Mass inflow rate into the Central Molecular Zone: observational determination and evidence of episodic accretion
It is well known that the Galactic bar drives a gas inflow into the Central Molecular Zone, which fuels star formation, accretion onto the central super-massive black hole, and large-scale outflows. This inflow happens mostly through two symmetrical dust-lanes, similar to those often seen in externa...
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| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article (Journal) Chapter/Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
3 Jan 2019
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| In: |
Arxiv
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| Online Access: | Verlag, Volltext: http://arxiv.org/abs/1901.00867
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| Author Notes: | Mattia C. Sormani, Ashley T. Barnes |
| Summary: | It is well known that the Galactic bar drives a gas inflow into the Central Molecular Zone, which fuels star formation, accretion onto the central super-massive black hole, and large-scale outflows. This inflow happens mostly through two symmetrical dust-lanes, similar to those often seen in external barred galaxies. Here we use the fact that the Milky Way dust-lanes have been previously identified in $^{12}$CO datacubes and a simple geometrical model to derive the first observational determination of the mass inflow rate into the Central Molecular Zone. We find that the time-averaged inflow rate along the near-side dust lane is $1.2^{+0.7}_{-0.8}\, \rm M_\odot yr^{-1}$ and along the far-side dust lane is $1.5^{+0.9}_{-1.0}\, \rm M_\odot yr^{-1}$, which gives a total inflow of $2.7^{+1.5}_{-1.7}\, \rm M_\odot yr^{-1}$. We also provide the time series of the inflow rate $\dot{M}$ for the future few Myr. The latter shows that the inflow rate is variable with time, supporting a scenario of episodic accretion onto the Central Molecular Zone. |
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| Item Description: | Gesehen am 04.02.2019 |
| Physical Description: | Online Resource |