We investigate how the dynamical state of molecular clouds relates to host galaxy environment, and how this impacts the star formation efficiency in the Milky Way and seven nearby galaxies. We compile measurements of molecular cloud and host galaxy properties and determine mass-weighted mean cloud properties for entire galaxies and distinct subregions within. We find molecular clouds to be in ambient pressure-balanced virial equilibrium, where clouds in gas-rich, molecular-dominated, high-pressure regions are close to self-virialization, whereas clouds in gas-poor, atomic-dominated, low-pressure environments achieve a balance between their internal kinetic pressure and external pressure from the ambient medium. The star formation efficiency per free-fall time of molecular clouds is low ~0.1%-1% and shows systematic variations of 2 dex as a function of the virial parameter and host galactic environment. The trend observed for clouds in low-pressure environments--as the solar neighborhood--is well matched by state-of-the-art turbulence-regulated models of star formation. However, these models substantially overpredict the low observed star formation efficiencies of clouds in high-pressure environments, which suggests the importance of additional physical parameters not yet considered by these models.
We have observed the Galactic Center 50km/s molecular cloud (50MC) with ALMA to search for filamentary structures. In the CS J=2-1 emission line channel maps, we succeeded in identifying 27 molecular cloud filaments using the DisPerSE algorithm. This is the first attempt of "filament-finding" in the Galactic Center Region. These molecular cloud filaments strongly suggest that the molecular cloud filaments are also ubiquitous in the molecular clouds of the Galactic Center Region.
In the Galactic fountain scenario, supernovae and/or stellar winds propel material into the Galactic halo. As the material cools, it condenses into clouds. By using FLASH three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations, we model and study the dynamical evolution of these gas clouds after they form and begin to fall toward the Galactic plane. In our simulations, we assume that the gas clouds form at a height of z=5 kpc above the Galactic midplane, then begin to fall from rest. We investigate how the cloud's evolution, dynamics, and interaction with the interstellar medium (ISM) are affected b…
We present the first systematic study of the density structure of clouds found in a complete sample covering all major molecular clouds in the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ; inner $\sim{}200~\rm{}pc$) of the Milky Way. This is made possible by using data from the Galactic Center Molecular Cloud Survey (GCMS), the first study resolving all major molecular clouds in the CMZ at interferometer angular resolution. We find that many CMZ molecular clouds have unusually shallow density gradients compared to regions elsewhere in the Milky Way. This is possibly a consequence of weak gravitational binding …
The rotation curve of a magnetized plasma cloud orbiting in the gravitational potential of a galaxy is calculated by statistical arguments. The working assumption is that a mild magnetic field, decreasing with distance from the galactic center, permeates space. It is shown that the resulting probability density is compatible with a flat rotation curve.
The rotation of the galactic objects has been seen by asymmetric Doppler shift in the CMB data. Molecular hydrogen clouds at virial temperature may contribute to the galactic halo dark matter and they might be the reason for the observed rotational asymmetry in the galactic halos. We present a method to constrain the parameters of these virial clouds given that they are composed of a single fluid. The method is such that it should be possible to extend it to more than one fluid.
