The nature of galactic spiral arms in disc galaxies remains elusive. Regardless of the spiral model, arms are expected to play a role in sculpting the star-forming interstellar medium. As such, different arm models may result in differences in the structure of the interstellar medium and molecular cloud properties. In this study we present simulations of galactic discs subject to spiral arm perturbations of different natures. We find very little difference in how the cloud population or gas kinematics vary between the different grand-design spirals, indicting that the interstellar medium on cloud scales cares little about where spiral arms come from. We do, however, see a difference in the interarm/arm mass spectra, {and minor differences in tails of the distributions of cloud properties} (as well as radial variations in the stellar/gaseous velocity dispersions). These features can be attributed to differences in the radial dependence of the pattern speeds between the different spiral models, and could act as a metric of the nature of spiral structure in observational studies.
We present a series of adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) hydrodynamic simulations of flat rotation curve galactic gas disks with a detailed treatment of the interstellar medium (ISM) physics of the atomic to molecular phase transition under the influence of diffuse FUV radiation fields and cosmic ray backgrounds. We explore the effects of different FUV intensities, including a model with a radial gradient designed to mimic the Milky Way. The effects of cosmic rays, including radial gradients in their heating and ionization rates, are also explored. The final simulations in this series achieve $4\…
In this Letter, we analyse the distributions of stellar ages in Giant Molecular Clouds (GMCs) in spiral arms, inter-arm spurs, and at large galactic radii, where the spiral arms are relatively weak. We use the results of numerical simulations of galaxies, which follow the evolution of GMCs and include star particles where star formation events occur. We find that GMCs in spiral arms tend to have predominantly young (< 10 Myr) stars. By contrast, clouds which are the remainders of spiral arm GMAs that have been sheared into inter-arm GMCs, contain fewer young (< 10 Myr) stars, and more ~20 Myr …
Meidt et al. 2015 derived short lifetimes of 20-30Myr for giant molecular clouds (GMCs) in M51. Their novel approach utilizes a decline of the GMC population during their inter-arm passage from one spiral arm to the next. Using the inter-arm travel time "t_travel" as a fiducial clock, they converted the decline rate to GMC lifetimes. They implicitly adopted zero as the pattern speed of the spiral arms, resulting in a very short t_travel. However, it is well established that the spiral arm pattern in M51 is rotating (Meidt et al. 2008, 2013), and that t_travel should be measured with respect to…
The formation and evolution of giant molecular clouds (GMCs) in spiral galaxies have been investigated in the traditional framework of the combined quasi-stationary density wave and galactic shock model. However, our understanding of the dynamics of spiral arms is changing from the traditional spiral model to a dynamically evolving spiral model. In this study, we investigate the structure and evolution of GMCs in a dynamically evolving spiral arm using a three-dimensional N-body/hydrodynamic simulation of a barred spiral galaxy at parsec-scale resolution. This simulation incorporated self-grav…
We study the properties of giant molecular clouds (GMCs) from a smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulation of a portion of a spiral galaxy, modelled at high resolution, with robust representations of the physics of the interstellar medium. We examine the global molecular gas content of clouds, and investigate the effect of using CO or H2 densities to define the GMCs. We find that CO can reliably trace the high-density H2 gas, but misses less dense H2 clouds. We also investigate the effect of using 3D CO densities versus CO emission with an observer's perspective, and find that CO-emission clou…
Using hydrodynamical simulations of entire galactic discs similar to the Milky Way, reaching 4.6pc resolution, we study the origins of observed physical properties of giant molecular clouds (GMCs). We find that efficient stellar feedback is a necessary ingredient in order to develop a realistic interstellar medium (ISM), leading to molecular cloud masses, sizes, velocity dispersions and virial parameters in excellent agreement with Milky Way observations. GMC scaling relations observed in the Milky Way, such as the mass-size ($M$--$R$), velocity dispersion-size ($σ$--$R$), and the $σ$--$RΣ$ re…
