Computer Science
Scientific paper
Sep 1993
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1993phdt.........1q&link_type=abstract
Ph.D. Thesis California Inst. of Tech., Pasadena.
Computer Science
Interstellar Gas, Interstellar Matter, Molecular Gases, Radio Galaxies, Starburst Galaxies, Angular Momentum, Infrared Imagery, Morphology, Precession, Rotation, Star Formation
Scientific paper
This thesis presents a kinematical study of the molecular gas and dust in the nearby radio galaxy Centaurus A (NGC 5128) and the nearby starburst M82. The CO (2-1) emission along the inner dust lane of Centaurus A, shows the molecular gas to be in a thin disk, with a low velocity dispersion. The profile shapes are inconsistent with planar circular and noncircular motion. However, a warped disk in a prolate potential provides a good fit to the profile shapes. Near infrared images of Cen A (NGC 5128) in the J, H, and K bands are presented. The infrared morphology is primarily determined by the presence of a thin absorptive warped disk. By integrating the light of the underlying prolate galaxy through such a disk, we construct models which are compared to infrared and X-ray data. A scenario is proposed where a small gas rich galaxy infalling under the force of dynamical friction is tidally stripped. Stripping occurs at different times during its infall. The orientation of the resulting gas disk depends upon the angular momentum of the infalling galaxy. We find that the resulting precession angle of the disk is well described by the precession model, but that the inclination angle may vary as a function of radius. We propose an orbit for the infalling galaxy that is consistent with the geometry of the warped disk needed to fit our infrared data, and rotation observed in the outer part of the galaxy. The kinematics of the molecular gas in the nearly edge-on disk in M82 are modeled by considering velocity and surface density perturbations caused by a possible rotating kpc long bar. A model with a bar fits the molecular observations of the inner torus remarkably well. The clouds have a low cloud-cloud velocity dispersion implying that the disk is unstable to short timescale axisymmetric perturbations. This is consistent with the hypothesis that the high star formation efficiencies in starbursts are due to the short timescales of gravitational instability. It is likely that the bar has mediated the starburst.
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