Relationship between the line width of the atomic and molecular ISM in M33

Abstract

ABSTRACT We investigate how the spectral properties of atomic (H i) and molecular (H2) gas, traced by CO(2−1) , are related in M33 on 80 pc scales. We find the H i and CO(2−1) velocity at peak intensity to be highly correlated, consistent with previous studies. By stacking spectra aligned to the velocity of H i peak intensity, we find that the CO line width (σHWHM = 4.6 ± 0.9 ${\rm km\, s^{-1}}$ ; σHWHM is the effective Gaussian width) is consistently smaller than the H i line width (σHWHM = 6.6 ± 0.1 ${\rm km\, s^{-1}}$), with a ratio of ∼0.7, in agreement with Druard et al. The ratio of the line widths remains less than unity when the data are smoothed to a coarser spatial resolution. In other nearby galaxies, this line width ratio is close to unity which has been used as evidence for a thick, diffuse molecular disc that is distinct from the thin molecular disc dominated by molecular clouds. The smaller line width ratio found here suggests that M33 has a marginal thick molecular disc. From modelling individual lines of sight, we recover a strong correlation between H i and CO line widths when only the H i located closest to the CO component is considered. The median line width ratio of the line-of-sight line widths is 0.56 ± 0.01. There is substantial scatter in the H i –CO(2−1) line width relation, larger than the uncertainties, that results from regional variations on <500 pc scales, and there is no significant trend in the line widths, or their ratios, with galactocentric radius. These regional line width variations may be a useful probe of changes in the local cloud environment or the evolutionary state of molecular clouds.