We propose a simple analytic theory for environmentally-dependent molecular cloud lifetimes, based on the large-scale (galactic) dynamics of the interstellar medium. Within this theory, the cloud lifetime is set by the time-scales for gravitational collapse, galactic shear, spiral arm interactions, epicyclic perturbations and cloud-cloud collisions. It is dependent on five observable quantities, accessible through measurements of the galactic rotation curve, the gas and stellar surface densities, and the gas and stellar velocity dispersions of the host galaxy. We determine how the relative imp…
In the Galactic halo, metal-bearing Galactic halo material mixes into high velocity clouds (HVCs) as they hydrodynamically interact. This interaction begins long before the clouds completely dissipate and long before they slow to the velocity of the Galactic material. In order to make quantitative estimates of the mixing efficiency and resulting metal enrichment of HVCs, we made detailed 2 and 3 dimensional simulations of cloud-ISM interactions. Our simulations track the hydrodynamics and time dependent ionization levels. They assume that the cloud originally has a warm temperature and extreme…
Kinematic distances to 750 molecular clouds identified in the 13CO J=1-0 Boston University-Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory Galactic Ring Survey (BU-FCRAO GRS) are derived assuming the Clemens rotation curve of the Galaxy. The kinematic distance ambiguity is resolved by examining the presence of HI self-absorption toward the 13CO emission peak of each cloud using the Very Large Array Galactic Plane Survey (VGPS). We also identify 21 cm continuum sources embedded in the GRS clouds in order to use absorption features in the HI 21 cm continuum to distinguish between near and far kinematic…
The origin of the molecular clouds orbiting SgrA* is one of the most debated questions about our Galactic Centre. Here, we present the hydrodynamic simulation of a molecular cloud infalling towards SgrA*, performed with the adaptive-mesh-refinement code RAMSES. Through such simulation, we propose that the circumnuclear disc and the +20 km/s cloud originated from the same tidal disruption episode, occurred less than 1 Myr ago. We also show that recent star formation is to be expected in the +20 km/s cloud, as also suggested by recent observations.
The Galaxy's population of High Velocity Clouds (HVCs) may include a subpopulation that is confined by dark matter minihalos and falling toward the Galactic disk. We present the first magnetohydrodynamic simulational study of dark matter-dominated HVCs colliding with a weakly magnetized galactic disk. Our HVCs have baryonic masses of $5 \times 10^6\,$M$_{\odot}$ and dark matter minihalo masses of 0, $3 \times 10^8$, or $1 \times 10^9\,$M$_{\odot}$. They are modeled on the Smith Cloud, which is said to have collided with the disk 70 Myr ago. We find that, in all cases, the cloud's collision wit…
High velocity gas that does not conform to Galactic rotation is observed throughout the Galaxy's halo. One component of this gas, HI high velocity clouds (HVCs), have attracted attention since their discovery in the 1960s and remain controversial in terms of their origins, largely due to the lack of reliable distance estimates. The recent discovery of enhanced magnetic fields towards HVCs has encouraged us to explore their connection to cloud evolution, kinematics, and survival as they fall through the magnetized Galactic halo. For a reasonable model for the halo magnetic field, most infalling…
We derive the physical properties of 580 molecular clouds based on their 12CO and 13CO line emission detected in the University of Massachusetts-Stony Brook (UMSB) and Galactic Ring surveys. We provide a range of values of the physical properties of molecular clouds, and find a power-law correlation between their radii and masses, suggesting that the fractal dimension of the ISM is around 2.36. This relation, M = (228 +/- 18) R^{2.36+/-0.04}, allows us to derive masses for an additional 170 GRS molecular clouds not covered by the UMSB survey. We derive the Galactic surface mass density of mole…
The infrared dark cloud G359.94+0.17 is a conspicuous, opaque cloud, which is seen in silhouette against the Galactic center. We found unexpectedly strong (~50 Jy) maser emission of CH3OH at 44 GHz with additional weak 22 GHz H2O maser and 43 GHz SiO thermal emissions toward this cloud. Detections of these molecular lines indicate that strong star forming activities are proceeding in this cloud, which were not reported previously despite of numerous works toward the Galactic center. The line profiles of the NH3 inversion lines at 23 GHz indicate that G359.94+0.17 is composed of mainly two clou…
Recent large-area, deep CO surveys in the Galactic disk have revealed the formation of ~50 high-mass stars or clusters triggered by cloud-cloud collisions (CCCs). Although the Galactic Center (GC) -- which contains the highest volume density of molecular gas -- is the most favorable place for cloud collisions, systematic studies of CCCs in that region are still untouched. Here we report for the first time evidence of CCCs in the common foot point of molecular loops 1 and 2 in the GC. We have investigated the distribution of molecular gas toward the foot point by using a methodology for identif…
We investigate how the properties of Galactic giant molecular clouds (GMCs) and their denser substructures (clumps) correlate with the local star formation rate. We trace clouds using the $^{12}$CO(3-2) transition, as observed by the CO High Resolution Survey (COHRS). We identify their constituent clumps using thermal dust emission, as observed by the Herschel infrared GALactic plane survey (Hi-GAL). We estimate star formation rates in these clouds using 70 $μ$m emission. In total, we match 3,674 clumps to 473 clouds in position-position-velocity space spanning the Galactic longitude range $10…
Rotation of galactic objects has been seen in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) that could be ascribed to molecular hydrogen clouds with, or without, dust contamination and contamination from other sources. We model the clouds using the canonical ensemble for pure molecular hydrogen, a mixture of hydrogen helium and/or dust, in order to constrain the physical parameters of these clouds. Since the clouds are cold, we justify the use of the canonical ensemble by explicitly calculating the interaction between the hydrogen molecules and the CMB photons and determining the time required for the…
We find evidence for the impact of infalling, low-metallicity gas on the Galactic disk. This is based on FUV absorption line spectra, 21-cm emission line spectra, and FIR mapping to estimate the abundance and physical properties of IV21 (IVC135+54-45), a galactic intermediate-velocity molecular cloud (IVMC) that lies ~300 pc above the disk. The metallicity of IV21 was estimated using observations toward the sdB star PG1144+615, located at a projected distance of 16 pc from the cloud's densest core, by measuring ion and HI column densities for comparison with known solar abundances. Despite the…
We examine the role of the large-scale galactic-dynamical environment in setting the properties of giant molecular clouds in Milky Way-like galaxies. We perform three high-resolution simulations of Milky Way-like discs with the moving-mesh hydrodynamics code Arepo, yielding a statistical sample of $\sim 80,000$ giant molecular clouds and $\sim 55,000$ HI clouds. We account for the self-gravity of the gas, momentum and thermal energy injection from supernovae and HII regions, mass injection from stellar winds, and the non-equilibrium chemistry of hydrogen, carbon and oxygen. By varying the exte…
We present distances to 76 medium-sized molecular clouds and an extra large-scale one in the second Galactic quadrant ($104.75^\circ <l<150.25^\circ $ and $|b|<5.25^\circ$), 73 of which are accurately measured for the first time. Molecular cloud samples are drawn from $l$-$b$-$V$ space ($-95 < V_{\rm LSR}< 25$ \kms) with the density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise (DBSCAN) algorithm, and distances are measured with the background-eliminated extinction-parallax (BEEP) method using extinctions and Gaia DR2 parallaxes. The range of measured distances to 76 molecular clouds is …
We present three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations of magnetized gas clouds accelerated by hot winds. We initialize gas clouds with tangled internal magnetic fields and show that this field suppresses the disruption of the cloud: rather than mixing into the hot wind as found in hydrodynamic simulations, cloud fragments end up co-moving and in pressure equilibrium with their surroundings. We also show that a magnetic field in the hot wind enhances the drag force on the cloud by a factor ~(1+v_A^2/v_wind^2)$, where v_A is the Alfven speed in the wind and v_wind measures the relative sp…
We explore the effect of galactic environment on properties of molecular clouds. Using clouds formed in a large-scale galactic disc simulation, we measure the observable properties from synthetic column density maps. We confirm that a significant fraction of unbound clouds forms naturally in a galactic disc environment and that a mixed population of bound and unbound clouds can match observed scaling relations and distributions for extragalactic molecular clouds. By dividing the clouds into inner and outer disc populations, we compare their distributions of properties and test whether there ar…
