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3D CMZ. II. hierarchical structure analysis of the central molecular zone

The Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) is the way station at the heart of our Milky Way Galaxy, connecting gas flowing in from Galactic scales with the central nucleus. Key open questions remain about its 3D structure, star formation properties, and role in regulating this gas inflow. In this work, we ide...

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Main Authors: Battersby, Cara (Author) , Walker, Daniel L. (Author) , Barnes, Ashley (Author) , Ginsburg, Adam (Author) , Lipman, Dani (Author) , Alboslani, Danya (Author) , Hatchfield, H Perry (Author) , Bally, John (Author) , Glover, Simon (Author) , Henshaw, Jonathan D. (Author) , Immer, Katharina (Author) , Klessen, Ralf S. (Author) , Longmore, Steven N. (Author) , Mills, Elisabeth A. C. (Author) , Molinari, Sergio (Author) , Smith, Rowan (Author) , Sormani, Mattia C. (Author) , Tress, Robin G. (Author) , Zhang, Qizhou (Author)
Format: Article (Journal)
Language:English
Published: 2025 May 8
In: The astrophysical journal
Year: 2025, Volume: 984, Issue: 2, Pages: 1-24
ISSN:1538-4357
DOI:10.3847/1538-4357/adb844
Online Access:Verlag, kostenfrei, Volltext: https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/adb844
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Author Notes:Cara Battersby, Daniel L. Walker, Ashley Barnes, Adam Ginsburg, Dani Lipman, Danya Alboslani, H Perry Hatchfield, John Bally, Simon C.O. Glover, Jonathan D. Henshaw, Katharina Immer, Ralf S. Klessen, Steven N. Longmore, Elisabeth A. C. Mills, Sergio Molinari, Rowan Smith, Mattia C. Sormani, Robin G. Tress, and Qizhou Zhang
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Summary:The Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) is the way station at the heart of our Milky Way Galaxy, connecting gas flowing in from Galactic scales with the central nucleus. Key open questions remain about its 3D structure, star formation properties, and role in regulating this gas inflow. In this work, we identify a hierarchy of discrete structures in the CMZ using column density maps from Paper I (C. Battersby et al.) We calculate the physical (N(H2), Tdust, mass, radius) and kinematic (HNCO, HCN, and HC3N moments) properties of each structure as well as their bolometric luminosities and star formation rates. We compare these properties with regions in the Milky Way disk and external galaxies. Despite the fact that the CMZ overall is well below the Gao-Solomon dense gas star formation relation (and in modest agreement with the Schmidt-Kennicutt relation), individual structures on the scale of molecular clouds generally follow these star formation relations and agree well with other Milky Way and extragalactic regions. We find that individual CMZ structures require a large external pressure (Pe/kB > 107−9 K cm−3) to be considered bound; however, simple estimates suggest that most CMZ molecular-cloud-sized structures are consistent with being in pressure-bounded virial equilibrium. We perform power-law fits to the column density probability distribution functions of the inner 100 pc, SgrB2, and the outer 100 pc of the CMZ as well as several individual molecular cloud structures and find generally steeper power-law slopes (−9 < α < −2) compared with the literature (−6 < α < −1).
Item Description:Gesehen am 27.10.2025
Physical Description:Online Resource
ISSN:1538-4357
DOI:10.3847/1538-4357/adb844

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