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Register a new userSpectral imaging of the Central Molecular Zone in multiple 3-mm molecular lines
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We have mapped 20 molecular lines in the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) around the Galactic Centre, emitting from 85.3 to 93.3 GHz. This work used the 22-m Mopra radio telescope in Australia, equipped with the 8-GHz bandwidth UNSW-MOPS digital filter bank, obtaining sim 2 km/s spectral and sim 40 arcsec spatial resolution. The lines measured include emission from the c-C3H2, CH3CCH, HOCO+, SO, H13CN, H13CO+, SO, H13NC, C2H, HNCO, HCN, HCO+, HNC, HC3N, 13CS and N2H+ molecules. The area covered is Galactic longitude -0.7 to 1.8 deg. and latitude -0.3 to 0.2 deg., including the bright dust cores around Sgr A, Sgr B2, Sgr C and G1.6-0.025. We present images from this study and conduct a principal component analysis on the integrated emission from the brightest 8 lines. This is dominated by the first component, showing that the large-scale distribution of all molecules are very similar. We examine the line ratios and optical depths in selected apertures around the bright dust cores, as well as for the complete mapped region of the CMZ. We highlight the behaviour of the bright HCN, HNC and HCO+ line emission, together with that from the 13C isotopologues of these species, and compare the behaviour with that found in extra-galactic sources where the emission is unresolved spatially. We also find that the isotopologue line ratios (e.g. HCO+/H13CO+) rise significantly with increasing red-shifted velocity in some locations. Line luminosities are also calculated and compared to that of CO, as well as to line luminosities determined for external galaxies.
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We have imaged 24 spectral lines in the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) around the Galactic Centre, in the range 42 to 50 GHz. The lines include emission from the CS, CH3OH, HC3N, SiO, HNCO, HOCO+, NH2CHO, OCS, HCS+, CCS, C34S, 13CS, 29SiO, H13CCCN, HCC13CN and HC5}N molecules, and three hydrogen recombination lines. The area covered is Galactic longitude -0.7 to 1.8 deg. and latitude -0.3 to 0.2 deg., including the bright cores around Sgr A, SgrB2, SgrC and G1.6-0.025. This work used the 22-m Mopra radio telescope in Australia, obtaining ~ 1.8 km/s spectral and ~ 65 arcsec spatial resolution. We present peak images from this study and conduct a principal component analysis on the integrated emission from the brightest 10 lines, to study similarities and differences in the line distribution. We examine the integrated line intensities and line ratios in selected apertures around the bright cores, as well as for the complete mapped region of the CMZ. We compare these 7-mm lines to the corresponding lines in the 3-mm band, for five molecules, to study the excitation. There is a variation in 3-mm to 7-mm line ratio across the CMZ, with relatively higher ratio in the centre around Sgr B2 and Sgr A. We find that the lines are sub-thermally excited, and from modelling with RADEX find that non-LTE conditions apply, with densities of order 10^4 cm^{-3}.
We have undertaken a spectral-line imaging survey of a 6 x 6 arcmin^2 area around Sgr B2 near the centre of the Galaxy, in the range from 30 to 50 GHz, using the Mopra telescope. The spatial resolution varies from 1.0 to 1.4 arcmin and the spectral resolution from 1.6 to 2.7 km s^-1 over the frequency range. We present velocity-integrated emission images for 47 lines: 38 molecular lines and 9 radio recombination lines. There are significant differences between the distributions of different molecules, in part due to spatial differences in chemical abundance across the complex. For example, HNCO and HOCO^+ are found preferentially in the north cloud, and CH_2NH near Sgr B2 (N). Some of the differences between lines are due to excitation differences, as shown by the 36.17 and 44.07 GHz lines of CH_3OH, which have maser emission, compared to the 48.37 GHz line of CH_3OH. Other major differences in integrated molecular line distribution are due to absorption of the 7-mm free-free continuum emission (spatially traced by the radio recombination line emission) by cool intervening molecular material, causing a central dip in the molecular line distributions. These line distribution similarities and differences have been statistically described by principal component analysis (PCA), and interpreted in terms of simple Sgr B2 physical components of the cooler, lower density envelope, and dense, hot cores Sgr B2 (N), (M) and (S).
Using the Mopra telescope, we have undertaken a 3-mm spectral-line imaging survey of a 5 x 5 arcmin^2 area around Sgr B2. We covered almost the complete spectral the range from 81.7 to 113.5 GHz, with 2.2 MHz wide spectral channels or ~ 6 km/s, and have observed 24 lines, with 0.033 MHz wide, or ~ 0.1 km/s channels. We discuss the distribution of around 50 lines, and present velocity-integrated emission images for 38 of the lines. In addition, we have detected around 120 more lines, mostly concentrated at the particularly spectral line-rich Sgr B2(N) source. There are significant differences in molecular emission, pointing to both abundance and excitation differences throughout the region. Seven distinct spatial locations are identified for the emitting species, including peaks near the prominent star forming cores of Sgr B2(N), (M) and (S) that are seen in IR-to-radio continuum images. The other features are a North Ridge and a North Cloud to the north of the Sgr B2 N-M-S cores, a South-East Peak and a West Ridge. The column density, as evident through C^{18}O, peaks at the Sgr B2(N) and (M) cores, where strong absorption is also evident in otherwise generally bright lines such as HCO^{+}, HCN and HNC. Most molecules trace a ridge line to the west of the Sgr B2 N-M-S cores, wrapping around the cores and extending NE to the North Cloud. This is most clearly evident in the species HC_{3}N, CH_{3}CN, CH_{3}OH and OCS. They are found to be closer in distribution to the cooler dust traced by the sub-mm continuum than either the warmer dust seen in the mid-IR or to the radio continuum. The molecule CN, in contrast, is reasonably uniform over the entire region mapped, aside from strong absorption at the positions of the Sgr B2(N) and (M) cores.
The Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) of our Galaxy hosts an extreme environment analogous to that found in typical starburst galaxies in the distant universe. In order to understand dust properties in environments like our CMZ, we present results from a joint SED analysis of our AzTEC/Large Millimeter Telescope survey, together with existing textit{Herschel} far-IR data on the CMZ, from a wavelength range of $160$ $mu m$ to $1.1$ $mm$. We include global foreground and background contributions in a novel Bayesian modeling that incorporates the Point Spread Functions (PSFs) of the different maps, which enables the full utilization of our high resolution ($10.5$) map at 1.1 $mm$ and reveals unprecedentedly detailed information on the spatial distribution of dusty gas across the CMZ. There is a remarkable trend of increasing dust spectral index $beta$, from $2.0-2.4$, toward dense peaks in the CMZ, indicating a deficiency of large grains or a fundamental change in dust optical properties. This environmental dependence of $beta$ could have a significant impact on the determination of dust temperature in other studies. Depending on how the optical properties of dust deviate from the conventional model, dust temperatures could be underestimated by $10-50%$ in particularly dense regions.
The H3+ molecule has been detected in many lines of sight within the central molecular zone (CMZ) with exceptionally large column densities and unusual excitation properties compared to diffuse local clouds. The detection of the (3,3) metastable level has been suggested to be the signature of warm and diffuse gas in the CMZ. We use the Meudon PDR code to re-examine the relationship between the column density of H3+ and the cosmic-ray ionization rate, $zeta$, up to large values of $zeta$. We study the impact of the various mechanisms that can excite H3+ in its metastable state. We produce grids of PDR models exploring different parameters ($zeta$, size of clouds, metallicity) and infer the physical conditions that best match the observations toward ten lines of sight in the CMZ. For one of them, Herschel observations of HF, OH+, H2O+, and H3O+ can be used as additional constraints. We check that the results found for H3+ also account for the observations of these molecules. We find that the linear relationship between N(H3+) and $zeta$ only holds up to a certain value of the cosmic-ray ionization rate, which depends on the proton density. A value $zeta sim 1 - 11 times 10^{-14}$ s$^{-1}$ explains both the large observed H3+ column density and its excitation in the metastable level (3,3) in the CMZ. It also reproduces N(OH+), N(H2O+) and N(H3O+) detected toward Sgr B2(N). We confirm that the CMZ probed by H3+ is diffuse, nH $lesssim$ 100 cm-3 and warm, T $sim$ 212-505 K. This warm medium is due to cosmic-ray heating. We also find that the diffuse component probed by H3+ must fill a large fraction of the CMZ. Finally, we suggest the warm gas in the CMZ enables efficient H2 formation via chemisorption sites as in PDRs. This contributes to enhance the abundance of H3+ in this high cosmic-ray flux environment.
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