Warm and Cold Molecular Gas in Galaxies

May 2005 • 2005AJ....129.2197D

Authors • Dale, Daniel A. • Sheth, Kartik • Helou, George • Regan, Michael W. • Hüttemeister, Susanne

Abstract • New and archival interferometric ¹²CO (1-->0) data sets from six nearby galaxies are combined with H₂ 2.122 μm and Hα maps to explore in detail the interstellar medium in different star-forming galaxies. We investigate the relation between warm (H₂ at T~2000 K) and cold (CO at T~50 K) molecular gas from 100 pc to 2 kpc scales. On these scales, the ratio of warm-to-cold molecular hydrogen correlates with the f_ν(60μm)/f_ν(100μm) ratio, which tracks the star formation activity level. This result also holds for the global properties of galaxies from a much larger sample drawn from the literature. The trend persists for over 3 orders of magnitude in the mass ratio, regardless of source nuclear activity.

Links

• SIMBAD http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbo.pl?bibcode=2005AJ....129.2197D
• PDF https://stacks.iop.org/1538-3881/129/2197/pdf
• NED https://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/uri/NED::InRefcode/2005AJ....129.2197D
• PREPRINT http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0501449
• ELECTR https://doi.org/10.1086%2F429134
• SPIRES http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+eprint+astro-ph/0501449