Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-2h6rp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-25T02:25:35.915Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Gas and Dust in Ultraluminous Galactic Nuclei

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 May 2016

N.Z. Scoville  and
M.S. Yun
N.Z. Scoville
Affiliation:
California Institute of Technology, Astronomy 105-24, Pasadena, CA 91125
M.S. Yun
Affiliation:
National Radio Astronomy Observatory, P. O. Box 0, Socorro, NM 87801

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Millimeter-wave interferometry has clearly shown the existence of enormous masses (109 – 1010M⊙) of molecular gas concentrated in the nuclear regions (R < 500 pc) of many luminous and ultraluminous infrared galaxies. In these systems, molecular gas is an obvious source of fuel for nuclear starbursts and active galactic nuclei (AGN). In several ultraluminous systems (e.g., Arp 220 and Mrk 231), there now exists CO (2-1) interferometry at ≤ 1″ resolution which reveals for the first time extremely dense, gaseous accretion disks on the scale 50-300 pc. Based on the low velocity dispersion of the molecular gas in the nuclear disks, we believe them to be extremely thin (10-50 pc). In addition, high brightness temperatures in the CO lines (10-20 K) imply that these disks are nearly uniformly filled with a continuous gas distribution, rather than being relatively isolated, self-gravitating GMCs. Although the gas is ‘uniformly’ distributed, the gas densities must be high, > 104 cm−3. When viewed near the plane of the disk, the central AGNs, if they exist, will be totally obscured at optical and near infrared wavelengths. In Mrk 231, our line of sight is probably within 60° of the disk axis, but in Arp 220 the disk is closer to edge-on. In fact, recent near infrared imaging of Arp 220 with the NICMOS camera on the HST reveals totally opaque dust disks embedded within the central star clusters of both nuclei.

Type
Starbursts
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 186: Galaxy Interactions at High and Low Redshift , 1999 , pp. 265 - 272
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer 1999 

References

Boksenberg, A., Carswell, R.F., Allen, D.A., Fosbury, R.A.E., Penston, M.V., & Sargent, W.L.W. 1977, MNRAS, 178, 451 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boroson, T.A., Meyers, K.A., Morris, S.L., & Persson, S.E. 1991, Ap.J., 370, L19 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bryant, P.M. 1996, , California Institute of Technology Google Scholar
Carilli, C.L., Wrobel, J.M., & Ulvestad, J.S. 1998, Ap.J., in press Google Scholar
Downes, D. 1998, IAU Symposium 184, in press Google Scholar
Graham, J.R., Carico, D.P., Matthews, K., Neugebauer, G., Soifer, B.T., & Wilson, T.D. 1990, Ap.J. (Letters), 354, L5 Google Scholar
Hutchings, J.B. & Neff, S.G. 1987, Ap.J, 92, 14 Google Scholar
Joseph, R.D. & Wright, G.S. 1985, MNRAS, 452, 599 Google Scholar
Larkin, J.E., Armus, L., Knop, R.IA., Matthews, K., & Soifer, B.T. 1995, Ap. J., 452, 599 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norris, R.P. 1988, MNRAS, 230, 345 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sanders, D.B., Scoville, N.Z., & Soifer, B.T. 1991, Ap.J., 370, 158 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sanders, D.B., Soifer, B.T., Elias, J.H., Madore, B.F., Matthews, K., Neugebauer, G., & Scoville, N.Z. 1988, Ap. J., 325, 74 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scoville, N.Z., Evans, A.S., Dinshaw, N., Thompson, R., Rieke, M., Schneider, G., Low, F.J., Hines, D., Stobie, B., Backlin, E., & Epps, H. 1998, Ap. J. (Letters), January 15, 1998 issue Google Scholar
Scoville, N.Z., Young, J.S., & Lucy, L.B., 1983, Ap.J., 270, 443 Google Scholar
Solomon, P.M., Downes, D., & Radford, S.J.E. 1992, Ap.J. (Letters), 387, L55 Google Scholar
Yun, M.S., Scoville, N.Z., & Knop, R.A. 1994, Ap. J. (Letters), 430, L109 CrossRefGoogle Scholar