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Register a new userSystematic Variations of CO J=2-1/1-0 Ratio in The Barred Spiral Galaxy M83
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We present spatial variations of the CO J=2-1/1-0 line ratio in M83 using Total Power array data from ALMA. While the intensities of these two lines correlate tightly, the ratio varies over the disk, with a disk average ratio of 0.69, and shows the galactic center and a two-arm spiral pattern. It is high (>0.7) in regions of high molecular gas surface density, but ranges from low to high ratios in regions of low surface density. The ratio correlates well with the spatial distributions and intensities of FUV and IR emissions, with FUV being the best correlated. It also correlates better with the ratio of IR intensities (70/350mic), a proxy for dust temperature, than with the IR intensities. Taken together, these results suggest either a direct or indirect link between the dust heating by the interstellar radiation field and the condition of GMCs, even though no efficient mechanism is known for a thermal coupling of dust and bulk gas in GMCs.
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We present results of the $^{12}$CO (1--0) mosaic observations of the nearby barred-spiral galaxy M83 obtained with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). The total flux is recovered by combining the ALMA data with single-dish data obtained using the Nobeyama 45-m telescope. The combined map covers a $sim$13 kpc$^{2}$ field that includes the galactic center, eastern bar, and spiral arm with a resolution of timeform{2.03} $times$ timeform{1.1} ($sim$45 pc $times$ $sim$25 pc). With a resolution comparable to typical sizes of giant molecular clouds (GMCs), the CO distribution in the bar and arm is resolved into many clumpy peaks that form ridge-like structures. Remarkably, in the eastern arm, the CO peaks form two arc-shaped ridges that run along the arm and exhibit a distinct difference in the activity of star formation: the one on the leading side has numerous HII regions associated with it, whereas the other one on the trailing side has only a few. To see whether GMCs form stars with uniform star formation efficiency (SFE) per free-fall time (SFEff), GMCs are identified from the data cube and then cross-matched with the catalog of HII regions to estimate the star formation rate for each of them. 179 GMCs with a median mass of 1.6 $times$ 10$^{6}$ $M_{odot}$ are identified. The mass-weighted average SFEff of the GMCs is $sim$9.4 $times$ 10$^{-3}$, which is in agreement with models of turbulence regulated star formation. Meanwhile, we find that SFEff is not universal within the mapped region. In particular, one of the arm ridges shows a high SFEff with a mass-weighted value of $sim$2.7 $times$ 10$^{-2}$, which is higher by more than a factor of 5 compared to the inter-arm regions. This large regional variation in SFEff favors the recent interpretation that GMCs do not form stars at a constant rate within their lifetime.
While molecular gas mass is usually derived from $^{12}$CO($J$=1-0) - the most fundamental line to explore molecular gas - it is often derived from $^{12}$CO($J$=2-1) assuming a constant $^{12}$CO($J$=2-1)/$^{12}$CO($J$=1-0) line ratio ($R_{2/1}$). We present variations of $R_{2/1}$ and effects of the assumption that $R_{2/1}$ is a constant in 24 nearby galaxies using $^{12}$CO data obtained with the Nobeyama 45-m radio telescope and IRAM 30-m telescope. The median of $R_{2/1}$ for all galaxies is 0.61, and the weighted mean of $R_{2/1}$ by $^{12}$CO($J$=1-0) integrated-intensity is 0.66 with a standard deviation of 0.19. The radial variation of $R_{2/1}$ shows that it is high (~0.8) in the inner ~1 kpc while its median in disks is nearly constant at 0.60 when all galaxies are compiled. In the case that the constant $R_{2/1}$ of 0.7 is adopted, we found that the total molecular gas mass derived from $^{12}$CO($J$=2-1) is underestimated/overestimated by ~20%, and at most by 35%. The scatter of a molecular gas surface density within each galaxy becomes larger by ~30%, and at most by 120%. Indices of the spatially resolved Kennicutt-Schmidt relation by $^{12}$CO($J$=2-1) are underestimated by 10-20%, at most 39% in 17 out of 24 galaxies. $R_{2/1}$ has good positive correlations with star-formation rate and infrared color, and a negative correlation with molecular gas depletion time. There is a clear tendency of increasing $R_{2/1}$ with increasing kinetic temperature ($T_{rm kin}$). Further, we found that not only $T_{rm kin}$ but also pressure of molecular gas is important to understand variations of $R_{2/1}$. Special considerations should be made when discussing molecular gas mass and molecular gas properties inferred from $^{12}$CO($J$=2-1) instead of $^{12}$CO($J$=1-0).
