English

[CI](1-0) and [CI](2-1) in resolved local galaxies

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2020-01-16 v1

Abstract

We present resolved [CI] line intensities of 18 nearby galaxies observed with the SPIRE FTS spectrometer on the Herschel Space Observatory. We use these data along with resolved CO line intensities from Jup=1J_\mathrm{up} = 1 to 7 to interpret what phase of the interstellar medium the [CI] lines trace within typical local galaxies. A tight, linear relation is found between the intensities of the CO(4-3) and [CI](2-1) lines; we hypothesize this is due to the similar upper level temperature of these two lines. We modeled the [CI] and CO line emission using large velocity gradient models combined with an empirical template. According to this modeling, the [CI](1-0) line is clearly dominated by the low-excitation component. We determine [CI] to molecular mass conversion factors for both the [CI](1-0) and [CI](2-1) lines, with mean values of α[CI](10)=7.3\alpha_{\mathrm{[CI](1-0)}} = 7.3 Msun_{\mathrm{sun}} K1^{-1} km1^{-1} s pc2^{-2} and α[CI](21)=34\alpha_{\mathrm{[CI](2-1)}} = 34 Msun_{\mathrm{sun}} K1^{-1} km1^{-1} s pc2^{-2} with logarithmic root-mean-square spreads of 0.20 and 0.32 dex, respectively. The similar spread of α[CI](10)\alpha_{\mathrm{[CI](1-0)}} to αCO\alpha_{\mathrm{CO}} (derived using the CO(2-1) line) suggests that [CI](1-0) may be just as good a tracer of cold molecular gas as CO(2-1) in galaxies of this type. On the other hand, the wider spread of α[CI](21)\alpha_{\mathrm{[CI](2-1)}} and the tight relation found between [CI](2-1) and CO(4-3) suggest that much of the [CI](2-1) emission may originate in warmer molecular gas.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2001.05047,
  title  = {[CI](1-0) and [CI](2-1) in resolved local galaxies},
  author = {Alison F. Crocker and Eric Pellegrini and J. -D. T. Smith and Bruce T. Draine and Christine D. Wilson and Mark Wolfire and Lee Armus and Elias Brinks and Daniel A. Dale and Brent Groves and Rodrigo Herrera-Camus and Leslie K. Hunt and Robert C. Kennicutt and Eric J. Murphy and Karin Sandstrom and Eva Schinnerer and Dimitra Rigopoulou and Erik Rosolowsky and Paul van der Werf},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2001.05047},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

15 pages, 10 figures, published in ApJ

R2 v1 2026-06-23T13:11:23.591Z