Studying star formation in spiral arms tells us not only about the evolution of star formation, and molecular clouds, but can also tell us about the nature of spiral structure in galaxies. I will address both these topics using the results of recent simulations and observations. Galactic scale simulations are beginning to examine in detail the evolution of GMCs as they form in spiral arms, and then disperse by stellar feedback or shear. The overall timescale for this process appears comparable to the crossing time of the GMCs, a few Myrs for $10^5$ M$_{\odot}$ clouds, 20 Myr or so for more mas…
We describe and execute a novel approach to observationally estimate the lifetimes of giant molecular clouds (GMCs). We focus on the cloud population between the two main spiral arms in M51 (the inter-arm region) where cloud destruction via shear and star formation feedback dominates over formation processes. By monitoring the change in GMC number densities and properties from one side of the inter-arm to the other, we estimate the lifetime as a fraction of the inter-arm travel time. We find that GMC lifetimes in M51's inter-arm are finite and short, 20 to 30 Myr. Such short lifetimes suggest …
In recent years there has been a growing interest in studying giant molecular filaments (GMFs), which are extremely elongated (> 100pc in length) giant molecular clouds (GMCs). They are often seen as inter-arm features in external spiral galaxies, but have been tentatively associated with spiral arms when viewed in the Milky Way. In this paper, we study the time evolution of GMFs in a high-resolution section of a spiral galaxy simulation, and their link with spiral arm GMCs and star formation, over a period of 11Myrs. The GMFs generally survive the inter-arm passage, although they are subject …
We perform calculations of isolated disc galaxies to investigate how the properties of the ISM, the nature of molecular clouds, and the global star formation rate depend on the level of stellar feedback. We adopt a simple physical model, which includes a galactic potential, a standard cooling and heating prescription of the ISM, and self gravity of the gas. Stellar feedback is implemented by injecting energy into dense, gravitationally collapsing gas, but is independent of the Schmidt-Kennicutt relation. We obtain fractions of gas, and filling factors for different phases of the ISM in reasona…
The Columbia - U. de Chile CO Survey of the Southern Milky Way is used for separating the CO(1-0) emission of the fourth Galactic quadrant within the solar circle into its dominant components, giant molecular clouds (GMCs). After the subtraction of an axisymmetric model of the CO background emission in the inner Southern Galaxy, 92 GMCs are identified, and for 87 of them the two-fold distance ambiguity is solved. Their total molecular mass is M(H2) = 1.14 +/- 0.05 x 10^8 Msolar accounting for around 40% of the molecular mass estimated from an axisymmetric analysis of the H2 volume density in t…
Most of giant molecular clouds (GMCs) in M 33 are connected with spiral-like gaseous arms (filaments) with the exception of the inner 2 kpc region where the link between the arms and GMCs disappears (see Tosaki et al. 2011). We check whether it may be caused by the dynamic friction retarding the clouds. Using semi-analytical model for this galaxy we calculate the dynamics of GMCs of different masses situated at different initial galactocentric distances in the disk plane. We demonstrate that the dynamical friction may really change the orbits of GMCs in the central 2 kpc-size region. However i…
We study the physical properties of giant molecular cloud associations (GMAs) in M100 (NGC 4321) using the ALMA Science Verification feathered (12-m+ACA) data in 12CO (1-0). To examine the environmental dependence of GMA properties, GMAs are classified based on their locations in the various environments as circumnuclear ring (CNR), bar, spiral, and inter-arm GMAs. The CNR GMAs are massive and compact, while the inter-arm GMAs are diffuse with low surface density. GMA mass and size are strongly correlated, as suggested by Larson (1981). However, the diverse power-law index of the relation impl…
Studies of GMC evolution in galactic disks were limited to local, predominantly atom-rich small galaxies in the past, but have now been expanded to typical spiral galaxies with a rich molecular content. The evolution appears quite different between the two environments. GMCs exist almost exclusively along HI spiral arms and filaments in the disks of local small galaxies (LMC, M33), suggesting that GMCs form and end their short lives there. However, in a more molecular-rich environment (MW, M51), GMCs are present everywhere independent of HI structures. Indeed, the molecular gas fraction remain…
The escape of ultraviolet photons from the densest regions of the interstellar medium (ISM) --- Giant Molecular Clouds (GMCs) --- is a poorly constrained parameter which is vital to understanding the ionization of the ISM and the intergalactic medium. We characterize the escape fraction, f$_{\text{esc,GMC}}$, from a suite of individual GMC simulations with masses in the range 10$^{4-6}$ M$_{\odot}$ using the adaptive-mesh refinement code FLASH. We find significantly different f$_{\text{esc,GMC}}$ depending on the GMC mass which can reach $>$90% in the evolution of 5$\times$10$^4$ and 10$^{5}$ …
By combining two surveys covering a large fraction of the molecular material in the Galactic disk we investigate the role the spiral arms play in the star formation process. We have matched clumps identified by ATLASGAL with their parental GMCs as identified by SEDIGISM, and use these giant molecular cloud (GMC) masses, the bolometric luminosities, and integrated clump masses obtained in a concurrent paper to estimate the dense gas fractions (DGF$_{\rm gmc}=\sum M_{\rm clump}/M_{\rm gmc}$) and the instantaneous star forming efficiencies (i.e., SFE$_{\rm gmc} = \sum L_{\rm clump}/M_{\rm gmc}$).…
We present high spatial resolution observations of Giant Molecular Clouds (GMCs) in the eastern part of the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 6946 obtained with the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy (CARMA). We have observed 12CO(1-0), 12CO(2-1) and 13CO(1-0), achieving spatial resolutions of 5.4" x 5.0", 2.5" x 2.0" and 5.6" x 5.4" respectively over a region of 6 x 6 kpc. This region extends from 1.5 kpc to 8 kpc galactocentric radius, thus avoiding the intense star formation in the central kpc. We have recovered short-spacing u-v components by using single dish observations fro…
The spiral structure of the Milky Way is not yet well determined. The keys to understanding this structure are to increase the number of reliable spiral tracers and to determine their distances as accurately as possible. HII regions, giant molecular clouds (GMCs), and 6.7-GHz methanol masers are closely related to high mass star formation, and hence they are excellent spiral tracers. We update the catalogs of Galactic HII regions, GMCs, and 6.7-GHz methanol masers, and then outline the spiral structure of the Milky Way. We collected data for more than 2500 known HII regions, 1300 GMCs, and 900…
The ISM is governed by supersonic turbulence on a range of scales. We use this to develop a rigorous excursion-set model for the formation and time evolution of dense gas structures (GMCs, massive clumps, and cores). Supersonic turbulence drives the density distribution to a lognormal with dispersion increasing with Mach number; we generalize this to include scales >h (the disk scale height), and use it to construct the statistical properties of the density field smoothed on a scale R. We then compare conditions for self-gravitating collapse including thermal, turbulent, and rotational support…
We present results of the $^{12}$CO (1--0) mosaic observations of the nearby barred-spiral galaxy M83 obtained with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). The total flux is recovered by combining the ALMA data with single-dish data obtained using the Nobeyama 45-m telescope. The combined map covers a $\sim$13 kpc$^{2}$ field that includes the galactic center, eastern bar, and spiral arm with a resolution of \timeform{2''.03} $\times$ \timeform{1''.1} ($\sim$45 pc $\times$ $\sim$25 pc). With a resolution comparable to typical sizes of giant molecular clouds (GMCs), the CO dist…
