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Register a new userRevealing The CO X-factor In Dark Molecular Gas through Sensitive ALMA Absorption Observations
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Carbon-bearing molecules, particularly CO, have been widely used as tracers of molecular gas in the interstellar medium (ISM). In this work, we aim to study the properties of molecules in diffuse, cold environments, where CO tends to be under-abundant and/or sub-thermally excited. We performed one of the most sensitive (down to $mathrm{tau_{rms}^{CO} sim 0.002}$ and $mathrm{tau_{rms}^{HCO^+} sim 0.0008}$) sub-millimeter molecular absorption line observations towards 13 continuum sources with the ALMA. CO absorption was detected in diffuse ISM down to $mathrm{A_v< 0.32,mag}$ and hcop was down to $mathrm{A_v < 0.2,mag}$, where atomic gas and dark molecular gas (DMG) starts to dominate. Multiple transitions measured in absorption toward 3C454.3 allow for a direct determination of excitation temperatures $mathrm{T_{ex}}$ of 4.1,K and 2.7,K, for CO and for hcop, respectively, which are close to the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and provide explanation for their being undercounted in emission surveys. A stronger linear correlation was found between $mathrm{N_{HCO^+}}$ and $mathrm{N_{H_2}}$ (Pearson correlation coefficient P $sim$ 0.93) than that of $mathrm{N_{CO}}$ and $mathrm{N_{H_2}}$ (P $sim$ 0.33), suggesting hcop being a better tracer of H$_2$ than CO in diffuse gas. The derived CO-to-h2 conversion factor (the CO X-factor) of (14 $pm$ 3) $times$ 10$^{20}$ cm$^{-2}$ (K kms)$^{-1}$ is approximately 6 times larger than the average value found in the Milky Way.
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We investigate the molecular gas in, and star-formation properties of, the host galaxy (CGCG 137-068) of a mysterious transient, AT2018cow, at kpc and larger scales, using archival band-3 data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). AT2018cow is the nearest Fast-Evolving Luminous Transient (FELT), and this is the very first study unveiling molecular-gas properties of FELTs. The achieved rms and beam size are 0.21 mJy beam$^{-1}$ at a velocity resolution of $40$ km s$^{-1}$ and $3.66times2.71$ ($1.1~{rm kpc} times 0.8~{rm kpc}$), respectively. CO($J$=1-0) emission is successfully detected. The total molecular gas mass inferred from the CO data is $(1.85pm0.04)times10^8$ M$_odot$ with the Milky Way CO-to-H$_2$ conversion factor. The H$_2$ column density at the AT2018cow site is estimated to be $8.6times10^{20}$ cm$^{-2}$. The ALMA data reveal that (1) CGCG 137-068 is a normal star-forming (SF) dwarf galaxy in terms of its molecular gas and star-formation properties and (2) AT2018cow is located between a CO peak and a blue star cluster. These properties suggest on-going star formation and favor the explosion of a massive star as the progenitor of AT2018cow. We also find that CGCG 137-068 has a solar or super-solar metallicity. If the metallicity of the other FELT hosts is not higher than average, then some property of SF dwarf galaxies other than metallicity may be related to FELTs.
Determining the efficiency with which gas is converted into stars in galaxies requires an accurate determination of the total reservoir of molecular gas mass. However, despite being the most abundant molecule in the Universe, H$_2$ is challenging to detect through direct observations and indirect methods have to be used to estimate the total molecular gas reservoir. These are often based on scaling relations from tracers such as CO or dust, and are generally calibrated in the Milky Way. Yet, evidence that these scaling relations are environmentally dependent is growing. In particular, the commonly used CO-to-H$_2$ conversion factor (X$_{rm CO}$) is expected to be higher in metal-poor and/or strongly UV-irradiated environments. We use new SOFIA/FIFI-LS observations of far-infrared fine structure lines from the ionised and neutral gas and the Meudon photodissociation region model to constrain the physical properties and the structure of the gas in the massive star-forming region of 30 Doradus in the Large Magellanic Cloud, and determine the spatially resolved distribution of the total reservoir of molecular gas in the proximity of the young massive cluster R136. We compare this value with the molecular gas mass inferred from ground-based CO observations and dust-based estimates to quantify the impact of this extreme environment on commonly used tracers of the molecular gas. We find that the strong radiation field combined with the half-solar metallicity of the surrounding gas are responsible for a large reservoir of CO-dark molecular gas, leaving a large fraction of the total H$_2$ gas (> 75%) undetected when adopting a standard X$_{rm CO}$ factor in this massive star-forming region.