Recent radio observations towards nearby galaxies started to map the whole disk and to identify giant molecular clouds (GMCs) even in the regions between galactic spiral structures. Observed variations of GMC mass functions in different galactic environment indicates that massive GMCs preferentially reside along galactic spiral structures whereas inter-arm regions have many small GMCs. Based on the phase transition dynamics from magnetized warm neutral medium to molecular clouds, Kobayashi et al. 2017 proposes a semi-analytical evolutionary description for GMC mass functions including cloud-cl…
Synchrotron-emitting, nonthermal filaments (NTFs) have been observed near the Galactic center for nearly four decades, yet their physical origin remains unclear. Here we investigate the possibility that NTFs are produced by the destruction of molecular clouds by the gravitational potential of the Galactic center. We show that this model predicts the formation of a filamentary structure with length on the order of tens to hundreds of pc, a highly ordered magnetic field along the axis of the filament, and conditions conducive to magnetic reconnection that result in particle acceleration. This mo…
The HI halo clouds of the Milky Way, and in particular the intermediate-velocity clouds (IVCs), are thought to be connected to Galactic fountain processes. Observations of fountain clouds are important for understanding the role of matter recycling and accretion onto the Galactic disk and subsequent star formation. Here, we quantify the amount of molecular gas in the Galactic halo. We focus on the rare class of molecular IVCs (MIVCs) and search for new objects. The HI-FIR correlation was studied across the entire northern and southern Galactic hemispheres at Galactic latitudes $|b|>20^\circ$ t…
This paper reports the discovery of a helical molecular cloud in the central molecular zone (CMZ) of our Galaxy. This "pigtail" molecular cloud appears at (l, b, V_LSR) ~ (-0.7deg, +0.0deg, -70 to -30 km/s), with a spatial size of ~ (20 pc)^2 and a mass of (2-6) 10^5 solar masses. This is the third helical gaseous nebula found in the Galactic center region to date. Line intensity ratios indicate that the pigtail molecular cloud has slightly higher temperature and/or density than the other normal clouds in the CMZ. We also found a high-velocity wing emission near the footpoint of this cloud. We…
Efficient thermalization of overlapping supernovae within star-forming galaxies may produce a supernova-heated fluid that drives galactic winds. For fiducial assumptions about the timescale for cloud shredding from high-resolution simulations (which neglect magnetic fields) we show that cool clouds with temperature from $T_{c}\sim 10^{2}-10^{4}$ K seen in emission and absorption in galactic winds cannot be accelerated to observed velocities by the ram pressure of a hot wind. Taking into account both the radial structure of the hot flow and gravity, we show that this conclusion holds over a wid…
Recent observations suggest that dense gas clouds can survive even in hot galactic winds. Here we show that the inclusion of turbulent densities with different statistical properties has significant effects on the evolution of wind-swept clouds. We investigate how the initial standard deviation of the log-normal density field influences the dynamics of quasi-isothermal clouds embedded in supersonic winds. We compare uniform, fractal solenoidal, and fractal compressive cloud models in both 3D and 2D hydrodynamical simulations. We find that the processes of cloud disruption and dense gas entrain…
The Exeter FCRAO CO Galactic Plane Survey consists of 12CO and 13CO (J=1-0) observations over the galactic plane covering 55 degrees <= l <= 102 degrees, |b| >= 1 degree and 141 degrees <= l <= 195 degrees, -3.5 degrees <= b <= 5.5 degrees with a spatial resolution of ~45" and a spectral resolution of ~0.15km/s. We will present the methodology of a threshold-based cloud and clump determination method which retains hierarchical information, then discuss associating sources with clouds in the catalogue. Once complete, this catalogue of clouds and clumps will encompass the majority of the Norther…
We present the first interferometric molecular line and dust emission maps for the Galactic Center (GC) cloud G0.253+0.016, observed using the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter--wave Astronomy (CARMA) and the Submillimeter Array (SMA). This cloud is very dense, and concentrates a mass exceeding the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex (2x10^5 M_sun) into a radius of only 3pc, but it is essentially starless. G0.253+0.016 therefore violates "star formation laws" presently used to explain trends in galactic and extragalactic star formation by a factor ~45. Our observations show a lack of dense c…