With the advent of modern observational efforts providing extensive giant molecular cloud catalogues, understanding the evolution of such clouds in a galactic context is of prime importance. While numerous previous numerical and theoretical works have focused on the cloud properties in isolated discs, few have looked into the cloud population in an interacting disc system. We present results of the first study investigating the evolution of the cloud population in galaxy experiencing an M51-like tidal fly-by using numerical simulations including star formation, interstellar medium cooling and …
Could the velocity spread, increasing with time, in the Galactic disk be explained as a result of gravitational interactions of stars with giant molecular clouds (GMCs) and spiral arms? Do the old open clusters high above the Galactic plane provide clues to this question? We explore the effects on stellar orbits of scattering by inhomogeneities in the Galactic potential due to GMCs, spiral arms and the Galactic bar, and whether high-altitude clusters could have formed in orbits closer to the Galactic plane and later been scattered. Simulations of test-particle motions are performed in a realis…
Recent radio observations show that the giant molecular cloud (GMC) mass functions noticeably vary across galactic disks. High-resolution magnetohydrodynamics simulations show that multiple episodes of compression are required for creating a molecular cloud in the magnetized interstellar medium. In this article, we formulate the evolution equation for the GMC mass function to reproduce the observed profiles, for which multiple compression are driven by the network of expanding shells due to HII regions and supernova remnants. We introduce the cloud-cloud collision (CCC) terms in the evolution …
Using data from the PdBI Arcsecond Whirlpool Survey (PAWS), we have generated the largest extragalactic Giant Molecular Cloud (GMC) catalog to date, containing 1,507 individual objects. GMCs in the inner M51 disk account for only 54% of the total 12CO(1-0) luminosity of the survey, but on average they exhibit physical properties similar to Galactic GMCs. We do not find a strong correlation between the GMC size and velocity dispersion, and a simple virial analysis suggests that 30% of GMCs in M51 are unbound. We have analyzed the GMC properties within seven dynamically-motivated galactic enviro…
We report the highest-fidelity observations of the spiral galaxy M51 in CO emission, revealing the evolution of giant molecular clouds (GMCs) vis-a-vis the large-scale galactic structure and dynamics. The most massive GMCs (so-called GMAs) are first assembled and then broken up as the gas flow through the spiral arms. The GMAs and their H2 molecules are not fully dissociated into atomic gas as predicted in stellar feedback scenarios, but are fragmented into smaller GMCs upon leaving the spiral arms. The remnants of GMAs are detected as the chains of GMCs that emerge from the spiral arms into i…
Chemical abundance variations in the ISM provide important information about the galactic evolution, star-formation and enrichment histories. Recent observations of disk galaxies suggest that if large-scale azimuthal metallicity variations appear in the ISM, they are linked to the spiral arms. In this work, using a set of chemodynamical simulations of the Milky Way-like spiral galaxies, we quantify the impact of gas radial motions~(migration) in the presence of a pre-existing radial metallicity gradient and the local ISM enrichment on both global and local variations of the mean ISM metallicit…
Fine structure of the density distribution in giant molecular clouds (GMC) around W43 (G31+00+90 km/s at $\sim 5.5$ kpc) was analyzed using the FUGIN$^*$ CO-line survey at high-angular ($20''\sim 0.5$ pc) and velocity (1.3 km/s) resolutions ($^*$Four-receiver-system Unbiased Galactic Imaging survey with the Nobeyama 45-m telescope). The GMCs show highly turbulent structures, and the eddies are found to exhibit spherical bubble morphology appearing in narrow ranges of velocity channels. The bubbles are dark in radio continuum emission, unlike usual supernova remnants (SNR) or HII regions, and i…
We present Ekster, a new method for simulating star clusters from birth in a live galaxy simulation that combines the smoothed-particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method Phantom with the $N$-body method PeTar. With Ekster, it becomes possible to simulate individual stars in a simulation with only moderately high resolution for the gas, allowing us to study whole sections of a galaxy rather than be restricted to individual clouds. We use this method to simulate star and star cluster formation in spiral arms, investigating massive GMCs and spiral arm regions with lower mass clouds, from two galaxy mode…