The extended ultraviolet (XUV) disk galaxies are one of the most interesting objects studied in the last few years. The UV emission, revealed by GALEX, extends well beyond the optical disk, after the drop of H$alpha$ emission, the usual tracer of star formation. This shows that sporadic star formation can occur in a large fraction of the HI disk, at radii up to 3 or 4 times the optical radius. In most galaxies, these regions are poor in stars and dominated by under-recycled gas, therefore bear some similarity to early stages of spiral galaxies and high-redshift galaxies. One remarkable example is M83, a nearby galaxy with an extended UV disk reaching 2 times the optical radius. It offers the opportunity to search for the molecular gas and characterise the star formation in outer disk regions, traced by the UV emission. We obtained CO(2-1) observations with ALMA of a small region in a 1.5$times$ 3 rectangle located at $r_{gal}=7.85$ over a bright UV region of M83. There is no CO detection, in spite of the abundance of HI gas, and the presence of young stars traced by their HII regions. Our spatial resolution (17pc x 13pc) was perfectly fitted to detect Giant Molecular Clouds (GMC), but none were detected. The corresponding upper limits occur in an SFR region of the Kennicutt-Schmidt diagram where dense molecular clouds are expected. Stacking our data over HI-rich regions, using the observed HI velocity, we obtain a tentative detection, corresponding to an H$_2$-to-HI mass ratio of $<$ 3 $times$ 10$^{-2}$. A possible explanation is that the expected molecular clouds are CO-dark, because of the strong UV radiation field. The latter preferentially dissociates CO with respect to H$_2$, due to the small size of the star forming clumps in the outer regions of galaxies.
Both the CO(2-1) and CO(1-0) lines are used to trace the mass of molecular gas in galaxies. Translating the molecular gas mass estimates between studies using different lines requires a good understanding of the behaviour of the CO(2-1)-to-CO(1-0) ratio, $R_{21}$. We compare new, high quality CO(1-0) data from the IRAM 30-m EMPIRE survey to the latest available CO(2-1) maps from HERACLES, PHANGS-ALMA, and a new IRAM 30-m M51 Large Program. This allows us to measure $R_{21}$ across the full star-forming disc of nine nearby, massive, star-forming spiral galaxies at 27 (${sim} 1{-}2$ kpc) resolution. We find an average $R_{21} = 0.64pm0.09$ when we take the luminosity-weighted mean of all individual galaxies. This result is consistent with the mean ratio for disc galaxies that we derive from single-pointing measurements in the literature, $R_{rm 21, lit}~=~0.59^{+0.18}_{-0.09}$. The ratio shows weak radial variations compared to the point-to-point scatter in the data. In six out of nine targets the central enhancement in $R_{21}$ with respect to the galaxy-wide mean is of order $sim 10{-}20%$. We estimate an azimuthal scatter of $sim$20% in $R_{21}$ at fixed galactocentric radius but this measurement is limited by our comparatively coarse resolution of 1.5 kpc. We find mild correlations between $R_{21}$ and CO brightness temperature, IR intensity, 70-to-160$ mu$m ratio, and IR-to-CO ratio. All correlations indicate that $R_{21}$ increases with gas surface density, star formation rate surface density, and the interstellar radiation field.
We present 13CO(1-0) and 12CO(2-1) aperture synthesis maps of the barred spiral galaxy NGC1530. The angular resolutions are respectively 3.1 and 1.6. Both transitions show features similar to the 12CO(1-0) map, with a nuclear feature (a ring or unresolved spiral arms) surrounded by two curved arcs. The average line ratios are 12CO(1-0)/13CO(1-0)=9.3 and 12CO(2-1)/12CO(1-0)=0.7. The 12CO/13CO ratio is lower in the circumnuclear ring (6-8) than in the arcs (11-15). We fit the observed line ratios by escape probability models, and deduce that the gas density is probably higher in the nuclear feature (>= 5 10^2 cm^{-3}) than in the arcs (~2 10^2 cm^{-3}), confirming earlier HCN results. The kinetic temperatures are in the range 20-90K, but are weakly constrained by the model. The average filling factor of the 12CO(1-0) emitting gas is low, ~0.15. The cm-radio continuum emission also peaks in the nuclear feature, indicating a higher rate of star formation than in the arcs. We derive values for the CO luminosity to molecular gas mass conversion factor between 0.3 and 2.3 Msolar (K km/s pc^2)^{-1}, significantly lower than the standard Galactic value.
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