Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/2289/7752
Title: Thick disc molecular gas fraction in NGC
Authors: Patra, Narendra Nath
Keywords: molecular data
ISM: molecules
galaxies
kinematics and dynamics
galaxies: spiral
galaxies: structure
Issue Date: Mar-2021
Publisher: Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society
Citation: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2021, Vol.501, p3527–3539
Abstract: Several recent studies reinforce the existence of a thick molecular disc in galaxies along with the dynamically cold thin disc. Assuming a two-component molecular disc, we model the disc of NGC 6946 as a four-component system consisting of stars, H I, thin disc molecular gas, and thick disc molecular gas in vertical hydrostatic equilibrium. Following, we set up the joint Poisson–Boltzmann equation of hydrostatic equilibrium and solve it numerically to obtain a three-dimensional density distribution of different baryonic components. Using the density solutions and the observed rotation curve, we further build a three-dimensional dynamical model of the molecular disc and consecutively produce simulated CO spectral cubes and spectral width profiles. We find that the simulated spectral width profiles distinguishably differ for different assumed thick disc molecular gas fractions. Several CO spectral width profiles are then produced for different assumed thick disc molecular gas fractions and compared with the observed one to obtain the best fit thick disc molecular gas fraction profile. We find that the thick disc molecular gas fraction in NGC 6946 largely remains constant across its molecular disc with a mean value of 0.70 ± 0.09. We also estimate the amount of extra-planar molecular gas in NGC 6946. We find ∼50 per cent∼50 per cent of the total molecular gas is extra-planar at the central region, whereas this fraction reduces to ∼15 per cent at the edge of the molecular disc. With our method, for the first time, we estimate the thick disc molecular gas fraction as a function of radius in an external galaxy with sub-kpc resolution.
Description: Open Access.
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2289/7752
ISSN: 0035-8711
1365-2966 (online)
Alternative Location: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2012.09869.pdf
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2021MNRAS.501.3527P/abstract
https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa3929
Copyright: 2020 The Author(s)
Appears in Collections:Research Papers (A&A)

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