Dust and gas in the magellanic clouds from the heritage Herschel key project. II. Gas-to-dust ratio variations across interstellar medium phases

The spatial variations of the gas-to-dust ratio (GDR) provide constraints on the chemical evolution and lifecycle of dust in galaxies. We examine the relation between dust and gas at 10-50 pc resolution in the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC and SMC) based on Herschel far-infrared (FIR), H I...

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Hauptverfasser: Roman-Duval, Julia (VerfasserIn) , Glover, Simon (VerfasserIn)
Dokumenttyp: Article (Journal)
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: 2014 December 3
In: The astrophysical journal
Year: 2014, Jahrgang: 797, Heft: 2
ISSN:1538-4357
DOI:10.1088/0004-637X/797/2/86
Online-Zugang:Verlag, lizenzpflichtig, Volltext: https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/797/2/86
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Verfasserangaben:Julia Roman-Duval, Karl D. Gordon, Margaret Meixner, Caroline Bot, Alberto Bolatto, Annie Hughes, Tony Wong, Brian Babler, Jean-Philippe Bernard, Geoffrey C. Clayton, Yasuo Fukui, Maud Galametz, Frederic Galliano, Simon Glover, Sacha Hony, Frank Israel, Katherine Jameson, Vianney Lebouteiller, Min-Young Lee, Aigen Li, Suzanne Madden, Karl Misselt, Edward Montiel, Koryo Okumura, Toshikazu Onishi, Pasquale Panuzzo, William Reach, Aurelie Remy-Ruyer, Thomas Robitaille, Monica Rubio, Marc Sauvage, Jonathan Seale, Marta Sewilo, Lister Staveley-Smith, and Svitlana Zhukovska
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Zusammenfassung:The spatial variations of the gas-to-dust ratio (GDR) provide constraints on the chemical evolution and lifecycle of dust in galaxies. We examine the relation between dust and gas at 10-50 pc resolution in the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC and SMC) based on Herschel far-infrared (FIR), H I 21 cm, CO, and Hα observations. In the diffuse atomic interstellar medium (ISM), we derive the GDR as the slope of the dust-gas relation and find GDRs of 380 3 in the LMC, and 1200 120 in the SMC, not including helium. The atomic-to-molecular transition is located at dust surface densities of 0.05 M ☉ pc-2 in the LMC and 0.03 M ☉ pc-2 in the SMC, corresponding to A V ∼ 0.4 and 0.2, respectively. We investigate the range of CO-to-H2 conversion factor to best account for all the molecular gas in the beam of the observations, and find upper limits on X CO to be 6 × 1020 cm-2 K-1 km-1 s in the LMC (Z = 0.5 Z ☉) at 15 pc resolution, and 4 × 1021 cm-2 K-1 km-1 s in the SMC (Z = 0.2 Z ☉) at 45 pc resolution. In the LMC, the slope of the dust-gas relation in the dense ISM is lower than in the diffuse ISM by a factor ∼2, even after accounting for the effects of CO-dark H2 in the translucent envelopes of molecular clouds. Coagulation of dust grains and the subsequent dust emissivity increase in molecular clouds, and/or accretion of gas-phase metals onto dust grains, and the subsequent dust abundance (dust-to-gas ratio) increase in molecular clouds could explain the observations. In the SMC, variations in the dust-gas slope caused by coagulation or accretion are degenerate with the effects of CO-dark H2. Within the expected 5-20 times Galactic X CO range, the dust-gas slope can be either constant or decrease by a factor of several across ISM phases. Further modeling and observations are required to break the degeneracy between dust grain coagulation, accretion, and CO-dark H2. Our analysis demonstrates that obtaining robust ISM masses remains a non-trivial endeavor even in the local Universe using state-of-the-art maps of thermal dust emission.
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Beschreibung:Online Resource
ISSN:1538-4357
DOI:10.1088/0004-637X/797/2/86