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We have mapped 27 massive star-forming regions associated with water masers using three dense gas tracers: HC³N 10-9, HNC 1-0, and C²H 1-0. The FWHM sizes of HNC clumps and C²H clumps are about 1.5 and 1.6 times higher than those of HC³N, respectively, which can be explained by the fact that HC³N traces more dense gas than HNC and C²H. We found evidence for an increase in the optical depth of C²H with a "radius" from the center to the outer regions in some targets, supporting the chemical model of C²H. The C²H optical depth is found to decline as molecular clouds evolve to a later stage, suggesting that C²H might be used as a "chemical clock" for molecular clouds. The large-scale kinematic structure of clouds was investigated with three molecular lines. All of these sources show significant velocity gradients. The magnitudes of gradient are found to increase toward the inner region, indicating the differential rotation of clouds. Both the ratio of rotational to gravitational energy and the specific angular momentum seem to decrease toward the inner region, implying the obvious angular momentum transfer, which might be caused by magnetic braking. The average magnetic field strength and number density of molecular clouds is derived using the uniform magnetic sphere model. The derived magnetic field strengths range from 3 to 88 µG, with a median value of 13 µG. The mass-to-flux ratio of the molecular cloud is calculated to be much higher than the critical value with derived parameters, which agrees well with numerical simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a ~1" (100 pc) resolution 12CO (3-2) map of the nearby intermediate-stage interacting galaxy pair NGC 4038/9 (the Antennae galaxies) obtained with the Submillimeter Array. We find that half the CO (3-2) emission originates in the overlap region where most of the tidally induced star formation had been previously found in shorter wavelength images, with the rest being centered on each of the nuclei. The gross distribution is consistent with lower resolution single-dish images, but we show for the first time the detailed distribution of the warm and dense molecular gas across this galaxy pair at resolutions comparable to the size of a typical giant molecular complex. While we find that 58% (33/57) of the spatially resolved Giant Molecular Associations (a few x 100 pc) are located in the overlap region, only ≤ 30% spatially coincides with the optically detected star clusters, suggesting that the bulk of the CO (3-2) emission traces the regions with very recent or near future star formation activity. The spatial distribution of the CO (3-2)/CO (1-0) integrated brightness temperature ratios mainly ranges between 0.3 and 0.6, which suggests that on average the CO (3-2) line in the Antennae is not completely thermalized and similar to the average values of nearby spirals. A higher ratio is seen in both nuclei and the southern complexes in the overlap region. A higher radiation field associated with intense star formation can account tbr the nucleus of NGC 4038 and the overlap region, but the nuclear region of NGC 4039 shows relatively little star formation or active galactic nucleus activity and cannot be easily explained. We show kinematical evidence that the high line ratio in NGC 4039 is possibly caused by gas inflow into the counter-rotating central disk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metals are thought to have profound effects on the internal structures of the molecular clouds in which stars are born. The absence of metals is expected to prevent gas from efficient cooling and fragmentation in theory. However, this effect has not yet been observed in low-metallicity environments, such as in the early universe and local dwarf galaxies, because of the lack of high-spatial-resolution maps of gas. We carried out Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array observations of the carbon monoxide (CO) J = 2–1 emission line at 1.4 parsec resolutions of a molecular cloud in DDO 70 at 7% solar metallicity, the most metal-poor galaxy currently known with a CO detection. In total, five clumps have been identified and they are found to more or less follow Larson’s law. Since the CO emission exists in regions with visual extinction AV around 1.0, we converted this AV to the gas-mass surface density using a gas-to-dust ratio of 4594 ± 2848 for DDO 70. We found that the CO clumps in DDO 70 exhibit significantly larger (on average four times) sizes than those at the same gas-mass surface densities in the massive star formation regions of the Milky Way. The existence of such large clumps appears to be consistent with theoretical expectations that gas fragmentation in low-metallicity clouds is suppressed. While our observation is only for one cloud in the galaxy, if it is representative, the above result implies suppressed gas fragmentation during the cloud collapse and star formation in the early universe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report the detection of an emission feature at the 12σ level with FWHM line width of about 450 km s−1 toward the nearest quasi-stellar object, QSO Mrk 231. Based on observations with the IRAM 30 m telescope and the Northern Extended Millimeter Array Interferometer, the 11–10 transition of molecular oxygen is the likely origin of the line with rest frequency close to 118.75 GHz. The velocity of the O2 emission in Mrk 231 coincides with the red wing seen in CO emission, suggesting that it is associated with the outflowing molecular gas, located mainly at about 10 kpc away from the central active galactic nucleus (AGN). This first detection of extragalactic molecular oxygen provides an ideal tool to study AGN-driven molecular outflows on dynamic timescales of tens of megayears. O2 may be a significant coolant for molecular gas in such regions affected by AGN-driven outflows. New astrochemical models are needed to explain the implied high molecular oxygen abundance in such regions several kiloparsecs away from the center of galaxies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present Submillimeter Array observations of seven massive molecular clumps that are dark in the far-infrared for wavelengths up to 70 μm. Our 1.3 mm continuum images reveal 44 dense cores, with gas masses ranging from 1.4 to 77.1 M⊙. Twenty-nine dense cores have masses greater than 8 M⊙ and the other 15 dense cores have masses between 1.4 and 7.5 M⊙. Assuming the core density follows a power law in radius ρ ∝ r−b, the index b is found to be between 0.6 and 2.1, with a mean value of 1.3. The virial analysis reveals that the dense cores are not in virial equilibrium. CO outflow emission was detected toward six out of seven molecular clumps and associated with 17 dense cores. For five of these cores, CO emissions appear to have line wings at velocities of greater than 30 km s−1 with respect to the source systemic velocity, which indicates that most of the clumps harbor protostars and thus are not quiescent in star formation. The estimated outflow timescale increases with core mass, which likely indicates that massive cores have longer accretion timescales than less massive ones. The fragmentation analysis shows that the masses of low-mass and massive cores are roughly consistent with thermal and turbulent Jeans masses, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We performed a survey in the SiO J = 5 → 4 line toward a sample of 199 Galactic massive star-forming regions at different evolutionary stages with the Submillimeter Telescope (SMT) 10 m and Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO) 10.4 m telescopes. The sample consists of 44 infrared dark clouds (IRDCs), 86 protostellar candidates, and 69 young H ii regions. We detected SiO J = 5 → 4 line emission in 102 sources, with a detection rate of 57%, 37%, and 65% for IRDCs, protostellar candidates, and young H ii regions, respectively. We find both broad line emissions with full widths at zero power >20 km s−1 and narrow line emissions of SiO in objects at various evolutionary stages, likely associated with high-velocity shocks and low-velocity shocks, respectively. The SiO luminosities do not show apparent differences among various evolutionary stages in our sample. We find no correlation between the SiO abundance and the luminosity-to-mass ratio, indicating that the SiO abundance does not vary significantly in regions at different evolutionary stages of star formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We revisit the proposed extended Schmidt law, which posits that the star formation efficiency in galaxies depends on the stellar mass surface density, by investigating spatially resolved star formation rates (SFRs), gas masses, and stellar masses of star formation regions in a vast range of galactic environments, from the outer disks of dwarf galaxies, to spiral disks and to merging galaxies, as well as individual molecular clouds in M33. We find that these regions are distributed in a tight power law as ∝ , which is also valid for the integrated measurements of disk and merging galaxies at high-z. Interestingly, we show that star formation regions in the outer disks of dwarf galaxies with down to 10−5 yr−1 kpc−2, which are outliers of both the Kennicutt–Schmidt and Silk–Elmegreen laws, also follow the extended Schmidt law. Other outliers in the Kennicutt–Schmidt law, such as extremely metal-poor star formation regions, also show significantly reduced deviation from the extended Schmidt law. These results suggest an important role for existing stars in helping to regulate star formation through the effect of their gravity on the midplane pressure in a wide range of galactic environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report the detection of widespread CH2OHCHO and HOCH2CH2OH emission in Galactic center giant molecular cloud Sagittarius B2 using the Shanghai Tianma 65 m Radio Telescope. Our observations show for the first time that the spatial distribution of these two important prebiotic molecules extends over 15 arcmin, corresponding to a linear size of approximately 36 pc. These two molecules are not just distributed in or near the hot cores. The abundance of these two molecules seems to decrease from the cold outer region to the central region associated with star formation activity. Results presented here suggest that these two molecules are likely to form through a low temperature process. Recent theoretical and experimental studies demonstrated that prebiotic molecules can be efficiently formed in icy grain mantles through several pathways. However, these complex ice features cannot be directly observed, and most constraints on the ice compositions come from millimeter observations