Active Galactic Nucleus and Extended Starbursts in a Midstage Merger VV 114

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<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>High-resolution ($ \sim$ 0$ .\!\!\!''$ 4) Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) Cycle 0 observations of HCO$ ^+$ (4–3) and HCN (4–3) toward a midstage infrared bright merger, VV 114, have revealed a compact nuclear ($ &lt;$ 200 pc) and extended ($ \sim$ 3–4 kpc) dense gas distribution across the eastern part of the galaxy pair. We have found a significant enhancement of HCN (4–3) emission in an unresolved compact and broad (290 km s$ ^{-1}$ ) component found in the eastern nucleus of VV 114, and suggest dense gas associated with the surrounding material around an Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN), with a mass upper limit of $ \lesssim$ 4 $ \times$ 10$ ^{8}$$ M_{\odot}$ . The extended dense gas is distributed along a filamentary structure with resolved dense gas concentrations ($ \sim$ 230 pc; $ \sim$ 10$ ^{6}$$ M_{\odot}$ ) separated by a mean projected distance of $ \sim$ 600 pc, many of which are generally consistent with the location of star formation traced in Pa$ \alpha$ emission. Radiative-transfer calculations suggest moderately dense ($ n_{\rm H_2}$$ =$ 10$ ^{5}$ –10$ ^{6}$ cm$ ^{-3}$ ) gas averaged over the entire emission region. These new ALMA observations demonstrate the strength of the dense gas tracers for identifying both the AGN and the star-formation activity in a galaxy merger, even in the most dust-enshrouded environment in the local universe.</jats:p>

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