Dense Molecular Gas Tracers Research Articles

Outflow activities in the young high-mass stellar object G23.44–0.18

Abstract We present an observational study towards the young high-mass star-forming region G23.44-0.18 using the Submillimeter Array. Two massive, radio-quiet dusty cores MM1 and MM2 are observed in 1.3-mm continuum emission and dense molecular gas tracers including thermal CH3OH, CH3CN, HNCO, SO, and OCS lines. The 12CO (2–1) line reveals a strong bipolar outflow originating from MM2. The outflow consists of a low-velocity component with wide-angle quasi-parabolic shape and a more compact and collimated high-velocity component. The overall geometry resembles the outflow system observed in the low-mass protostar which has a jet-driven fast flow and entrained gas shell. The outflow has a dynamical age of 6 × 103 yr and a mass loss rate ∼10−3 M ⊙ yr-1. A prominent shock emission in the outflow is observed in SO and OCS, and also detected in CH3OH and HNCO. We investigated the chemistry of MM1, MM2 and the shocked region. The dense core MM2 have molecular abundances of three to four times higher than those in MM1. The abundance excess, we suggest, can be a net effect of the stellar evolution and embedded shocks in MM2 that calls for further inspection.

THE “NESSIE” NEBULA: CLUSTER FORMATION IN A FILAMENTARY INFRARED DARK CLOUD

The "Nessie" Nebula is a filamentary infrared dark cloud (IRDC) with a large aspect ratio of over 150:1 (1.5 degrees x 0.01 degrees, or 80 pc x 0.5 pc at a kinematic distance of 3.1 kpc). Maps of HNC (1-0) emission, a tracer of dense molecular gas, made with the Australia Telescope National Facility Mopra telescope, show an excellent morphological match to the mid-IR extinction. Moreover, because the molecular line emission from the entire nebula has the same radial velocity to within +/- 3.4 km/s, the nebula is a single, coherent cloud and not the chance alignment of multiple unrelated clouds along the line of sight. The Nessie Nebula contains a number of compact, dense molecular cores which have a characteristic projected spacing of ~ 4.5 pc along the filament. The theory of gravitationally bound gaseous cylinders predicts the existence of such cores, which, due to the "sausage" or "varicose" fluid instability, fragment from the cylinder at a characteristic length scale. If turbulent pressure dominates over thermal pressure in Nessie, then the observed core spacing matches theoretical predictions. We speculate that the formation of high-mass stars and massive star clusters arises from the fragmentation of filamentary IRDCs caused by the "sausage" fluid instability that leads to the formation of massive, dense molecular cores. The filamentary molecular gas clouds often found near high-mass star-forming regions (e.g., Orion, NGC 6334, etc.) may represent a later stage of IRDC evolution.

Detection of Emission from the CN Radical in the Cloverleaf Quasar at \documentclass{aastex} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{bm} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{pifont} \usepackage{stmaryrd} \usepackage{textcomp} \usepackage{portland,xspace} \usepackage{amsmath,amsxtra} \usepackage[OT2,OT1]{fontenc} \newcommand\cyr{ \renewcommand\rmdefault{wncyr} \renewcommand\sfdefault{wncyss} \renewcommand\encodingdefault{OT2} \normalfont \selectfont} \DeclareTextFontCommand{\textcyr}{\cyr} \pagestyle{empty} \DeclareMathSizes{10}{9}{7}{6} \begin{document} \landscape $z=2.56$ \end{document}

We report the detection of CN(N = 3 → 2) emission toward the Cloverleaf quasar (z = 2.56) based on observations with the IRAM Plateau de Bure Interferometer. This is the first clear detection of emission from this radical at high redshift. CN emission is a tracer of dense molecular hydrogen gas [n(H2) > 104 cm-3] within star-forming molecular clouds, in particular, in regions where the clouds are affected by UV radiation. The HCN/CN intensity ratio can be used as a diagnostic for the relative importance of photodissociation regions (PDRs) in a source and as a sensitive probe of optical depth, the radiation field, and photochemical processes. We derive a lensing-corrected CN(N = 3 → 2) line luminosity of L = (4.5 ± 0.5) × 109 K km s-1 pc2. The ratio between CN luminosity and far-infrared luminosity falls within the scatter of the same relationship found for low-z (ultra-) luminous infrared galaxies. Combining our new results with CO(J = 3 → 2) and HCN(J = 1 → 0) measurements from the literature and assuming thermal excitation for all transitions, we find a CO/CN luminosity ratio of 9.3 ± 1.9 and a HCN/CN luminosity ratio of 0.95 ± 0.15. However, we find that the CN(N = 3 → 2) line is likely only subthermally excited, implying that those ratios may only provide upper limits for the intrinsic 1 → 0 line luminosity ratios. We conclude that, in combination with other molecular gas tracers like CO, HCN, and HCO+, CN is an important probe of the physical conditions and chemical composition of dense molecular environments at high redshift.

