Rotation and stability of the circumnuclear gas disk in the Galactic Center potential by the ALMA CMZ Exploration Survey (ACES)
Journal article, 2026
We investigated the gravitational potential and mass distribution in the Galactic Center by examining the morphology and kinematics of the circumnuclear gaseous disk revealed by the molecular line data from the ALMA CMZ Exploration Survey. We obtain an estimate of the shape of the potential within the central similar to 20 pc to reproduce the observed properties of the circumnuclear gas disk by simulating the motion of test particles for various axial ratios and show that the potential is approximately spherical. We construct a rotation curve by applying the terminal velocity method to the position-velocity diagrams, and calculate the mass distribution in the Galactic Center. The distribution of mass density is found to be of cusp type, approximated by rho(dyn) similar to 1.56 & times; 10(5)(R/1 pc)( -1.9) M-circle dot pc(-3), where R is the distance from the nucleus. We discuss the tidal effect caused by the gravitational potential that produces the rotation curve and show that the gas disk is stable against self-gravitational contraction within a critical radius of RT similar to 14 (rho(gas)/10(5)H(2) cm(-3) ) (-1/2) pc. This suggests suppression of star formation and a top-heavy initial mass function in the circumnuclear region.
stars: formation
ISM: kinematics and dynamics
ISM: clouds
Galaxy: center
Galaxy: structure
Author
Yoshiaki Sofue
University of Tokyo
Steven N. Longmore
Liverpool John Moores University
COOL Research DAO
Daniel Walker
University of Manchester
Adam Ginsburg
University of Florida
Jonathan D. Henshaw
Max Planck Society
Liverpool John Moores University
John Bally
University of Colorado
Ashley T. Barnes
European Southern Observatory (ESO)
Cara Battersby
University of Connecticut
Laura Colzi
Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)
Paul Ho
National Taiwan University
Izaskun Jimenez-Serra
Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)
J. M. Diederik Kruijssen
COOL Research DAO
Elizabeth Mills
University of Kansas
Maya Petkova
Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Astronomy and Plasmaphysics
Mattia C. Sormani
University of Insubria
Jen Wallace
University of Connecticut
Jairo Armijos-Abendano
Escuela Politécnica Nacional
Zi-Xuan Feng
Heidelberg University
University of Insubria
Karl Fiteni
University of Insubria
University of Malta
Pablo Garcia
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Universidad Catolica del Norte
Savannah Gramze
University of Florida
Christian Henkel
Max Planck Society
Pei-Ying Hsieh
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
Ralf S. Klessen
Heidelberg University
Francisco Nogueras-Lara
Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)
Dylan M. Pare
Atacama Large Millimeter-submillimeter Array (ALMA)
Victor M. Rivilla
Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)
Alvaro Sanchez-Monge
Inst Estudis Espacials Catalunya IEEC
Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)
Publication of the Astronomical Society of Japan
0004-6264 (ISSN) 2053051x (eISSN)
Vol. In PressSubject Categories (SSIF 2025)
Astronomy, Astrophysics, and Cosmology
DOI
10.1093/pasj/psaf159