Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
May 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011iaus..280p.267m&link_type=abstract
The Molecular Universe, Posters from the proceedings of the 280th Symposium of the International Astronomical Union held in Tole
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
Star formation processes and their feedback play a crucial role in the evolution of almost every galaxy, locally as well as at high redshifts. The question whether or not the initial mass function (IMF) is universal, i.e. the same in all kinds of environments, is still subject to intense debate. A number of recent observations have been interpreted as evidence for a top-heavy IMF, spanning a variety of objects, from the center of our Galaxy to circumnuclear starburst regions and ultra-compact dwarf galaxies. Hydrodynamical simulations can reproduce such a top-heavy IMF if the raw material of star formation, the dense molecular gas, is assumed to have a kinetic temperature of ˜ 100 K. Such a molecular gas phase is not observed in the dense cores in the Galactic plane, but may be present in active environments like the cores of starburst galaxies or near AGN. Unfortunately, the kinetic temperature of the molecular gas in many external galaxies is not well constrained, because many of the most common extragalactic tracer molecules suffer from a degeneracy between the kinetic temperature and the gas density in a non-LTE line ratio analysis. We demonstrate the diagnostic power of a selected set of para-formaldehyde lines as tracers of the kinetic temperature as well as the gas density in external galaxies using our non-LTE radiative transfer model. With this new observational tool, we have engaged in characterizing the properties of the dense molecular gas phase in a number of nearby starburst galaxies and near AGN. Our first results suggest the existence of a dense molecular gas phase that is significantly warmer than the dust and much warmer than dense molecular gas found in the Milky Way disk.
de Maio T.
Henkel Carsten
Mühle Stefanie
Seaquist Ernest R.
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