An ALMA and ATCA Molecular Line Survey toward Centaurus A
Abstract
We present Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array and Australia Telescope Compact Array data of molecular absorption lines toward the bright central core of Centaurus A. The line of sight crosses the prominent dust lane and continues through the disk and eventually through gas that may be very close to the central supermassive black hole. The goal of our the survey is to determine the physical conditions of the gas via analyses of molecular line tracers including molecular abundances and excitation conditions that are sensitive to changes in temperature, density, ionization, and shocks. This study allows us to derive the physical conditions of each absorption line complex and allows us to define the main process shaping its environment. We present a first analysis of our data in the 13, 7, 3, and 1mm wavebands.
- Publication:
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APS Four Corners Section Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- October 2012
- Bibcode:
- 2012APS..4CF.H2004O