Absorption-selected galaxies offer an effective way to study low-mass galaxies at high redshift. However, the physical properties of the underlying galaxy population remains uncertain. In particular, the multiphase circum-galactic medium is thought to hold key information on gas flows into and out of galaxies that are vital for galaxy evolution models. Here we present ALMA observations of CO molecular gas in host galaxies of H_2-bearing absorbers. In our sample of six absorbers we detect molecular gas-rich galaxies in five absorber fields although we did not target high-metallicity (>50 per cent solar) systems for which previous studies reported the highest detection rate. Surprisingly, we find that the majority of the absorbers are associated with multiple galaxies rather than single haloes. Together with the large impact parameters these results suggest that the H_2-bearing gas seen in absorption is not part of an extended disk, but resides in dense gas pockets in the circum-galactic and intra-group medium.
We present the results of CO interferometric observations of the southern elliptical galaxy NGC3557 with ALMA. We have detected both the CO(1-0) emission line and a relatively strong continuum at 3mm. The continuum shows a flat-spectrum central unresolved source (at our angular resolution of 0.7arcsec) and two jets, associated with the larger scale emission observed at lower frequencies. The molecular gas in NGC3557 appears to be concentrated within 250 pc of the center, and shows evidence of organized rotation along the same axis as the stellar component and the symmetry axis of the nuclear dust absorption reported in the literature. We obtained M$_{H_2}$=(9.0$pm$2.0)x10$^7$ M$_odot$ of molecular gas, which has an average CO(2-1) to CO(1-0) line ratio of 0.7, which is relatively high when compared with the values reported in the literature for bona-fide ellipticals observed with single-dish telescopes. NGC3557 shows further a high excitation peak (i.e., CO(2-1)/CO(1-0) ~ 1.1$pm$0.3 offset 0.7 arcsec from the center, which appears to be associated with a region of higher velocity dispersion that does not share the overall rotation pattern of the molecular gas, but aligned with the radio jet. The molecular gas disk in this object appears to be stable to local gravitational instabilities.
Active galactic nuclei play a crucial role in the accretion and ejection of gas in galaxies. Although their outflows are well studied, finding direct evidence of accretion has proved very difficult and has so far been done for very few sources. A promising way to study the significance of cold accretion is by observing the absorption of an active galactic nucleuss extremely bright radio emission by the cold gas lying along the line-of-sight. As such, we present ALMA CO(1-0) and CO(2-1) observations of the Hydra-A brightest cluster galaxy (z=0.054) which reveal the existence of cold, molecular gas clouds along the line-of-sight to the galaxys extremely bright and compact mm-continuum source. They have apparent motions relative to the central supermassive black hole of between -43 and -4 km s$^{-1}$ and are most likely moving along stable, low ellipticity orbits. The identified clouds form part of a $sim$$10^{9}$ $text{M}_{odot}$, approximately edge-on disc of cold molecular gas. With peak CO(2-1) optical depths of $tau$=0.88 $^{+0.06}_{-0.06}$, they include the narrowest and by far the deepest absorption of this type which has been observed to date in a brightest cluster galaxy. By comparing the relative strengths of the lines for the most strongly absorbing region, we are able to estimate a gas temperature of $42^{+25}_{-11}$ K and line-of-sight column densities of $N_{CO}=2^{+3}_{-1}times 10 ^{17} cm^{-2}$ and $N_{ H_{2} }=7^{+10}_{-4}times 10 ^{20} cm^{-2}$.
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