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Title: PHANGS–JWST First Results: Stellar-feedback-driven Excitation and Dissociation of Molecular Gas in the Starburst Ring of NGC 1365?
Abstract

We compare embedded young massive star clusters (YMCs) to (sub-)millimeter line observations tracing the excitation and dissociation of molecular gas in the starburst ring of NGC 1365. This galaxy hosts one of the strongest nuclear starbursts and richest populations of YMCs within 20 Mpc. Here we combine near-/mid-IR PHANGS–JWST imaging with new Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array multi-JCO (1–0, 2–1 and 4–3) and [Ci] (1–0) mapping, which we use to trace CO excitation viaR42=ICO(4−3)/ICO(2−1)andR21=ICO(2−1)/ICO(1−0)and dissociation viaRCICO=I[CI](1−0)/ICO(2−1)at 330 pc resolution. We find that the gas flowing into the starburst ring from northeast to southwest appears strongly affected by stellar feedback, showing decreased excitation (lowerR42) and increased signatures of dissociation (higherRCICO) in the downstream regions. There, radiative-transfer modeling suggests that the molecular gas density decreases and temperature and [CI/CO] abundance ratio increase. We compareR42andRCICOwith local conditions across the regions and find that both correlate with near-IR 2μm emission tracing the YMCs and with both polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (11.3μm) and dust continuum (21μm) emission. In general,RCICOexhibits ∼0.1 dex tighter correlations thanR42, suggestingCito be a more sensitive tracer of changing physical conditions in the NGC 1365 starburst than CO (4–3). Our results are consistent with a scenario where gas flows into the two arm regions along the bar, becomes condensed/shocked, forms YMCs, and then these YMCs heat and dissociate the gas.

 
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NSF-PAR ID:
10397390
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; more » ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; « less
Publisher / Repository:
DOI PREFIX: 10.3847
Date Published:
Journal Name:
The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Volume:
944
Issue:
2
ISSN:
2041-8205
Format(s):
Medium: X Size: Article No. L19
Size(s):
["Article No. L19"]
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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