We utilize magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations to develop a numerical model for GMC-GMC collisions between nearly magnetically critical clouds. The goal is to determine if, and under what circumstances, cloud collisions can cause pre-existing magnetically subcritical clumps to become supercritical and undergo gravitational collapse. We first develop and implement new photodissociation region (PDR) based heating and cooling functions that span the atomic to molecular transition, creating a multiphase ISM and allowing modeling of non-equilibrium temperature structures. Then in 2D and with idea…
Dense, star-forming gas is believed to form at the stagnation points of large-scale ISM flows, but observational examples of this process in action are rare. We here present a giant molecular cloud (GMC) sandwiched between two colliding Milky Way supershells, which we argue shows strong evidence of having formed from material accumulated at the collision zone. Combining 12CO, 13CO and C18O(J=1-0) data with new high-resolution, 3D hydrodynamical simulations of colliding supershells, we discuss the origin and nature of the GMC (G288.5+1.5), favoring a scenario in which the cloud was partially se…
JWST Reveals Star Formation Across a Spiral Arm in M33
University of Alberta（阿尔伯塔大学）；University of Oxford（牛津大学）；Harvard & Smithsonian（哈佛-史密森天体物理中心）；Raytheon（雷神公司）；Steward Observatory, University of Arizona（亚利桑那大学斯图尔德天文台）；Universiteit Gent（根特大学）；University of Washington（华盛顿大学）；Flatiron Institute（平顿研究所）；University of Florida（佛罗里达大学）；Northwestern University（西北大学）；The Ohio State University（俄亥俄州立大学）
We present the results from simulations of GMC formation in spiral galaxies. First we discuss cloud formation by cloud-cloud collisions, and gravitational instabilities, arguing that the former is prevalent at lower galactic surface densities and the latter at higher. Cloud masses are also limited by stellar feedback, which can be effective before clouds reach their maximum mass. We show other properties of clouds in simulations with different levels of feedback. With a moderate level of feedback, properties such as cloud rotations and virial parameters agree with observations. Without feedbac…
In this paper we present a catalogue of Giant Molecular Clouds (GMCs) in the Andromeda (M31) galaxy extracted from the Hershel Exploitation of Local Galaxy Andromeda (HELGA) dataset. GMCs are identified from the Herschel maps using a hierarchical source extraction algorithm. We present the results of this new catalogue and characterise the spatial distribution and spectral energy properties of its clouds based on the radial dust/gas properties found by Smith et al (2012). 236 GMCs in the mass range 10^4-10^7 M_sol are identified, their cumulative mass distribution is found to be proportional t…
The spiral structure of our Milky Way Galaxy is not yet known. HII regions and giant molecular clouds are the most prominent spiral tracers. We collected the spiral tracer data of our Milky Way from the literature, namely, HII regions and giant molecular clouds (GMCs). With weighting factors based on the excitation parameters of HII regions or the masses of GMCs, we fitted the distribution of these tracers with models of two, three, four spiral-arms or polynomial spiral arms. The distances of tracers, if not available from stellar or direct measurements, were estimated kinetically from the sta…
With the aim of improving predictions on far infrared (FIR) line emission from Giant Molecular Clouds (GMC), we study the effects of photoevaporation (PE) produced by external far-ultraviolet (FUV) and ionizing (extreme-ultraviolet, EUV) radiation on GMC structure. We consider three different GMCs with mass in the range $M_{\rm GMC} = 10^{3-6}\,\rm{M_{\odot}}$. Our model includes: (i) an observationally-based inhomogeneous GMC density field, and (ii) its time evolution during the PE process. In the fiducial case ($M_{\rm GMC}\approx10^5 M_{\odot}$), the photoevaporation time ($t_{pe}$) increas…
We analyse the results of four simulations of isolated galaxies: two with a rigid spiral potential of fixed pattern speed, but with different degrees of star-formation induced feedback, one with an axisymmetric galactic potential and one with a `live' self-gravitating stellar component. Since we use a Lagrangian method we are able to select gas that lies within giant molecular clouds (GMCs) at a particular timeframe, and to then study the properties of this gas at earlier and later times. We find that gas which forms GMCs is not typical of the interstellar medium at least 50 Myr before the clo…