Dense molecular gas in a sample of LIRGs and ULIRGs: The low-redshift connection to the huge high-redshift starbursts and AGNs

The sample of nearby LIRGs and ULIRGs for which dense molecular gas tracers have been measured is building up, allowing for the study of the physical and chemical properties of the gas in the variety of objects in which the most intense star formation and/or AGN activity in the local universe is taking place. This characterisation is essential to understand the processes involved, discard others and help to interpret the powerful starbursts and AGNs at high redshift that are currently being discovered and that will routinely be mapped by ALMA. We have studied the properties of the dense molecular gas in a sample of 17 nearby LIRGs and ULIRGs through millimeter observations of several molecules (HCO+, HCN, CN, HNC and CS) that trace different physical and chemical conditions of the dense gas in these extreme objects. In this paper we present the results of our HCO+ and HCN observations. We conclude that the very large range of measured line luminosity ratios for these two molecules severely questions the use of a unique molecular tracer to derive the dense gas mass in these galaxies.

HCN versus HCO+as Dense Molecular Gas Mass Tracers in Luminous Infrared Galaxies

It has recently been argued that the HCN J = 1-0 line emission may not be an unbiased tracer of dense molecular gas (n 104 cm-3) in luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs; LFIR > 1011 L☉) and that HCO+ J = 1-0 may constitute a better tracer instead, casting doubt onto earlier claims supporting the former as a good tracer of such gas. In this paper new sensitive HCN J = 4-3 observations of four such galaxies are presented, revealing a surprisingly wide excitation range for their dense gas phase that may render the J = 1-0 transition from either species a poor proxy of its mass. Moreover, the well-known sensitivity of the HCO+ abundance to the ionization degree of molecular gas (an important issue omitted from the ongoing discussion about the relative merits of HCN and HCO+ as dense gas tracers) may severely reduce the HCO+ abundance in the star-forming and highly turbulent molecular gas found in LIRGs, while HCN remains abundant. This may result in the decreasing HCO+/HCN J = 1-0 line ratios with increasing IR luminosity found in LIRGs, and it casts doubts on HCO+ rather than HCN as a good dense molecular gas tracer. Multitransition observations of both molecules are needed to identify the best such tracer and its relation to ongoing star formation, and to constrain what may be a considerable range of dense gas properties in such galaxies.

Colliding Clouds: The Star Formation Trigger of the Stellar Cluster around BD +40 4124

We present BIMA and SCUBA observations of the young cluster associated with BD +40 4124 in the dense molecular gas tracer CS J = 2 → 1 and the continuum dust emission at λ = 3.1 mm and 850 μm. The dense gas and dust in the system are aligned in a long ridge morphology extending ~0.4 pc with 16 gas clumps of estimated masses ranging from 0.14 to 1.8 M☉. A north-south variation in the CS center line velocity can be explained with a two-cloud model. We posit that the BD +40 4124 stellar cluster formed from a cloud-cloud collision. The largest line widths occur near V1318 Cyg S, a massive star affecting its natal environment. In contrast, the dense gas near the other, more evolved, massive stars displays no evidence for disruption; the material must either be processed into the star, dissipate, or relax fairly quickly. The more evolved low-mass protostars are more likely to be found near the massive stars. If the majority of low-mass stars are coeval, the seemingly evolved low-mass protostars are not older: the massive stars have eroded their structures. Finally, at the highest resolution, the λ = 3.1 mm dust emission is resolved into a flattened structure 3100 × 1500 AU with an estimated mass of 3.4 M☉. The continuum and CS emission are offset by 11 from the southern binary source. A simple estimate of the extinction due to the continuum emission structure is AV ~ 700 mag. From the offset and because the southern source is detected in the optical, the continuum emission is from a previously unknown very young, intermediate-mass, embedded stellar object.

