scholarly journals HCN 3–2 survey towards a sample of local galaxies

Author(s):  
Fei Li ◽  
Junzhi Wang ◽  
Min Fang ◽  
Qing-Hua Tan ◽  
Zhi-Yu Zhang ◽  
...  

Abstract We present observations of HCN 3–2 emissions towards 37 local galaxies using the 10 m Submillimeter Telescope. HCN 3–2 emission is detected in 23 galaxies. The correlation of infrared luminosity (LIR) and the luminosity of HCN 3–2 line emission measured in our sample is fitted with a slope of 1.11 and correlation coefficient of 0.91, which follows the linear correlation found in other dense gas tracers in the literature. Although molecular gas above a certain volume density threshold (i.e., $n_{\rm H_2}\ge 10^4\:$cm−3) statistically gave a similar relation with infrared luminosity, the large scatter of HCN 3–2/HCN 1–0 ratios for galaxies with different LIR indicates that dense gas masses estimated from the line luminosities of only one transition of dense gas tracers should be treated with caution for individual galaxies.

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (S309) ◽  
pp. 61-64
Author(s):  
C. Kevin Xu

AbstractWe present results of ALMA (Cycle-0) observations of the CO (6-5) line emission and the 435μm continuum of two nearby luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs) NGC 34 (a major merger with an AGN) and NGC 1614 (a minor merger with a circum-nuclear starburst). Using receivers in the highest frequency ALMA band available (Band-9), these observations achieved the best angular resolutions (∼0″.25) for ALMA Cycle-0 observations and resolved for the first time distributions of warm dense molecular gas (n > 105 cm−3, T > 100 K) in LIRGs with spatial resolutions better than 100 pc. Our ALMA data show a very tight correlation between the CO (6-5) line emission and the 435μm dust continuum emission, suggesting the warm dense molecular gas dominates the ISM in the central kpc of LIRGs, and gas heating and dust heating in the warm dense gas cores are strongly coupled. On the other hand, we saw very different spatial distributions and kinematic properties of warm dense gas in the two LIRGs, indicating that physical conditions in the ISM can be very different in different LIRGs.


2019 ◽  
Vol 625 ◽  
pp. A19 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Querejeta ◽  
E. Schinnerer ◽  
A. Schruba ◽  
E. Murphy ◽  
S. Meidt ◽  
...  

It remains unclear what sets the efficiency with which molecular gas transforms into stars. Here we present a new VLA map of the spiral galaxy M 51 in 33 GHz radio continuum, an extinction-free tracer of star formation, at 3″ scales (∼100 pc). We combined this map with interferometric PdBI/NOEMA observations of CO(1–0) and HCN(1–0) at matched resolution for three regions in M 51 (central molecular ring, northern and southern spiral arm segments). While our measurements roughly fall on the well-known correlation between total infrared and HCN luminosity, bridging the gap between Galactic and extragalactic observations, we find systematic offsets from that relation for different dynamical environments probed in M 51; for example, the southern arm segment is more quiescent due to low star formation efficiency (SFE) of the dense gas, despite its high dense gas fraction. Combining our results with measurements from the literature at 100 pc scales, we find that the SFE of the dense gas and the dense gas fraction anti-correlate and correlate, respectively, with the local stellar mass surface density. This is consistent with previous kpc-scale studies. In addition, we find a significant anti-correlation between the SFE and velocity dispersion of the dense gas. Finally, we confirm that a correlation also holds between star formation rate surface density and the dense gas fraction, but it is not stronger than the correlation with dense gas surface density. Our results are hard to reconcile with models relying on a universal gas density threshold for star formation and suggest that turbulence and galactic dynamics play a major role in setting how efficiently dense gas converts into stars.


