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arXiv 1509.04870astro-ph.GA
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贫金属星系中的分子耗尽时间和CO-to-H2转换因子

Molecular depletion times and the CO-to-H2 conversion factor in metal-poor galaxies

L. K. Hunt, S. Garcia-Burillo, V. Casasola, P. Caselli, F. Combes, C. Henkel, A. Lundgren, R. Maiolino, K. M. Menten, L. Testi, A. Weiss

摘要:

在低金属量星系中,用一氧化碳追踪分子氢的含量是非常困难的。在这里,我们提出了一个新的努力,与IRAM 30米的观测12 CO(1-0)的样本8矮星系的氧丰度范围从12+logO/H=7.7至8.4。在所有星系中都检测到了CO发射,包括我们样本中最贫金属的星系(0.1 Zsun);据我们所知,这是本星系群外12+logO/H<=8(0.2 Zsun)星系中检测到的最大数量的12 CO(1-0)。我们计算恒星质量(Mstar)和恒星形成率(SFR),并分析我们的结果,结合我们的观测与星系样本的文献。扩展以前的结果的分子气体耗尽时间,tau(dep),与Mstar和特定的SFR(sSFR)的相关性,我们发现在tau(dep)的变化的一个因素200或更多(从<50万年到10 Gyr)超过1000的sSFR和Mstar的蔓延。我们利用τ(dep)的变化来限制低金属丰度时CO到H2的质量转换因子α(CO),并假设其为幂律变化,则得到α(CO)\propto(Z/Zsun)^[1.9],这与基于尘埃连续谱测量与气体质量比较的结果相似。通过包括HI测量,我们表明,总气体质量相对于重子质量的分数是较高的星系是金属贫乏,低质量,和高sSFR。最后,将数据与分子气相的恒星形成模型进行比较,发现在金属丰度Z/Zsun<=0.2时,与模型预测存在一些差异。

英文摘要:

Tracing molecular hydrogen content with carbon monoxide in low-metallicity galaxies has been exceedingly difficult. Here we present a new effort, with IRAM 30-m observations of 12CO(1-0) of a sample of 8 dwarf galaxies having oxygen abundances ranging from 12+logO/H=7.7 to 8.4. CO emission is detected in all galaxies, including the most metal-poor galaxy of our sample (0.1 Zsun); to our knowledge this is the largest number of 12CO(1-0) detections ever reported for galaxies with 12+logO/H<=8 (0.2 Zsun) outside the Local Group. We calculate stellar masses (Mstar) and star-formation rates (SFRs), and analyze our results by combining our observations with galaxy samples from the literature. Extending previous results for a correlation of the molecular gas depletion time, tau(dep), with Mstar and specific SFR (sSFR), we find a variation in tau(dep) of a factor of 200 or more (from <50 Myr to 10 Gyr) over a spread of 1000 in sSFR and Mstar. We exploit the variation of tau(dep) to constrain the CO-to-H2 mass conversion factor alpha(CO) at low metallicity, and assuming a power-law variation find alpha(CO) \propto (Z/Zsun)^1.9, similar to results based on dust continuum measurements compared with gas mass. By including HI measurements, we show that the fraction of total gas mass relative to the baryonic mass is higher in galaxies that are metal poor, of low mass, and of high sSFR. Finally, comparisons of the data with star-formation models of the molecular gas phases suggest that, at metallicities Z/Zsun<=0.2, there are some discrepancies with model predictions.

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