Two selected regions in the molecular gas spiral arms in M51 were mapped with the Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO) mm-interferometer in the 12CO(2-1), 13CO(1-0), C18O(1-0), HCN(1-0) and HCO+(1-0) emission lines. The CO data have been combined with the 12CO(1-0) data from Aalto et al. (1999) covering the central 3.5kpc to study the physical properties of the molecular gas. All CO data cubes were short spacing corrected using IRAM 30m (12CO(1-0): NRO 45m) single dish data. A large velocity gradient (LVG) analysis finds that the giant molecular clouds (GMCs) are similar to Galactic GMCs when…
Observations of various molecular lines toward a disk region of a nearby galaxy are now feasible, and they are being employed as diagnostic tools to study star-formation activities there. However, the spatial resolution attainable for a nearby galaxy with currently available radio telescopes is $10-1000$ pc, which is much larger than the scales of individual star-forming regions and molecular cloud cores. Hence, it is of fundamental importance to elucidate which part of an interstellar medium such spatially-unresolved observations are tracing. Here we present sensitive measurements of the H$_2…
The process that leads to the formation of the bright star forming sites observed along prominent spiral arms remains elusive. We present results of a multi-wavelength study of a spiral arm segment in the nearby grand-design spiral galaxy M51 that belongs to a spiral density wave and exhibits nine gas spurs. The combined observations of the(ionized, atomic, molecular, dusty) interstellar medium (ISM) with star formation tracers (HII regions, young <10Myr stellar clusters) suggest (1) no variation in giant molecular cloud (GMC) properties between arm and gas spurs, (2) gas spurs and extinction …
Tidal encounters are believed to be one of the key drivers of galactic spiral structure in the Universe. Such spirals are expected to produce different morphological and kinematic features compared to density wave and dynamic spiral arms. In this work we present high resolution simulations of a tidal encounter of a small mass companion with a disc galaxy. Included are the effects of gas cooling and heating, star formation and stellar feedback. The structure of the perturbed disc differs greatly from the isolated galaxy, showing clear spiral features that act as sites of new star formation, and…
We propose a new dynamical picture of galactic stellar and gas spirals, based on hydrodynamic simulations in a `live' stellar disk. We focus especially on spiral structures excited in a isolated galactic disk without a stellar bar. Using high-resolution, 3-dimensional N-body/SPH simulations, we found that the spiral features of the gas in galactic disks are formed by essentially different mechanisms from the galactic shock in stellar density waves. The stellar spiral arms and the interstellar matter on average corotate in a galactic potential at any radii. Unlike the stream motions in the gala…
We use the high spatial and spectral resolution of the PAWS CO(1-0) survey of the inner 9 kpc of the iconic spiral galaxy M51 to examine the effect of gas streaming motions on the star-forming properties of individual GMCs. We compare our view of gas flows in M51 -- which arise due to departures from axi-symmetry in the gravitational potential (i.e. the nuclear bar and spiral arms) -- with the global pattern of star formation as traced by Halpha and 24μm emission. We find that the dynamical environment of GMCs strongly affects their ability to form stars, in the sense that GMCs situated in reg…
By resimulating a region of a global disc simulation at higher resolution, we resolve and study the properties of molecular clouds with a range of masses from a few 100's M$_{\odot}$ to $10^6$ M$_{\odot}$. The purpose of our paper is twofold, i) to compare the ISM and GMCs at much higher resolution compared to previous global simulations, and ii) to investigate smaller clouds and characteristics such as the internal properties of GMCs which cannot be resolved in galactic simulations. We confirm the robustness of cloud properties seen in previous galactic simulations, and that these properties …