2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (S292) ◽  
pp. 333-333
Author(s):  
Steven N. Longmore

AbstractRecent surface- and volume-density star formation relations have been proposed which potentially unify our understanding of how gas is converted into stars, from the nearest star forming regions to ultra-luminous infrared galaxies. The inner 500 pc of our Galaxy – the Central Molecular Zone – contains the largest concentration of dense, high-surface density molecular gas in the Milky Way, providing an environment where the validity of these star-formation prescriptions can be tested.We have used recently-available data from HOPS, MALT90 and HiGAL at wavelengths where the Galaxy is transparent, to find the dense, star-forming molecular gas across the Milky Way [Longmore et al. (2012a), Longmore et al. (2012b)]. We use water and methanol maser emission to trace star formation activity within the last 105 years and 30 GHz radio continuum emission from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Satellite (WMAP) to estimate the high-mass star formation rate averaged over the last ∼ 4 × 106 years.We find the dense gas distribution is dominated by the very bright and spatially-extended emission within a few degrees of the Galactic centre [Purcell et al. (2012)]. This region accounts for ∼80% of the NH3(1,1) integrated intensity but only contains 4% of the survey area. However, in stark contrast, the distribution of star formation activity tracers is relatively uniform across the Galaxy.To probe the dense gas vs SFR relationship towards the Galactic centre region more quantitatively, we compared the HiGAL column density maps to the WMAP-derived SFR across the same region. The total mass and SFR derived using these methods agree well with previous values in the literature. The main conclusion from this analysis is that both the column-density threshold and volumetric SF relations over-predict the SFR by an order of magnitude given the reservoir of dense gas available to form stars. The region 1° < l < 3.5°, |b| < 0.5° is particular striking in this regard. It contains ∼107 M⊙ of dense molecular gas — enough to form 1000 Orion-like clusters — but the present-day star formation rate within this gas is only equivalent to that in Orion. This implication of this result is that any universal column/volume density relations must be a necessary but not sufficient condition for SF to occur.Understanding why such large reservoirs of dense gas deviate from commonly assumed SF relations is of fundamental importance and may help in the quest to understand SF in more extreme (dense) environments, like those found in interacting galaxies and at earlier epochs of the Universe.


Author(s):  
Fei Li ◽  
Junzhi Wang ◽  
Feng Gao ◽  
Shu Liu ◽  
Zhi-Yu Zhang ◽  
...  

Abstract We present 3 mm and 2 mm band simultaneously spectroscopic observations of HCN 1-0, HCO+ 1-0, HNC 1-0, and CS 3-2 with the IRAM 30 meter telescope, toward a sample of 70 sources as nearby galaxies with infrared luminosities ranging from several 105L⊙ to more than 1012L⊙. After combining HCN 1-0, HCO+ 1-0 and HNC 1-0 data from literature with our detections, relations between luminosities of dense gas tracers (HCN 1-0, HCO+ 1-0 and HNC 1-0) and infrared luminosities are derived, with tight linear correlations for all tracers. Luminosities of CS 3-2 with only our observations also show tight linear correlation with infrared luminosities. No systematic difference is found for tracing dense molecular gas among these tracers. Star formation efficiencies for dense gas with different tracers also do not show any trend along different infrared luminosities. Our study also shows that HCN/HCO+ line ratio might not be a good indicator to diagnose obscured AGN in galaxies.


2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (S237) ◽  
pp. 331-335
Author(s):  
Yu Gao

AbstractActive star formation (SF) is tightly related to the dense molecular gas in the giant molecular clouds' dense cores. Our HCN (measure of the dense molecular gas) survey in 65 galaxies (including 10 ultraluminous galaxies) reveals a tight linear correlation between HCN and IR (SF rate) luminosities, whereas the correlation between IR and CO (measure of the total molecular gas) luminosities is nonlinear. This suggests that the global SF rate depends more intimately upon the amount of dense molecular gas than the total molecular gas content. This linear relationship extends to both the dense cores in the Galaxy and the hyperluminous extreme starbursts at high-redshift. Therefore, the global SF law in dense gas appears to be linear all the way from dense cores to extreme starbursts, spanning over nine orders of magnitude in IR luminosity.


2018 ◽  
Vol 615 ◽  
pp. A122 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. König ◽  
S. Aalto ◽  
S. Muller ◽  
J. S. Gallagher III ◽  
R. J. Beswick ◽  
...  

