English

Dense Clumps in Giant Molecular Clouds in the Large Magellanic Cloud: Density and Temperature Derived from $^{13}$CO($J=3-2$) Observations

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2011-02-03 v1 Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics

Abstract

In order to precisely determine temperature and density of molecular gas in the Large Magellanic Cloud, we made observations of optically thin 13^{13}CO(J=32J=3-2) transition by using the ASTE 10m telescope toward 9 peaks where 12^{12}CO(J=32J=3-2) clumps were previously detected with the same telescope. The molecular clumps include those in giant molecular cloud (GMC) Types I (with no signs of massive star formation), II (with HII regions only), and III (with HII regions and young star clusters). We detected 13^{13}CO(J=32J=3-2) emission toward all the peaks and found that their intensities are 3 -- 12 times lower than those of 12^{12}CO(J=32J=3-2). We determined the intensity ratios of 12^{12}CO(J=32J=3-2) to 13^{13}CO(J=32J=3-2), R3212/13R^{12/13}_{3-2}, and 13^{13}CO(J=32J=3-2) to 13^{13}CO(J=10J=1-0), R32/1013R^{13}_{3-2/1-0}, at 45\arcsec\arcsec resolution. These ratios were used for radiative transfer calculations in order to estimate temperature and density of the clumps. The parameters of these clumps range kinetic temperature TkinT\mathrm{_{kin}} = 15 -- 200 K, and molecular hydrogen gas density n(H2)n(\mathrm{H_2}) = 8×102\times 10^2 -- 7×103\times 10^3 cm3^{-3}. We confirmed that the higher density clumps show higher kinetic temperature and that the lower density clumps lower kinetic temperature at a better accuracy than in the previous work. The kinetic temperature and density increase generally from a Type I GMC to a Type III GMC. We interpret that this difference reflects an evolutionary trend of star formation in molecular clumps. The R32/1013R^{13}_{3-2/1-0} and kinetic temperature of the clumps are well correlated with Hα\alpha flux, suggesting that the heating of molecular gas n(H2)n(\mathrm{H_2}) = 10310^3 -- 10410^4 cm3^{-3} can be explained by stellar FUV photons.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1012.5037,
  title  = {Dense Clumps in Giant Molecular Clouds in the Large Magellanic Cloud: Density and Temperature Derived from $^{13}$CO($J=3-2$) Observations},
  author = {Tetsuhiro Minamidani and Takanori Tanaka and Yoji Mizuno and Norikazu Mizuno and Akiko Kawamura and Toshikazu Onishi and Tetsuo Hasegawa and Ken'ichi Tatematsu and Tatsuya Takekoshi and Kazuo Sorai and Nayuta Moribe and Kazufumi Torii and Takeshi Sakai and Kazuyuki Muraoka and Kunihiko Tanaka and Hajime Ezawa and Kotaro Kohno and Sungeun Kim and Mónica Rubio and Yasuo Fukui},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1012.5037},
  year   = {2011}
}

Comments

39 pages, 7 figures, 4 tables. Accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal