Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2004-09-23
Astrophys.J. 615 (2004) L29-L32
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
11 pages, 2 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters
Scientific paper
10.1086/426059
We present new sensitive wide-band measurements of the fine structure line 3^P_1 -> 3^P_0 (J=1-0, 492GHz) of neutral atomic carbon (CI) in the two typical Ultra Luminous Infrared Galaxies NGC6240 and Arp220. We then use them along with several other CI measurements in similar objects found in the literature to estimate their global molecular gas content under the assumption of a full CI-H_2 concomitance. We find excellent agreement between the H_2 gas mass estimated with this method and the standard methods using 12^CO. This may provide a new way to measure H_2 gas mass in galaxies, and one which may be very valuable in ULIRGs since in such systems the bright 12^CO emission is known to systematically overestimate the gas mass while their 13^CO emission is usually very weak. At redshifts z>=1 the CI J=1-0 line shifts to much more favorable atmospheric windows and can become a viable alternative tracer of the H_2 gas fueling starburst events in the distant Universe.
Greve Thomas R.
Papadopoulos Padeli P.
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