Whole-disk Sampling of Molecular Clouds in M83
Abstract
We present a catalog of clouds identified from the 12CO (1–0) data of M83, which was observed using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array with a spatial resolution of ∼46 pc and a mass sensitivity of ∼104 M ⊙ (3σ). The almost full-disk coverage and high sensitivity of the data allowed us to sample 5724 molecular clouds with a median mass of ∼1.9 × 105 M ⊙, which is comparable to the most frequently sampled mass of giant molecular clouds by surveys in the Milky Way (MW). About 60% of the total CO luminosity in M83's disk arises from clouds more massive than 106 M ⊙. Such massive clouds comprise 16% of the total clouds in number and tend to concentrate toward the arm, bar, and center, while smaller clouds are more prevalent in interarm regions. Most >106 M ⊙ clouds have peak brightness temperatures T peak above 2 K with the current resolution. Comparing the observed cloud properties with the scaling relations determined by P. M. Solomon et al. (1987, hereafter S87), T peak > 2 K clouds follow the relations, but T peak < 2 K clouds, which are dominant in number, deviate significantly. Without considering the effect of beam dilution, the deviations would suggest modestly high virial parameters (median α vir ∼ 2.7) and low surface mass densities (median Σ ∼ 22 M ⊙ pc‑2) for the entire cloud samples, which are similar to values found for the MW clouds by T. S. Rice et al. (2016) and M.-A Miville-Deschênes et al. (2017). However, once beam dilution is taken into account, the observed α vir and Σ for a majority of the clouds (mostly T peak <2 K) can be potentially explained with intrinsic Σ of ∼100 M ⊙ pc‑2 and α vir of ∼1, which are similar to the clouds of S87.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- December 2024
- DOI:
- arXiv:
- arXiv:2410.05424
- Bibcode:
- 2024ApJ...976..198H
- Keywords:
-
- Giant molecular clouds;
- Spiral galaxies;
- Millimeter astronomy;
- CO line emission;
- Interstellar medium;
- 653;
- 1560;
- 1061;
- 262;
- 847;
- Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies
- E-Print:
- Accepted for publication in ApJ