We performed a search of star-forming sites influenced by external factors, such as SNRs, HII regions, and cloud-cloud collisions, to understand the star-forming activity in the Galactic center region using the NRO Galactic Center Survey in SiO $v=0, J=2-1$, H$^{13}$CO$^+ J=1-0$, and CS $J=1-0$ emission lines obtained by the Nobeyama 45-m telescope. We found a half-shell like feature (HSF) with a high integrated line intensity ratio of $ int T_{ mathrm B}$(SiO $v=0, J=2-1$)$dv$/$ int T_{ mathrm B}$(H$^{13}$CO$^+ J=1-0$)$dv sim6-8$ in the 50 km s$^{-1}$ molecular cloud, which is a most conspicu…
We have identified a new structure in the Milky Way: a leading component of the Smith high velocity cloud that is now crossing the Galactic plane near longitude 25 degrees. Using new 21cm HI data from the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) we measured the properties of several dozen clouds that are part of this structure. Their kinematics is consistent with that of the Smith Cloud with a VLSR exceeding that permitted by circular rotation in their direction. Most of the clouds in the Leading Component show evidence that they are interacting with disk gas allowing the location of the interaction to be e…
ABRIDGED: Context: HI and CO large scale surveys of the Milky Way trace the diffuse atomic clouds and the dense shielded regions of molecular hydrogen clouds. However, until recently, we have not had spectrally resolved C+ surveys to characterize the photon dominated interstellar medium, including, the H2 gas without C, the CO-dark H2, in a large sample of clouds. Aims: To use a sparse Galactic plane survey of the 1.9 THz [C II] spectral line from the Herschel Open Time Key Programme, Galactic Observations of Terahertz C+ (GOT C+), to characterize the H2 gas without CO in a statistically signi…
Using Milky Way data of the new Effelsberg-Bonn HI Survey (EBHIS) and the Galactic All-Sky Survey (GASS), we present a revised picture of the high-velocity cloud (HVC) complex Galactic Center Negative (GCN). Owing to the higher angular resolution of these surveys compared to previous studies (e.g., the Leiden Dwingeloo Survey), we resolve Complex GCN into lots of individual tiny clumps, that mostly have relatively broad line widths of more than 15 km/s. We do not detect a diffuse extended counterpart, which is unusual for an HVC complex. In total 243 clumps were identified and parameterized wh…
We describe a population of small, high velocity, atomic hydrogen clouds, loops, and filaments found above and below the disk near the Galactic Center. The objects have a mean radius of 15 pc, velocity widths of $\sim 14$ km/s and are observed at $|z|$ heights up to 700 pc. The velocity distribution of the clouds shows no signature of Galactic rotation. We propose a scenario where the clouds are associated with an outflow from a central star-forming region at the Galactic Center. We discuss the clouds as entrained material traveling at $\sim 200$ km/s in a Galactic wind.
Two compact HI clouds which seem to belong to the Ophiuchus superbubble were studied at ~30" resolution using the Very Large Array (VLA) in C and D configurations together with the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) providing the short-spacing flux. Here we present preliminary results of the data analysis.
The innermost parsec around Sgr A* has been found to play host to two discs or streamers of O and W-R stars. They are misaligned by an angle approaching 90 degrees. That the stars are approximately coeval indicates that they formed in the same event rather than independently. We have performed SPH simulations of the infall of a single prolate cloud towards a massive black hole. As the cloud is disrupted, the large spread in angular momentum can, if conditions allow, lead to the creation of misaligned gas discs. In turn, stars may form within those discs. We are now investigating the origins of…
We present the results of a new sensitive survey of neutral hydrogen above and below the Galactic Center with the Green Bank Telescope. The observations extend up to Galactic latitude | b | < 10 deg with an effective angular resolution of 9.5' and an average rms brightness temperature noise of 40 mK in a 1 km/s channel. The survey reveals the existence of a population of anomalous high-velocity clouds extending up to heights of about 1.5 kpc from the Galactic Plane and showing no signature of Galactic rotation. These clouds have local standard of rest velocities | Vlsr | < 360 km/s and, assumi…
