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| Paper: |
Heating Molecular Gas in the CMZ |
| Volume: |
528, New Horizons in Galactic Center Astronomy and Beyond |
| Page: |
113 |
| Authors: |
Candelaria, T. M.; Meier, D. S.; Ott, J.; Mills, E. A. C. |
| Abstract: |
To better understand the extreme environments in the Galactic center and the CMZ (Central Molecular Zone), we must better our understanding of the physical conditions of the molecular gas across the entire CMZ. Physical properties of the CMZ gas such as temperature, density, thermal pressure, and turbulent pressure are key factors for characterizing the gas energetics, kinematics, and evolution. Gas in the CMZ is significantly hotter than in other areas of the Galaxy, but the origins of these high temperature components remain unclear. Quantifying the distribution of temperatures and densities allow us to directly investigate the possible heating sources. We observe NH3 J,K=(1,1)-(6,6) inversion transitions, up to 408 K above the ground state, using SWAG (“Survey of Water and Ammonia in the Galactic Center”) data from the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA). We calculate rotational and kinetic temperature, column density, and cloud structure and present maps of the rotational temperatures covering the entire CMZ. Previous studies of selected regions in the CMZ have indicated the presence of multiple temperature components, which are in quantitative agreement with our results. Rotational temperatures average ∼80 K across the CMZ while, for several regions including Sgr B2, we find temperatures of 150-200 K and higher. |
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