Star formation is slow, in the sense that the gas consumption time is much longer than the dynamical time. It is also inefficient; essentially all star formation in local galaxies takes place in giant molecular clouds (GMCs), but the fraction of a GMC converted to stars is very small, ~5%. In the most luminous starbursts, the GMC lifetime is shorter than the main sequence lifetime of even the most massive stars, so that supernovae can play no role in GMC disruption. We investigate the disruption of GMCs across a wide range of galaxies, from normal spirals to the densest starbursts; we take int…
We present newly obtained three-dimensional gaseous maps of the Milky Way Galaxy; HI, H$_2$ and total-gas (HI plus H$_2$) maps, which were derived from the HI and $^{12}$CO($J=1$--0) survey data and rotation curves based on the kinematic distance. The HI and H$_2$ face-on maps show that the HI disk is extended to the radius of 15--20 kpc and its outskirt is asymmetric to the Galactic center, while most of the H$_2$ gas is distributed inside the solar circle. The total gas mass within radius 30 kpc amounts to $8.0\times 10^9$ M$_\odot$, 89\% and 11\% of which are HI and H$_2$, {respectively}. T…
Aims. We study the effect of large scale dynamics on the molecular composition of the dense interstellar medium during the transition between diffuse to dense clouds. Methods. We followed the formation of dense clouds (on sub-parsec scales) through the dynamics of the interstellar medium at galac- tic scales. We used results from smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations from which we extracted physical parameters that are used as inputs for our full gas-grain chemical model. In these simulations, the evolution of the interstellar matter is followed for ~50 Myr. The warm low-density in…
Molecular oxygen has been the subject of many observational searches as chemical models predicted it to be a reservoir of oxygen. Although it has been detected in two regions of the interstellar medium, its rarity is a challenge for astrochemical models. In this paper, we have combined the physical conditions computed with smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations with our full gas-grain chemical model Nautilus, to study the predicted O2 abundance in interstellar material forming cold cores. We thus follow the chemical evolution of gas and ices in parcels of material from the diffuse i…
We present a study of the elemental depletion in the interstellar medium. We combined the results of a Galatic model describing the gas physical conditions during the formation of dense cores with a full-gas-grain chemical model. During the transition between diffuse and dense medium, the reservoirs of elements, initially atomic in the gas, are gradually depleted on dust grains (with a phase of neutralisation for those which are ions). This process becomes efficient when the density is larger than 100~cm$^{-3}$. If the dense material goes back into diffuse conditions, these elements are brough…
We analyze radial and azimuthal variations of the phase balance between the molecular and atomic ISM in the Milky Way. In particular, the azimuthal variations -- between spiral arm and interarm regions -- are analyzed without any explicit definition of spiral arm locations. We show that the molecular gas mass fraction, i.e., fmol=H2/ (HI+H2) in mass, varies predominantly in the radial direction: starting from ~100% at the center, remaining ~>50% (~>60%) to R~6kpc, and decreasing to ~10-20% (~50%) at R=8.5 kpc when averaged over the whole disk thickness (in the mid plane). Azimuthal, arm-intera…
Context: The Faraday rotation measure (RM) is often used to study the magnetic field strength and orientation within the ionized medium of the Milky Way. Observations indicate a RM in the spiral arms that exceeds the commonly assumed range. This raises the question of under what conditions spiral arms create such strong RM. Aims: We investigate the effect of spiral arms on Galactic RMs through shock compression of the interstellar medium (ISM). It has recently been suggested that the Sagittarius spiral arm creates a strong peak in RM where the line of sight (LOS) is tangent to the arm, and tha…
Turbulence is ubiquitous in the interstellar medium (ISM) of the Milky Way and other spiral galaxies. The energy source for this turbulence has been much debated with many possible origins proposed. The universality of turbulence, its reported large-scale driving, and that it occurs also in starless molecular clouds, challenges models invoking any stellar source. A more general process is needed to explain the observations. In this work we study the role of galactic spiral arms. This is accomplished by means of three-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations which follow the dynamical evolution o…
Three dimensional (3D) distribution of the volume-density molecular fraction, defined by fmol_rho=rho_H2/(rho_HI + rho_H2), is studied in the Milky Way Galaxy. The molecular front appears at galacto-centric distance of R \sim 8 kpc, where the phase transition from atomic to molecular hydrogen occurs suddenly with fmol_rho dropping from \sim 0.8 to 0.2 within a radial interval as narrow as \sim 0.5 kpc. The front in fmol_rho is much sharper than that for surface density molecular fraction. The front also appears in the vertical direction with a full width of the high-fmol_rho disk to be \sim 10…
Studies of nearby spiral galaxies in radio and X-ray wavelengths reveal the structure and energy balance of the magnetic fields and the hot interstellar medium (ISM). In some spiral galaxies, large-scale ordered magnetic fields have been found between the spiral stellar arms (the so-called magnetic arms). One of the considered explanations of their origin is magnetic reconnection, which according to theoretical studies can efficiently heat the low-density ISM. We present, for the first time, high-resolution C-band (5GHz) radio maps of the nearby face-on spiral galaxy M101 to study the magnetic…
Spiral arms greatly affect gas flows and star formation in disk galaxies. We use local three-dimensional simulations of the vertically-stratified, self-gravitating, differentially-rotating, interstellar medium (ISM) subject to a stellar spiral potential to study the effects of spiral arms on star formation and formation of arm spurs/feathers. We adopt the TIGRESS framework of Kim & Ostriker (2017) to handle radiative heating and cooling, star formation, and ensuing supernova (SN) feedback. We find that more than 90% of star formation takes place in spiral arms, but the global star formation ra…
Using hydrodynamical simulations of a Milky Way-like galaxy, reaching 4.6 pc resolution, we study how the choice of star formation criteria impacts both galactic and Giant Molecular Clouds (GMC) scales. We find that using a turbulent, self-gravitating star formation criteria leads to an increase in the fraction of gas with densities between 10 and 10$^4$ cm$^{-3}$ when compared with a simulation using a molecular star formation method, despite both having nearly identical gaseous and stellar morphologies. Furthermore, we find that the site of star formation is effected with the the former tend…
We report systematic variations in the CO(2-1)/CO(1-0) line ratio (R) in M51. The ratio shows clear evidence for the evolution of molecular gas from the upstream interarm regions, passage into the spiral arms and back into the downstream interarm regions. In the interarm regions, R is typically low <0.7 (and often 0.4-0.6); this is similar to the ratios observed in Galactic giant molecular clouds (GMCs) with low far-IR luminosities. However, the ratio rises to >0.7 (often 0.8-1.0) in the spiral arms, particularly at their leading (downstream) edge. R is also high, 0.8-1.0, in the central regio…
We present the first complete, velocity-resolved [CII] 158um image of the M51 grand-design spiral galaxy, observed with the upGREAT instrument on SOFIA. [CII] is an important tracer of various phases of the interstellar medium (ISM), including ionized gas, neutral atomic, and diffuse molecular regions. We combine the [CII] data with HI, CO, 24um dust continuum, FUV, and near-infrared K-band observations to study the evolution of the ISM across M51's spiral arms in both position-position, and position-velocity space. Our data show strong velocity gradients in HI, 12CO, and [CII] at the location…
We performed new large-scale $^{12}$CO, $^{13}$CO, and C$^{18}$O $J=$1--0 observations of the W43 giant molecular cloud complex in the tangential direction of the Scutum arm ($l\sim {30^\circ}$) as a part of the FUGIN project. The low-density gas traced by $^{12}$CO is distributed over 150 pc $\times$ 100 pc ($l \times b$), and has a large velocity dispersion (20-30 km s$^{-1}$). However, the dense gas traced by C$^{18}$O is localized in the W43 Main, G30.5, and W43 South (G29.96-0.02) high-mass star-forming regions in the W43 GMC complex, which have clumpy structures. We found at least two cl…