Context. Minor mergers are important processes contributing significantly to how galaxies evolve across the age of the Universe. Their impact on the growth of supermassive black holes and star formation is profound – about half of the star formation activity in the local Universe is the result of minor mergers. Aims. The detailed study of dense molecular gas in galaxies provides an important test of the validity of the relation between star formation rate and HCN luminosity on different galactic scales – from whole galaxies to giant molecular clouds in their molecular gas-rich centers. Methods. We use observations of HCN and HCO+ 1−0 with NOEMA and of CO3−2 with the SMA to study the properties of the dense molecular gas in the Medusa merger (NGC 4194) at 1′′ resolution. In particular, we compare the distribution of these dense gas tracers with CO2−1 high-resolution maps in the Medusa merger. To characterize gas properties, we calculate the brightness temperature ratios between the three tracers and use them in conjunction with a non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (non-LTE) radiative line transfer model. Results. The gas represented by HCN and HCO+ 1−0, and CO3−2 does not occupy the same structures as the less dense gas associated with the lower-J CO emission. Interestingly, the only emission from dense gas is detected in a 200 pc region within the “Eye of the Medusa”, an asymmetric 500 pc off-nuclear concentration of molecular gas. Surprisingly, no HCN or HCO+ is detected for the extended starburst of the Medusa merger. Additionally, there are only small amounts of HCN or HCO+ associated with the active galactic nucleus. The CO3−2/2−1 brightness temperature ratio inside “the Eye” is ~2.5 – the highest ratio found so far – implying optically thin CO emission. The CO2−1/HCN 1−0 (~9.8) and CO2−1/HCO+ 1−0 (~7.9) ratios show that the dense gas filling factor must be relatively high in the central region, consistent with the elevated CO3−1/2−1 ratio. Conclusions. The line ratios reveal an extreme, fragmented molecular cloud population inside the Eye with large bulk temperatures (T > 300 K) and high gas densities (n(H2) > 104 cm-3). This is very different from the cool, self-gravitating structures of giant molecular clouds normally found in the disks of galaxies. The Eye of the Medusa is found at an interface between a large-scale minor axis inflow and the central region of the Medusa. Hence, the extreme conditions inside the Eye may be the result of the radiative and mechanical feedback from a deeply embedded, young and massive super star cluster formed due to the gas pile-up at the intersection. Alternatively, shocks from the inflowing gas entering the central region of the Medusa may be strong enough to shock and fragment the gas. For both scenarios, however, it appears that the HCN and HCO+ dense gas tracers are not probing star formation, but instead a post-starburst and/or shocked ISM that is too hot and fragmented to form newstars. Thus, caution is advised in taking the detection of emission from dense gas tracers as evidence of ongoing or imminent star formation.


2017 ◽  
Vol 608 ◽  
pp. A144 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Yang ◽  
A. Omont ◽  
A. Beelen ◽  
Y. Gao ◽  
P. van der Werf ◽  
...  

We present the IRAM-30 m observations of multiple-J CO (Jup mostly from 3 up to 8) and [C I](3P2 → 3P1) ([C I](2–1) hereafter) line emission in a sample of redshift ~2–4 submillimeter galaxies (SMGs). These SMGs are selected among the brightest-lensed galaxies discovered in the Herschel-Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey (H-ATLAS). Forty-seven CO lines and 7 [C I](2–1) lines have been detected in 15 lensed SMGs. A non-negligible effect of differential lensing is found for the CO emission lines, which could have caused significant underestimations of the linewidths, and hence of the dynamical masses. The CO spectral line energy distributions (SLEDs), peaking around Jup ~ 5–7, are found to be similar to those of the local starburst-dominated ultra-luminous infrared galaxies and of the previously studied SMGs. After correcting for lensing amplification, we derived the global properties of the bulk of molecular gas in the SMGs using non-LTE radiative transfer modelling, such as the molecular gas density nH2 ~ 102.5–104.1 cm-3 and the kinetic temperature Tk  ~ 20–750 K. The gas thermal pressure Pth ranging from~105 K cm-3 to 106 K cm-3 is found to be correlated with star formation efficiency. Further decomposing the CO SLEDs into two excitation components, we find a low-excitation component with nH2 ~ 102.8–104.6 cm-3 and Tk  ~ 20–30 K, which is less correlated with star formation, and a high-excitation one (nH2 ~ 102.7–104.2 cm-3, Tk  ~ 60–400 K) which is tightly related to the on-going star-forming activity. Additionally, tight linear correlations between the far-infrared and CO line luminosities have been confirmed for the Jup ≥ 5 CO lines of these SMGs, implying that these CO lines are good tracers of star formation. The [C I](2–1) lines follow the tight linear correlation between the luminosities of the [C I](2–1) and the CO(1–0) line found in local starbursts, indicating that [C I] lines could serve as good total molecular gas mass tracers for high-redshift SMGs as well. The total mass of the molecular gas reservoir, (1–30) × 1010M⊙, derived based on the CO(3–2) fluxes and αCO(1–0) = 0.8 M⊙ ( K km s-1 pc2)-1, suggests a typical molecular gas depletion time tdep ~ 20–100 Myr and a gas to dust mass ratio δGDR ~ 30–100 with ~20%–60% uncertainty for the SMGs. The ratio between CO line luminosity and the dust mass L′CO/Mdust appears to be slowly increasing with redshift for high-redshift SMGs, which need to be further confirmed by a more complete SMG sample at various redshifts. Finally, through comparing the linewidth of CO and H2O lines, we find that they agree well in almost all our SMGs, confirming that the emitting regions of the CO and H2O lines are co-spatially located.


