scholarly journals A Survey of Radio Recombination Line Emission From the Galactic Center Region

1989 ◽  
Vol 136 ◽  
pp. 159-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. R. Anantharamaiah ◽  
Farhad Yusef-Zadeh

Preliminary results of a systematic survey of H78α, H91α and H98β emission from the inner 40′ of the Galactic center region are presented. This region consists of two prominent continuum features, the Sgr A complex and the radio continuum Arc. In spite of much nonthermal emission arising from these two features, we detected strong line emission with large line widths in more than half of the observed 130 positions. Many of the detections are new, in particular −50 km s−1 ionized gas linking the Sgr A complex and the Arc, β line emission from GO.1+0.08 (the arched filaments), and α line emission from the loop-like structures which surround the non-thermal filaments near G0.2−0.05. We find that much of the detected lines are probably associated with the −50 km s−1 and the 20 km s−1 molecular clouds, known to lie near the Galactic center. We present line profiles of a number of Galactic center sources including Sgr B1, Sgr C and Sgr D.

1989 ◽  
Vol 136 ◽  
pp. 443-451 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Yusef-Zadeh ◽  
Mark Morris ◽  
Ron Ekers

Sub-arcsecond (down to 0.1″ × 0.2″) radio continuum observations using the VLA2 in a number of configurations have been carried out in order to investigate the fine-scale morphological details of the ionized gas and the distribution of spectral index along the triskelian-shaped figure of Sgr A West. In addition to finding a number of isolated patches of thermally-emitting gas and an absorbing feature at λ6cm within three arcminutes of the Galactic center, we have observed:1) radio continuum emission from IRS-7, implying that the stellar wind from this supergiant is externally ionized. An improved position for this object was obtained.2) the circular mini-cavity located along the east-west bar of Sgr A West. This feature has a diameter of 2-arcseconds and may have been created by a spherical wind, the source of which is yet to be identified; the seemingly most plausible candidate, IRS-16, is offset by 3″ from the center of the cavity.Spectral index maps having a resolution of 0.7″ × 0.3″ were made from scaled array observations at λ2cm and 6cm. They show that the eastern arm has a spectral index near −0.1, while the northern arm and the bar have positive spectral indices, indicating perhaps a partial opacity effect. The spectral index of IRS-7 is +0.6, consistent with that expected from a completely ionized stellar wind.


1989 ◽  
Vol 136 ◽  
pp. 275-280 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Yusef-Zadeh ◽  
Mark Morris ◽  
J. H. van Gorkom

The H92αrecombination line was observed at 8 GHz toward the “pistol-shaped” HII region G0.15–0.05 using the VLA2in its most compact configuration. The line profiles of individual components of this source peak at VLSR=123 km/s and have total line widths of ~90 km/s. The kinematical structure of the “pistol” is unusual in that much of the neutral and ionized gas in this region is seen predominantly at either +50 or +20 km/s. The line width and radial velocity are the largest found in the Galactic center region with the exception of Sgr A West. We also found gas at VLSR=140 km/s associated with G0.18–0.04: the sickle-shaped feature which surrounds G0.15–0.05. The kinematic properties of G0.18–0.04 and G0.15–0.05 suggest that these two features are components of a single, but complex thermal system interacting with the nonthermal filaments of the radio Arc. In this regard, the width of the broad recombination line from G0.15–0.05, and its large radial velocity, might be explained as the interaction of streaming relativistic particles in the nonthermal filaments of the Arc impacting upon ambient gas clouds lying in the Galactic plane.


2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (S303) ◽  
pp. 129-131
Author(s):  
Halca Nagoshi ◽  
Kenta Fujisawa ◽  
Yuzo Kubose

AbstractRadio continuum (cont) and radio recombination line (RRL) observations with the Yamaguchi 32-m radio telescope toward the lower part of the Galactic center lobe (GCL) in the Galactic center region are presented. While two ridges of the GCL were seen in both continuum and RRL images, the spatial coverage of the ridges of the continuum and RRL is not coincident. We distinguish the continuum emission of the GCL into thermal and non-thermal emission by assuming an electron temperature of the ionized gas of 4370 K, estimated based on the line width (14.1 km s−1). The thermal emission was found to be located inside and surrounded by the non-thermal emission.


