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arXiv 0807.0009astro-ph
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河外巨分子云的分辨性质

The Resolved Properties of Extragalactic Giant Molecular Clouds

Alberto D. Bolatto, Adam K. Leroy, Erik Rosolowsky, Fabian Walter, Leo Blitz

摘要:

利用高空间分辨率的CO观测资料,系统地测量了各种河外星系中巨分子云的分辨尺寸-线宽、光度-线宽、光度-尺寸和质光关系。虽然数据是异质的,我们分析他们在一个一致的方式,以消除有限的灵敏度和分辨率所引入的偏见,从而获得可靠的大小,速度色散和光度。我们比较了矮星系和本星系群旋涡星系的结果。我们发现,在广泛的环境中测量的河外GMC特性与银河系中的GMC特性非常兼容。我们使用这些结果来调查云的平均柱密度和维里CO到H2因子的金属丰度趋势。我们发现,这些测量不符合简单的预测,从光电离调节恒星形成理论,虽然这可能是由于这样一个事实,即我们没有采样足够小的空间尺度或分子云的全部引力势。我们还发现,维里CO-到-H2转换因子在CO-明亮的GMC是非常相似的银河系,和游览没有显示出可测量的金属丰度趋势。我们将这些结果与基于小麦哲伦云远红外测量获得的分子质量估计进行对比,该测量系统地产生较大的质量,并将这种差异解释为围绕CO明亮核心的大H2信封所产生的差异。我们的结论是,GMCs确定的基础上,他们的CO排放是一个独特的对象,表现出一个显着的统一的属性从星系到星系(删节)。

英文摘要:

We use high spatial resolution observations of CO to systematically measure the resolved size-line width, luminosity-line width, luminosity-size, and the mass-luminosity relations of Giant Molecular Clouds (GMCs) in a variety of extragalactic systems. Although the data are heterogeneous we analyze them in a consistent manner to remove the biases introduced by limited sensitivity and resolution, thus obtaining reliable sizes, velocity dispersions, and luminosities. We compare the results obtained in dwarf galaxies with those from the Local Group spiral galaxies. We find that extragalactic GMC properties measured across a wide range of environments are very much compatible with those in the Galaxy. We use these results to investigate metallicity trends in the cloud average column density and virial CO-to-H2 factor. We find that these measurements do not accord with simple predictions from photoionization-regulated star formation theory, although this could be due to the fact that we do not sample small enough spatial scales or the full gravitational potential of the molecular cloud. We also find that the virial CO-to-H2 conversion factor in CO-bright GMCs is very similar to Galactic, and that the excursions do not show a measurable metallicity trend. We contrast these results with estimates of molecular mass based on far-infrared measurements obtained for the Small Magellanic Cloud, which systematically yield larger masses, and interpret this discrepancy as arising from large H2 envelopes that surround the CO-bright cores. We conclude that GMCs identified on the basis of their CO emission are a unique class of object that exhibit a remarkably uniform set of properties from galaxy to galaxy (abridged).

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