Is HCN a True Tracer of Dense Molecular Gas in Luminous and Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies?

We present the results of the first HCO+ survey probing the dense molecular gas content of a sample of 16 luminous and ultraluminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs and ULIRGs). Previous work, based on HCN(1-0) observations, had shown that LIRGs and ULIRGs posses a significantly higher fraction of dense molecular gas compared to normal galaxies. While the picture issued from HCO+ partly confirms this result, we have discovered an intriguing correlation between the HCN(1-0)/HCO+(1-0) luminosity ratio and the IR luminosity of the galaxy (L(IR)). This trend casts doubts on the use of HCN as an unbiased quantitative tracer of the dense molecular gas content in LIRGs and ULIRGs. A plausible scenario explaining the observed trend implies that X-rays coming from an embedded AGN may play a dominant role in the chemistry of molecular gas at L(IR) > 1e12 Lsun. We discuss the implications of this result for the understanding of LIRGs, ULIRGs and high redshift gas-rich galaxies.

Spatially Resolved Chemistry in Nearby Galaxies. I. The Center of IC 342

We have imaged emission from the millimeter lines of eight molecules--C2H, C34S, N2H+, CH3OH, HNCO, HNC, HC3N, and SO--in the central half kpc of the nearby spiral galaxy IC 342. The 5" (~50 pc) resolution images were made with OVRO. Using these maps we obtain a picture of the chemistry within the nuclear region on the sizescales of individual GMCs. Bright emission is detected from all but SO. There are marked differences in morphology for the different molecules. A principal component analysis is performed to quantify similarities and differences among the images. This analysis reveals that while all molecules are to zeroth order correlated, that is, they are all found in dense molecular clouds, there are three distinct groups of molecules distinguished by the location of their emission within the nuclear region. N2H+, C18O, HNC and HCN are widespread and bright, good overall tracers of dense molecular gas. C2H and C34S, tracers of PDR chemistry, originate exclusively from the central 50-100 pc region, where radiation fields are high. The third group of molecules, CH3OH and HNCO, correlates well with the expected locations of bar-induced orbital shocks. The good correlation of HNCO with the established shock tracer molecule CH3OH is evidence that this molecule, whose chemistry has been uncertain, is indeed produced by processing of grains. HC3N is observed to correlate tightly with 3mm continuum emission, demonstrating that the young starbursts are the sites of the warmest and densest molecular gas. We compare our HNC images with the HCN images of Downes et al. (1992) to produce the first high resolution, extragalactic HCN/HNC map: the HNC/HCN ratio is near unity across the nucleus and the correlation of both of these gas tracers with the star formation is excellent. (Abridged).

The Star Formation Rate and Dense Molecular Gas in Galaxies

HCN luminosity is a tracer of dense molecular gas, n(H(2)) greater than or similar to3 x 10(4) cm(-3), associated with star-forming giant molecular cloud (GMC) cores. We present the results and analysis of our survey of HCN emission from 65 infrared galaxies, including nine ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIGs, L(IR) greater than or similar to 10(12) L(circle dot)), 22 luminous infrared galaxies (LIGs, 10(11) L(circle dot) < L(IR) less than or similar to 10(12) L(circle dot)), and 34 normal spiral galaxies with lower IR luminosity (most are large spiral galaxies). We have measured the global HCN line luminosity, and the observations are reported in Paper I. This paper analyzes the relationships between the total far-IR luminosity (a tracer of the star formation rate), the global HCN line luminosity (a measure of the total dense molecular gas content), and the CO luminosity (a measure of the total molecular content). We find a tight linear correlation between the IR and HCN luminosities L(IR) and L(HCN) (in the log-log plot) with a correlation coefficient R = 0.94, and an almost constant average ratio L(IR)/L(HCN) = 900 L(circle dot) (K km s(-1) pc(2))(-1). The IR-HCN linear correlation is valid over 3 orders of magnitude including ULIGs, the most luminous objects in the local universe. The direct consequence of the linear IR-HCN correlation is that the star formation law in terms of dense molecular gas content has a power-law index of 1.0. The global star formation rate is linearly proportional to the mass of dense molecular gas in normal spiral galaxies, LIGs, and ULIGs. This is strong evidence in favor of star formation as the power source in ultraluminous galaxies since the star formation in these galaxies appears to be normal and expected given their high mass of dense star-forming molecular gas.