1. Molecular Cloud Populations in the Context of Their Host Galaxy Environments: A Multiwavelength Perspective
- Author
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Jiayi Sun, Adam K. Leroy, Erik Rosolowsky, Annie Hughes, Eva Schinnerer, Andreas Schruba, Eric W. Koch, Guillermo A. Blanc, I-Da Chiang, Brent Groves, Daizhong Liu, Sharon Meidt, Hsi-An Pan, Jérôme Pety, Miguel Querejeta, Toshiki Saito, Karin Sandstrom, Amy Sardone, Antonio Usero, Dyas Utomo, Thomas G. Williams, Ashley T. Barnes, Samantha M. Benincasa, Frank Bigiel, Alberto D. Bolatto, Médéric Boquien, Mélanie Chevance, Daniel A. Dale, Sinan Deger, Eric Emsellem, Simon C. O. Glover, Kathryn Grasha, Jonathan D. Henshaw, Ralf S. Klessen, Kathryn Kreckel, J. M. Diederik Kruijssen, Eve C. Ostriker, David A. Thilker, Institut de recherche en astrophysique et planétologie (IRAP), Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées (OMP), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales [Toulouse] (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Météo-France -Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales [Toulouse] (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Météo-France -Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire d'Etude du Rayonnement et de la Matière en Astrophysique (LERMA), École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université de Cergy Pontoise (UCP), Université Paris-Seine-Université Paris-Seine-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Centre de Recherche Astrophysique de Lyon (CRAL), École normale supérieure de Lyon (ENS de Lyon)-Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (UCBL), and Université de Lyon-Université de Lyon-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
- Subjects
EDGE-CALIFA SURVEY ,GALACTIC ROTATION ,[SDU.ASTR]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph] ,GAS PROPERTIES ,WISDOM PROJECT ,Star formation ,FOS: Physical sciences ,Astronomy and Astrophysics ,Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics ,Millimeter astronomy ,STAR-FORMATION EFFICIENCY ,SCALE ISM STRUCTURE ,Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies ,Physics and Astronomy ,CO-TO-H-2 CONVERSION FACTOR ,Space and Planetary Science ,[SDU]Sciences of the Universe [physics] ,Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) ,Molecular clouds ,LARGE-MAGELLANIC-CLOUD ,NEARBY GALAXIES ,Astrophysics::Earth and Planetary Astrophysics ,Disk galaxies ,SPIRAL GALAXIES ,Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics - Abstract
We present a rich, multiwavelength, multiscale database built around the PHANGS-ALMA CO$\,$(2-1) survey and ancillary data. We use this database to present the distributions of molecular cloud populations and sub-galactic environments in 80 PHANGS galaxies, to characterize the relationship between population-averaged cloud properties and host galaxy properties, and to assess key timescales relevant to molecular cloud evolution and star formation. We show that PHANGS probes a wide range of kpc-scale gas, stellar, and star formation rate (SFR) surface densities, as well as orbital velocities and shear. The population-averaged cloud properties in each aperture correlate strongly with both local environmental properties and host galaxy global properties. Leveraging a variable selection analysis, we find that the kpc-scale surface densities of molecular gas and SFR tend to possess the most predictive power for the population-averaged cloud properties. Once their variations are controlled for, galaxy global properties contain little additional information, which implies that the apparent galaxy-to-galaxy variations in cloud populations are likely mediated by kpc-scale environmental conditions. We further estimate a suite of important timescales from our multiwavelength measurements. The cloud-scale free-fall time and turbulence crossing time are ${\sim}5{-}20$ Myr, comparable to previous cloud lifetime estimates. The timescales for orbital motion, shearing, and cloud-cloud collisions are longer, ${\sim}100$ Myr. The molecular gas depletion time is $1{-}3$ Gyr and shows weak to no correlations with the other timescales in our data. We publish our measurements online and expect them to have broad utility to future studies of molecular clouds and star formation., 32 pages + 6 appendices. AJ in press. Data products available at https://www.canfar.net/storage/list/phangs/RELEASES/Sun_etal_2022 . Associated software package available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6584842 . Slides summarizing the key results can be found at https://www.dropbox.com/s/7llnrob9wi0isfk/Sun_et_PHANGS_2022.pptx?dl=0
- Published
- 2022
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