We found a molecular cloud connecting from the outer region to the "Galactic Center Mini-spiral (GCMS)" which is a bundle of the ionized gas streams adjacent to Sgr A*. The molecular cloud has a filamentary appearance which is prominent in the CS J=2-1 emission line and is continuously connected with the GCMS. The velocity of the molecular cloud is also continuously connected with that of the ionized gas in the GCMS observed in the H42alpha recombination line. The morphological and kinematic relations suggest that the molecular cloud is falling from the outer region to the vicinity of Sgr A*, …
Feedback from massive stars is thought to play an important role in the evolution of molecular clouds. In this work we analyse the effects of stellar winds and supernovae (SNe) in the evolution of two massive ($\sim 10^6\,M_\odot$) giant molecular clouds (GMCs): one gravitationally bound collapsing cloud and one unbound cloud undergoing disruption by galactic shear. These two clouds have been extracted from a large scale galaxy model and are re-simulated at a spatial resolution of $\sim 0.01$ pc, including feedback from winds, SNe, and the combined effect of both. We find that stellar winds st…
The statistical approach for derivation of the clump mass function (ClMF) developed by Donkov, Veltchev & Klessen is put to observational test through comparison with mass distributions of clumps from molecular emission and dust continuum maps of Galactic cloud complexes, obtained by various authors. The results indicate gravitational boundedness of the dominant clump population, with or without taking into account the contribution of their thermal and magnetic energy. The ClMF can be presented by combination of two power-law functions separated by a characteristic mass from about ten to hundr…
We explore the effect of different galactic disc environments on the properties of star-forming clouds through variations in the background potential in a set of isolated galaxy simulations. Rising, falling and flat rotation curves expected in halo dominated, disc dominated and Milky Way-like galaxies were considered, with and without an additional two-arm spiral potential. The evolution of each disc displayed notable variations that are attributed to different regimes of stability, determined by shear and gravitational collapse. The properties of a typical cloud were largely unaffected by the…
We explore the survival of cool clouds in multi-phase circum-galactic media. We revisit the "cloud crushing problem" in a large survey of simulations including radiative cooling, self-shielding, self-gravity, magnetic fields, and anisotropic Braginskii conduction and viscosity (with saturation). We explore a wide range of parameters including cloud size, velocity, ambient temperature and density, as well as a variety of magnetic field configurations and cloud turbulence. We find that realistic magnetic fields and turbulence have weaker effects on cloud survival; the most important physics is r…
We found that an intermediate velocity cloud (IVC) IVC 86-36 in HI 21 cm emission shows a head-tail distribution toward the Galactic plane with marked parallel filamentary streamers, which is extended over 40 degrees in the sky. The distance of IVC 86-36 is constrained to be less than ~3 kpc from absorption of a background star as determined from opticalspectroscopy. There is a bridge feature in velocity between the IVC and the local ISM with velocity separation of ~50 km s-1, which may indicate dynamical interaction of the IVC with the disk. If the interaction is correct, the distance estimat…
The recent discovery of an enriched metallicity for the Smith high-velocity HI cloud (SC) lends support to a Galactic origin for this system. We use a dynamical model of the galactic fountain to reproduce the observed properties of the SC. In our model, fountain clouds are ejected from the region of the disc spiral arms and move through the halo interacting with a pre-existing hot corona. We find that a simple model where cold gas outflows vertically from the Perseus spiral arm reproduces the kinematics and the distance of the SC, but is in disagreement with the cloud's cometary morphology, if…
The evolution of molecular clouds in galactic centres is thought to differ from that in galactic discs due to a significant influence of the external gravitational potential. We present a set of numerical simulations of molecular clouds orbiting on the 100-pc stream of the Central Molecular Zone (the central $\sim500$ pc of the Galaxy) and characterise their morphological and kinematic evolution in response to the background potential and eccentric orbital motion. We find that the clouds are shaped by strong shear and torques, by tidal and geometric deformation, and by their passage through th…
