The Galactic-Centre Arms inferred from ACES (ALMA CMZ Exploration Survey)
Abstract
Analyzing longitude-velocity diagrams (LVDs) in the CS(J=2-1) and H13CN(J=1-0) molecular lines from the internal release data of the ALMA Central-Molecular-Zone Exploration Survey (ACES) and in the 13CO (J=1-0) line from the Nobeyama Galactic-Centre (GC) survey, we identify six GC Arms as prominent straight LV ridges. In addition to the currently known Arms I to IV, we identify a new inner arm, Arm V, and further highlight the circum-nuclear disc (CND) as Arm VI. Integrated intensity maps of the Arms on the sky suggest that most of the Arms compose ring-like structures inclined from the Galactic plane. We determine the radii (curvatures) of the Arms using the velocity-gradient () method, assuming that the arms are rotating on circular orbits at a constant velocity of km/s. We show that Arms I and II compose the main ring structure of the CMZ with radii --120 pc; Arm III is a dense arm 42 pc from the GC; Arm IV is a clear and narrow arm 20 pc from the GC; and Arm V is a faint, long arm of 8.2 pc radius. We show that the circum-nuclear disc (CND) composes the sixth arm, Arm VI, of radius pc associated with bifurcated spiral fins. We also discuss the association of the 20- and 50-km/s clouds with these Arms. The radii of the arms fall on an empirical relation for (Arm I) to 6 (VI), suggesting either discrete rings or a logarithmic spiral with pitch angle . The vertical full extent of the arm increases with radius and is represented by pc. The tilt angle of the arms from the Galactic plane, or the warping, increases rapidly toward the GC.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2504.03331,
title = {The Galactic-Centre Arms inferred from ACES (ALMA CMZ Exploration Survey)},
author = {Y. Sofue and Tomo. Oka and S. N. Longmore and D. Walker and A. Ginsburg and J. D. Henshaw and J. Bally and A. T. Barnes and C. Battersby and L. Colzi and P. Ho and I. Jimenez-Serra and J. M. D. Kruijssen and E. Mills and M. A. Petkova and M. C. Sormani and J. Wallace and J. Armijos-Abendano and K. M. Dutkowska and R. Enokiya and Y. Fukui and P. Garcia and A. Guzman and C. Henkel and P. -Y. Hsieh and Y. Hu and K. Immer and D. Jeff and R. S. Klessen and K. Kohno and M. R. Krumholz and D. Lipman and S. Martin and M. R. Morris and F. Nogueras-Lara and M. Nonhebel and J. Ott and J. E. Pineda and M. A. Requena-Torres and V. M. Rivilla and D. Riquelme-Vasquez and A. Sanchez-Monge and M. G. Santa-Maria and H. A. Smith and T. S. Tanvir and V. Tolls and Q. D. Wang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2504.03331},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
Accepted for PASJ, 20 pages, 19 figures