THE JAMES CLERK MAXWELL TELESCOPE NEARBY GALAXIES LEGACY SURVEY. II. WARM MOLECULAR GAS AND STAR FORMATION IN THREE FIELD SPIRAL GALAXIES

被引：38

作者：

Warren, B. E. ^{[1
]}

Wilson, C. D. ^{[1
]}

Israel, F. P. ^{[2
]}

Serjeant, S. ^{[3
]}

Bendo, G. J. ^{[4
]}

Brinks, E. ^{[5
]}

Clements, D. L. ^{[4
]}

Irwin, J. A. ^{[6
]}

Knapen, J. H. ^{[7
]}

Leech, J. ^{[8
]}

Matthews, H. E. ^{[9
]}

Muhle, S. ^{[10
]}

Mortimer, A. M. J. ^{[11
]}

Petitpas, G. ^{[12
]}

Sinukoff, E. ^{[1
]}

Spekkens, K. ^{[13
]}

Tan, B. K. ^{[8
]}

Tilanus, R. P. J. ^{[14
,15
]}

Usero, A. ^{[16
]}

van der Werf, P. P. ^{[2
]}

Vlahakis, C. ^{[2
]}

Wiegert, T. ^{[17
]}

Zhu, M. ^{[18
]}

机构：

[1] McMaster Univ, Dept Phys & Astron, Hamilton, ON L8S 4M1, Canada

[2] Leiden Univ, Sterrewacht Leiden, NL-2300 RA Leiden, Netherlands

[3] Open Univ, Dept Phys & Astron, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, Bucks, England

[4] Univ London Imperial Coll Sci Technol & Med, Blackett Lab, Astrophys Grp, London SW7 2AZ, England

[5] Univ Hertfordshire, Ctr Astrophys Res, Hatfield AL10 9AB, Herts, England

[6] Queens Univ, Dept Phys Engn Phys & Astron, Kingston, ON, Canada

[7] Inst Astrofis Canarias, E-38200 San Cristobal la Laguna, Spain

[8] Univ Oxford, Dept Phys, Oxford OX1 3RH, England

[9] DRAO, Herzberg Inst Astrophys, Natl Res Council Canada, Penticton, BC V2A 6J9, Canada

[10] Joint Inst VLBI Europe, NL-7990 AA Dwingeloo, Netherlands

[11] Scottish Univ Phys Alliance, Inst Astron, Royal Observ, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, Midlothian, Scotland

[12] Harvard Smithsonian Ctr Astrophys, Cambridge, MA 02138 USA

[13] Royal Mil Coll Canada, Dept Phys, Kingston, ON K7K 4B4, Canada

[14] Joint Astron Ctr, Hilo, HI 96720 USA

[15] Netherlands Org Sci Res, The Hague, Netherlands

[16] Observ Astron Nacl, Madrid 28014, Spain

[17] Univ Manitoba, Dept Phys & Astron, Winnipeg, MB R3T 2N2, Canada

[18] Chinese Acad Sci, Natl Astron Observ, Beijing, Peoples R China

来源：

ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL | 2010年 / 714卷 / 01期

基金：

加拿大自然科学与工程研究理事会;

关键词：

galaxies:; individual; (NGC; 628; NGC; 3521; 3627); galaxies: ISM; galaxies: kinematics and dynamics; galaxies: spiral; galaxies: star formation; ISM: molecules; CO OBSERVATIONS; BIMA SURVEY; H-ALPHA; KINEMATICS; ROTATION; NGC-3627; SCHMIDT; CLUSTER; CLOUDS; THINGS;

D O I：

10.1088/0004-637X/714/1/571

中图分类号：

P1 [天文学];

学科分类号：

0704 ;

摘要：

We present the results of large-area (12)CO J = 3-2 emission mapping of three nearby field galaxies, NGC 628, NGC 3521, and NGC 3627, completed at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope as part of the Nearby Galaxies Legacy Survey. These galaxies all have moderate to strong (12)CO J = 3-2 detections over large areas of the fields observed by the survey, showing resolved structure and dynamics in their warm/dense molecular gas disks. All three galaxies were part of the Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxies Survey sample, and as such have excellent published multiwavelength ancillary data. These data sets allow us to examine the star formation properties, gas content, and dynamics of these galaxies on sub-kiloparsec scales. We find that the global gas depletion time for dense/warm molecular gas in these galaxies is consistent with other results for nearby spiral galaxies, indicating this may be independent of galaxy properties such as structures, gas compositions, and environments. Similar to the results from The Hi Nearby Galaxy Survey, we do not see a correlation of the star formation efficiency with the gas surface density consistent with the Schmidt-Kennicutt law. Finally, we find that the star formation efficiency of the dense molecular gas traced by (12)CO J = 3-2 is potentially flat or slightly declining as a function of molecular gas density, the (12)CO J = 3-2/J = 1-0 ratio (in contrast to the correlation found in a previous study into the starburst galaxy M83), and the fraction of total gas in molecular form.

引用

页码：571 / 588

页数：18