm LSR} <$ 35 km s$^{-1}$. We found that the $^{13}$CO emission better traces the structures seen in the extinction map and derived the $X_{rm ^{13}CO}$-factor of this region. Applying texttt{SCIMES} to the $^{13}$CO data cube, we identified 61 clouds and derived their masses, radii, and line widths. The line-width-radius relation of the identified clouds basically follows those of nearby molecular clouds. Majority of the identified clouds are close to virial equilibrium although the dispersion is large. By inspecting the $^{12}$CO channel maps by eye, we found several arcs which are spatially extended to 0.2 $-$ 3 degree in length. In the longitude-velocity diagrams of $^{12}$CO, we also found the two spatially-extended components which appear to converge toward Serpens South and W40 region. The existence of two components with different velocities and arcs suggests that large-scale expanding bubbles and/or flows play a role in the formation and evolution of the Serpens South and W40 cloud.
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