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The dust properties and physical conditions of the interstellar medium in the LMC massive star-forming complex N11.
- Source :
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Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society . 2/21/2016, Vol. 456 Issue 2, p1767-1790. 24p. - Publication Year :
- 2016
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Abstract
- We combine Spitzer and Herschel data of the star-forming region N11 in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) to produce detailed maps of the dust properties in the complex and study their variations with the interstellar-medium conditions. We also compare Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment/Large APEX Bolometer Camera (APEX/LABOCA) 870 μm observations with our model predictions in order to decompose the 870 μm emission into dust and non-dust [free-free emission and CO(3-2) line] contributions. We find that in N11, the 870μm can be fully accounted for by these three components. The dust surface density map of N11 is combined with H I and CO observations to study local variations in the gas-to-dust mass ratios. Our analysis leads to values lower than those expected from the LMC low-metallicity as well as to a decrease of the gas-to-dust mass ratio with the dust surface density. We explore potential hypotheses that could explain the low 'observed' gas-to-dust mass ratios (variations in the XCO factor, presence of CO-dark gas or of optically thick H I or variations in the dust abundance in the dense regions).We finally decompose the local spectral energy distributions (SEDs) using a principal component analysis (i.e. with no a priori assumption on the dust composition in the complex). Our results lead to a promising decomposition of the local SEDs in various dust components (hot, warm, cold) coherent with that expected for the region. Further analysis on a larger sample of galaxies will follow in order to understand how unique this decomposition is or how it evolves from one environment to another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- *INTERSTELLAR medium
*LARGE magellanic cloud
*DUST
*SUPERGIANT stars
*STAR formation
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00358711
- Volume :
- 456
- Issue :
- 2
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 112479365
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stv2773