Comparing the Locations of Supernovae to CO (2-1) Emission in Their Host Galaxies
Abstract
We measure the molecular gas environment near recent (<100 yr old) supernovae (SNe) using ~1″ or ≤150 pc resolution CO (2-1) maps from the PHANGS-Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) survey of nearby star-forming galaxies. This is arguably the first such study to approach the scales of individual massive molecular clouds (M mol ≳ 105.3 M ⊙). Using the Open Supernova Catalog, we identify 63 SNe within the PHANGS-ALMA footprint. We detect CO (2-1) emission near ~60% of the sample at 150 pc resolution, compared to ~35% of map pixels with CO (2-1) emission, and up to ~95% of the SNe at 1 kpc resolution, compared to ~80% of map pixels with CO (2-1) emission. We expect the ~60% of SNe within the same 150 pc beam, as a giant molecular cloud will likely interact with these clouds in the future, consistent with the observation of widespread SN-molecular gas interaction in the Milky Way, while the other ~40% of SNe without strong CO (2-1) detections will deposit their energy in the diffuse interstellar medium, perhaps helping drive large-scale turbulence or galactic outflows. Broken down by type, we detect CO (2-1) emission at the sites of ~85% of our 9 stripped-envelope SNe (SESNe), ~40% of our 34 Type II SNe, and ~35% of our 13 Type Ia SNe, indicating that SESNe are most closely associated with the brightest CO (2-1) emitting regions in our sample. Our results confirm that SN explosions are not restricted to only the densest gas, and instead exert feedback across a wide range of molecular gas densities.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- February 2023
- DOI:
- 10.3847/1538-4357/acab00
- arXiv:
- arXiv:2212.09766
- Bibcode:
- 2023ApJ...944..110M
- Keywords:
-
- Supernovae;
- Type II supernovae;
- Type Ia supernovae;
- Type Ib supernovae;
- Type Ic supernovae;
- Molecular gas;
- Interstellar medium;
- Stellar feedback;
- Galaxy evolution;
- 1668;
- 1731;
- 1728;
- 1729;
- 1730;
- 1073;
- 847;
- 1602;
- 594;
- Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies
- E-Print:
- Accepted to ApJ