ALMA observationsof warm dense gas in NGC 1614-breaking of the star formation law in the central kiloparsec
Journal article, 2015

We present ALMA Cycle-0 observations of the CO (6-5) line emission and of the 435 mu m dust continuum emission in the central kiloparsec of NGC 1614, a local luminous infrared galaxy at a distance of 67.8 Mpc (1 '' = 329 pc). The CO emission is well resolved by the ALMA beam (0.'' 26x0.'' 20) into a circumnuclear ring, with an integrated flux of f(C O(6-5)) = 898 (+/- 153) Jy km s(-1), which is 63(+/- 12)% of the total CO (6-5) flux measured by Herschel. The molecular ring, located between 100 pc < r < 350 pc from the nucleus, looks clumpy and includes seven unresolved (or marginally resolved) knots with median velocity dispersion of similar to 40 km s(-1). These knots are associated with strong star formation regions with Sigma(SFR) similar to 100M(circle dot) yr(-1) kpc(-2) and Sigma(Gas) similar to 10(4) M-circle dot pc(-2). The nondetections of the nucleus in both the CO (6-5) line emission and the 435 mu m continuum rule out, with relatively high confidence, a Compton-thick active galactic nucleus in NGC 1614. Comparisons with radio continuum emission show a strong deviation from an expected local correlation between Sigma(Gas) and Sigma(SFR), indicating a breakdown of the Kennicutt-Schmidt law on the linear scale of similar to 100 pc.

galaxies: general

galaxies: starburst

galaxies: evolution

submillimeter: galaxies

galaxies: ISM

galaxies: active

galaxies: interactions

galaxies: nuclei

galaxies: magnetic fields

Author

C. K. Xu

California Institute of Technology (Caltech)

C. F. Cao

California Institute of Technology (Caltech)

Shandong University

Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Optical Astronomy and Solar-Terrestrial Environment

N. Lu

California Institute of Technology (Caltech)

Y. Gao

Chinese Academy of Sciences

T. Diaz-Santos

California Institute of Technology (Caltech)

R. Herrero-Illana

Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA)

R. Meijerink

Leiden University

G. Privon

University of Virginia

Y. H. Zhao

Chinese Academy of Sciences

California Institute of Technology (Caltech)

A. S. Evans

University of Virginia

National Radio Astronomy Observatory

Sabine Konig

Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM)

J. Mazzarella

California Institute of Technology (Caltech)

Susanne Aalto

Chalmers, Earth and Space Sciences, Radio Astronomy and Astrophysics

P. Appleton

California Institute of Technology (Caltech)

L. Armus

California Institute of Technology (Caltech)

V. Charmandaris

National Observatory of Athens

University of Crete

Paris Observatory

J. Chu

University of Hawaii

S. Haan

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)

H. Inami

National Optical Astronomy Observatory

E. J. Murphy

California Institute of Technology (Caltech)

D. B. Sanders

University of Hawaii

B. Schulz

California Institute of Technology (Caltech)

P. van der Werf

Leiden University

Astrophysical Journal

0004-637X (ISSN) 1538-4357 (eISSN)

Vol. 799 1 11

Subject Categories

Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology

DOI

10.1088/0004-637x/799/1/11

More information

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