Vertical Motion of Molecular and Ionized Gas in Nearby Face-On Galaxies

Physics

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Imaging Techniques, Ionized Gases, Vertical Motion, Monatomic Gases, Molecular Gases, Stellar Mass, Star Formation, Spectroscopy, Solvents, Slits, Sensitivity, Narrowband, Massive Stars, High Resolution, Gravitational Fields, H Ii Regions

Scientific paper

We carried out a high-resolution C-12O J = 1 - 0 imaging of NGC 628 (i = 6 deg, D = 10 Mpc) to study the vertical motions of the molecular gas, and a high-dispersion scanning-slit spectroscopy of H(alpha) emission in NGC 628 and NGC 3938 (i = 10 deg, D = 10 Mpc) to trace the vertical motions of the ionized gas. Supplementary images in narrow-band H(alpha) and J- and K' bands were also obtained. The vertical velocity dispersion of the molecular gas is 6.4 +/- 1.5 km/ s throughout the inner (0.5-6 kpc) disk without any systematic radial variation. The vertical velocity dispersion of molecular gas at 5 kpc from the center is smaller than that of atomic gas at the same distance by a factor of approx. equal 1.5. This factor approx. equal 1.5 difference naturally explains the fact that molecular disks in spiral galaxies are generally thinner than atomic gas disks by a factor of approx. equal 1.5. Although there is a significant point-by-point variation of the velocity dispersion, no simple correlations with CO brightness (gas surface density), K'-band brightness (stellar gravitational potential), nor H(alpha) brightness (star-formation activity) are observed. There is no high-velocity (absolute value of(delta)upsilon(sub perpendicular to) greater than 30 km/s) molecular gas detected with our 5(sigma) sensitivity of approx. 5 x 105 solar mass per the 680 pc beam. This suggests that the disk-halo connection of the ISM in the form of molecular gas is a rare phenomenon. In contrast, high-dispersion H(alpha) spectroscopy of NGC 628 and NGC 3938 revealed that there are hints of peculiar vertical motions (absolute value of (delta)upsilon(sub perpendicular to) greater than 30 km/ s) of ionized gas probably related with disk-halo connection of the ISM. The regions with the peculiar motions are associated with bright HII regions and may originate from expanding motions associated with massive star formation activities.

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