1980 ◽  
Vol 87 ◽  
pp. 209-211
Author(s):  
Yasuo Fukui

Molecular hydrogen of ≳108M⊙ exists in the galactic center region, as has been revealed by recent observations of molecular emission lines (see e.g. Oort 1977). In the inner region of most of the dominant emission features concentrate at and 0 km s-1 ≲v ≲100 km s-1 extremely unevenly with respect to the galactic center (see Fig. 1). As a model of the molecular complex we propose a fan of 360-pc radius whose pivot is at the center. The vertical angle of the fan is about 50° and the central line of the fan makes an angle of about 60° to the line of sight. Molecules in the fan are flowing out radially from the center with a velocity of 110-140 km s-1. The ℓ-v pattern of the fan model is superposed on the CO map in Fig. 1. The model can explain the whole structure of the molecular complex as well as several fine details such as asymmetry in emission line profiles (Fukui et al. 1979). As for Sgr A and Sgr B2, numerical calculations of molecular line profiles have been made by using the large velocity gradient approximation. The calculations show that the broad and asymmetric line profiles in the complex are well reproduced by the fan model. Further, an isotope effect on line shape is predicted, which will be useful as an observational check of the fan model. Additionally, the carbon isotope ratio 12C/13C in HCN and CO was estimated to be 10-20 in the Sgr A +50-km s-1 cloud.


2020 ◽  
Vol 72 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Masato Tsuboi ◽  
Yoshimi Kitamura ◽  
Takahiro Tsutsumi ◽  
Ryosuke Miyawaki ◽  
Makoto Miyoshi ◽  
...  

Abstract The Galactic Center IRS 13E cluster is a very intriguing infrared object located at ${\sim } 0.13$ pc from Sagittarius A$^\ast$ (Sgr A$^\ast$) in projection distance. There are arguments both for and against the hypothesis that a dark mass like an intermediate mass black hole (IMBH) exists in the cluster. We recently detected the rotating ionized gas ring around IRS 13E3, which belongs to the cluster, in the H30$\alpha$ recombination line using ALMA. The enclosed mass is derived to be $M_{\mathrm{encl.}}\simeq 2\times 10^{4}\, M_\odot$, which agrees with an IMBH and is barely less than the astrometric upper limit mass of an IMBH around Sgr A$^\ast$. Because the limit mass depends on the true three-dimensional (3D) distance from Sgr A$^\ast$, it is very important to determine it observationally. However, the 3D distance is indefinite because it is hard to determine the line-of-sight (LOS) distance by usual methods. We attempt here to estimate the LOS distance from spectroscopic information. The CH$_3$OH molecule is easily destroyed by the cosmic rays around Sgr A$^{\ast }$. However, we detected a highly excited CH$_3$OH emission line in the ionized gas stream associated with IRS 13E3. This indicates that IRS 13E3 is located at $r\gtrsim 0.4$ pc from Sgr A$^{\ast }$.


1989 ◽  
Vol 136 ◽  
pp. 145-149
Author(s):  
H. Okuda ◽  
H. Shibai ◽  
T. Nakagawa ◽  
T. Matsuhara ◽  
T. Maihara ◽  
...  

Spectroscopic observations of CII line emission at 157.7 μm have been made of the Galactic Center region with a Fabry-Perot spectrometer onboard a balloon telescope. Strong emission has been detected ubiquitously in a wide area extending between ± 0.7° in galactic longitude. A ring-like structure is suggested from the double lobed distribution of the emission around the Galactic Center.