A head-tail high-velocity cloud (HVC) is a neutral hydrogen halo cloud that appears to be interacting with the diffuse halo medium as evident by its compressed head trailed by a relatively diffuse tail. This paper presents a sample of 116 head-tail HVCs across the southern sky (d < 2 deg) from the HI Parkes All Sky Survey (HIPASS) HVC catalog, which has a spatial resolution of 15.5 arcmin (45 pc at 10 kpc) and a sensitivity of N_HI=2 x 10^(18) cm^(-2) (5 sigma). 35% of the HIPASS compact and semi-compact HVCs (CHVCs and :HVCs) can be classified as head-tail clouds from their morphology. The cl…
In this work, we study the magnetic field morphology of selected star-forming clouds spread over the galactic latitude ($b$) range, $-10^\circ$ to $10^\circ$. The polarimetric observation of clouds CB24, CB27 and CB188 are conducted to study the magnetic field geometry of those clouds from ARIES, Manora Peak, Nainital, India. These observations are combined with those of 14 further low latitude clouds available in the literature. Analyzing the polarimetric data of 17 clouds, we find that the alignment between the envelope magnetic field ($θ_{B}^{env}$) and Galactic plane ($θ_{GP}$) of the low-…
We observed molecular clouds in the W33 high-mass star-forming region associated with compact and extended HII regions using the NANTEN2 telescope as well as the Nobeyama 45-m telescope in the $J=$1-0 transitions of $^{12}$CO, $^{13}$CO, and C$^{18}$O as a part of the FOREST Unbiased Galactic plane Imaging survey with the Nobeyama 45-m telescope (FUGIN) legacy survey. We detected three velocity components at 35 km s$^{-1}$, 45 km s$^{-1}$, and 58 km s$^{-1}$. The 35 km s$^{-1}$ and 58 km s$^{-1}$ clouds are likely to be physically associated with W33 because of the enhanced $^{12}$CO $J=$ 3-2 …
Examining Turbulence in Galactic Molecular Clouds. II. Turbulence Cascade Beyond the Scale of Giant Molecular Clouds
Purple Mountain Observatory and Key Laboratory of Radio Astronomy, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院紫金山天文台和射电天文重点实验室）；School of Astronomy and Space Science, University of Science and Technology of China（中国科学技术大学天文与空间科学学院）
We present an analysis of gas densities in the central R=300 parsecs of the Milky Way, focusing on three clouds: GCM-0.02-0.07 (the 50 km/s cloud), GCM-0.13-0.08 (the 20 km/s cloud), and GCM0.25+0.01 (the "Brick"). Densities are determined using observations of the J=(3-2), (4-3), (5-4), (10-9), (18-17), (19-18), (21-20), and (24-23) transitions of the molecule HC3N. We find evidence of at least two excitation regimes for HC3N and constrain the low-excitation component to have a density less than 10^4 cm^-3 and the high-excitation component to have a density between 10^5 and 10^6 cm^-3. This i…
Cold gas entering the central $1$ to $10^2$ pc of a galaxy fragments and condenses into clouds. The stability of the clouds determines whether they will be turned into stars or can be delivered to the central supermassive black hole (SMBH) to turn on an active galactic nucleus (AGN). The conventional criteria to assess the stability of these clouds, such as the Jeans criterion and Roche (or tidal) limit, are insufficient here, because they assume the dominance of self-gravity in binding a cloud, and neglect external agents, such as pressure and tidal forces, which are common in galactic nuclei…
With the help of 3D AMR hydrodynamical simulations we aim at understanding G2's nature, recent evolution and fate in the coming years. By exploring the possible parameter space of the diffuse cloud scenario, we find that a starting point within the disc of young stars is favoured by the observations, which may hint at G2 being the result of stellar wind interactions.
We present the high angular resolution and high sensitivity images of the "Circum-Nuclear Disk (CND)" and its surrounding region of Milky Way Galaxy in the CS J=2-1, SiO v=0 J=2-1, H^13CO^+ J=1-0, C^34S J=2-1, and CH_3OH J_{K_a, K_c}=2_{1,1}-1_{1,0}A_{--} emission lines using ALMA. The CND is recognized as a torus-like molecular gas with gaps in these emission lines except for the CH_3OH emission line. The inner and outer radii of the CND are estimated to be R_in~1.5 and R_out~2 pc, respectively. The velocities of the rotation and radial motion are estimated to be V_rot~115 km s^-1 and V_rad~2…
We present high-resolution (~2-3"; ~0.1 pc) radio observations of the Galactic center cloud M0.10-0.08 using the Very Large Array at K and Ka band (~25 and 36 GHz). The M0.10-0.08 cloud is located in a complex environment near the Galactic center Radio Arc and the adjacent M0.11-0.11 molecular cloud. From our data, M0.10-0.08 appears to be a compact molecular cloud (~3 pc) that contains multiple compact molecular cores (5+; <0.4 pc). In this study we detect a total of 15 molecular transitions in M0.10-0.08 from the following molecules: NH3, HC3N, CH3OH, HC5N, CH3CN, and OCS. We have identified…