2018 ◽  
Vol 617 ◽  
pp. A20 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Aladro ◽  
S. König ◽  
S. Aalto ◽  
E. González-Alfonso ◽  
N. Falstad ◽  
...  

Aiming to characterise the properties of the molecular gas in the ultra-luminous infrared galaxy Mrk 273 and its outflow, we used the NOEMA interferometer to image the dense-gas molecular tracers HCN, HCO+, HNC, HOC+ and HC3N at ∼86 GHz and ∼256 GHz with angular resolutions of 4ʺ̣9 × 4ʺ̣5 (∼3.7 × 3.4 kpc) and 0ʺ̣61 × 0ʺ̣55 (∼460 × 420 pc). We also modelled the flux of several H2O lines observed with Herschel using a radiative transfer code that includes excitation by collisions and far-infrared photons. The disc of the Mrk 273 north nucleus has two components with decoupled kinematics. The gas in the outer parts (R ∼ 1.5 kpc) rotates with a south-east to north-west direction, while in the inner disc (R ∼ 300 pc) follows a north-east to south-west rotation. The central 300 pc, which hosts a compact starburst region, is filled with dense and warm gas, and contains a dynamical mass of (4 −5) × 109 M⊙, a luminosity of L′HCN = (3–4) × 108 K km s−1 pc2, and a dust temperature of 55 K. At the very centre, a compact core with R ∼ 50 pc has a luminosity of LIR = 4 × 1011 L⊙ (30% of the total infrared luminosity), and a dust temperature of 95 K. The core is expanding at low velocities ∼50–100 km s−1, probably affected by the outflowing gas. We detect the blue-shifted component of the outflow, while the red-shifted counterpart remains undetected in our data. Its cold and dense phase reaches fast velocities up to ∼1000 km s−1, while the warm outflowing gas has more moderate maximum velocities of ∼600 km s−1. The outflow is compact, being detected as far as 460 pc from the centre in the northern direction, and has a mass of dense gas ≤8 × 108 M⊙. The difference between the position angles of the inner disc (∼70°) and the outflow (∼10°) indicates that the outflow is likely powered by the AGN, and not by the starburst. Regarding the chemistry in Mrk 273, we measure an extremely low HCO+/HOC+ ratio of 10 ± 5 in the inner disc of Mrk 273.


2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (5) ◽  
pp. 7-25
Author(s):  
Mieczysław Kowerski ◽  
Jarosław Bielak

Many articles featuring panel data modelling tend to begin their considerations with an introduction of the Pearson linear correlation coefficients matrix between the analysed variables. The aim of the article is to prove such an approach unsuitable in the analysis of panel data dependencies. Instead, an attempt has been made to propose a more appropriate measure – a correlation coefficient between the empirical and fitted values of the dependent variable of the estimated panel model (with fixed or random effects) in relation to the variable whose dependency towards the dependent variable is being studied. Pearson’s linear correlation coefficient does not reflect the basic advantage of panel data, which is the ability to provide information about the dependencies of the studied phenomena simultaneously in time and space. The fact that one observation relates to object i during period t and another to object j during period t + 1 is irrelevant for the calculation of the coefficient. Pearson’s coefficient, however, can be used when conducting sub-calculations in panel data analysis. The presented considerations have been illustrated by the calculations of the relationships between the structure of capital and the profitability and size of 17 construction companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange in the years 2009–2018 (170 observations) which created a balanced panel. A specification of the advantages and disadvantages of the proposed solution was formulated on the basis of the calculations.


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