Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
May 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011aas...21810605m&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #218, #106.05; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 43, 2011
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
Dense gas correlates well with star formation on kpc scales. On smaller scales, motions of individual clouds become comparable to the 100 Myr ages of starbursts. One then expects the star formation rate vs. dense gas relations to break down on giant molecular cloud scales. We exploit this to study the evolutionary history of nuclear starburst in the nearby spiral, IC 342. Maps of the J=5-4 and 16-15 transitions of dense gas tracer HC3N at 20 pc resolution made with the VLA and the Plateau de Bure interferometer are presented. The 5-4 line of HC3N traces very dense gas in the cold phase, while the 16-15 transition traces warm, dense gas. These reveal changes in dense cloud structure on scales of 30 pc among clouds with star formation histories differing by only a few Myrs. HC3N emission does not correlate well with young star formation at these high spatial resolutions, but gas excitation does. The cold, dense gas extends well beyond the starburst region implying large amounts of dense quiescent gas not yet actively forming stars. Close to the starburst the high excitation combined with faint emission indicates that the immediate (30 pc) vicinity of the starburst lacks large masses of very dense gas and has high dense gas star formation efficiencies. The dense gas appears to be in pressure equilibrium with the starburst. We propose a scenario where the starburst is being caught in the act of dispersing or destroying the dense gas in the presence of the expanding HII region.
This work is supported by the NSF through NRAO and grant AST-1009620.
Meier David Stuart
Schinnerer Eva
Turner Jean L.
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