1980 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 177-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. M. van der Hulst

During the last few years detailed and sensitive observations of the radio emission from the nuclei of many normal spiral galaxies has become available. Observations from the Very Large Array (VLA) of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO1), in particular, enable us to distinguish details on a scale of ≤100 pc for galaxies at distances less than 21 Mpc. The best studied nucleus, however, still is the center of our own Galaxy (see Oort 1977 and references therein). Its radio structure is complex. It consists of an extended non-thermal component 200 × 70 pc in size, with embedded therein several giant HII regions and the central source Sgr A (˜9 pc in size). Sgr A itself consists of a thermal source, Sgr A West, located at the center of the Galaxy, and a weaker, non-thermal source, Sgr A East. Sgr A West moreover contains a weak, extremely compact (≤10 AU) source. The radio morphology of several other galactic nuclei is quite similar to that of the Galactic Center, as will be discussed in section 2. Recent reviews of the radio properties of the nuclei of normal galaxies have been given by Ekers (1978a,b) and De Bruyn (1978). The latter author, however, concentrates on galaxies with either active nuclei or an unusual radio morphology. In this paper I will describe recent results from the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT, Hummel 1979), the NRAO 3-element interferometer (Carlson, 1977; Condon and Dressel 1978), and the VLA (Heckman et al., 1979; Van der Hulst et al., 1979). I will discuss the nuclear radio morphology in section 2, the luminosities in section 3, and the spectra in section 4. In section 5 I will briefly comment upon the possible implications for the physical processes in the nuclei that are responsible for the radio emission.


Author(s):  
Masato Tsuboi ◽  
Yoshimi Kitamura ◽  
Takahiro Tsutsumi ◽  
Ryosuke Miyawaki ◽  
Makoto Miyoshi ◽  
...  

Abstract We detected a compact ionized gas associated physically with IRS13E3, an intermediate mass black hole (IMBH) candidate in the Galactic center, in the continuum emission at 232 GHz and H30α recombination line using ALMA Cy.5 observation (2017.1.00503.S, P.I. M.Tsuboi). The continuum emission image shows that IRS13E3 is surrounded by an oval-like structure. The angular size is 0${^{\prime\prime}_{.}}$093 ± 0${^{\prime\prime}_{.}}$006 × 0${^{\prime\prime}_{.}}$061 ± 0${^{\prime\prime}_{.}}$004 (1.14 × 1016 cm × 0.74 × 1016 cm). The structure is also identified in the H30α recombination line. This is seen as an inclined linear feature in the position–velocity diagram, which is usually a defining characteristic of a rotating gas ring around a large mass. The gas ring has a rotating velocity of Vrot ≃ 230 km s−1 and an orbit radius of r ≃ 6 × 1015 cm. From these orbit parameters, the enclosed mass is estimated to be $M_{\mathrm{IMBH}}\simeq 2.4\times 10^{4}\, M_{\odot }$. The mass is within the astrometric upper limit mass of the object adjacent to Sgr A*. Considering IRS13E3 has an X-ray counterpart, the large enclosed mass would be supporting evidence that IRS13E3 is an IMBH. Even if a dense cluster corresponds to IRS13E3, the cluster would collapse into an IMBH within τ < 107 yr due to the very high mass density of $\rho \gtrsim 8\times 10^{11}\, M_{\odot }\:$pc−3. Because the orbital period is estimated to be as short as T = 2πr/Vrot ∼ 50–100 yr, the morphology of the observed ionized gas ring is expected to be changed in the next several decades. The mean electron temperature and density of the ionized gas are $\bar{T}_{\mathrm{e}}=6800\pm 700\:$K and $\bar{n}_{\mathrm{e}}=6\times 10^{5}\:$cm−3, respectively. Then the mass of the ionized gas is estimated to be $M_{\mathrm{gas}}=4\times 10^{-4}\, M_{\odot }$.


2015 ◽  
Vol 801 (2) ◽  
pp. L26 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Yusef-Zadeh ◽  
D. A. Roberts ◽  
M. Wardle ◽  
W. Cotton ◽  
R. Schödel ◽  
...  

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