English

Three-Dimensional Structure of the Central Molecular Zone

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2022-08-24 v3

Abstract

A detailed comparison of HI and CO line cube data of the Galactic Center (GC) region from the archives is obtained. The central molecular zone (CMZ) is shown to be embedded in the HI disc (central HI zone, CHZ) of radius 320\sim 320 pc and vertical scale height 70\sim 70 pc. A radio continuum belt is shown to run parallel to molecular Arms I and II. The belt draws a double-infinity shape on the sky, connecting Sgr E (l1.2)l\sim -1^\circ.2), C, B1, B2 and Sgr D (+1.2+1^\circ.2), and is interpreted as a warping star-forming ring. The molecular Arms are closely associated with the HI arms on the longitude-velocity diagram (LVD), showing coherent rigid-body ridges. Due to the close relationship between HI and CO, the HI line absorption can be used to determine the Arms' position relative to Sgr A, B1, B2 and C.Combining the trigonometric data of proper motions of Sgr A^* and maser sources of Sgr B2 as well as radial velocities, the 3D velocity vector of Sgr B2 is determined. From these analyses, the molecular Arm I with Sgr B2 is shown to be located in the near side of Sgr A^*, and Arm II with Sgr C in the other side, both composing a pair of symmetrical Arms around the GC. We present a possible 3D view of Sgr A through E and Arms I and II along with a parameter list.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2208.02451,
  title  = {Three-Dimensional Structure of the Central Molecular Zone},
  author = {Yoshiaki Sofue},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2208.02451},
  year   = {2022}
}

Comments

Accepted for MNRAS, 19 pages, 12 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-25T01:28:05.427Z