The EDGE-CALIFA Survey: Molecular and Ionized Gas Kinematics in Nearby Galaxies

We present a comparative study of molecular and ionized gas kinematics in nearby galaxies. These results are based on observations from the EDGE survey, which measured spatially resolved CO(J = 1-0) in 126 nearby galaxies. Every galaxy in EDGE has corresponding resolved ionized gas measurements from...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Levy, Rebecca C., Bolatto, Alberto D., Teuben, Peter, Sánchez, Sebastián F., Barrera-Ballesteros, Jorge K., Blitz, Leo, Colombo, Dario, García-Benito, Rubén, Herrera-Camus, Rodrigo, Husemann, Bernd, Kalinova, Veselina, Lan, Tian, Leung, Gigi Y. C., Mast, Damián, Utomo, Dyas, van de Ven, Glenn, Vogel, Stuart N., Wong, Tony
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2018
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/215845
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/215845
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Galaxies: ISM
Galaxies: kinematics and dynamics
ISM: kinematics and dynamics
ISM: molecules
Descripción
Sumario:We present a comparative study of molecular and ionized gas kinematics in nearby galaxies. These results are based on observations from the EDGE survey, which measured spatially resolved CO(J = 1-0) in 126 nearby galaxies. Every galaxy in EDGE has corresponding resolved ionized gas measurements from CALIFA. Using a sub-sample of 17 rotation-dominated, star-forming galaxies where precise molecular gas rotation curves could be extracted, we derive CO and Hα rotation curves using the same geometric parameters out to 1 R . We find that ∼75% of our sample galaxies have smaller ionized gas rotation velocities than the molecular gas in the outer part of the rotation curve. In no case is the molecular gas rotation velocity measurably lower than that of the ionized gas. We suggest that the lower ionized gas rotation velocity can be attributed to a significant contribution from extraplanar diffuse ionized gas in a thick, turbulence-supported disk. Using observations of the Hγ transition, also available from CALIFA, we measure ionized gas velocity dispersions and find that these galaxies have sufficiently large velocity dispersions to support a thick ionized gas disk. Kinematic simulations show that a thick disk with a vertical rotation velocity gradient can reproduce the observed differences between the CO and Hα rotation velocities. Observed line ratios tracing diffuse ionized gas are elevated compared to typical values in the midplane of the Milky Way. In galaxies affected by this phenomenon, dynamical masses measured using ionized gas rotation curves will be systematically underestimated. © 2018. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved..