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标题：The missing link: Tracing molecular gas in the outer filament of Centaurus A
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作者：Raffaella Morganti ; Raffaella Morganti ; Tom Oosterloo 等
期刊名称：Astronomy & Astrophysics
印刷版ISSN：0004-6361
电子版ISSN：1432-0746
出版年度：2016
卷号：592
页码：1-4
DOI：10.1051/0004-6361/201628950
语种：English
出版社：EDP Sciences
摘要：We report the detection, using observations of the CO(2−1) line performed with the Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment (APEX), of molecular gas in the region of the outer filament of Centaurus A, a complex region known to show various signatures of an interaction between the radio jet, an H i cloud, and ionised gas filaments. We detect CO(2−1) at all observed locations, which were selected to represent regions with very different physical conditions. The H2 masses of the detections range between 0.2 × 106 and 1.1 × 106M⊙, for conservative choices of the CO to H2 conversion factor. Surprisingly, the stronger detections are not coincident with the H i cloud, but instead are in the region of the ionised filaments. We also find variations in the widths of the CO(2−1) lines throughout the region, with broader lines in the region of the ionised gas, i.e. where the jet-cloud interaction is strongest, and with narrow profiles in the H i cloud. This may indicate that the molecular gas in the region of the ionised gas has the momentum of the jet-cloud interaction encoded in it, in the same way as the ionised gas does. These molecular clouds may therefore be the result of very efficient cooling of the down-stream gas photo- or shock-ionised by the interaction. On the other hand, the molecular clouds with narrower profiles, which are closer to or inside the H i cloud, could be pre-existing cold H2 cores which manage to survive the effects of the passing jet.
关键词：galaxies: active;galaxies: individual: Centaurus A;ISM: jets and outflows;radio lines: galaxies