of desorbed ice chemistry products. These results, combined with laboratory studies, strongly support the existence of abundant prebiotic molecules in ices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have compiled a sample of 26 metal-poor galaxies with 12 + log(O/H) < 8.1 with both infrared continuum and 1.4 GHz radio continuum data. By comparing to galaxies at higher metallicity, we have investigated the IR–radio relationship’s dependence on metallicity at the 24, 70, 100, and 160 μm bands, as well as the integrated FIR luminosity. It is found that metal-poor galaxies have on average lower than metal-rich ones, with larger offsets at longer IR wavelengths, from −0.06 dex in to −0.6 dex in . The of all galaxies as a whole at 160 μm show positive trends with the metallicity and IR-to-FUV ratio and negative trends with the IR color, while those at lower IR wavelengths show weaker correlations. We propose a mechanism that invokes the combined effects of low obscured-SFR-to-total-SFR fraction and warm dust temperature at low metallicity to interpret the above behavior of , with the former reducing the IR radiation and the latter further reducing the IR emission at longer IR wavelengths. Other mechanisms that are related to the radio emission, including the enhanced magnetic field strength and increased thermal radio contribution, are unable to reconcile the IR-wavelength-dependent differences of between metal-poor and metal-rich galaxies. In contrast to , the mean total-SFR-to-radio ratio of metal-poor galaxies is the same as that for metal-rich galaxies, indicating the 1.4 GHz radio emission is still an effective tracer of SFRs at low metallicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present 2.5-square-degree C2H N = 1–0 and N2H+J = 1–0 maps of the ρ Ophiuchi molecular cloud complex. These are the first large-scale maps of the ρ Ophiuchi molecular cloud complex with these two tracers. The C2H emission is spatially more extended than the N2H+ emission. One faint N2H+ clump, Oph-M, and one C2H ring, Oph-RingSW, are identified for the first time. The observed C2H-to-N2H+ abundance ratio ([C2H]/[N2H+]) varies between 5 and 110. We modeled the C2H and N2H+ abundances with 1D chemical models, which show a clear decline of [C2H]/[N2H+] with chemical age. Such an evolutionary trend is little affected by temperatures when they are below 40 K. At high density (nH > 105 cm−3), however, the time it takes for the abundance ratio to drop at least one order of magnitude becomes less than the dynamical time (e.g., turbulence crossing time of ∼105 yr). The observed [C2H]/[N2H+] difference between L1688 and L1689 can be explained by L1688 having chemically younger gas in relatively less dense regions. The observed [C2H]/[N2H+] values are the results of time evolution, accelerated at higher densities. For the relatively low density regions in L1688 where only C2H emission was detected, the gas should be chemically younger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report Shanghai Tian Ma Radio Telescope (TMRT) detections of several long carbon-chain molecules in the C and Ku bands, including HC3N, HC5N, HC7N, HC9N, C3S, C6H, and C8H toward the starless cloud Serpens South 1a. We detected some transitions (HC9N J = 13–12, F = 12–11, and F = 14–13; H13CCCN J = 2–1, F = 1–0, and F = 1–1; HC13CCN J = 2–1, F = 2–2, F = 1–0, and F = 1–1; HCC13CN J = 2–1, F = 1–0, and F = 1–1) and resolved some hyperfine components (HC5N J = 6–5, F = 5–4; H13CCCN J = 2–1, F = 2–1) for the first time in the interstellar medium. The column densities of these carbon-chain molecules in the range 1012–1013 cm−2 are comparable to two carbon-chain molecule rich sources, TMC-1 and Lupus-1A. The abundance ratios are 1.00:(1.11 ± 0.15):(1.47 ± 0.18) for [H13CCCN]:[HC13CCN]:[HCC13CN]. This result implies that the 13C isotope is also concentrated in the carbon atom adjacent to the nitrogen atom in HC3N in Serpens South 1a, which is similar to TMC-1. The [HC3N]/[H13CCCN] ratio of 78 ± 9, the [HC3N]/[HC13CCN] ratio of 70 ± 8, and the [HC3N]/[HCC13CN] ratio of 53 ± 4 are also comparable to those in TMC-1. Serpens South 1a proves to be a suitable testing ground for understanding carbon-chain chemistry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We studied the sulfur chemistry of massive star-forming regions through single-dish submillimeter spectroscopy. OCS, O13CS, 13CS, H2S, and SO transitions were observed toward a sample of massive star-forming regions with embedded UCH ii or CH ii regions. These sources could be divided into H ii-hot core and H ii-only sources based on their CH3CN emission. Our results show that the OCS line of thirteen sources is optically thick, with optical depth ranging from 5 to 16. Column densities of these molecules were computed under LTE conditions. CS column densities were also derived using its optically thin isotopologue 13CS. H2S is likely to be the most abundant gas-phase sulfuretted molecule in hot massive cores. Both the column density and abundance of sulfur-bearing molecules decrease significantly from H ii-hot core to H ii-only sources. Ages derived from hot core models appear to be consistent with star formation theories, suggesting that abundance ratios of [CS]/[SO], [SO]/[OCS], and [OCS]/[CS] could be used as chemical clocks in massive star-forming regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]