期刊
ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
卷 779, 期 1, 页码 -出版社
IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/779/1/46
关键词
galaxies: individual (M51, M33, Large Magellanic Cloud); galaxies: ISM; ISM: clouds; ISM: molecules; ISM: structure
资金
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) [SCHI 536/5-1, SCHI 536/7-1]
- European Research Council
- NASA [NNX10AD01G]
- Junta de Andalucia [P08 TIC 03531]
- French Agence Nationale de la Recherche [ANR-09-BLAN-0231-01]
- NSF [1066293]
We compare the properties of giant molecular clouds (GMCs) in M51 identified by the Plateau de Bure Interferometer Whirlpool Arcsecond Survey with GMCs identified in wide-field, high-resolution surveys of CO emission in M33 and the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). We find that GMCs in M51 are larger, brighter, and have higher velocity dispersions relative to their sizes than equivalent structures in M33 and the LMC. These differences imply that there are genuine variations in the average mass surface density of the different GMC populations. To explain this, we propose that the pressure in the interstellar medium surrounding the GMCs plays a role in regulating their density and velocity dispersion. We find no evidence for a correlation between size and linewidth in M51, M33, or the LMC when the CO emission is decomposed into GMCs, although moderately robust correlations are apparent when regions of contiguous CO emission (with no size limitation) are used. Our work demonstrates that observational bias remains an important obstacle to the identification and study of extragalactic GMC populations using CO emission, especially in molecule-rich galactic environments.
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